Dragon Ultimate (9 page)

"The people in my office could help you. We are still open and working. On Water Street, as before."

"Your people stayed despite the plague?"

"Most of them."

"Then we are beholden to the noble young ladies of Marneri."

"Praise be the Mother, we've had no sickness there yet."

Lagdalen ran down the steps all the way to the bottom. In the stables she commandeered her favorite horse, a gray mare called Beety. Soon afterward she trotted out of the North Gate and headed up the road to Rinz and the Royal Hunting Lodge in Rinz Park.

Lost Buck Woods was a small wood of oak and beech set about a mile from the North Gate of Marneri. Usually it was a quiet spot. At Stag's Pool there would sometimes be a fisherman, patiently casting with fly for the resident trout, and in the glades there would be mushroom gatherers, and in the winter woodcutters, but that was about all you might expect to find there.

On this day, though, it was a scene of terrifying activity. One of the long glades had now been completely dug up and turned into a great pit, eight feet deep, ten feet wide, and one hundred feet long. Five huge dragons wielded shovels in the pit, and five more worked above, shoveling the loose dirt into neat piles.

More dragons, along with an army of men and dragonboys, worked nearby on clearing and laying a road through the woods. A logging trail had been broadened over its entire length all the way back to the Marneri road.

This activity had begun the previous evening with the arrival of a group of Imperial Engineers. Soon they were joined by gangs of workmen, then by dragons and dragonboys. All night the first teams worked to clear and prepare the ground. Teams of dragons, usually five strong, dug, or hauled out trees and stumps.

The 109th Marneri Dragons had been in the second wave, replacing a team made up of the resident champions, lead by Vastrox the Great. Normally such an occasion would have been the cause of much banter between the two groups of mighty wyverns. This time, however, little was said.

The ground was strewn with rocks, and some were the size of boulders. This slowed things down, but wyverns are tremendously powerful animals and not even fair-sized boulders could resist when two or three of them were working with pry bar and pick.

By the tenth hour the pit was finished.

The engineers passed word to Cuzo that sufficient depth had been achieved. Cuzo gave a sharp blast on the cornet, and the dragons downed shovels. The wyverns in the pit called up to their colleagues for a hand in getting out. The Purple Green reached down to help Alsebra up.

"Sometimes I wish you not freemartin," rumbled the giant one as he admired the athletic form of the green freemartin, who was certainly more supple than he was. She noticed the gleam in his eye.

"I think you have fertilized enough eggs for one life."

"Alas, this may be true. Certainly I get little opportunity in life as a Legion dragon."

"We'll all get the chance for that, when we retire," said Vlok, who was extending an arm for Bazil Broketail.

"Not you, surely not. This would be a mistake," said the Purple Green.

"This dragon as good as any other," growled Vlok defensively.

The Purple Green snorted. "Complete delusion."

Bazil hauled himself up, his big feet digging into the sides of the pit. "You leave old Vlok alone now," said Bazil. "We don't need any trouble today."

"Make life interesting."

"Only for you, old friend, only for you."

"Bah."

Vlok was making angry snorts, but stood fast. The other dragons stacked their shovels and picks on the big wagons that would carry them back to Dashwood, breaking the tension. Dragonboys appeared among them, anxiously scanning their joboquins for damage.

Cuzo came by, giving everything a cursory examination.

"All right, everyone, listen close. We're moving out, going back down the logging road to the highway. Then back to the city. I don't want to see any straggling."

At the pit they were already unloading the first carts, tipping them over to topple the corpses into the pit. The men doing this work were dressed in tightly wrapped clothing that had been treated with pyrethrum to discourage fleas.

The cornet sounded up ahead. Cuzo gave the order and they began to march. Lost Buck Woods soon came to an end. Up ahead lay the broad road from Marneri that headed north to Rinz and then to Camp Dashwood. At the junction, they had to pull over to the side for a stream of wagons and carts laden with the dead. Mounds of bodies shifted and shuddered as the wagons turned the corner, their horses or oxen straining with the load. It was a sobering sight.

The dragons waited patiently. They tried not to think too much about a big cauldron filled with noodles, lathered with akh.

"Good thing dragons not affected by plague," said Vlok.

"Very good," said Alsebra.

"No one know if that true or not," said Gryf.

"How?"

"It not known, is all."

"I never heard of dragons getting plague," said the Purple Green.

"Nor this dragon," said Bazil.

"Dragons caught plague in Eigo. You remember ancient forest. Disease there almost killed all of us," said Alsebra.

"That is true," said the Purple Green, and the others fell silent.

The carts and wagons rumbled by with their load of dead, many, many dead. Cuzo passed the word that they should get ready to march when the wagons were past.

No sooner had the dragons got onto the Marneri pike than they had to march in single file as another convoy of wagons went by carrying more bodies to the pits.

"How many have died, do you think?" said Jak.

"I'd bet a thousand at least," replied Endi.

"What? You counted 'em?" Swane said scornfully.

"Nope, but there were at least fifty wagons. Some of them were small, but they were averaging twenty bodies or so, I'd say."

"What about all the people who died yesterday? Where did they put them?" said little Jak.

"I heard they used an old quarry over in Quave," replied Endi. "Tommo in the stables told me."

