City of Death (15 page)

Scirye

Scirye sat with the other companions in her room late that afternoon.

Koko folded his forelegs. “So where do you think that overgrown lizard's gone?”

Leech said nothing but sat with the distracted look that he so often had now, instinctively playing with his armbands.

“And what a coincidence that the sacred axes are missing at the same time.” Tute stretched lazily. “How well do you really know Bayang?”

Scirye glanced at Leech for help defending their companion, but he was still lost in thought. She felt guilty for not asking him what was bothering him. What kind of friend was she? “Leech, are you all right?”

He seemed to come out of a dream. “Yes, what?”

Scirye frowned. “Tute was wondering if we could trust Bayang. Weren't you listening?”

Leech toyed with his armbands nervously. “Sorry. I was worried about Bayang.” He turned to Tute. “We'd never have gotten this far without Bayang. She's saved our lives time and again.”

Tute's claws ripped the expensive Persian carpet in frustration. “Maybe she was just keeping you alive so she could get into the palace.”

“Have you got mange on the brain?” Koko snapped. “You've only been with us a couple of days so you don't know her like we do. She may be a grouch, but she's no thief.”

The badger had voiced Scirye's own thoughts, though she wouldn't have put them in those exact words.

“Besides,” Koko added, “if anyone was going to steal something and then take a powder, I would have said it was going to be me, not the big green lizard.”

The lynx sat on his haunches. “Yes, I would have thought that too.”

The badger glanced at him sideways. “You didn't have to agree with me so fast.”

M
ā
ka tried to distract Tute by scratching him behind the ear. “The Lady Scirye is the chosen one. If she vouches for Bayang, then I trust her judgment.”

But Tute twisted away from her hand. “Don't be so naïve, M
ā
ka. We just met them. We don't really know how loyal the dragon is.”

M
ā
ka had begun to alternate squeezing a rubber ball in either hand. Scirye supposed that was to develop strength for her magic tricks. “Tute, if you say one more bad word about Lady Scirye's friend, you and I … we will no longer be partners.”

Tute's ears stood up in shock. “You'd pick her over me? But I've got our best interests at heart.”

“And the Lady Scirye has the world's,” M
ā
ka replied firmly.

“That's the thanks I get for all I've done for you,” the lynx grumbled but he fell silent.

Scirye didn't want their pact to break up M
ā
ka's friendship with Tute. “M
ā
ka, you really don't have to—,” she said uncomfortably.

The sorceress turned to Scirye. “But I do,” she said with such absolute faith in their quest that Scirye squirmed. “You are going to save the world.”

I just wish I could be as certain,
Scirye thought to herself.

 

25

Leech

Leech was only half aware of the others as he argued with the Voice. He was tired of the tedious job, but he knew he had to convince the Voice of Bayang's innocence before the young brat that was the Voice panicked.

She's left us holding the bag,
the Voice muttered.
When are you going to face the truth about her?

When are you?
Leech shot back.
She's my—our friend. She would never do that.

Even though it was dangerous for Bayang to know about the Voice, Leech missed her. It amazed him how much his life was already entwined with that of the dragon's. Yes, she could be a nag and a worrywart, but her scoldings had been no worse than the orphanage matron's, and at least the dragon spoke the way she did out of concern rather than the matron's mean-spiritness. And Bayang took a great deal of responsibility upon her broad shoulders so it was unlike her just to run off, let alone steal a sacred treasure.

Suddenly there were angry voices in the hallway outside.

“Chin,” Scirye said to the maid who had been kneeling on a cushion in the corner, “please see what that's all about.”

Rising, the maid went to the door and opened it to reveal Nanadhat spread-eagled across the doorway, trying to make a barricade with his body. “You cannot enter the princess's palace without Her permission,” he protested.

He tumbled onto the rug when Captain Nanayor shoved him. “His Imperial Highness has ordered that the vizier take custody of the dragon's accomplices in the theft of the sacred axes.”

