As soon as she got the nags settled, she better go looking for Tsai. Just in case the girl was hurt. The wagon’d left a trail a baby bunny could follow.
About the time she got the harness stashed away, plodding hoof steps squished between the boulders. Sumach straggled in with Tsai sliding around on the mare’s bare, wet back.
No wonder the girl was so late. “Saddle still in the trunk?”
Tsai nodded. “Slowed us down a bit. You’re missing something, you know.”
Lorel snorted. “Like breakfast and lunch? I’m starving. What’d I forget to pack?”
Tsai held up a couple of chunks of broken pottery.
“Bitter blood in the Warp and the Weave.” Lorel dashed to the front of the wagon.
The driver’s platform was bare. She’d lost the fire pot. “Weaver snip my thread. I’m such a noodle brain.”
“At least it started raining before the whole mountain went up in flames.” Tsai wearily slid off her horse. “I tried walking on coals, but then I had to go catch Sumach again.”
Her boots and soggy trousers did look kinda singed. “You get burnt?”
“Not much.” Tsai unbridled Sumach and set her free to graze. “Why do you have blood on your knees?”
“Stupid starfish spines.” Lorel held up her blood-speckled palms. “I’ll be picking them out all night.”
Tsai nodded. “I’ll help you after we eat.” She paused and stared into the rain. “Is there anything to eat?”
“The toad?” Lorel shrugged. “It’s in a weird mood, though, so I bet it’ll taste bad.”
Tsai snorted. “It’ll always taste bad. Come on, I’ll help you pull out spines now, and look for food later.” She climbed up to the driver’s seat and lifted the door. “Bog swallow it.”
“Now what?” Though considering the way the wagon hopped all over, the kid’s books where likely all over the floor.
“The slime-eating scimitar is on the bench again.”
Lorel pushed past her and slid under the door. “Maybe it likes you.”
“Yeah, right.”
It was quiet inside the pintsized wagon, for all the rain was thundering down on the roof. The fraying starfish were good for something.
She grabbed the curved sword and slid it up onto the kid’s bed, next to Kyri-thing. “Keep this doohickey outta trouble, will you?”
The legless lizard blinked at her.
Tsai climbed under the door and fluffed her wet shirt. “Show me your hands.”
Lorel obeyed.
Kyri-thing lifted its head to watch.
The boot-rat hopped to the edge of the bed. Izzy’s black-pearl eyes seemed to peer down at her bloody hands.
Tsai didn’t notice the odd little critter. She yanked out the few spines Lorel had missed. “I think that’s all of them. Take off your trousers.”
Lorel tugged off her boots and squirmed out of her sopping trousers. Their knees were pretty shredded. For that matter her knees were mighty shredded. Blood oozed from dozens of stumpy spines.
“I bet that hurts.” Tsai pointed at the tiny wagon’s only chair. “Sit.”
Lorel sat. “Don’t hurt too bad.” She’d hardly noticed the pain before she saw the mess. Now it really stung.
Tsai tried to pull out the broken-off spines with her fingernails.
“Bitter blood!” Each spine suddenly felt six inches long. And none of them were coming out. “Loom bust a Thread!”
“Sorry.” Tsai leaned back and rubbed her face. “I don’t know what to do without tweezers.”
The slithering toad slid its head over the side of the kid’s bed. “The hatchling deposited said manipulative devices inside its sequestered sartorial cubicle.”
Tsai stared up at the longwinded worm.
Lorel sighed. “Little words, toad.”
Kyri-thing’s jaw flapped a few times, but no sound came out. It shook its head, turned, and thumped its snout against the kid’s clothing chest.
“Oh, in there.” Lorel stood and opened the chest. “Why would the kid put tweezers in here?”
“So we wouldn’t find them.” Tsai stepped up on the chair and tried to looked over Lorel’s shoulder, but she was still too short. “See any matches?”
Lorel pushed the kid’s clothing around and pulled out the scrawny bronze tweezers. “No such luck.” She slammed the lid down. They’d be eating raw fish and crunchy green crap until she rescued the kid.
Tsai stepped down to the floor. “Bog swallow it.”
