Shadow (35 page)

Aziel went red but didn't answer.

They slept that night curled around Case, the heat in his belly like coals in a fire.

After an hour or two Eric woke at the cry of a war mage, surely the same flock of them seeking him out for new orders. To his great surprise Aziel had her head resting on his shoulder. She'd tested their patience with complaints about the lack of hot baths, inadequate food, her little aches and pains. All of it code he supposed for ‘I'm scared'. Only when he'd told her fables from Otherworld, such as
Snow White,
had she settled down. Loup had listened with equal enthusiasm.

He looked down at her faintly Oriental face. He could not deny that she was beautiful. He imagined ripping her dress off while she peevishly complained and whined …

A faint gleam ran about her necklace. Her face creased with pain as the light grew stronger. She moaned in her sleep, cried out and sat up gasping. Loup and the drake did not stir.

‘Everything OK?' Eric asked her.

She discovered she'd leaned on him in her sleep. Her eyes would not have shot wider had she found a Tormentor beside her. ‘You're not to touch me!' she whispered fiercely.

‘I have no interest in touching you,' he lied.

She frowned. ‘Why not?'

‘Huh?'

‘I mean – you're
not
to! But you're allowed to … to want to.'

He laughed.

She grabbed at the necklace, trying to dig her fingers between it and her skin. ‘I wish I hadn't picked this up. I had bad dreams again.'

‘What sort of dreams? Was Shadow in them?'

‘He was choking me with a big piece of chain. He kept saying he had a mountain to lift up, but I wouldn't let him. And he couldn't do it till I'd died.' She shuddered. ‘There was more but I don't want to think about it.'

‘Do you want another story, then?'

Her face lit up at the prospect before she shrugged with feigned indifference. ‘The others weren't very good.'

‘Let's see if I can do better. Here's one I wrote called
Jack and the Beanstalk.
' Not long into the telling, Aziel slept again, and again her body leaned into his. He stroked free the hair that fell across her cheek, wondering why he should feel this compulsion to look after the daughter of an abomination and a tyrant.

2

Cold wind whipped them in the early morning's flight. The up and down plunge of the drake's wings was like oars in boat-side water. At times Eric felt he was back at the tower, looking into the tabletop map of Levaal. Below them now a river spilled down a waterfall into a vast lake with water so clear they could see huge fish sluggishly prowling near the surface.

The drake's belly gave an impressive rumble. ‘Are you sure we don't have to feed it some real food, or give it drink?' Eric said.

‘He likes beer,' said Aziel, sitting tall and prim in the foremost of Case's natural saddles. ‘He'll stop at an inn when we find one and steal whatever he wants.'

‘We've named him well, then,' said Eric. ‘The real Case would be proud.'

The drake groaned.

‘Are you sure you know where we're going, lad?' said Loup behind him. ‘Have you thought it through?' It was the first time the folk magician had voiced this concern.

‘I don't know if I have or not. The mage back at the tower told me to go to the castle. He told me that by going, I could bring Vous undone.'

Loup sighed heavily. ‘Not much good we'll find at that old castle. And it's Blain's advice too, don't forget. Be wary whenever you find yourself in agreement with the likes of him.'

As night came the drake found another good camping spot on a high platform under the open sky, in what Loup said were called the Spirit's Crown mountains. ‘Has other names too, but that's what we called it where I come from. They used to mine these places.'

‘For scales?'

‘Magic stone. You could find it here, back before they dug the guts out of the place. Made some of Tanton's and High Cliff's city walls with it, stone that'd give itself easy to effects.'

‘Effects like what?' Eric asked, settling into Case as though he were a beanbag. The drake seemed quite content with this arrangement.

‘Spells of defence,' said Loup. ‘Try climbing
those
walls, if you're an enemy of the city!'

‘So you think they'll hold out awhile when the castle attacks?'

‘Longer'n the others did, aye. Even when the full weight of the castle falls on em. Which it will, and soon. Whole world's about to change, lad. Aziel here might call it a victory. But sometimes, nobody wins a fight. Nobody at all.'

