"Ohhh," the Princess said, yawning before she closed her eyes. "No wonder she couldn't reach it."
"Why?" 432 asked.
"Dragons are fire creatures," the dragon said. "Submerging ourselves in water? Not recommended."
"She couldn't send someone in to get it for her?"
"The water isn't the only problem," the dragon said. "There's also the things that live in the lake."
"I see," 432 murmured. Beside her, the Princess had fallen asleep, and she felt a little guilty as she looked at her. She wanted to help them, she did, but she was frightened. Trudging for miles without rest was no problem for her; walking into a lake to retrieve an object from the bottom was the simplest task she could imagine.
But just because she couldn't feel pain didn't mean she couldn't be torn limb from limb.
"You can do this," the dragon said. "But that doesn't mean you have to."
Then she closed her eyes, leaving 432 to listen to the crackling of the fire and the howling of the beasts in the woods.
*~*~*
A woman ran to her, tears streaming down her face. The woman dropped to the ground beside her, pulling her into her lap, saying words she couldn't understand.
Then she was gone, replaced by a blue-gray liquid. She tried to swim to the top of it, tried to get out, but there seemed to be no end to it. She couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe—
432's eyes snapped open and she looked around in a panic. She opened her mouth but couldn't really suck in air, still couldn't—
She wasn't supposed to breathe. Not anymore.
She blinked rapidly and pressed her hands to her legs hard, trying to calm herself down.
That hadn't been a nightmare. It couldn't have been. She didn't sleep.
So what had it been?
Beside her, the Princess peered at her worriedly. "Are you all right?"
432 barely heard her question. She was trying her hardest to focus on the already-fading memory of the woman's face. It shared so many similarities to her own. The angular chin, the shape of the nose, the width and color of the eyes.
"I have a mother," she whispered.
"Oh sweetheart," the Princess said, taking one of her hands in both of hers. "Of course you do."
"No, no, you don't understand. I don't know her name. Her face is gone but I saw it for a moment there. I did."
"I know," the Princess said, still holding her hand, their gazes locked, and for an instant 432 started to read more into the look than was surely there. Then the dragon stretched and yawned, a monstrous sound that must have sent every creature within five miles running for their lives.
"Good morning," Meri said. "Go ahead and eat something, Anneliese. I'll be back as soon as I've caught a boar for breakfast."
"I thought you said we couldn't shed any blood."
"Not in service of the quest," the dragon said. "In service of my growling stomach, however..."
Without any further warning, she leaped into the sky. The first flap of her wings nearly sent Anneliese and 432 sprawling. By the second flap she was high enough up that it merely created a strong breeze. Anneliese grinned, shading her eyes from the morning sun as she watched Meri fly.
"I know the form ill suits her," she said. "But she's beautiful regardless."
There was beauty in her flight, 432 conceded. But most wouldn't think so. Meri could surely cover the span of the Great Forest in ten minutes of flight; she hoped that if wild boar proved too difficult to find she wouldn't pick off some farmer's cattle.
"You're worried about her," Anneliese said.
"She needs food, and there are only so many ways to get it." The idea of failing at this mission before they even had a chance to truly start made her turn away from the sky. "We have to go into the Great Forest but we can't shed any blood to defend ourselves. "
"Surely we can run instead of fight?"
"Against Cave Trolls, yes. They're terribly strong, but not fast. And against water sprites, all you have to do is get away from their river and they'll usually leave you alone. But the wild boars? If we're deep in the forest then Meri can't protect us. And you can't run away from them. They won't let you. Then there are the fire snakes, and the Tall Men, and—"
"All right, all right," the Princess said, her smile strained. "I suppose we'll just have to deal with each danger as it comes, then."
"Actually," 432 said, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I believe it would be best if you stayed in the tower and waited for us."
"No."
"Princess, it's the best option."
"And I already said no," she told 432, and for the first time 432 caught a glimpse of the young woman who'd grown up with her word as law.
