by Stephen Deas
Next cloud. Sharp turn. Back into the light. Sprint after one of the other dragons. No good. Turn again.
And you suggest? She was powering through the air with all her strength, sprinting, turning, keeping the other dragons at bay for now. It couldn't last. Kemir was pressed flat against her scales and could already feel her becoming uncomfortably warm even through his furs. Her thoughts were distinctly irritable. He could see them. She was wondering whether she'd fly faster without Kemir on her back.
Another cloud. Another turn. Into the light. Straight into another scorpion.
'Get them away from their eyries. They need their potions. They can't follow you if you take them away from their eyries.'
And where are their eyries, Kemir?
'In the mountains.' Which was certainly true. But for all he knew, there might be eyries all over the place. He'd never been this side of the Worldspine. Hadn't even known it existed.
Then your advice is flawed, little one. I prefer the lakes. Snow turned sharply in the next cloud, arrowing back at the three dragons in pursuit. Kemir wasn't sure whether it was her patience or her strength that had gone first. The other dragons scattered. She spat fire at the nearest, then pinwheeled and powered towards the distant peaks, climbing higher, putting the clouds below her. Another scorpion bolt buried itself in her flank. Kemir felt the flash of pain and anger. A second one sailed over his head. There was something in Snow's thoughts that he'd never seen before, something that didn't belong. Desperation.
'The sea!' he burst out. 'Go to the sea!'
The sea? There was a pause. Where is the sea?
Kemir tried to form a map of the realms in his mind. 'Somewhere south.'
Why is the sea better than a lake that is smaller but closer?
'Because it's called the Endless Sea for a reason. Because there aren't any eyries. You can fly and keep on going and they'll have to give up and go home, and when they come back they'll never be able to find you.' And you can float on the surface and I can stay on your back and no one needs to drown or be taken by the dragon-riders.
It is far away, is it not, Kemir? Very far.
That was probably true. He didn't know where they were any more. 'I don't know.' He glanced over his shoulder, looking for the pursuit. Snow was leaving a trail of smoke in the air behind her. No, not smoke, steam. When he touched the scales of her back with his bare skin, he yelped. They were hot, painfully hot. Days, probably.
I do not know if I can fly for days at this speed.
'You flew that far when we crossed the Worldspine.' Not at this speed though.
Nor was I poisoned.
Self-pity? Kemir felt his anger return, and this time it was all his own. 'No, but you weren't so fat with people you weren't supposed to eat either. You brought this on yourself. Now you can get out of it.'
They challenged me, Kemir. Two more scorpion bolts flew past Snow in quick succession. A third glanced off her scales. She turned again, changing course to fly parallel to the Worldspine. Kemir tried to work out whether they were going the right way. 'The last time we flew towards the sea, we kept the mountains on the right.' Snow had turned so they were on her left.
Yes, Kemir. And we have crossed the mountains now.
He tried to work out whether that made a difference. He didn't get very far before Snow suddenly dropped out of the sky and plunged towards the ground. Kemir screamed, partly in surprise, partly from real fear that Snow had suddenly succumbed to the poisoned bolts.
I do not feel the poison yet, Kemir. Her thoughts were tinged with amusement. If it is to be the sea then I must fly low to weave among the hills. The dragons that follow us are fully grown. They are stronger and faster than me, but I am more agile. We must use that to our advantage.
We. Snow had never said we before. Despite everything, despite the burned town, despite even Nadira, a warm glow bloomed in the pit of Kemir's stomach. We. It might have been his breakfast trying to escape as Snow pitched into free fall. Or it might have been pride.
33
The Fortunes of War
Luck.
