Dragon Stones (62 page)

"Certainly."

"And to remove the tainted stones that I swallowed?"

"Perhaps."

"But the castle is burnt and demolished," Diasa said.  "The scrolls are destroyed."

"I have seen the documents; I read them, and discussed them with Qalor, and I remember them in perfect detail.  Kill me, and the knowledge truly will be lost; but if we can come to an  arrangement, then—"

Diasa pressed the blade firmly against Orioke's throat.  "That," she said, "is most
definitely
enough talking."

T'Sian said:  "
No.  Let us bargain
."

"But—"

"
This was your doing, Diasa.  You kept the wizard alive.  Now let me hear what … arrangement he offers.
"

Damn the wizard!  She should have left him for the dragon.  Releasing him, she sheathed her small blade.  "Fine," she said.  "But when you find that you've become the wizard's plaything, don't place the blame with me."

Ponn was surprised to see Diasa return with a disheveled man in tow, and even more surprised when T'Sian landed nearby, her great wings stirring up the ashes that had settled in the grass.  "Is this the legendary Orioke?" he said, eyeing the man.

"Indeed," the man said.  "Who are you?"

"I thought you had gone to kill the wizard, not bring him back," he said, ignoring the question, looking from Diasa to T'Sian and back again.

T'Sian said nothing; Diasa just shrugged.  "Plans change."

"Hello again, Adaran," Orioke said.  "I don't suppose you'll accept my apology for all that's happened?"

The footpad fixed him with a murderous glare, then turned away.

"Ah," the wizard said.  "I thought not."

"Enough small talk," Diasa said.  "Fix Tolaria."

"I released the oracle some time ago.  Now, she is merely sleeping.  See?  She awakens already."

Tolaria stirred, then opened her eyes.  She rolled onto her hands and knees, retched a little, then sat back on the grass and looked around a touch dazedly.  Her gaze lingered on the wizard.  "What's
he
doing here?"

"He's my prisoner," Diasa said.

Tolaria rubbed her temples, as if she had a bad headache; she probably did.  "He doesn't
look
like a prisoner."

"You're very astute," Orioke said.

"Will someone tell me what happened?" Ponn asked.  "Why did you bring him back here, after all he's done?"

"With Tolaria unconscious and Deliban coming, we couldn't afford to kill him.  I caught him before T'Sian had a chance to burn him."  She glowered at her putative captive.  "Then he started talking."

"Some of us live by the strength of our arms," Orioke said.  "Others live by stealth.  I live by my wits and my words."

"Yes, you do," Diasa said.  "That's why I would very much like you to be quiet."

"He'll turn on us the first chance he gets," Adaran said.

"Said the snake of the scorpion," Diasa murmured.

"Why should I turn on you?" Orioke said.  "I am not some mad, cackling villain.  I have come to an understanding with the dragon; the rest of you do not concern me."

"That's hardly reassuring," she said.

"
Enough.  The wizard is no longer a threat.  Leave him be.
"

"I disagree," Diasa said.  "All he cares about is his deal with you.  What's to stop him from betraying the rest of us?"

"
If you harm any of the others, wizard, then our agreement is at an end.  Understood?
"

"Quite."  Then, to Diasa:  "Satisfied?"

"Not really."

"
Another thing
," T'Sian said.  "
Your earth creature.  I do not want it here.  Send it back to where it came from.
"

"No!" Tolaria cried.  "We need Deliban to stop the crystals!"

They all looked at her; Orioke said:  "I don't understand."

"Deliban can collapse the hill and dam the river," she said.  "It can drown the crystals in cold water and stop them from growing, or at least slow them.  It's the only way to stop them from spreading across Dunshandrin, maybe beyond."

"That actually might work," Diasa said after a moment.

Orioke glanced at the dragon, who gave a slight now.  "As you wish," the wizard said.  "I will instruct Deliban to create this pond for you; then the dragon and I will take our leave of your little band.  You will go back to your own business, and stop meddling in affairs that no longer concern you."

Ponn could scarcely believe what he was hearing.  He looked at the dragon; she sat with her back to the fire, staring at the castle, the bony ridge along her spine shadowed like a mountain range at sunset.  He wondered what had transpired, why she had spared the wizard.  "T'Sian?  You agree to this?"

"
Do as the wizard says, Ponn.  All of you, hear me:  Your part in this adventure has come to an end.
"

And before Ponn could say another word or ask another question, she spread her wings and launched herself into the fire-stained sky.

T'Sian spiraled away from the earth, rising on the thermals created by the fires she had set.  The flames seemed to be dying out in the forest, which was damp from recent rains; but the town, with its wooden buildings and thatched roofs, still burned nicely. She rose higher, lifting herself with slow sweeps of her great wings.  To the north, the ruins of the castle glowed with ghostly light, illuminated by the crystals that had grown over and through it like rot through a fallen log.

So.  Qalor had been trying to duplicate the successes and avoid the failures of an earlier, greater breed of alchemist.  She tried to imagine the dragons of old, the sky black with them as they laid waste to the region that had become the Salt Flats.  What a sight it must have been, so much more majestic than puny men strapped onto the backs of overgrown chickens!

Over the years, she had encountered a few others of her kind at the archipelago, luxuriating in the heat of the volcanoes before returning across oceans and continents to their scattered lairs.  How many?  A dozen, perhaps?  The older dragons were the most talkative; from them she had learned that it had once been common to see fifteen dragons in the skies above the islands.  Then ten.  Then five.  She had at most seen two.  Often she was there alone, as when she had met Pyodor Ponn.  She felt the truth of Orioke's words; the dragons
were
fading, as even the greatest forest fire must eventually die out.  And while the mighty dragons verged on extinction, men, short-lived but fecund, infested the world like insects in a carcass.  How could such puny creatures have created the likes of herself?  The wizard was willing to save her from Qalor's evil stones, to help maintain the line of dragons, but only because he sought control over her, and them.  He dangled the survival of her species in front of her like bait before the noose.

