“Try what?” My mimic mocked me. “You had the chance to kill her and you didn’t take it. You wouldn’t be able to do anything, even if they were tied up and defenseless like lambs before feast day.”
I hated that he was right. And I hated that I didn’t know what to do next. The soft spot hadn’t been soft enough and now the threads were weaving faster than I could see them move.
Chapter Nine
“We need three things,” I said as the door shut behind us. “We need to get the innocents out of this city. That’s priority one.”
“And what?” Zyla asked. “Send them out into the plains to be killed there? Golems might be slower than dragons, but they are faster than people, and our seven dragons will not be enough to stop an entire army.”
She threw herself down on a stuffed sofa – a luxurious seat at the center of the common room. I pulled up a more sensible wooden chair. We weren’t here to enjoy palace life. We were here to save this city – if we could. And stop a war. If we could. And rub Eventen’s nose in it. That was more of a personal goal, though.
“At the base of Vanika, there was a door into a tunnel network used by dragons to go from place to place all over the Dominion,” I said. “It was called the warrens.”
“I’ve never heard of that,” Nostar said. “Are you sure we can’t just wait this out. The Castellan will send someone to Woelran to investigate. They will see that the city isn’t right.”
“Did you see it when you first arrived?” I asked.
He sighed. “We didn’t spend the night.”
“And in daylight, it looks safe,” I agreed. “What if the scouts arrive in daylight and depart at the same time?”
How did a city of shadows even exist? There must be powerful magic at work there.
“They’ll see the golems in the forest coming here,” Nostar said. “It’s impossible to miss that.”
“But they think those golems are allies of Eventen meant for his protection. That’s goal two. We need to find out how he got here so quickly and what he and Katlana are planning together.”
Nostar cleared his throat. “We were delayed by the ... dance ... our dragons did. Remember?”
“It would be hard to forget how our friendship began,” I said dryly. “Speaking of which, why are you still on our side? It would be easier to just go with what the Castelan and Eventen are saying.”
“I saw what I saw,” Nostar said. And then he grabbed a chair and pulled it up to sit with us. “And I know Tachril. I’ve been his rider for ten years. If this is what he wants and you are the people attached to his dragon, then we’re in things together.”
There was a murmur of agreement from the other Greens as they pulled up their own chairs.
“Together,” Jordil said for the rest.
I smiled. Allies were a rare thing. Friends even rarer.
“My father had a map to the warrens,” Zyla said, breaking our moment of comradery.
“What?” I couldn’t help my widening eyes.
Zyla always managed to surprise me. She smiled – like the sun breaking through the clouds and pulled a worn leather pouch from under her clothing.
“You should expect brilliance from me by now, Tor Winespring.” She winked.
I certainly expected to be caught off-guard. She never failed at that.
“But in fairness, this is my father’s brilliance. He studied old maps and ciphers. He plotted out most of the entrances and the way to use the guideposts.” Her eyes narrowed. “How do you know about them?”
“I saw the Dominar go down through the doorway to them. She brought an entire army with her. I didn’t know that you needed to do anything more than walk on them. But you should know that it took hours to get her whole army into those warrens And they were ready to ride.”
She laughed, pulling a worn paper from the pouch and then secretively tucking the rest away again. She spread it gently across her lap.
“The warrens are dangerous. Especially to anyone in a hurry, but we can take these people to any of the Dragon Lands or the skycities.”
“All of the people?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Most likely. If they had me to guide them.”
Our eyes met. It would mean splitting up. I could see she was as troubled by the idea as I was.
“And it’s dangerous?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said with a feeble smile. “But no more dangerous than I am.”
I loved her courage. She would face down a dragon if she had to.
“We just need to convince them to go,” Nostar said.
The door to the common room crashed open, hitting the wall as the person behind us stormed into the room.
“Tor Winespring, you will be the death of me! I thought Ephretti was exaggerating about how much trouble you could be, but she didn’t tell me the half of it!”
I gave Lenora my most charming grin. When people were this mad at me, it usually worked in my favor.
“So, you believe me, then,” I said.
“The golems on the treeline have started to move,” Lenora said her face still a thunderhead.
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think they’re coming to throw everyone a party.”
Chapter Ten
It was amazing how far you could see from the peaks of the Castel. I climbed the last set of stairs to one of the flat-topped towers. Lenora had suggested it.
“Go get a look for yourself while Zyla and I plan the exodus,” she said. The women were irritated with me. But could a guy help it if he wanted to get started right away? They sat with their heads together making lists – lists of supplies, lists of pack animals, lists of what districts to empty first and in what priority, of how to move the sick and the injured.
A single hour into the planning and they’d had four clerks brought in and more pens and ink than I’d seen in one place all scritching and scratching away until my mimic was literally climbing the walls and doing flips from the ceiling beams.
Nostar had been sent out to find Lee Estabis and bring him to Lenora. Meanwhile, the other Dragon Riders had been sent on their own missions to liaise with the heads of the Dragon Riders in the city.
