DragonSpell (20 page)

“Kale, read these bisonbecks’ minds. Find out why they’re here, and how long they intend to stay.”

It took Kale only a minute. “They’re looking for a place to set up a hospital for their wounded.”

“Tell them this isn’t the place. Suggest they look for someplace closer to the stables.”

“Why?”

“Because we want them to move.”

“No, why would they want to be closer to the stables? I need a logical reason.”

Dar rubbed his hand over his chin and closed his eyes. In a moment they popped open with a twinkle. “Because Risto will have their heads if they put smelly, bloody soldiers this close to his living quarters.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Opening her eyes again, she grinned at Dar. “It worked.” Her pleasure evaporated. “Oh!”

“What’s wrong?”

“They’re coming this way.”

Dar put strong hands against Kale’s waist and pushed. They dove behind a fountain surrounded by bushes just before two hulking bisonbecks in tattered uniforms came through the gate.

One stopped inside the entryway, grunted, and looked around suspiciously. “Did you hear something?”

         
27
         

L
OCKED
D
OORS

The two bisonbeck soldiers snorted and grumbled at each other. Kale couldn’t make out what they said. She watched with relief as they ambled in the other direction, carelessly poking under and around the bushes.

Afraid of drawing their attention, she mindspoke to Dar.
What are we going to do?

“Stay hidden.”

That’s all right for us, but we didn’t exactly hide Leetu
. Kale glanced back at the alcove and gasped.
Dar, she’s gone.

Dar’s head snapped around and then back at Kale.
“She’s not gone. She’s wrapped in the moonbeam cape. Kale, try to keep calm.”

Kale bit her lip and turned back to study the patch of ground beside the carved bench and stone maidens. After a moment, she detected the tip of Leetu’s boot near the foot of a marble dancer and a tendril of blond hair close to the elaborate seat.

The soldiers worked their way around the far end of the courtyard and started back. She held her breath. As long as Leetu stayed still, she would be practically invisible. That
could
happen. After all, the emerlindian hadn’t moved on her own since they found her. Kale’s head swiveled as she first watched the bisonbecks and then Leetu’s concealed body.

The soldiers rattled the bushes directly opposite their hiding place. Dar touched her arm and motioned her to follow. Darting from a clump of tall flowers to a fountain, from bushes to statues, from one spot of cover to the next, he took them to the area already searched by the enemy. They passed the gate they hoped to use for an exit. From the new location, Kale eyed Leetu’s position and then watched the warriors. The bisonbecks, growling and poking swords into the shrubbery, edged closer to the statue.

“Tell him to be still,” hissed Dar.

“Who?”

“Gymn.”

Kale followed Dar’s gaze. He stared at a place between the tip of Leetu’s boot and the lock of hair. The moonbeam cape presented a bump in midair that gyrated, clearly visible.

Gymn, oh Gymn, don’t move. The enemy is close. Be still. Please, be still. Don’t wiggle. Don’t move. Freeze!

Gymn responded. Once again the moonbeam cape served as camouflage.

One of the big brutes thrust his sword into the shrubbery behind the statue. The other leapt onto another bench and peered in and around the alcove.

Kale thought her heart would pound right out of her chest.

Be still, be still, be still,
she chanted in her mind. The words were for herself as well as the baby dragon. Kale wanted to bolt out the gate.

The soldier on the bench jumped down behind the statue and started around it. He stumbled over Leetu and fell flat on his face.

“Aargh!” The battle cry came not from the fallen man but from Dar. He rose up beside Kale with his short sword drawn and charged the man on the ground. Kale’s eyes widened as she watched Dar’s blade sweep across the back of the man’s neck. The soldier howled and rolled. Dar held his sword in two hands now with the point down. The bisonbeck’s arm came out to catch the doneel’s leg in a great meaty hand. Dar plunged his weapon downward. The silver blade stuck in the enemy’s chest.

Kale was on her feet, running to help. The second soldier sprang toward Dar.