She had never expected revenge to become so complicated.

T'Sian had by now drifted north of the village and the castle, rising ever higher; the earth stretched out beneath her, vast tracts of darkness interspersed with human settlements, smudges of heat formed by the collective glow of numerous fires.  She remembered the eagle-rider who had fled when she burned the castle.  It had headed in this direction, but she hadn't pursued.  Diasa believed that the rulers of Dunshandrin would have escaped to a redoubt in the wilderness; perhaps the rider had intended to join them there.  Between her rage and the confusion of the wizard's appearance, she had not thought to ask the oracle where Dunshandrin's cowardly children had gone, but perhaps she might find them on her own, as a dragon should, without help from men.

T'Sian continued along, scanning the ground for a likely human hideaway.  Eventually she spied a large dwelling far below, nestled in a densely wooded valley north of the castle.  It appeared to contain the heat of several hearths.  Curious, she approached it, dropping lower to get a better look.  She picked out a large stockade surrounding several wooden buildings, including a good-sized lodge.  She circled it warily, skimming the treetops, tasting the air.  Trees, woodsmoke, horses, men.  She moved lower still, tongue flicking in and out, gathering more scents.  Eagles.  Not many, perhaps only one or two, and they had only been here a short while; it was not like the castle, which reeked of them.  Still, their presence confirmed that this was the place she sought.

She landed on top of the lodge, her rear claws digging into the sturdy roof.  She tore at the wooden shakes and the planking beneath, opening a hole big enough to admit her head; she shoved her face through, sending debris crashing into a large room below.  The interior was dim, but she could make out the ghastly trappings of a hunter's den:  Preserved animals glowered from niches; purloined skins and pelts, stretched and flattened, decorated the floor; mounted heads stared sightlessly from the walls, surveying the scene around them.

This place obviously belonged to the sort of men who would think little of slaughtering her hatchlings in order to get what they wanted.

She heard shouting, then running footsteps; the ants had realized that their nest was breached.  She exhaled a dribble of fire; the furniture, rugs, and rubble beneath her began to burn.  Then she withdrew from the hole, peering through it as a group of men came into the hall below.  Most of them were clad in nightclothes, but a few wore uniforms like the one Diasa had taken from the guard she had killed.  They focused on the fire, not sparing a glance toward the ceiling; T'Sian watched as they smothered the flames with rugs dragged over from other parts of the room.  Once it had been extinguished, one of the men noticed the hole in the roof, pointing it out to the others.  An argument ensued.  They seemed to blame both hole and fire on a falling star, but no one wanted the task of awakening the princes and telling them about it.

So Dunshandrin's children
were
hiding here.

She thrust her head back into the hole and let loose a gout of flame, scouring the great hall with a roaring maelstrom.  The screams from within ended almost as soon as they began; the night lit up as flames blew out the windows of the lodge, rushing air knocking the wooden shutters open, letting the inferno burst free.

T'Sian continued to exhale death into the lodge, Qalor's altered stones burning fiercely in her breast, the sound of the inferno like a cataract in her ears.  When she finally pulled her head out of the roof, orange-red tongues spurted through the opening like a volcano erupting.

She jumped into the air, caught the heat, rose above the burning lodge.  She turned and dove, sweeping over the compound, laying down a blanket of destruction across the outlying structures.  Once the entire complex was engulfed and burning brightly, she climbed again, circling above it, wings spread wide, drifting, watching for any signs of movement.  Soon someone stumbled out of the rear of the main building, staggering and choking as flames threatened from every side.  She dove, snatched the man up in one of her rear claws, and climbed back into the sky.  Hovering above the flames, she stretched out her neck, swiveled, looked him in the face.  Barefoot and sooty, he wore a torn, smudged night-shirt of a dark color threaded with gold.  The material looked kingly enough to belong to a prince.  He goggled at her, his eyes wide, his skin pallid.

"
What is your name
?
" she said.

His eyes rolled up and his head fell to the side.  She gave him a little shake, to no avail; still, she thought he was not dead, but merely unconscious.  She must have frightened him too much.  She would hold onto him, and question him later, when he awakened.

T'Sian waited, watching to see who else might come out from the flames.  One other person, his clothes and hair and flesh burning, emerged from the same door as her captive; he only went a step or two before collapsing in a sizzling heap.  A group of men, guards by the look of them, escaped from the lodge, only to be trapped between buildings, with no way out.  She watched as their strength gave out, the smoke overcame them, and they fell, becoming fuel for the blaze.  She saw no others; she had taken them asleep and unaware, and most of them had probably burned or choked in their beds.

She looked again at the unconscious man she had taken.  Perhaps he was only pretending.  Diasa would be able to tell, and Tolaria could identify him as one of the twins or not.  A pity that the other fellow had already been so badly charred; if he had looked exactly the same as her captive, then she would have known that she had the twins.  Then again, sometimes it was difficult for her to tell humans apart anyway; they tended to look very much alike.

Leaving the inferno behind her, the dragon flew away, carrying her prize.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dawn broke red and hazy, the sunlight filtering through the haze of last night's fires.  Ponn's eyes felt dry and gritty, perhaps from the smoke that lingered in the air, perhaps from an incipient cold; he had spent a long time in the icy river yesterday, and would hardly be surprised if he took sick.