Dragon's Keep (21 page)

"The trees?"
I said with a laugh. "Am I to believe the trees
can speak?"

"Believe what you like.
Your race has been deaf ever since it
learned
to speak." He gripped me round the middle, though not harshly, and lifted
me into the air. I knew dragons spoke many languages, those of men and even
those of beasts, but I'd never heard trees speak. Wind rushed through the
boughs below. Was this a kind of speech? I wanted to ask Lord Faul, but he set
me by the milkweed patch and flew skyward.

I slipped on my gloves to protect against the
thistles. The hills and the sloping valley were much the same as those on Wilde
Island yet no people had come here to cut trees, plow fields, and build their
townships. Near the thistle patch wild mustard swayed, and closer to the
greenwood in the damper soil cornflowers, wild iris, and angelica grew. I gave
a crooked smile at that. How many times I'd seen Sir Magnus sprinkle angelica
in the doorways whispering, "Step not
across, thou evil beast," to
ward off the dragon. What a lackwit
Magnus was.

I picked myself a posy,
tucked the stems under Kit's brooch,
and
went to work again. When Mother first saw the brooch she'd been troubled by it.
"Where did you get that?" she'd asked, hurt
and suspicious, as if the brooch were
hers.
Indeed, thinking
more
on it and knowing it came from Aliss, I wondered if it had been
Mother's once. Had she given it to Aliss long ago
when they were
school friends? Or had she slipped it to her before
sending her away to Demetra? If not, how could one as poor as Alissandra come
by such fine silver?

I uprooted another thistle. The brooch was
surely Mother's.
What message did Aliss
send my mother by giving it to Kit? This
I could not puzzle out.

More hours passed. My back, legs, and arms
ached, but 1 feared Faul's anger if I didn't pick a passel of the weeds.

When the sun spread its noontide gold upon
the grass, I
stood to ease my shoulders and
saw a glint of metal crest the hill.
Next I spied a helmet, armor, and
the full form of a knight.

"You've come!" I cried, flinging
down the thistles. Then another knight appeared behind the
first,
and behind him seven slayers. Knights and slayers to my rescue! I hobbled to
the men. All knelt down on the grass.

"God be praised!" said Niles
Broderick.

"We've come with news," said Sir
Kimball.

"News later," I said. "The
dragon will return anon. He's by
the
waterfall a mile from here. And sure we must away before he
picks up
your scent."

"Niles will take
you to our skiff," said Sir Kimball. "We're armed against the dragon.
We'll go slay him and retrieve Evaine's
scepter."

"Don't go. Swords and wolf's bane are
useless. The dragon will eat you all before you ever have a chance to fight. We
have to leave at once!"

"Our quest is set," said Niles.

"This was our oath," said the
other.

I pleaded more but neither of them listened
and Niles ushered me from the hill.

"Do you know where the treasure's
hid?" called Sir Kimball from the forest edge.

"I've not seen it. Come with us
now!" But he went on with the slayers.

Down the hill I hobbled. First Niles helped me with his arm, then seeing the pain in my face from my throbbing
ankle,
he carried me, his nose wrinkling as he smelled my
dragon stench. My weight and his heavy armor made our progress slow. Here we
were exposed as docile field mice in the grass.

"Hurry on," I urged, and later
still, "I'll walk." But Niles did not put me down until we reached
the rocks. He helped me navigate the slippery boulders,
then
carried me into a watery cave where the small sailing ship waited in the
shallows.

"It's madness to try and kill the
dragon."

"It was our pledge."

I grabbed the boat. "Help me pull it
outside. We have to get away!"

"We stay and wait for the others."

"They'll all
die!" I tugged the ship harder. It moved but a few
inches in the shallow water.
"Help me, knave, if you want to live!"

Niles
seemed amused as I strained against the skiff. He crossed his arms and looked
at the dragon skin wrapped about my foot. Lowering my gown in modesty, I
stopped pulling and tried to reason with the man.

"Niles. The dragon's all power. Already
Sir Kimball and his
host of slayers are
lost, I swear, and once Lord Faul has feasted on
them—"

"Lord who?"

"The dragon will come after us. Will you
not help me?"

"We stay on."

I lunged for him.
"God's
bones!
I'm queen here, and I order you to help me shift this boat!"

Niles
gently pulled away and held out his palm. "Do you see
this?" he asked, tracing a scar across his
flesh. "I pledged blood upon this quest as did the good Sir Kimball. We
swore before our
sovereign queen that we would kill the dragon and bring
you home along with Queen Evaine's scepter."

"Mother and her wants," I said.
"Does she want me rescued or the scepter?"

"Both."

"If she still thinks I'll wave the magic
scepter and restore Wilde Island to England's bosom, she's a knave!"

"Don't talk like that about the
queen!"

"I'll say what I like. Ignore my
mother's greed for once and
obey me! The
queen is
..."
I searched for
the right word here.
"Unwell."

Niles
frowned.

"Think," I urged. "The
Pendragon scepter isn't worth your life, is it? Think of all the dragonslayers
we've lost, Niles." 1 caught
myself
before saying
his father's name, but we both thought of him. A look of pain came to Niles's eyes.

"Your father was
the best of our knights," I said more gently
now. "I don't want Mother adding your name to the
Dragonstone."

Still Niles stood back, rubbing the scar on
his hand, considering Mother's blood oath as I struggled with the ship. My
muscles strained. "Help me get this outside. Do as I say. Or if
you will, obey my father the king. He would say
to take me now!
He'd order you to pull—"

"The king's dead."

