Dragon Soul

by Danielle Bennett

  “What hunch?” I asked, not paying one bit of attention to that horseshit about not feeling suspicious. I’d stop feeling suspicious when she stopped giving me reason to. We both knew that much.

  “Oh, merely my instinct that traveling with you would prove incredibly profitable,” she said, batting her eyelashes at me, then shooting the same treatment in Shouty’s direction, probably just for the hell of it. She added something in desert-speak that sounded like a solicitation if I’d ever heard one—I’d heard plenty in my time—and for the first time since I’d been taken captive, Shouty broke into a sharp smile.

  Too many teeth for my taste, but Malahide didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

  Badger cleared his throat, and I drew in a deep breath, trying to ignore the twisting feeling I was getting in my hand, like the entire compass was set to start turning on its own axis, also known as my palm. In fact, it felt like it was about to wrench out of my skin, and as much as I’d wanted exactly that to happen countless times before, now that I was faced with the physical prospect of it, I was pretty afraid of what it’d leave behind.

  “What’d you say?” I demanded.

  “Just that it seems as if we might be useful to one another for longer than I’d anticipated,” Malahide said innocently. “Do you know he told me—back when I’d just convinced him to show us the thing, of course—that this little beauty is already quite notorious among the desert tribes? Quite a lot to accomplish in such a short time, isn’t it? He seems to feel it’s quite important.”

  “Guess he’s not just going to hand it over, then,” I said, gritting my teeth as Shouty drew the dragonmetal back, tucking it carefully away in some hidden pocket in his robes.

  “No,” said Malahide, looking forlorn. She brightened almost immediately though, the force of it nearly knocking me over. “But I did manage to convince him that you were an expert in such magic, which is why you carry that piece with you at all times. I told him that if you got a better look at the device, you might be able to teach him how to unleash its secrets and aid him and his sons and his grandsons and so forth in ruling the deserts for a thousand years hence.”

  “Oh,” I said, tentatively flexing my hand out. The pain was still bad, but not as severe as it’d been a few moments ago. I was glad Shorty’d put the damned thing away. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t ever need to see it again, not as long as I lived. “So,” I asked shakily, trying to ease the pounding in my chest somewhat, “what happens when he realizes I’m not an expert, and he cuts all our throats and leaves our bodies for the vultures to pick at?”

  “I do wish you used a little bit more of that imagination toward constructive purposes,” Malahide lamented, smoothing the hair back from my face like a sister might. “We’re going to steal it long before that becomes a problem.”

  “Oh,” I said. “I see.”

  I didn’t—but even if I didn’t have faith in Malahide, I did have faith in her methods. Shouty stared at me, and I lifted my hand—half as a promise, half as a salute.

  “Good,” Malahide said, and nodded once. “Let us get ready.”

  ROOK

  Maybe Sarah Fleet had worked some of her old-bag magic on Thom’s camel, or maybe up until now he’d just been too damn stubborn to get better at riding, but for whatever reason, when Kalim had told us to ride like the wind, my brother actually did.

  We all did, of course, but it was Thom’s sudden change that took me by surprise. It was almost like the desert gods had decided to stop punishing him for bringing a piss-pants like Bless over their borders, which would’ve gotten my goat like nothing else if it’d been me.

  I’d’ve flown back to Kalim’s camp if I could, especially now that we had only half the night left for riding. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep through anything until we were heading after this enemy of his who had the dragonsoul in his possession—but if I’d spoken to Thom about it, I knew what he’d say. Better to rest and get ready or Don’t be too hasty or Do these petunias go with my tulips or not, and I didn’t have the time or the energy to consider any of that.

  Except when I looked over my shoulder at him his face was about as determined as I felt—and it wasn’t the same angry determination you could usually pick out on him, trying his best to keep his legs tight around the saddle and not get dislodged by the camel’s hump. I’d have to ask him sometime if he’d ever rode a woman before—because if so, and she’d said she was satisfied at the end of it, then I could tell already by his technique that it was an outright lie, and he needed more pointers than Kalim or I could ever give him.