432 almost backed down, wanted to, but this was too important. She at least had to speak her side.
"Please," 432 said. "Just listen. I don't know much about your life; Alaric merely told me what he knew about your enchantment. But I'm willing to bet that you didn't spend a lot of time out in the Great Forest, or doing anything dangerous, really. Am I right?"
"The most dangerous thing I ever did was explore the catacombs beneath the castle. And even then I brought two servants with me," Anneliese admitted.
"Meri is a dragon. And when not in that form, she's an experienced warrior. I can't feel pain and I can't die, at least not in most traditional ways. If I get bitten by a fire snake all I have to do is pry it out of my arm. Gently," she reminded herself. "You would die within moments. It would be safer for you here."
"I know," Anneliese said. "But you're being gracious enough to help us; I will not repay that kindness by sending you in there alone. And suppose," she said, the word sounding choked, and when she finally continued her voice was thick with unshed tears. "Suppose you do lift the curse, but something happens on the way back? I'll never know what happened, where you are. Where she is. So I know it's safer for me to stay; I know it's probably what Meri wants as well. But I can't. I can go into that forest, I can be that strong, but I'm not strong enough to wait. Don't ask it of me."
"All right," 432 said, reaching out to give her an awkward pat on the shoulder. To her surprise, Annelise moved into her arms for the second time in as many days. This time she managed to make herself move, slowly hugging back.
"I'm quite sorry," Anneliese said, once she moved back and saw the look on her face. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."
"That's— it's—don't worry about it," 432 said, grateful when the dragon landed back in the clearing. Her teeth were bloodstained, and 432 quickly looked away from the grisly sight. "Are we ready to go?"
"Almost," Anneliese said. "Meri, I don't suppose any of your scales are close to falling off?"
"Some," Meri said. "Why?"
"Because I won't last five minutes walking through those woods in bare feet," she said, turning to 432. "Could you be a dear and go get me some vines?"
When she came back with the vines, she found Anneliese gently detaching another small scale from the dragon's tail. Underneath the dusky black scale was a shining opal one, reflecting rainbow colors in the sunlight.
"Do you ever shed your scales all at the same time?" she asked.
"Once a year."
"It must be beautiful."
The dragon smiled down at her as Anneliese withdrew a small knife from Alaric's pack, piercing holes in the two sturdiest scales she'd withdrawn and weaving the vines through them. Then she tied the vines into secure knots at the top of her feet, grinning down at the shoes.
"Clumsy things, honestly, but they'll do," she said. Then she looked up at the dragon, her expression growing fretful. "Would it be safe to carry a torch, perhaps? Some way for you to see us as we're walking down there?"
"We'd start a fire within ten paces," 432 said. "Spiderrock lets off a bright light,but it would send a signal to more than Meri. I'm sorry, Princess."
"It's all right," the dragon said. "I'll fly back and forth along the way, and wait for you above the lake."
"And on the oc
casion that I find climbable trees, I'll get close as I can to the top and wave to you," 432 said. "Let you know we're all right."
"Thank you."
432 picked up Alaric's sword, explaining when the dragon gave her a look. "I'm not going to use it on anything living. But it has been handy when we've encountered thorn hedges and the like." The dragon nodded, and she went on. "So which direction is the lake?"
"Straight west," the dragon said. "I've flown the path more times than I can count. It's all wooded area until you get to the clearing that encircles the lake. Anneliese, as soon as you get within first sight of that clearing, you stop."
"But—"
"Don't argue. I've seen what happens to anything that enters the wasps' territory."
"Would those be regular wasps or needle-wasps?" 432 asked faintly. The expression on the dragon's face was all the answer she needed, and she closed her eyes for a moment. Regular wasps were a tiny nuisance, barely larger than her thumbnail. Needle-wasps were as big as her palm. "Oh. All right then. Don't suppose you could just breathe fire on the whole clearing before we get there? Technically that's not shedding blood, it's roasting."
