The Queen of Death

60

Kandler felt like his heart might burst. He slouched forward in Greffykor’s iron grip and buried his face in his hands.

He allowed himself only an instant of grief at that moment, then wiped his face and stretched back up tall. He would weep for his daughter later. First, he wanted to memorize her murderer’s face, so he would know her later when he found her and punished her for her deeds.

The dragon queen snarled at Greffykor, then spread her wings and leaped into the air. Instead of passing over Kandler and Burch and their silvery captor, she zoomed straight up toward the tower’s open top, disappearing into the night sky. She left only the horrible scent of Esprë’s execution behind.

Greffykor leaned forward and deposited Kandler and Burch on the floor before him. The justicar raced over to where Sallah lay on the floor.

Freed from the dragon queen’s tail, Xalt had already reached the knight’s side, but he had not touched her yet. “She is still breathing,” the warforged said, “although not well.”

Kandler nodded his thanks to Xalt as he knelt and put his arms under the woman’s shoulders. “Take her legs,” he said. “With her armor on, she’s too heavy for me to carry alone.”

“Perhaps we should remove it.”

“We don’t have the time. We need to get her to Monja right now.”

Xalt put his hands under Sallah’s legs and nodded. The two lifted the knight together and began to carry her toward the doorway.

“I am so sorry for—”

“Not now,” Kandler said, choking up as he spoke. “It’s too late for Esprë, but maybe not Sallah.”

Greffykor swept out of the way as Kandler and Xalt trotted Sallah out of his home. The silver dragon watched them every moment, seemingly oblivious to the murderous looks Kandler shot his way. As Kandler and the others left, Greffykor turned to examine his destroyed crystal, a mournful look on his reptilian face.

Burch met them at the tall, open archway. “Monja brought the airship down closer,” he said as he guided them into the chill night air.

Outside on the landing platform, Kandler saw the Phoenix hovering to the right. Her deck hung level with the platform now, and Monja waved to them tentatively from where she stood on the wheel.

Burch leaped from the platform to the airship and grabbed the gangplank. He thrust it over the gunwale, and as soon as it touched down Kandler and Xalt bore the unconscious Sallah onto the main deck.

Before Kandler could turn around to tell Burch to take the wheel, the shifter had already done so. Monja leaped down from the bridge and dashed over to inspect the knight.

“What in the names of the spirits happened in there?” the shaman said as she bent over the knight.

“You didn’t see the red dragon?” Kandler asked.

Monja peeled open Sallah’s eyelids. “Of course, I had her son out here to keep me company.” She felt her neck for a pulse. “He took off as soon as he saw her fly out of the top of the tower.”

Kandler grimaced. He wanted to blame the halfling for not doing something, but what could she have done? None of the others had been able to stop the dragon queen either. Even trying would have probably cost Monja her life too.

He realized he should probably have been grateful that so many of them had survived their meeting with the dragon queen. He just couldn’t manage to muster that feeling up.

“Can you help her?” Kandler asked.

“Give me some room,” Monja said.

As Kandler stepped back, the halfling spread her arms wide and looked up toward the sky. She chanted a heartfelt prayer to her people’s spirits, and a warm, golden glow flowed around her arms. She reached forward and laid her hands on either side of Sallah’s forehead.

The pleasant glow flowed off of Monja’s hands and surrounded Sallah instead. As Kandler watched, the woman’s breathing grew steadier, and the creases of pain in her brow smoothed down.

As Monja sat back to examine her work, Kandler knelt down next to Sallah and took her hand in his. After a moment, her emerald eyes fluttered open, and she smiled up at him.

“Did we do it?” Sallah asked.

Kandler swept the woman up in his arms and clutched her to his chest. Gratitude that she would be all right washed over him then, and sobs wracked his body.

“Oh, no,” Sallah said softly as she began to weep with him. “Oh, no.”

Monja glanced at Burch with a questioning look, and he gave her a grim nod. She covered her mouth with her hands, stifling an exclamation of grief. The shifter knelt down and reached out for her, and she buried her face in his shoulder.

Xalt stood watching over the others. “Never before in my life,” he said, “have I wished I could cry.”

After a moment, Greffykor lumbered out of his observatory, framed against the light spilling out through the archway. Kandler loosened his grasp on Sallah and kissed her on her full lips, light and tenderly. Then, arm in arm, they got to their feet.

“What is it?” Kandler said. “Come to tell us that the dragon queen has changed her mind?”

For an instant, he hoped she had. He felt like the one thing he wanted at the moment would be to die trying to pull the dragon’s eyes from her head with his bare hands.

Greffykor’s snout swung from side to side. The dragon didn’t say a word. Kandler thought the creature’s shame in failing to stand up to the dragon queen might have silenced him.

Then a small shape detached itself from the dragon’s silhouette and ran toward the ship.