Prince Sakabian couldn't believe what he was seeing. He hadn't expected to find them. He was high up on the edge of the Purple Spur, cruising along the edge of the Great Cliff with the jagged peaks of the Spur to one side and the great grey emptiness of the Plains of Ancestors far, far below on the other. He hadn't expected any trouble at all. And yet there they were, far off and high over the desert plains. Eight of them. Six hunters and two war-dragons. The air was so clear and dry that even from this distance he could make out what they were. He looked over his right shoulder. Twenty-five war-dragons filled the air behind him, stretched out in a line. On their backs were nearly a hundred dragon-knights. They had scorpions and fire-bombs. Enough to start a war. The Red Riders were supposed to be far away, deep in the Worldspine harassing Valmeyan. Sakabian was in the wrong place and everyone knew it. He was here to watch the northern edges of the Spur, keeping an eye on the speaker's borders and the alchemists' precious convoys travelling along the Evenspire Road.
And yet there they were. Eight dragons, mostly hunters. They hadn't come from Evenspire and that only left one thing. The Red Riders weren't in the Worldspine after all. They were here.
Luck.
That's what Knight-Marshal Aktark would say. That's what everyone would say. No matter that the Red Riders had struck here before. No matter that another dozen wagons from the secret mountain strongholds of the alchemists were on their way. Luck, they would say. No one would give him the credit. No one would praise his astute tactical acumen, his precise prediction of where the Red Riders would strike again. They would just say it was luck.
So be it. The queen – he still couldn't help but think of her as his queen, even now – the queen would see a victory. He doubted she would care how it was won.
The queen. Even thinking about her made him stir. Aunt Zafir. He could hardly hear her name without thinking of her naked. Without seeing her in his mind, slowly slipping out of the darkness and into his bed, arching her back as he spread her legs. Unwed. Her lover crippled and a traitor. You could see the hunger in her. She was ripe, ripe to be ploughed by any prince who brought her a victory, especially a prince of her own blood. He let that thought spur him on even as a new possibility presented itself. Back home in the Pinnacles, his father and Queen Zafir's sister were already manoeuvring against each other to take her crown. The family was tearing itself in half again. He could stop that. Yes. Perhaps a victory here could win him a crown as well. He'd be quite happy enough to help himself to Zafir's little sister and share a throne with her as long as he got a taste of the bigger sister too… The two sides of the family united again. A new lover, one safe and bound by blood. Two birds killed with a single stone. Yes…
He wrenched his thoughts away from the taste of Zafir's skin on his tongue. The battle had to be won first. There was little point trying to hide his approach. They were in open skies and clear air and if the other riders hadn't seen him already, they certainly would as soon as he broke away from the cover of the Great Cliff. It would be a chase. In a chase, a war-dragon always beat a hunter. The six hunters might as well give up now. At worst, if he was blisteringly stupid, the two war-dragons might get away; but that would still give him the first and the biggest victory that Zafir had seen for a long time. He would take it to her and bow, and her eyes would sparkle at the understanding of his lust.
Ripe to be ploughed. He shifted in his saddle, trying to get comfortable.
The dragon beneath him surged through the air and shrieked, echoing the desire in his thoughts. Behind him his riders fell into formation, fanning out to the left and the right, above and below, with Sakabian at the point.
Like a spear to be plunged into my enemy's heart. The Red Riders had seen him. Their hunters were fleeing, losing height and pulling away for now, but he didn't let that worry him. Deep in the mountains they might have found a place to hide, but here in the barrens there
was nothing. No cliffs, no canyons, no crevasses, no great rivers, no titanic forests. A sheer wall almost a mile high marked the start of the deep mountains and they were far too low to find an escape route there. The Silver River valley was half a day of flying away. No, there was nothing for them. He had half a mile of height over them, and height could become speed whenever he wanted. They were doomed. The only shelter was in the Spur, and Sakabian was in the way. Their cries echoed through the air. They might as well have been cries of despair.
A part of him hoped they'd fly north. That was worth a try. They could make a dash for Evenspire and the shelter of the treacherous Queen Almiri and her riders. For the hunters that was hopeless. Evenspire was simply too far away. They would never reach it before Sakabian was on them. For the two war-dragons, though, if they were strong…
And if they do then I will take their hunters and I will follow them to Almiri's eyrie, and I will loose my scorpions and rain down my bombs, for then there will be no doubt that we are at war… That was what the speaker wanted. An excuse. Anyone could see it. Yes, I could give her that too.
