In danger of being trampled, Zala should have run off into the woods as soon as she landed. Instead, ignoring the pain in her knee, she raced straight between the dragon’s legs. All four of them were on the ground, and she could reach the paler scale of its belly. She sprinted in close and rammed the sword upward. Her move was almost too late. The fanged maw snapped right behind her, so close that she lost a piece of her uniform jacket. But the point of her blade slid between two scales, giving the dragon something else to worry about.
It leaped straight up, like a startled cat. One of its back paws struck her in the shoulder as it passed, the weight of the blow hurling her to the ground.
Afraid the dragon would land right back on her, Zala rolled into the soggy ferns and thorny bushes next to the trail. Foliage clawed at her, keeping her from rolling as far as she wanted. The dragon did indeed land again, its head now pointing straight at her.
Zala sprang up, wincing at the throbbing of her knee, and lifted her sword as the maw came toward her, jaws snapping once again. There wasn’t time or room to dodge. She thrust her blade straight between the dragon’s jaws, piercing the roof of its mouth even as hot, meat-drenched breath struck her. The head whipped up, and her heart lurched as her sword was torn from her grip. She stumbled backward, weaponless.
The dragon was too busy shaking its head around to take advantage of her state. To her surprise, that massive head cracked against a tree, and then against another one.
“Salena?” Zala risked calling out, trying to glimpse the rest of her people as she watched the dragon in case it attacked her again. “Sandirr?”
Someone shouted from farther up the trail, and she glimpsed Salena atop a second dragon’s back, trying to find her way to its throat, but a great thrashing and snapping of wood in the opposite direction drowned out the reports people might have been making.
A new dragon landed, not ten meters from her.
“Shouldn’t have complained about the coffee bushes,” she muttered. The gods were not pleased with her.
The dragon with her sword in its mouth stumbled and fell to the ground, its legs collapsing. Had she managed to sink her blade in deeply enough to pierce its brain from below? A question to be answered later. The new dragon’s eyes flared an eerie pale blue, and it leaped toward her, clearly willing to go through its comrade to reach her.
Zala sprinted around the fallen dragon, using it for cover, though it still twitched in its death throes, its wings battering the foliage with enough power to knock over a human. She had to risk running under them, not only to avoid the other one, but because she needed her sword. Without it, all she could do was duck and dodge.
A screech sounded, one she feared would alert every dragon in the valley that intruders had come. Zala reached the maw of the fallen dragon and found its eyes open and glaring, tracking her. She flinched, having expected it to be dead—mostly dead. To stick her hand into the maw of a still-living dragon... that could be suicide. But she needed her sword.
The new dragon leaped onto its comrade’s back, its wings stretched, and its eyes flaring that pale blue light as they bored into her. There wasn’t time to try for the sword. She dove back under the dying dragon’s wing, hoping it would be enough to protect her from an attack from the other.
She expected to hear the snap of fangs right behind her, but instead, something jostled the bottom dragon’s body. Its side heaved, half knocking her over, and the wing almost smothered her. Her first thought was that the creature had more life in it and was rising again. That filled her with terror, because she might lose her sword if it flew away, and because her people might not be able to handle three dragons.
But then snaps and screeches and thumps shook the air above her—and the body beside her. Confused, she half ran and half crawled out from underneath the wing. She raced to the closest tree and used it for cover as she peeked back toward the trail.
A fourth dragon had entered the fray. Before her terror could reach a new level, she realized the new dragon was attacking the one that had been about to eat her.
“Talon?” she whispered.
Each dragon had its fangs sunken into the other’s flesh, and they fought with claws and wings. They rolled off the downed dragon, entwined like wrestlers. Zala hoped Talon was indeed helping them, but she couldn’t count on him to solve their entire problem. She ran back to the head of the fallen dragon. Its eyes were still open, but the light in them had gone out, and it had stopped moving. Though her heart slammed into her ribcage, she risked leaning far into the creature’s maw, sticking her arm and shoulder past that fence of killer fangs. She had to touch the moist, hot tongue in order to grab the hilt of her blade.
“You’ll get a good bath later,” she told it as she tugged at the hilt.
The blade resisted her tugs, and she hissed in frustration. It must have cut into a foot of flesh and brain matter. She had to climb entirely into the thing’s maw to find a better grip. Finally, she wrenched the blade free, but the dragon’s upper jaw crashed down. Cursing, she thrust her arm up to keep from being trapped inside. The weight dropped her to her knees. She hacked at the fangs, struggling to create an opening for herself. When she finally escaped, rolling free of her saliva-filled prison, she collapsed on the ground, feeling as if that had been a battle in its own right.
The jungle had grown quiet, deathly quiet.
She forced herself to her feet, her sword clenched in her grip. Her people couldn’t have fallen. Not that quickly.
A dragon head reared up from behind the ridge of the fallen creature’s spine. Zala jumped back, raising her blade, ignoring the saliva and blood that flew from it. The eyes that flashed at her were violet. Familiar.
“Talon?” she asked warily, not lowering the blade. She glanced down the trail, trying to see her people. Another dragon body lay in the foliage up ahead. It wasn’t moving. Good.
