6.0 - Raptor (49 page)

“We’ll come back to help them,” Ort yelled back.

Sardelle nodded. She would have strangled him if he had diverted from his route now.

They reached the back side of the mountain, and her stomach sank when she sensed Morishtomaric’s presence. He was still in the air. She tried to locate Ridge, but they were at the edge of her range, and of course Morishtomaric’s aura overshadowed every other living creature around him.

Sardelle…

What is it?
She gripped the edge of her seat, certain from Jaxi’s hesitant tone that she didn’t want to know the answer.

Morishtomaric is injured
, Bhrava Saruth announced, sounding pleased.
He won’t be harassing the hindquarters of any more mares.

Sardelle barely kept herself from telling him to shut up.
Jaxi?
she prompted.

Cas needs our help
, Jaxi said at the same time as Ort pointed and blurted, “I see him!”

“Ridge?” Sardelle leaned forward.

No, he was pointing at a gold dragon feebly flapping his wings as he descended toward the side of Goat Mountain. Morishtomaric was, indeed, injured. Very injured.

“Where are our people?” Sardelle asked, the question as much for Jaxi as for Ort. Where was
Ridge
?

Cas saw him get hit—his power crystal was destroyed. He went down.

What do you mean
down
?
Sardelle’s mind did not want to—
could
not
—work through the meaning of the word.

Cas is clinging to the neck of that dragon
, Jaxi said, her tone subdued.
Ask your new god to help her, please.

Sardelle mulishly wanted to sink down in her seat and tell Jaxi to ask him herself, but she forced herself to focus on Morishtomaric and Cas. She couldn’t see her yet, not with the sleet still falling, but she could sense her now, clinging to the dragon. She was injured and exhausted, only hanging on because Kasandral had been driven into the back of Morishtomaric’s neck and she gripped the sword hilt. The wind battered her relentlessly, even as the dragon’s uneven flight threatened to hurl her free. Morishtomaric kept snapping back at her, trying to rip her off his back.

“Going in,” Ort said with determination, trying to adjust his flight and speed to intercept the dragon.

Sardelle doubted he would be able to get close enough for them to grab Cas without crashing into the dragon. She would have to levitate Cas free, if she even could with that sword in her hand. Kasandral had accepted her last attempt to use magic on him. Maybe he would do so again.

Bhrava Saruth?
she asked.
Can you rescue that human? She’s our friend.

Another worshipper?

I—maybe she could become one if you saved her.
Continuing the ruse made her feel sick,
sicker
. Her stomach was already queasy with worry. But she didn’t want to risk angering the only dragon around who was helping them.

She has a slayer blade!

Yes, but I’ll tell her not to attack you.

Hmmrph.

From that response, Sardelle couldn’t tell if Bhrava Saruth was concerned or not, but she tried to communicate with Cas as the dragon passed over their flier and flew ahead of them. There wasn’t much time. Ort might not be able to see it in the storm, but they were only about five hundred feet above the ground.

Cas? A new dragon is coming to help you. Don’t attack him. Do you understand?

Cas did not respond. She barely seemed conscious. Had she lost blood? Or just been battered nearly senseless?

Bhrava Saruth swooped down toward Morishtomaric, whose wings had stopped flapping. He was picking up speed, heading straight for the mountain.

Cas, don’t fight
, Sardelle urged one more time as Bhrava Saruth, pumping his wings hard to catch up, closed in. His talons extended, but they jerked back a few feet from touching her.

The sword fights me, high priestess!

Cas, let go
, Sardelle yelled, willing her to hear and understand.

“Why doesn’t he grab her?” Ort demanded.

The ground was visible now, to eyes as well as senses. The rocky mountainside waited less than a hundred feet below the plummeting Morishtomaric.

“He’s trying,” Sardelle said, as the dragon reached in again, attempting to pluck Cas away, only to be halted before he reached her.

Jaxi, can’t you do something?

Cas slumped off to the side, letting go of the sword and tumbling away from Morishtomaric’s back.

