The wind and snow were bad enough within the city walls, but outside the main gates, the cold took Sara's breath away. The snow, driven in horizontal sheets, struck her like needles of ice. She pushed forward toward the ring of tents she knew to be out there in the wild, swirling darkness. Only for brief instants, when the gusts parted the curtains of snow, could she see faint glimpses of torchlight from the camps.
Sara pushed on into the blinding storm while the wind roared its wild melodies around her. Her cloak whipped around her, sometimes wrenching at her neck as the wind tried to pull it off. Other times it wrapped around her legs so suddenly it made her stumble.
It seemed the cold and the winds, the noise and the smothering, scratching snow would last forever. But at last Sara saw the dark humps of the tents through the blinding snow, and she stumbled gratefully into the meager windbreak provided by the camp. The guards, huddled in the shelter of a low shed, merely nodded to her.
She worked her way across the open quadrangle to the talon's section of the camp. In the whipping snow and darkness, she did not see Cobalt until she fell over his tail.
Sleepily the blue dragon lifted his head from beneath his wing. He lay curled around Sara's tent, his big body protecting her shelter from the ravages of the wind. Already a thin layer of snow blanketed his blue hide. He blinked at her. "Are you all right?"
Deeply touched by his concern, Sara threw her arms around his neck. She inhaled his pungent, reptilian odor and felt the slickness of his scales on her cheek. He felt cool to her touch, which accounted for his sleepiness, but Sara knew he could easily sleep out in a storm like this without discomfort. As long as he could feed in the morning.
"General Abrena is sending us to Solace as soon as the weather clears," she told him.
He tilted his head curiously. "What for?"
"To go to the Tomb of the Last Heroes."
"All right," he answered, too drowsy to really care. He nudged her good night, tucked his head back under his wing, and went back to sleep.
Sara made a quick round of the other tents to tighten storm ropes, check pegs, and make sure there was plenty of coal for the braziers. At last she stumbled into her own tent,. She had to stand for a minute, taking deep breaths, before she could peel off her snow-crusted cloak and stoke up the banked embers of her own brazier.
In the ruddy glow of the little brass heater, she boiled water for tea and warmed her numb hands. She heard the newly knighted talon return to camp, but she did not go out to greet them. She could not face them, not yet. She Knew she would have to soon, but tonight she needed the solitude of her own thoughts.
Derrick called to her once, and she stood still, hoping he would think her asleep. Cobalt grumbled sleepily at him, and Sara heard his steps crunch away until there was nothing left but the whining song of the wind and the creak and flap of the tent around her. She hung her cloak to dry, then bundled herself in the warmest clothes she had and crawled under her blankets.
As soon as the storm ended and she could say goodbye to the recruits, she would leave. She would put Neraka behind her forever, tucked away in the dark corners of her mind with her memories of Storm's Keep and Lord Ariakan and Steel Brightblade.
21
The storm lasted through three long and miserable days. The snow fell heavily, and the wind, which continued to blow with a ferocity that cut through the warmest clothes, built the snow up into towering drifts. Powerful gusts shook the tents, sent snow swirling in blinding ground blizzards among the camps, and made cooking outdoors impossible.
During that time, the new knights stayed together in their tents or fought their way to the nearest inn for a hot meal and a bit of warmth. There was no practice, no training, and very little work beyond the effort of survival. They still had to haul coal, check their tents for wind damage, cook their meals, and shovel through deep snow that clogged the paths.
Cobalt brought the other dragons to help the knights build windbreaks around their tents, and they plowed through several drifts that piled up in inconvenient places.
Sara helped them as well, but she kept a distance between herself and the others and spent most of her time in her tent. She congratulated them all with an obvious lack of enthusiasm, then refused to speak any more about the knighting. She also told them she would be going to Solace on the general's business.
The young men and women wondered at her behavior and worried.
The snow stopped on the third day, but it was two days later before the sky cleared and the wind died to a breeze. In the crystal light of morning, the general's goblin brought the order for Sara to go.
