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Vai stepped between them. “If you do not wish your master to be disturbed, you do better to hide us than to let the soldiers find us. If they do catch us here, we will tell them everything. Then the entire mage House will descend upon you.”
This argument, delivered with Vai’s magisterial self-confidence, so struck the man that he hustled us into the gatehouse and out the back way onto the grounds just as the troop rode up. We hid in the dripping shadow of the hedge as soldiers tramped through the gatehouse and back out again while the guard complained vociferously at being rousted from his warm hearth.
Soldiers and mage continued south, still on the hunt. Without waiting for permission Bee ran down the drive toward the house. That the guard did not chase her made me hasten after.
“We must be cautious, Bee,” I called, trying to grab her sleeve. She could really run when she wanted to. She slipped out of my grasp as she put on a burst of speed despite the pack bumping on her back. Rory was lagging behind, reluctant to press on, and weighted down with a bag in each hand. Vai had dropped back to prod him forward. They faded into night’s gloom. Ahead twin lamps burned.
A large shape passed so close over my head that I ducked instinctively. An exhalation of smoky mist spilled fiery sparks above my head. A second shape, bigger than the first, swooped down. I tackled Bee. Rising to my knees, I twisted the hilt of my sword to draw it, but the weapon hung inert in my hand, as heavy as lead.
“Down!” I cried.
With a dreadful smacking thunk, the second beast slammed into the first one and smashed it to the earth a stone’s throw away. The impact shuddered through the ground.
Bee staggered to her feet. “We’ve got to get to the house!”
Thrashing and roaring, the beasts rolled toward the drive. Claws and teeth flashed as deadly daggers, moist with fluids. A scaly tail thwacked down on the gravel drive no more than three body-lengths from where I was gaping like a lack-wit. Coming from out of nowhere, hands dragged me backward.
“Run!” Vai shouted.
“Where’s Rory?”
“I sent him back to the gate. We’re cut off. Bee! Move!”
We abandoned our gear as we bolted for the safety of the building. A harsh shriek scraped the air, curdling my blood. So frightful was the sound of teeth crunching bone that I staggered, for the vibration of the noise ground through my own bones in sympathy.
Dying.
I am dying.
My blood is hot and harsh, pouring into the throat of my remorseless rival. The strongest has won the right to the crown.
Vai did not let go of my hand as he kept us running. A gusting trumpet cry chased us. A dark shape launched into the air and, twisting, landed with a ground-shaking thud right in front of us. Together we stumbled to a halt and stared down Leviathan. Rory stalked up beside us, trembling but determined to stand with us.
The dragon was now far larger than it had been on the lawn earlier in the day. Although clouds shrouded the sky, stars glimmered in its scales like a vision of unknown shores. The head lowered to peruse us. Eyes like emeralds spun in dizzying circles. Through those spinning eyes I watched as through a window into a hazy mist where shadows of figures shuddered into view and melted away. Was that my mother, staggering through a chaos of battle, one eye bleeding and her lower arm horribly shattered so bone stuck through the torn flesh? I swayed at the sight of her blood and pain.
“Lord of All!” Vai shut his eyes so as not to be caught in the whirlpool. “The creature has cut the thread of my magic. I can’t touch the ice.”
He tried to push me behind him so it would eat him first, but I twisted out of his grasp and stepped forward. Bee yanked me back.
“Both of you, move away!” Stepping in front of the beast, she had the look of a scrumptious honeycake set before a ravenous dame.
“Salve, Your Excellency! Our apologies for interrupting your dinner. I am sure you recognize us as harmless bystanders. Please let us pass to the safety of the house. We will be perfectly happy to stay out of your way until the soldiers who are trying to arrest us have gone.”
The leviathan exhaled with a snort of smoke. Sparks glimmered before dissipating like cooling steam. It heaved itself one big flop toward us.
Never run when they have you in their sight. If you ran, they couldn’t help but chase you.
Its maw opened to reveal a predator’s teeth slimy with fluids and moist substances I did not care to name. Fetid carrion breath mingled with smoke to bring tears to my eyes. Vai’s hand tightened on mine, and I knew he was going to throw himself forward to give me time to escape, so I snaked my foot out, meaning to trip him as soon as he lunged.
“Don’t move, you idiots!” said Bee without looking at us.
A pale man crunched into view on the gravel drive, skirting the flank of the beast. “Move slowly off to the side so you do not stand between him and the challenger,” said Kemal.
We edged sideways onto the grass as Kemal calmly collected our abandoned gear. Vai had sheathed his sword and now had one arm around me and the other around Bee. My panic had ebbed enough that I guessed it soothed him to feel he was protecting us. I even leaned against him, and his hand tightened on my waist to comfort me. I was shaking, it was true. I did not mind a bit of manly comfort. Rory nudged up against me, and I caught his hand in mine.
Gravel ground under its belly as the beast squirmed forward. It nosed up to the steaming carcass of the beast it had just killed and began to feed, ripping and swallowing the tender flesh and sucking at streams of blood and internal fluids. Bee hid her eyes. Vai grunted, looking down.
“It can’t possibly still want to eat us after it eats all that,” Rory muttered, watching with a predator’s measuring interest.