Sardelle would have risen out of her seat if she hadn’t been strapped down. She started to stretch out, thinking she might be close enough to use her power to levitate Cas so she didn’t hit the ground. Bhrava Saruth caught her first.

He flapped away like an eagle with a fish as Morishtomaric smashed into the mountainside with a puff of snow. He did not move.

Like an osprey
, Bhrava Saruth corrected.

What? Oh, yes. Sorry, I forgot. Jaxi, did she lose consciousness or did you do something?

Perhaps you should start writing down my preferences,
Bhrava Saruth said,
so you will easily be able to guide my followers.

She lost consciousness. I couldn’t do anything to her with her hand wrapped around a fully unleashed Kasandral.

Sardelle sank down in her seat. She cast about with her senses again, hoping in vain to catch Ridge’s aura out there somewhere.

Your god is awaiting a response
, Jaxi said.

About writing things down?
Sardelle grimaced.
I didn’t think that required a response.

He asked you where to put his new worshipper. A high priestess should pay more attention to her god.

Jaxi, I’m not in the mood.

I know. I’m sorry.

Bhrava Saruth?
Sardelle asked.
Can you take her back to the outpost, please?

Yes, high priestess.

Sardelle closed her eyes, not in the mood to explain that she had no interest in being a priestess, high or otherwise.
Watch out for friendly fire.

Understood.

Ort says there’s not any point in searching in this weather, and he’s heading back to the airship to see if they need help,
Jaxi said.

What?
We
can search. We aren’t limited by eyesight.

We don’t have a flier.

Sardelle huffed. Would Ort listen to her if she asked him to search for Ridge first? Hadn’t she done enough to help the army and the outpost? Didn’t she deserve a favor?

We’ll come back out when the storm stops and see if we can find him,
Jaxi promised.
The people in the airship will need your healing, and maybe Pimples and Duck and Kaika too.

Sardelle could not deny the logic, but that didn’t mean she wanted to accept it. She did refrain from asking Ort to stay out. She had known Jaxi for so long that she suspected there was a reason she didn’t want Sardelle to stay out and look for Ridge, that she knew something Sardelle didn’t.

Just that I don’t sense him anywhere, and if he was alive, I would. He couldn’t have been knocked so far off course as he crashed that he would be out of my range.

There have been times before when we thought he was dead because we couldn’t sense him.
Sardelle thought of the Cofah volcano lab, where Ridge had fallen through a trapdoor into an incinerator room with metal walls. Neither she nor Jaxi had been able to sense him through the iron.

I’m sure he didn’t fall into an iron box as he crashed.

Damn it, Jaxi. Stop being so logical.

I’m sorry.

I know.
Sardelle wiped at the tears trickling down her cheeks.

Epilogue

T
he sky was stark and clear, the sun gleaming off the glaciers draped across the back side of Goat Mountain. They could see for miles, but nobody had yet seen the one thing they were looking for. General Ridgewalker Zirkander. At the least, they sought his crash site. Then they would know if…

Cas closed her eyes. They would know.

“Doing all right?” Tolemek asked from the back seat of their flier.

“Fine.”

He touched the back of her head, then laid his hand on her shoulder. The gentle gesture said he knew she wasn’t fine, and he was right. She was glad to have him back there today to support her. If she had lost both men, it would have been intolerable. Maybe it was a good thing that she had been unconscious for most of the time the rescue team had been retrieving survivors from the downed airship. Otherwise, she would have spent hours worrying about him. Instead, she had woken with Tolemek sitting in a chair next to her cot, smiling down at her, with only scrapes and bruises to prove he had been in a crash.

Cas looked toward the other two fliers in the distance, each working with her to fly a search pattern along the mountain. Pimples’ back seat was empty, in case they found Zirkander, while Duck flew with Sardelle behind him. Sardelle had said very little that morning. She leaned over the side of the craft, watching the icy terrain below, hoping against the odds. Cas knew how she felt. Sardelle and Zirkander were closer, but Cas had known him longer, and he had changed her life. He’d stood up to her father and taught her to be more than she thought she could be.

