The Dragons of Noor (16 page)

A long silence followed. Miles shivered beside her. He stole a glance at the one-eyed male who’d burned his wing, shuddered, and looked away. The bonfire burned bright, but he did not step any closer to warm himself.

A thin line of smoke trailed from the Damusaun’s nostrils. Hanna thought,
I should say something else. What?

Miles took a deep breath, then walked forward. Touching his fingers to his forehead in a meer’s greeting, he bowed from the waist to the Dragon Queen. The hiss of sweeping water was the only sound along the shore. Miles kept his head low as the wave drew back, leaving a line of foam along the sand.

“Abathan
, Damusaun,” said Miles. “I have come a long way with my sister and the meers to find the Wind-taken children and save the greatest Waytrees of Noor.”

The one-eyed male stepped closer to the queen. “Our prophecy does not speak of a shape-shifter, Damusaun.”

The Dragon Queen glanced down at her broken talon, then up again at the dripping boy. “I see the danger you see, Endour. A shifter can renew or destroy.”

“Please, Damusaun,” said Miles. “Give me the chance to prove myself to you.”

His wet cloak clung to his back, and his hair stuck up wildly. He was still bowing. Hanna wanted to say something in his favor, but Taunier gently held her back.

It began to rain. The queen stared at Miles a long while, then shook the drops from her scales. “Rise, pilgrim.”

Relief flooded through Hanna as the taberrells and terrows gently beat the sand with their tails. When the soft applause subsided, Miles trailed back down to the water. Standing ankle-deep in sea foam, he cupped his hands to his mouth and called, “Come in.”

Hanna let out a squeal of delight as she spotted Breal paddling through the dark sea swells, flanked by seals carrying Meers Eason and Kanoae. They rode a cresting wave into the shallows, where the meers slid into the waist-high water and fought the pounding surf the last few feet to shore. Breal bounded up and shook the water from his fur as Kanoae and Eason dragged the Falconer’s trunk onto the beach.

T
he hard coastal rain swept up the beach, driving them all back into the dragon’s cave. High above, Hanna saw the broad shelves extending from either side of the sheer walls, where she and Taunier had stood facing the dragons only hours before. Now she was walking with Miles and Taunier by the dark pool of freshwater at the bottom of the crevasse.

Her head spun. It had all changed so fast. Miles and the meers were in Jarrosh. The fearful dragons dragging their long tails just ahead of them were now their companions in the war against the Cutters.

A freshwater stream filled the pool. Hanna and her friends drank, and Breal lapped the water noisily as the
dragons dipped their long orange tongues into the pool. The water tasted of the forest and good green things.
The dragons are fighting for the Waytrees. There must still be enough growing here to bridge the way to Oth, to Tymm
. She swallowed, tasting hope.

Behind a large rock, Hanna opened the Falconer’s trunk and changed into clean clothes, soft gray pants and a top that wasn’t stiffened with harsh weather and grime. It would have been blissful to bathe and wash her hair, but there was no private place for this. She felt the dry cover of
The Way Between Worlds
, grateful the Falconer had made the chest watertight. Before closing the lid, she pulled out a clean cloth and the wound-care tincture. Kaleet had a nasty cut on his shoulder.

“May I?” Hanna uncorked the tincture bottle and held it up. Kaleet narrowed his eyes, sniffed the bottle, and puffed indignantly. He’d been one of the most outspoken against her. She worked to hide her trembling, so near his muscular jaws, as he let her clean the gash. He smacked his heavy tail against the wall once as she wiped sand from the wound, but he gave a nod of thanks when she was done.

She would have liked to clean the ugly marks on the queen’s right foreclaw. But it would draw attention to the
puncture wounds Miles had made, trying to rescue her. The dragons had seen her brother shape-shift from seal to boy, but she was fairly sure they hadn’t known it was Miles in falcon form who’d attacked them, and she didn’t want to get them thinking. Hanna bit her lip. The Damusaun was a warrior. The puncture wounds were small compared to the many crisscrossed scars on her chest and her severed talon. Reluctantly, she put the medicine away.

