by James Maxey
“Maybe we can build a raft?” she said. “I’ll think about it some more in a little while. More immediately, I want to take a bath. There aren’t any ichthyosaurs in that pool. I’ll feel better and be able to think clearer once I get the grime out of my hair.”
“I know what you mean,” said Shay. “I’ve never been this dirty. Even my teeth feel gritty.”
“There may be some small fish in the pool,” said Jandra. “Won’t it be nice to eat something fresh, instead of hardtack and jerky?”
“Good hardtack,” said Lizard. “Good jerky.”
“You’ll like good fish even more,” Jandra said. “You can use a bath, too. You used to be green. Now look at you.”
Lizard looked down at his coal-darkened scales. “No bath,” he said, firmly. It was the first time he’d ever said no to Jandra that Shay could remember.
Jandra gave the little dragon a good, firm stare.
Lizard looked down, avoiding her gaze, then looked up at Shay with big, pleading eyes.
“Don’t drag me into this,” said Shay.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
THIS CLOSE TO HEAVEN
THE WATERFALL FELL a hundred feet into a pool twenty yards across. The water churned white at the point of impact, but most of the pond was crystal clear, revealing schools of silvery fish no bigger than Shay’s thumbs darting through the water. On the rocks surrounding the pool, white crickets the size of mice jumped away as they approached. The insects chirped with a high pitched rhythmic drone that provided a musical accompaniment for the thunder of the falling water. The whole scene was lit by a trio of bright lights high overhead. They looked like shards of moon set in stone. They emitted a steady radiance like nothing Shay had ever seen outside the heavens.
Through some lucky chance of geology, the water smelled like nothing more than water, free of the sulfur stink that had tainted their canteens ever since they’d moved underground.
Jandra dropped her pack on the rocky shore. “I’ve never wanted a bath so badly in my life,” she said.
“No bath!” Lizard chimed in. He was perched once more on her shoulder.
“Fine. Don’t take a bath,” Jandra said, reaching up and stroking Lizard beneath his chin. “I like you the way you are.”
Lizard tilted his head, looking skeptical.
Jandra pointed toward the pool. “Look at all those fish! I bet they’d taste delicious. Too bad we don’t have anyone fast enough to grab them.”
“Lizard fast,” the small dragon said, sounding mildly offended. “Good hunter!”
“But see how they’re darting around? Nobody could be fast enough to jump into the pool and start catching them by hand.”
“Lizard catch!” The small dragon leapt from Jandra’s shoulder with such force that Jandra stumbled backward toward Shay. Lizard looked like he was flying, sailing out twenty feet over the pool before splashing into the water.
Jandra lost her footing on the slick rock and Shay’s hand darted out, catching her arm, giving her the added point of stability she needed to steady herself. She looked up at him. They stood there, still and silent. Jandra’s eyes were fascinating, a complex mixture of hazel and amber flecked with mossy green.
“You have the most beautiful eyes,” he whispered. It felt perfectly appropriate to kiss her.
She turned away as his lips approached, looking flustered.
“I’m sorry,” he said, drawing back. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“You didn’t,” she said. “I… I want you to kiss me. But, not right now. I want everything be right. I’ve never kissed anyone before. I mean, Pet kissed me, but it was sort of a sneak attack that I wasn’t really prepared for.”
“That’s more experience than I have with kissing,” said Shay. “But my impression is that it isn’t all that difficult.”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” she said. “But, we’re both covered with mine grime and have breath that could wilt flowers. A kiss at this moment might not be a pleasant experience for either of us.”
“I’m absolutely certain I’d enjoy it,” Shay said.
“You can wait, can’t you?” Jandra said, backing away. “We could both stand a dip in the water first.”
“Oh,” said Shay. “I … yes, of course. I’ll go wait behind those trees while you bathe.”
“You can wait there if you want,” she said, shyly. “Or we could both go in the pool together. There’s plenty of room.”
Shay’s mouth felt dry. “Of course,” he rasped, as Jandra unbuttoned her coat.
Behind them, Lizard splashed up onto the shore, his mouth and all four claws brimming with bright minnows. “Big catch!” he said, spraying wriggly fish parts over the rocks before him.
