Empires of Moth (The Moth Saga, Book 2) (34 page)

She
stood, chest rising and falling as she panted. Even in the cold air,
sweat beaded on her brow. For long moments, only the ticking of the
mechanical heart filled the chamber.
Tick.
Tock. Tick. Tock.
The guards stood still. The dragon said nothing, and Suntai wanted to
charge forward, grab the beast's horns, and shake them.

"Will you not
fight?" she cried, turning from dragon to guards and back again.
"Will you wait in your hall until the demons burst into it? You
spoke of commanding ships. Soldiers fill your city. Send them south!
Roar your battle cry and fight with—"

"Leen does not
take orders from Suntai the rider," said Pirilin, interrupting
the speech. "You are a warrior, Suntai, and you are strong and
brave, yet we in Leen value other qualities." The dragon's fangs
gleamed. She uncoiled and rose to hover above the tiles, flowing
toward Suntai like a snake upon the water. "We value wisdom
above all else. You are strong, rider of wolves, but are you wise?"

Pirilin's scaly
head hovered only a foot away now. Her toothy mouth opened. She could
have swallowed Suntai whole.

"All great
warriors are wise," Suntai replied, staring into the dragon's
eyes, each one as large as her head.

The beast grinned,
and it reminded Suntai of the grin her wolf made before tearing into
living flesh. "We shall see." The dragon licked her chops
with a purple tongue. "I will test your wisdom, Suntai of
Qaelin, and the wisdom of the Timandrians you bring into my hall. My
brother Shenlai, the blue dragon of Qaelin, is a keeper of secrets.
My brother Tianlong, the black dragon of Ilar, is a warrior. Yet I am
Pirilin the White, a riddler." The dragon's eyes gleamed, and
her tail rose behind her like a scorpion's stinger about to strike.
"Three riddles will I ask you. If you answer all three, I will
judge you wise, and Leen will join its strength to yours."

"And if I
cannot answer?" Suntai said. "You will cast us out?"

Pirilin laughed.
"If you fail to answer, you are foolish, and I have only one use
for fools. You will remain here as my playthings . . . until I grow
hungry, and then you will become my meals." The dragon licked
the drool off her chin. "Are you ready?"

The heart ticked.
Suntai looked to the king, praying silently for him to wake, as if
prayers could end a sleep of centuries, undoing the clockwork of an
ancient dragon.

"Do not look
at him!" Pirilin demanded, moving to block the view. "You
speak with a dragon now, not a king. Do you accept my challenge? If
you do not, leave this court."

Suntai growled. Was
this a game to Pirilin? Her people were dying, and the dragon would
play with riddles? She looked over at Cam and Linee. They stared
back, faces pale and bodies stiff.

"I say we
play," the shepherd whispered to her. "I'm good at riddles.
Or at least I used to be at The Shadowed Firkin, our tavern back
home. Hem would tell riddles sometimes and I used to solve most of
them."

Linee nodded, hair
flouncing; she spoke in mix of Ardish and broken Qaelish. "I'm
good at riddles too! We had a book of them back at the palace. I
mostly read books about animals, but sometimes I read the riddles
one." She twisted her foot and lowered her gaze. "I mostly
cheated and just read the answers, but . . . I remember a lot. Maybe
Pirilin will ask a riddle I already know."

Suntai grunted. She
was wise at tracking stonebeasts, reciting histories of battles, and
fighting with the blade, yet riddles were a strange craft to her. But
what other option did she have? She would not leave this palace
empty-handed. Not as Okado needed her.

She returned her
eyes to Pirilin. "Very well, Pirilin the White, dragon of Leen.
Ask us your three riddles. We will answer them truly, and then . . .
then we will sail to war."

"Or I will
enjoy a meal," said Pirilin with a hungry smile. "We
begin."

Cam took a deep
breath, struggling to calm his frayed nerves. Linee took his hand and
squeezed it, but the warm gesture offered little comfort.

We
should have brought Torin with us,
he thought. Torin had always been the best at riddles. Instead he had
Suntai, a woman who knew every way to kill a man but had probably
never read a book, and Linee, a woman who had owned many books and
probably only looked at the pictures. As Pirilin the dragon licked
her lips and cleared her throat, Cam gulped.

