A Sending of Dragons (18 page)

The tunnel opened into the egg room, bright with the light of many torches, and Jakkin saw Akki standing by a large stall behind a pale red dragon. Auricle had been moved into a layer's spot, though it would be months before she was ready to birth her clutch.

Auricle greeted Jakkin with a gray rainbow and arched her neck, but Akki's greeting was all in her face. Then her eyes shifted to Brekk, who had paused at the tunnel entrance to lean against the wall. Akki's eyebrows went up, and Jakkin, with his back to Brekk, formed a single silent word.

“Guard.”

She nodded, turning back to the stall, and Jakkin followed her in. There were two women on their knees fussing over the dragon's nails and a third woman picking up straw and fewmets by hand and dropping them over the stall wall into a pushcart.
By hand!
Jakkin smiled wryly, wondering what his bond friends, the lazy Slakk and the fastidious Errikkin, would say about that.

Sending carefully, he questioned Akki. “
How bad is this one?
” But he let the query broadcast to the women and Brekk.

“
This one seems well, but when I examined her I found many potential problems. She needs exercise. And a bath.
” The picture she sent was of a greenish lake where a dragon frolicked and splashed.

“Careful,” Jakkin whispered.

One of the women tending the nails looked up at the sound. Her mouth worked angrily, and her sending was sharp. “
Kkriah! Kkriah!
”

Brekk straightened up and started toward them, and Akki pushed out of the stall and met him halfway, putting her hand on his. “
The dragon must be moved. She must walk. Standing still so much makes the birth canal
. . .” Her sending faltered. She didn't find lying easy without words.

Jakkin broke in, finding the contact with Brekk made simpler by Akki's hand contact. “
Makes the birth canal close tight with sores. It is the way of this sickness.
”

Akki took a deep breath, adding, “
How do I set her free?
”

Brekk shrugged off her hand and turned
away from her, going back to the wall. His contempt shaped his sending. “
Woman's work.
”

Wiping her filthy hands on her shirt, the woman who had been handling the fewmets signaled to Akki, “
Come. Come.
” Her sending had more tone and rhythm than most.

Akki went back into the stall, Jakkin behind her. The woman bent down and opened the metal cuff with a quick flick of her hands. She held the cuff up. It had a simple snap-on lock.

Akki nodded, then turned away as if she were no longer interested in the mechanics of the bonds, sending instead to the women still tending Auricle's nails, “
Get water. Boil it. Very hot.
”

They showed nothing in their faces but leaped up together and went out past Jakkin and Akki toward a far entryway.

“
And you,
” Akki sent to the other woman, “
I need knives for the lancing. Boil them. And wash that filth from your hands.
”

“
Filth?
” The sending was clearly puzzled.

“
Go!
” Akki let her exasperation show.

The woman left, wiping her hands down the front of her shirt.

Akki walked back to Brekk, who had been observing everything from his post, his single eye squinting. “
I need
. . .”

His sending cut across hers with the neat precision of a surgeon. “
I watch. I go no woman's way”

Akki controlled her mouth and eyes with an effort, turned her back to him, and opened her mouth in a silent shout at Jakkin. “Help!”

Jakkin gave her a lopsided grin, bent, and quickly flicked open the other three chains and removed one from its setting in the wall. Then he signaled to Brekk. “
A man is needed here. The dragon must be led to water. Do not help the woman. Help me.
” He never thought it would work.

But Brekk seemed relieved, and he came over at once to take hold of the dragon's ear, pulling it so roughly that Auricle backed out of the stall with jerky steps. Jakkin waited until the dragon obscured him, then he pulled Akki close and whispered in her ear, “We can go
now
. Get the hatchlings. I'll take care of him.”

She moved quickly to the stall where the five hatchlings were sleeping, climbed over the fence, and disappeared. Jakkin, holding
the chain behind him, walked up to Brekk, who still had Auricle's ear in a twisting hold.

