Dragon Stones (60 page)

"
Yes.
"  Galling, being forced to admit it.  "
He escaped.
"

"He'll try to make his way back to the twins."

"You think they're still alive?" Ponn asked.

"Of course," Diasa said.  "Unless I have completely misjudged them, they will have bolted at the first sign of a serious attack."

"
Where would they go?
" T'Sian said.

"Who knows?  A secret cave, a camp in the woods, an outlying village.  They'll have soldiers with them."

"Most of their soldiers are in Barbareth, or burned up and buried in the castle," Ponn said.

"I'm sure they kept a few in reserve."

"
A few.  A hundred
," T'Sian said.  "
Soldiers cannot protect them from my revenge.
"  Then, recalling unfinished business, she raised her head, moved it from side to side, lifted it up high.  She spotted Tolaria lying on the ground near the others, but Adaran was not there.  She could see, faintly, a warm, man-sized depression in the grass; but if this was where Adaran had lain, he was no longer there.

She poked her head forward, arching her neck over Ponn and Diasa, sniffing the grass.  Yes, this was where the sly one had been; she recognized his odor, a combination of infection and sewage and the herbs Tolaria had used to treat his wounds.  He had crawled away, toward the river, slipping down the bank and into the water.  She could see the route he had taken, the bent grass, the lingering traces of warmth.  The current was lazy here, quite unlike the torrent that rushed through the rocks near the castle.  Even with his injuries, the thief would likely be able to paddle a small distance.

She twisted her neck around, bringing her head up to Ponn and Diasa.  "
You let him escape
," she hissed.

"What?"  Ponn turned to look at the spot where Adaran had been.  T'Sian had already moved back a few paces.  She leaped into the air, catching herself with her great wings, hauling herself upward.  Adaran might be in the river, but she could find him from the air.

And when she did, she would boil him alive.

The downdraft of the dragon's wings nearly knocked Ponn over, but Diasa caught him and set him back on his feet; she, of course, had braced herself and not been unbalanced by T'Sian's departure.  Prehn locked her arms around Ponn's neck and held on tightly, as if afraid that the dragon might pluck her from his grasp and fly away with her.

Diasa watched the sky over the river as the dragon moved up and down it, searching for Adaran.  "That's the angriest creature I've ever seen," she murmured.  "She reminds me of my mother."

"You should have seen her when I first met her," Ponn said.

"Will she find him, do you think?"

"I don't know.  He seems to be good at escaping."

Prehn kept trying to look where the dragon had gone; Ponn kept turning her so that she couldn't see.  If T'Sian was going to kill Adaran, his daughter didn't need to watch.

Diasa went to the water's edge, ruddy in the reflected light of the forest fire.  "We should find a way across the river before the fire gets any closer."

"It wants to burn uphill," Ponn said.  "Besides, the wind is blowing it toward the village."

"Wind tends to change."

"We can hardly swim, not with Tolaria in this condition.  We should stay here.  We can move into the water if the fire comes closer.  If we cover ourselves with mud it will help keep us cool."

"I suppose," Diasa said, studying the river as if hoping to find Dunshandrin's twins drifting by.  "How far do you think Adaran will have gotten?"

"I suppose it depends on the current, and how well he can swim with his injuries.  It's not easy to paddle when your hands and feet are wrapped up in cloth."

"What if he didn't really swim away at all?" Diasa said.  She pulled out her sword.  "What if he's hiding in the reeds, say, right about here?"  She gently poked her blade into the cattails and rushes; Ponn heard a small exclamation from the tall weeds.  Diasa lunged forward and hauled Adaran to his feet.  He was covered in mud and duckweed, like some sort of swamp-dwelling apparition.  She tossed him to the roadside, where he fell on his back in a splatter of muck and slime.  Ponn, startled, took a step back as Adaran pushed himself to a sitting position.  Diasa glared down at him.  "Hiding in the brush," she said.  "Just like a highwayman."

"I'm not a highwayman," Adaran said.  "Why didn't you just leave me hidden?  You don't want me in your group, and the dragon wants me dead."

"I'm sure she's at the end of a long, long list," Diasa said.

Prehn started to cry.  "Hush," Ponn said, trying to soothe her.  Plenn was better at calming the children than he was.  He wished they were back at the inn, this odyssey nothing but a horrid memory, like a nightmare from long ago.  Gradually her whimpers subsided, although she still stared at Adaran with wide eyes, her cheeks glistening with tears.  "Really, Diasa, why not let him hide?"

"We can't have T'Sian spending all her time trying to find him," Diasa said.  "We have more important things to worry about."

"You
want
her to kill me.  You've hated me since Flaurent."

"You don't rate hatred, only contempt."

"I know you don't like Adaran, and I know you blame him for what happened at Flaurent," Ponn said.  "That doesn't matter now.  Put aside your personal feelings, and when this is over, walk away and never look at his face again."

"Put aside my personal feelings?"  She sounded incredulous.  "You can stand there and tell me that after you, because of
your
personal feelings, invaded the castle to rescue him?"

"I owed him a debt," Ponn said.

Diasa stared at him for a moment, then turned away, looking into the fire.  "So do I."

"Your debt is vengeance," Ponn said.  "Mine was gratitude."

"All of us owe a debt of vengeance."

"There's vengeance, and then there's justice," Ponn said.  "You have the two confused."

She stood very still; then, in a single fluid motion, she drew a small blade, spun, and threw it at Adaran.  The dagger stuck into the ground between his feet, eliciting a startled yelp.

By the time Ponn realized what Diasa had done, she had already returned to her earlier position by the fire.  He knelt and picked up the weapon; it took more effort than he had expected, as it had gotten stuck in some roots.  "This is not helping," he said.

