Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 5-8 (Dragon Chameleon Omnibuses Book 2)
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“Apeq A’kona!”
“Victory for Ko’Torenth!”
“Glory to the House of Flame!”
Some people would cheer for just about anything. Even their own doom.
They might even cheer for what was about to happen next.
I tensed, bracing myself as the dragons finished their loop, they were moments from drawing level with us again. I sucked in a deep breath, spun in place like a top, trying to avoid the brush of the sword tips of the startled guards. I crouched.
As the dragon golems passed again – this time a little below the platform I launched myself through the air, leaping onto the back of the nearest one, my hands grasping for the saddle pommel.
Chapter Thirteen
I DIDN’T LET OUT THAT huge breath until my hands gripped the pommel securely and my leg found a metal stirrup ridge, the other leg kicking over the wide metal back to land me securely in the saddle.
I was insane. Clearly.
The dark metal of the golem’s body rippled under me as it darted upward. It felt strange – the rhythm wrong and not at all like the steady thrum of dragon wings or the long soars where we caught the drafts and hung in the air for a moment like the wind was embracing us. No, this was more like the way a fish swam in darting bursts, it’s tail swishing powerfully through the water. There was also something not right about it. As if I could feel in my bones that it was made of magic and death instead of flesh and life. It made my skin creep.
No time to dwell too deeply on that. Now, I needed a plan beyond just ‘what if I jumped on that thing?’ Below me, the crowd was yelling, hands pointing in the air. I thought I could hear Apeq bellowing over the rest.
Ha! At least I’d surprised him. If I died now, at least he’d had his big moment spoiled by a kid on a golem. I grabbed the pommel and looked down at the platform below. In the middle of the chaos was a small puddle of stillness where Zin – ignored by her captors in the chaos – stood perfectly still, looking up at me with wide golden eyes.
I couldn’t just fly away and leave her. Not even if I knew how. They would imprison her again. They’d said the girls were valuable for what they knew – and that was probably why Apeq had been wooing Zyla – but Vern Redgers had already told me that Zin was expendable to them. Her mind – clearly damaged by what had happened to her – was too broken to be used. They saw no value in her.
I did.
I remembered seeing a painted glass once – a lantern cover for some Castelan somewhere. A tiny flower had been painted on the glass in three simple strokes. A flower, opening to the sun and tossed by the wind, its delicate petals soft to the touch – rendered perfectly in three little white lines. That was Zin. She was as deep and rich as anyone, just painted in simple brush strokes.
And I wouldn’t leave her here. Not when she’d had faith in me to save her. It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t anything like that. It was just ... I didn’t think a person could have good glowing in them at all if they didn’t feel soft toward her. I needed to get this golem spun around so we could swoop overhead and scoop her up.
Now, how did I steer? There were no reins, and this creation clearly had a mind of its own, but ahead of the pommel were a pair of shafts the length of my hand sticking up from the spine of the golem. Perhaps, they controlled it somehow.
I gritted my teeth and reached for them. This could end very badly.
Gripping them in my fists, I gently eased one forward. We dove sharply, and I tried to correct, shooting back in the saddle and barely keeping my seat at all as the golem rocked backward again. That was close. I leveled off again, trying the other lever. A small movement from me and we swung right, another and we swung left. If I was going to steer with these, I would need to learn to be more subtle.
We were swinging around to the platform again and I tried to tweak the levers to get the golem lined up better.
There was Zin in the crowd. She reached out for me and I leaned forward. I would be close. We might manage it! I was counting the seconds, waiting for the chance. I reached one hand out, the other gripping the pommel as I soared over the platform just a hand’s breadth above the heads of those below. We were drifting lower yet and guards and Exalted threw themselves to the floor or out of our paths.
Zin stayed steady and true, her hand reaching out. A tiny smile on her lips. A steady look in her eye.
I reached for her hand as I passed, but just when we were about to touch, she was pulled back, her fingertips grazing mine, shoving a scrap of cloth into my hand. I looked past her in shock. Zyla was pulling her backward by the waist. A determined look filled Zyla’s eyes as she mouthed the word, “Go!”
Her eyes swirled with a tiny hint of silver.
I felt a chill rush through me as she pulled her sister further back, a determined look in her steely eye. What was she doing? She couldn’t possibly keep her sister safe on her own. Perhaps, she wasn’t even trying. Perhaps, she had changed allegiances. Perhaps, she had never been with me in the first place. She nodded her head firmly, looking past me, and I couldn’t tell if she was nodding to someone else or instructing me to look.
I turned in the saddle just in time to see Shabren flinging himself onto the back of the other flying golem, and then we were rocketing upward again and I was choking on the speeding air, trying to catch my breath. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut.
She’d betrayed me. Betrayed us all.
Ignoring Shabren, I worked the controls, trying to get the dragon spun around for another try. It fought my guidance – or perhaps I was just inept at directing the massive creation. We plunged down, pulling up at the last minute, rocketing too quickly to the right – and then we were aimed at the platform again.
