A Shade of Dragon 3 (10 page)

W
hen the bombing began
, I had already been “returned” to Michelle. I was aware of the resurgence of fire dragon power before Michelle had even awoken. I saw the strange flares of orange, yellow, and red light, illuminated on the opposing wall, and stood to investigate. That was when I knew. Balls of fire like white plasma filled the sky, streaking and exploding gracefully through windows. Homes stood like black skeletons in the wake of the dancing flame, and people were in the street—fleeing and grabbing what little they could. From my vantage point, three stories high, I could also see fire dragons moving through the streets, but the ice dragons could not. Unable to track the source of the fire, they were surrounded by a hedge of flame, and relented. Many of the buildings were consumed, and those that were extinguished by the ice of a dragon still smoldered, blackened, useless. I swallowed. Soon, the castle would be alerted, if they weren’t already. Soon, Lethe would know. Michelle would know. I shuddered at the thought of vicious Vulott being made aware of this development.

But my heart quickened with both terror and anticipation. Theon was somewhere in those streets, advancing toward me.

Shouts emanated through the heavy wooden door of Michelle’s bedroom. Footsteps thundered down the hallway, not stopping here. A smattering of jewel-toned lights, a reflection of a jeweled statue exploding somewhere near the castle, flared across Michelle’s sleeping face, and she stirred. I was no longer playing my barrel organ. I had stopped several minutes ago.

“What are you doing over there?” Michelle demanded sleepily, shoving herself into an upright position as if it was the most heroic task of her nineteen years. Rumpled and drowsy, she still looked annoyingly sexy.

“Watching the bombs.” Though my heart was stampeding in my chest, there was nothing else to say. Where could I go? Out into the snow, like a mad woman?

Poetically, a soft snow began to fall outside the window.

“What bombs?” Michelle bellowed, flinging herself out of the bed and ambling to the window. She shoved me out of the way to thrust her face against the glass. “Oh, my God,” she whispered to herself. “They came back.”

Righteous vindication throbbed in my heart. “Of course they came back.” The words popped out of my mouth with no thought at all, steely and passionate and firm.

Michelle cast a glare in my direction. “Did you know this was going to happen?”

I forced my face to stay in line. “Anyone could have guessed,” I replied. “It was their land, originally. The ice dragons didn’t kill everyone; they didn’t follow them across the ocean. It was entirely possible that they just reassembled elsewhere. I mean, either perspective—that they would or wouldn’t return—would have to be an assumption. I just assumed they would.”

Her eyes narrowed, but the bed chamber door was thrown open just then, and we both whirled at the sound, uncomfortable eye contact broken.

“Queen Michelle.” The person standing in the doorway was Dorid, strangely; not Lethe. Interesting. It said a lot of a man who would not come for his wife as another imminent battle hung over the land, encroaching on their own castle. “Your presence is requested in the throne room.”

Michelle strode toward the door, and I stayed behind. If she forgot about me… I certainly would have stolen some furs, a pair of boots, and tried to find the astrolabe before striking out into the streets of Everwinter in search for Theon.

But Michelle probably knew this. She had always been smarter than she looked—her emotional intelligence would’ve been off the charts, if her ego didn’t get in the way.

“You,” she commanded, pointing at me and jerking her finger into the hallway. “Come with me, or face the consequences.”

Grim, I trundled after her.

T
he throne room
was a tizzy of panicked gesticulation when we arrived. My heart went to Lethe, as he was bone white and manic. “Nell, you’re okay,” he blurted upon sight of me. Michelle shot him a poisonous glare. “Michelle, darling.” Lethe went to Michelle and embraced her quickly. “They’re destroying the entire city. They’ve gone blazing insane.”

“I should have known that this was coming,” Vulott muttered. It was he and not Lethe who sat on the throne, massaging his temple tiredly. “I don’t know why I didn’t think that they would be capable of such an atrocity.”

“What should we do?” Lethe asked. “What are the people in the street doing?”

“I watched from the window for a while.” I spoke up. “Most of them fled. There are just too many buildings on fire, and the ice people… They don’t seem to care that much about the land. Not as much as they care about themselves…”

“Typical,” Vulott sneered.