That was how Lorel felt about it, too. She handed the tweezers to Tsai and plopped down on the chair.
Tsai knelt in front of her and started surgery.
The first few spines didn’t hurt too bad, but the more Tsai pulled out, the worse Lorel squirmed. And the shorter the nubs were, the worse it hurt when they came out.
She was covered in sweat by the time the torture session was over.
Tsai leaned back and rolled her shoulders. “How’d you get so messed up?”
“Crawling on the roof.”
“Don’t do it again.”
Lorel snorted. Like she’d had a choice this time.
“This one recommends bestrewing a detoxicant upon the anchor’s lacerations.”
She glared at the slithering toad.
It added, “This one suggests vinegar.”
Well, it worked for the kid, even if it would stain her red again.
Tsai nodded and took one step to the ‘kitchen.’ She filled a mug from the vinegar cask, grabbed a rag out of the kid’s stash, and handed both to Lorel. “This’ll sting.”
“Yeah, I remember the kid cussing like Weaver’s oldest priest after he’d spilled red wine on his pretty white robe.” She stuck a corner of the rag into the mug and rubbed her hands with it.
Her eyes popped out of her head. Her tongue curled down her throat and tickled her tummy. Weaver’s cold toes, that hurt! But she never said a word out loud.
Tsai took one look at her face and walked to the window.
Lorel dipped the miswoven rag into the blood-woven vinegar, and stuck it on her knee. Weaver crush the Loom! No wonder the kid was cussing.
The overgrown wiggler stared at her a minute, but soon turned to Tsai. “This one postulates that the Fire Heart has designated the Duremen-Lor swordling as its courier.”
Tsai crossed her arms and glared at the upper bunk. “Little words, toad.”
Lorel glanced up at the legless lizard through blurry eyes. This oughta get exciting enough to distract her from the sting.
Not looking the least put out, Kyri-thing tilted its head and stared at Tsai, but it paused like it was trying to come up with words normal people could understand. “This one believes the Fire Heart’s Weapon has chosen the swordling.”
“Fire heart? You mean the scimitar?” Tsai’s jaw dropped, but she jumped to her feet and roared, “I’m not hauling around a piece of magic crap!”
That was the most noise Lorel had ever heard out of the girl, even during battle. She moved the vinegary rag to the other knee and winced.
Tsai spun to face her. “Don’t you start!”
Lorel held up the drippy red rag. “I never said nothing.”
Kyri-thing tilted its head the other way. “Does the swordling denigrate the Quest?”
“Don’t answer that.” Deni-whatever sounded like a word to get them all into trouble. Lorel slapped the rag back on her knee and tried to hide a shudder. “If it’s about the kid’s quest, we ain’t gonna mess with it.”
Tsai opened her mouth, but when Lorel winked at her, she pinched her lips together. She stormed out of the wagon, letting a gust of rain in as she went out.
The legless lizard slithered over the edge of the bunk like it planned to follow her.
“Give her time to think about it, toad. Nobody likes surprises.” She frowned at the sticky rag. Must be more blood soaking it than vinegar. She stuck it out under the door. Rain would wash it clean.
Kyri-thing stopped half
on and half off the bed. “The anchor is wise.” It oozed back up to the kid’s bunk.
Wise, was she? That was rare.
Lorel wiggled back into her wet trousers and followed Tsai out into the rain. With a little luck she’d calm the girl down before she started walking back to Dureme-Lor. Wasn’t like she had to wear the miswoven scimitar all the time.
Chapter 17.
A slow shower of pebbles fell over the cavern entrance.
Viper looked up from his carving and frowned. The rockslide was certainly an odd occurrence. He’d only seen that happen while Leysamura hovered outside the cave, and she was deeply asleep at the moment, curled around her precious egg.
Odd indeed. Pebbles continued to fall. Rain continued to drip from the rocky opening, but not enough to cause a landslide.
He pondered the little avalanche for a moment longer, but it must not matter if it didn’t awaken the grouchy dragon. He shrugged and fingered the half-carved tooth. What should he try next?
Larger rocks tumbled into the cavern. He cringed as a few small boulders thudded onto the floor.