Scirye got off her bed and drew herself up, looking every inch the haughty noble lady rather than the girl who was Leech's friend. “Nanadhat, send word to the princess.”

Nanadhat got up off the floor with Chin's help. “I already have, lady.”

Scirye glared at the captain as he marched into the room with two Wolf Guards. “If we were accomplices in the theft, why didn't we leave with Bayang?”

“I'm no criminal mastermind, but maybe it was to scout out more treasures.” Captain Nanayor pulled a machine pistol from the holster on his belt and made a point of clicking off the safety. His two guards did the same with their guns. “All I know is that you are now mine.”

Nanadhat was outraged. “How dare you threaten her ladyship this way!”

Captain Nanayor ignored the steward when he saw Leech's hand on the flying discs. He motioned to the guardsmen, who immediately aimed their machine pistols at Leech. “I was warned those things let you fly. Put your hands up,” he barked. He looked around the room. “All of you. Hands in the air. Your friend proved that we can't trust you. You're the vizier's now, not the princess's spoiled pets.” He aimed a kick at Tute who sprang away with a hiss. “You barbarians will come with me.”

“But I can't leave,” Koko wailed in dismay. “I scheduled a massage for three.”

“Pampering's over, beast,” the captain sneered.

M
ā
ka had wrapped her arms around the growling Tute, but she stood up and obeyed. “Is it really necessary to bully us?”

The captain pointed his pistol at her. “This says I can do what I like. And next we're confiscating all magical items.” He nodded to his guards. “Search them.”

Tute crouched, ears low against his head as if he was ready to spring on anyone who dared to touch M
ā
ka. But it was Kles who went mad, launching himself from Scirye's shoulder before she could catch him.

“I won't let you lay a finger upon a lady of the House of Rapaññe,” the griffin protested as he flew straight at the captain.

As the captain swung his hand at the griffin, Leech waited for the nimble creature to dodge, but he simply hovered, presenting an easy target for the backhanded blow that sent him flying.

Crash!

The small chess table overturned, spilling pieces everywhere.

“Kles!” Scirye ran to the prone griffin and, dropping to her knees, scooped him up into her arms. The griffin rolled over, shaking his head groggily, too dazed to answer. Scirye felt his limbs and body until she was satisfied nothing was broken. Then she narrowed her eyes as she glared at the captain. “You'll pay for striking my retainer.”

Crack!

A bullet tore through the rug into the floor just before her. “Your title means nothing now. And when the vizier's done, your father will be stripped of his titles just like the princess.”

Scirye held up her palm. The goddess's mark was burning an angry red. “We are engaged on a sacred quest.”

The captain paused at the sight. Then he swallowed and said, “The vizier said you would try to fool us with that simple conjurer's trick.”

Nanadhat cleared his throat. “If someone must search the ladies, let a maid do it,” he suggested, heading off a deadly battle. “Your master would tell you to show that much courtesy.”

“Oh, very well,” the captain said reluctantly and motioned to Chin. “Go on,” the captain said and indicated M
ā
ka with his gun. “Start with her.”

Chin approached M
ā
ka cautiously, making sure to keep the sorceress between her and the snarling lynx.

“It's all right,” M
ā
ka said soothingly to her friend. “You're always saying I'm not much of a magician.”

“But it's the principle of the thing,” Tute grumbled, but he simply watched as Chin slipped the grimoire from M
ā
ka's sleeve and then removed the belt with the star charms and the necklace with the signs of the zodiac—and even the rubber ball M
ā
ka used for strengthening her fingers. They made quite a respectable little pile when the maid was done.

The captain wagged his gun at her wrists. “The bracelets too.”

“They're just decorative,” the sorceress said as she added them to the pile at her feet.

Despite everything, even the Voice was impressed.
I didn't think she looked strong enough to carry that kind of load.

Next, the maid said something in Kushan that sounded like an apology, and Scirye shrugged, submitting to the undignified hunt. With a contrite bob of her head, the maid removed Pele's charm as well as the pouch with the otter figure, which the captain immediately claimed.