"If you're having second thoughts—"
She was, she very much was, but how could she tell them she would help and then back away without even trying? She wasn't that cruel. "It's fine." She put what she hoped was a brave smile on her face and nodded to the looming forest. "We're wasting daylight."
The dragon nodded, and then crouched down and opened her wings for Anneliese. The Princess rushed to her and hugged her tightly as best she was able.
"Be careful," Meri said.
"Aren't I always?" She pressed a kiss to one of the dragon's claws, and then ran back to 432, stumbling only once in the makeshift shoes.
“Wait, wait,” 432 said. “Why don't you stay with the Princess?” she asked Anneliese. “Ride on her back? I'll be fine on my own.”
“It's not safe,” Meri answered. “Whatever you may face in there, at least you have a chance of defeating it and coming through safely. If she's on my back, and another dragon comes near, then she wouldn't stand a chance.”
432 winced. She'd heard stories of dragons' fierce battles for territory.
Meri moved to the other end of the clearing before she took off, keeping as low to the tree line as she could without knocking limbs down from the force of her wings.
432 stared into the expanse of trees, glad that she wasn't fully alive. Otherwise her mouth would be dry as parchment and her heart would be hammering out of her chest.
Which was probably what Anneliese was experiencing. She looked over at the Princess, who gave her a small, nervous smile and then took her hand. She gave it a brief squeeze and, still holding hands, they walked together into the Great Forest.
*~*~*
"So," Anneliese said, gingerly stepping over a tangle of thorns. "I might regret asking, but what precisely are the Tall Men? I'd heard of the wild boars and Cave Trolls, and I can guess what fire snakes are, but...?"
"They're what their name says," 432 told her. "They're tall enough that they disguise themselves as trees. No roots, of course, since they don't get their food from the ground. They wait until someone gets close enough and then—" She made a grabbing motion, pulling her arms tight to her chest. "They drain the blood from whatever person or animal they've caught and then move on." She slanted her a look. "Do you regret asking?"
"No, no, I'm fine. Did Meri happen to say how long it would take to reach the clearing?"
"On foot? About four days."
"And then four days back to where we were, and how far away is the castle?"
"Two weeks."
"So a little over three weeks. I can go without sleep until then."
432 laughed quietly, pushing her way through a waist-high row of bushes. Anneliese followed.
Three weeks, 432 thought. Assuming it took exactly that long, that still left her a little over a month to get to the submerging liquid.
If they ran into serious problems, and it took longer...
Don't think about that, she scolded herself, and then glanced over at Anneliese when she spoke.
"How do you tell which ones are Tall Men?" she asked, looking warily at all the trees.
"Just look for the ones that have faces."
"I mean it. Not sleeping," the Princess said, clutching the small knife tightly. 432 had thought about asking the Princess to put it back, but holding it seemed to bring her some small measure of peace, and she well knew the consequences if she actually stabbed anything.
"If it helps, the Tall Man are very rare," 432 said encouragingly. "I've been a squire at least six or seven times now, and in all the times I've been out here I've never seen one." She stopped, and Anneliese nearly bumped into her. "I just remembered that."
The Princess smiled, but 432 knew that happiness for her had to be warring with the desire to keep moving, and so she hurried on. "I knew several of my previous owners were Knights, of course; it's written right here," she said, glancing at her arm. "But I didn't know if I was a squire for them, or if I cooked meals for their family, or if I did field work while they were off on a quest. Now I know."
She wondered if this had happened before, this influx of memory not long before she was due to be re-submerged. If she would lose everything she'd just rediscovered again once she went back into the liquid.
If she would lose all memory of this. Of them.
432 shook her head and trudged on, dodging past two trees. She paused and took a closer look at one of them, judging the distance between its branches.
"What is it?" Anneliese asked.