  Guess he didn’t have much time, what with all that studying, to get some real, hands-on experience.

  “I’m fine,” he called up to me breathlessly, the words jostled with the camel’s ungainly ride. “Ride…like the wind…Kalim said…riding very fast…I’ll manage!”

  “Save your breath,” I snapped back at him, like I would’ve told my girl if she started chatting during a fight, and I whipped my mount harder to catch up with Kalim.

  At least we were covering a lot more ground. I’d refrain from being the pussy who kept asking “Are we there yet”—and uncharacteristically Thom hadn’t volunteered to be the pussy, either—so it was anybody’s guess. ’Cept for Kalim, who probably knew already when we’d meet up with his men.

  I’d never staged some kind of combative strategy on ground level before, but there was a first time for everything. Maybe I’d turn out to be good at it. I could live in the desert—maybe—if it didn’t mean I’d have to live with Thom’s whining the whole time.

  And, I guessed, I was kind of saddled with him now. I didn’t trust him to be able to take care of himself, not while he was making friends with people like Geoffrey Fucking Bighead Bless. That just went to show you how poor Thom’s decision-making actually was. He needed somebody like me, who could see right through people and all their horseshit and tell him when to say yes and when to say no.

  At least until he learned how to say it himself.

  I was filling my head with all kinds of thoughts about Thom because I couldn’t let myself think about my girl anymore, and I didn’t know any word puzzles or the things Thom explained that he used to help him get to bed, like listing ancient methods of agricultural farming from one hundred years ago until the present. Just the thought of doing that put me to sleep, so I guessed it was a good way to go about things, but describing it wasn’t doing him any real favors.

  Don’t know what our mother’d done while she was carrying him, but that hadn’t done him any real favors, either.

  The problem with riding like this was that it didn’t require any thinking. It was mindless, just staring at the camel’s ass in front of you and making sure you didn’t fall asleep and fall off your ride. And you’d be okay, riding until the sun rose, which eventually it did, all pale and blushing, with the dunes in front of us peeking out like a lady’s behind.

  “You know what that looks like?” I told Thom, when Kalim slowed his pace.

  “I think I have some idea, yes,” Thom replied. He looked tired but he looked like he wasn’t gonna let that bother him, either, and I was pretty grateful he’d finally decided to grow a pair. And all it took was one fast slap between the eyes by Sarah Fleet’s hand, bastion bless the woman. She was just like Havemercy in that respect too—’cause I’d always thought, kinda privately, that a few more flights with Have and Thom’d be fixed like new, or at least like somebody who could be of use to the world instead of a beauty mark on a high-end whore’s rear end.

  “I think I’ll tell Kalim my little comparison,” I said, seeing if it’d get a rise out of him.

  “Oh please, you’ve already tried to kill him,” Thom replied. “Now you’re just adding insult to injury.”

  I grinned and clucked my camel into a faster trot, sending her forward over the sand. “So, Kalim,” I said, feeling Thom staring at the back of my head. What’d he think he could do, I wondered, if we really did start figh
ting again? He’d better stand back if it came to that. I wasn’t letting him get himself between two people who knew how to use a blade when their blood was up like ours could get.

  “We will ride through the morning,” Kalim told me curtly. There was a light in his eyes I recognized, and it was an emotion I could pretty well get behind. “If we do this, we will come to my camp.”

  “That kinda like your home?” I asked, just trying to be friendly-like.

  “We are already at my home,” Kalim replied. “You are already in it.”

  “Oh, well, thanks for the hospitality,” I replied, just to show Thom I knew how to be polite after all. “You’ve done wonders with the place.”