“The animals too,” the captain said to his guards. He purposely held his pistol on M
ā
ka while a guard cautiously searched Tute who growled and spat all the while.

The guard looked surprised when he felt Koko's fur.

“Heh, heh, how did that get in there?” Koko laughed nervously.

The guard pulled out a silver spoon. “Where do you keep it?”

Koko shrugged. “It's a tanuki secret.”

Two silver forks, a knife, and even a small spatula were added to the pile along with Koko's charm from Pele.

“If I didn't believe you were thieves before, I would now,” the captain gloated.

“Nice going,” Tute snapped at the badger.

“What's wrong with a few souvenirs?” Koko said unrepentantly.

During all this, Kles had barely stirred as Scirye cradled the fragile body tight against her. She held out his limp body so Chin could probe the griffin's fur and feathers, finding only Pele's charm, which she took.

When he had put all the confiscated items into a sack slung over his shoulder, the captain turned at last to Leech. “And now we'll have those armbands of yours.”

You can't let this scum take them,
the Voice protested.

Even if his armbands weren't their last hope, he wasn't about to give them up. “You can have the charm for warmth,” Leech pleaded, “but the armbands are all I have of my parents.”

The captain aimed his pistol at Leech's forehead. “I'm tired of these games, boy. Lady Scirye is of noble blood, but you are simply gutter trash. It will be even easier to take the armbands from your corpse.”

Fight! Fight!
the Voice shrieked. The words pounded in his head so that Leech could barely think. He began to reach for the weapon armband.

“Don't shoot! Let me talk to him.” Koko threw himself at the captain's arm, pulling it down so that a second bullet went into the floor.

The badger wasn't nearly as nimble as Tute. The captain's gauntleted hand caught him full across the muzzle.

Koko was as much upset at losing his hard-won privileges as his loot, so that the blow was the last straw. The badger, normally cautious to the point of cowardice, lunged forward. “They haven't built a hoosegow that can hold me.” With a snarl, he bit the captain's wrist.

“Koko, let go,” Scirye said.

His mouth full of Nanayor, Koko mumbled an indistinguishable reply but his tone was defiant.

Leech couldn't be sure if it was him or the Voice that took advantage of the distraction and began the spell to change the armband into a weapon. All he knew was this overwhelming desire to smash their enemies.

But one Wolf Guard had the presence of mind to put his gun against Scirye's head. “Stop whatever you're doing, or I'll kill her.”

Scirye's spirit was as bold as ever even if her voice shook with fear. “Fight them, Leech,” she urged. “Don't lose the armbands.”

Leech struggled with the blind rage, the hate. It wasn't just these petty tyrants, but everyone who had ever bullied him. The toughs in San Francisco's streets. The bigger kids in the orphanage. The dragons … Was that him or the Voice?

But Scirye's life was at stake.

The spell died on his lips. His hand grew still, no longer making the magical passes. Instead, he forced his hands to take off the armbands and handed them over with Pele's charm.

As the captain added them to the sack, the Voice shrieked,
No, no.

We have to for Scirye's sake,
Leech replied and was relieved when the guard let his friend go.

“Ptoo.”
Koko spat out the scrap of uniform that he had torn from the captain's sleeve. “You taste lousy anyway.” He jeered at the man. “Time for your annual bath, stinky.”

Despite the strong grip of his jaws, Koko's fangs hadn't been long or sharp enough to make more than two small puncture marks in the captain's wrist. But the sight of the twin drops of blood incensed the leader of the guards. “I'll show you how we deal with a wild beast.”

 

26

Scirye

Captain Nanayor had no more than swung his pistol halfway toward Koko when Scirye flung herself forward, bumping the captain so that he staggered backward into the arms of his men.

“Enough!” Lord Tsirauñe thundered from the doorway. He looked worried at Scirye who had fallen to the floor. “Are you all right?” When she nodded, he said, “If you resist, you'll give them an excuse to really hurt you.”