"Governor-general sends you map. She say you have a fortnight. Return to her by time moon is full to report."
Sara snatched the map out of his clawed hands. "Thank you," she said, shooing him out.
The young knights, attracted by the goblin's arrival, crowded inside the tent's entrance.
Sara shoved the map in her belt. The map wasn't really necessary. She had a complete knowledge of Ansalon's continent from her time at Storm's Keep. What she needed now was a spiritual guide to help her get through the next few hours. She looked at the expectant faces around her and managed a smile.
"I have permission from the general to take one of you with me on this quest." She had spent hours debating this question, but in the end, the choice was inevitable. She chose Derrick for his grin like Steel's, his youthful courage, and for the mantle of loyalty and honor he wore that, to Sara, did not seem to have a place among the Dark Knights. She had tried once to sway a young man away from the darkness by taking him to a tomb and had failed. Perhaps this time she would be more successful.
A puzzled look flashed over Derrick's face so quickly Sara thought she had mistaken it. Then it was gone, and he grinned, pleased by her decision.
"All right. It's time to go, Derrick. Pack your gear. We'll take just Cobalt—one dragon to sneak into Abanasinia. Weil need several days of food, two waterskins, and a camp tent. Bring something to wear besides you armor. You can't get into Solace sporting that death lily." Sara knew she was talking too fast and too much to hide the unexpected surge of emotions that made her fingers tremble and her voice shake. She was leaving this hateful place at last, leaving the foul city, the dangerous citizens, and the bloodthirsty knights. Yet she studied the faces peering in at her and knew she would miss them horribly.
"Knight Officer, now that you're leaving and we're getting a new talon leader, I want to request the position of junior officer," Treb said loudly.
Well, Sara thought, all but that one. "Take it up with your new leader, Treb. If you want it, you will have to earn it."
"Over my dead body," Kelena muttered darkly.
With the help of the talon, Sara and Derrick gathered their gear. Sara had brought little with her, so the knights did not think it odd when she left her tent, that there was nothing remaining inside but the original contents. They loaded the bundles behind Cobalt's two-seat saddle and stood in a row to see the travelers off on their quest.
Only Sara knew this good-bye was permanent. She held on to her tears with an iron grip. This wasn't the time to weep. Yet the leave-taking was harder than she imagined. I should never have allowed myself to become so close to these young people, she thought wearily.
Forcing a smile to her face, she gave the talon the knight's salute and scurried up Cobalt's leg into the saddle. Derrick climbed up behind her, his expression blank. He saluted his talon mates and held on as Cobalt spread his wings.
The dragon was eager to be off. At Sara's word, he sprang into the air, his powerful wings lifting them swiftly into the morning sky.
The dragon patrols circling the city curved by them and waved them on.
Cobalt climbed rapidly into the frozen air and angled his flight to the southwest, across the Khalkist Mounttains.
Sara planned to avoid as many populated areas as possible by flying north of Sanction and across the New Sea to Abanasinia. It was the route she had
flown before, many years ago, on a different dragon, but with a similar purpose. With luck, they would make the flight without a stop. She did not want trouble in any form from sharp-eyed townsfolk still irate at the Knights of Takhisis, or hill dwarves, or even other dragons looking for a fight.
Nor did she want to announce her arrival in Solace. She decided to leave Cobalt hidden somewhere, and she and Derrick would slip in like any other pilgrims to the tomb, pay their respects to the dead they revered, and slip out. After that, she did not know what would happen.
Sara huddled deeper into her cloak and tightened the muffler wrapped around her lower face. She was glad she had dressed warmly for this part of the flight. The westerly winds swept over an endless range of snow and ice below and lost any hint of warmth they might have brought from the wastelands. The wind stung her flesh and cut deep into her bones. Breathing was difficult and talking was almost impossible while the dragon flew above the frozen mountains.
