Dragon Bond

by Ruby Lionsdrake

  That might be an erroneous assumption.

  Zala caught an earthy scent drifting down from the far passage, the one Talon’s memories said led to the top. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it reminded her uncomfortably of an animal’s den. Was she smelling the scent of dragons? Of many dragons mingling together in their home? It seemed vaguely familiar, but she had spent little time up close with the creatures. Usually, when that happened, she was too busy trying to stay alive to notice what they smelled like.

  A scratching sound came from the center passage, just audible over the murmurs of conversation coming from the troops waiting for their turn to swing across. Zala thought she spotted a hint of light, or at least a lessening of the darkness, in that direction. She touched her sword and found it humming. That hum seemed stronger when she stood in front of the center passage.

  Could Talon’s memories have been incorrect? Or was her own memory of what he had shared faulty? So far, she had not led them astray, with the images in her mind matching up with what they were seeing, but her sword seemed to think that dragons waited somewhere up this tunnel.

  An idea jumped into her mind, bringing with it a jitter of excitement in her gut. The portal. It was supposed to be in here somewhere. What if that was what lay up ahead? Maybe Talon hadn’t shared the memory of it because he hadn’t known about it or because it was not on the most direct route—or because he hadn’t wanted humans to find it. That seemed very possible.

  Only Sandirr and three others had made it across. Knowing she had some time to wait, Zala said, “I’m going to peek around the bend up there. I see something, and I’m wondering if it might be the portal.”

  Sandirr growled, strung a bow, and said, “I’ll come with you.”

  As they walked up the wide passage, the darkness faded even more, replaced by a soft silvery glow. Zala’s sword hummed more, its warning growing to almost a buzz. She wished there was a way to know if one dragon waited around the bend or ten. Surely, they wouldn’t keep a cadre down here to guard a portal that nobody used anymore. At least, she did not believe they used it. From Talon’s words, it had sounded like his kind had no reason to go back to their homeland. Of course, it was possible that more dragons arrived here from time to time. An unsettling notion, one that truly made her want to destroy that portal if it was here.

  From what Zala had heard, dragons did not produce offspring very often, perhaps because they were so long-lived. If her people could ensure that no more could come through the portal and into their world, there could be hope of one day defeating the remaining ones and regaining control of their homeland.

  Another scrape, like claws rasping against stone, drifted to their ears, louder than before.

  “Dragon?” Sandirr whispered, glancing at her sword.

  “Yes.”

  “How many?” he breathed, holding out a hand to stop her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Let’s wait for the rest of the team.”

  It wasn’t bad advice, but she was tempted to push ahead on her own. As much as the others wanted to help, they would be best used in planting explosives later. Unless a bowman could make a lucky shot, catching a dragon in the eye, the soldiers without storm swords were not much assistance in a battle. Indeed, they sometimes got in the way.

  Still, she stopped and nodded. At the least, it would be a good idea to wait for Salena, and she had been staying back, guarding the rear of the formation while the others crossed.

  More scrapes sounded from around a bend in the tunnel, then a low leathery growl. Dragon. A throaty one.

  Zala stepped in front of Sandirr, holding a hand toward his chest to keep him behind her. He backed up a few paces, nocking an arrow.

  “Do you want me to—”

  A clatter of claws on stone sounded as something big thundered in their direction. Had there been time, Zala would have fled back to the chasm, to the wide ledge where there was more room to maneuver. It would have meant endangering her people, but there would have been space to run and dodge. Here, all she could do was crouch, bracing herself.

  One of the fattest dragons she had seen charged around the bend, the silvery light limning its bulky form. Despite its rotundness, it moved quickly, its wings flattened against its body, its head down so it would not hit the ceiling. Golden eyes glowed as they spotted Zala. The dragon’s maw opened like that of an alligator, revealing yellowed but sharp teeth. Deadly teeth.