Jandra knelt down to her pack and pulled out the tin pot she carried. “Good job! Put the fish in the pot. They’re small, so you’ll need to catch a lot. Can you do that?”
“Good hunter,” Lizard said as he dropped his catch into the pot. He turned and leapt once more. He undulated beneath the surface as gracefully as an otter, his long tail whipping around like a rudder.
“That should keep him busy,” said Jandra, continuing to fumble around in her pack. She pulled out a walnut-sized chunk of white soap, the only thing that remained of the fist-sized bar they’d started the journey with.
Shay had his coat, boots and socks off by this point and was fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. He peeled it off then reached for his belt buckle. He looked up, to see if Jandra was looking at him. She was. She had her hands on her own belt buckle. With a synchronized movement, each pulled their belts free. A few seconds later, each was standing before the other in their long-johns. The coal that had permeated their skin had sunk down to the once white cotton of their undergarments, leaving them gray. Jandra turned her back to him as she unbuttoned her long-johns.
Slowly, she peeled the gray cotton down her shoulders, revealing her bare back. She was slender, but not boney. Her pale skin glowed in the soft light. Her underwear bunched up at her hips for a moment. She took a slow, deep breath and pushed the long-johns over her hips until they dropped around her ankles. She stepped out of them. She was now naked save for the silver bracelet on her wrist. She wrapped her hands across her breasts and looked back over her shoulders.
“So,” she said. “This is me. Scaleless, tailless, wingless, pale, and hairy.”
“I give thanks to whatever gods there may be that you are scaleless, tailless, wingless, pale, and hairy. You’re breathtaking. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Have you seen many naked women?”
“None."
Jandra smirked. “So the bar for comparison is fairly low.”
"Have you seen many naked men?”
“Ragnar, obviously. Bitterwood when I cleaned his wounds. And I caught a pretty good look at Pet,” she said. She paused, and he wondered if she was still searching her mental list. Apparently, however, she was remembering the last man on her list. “Pet was… well, honestly, he was like a work of art. He’d been bred to have a perfect body. It was only everything else about him that made my skin crawl.”
“I suspect magnificent isn’t the word about to spring into your mind,” Shay said. He clenched his jaw. Jandra was all but naked. It was time for him to take the plunge. Since she’d turned her back to him to work up the courage, he did the same. He unbuttoned his long johns and pushed them down. They didn’t bunch around his hips. Unlike Jandra’s hourglass figure, Shay was built like a plank. His limbs were lanky and lean. His torso was so thin his ribs could be counted. If there was an ounce of fat on him anywhere, he was unaware of it.
His skin was as white as the soap Jandra held, save for stripes of freckles around his shoulders. His torso was mostly hairless, though his legs were covered in thick orange growth. Jandra was quiet. He wondered if she was repulsed. He looked over his shoulder and discovered she was only a few inches away, staring at his back. Her hand fell gently upon his shoulder blades,
her fingers tracing the map of ropey white scars.
“By the bones,” she whispered. “You said… you said you’d been whipped. But…” Her thought trailed off. Shay knew why.
His most severe beatings were best described as flayings, the whip peeling away flesh and muscle down to the bone. It was why he always stood with rounded shoulders and a slight hunch. Due to the scarring and muscle damage, he couldn’t stand truly straight if he tried.
“You said I was brave,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I couldn’t have survived this. I can’t believe you’re still alive, let alone still hopeful. So willing to risk everything to share what you know with the world. I don’t know that I could be so defiant after what’s been done to you.”
“I was always willful,” Shay said, managing the faintest ghost of a grin. “I read about things like freedom and justice and love, and I believed in them. I wanted to experience them. And if a world run by dragons didn’t offer these things, then I knew from an early age I’d have to change the world. Chapelion did his best to beat my dreams to dust. I’m not brave, Jandra. I’d beg to avoid a whipping. I’d weep before the leather ever touched my back, and renounce every idea I’d ever believed in. When the beatings would stop, the slavecatchers would order me to drop and kiss their talons in gratitude for their devotion to my improvement. I’ve groveled, Jandra. It’s not courage that drives me. It’s fear. It’s shame. I’ll slit my own throat before I ever bow down to a dragon again.”
