There. That was the meat of my argument. If it didn’t work, it was back to sketching skirt patterns, as Marta would say. I hardly dared to look around, but when I did, I saw . . . understanding. Worry. Even shame, as they contemplated the seriousness of what they had done.
I caught Luka’s eye, and we dared a small smile at each other. I quickly wiped mine away, though, not wanting to appear to be gloating. But as I turned my head, I saw Darrym’s mother.
She did not look ashamed. She looked furious, her eyes filled with hatred.
And all of it was directed at me.
“Give me my youngling,” she said, her voice cold.
“She doesn’t like us,” Luka murmured.
“No, she does not. ”
“How dare you accuse us of kidnapping, when you have held my youngling against his will so many days!” Darrym’s mother said.
Feniul’s chest puffed out. “He threatened the safety of the king and the queen. We merely kept him with us so that he could not endanger them. He was not harmed. He was well fed, well cared for. ”
As a point of fact, I noticed that little Peder No-People looked in fine spirits. He had been whispering back and forth amiably with Roginet this entire time, and he appeared to have gained weight during his captivity.
“I want my child,” the mother dragon hissed.
“And Velika wants her children,” I snapped back. “All of them. You’ll get your wish. Will she get hers?”
This took even Darrym’s mother aback, and I saw quite a few dragons hang their heads. I went over to the young dragon and freed him myself, making my movements broad and dramatic.
“You are free,” I said loudly to the young dragon.
“Thank you,” he said, looking rather sad. “I have to go home now,” he explained to Roginet and reluctantly went to his mother.
She fussed over him for some time, making sure that he wasn’t injured, while he looked embarrassed. I raised my eyebrows at the orange dragon.
“A nice young fellow,” Roginet said in his accented Feravelan. “Ze mother seems a bit odd, zough. ”
Luka coughed to hide his laughter.
One of the local dragons saw this, and came forward. “You have been among them?” He loomed over the young dragon, who lowered his head subserviently.
“Yes, noble Vannyn. ”
“Who is he, this king? What sort of creature is he?”
I held my breath, and Luka’s hand, as all around us both species strained to hear the answer.
“He is . . . great, Noble One. Powerful, strong, and . . . good. ”
“Good?”
“Kind. And wise. He loves the queen very much. ” And if a dragon could have blushed, the nameless young dragon did.
This caused much clucking and murmuring from the other dragons, and the “Noble One” looked at me.
“We have never had a king,” he explained. “Our queens’ mates were always chosen for them, and they had no status among us. ”
Another piece of history from Niva rose to the forefront of my brain. Shaking my head as though facing a roomful of students, I said, “The First Mother herself chose a king for her oldest daughter and heir, but said that ever after, the queens must choose their own mates. The king was to be the leader in times of danger, she said, and no queen was complete without her king by her side. In the Dawn Days, Queen Rialta and her king, Nethem, were said to be of one voice and one heart. ”
“How can you know this?” Darrym’s mother looked appalled when Feniul’s translation sank in. “How dare a human speak of such things?”
The assembled humans were all averting their eyes from me, as though I had done something truly awful. Ullalal’s face was a mask of horror, and the daughter who had envied my servitude had both hands over her mouth, as though she might be sick.
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“The penalty for any human who speaks of sacred matters is death. Immediate death by burning,” Darrym’s mother said with great satisfaction.
“Is that true, or is it something you invented?” Niva asked with great disgust. “For I have never heard of such a thing, and I have known the queen since I was hatched. ”
“It is true,” Vannyn, the Noble One, told us. “However, I do not think it applies to this young maiden, since she is not of our people. ” He gave me a reassuring look.
I tried to smile back, but I felt rather uneasy myself. Darrym’s mother looked as though she were going to burn me to ashes right now, without further argument.
“Of course it does not apply,” Feniul said. “There is no ban among our people on humans knowing the ancient legends. We should encourage it, really. There would be fewer wars and misunderstandings. ”
Dear Feniul. I did manage a smile for him, and Luka’s grip on my hand relaxed a bit at the blunt sensibility of the green dragon’s tone.
“Wars? With humans?” Darrym’s mother looked down her nose. “Has this lesser queen fallen so far from the true way? Does she not control the humans among you?”
“Dragons do not own humans, not in any legend or law that I have ever heard,” Niva said stiffly. “Again I say: is this truly the ancient way, or something that you have invented?”
Before Darrym’s mother could retort, Vannyn spoke up.
“Perhaps it is a measure of how far we have fallen from the ancient ways,” he said heavily. His gaze swept the assembled humans. “It is our vanity, and our shame, that we now keep slaves, something our ancestors would never have condoned. Nor would they have condoned the kidnapping of a queen . . . or any female! And the continued captivity, the threats of taking away her hatchlings, are an abomination. ”
I’m not certain who looked more surprised: me, Darrym’s mother, or the humans who had just discovered that there was no need for them to be slaves.
