The Dragonbards

Chapter 15

I have heard that the greater a man’s strength, the more perfect the un-man’s pleasure in destroying it. Oh, please, whatever powers exist beyond us, guard my children from the unliving.

*

Kiri jerked awake, chilled by an owl’s scream. She stared around her. It was light. The owl screamed again, and she heard the yapping of jackals. She grabbed her sword and ran scrambling down the mountain toward the cry. The two owls who had been asleep in the cave swept past her, shouting, “Afeena! Afeena!” The three dragons dove low over her head.

Halfway down the mountain, among boulders, two winged jackals were pawing and snuffling at a deep crack. The dragons dropped on them, belching fire. Seastrider beheaded one. Windcaller bit the other in two.

Tybee and Albee hovered over the crack, crying out to Afeena. Kiri knelt and reached in but could barely touch Afeena’s feathers. “Come closer. Come to me, Afeena.”

Afeena struggled into her hand. Gently, Kiri lifted her out. The little owl’s feathers were bloody. Her wings dragged along Kiri’s wrist. Kiri carried her up to the cave as Tybee and Albee fluttered around her.

She laid Afeena in her pack among the softest clothes. She was afraid she couldn’t examine her gently enough to search for broken bones. One wing drooped out sideways, and Afeena’s inner eyelids were half closed. Tybee and Albee huddled into the pack beside her and spread their wings to warm her. Afeena’s voice came in a faint whisper.

“Neeno, ooo, Neeno . . . The jackals killed Theeka and Keetho, but Neeno—I helped him into a hole in the tree beside the cadacus field. He is alive—I took him insects, water, in my mouth, but not enough.” The little owl coughed, then continued. “The jackals watched me, followed me. He will die—he will starve there. Help him . . .”

“And Teb . . . ?”

“The guards captured them both, in the field . . . the jackals came. . . . Ooo, help Neeno. The tree closest to the lane where the first two fields meet. Neeno . . .”

“Can the jackals get into the hole?”

“No. It is far down and deep. An oak tree.”

Kiri tied the remaining bundle of drugged meat to Windcaller’s harness and strapped on her pack with Afeena inside. She sent Albee to find Teb and Marshy. She mounted Windcaller carefully, so as not to jar Afeena. Seastrider was in a frenzy to get to Teb, and she knew she must not charge the castle. The three dragons dove for the cadacus field.

*

Marshy was chained in the slave cage, huddled down, pretending sleep. All the children had been brought in shortly after he and Teb and the bard girl were locked in the cage. The courtyard had been in an uproar, the dark captains arguing, then going quiet and sullen when Quazelzeg appeared. They beat the dark-haired girl and chained her at the far end of the cage.

Marshy watched her, but she wouldn’t look at him. What kind of bard was she, to have given away fellow bards? To have ruined her own escape, besides. Across the slave cage, the red-haired boy lay quietly, watching Marshy beneath his crooked arm as he pretended sleep. Marshy had not tried to touch his mind, because the slave girl would know. Fear lay inside Marshy— Teb was somewhere in the palace. He had seen them beat Teb, then march him into the palace in chains. And the dark leader had known Tebriel, had known his name.

They had tried to make Teb say where his dragons were, how many dragons, how many bards. Marshy knew he had to get out of the cage, had to get to Teb.

The tortures would be terrible. Where were the owls? He had to get the key.

*

The cadacus fields seemed empty as the three dragons skimmed low over the trees. Windcaller came down beside an oak, and Kiri peered into the hole. “Neeno?”

Neeno gave a small, choking answer. Afeena and Tybee slipped in to him. Kiri filled a twist of leather from her waterskin and pushed it into the hole, then crumbled up dried meat and pushed that in, too. Inside, the owls brushed against her hand, helping Neeno. The dragons were fidgeting and nervous.

‘Tebriel lies deep in the palace,” Seastrider said, trembling. “I can sense him; he is strapped to a table, in a windowless chamber.” She shuddered and pawed, huffing fire. “I could storm the palace; I could tear it down. But they would kill him.” She looked hard at Kiri. “I will go there into the courtyard, and I will trade myself for him. The unliving would—”

“No!” Kiri stroked the trembling dragon. “That would do no good. They won’t give him up, not even to have a dragon. Teb has angered them too often.”