I'll
have to rely on myself,
he thought.
It'll
be just like a game back at The Shadowed Firkin.

The dragon's tongue
darted, and the beast spoke her first riddle, her voice carrying
across the hall. She uttered it first in Qaelish for Suntai, then in
Ardish for Cam and Linee.

"
Lives
in dungeons

And dead men's
eyes

Dwells in holes

And beyond the
skies

Fills a killer's
heart

And the weary's
yawn

Yet come to meet
me

And find me
gone"

Cam frowned, took
another deep breath, and searched his thoughts for an answer. At his
sides, he saw Suntai and Linee mumble to themselves, brows furrowed.

Come
on, just pretend you're Torin and answer!
Cam told himself. He tried to remember the dragon's words, but
already they were slipping from his mind.

What
lived in dungeons? Rats? Prisoners? A rat would disappear if you came
to meet it, but . . . how could rats live beyond the skies? Cam
clenched and unclenched his fists. How could
anything
exist beyond the skies?

"Well,
foreigners," said the dragon. The beast emitted a hissing
laughter, and her tongue darted. "Will you not answer?"

"Give us some
time!" Cam said.

The dragon's teeth
gleamed. "Answer, strangers, for I grow hungry."

Despite the cold
air, sweat trickled down Cam's back. He glanced at Linee and saw her
chewing her lip and wringing her hands. When he glanced at Suntai,
however, he saw no nervousness. The wolfrider lowered her head, and
her arms hung loosely at her sides. She seemed almost sad.

"Answer!"
demanded the dragon. "Answer or I feast."

Cam wracked his
brains. The riddle had said something about filling hearts and eyes.
Cruelty? Joy? Why would those disappear if you visited them?

He opened his mouth
to request—to beg for!—more time. Before he could speak, Suntai
raised her head. She spoke in a soft voice, a voice full of sadness
and frailty that Cam had never heard in the proud warrior.

"I know
something of this thing," said the wolfrider and placed a hand
on her belly. "The answer is: emptiness."

Pirilin seemed to
pout—if it were possible for a dragon to pout. "Pity. I was
hoping to eat you already. You answered truly."

Cam took a deep,
shuddering breath, but his relief was short lived. The dragon rose
higher, hovering several feet above the floor, and spoke her second
riddle.

"Topples
mountains

Cuts through
stone

Mightier than
crown and throne

Strangles men

And crumbles
lead

Yet without him

All lie dead"

The companions
stood before the dragon, frowning and mumbling to themselves. Cam bit
his lip and twisted his fingers. Topples mountains and stone and
lead? What kind of weapon could do that . . . yet foster life?

He glanced at
Suntai, but she seemed just as stumped; she winced and twisted her
brow, deep in thought. Cam cursed under his breath, and a shiver ran
through him. A cannon? An army? One could claim that an army
protected life, but how could even an army cut stone and topple
mountains?

"It looks like
I'll be enjoying a meal," said Pirilin. Saliva dripped between
her teeth. "I do believe I'll eat the boy first; he is small as
an appetizer."

Cam held up his
hand. "Wait! Give us a moment."

At his side, Linee
whimpered and covered her eyes, and Suntai cursed. Cam tapped his
foot, thinking back to the war. What had been the greatest danger
he'd faced? Arrows? Swords? Fire? None seemed to fit.

He snickered. It
often seemed to him that more than weapons, it was the journey at sea
that had crippled him; he had gagged overboard so often that—

Cam froze, mouth
hanging open.

"Time to
feast," said the dragon and hovered toward him, maw opening
wide. Her hot breath blasted him, and strings of saliva quivered
between her teeth like harp strings.

"Water!"
Cam shouted. "The answer is: water!" He laughed. "Of
course."

The dragon hissed,
pulled back, and closed her mouth. She glared at Cam and whipped her
tail. Her scales clinked like a sack of coins. With a growl, the
dragon spoke her third riddle.

"Both
question and answer

Both darkness
and light

In the minds of
the wise

And the stars of
the night

I guard the
paths to wisdom

I hide the
greatest treasure

Name what lies
behind my door

And you'll lose
me forever"

For a long moment,
the three companions stood silently.