"You want to watch what you believe from that Tommo," said Swane.

Relkin had been quiet all morning, his spirits depressed by the morbid business of digging the huge charnel pit. He marched alongside the dragon, his eyes on the countryside here, where large villas were visible among the trees. His thoughts were all with Eilsa.

She had left the city and gone to Rinz, a crossroads town ten miles north of the city. As far as he knew the plague had not reached Rinz. He prayed that it would not either.

They passed some more carriages, this time carrying the living determined to flee the city. Then came a trio of horsemen, one a woman. Relkin was familiar with the horse she rode: Beety, the pretty gray mare from the tower stables.

As they came closer the boys of the 109th recognized Lagdalen of the Tarcho.

"Hail, Lagdalen!" shouted Swane.

Lagdalen waved back at them and called out as she passed. "Hail, my friends. Keep your hearts strong, the Mother is with us!"

She rode on and disappeared behind them, overtaking the carriages.

"What d'you think that's about then?" said Swane, dropping back beside Relkin. Relkin shrugged, not wanting to get caught up in Swane's eternal speculations. "No idea."

"I heard there were witches arriving from Cunfshon."

"First I heard of it."

"I bet she's gong to Rinz. Going to the queen."

Relkin nodded. If the queen was in Rinz, then that would be good reason for Lagdalen to be riding out there in such a hurry.

Kind Adem had built the house at Rinz Park on the ruins of a grand villa. From afar the house looked like a birdcage made of white columns, perched on its bluff overlooking the park itself.

Besita had always liked to come to Rinz. Pleasant memories from her childhood were set in this old house. With its pine-paneled walls and carved-log staircases, it was a place out of time. The servants were mostly elderly, and they remembered the times of her father and her grandfather and so were quite content with her. Compared to the tyranny of King Wauk, the incompetence of Queen Besita was of little consequence to them. There were none of the hidden sneers that she sensed all around her in the Tower of Guard in Marneri.

She was not a happy queen, nor a very good one. So be it. The damned witches had murdered her brother to make sure the crown came to her, but she had never asked for it.

Lagdalen found the queen sitting out on the belvedere, gazing at the park. There was a bottle at her elbow, and at first Lagdalen's heart had sunk. Then after her bow and curtsy she noticed that it was just a bottle of water. Besita had not lapsed into her drinking habits.

"Your Majesty, it is good to see you looking so strong and well."

"Well? What leads you to that conclusion? I am not well, Lagdalen of the Tarcho. My back is a horror of aches, my left leg is numb, and I have the recurrent head spasm. The doctors are all at sea with it. One says take the oil of turmeric, the other recommends black draughts of pimsey, disgusting stuff. None of them know anything." Besita's mouth settled into its usual pout.

"Your Majesty continues to look strong and well regardless of such suffering. My heart goes out to you, Lady."

Besita sniffed, then looked back. This girl was Lessis's creature, but at times she did seem to have a little empathy. More than that ancient hag had ever shown.

"And I have no wine or brandy to help my poor soul in these terrible times."

"Yes, Your Majesty. I know. Unfortunately that cannot be. You are too vital to your people."

"Vital? You say that, but here I am, cast out to Rinz at the first hint of trouble. Then I hear nothing. I am starved for information. I tremble to think of the horror going on in the city, but no one will tell me anything. Am I the queen in my own house or am I not?"

"Of course you are, Your Majesty. I bring you greetings from the Lady Lessis."

"I would have expected nothing else. You have always been the messenger of the War Bird. Always bringing her unwelcome invasions of our lives."

Lagdalen frowned, but bit her tongue and made no response. The queen studied her for a moment.

"So? What is it this time, girl?"

Lagdalen passed Besita the scroll. She snapped it open and read it in a single glance.

"All right, I will order all stocks of chrysanthemum petals to be made available. The chancellor will draw up the necessary royal order."

The queen's voice had changed. The whine had gone out of it. Lagdalen wondered if Lessis had put a spell on the scroll itself, but in fact Besita was suddenly recovering hope. The doom-cloud of the plague no longer covered all the sky, and she had found new strength in that news.

"Tell me, dear, what was it like in the city when you left?"

"Ah, Lady, it was piteous to see. So many dead and dying. Fish Hill is empty of people now. All the harbor area is filled with the dying. There won't be many fishermen left when this is over."

"Terrible, terrible, I ache for the people. How I wish there was something more I could do for them."

The queen rang her bell. An aide appeared and brought her a scroll, pen, and ink. Besita wrote her instructions to the chancellor, then rolled and sealed the scroll with wax, impressing her ring to it.

"You may as well take this order back with you. I presume that is what you expected to do?"

"That would be the optimum thing to do I think, Your Majesty."

"Optimum" was it, now? Besita pursed her lips.

"We will have to fumigate the whole city," continued Lagdalen. "I doubt there will be enough chrysanthemum for that."

Besita nodded, thinking carefully. "Every city will be needing it, too. The price will shoot sky-high. The merchants will be very angry when we deny them the opportunity to make the maximum profit."

Lagdalen was shocked by the thought that the merchants would even think to make a profit from such circumstances.

"Your Majesty, surely no one would seek to take advantage of this dire distress to enrich themselves."