Saboraak began to run from the trees toward me, swinging away at the last moment and then running parallel with the galloping golem.
Can you jump?
Was she kidding me? Her wingspan was wide. There was no way I could jump that far to reach her back.
She gave a mental sigh and then – before I could brace myself – her neck shot out like a frog’s tongue and plucked me from the back of the racing golem, tossing me onto her back like a sack of leaves.
Hold on.
She was launching into the air before I could even catch my breath.
Can I make a suggestion?
Now she was going to ask for permission to do something?
Can I suggest that we don’t bother circling the army this time? They already know we are here. Why not just plunge right through them?
If they were humans or dragons, that would be madness. We’d be surrounded by a thousand snapping jaws and aggressive enemies. But with golems – well, their keepers would have to realize what we were doing, then identify the right golems to give commands to – and by then we might have sliced a long gash through their ranks. It was possible that Saboraak was a dragon genius.
You’re repeating yourself. Dragons are geniuses.
If only I could get away with being that smug. Usually, when I tried it, Saboraak or the mimic called me down. Where was that mimic? He had a tendency to disappear when he thought I had no new decisions to make. He fed off my emotions when they had a chance to become negative.
I felt nervous as we led the oosquer over the ranks of immobile golems. Flying golems were already swooping toward us from the rear and the west, but they weren’t close – not yet. If we could just keep flying like this, we could make it back to Estabis.
We just had to hold on.
Chapter Eleven
Every man has a breaking point. I had not meant to find mine.
But here it was.
A metal body screamed through the air before me as I blinked unthinkingly at it. A ... golem ... right? I was supposed to do something about it. “Fall.”
It fell from the air into the moving mass of bodies beneath it, crashing down into their ranks as the golden dawn lit all of them with a bright glow.
I was having trouble thinking. My movements were just too slow. My thoughts were too thick. It was hard to remember what I knew. It was hard to remember what I was supposed to do about what I knew.
I blinked owlishly at the strange bird-like creatures following me. They’d been bedraggled and awful looking at night, but as soon as the rays of morning light hit them, I suddenly realized what the Kav’ai liked about these oosquer. In the light of dawn, they were radiant. Beams of light and flickers of fire lit the edges of their plumage transforming them from grotesque to lovely in a single instant. Their riders glowed with reflected fire, their eyes bright with excitement and determination.
At the far rear, Kyrowat flew nervously, leaping away from something. Why would he be nervous?
Because that’s a flying golem snapping at him.
Oh. Yes. Stop. All of you chasing Kyrowat, just stop.
The golems fell from the sky, eyes lifeless and bodies heavy in the air now that the magic had faded.
Wait.
You commanded them all at once! They listened to you! There were six attacking him at once!
Had I not done that before? My eyes closed and I let them, slipping into an almost sleep before Saboraak jostled me awake again.
You have to stay awake, Tor!
Sleep! Oh, skies and stars, what I would give for just five minutes ...
You don’t have five minutes. Concentrate!
We dropped suddenly to one side, but I didn’t care. I could feel the wind caressing my hair, feel the way my body was falling as if I was dropping into bed ...
Tor!
My eyes snapped open a second before a pair of metal jaws snapped closed inches from my face.
Die! Die!
I shook my head hard, trying to clear my head as those golems tumbled away and Saboraak righted herself. I didn’t think I’d even said the words out loud. Or maybe I’d just dreamed that I hadn’t.
It was no dream! They are listening to your thoughts!
It should be obvious how that could help. It should be. Right now, it just felt good that I could do this with minimal effort. Sleep sang to me like a distant siren. I come, my love, I come. My eyes flickered shut.
You’ll sleep forever if you don’t wake up right now! Please, Tor, please!
Who bids me awake?
This is no time for jokes!
Saboraak.
I didn’t want to wake up.
But hadn’t I promised I’d always be there for her?
You did! You did promise that. Please!
I couldn’t say no. Just one more minute ...
No more minutes. I need your help now!
Mmmph. Open eyes!
They weren’t opening.
I could command golems with my thoughts, but not my own eyes.
Please!
With all my will, I forced my eyes open. They flickered open, the lashes stretching as they pulled at each other. I rubbed them with a hand. My hand fell to my side, too tired to stay up. I blinked at the nightmare before me.
We sailed above a hellish dream-like army of golems. We hadn’t seen the city from this angle before, but now that I saw it all I could think of were armies of termites. Armies taking over a tree and stripping it down to nothing at all.
The ground around the city crawled with milling bodies, waiting their turn to climb the stem of the city. Gleaming bodies crawled slowly up the stem and across the underside of the city so that it seemed as if the sky-steel the city was built from had come alive and was moving all on its own.
The edges of the city, where once there had been walls and dragon cotes and guardhouses, were torn and broken, rough and ragged – the mouth of a man with his teeth smashed and bloody.
A gasp ripped from my throat.
We flew toward tiny groups of dragons still fighting the onslaught of flying golems. And as I counted, my heart grew sick.
Five, ten, fifteen, twenty.
Twenty.
Wait.