Cam clutched his
head, tapped his foot, and bit his lip, but no answer came to him. At
his side, Suntai was balling her fists and whispering, her eyes
closed, but seemed no closer to finding an answer. Pirilin the dragon
laughed, a sickening sound, and snapped her teeth.

Oh
muddy sheepskins,
Cam thought with a grimace.
I
don't know this one. I don't know. We're dragon food. Oh Idar . . .

Linee's voice rose
beside him. "It's a riddle."

Cam groaned. "Yes,
Linee, I know it's a riddle. Let me think."

She tugged his
sleeve. "But Camlin! It's a riddle."

"I
know
,
Linee!" He glared at her. "I know it's a riddle. Please be
quiet and let me think of the answer."

Linee
groaned, crossed her arms, and stomped her feet. "The answer
is
'a riddle', you foolish boy. 'A riddle' is both the question and
answer." She turned toward the dragon, puffed out her chest, and
grinned. "The answer is: a riddle."

Cam turned toward
the dragon, expecting the beast to lunge and feast upon him. But
Pirilin only stared, her violent eyes gleaming. A smile stretched
across the dragon's face, but this time it was not hungry, but a
smile of kindness and wisdom.

"The riddles
are solved," she said. "Your wisdom is deep."

Linee hopped up and
down, clapped excitedly, and hugged Cam. He pried her off and stepped
closer to Pirilin.

"Will you
fight with us?" he said, chest rising and falling. He looked
across the hall at the embalmed king upon his throne, clockwork heart
ticking; at the guards between the columns, faces hidden behind
silver helmets; and back again at the white dragon with the lilac
eyes. "Will you sail south with us? Will you fight Ferius and
his hosts?"

They were all
silent. Cam panted, staring from side to side, and drew his sword. He
raised the blade, eyes stinging.

"Will you not
answer?" Cam walked from soldier to soldier and then back to
Pirilin. Heart thrashing, he touched the dragon's scales; they were
ice-cold. "I've answered your riddles. Now answer mine! Will you
fight?"

Pirilin blinked her
crystal orbs. For a moment, the only sound was the sleeping king's
clockwork heart. Cam stared at the dragon. Suntai and Linee came to
stand at his side.

Tick.
Tock. Tick. Tock.

Slowly, Pirilin
rose like a snake from a basket, like smoke from a flame, until her
head nearly touched the vaulted ceiling fifty feet above. Her body
swayed and chinked. She looked down upon the companions and cried in
a voice that shook the hall.

"Leen will
fight!"

Linee hopped and
squealed with joy, and Suntai raised her sword and cried for battle.
Cam, however, could feel no joy, not even relief. He only closed his
eyes, lowered his head, and squared his jaw.

I
avoided starvation and a dragon's wrath.
His eyes stung.
Now
I will sail with an army. Now blood will spill, fire will burn, and
death will cover the night.

The cry echoed in
the chamber, and the soldiers of Leen repeated the cry. "Leen
will fight! Leen will fight!"

The chants rose.
The heart ticked on.

 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
THE SHIPS OF ILAR

"No," she
whispered, thrashing her head. "Please, no, don't . . ."

She tried to pull
back but could not. She begged, but the beast would not listen. Still
the nightwolf fed, digging its teeth into her arm, ripping flesh,
shaking its head and tugging and clawing, tearing tendons, cracking
bone. Koyee wept, her ruin of an arm trapped within the beast's
mouth, and she screamed as it ate her.

"He's eating
me . . . please, stars, please . . . he's eating me alive . . ."

But the wolf was
gone; it had never been a wolf at all. Her arm lay within a pile of
smoking bones, not a beastly mouth. Bits of charred flesh still clung
to the pile, hot, searing her. She recognized these remains. Here
were the bones of her father, stacked in a wheelbarrow, and Koyee
screamed again, trying to pull her arm loose, lost in the darkness.
The bones were so hot, crackling with flame, and she watched her arm
wither until it too was only a bone, only a smooth shaft coated with
burnt skin. She wept.

"Help . . .
help me, please . . ."

A hand touched her
forehead. "I'm here, Koyee. I'm here. You're safe."

She knew that
voice. It was Torin! Torin the demon, the creature with the
mismatched eyes! He stood behind the wheelbarrow, pushing it forward,
bringing this death into her land.