The Book of Fire (25 page)

N’Doch kicks at a chunk of shattered concrete, trying to remember when life was normal, how he felt
then.
Something nags at him, and the concrete is in several smaller chunks before he finally makes the connection. He can say—like he has to the girl many times, to her total disbelief and astonishment—he can say there are no lordships and kings and what-all where he comes from . . . but is it really true? What’s nagging him is, it’s not.

’Cause there are lordships and princes in his country, and princesses, too. And kings and queens. Only he’d call them celebrities. Stars, like the beautiful women his mama watches on her vid, or rich people, like Kenzo Baraga the Media King. People with all the power of the girl’s King Otto, and from what he heard at Deep Moor, probably a hell of a lot more. And he’d say: that’s the life I want. That’s what I’ve been dreaming of since I first sat down at a keyboard. And if he met them, he wouldn’t expect them to treat him any differently than this baron guy just did.

N’Doch finds a piece of broken guardrail and sits down on it, totally confused.

Well? Can you deal with it?

Okay, so the guy’s used to being in charge, and he’s gotta keep up the front.

So he was bound to challenge you sooner or later.

Nice if it’d been later. But I could probably take him, y’know.

Water has no interest in that argument.

What would it gain us if you did?

What about what it would gain me?

But meanwhile, down the road, there’s two people standing in the hot sun, waiting on his next move. For two entirely different reasons. Add the damn dragons and you got four. It seems to N’Doch that before he met these dragons,
there was a whole lot fewer people expecting things from him. He wishes he was home, where he had some options.

But he gets up anyway, dusts himself off, and heads back. Wary, the baron watches him approach.

“Tell him I was just trying to be friendly,” N’Doch mutters to the girl.

“I did. He accepts your apology.”

“My
what
?”

“Please, N’Doch . . .”

Is there no end to this, he asks himself. “He tossed me around, and I’m supposed to apologize?”

She nods. “What can it hurt?”

“How ’bout my pride?”

She doesn’t seem to have thought of that. And the baron’s just staring at him, waiting for some acceptable sign of capitulation. N’Doch gives back the glare as best he can until the moment stretches beyond even his own patience with macho posturing, and the dragons are whispering between his ears again. Finally he reminds himself that he’s always said he’s a lover, not a fighter, and that there are other ways to win a war, and that he’s got no reputation here to maintain, like Baron K. seems to think he has, no matter what century he finds himself in. And finally, if he keeps them standing here in the sun much longer, they’re all gonna melt into smears on the ground. N’Doch decides to cede the skirmish—for now. But if it was a battle of guitars, he thinks, then let’s see who’d win. He shrugs and looks away. Maybe this’ll make a good song someday. “Go ahead. Take it all out on me.”

The girl’s eyelids sag briefly. “My lord of Köthen, he thanks you for your gracious pardon.”

“Like hell I do,” N’Doch mutters. But he tries the name out like she’s said it, mouthing it silently, trying for that vowel again.

And Köthen relaxes, like he’d tired of the game even sooner than N’Doch and as necessary as it was, it’s about time the girl got it over with. He turns his back on both of them, scuffs his boots in the dust with a deep and ragged sigh. Then, for the first time, he takes a serious look around. He tests the sun-softened pavement with his heel, then walks to the end of the broken bridge like he’s taking
possession of it, and gazes down into the water. When he comes back, it’s with a bit of a swagger and a pensive frown. N’Doch can see he’s intrigued despite himself.

Oddly, it’s to N’Doch that he puts the question. He pulls up a few yards away and faces him directly. Like he’s trying the idea on for size, he says: “Is this the Future you spoke of?”

The girl hastens to interrupt. “Why, yes, my lord baron. We believe it is.”

The baron doesn’t even look at her, and N’Doch tries not to act too sullen. He knows the guy’s still smarting from them seeing him sick and retching from the transport. He’s gotta show off enough bullshit bravado to recover the shreds of his dignity. So, this could be just another challenge, but it could also be some kind of peace offering. Carefully, man to man, he nods.

“Interesting.” Baron Köthen shades his eyes, looking into the red sun. He studies the angular profile of the western horizon. Mountains, but before the mountains, there’s a city there, a little to the north, maybe ten miles away. N’Doch has spotted the building tops already. In fact, the heat’s not the only reason not to be standing out in the open like this for so long. Who knows who’s been watching them with high-power whatever from whatever distance? But his thought is, probably no one. There’s a too-weird stillness about this place. No birds, not even the buzz of an insect.

Now Köthen studies the dragons, letting his gaze linger speculatively on Water. “A shape-shifter. Do I understand that correctly?”

“Yes, my lord.” The girl smiles at him tentatively.

“How could Heinrich bear to let you out of his sight?”

She folds her forehead seriously. “Other priorities were . . .”

Köthen waves her silent. “I know, I know. I know all about Heinrich’s priorities. I am living proof, am I not?” He kicks at the dust again, then looks back at N’Doch. “We don’t even know where we are, do we?”

N’Doch shakes his head, keeping his expression real neutral. The guy’s bitter humor is so dry, it’s practically invisible. But it strikes N’Doch funny. Then he has an insight.
With her tin ear for comedy, the girl doesn’t hear it, and until she does, she won’t even get to first base with this dude.

“Or
when
,” Köthen adds. “Am I right?”

Now N’Doch can’t help but grin. “You do land on your feet, man, I gotta grant you that.”