There must be more somewhere, but though I scanned the air above the city, that was all that I saw.
Just as wrenching was the city below.
When we’d left on our mission only hours ago, we’d left a city half-overrun by golems. Now, every inch of the city seemed to be filled with the swarming masses right up to the gates of the Castel.
A sinking feeling filled my belly as we flew on.
“Fall,” I whispered to the golems surrounding a pair of black dragons. “Fall. Fall.”
I was focused on the flyers. Perhaps some of these dragons could be saved.
Ngh.
The sound coming from Saboraak sounded like her breath had been knocked out of her.
No wonder.
In the distance, I saw her wing fighting. And one of the dragons – I couldn’t see which from here – was being torn apart by five golems, they pulled his wings in two different directions while another wrenched at his tail and another sunk metal teeth into an all-too-alive neck.
I pushed at them with my mind. Stop! Stop! Stop!
And they fell. Oh, they fell.
But they fell with their victim, plummeting together toward the Castel below.
Saboraak let out a dragon scream and then she was dashing after them like a lightning bolt from the heavens while I tried to focus on the other knots of golems fighting dragons. I didn’t dare to stop. Not when there were other dragons to save.
My dragon’s wordless scream was joined by grunts and roars from her other Greens as they dove toward their fallen brother with her.
And then my vision was a whirl of wings and teeth and flaring dragon frills so that I couldn’t see anything or help anyone at all.
Chapter Twelve
“Up! We need to go back up, Saboraak
! I can’t see from here and if I can’t see, then I can’t help!”
But even as I was saying the words, I was beginning to catch glimpses of the area in the Keep around where the Green had fallen. There were plenty of golems to fight here, too.
They had overrun the Castel walls.
My breath caught in my throat as I aimed my mind at swaths of golems. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” I said, but even such amazing power – the power to stop these behemoths of metal and ire – was not enough. Not against such an overwhelming flood of enemies.
Nelmper. Saboraak’s mental voice sounded like a sob.
I couldn’t even see the fallen dragon or his rider from my perch – especially not while I fought on against the tide of golems. Around us, the oosquer were landing. This wasn’t a safe place for them. A cranky Kyrowat snapped at a golem.
Not safe.
Where were the defenders?
Nostar was shouting something over the chaos of the moment.
“Grab him, Letina! No, there’s nothing we can do for the dragon.” A pause. “Of course, I care!”
“Nostar!” I called. “Where is Lee Estabis?”
“Inside!” he yelled back. His eyes were haunted, frantic.
“And the other defenders?”
“Inside! They’re all inside – any still alive.”
The world spun around me and I realized in a moment what I needed to do. I needed to seal the entrance to the warrens. If we didn’t do that, all of our efforts would be for nothing. If we couldn’t defend the innocents we’d sent down there, then all was lost.
“Are you ready to counter-attack? Do we know where to strike?” Nostar asked.
I almost laughed. Was he kidding? We needed to get out of here. We were too late for a counter attack. It had always been too late for that.
Saboraak was wailing underneath me. A dragon’s wail was a horrifying thing. It made every hair of my body stand up as I mentally blasted out at waves of golems, keeping the floor of the Keep free of them while the dragons scrambled to regroup and the oosquer landed around us.
“What hell have you brought us to, boy?” Hubric asked.
I bit my lip, thinking hard.
“We need to seal the entrance to the warrens, or everything we’ve done is for nothing,” I said.
“If we seal it with dragon fire, that will keep them back,” Hubric called. “It will melt the stone and steel into a plug that will close that entrance forever.”
“What if Zyla didn’t find the way through?” my mimic asked suddenly. “What if she’s stuck down there with crying children and terrified mothers? What if you seal her in like a grave keeper and leave her there to her fate.”
“Shut up!” I snarled, realizing that Hubric was staring at me strangely. “I don’t mean you, Hubric.”
I swallowed and sent out another blast at the golems around me. I couldn’t think fast enough for this.
“How many men are inside, Nostar? How many?”
He shrugged, looking defeated.
“Is there some way to reach them?”
“The Castel was overrun as you appeared at the city wall.”
So, not long ago. There would still be men trapped inside. I swallowed down my fear, gripped my quarterstaff and thought fast. We needed to get a dragon down there to seal the entrance. And the Castel was already overrun. It was a suicide mission. And Saboraak was certainly not up to it.
I knew that if I died, she was supposed to follow me to the grave, but maybe it didn’t work like that with the females. Besides, she didn’t know for sure that we’d been bound the same way.
I reached into her saddlebags, threw the strap of a waterskin over my shoulder so that it dangled over my back, pulled a cloak on, tying it hastily, and stuffed my pockets with food. That would have to do.
I shoved the golems back again with my mind. It was getting easier. Sort of.
A moment later, I was leaping from Saboraak’s back to the ground and rushing over to Nostar.
“Take them out of here. The dragons, the oosquer, everyone. Head east to Questan. We’ll catch up with you there.”
His face was grim but also stunned, like he wasn’t listening to me.
“Nostar! Are you listening?!”
