Silver Dragon Codex (8 page)

The old woman stretched out a withered finger. “Even dragons can die, Belengithar, and your friends will die with you! You can’t stay up there forever. Your food and water are down here with the wolves. You’ve no fire and the night is turning very, very cold.” The rain outside pounded on
the school windows, blowing through the main chamber with the shivered breath of ice.

“I don’t think she’s going to compromise,” Cerisse muttered under her breath. Jace tended to agree. The woman didn’t seem sane, and living with all these wolves probably wasn’t helping. Plus, there was the village’s curse.

“We have to find a way out of here.” Jace frowned. “Belen, any ideas?”

The wind shifted her silver hair, tickling her serious expression. “We can’t fight. I don’t want to hurt them, even if they’re attacking us. I’m glad we didn’t cause them any harm when they first attacked.” She peered around the room. “If we could make it across these rafters to the wall and then down through the window, we might be able to escape into the woods.”

“Then what?” Cerisse shook her head and her auburn braid swung below the rafter where she lay. “We get chased through the woods at night, in the storm, by around three score of wolves? How does that make us safe?”

Belen frowned. “Well, I hadn’t exactly planned on going with you.” All eyes riveted on her, and she flushed. “She’s after me, right? And the wolves … she won’t let them chase you if I’m still here. Once you’re outside and safe, you can find a way to come back in and save me, maybe in the morning when the wolves start to sleep.”

“I don’t like you risking yourself, Belen,” Jace said immediately, and Cerisse rolled her eyes. He ignored her and continued. “What if Ebano uses one of those smoke bombs—”

Ebano rolled his fingers out from his palms. He quoted another of Worver’s lines: “Keep in safety that which you care for most.”

Exasperated, Jace asked, “What does that mean?”

Ebano pointed down at the wolves. “Bag,” he said simply.

“You left them in your bag? Great.” Jace sighed. “Not a lot of options, then. We all head for the window”—he stressed the “all”—“and Belen waits in the rafters while the rest of us get out into the woods. We’ll find weapons or a way to draw some of those wolves away from the school building, and then come back for her.”

Cerisse slid to her knees on the rafter and began to crawl. “Ebano, tie this rope around your waist, and then we’ll tie it to each of us—Jace and me—so that if anyone falls, the other two can hold him up. Does that make sense? No, no, don’t turn the rope into a snake, Ebano, that’s wonderful, but now’s not the time.”

Jace and Ebano followed her, with the mesmerist between the two acrobats. Although this wasn’t Ebano’s forte, the gangly man had the reach to pull himself from one
rafter to another, and his balance wasn’t bad. The wolves beneath them jumped and ran in circles. Some paced back and forth beneath Belen, and others simply remained where they were, eyes glittering in the light. Belen was right, Jace admitted to himself. They wanted her.

But that didn’t mean the wolves wouldn’t kill them all if given a chance.

Swinging Ebano by the rope first, they burst out the window in a quick flash of motion. They fell more than fifteen feet through the broken glass window to the wet ground below, cracking shoulders and rolling in the muck to try and shed the impact of their fall. Ebano, having fallen the shortest distance, was the first on his feet. He untied the rope binding them together. By the time he tugged Jace to his feet they could hear the werewolves baying behind them.

“Run!” Jace said it and did it all in one breath. Several wolves raced out the front door of the school building, and others jumped to the sill of the window, ignoring the glass that cut their feet. “Stay together!”

They raced through the darkness and the ruins, ducking from one hiding place to another as the wolves followed their path. Where he could, Jace stopped to harry the beasts, using his sword to cut them as best he could before darting away again. He could see Cerisse doing the same in
the darkness, throwing rocks to slow their pursuers or to cause echoes of a false trail that led the wolves away. Ebano followed, his steps silent. Despite the blinding sweep of rain that pelted down from the heavens, Jace thought they were making good time through the village … until they turned a corner and found themselves facing the plaza and the schoolhouse—again.

“The wolves are herding us like sheep,” Cerisse gasped, brushing water out of her eyes.

As she spoke, two of the massive werewolves blurred in from the shadows to the right, their faces contorted in feral smiles. A third, smaller figure—probably a woman—slunk along the wall of a house on the other side. “They’re flanking us,” Jace warned the others. He tightened his grip on his short sword and tried to remember that these beasts were—had once been—human. “Don’t kill them,” he growled.

Cerisse stared at him as if he were insane, four daggers twisted in her fingers. “Kill them?” she spluttered, rain slicking her red hair. “We’ll be lucky if we can hurt them!”

Ebano straightened, pressing his palms together in preparation.

The first one charged. It roared toward them, jaws open, claws extended, and met with the tip of Jace’s sword.
Although the acrobat wasn’t the finest swordsman in the world, his reflexes saved him more than once in the wolf’s attack. It could see better than he could in the darkness, but he was faster, and the rain made the muddy ground shift, another benefit for Jace.

The boy wheeled, striking out behind him with the sword. It caught the wolf on the shoulder, scoring a bloody mark that would soon close. The creature struck again, howling. Jace leaped, drawing his feet up and allowing the werewolf to swipe beneath him. The claws nearly hamstrung him, but Jace was faster, and pulled his sword beneath him so that it thrust down beneath his feet. Using gravity and his agile grace, Jace slammed down onto the wolf’s back, sword first. The creature screamed and fell, crumbling to the ground. He knew that it would be on its feet again as soon as its wound magically healed, but at least for now, he’d won. It only made the moment a little less glorious that four more were circling just at the edge of his blade.