Lethe abandoned Michelle’s arms to continue his pacing.

“Then forget the people,” Michelle called after him. “What about us? What will we do?”

Spoken like a true ice dragoness.

“The fire encroaches,” Vulott announced, having moved to the window. “The snow fall is too light to extinguish the buildings, and I see fire soldiers moving in the streets. We have been abandoned by the people, but the fire dragons remain. Even in the snow.”

Damn right,
I thought, my mind turning to Theon with a swell of pride.

“What about our guards?” Michelle demanded, her voice pitchy with despair. “There has to be someone here who can protect the castle for us!”

“Sometimes you are so beautiful and cold, I forget that you are human, my dear,” Vulott grumbled. “And then you say something like that and I’m reminded.”

“What? The guards themselves aren’t loyal?” Michelle shrilled. “Then what the hell is the point of having them?”

“It’s your knowledge of Everwinter which is truly lacking,” Lethe explained to her, more gently than Vulott would have. “The castle is surrounded by a thin band of gaseous water, now frozen. It means nothing to us in its frozen state, except to be an object of beauty. However… the fire will melt it quickly. And the natural pockets of gas in the creek will explode into a ring of fire. The castle will be slowly engulfed from every angle, except in the event that an ice storm rages down onto us. But if it does not—even with a team of fifty ice dragons, should every guard stand beneath their pledge of allegiance—the fire will overpower the manpower in the castle. We would sustain massive damage to certain wings. The castle is simply too large.”

“We can’t just leave it!” Michelle wailed. “This is our castle!”

“Darling, they will destroy it,” Vulott explained to her acidly. “They would rather destroy their own palace than allow us to dwell in its walls.”

“Then what are we going to do?” she cried.

“Hurry,” Lethe answered. “Send word to the guards. Abandon the property. We must think first of our own safety, mustn’t we?”

“And leave behind an untouched castle for the fire dragons to retake?” Vulott cried.

Yes!
I cried silently.
This was their home before you came here and stole it!

“Hell, no.” Michelle spoke up. “If we have to leave, let’s take what we can carry and regroup elsewhere.”

“We’ll take the weaponry,” Vulott announced.

Simultaneously, Michelle announced, “We’ll take the jewels.”

Lethe winced. “The fire will not wait for us to load our sacks,” he reminded the two of them. My heart went out to him. He had some qualities of an ice dragon, but he was less ice dragon than Michelle Ballinger herself. “If you must, then hurry.” His eyes were dark with judgment, but he didn’t have the spine to stand up to either of them. “Grab whatever you need and let’s go. I’ll be waiting along the northern parapet.”

“Nell!” Michelle snapped, her eyes setting on me. “Load your arms with whatever you can carry, and instruct the other women to do the same. Go now! To the servants’ quarters!”

As I stepped from the throne room, I was taken aback by the harried motion of the sentries and maids bustling down the corridor, some loading their arms with precious goods. My teeth tugged at my lower lip as I scanned the hall…
Whatever you can carry.
Would I have the time to make it all the way to the western tower? Would I be the only one who would think to grab the item—an item of priceless worth, even if it wasn’t encrusted in jewels?

But she’d told me to go to the servants’ quarters, too.
Dammit!

I also needed to find Merulina and prepare to brave the cold, but those weren’t the only things. I had to think about Theon, and what he would want me to save most. So much to do. It didn’t help that the palace around me was churning in chaos. I almost wished that I was the queen. I would’ve ensured the safety of my people, not concerned myself with looting. The current of servants moved in the opposite direction, driving toward the castle’s main hall and exit, but I pushed back against them and forged toward the western tower first. I had some time. Just enough time to get one last thing…

T
he western tower
was totally deserted—quiet enough to be disconcerting. The hallways tapered off into darkness… with the exception of a splash of golden light emanating from one particular doorway. The room which housed the mystical astrolabe. I crept onward, slipped into the room, and beheld the ancient device. Its interlocking discs gleamed with light. I was gentle as I removed the astrolabe from its platform, but I had no thick coat in which to hide it. If Michelle saw me, I’d have to pretend that I had collected it for her.

