Citadels of the Lost (24 page)

Drakis froze.

Ethis turned his head, his blank, featureless face twisting consciously into the image of concern. “What is it, Drakis?”

Drakis started to shake.

“I hear them,” Drakis stammered.

“Hear who?”

“THEM!” Drakis hissed through clenched teeth.

Ethis sharply turned his head and looked up the street, relaxing his grip.

“I don't hear a thing,” Ethis whispered, more puzzled than alarmed. “In fact . . . it's uncommonly quiet.”

Drakis turned his head to look toward the Commons. “One of them . . . the rust-colored one.”

“What about it?” Ethis asked.

“It's . . . singing.”

“They are making no sound,” Ethis whispered again. “Do you understand them?”

Drakis squinted, trying to concentrate.

“They . . . they're
asking
for me,” Drakis said quietly.

“For you?” Ethis asked. “Are you certain?”

“Yes,” Drakis nodded, gently pushing the chimerian's arm out of the way. “I can't explain it, but . . . but they want me to come.”

Drakis began walking up the center of the deserted street.

“This can't be good.” Ethis shook his head as he followed. Drakis knew that the chimerian was taking far more care than he was in moving silently along the buildings and finding cover between him and the monstrous beasts as he advanced. Drakis' own training sounded in the back of his mind reminding him that he, too, should be taking such elementary precautions, but there was something in the dragon's song that beckoned him onward with an understanding of inviolate honor and truce. It was not peace or even trust but something else that he was having trouble putting words to in his mind. Oddly, the fact that there were three of them was comforting to him although he did not understand why that should be true.

Drakis stepped slowly up the trodden clay of the road and onto the deserted Commons. His sword remained in its scabbard and he kept his hands far from its hilt. He moved gingerly between the mottled gray dragon on his left and the yellow-and-green dragon on his right. Both had reared back on their curled tails and sat upright in the open space before the Keep, their wings partially extending from time to time, flapping gently to help them keep their balance. Each of these dragons was nearly forty feet in height, their great, horned heads craned forward on their long, scale-plated necks as they watched him imperiously through their reptilian eyes. Directly across from where he stood sat the third dragon, a towering behemoth with rust-colored scales almost a third again as large as the other two dragons.

Drakis stepped carefully between them with light treads, his eyes fixed on the great rust dragon before him.

The gray dragon suddenly hissed so loudly that Drakis flinched, turning sharply toward the sound. The dragon's lips curled back, baring sharp teeth taller than the human's height. With a speed and agility far greater than Drakis could have imagined in such an enormous creature, the gray dragon's head rushed toward him. Drakis fell backward, his hand reaching for his blade.

The head of the rust-colored dragon slammed into the onrushing head of the gray dragon, knocking it to one side. The gray dragon pulled its head upward, roaring with such a deafening sound that Drakis dropped his sword just as he drew it, his hands rising instinctively to cover his ears.

The rust-colored dragon howled back, its neck curling down over Drakis. The enormous body fell forward, and for a moment Drakis thought it might crush him, but then the dragon spread its claws, arresting its fall as its forepaw smashed into the ground only ten feet to the human's right, gouging a deep hole and shattering the stones of a section of ancient roadway. The scaled breast of the beast filled his vision as the monster turned, bringing its own head down toward the human.

Drakis clambered backward, tripping over the broken stones and falling before he could get his footing. He glanced anxiously about him, searching for his sword, but the colossal head was rushing toward him.

Then it slowed and stopped just above him.

Drakis lay staring at the beast for a while, neither of them moving.

Drakis stared for a moment at the terrifying face staring back at him. Thick, leathery skin lay beneath the scales all of which were a deeper reddish color near their base but faded further out. The enormous teeth were yellowed with age, though how old the creature might be was beyond his guessing. One of the eyes was a milky color and probably blind and several of the multiple horns springing from its head had long ago been broken off and worn smooth by time and use.

The dragon turned its head so as to get a better look at the human with its good eye. Then it twisted its head downward, lowering the long horn, which emerged from its head just behind the eye, until it was within a few feet of the prone human.

Drakis smiled momentarily. It was like watching an old man crane his head to hear better.

Drakis slowly reached upward, laying his hand hesitantly on the surface of the horn.

His eyes widened and he drew in a sharp breath.

U
RULANI THREW HER BACK against the village wall just to the left of the open North Gates. The villagers had fled into the surrounding jungle although Urulani knew that their safety there was far from guaranteed.

Mala dropped down next to Urulani, more out of a desire to remain close than to follow her toward the danger. She smelled of panic, Urulani thought, staying so close to the raider captain that she could barely move her elbows without hitting the traitorous female. Not that Urulani would have any personal concerns about hurting Mala if she got in her way. Indeed, Urulani rather relished the excuse as she had come to the conclusion that the woman should have been relieved of the burden of her existence ever since her treachery had been exposed some weeks before when they were still at sea. But Drakis had insisted on protecting her, and Urulani found herself irritated that she felt a desire to honor his proclaimed protection of this ridiculous excuse for a female.

Philida knelt on the opposite side of the gate, her face drawn and her eyes wide. She spoke in urgent, hushed tones across the deserted, open gate. “We should flee into the brush! Now!”

