DragonLight (24 page)

When the rattle of flowing shale subsided, Kale peeked at her surroundings. Swirling dust blocked her view. She let the shield go, coughing as she stood. She spun around, located the egg, and dug with her hands to uncover it. Had she not been a Dragon Keeper, she doubted she would have recognized the precious object. The egg sitting in her palm looked and felt like a stone, except the smooth surface was in the shape of an ovoid. She tucked it into a pouch woven into her belt with a sigh of relief.

“Now to get out of here.”

She placed one hand over her eyes to guard against the glare of the sun and peered up to the rim. She smelled her next problem at the same time she spotted them. Thirty to forty grawligs, with knives drawn and spears raised, ringed the crater. They looked at her as if she were some kind of wild beast.

         
30
         

U
NHELPFUL
G
RAWLIGS

One grawlig stepped closer to the edge of the crater. The loose gravel gave way, sending a shower of dirt and pebbles into the giant hole. He grunted and pulled back. Leaning from the waist, he glared at Kale with his head tilted.

“What are you?” he yelled.

Kale put her hands on her hips and glared back. “I’m an o’rant.”

“No. Not.”

The man shook his head emphatically. His matted mane tossed back and forth about his shoulders. “Girl grawlig. What tribe?”

The accusation stunned Kale. The mountain ogres could not possibly mistake her for one of them. She swiped her hair out of her face. Still damp from the rain, tangled locks stuck out from her scalp. She looked down at her clothes caked with mud. Coarse gray clay coated her shoes, legs, skirt, cape, arms, face, and hair.

She looked up again at the crowd above. “I do suppose I look a bit like I’m a grawlig, but honestly, I’m an o’rant.”

“No. Face like grawlig.”

To her horror they turned and began to walk away. “Wait! Don’t go.”

Several heads reappeared over the edge of the crater. Brutish faces grinned at her, including the face of their spokesman. He grunted.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a rope, would you?”

The grawlig with the impressive conversational skills nodded.

“Would you help me out?”

“Why?”

Kale searched her mind for a reason that would make sense to a grawlig. “I’m a wizard, and I will find something I can do for you.”

The spokesman grinned so that all his yellow teeth showed. “You wizard. You get out.”

They left too quickly for Kale to make another appeal. She started to sit, saw the shield had fragmented, and pulled it back together. She sat cross-legged on the protective surface and considered her options.

Using her wizard skills, she tested the ground in the huge hole. She needed moisture to form clay steps to the top of the crater. The earlier shower provided enough water, but after experimenting, she decided the process would take too long.

Next she inventoried her pockets and hollows inside her cape. “Who knew I’d need a hundred-foot ladder?” she chided herself.

She drew her knees up and rested her arms on them. She let her head drop forward and relaxed. The sun beat on the back of her neck. “I could do that thing Regidor does where he lifts objects into the air without touching them. Only I’m not good at it. Dropping an apple is one thing, dropping me would be quite another.”

A fly buzzed her clay-encrusted head. She waved a hand to shoo it away. “I need help. Bardon is too far away and too busy even if I did reach him.”

She focused on Celisse and made a connection with her riding dragon’s mind.
Come find me and bring Pat.

Celisse expressed her concern at this sudden summons.

I’m all right, but very dirty…and very stuck.

She didn’t worry about Celisse being able to find her. Their bond assured knowledge of the other’s whereabouts over a reasonable distance. However, she didn’t like the idea of being down in a hot hole until her rescue party arrived.

Pat will probably take one look at the situation and have a reasonable, obvious solution within seconds. I should try thinking like Pat.
She laughed.
Pat is entirely too analytical. I could never think like him. I guess the alternative is to think like me.
No valuable thought sprang to her mind.
I’m a light wizard. What can I do with light to get me out of this trap?

An idea spread a smile across her face. She stood and put her hands, cupped together, in front of her.

A glowing orb of green light appeared, nestled against her palms. “The point of this endeavor, my little light vines, is to pay attention to my direction. I want you to go up and not wander all over the sides of the slope.”