  It wasn’t exactly my style, but it was a sight better than being cooped up in Thremedon. Even without sticking around to wait for it to get small I could feel it shrinking; with every letter Thom got from Balfour or whatever, letting us know what everything was “becoming” or what everyone was “doing” I felt the dread chill of people going back to being too fucking tiny to look in the eye, and I was glad I’d hauled ass outta there before people started offering me guest-lecturing positions or places in their hat shops. But then, I’d never been one of the boys who talked about “after” the war. “After the war’s over” was a favorite game they’d all played and it was one I’d always laughed at. Personally, for most of us, I didn’t think there was gonna be an after. Sure, we all wanted to win, and sure, we had the means to do so. I chalked it up to being a little bit smarter than the rest and let it go at that; they’d all found out eventually, hadn’t they? And the few of them that did get a word in after were happy enough with sticking to their plans, ’cept for me, since I hadn’t made any.

  The desert looked real nice in the very early morning, just like a lady before she woke up. It wasn’t so hot I was pissing boiled water yet, and the sunlight was even glittering or whatever—you know, a right nice scene. Kalim was proud of it, and I had to admit it was more real than anything you could get back Volstov-way. Up ahead of us we were drawing back into the thick of buried statues and monuments, so it kinda looked like we were about to start knocking on some giant’s door. But if there was ever a place to stop, this was probably it; you could use somebody’s big toe for shade, cool skeins of water underneath the palm of a giant stone hand, that kinda thing. And on top of that, it’d hide everybody’s camping gear pretty well, if not all the camels. We’d also passed a few nearby watering holes, so the situation, as they liked to say, was fucking ideal.

  And I was starting to think like an honest-to-bastion desert rider.

  But like I’d said before, that shit wasn’t going to pull it for me, at least not for the rest of my life, anyway. I still wanted to see those Hanging Gardens, whether or not we’d suddenly gone off trail. We could still make it before summer ended. And maybe in Eklesias there wouldn’t be any camels or sand or things Thom could complain about; I’d seen some of Compagnon’s collection, Ladies of the East, and some of them came from Eklesias. A few prints had naked ladies doing all kinds of things to grapes that were also emotions I could get behind, just a different kind of getting behind was required. I was also willing to bet they could teach anyone, including my own brother, which end was up—if he was a willing student himself, of course—some things that Kalim and I coulda taught him, except it just wouldn’t’ve been natural.

  At that moment Kalim cupped his hands over his mouth and called out into a valley created by a lopsided foot with a stone bangle ’round its severed ankle, and somebody’s long-lost wrist. Out of the shadows a scout scrambled to his feet, saluted, then shot off quick as a rat deeper ahead of us, on foot. I guess Kalim expected a hero’s welcome.

  I personally could’ve done just fine with some water and maybe some desert women to fan me while I took a nap.

  I’d seen those in Compagnon’s collection too. They were real good.

  “You have to wonder at a civilization,” Thom whispered to me, showing he was back to his old self through some mean trick of fate, “that could create such incredible monuments literally in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Well, it ain’t nowhere,” I reasoned.

  “Yes, but natural resources are slim,” Thom explained, “and the stones for such endeavors must have come from all over the world. It’s simply not indigenous.”

  “You got me there,” I told him, because I didn’t want a lecture on what indigenous meant. “If you ask me, the whole thing’s more funny than anything.”

  Thom stared at me. “Funny?” he repeated.

  Some people had to have it all spelled out for them. “Yeah, funny,” I said. “Bet when whoever built all this was building it they were thinking about how great they were. Wanted everyone to come and look at their big statues and think they had a big—yeah, I know you know what I mean. Well, here we are. Looking. Just not how they wanted things to turn out at all, right?”

  “Oh,” Thom said, and I saw him shiver even though it was getting pretty warm. “I suppose you’re right.”

  At least he recognized that straight off, so maybe we were gonna be all right, after all.

  Kalim’d slowed his camel down to an easy trot, so I did the same, patting my girl on the neck and telling her she’d been real good today. If she’d had a little more brainpower, she might’ve wondered what the fuck we thought we were doing, putting on that kind of speed and riding through the day. Couldn’t explain to a camel why all of a sudden she needed to ride faster, so I guess my brother had one up on them now.