“Look out!” she screamed.

Dar tucked himself in a ball. Instantly, his shimmering bubble covered him like a turtle shell. The blow of the bisonbeck’s blade rang off the magical shield.

Screaming his frustration, the soldier jumped at Dar with both feet. He landed on top of the shell, forcing it down with a crackling snap on the bricks.

Kale stopped her forward course and plunged into the bushes, running behind them to a place of better advantage. The soldier either heard her or saw her. He left Dar and bellowed as he approached the manicured thicket. She dropped to her knees and crawled into the underbrush.

What can I do? What can I do?

Make him trip?

Blind him with a flash?

The soldier’s huge boots stomped inches from her hands. The branches above her clattered.

Blind him!

She squeezed her eyes shut and thought with all her might.

It worked. Even within the protection of the shrubbery, her eyelids glowed red when the light burst with full intensity around her.

The bisonbeck groaned. His body hit the bricked pathway. Kale stayed where she was, huddled in the dark, panting and trembling.

She listened. Bedlam clamored at the fort entrance, but many walls and buildings muffled the clash of arms. The courtyard around her pulsed with the aftermath of conflict. Tension hung on the air. Silence echoed in sudden stillness.

“Kale, come out,” Dar called. “Where are you?”

She tried to speak. “Here.” Her voice croaked a broken whisper.

“Here,” she said again, a bit louder. She inched out of her hiding place.

Dar sat where she’d last seen him, his shell gone. He rubbed his eyes.

“Tell me next time, all right? Warn me.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “By all the light on the crystal sea, that was brilliant.”

Kale tried to smile in response to his praise, but her lips quivered. A sob rose in her throat. She choked it down and finished easing out from under the stiff, scratching branches. Dar still rubbed at his face, knuckling his eyes.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“I hope so,” he answered. “Check Leetu and Gymn while I try to focus.”

She didn’t bother to stand, crawling the few feet to the base of the statue. The cape had fallen away and exposed part of the emerlindian’s clothing. Kale saw Leetu’s chest rise and fall in a gentle, shallow rhythm. Gymn lay inside his pocket-den in a quivering ball. Kale pulled him out and held him securely against her neck, rubbing one finger on the ridges between his ears.

“You’re as big a coward as I am,” she whispered. “Because you feel what I feel, and I feel what you feel, does that mean we make each other’s fear worse? We’ll both have to be more brave.” She sighed and looked over at Dar examining the bisonbeck bodies. “Like Dar. He’s already up and seeing to our safety.”

Dar leaned close to the soldier stunned by Kale’s blast of light. He prodded the prone man with his sword. She watched him pat the side of the bisonbeck’s uniform, locate another long knife, and remove the weapon.

“These soldiers won’t fight again,” he said. He rubbed at his face as he stood erect.

Have I damaged Dar’s eyes? I sent a vision of blinding light into the soldier’s mind. How did Dar…?

“Dar?”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Hmm?”

“If I sent the suggestion of brilliance into the bisonbeck’s mind, why was the light real? I saw the flash even with my eyes closed. The flash nearly blinded you.
No
one should have seen it but him.” She nodded toward the man at Dar’s feet.

A puzzled frown tightened Dar’s furry features. He looked down at the soldier and then up at Kale. He rubbed his eyes again with the back of his hand and squinted at her once more. He opened his mouth and closed it again without speaking.

“Hurry!” The shrill command came without warning. Both Dar and Kale jumped. Seezle’s blurred approach created a whistle as she zoomed through the archway and came to a halt. “That light drew too much attention. Let’s move. We have to get out of here.”

They ran to pick up Leetu.

“Where have you been?” Dar demanded as he hoisted the emerlindian’s feet to his shoulders.

Kale let go of Gymn to snatch up her end of Leetu. She didn’t want her injured friend to hang upside down off the back of the agitated doneel. Gymn’s little claws poked through the material of Kale’s blouse as he clung to her shoulder.

