Dancer Dragon: Bodyguard Shifters #6

by Chant, Zoe

  "In the bedroom. I didn't know where else to go."

  "It'll do for now. Come on." He caught her hand and pulled her along.

  "Those were the mindless construct kind, right?" she asked, running along beside him. Around them, the villa creaked and groaned ominously. "That means there's another master gargoyle around here somewhere, right? Like the one we fought at the Aerie?"

  "Yes, and he must be close."

  They nearly ran into a snarling Reive at the door to the bedroom. As soon as he recognized them, he fell back and let them in. Melody was on the bed, with Gunnar bending over her. Kana guarded the door leading out to the patio.

  "We've got another problem," Reive said.

  "How many more problems can we have?" Heikon demanded, and then Melody let out a tortured cry.

  "Oh, baby, no," Esme whispered, kneeling on the bed next to her to put her arms around her daughter. Her face hardened. "Did they do this? How bad is it?"

  "It's not ... oh ..." Melody gasped and clutched at her pregnant belly. "It's the stress, I think. My babies ..." She looked up, in panic, into her mother's face. "They're coming now."

  "We have to get out of here," Kana said from the doorway. She had one of her children wrapped around her neck, the other in her arms, both dragon-shaped.

  "We can go to my cave—" Esme began, looking up with both arms wrapped around a moaning Melody.

  "Your cave is made of stone!" Heikon said. As was the Aerie. And the villa. For his entire long life, caves had been safe places of retreat. He couldn't get used to thinking strategically against an enemy who could take that advantage and turn it against them.

  "Water," Kana said.

  "She's right!" Reive turned to Heikon. "Remember how, when the gargoyles attacked the Aerie, we took the children to the lakes? It was safe there. Well ... safer."

  It still wasn't safe, Heikon thought. The gargoyles could fly. But it was better than where they were now. The rest of the house was ominously quiet, except for an occasional clatter or crash that might be something sliding off a shelf in the destabilized part of the building—or something worse.

  "Stay here," he told them, and pushed past Kana, looking out into the garden sloping down toward the sea.

  To all appearances, nothing had changed; nothing was wrong. It was still an idyllic Mediterranean day, the cloudless sky like an inverted blue bowl over the gleaming white sand. Shadows stood crisp as paper cutouts against the green shrubbery and white gravel paths.

  But somewhere around here, there had to be at least one master gargoyle, capable of raising stone soldiers from anything made of rock.

  There had never been very many gargoyles in the world. They were rare, and slow to breed. But they had one huge advantage over the much more numerous dragons: they could augment their numbers in vast quantities with mindless, animated statues. In the battle earlier this year, a single gargoyle named Sharpe had taken on the entire might of Heikon's clan by himself. Heikon and his people might even have lost, if not for Darius taking out Sharpe before his stone army could destroy everyone.

  Heikon had never quite been sure if all gargoyles had this mastery over stone, or only some. One thing he did know was that individual gargoyles had different levels of it. Sharpe had been able to manipulate the rock of the Aerie directly, causing earthquakes and threatening to collapse the mountain's tunnels on its defenders. Heikon hadn't met another gargoyle who could do that, at least not nearly to that extent—though admittedly he had met only a few—but he'd heard of gargoyles who could phase their bodies through solid rock, or turn one kind of rock into another.

  What else could this one do?

  Frustration surged through him. He'd thought this was over, damn it. The gargoyles had indicated that they wanted peace. Even Darius, whose entire clan had been wiped out by gargoyles, was willing to let the old feud drop.

  But somewhere, Braun had found, or had been found by, some gargoyles who shared his thirst for bloodshed and conquest.

  Lucky us.

  "Uh, guys," Reive reported from the other door. "More gargoyles, heading this way. They're out of the cellar and into the house."

  "Hold them off," Heikon ordered. "Block the door with whatever you can find."

  They scrambled to drag furniture against the door leading to the rest of the house. There were loud thumps from the other side, and a crack of stone fists striking wood. Melody let out a low cry of pain or surprise, and leaned into her mother.

