by Tad Williams
What? It came to her as an eddy of startled thought, curling and curious. Someone else was in Meseret’s thoughts, and even through her storm of fury it caught the dragon by surprise. Who?
Lucinda. The… rat-monkey. I’m on your back, don’t you know that? I got tangled in the straps when you got out of the Sick Barn. Little of this seemed to be getting through, so she tried to summon up the memories as pictures in her mind, like a movie-the struggle, the dragon’s escape, herself clinging for dear life.
You… talk? Talk dragon?
I don’t know-sort of… But you have to stop. I’ll help you, but you can’t attack that… big insect thing. She pictured the helicopter as Meseret saw it and tried to show it to her as she saw it, so that for a moment it was both things at the same time, alive and not alive, dragonfly and craft full of passengers. You’ll kill everyone, and we’ll never get your egg back.
No matter. The thought was bleak and ragged, but final. Egg too long gone. Not quickened. Dead like others. The thoughts didn’t quite make sense, but the refusal was crystal clear. Egg thief dies. Flying insect house dies. We die. Doesn’t matter. No eggs, ever. Nothing matters. Nothing.
The dragon’s drugged despair brought tears to Lucinda’s eyes but there was no time to sympathize. Meseret was flying more erratically even as she drew closer to the waiting helicopter, the sedative Haneb had given her now becoming a smothering fog across her thoughts.
Please! Lucinda thought, trying to reach her again. Please let me help! I don’t want to die-my mother will miss me! I’m someone’s egg too!
For a moment the remorseless beating of Mesert’s wings slowed. A bit of clear light broke through the cloudiness of her thoughts like a shaft of sun. She banked and began a long descent toward the ground.
She heard me-she understood! Lucinda let out the breath she had been holding so long she couldn’t remember when she’d taken it. Then the helicopter engines boomed and roared and it began to rise into the air.
NO! The thought itself was like a jet of Meseret’s flame, leaping out, burning everything else to flaking ash. NO NO NO NO! The ground heaved up beneath them just as the dragon drove her wings down, caught the wind, and banked upward, rocketing toward the rising copter.
“Don’t do it!” Lucinda screamed, but communication was finished. The dragon, muddled and despairing, was no longer listening. Meseret skimmed the pinnacle of a copse of trees, then sped forward. Lucinda could see nothing on her own, but she could still sense something of the dragon’s thought, see something of what Meseret saw. The horizon, the growing, glowing shadow of the insectoid helicopter, all tilted as a wave of dizziness went through her, and at the last moment the dragon veered-but too late. She did not hit the helicopter head-on, but still bounced off its side with a crash like a bomb going off. One of the blades struck Meseret’s wing in a bolt of red agony that seemed to light up Lucinda’s own brain like fire, then dragon and helicopter both teetered in the air, struggling to regain balance, swung apart, and dropped out of the sky.
Chapter 29
The Devil’s Bargain
“W hy are we running?” asked Steve Carrillo, struggling for breath. “I’m tired of running. I’ve been running and hiding for days.”
Tyler stopped to let them all catch their breath. “Because you really need to get off this property. Just… trust me on that.”
Carmen straightened up and pushed her hair out of her face. “Running and hiding? You spent the whole day yesterday lying on your back playing Coils of the Man-Serpent. You fell asleep with the controller in your hands!”
“I’m not talking about that yesterday. I was in that mirror for days,” Steve said. “It just didn’t seem like it to you.”
“We’re going to be hearing this for years,” Carmen said. “ ‘Steve, is your room clean?’ ‘Couldn’t do it, Mom, I fell into a mirror and I was gone for, like, a month.’ ”
Little Alma patted her brother’s arm. “I believe you, Stevie.”
Tyler snorted. “Yeah, this is all great, but I really suggest we get moving again. Before something a lot worse than the mirror happens to us.” Like getting caught by guys with a helicopter, and probably with guns this time. He’d have to get the Carrillos going their own way before they reached the edge of the property where the copter had been. What did that Stillman guy want, anyway? And how had he found out there was anything unusual about Ordinary Farm?