  Since Zala could not dodge far to either side, she waited until the dragon was almost upon her. She lunged toward the curved side wall of the tunnel, running up it as far as she could, her momentum carrying her nearly halfway. Just before gravity would have pushed her back to the ground, she pushed off with her legs, leaping up and out. She twisted in the air, getting her sword in front of her as she smashed into the side of the dragon’s head.

  The slick scales offered little in the way of handholds, but the dragon seemed surprised by her move, and for a half second, it did not react. Zala scrambled up it, sinking the sword between two scales and using it as an anchor. She found her way atop the muzzle, her knees tight on either side. Those huge golden eyes stared into her, first startled and then furious.

  Zala brought her sword up with both hands, raising it for a mighty blow, but as she smashed it downward, the blade angling for one of those big eyes, an invisible wave of power slammed into her.

  If she hadn’t had the tight grip with her knees, she might have been flung several feet. As it was, her back slammed into the top of the snout behind her. She’d felt her sword cut into the dragon’s eye before the force hit her, but it had only struck a glancing blow.

  Flexing her stomach, Zala forced herself back up, digging in with her knees again to keep her seat. The head whipped to one side, then to the other side, the creature trying to fling her off. Zala’s grip with her knees slipped, but not before she angled her sword like a spear and attacked one more time. She aimed for the other eye, thrusting the point into it, even as a jerk of the dragon’s snout caused her legs to fall free. As the sword dug in, the creature screeched, its head whipping back and forth even more.

  For a second, Zala dangled from the sword by both hands, the blade sunken into the dragon’s eye. The weapon soon gave way, sliding out slick with ichor, and she dropped hard to the ground.

  Only the awareness of heavy dragon feet trampling the stone all around her gave her strength to keep her balance. She scurried back, afraid she would be smashed at any second. As she ran, she kept her blade up to defend herself if need be. The dragon thrashed without reason or intent, however, its entire body spasming. As Zala bumped into Sandirr, who still had his bow stretched and ready to fire, the ponderous creature flopped to the ground.

  Zala wiped the sweat from her face, aware of voices and shuffling feet in the tunnel behind them.

  “Wish I could do that,” someone said with a sigh.

  “I could, if she would tell me when she’s going off to hunt dragons.” Salena squeezed past bigger men to walk up and join Zala. “Nice fighting, ma’am, but bring me next time, please.”

  “I will.” Zala pulled out a kerchief to wipe the gore off her sword. The clouds within swirled under the attention, their light brightening. “Let’s see what this one was guarding.”

  “Looks like an old female,” Sandirr said, following her around it. “Seems an odd choice for a portal guard.”

  “It does.” If the creature hadn’t been trying to kill her, Zala might have felt bad about picking on the dragon version of a grandmother, but just because she had been old did not mean she hadn’t been deadly. “Maybe this is some retirement post she was forced into because she couldn’t do other jobs anymore.”

  “Forced into retirement?” Sandirr asked. “Retirement sounds like bliss to me. I keep waiting for someone to force me into it.”

  “Not me,” Zala said. “What would I do? Start a coffee plantation?”

  “Give it another ten years, and that might start sounding more ap
pealing.” Sandirr pushed a hand through his graying hair. “You could lounge around your plantation, eating beans from the tree, and have your dragon lover attend your every need.”

  Zala snorted. “You can’t eat the coffee cherries straight from the bush.” And she doubted Talon would be attracted to some retired old woman doddering around a plantation. Besides, the notion of retirement sounded boring. How could she quit fighting when humanity’s very survival was still in question?

  “Forgive me. I’m from the desert. We have creosote tea for breakfast.”

  The silvery glow coming from up ahead grew brighter as they walked closer toward it, leaving the female dragon’s body behind. The temperature rose too. Did the portal give off heat?

  Zala itched to reach the source, conscious that they were deviating from their prescribed route and that they had already spent hours in these tunnels. When she spotted an opening in the side of the tunnel, one that seemed the source of the light, she sped up her pace. Only the hum of her sword kept her from running. It promised that more dragons were nearby. The warning wasn’t as powerful as it would be if one waited around the corner, so she hoped they were on another level or otherwise blocked by tons and tons of rock.