Yes. Did your mother never tell you not to climb into a dragon’s mouth?
“She forgot to mention it. Probably because there weren’t dragons infiltrating our world then.”
Talon’s head disappeared. Had he shape-shifted? Zala walked around the fallen dragon to look for him, but also so she could head up the trail to find the others.
A naked human man walked out of the ferns. “Infiltrated?” Talon sounded remorseful. “I suppose to you our great escape from victimization must seem that way.”
“If you hadn’t victimized us when you arrived, perhaps we would have felt differently.” Zala spotted the other dragon, the one he had been battling. Its broken body lay crumpled against the trees several meters from the path. “I do appreciate your help with that.”
“Good.” He walked beside her, brushing her lower back with his hand for a moment.
She was tempted to lean against him—that battle had not been her most graceful, and her legs felt weak after having to cut herself out of a dead dragon’s mouth. Somehow, that had left her more fraught than dealing with the living ones. She glimpsed light ahead, however, and only patted his arm. It was the gray light of Salena’s sword, and other figures moved about nearby.
“General?” came Sandirr’s shaken voice from up the trail. “Was that... your dragon?”
Zala had sheathed her sword. He must not be able to see her walking up with Talon at her side.
“My dragon? It’s Talon. I don’t think we’ve staked any claims of ownership on each other.”
“That kiss said otherwise,” someone muttered.
I can be your dragon, Talon spoke into her mind. We must hurry. I can sense others out there.
“I know. I can too,” she said softly, not certain if he would hear her if she thought her responses and not certain how comfortable she was with the idea of him being able to see into her mind.
Only when we’re close. He looked toward her. I can stay out, if you wish.
Let me think about it, she thought experimentally and glanced over to see if he had understood. He nodded once. Will there be serio
us repercussions for the choice you’ve made? To help us?
Only if they catch me.
Let’s try to avoid that then.
An agreeable idea.
She had never asked him to fight on her people’s behalf, and she worried that he had just condemned himself, that he would never be able to return to his kind. Just because Talon hadn’t gotten along with the dragon king and had been imprisoned did not mean that he had no other friends among his kind. Would any of them understand his choice? Why he had killed dragons to help humans?
No, came the soft thought in her mind, the single word edged with sorrow.
Zala hoped that sorrow would not turn to regret one day, that he would not come to resent her.
I made my decision before I’d ever met you in person, only from a distance in battle.
Not enough of a distance, she thought, touching an old scar on her shoulder for which he had been responsible.
You gave me scars too. His tone seemed lighter, and he bumped her arm with his. I could show you some time. One is in quite a private area. You almost rendered me incapable of mating.
I didn’t notice any scars in that particular area when I was... inspecting it.
I’ll have to show you in my true form. I have different scars than the ones I received as a human. He cleared his throat in her mind. Oh, and inspecting? Was that what you were doing? It was an oddly pleasurable inspection.
Her cheeks flushed. They were joining the others, and this was hardly the time for thinking about inspections.
“Any injuries?” Zala asked, trying to identify everyone by the light of her and Salena’s swords.
“Yes,” Sandirr said, pointing to one of the men.
Their medical officer, Lieutenant Ellya, was bandaging his leg. “No deaths, ma’am,” she said, “but Hason lost a lot of blood and won’t be able to walk.” Her grim tone said that walking might not be the worst of the soldier’s problems.
“Leave me here, ma’am,” Hason said. “I’ll be no good to you.”
“We’ll carry you to the tunnels, see if we can find a safe spot where you can wait,” Zala said. “There are too many dragons out to leave you here. Talon, do you have any idea what’s going on? Were they all here for you?”
“It would seem unlikely, but no, I don’t have any information about what my kind are doing these days.” He shifted his shoulders in a gesture that was almost human, but not quite. “It’s been a year since anyone reported in to me. Except—” He hesitated.
“The dragon who helped you in our camp?” Zala guessed.
“Yes, but he didn’t have time to give me details on much.” His voice lowered to a whisper. “I’m not sure he survived.”
“Sorry.” Zala gripped his arm.
Her sword buzzed on her hip.
“More dragons approaching,” she said.
Sandirr cursed. “As soon as they figure out to attack en masse, we’re dead. General, I hate to say it, but we need to abort. There will be even more dragons at Mount Slash. This is turning into a suicide mission.”
Zala held up a hand. “Talon, are they sensing you? Or our swords?”
“Most likely me. They may not have figured out yet that you’re here. They could only know that they’ve got a dragon who’s... gone rogue. That’s what they’ll consider it.”
“What if you flew off, taking Corporal Hason with you, and dropped him off somewhere safe, then stayed away until things settled down?”
His eyes flared with inner fire. “You wish me to leave you without protection?”
“We won’t need as much protection if the dragons don’t know exactly where we are,” Zala said.
“And we have our own protection.” Salena touched her sword, an indignant expression on her face.
“I wouldn’t mind the dragon’s help,” Sandirr said, a surprising backer.
“I’m going off with a dragon?” Hason looked up from his leg, his eyes round.