They were out well beyond the last buildings, moving across the open hillsides on the far side of the valley, scuttling in and out among the cottonwoods and the stunted oak trees. Steve was still complaining, but not so often or so loudly-he didn’t have the breath. Tyler was just trying to decide if it was time to send the Carrillos off on their own when a massive dark shape loomed up out of the shadows, spreading its arms wide.
Carmen, who was ahead of the others, almost ran right into it. She shrieked and lost her balance, then fell and began to roll down the steep hillside. The thing leaped after her, bulky but quick as a hungry bear, and pinned her to the ground before she’d rolled more than a dozen yards. Tyler was frozen with fear until he saw the shadow bend over the panting, terrified girl. Tyler grabbed the first thing that came to hand, a piece of fallen branch not much bigger than his flashlight, and sprang down the slope.
“Leave her alone!” he shouted.
“Shut your mouth!” the shadowy figure growled at him. “And if you swing that at me, boy, I will beat your skin off.”
“Ragnar?” Tyler scrambled down the hill. “Is that you?”
“Yes, me.” He lifted Carmen up as though she was no heavier than a rag doll. “The question is, what are the rest of you doing here?”
Back at the top of the hill, Ragnar set Carmen on her feet, not particularly gently, and stared down at them all. “I am not playing a child’s game. Tell me quick why you are here. If you are the ones who fooled me with that glove you have bought more than a handful of trouble.”
“What glove?” Tyler asked, but when he saw the cold, angry expression on Ragnar’s bearded face he decided maybe he would do better answering instead of asking.
“And you swear this is the truth?” Ragnar said when Tyler had finished.
“It’s true,” said Alma. Her voice was small but surprisingly firm. “We wouldn’t lie to you, Ragnar.”
He stared at her, then at her sister and brother, and turned at last to Tyler. “I don’t think they would lie, but I know you have kept back truth before that you did not want to share. Is that so now?”
Tyler stared at him. He had kept back the story of the woman in the mirror-the one he thought was Grace. He didn’t know why, but he still felt there were things going on that he needed to figure out before he could completely trust anyone, even Ragnar. “I’ve told you all I can,” he said at last, and did his best to hold Ragnar’s eye. “So now you have to decide whether you’re going to trust me.”
Ragnar leaned toward him, lowering his voice to a whisper so that the Carrillos couldn’t hear. “Do not get above yourself, Tyler Jenkins. You learned much this summer, but the dangers here are greater than you have even guessed.” After a moment he straightened up. “A glove was left on the fence to lure Simos and me away from the Junction Road side of the farm. Someone has played a trick on us. If it was not any of you, it was likely one of our enemies. Tyler, take these children back to their house. You three, swear to me you will tell no one-not your parents or other friends, no one! -what you’ve seen and heard here. Swear.”
“We promise,” said Alma promptly. Her older brother and sister looked at each other, but then agreed.
“Hurry, then. Follow me until we reach the farm road, then Tyler will lead you home.”
They ran then. Within only a few hundred yards Ragnar was far in front, lost to sight among the trees despite the bright moonlight. Tyler had just turned back to encourage Steve, who was lagging behind again, when something huge plummeted out of the sky, blocking the stars and-for one terrifying second-even
the moon. Carmen shouted in surprise. Steve tripped and fell. For the first second or two Tyler thought it was the helicopter bearing down on them like something in a war movie, but the thing was almost entirely silent-no helicopter sounds at all.
And then a thin voice, full of panic, floated to him from high above-a voice he thought he recognized.
“No! No! Don’t!”
The wind of the monster’s passage knocked Tyler back a few steps as its huge shadow swept over him, wings spread wide, tail stretching over him like a knife slash of blackness against the midnight blue sky. Then it was gone.
Steve stumbled to his feet. “Whoa! Do you know what that was?”
Even by moonlight Tyler could see the strange, rapt expression on Alma’s face as she stared after the departing dragon. “Grandma Paz was right,” she said. “It is the door to another world.”
“That was Lucinda up there,” Tyler said. His insides felt like a block of ice. “Lucinda.” But what would she be doing up there with that giant creature, unless she was… in the dragon’s mouth.