  "Uncle, we can't stay here," Reive said. "I don't care what's out there."

  To all appearances, nothing was out there, but Heikon had never noticed just how many ornamental statues Esme had. Or had they all been there before? Were they statues at all?

  The doorframe creaked, and then the door splintered near the frame and a stone-clawed fist reached through, swiping at anything in reach.

  No matter how dangerous it was out there, Reive was right: they couldn't stay here.

  "Up, up." Heikon helped Gunnar bundle Melody up, and then handed her off to Esme. Reive shifted abruptly, and suddenly the bedroom was full of copper and red dragon coils, sprawling everywhere. He had to; the gargoyles were breaking in, and Reive blocked them physically with his body, forcing them to fight through him to get to the others.

  "Be careful!" Kana shouted, gathering the dragonlets tightly in her arms. "Grandfather, should we fly?"

  "Not yet." In part because some of their number could not. Gunnar was a bear, and Melody couldn't possibly fly in her present condition. The dragons could carry the nonflyers, but their passengers would be highly vulnerable to attack. It was too dangerous. "See that gazebo? When I give the word, we'll head for that. From there, we can plan a course down to the beach."

  "There's a boathouse down on the beach," Esme said. She had one arm around Melody; Gunnar was supporting his mate from the other side. "It has a couple of skiffs in it. We can take those out."

  "Good. Esme, you'll need to shift and lead us. Reive and I will cover our retreat. Keep the others in the middle. Go!"

  Esme nodded. She hugged Melody and then ran forward, past Heikon, into the sunshine. For an instant as she ran onto the patio, hair gleaming in the sun, he wanted to grab her, call her back, keep her safe—

  But then she shifted, and her glorious dragon, green and gold, bounded over the patio wall and into the sericulture garden of dry-climate plants beyond. "It's clear for now!" she called back. "Come on!"

  Kana ran after her, carrying the dragonlets, and Gunnar followed with Melody. Heikon gave each of them a helping hand over the railing. "Reive!" he called back. He couldn't see what was happening at the door, but Reive seemed to be holding them. "Fall back. To me!"

  Reive retreated, blood streaming down his lacerated neck and shoulders, but as far as Heikon could tell, the damage seemed to be superficial; he wasn't moving in the way of one who was badly hurt. Gargoyles surged after him, tearing their way through the damaged door and spilling into the bedroom.

  "Go!" Heikon repeated, and he shifted on the patio. His dragon surged out of him, eager for a fight, and suddenly the railing and the open doorway into the bedroom (rapidly filling up with gargoyles) and all the human things dwindled like toys. He was enormous. He was powerful. He was—

  —responsible for a woman in labor and a bunch of other noncombatants, he reminded himself.

  Reive launched himself through the doorway, with the gargoyles on his heels. Heikon smashed them as they came, swatting them right and left, and then reared up on his hind legs, caught hold of the overhanging edge of the roof, and threw his entire dragon weight on it.

  The roof came down in a deafening avalanche of timbers and plaster, burying the gargoyles who almost immediately began struggling to free themselves.

  They were only mindless automatons, Heikon reminded himself as he brought both forepaws down on the nearest one, crushing it to gravel. Somewhere around here, their master was directing their movements. As long as that individual remained at large, he or
she could create an endless army of cannon fodder.

  But for now, they had a break, and he turned and half-glided, half-ran after the others. The rest of the group were most of the way to the gazebo by now, except for Reive who'd hung back to offer him backup if needed.

  Which was when the garden statues attacked.

  Sometimes he hated being right.

  Esme's garden statues were life-sized sculpture in the old marble Greek/Roman style. Now they abruptly began to animate. A pair of fat cherubs holding a birdbath basin suddenly came to life and flapped their tiny wings, launching themselves forward to slam their basin across Reive's back. A strapping young man with his arm cocked back to hurl a spear leaped off his plinth and flung the spear; Kana rolled out of the way and it sailed harmlessly past her.

  The biggest of the statues was a centaur, thundering toward them in a clatter of stone hooves. Fortunately, while horse-sized, it was still small compared to a full-grown dragon. Esme whirled around and drove its legs out from under it with a well-placed kick. Still moving forward under its own momentum, it plowed into the ground and shattered.