Silently, she took him by the hand and led him toward the pool. They crept into the cool water together, their hands clasped for balance on the slick, smooth stones. Shay shivered as the water rose up his legs. They neared the white water at the edge of waterfall and suddenly he slipped. He plunged beneath the water, pulling Jandra down with him. They both flailed about, their legs and arms entwining. They both grew still as Jandra pressed her breasts against his chest. They clung to each other tightly as they drifted back to the surface. Jandra’s body was hot against his despite the chill of the water.
They bobbed above the surface of the pool. The water was deep here; Shay could barely touch bottom by stretching his toes. Jandra was floating, with her arms still clasped around his shoulders and her left leg wrapped around his hip. Gray water streamed out of her coal-tinted hair. Dark, oily spots lay upon her cheeks as the water beaded on the grime. Her face was only inches from his.
“Clean enough,” she murmured, as she pressed her lips against his.
His assumption proved true. Kissing was simple enough to figure out. He closed his eyes as his toes curled and they drifted in the water, weightless.
“Scary birds,” said Lizard.
Jandra’s eyes fluttered open. The little green earth-dragon was perched next to her head. Behind Lizard, the fire had died down to a few smoking embers. Shay was still asleep beneath the blanket with her, his bony arm draped across her rib cage. It was warm under the blanket with the two of them pressed together. Jandra wasn’t in the mood to get up and worry about breakfast yet.
“Go catch fish,” she mumbled as she closed her eyes. She snugged the blanket tightly beneath her chin. She felt marvelous. For the first time since the goddess had altered her memories, she felt like she’d dreamed her own dreams. Shay’s arms around her made her feel safe. He held her tightly enough that she couldn’t be pushed out by the goddess.
Lizard’s damp paw fell onto her forehead. He flexed his claws ever so slightly, pricking her.
“Scary birds!” he said, more emphatically.
She opened one eye. She didn’t normally consider birds a threat, though she supposed a particularly robust eagle could have carried off Lizard. Still, for all she knew, there could be eagles the size of elephants down here.
“Where?” she asked.
“Scary birds!” Lizard shrieked, pointing skyward.
It wasn’t birds. Three winged humans were flying across the lake. Their wings were metallic silver, similar to the wings Gabriel—the goddess’s robotic angel—had flown on. While Gabriel had been designed as the pinnacle of human perfection, these winged men were a sorry looking bunch. They were wearing the once white uniforms of long-wyrm riders. All carried crossbows. Two of them still wore silver visors, but the third one’s visor was missing and he’d recently suffered some horrible injury to the left side of his face. His eye was swollen shut and his lower lip dangled, streaming drool.
“Poor Meshach,” she said, as Jazz’s memories flashed the men’s names into her mind. These were survivors of the goddess’s long-wyrm riders. The wounded one was Meshach, the one with the thick black beard was Shadrach, and the last one, a short, balding man with a unibrow, was named Guido.
Shay sat up, stretching his arms. “Good morning,” he said, his voice low and hoarse. “Waking up next to you is like waking up in heaven." He looked up, following her gaze. “Okay,” he said. “Even this close to heaven, I didn’t expect angels.”
The winged men halted about fifty yards away, hovering in the air. Jandra vaguely remembered that the wings didn’t need to flap to keep the men airborne. It was the sort of memory that might prove useful, yet, as often happened whenever she tried to actively access Jazz’s memories, the details faded away before she could grasp them.
“Hide,” she said to Lizard.
Lizard crept away, low to the ground, slithering into pool with barely a ripple.
Shadrach, the highest ranking of the three guards, called out, “Intruders! You’ve violated the sanctity of the sanctuary of the goddess! The punishment is death!”
“Wait!” said Jandra. “You must know your goddess is dead! We’re not violating the sanctity of anyone. There’s no need for us to fight.”
“She’s right!” Meshach, the wounded one, snarled. “I told you the goddess was dead. Look around, Shadrach! The evidence is before your eyes!”