Back in the Cavern
Encumbered by my heavy pack, I slipped between the logs blocking the entrance to the lesser temple with Luka right behind me. Shardas caught us easily on his back and carried us down to Velika. I had forgotten how hot and malodorous the molten river was, and hoped it wasn’t affecting the health of the little dragonlets. We would need to get them out, soon.
After assuring the dragons of our well-being, and asking after theirs and the eggs’, we related everything that had happened at the meeting, and the aftermath. It was quite a lot to tell, with Vannyn ultimately decrying the practice of keeping humans and the kidnapping of Velika with equal vehemence. The local dragons had divided into two camps: those who continued to believe in what they considered the old ways, and those who followed this Noble One.
It was a great surprise to Darrym’s mother, but not to anyone else, when her younger son refused to go with her. He had taken a stand beside Roginet and announced his intention to follow the large, orange dragon wherever Roginet should lead.
In a terrible temper, his mother had at last flown off with her supporters in tow. They consisted of four dragons—and no humans—which made their exit less dramatic than I’m sure she would have liked. Also remaining was my former master, and his people, who looked uncertain and were murmuring among themselves in low voices.
Vannyn had spoken at length to his people, urging them to remember the old stories. Never had humans been kept by dragons, not until well after the death of their first queen, who had started the schism with Velika’s many-times-great-grandmother. If the dragon they considered their true queen had not condoned human slaves, who were they to do such a thing? Furthermore, who were they to order a queen about, holding her captive and shunning her chosen king?
Vannyn was an eloquent, passionate speaker, and I realized after a little while that I had tears silently sliding down my face. Luka saw them as well, and put his arms around me. Tucking my head against his shoulder, I whispered that it felt like we might win this battle at last.
But there was still much to be done. The Noble One sent
his followers, human and dragon, into the jungle to spread the word, then sat and talked with us for a time. We shared our stories, relating the events of the Dragon Wars briefly, but also telling how we came here and what Velika’s situation was now. He told us he was in fact one of the council of elders, but that his collection of humans was really just a village he kept an eye on. None of them had come to the meeting, because it was too far for them to walk, and he never carried humans around “like goat carcasses. ”
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We all agreed that things needed to move quickly. He had two days to win more converts to the cause while we watched over the queen. He would come to the cavern in two days’ time, either to set us free with the blessing of the other elders, or to help us escape. We needed to be ready for either situation.
“What does that mean?” Velika fretted over her eggs. “How can we escape with the eggs? Shardas and I are too large to fit down that little tunnel, and the eggs are too large to be carried by a human. ”
“Oh, we’ll have to fly out the main entrance,” Luka said. He reached into his pack and pulled out a coil of rope. “But first we’ll need to play with this. ”
I opened my own pack, and showed them that it was as full of blankets. Luka, in turn, took more and more rope out of his.
“It’s for a net,” I said. “We’re going to pad it with blankets to carry the eggs in. If the local dragons won’t agree to set us free. If they want to make peace, we can carry the eggs up one at a time and take them somewhere more comfortable. But if that old dragon won’t release you, and Vannyn cannot convince the other elders, we will have to put the eggs in a net and make a run for it. ”
I smiled nervously. “It will be all right,” I said, more for my own sake than for theirs.
“It will,” Shardas agreed. “You have done great things, both of you. Let us take this rope across the lava, so that we can spread it out better. ”
When some of the human minions came to bring us a meal, they were startled to see Luka there. Startling too, I’m sure, was the bizarre way Shardas was sprawled across the floor.
After they left, we all looked at each other and started to laugh. Shardas got up and we went back to work, still snorting with laughter, on the ropes he had hidden with his bulk.
“It is tempting just to flame anyone or anything that gets in my way, you know,” Shardas said confidentially, as I bent over a knot. “But Velika will not have it. ”
“And she’s right,” I said reprovingly. “That won’t help bring ’round the locals here. Which you must do, unless you want to be fighting with them all your life,” I reminded him.
“I know, and I don’t want more war. But I’ve only just truly begun to act as a king again. And it is hard not to take my duties as leader and protector to heart. ”
“If someone kidnapped you, I’d kill them,” Luka told me almost cheerfully. He threw down another coil of rope, and whistled as he wove it through the others.
“You’re both incorrigible,” I said, but I couldn’t help feeling a little bit flattered.
Just a little.
I had never made a fishing net, but I had tatted little mesh purses, and this was much the same. Well, instead of a small copper tatting shuttle, I had a coil of rope draped over my shoulder. And our concern was less that we would lose our coins out the holes than that an egg would fall and smash, but it was essentially the same.
Or so I told myself as I ducked and skipped, using my entire body to weave the net, while Luka followed in my wake. He was pulling the ropes taut, and tying bits of twine around the intersections of warp and weft, so that the net wouldn’t loosen at any key points. Shardas was using his bulk to hold down the ends of the ropes, plucking and tightening where directed, or cutting the heavy ropes with a swipe of his claws.
When the basic net had taken shape, we stopped to look over our work. A large square of rope mesh, just big enough to nestle the eight eggs, was spread before us. Next we would have to find a way to gather up the corners, and rig a harness for Velika. The ropes looked rough, and I worried that our coarse woolen blankets would not be enough to protect the eggs.