“Do it quietly,” Lenora had warned them. “I will talk to my father, but I want to present him a plan ready and achievable first. He and Eventen are close. Eventen will tear any half-cooked plan apart and then my father will disregard it. We need a plan that’s ready to go and we need it before those golems get too far.”
“They’re already too far,” I’d said. “People need to move now. Messengers need to be sent now. Defenses need to be set up and supplies rationed and – ”
“Enough!” Lenora had snapped. “Don’t think you’re the only one who has seen war, Tor. Go climb to the top of the Castel and assess our enemy. We need that for the plans and you’re doing nothing here.”
Nothing! I was being brushed aside while everyone else did the important work. I already knew what kind of numbers we were facing – massive. I knew how quickly they were coming – too quickly. I already knew our chances of survival – thin. And the chance of saving anyone in this whole skycity – growing smaller by the second.
I didn’t need to look for myself to see that.
But now that I was here, I was glad I’d come. I had a tube like Nostar’s that Lenora had shoved at me. A ‘spyglass’ she called it. With a name like that, I should have had one a long time ago.
The golems were moving. But they were moving at a slow creep. My brow furrowed as I tried to think why they didn’t rush down upon us like the army of metal wolves that they were.
“Maybe they are waiting for something,” my mimic said from beside me. His hands were clenched and his face pale. I felt the sweat on my own forehead cooling in the breeze at the top of the tower.
“But what? We’re sitting here ripe for the taking. This whole city is carrying on as if nothing is happening. Look at the Black Dragons circling for defense. How many do you think are there? Twenty?�
�
“About that,” the mimic agreed.
“And say they have shifts – three or four a day, then there are what, sixty or eighty Black Dragons? Plus any others in the cotes.”
I tried to think back to how many dragons were in the cotes at Vanika. There were always a few visiting of the various colors. Purples delivering messages. Whites on healing missions or collecting supplies for medicines. Golds settling disputes. Greens off on adventures. Reds usually traveled in larger groups, ready to fight or carrying out training exercises. So, definitely no more than the Black Dragons stationed here. Perhaps as many as forty to sixty. So in total, we might have anywhere from one hundred to one hundred and forty dragons. That would help. There might be Magikas. But that was unlikely in the current political situation.
“And even more unlikely that they would be on our side,” my mimic mused.
“Can so few dragons defend against all those golems?” I asked aloud.
“I’d say there are maybe three or four hundred below, plus more on their way,” the mimic said and my heart sank as he said it. That was my assessment, too.
“Unlikely,” a voice said from behind me and I spun to see Katlana join me along the battlement looking out at the sky city layered beneath us and the plains far below in every direction.
My jaw clenched and my fists balled at my sides.
“I wouldn’t,” she said with a smirk. “Oh, I wouldn’t. That will only get you in trouble with the local Castelan. And do you really want to watch all this play out from a prison cell?”
“Kill her!” my mimic demanded.
“He sure does hate me,” Katlana said. “Shabren was right about him, though. He’s the key to you somehow.”
Her head tilted as she studied the mimic.
“You can see him, too?” That was worrying.
“Any half-trained Magika could see a shadow like that,” she said casually. “And I am more than half-trained.”
“I should have listened to him back in Woelran,” I said.
She barked a laugh. “You couldn’t have killed me then just like you can’t kill me now. You aren’t a killer. It’s not in your make-up. You didn’t even kill Shabren when you had the chance, not even after everything he did to you. But didn’t you notice how easy it was for you to capture me? Why do you think that was?”
“Because you’re terrible at being a villain?” I asked.
“Nice one!” my mimic said, and my jaw clenched. If he couldn’t shut up, he’d ruin everything.
“Your quips aren’t as witty as you think they are,” Katlana said drily. “No, Tor, you were my ticket here. There was no guarantee that Eventen would be able to make that old relic work or that he’d be welcomed with such open arms when he arrived here. No, we needed a backup plan. I’m not Shabren the Violet. I don’t go chasing off after every hare until one turns out to be a pounce-cat. I plan. I make sure that ... sacrifices ... are worth it.”
There was a sadness in her eyes and I felt my mimic shuffle nervously. I took a long step back from the edge of the battlement. What was she suggesting? What sacrifice was she going to make?
“Why not let Eventen do the sacrificing?” I suggested, testing her. “After all, he’s the one with the dragon-sized chip on his shoulder.”
She snorted. “Haven’t you realized Tor that it isn’t the worst of people who make sacrifices? It’s the best of people. It’s the people with true devotion to an idea who will do anything to make it happen. After all, you were willing to go head-to-head with Apeq in the World of Legends, weren’t you? And I ... I was willing to sacrifice the city I grew up in and the family I loved ...” her eyes were glassy and her lip trembled as she spoke. “because it must be done. Because this is the only way that magic has a future. Can you imagine a world without magic, Tor? A world without skycities like this one?”
“That might suit me just fine, Katlana,” I said. “Magic has been nothing but trouble for me.”
“Really?” Her knowing grin sparked doubts. “Hasn’t magic given you a family? That dragon? That girl? Hasn’t it dragged you up from obscurity and marked you as someone special? Without it, you’d just be another dirty piece of human trash.”