The tendrils pushing out of the light seed didn’t hear her voice, but Kale needed the verbal assurance that she could maintain control. Commanding anything to grow along a particular path was tricky. Light plants tended to run wild.

She concentrated, knowing that if even one sprout headed off in the wrong direction, she would soon have an unwieldy mess. The vines of light spilled out of her hands and poured to the floor. Upon coming in contact with the dirt, they bent and started up the basin’s unstable walls. They grew in a slithering motion toward the rim of the crater. Leaves popped out every few inches, and the main branches thickened, making a sturdy climbing structure.

Kale kept her eyes on the strip in front of her. She nipped any stray bud that threatened to grow out beyond the swath she designated. In a matter of minutes, she had a network of light vines established from the floor of the crater to the top. She closed her hands over the glowing seed, and the tendrils ceased erupting from the core. The last of the stems dropped to the floor as if cut off. When Kale opened her hands, the orb was gone.

She reformed her dress into trousers. She pushed the sides of her cape behind her so that it hung down her back and out of the way. Then she began to climb. The twisting light vines provided excellent hand-and footholds, except for the fact they were smooth enough to be slippery. More than once Kale caught herself just before sliding back down to the bottom. As she got to the top, she wiped sweat from her brow and panted as though she’d run a mile.

“I’ve seen you looking better.”

“Ack!” Kale lost her footing, screeched again, and scrambled to throw herself over the top edge. “Seezle! You nearly sent me plummeting to the floor of the crater.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” She scratched at her scalp through flyaway hair. “I’ve been watching you for quite a while. I thought you’d know I was here.” Her lower lip stuck out in a pout. “I wasn’t hiding.”

“It’s all right, Seezle.” Kale rested with her arms and legs stretched out and her face to the cloudy sky. Her head came up, and she stared at her tiny friend. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to get you. Actually, I came with the urohms who are going to help with Arreach.”

Kale raised up on her elbows and looked around.

Seezle giggled. “They are marching. I moved a little faster.” She sprang to her feet and pointed. “And we’d best get out of here, fast!”

Kale followed the line of her finger. The grawligs were clustered around an old barn that stood on a high ridge, several hillsides away. Two jumped up and down, waved their arms, and occasionally stopped to gesture toward Kale and Seezle.

“They probably aren’t delighted that I managed to get out of the hole on my own.”

Seezle skipped around Kale. “Come on, let’s go. You’re slow, and I want to get a head start.”

Kale pulled herself to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “I don’t feel like running.”

Seezle quit prancing. “Are you fixing to do some wizardry?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, boy!” Seezle plopped down on the grass. “This will be fun.”

“Celisse is on her way to pick me up.” Kale’s fingers worked over her palm as if she toyed with some soft, round object. “We’ll just pester these ogres until she gets here.”

Seezle cocked her head and watched Kale. “What have you got in your hand?”

“Air.”

“What are you doing with it?”

“Smashing it.”

“Well, whatever you’re planning, you better get it done. The grawligs are coming this way.”

The herd of shaggy scoundrels trotted en masse down the slope of the hill. They disappeared in the hollow between the two rises. As their heads appeared at the crest of the next knoll, Kale pitched the airball.

“What’s happening?” demanded Seezle.

“The compressed air is expanding. By the time it reaches the grawligs, it will be a substantial wind.”

Seezle counted slowly. “One, two, three, four—”

The line of burly mountain men at the front staggered backward, knocking over those behind. Seezle laughed as the attacking force fell over one another, trying to stand and tripping other brutes in the process.

Kale prepared another parcel of air as the grawligs straightened themselves out, reformed their loose line, and came barreling down the hill.

“Will it work again?” asked Seezle. “They are a whole lot closer.”

“Yes, it’ll work. This one is bigger. And Celisse is almost here.”

Kale waited while holding with two hands what looked like a sizable object, even though it could not be seen. She hefted the ball in front of her until the grawligs came over the last rise, then she swung one arm along her side and as far back as she could reach. She rolled the object out of her hand and down the slope toward the approaching enemy as if she were playing peggle-pins.

“I can see it!” Seezle jumped and pointed. “There it goes.”