Brekk may have heard his step, or a bit of Jakkin's anxiety may have leaked out around the edges of his mind barrier. At the last moment, just as Jakkin was bringing the heavy chain down upon his head, Brekk turned and raised his arm, taking most of the blow there, but the shock of it nevertheless tumbled him in front of the dragon's forefeet. She fell on her knees on top of his leg, and Jakkin heard the crack of bone. At the same moment a sending rocketed through him, full of pain and anger and astonishment. Then Brekk must have passed out because only a lingering shard of the sending remained in his head.

Jakkin grabbed for Auricle's ear. “Up!” he commanded aloud. His sending was more emphatic. The dragon slowly rose from her knees and Brekk, groaning out loud from the pain, turned his head aside.

Out of the corner of his eye Jakkin saw Akki climbing out of the stall, a single hatchling in her arms.

“Only one?”

“All the rest are males,” she said.

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me.”

“Then let's go.” He pulled at her arm.

“I'd better do something about his leg,” Akki said. “I don't know if they can set it. And—”

“We don't have time, Akki. And when he comes to, he's not going to be happy with us.”

“Jakkin . . .”

He bent and picked up the chain and dangled it in front of her. “Trust me.”

“Yes, sir!” she said, giving him a mock salute.

“Sometimes I wish you'd obey as fast as those other women!”

She whispered a curse that startled him because he hadn't known she knew such language. Then he grinned and gave her a hug. “But I'm satisfied,” he added. “Trust me!” Throwing the chain down, he grabbed a fresh torch lying against the wall and lit it. “Now let's go!”

***

T
HEY TROTTED DOWN
the tunnel, careful to mask their thoughts, until Jakkin realized that the dragon's mind was wide open and broadcasting.

“
Shut up,
” he commanded in a frantic sending, but either she didn't understand him or she just couldn't stop. And then the hatchling began to send a piping that bounced from wall to wall.

“Well, so much for a sneaky exit,” he said. Akki's laughter bubbled through his mind, a laugh on the edge of hysteria. He had to concentrate hard to keep from responding to that hysteria himself.

Whether it was luck or memory that brought them to the lake Jakkin couldn't say, but within minutes they had found the pool with its green-white center. Akki set the hatchling down and stretched her arms.

“All right, Master Jakkin, now what?”

“We dive in.” He pointed.

“You're the only one who can swim.”

“I can pull you through and you can hold the hatchling. And Auricle
can
swim. I've seen her. And . . .”

Akki shook her head. “Gravid dragons have extra buoyancy.”

“What's that?”

“It means she's going to float to the top.”

“Why are you telling me this now?” Jakkin asked.

“Because you never gave me time before,” Akki said. Then she looked down. “Besides, I just thought of it.”

“Are you sure about the buoyancy?” Jakkin asked.

“Pretty sure,” Akki said.

He sighed. “Well, I could run back and get those chains.”

“What for?”

“Added weight.”

“Not enough.”

“Well, we have to try something.” He scuffed his foot on the stones.

The dragon suddenly sent a gray-and-tan rainbow and there was that same plaintive tone: “
Man? Not-man?
”

That determined Jakkin. He sent her a command to lower her head, put his hands on each side of her face, below the earflaps, and stared deeply into her eyes. Speaking and sending at the same time, he said, “Auricle, thee must dive in the water and go under, fighting the buoyancy to get down to the light.
Else the
men
will take you. They will take you and . . .” He summoned all his strength and showered her with the bloodiest sending he could manage. As he did so he felt Akki's hand on his back, lending her strength to his.

Startled, the dragon pulled back, nearly squashing the hatchling, who piped her distress. The piping stopped the dragon in her tracks. She turned and nuzzled the little one.

Akki pushed past Jakkin and put her hand on Auricle's broad flank. “They will kill this hatchling and those females in thy eggs as well.” Her sending was even redder than the one Jakkin had managed, and it was filled with images of mothering and babies' blood and bonds.

Auricle lifted her head and a strange red light flickered in the dark shrouds of her eyes. It was the first time they had seen such a reaction from any of the cave dragons.

“
Thou fighter,
” Jakkin sent strongly. “
Thou beauty
”

Akki picked up the hatchling and they walked to the edge of the lake.