But they did the more obvious thing. They turned west and sprinted for the Silver River and the Worldspine from which it came. Sakabian changed his course, trying to be patient, knowing that the dragons were ultimately his. Their only real hope was to reach the mountains, so he kept in their way, blocking them off, drifting away from the Great Cliff as he herded them further north and west, slowly trading his own height for the distance between them. Eventually the hunters would tire and then even the mountains would be useless to them. Then he would take them.
If I haven't taken them already.
They danced together, Sakabian and his twenty-five against eight, wearing them down until everything was perfectly poised and the inevitable outcome was assured.
He never even saw the other dragons. They must have been lurking beyond the sheer walls of the Spur. They came from behind and from high above, and with such speed and in such numbers that half his riders were dead before he even knew he was under threat. One instant he was sizing up the moment, readying himself to commit to the attack. The next his mount was streaking down, while the air filled with shrieks and fire and howling wind. Dragons smashed together around him. Riders were crushed between them or else ripped from their saddles and tossed away to plunge the half-mile to the ground below. Half a man sailed past Sakabian's head, fragments of armour spinning lazily around him. Sometimes, when men and saddles were torn apart, it wasn't leather and metal that gave way but flesh and bone, and Zafir's harnesses were the finest.
With no idea how he was alive, he slowed his precipitous dive, signalling for a fighting retreat, but there was no one to rally. Dragons wheeled everywhere. Only six of his remained and they were scattering and badly outnumbered. He couldn't count how many dragons had attacked him. Dozens. They were all over the place now, most of them hunting down his own, some of them still circling above. Doing to him exactly what he'd been planning to do to the Red Riders.
He saw the hunters too, the ones he'd thought would be his. From underneath, the colours painted on their bellies and their tails cried of Evenspire. Of Almiri the traitor queen. They weren't the Red Riders after all. Almiri had lured him into a trap. He felt a surge of something. Of awe perhaps. This meant war, open bloody war. At least half the dragons of Evenspire were here, killing his men.
A rider never abandoned his dragon. That was the rule. Never, never, never. A rider always fought to the death rather than lose his mount because, in the end, dragons were more precious. Every prince knew that. And since when dragon-knights fought they fought in the air, in heavy harnesses and armour, it all seemed rather inevitable. But I am a prince! Dying hardly seemed fair. He was young, strong, virile. He didn't deserve to die. An hour earlier, in his mind at least, he'd almost become both a king and a lover.
Almiri's riders were around him now, slowly closing in, keeping their distance but forcing him towards the ground. Three still circled above, waiting lor him to flee. They were high enough, he judged. High enough to turn their height into speed and be sure to catch him no matter where he went.
Ancestors! Were they offering quarter?
Yes, he realised, that's exactly what they were doing. And why should he go down fighting? The end would be exactly the same, after all. Except if he fought, he would be dead.
And if I'm taken? Almiri will crow and Zafir will seethe. My brothers will pay the price for our humiliation. My father will pay my ransom and will never sit on the throne of the Pinnacles, and I will be sent into exile. The queen will spit in my face – if she can even bring herself to look at me. No. My life will be finished.
Except…
He plunged down, straight to the ground, tearing open the buckles on his harness as they fell. No cover for dragons among the stones and the dust and the thorn bushes but plenty enough for a man. As soon as he reached the ground, he slid down off the dragon's back and shouted at it to move away. Then he ran for the nearest shred of cover, covered himself in his dragon-scale as best he could and prayed.
Let me survive. Let me take the word back to my queen. Let her know from my lips of the traitor queen's outrage. Perhaps Zafir would give him dragons again, more dragons. Perhaps she'd let him burn Evenspire to ash. Perhaps she might be seduced by his bravery.