Eventually the mountains fell away to a valley that rolled placidly to the sea. Only a light coating of snow lay on the ground, and the air lost much of its bitter cold. To the south lapped the blue waters of the New Sea. In a matter of moments, Cobalt left the land behind and soared out over the waters of the inland sea.
Clear weather followed them southward. Sunlight sparkled on the water and warmed the air currents that flowed like water around them. Far to the south, Sara could see the peaks of the southernmost Khalkist ranges and the verdant grasslands of Blodehelm.
This portion of the New Sea they flew over narrowed to a strait before widening into the main body of the sea. Due southwest, perhaps an hour's flight, lay the isle of Schallsea, and just beyond it was Abanasinia.
Warm at last, Sara and Derrick came gradually out of their cocoons. They unwrapped mufflers, removed their fur-lined cloaks, and took off their gloves. Without the cold to shrivel their noses and freeze the air they breathed, they could talk over the rush of the wind and the rustle of Cobalt's wings. For a while they talked of simple things, of the snowstorm in Neraka and the fun the talon had sledding down a hillside on their shields, of Derrick's home in the mountains near Jelek, and of their memories of Jacson.
But there were too many unsaid things between them that neither were ready to broach, and so eventually they retreated into a long, unbroken silence.
Cobalt kept one ear cocked back to listen and made no attempt to interrupt their stillness. Dipping south to bypass Schallsea, he winged over the northernmost tip of New Coast, an area of flat grasslands and rich pastures.
At Sara's signal, Cobalt found a place to land on a broad strip of beach along the coast just to the north of the ruins of Sithelbec. A small creek provided fresh water, and a clump of trees offered cover and some shade for a quick meal. The dragon touched down heavily on the sand.
Sara slid down, glad to stretch her legs. Derrick unpacked the food, and together they sat under the trees to eat their lunch. Cobalt had eaten a fat cow before they left, so he entertained himself digging in the sand like a huge overgrown reptilian puppy.
Sara and Derrick watched him and ate their meal in the same contemplative silence.
A stiff wind picked up by the time they were ready to leave again, and clouds had begun to gather in the northwest off the Straits of Schallsea.
Cobalt snuffed the wind and tasted its moisture on his tongue… "There's a storm building," he warned Sara.
She nodded. "Do you want to risk the last leg across the open water?" she asked him.
The dragon appreciated her question. Her respect for his abilities was one of the things he loved about her. "It is near, but we shouldn't have any problem reaching the coast."
Without further delay the two humans climbed atop the dragon and took their seats in the saddle. The big blue pushed off immediately and pumped his wings to gain altitude. As soon as he reached his preferred cruising height, where he could catch the best drafts, he leveled out and pushed hard to race the storm across the wide stretch of water.
Sara and Derrick kept a watch to the northwest and said little.
Derrick was the first one to scale the wall of silence. "Knight Officer Conby—"
She interrupted him. "Please call me Sara on this trip. A title like that might be a giveaway to the wrong people."
He chuckled. "I'll try to remember that." Then his tone turned serious again. "I… I mean we… were wondering if something was bothering you? Were you not pleased that we became knights?"
Sara stiffened in a sudden chill that had nothing to do with the wind. She clasped her hands together to hide their sudden trembling. "I'll match you your question and raise one. Are you happy to be a Knight of Takhisis?"
He looked at her keenly, considering how he should answer this. "I thought I would be."
She heard the unspoken hesitation and swiveled around to look at him. "But?" she prompted.
His eyes were shadowed, like the dark depths of a grotto, "But… now the truth eludes me. I don't know."
"Why did you take your vow?"
He snorted. "What choice did I have? Besides, I thought it was what I wanted. I thought it was what you wanted."
"Me" Sara cried, more astonished than she had ever been. "By my sweet grandmother's knucklebones, whatever gave you that idea?" She was appalled to think the squires had even considered taking their vows to please her.
He stared at her as the blood drained from her face. "You did! By your training and your duel with Massard and the way you helped us. Isn't that why you were there? To make us into knights?"
