Doublesight (41 page)

Lankor bent down to move the men from his path. Zimp hopped over him, rolled across the floor and rose to her feet a short distance from the running guard. She placed her knife between his shoulder blades and he fell forward with a splat of flesh against stone.

Lankor caught up with her. “They don't waste many guards down here,” he said as he led the way up a set of winding stairs, leaping three at a time. Near the top, he stopped and listened. He recalled the hall the stairs emptied into. Its width would be welcome, and the height of the ceiling double that of the lower chambers.

Zimp squeezed past him. “Let me,” she said as her body shriveled and turned black. Her crow image flew toward the opening at a steep upward angle.

Lankor kneeled on the steps to allow there to be room overhead. He felt as though the ceiling was already upon him and that his movements were continually stymied. He edged up two more steps and was about to stand when he heard Zimp whisper that the hall was clear.

He broke into the open space and spread his arms and closed his eyes. A tingling sensation spread across his skin, like being unchained or let loose from a small cage. He twirled once around. He wanted to howl with delight.

“Lankor,” Zimp whispered louder.

He opened his eyes and saw her at the end of the hall about to mount a second set of stairs, the ones that led to the great chamber where Draklan and King Belford had first greeted them. As he passed a room to his right, Lankor caught a glimpse of something inside and stopped to investigate it.

“No,” Zimp ran toward him. “Don't look in there.”

At the door, Lankor placed his face against the bars and in the far corner a child dragged its snake-half across the floor. The little girl's smudged and dirty face looked sad. She had been crying. Lines of clean skin streaked down her filthy cheeks. She propped herself up on her hands. She looked frightened. Her eyes asked him, why?

Lankor had no answer for her.

She began to shift.

Zimp stood at his side and pulled at his shoulder. “Come on. We must go now.”

He jerked from her grip, unable to turn away from the girl's eyes. He watched as her mouth opened to scream but only a hissing sound came out. New tears fell and her face tensed against what appeared to be immense pain and a need for understanding. Her head fell forward onto the floor, where it thinned and stretched into a copperhead's upper torso, but the snake's tail that was there a moment ago grew and filled in. It split into the spindly legs of the sweet little girl whose other half stared at Lankor a moment ago.

Then the snake's head did something totally unexpected. It turned on its own body and struck at the thin legs. The mouth opened wide, the head swaying as though trying to empty the poison from its fangs.

Lankor could see where it had struck at itself many times. Pairs of tiny holes lined her legs. He reached up and took the bars in his hands and shook them.

The snake's head swung around and began to shift back into the girl, brown hair growing from its tiny head.

He let his arms drop.

Zimp stood close to him and placed the back of her hand against his neck.

The little girl hissed at him.

Recalling what Zimp had said in the dungeon, he asked, “Am I one of them? Is my clan a throwback?”

“Not if there are no humans in your bloodline. Dragons were one of the original creatures designed by the Six Shapeless Gods.” She pulled at him to move on.

“Raik and Draklan are right, aren't they? Something horrible is happening to the doublesight.”

“Only when doublesight and human mix. Oro said that it has to do with the souls of the gargoyle statues,” she said.

“Can you be sure? Is your connection with the next realm that secure, that fluid, that clear?”

She stared back at him and shook her head. “But I'll find out.”

“What do we do now?” he asked. “Fight for the doublesight so that they may live, or accept the horror that lies before us and…”

“We don't give up,” she said. “We stop this insanity right here. And we start with Draklan.”

They moved to the next door and against Zimp's instruction, Lankor glanced into the cell. This time a hairy beast with wings like the harpies and the face of a fox slept in the corner. It curled its head between its legs.

“Please,” Zimp said.

“I'll kill them all,” Lankor said. “How can they allow this to go on?” He charged toward the stairs and again took them three at a time.

Zimp ran behind him.

Lankor burst into the hall at the top of the stairs without caring if anyone was around. His lungs burned as he stopped to allow Zimp to catch up.

Guards outside the throne chamber yelled out when they saw him. Three of them advanced and one ran for help. Each of the guards had a long spear and a sword. They charged Lankor with the spears held side by side.