  Heikon absently batted an erratically fluttering cherub into a decorative fountain that had not yet tried to eat anyone. Most of his attention was consumed with looking around. Whoever was doing this had to be very close in order to control the animated stoneworks so precisely. Line of sight, almost certainly. Which meant if their mysterious master gargoyle could see them ...

  Aha!

  Beyond the villa, the land rose in a rugged, rocky hillside, green with olive trees at the lower elevations, and dotted with brush higher up. In that patchwork of orange rocks and green trees, shadows and dazzling sunlight, one of the shadows moved.

  There were wild goats up here, but that sure didn't look like a goat. Heikon snarled and beat down with his wings, taking to the air.

  "Where are you going?" Esme shouted after him.

  "To take care of our problem, I hope!"

  He swept over the villa, feeling another pang for what he'd done to Esme's nice house; he'd have to make it up to her later. The gargoyle on the hill saw him, and rather than ducking to hide, beat his wings and flew up to meet him in the air.

  Like all transformed gargoyles, he looked like a living statue. He was very spiky, this one, with sharp-looking spines on his shoulders and a row of them marching all the way down his arms to his wrists. Otherwise, though, he didn't really look like much. Even bulked out as a gargoyle, he wasn't especially large. If not for the complication of the stone skin, Heikon felt that he could very easily take him in a one-on-one fight. And the stone was as much of a liability as a benefit for gargoyles when they were fighting a dragon. It meant they couldn't be bitten or easily hurt, but they were vulnerable in other ways—to shattering, say. All he had to do was swat the bastard out of the air.

  Heikon dived at him. The gargoyle folded his wings and twisted to the side. His small size was working for him, making him more maneuverable. It took Heikon longer to turn.

  Still, Heikon was a creature of the air, born and bred to it. No gargoyle could evade him in the skies for long.

  "Who are you?" Heikon demanded. "What is your quarrel with us?"

  The gargoyle grinned, displaying thick fangs jutting out from his lower jaw. "I'm a forward-thinking individual," he said, his voice slurred by the fangs. "I know you think of my kind as the aggressors, but most of us just want to stay out of you dragons' way, believe it or not. Me, though—I can pick a winning side when one comes along."

  "My brother, you mean? How long have you been working with him?"

  "Off and on since the old days. Where do you think he got the dragonsbane he used to poison you?"

  Heikon roared and charged at him. The gargoyle rolled out of the way, dropping lower in the sky.

  He's making us angry on purpose, Heikon thought, directing it at his furious dragon as much as to himself. Angry people got sloppy. They made mistakes.

  But as long as he could keep the gargoyle's attention on him, the more time the rest of his family—and Esme—would have to escape.

  "How much dragonsbane do you have?" he demanded, beating his wings and rising to face the gargoyle once more. An army of gargoyles, armed with a drug that could immobilize and poison his kind ... it didn't bear thinking about. They could put it in the Aerie's water supply, poison the soil where they grew their food ...

  "Poisons are my specialty," the gargoyle said. He glanced down at his arm, flexed his spikes. "You can call me Trenn. Though you won't be calling anyone anything for very long."

  With that, he snapped his arm forward, and the spikes detached, hurtling through the air.

  Heikon, shocked, started to twist away, but he could see he wasn't going to be fast enough. Then a weight impacted him from the side, knocking him toward the ground.

  He got straightened out and unwound from the other dragon tangled up with him. It was Reive.

  "What are you doing here?!"

  Reive's dragon's jaws parted in a fierce grin. "Esme told me to come help you. I'd rather argue with you than her any day."

  "Impudent hatchling."

  Reive turned serious. "She also needs you to know there's another dragon incoming."

  Braun. It had to be.

  "What's the matter?" Heikon asked Trenn. "Did you spring your little attack too early?"

  Trenn only grinned. He was keeping his distance from the two dragons. The spikes on his arm had regrown. "My job is to keep you busy. Working, isn't it?"

  "Uncle ..."