At the pool, the younger dragons caught wriggling fish in their swift claws. A few terrows showed off, skewering a trout on each talon and roasting them with their fiery breath. Breal barked in appreciation of the show, and Miles and Taunier laughed at Thriss, who tried the trick and dropped her trout on the sandy stone floor.

Later, as Miles, Taunier, and the meers sat talking with the dragons around the central fire, Hanna finished her meal in silence by the wall and planned her next move. She’d seen what was left of the nearby forest as the Whirl Storm blew her to shore. Azure Waytrees grew up on the mountain slope a long way from this cave. She needed the dragons to fly her to the deyas in the azures, who could help her to Oth in search of Tymm and the other children. Miles and Taunier already seemed intent on joining
in the dragons’ fight against the Cutters. She hoped she wouldn’t have to cross into the Otherworld alone.

The discussion on the far side of the cave centered on the trebuchet she’d seen.

“We will destroy the manlings’ new weapons,” said Kaleet.

“Weapons?” asked One-eye. “The Kanameer saw only one trebuchet in her dream.”

“There may be more, Endour,” argued Kaleet. “We should burn whatever we find.”

It seemed a good idea to Hanna, but the Damusaun shook her head. “Do that, and the Cutters will come running to the telltale flames and douse the fire,” she said. “Better to take the weapons out and drop them in the sea. We will use the covering of night for this.”

“We?” asked Kaleet. “The Kanameer’s dream was a warning, Damusaun. We do not want you near the trebuchets.”

“A warning, I agree,” said one-eyed Endour, backing up Kaleet.

The tip of the Damusaun’s tail brushed the water. Ripples raced across the dark pool. The cave was all too silent.

Hanna fed Thriss a bite of fish.

At last the queen spoke. “Kanameer?”

Hanna tucked Thriss under her arm and approached the queen.

“Tell us, do your dreamwalks foreshadow what is to come or only what might come?”

Hanna frowned, thinking. “They do both, Damusaun. Some of my dreamwalks come true.” She thought of the great black tree she’d seen. Would she find that tree in eastern Oth?

Kaleet slowly shook his head. “The Kanameer saw you shot down, Damusaun. She, too, was falling in her dream. You should not risk your lives. Stay clear of the Cutters’ camps until the trebuchets are destroyed.”

The Dragon Queen beat the water harder with her tail. Mighty splashes rained down. Breal, who got the most of it, shook his fur, sending a smaller shower over Meer Eason.

“Are you telling me what to do?” the Damusaun growled testily.

Kaleet did not back away. Their eyes met. “I am asking, Damusaun.”

The dragons in the circle repeated in rumbling voices, “We are asking.”

Then, in a softer voice Hanna barely heard, Kaleet said, “Think of the egg you carry, of the queen to come.”

Hanna gripped Thriss a little tighter. An egg. Another queen. She’d sensed it in her dreamwalk as they’d plummeted down, though she’d not been able to put it into words. Three lives falling. The third, she knew now, was the tiny future queen.

She passed her eyes over the Damusaun and thought she detected a telltale rounding at the base of her belly. The Damusaun flashed her a look and covered her abdomen with her tail. “We leave tonight,” she said. “The meers may ride with us if they dare.”

“I’ll go!” Miles said eagerly. He stepped up next to Hanna.

Hanna leaned close to whisper in his ear, “Let the others fight with the dragons, Miles. I need you in Oth.”

“I’m needed here,” he whispered.

She would have answered back, but Taunier was up and speaking. “I, too, will go,” he said. “Though I am not a meer.”

“Come forward.”

Hanna tensed as Taunier rounded the fire.

The Damusaun lowered her head to his level. “You
are not a meer, but you are the Fire Herd. Before you came, we could only stand sentinel at the edge of the wood. Now with your help we can make a fire wall to bar the Cutters from the Waytrees. Do you think you can contain our wall and see that the azures do not catch fire?”

Taunier held out his cupped hands. “How can I herd a great wall, Damusaun?”

“The Kanameer has dreamed it. You will ride a dragon.”