He could see Cerisse climbing on the second werewolf’s shoulders, dodging its flailing arms nimbly as its mouth snapped at the empty air where she’d just been standing. Ebano was using his mental powers to still the third, though the darkness made it difficult. Jace could already hear more beasts in the shadows, coming closer with every breath. He tried to ignore them, blocking the
werewolf’s strikes with quick thrusts of his short sword. It was getting easier to see his opponent, its snarling fangs whiter, and its eyes gleaming in the … firelight?

“Jace!” Ebano’s voice rose over the ruckus. “The school!”

He hadn’t noticed the glow start, flickering at the edge of his vision while his attention was taken up by the werewolf’s attack. Jace twisted past the wolf’s lunge, trying to look where Ebano was pointing. His eyes fixed on the one standing building left in the square. The school was on fire.

“Oh my gosh!” Cerisse cried, legs flailing from the wolf’s shoulders. “She’s going to kill Belen! The hag said that Chislev would have vengeance. Belen can’t get out of there without the wolves tearing her apart—and if she stays inside, she’ll burn to death!”

On the stairs of the building, a shadowy figure with ragged robes and a staff guided the wolves out, cheering on the fire with mad laughter.

“We have to help Belen!” Jace tried to get past the werewolf, but it blocked him and threw him backward to the ground, leaving thin gashes across his chest from the tips of the its claws. He was lucky it hadn’t caught him more fully, or he might be looking at his stomach inside out. He leaped to his feet and tried again, but there were more wolves
around them, slipping through the ruins, over the broken walls. The fire grew higher and higher, sweeping quickly up under the eaves toward the roof despite the pounding rain. It cast racing shadows of wolves all around, on the walls and the plaza square, flickering in the lightning and dancing over mud and stone.

It took a moment to recognize that one of the shadows was neither human nor wolf. It pressed from within the church, stretching out darkly against the flame, roaring in an echo of the fire’s hunger. With a breath, as thunder once more split the sky, the roof of the building exploded into shards. Stone crumbled as if struck by a mighty blow, and the wolves howled in rage and fear.

A tremendous head, as large as the horses that pulled the caravan wagons, rose within the flame. It shone as bright as fire-forged metal, sparkling and shimmering amid the heat of the blaze. The neck and wings that flared out against the sky were silver, swordlike, crested, and they swooped with glittering, metallic luster. The creature bellowed with rage, and ice swelled from its breath, mixing into the rain to form a long cone of cold, glittering sleet.

“Dragon!” Cerise choked.

“Belen!” Jace screamed.

Ebano only smiled.

he massive dragon rose above the burning school, braving the thunder and lightning of the downpour with a resounding clarion cry. The wolves that surrounded the plaza fell back in surprise. Jace could hear the old hag’s voice crying out, trying to rally her servants, but chaos was overtaking the ruined village square. Jace felt a stab of panic followed by a warm glow. Belen really was a dragon!

She was even more beautiful now than she’d ever been before. Terrifying, yes, but beautiful. Her scales shone like molten steel in the firelight, her eyes wide and filled with righteous anger. Wings like silken sails unfurled behind her, catching the firelight and reflecting it back in a mirrored prism to illuminate the dark smoke that rose from the building below.

With a buffet of her wings, the dragon rose to her rear legs, stretching out her neck over the square. She released another blast of cold dragon breath, snuffing the worst of the
flame beneath her. Jace could see the werewolves leaping up to savage the dragon with their teeth and claws, but they did little more than scratch at her heavy silver scales. The ring of claw against metal echoed amid the clamor of thunder. The dragon—Belen, Jace forced himself to acknowledge—snapped at them, catching one in her teeth and hurling it aside against the broken stones of the village. It got up a few seconds later, healing swiftly and limping away. Many of them started fleeing, frightened by the massive jaws and swift swipes of the dragon’s feet.

“She’s going to kill them!” Cerisse cried out.

The silver dragon roared, spreading her wings and stepping out from the wreckage of the school building. The old woman stood her ground, clutching her battered staff despite the wind of the dragon’s beating wings and the rain. Around the hag, wolves began to scatter, raising howls of terror into the night. Watching the scene, Jace imagined he could see the night five years ago when the dragon landed amid the village. Villagers had screamed and scattered like the wolves, unable to defend themselves against her rage.

The dragon arched her neck, eyes wide and dark. Lightning flashed, illuminating her sharp ivory fangs as she bent toward the old woman in the center of the plaza. Jace could hear the hag shriek, “By Chislev, you will not
hurt this village again! I will give my life to stop you!”

The wolves around him had already fled back into the shadows, their eyes wide with haunted memories of the dragon’s first attack. Cerisse was right behind him, and Ebano strode a short distance beyond. Cerisse yelled, “We have to stop her! Belen, don’t hurt these people!” A single stroke of the dragon’s tail, one strong buffet of wing or swipe of claw could tear down a building, much less kill the woman who stood before her in those ragged robes. Belen’s head swept forward, and the old woman dropped her gnarled staff.

“Oh! She’s going to bite the hag’s head off!” Cerisse gasped.

Despite the fact that Jace privately thought it would serve the woman right for setting the school on fire, he couldn’t let Belen do it. But they couldn’t get close enough to stop her in time, and the whipping wind and crashing thunder drowned out their shouts. The dragon struck out with her fore paws, blocking the hag’s retreat first to one side, then the other, drawing her claws closer and closer together around the old woman until she was caged in. The old woman screamed, terrified, and stepped back within the cage of the dragon’s claws. She prayed to Chislev in gasping breaths. Belen’s head sank down until it was only an arm’s length from the shivering old woman. The dragon’s
silver lips curled, revealing vicious-looking fangs. Jace could see the lines of panic etched on the old woman’s face, her white-rimmed eyes wide with horror.