“Lead them away.” Zala grasped Talon’s arm again. “Please. I never meant for you to be a part of this infiltration, to attack your own people.”
“My kind will still be able to sense you through your swords,” Talon said.
“We’ll risk it. We’ll hope they think the trouble has left with your departure. Especially if they see a human riding on your back.”
Talon sighed into her mind. Your soldier is not who I wanted to give a ride to.
I know. I would very much like that ride if it’s still being offered later.
He rested a hand against the side of her face as he gazed into her eyes. Only for you.
Zala wanted to lean into his touch, to forget this mission she had created for herself, especially when the dragons were on high alert already. What if she didn’t survive? What if he didn’t?
“Thank you,” she whispered, then made herself back away from him. She had work to do.
Chapter 15
The rush of a waterfall came from the jungle ahead, and Zala picked up her pace. That was one of the landmarks from the images Talon had planted in her head. They were close.
There had not been another attack since Talon had shape-shifted back to his dragon form and taken off with her wide-eyed corporal clinging to his back. Zala had given Talon a place to drop off the soldier that was close to a well-hidden tunnel entrance. He could make it inside safely, and enough traffic passed through that someone should be along to help him, even if Zala and her team did not make it back.
She grimaced at that thought, but did not slow her pace.
Behind her, someone tripped and cursed. Walking through the jungle in the dark was not pleasant, especially not with rain dampening everything, but they could not risk more light than the soft glow of the storm swords. Her instincts were to stifle even that, but they never would have found their way without it. Between the clouds and the layers of canopy overhead, it was as dark as the tunnels they had been in earlier.
Her sword vibrated slightly in her hand as they came to a pool, the waterfall tumbling into it, but it had stopped buzzing so fiercely. Part of that had been a result of Talon’s presence—the sword had noticed him when he had been in human form, but it gave a much stronger warning when he walked the earth as a dragon. But part of it had been all the dragons flying above the canopy. A few must still be around, but her group had not been bothered for the last hour; she hoped that meant their ruse had worked.
“That’s more than a little rubble,” Sandirr said, stopping beside the pool and pointing to a damp rocky wall about twenty meters to the side.
Zala recognized the image as matching what Talon had shared with her. “That’s the place.”
“I was afraid of that. That’s an entire rockfall. It’s going to take a lot more than your swords to cut through it. We’ll need to use some of the explosives.”
“Everyone within five miles will know we’re here if we do that,” Zala said. “I’d prefer to save them until we can use them as weapons. We also don’t have an unlimited stash.”
Sandirr mopped his brow with a handkerchief. “We’ll be lucky if the powder even ignites after all this time in the rain.”
“I trust Sergeant Tandoir packed them well,” Zala said. “He’s a professional.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the sergeant said. “I am. I’m also real disappointed when I can’t blow things up.”
“Let’s check out this pile, see if we can figure out where the tunnel mouth was exactly and how to get to it. Tandoir, you’ve got some engineering knowledge, don’t you? Come look with me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Zala chomped on a few coffee beans as she held up her sword for light and walked along the base of the rockfall. It stretched thirty or forty meters along the base of the mountain, the steep slope above it devoid of life, holding only dirt and stone. This probably hadn’t happened that long ago. She examined the ground, wondering if a trail might remain. Unfortunately, the jungle grew quickly. Dense green groundcover grew up to the rubble’s edge, and c
reeping plants had started to wander up the boulders. She poked at it with her sword.
“Here,” she said after a few minutes. Under some of the leaves lay a foot-wide swath of packed earth where the plants hadn’t set roots yet.
She followed it to the rubble wall. The section in front of her appeared no different from the rest of it, but she slashed at it with her blade, cutting an X. Even after having the storm sword for more than five years, she cringed at the idea of hitting rock with it, but she knew from experience that the magic imbued in it kept the edge perennially sharp. There wasn’t a nick on that blade even after a hundred battles, and it could cut into stone in the same way that it could cut into dragon scales. Whether it could cut through tons and tons of stone, she did not know. She did not try. The noise would be almost as bad as using explosives. The waterfall might muffle the audible evidence of their efforts somewhat, but dragons had good hearing.
“Start digging here.” Zala thrust her blade into the dirt so that its light could shine on the area, and she led the way, grabbing rocks small enough to haul away. “Vorkan, keep an eye out toward the sky.”
Several groans came from her group, but the soldiers came closer to help.
“When the general asked for volunteers for a mighty battle,” someone in the back said, “I wasn’t figuring it would be with rocks.”
“I’ll take rocks over more dragons. I almost lost my head in that last fight. Besides, some of those rocks are looking mighty. Who’s going to move that giant boulder? We shouldn’t have sent the dragon away. It could probably wrap its tail around the big rocks and flick them away.”
Zala thought about correcting the pronoun usage—Talon was most certainly a he and not an it—but that might have reminded people that she had been in the position to know. She should simply be glad they wanted Talon there, even if only to move rocks.
More rubble shifted and fell from above as they dug, and for a time, it seemed they weren’t making any progress and might even be losing ground. Zala kept working—the men should be less likely to balk if she had her sleeves up and was getting dirty beside them.
Dragon Bond Page 15