The Dragon's Lair (10 page)

"Shoo!" Ven said, but the cats would not be chased away. He looked around the square for Tuck and the supply wagon. The forester was approaching from the south, the wagon loaded with sacks and barrels. To the west, more cats were coming in from the beach, heading for them.

Or, actually, straight for Amariel.

The merrow was beginning to panic. She grabbed Ven's arm.

"What are these horrible animals, and why are they chasing me?" she gasped.

"They're cats," Ven said, wading through the pack and shoving them away with his feet. "And normally they're perfectly harmless. I don't know why they are being so obnoxious." He could see the townsfolk beginning to stare, first at the feline parade, then at the strange girl with the dress of tattered scales. "And I don't know if we can get back to the pier without being seen, Amariel—everyone's watching now."

The merrow looked around, then nodded.

"I don't want to go back yet, anyway," she said. "If we can get away from these howling land-beasts, I would like to go exploring a little more. While you were gone I saw a fountain that sprayed water in different colors, and beautiful anemones growing in boxes attached to the dwellings, and so many other odd and wonderful things. I think it would be a horrible waste not to look around at least before I go back to the sea."

Ven's heart leapt. He looked back to the south and saw that Tuck and the wagon were at the closest street corner.

"Then let's go," he said excitedly. "This is our wagon, and it will get us out of here and away from these cats."

"
Lovely
," said the merrow.

Ven looked over at the alley where he had seen Madame Sharra, but the golden woman was gone.

Along with his chance to ask her anything else.

Ven looked down at the thin black stone in his hand. He turned it over curiously, but his attention was drawn away by the merrow's pinching fingers as Tuck and the wagon approached. Amariel backed away behind him as the horses clopped nearer.

"How awful," she whispered in his ear. "What happened to those poor hippocampi?"

"Hippocampi?"

Amariel pointed at the team of horses. "Where are their tails?"

Ven hid his smile. "Those aren't sea horses, they're
land
horses," he said. "That's what they are supposed to look like. They have legs, not tails—er, well, they have tails, too, but not like yours—their tails are more like your hair."

"Hmmph," said the merrow. "That's just plain
unnatural
."

"And just like hippocampi, you can ride them in races, too," Ven continued. "Didn't you tell me you want to be a hippocampus rider when you grow up?"

"Maybe," Amariel said. "I'm not so sure now that I've seen those things. I might want to teach a dolphin school instead. The dry world is very strange."

Her words were lost in the rumble of the wheels as the cart rolled to a stop. The Lirin forester pushed the brim of his hat up and looked down in surprise at the cats swarming around Ven's feet.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks," Ven replied. "Tuck, this is my friend Amariel." He felt her shrink down behind him, and turned around.

"Don't worry," he said quietly. "He's not human—he's Lirin."

Amariel peeked out from behind him and looked up at the forester.

"Hold still," said Tuck to the two children. He clicked to the horses, and they stomped their feet in unison, rattling the sides of the wagon and vibrating the cobblestones.

The cats scattered.

"Hop aboard," Tuck said.

Ven took hold of the merrow's arm and helped her climb into the back of the wagon. When he reached out his hand, he realized he was still holding the black stone Madame Sharra had given him. It was almost as if he had forgotten it was there.

He held it carefully and clambered in beside her, then settled down next to her amid sacks of carrots, oats and potatoes. He nodded to Tuck, who whistled to the horses again, and the wagon lurched forward over the cobblestones and northeast through the waking streets toward the main town gate.

Ven crouched low at they passed the massive walls of the Gated City, pulling Amariel down with him. He looked back to the place where he had first seen the rainbow flash that seemed to be a sign of Madame Sharra's magic, but there was nothing there but sunlight on the wall.

It was not until they had passed through the gate and were well away from Kingston that the thin black stone in his hand exploded with color in the light of the rising sun.

6
Black Ivory

I
N THAT INSTANT, BOTH HORSES REARED AND SCREAMED IN FRIGHT
.

The wagon rocked violently from side to side, spilling carrots and apples over onto the roadway, and sending Ven and Amariel up into the air. They landed heavily on the floorboards with a
thud
.

Tuck was up on his feet on the wagon board immediately, speaking quietly to the horses, gentling them down. It took him a few moments to calm them, but once they were settled and standing steadily again in the road, he sat back down, turned and leaned over the seat board into the wagon bed, where the two children were trembling.

"Well, Ven, that was certainly a lot of fun," he said acidly. "What was
that
?"

"I—I don't know," Ven stammered. He held out the oval of thin black stone. "I—I got this in town, and when the sun hit it, well, it sort of exploded with color." His face grew hot and his stomach weak as he realized he was telling his secrets to an almost total stranger.

Tuck pushed his straw hat back and eyed the stone. In the morning light Ven could see more of his face than he had in the darkness of foredawn. It was wizened and slightly wrinkled, like an old apple, but pleasant, as if the lines had come from laughing a lot, even though he seemed to be very quiet. His eyes were green as summer leaves, and thin silver hair fringed his head. There was an angle to his face that was definitely not human, a lot like Amariel's. He held out his hand for the stone.

"Let's have a look," he said.

I sat there, staring at his hand, feeling my heartbeat in my ears. From the moment I left home I have had to make choices about who to trust with secrets, or things that might be secrets, that could save or end my life. I usually try to keep most things I am not certain about to myself, or sometimes I tell Char
.

Amariel, for instance. I told Char while we were on board the Serelinda that I thought I had seen a merrow. But I never told him I had actually met her, and that she had saved my life
.

