“I hear you have silver for the Duchess.”
“A great nugget, yes. As large as your head. More than enough for a very respectable hoard.”
“But not enough to let you Change back to a more preferred form,” I point out.
He looks away. “The entirety of the silver will be presented to the Duchess.”
Galindilan looks pretty healthy, himself. While he hasn’t made the silver his hoard, just being close to the semi-precious metal has strengthened him. In the same way as being close to my gold has strengthened me. But neither of us has enough to take any of it for ourselves. It must all be given to the Duchess.
Why did Mia simply give me this?
‘Because I love you.’
“Can you be sure that I really do not have the gold?”
He laughs joylessly. “I can. If you had it, you wouldn’t be here, sitting alone on a rug, plucking lice from your hair. You would be running to her as fast as your little legs could carry you.”
He’s right. I would be.
I should be.
And for a while, I did. Yet here I am again, in the cave, and the urge to give my gold to the Duchess is less than before. Much less.
I glance down at the little bundle of green leaves on the ground. Why am I not clenching it tight, feeling its contents warm my heart?
Galindilan is keeping his distance, and that is wise of him. Under normal circumstances, I would pounce on him and kill him and remove a troublesome rival.
Why am I not doing that?
“Perhaps I have my reasons.”
“What reasons are those?” He’s very suspicious. Much as I have always been, myself. It strikes me that it is not very becoming.
“Good reasons. Tell me more about what you will do after you present your silver to the Duchess.”
“Oh, we will Change. Then we will mate there and then. A violent, hard, loud mating it will be, leaving us both scratched and the resulting egg strong and evil. Then I imagine she will want to indulge in her legendary lust for bloodshed among lesser sentients. There aren’t many of them here, but I think we can find some. Regrettably, there will probably not be a female for the Duchess to slowly kill, but that can’t be helped. And then, we fly off into the void and go back to the planets where we keep our hoards. Then I will go and search for yours. You won’t need it, after all.”
His words should make my ichor boil with rage. But I only feel distant and disinterested, my thoughts elsewhere.
I discreetly glance at my hands and feet. No, the blackness isn’t back. And I still feel strong. Then why this indifference towards both the Duchess and my old hoard? As if they are no longer of interest?
I stand up, walk fast towards Galindilan, and force an evil grin. “I will tell you something.”
He draws back, conscious that I am younger and stronger and that he will certainly lose any fight with me. “Well?”
“Inform the Duchess that not only am I in perfect health, I will also deliver her gold. Soon. Before this day is out.”
He tenses up, and if he were only a few years younger he would have attacked me. “You lie.”
“Dragons always lie,” I agree. “Except when they tell the truth. Are you sure I’m lying now?”
His tongue darts around his lips, a nervous sign that he should have suppressed. “Yes. You are. I will tell the Duchess as much.”
“Don’t lie to her,” I counsel. “She might just take your shiny pebble and tear you apart on the spot.”
His jaws work as he thinks. Finding me not only alive, but also as strong as I must look, has been a grave blow to him. As long as the Duchess thinks I am alive and will give her gold, she might ward off his advances. If he lies and tells her that I am dead, and I then show up bearing a heap of pure gold dust, then her fury will know no bounds and he will die painfully and shamefully. He knows all this.
“We’ll just see.” He takes a couple of steps back before he dares turn his back to me and marches off, nervously glancing over his shoulder once or twice before he’s out of sight.
He can’t be sure what’s going on here.
I don’t even know it, myself.
I sit back down and find Mia’s hair again. It’s a dark brown, smooth and shiny in the sun.
‘I brought the gold to you from kindness.’
Kindness. I know what it is, as a pure intellectual concept, but I don’t think I have had it extended to me before. Mia is the first.
She is also the first to give me gold. She might be the first to ever willingly give gold to a dragon.
She is very mysterious. How can such a small thing contain so much courage?
At first, the gold dust in my hand reignited the old lust in me as I regained my strength. But now it appears to have burned out. And all that is left is the image of Mia, the way I saw her one of the first days, sleeping right here, innocently trusting me to not harm her.
And I didn’t.
Until today.
I suddenly realize that I can’t leave her this way, angry and threatening. The Duchess seems to me less important. I must see Mia again.
Somehow. I must get to the bottom of this.
I stand up, tidy up the cave, and fold her fur garment over my arm. She has gone back to her village. I will find her there and…
I scratch my scales. And what?
I will find her there. What happens after is of less importance. We will be together again.
I put her garment down, nicely folded, something I have never done with anything before.
I walk off with long strides. Impatience boils in me. I can’t wait to see her again.
29
- Mia -
I dozed off in the sun, a spectacularly dangerous thing to do alone in the jungle. But I appear to have survived.
There’s no movement over at Bune. The sun is setting, and I have to decide what to do with myself.