They burned him. More than once they caught him with their fire, but they never quite seemed to see him and his armour held off the flames. Luck. Sixty dragons and their riders and he'd escaped them! When the sun began to set and they finally flew away, all he felt was relief and a great deal of pain. He didn't care any more whether Zafir ever spoke to him again. He was alive, that was all. For a brief few hours he saw himself for what he was. A fool.
But not for long. He walked through the night until he was half dead from pain and exhaustion. His left his armour behind him, and then everything but his sword, and then even that, so that when he found his way to the Evenspire Road, he was reduced to common thievery. Still, he could barely contain himself. He slept in the day in what shade he could find until the wagons he'd come out here to protect rolled past. What was left of them, for Almiri's riders had already caught them and very politely stripped them of everything the alchemists carried. They gave him what he needed – water, food and a horse – and he was on his way, racing ahead of them.
It took him another four days to reach the Adamantine Palace. By then he'd traded his horse for a thoroughbred. He'd survived. He would be the one to tell the queen about Almiri's wickedness and give her the excuse for the war that she so clearly craved. He would be a hero. He would bring her victory, of a sort. And she would be grateful. Oh so grateful.
In the palace he dressed himself as a prince once more. He insisted on an audience with the speaker and he told her how he'd been surrounded on three sides by Almiri and the Red Riders. He spoke of how valiantly his men had fought and how many of the enemy had been slain. Of how he'd been ripped from his own mount as they'd skimmed the ground. Of how he'd been burned and left for dead and yet, by some miracle, had survived his fall. In broken whispers he told of how they'd hunted him for three days before he'd made his escape. He could see the glee in the speaker's face when he told her of Evenspire's treachery, the sparkle in her eyes, the burning heat of desire. He saw the slight hint of a smile, the licking of her lips as she sent him away with words full of promise and hints of reward.
It came that night. The Night Watchman brought it to him with a pair of heavy hammers. They smashed his ankles and his wrists and then broke his spine and cut out his tongue. Then they put him in a cage and hung him next to Shezira's rotting remains to die slowly in the sun. Speaker Zafir watched them hoist him up. She spat on the ground beneath him and then left. She didn't even say anything.
Luck.
34
All at Sea
The test, Kemir discovered, was not between the dragons to see who could stay in the air the longest. The test was between the riders.
The test was to see who didn't mind pissing and shitting in their breeches, who didn't mind sleeping on the wing, who didn't mind not eating or drinking for day after day. The test was who could put up with more pain.
On even terms, Kemir could have lived with that. Dragon-riders were perfumed and pampered and had servants to do all their work for them. Outsiders, on the other hand, were as tough as nails, or at least that was how Kemir saw the world. Dragon-riders cried like babies if they got hungry. Outsiders didn't even think about going a few days without food. That was simply the way life was when you tried to live off the land in the mountains. He would be hungry and thirsty and stiff and sore, but nothing worse than he'd suffered a dozen times before and certainly nowhere near as bad as crossing the Worldspine had been. The dragon saddles were comfortable enough, designed for long days of flight. He even managed to doze on Snow's back in the freezing wind of their passage through the afternoon. When he woke up though, Valmeyan's riders were still there. It occurred to him then that they'd come prepared. That they probably had water and food for days of flight, and that he didn't.
Do not trouble yourself, Kemir. They pit their endurance against mine. They cannot win.
'Yes.' His head was already aching from the constant cold wind and a growing thirst and it was only going to get worse. His nose throbbed, but the wind was the worst, a relentless battering gale as the dragons raced for hour after hour, skimming the ground, zig-ging and zagging between hills and through valleys. Their pursuers took it in turns to follow Snow while one of them always stayed high, watching so that she could never slip away. Despite the wind, Kemir was sweating. Snow's scales were too hot to touch.
As the sun sank lower and the clouds on the horizon began to look like bruises, Valmeyan's riders closed in on Snow for one last charge, harrying her even closer to the ground with their scorpions. Kemir watched lakes and rivers and trees and empty meadows flash past beneath beneath them, sotlose that Snow's tail sometimes threw up clouds of spray or earth.