by D. H. Aire
“You really think that will work?”
“I have seen in work on my people; those who have fallen into the cold waters of the great pipes and taken hours to rescue.”
“Great pipes?”
He shook his head, “You will likely not understand… My people live within a great shell beneath the Great Waste. Just do as I suggest and I will close my eyes and pretend that Lawson had not seen fit to make me do this thing.”
“You don’t think…”
“Hmm, I know he is right. I am warmer than any of you and I can see the boy looking less cold.”
“See it?”
“My people do not see quite as yours do.”
“You see heat.”
“Can, yes… Which is why we can also see when you lie.”
“Um.”
“Rub his arm and chest.”
She did, grimacing, and kept doing it.
“Greth, is this really working?”
Her answer was to hear him snore.
“I wish I could see if you’re feigning,” she muttered, rubbing the boy’s too cold skin and thinking he was actually pretty. She stopped, swallowing hard.
#
The goblin climbed up the inner bailey wall, turned and saw the dragon looking across the distance at him. It made no move to stop him. So, his Master had at least a little sway over the creature, he smiled grimly, sniffed the air. That way.
Hounds began to howl, straining to leave the barn that served as their kennel. The goblin lord raced atop the wall and leaped to the stone keep’s wall, clambered up and soon hugged the roof.
“What are those dogs on about?” someone shouted below.
#
“But!” Ani’ya protested as Lawson set his bag down.
“In bed, now, girls!” Yel’ane ordered.
“With a dragon out there?” Jen’yan gasped.
Lawson said, “Would you rather sleep on the floor in the hall with the wounded being treated?”
“Ours or theirs?” Thri’la asked.
“Theirs. The dragon has apparently seen to that.”
“But you went to help Casber’s because he’s hurt!” Vi’ya said.
Lawson sighed, “Casber’s freeing the dragon drained him. He’s very cold, but very much alive and warmed, he will be fine.”
“Drained, how?” Jen’yan asked, trembling.
“The boy’s a mage,” Yel’ane answered. “That jewel of his stopped glowing and down he went.”
“I caught him before he could hurt himself.”
“And the Seeress?”
“Exhausted, needing nothing more than sleep… Or do you imagine Seeing what she did, seeing that exact moment cost her nothing?” Yel’ane said.
“Mother, please, don’t leave us.”
Lawson met her gaze.
“You’ll stay out of trouble, Milord?”
“I’ll be fine.”
A black tendril flicked from the flap of his bag, which opened, something slipped out and seemed to float to the floor.
He collected his bag and went out the door. Only when he neared a window did he hear the hollowing.
“Goblins!” he cried, racing outside, “Goblins are near! Loose the hounds!”
The nearest guard, who had been complaining at that order threw wide the barn door. The hounds burst out, most racing past Lawson to head around the building. The one hound, the one who had nearly died with Yel’ane halted beside him, sniffed the air, let out a terrible howl and bolted past her.
Lawson gaped, “Yel’ane!”
#
The guards took no note of him until he grabbed it by the neck. There was a quick series of crunching sounds as they broke behind his claws. He sniffed the air, letting the bodies fall.
The scent was strong around this door, but stronger this way. He smiled, opened the door and peered in, hearing the howling growing louder outside. The dark thing had crept upon the settling girls, waving one of its black tendrils, when the door opened. It settled on the blanket without disturbance.
The goblin lord smelled her. Right there.
Across the way, Casber took a sudden deep breath and the jewel about his neck glowed.
:?:
:Query.:
:!:
The goblin lord lowered his face and peeled back the edge of the blanket. “Lawson, that you?” she said, opening her eyes.
He opened his mouth wide and lunged forward to rip out her throat.
The nearly invisible thing shot from the blankets slapped itself across the goblin’s face, entwining its tendril around the back of its throat. Strangling it lurched back. The hound bounded through the door and bit the goblin’s leg with a vice like hold.
Yel’ane moved to get out, but before she could call out, Lawson was there, arm going about the goblin’s throat. He and the silent hound dragged the goblin out into the hall.
“Yel’ane?” one of the girls muttered, only half-awake.
“Go back to sleep,” she replied, trying to sound calm, her heart beating a league a minute. Blinking, she saw the writhing shadow suddenly go still.
The hound padded back to the doorway, licking the greenish blood from its lips.
“Good girl,” she whispered.
It padded away as she strained to hear…
#
Lawson gestured to the gaping guards, “Shh, everyone’s asleep or trying to…”
“You want us to…” a guard was pointing.
“Yes, and get them out of here, too.”
They looked ill at ease as three hefted the dead goblin, his eyes wide and staring almost incredulous. Another man, frowning, bent to retrieve the black wide disk, which was more than three hands wide.
“No, leave that, uh, that’s mine.”
The hound sat down beside him, licking green ichor off her paws.
“Good girl,” he said.
“Ahem, but we don’t call male hounds girls around here.”
“What?”
The hound followed his gaze and stopped and stared at what was between what had been her hind legs. She looked –– he looked quizzically back at him.