Lankor pointed to a window to the right of the guards. “Get out of here,” he said to Zimp. “Fly to the council grounds and tell The Few.”

“I fight with you,” she said.

Swinging his sword over his head, Lankor let it loose and the guards dived out of its way. He ran forward and grabbed the closest spear, gripped it firmly and yanked it from the guard's hands. Like a staff, he swung the blunt end into the head of the guard next to the first, then pulled the spear back and rammed it into the chest of its original owner.

The third guard thrust the tip of his spear at Lankor, ripping a hole in his shirt and drawing blood along his shoulder.

Lankor tried to duck and while doing so, Zimp slid across the floor and stabbed the guard's shin, toppling him over.

Other guards rushed from both sides of the chamber entrance.

“Run,” Lankor said.

Zimp began to dash toward the window when the chamber doors opened and Draklan's voice boomed for them to stop.

The guards held still, lowering their weapons to their sides.

Lankor nodded toward Zimp to continue toward the window, but she held fast to her position. He couldn't tell if she failed to see him nod or if she listened to Oro's voice coming from another realm.

“Let them enter,” Draklan said.

The guards stepped to the side and allowed Lankor to walk forward.

Draklan jumped from the throne where he had been sitting, and landed at the base of the few stairs. King Belford stood to the side and screamed for his son to stop. “Not here,” he said.

“You've no doubt seen the Sisters’ children,” Draklan said. “Don't be concerned. They seldom live long.” Lankor watched as Draklan's eyes drank in the size and shape of the expansive throne room and calculated something dark and secret.

Lankor charged forward. His mind raced with the images of the children in the cells and the truth of their births. Anger surged through his veins. He held fast to the spear he had commandeered from the guard. Before him, Draklan crouched down. Was he reaching for a dagger? Was he taking a fighting pose? Would he soon dash to the side or leap upon Lankor? It took him a moment to realize that Draklan had begun to shift. Already the man's body grew in size while shifting in shape.

Lankor dropped his weapon and spread his arms to his sides. His dragon image shoved forward as though nothing stood in its way. He screamed out, attempting to shift faster without losing his ability to remain in human thought. Bones felt and sounded as though they cracked. Wings stretched to his sides.

But Draklan had shifted faster. He lifted onto his lion's legs and ran toward Lankor, who could not turn away until his dragon image had fully shifted into existence.

Zimp screamed from behind him and he heard her footsteps as she ran away.

Draklan ran into Lankor, who fell backwards as he completed the last of his shift. The gryphon's head pulled back ready to strike with its eagle beak.

Lankor swiped the air in front of him with the claw at the end of his wing.

The gryphon reared back.

Lankor blew fire toward it. The beast was gone. The dragon image rolled to its stomach and pushed into the air. Although the chamber was large, there was little room to fly. Lankor's mind grew stronger and weaker with human thought, careful not to begin a shift or he would be killed in an instant.

The chamber had changed color. Dragon eyes were so different than human eyes that the strangeness of the world took a few moments to get used to. The walls burned red and the people were blue. He glanced around to find Draklan. The gryphon held to a corner of the room. Somehow Lankor knew that the eagle eyes could pinpoint any target to attack on his dragon image. He had a choice. He could spit fire or fly. The gas in his chest that allowed both to happen had been diminished only slightly by his first firey attack on Draklan. Lankor lept off the ground, circled the chamber, and closed his wings close to his sides. Facing the gryphon in the corner, he dropped straight toward the floor. Blue men scurried out of the room, yelling in a language he couldn't understand. Before he splattered into the stone, Lankor opened his wings, caught the air and glided down. His dragon image naturally bowed forward, a shape that wouldn't allow him to bend backwards and look into the air very well. Spitting fire would steal his ability to fly and maintain a strategic position. He approached human thought with too much effort, considering how to fight the gryphon, so he fell back into dragon mind. The dragon reacted to Draklan's movement toward it, spewing fire half the distance to the corner.

Draklan eased into the air with several flaps of his wings and flew around the chamber.

Lankor turned but had to watch the beast using peripheral vision. With two great flaps of his wings, he lifted into the air to meet Draklan head on. The two beasts crashed together.