  She peeked around the edge of the opening, expecting something that looked like a portal. Instead, she stared in confusion at a chamber with the floor covered with dried leaves and fronds and grasses. Two orbs rested on rock pedestals on either side of the room, throwing out light and heat. From the doorway, she could just make out the tops of white curved objects nestled in the leaf litter. They were intermittently placed, at least forty or fifty in the room.

  “Payload,” Sandirr breathed, coming up behind her and looking over her shoulder.

  It took Zala a few extra moments to realize what she was looking at. A nursery of dragon eggs.

  “It won’t take long,” Sandirr said. “I don’t know how far along they are, but if you crack them all open with your sword, that’s fifty less dragons that we’ll have hunting us one day.”

  Zala stared at him in disbelief. “What are you talking about? I’m not killing babies.”

  “Baby dragons.” Now he stared at her in disbelief. “They’re predators, bred to kill animals—and choosing to kill humans. These aren’t like our babies. They probably come out of their eggs and try to kill the first thing they see.”

  “What is it?” Salena asked, coming up to join them, the rest of the soldiers strung out behind her.

  “Nothing,” Zala said, backing up and pushing Sandirr away from the entrance. “It’s not the portal.”

  “It’s a bunch of eggs,” Sandirr said, setting his feet and refusing to be pushed far. “If you don’t want it on your conscience, I’ll do it.” He shouldered his bow and pulled out a long knife.

  “It’s not my conscience I’m worried about, Colonel,” Zala said, hardening her voice. Since they had worked together so long, and they were both longtime veterans, she didn’t usually use her command tone with him, but she would not accept defiance in this. “Putting aside all questions of morality, which we should not, this is a precedent we do not want to set in this war. Nobody is going into that room.”

  “General.” Sandirr’s hand flexed on the knife hilt. “In the long term, this is the blow that could make our infiltration worth it, even if we lose our lives. This could be their entire next generation. If there are no warriors to replace the ones we’ve worked so hard to kill—”

  “No. And we’re not debating this. I’m ordering you to back away.” Zala glanced toward the others. “All of you. Back to the chasm, and then up the other tunnel. Get moving.”

  Everyone started shuffling backward except for Sandirr. He stood there, glowering, his jaw clenched. “Given that this mission isn’t sanctioned by our superiors, I’m not sure you have the right to give orders at all.”

  “No? Take it up with the king when we get back.”

  “Zala—”

  “We’re not killing babies.” Zala drew her sword. She doubted Sandirr would take this to a physical confrontation, but if she had to slice that knife of his in half, she would.

  “Good,” came a cool voice from the depths of the tunnel. Talon.

  Sandirr jumped like a boy caught painting obscenities on some farmer’s cacao pods. A surge of guilt went through Zala as well. She might have drawn the line at bothering the eggs, but they had still veered from the path Talon had given them and ended up killing an old dragon whose only job was to keep the eggs warm and protect them from intruders.

  She couldn’t tell what Talon was thinking. He stood behind the rest of her team, his face as hard as chiseled stone, his eyes cold. Zala shot Salena a frown, wondering why her lieutenant, who was standing to the rear of the group, hadn’t noticed him coming closer—even in human form his approach should have made her sword buzz. Had she been riveted by Sandirr and Zala arguing? Zala sighed to herself. She had been. She should have noticed a slightly increased warning from her sword too. She had assumed that its current humming was from the eggs.

  “Let’s go,” Zala said. “Back on the course.”

  She made sure Sandirr left the nursery before she did, then followed behind him. Talon waited for the soldiers to pass and for Zala to come abreast of him before turning to walk out. He didn’t say anything to her, and she couldn’t bring herself to ask questions, such as what he was doing back, or what he thought of his human allies now. She couldn’t even bring herself to meet his eyes.