He began to run again, even faster.
With the Carrillos behind him, he charged up the last yards to the top of the hill. As they reached the summit Tyler could suddenly hear the sounds of a real helicopter, the steady, quiet fwop-fwop-fwop of its blades as it idled on the grassy valley floor. It was waiting for something-its running lights and the light spilling from its open door showed a last passenger clambering up the stairs, then the door slammed shut and the blades sped into invisibility. The helicopter began to rise.
“That’s Ragnar running down the hill,” Steve said, pointing at a figure racing toward the scene but still far from the rising helicopter, which was now at least twenty feet off the ground.
“He’ll never get… ” Tyler began, then a huge batlike shape dropped out of the sky. As he watched in horror it smashed into the side of the helicopter just below the rotors with a tremendous thump like a clap of thunder. The helicopter pitched to one side, wallowed for a moment in midair, then dropped unsteadily to the ground, but somehow managed to land on its skids. The dragon had fallen into darkness.
“Lucinda!” Tyler shouted, but someone grabbed at his arm. It was Carmen. Sparks began to pop from the doorway of the helicopter where it stood on the ground, its propeller still rotating.
“Don’t,” she said. “Those are guns!”
And now Tyler heard the cracks, distant but sharp as hammer blows. “What’s going on? Why are they shooting?”
“Maybe because they just got knocked out of the sky by a giant dinosaur with wings?” Carmen said. “You think?”
“But my sister-my sister was on that dragon!”
Steve Carrillo stumbled up and stood, wheezing. “No… wonder
… you guys never… call us. Sounds like you’ve been… pretty busy.”
Suddenly the field was splashed with light-the helicopter crew had switched the searchlights on, turning the area around the idling chopper bright as day. A shape was running away from the helicopter, toward Ragnar, who waved his arms from the other side of the meadow as if urging the figure on, but more pops and flashes came from the door of the helicopter and Ragnar had to duck down.
“Whoever that is, he’ll never make it!” squealed Carmen.
Then a new shape came from somewhere behind the helicopter, moving over the grassy ground in a blur, fast as a rabbit, but bigger-much bigger. Even with the bright helicopter searchlights Tyler could not make sense of it as it snatched up the figure escaping the chopper, threw it over a shoulder, and ran toward them, moving with what seemed like impossible speed. As the figure sped past Ragnar, the Viking turned and followed it.
A last few gunshots cracked from the helicopter, then someone pulled the door closed and the aircraft started to rise once more. This time no dragon dropped out of the sky, and although the engines had a rougher sound than before, the helicopter kept rising until it was a couple of hundred feet off the ground, then it sped away west, its lights rapidly getting smaller until it was lost in the darkness.
The hairy, goat-legged figure slung Colin Needle off its shoulder and dumped the stunned boy to the ground, then put down what looked like Colin’s backpack. The goat-man hesitated, then turned to look at the Carrillos, who were staring, wide-eyed. Simos Walkwell looked sad.
“Why are you here, children?” He looked down at himself. “Why? I did not want you to see this.”
Steve and Carmen could only stare, but Alma actually smiled at him. “I saw you run, Mr. Walkwell. So fast! You were… you were beautiful!”
They found Meseret lying in a heap almost a quarter mile from where the helicopter had been forced down. Ragnar bent to hold his hand near her nostrils, which were as big as dessert plates. “She breathes,” he said. “She seems to be asleep-perhaps she is not too badly hurt.”
“She’s drugged,” said a voice from the shadows. Lucinda limped into view.
“Luce!” Tyler ran to her and hugged her, folding himself into her warmth. “I thought you were dead!”
“I did, too, especially when she hit the ground and I got thrown.” She patted his back and gently pulled away-not because she didn’t want to hug him, he realized, but because it hurt. She was staggering a little as she walked toward the others, so Tyler gave her his arm to lean on.