I can theoretically stay right here. The jungle is warm again, if not back to its old heat. This is more like a spring afternoon in Oakland, just right for barbecuing and relaxing in the sun. I’m not going to get much of a chill, even if I left my not-sheep fur coat back at the cave.
I have the crossbow for protection, and if I need water, then I passed plenty of creeks on the way here. One of them should be just a half hour’s walk distant.
I can sit here and snooze through the night, then keep watch all day tomorrow. In Oakland, that would guarantee at least sixty bad mosquito bites, but one blessed thing about Xren is that there aren’t that many insects that bite. Sure, the insects do tend to be the size of dinner tables, and if they do bite you they are actually taking bites out of you, but there aren’t too many of them and you can usually avoid them.
The dinos seem to have deserted this part of the jungle completely, just like the girls said. Either Bune freaks them out, or the recent presence of dragons does. It may be that the dinos are smarter than us, having the sense to stay the hell away from dragons and not just cheerfully go ahead and blow them.
Fuck. He seemed so sincere! How could I have been that blinded?
I stand up, partly from frustration at my own stupid trust of Kyandros and partly because my butt is getting numb.
As soon as I get up, I see a long shadow moving. Someone’s coming.
I freeze right where I am. I’d love to bend down to get my crossbow, but I might be throwing a shadow, too, and if there’s something you must make sure of when hiding, it is not moving. Nothing attracts a searcher’s eyes like movement.
It’s a man. A big man, tall and moving with great confidence.
Is it Kyandros? My heart skips a beat.
No. It’s not him at all. This man is not silver, and he wears some kind of toga, not a loincloth. He moves with slightly more stiffness, and he gives me the impression of being older.
But it is a dragon.
Being around Kyandros has immunized me against the hypnotic quality these things can have on the unsuspecting, so I am able to fol
low his steps without freezing and without panicking.
The dragon walks up the steep first level on the outside of Bune, then opens the hatch, bends down, and disappears inside.
Oh fuck. There are dragons in Bune.
Then what happened to the twenty guys in my escort? Were they ever here?
I remember the red dirt not so far away from where I’m standing. Is it possible that the dragons killed them all?
How many dragons are in there, anyway?
It doesn’t matter. Now I know, and I can’t stay here. I have to go home to the village. This potentially changes everything. We’ll have to cleanse Bune of dragons before we can even think of using the escape ship. If the dragons don’t destroy it.
We knew this was a possibility. But now that I see it has actually happened, hopelessness and despair fill me again. Those dragons may be able to block our only escape forever.
I bend down and retrieve the crossbow, and then I freeze again.
The door into Bune opens, and three dragons in human form come out. First they walk down onto the ground, but then they stop and stand there as if talking.
My heart sinks into my feet. Shit. That doesn’t look right.
As confirmation, all three of them suddenly turn to stare in my direction.
None of them is Kyandros.
They definitely see me. I can tell because all three send me a bright grin.
I hoist the crossbow to my shoulder, and now I’m shaking.
They are three. I have one bolt.
30
- Kyandros -
I know where her village is, and it doesn’t take me long to find it. There’s an extra spring in my step now that I know I’ll be seeing her again soon.
But as I get closer, I move more cautiously. As a dragon, I can move with considerable stealth and deceive the senses of others sentients. But the men in this tribe did give me a strong impression of being dangerous. Even Berilona couldn’t avoid sensing that they have something of the slayers about them. They might be less than easily deceived. It is one thing to trick unaware men to briefly fight each other in unknown woods, like I did when I lured Mia away from her friends. Deceiving men who are guarding their own village against enemies just like me might be a different thing.
I find a suitable tree and stand behind it. From here, I can see the outer part of their village. There are houses made from straw and from wood, as well as a couple that appear to be constructed from similar stones that I believe are called bricks. Those seem especially attractive to me, ugly though they are.
There is some movement here and there, and smoke is rising from two fires.
It appears very peaceful, and if Mia is here, then she is certainly safe—
“Stand still, dragon.”
There’s a piercing pain from my back, and my neck is surrounded by coldness.
At closer inspection, there are two steel blades crossed in front of my throat.
I stand still.
A man walks out in front of me. He has a large hammer in his hand, and judging from the way he’s holding it well back, he could bang it into my face at any moment. And it does look like he’d like to. I imagine that might hurt me more than a blade would.
“What are you doing here?”
He’s tall and wide and looks strong. There are poisonous-looking stripes on his torso, a bright green that usually means ’stay away’.
Could I escape?
As if they know what I’m thinking, the two men holding the swords across my throat from behind squeeze them a little closer. Normally, they probably couldn’t pierce dragon skin. But these aren’t normal men, and I doubt these are normal swords. These are slayers, clear as day.
Dragon slayers.
I decide to stay immobile. “I seek Mia.”