I scanned it, looking for Zin. The platform and the boardwalks beyond it were chaos. People ran screaming in every direction, a mass of pushing bodies and flailing limbs. And somewhere in its depths, Zin and Zyla had disappeared.
An icy chill washed over me, but it didn’t reach my plunging heart. It was falling, falling, falling to a place it could never land.
I raked a hand through my hair, not knowing what to do next, when suddenly the golem shook under me and we were shoved forward. I grabbed the pommel with both hands, heart in my throat as we were hit a second time from behind.
I looked over my shoulder.
Shabren rode the other golem, a look of determination stretched across his face.
Well, I’d gambled on being able to ride this thing. Maybe I could fight with it, too. Shabren certainly was.
Chapter Fourteen
WHAT WORRIED ME MOST during the wild ride was the thought that Shabren might pull the magic back out of the golem I was riding at any moment and I would plunge to my death on the back of an empty shell of metal.
But what had my attention riveted more urgently were the fireballs.
The first one shot across the front of the golem, splashing his gaping mouth with burning magenta flame. The golem continued on, unfazed by the fire. I was the only one flinching at the assault, pulling at the levers wildly.
We careened to the side in a tail-swishing swipe and I felt the tail connect with something hard, jolting me in the saddle. I spun enough to see we’d flattened the top story of a building. Snow and roof tiles rained from the sky as we passed, and screams erupted from below.
Our flight took on a jerky motion over the walkway as I struggled to guide the golem.
I tucked the scrap of cloth Zin had passed me into my sleeve and fought the sticks for control. We plunged forward, the golem’s mouth opening to swipe at a hanging banner at the same moment that its belly slewed through a fleeing crowd, slipping through writhing bodies like a great fish through river weeds.
My heart was in my throat, my blood so hot that I didn’t feel the cold as we bounced off the walkway and careened through two yudazgoats and their cart. The cart flew off its rails, cartwheeling down the track to the level below, coal spilling from it like a black snowfall.
Shabren cursed violently, yelling as we passed, “This isn’t your magic boy, and it’s not your world! Go back where you came from and enjoy a few peaceful months before we invade!”
Yeah, that was likely. I’d just give up and wander off while they did what they wanted to Zin and Hubric and Kyrowat.
I wondered if Kyrowat could still hear me. I wondered if he could give me any hints about where he was.
It’s patched. There are canvasses hanging over one wall as if it was ripped apart by a giant.
A green fireball rocketed past, narrowly missing me but setting my cloak aflame. I beat at the fire as the green magic splashed across the front of a bakery. The bakery made a fump sound and burst into orange flame like a torch.
Unfortunately, patched and ruined buildings were becoming the norm in Ko’Koren – and a lot of that was tied to me. Where would I find one in so many?
I jammed the levers and spun the golem around moments before we collided with the fire. Wow! That worked! I should remember that maneuver.
I’d lost the girls. They could be anywhere in that chaotic crowd.
On the top level, the Exalted Houses and their guards had formed up in a disciplined manner after the initial chaos, but I wasn’t even sure what level Shabren and I were on now. We were darting and weaving up and down, left and right. I was just lucky I hadn’t completely crashed yet. That luck had better not run out!
I shoved the lever and we burst upward in time to avoid the green burst of flame Shabren sent at us.
I was getting better at up and down and left and right, but I was worried. I hadn’t seen anything yet that controlled speed. There wasn’t a button marked ‘press here to stop golem’ or even an arcane symbol or glowing dent. I had a bad feeling that I might live the rest of my life on the back of this golem and a worse feeling that my life might be measured in terrified minutes.
I swallowed down that worry, leaning low over the golem’s neck. We were dodging Shabren’s fireballs. He had all the initiative and I was stuck responding. No one could win like that. Time to turn the tables.
I flew straight toward him, head on, steering around the fireballs, but not letting up in my pursuit of the Magika who had started all of this. I didn’t have fireballs. I didn’t have magic.
What I did have was a big crazy golem underneath me, flying in improbable ways. And that could be a weapon. Especially if you aimed it right at someone and didn’t let up until you hit them.
We plunged forward toward Shabren, each second eating up the distance between us. Shabren’s expression was grim and he tried to dodge, but I shifted the levers, turning with him. We were so close to crashing. So close.
He let off a sudden fireball that smashed across my golem’s mouth, coating it with burning fire.
For an animate creature, it would have been fatal. With a magical creation made of metal, it was just a gaudy decoration. Come on, golem!
We plunged forward but suddenly something was wrong with the golem under me. It shuddered and dropped in the air, falling to the next level and the next. Something inside it was whining. It sounded a lot like me.
Something new hit us from behind and we cartwheeled to the other side of the mountain, scrambling for control, desperate to level off.
We were losing altitude. I could see the Jadefire House of Marvels as we passed it, falling. We’d reached the Eski peak in our crazed journey. I could see that square where the man with silver eyes had been torn apart.
We were still falling.
I looked up to right myself and saw Shabren following me, diving instead of falling, his eyes tight as he pushed into the breeze.
The man was mad. Anyone who chose to make a metal mockery of a dragon was mad and this one – this crazed human made of pure vengeance - was the worse of the bunch.
