The Dragonswarm (36 page)

A moment later I found myself hanging in the air a dozen feet above the ground, staring the dragon in the eye. I felt the thudding Chaos raging distantly inside and let a laugh escape at what I saw in the expression.

"You recognize me," I said. The dragon tried to throw me off, shaking its head wildly, but I tied myself in place with bonds of air and dropped one blade to hold the other in both hands. I dipped my head in mock salute. "Tell the others I am coming."

And then I drove the sword hilt-deep into the dragon's eye.

The dragon's black blood sprayed, burning my arm and face, and the beast screamed a liquid gurgle as it twitched. All along its body, my hunters struck as well, sinking swords into its plated hide, and the furious attacks were too much even for the ancient creature. It cried out once and then again as the great head came crashing to the ground. I let myself fall free and landed on a clattering pile of coins and treasure.

When that din settled, silence reigned in the cavern. No one else moved as I lifted myself up and crossed to the dragon. Though dim, a light still shone in its eyes, so I took up my sword from where it had fallen in the fight and drove it down into the skull behind the horns. The body stiffened, then collapsed with a sigh.

And then the hunters breathed. Perhaps they laughed, perhaps they cheered. I don't recall. I felt the shock of newfound power from the monster I had killed, and fought against the raging tide of Chaos.

I turned and made my way to the cooling pool. I bent and carefully washed the burning blood from my arm, dipped my face in the icy water. I noticed two or three others doing the same, silent amid the celebration. I nodded encouragement to them, then rose and turned my back on the dragon. I looked where I had fallen.

The dragon's hoard was piled high against the wall. I had known all along there would be one—I'd rather counted on it—and I had expected something to compare with Vechernyvetr's ransom, but this was more. The whole cavern wall was one long pile built at least as tall as a man, of gold and silver coins, of gems and polished jewels. Garrett Dain stepped up behind me, and I heard others gathering around. I reached out to the light, doused the handful of glowing pillars, and spread the fire in a single thin line along the whole length of the hoard.

Dain whispered, "Lareth thought too small. I could buy a kingdom with a third of that."

I nodded. It was true. And in this moment I would learn how much they'd learned. I could imagine one man rushing for the gold, I could imagine bloody fights among these men. There was wealth enough here to merit such treachery.

But no one moved. I counted seconds under my breath, but there was no rush. Only a gradual hush, the sound of men overwhelmed. Then Dain said, "I guess there's more."

The redhead answered him. "There'll be more dragons, too. Did you see the way it moved? Did you see the
hate
?"

Someone else said, "Did you see it recognize Lord Daven?"

I trembled at the words. Perhaps Dain saw it. He said roughly, "I saw it die. And that's a sight I'd love to see again."

"A thousand times," the redhead echoed. And then I know they cheered.

I stepped away, across the line of fire to stand among the spoils and turned to face them. I counted thirty men, upright and alive. I breathed more easily again and raised my voice. "This battleground is yours. You've won the day. We've killed a dragon and despoiled its lair."

I kicked out almost casually to spill a fortune in coins to the floor and nodded down at it. "This is part of their power. It will be ours. It's quite a handsome reward, but it's the smallest one we'll take away from this. We've seen the enemy. We know these methods work, and you've seen firsthand that my information is correct. We know that we can win."

One of the hunters stepped forward, "Sir?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"The day is young. Let's kill another."

I grinned. "Patch your wounds if you have any, and clean your swords of the dragon's blood, then we move. We have three hours before midday, and I have promised to return by then. How many dragons do you think we'll get to kill?"

Some said three. Some said a dozen. In the end we had little trouble finding fights. Not every battle was as spectacular as the first—once that first shock wore off the men did better at first strikes, and when we caught a dragon sleeping it rarely had even time to slash its claws before it fell. We killed five adult dragons in that first morning and would have done more but the last lair surprised us with a little brood. Three drakes and a dame, and she scored one lucky strike with her tail that pierced my thigh down to the bone.

Dain bandaged me. I fought hard to hide the pain and told the men to gather as much gold as they could carry. We'd brought empty leather packs just to that end, every man among us, and between them we packed up the brood dame's hoard.