"It's getting close to dark," she said, peering up through the trees at the sky. "If I'm going to signal to Meri, it needs to be soon. I think I can get up this one."
"Okay," Anneliese said, quickly walking around it. 432 smiled when she realized that she was looking for a face. She didn't have the heart to tell her that if any of the trees in this area were really Tall Men, they would already be dead.
Once the Princess gave her nod of approval, 432 gave her the pack and pulled herself up onto the first branch.
She made her way to the top of the tree, palms scraping against the rough bark. The branches got thinner and less sturdy the higher she went, and she was grateful when she came within sight of the sky before the branches could become too fragile to hold her weight. She waited a long moment, eyes scanning the darkening sky, before Meri came into sight.
Clinging to the tree with her right arm, she waved her left arm frantically, wanting to shout out a greeting but not daring to.
Fortunately, the greeting was unnecessary. Meri caught sight of her and tilted a wing in acknowledgment before flying on. 432 wondered where she would spend the night. Probably wrapped around the top of the tower, where she had to have spent so many other nights. 432 remembered coming into the clearing and seeing that tower for the first time, admiring the craftsmanship of the shining black stones at the top of the peak.
Alaric had told her that he could spot any danger before it had a chance to get near him. Three times, he had proved that boast right. But the fourth...
Something dove at her face then, claws outstretched, and 432 shrieked and flung herself back out of its way, swatting uselessly at it. By the time she realized it was just a territorial owl and grabbed for the slender tree trunk, it was too late. Her weight was too off-center to regain her balance, and she fell.
She crashed through the tree branches, feeling with an odd sort of detachment as the back of her head struck a limb. Then she slammed into the ground, her arm bending completely the wrong way.
"Are you all right? Say something!"
"M'okay," 432 muttered, sitting up. "At least unless that crash drew every animal in the forest our way. Just an owl," she grumbled at herself. "Never should've panicked like that."
The Princess didn't seem to have heard a word she said. "Oh, gods, your arm."
432 glanced over at it, u
nsurprised to see that her left forearm was snapped in half, exposing the bone. She shrugged. "It's all right. Honest. It doesn't hurt."
"Well you can't— you shouldn't—I will not have you walking around like that. Let me splint it." At 432's startled look, she rolled her eyes. "I'm not thoroughly useless. I spent enough time nattering at the nurses on the healing floor to see some basic procedures done."
"Okay," 432 said, holding out her shattered arm as best she could. "Splint away."
The Princess nodded and turned her attention to the ground, searching for a straight enough stick and some more vines. "There!" she said proudly, once she'd found what she needed. She started to move toward 432, whose eyes widened as she caught sight of motion behind her.
One of the Tall Men.
She didn't have time to scream a warning; it wouldn't have mattered if she had. It was too close, intent on its prey now, and no matter how fast Anneliese ran she wouldn't be able to outpace it. Fire scared them, could even hurt them, but they hadn't made the fire for tonight yet.
So she did the only thing she could, the thing instinct shouted at her to do, and threw herself forward, wrapping herself as best she could around the Princess's smaller body as the Tall Man fell upon them.
She heard Anneliese's desperate squeak as the arms wrapped tightly around them, drawing them up into the air and close to the thing's mouth. Then fangs pierced 423's back and she shut her eyes tightly, praying that the creature's teeth weren't long enough to go fully through her body and into the Princess.
A few seconds later, the Tall Man made a noise of disgust and dropped them both. They fell to the ground and Anneliese immediately started to get to her feet, stopping when 432 squeezed her arm. The Princess's breathing was high and thin, but she remained still as the Tall Man, still making low grumbling noises, shambled out of the area to find another place to wait for prey.
"You— it..." Anneliese stammered, her voice barely above a whisper. "How?"
"I'm dead," she said simply. "My blood does not flow for it to drink."
Anneliese's next breath came out as a ragged sob, and she threw her arms around her. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Last Petal on the Rose and Other Stories Page 16