  There was something off in Reive's mental voice. Something strange. Heikon turned in midair, and noticed the row of gray stone spikes bristling from Reive's shoulder and arm like porcupine quills.

  Reive had not just knocked Heikon out of the way; he'd taken the brunt of the attack. Now he was wobbling in the air, his wings flapping in an uncoordinated way.

  A wound like that wouldn't make a difference to him normally. There's something in those spikes.

  "You!" Heikon roared.

  He charged Trenn, sweeping down on him in a fury. Trenn launched another wave of spikes, but this time Heikon was prepared. He ducked underneath and the spikes passed harmlessly over his head. Heikon managed to score a glancing blow on his enemy with his claws, raking across the gargoyle's stone skin. As he continued his dive past Trenn and turned in midair, his forepaw burned painfully.

  The gargoyle was poison. Everything about him was poison. The spikes, maybe even his skin.

  Reive was sinking groundward now, losing altitude.

  And then suddenly Esme was there, soaring in at Heikon's side, green and gold and magnificent. She carried in her claws the remains of one of the shattered statues, a great hunk of stone that she hurled at Trenn.

  Trenn dodged, but his confidence was clearly shaken. He began to retreat.

  "Don't let him touch you; he's poison!"

  "Yes, I figured that out!" she retorted. "Get something to attack him with."

  Heikon dived and uprooted an olive tree. Esme had hold of a small boulder now. Between the two of them, they drove Trenn back. Every time he tried to escape, one of them was there, blocking his retreat. It was plain from the look on his face that he was starting to figure out he'd made a mistake.

  "Keep him busy while I get above him," Esme said.

  Easier said than done, at least without taking a load of spikes and ending up like Reive. Heikon swiped at Trenn with the olive tree, forcing the gargoyle to fly lower until his clawed stone feet brushed the ground.

  And then Esme's boulder came out of nowhere and flattened him.

  "Uh ... wow." Heikon dropped the tree and flew up to join her. "Remind me not to anger you, my love." His forepaw still stung viciously where he'd poisoned it on Trenn's skin; he flexed it as the burning began to fade.

  "Where's Reive?" Esme asked sharply.

  They found him on the ground, human-shaped once again. His arm dangled limply, blood running down his fingers. In his human form,
the spikes were much larger, protruding from his arm like knives. He was trying to remove one, fumbling at it with his other hand.

  "Don't touch that," Heikon ordered, batting his hand away. "It's poison. Everything on him is poison."

  "I know!" Reive retorted. His face was ashen under the bronze of his skin. "It's burning—feels like my arm is on fire."

  He swayed. Esme caught him. As she did, a shadow fell across them, and a sudden wind sent dust swirling away from them in all directions.

  Heikon knew what he was going to see before he looked up.

  Braun hovered above them, beating his wings hard to stay in place. The downdraft blew their hair and flung dust in their faces, like the wind from a helicopter's rotors.

  Heikon had seen his brother in the cave plenty of times, unconscious and out of trouble. But seeing Braun out and awake in his shift form made him realize that he'd forgotten how big Braun was. He was huge, probably the biggest dragon Heikon had ever seen. His black and green scales gleamed in the sun.

  Reive struggled to stand upright. "I can still fight," he gritted out.

  "I think this fight is mine," Heikon said, looking up at Braun. "Esme, get Reive and everyone else down to that boathouse you talked about. We don't know for sure that there won't be more gargoyles."

  "What about you?"

  She stood with her arms around Reive, holding him up as his legs sagged under him. Her sunfire hair was whipping in the wind, her face smudged with dust. She'd never had a chance to change out of her wet dress from earlier, and it had dried into a rumpled mess around her, stained now with Reive's blood.

  She was the most beautiful woman in the world. His locket glistened at her throat.

  "This is a fight that's been coming for twenty years," Heikon told her, and he shifted. Esme and Reive seemed to shrink as his dragon reared above them. He spread his wings, sheltering them from the downdraft of Braun's heavy wingbeats.

  "And I'm not going to lose," he added, and launched himself into the air to meet his brother.

  Heikon