"It made me feel a little better."

From behind him, Ponn heard T'Sian say:  "Well, I remain  unsatisfied."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The dragon had returned to her human form; she stood a few yards away from Ponn, looking down at Adaran.  "Look at this fool, Pyodor Ponn," she said.  "He cannot swing a weapon; he can hardly stand upright.  What possible use is he against our enemies?"

"No man alive is useless," Ponn said.  "Not even him."

Adaran wondered if he should take that as an insult.

"The world will not mourn the loss of one mangled thief."  Tiny wisps of smoke escaped from the dragon's mouth as she spoke; fire burned behind her lips, always ready to incinerate her enemies at will.  Was it the fire that made her so quick to anger?  If a man had the power to destroy something with a breath, what sort of creature would he become?

One not unlike Lord Dunshandrin, Adaran thought.

Prehn stirred in Ponn's arms, opening her eyes, looking around in confusion.  She glanced at T'Sian, at Adaran, at Diasa; then she turned her gaze up at her father and said, in a clear, strong voice:  "Deliban is coming."

For a moment, no one spoke; then Diasa said:  "What?"

"It's me, Tolaria," Prehn said.  "Orioke has summoned the earth elemental.  It will be here soon.  We must think of a way to deal with it before it arrives."

"Tolaria?"  Ponn held up his daughter, looking into her face, as if he might see the oracle hiding there.  "What … how?"

"I haven't harmed her, I'm just borrowing her voice," she said.  "The wizard has trapped me in some sort of hallucinatory prison.  I'm conscious, but barred from animating my own body.    The rest of you are too alert for me to contact; Prehn was the only one I could reach."

"You're learning all sorts of new tricks," Diasa said.

"Of necessity."

"How do you know Orioke summoned Deliban?"

"He left a … a connection between us, so he can maintain the illusion.  I followed it back and spied on him."

"That's just what Wert was doing," Diasa said.

T'Sian came up behind Ponn, peering at the child in his arms.  "Do you know where the wizard is?"

"Yes."

She raised her hands, curled them into fists.  "Where is he?"

"He's hiding nearby."  Pause.  "If you kill him now, I don't know what will happen to me."

"
Where
is he hiding?" the dragon demanded.

"On the hillside west of town, in the cleft of a large rock outcropping."

T'Sian turned and stomped off into the night.

Tolaria, seeing through Prehn's eyes, watched T'Sian walk away.  This brought her gaze to Adaran, pale and shivering beneath a layer of muck, which then led to her own body, lying still and staring by the roadside.  Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes glazed, her breathing shallow; it was like witnessing her own slow death.

Ponn saw where she was looking.  "Are you afraid that if T'Sian kills Orioke, you will die?"

"Yes."

"Or you could be freed, and wake up at once," Diasa said.

"That's possible too."

"What about Deliban?" Adaran said.  "If the dragon kills Orioke, what happens to Deliban?"

"Deliban will be freed from Orioke's control," Diasa said.  "For the first time in centuries, it will be completely unfettered.  There's no telling what it will do; it might just go away."

"Or it might open the earth and bury us all," Adaran said.

Diasa looked thoughtful.  "Tolaria, can you be more specific about where Orioke hides?  What is the fastest way to find him?"

"The crack that looks like lightning will lead you to him."

Diasa turned and hurried off after the dragon, disappearing into the night.  Tolaria watched her go.  Clearly she intended to find the wizard before the dragon did, but what would she do then?

Suddenly she felt something shift inside her consciousness; her vision blurred and rapidly faded.  At first this frightened her, but then she realized that Prehn had begun to wake up, reasserting control over her own body.  Tolaria didn't resist, fearing she might inadvertently harm the little girl with this power she didn't really understand.  After a few moments she found herself back in the illusion that Orioke had prepared for her.  It had begun to snow there, the sky disgorging small, hard flakes that stung with tiny pricks of cold before melting quite realistically into tiny droplets of water.

Melting snow.  That was what fed the icy current of the river that ran in a loop around the castle.  Qalor had used it to help keep the dragon stones cool.  T'Sian had destroyed the chilling device; now there was no way to bring the water up to the ruins of the keep.  The cold, cold river could no longer keep the crystals in check.

But Deliban was coming, and it had vast power to move the earth.  Ponn had told them how the creature had raised a ramp over the walls of the city, how it had created a road through town by simply demolishing everything that stood in its way.  Properly directed, such power could hinder the growth of the crystals; it could crumble the butte, raise a levee, dam the river, drown the castle.  But only its master could command it to do so.

And what were the chances of that?

T'Sian moved quickly through the tall grass.  She knew the outcropping of which Tolaria had spoken; she had seen it from the air while circling above the village, a stubby thumb of red rock split with cracks and crevices.  Some of them would admit a man, especially one as gaunt as the wizard.  He may escaped her so far with his trickery, but that would not save him when she filled all his bolt-holes with smoke and fire.

Diasa caught up with her and fell into step to her right.  T'Sian stopped walking; Diasa continued for a few paces before halting as well.  She turned and stood there, waiting.

T'Sian said:  "What are you doing here?"

"I'm coming with you."

"Why?"

"To help you kill Orioke."

"I do not need your help."

"Well, in that case, I'll just watch while you roast him in his own fat or whatever it is you like to do."  Diasa grinned.  "I'd hate to miss that, believe me."

"And the others?  You have left them without a defender."

"So have you."  Then, pointing in the direction of the outcropping, which loomed dark in the distance against the firelit sky:  "We had best get this done soon, before Deliban arrives.  The wizard alone will be troublesome enough."