The dragon stirred in her sleep, bolted upright, and screeched a challenge.
Viper scrambled into the tunnel.
A roar that reminded him of a warm trumpet echoed through the cavern.
Leysamura’s screams lost some of their anger and changed into a frantic shout. “Go away! Go away!”
Clutching the carving against his chest, he peeked through a crack in the rock wall.
An indigo dragon landed on the edge of the cavern’s cliff. Its hide glistened like blue ink in contrast to Leysamura’s red port coloring, and it seemed even larger than the female dragon. “Stop bellowing, will you please? It’s my egg, too, you might remember.”
Leysamura glared at the intruder, but she stopped shouting. “Go away, you thoughtless male. I’m in no mood for company.” She rattled her wings and glowered.
“Only because you’re hungry.” The blue dragon crouched low and laid its head in the sand. “Being hungry always makes you nervous. Will you let me hunt for you?”
The red dragon lowered her wings and sighed. “I’d be grateful if you would, Surizhan. Provided you keep your distance. I don’t know which is worse, hunger or the pain of being away from my egg.”
“You needn’t make that decision any longer.” Surizhan turned to leave, but snaked his head back toward Leysamura. “Are you aware that you have vermin in your tunnels?”
She nodded. “It’s my pet, a hatchling. It’s been very well behaved, or I’d have scrunched it by now.”
Surizhan laughed and launched himself into the air.
“I’m not an ‘it’,” Viper shouted. He forced his cramped fingers to open. The carving was imprinted on his palm.
“Seven thousand pardons, oh outstanding male.” Leysamura snorted. “Shut up before I mash you beyond knowing the difference.”
“You would, too.” He lit a will-lamp, wound his way through the tunnels, and retrieved the other half of the tooth and his abandoned tools. “Here I am, making you fancy jewelry, and all you do is insult me.” He hurried back through the tunnels and limped out onto his shelf.
Leysamura laughed. “You’ll get worse than insults if Surizhan catches you. Stay out of sight. And be sure to converse in First Speech. He hates human words, and you need the practice.”
“I hear you.” Hoping to please her, or at least to make her stop staring at him, Viper settled down with his carving.
“You’re too quiet.” The dragon scowled. “Listless. There used to be more fight in you. Are you hungry?”
“Not nearly hungry enough to touch a dragon’s egg.” Even as he said the word, his mouth watered at the thought of an egg fried in butter. He pushed the image away guiltily.
Leysamura’s head jerked back, her breath indrawn sharply. She glared at him for a moment, but relaxed and began to laugh. “I have overreacted, I suppose. You’ve never offered any harm, even though you have the means. Let me tell you a story.”
Praise the Thunderer, she spoke slowly enough he could puzzle out the unfamiliar Old Tongue words.
“Not so very long ago, a brave human hero hunted a dragon who’d been eating people around his city. He climbed deep into the mountains and up a peak until he found the mouth of a cavern.
“Inside he found a new-hatched dragon, not much bigger than an egg and entirely helpless. That great, wise hero slew the infant.
“At that very moment the infant’s mother returned to see her first-born child shudder out his life on the stones. She wanted to crush the hero, but she did not. Instead she picked him up and carried him away.
“She flew him to a wizard, and, after telling her story, she asked the wizard for a single boon. The wizard complied.
“She took the hero back to her cave and put him in a deep, dry bowl where she could watch his every movement. Where she could watch him die, slowly, so slowly. For the wizard transformed the hero into a man-sized salamander, and without water a salamander must die in agony. She watched until it dried up into a shriveled, twitching husk. Finally she dropped the not-quite-dead hero at the edge of a volcano. And watched him writhe until he died.”
Viper whistled softly. “What a horrible death. Though I admit he deserved it. I bet the mother wasn’t even the dragon he was looking for.”
She nodded and rubbed her cheek against her egg. “He stumbled on her cave by accident. But the dragon who’d been raiding had a similar reason for hating humans.”