The man stares me down, but I have no trouble meeting his intense gaze. I think mine is probably even more piercing than his.
“What do you know about Mia?” There’s a deadly flatness to his voice.
“I met her in the woods. She tied wire around me. I have lost her and wish to see her again.”
“Where is she?”
“In this village.”
The slayer’s eyes wander to the side for a moment. “How do you know about this village?”
“Mia told me about it.”
“When did you last see her?”
The first cold little fingers of unease start spreading through me. First, as in the first in my life. It’s a remarkably unpleasant experience. “Last night.”
“And then?”
“I left her in a cave. When I returned, she was not there.”
His face doesn’t move, but I can tell he’s worried. And now, so am I. Again, for the first time ever. But I know immediately what this strange sensation is. It is highly unpleasant.
He barks a command, and I sense that there are many more men right behind me. They fasten wires around my ankles, and they pull my arms behind my back to tie them there.
My whole being is screaming at me to get out of this, to go amok and turn all these lessers into sprays of blood.
I could. I am much stronger now than when Mia tied me, and I could probably snap these wires if I really wanted to. But I think I want to be on good terms with these men, and the sharp swords are still scissoring my neck.
Another sharp point in my back pushes me forwards, and then I’m walked into the village with humiliatingly short steps.
There are many slayers here, with colorful stripes and deadly weapons. They all have their blades drawn, and I get the impression they have just sent many more into the jungle to scout for more like me.
I hope they find Galindilan and kill him on the spot.
Then I see the women. They stay back, behind corners and hidden inside doors, but I see them clearly. They are smaller than the men, like Mia. They have no stripes, of course. And now that I have a treasure in my hand and my strength has returned, it is obvious that there is something wrong with everything I’m seeing. None of this makes sense. This village is very, very special. And not just because Mia comes from here.
The slayers push me down, forcing me to sit down on the ground in the middle of their village. Two of them stand behind me, their swords lifted, ready to strike at a split second’s notice and so take my head off. I doubt they could, but it’s not something I’m eager to check. Four more take up various positions around me, blades bared and ready.
A man with a blade almost as long as he is tall stands facing me, and I’m impressed by the agility with which he handles that huge sword. He looks at me as if daring me to run at him.
No, I am not thinking of escape.
Not yet.
A man and a woman come towards me. The man’s sword is still in its scabbard, and the woman is very round around the middle. It looks as if she’s hiding a large egg under her loose dress.
They sit down on logs that are provided for them, the woman first, while the man supports her. Yes, it must be awkward to move when she has that shape. She must have been disfigured while still a hatchling.
“I am Brax’tan,” the man says, loud, clear, and unafraid. “This is my wife, Delyah. We are the chiefs of this tribe. Who are you?”
I straighten my back. “I am Kyandros.”
“Any other name? Any tribe?”
I don’t reply, but I feel my eyes narrow. The question is insulting, but I doubt he knows that.
“You spoke of Mia,” the man goes on. “How do you know her?”
“As I told your compatriots, I met her in the woods.”
“When was this?”
Oh, the minutiae of the lesser species. Endless details and an obsession with the flow of time. “Some days ago.”
“How many days ago?”
I shrug. “Some.”
He holds up all the fingers on his hands. “This many days?”
“Yes. Why am I tied up?”
“Or this many?” He holds up five more fingers.
“C
loser to ten than to five. Why am I tied up?”
The woman whispers something to the man.
“You are tied up because we think you are a dragon,” the man says, “and we have reason to believe that dragons are extremely dangerous and also unfriendly. We can take no chances. And you did come very close to our village without announcing yourself. If we do you wrong, we apologize.” His voice is very clear, and the tone is bewildering in its neutrality. Where is the triumph in the face of a captured enemy? “Now, is it possible that you met her this many days ago?” He holds up all his fingers, and the woman also holds up five of hers.
“Yes.”
“Fewer days than this? More days?”
“Fifteen days could be right.”
“The day before the snow fell?”
Ah. That is a better way to count. “Yes.”
“How did you meet Mia?”
I would prefer not to explain the first plans I had for her. “She knows how. Shall I understand that she is not here?”
Again, the woman whispers something.
“That is correct, Kyandros,” the man says. “She is not here. We have not seen her for fifteen days and we wonder where she is.”
“She has not been here? Not yesterday? Last night? This morning?”
“She has not.”
I look around the village, seeking that face. “Could she be here without you knowing?”
The man gives me the hint of a smile. “No.”
Yes, they appear to have effective guards in the woods around this place.
“Have you sent men to search for her?”
“Many.”
“And?”
“And they return without her.”
“Perhaps, one of those men has found her and killed her and will not say.”
“No.”
“How can you know? It seems a reasonable explanation.”
He tilts his head to the side. “Not to us.”
Caveman Alien’s Enemy Page 18