Seezle slipped into her place under Leetu. The procession moved down the brick pathway, through the gate, and onto the terrace.

“To the forest.” Seezle’s voice returned to its natural light cadence. “To see Paladin. I asked if we should join the forces at the fortress entry and help secure the prisoners’ freedom.”

Dar’s ears perked up. “And?”

“He said no. Our priority is to get Leetu to safety. We go through the river cavern.”

The doneel’s shoulders drooped. He trudged wordlessly across the polished stone surface of the elegant terrace toward the wall of glass doors that gave entry to the castle.

Shouts sounded nearer now. The rumble of determined troops grew louder as boots tramped in the corridors between buildings.

Dar reached the first door.

“It’s locked,” he said over his shoulder. “Back up a couple of feet.”

Once in position, Dar kicked a leg out, his heel aimed at the pane of glass next to the handle. His foot hit the glass and bounced, sending the shock of impact back through the four waiting to reach safety.

Dar growled.

“Enchantment,” said Seezle. “It’s reinforced by magic.”

“How are we going to get in?” Kale looked with apprehension toward the garden wall that blocked their view of what was happening in the narrow castle passageways. Flickering torches could be seen as they passed on the other side. Citizens of Risto’s castle compound rushed about in the night. How many of them were soldiers?

Dar caught Kale off balance when he swiftly sidestepped to the next door. She scurried to follow, struggling to keep Leetu from slipping from her grip. Dar tried the knob and then quickly went on to the next.

“Look,” cried Seezle. “Down at the end. Open windows. See?”

Kale saw what she meant just as Dar took off at a trot down the side of the building, passing all the doors. Three feet from the ground, a row of windows stood open. The panes of glass in wooden frames tilted outward on metal hinges attached at the top. Dar put down Leetu’s feet. The others lowered her carefully to the ground.

“Seezle,” said Dar, “you go in first. Kale next, and then we’ll pass Leetu through.”

Seezle ducked under the pane of glass and disappeared inside. Kale crouched to get in position.

Dar exclaimed under his breath, “Wonderful!” His tone did
not
indicate pleasure.

Kale lifted her eyes to his face. She followed his gaze at the same time she heard a commotion. A half-dozen bisonbeck soldiers marched up the steps at the far end of the terrace. The warriors spotted Kale and Dar. Two gave a triumphant shout. Twisted grins sprang up on their ugly faces. Kale took in a sharp breath.

“Go,” Dar ordered Kale, pulling his sword from its sheath.

Kale turned away from the window and stood. She, too, pulled her small blade from its scabbard. She moved to stand next to Dar in front of the crumpled heap that was Leetu.

The bisonbecks advanced, taking their time. They obviously thought their prey was cornered. Kale felt a flutter at her leg and knew Seezle had joined them.

A heavy droning noise from beyond the wall grew louder. Seezle chuckled. The bisonbecks looked nervously toward the outside of the castle gardens. They took a few more uncertain steps toward Kale and her friends. The drone changed pitch, higher and piercing. People screamed, punctuating the inhuman buzz. The soldiers stopped and stared in the direction of the uproar.

A black mist appeared at the top of the wall, a thin trickle followed by a thick mass. At first Kale thought it was a mordakleep, but the darkness was not dense enough to be one of the swamp monsters. And mordakleeps were totally silent. The reverberating buzz came from the cloud.

With a yell of terror, the warriors turned and ran.

Seezle chuckled again.

“Hornets,” said Dar.

The swarm turned with a purpose and zoomed after the retreating soldiers.

“They won’t hurt us?” asked Kale.

“They pass over those wearing the protection of Paladin.”

Kale, totally confused, frowned at the doneel.

“The glean band, Kale.” Dar sounded patient. Kale had no idea what he was talking about. “On your wrist.”

She looked down at the thin, green rope bracelet he’d fastened on her arm when she first woke in the dungeon.

“Oh.” Kale watched as the last of the swarm disappeared in pursuit of the bisonbecks. “How did the hornets get here?”