The following day they saw some of that very force, a huge contingent of men crossing the vast plains between Tsith and the inland sea it shared with Yinfel. Countless spear tips pointing skyward made a shuffling forest. ‘Look at all that yonder,' said Loup sadly, pointing to where massive sheets of grey-black smoke plumed into the air. ‘Fools're burning the farmland as they go. Such waste.'

‘Why would they do that?' said Aziel.

Loup scoffed. ‘They don't plan on living in the cities they take. They'll kill everyone off and be done with it. No more taking over a new city, taming a reluctant population. When the war's over, they won't need people or cities. We're done and goodbye. A few of us'll live on the fringes for a while. Maybe a long while, till they push us into the unclaimed lands. Hunt us down like they hunted the half-giants.' Loup sighed. ‘Hard future ahead, girl. Not for you, but for everyone else.'

‘Doesn't sound much different from what the dragons have in mind for us,' said Eric. Case wheeled east so they would not fly into the sheets of smoke.

‘Aye no, it's no different. Death's at both doors, and his ghoulish children at the windows, looking in. No way out, lad. Unless you can do some miracle at the castle, you with no plan or clue what you're up to!' Loup laughed sadly.

‘Take me down there,' Aziel ordered the drake.

‘Now what? Why's that then?' cried Loup.

‘I'll tell them to turn around, since you're so worried about what they're doing. I don't like them lighting fires any more than you, even if those
are
rebel cities.' The other two laughed. Aziel turned about, glaring at them both. ‘Why are you laughing? I'm the Lord's daughter! They'll obey me. Drake, take us down there. Go! Down!' She raised a hand as if to slap the beast, but instead clutched at her neck and moaned.

‘What's wrong?' said Loup.

‘It's getting hot,' she said. ‘He's moving around in there. I can feel it. He wants to get out.'

‘You keep him in,' said Loup. ‘Hold him! That's the last thing we need, is Shadow loose again.'

Aziel said nothing. Eric could feel the heat from her necklace. An occasional glint of light ran about it, so quick it was hard to be sure he'd seen it. He thought back to Shadow, enraged, running in a circle about the tower's water; of how the rocks had melted from the heat he'd caused. ‘Hold onto him,' he whispered into Aziel's ear. ‘He'll think you and I tricked him, that we trapped him in there. You and I are the ones he'll be angry at.'

‘You're the one who tricked him,' she said.

‘Sure. Do you want to have to explain that to Shadow? Hold onto him. You can do it.'

‘I'll try,' she said, sounding nothing like a Lord's daughter.

3

The drake descended from the clouds to find shelter for their third night, finding another old nest as though it had seen a sign planted high up in a hillside made for drakes' eyes only. A single piece of lightstone in the cavern roof gave the place a gentle flickering glow. It showed faded hieroglyphs and runes across the curved walls. Loup ran a gnarled forefinger over them, murmuring as he tried to read them. ‘Not just a drake den, this place,' he said. ‘People used this cave too. We're the first here in a long while … a long while.'

‘What's the writing say?' said Eric.

‘Mostly a lost tongue,' said Loup. ‘Something about this being a favoured casting place. My guess, a dragon cult used it. This before the dragon cults were all scattered and killed off (with the Spirits' blessings and help, if the talk's true). The Spirits must take kinder to Inferno cults than dragon cults. If you know why, well hey! It's news to me. They kill off old Inferno but let his cults alone, who want nothing more than to wake him up and feed his embers!'

Eric ran a finger over the runes. They flared with icy cold in response to his touch.

‘Careful, lad,' said Loup.

‘Why would mages come all the way up here to cast their magic?' said Eric.

‘Ah, not mages, lad,' said Loup, crouching low to peer at some marks gouged into the stone. ‘Anyone can cast magic. You and Aziel could, if you knew some rituals. Just takes more time than the way mages do it. Long-casting, some call it, or ritual-casting. Can't rely on it, might not work half the time. Ritual casters can't see the airs to tell if the airs are right! Nor see what airs they're working with – lots of different kinds of airs, y'see. My little tricks are good with most types. But those Inferno cult fools, like that Lalie girl, remember? They were doing such spells before the Tormentors found em.'

‘Are there any spells we could do now?' said Aziel, looking eager to try.