Something shattered in Sara. Of all the things she had worried about and imagined, this possibility never occurred to her. She leaned over, wrenched her skull helm loose from its bindings, and, giving an anguished cry, threw it into the sea.
The young knight behind her stared, stupefied, at the helm as it fell and splashed far below.
"I didn't want to train anyone!" Sara said miserably. Her gray eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I came only to see what was happening in Neraka. But we were found and brought to the general, and all I could do was go along with the masquerade. She put me in charge of a training talon, thinking my experience would benefit you all," she ended bitterly, spitting out the word "experience" like a foul taste.
Overhead, the clouds drew together in a thick canopy and brought a chilly, wet wind whistling by them. Cobalt pushed harder for the coast. With his keen dragon eyes, he could just make out the distant line of land in the thickening mist. His riders paid little heed to the worsening weather. They concentrated on each other and the truth that finally gnawed its way out.
"I don't understand," said Derrick. "Are you not a Knight of Takhisis?"
Sara turned again to face him, and her heart jumped painfully to see him. His shoulders were slumped and his proud face looked bewildered. "No, I am Sara Dunstan. Steel Brightblade was my adopted son, and I spent ten years with the dark order trying to convince him to leave it."
Derrick jerked upright. A cloud of anger scudded across his features. Words and phrases she said became clear and stabbed like knives into his pride. He had respected her, admired her! For nothing but a sham. Without probing deeper into her motives or her feelings, he lashed out with his own bitter hurt.
"You lied to us!" he said savagely. "You spoke of honor and courage, all the while hiding behind a mask of deceit! You're just a filthy spy. All you wanted was information. You probably laughed at us while we worked so hard to earn your approval. We thought you were one of the most honorable knights in Neraka. We wanted to be like you. Like you!" he shouted furiously.
Sara stretched out her hand to him. "No. No, Derrick, it wasn't like that at all."
But he would not listen. His lean face turned cold and hard. His green eyes glittered like brittle ice. "Worst of all, you're a traitor. You betrayed the order and betrayed us. Why are you going to the tomb at all? Or are we? Cobalt" he yelled at the dragon. "Where are we?"
"Just off the coast of Abanasinia," cam
e the reply.
"Good! Put me down at the first land you come to."
Sara started. "No, Derrick. Please listen to me!"
"I've listened to you enough," he said, his tone implacable. "I want off. I'll go my own way."
Sara whipped around to shout at the blue. "Don't land, Cobalt. Keep flying to Solace. Maybe the Majeres will talk to him."
"Sara, I am going to have to land. I can't see where I'm going"
At once Sara saw what he meant. While she and Derrick were talking, the storm had moved in with winter rapidity. Already the dragon was being buffeted by strong winds, and the visibility dwindled rapidly in an approaching squall of flying rain.
Sara bit her lip to keep from crying. There was no choice. Unless the squall blew over, Cobalt would have to land soon. She turned to reason with Derrick one more time and saw him untying his gear and yanking it loose.
"Derrick, I never laughed—"
He cut her off with a vicious gesture. "I don't want to hear it. You'll only lie to me again."
Sara tried desperately to regain some composure, to talk reasonably to him. "The only lie I ever implied was that I was a knight. Everything else was from my heart. I care about all of you. Especially you. You remind me of Steel in so many ways, except I do not see the darkness in you that shadowed his life."
If he heard anything she said, he gave no sign. He continued to collect his things, his bow, his pack, the sword strapped to the saddle. "Do you know what really burns me up?" he said, without looking at her. "It's that Jacson died to save you and your treachery. I hope you're satisfied."
The verbal blow struck Sara brutally hard. She gasped, and her thoughts went cold. Before she could think of something to say, Cobalt informed her, "I see the shore just ahead. Hold on."
Just as he said that, the rain caught up with them and lashed down in a dense downpour.
"Don't go," Sara pleaded to Derrick. "Please talk to me. This is all wrong. You have to understand."
Legacy of Steel Page 22