  Chapter 18

  Talon walked at Zala’s side, leading the humans through the passages, the final levels that would take them into the sleeping quarters, the audience chamber, and the common areas of the dragon headquarters. He kept his senses stretched outward, knowing they would soon be close enough to the core level that they would risk chancing across others of his kind, especially now, with this forum meeting imminent. For all he knew, dawn might have come to the jungle outside, and the meeting might have already started. It had taken him a couple of hours to catch up with Zala and her people.

  “There’s a meeting happening today,” Talon said, realizing he hadn’t informed her yet.

  Though he walked beside Zala, they hadn’t spoken since leaving the nursery. His heart had nearly stopped when he had come upon her people and realized what they were discussing. He hadn’t known anything about the location of the nursery, that being the sole domain of female dragons. During his imprisonment, he had forgotten about mating and breeding, and that Semptrusis had been close to entering her seven-year cycle. Many other females must have been too. There had been numerous eggs in that room, and dragons were not fecund.

  If those eggs had been destroyed… He shuddered at the image of a nursery full of broken eggs.

  It was one thing for Talon to question and fight against Hul; it would have been a far greater betrayal, in his eyes and also in the eyes of his kind, for him to help a band of humans to destroy hatchlings. Since females could have offspring only once every seven years, it would be considered a great loss. Talon was relieved and grateful that Zala had refused to allow that murder. Her colonel’s arguments had not been illogical. Talon would have strangled the man if he had succeeded in destroying those eggs, but he would have understood why he had done it.

  “We guessed about the meeting.” Zala glanced at him warily. “We saw them arriving in droves.”

  “We’ll soon be close enough that dragons will sense me and your swords,” Talon said, wondering what Zala planned to do up here. She could not fight so many, and even if the distraction of a big meeting allowed her people to get close before being noticed, some dragon would eventually catch the scent of humans.

  Zala nodded. “I know.”

  She looked around, her gaze snagging on a flat table of rock with a layer of silt or chalky limestone atop it.

  “Sergeant Tandoir,” she said, crouching near the rock table and waving a few of her officers over. “You’re our advisor in this. Sandirr will lead the team, but Tandoir
will be responsible for the actual implementation. I’m going to draw a map.” She used her finger and Talon’s memories to show the audience chamber and some sleeping areas. “Salena and I— and Talon, if he wants to come—are going to go look for the dragon king and confront him. Sandirr, you and the others will be left without any storm swords to defend you, but you also won’t have anything that will allow the dragons to sense the group. Just sight and smell. You’ll have to be very careful, because they do have good noses and eyes. Understood?”

  Talon did not see what the other humans could do without storm swords, but that did not mean much. He had seen his kind fall into traps of engineering before, and he himself, during one of his battles with Zala’s unit, had been trapped in a river canyon with an injury when a manmade flood had washed down it. These other humans must have a plan. Perhaps Zala was being intentionally vague so he wouldn’t pick up on it. He could look into her thoughts to learn more, but it might be better if he didn’t. If he encountered a female dragon with powerful mental talents, she might be able to read his mind.

  “I understand,” Sandirr said. “We’ll do it.”

  Tandoir nodded and patted the side of the big pack on his back.

  “After you’re done,” Zala said, “we’ll meet back at the chasm. Make sure you leave an accessible escape route. I don’t think we can get off this mountain going out the exit the dragons use.”

  “Not easily. There are a lot of sheer drops, and not everybody has rope. I suspect that’s why they put their headquarters where they did.”

  “The chasm then.” Her eyes narrowed, and she lowered her voice to a whisper, one Talon might not have heard before his power had been returned. “If you get there before we do, you will not go to that nursery. I’ll kill you myself if you do.”

  Sandirr’s jaw clenched so tightly it looked like he might break his own teeth. Several seconds passed before he nodded curtly.

  “Good. Be safe.” Zala looked toward the man with the bulky pack. “Tandoir, don’t worry about Salena and me. We’ll do what we must and try to get out before you’ve set everything up. But if we don’t... as we discussed, this is worth doing. We all know the risks.”