Velika leaped across the river to look at it.
“Ingenious,” she murmured. “I am tempted to leave with the eggs as soon as you can finish this. ”
“We must give them the chance to make peace with us,” Shardas said, as though he hadn’t been considering an all-out battle himself only hours before.
“I suppose. ” Velika sighed. “Still, it will be reassuring to know that an escape is ready if we need it. ”
We checked the knots and then rolled the net up and hid it in Velika’s bedding. We didn’t want to risk our captors seeing the net when they brought us breakfast the next morning.
But there would be no time to dwell on that.
The River Rising
The next day we were awakened by bands of light shining down from the cavern entrance. Usually we were awakened by the scraping of the bars across the tunnel when they brought our food, but not so today. We blinked around groggily, and when no breakfast was forthcoming, we went to work on the net with our ears cocked for approaching footfalls.
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It was Velika who finally noticed something truly amiss. She had been on the verge of hopping across the lava river to help us fit her to the harness, but stopped short and called out to Shardas.
“My love, come quickly!”
We had been busy on the far side of the cavern, all three of us with our backs to the lava. The heat was nearly unbearable, but it always was, and Luka and I had been running back and forth with coils of rope, until we were dripping with sweat anyway.
What we saw when we turned around made us perspire even more, however.
The river of lava was overflowing its banks, coming dangerously close to Velika and the eggs. She was pulling them clear with her tail, but even as we watched, a blob of molten rock spat out with a hiss and ignited some of the dry brush that formed her bed. She smothered it with a claw, and exchanged frantic looks with Shardas.
“The volcano,” she said.
“It’s erupting. ” Shardas finished the thought for her.
“Surely not,” Luka said, trying to look calm despite the pallor coming over the red heat of his cheeks. “We would have heard more . . . rumblings or some such thing. ” He looked from one dragon to the other. “Wouldn’t we?”
“I have felt them, deep within the mountain as I lay here, but assumed it was normal,” Velika said.
“We’re getting out of here,” I announced, my voice shaking. “Right now, peace or no peace. ” I looked at the entrance to the tunnel. “Three guesses why they haven’t brought us breakfast. ”
“You don’t think they would leave the queen and her eggs?” Luka was aghast.
“Rats will flee from the scythe with or without their babies,” I said dourly. It had been a saying of my father’s. “And so, apparently, will the local dragons. ”
“But we won’t,” Shardas said firmly. “We shall bring the eggs across,” he told Velika. “And lay them directly in the net. ”
“I’ll get the padding ready,” I said.
First we laid all our blankets atop the net; then Shardas brought over the dried boughs and rushes of Velika’s bedding in huge clawfuls. We made the best nest that we could, and at last we were ready to load the eggs.
Holding the first one so delicately in his claws that it looked like it might slip from his grip, Shardas carried the egg over the churning river of lava. He set it gently into the nest, and Luka and I packed more rushes around it to keep it from hitting against the next egg.
When all the eggs had been carried across, Velika stood above them and we set to work tying the net to her belly. Shardas had volunteered to do it himself, but we pointed out that we needed him to guard us.
Now he helped place the ropes for the harness over Ve
lika’s back, taking care that they wouldn’t interfere with her wings. Luka and I ran about underneath her, adjusting the net and tying the ropes as Shardas passed them to us.
When we had knotted and tied and adjusted, Velika stood and took a few steps, testing the balance and strength of the carrier. My heart flew to my mouth as I heard two of the eggs knock together, and Velika went rigid with horror.
Emptying our packs, Luka and I burrowed into the net ourselves and shoved our spare clothing between the eggs. We even took off our tunics and sashes to add them to the ever-more- slapdash contraption, so that we were now in just our trousers, undershirts, and boots. By then the cavern was too hot for more clothes anyway.
Soon all we had left was the basket containing my wedding gown, which I fastened to Shardas’s back before it, too, became a casualty of the situation.
Velika walked in a tight circle, the most she could manage in our increasingly small cavern. “It seems to be holding,” she said, her voice concerned. “Thus far. ”
“It will have to do, until we get up to the surface at least,” Luka said, looking at the lava river with anxiety. “We haven’t much time left. ”
Shardas flew to the entrance above us and began to rip the logs from their moorings. We held our breath, both from the hot, strange smell of the lava, and from fear that our guards would try to stop him. But no one interfered, and Shardas ventured out into the clearing, returning a minute later with a bundle of glass spears held loosely in his foreclaws.
“There is no one above,” he said. “They appear to have abandoned us. ” His lip curled at their cowardice, and I felt my own expression mirroring the dragon king’s.
Luka and I climbed aboard Shardas, and he soared up to the entrance and out. Crouched on the edge of the rift that led to the cavern below, we looked around to see . . . nothing.
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There were no guards, human or dragon. The torches had burned out, and from the forest there was only silence. No birds called, no wild goats bleated. All was still, save for a faint rumble that had been going on so long I only now noticed it. It was the volcano. At its tip I could see a glow, a brightness that pulsed in my eyes and stained my retinas.
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