So here I was with the king's forester, who I met in the dark and have only known for a few hours. He is about to take me and my best friends in the world into unknown lands past the Great River, on the run from the Thief Queen's thugs and spies. I don't know anything about him, except that the king trusts him
.

Then I thought about what he had said to me
.

Tuck knows the lands east of the Great River better than any man I know. I would trust him with my life, and I think you're safe trusting him with yours, and that of any of your friends you feel might also be in danger
.

So even if I don't know Tuck that well yet, if the king trusts him, I guess that is good enough for me
.

And even if it wasn't, I don't know what other choice I have
.

Nervously Ven handed over the oval stone.

The king's forester's eyebrows arched, but he said nothing. He took the stone and turned it over in his hand, examining it carefully. He rubbed his forefinger along the top edge, then handed it back to Ven.

"Black Ivory," he said. "Where did you get it?"

"In—in Kingston, in an alleyway," Ven said. The pit of his stomach was boiling. As much as his curiosity was raging, he was certain that Madame Sharra would not want him to tell the whole world about their meeting. "What's Black Ivory?"

"The tusk of a narwhale," Amariel whispered. She looked like she was going to cry.

"A narwhale?" Ven asked.

"A whale with a horn," the merrow said shakily. She put her hand up to her forehead like it was a unicorn's horn.

Tuck shook his head. "No, not at all. Ivory's a bad name for it, because normally ivory comes from an animal. This is not the same. Black Ivory is a piece of stone that was once alive but now is past dead. All of its magic, its lore, has been stripped from it, leaving it totally without life."

"Isn't all stone lifeless?" Ven asked.

Tuck chuckled. "I cannot believe a Nain just uttered such words. Clearly you have been upworld all your life." His eyes took on a look of sympathy as he saw Ven's face flush with embarrassment. "All stone still has some kind of life within it, I've been told—all except Black Ivory. It's so dead that it makes a great hiding place from anyone or anything that can feel vibrations on the wind."

Ven nodded. "Like a Lirin Singer," he said. "Or a Kith, like Galliard, the king's Vizier. His Majesty once told me that Kith were an ancient race even older than the Nain or the Lirin. Kith have the power of wind in their blood, and can hear what is being spoken on it."

"Or even those who just have normal senses," Tuck said. "Black Ivory is so good at masking vibrations that it's almost invisible. Even if it's in your hand, you can almost forget that it is there."

Like I did
, Ven thought.

"Black Ivory is extremely rare," Tuck said. "Because of its properties, it is usually made into a box or a sleeve and used to hide something very important, something magical that gives off vibrations of power. Inside a sleeve of Black Ivory, even the most powerful item would be impossible to find unless you know it's there."

"So you think there is something inside it?" asked Ven.

"Look at it carefully. Then you decide."

Maybe Madame Sharra's news that my footprints in Time seemed to be coming to an end soon had made my brain race. It made me hear a lot of words of wisdom that I had heard before. The king's comments about Tuck cleared out of my head, and now I was hearing something my father had said to me on my last birthday. Even though it was not that long ago, it seemed like a lifetime had passed since I heard them. He said the same thing in a letter the albatross brought me a week or so ago
.

This was your great-grandfather's jack-rule. Now it belongs to you. If you see things as they appear through its lens, you are taking the measure of the world correctly
.

Ven unbuttoned his shirt pocket and took out the jack-rule that had belonged to his great-grandfather, Magnus the Mad. It was a Nain tool used to measure when mining or building, and was the most precious thing he owned. He carefully extended the magnifying lens and looked at the flat piece of stone.

Its edges were smooth, as if someone had carefully polished them. Unlike stones Ven had seen before, which were made up of many different colors, this was solid black, without any variation in hue. And, visible in the jack-rule's magnification, he could see that along the top was a thin slit.

Through which a tiny sliver of gray was peeking.

"Here, Amariel, hold this," Ven said, passing her the jack-rule. "Over the stone so I can see."

"A
please
would be nice. I'm not your sucker fish, having to do whatever you want me to do."

"Sorry. Please."

The merrow took the folding ruler, wincing at the feel of her unwebbed fingers, and held it over the stone. Her green eyes were sparkling. She moved closer so that she could see as well.

Carefully Ven took hold of the thin sliver and pulled it gently from the slit.

A scale-like object slid out of the stone sleeve. It was gray, with a finely tattered edge, and scored across the surface with millions of tiny lines that formed a geometric pattern. It was slightly concave, and etched into its face were symbols in a language he recognized but could not read, and a line drawing of many mountains. When the sunlight hit it, their eyes were dazzled by a million rainbows that ran across its surface and disappeared. Ven gasped.

"This is one of her cards," he whispered. "I bet it's the Endless Mountains, the one she said was trying to get my attention."

"Whose cards?" Amariel demanded. "What are you talking about?"

Ven looked up to see the forester and the merrow staring at him.

"Madame Sharra," he said reluctantly. "This is one of the dragon scales she uses to read the future."

The Lirin forester's face grew instantly serious.

"Put it away," he ordered. "
Now
."

Ven pushed the scale back into the Black Ivory sleeve, wishing he had taken the time to look at it more carefully. There was a vibration to it that was pleasant, making him tingle. Once it was back in the sleeve that sensation was gone, leaving him feeling a little bit hollow.

"That thing's in its sleeve for a reason, Ven," said Tuck. "I don't know who this Madame Sharra person is, or what you are talking about. What I do know is that the open road outside of Kingston is
definitely
not the place to be discussing it. Now, let's be on our way. You two settle in back there and I will get us to the crossroads."