“The nanomed,” he muttered, shook his head, “um, he’s likely to be very hungry soon, see he’s well fed and returned to the kennel.”
“I thought all those hounds were female,” one of the guards murmured as they dragged away the goblin.
“Thought so, too,” another said.
“You fellas been paying close attention, have you?” one of the other men chuckled.
Lawson frowned, muttered, “No, it couldn’t have. The nanomed terminate after… or, um… but in hounds?” He glanced at the goblin’s blood, the cloaked spelled goblin’s blood. No, it couldn’t have sucked in the magic and… decided that they were not enough male hounds in the largely female canine population.
The hound looked back at him a moment, uncertain.
He waved. “What am I doing?” he muttered.
“Come, boy.”
“Oh, boy,” he said, retrieving the black disk from the floor. He turned it over, then went back to the half open door of his room.
#
Yel’ane watched as Lawson came to the door, mouthed, “You all right?”
She started to crawl out as quietly as she could. He gestured to her to lie back down, set down his bag and what looked like a dark flat small shield. Lawson then went to the towels she and the girls had used earlier. Wetting several still damp ones, he began cleaning the floor with them. She watched him scrub, use the other towel to clean every last drop of the goblin’s green ichor. He gathered the towels and left them outside the door and the new guards quickly took them away.
Before he barred the door, she pointed. Looking down at himself, sighed, unlaced his jerkin, doffing it and his pants, trying not to make too much noise. Yel’ane didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He set it outside, then quietly barred the door.
She crawled out from under her blanket and reached up to
him. He bent, lifting her off the ground and carried her to the adjoining room door, which was ajar. They went through it to the next room. “How?” she whispered.
He set her down. “He had a torn piece of the cloth you had worn. It had your blood on it. It’s how he tracked you here.”
“There was that thing… it saved me.”
“You mean that flat black disk. It suffocated him.”
“Huh? How? Where did it even come from?”
“It’s a dragon scale. It fell near me and I, well, put it in my pack.”
“That didn’t look like a scale.”
“I know. It looks more like…”
“Like what?”
“Something sort of metallic, but not. I’ve never seen such material.”
“How could it even do what I saw it do? It had these tendrils.”
“I know. I saw them untangle and slipped back inside somehow.”
“Lawson, I don’t think I can sleep.”
“Uh, I can understand that.”
She turned, “Look.”
He did. The metal disk hovered in the air in the doorway.
He glanced at the former dragon scale. “You will behave yourself,” he told it and felt his implant twitch.
There was a very soft answering beep.
They stared at it. Lawson set Yel’ane down.
“Well, I have the distinct impression it’s standing guard.”
She walked up to it, bowed her head, “Thank you.”
It bobbled, seeming to acknowledge her words.
“Uh, would you be so good as to watch over the girls. We’d like some privacy.”
Lawson had the distinct feeling it was trying to understand. Then his implant twinged again and it floated away.
Lawson closed the door further, but left it open a crack. “Well, it must be some kind of bot.”
“A what?”
“The Holy Manuals speak of ship’s bots, mechanical creatures that fixed things, added in operations.”
She frowned. “You know, I really do want to know what you’re talking about. But not right now.”
He gestured at the remaining mattress, uncovered, their blankets taken across the hall to be heaped on Casber. “Lie down; I’m not going anywhere now. You need to try to sleep.”
She took his hand, “Sit down and hold me, you hairy beast.”
“Uh, Yel’ane.”
“You don’t want to try and rummage around looking for clean clothes. You might wake the girls…”
“Um.”
“I’ll not make you make me your wife. As it is, I don’t want to explain any of this to our families when we find them. I’m going to have to have a long talk with them about… all this. I just…”
He sat down, back against the wall, she sat in his lap, leaning back, crossing her arms over her. “You’re fur’s soft enough, at least.”
“I feared I’d…”
“So did I,” she whispered, trembling, feeling his warm tears fall. She tilted her head, “I love you.”
“Yel’ane,” he whispered.
She turned around, reaching up to put her arms around his neck. She drew him in and kissed him.
He sighed, “You are going to be the death of me.”
Pressing up against him, “That would certainly take the fun out of being the Mother of your House one day, Lord Lawson.”
He held her and was glad when she at last fell asleep. He could not. He had nearly lost her… if anything happened, he had no more nanomed. He could not save any of them with anything but his ointments.
Her fingers twisted the hairs of his chest. He nestled her closer, taking in her scent and the feel of her cheek pressing against him. He frowned, unable to comprehend how he could not only love someone so ugly as this frail creature, but the girls sleeping in the next room. He shook his head, “Thinks the ugliest man of Prect.”
#
It woke. Antigrav activated. It rose, extending several sensor tendrils, sampling its surroundings, totally unfamiliar surroundings. It opened communications frequencies.
It heard communications. Paused. Recognized. :?: it sent in low band.