“Seezle, even I can’t see it,” objected Kale.

“I don’t mean I see
it.
I mean I can see where
it
is going. The grass is pushed down. Oh, and the path is getting wider and wider…and oh, boy! Those grawligs haven’t got a chance.”

“Celisse is here. Come on.”

The beat of her wings and the swift rush of air announced the dragon’s arrival.

“Just a minute,” called Seezle. “I want to see them bowled over.”

Kale went to her dragon’s neck, patted the shiny scales, and leaned her cheek against the black strip that ran from Celisse’s jaw to her shoulder. Pat hopped from his perch between the bigger dragon’s ears onto Kale’s head.

“Yes, thank you,” she told both her friends. “I did get out of my predicament on my own.”

The blast of air reached the grawligs and knocked a good many over. The others turned and, with the wind hastening their steps, ran away.

Seezle hopped and skipped and finally came to join Kale.

“What are you doing?” the tiny kimen asked.

Kale busily threaded a strand of light out of a glowing orb in one palm. Pat had an end in his mouth and ran up to the ridges along Celisse’s back.

Kale grinned. “I’m discovering all sorts of useful things for these light vines. I’m making a saddle of sorts.” She pulled out another length of luminescent ropelike stem. “At least I am making something for us to hold on to.”

“I’ll help.” Seezle took a second, rapidly growing tendril and climbed up Celisse’s side.

With several vines wrapped around the big dragon’s frame, the travelers were ready. Kale sat at the base of Celisse’s neck, wrapping her legs into a tangle of vines and holding on to another. Pat rode in her lap, and Seezle sat forward a bit.

“Where are we going?” asked Seezle.

“I’m on my way to visit the dragons we left in a valley away from Arreach.”

Seezle’s eyes widened. “You don’t plan to spend much time there, do you? Because I was sent to get you.”

“What’s left of this afternoon.” Kale thought how good it would be to see her friends. Then a not-so-pleasant thought disturbed her peace. “Who sent you to get me? Seezle, aren’t you supposed to be watching Holt?”

“I was, and that’s why I’m here.”

“Why?”

“Because Holt’s in trouble.” She looked over her shoulder at Kale, and her face held an uncharacteristic solemnity. “Namee sent me to get you.”

         
31
         

T
O THE
R
ESCUE!

Kale chose to wait until they landed before asking any more questions. They covered the distance quickly and set down among the other dragons in a large, sparsely vegetated hallow. Then Kale needed to converse in mindspeaking with the dragons to appease their curiosity. She related what had happened in Arreach and then listened to the dragons’ accounts of the world rumbling.

Finally, she and Seezle sat down on a couple of boulders under a scraggly dryfus tree.

“What kind of trouble is Holt in?” Kale asked.

“He’s been imprisoned, locked up. I think they threw the key away.”

“Why?”

“For kissing an echo’s daughter.”

“I’m not surprised.”

Seezle squirmed on the rock. “He really did a fantastic job of infiltrating their ranks until this girl caught his eye.” She sighed. “And I believe he wanted to save her from a life among these fanatics.”

“Very noble. Where is he, and do you think we can get him out?”

She nodded vigorously. “Not that it will be easy. He’s in a cell in the building that houses the headquarters for the Followers. They don’t appear to have any plans to execute him.”

“That’s a good thing. Maybe we could leave him there for a while.”

“But they aren’t feeding him.”

“What?”

“He gets one cup of water and a piece of bread each day.”

“All right, we go rescue him.”

Just before dark, Celisse and Greer flew to within half a mile from the outskirts of Arreach. They landed in a wide canyon with steep stratified walls. Lines of different-colored rock lay in layers, making jagged lines as far as they could see. Broken stones littered the floor. Obviously, some of the piles of rock had recently fallen from the cliff face.

I don’t know when Bardon will want to leave,
Kale told Celisse.
Stay close. And try to keep Greer from being seen as well.

She paused as her dragon griped about guarding Bardon’s older dragon.

It won’t be as hard as you think, Celisse. Greer admires you.