I felt my face coloring.
“She’s right,” my mimic chimed in – always helpful. “You wouldn’t even have me without magic.”
If he thought that would persuade me, he was dead wrong.
“If we lose the magic of this world,” Katlana said, her words so heavy they fell from her lips like lead. “We lose everything.”
“The best things don’t come from power,” I said. “And that’s all that magic is. Another form of power. Power can protect. Power can build. But the very best things can’t be forced. The very best things can only be given.”
“That’s too chaotic for me. I can’t trust that good will just come out of nowhere. I need to make it happen. I need to plan. I need to hammer out a future with my genius and skill and even my own soul. The problem is that we aren’t the ones who get to benefit from it. The people who reap the benefits are the ones who wouldn’t sacrifice, who wouldn’t plan, who wouldn’t stand up and fight. And somehow it’s going to be up to them to make all this worth it.”
I swallowed. Her words were making me feel ... wait. My hand had been cold this whole time. My words were true. But so were hers. True for her, perhaps? True for the future she wanted? What was truth?
“I’m glad I met you,” she said, as if I wasn’t deep in my own thoughts questioning everything as she spoke. “I’m glad you were part of this journey. It has helped me ... solidify ... my thoughts on this. It’s helped me really believe that we need magic. After all, Tor, the man you are right now looking over a golem army and determined to fight it – that man? – he wouldn’t even exist without magic.”
Her smile was sad and certain all at once. She turned and strode away leaving me feeling like I should say something. Like I should do something.
But what?
I looked back at the approaching creep of the dark army below us and swallowed. What would I be planning if I was Katlana?
Chapter Eleven
“Isn’t it enough that she’s planning to keep the Castelan from preparing for this attack?” my mimic asked, his dark hair lit at the edges by the afternoon sun.
And yet I was sure there was something more. If it were me planning this attack, I would want more than that. And she didn’t need to sneak in here to do that. She’d indicated that she didn’t know for sure that the Castelan would be on her side in this.
“What are you doing here?” a man’s voice demanded.
Really? Did everyone climb up ten stories for a look at the view? Where did a guy have to go around here to make battle plans?
I turned lazily to indicate that I didn’t jump for just anyone, only to see Lenora’s strapping brother standing there.
“I think Nostar’s looking for you,” I said, turning back to watch the golems.
“I asked you what you’re doing here, and I want a response,” he said, striding up to stand beside me.
Now, there was a man who looked like a hero. He was bulky with muscle and armor and he still moved lightly on his feet. You’d never see me dancing around carrying a bunch of metal around like it was a cape of feathers for feast day.
“Just watching the army of golems that’s going to destroy your entire city,” I said lazily. If he didn’t care about the fate of his people, why should he expect me to?
“My father knows what he’s doing,” Lee Estabis said.
“And when those metal monsters arrive?”
He sighed. “We aren’t so feeble as you think. If they attack – and Eventen says they will not – then we can fight. We have dragons. We have soldiers. Our men are brave and strong. And we have defenses you don’t even know about.”
“Defenses that can save that entire population? Wow. You guys must have magic like I’ve never heard of before.”
He clenched his jaw i
rritably. “Maybe we do, boy.”
“And what, you’ll extend it over the whole city?”
“The people would need to come to the Castel,” he said through clenched teeth.
Uh oh. The defense – whatever it was – was in the Castel? And Katlana said that she needed to get to the Castel with my help. It’s why she let me take her captive because she was sure I’d come here next and bring her to the Castelan.
I grabbed Lee’s shoulder trying to spin him to look at me, but he threw my hand off with a slight shrug.
“Lee Estabis,” I said through clenched teeth. “You have a special weapon here that can thwart the army marching on your city. And you have two traitors in the Castel.”
“I’m standing with the person we’re most worried about,” he said wryly. “Why do you think I looked for you here?”
“Lenora trusts me.”
“Lenora is blinded by her time with Ephretti Oakboon – that religious zealot. We know Eventen. He has long been our friend. He has brought us gifts over the years and help. We don’t know you. And we don’t believe you.”
“Where is that weapon?” I asked warily.
He snorted. “As if I would tell you.”
“You need to secure it. You need to do that now.”
Because if I was Katlana, that’s what I’d be here to sacrifice myself to stop.
“Me, too,” my mimic agreed.
Lee gave me a suspicious look. “That would lead you right to it.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes and leaning on the battlement to look down as I tried to collect my thoughts. How did I get Lee to trust me? How did I change his mind about Eventen and Katlana?
There were other towers on the Castel below this one. I could see three from where I was leaning. I watched as Katlana strode through the entrance below me onto the top of one of those other towers. From here she looked small. She was only recognizable by her distinct leathers. At least she wasn’t near any secret weapon.
At the far end of that tower, leaning on a battlement just like me, another small figure looked out over the army creeping toward us. On either side of that tiny figure, two other figures stood. Katlana strode toward them. Maybe that was her thing. Meaningful conversations on the edge of the tower. Maybe she said whatever it took to shake a person up. Maybe she didn’t mean any of it.
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12 Page 4