A
S THEY SUMMONED
the courage to dive, they heard the sound of footsteps in a nearby tunnel.

“Quick!” Jakkin's voice was suddenly hoarse. He plunged the torch into the water and, as it sizzled out, they were left in the half-shadows of the reflecting lake.

Akki waded in first, the hatchling clutched to her breast. Jakkin gave Auricle a shove with his shoulder against her flank, and she followed Akki into the shallows reluctantly. Jakkin entered the lake last, careful not to let his head get wet.

He whispered to Akki, “Comfort the little one but hold on tight. Once we go under she won't be getting any sendings from you and
might panic. Take a deep breath when I tell you to and hold your nose.”

Akki shifted the hatchling to her right arm and put her left hand up to her face in preparation.

“Good! Once we're under I'll grab the back of your shirt and tow you along. You won't have to do anything but hold on to the hatchling—and
don't breathe
.”

“I trust you,” she whispered back.

He turned to the dragon. “
Open thine eyes underwater and swim toward the light. I cannot command thee under the water. Nor can any man.
”

She answered him with a flash of color.

“
Freedom awaits thee outside, my beauty. There are no blood rites there. Thee shall birth thy hatchlings and live to see them fly.
”

“
?????
”

“Jakkin,” Akki hissed. “She doesn't know what you mean. Cave females never get to fly.”

“Well, they've seen the wild males flying, haven't they?” He sent Auricle a picture of a male dragon in the sky circling a female below. “
That is flying, my beauty.
”

“
!!!!!
”

The running footsteps got nearer, honing in on the sendings, and the first tentative feelers from the searchers drifted into their minds.

“Take a deep breath, Akki. Now!” Jakkin said. “Dive!”

The dragon went first, her tail whacking the water with a sound as loud as a thunderbolt, drenching them in the process. Akki was next, taking a noisy breath and ducking under. Jakkin followed immediately, grabbing a handful of her shirt back. With a powerful kick, he began to tow her down toward the inviting green-and-gold light.

As he swam Jakkin felt as if he were moving slowly through a nightmare. Each stroke seemed to take forever. Glancing back, all he could see of Akki was a dark, amorphous figure. He hoped she was still holding the hatchling because he couldn't tell. Her dead weight slowed his progress. By the time they'd come to the light-colored water, he was practically out of breath and he knew there was still a long passage under rock before he could start toward the surface again.

Ahead of him the green-gold light sud
denly went dark and he felt the cold water chill his bones. For a second he considered surrendering himself to the cold. All he needed was one quick intake of breath and the aching in his chest and lungs would be gone forever. Then he thought about Sssasha and Sssargon and Heart's Blood. They flashed across his thoughts like pictures on a screen. At that very moment the light returned full force and he saw the outline of a tail moving ahead of him. Auricle's enormous body had been blocking the light. He'd known it subconsciously and that was why he'd thought about the other dragons. Relieved, he kicked his feet extra hard and surged forward, ignoring the fact that he'd no breath left, that he couldn't feel his towing arm, that his ears were popping. He kept swimming because it was the only thing he
could
do, for Akki and the hatchling and himself.

And then he was past the rocky overhang and into the pulsing light, bursting up into the air, sobbing and gasping at the same time. Already on the rock ledge, Auricle was shaking herself all over, spraying the cave with water and rainbows.

Jakkin swam toward the ledge, found a footing in the shallower water, and hauled Akki behind him. Her eyes were still squeezed shut, her left hand cupped over her nose. He grabbed the hand and pulled it away, and for a moment she fought him.

“It's all right, Akki,” he cried, his voice ragged. “We've made it. We're here.”

She opened her eyes slowly, all the while taking in great gulps of air. Her eyelids fluttered and her pupils seemed filmed over and unfocused. The hatchling began to squirm in her arm. They both moved with a slow deliberation, as if they were still underwater.

“Jakkin,” she whispered. Then louder: “Jakkin?” Opening her right arm as if it hurt to do so, she dropped the hatchling into the water. It paddled in awkward circles until Auricle stuck her long neck out and nosed the dragonling to the ledge. It scrambled up, leaving patches of eggskin on the rocks.