Kale chuckled at her dragon’s ruffled response.
I think it’s perfectly clear what I mean. I mean he thinks you’re pretty. Just coax him to do the right thing and discourage him from scaring the townspeople.

The entire time she and Seezle walked, Kale worked on cleaning her hair, skin, and clothes.

“I’ll never feel clean without a bath,” she complained.

“You do look better.” Seezle giggled. “Now you look like you rolled in a mud puddle instead of looking like you bathed in a mud lake.”

“Thanks, I think.” Kale eyed the kimen in her sparkling clothes of yellow light. “I don’t suppose you have any tricks for cleaning up.”

With mischief in her eyes, Seezle patted her mop of unruly hair. “No, but I’m a wizard myself when it comes to styling a becoming hairdo. Want my services?”

Kale laughed. “No, thank you. I have enough trouble with my hair.”

Pat fussed as they walked to Arreach. Kale had never been able to put a precise name on Pat’s talent. While Gymn was a healing dragon and Metta was a singing dragon, Pat could fix things. If the job was too big for him to fix alone, he understood what the problem was and what should be done. His talent included knowledge of architecture and building expertise. He also calculated anything to do with numbers at lightning speed and did something he called stress analysis. Now he groused that he had not been allowed the pleasure of being at the scene of devastation to help.

Pat rarely expressed agitation of any kind. As he grumbled, Kale realized she had not once considered how useful he’d be in the situation at Arreach.

“I’m truly sorry, Pat. I’m at fault. I never thought how much you would enjoy working on the problems brought about by the earthquake. I forgot how gifted you are in precisely the manner that would aid the townspeople. Would you like to stay with the urohms and assist them?”

Kale sighed her relief when the brown dragon said he was only willing to stay until Kale and Bardon rejoined the quest to find the meech colony.

“Who’s going to interpret between the urohms and Pat?” asked Seezle. “I don’t think any of the urohms can mindspeak.”

“We’ll worry about that later.”

They saw the urohms in the village before they reached the outskirts. The giant men had set to work as soon as they arrived. The increase in activity impressed Kale as they moved closer. The appearance of outsiders to make their task easier must have energized the citizens. The road that had been littered with debris when she set off at noon was swept clean. People smiled and waved as she and Seezle walked by.

“They seem to be a happy lot,” said the kimen.

“They weren’t when I left.”

“They’ve got hope now.”

“That’s right,” Kale said. “The horrendous task before them does not seem so daunting. The urohms brought willing hearts and helpful hands to aid these people.”

Seezle agreed. “Tackling the impossible is always easier with friends.”

Kale followed her bond with Bardon to find him. He sat with the rest of the questing party around a dying cookfire and rose to greet her.

“We’ve waited to make any final decisions until you arrived. Now that the urohms have arrived we will move on.” He kissed her cheek. “Seezle, I am happy to see you, of course, but I fear you bring bad tidings.”

Seezle joined the circle and sat beside Sir Dar. “Only that Holt is in trouble.” She explained concisely what had occurred and Holt’s precarious situation.

Regidor put his hand on Gilda’s before she had a chance to speak. “We will continue to the Northern Reach.”

Gilda smiled smugly. “We will travel without the riding dragons. It will be good to arrive at our destination unencumbered by the populace of this culture.”

Kale pressed her lips together and turned to the next member of the party to proclaim his intentions.

Brunstetter looked around the circle. “I will stay here and supervise the urohms in their reconstruction of the village.”

Seezle clapped her hands together. “That settles that problem.”

The urohm nobleman frowned at her. “What problem?”

“Pat wants to stay and help, but who would communicate with him? If you are here, you can communicate through Foremoore.”

Brunstetter nodded. “Pat’s help will be greatly appreciated.”

Lee Ark and Sir Dar decided to go with Regidor and Gilda. Kale and Bardon would return with Seezle to rescue Holt.

“What about the children?” asked Kale. “Toopka and Sittiponder will want to go with you, Sir Dar.”

The doneel shook his head. “I don’t think so. They are enamored with the children here in the village. The game of finding treasures amid the rubble and finding the correct owner has them enthralled.”