‘No! Never bothered with that nonsense,' said Loup, flopping down on Case as though he were a couch, a bit too heavily for the drake's liking. He said, ‘Takes days to cast something that way. Sometimes weeks or more, if you want to make serious magic. Oh aye, once there was a cult which set some kids aside at birth to cast lifetime spells, blessing their valleys and lakes and fields.'

‘Did it work?'

‘Aye, lass, it did! Good magic, some of it. I've no issue with blessing a paddock so your carrots and tatoes grow! The Inferno people though, not a true mage among em.'

Eric was running out of fairy tales for them. Tonight's was
Red Riding Hood,
which Aziel found particularly gripping, and which Loup apparently took as a comedy. Rain outside eased them to sleep in Case's warmth.

4

The drake nudged Eric awake. ‘What is it?' Eric whispered, sitting up.

Case huffed a deep concerned breath as though to warn of danger. The others still slept, but Aziel shifted and moaned in her sleep, her sleeping face creased with nightmares. She seemed to fight for breath. The choking dream again, Eric thought. He was hesitant to wake her – a peevish Aziel with not enough sleep was not the recipe for an enjoyable flight through Levaal. But when she appeared to stop breathing altogether he grabbed her shoulder and called her name.

As though in response the necklace poured pale blue light through the cavern and sent shadows scurrying over the walls. The air went frosty. Some of the runes seemed to catch the blue light that beamed around and hold it after the rest went out.

Eric shook Loup's shoulder. ‘Loup, I think you should wake up.' He kept snoring. ‘Aziel, don't let him go. Hold onto him. Please hold on.'

‘Can't,' she whispered.

‘
Loup, wake the hell up!
' Eric tugged on his beard.

Loup snorted, came awake. He looked at the cave wall's glowing runes. ‘What've you done now?' he said sleepily.

‘It's Aziel, she's—'

There was a metallic sound like chain being struck and breaking. A burst of intense cold like a rush of wind blasted from Aziel; she fell back gasping. At the same time all the wall's runes gave a bright flare then went out.

As they were temporarily blinded by the light, it took a few seconds to discover someone else in the cave with them. Shadow's form was blurred and for a moment there seemed to be several of him all joined together. The images slowly converged, solidified. Shadow's face showed animal desperation. His mouth and black-pit eyes all opened wide; from the apparition's depths came a hissing noise of rage.

Eric took the gun from its holster despite knowing it would be perfectly useless.

Shadow's hand lashed through him, intended to cut him but having no more effect than a shadow passing over him. Again and again Shadow tried to strike him before giving up and turning to Aziel. Before Eric could react – and what could any of them have done? he later wondered – the apparition had unleashed a dozen blows at her.

She was not hurt, though she cringed in fear. The necklace spat a noise like a blast of radio static. There was a shriek of fear or pain, and Shadow streaked out of the cave with a wail fading behind him, a line of fire in his wake quickly put out by the thin misty drizzle.

Aziel clutched at her neck, breathing deeply.

‘What happened?' Loup asked her. ‘What've you done, foolish girl?'

‘Nothing!' she said. ‘Don't you talk at me that way, filthy little man.'

It took a minute or two to calm her down to the point of explaining.

‘I had a dream. He was burning me, pulling something around my throat, telling me to let go, let go. So I did! All right? It was just a dream, so I let go!' She burst into tears. ‘None of you care! He's been getting harder to hold hour by hour. I just relaxed a little bit and he got away.'

‘And he was angry with you and me, like I thought he would be,' said Eric. ‘I think the charm protected you from him, Aziel, when he got free. I don't know what protected me. We're just lucky he didn't want to attack Loup or Case. We have to move! He knows where we are. Case, can you fly in the dark?' The drake regarded him silently with eyes like brown-green jewels and showed no indication of flying anywhere.

‘He'll always know where we are,' said Loup, getting to his feet and pissing out of the cavern into the night. ‘Shadow's drawn to the charm, is my guess. But now he knows it's a trap. Made by old Vyin, if Stranger can be believed! Let's see if he can resist it. Maybe he won't want to find us. And maybe the charm'll grab him again. We'll see. Back to sleep, you lot. We'll leave in the morning.' Loup patted Case's flank. The drake set its head down, huffed a big breath and was soon snoring again.