Eight point nine three meters the earth stirred to its left. Another of its kind rose, sending out several tendrils. :?:
:.:
:?:
:>>…<:
The earth stirred. There were sparks, system failure. The unit ceased to function. The dragon scale floated over to it. Tendrils exploring its damage. :.:
The black disks agreed and floated, practically invisible in the darkness, toward the low powered homing signal, in the structures of stone, sensors detecting living human life forms.
The first to reactivate transmitted a packet of knowledge in what to the human ear sounded like a beep.
Recognized crew was on site. It was in contact with an assistant engineer.
:.:
:…><…: Yes, behaving strangely, but crew to be obeyed.
:.:
The dragon cradled its injured arm, knowing the scales would grow back, but it hurt. Then he suddenly looked about as if he could almost hear something. He sighed; it could smell the dead goblin. He flew into the night, circled, then saw the fleeing men in the invaders’ helms, dove, flamed and enjoyed his fine meal, ignoring the other groups so hastily surrendering in his wake.
#
Ani’ya thought she had been quiet, slipping out from beneath the covers and padding over to the adjoining room door. She never noticed that something floated in the shadows watching her. A tendril flicked out, scanning her slight form.
She peered through the door.
“Ani’ya.”
She gulped, opened the door further, “Uh, I couldn’t sleep.”
He shifted slighting, his arms cradling Yel’ane. “Come. Why can’t you sleep?”
“I thought I saw…”
“What?”
“Um, you and a hound, um… then, you cleaning up,” she said in a hushed voice.
“You certain you weren’t having a bad dream?”
She looked at him, “No, Papa.”
With a sigh, half-whispered, “You may lie down here for a few minutes, you will not say another word, which might wake Yel’ane.”
She smiled, nodding and padded over to the mattress.
“And when I tell you to,” he whispered, “you are going right back in there to bed.”
She nodded, curling up against him.
Vi’ya was next, eyes wide and staring, “Why are you in here?”
When morning dawned, Yel’ane opened her eyes, nestled in Lawson’s loving arms. Then she blinked and craned her head, “Um.”
They were surrounded by a sea of girls wrapped in blankets.
“Well,” he muttered, amused.
“Oh,” she smiled.
The bot hovered in the air, sensors still seeking to interpret the data.
Chapter 32 – Allegiances
Casber yawned, blinked, finding himself held down. He glanced to his right and Nessa’s sleeping face was barely an inch from his. He wiggled the fingers of his trapped right hand. Felt… he frowned.
His left arm was completely immobilized, as were his legs. He turned her head to see and brushed a wall of fur.
“Mmm,” Nessa murmured in his ear and his right hand felt more constrained by softness. His eyes widened. Nessa’s lips pressed against his cheek, her hand on his stomach moved. His eyes widened and he squirmed, which only seemed to make things worse as far as what he could feel.
“Hmm,” Greth said, “it’s good you’re awake, boy.”
The troll slowly moved his leg from where they pinned his.
“Uh, what happened?” he gasped.
“You loosed the dragon.”
“Is that your hand?” Nessa whispered.
“I can’t seem to...”
She moved her own, frowning.
“He’s definitely alive,” Greth said.
Uncertain, Casber looked at her.
Her eyes widened.
“Play… nice,” Casber managed to say, then breathed a sigh of relief.
Greth towered over them. “You bonding him, Nessa?”
“Um… no.”
“Then stop that before you two regret it.”
She grabbed the inner blanket and rose. “Don’t do that again!”
“Greth, I don’t even…” the boy protested.
The troll’s back was turned. He glanced back, “Boy, don’t you dare nearly die on us again.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, get dressed,” Nessa demanded.
He pulled the blankets close.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she urged.
“Um…”
“Nessa, leave the boy alone. You’ve already done enough.”
Her eyes widened as she saw Casber’s cheeks burning. “I don’t…”
“Nessa will explain it all to you,” Greth said, pulling on his pants, then his jerkin.
She gaped. “I’m going to what?”
#
Gwilliam had carried Kusins and her apprentice to the daybeds, pulled up a chair and watched the Seeress sleeping. The children had fallen asleep on the cold floor, which likely had something to do with the esthetics of their training.
That the Seeress was allowed bed and sheet was likely considered something of an honor.
He opened the window and heard the cries of joy. “My son! My son!”
“Momma, you’re alive?” another prisoner cried as those around him stared at the growing crowd around them as Truthsayer strode forward with his guards. Spoke quietly, “Truth,” he would proclaim and the Army of Thorns grew by another defecting recruit.
“Gwilliam?” she said, waking.
“How many?” he asked.
She swallowed, laying back, “One thousand nine hundred and sixteen today? The dragon is still eating his fill.”
“Cleaning up the field, though, I think we’ll be burying those clothes he spits out.”
“Yes, you do,” she said. “And you will melt down their broken weapons and their plate.”
“Agwin’s seeing to our new arsenal. They threw down… more than we’ll ever need.”
“You will sell it to the commanders of Edous’s new levies.”
“How many?”
“Three… They will raise two more before winter.”