As much as Cas hoped they would find Zirkander, standing down there and waving for a pickup, she knew in her heart that he was gone. They had been too high when his crystal died, and there hadn’t been anywhere he could have landed safely out here, not without any power. Once again, she couldn’t help but feel guilty that she had survived when someone else who had as much right to life had not.

“Those are the two we don’t need to worry about, right?” Pimples pointed ahead, where a large gold dragon soared on the air currents. Phelistoth, his form silver and noticeably smaller, maintained his distance from the gold. Tylie rode atop his back, also watching the rugged terrain below.

“Sardelle says yes,” Duck said. “They’re not a threat. The two who might have been a threat were talked into leaving after some politicking and clashing of antlers last night.”

Cas doubted Sardelle’s explanation had included moose analogies. Cas did wonder what had gone on between the dragons. She’d heard some of the story the evening before, though Sardelle had been extremely reserved and spoken little. Only General Ort’s firm tone had elicited answers from her about this new dragon, one who apparently believed himself a god and was collecting worshippers. Since Cas had barely been conscious as she hung from Morishtomaric’s back, certain she would die with him, she had been surprised to learn she was beholden to the new dragon. Fortunately, he hadn’t asked for anything. Yet.

Tolemek leaned back and started to remove his hand, but she laid hers on his, wanting him to know she was glad he had come along.

“I know you’ll miss him,” he said. “It’s all right. I mean, of course it’s all right, but you can talk about it—about him—with me if you want.”

“I know. Thank you.” Cas released his hand and turned to follow the contours of the mountain. She appreciated the offer but probably wouldn’t take him up on it. Tolemek had never liked Zirkander. Death had a way of resolving grudges, but she would probably go to Sardelle to talk. Later.

I may have found what you seek, human followers
, a chipper voice said in her head.

“Human followers?” Tolemek asked. “That’s not Phelistoth.”

“The new one, I assume.” Cas couldn’t remember his name. She hadn’t been in the mood to learn new things when she had woken up.

“What we seek?” Pimples asked. “It’s not Cas’s evil sword, is it?”

“Raptor’s sword saved us in the end,” Duck said.

“General Ort and Colonel Therrik already retrieved it this morning.” Cas steered the flier toward a saddle between two ridges where the gold dragon circled. “It was still stuck in Morishtomaric’s body. Therrik pulled it out.”

“He has it?” Pimples asked. “It’s not—he’s not a danger to Sardelle again, is he?”

“I think he just cleaned the sword and put it back in its now-rather-charred box.”

“Sardelle says Therrik has made his peace with her,” Duck said. “Or at least isn’t being as much of an ass since she saved his life.”

“He’s probably decided Sardelle and I are nothing to worry about,” Tolemek said, “when compared to all these dragons flying around.”

Cas, focused on the ground under the gold dragon, did not respond. She had glimpsed something dark halfway up a steep, rockslide-covered hill that sloped downward, then turned vertical and dropped hundreds of feet to a river.

She swooped low, though she already knew what she was looking at, the remains of Zirkander’s flier. The fuselage was torn open, the thrusters smashed, and one wing mangled. The other wing had been ripped off and lay fifty feet higher up the slope. The tail of the craft had disappeared altogether. Into the river, perhaps.

“I don’t see a body,” Tolemek said quietly.

No, and there was no place to land and look for it. The ground was too steep. Cas flew low over the area. She hated the idea of finding his battered remains, the humor gone forever from his eyes, but if they could take his body home to his mother to bury, they owed him that.

No humans live down there
, Phelistoth announced, coasting nearby, not coming as close as the gold dragon.

“Is it possible he fell into the river?” Duck asked.

“If he did, nobody would survive that fall,” Pimples said sadly.

“You’re not going to talk math formulas, are you?”

“No.”

No. He didn’t have to. They all knew. Even Sardelle must know. She had a hand over her face, her head down.

“What now, Raptor?” Duck asked.