“I ... I”
I shook him. “Pull yourself together! The city has fallen! There’s no chance to save it anymore. No chance of a counter attack. There never was. We got the vulnerable people out as quickly as we could, but I need to seal up the entrance so the golems can’t just chase them into the warrens. And that won’t take everyone here. You need to go!”
As if triggered by the word “go” a dragon burst up from the top tower of the Castel, flapping into the air to try to gain height. Golems swarmed it immediately.
I sent a burst against them mentally, clearing them for long enough that a second dragon shot up from the tower to join the first. They looked strange, like they had grown blisters all over them and they hung in the air heavily.
It took me a moment to realize that they were both loaded down with people.
“Is that Lenora?” Hubric called. “I think I recognize her Green dragon!”
“Yes!” And behind her, the other dragon was a Black dragon. Lee’s perhaps?
I ran to Saboraak’s head, gripping her snout in my hands.
“Look, we need to split up for now. Go with Tachril and the others. Go help Lenora. Do you hear me? You need to get out of here. You need to get somewhere safe.”
Why did it feel so wrenching to send her away?
I can’t abandon you.
“You have to. I have to seal the entrance!”
You need a dragon for that.
I looked to Hubric and Kyrowat. Hubric nodded briefly.
“Hubric will help me. Kyrowat will flame the entrance and seal it up, okay? We want you to go to safety. Tachril and his wing need you. And so does Lenora. Look at her dragon? His load is so heavy he can hardly fly!”
I sent another burst at the flying golems rallying near Lenora. Her dragon was dipping too low over the city – too heavy for the burden he was bearing.
“No time to waste. Go, faithful dragon! Go!”
This time, Nostar nodded to me. Tachril launched into the air with a burst of his wings.
“Follow the dragons!” I yelled to the oosquer and then returned to the job of stopping the golems plunging toward us and then pivoting to halt the ones in the air.
With so much power I should be unstoppable. Instead, I was just frustrated. It still wasn’t enough. It still couldn’t save everyone. And I was so tired I felt like I was working through a blanket of fog and exhaustion.
I’ll be waiting for you, trout, Saboraak said as she launched into the air. I felt her torn emotions – she wanted to stay and she wanted to go with the Greens at the same time. I filled myself with confidence as I let her slip away. I wanted her to feel like there was no reason at all to fear.
The last of the dragons and oosquer were forming up above us. Stray dragons from around the city rose to join them. Every last friendly dragon in the sky was joining that group. Every last hope we had of getting out of here alive
But I’d never expected to leave here alive. Not after what I saw last night.
At least there was a chance for Saboraak.
I spun back to Kyrowat and Hubric, a little ashamed that I’d gotten them into this suicide mission with me.
I stopped in surprise.
“What are you doing here?”
Chapter Thirteen
“You aren’t the only one with honor, Tor,” Bataar said from behind Hubric on Kyrowat’s back.
“Well, come on then,” I said. No point in arguing if he wanted to get himself killed. The Kav’ai could just get themselves a new set of tattooed people to bury in their problems.
I plunged toward the keep doors, commanding golems out of the way or to stop entirely. It bothered me that I couldn’t see the dragons from here – couldn’t fight on their behalf – couldn�
�t do anything to help them flee. Saboraak was too busy to keep talking to me.
I’m still here.
It made my heart warm to know she was safe. We plunged into the heart of the Castel and I tried not to look at the mangled dead strewn along the corridors. Every golem that I ordered aside revealed broken pottery, shattered weapons, bloody cloths, or worse – the battered, bloody dead.
I’d failed them. I knew that now.
I had this power to control golems and I hadn’t realized it until it was too late to use it effectively. I hadn’t learned to stop more than one at a time. I hadn’t stood up on the walls or the towers of the Castel and ordered them back in groups of five or six like I knew I could now.
“What if you could do more than that, still?” my mimic asked. “What if you could have stopped this entire war. And you just didn’t realize it. You just didn’t have the guts to do it.”
The guilt of his words weighed heavily on me. He was right. And I knew it.
I’d been a hurt bystander in Vanika. Here, I was guilty somehow. Every person we passed lying dead on the floor made me flinch with the knowledge that their death belonged at my feet. I should have been smarter. I should have been faster. I should have known how to stop this before it happened.
I led them deeper into the heart of the Castel.
“How long have you been fighting?” Hubric asked quietly.
I paused. “I don’t know anymore. Two days and two nights, maybe. Maybe more. I can’t seem to remember.”
Bataar was singing quietly to himself – a lilting song so sad it made my heart want to cry.
“You hoped to save the city?” Hubric asked.
“Yes. Lee Estabis leads it. He was a great leader. We sent the innocents into the warrens beneath the city with Zyla for a guide.”
Hubric flinched at my words.
“Hubric?” I was worried suddenly. “Was that wrong?”
“It was dangerous.” His tone was guarded.
“I didn’t know what else to do!” I hated the pleading sound in my voice – like I was begging him to see why I’d done it. Like I wanted to be justified. “We couldn’t send them across the plains. The golems were already swarming. And we couldn’t keep them safe in the city.”
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12 Page 11