“Silence!” Shadrach snapped. “I’ll bash in the other side of your face if you don’t still your blasphemous tongue.”
“But Shadrach,” said Guido. “What if it’s true? We don’t need to follow the codes no more. We can make our own rules.”
“We will obey the commandments!” Shadrach shouted. “Intruders are to be killed, not molested!”
“What if we just molested her a little?” said Guido. “We can kill her after we’re done.”
Shadrach spun around in the air, delivering a savage kick to Meshach’s guts. Meshach doubled over, clutching his stomach.
“Guido suggested it!” Meshach whined.
“You were closer, and you were thinking it too,” said Shadrach, completing his spin, halting as he faced Shay and Jandra once more. “Now, kill them!”
Shadrach lifted his crossbow. Guido did the same, though he didn’t look happy about it. Meshach was still clutching his stomach. He looked a bit greenish.
Jandra flapped the blanket, jumping up as the crossbows rang out in simultaneous twangs. The crossbow bolt fired by Shadrach punched through the blanket, passed a few inches to the left of Jandra’s belly, and buried itself in her backpack. The bolt fired by Guido was better aimed. It tore into Shay’s left thigh, right on the inner edge of the skin a few inches above his knee. Shay’s mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out. Jandra quickly analyzed the wound. The bolt had only cut the surface. His muscles looked uninjured, which was confirmed when he sprang to his feet.
Jandra dropped the blanket and dove toward the shotgun.
“Sweet goddess! She’s naked!” Guido shouted. “Shadrach, you’ve got to—”
“Shut up!” said Shadrach, swinging out with the butt of his crossbow, smashing it into Guido’s nose.
Guido did a loop in the air in response to the blow. He dropped down toward the saline lake, catching himself only five feet above the surface, with a massive down-flap of his silver wings that sent waves rolling toward the shore.
“Bastard!” Guido growled.
“The goddess is dead!” Meshach screamed, spraying spittle from his flapping
lower lip. He was now the only guard with a loaded crossbow. He turned the weapon toward Shadrach. “I’ll do as I please! There is no law!”
He fired, the crossbow bolt passing neatly through Shadrach’s neck. The bearded man’s eyes rolled up in his head as he tilted in the air. His body went limp, and his wings did as well. He plummeted toward the rocky shore, landing with a wet slap on the black beach.
“The woman is ours!” Meshach screamed, casting his one leering eye toward Jandra.
Jandra finished stuffing the shot bag down the gun barrel and pulled the ram rod free, dropping it onto the blanket at her feet. She took aim at Meshach. “I think I should have a say in this,” she said, then pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Oh, right. The safety.
Meshach dropped his crossbow and zoomed toward her, his arms open, on a trajectory to tackle her and carry her back into the sky. She fumbled to release the safety, but somehow her finger couldn’t quite find it. Guido was now racing toward her as well, coming in low, skimming along only a few feet above the ground.
Suddenly, Lizard shot out of the pool, his claws extended, his jaws open wide, flying like an angry green bobcat into Meshach’s path. Meshach’s already tortured face collided with a smack into the little dragon’s belly. Lizard’s claws snapped around the flying man’s head like a mechanical trap. Meshach zoomed skyward, shrieking. Jandra tracked him with the shotgun, her finger finally on the safety. There was no way she could be certain she wouldn’t hit Lizard as she fired. She lowered her gun to target Guido, but here, too, her aim was blocked. Shay jumped into the path of the on-rushing guardsmen. The short, winged man smacked into Shay’s lanky, naked form at the knees, flipping him into the air. The impact was enough to knock Guido off course. He smashed face-first into the rocky beach, tumbling head over heel before coming to a splashing halt in the pool. He lay limp, his head underwater.
Meshach, still under assault by Lizard, had flown back out over the water. He was about thirty yards off shore, his toes grazing the surface of the salt lake, as if he were dancing upon it. He had both hands on Lizard, trying to pull him off. Lizard had his turtle-like beak clamped down in a death-grip on the man’s right eyebrow, and both his fore-claws buried into the scalp behind Meshach’s ears. Meshach released a string of loud, incoherent yelps that might have been curse words.