Then with clenched teeth, I wrapped us all in threads of will, reached out to the sentiment of home, and took us back in just one leap. We landed in the courtyard of Palmagnes, triumphant heroes, and I felt the cold, whispered breath of gold wash over the stones.

I'd known I would. I'd known it in my bones. The treasure we brought home enriched my lair, and my senses stretched beyond the walls. I couldn't taste emotions in the enemy's camp, but I could feel their footsteps on the soil. I could see the sneaking scouts Othin had sent to search my southern walls, but they would find no gaps in my defense.

I could see into the mountains, too. One little hoard had bought me most of a mile in all directions. Even as my leg screamed out in pain, I sat and grinned to think what we could do. We'd won five lairs, and though none matched the wealth we'd seen within the first, every one of them would grow my reach. We would step right past the siege with just a thought.

And better still, I would find them now. I wouldn't have to search, to jump and hope. I'd sit within my tower and
feel
the lairs that dotted my domain. Caleb came, concern in his eyes, and Isabelle gasped when she arrived to find him pulling bloodied bandages away. But I could only smile and say, "We've won. We've won. We're going to win the war."

The fever came on strong and burned as bright and hot as all the oathsworn fires in my soul. I'd meant to get patched up and take some gatherers back out to bring in treasure or at the very least to send them out and bring them back. I didn't get the chance. Delirium washed over me, shivers and sweats, and for the rest of the day I lay wretched in my bed.

Worry washed like troubled waters all throughout the fortress. It rolled behind my scattered thoughts, a distant fog, and right up close I saw the anxious faces of my lieutenants as they came and went. The hunters came as well, in ones and twos to ask with quiet whispers if they could see me. They had nothing to say. They'd linger over my bed for a moment, looking chewed on, then shake their heads regretfully and go.

Isabelle sat with me through it all. She piled sheets on me when my teeth rattled and ripped them all away when I began to burn. She held my hand, and hers felt cold as ice and that seemed wonderful. She touched my forehead, stroked my hair, and brushed her fingers lightly on my burning neck.

Later I recalled it all, but through a smoky haze. But in the grips of the fever, I only tossed and turned and moaned. I made no plans, and I spoke no words of comfort to the many worried faces. I watched them come and go and wondered idly if I would survive. The only thing I felt at all was fire.

And then there came relief. I felt it like a summer shower, starting gently and drifting lightly down. A coolness poured across my mind, if not my body, and it awoke a part of me that had shut down. I blinked up at Isabelle and saw her eyes go wide. She began to smile. "Have you come back?"

I couldn't speak to answer. I couldn't quite focus on her. My body ached, but somewhere in my senses was the promise of relief. I closed my eyes again and retreated to the place of gentle cool. It came from my awareness of the stronghold. I looked closer, cast about, and found it came from outside my tower. From the courtyard, from the outer walls, from the tower's high, unfinished floors.

It shone like silver in my soul. Moonlight. My breath escaped me at the thought, but I remembered what Vechernyvetr had told me long before: A dragon heals by moonlight. Any damage short of death can be healed between dusk and dawn. I'd never experienced that before, but I could feel it now. I could feel the moonlight like a salve against my soul.

I found the strength to whisper, 'The window." She frowned, and I flapped a hand in an ineffectual gesture. "Help me to the window." She called for Caleb instead, and gave me water while I waited, but the distant feel of moonlight on the stone was maddening. I had to fight the urge to drag my broken body across the stone.

At last he came, and he carried me more than supported me across the wide floor of my chosen chambers. There was a window in the outer wall, tall enough to stand in and a full pace deep, like all the tower's walls. I nodded to it, and at last he set me on the empty window's sill.

My breath caught at the sharp, sweet sting of moonlight sleeting down. It drove at me like a waterfall, it tugged against my skin and poured over me. I closed my eyes and sighed, and felt the fever's fires slowly die.