We plunged past the Bright Redemption and I shivered as I remembered the night I fell from there, through the ruined wall of the building.
The ruined wall that someone had covered with canvas and rope.
I gasped.
Chapter Fifteen
I HAD TO GIVE IT TO the Midnight Artificers – they were consistent. Where they stored one captive dragon, they could store another, right? It would be extremely hard to get a dragon into the depths beneath the Jadefire House of Marvels, but putting one in the massive storehouse beneath the Bright Redemption would be child’s play.
Now, if I could just get this contraption steered around. I tugged at the levers, fighting for control over the falling golem. Flying it was nothing like flying a living, breathing dragon with a will of its own. This thing was made by magic and ... wait.
It was made out a dragon’s soul, too – if my theory was right. That meant that somewhere in there was a tiny, flickering piece of a real dragon.
I sawed the levers back and forth and shoved out my thoughts as hard as I could. If you can hear me in there, dragon, can you lend me some help? A little help?
Our fall slowed, and the dragon began to level off, circling in a jerky, rough manner. I swallowed hard, clenching my frozen fingers around the metal levers and biting my lip until I tasted blood as we slowly climbed upward.
I felt the first drop of rain a moment later. It was cold as ice but still liquid and it hit the back of my neck and slipped down my spine. I shivered, my core suddenly freezing cold. Other raindrops were falling around us, freezing as soon as they hit the golem or the boardwalks or anything inanimate. Rain like that in these freezing temperatures could be deadly – especially to someone who was already struggling to keep his seat on a metal golem.
We were swirling upward slowly, my tailbone smashing painfully against the metal back of the golem with every jostling bump as he struggled to climb.
Come on, dragon soul! I know you’re in there. There’s the heart of a grand, buoyant dragon in there somewhere!
It was probably just my imagination that he seemed to fly better when I thought those things. Probably – but maybe not. I’d better keep it up just in case.
We were almost level again with the Bright Redemption.
Just a little higher, dragon soul! A little higher!
The slick freezing rain coated every inch of the golem and my hands struggled with the levers. Fear shot through me like heated daggers. This whole situation was growing more precarious by the moment.
I didn’t dare take my hands off the levers to wipe the sweat dripping from my forehead onto my nose. Didn’t dare clear the rain from my eyes. I was holding on with every ounce of skill and strength that I had left.
A laugh sounded behind me.
Shabren.
“I can suck the magic right out of that golem, you know. I could have you falling to your death.”
I was sick of his taunts.
“Prove it, then!”
We were leveling with the Bright Redemption now. The canvas covered wall came steadily into view. How would we get in? This golem was too big to go through the bottom entrance. It wasn’t flexible or squeezable at all.
“Oh, I will,” Shabren said. “Now that we’ve tested the theory. Can the golems be flown by inexperienced, poorly educated soldiers? Yes, it seems they can. And now I have no need to test anymore. You’ve outlived your usefulness.”
I didn’t know how to urge the golem forward. I still hadn’t found a way to do that. I thought it as hard as I possibly could.
FORWARD!
We surged forward in a massive burst and then suddenly it was as if the golem had become nothing but dead metal, all life sucked out of it so that only momentum was carrying me through the air, through the thick canvas collapsing around me and slowing the momentum, across a floor with a metallic squeal and something thick catching at it on the ground and then a terrible crash as we hit a wall and I was thrown f
orward, padded only by the gathered canvas.
Ah. There you are. A dramatic arrival, as usual.
Kyrowat’s voice echoed through my mind.
Blackness danced before my eyes.
Chapter Sixteen
I LAY THERE LONG MOMENTS, trying to make sense of the world whirling around me. I was cold. I hurt. Black flecks danced across my vision.
There isn’t time for this. Kyrowat’s old voice growled in my mind. Get up.
I blinked at the black specks, sucking in a long breath. Agh! Something in my shoulder hurt if I breathed too hard. I pulled my legs in toward me and tried to get up on hands and knees. My left arm sent stabs of agony through me each time I moved it.
I pushed myself to my feet, unbuttoning one of the middle buttons of my coat with one hand and then putting the left arm into the open section of my coat like a make-shift sling.
I was soaking wet and woozy, chilled to the bone.
It will be worse if you don’t get moving.
I coughed, flinching from the pain it caused, and forced my blurry eyes to focus.
I was in the same basement warehouse of the Bright Redemption that I had been in just days ago with Saboraak. The portion of wall she had flamed apart when we were last there was missing. Canvas and ropes had been used to cover it, but they were gone now, tangled around my dead golem. Cold air and rain blasted in through the open wall.
The Door of Heavens stood in the same place it had been before, though the doorframe was scraped along one side as if something huge and metal had forced its way past it at a high speed – the golem.
My legs shook under me, but they seemed to support my weight. My head was still spinning, though. I reached up and pulled my hand back when I felt something sticky. Blood.
No time for that.
I stumbled forward, sweeping my head back and forth, trying to see where Kyrowat might be. There were feet sticking out from under the golem. A hand, too. A crumpled shape. Probably more bodies, if I was willing to look, but I wasn’t.