Moving through the western tower and back toward the center of the castle was like stepping from one world—dark, quiet, and lonely—into another—bright, noisy, and crowded. The walls had been stripped of their tapestries and crests. The floors were littered in sprays of broken baubles and discarded coins. I wasn’t even sure what I could grab for Michelle anymore, but then I also assumed she’d packed up everything she could carry.

In all the commotion, the dungeon was forgotten. Its door hung open, but the guard station just beyond was dim and empty. Of course; the ice dragons were by and large cowards, weren’t they? No wonder they had lost the land twice now. If they couldn’t steal it without much effort, they wouldn’t bother.

War against a nation of cowards and thieves was understandably difficult. Without respect for the land, for families, for heritage, there was much for a people to lose in war. But on the other hand, it was easy to regain a foothold against such an enemy. They were so weak, they made it easy.

I glanced to the right and to the left, then advanced toward the prison. Before I passed the empty guard station, I hesitated and scanned the interior of the small room for any keys. At first, I thought that someone had had the foresight to remove them—the foresight as well as the spitefulness. But the guard had not seen fit to remove every item of use, for leaned in one corner were several tools, including a long, metallic scissor which resembled bolt cutters.

I snatched them up, heavy though they were—the bolt cutters wedged beneath one arm, while both hands continued to brace the astrolabe—and trundled down, down, down the twisting stone stairwell to the dungeon beyond.

I could hear them crying out for me—for anyone—before I even turned the last corner and was spilled out amid the prison cells and dangling chains. “What’s going on out there?” a woman in a cell demanded. She was an older fire dragoness, starved down to the bone… and an idea bloomed in my brain. Of course. The prisoners could help the soldiers! No one would ever need to know that it had been me…

“The king has come to save us,” I informed her breathlessly, placing the lock on the cell door between the scissors and closing them tightly. The lock groaned and gave, twisting and falling to the floor. “Let’s go. Take a coat and boots from any closet and join them!”

“And who are you but an ice dragon slave, to give the proud people of this land your orders?” the woman demanded, glaring at me hotly.

I wrenched the prison cell’s door open and extended my hand toward her, so that she could see the thin band of gold gleaming on my finger—and the Aena crest thereon. Her eyes—a dark gold much like Theon’s—flashed from my ring to my face. “My slavery is nothing but a ruse,” I assured her. “I will be queen of The Hearthlands when the throne has been restored to its rightful king, Theon.” I didn’t have the time to explain any further than that, though I saw from the largeness of her eyes that she believed me. I jerked my head to the side, signaling for her to pass and pass quickly. “Go now, there is no time to lose,” I commanded her. She hurried past, and so did several other fire dragons in her cell. They all scurried up the stairs, into the madness beyond, and were gone. I continued to scavenge for Altair. Where…?

“Sister!” a familiar voice called to me from the shadows. I twisted and scanned the darkness… and there he was, on the fringes of a torch’s dying light, forgotten by the sentries, bound in chains.

I hurried to unfasten his manacles with the heavy scissors in my hands, using the astrolabe as a meager illumination in the shadow. The manacles clattered away from the wall, still attached to his wrists but freed from the stone. He rubbed at where his skin had begun to go raw. It was a pain I remembered all too vividly.

Altair’s eyes fixed on me intently.

“The astrolabe,” he breathed. “You were the one. The one who met Merulina and brought her to me.”

“Always been a sucker for romance,” I answered, leaning down to scoop up the astrolabe again. “Have you seen Merulina since the attacks began?”

Altair took the bolt-cutting contraption without missing a beat. “Sadly, no,” he replied, strangely upbeat in spite of the words. “But if I know Merulina—and I think that I do—she is safe, wherever she is. I believe we all have some people in our lives who will never be made into fools, and who will ensure their own survival above all else.” My mind shifted to Michelle. Yes, in a way, I could see how an admirer might tout her strength, even if I couldn’t particularly understand it. “I will free the rest of the prisoners. Unless you think there is no time?”

“The guards and servants are no longer employees of the castle so much as they are mercenaries, concerned primarily with looting the palace. I doubt anyone would stop you, as it would divert valuable time… literally… from their acquisitions.”