When the fever broke, I felt it go. The wild, cold wash of moonlight dredged it away, but still my leg screamed with pain. Still my body trembled, weak and worn. I waited, but the moon did nothing more for me. I was only half a monster after all. The human had to heal the best it could. I thought of everything I had hoped to do today. I thought of all my brave dragon hunters and how much they needed me.

Frustration flared and I bruised my fist against the solid stone, but there was nothing in my power to heal the injured leg. I heaved a sigh and pushed myself weakly up to meet their eyes.

"I am alive," I said, and my voice sounded strong. "The worst is past. We should let them know."

Isabelle came to me and pressed her fingers to my forehead, then my neck. "The fever's gone," she said. "I wasn't sure—"

"I know," I said. "It helped to have you there."

She smiled with tired eyes. I squeezed her hand. "Can you spread the word? Everyone expects the worst. They're losing sleep."

She glanced to Caleb, back to me, then dipped her head. "I'll go. But when I'm back you need to rest."

I waited until she was gone before I met Caleb's eyes. "I will not walk again for weeks."

He grunted. "Call it days. It's deep but mostly clean. I've seen ordinary men heal worse than that."

"I don't have days. We need to press the attack. We need to gather what we've won."

He shook his head.

I frowned. "What?"

"They told us of the gold," he said.

"It's more than gold, Caleb. It's power. It gives me...reach. I can't explain, but we have to get those hoards."

He shook his head again, and I fell silent. I could see it in his eyes. "What?" I asked.

"They told us of the gold, and the wizard seemed to understand whatever it is you can't explain. He couldn't, either, but he had seen when you came back with those bags."

An ominous premonition settled over me, and I searched my senses, but I found Lareth waiting in his room. He hadn't run.

"What happened?"

"He took them out. When you fell ill. Everyone wanted to find some way to help. He found his."

"Took them? How?"

Caleb frowned. "They dumped the bags they'd brought, then Lareth made a portal past the walls."

"No. No." I swallowed hard. "He wouldn't take that risk."

Caleb shrugged one shoulder. "He traveled south. And then from there he went out east, and then came back. He doesn't think the king's wizards will find the trail."

I nodded slowly, pushing down my panic. Caleb didn't seem afraid, and Lareth knew more of the wizards' tricks than I could guess at. "Perhaps it was worth the risk," I said. "To get that much wealth...."

Even as I said it, I wrinkled my nose. I couldn't feel the wealth, couldn't feel new power from my hoard. I met Caleb's gaze.

For a moment he said nothing. Then he sighed. "We are not alone."

I thought of the sensation of that hoard, the bright, distracting glimmer of the gold, and thought of all the many dragons in these hills. I said, "Oh. It was already gone."

He shook his head, almost imperceptibly. "It was there. Lareth took two hundred men to bring it back, based on the hunters' tales. They were attacked."

My jaw dropped at that. And then my heart. "How many lived?"

"Most of them had never trained. Many were not even soldiers. He only had ten of your hunters in all."

"How many lived?"

"Just nine."

I flinched as though he'd hit me, then scrubbed my hands over my face. "We lost two hundred men today? And one of them a dragon hunter?"

"Eight of them were Captains of the Hunt. They fought it so the rest could get away."

I shook my head. "Nothing to hide them from its eyes. No one to distract it. They didn't stand a chance."

"They died heroes," Caleb said. "And Lareth brought the rest away. I had to drag him through the portal by his sleeve, or he'd have gone back, too, to fight the beast."

"Haven's name," I breathed. "I thought we'd won a victory today."

"We have," he said. "Nine monsters are dead. The bags your hunters brought back could ransom all our lives. And every man inside these walls now knows bone-deep why we're here."

"And they're afraid," I said, but Caleb shook his head.

"They
were
afraid. They thought we'd lost you, too. By dawn, they'll know better, then they will cry for blood. You'll have your war against the dragons. There's not a man among them still thinking of the king."

I leaned my head against the wall and sighed. He spoke the truth. I could feel it through the stone. Word was spreading now that I'd survive, and it replaced their nervous fear with thirst for vengeance—among the soldiers and civilians alike. I shivered at the huge, diffuse echo of that deep and animal malice. I knew it well.