“Thunderer protect us.” He shook his head sadly. “No wonder you don’t want me near your baby. Listen, I swear by the Wind Dancer, by the Thunderer, by the Weaver and her Loom, and by my place in the Deathsinger’s hall that I will never harm a dragon child, and that I will never harm any dragon if I can think of a way around it.”
“Such an promise.” Leysamura ran her hands along her neck. “Do you realize that it’s entirely meaningless?”
What an insult. He’d never sworn an empty oath in his whole life. But dragons didn’t think like people. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t believe in any of those gods, and even if you still did, you soon won’t.”
“What?” Of course he believed in the Thunderer and Wind Dancer. He wasn’t sure about the Weaver, but Lorel believed in her.
“Wizards don’t believe in much of anything.” Leysamura snorted. “No matter. Just remember, if you ever break that vow, I’ll have you turned into a salamander.”
Viper grimaced. “I heard about a wizard who’d been shape-changed by other wizards. Until then the notion had never occurred to me. To shape oneself is scary enough, but to have the power to shape another…”
“Wizards can do terrible and wonderful things.” Leysamura lifted her wing to peek at her egg. “And a dragon can always find a wizard.”
Was that part of a puzzle? Not one he could solve easily. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll learn. They’ll teach you.”
“I’d rather avoid them if I can.” Wizards were all crazy. He’d have to talk to one eventually, to ask the wizard to magically join the Kyridon’s weapons with their wielders, but he hoped to find older sorcerers willing to introduce him. Or better yet, to speak for him.
She raised her head. “Why do you fear wizards?”
“I don’t–”
The dragon narrowed her eyes. “Don’t lie to me.”
“Let me finish!” Lightning strike her, this female was more impatient than Lorel. “I don’t fear them, but I’m wary of them. The live one I met acted half dead, and a dead one tried to enslave me.”
Her eye ridges soared upward. “You met a wizard’s ghost? How rare.”
“Not rare enough. I met her twice, and I couldn’t kill her either time. I just drove her off.”
“It’s rather hard to kill a ghost.”
Tell that to Frederick, who died again to further the Kyridon’s quest. But saying so would require hours of explanation. It was easier to redir
ect the conversation. “Will my ghost foot work if I make it solid while I’m wearing my padded boot?”
She tilted her head and shrugged. “That’s a matter of will. If you demand that it works, it will.”
“Why did you kidnap me?” If she was in the mood to answer questions, he’d ask until she threatened to mash him.
The dragon lowered her eyelids coyly. “A series of appalling noises reverberated in the web. I flew out to investigate and found you and your fascinating aura. You looked like you’d make a good pet, so I took you.”
Blast. She’d heard him awakening the Kyridon’s weapons. Trevor warned him he made too much noise when he worked magic, but the old man had never gotten around to teaching him silence.
Viper smiled inside. Trevor most likely used his racket to keep track of him.
But noise was the least of his problems right now. Answers might help. “You dismissed the blood magic when it rose around me, didn’t you? Or was that a coincidence?”
She sat back and tilted her head. “You can’t control sanguinolent energies? Fascinating. How far into your formal studies are you?”
His stomach sank and wriggled with embarrassment. “I couldn’t make a shield, so I didn’t pass the second-level exam.”
“You make a perfectly adequate shield. And you’re definitely farther along than second level.”
Stones clattered outside the cave.
She glanced toward the noise. “Go hide. He’s back.”
Viper stared at her blankly for an instant. Who was back? Yikes, the male dragon. He bolted into the nearest tunnel.
The blue dragon glided into the cavern and laid a deer on the floor. “Game levels seem unusually low in your territory. I’ll start hunting abroad to give the area a rest.” He scooted the carcass toward Leysamura.
“I won’t eat anything with human taint on it.” She reached out and dragged the deer closer. “Not humans or cows or horses.” She glanced at Surizhan from beneath her eye ridges. “I would like some fish. I haven’t been in shape to go fishing for lunars.”
“Fish, she says.” Surizhan stomped and grumbled. “I hate the brine. Yes, you’ll have your fish. Though I’d rather bring a horse. It would be easier.”
He sprang from the cavern without a backward glance.
Dragon's Child (The Mindbender's Rise Book 4) Page 13