When the girl translates, irony settles comfortably into Köthen’s eyes. He almost smiles. Then he says, “So what do we do now?”

A challenge for sure, but this time, not an idle one.

N’Doch shrugs. “First thing? Look for water.” As the girl translates, he adds, “Water we can drink.”

The girl offers the baron a few remarks from her own experience about the treachery of water in the Future. Köthen grunts, then raises a brow at the two packs lying in the dust. “Are we provisioned?”

N’Doch makes no quick move to the packs, so the girl does it. She hauls them over, pries them open, and holds up their contents for the baron’s inspection. N’Doch thinks she is way overcompensating now. So she kidnapped the dude. So let’s get on with it already.

Köthen makes no move either. He studies each item gravely as she exhibits them: bread, cheese, apples, dried beef, a few small jugs of water. He nods at each, back to humoring her, but N’Doch watches him making the tally in his head and sees him come to the obvious conclusion.

“This will not keep us for long.”

N’Doch laughs softly.

Were it not for Earth, Erde decided, she would never have survived this ordeal. She didn’t mean physically—she was well used to the rigors of dragon transport. Nor was it the heat and dust that swirled up around her in this alien place. Her stay in N’Doch’s time had prepared her for that. But nothing had prepared her for the strain of dealing with Adolphus of Köthen one on one, now that she’d acted on impulse and done this insane thing.

Now that she had him on her hands, what was she going to do with him?

IT WASN’T EXACTLY ON IMPULSE
.

Kindly, the dragon reminded her that she had planned it all rather carefully, had even checked out the details with him and with the others. It hadn’t seemed insane at the time.

ALL HAS GONE ACCORDING TO PLAN. WHY ARE YOU CONCERNED
?

IT WAS HARDLY MY PLAN FOR THE TWO OF THEM TO START FIGHTING FIRST THING!

Lady Water added her assessment.

Men. They behave as they must. Don’t worry. They’ll sort it out.

HE WILL HATE ME FOREVER.

Water laughed
Which one?

Erde thought Lady Water a bit too relaxed about N’Doch’s behavior. He was, after all, part of the problem.

Have faith, girl. The man is out of a job, and you’re giving him one.

WHATEVER ELSE HE MAY BE, HE IS BRAVE AND HONORABLE
.
HE WILL THANK YOU FOR IT ONE DAY
.

Perhaps. But how would she survive his growling and glowering until then? Erde was not sure she would.

He’ll require a lot of care and feeding, no doubt of it.

NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY HAL BROUGHT HIM TO DEEP MOOR.

Just keep telling him how useful he’s being.

DO NOT TROUBLE YOURSELF WITH DOUBT. CAN YOU HEAR THE CALL
?

NO. WHAT? THE SUMMONS? YOU CAN HEAR IT AGAIN?

Loud and clear.

AS IF A VEIL HAS LIFTED
.

OH, WONDERFUL! AFTER SO LONG! THEN WE’VE DONE THE RIGHT THING!

Erde took strength from the dragons. Their own crisis was so much vaster than her own slight personal matter. She shoved the food and water back into the packs, passed one to N’Doch, and shouldered the other. Then she faced Baron Köthen expectantly. N’Doch eased back a step or two, retiring from the field. She wasn’t sure if she was grateful or not.

“My lord baron, are you with us or no?”

He didn’t want to answer her. For she had put him in the position that N’Doch was in just moments ago, where his only sane option was surrender. And this, of course, was the last choice he wanted to make. She watched him struggle with it, painfully aware of the additional walls of bitterness she was building up between them.

“You have the food and water, such as it is.” He gestured faintly at the parched and barren landscape: “Do I have any choice?”

“If you prefer, I will give you half of it and you may go your own way.”

“That would be . . . stupidly inefficient.”

He had his rage under control now, and that was a mercy. It even helped Erde to accept the unforgiving smolder of resentment that edged his every word and glance.

“Of course you are right, my lord.” She bowed her head in acceptance. “Then let us be going.” She hadn’t a clue where she was going, only that she must somehow get him moving—any direction at all would do. After that, the dragons assured her, things would take care of themselves.

Köthen said, “Wait.”

Terrified, Erde stopped, then gave him as casual a glance as she could muster, tossed over her shoulder like an empty nutshell. “My lord?”

He stood as immobile as a rock, his arms stubbornly crossed, as if he knew exactly how to rattle her the most. “Since it is your duty and not mine that brings us here, this is what I propose: I will do whatever it is you need me to do here to the best of my ability, but as soon as I’ve done it, you will take me home again.”

The girl nods, like it could work out that easy, just like that. Come here, do the job, and leave. N’Doch can’t believe it. She’s learning to lie. Or she’s got a whole lot more faith than he does in this dude’s capabilities.

Köthen says, “I’ll need your word on that, my lady.”

“You have it, my lord.” The girl extends her hand, like some kind of queen.

Köthen takes it, then bites back his instinct to bow over it. Instead, he shakes it, real man to man. N’Doch thinks maybe he’s decided she really is a little bit nuts, so for now he’d better make the best of it. Meanwhile, in the girl’s brave stance, there’s just the slightest droop of relief. N’Doch swallows a laugh. It ain’t over yet, not with this dude. If she thinks it’s all smooth sailing from here out, she’s got another think coming. But then, so does Baron K.—just wait until the serious dragon shit starts happening.