  Thom drew even with me as we passed deeper into the valley of broken things, Kalim up ahead just so we knew who was boss. The statues actually made for some real good shade, though I got this feeling like it wouldn’t make much of a difference once the temperature really kicked it up a notch.

  “Excellent location for a camp,” Thom murmured to me, and I saw someone moving in the distance, just a little ways off. Probably getting set to roll out the welcome mat, or whatever customs of their own the nomads had. The professor probably could’ve told me, but I wasn’t about to ask. More fun to wait and see.

  “Guess it’s not so bad for the guys who built it, if it’s still being useful to someone,” I added, and I could tell that wasn’t the kind of answer he’d been expecting.

  “Rook,” he began, then stopped himself, because that was how they did things in the ’Versity: taught you how to start things you didn’t have the balls to finish.

  “Spit it out,” I told him. “Soon as we get to Kalim’s camp I’m taking a nap and letting some beautiful women feed me dates. With any luck, they’ll have traded Bless for some faster camels, and we can ride them to wherever the dragonsoul is without deadweight holding us back.”

  “That isn’t funny,” Thom told me, but I could tell even he was sort of hoping to get a new camel. “I was just going to ask you whether we were really about to involve ourselves in a conflict between warring tribes, but then I realized the question was probably irrelevant.”

  “Probably indigenous,” I agreed, pretty sure I was using that word wrong, and even more sure it’d rile Thom up. He made a choking noise, and we passed into the shadow of a giant stone hand, this one held palm down, like it’d been waving at someone. Truth was, it got me to wondering what’d happen to the statues built of the airmen, a couple hundred years down the line. Thremedon wasn’t the desert, but that didn’t mean that someday, some poor bastard might not be walking through some ruins when he came across my giant bronzed head, half-buried in the dirt. Maybe only my eyeballs’d be left or something. He’d probably shit his pants. “Anyway, it’s not about the tribes, it’s about what the tribes got.”

  “Have,” Thom said, like he couldn’t quite help himself.

  “That’s right,” I said, grinning like a real jerk. “They’ve got Have.”

  He made a face like he’d stepped in it, and I wanted to ask him how it was that a ’Versity genius like him kept falling for the traps I set. Up ahead of us was a crooked stone
forearm with a crooked stone bangle around it, and it was here that Kalim stopped.

  He let out another shout, hands cupped around his mouth, and this time a whole mess of other voices answered his call.

  We rode on, passing under the archway made by the arm. Now I could see the white tents, same style as Kalim rode with, tucked into the shadier pockets of the makeshift valley. There was a fire pit in the center for when night fell and the air got real cold again, and Kalim’s men were all gathered in front of it, smack in the center of their camp. That scout’d probably told everyone to get their asses up and welcome their prince home; I could tell when a man’d been woken from good dreams, and these men had that look about them.

  Still, not too bad of a system Kalim had here, all things considered.

  “Welcome to my summer camp,” Kalim said, dismounting like a desert breeze. Two of his men rushed up, one of them taking off the camel’s extra bags and one of them leading the animal herself off somewhere to cool her down. “No man from the north has ever set foot here.”

  I knew what that meant, easy enough. This is a big fucking honor, so don’t fuck it up, Mollyrat Rook. I got off my own camel easy enough, though no one rushed up to me to ask me what I wanted, guest of honor or not. The dulcet scrabbling of my brother making an ass of himself followed, and Thom landed with the dull thump of his feet against the sand. At least he’d landed on his feet. It was good progress; he wasn’t shaming me in front of anybody, or shaming himself.

  Kalim barked something in desert tongue and his men hopped to, springing forward to take our camels like the sand they’d been standing on had turned into red-hot coals.

  “The animals must drink and rest,” Kalim explained. “They have done good work, but soon we will have to ask more of them.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said, stretching my arms out. I was used to riding. It didn’t bother me the way it bothered some people, but even I was glad to get a minute to spend some time on my own two feet. “Nice setup you’ve got yourself here, Kalim.”