“Haneb gave her a shot just before she broke out,” she told Ragnar, then she saw the Carrillos. She smiled a little. Everybody seemed to have given up trying to get them to go home, Tyler thought with wry amusement-there didn’t seem much point now. “Hi, guys-you still here? Anyway, Meseret was losing consciousness before she got here, I think. It was just determination. She was after-”
“Her egg.” Ragnar lifted up the backpack. “We know-it is here. What we do not know is how it got here when we thought it had been destroyed by Alamu.”
“Alamu had nothing to do with it. Haneb took it. He says that Colin made him do it.” She turned toward Colin. “What were you thinking, Colin? That was so stupid. And now the secret’s out.”
“I am not certain of that,” said a voice. Simos Walkwell was still naked except for the bristly hair that covered his entire lower body. He stood up from examining the dragon and walked back to them. “I heard them arguing when they were on the ground-as Colin was running away. They did not know what had knocked them from the sky. They saw nothing of me, either, I think-I moved fast and kept to the shadows until I was far away from them.” He turned to the Carrillos. “If these young ones can be trusted-and I hope that they can-it could be our secret is safe for a little while longer.”
Tyler couldn’t stand it anymore. “But it’s not safe. That Stillman guy is going to be even more certain that something unusual is going on here, and I think it’s a pretty safe bet it’s all his fault.” He turned to Colin. “How much were you going to get for selling us out, Needle? What were you going to do with it, anyway? It’s not like you ever do anything except sneak around and rat on people to your mother.”
“That’s a lie!” Colin shouted, and his anger surprised even Tyler. “I don’t tell my mother anything! I want what’s best for the farm! I never-I never-!” He broke off, muttering angrily, staring down at his shoes.
“What’s best for the farm?” Tyler said. “You liar! You were going to sell a dragon’s egg to that creep Stillman!”
“Oh, grow up, Jenkins,” Colin snapped. “I was doing it to make the farm some money-we’re in debt up to our eyeballs and it’s going to get worse. How do you think Gideon’s kept this place going for so long? He used to bring all kinds of things back from trips through the Fault Line, old things from the past, and sell them as archaeological treasures-at least, that’s what he did till the Continuascope was lost in the lab fire. Now he can’t find his way around in the Fault Line anymore. And Stillman was the guy buying them, but he’s not going to do it any longer. This was our last chance to get any money out of him.”
Ragnar said, “You are a stupid little boy, Colin Needle.�
� His voice was full of contempt. “You have given away everything. You put a dragon’s egg in that man’s hand.”
Colin shook his head. “He thinks it’s a dinosaur egg. Just really well preserved.”
“I can’t believe you’d do that, Colin.” Lucinda slumped a little against Tyler. He could feel her trembling with exhaustion. “I can’t believe you’d do that to Gideon.”
Colin’s eyes filled with tears, but his face was angry. “Gideon! Are you joking? He’s letting the whole place fall apart! He hardly ever comes out of his room!”
Ragnar called to Mr. Walkwell, who was inspecting the place where the helicopter had landed. “We must take him to Gideon, Simos. He is the thane. He must know what happened here tonight.”
“No!” Colin shouted. “If you tell him, we’ll all be thrown out! Me and the Jenkins kids, all of us!”
Tyler took a step forward. He had seldom had such a powerful urge to slug somebody. “Shut up, Needle.”
“You think I’m wrong?” Colin turned on him. “Look at you! You snuck into the Fault Line. You stole stuff from the library. You brought these kids onto the property!” He pointed a shaking finger at the Carrillos, who were looking pretty nervous. “At least I was trying to help. You were just… entertaining yourselves!”
“That’s not fair!” Lucinda said.
“Quiet, all of you.” Ragnar looked like he’d also like to hit something. “Simos, what will we do?”
Mr. Walkwell was trotting back toward them, hooves picking gracefully at the uneven ground. He was carrying something.
“Things could be worse,” he said as he reached them, dropping his burden on the ground at Ragnar’s feet.
“Stillman has left something for us. I do not think he meant to.”
Ragnar crouched and fumbled open the briefcase. Tyler stared. Steve Carrillo whistled.
“Oh my god,” Lucinda said. “That’s like a million dollars.”