Urulani smiled across at the Ambeth Hunt-runner. “Wouldn't that be a violation of clan-law?”

“That
is
clan-law!” Philida hissed back.

“How can you say that?” Urulani replied, drawing the curved blade of her cutlass from its scabbard. “After you've worked so hard to get us all back into the village.”

“We have to get closer,” Mala said suddenly.

Urulani turned her face toward her clinging companion, her languid dark eyes set against the midnight-velvet complexion. “
You
want to get closer?”

“No!” Philida demanded emphatically. “We stay here!”

“It's all right, Philida,” Urulani smiled grimly back at their escort as she turned in a crouch toward the gate. “You stay here. The Lyric will protect you.”

Philida looked up. The Lyric was standing behind her, her pale face grinning vacantly as she examined a large butterfly that had landed on her arm.

Urulani sprinted through the gate, silently dashing down the right-hand roadway—Heritsania, she thought it was named—and following the cobbled-together buildings on the south side between her and the dragons to the south. Just ahead of her, the road turned southward, and she knew it sloped down from there toward the Commons. It would afford her a good view into the plaza where the monsters had settled while still affording her the benefit of a little distance and cover behind which she might hide.

Not, she thought, that she had any real idea how far from these creatures was far enough or what cover might be effective.

She was just coming to the corner when something caught her foot, causing her to stumble.

“Sorry,” Mala exclaimed in a hoarse whisper.

Urulani gritted her teeth and choked back the words she longed to say. She knelt, sword in hand, at the wall of a bakery that stood at the corner where the road turned southward. The shutters remained open above her and the smell of baking bread drifted out of the windows and down around her.

Urulani's face was blank; her eyes focused as she slowly leaned forward to take in the street and the Commons at its end.

The road descended as she remembered, a gentle clear slope leading directly to the open area in front of the Keep, which the locals called the Commons. The street was completely deserted. Doors swung slightly in the gentle breeze. The three dragons looked hunched over, each of them towering above the surrounding buildings. The Keep was almost completely obscured by the monstrous forms though some of the eastern parapets surrounding the Keep were visible. Two of the dragons were smaller in stature—although the term smaller had little meaning in this case, Urulani thought grimly. All three of them seemed intent on something below them in the Commons. One of them, the gray-scaled dragon, snapped its head downward in sudden ferocity but the largest of the three—the rust-colored dragon—threw its own head into its smaller companion and pushed it aside.

There was a human moving among the dragons.

Urulani's jaw dropped.

“Drakis?” Mala murmured next to her.

“It can't be,” Urulani said in wonder.

The enormous rust dragon lowered its head. It looked to Urulani as though the monster were somehow bowing to Drakis.

“Closer!” Mala urged. “We have to get closer!”

Urulani glanced at the former slave once and then nodded. “I think you may be right.”

Urulani dashed to the other side of the street and then down along the open and now vacant buildings, trying to keep herself inconspicuous as she approached. The idea of attracting the attention of these creatures terrified her. Her crew had been decimated the last time they had fought just one of these dragons, and they had only defeated it because Ethis had closed the fold portal on the creature's neck. Now there were three, and she still had no idea what tactic might actually prove effective against them in battle.

They came to where Heritsania was crossed by Jurusta Road. A smithy shop on the corner provided them with some protection. Urulani could see a maze of alleyways winding back among the hovels and the animal stockade beyond them. She knew that those alleys eventually would wend their way to the Commons and provide them with better cover as they approached—but she suddenly questioned why they were here at all. Why even come this close since they obviously had no idea what they would do about these dragons even if they did get close enough to them to strike. Yet Drakis was there, standing in the middle of them, and there was something in that which filled Urulani with the desire to be there with him, somehow, and not let him face these behemoths alone. Maybe that's why Mala was insisting that they get closer . . . so perhaps, she thought, the warrens would allow them to approach unseen.

Urulani reached her hand out for the wall, to pull herself forward into the alley.

“Wait!” Mala breathed. “Look!”

Each of the dragons stretched out its wings, the sound of their leathery surfaces rustling loudly in the morning air. With enormous power, first the gray, and then the green dragon with yellow markings pushed downward, the flapping raising a sudden hurricane in the middle of the village. Doors slammed, pottery crashed, and loose objects of all kinds flew through the air with every beat of their wings as each took flight. Last of all, the enormous rust-colored dragon raised up, the downdraft of its wings greater than those of its companions as with raw power the dragon drew itself into the sky with raw strength. Then, airborne at last, the rust dragon pulled itself forward, gaining speed in the air with its two companions following behind. Together, the three wheeled once over the town and then struck off toward the south.

Urulani jumped up and was running down Heritsania Road even before the dragons had made their turn above the town. She could see that it was, indeed, Drakis in the middle of the Commons, sitting on the ground and slumped over forward. Urulani dropped her sword on the ground as she reached him, falling to her knees and gripping Drakis' shoulders before he fell over. Mala was with her, stopping next to them and looking down as she stooped over them.

Drakis' head fell back, and his eyelids fluttered opened.

“Am I back?” Drakis asked, blinking and trying to focus his eyes.

“Yes,” Urulani said with the sudden flash of a smile. “A better question might be if you know where you've been?”