Hanna remembered the danger Taunier had faced in her dream. She wanted to grab his broad shoulders and convince him to come with her to Oth. But she knew it would only infuriate him. Though she could not see his face, she could tell by his stance that Taunier stood resolute, even proud.

“Now let the meers reveal their signs,” said the Damusaun. Eason and Kanoae stood and held their hands out to the fire. Blazing blue Othic symbols appeared on their left palms; the meer sign was first worn by the Mishtar, the man most honored by the dragons. The she-dragon looked pleased. Her head began to sway.

Hanna had seen palm signs before, and she still
remembered the one on the Falconer’s palm. Each meer bore a distinct symbol. Seeing them, she felt a kind of awe, not at their power, but at their lit beauty.

“Miles,” said the Dragon Queen, “where is your sign?”

Miles stiffened. “I am an apprentice, Damusaun.” The queen huffed gray smoke and clicked her talons against the stony floor.

Hanna wrapped her hand about his arm and whispered, “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” Miles hissed under his breath. “I would have been blue-palmed in a few months’ time if I’d stayed on at school.”

“You don’t have to join the raid,” argued Hanna. “I need you to go with me. You promised to help me find Tymm.”

“You won’t be able to bring him back if the Waytrees are down. It’s Tymm I’m thinking of.”

“Who is this Tymm?” The Damusaun extended her long neck.

Hanna started. She’d not meant for their whispered debate to be overheard. “He’s our little brother, Damusaun.”

“He was Wind-taken after the Waytrees fell,” Miles
added. “Many children were stolen that way, and we’re sure they were blown east.”

The queen flicked out her tongue. “I saw these children.”

They all spoke at once—Hanna, Miles, Taunier, the meers—their questions tripping over one another.

“Where did you see them?”

“How long ago?”

“When?”

The queen shook her head irritably. She was used to being addressed singly and with respect. When they all fell silent, she said, “A few dragons from our company patrolled Noor to see where the ancient forests were falling, as we knew they would when our azures were cut. Land to land they saw children taken up by the wind. Weeks ago, we saw the children blowing over our Waytrees here. I winged after them to see if our Kanameer and Fire Herd had come, for we knew our pilgrims would arrive on the wind. When I reached the azure grove, they were gone.”

“Gone?” Hanna choked on the word.

“What do you mean, gone?” asked Miles.

“They were taken into Oth,” the Dragon Queen said.

The passage
, thought Hanna.
It
is
here!
“Did you follow the children into Oth? Can you show us the Waytree passage?” She was asking too many questions at once, but she couldn’t help it.

A low growling sound filled the cave, coming not only from the queen but from every dragon’s throat. Hanna tried not to panic. What had she said to offend them?

“We could not follow them, Kanameer,” the Damusaun said briskly.

“But Oth is your home, isn’t it?” blurted out Miles.

“We were banished from Oth long ago, manling.”

Hanna looked down at the sandy floor. Banished? She’d not seen any dragons in Oth last year, but she’d only explored a single island in the west. The Otherworld had as many lands as Noor. She’d assumed the dragons lived in the sunny eastern lands of Oth.

She toed a pebble with her boot, thinking. If the dragons couldn’t cross over, how could they guard the way between worlds, or help her find Tymm? She shot a quick glance at Miles, Taunier, and the meers. They, too, looked stunned.

“Sit now,” snapped the queen. “All of you.” Her voice was brittle. She was giving them an order.

H
anna settled by the fire next to Taunier.
What now?

Thriss curled up in her lap but did not purr.

The Dragon Queen peered at each of the five companions in turn. Her yellow eyes landed last on Hanna.

“A Dreamwalker may step into the future,” she said, “but I see your powers are limited, Kanameer. You do not see behind you far enough to step back into the past.”

One of the hatchlings snickered, and the queen held up her tail in warning.

Blushing, Hanna ran her finger down Thriss’s scaly back. She did not look at Taunier, though he was close enough for her to feel the warmth coming off his skin.

“Still,” said the queen, “I would not expect any
manlings to know our trouble. The Mishtar was true to his word. He pledged to keep our banishment from Oth secret, to pass on the guarded knowledge only from High Meer to High Meer. But all secrets pass away in time.”