“Is it safe?”

“Thanks to the poles Gilda devised, it is.” Sir Dar stood. “We’ve had our dinner, but I don’t believe you and Seezle have eaten. Let me get you something.”

They all turned toward a sudden commotion from the village.

“Under cover for you,” Regidor shouted at Kale. “A swarm of those dreaded black dragons is coming.”

Kale covered herself with a shield and saw Regidor add a second layer over hers. The clear protective shells muffled the sounds from without. She could see well enough, though. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat.

A moving mass blackened the northern sky. This horde of tiny dragons blanketed the hills as far as one could see from east to west.

Villagers ran ahead of them. Even inside her shelter, Kale could hear screams of terror. Brunstetter ordered his men to direct the crowds into gullies, hollows, and any low-lying areas. Bardon, Gilda, and Regidor stayed beside Kale. Sir Dar and Lee Ark grabbed torches from the back of a wagon. They dunked the point wrapped in heavy cloth into a bucket of kerosene. The general handed one to Bardon. Holding the wooden bases, they poked the soaked tips in the fire. The torches burst into flame.

Kale saw Seezle cover her ears and drop down behind a makeshift table of wooden boxes Sir Dar and Gilda used to prepare food. Her protective shell vibrated with the sound of ten thousand flying dragons. The people around her standing guard scrunched their faces as if in pain. But the look of hatred on Gilda’s face hid any discomfort she might feel.

Kale’s eyes widened.
Gilda, why didn’t you take shelter?

The meech tossed Kale a glance that would have withered turnips, but she did not answer.

The first dragon hit the invisible shield and fell to the ground, then another and another. Kale lost sight of her comrades outside as a curtain of moving black bodies surrounded her shelter. Despite her confidence in the protective cover withstanding the onslaught, Kale fell to her knees, wrapped her arms around her body, and bent over.

Just outside the shell, the dead and wounded dragons littered the ground until piles of them leaned against the shelter. They varied in size, some no bigger than her thumb and none bigger than the palm of a child. Their skin glistened but did not have individual scales like the dragons Kale knew. The awful creatures looked amazingly fragile. The crumpled bodies of those who had run into the shield had no life at all. Those who were injured rapidly expired. Those blasted by flames from the two meech dragons and those burnt by the torches shriveled up like pieces of paper.

At last, the attack ended as the horde continued on. Both shells dissolved, and Kale stepped into Bardon’s arms. The acrid smell of smoke filled her nostrils and burned her lungs. Her eyes watered.

Regidor patted her on the shoulder. “Whatever did you do, my dear, to invoke the wrath of those horrid beasts?”

She shook her head, unable to join him in his light banter.

The villagers arose from their hiding places. In eerie silence they made their way back. Several looked askance at Kale. A few others widened the circle they made around the questers.

Sir Dar twisted his lips in a look of disgust. “They’re blaming you for this latest hazard that has come upon them. It’s a good time for you to leave.”

A burly marione walked slowly by, his eyes narrowed and his lips pressed into a line of anger.

Kale nodded to Sir Dar. “Seezle will show us to the gateway tomorrow. Right now, walking into Paladise, a village of fanatics, doesn’t look as dangerous as staying here.”

Gilda crossed her arms. “Isn’t there a principle about the heat of the fire versus the cold of snow?”

“‘A sensible man,’” said Bardon, “‘does not step out of the snow into the fire.’ Or do you mean, ‘One does not need to sit in the oven to cook a meal, nor lie in the snow to chill a drink.’” Bardon smiled at the meech lady. “Or there’s the one—”

Kale giggled, partly from the inanity of Bardon spouting principles, but mostly from relief. “Enough, Bardon. I think the stepping out of the fire was the one Gilda remembered.”

“Ah, but there are perhaps a hundred principles that deal with hot and cold and the danger of any extreme.”

Kale tried to concentrate on her husband’s voice. She felt odd, as though her body were moving away from itself. “You know, Bardon, I think I’m going to faint.” The edges of her vision became black, and the circle tightened, so what she could see became smaller and smaller. “Yes, I am going to faint.”