The gryphon's powerful legs clawed at the dragon's chest, tearing at the leathery plates. It screeched like an eagle diving into a lake.

Lankor swung his spiked tail around and into the gryphon's side, slashing a huge gash along the fur. The dragon also struck out with its spiny beak, shaking his head from side to side, slamming into the gryphon's powerful beak and head.

The two fought in the air and fell together onto the floor.

Stunned by the fall, Lankor's human thought struggled to hold tight as animal instinct took over. The huge beast spun around and searched for its opponent. Great pain struck his head from behind. He felt blood ooze from the wound. Before he could turn around, a sharp claw caught hold of a wing and ripped at it. Lankor lifted and swung his tail and caught his attacker in the shoulder, throwing the gryphon to the side. The dragon turned and clawed the air in front of him as he attacked the limping beast. He checked the feeling of fullness in his chest and made a sudden choice to use the gas to throw a fireball.

The gryphon's fur burst into flames. Draklan began to shift. Was he dead or forcing the shift to escape his burning fur?

Lankor heard the men shouting behind him and turned. There must have been a thousand crows attacking the guards who were throwing spears and swinging swords to stop them. Lankor's human image gripped his mind and held tightly. He dropped to the floor to duck from the flying spears. Before Lankor's shift was complete, Draklan was on him once again, hands wrapped around his neck.

Before Lankor could catch his breath, a crow gripped Draklan's shoulder and pecked at his face. Draklan fell backwards and several other crows attacked him.

Lankor completed shifting into human image and ran for the closest downed guard. He pulled the sword from under the man, swung around and rushed to where Draklan fought the crows from his face. The crows flew off as Lankor approached the struggling doublesight.

Lifting the sword over his head, Lankor hesitated before bringing it down on Draklan. There was something in the man's eyes that stopped Lankor short. What was it?

Draklan lay back onto the floor. His body relaxed with abandon. “Thank you,” he said, as Lankor's blade struck his chest.

43

ZIMP FLEW TOWARD LANKOR and landed on the floor near his sword blade. He looked down at her. She cocked her head and pushed her human thought forward until a shift began. The excited sound of the crows all around her changed as she shifted, until she heard only the cawing of birds.

“Who are we now?” Lankor said.

“We are doublesight.” Zimp took his sword hand, slipping her fingers around his grip.

“I'm surprised the sisters are not here,” he said.

Zimp shook her head, recalling a recent image. While collecting crows, Zimp had looked into a chamber where there was movement. One of the sisters shifted while making love to the obstinate guard who had brought them to the castle earlier. The sister had begun to eat the guard during the act. “They are feeding,” she said, ashamed at what she had seen and what she knew of their lives, their children. She swallowed. “We'd better go. Follow me to the rooftop.”

“But the guards?”

Zimp smiled. “I'll bring help,” she said as her form began to change. She took to the air, her mouth open, announcing for some of the crows to follow her. She made one circle around the chamber before Lankor ran for the door.

Most of the guards were too preoccupied warding off attacks by crows, several at a time to each man, to follow Lankor. In the hall more guards had gathered.

Zimp dropped from the air, chasing after a bald man who turned toward Lankor. She clawed the slick top of his head. When he reached
to knock her away, Lankor slapped the man with the side of his sword and toppled him out of the way.

She flew to the side, hoping her friend would follow her, but Lankor didn't appear to know which crow she was. Just as in the physical world. Why should she expect anything different? She yelled for other crows to follow her up the stairwell that led to the top of the castle.

Lucky soldiers relieved of the attack quickly picked up their weapons.

Zimp circled overhead until Lankor followed the mass of birds toward the stairs, driving two unprepared guards from the entrance, and leaped up the steps in an all-out run.

Zimp flew over his head and escaped onto a broad landing, the early morning sun lifting fog from the yellow-green fields. She perched on a ledge and looked off to the east, toward the Weilk-Alshore Ocean, which was too far in the distance to see. Other crows perched around her. She pushed for a shift, then heard a noise. As she turned, she began her shift, which slowed her movement considerably.