“But—”

“We will free him,” Kiri said. “Quazelzeg will not kill him. He—he will torture and drug him.” That knowledge made her feel sick.

She did what she could for Neeno, but her whole being was shaken with fear for Teb. It took all her strength to make herself wait, with the dragons, deep in the woods until Albee came. The dragons crouched beneath the trees, their wings folded tight, their backs pressed against the low branches, their minds filled with the tortures that battered Teb. The pain of the tortures coursed through Kiri, twisting her, and her mind reeled with the drugs forced into him. When his arms were bent backward, Kiri choked down screams. When Quazelzeg’s face filled her mind, and his cold laugh thundered, she fought him just as Teb did. She saw only hazily the false visions with which Quazelzeg filled Teb’s mind, but even those images sickened her. The dragons shivered with the power they brought to help Teb. Near to dark, Albee came swooping between branches, rousing them from the horror as he buffeted his wings in their faces.

*

It was dusk when a kettle of thin gruel was shoved into the slave cage. The stronger children began scooping the slop up in their hands, drinking like starving animals. The weaker ones watched, knowing they would get none, then curled down again to sleep. Marshy shifted position so he could see the red-haired boy, swilling in the gruel. He must speak to him. He must have his help. It would be dark soon; he would go to him then.

But when the children were black silhouettes against the iron bars, most of them asleep, a little wind stirred Marshy, and an owl fluttered close to his face.

“It’s Tybee. I have the key.”

Tybee dropped onto Marshy’s shoulder, and Marshy’s hand closed over the cold metal key. He stroked Tybee, then knelt to unlock his leg chains. He removed them with painful slowness, to make no sound. “They took Tebriel into the palace,” he whispered.

“Yes, I found him.” Tybee said. “Kiri will go in; she will drug the jackals first. You must unlock all the children, but leave them here. Leave the gate unlocked and closed when you go out. You must help carry Tebriel; he is drugged.”

“I will bring the bard boy to help us, too.”

Marshy waited for some time after Tybee had gone, watching the still, dark shapes of the children. When no child stirred, he began to crawl, unlocking each child as he went.

It took him half an hour to go the twenty feet to the red-haired boy. Finally he lay beside him, barely breathing. The boy put out his hand, touched Marshy’s shoulder, and shifted position so his lips were near Marshy’s ear.

“Why have you come?”

‘To get you out. You and the girl.”

“It was she who told.”

“Yes. Why did she?”

‘To keep from the things the unliving do to us. She traded the knowledge.”

“She is a traitor.”

“No, she only lied to help herself. It’s worse to be a girl—she is often hurt.”

“We mean to get all the children out. What is your name?”

“Aven.”

“And hers?”

“Darba.”

“Come with me. Do you know the way to Quazelzeg’s chambers?”

“Yes.”

They waited inside the unlocked gate while Windcaller flew slowly across the courtyard and Kiri dropped the meat. Aven stared up at the white dragon, struck to silence by the sight.

The jackals snatched up the meat, fought, and soon they slept. Windcaller dropped down outside the wall, and Kiri slid onto it. As she secured her rope and swung to the courtyard, Marshy ran to her, dragging Aven. She knelt between them, pulled them close, and told them what she meant to do.

“You can’t!” Marshy said. “You can’t do that!”

“We must. It is the only way.” Kiri hugged him hard. “There is no other way to distract the soldiers. Iceflower agrees. She is very brave, Marshy. And so must you be.” She hugged him. “It will work. It must work. There are two grown dragons to protect her.”

Marshy shook his head, mute and miserable.

Kiri sighed. “We must try it. We must—for Tebriel. We can’t wait.” She reached into her cloak and gave each boy a knife and sheath. “Strap them on.”

She led them along in the shadow of the wall, to the scullery door. “Tybee was able to slide the bolt. It took all his strength.”

They slipped through the heavy door into the palace.