I fell back against the ship. So this was the
news from home. If he'd crushed my chest with a mallet, it would have felt the
same.

The cave echoed with the soft sound of
lapping water. Niles lowered me to a sitting stone. "I shouldn't have told
you," he said. "I should have waited for Sir Kimball."

"How?"
I said.

"In battle against
King Stephen."

"And
Kye?"

"No news of him."

"Did . . . they win?"

"Lost, but the king fought with honor,
Princess."

I put my head on his shoulder and sobbed. Niles held me close. Wind whistled through the cave and cold washed over me as if I'd been
swept out to sea.

Tne bargain

already
the dragon
was
landing on the beach. How swift
he'd come
and silently, the sound of flight covered by the crashing waves. Beside me Niles drew his sword.

"Give me your knife," I said. Niles pulled out his blade and
gave it me as Faul
crept closer. The cave was small for the great
dragon, but kneeling low,
he entered.

Niles
rushed forward, shouting. But the dragon snatched him off his feet and drew him
from the cave. I hobbled outside.

"Kill him, and I'll slit my
throat!" I held the dagger to my neck. It seemed a strange thing to do.
But if I died the pips would be left without their nursemaid. Faul needed me.

The dragon blinked, then shook his head like
a wet dog, his dinner flailing in his talons.

"I'll turn my back to spare you of the
meal," he growled.

"You'll find me dead when you turn
round."

"Why do you care so much for my
supper?" he roared, shaking Niles like a poppet. Niles let out a fearful
yelp.

"I'm done with death. The measure of the
blood spilled for

my
life is on me like a river. I cannot bear another
drop!" This I screamed out all at once and without forethought, but the
truth of it swept through me in a flood.

Niles
shouted and swung his sword, but Lord Faul removed the weapon like a twig and
tossed it to the tide. Then with his
claw
he flicked the
knights
head. Niles flopped over and
was still.

I cut my neck.

"Stop!"
warned Faul. "The morsel lives." He held Niles close
so I might hear his breathing.

"It doesn't matter," I said.
"This boy or another.
My mother will send you another
supper, with her heart set on
my
re
scue,
and on Evaine's scepter."

It was true enough. Lord Faul would be
pleased with the meals, peeling off their armor and swallowing
knights
whole, as a man would shuck an oyster. There'd be no
end to the blood
upon my head. The sickness
of these deaths made the knife at my
throat seem sweet. I would end it
here.

"These men are pests," said Faul.
Towering above me, he shook Niles till his armor rattled. "I must get rid
of them. No putrid man will endanger the lives of my pips!"

The sea crashed behind
us and pulled back, leaving silver car
pets
on the shore. There seemed no answer here. If I slit my
throat too soon, Lord Faul would eat Niles after. We were locked
together,
the three of us on the sunlit sand.

"I won't let any more people die for
me," I said again.

"Toss your knife," said Faul, smoke
pouring from his nostrils. "And I will spare this knight."

I held my ground. "I'll toss it," I
said, "if the knight is

returned
to Wilde Island with the message not to send out any
more."

"No message will stop the queen from
sending out more slayers."

"It will if I toss her my gloves."

The dragon blinked. "Does your pretty
part bring her that much shame?"

The answer stuck inside my throat. I nodded.

Sunlight played across
Faul's scales. The sea pulled back, and
in
that hush before another wave, the dragon said, "Humans cannot be trusted
with my brood. The pips must grow up in secret." He breathed smoke, the
grayness of it shrouding his eyes.
"Swear
you'll stay here, Briar, to be the pips' nursemaid. And for
their
protection you must not speak to human folk again."

"Not a word?" I asked.

Faul tipped his jaws heavenward and breathed
blue fire. A wave swept up, encircling his clawed feet. "Nursemaid the
pips, keeping silence with your kind,
" he
said,
"and I'll return the knight alive. I'll deliver you myself to drop the
gloves at your mother's feet."

I looked on my left glove, stained and
filthy, knowing if my curse were exposed, Mother would send no more knights to
Dragon's Keep. This way no more would die.

"I'll will my life
over to you and keep your pips secret as long as you stay clear of my people.
Swear never to eat human flesh as
long as
I'm silent before all men."

Lord Faul considered this as wind swept along
the shore. I

knew
how he enjoyed his human meals, how sweet he thought
man's meat above all others.

"A human fast."
The dragon looked hungrily at Niles, a silver glob
of drool hanging from his mouth. He flicked his tongue to catch the drool.
"Aye."
He shuddered.
"To
keep my pips from trouble.
But speak one word to a human ear," he
said, "and they are mine to eat."

"Done!"
I dropped the bloody knife. I was dragon's keep now.
The daring oath stripped me of my past, my heritage, my very humanness.

Lord Faul laid Niles down, dragged the boat
outside, and set
fire to it on the sea. I
shook as the sails and rigging burned, imag
ining what he'd done to the
other knights. Beside me haul hummed a tune.

Ashes winged upward and
fell back in the sea. I tore a bit of
gown
and bandaged Niles' sore head. He would awaken, but I hoped not for a while.

"Climb on my back," said Faul,
unfurling his tail like a spi
ral stair. I
clambered up, straddling his neck like a tree trunk, and
gripped the
horned flesh for support. The neck flaps at my backside pressed against me
like a saddle. I leaned into them as Fau I lifted the sleeping knight and took
to the air.

He tipped his wing to turn and I held on
tight as he sped over the sea. I wished my father could have ridden like this
in
life, for he was a man who loved speed.
He rode Crispin faster
than any man on horseback and jumped him over
fallen trees, How strong he was on the hunt, how quiet when we rode to the