City of Death (30 page)

Koko rubbed his belly ruefully. “Maybe I should've just kept it to five meals at the palace.”

Leech struggled to lift a stone into place. Carved on it were nine crows in a tree. Suddenly large paws suddenly took it from him and set it in position. As she spoke in a low voice, the dragon adjusted the rock on the wall. “Back at the vizier's summer villa, you asked me if I could be a friend to Lee if he were alive. And I couldn't give you my answer until now.”

You didn't see the proud dragon embarrassed very often, but she was now. “I think I finally understand why he acted the way he did. And I realize now my missions were all part of a tragic misunderstanding that's led to more killings that still haunt me in my nightmares. Those other reincarnations weren't Lee any more than you are.”

So she has nightmares too?
the Voice asked in surprise. The next memory sounded painful.
Sometimes I remember the dragon prince's face too. He was so frightened at the end but I couldn't stop hitting him. I knew it was wrong. I guess I'm as bad as Bayang.

The dragon still didn't look at Leech as she went on, perhaps afraid to see how hostile he was becoming. “If Lee No Cha was with us now, I would tell him that all my previous missions were tragic mistakes. I should have realized that he was a small, frightened hatchling and not a monster and that we are both very much alike. And if I could not earn his friendship, I would try to gain his respect, not by words but by my actions.”

Even if we could become friends, what would happen if some other dragons came after me?
the Voice wondered.

When Leech repeated the question to Bayang, the dragon shrugged. “It's not a matter of ‘if' but ‘when.' I'd try to make them understand, but if I couldn't, I'd fight them.”

“Even if they were members of your own clan?” Lee asked.

“You are my clan now, not them,” Bayang said.

Ah
was all the Voice said.

Leech glanced at Koko and then at Scirye and Kles. “We've made our own family, and I think our ties are stronger than just blood.”

The dragon clasped her paws together, intertwining her claws. “Our destinies may be tied together, but let's carry the destruction to our enemies and not one another.”

I'd like that,
the Voice said.

Leech said, “I think if Lee No Cha were here, he'd be willing to try to be your friend.” The next moment he flinched when a bullet chipped a marble fragment that faced the downward slope. Through the snow, Leech saw the silhouettes of men and griffins. Apparently, no one had been willing to risk flying through the storm as they had, but they had been willing to walk.

The badger sighed. “Just for once, I'd like to outnumber the bad guys.”

Leech understood what his friend meant. Desperate struggles were all too familiar. So was the stomach-twisting fear.

Roland called up to them, “Surrender and you won't be harmed.” A guardsman, probably acting as an interpreter, shouted something in Kushan right after that.

Koko hoisted himself up to the top of the wall. “What makes you think we'd trust a jerk like you?” he jeered and blew a raspberry.

“You pests!” Roland swore in the darkness. “You're harder to kill than cockroaches.” His tone became more thoughtful. “The vizier sent word to me about the crazy claims that the girl was making. At first, I thought it was just the superstitious ravings, but if you've managed to get this far, maybe you can help me find the arrows after all.” His voice grew harsh as he commanded his men. “There's a girl with red hair and green eyes. Don't harm her, but you can kill the others.”

The Voice chuckled.
I guess I'm just meant to die young.

We're not dead yet, but if that happens, you won't die alone,
Leech said.

Yes,
the Voice said.

 

54

Bayang

Bayang called to the Wolf Guards below. “The vizier is dead. The emperor knows about the whole plot and troops will be here soon. If you help Roland now, you'll be branded as traitors.”

As the men hesitated, a giant silhouette rose up. “What are you doing here?” Badik asked.

The sight of her ancient enemy washed away all of Bayang's soreness and fatigue.

“The vizier came to kill me, but we took care of him instead,” Bayang said. “What more proof do you need that I'm telling the truth?”

When the guardsmen remained where they were, Badik roared angrily. “The vizier's still alive at the citadel, you idiots. I'll kill anyone who listens to her lies. Now advance!”

After hesitating a moment, the guardsmen came on again.

Bayang had always known their adventure might end badly, which was why she had tried so often to get the hatchlings to quit. When the goddess had shown that Scirye was her favorite, though, the dragon had begun to hope for success. But where was the goddess now when they needed her the most?

Bayang could have pounded her paws in frustration, not because they would fail in their quest, nor even because her personal enemy, Badik, would triumph. It was the hatchlings for whom she was afraid. They were too clever, too brave to die like this.

Twisting her head, Bayang looked affectionately at her companions. From their positions at the four walls of their improvised fort, Scirye's parents and the Pippalanta had risen to a crouch and begun firing. M
ā
ka had her dagger in one hand while her other leafed through her pamphlet as she hunted for some spell that might work. Tute was growling and Kles's fur and feathers began to puff out, preparing to fight. Scirye had her eyes closed as if she were begging the goddess for help. Even the usually cowardly badger was holding a lyak axe in both paws, ready to defend her.

Last, her eyes fell on a frightened but purposeful Leech mounted atop one of his discs and doing knee bends to loosen up, which made the discs bounce up and down as if he were a basketball.

It was time to live up to her bold words to Leech … and Lee No Cha. Bayang couldn't make up for all the wrongs she had done, but at least she might increase their chances of survival a little bit by taking out the biggest threat.

“Leech,” Bayang called to the hatchling and then looked about, “and everyone. I love you.” Then, turning her back on them, she balled a forepaw and raised it defiantly toward the giant silhouette. “Badik of the Fire Rings, fight me if you dare. Or will you keep hiding behind Roland like his pet dog? Coward, slimeworm.”

And then English was no longer adequate so she switched to the dragon tongue. For there are no insults like a dragon's because dragons live a long time and so their hatred ferments for centuries until it becomes a brew so potent that it burns the mind like acid eating through steel.

The venomous words almost burned her throat as she flung them at her ancient enemy, the first ones making Badik so furious that he could not even speak, only hiss.

“Badik, stay where you are,” Roland commanded angrily.

But Bayang's insults had made Badik go berserk. As he began to charge up the slope, Bayang shouted,
“Yashe!”
and vaulted over the crude wall.

She worked the growth spell as she galloped downward and immediately the world began to shimmer around her as she swelled in size. As she did the snowflakes seemed to shrink to the size of pinheads.

“Light the lanterns,” Roland yelled, “and kill her.”

Light suddenly flared in dozens of lanterns as shutters were opened to reveal the fire imps inside burning intensely.

She lowered her eyelids slightly and tried not to look directly at any one lantern so it would not blind her. Lyak spears and axes bounced off her scales. Bullets pinged against her sides. But she paid them no heed. Revenge was her one desire.

Badik was dashing toward her, eyes wide, strings of saliva dripping from his mouth, paws skidding recklessly in the snow.

Twenty yards on, he met her. He was wearing iron plates across his chest as armor.

With a little hop, she sprang at him with all four paws, and with a jump of his own, his paws met hers. Instantly, Bayang thrust her head forward and Badik barely pulled his throat away from her snapping jaws—only to be stunned by a blow from her flapping wings. She ignored the pain from the wound on one wing and swept her tail, knocking Badik on his back.

The sheer ferocity of Bayang's attack overwhelmed Badik at first, but he still managed to trip her with his tail so that she fell over on him.

The two dragons wrestled in the snow, grasping paws as they tried to avoid each other's fangs and clouts from their wings.

Then Badik's head shot up like a battering ram, his hard skull thudding against the base of Bayang's throat and her windpipe. Choking and wheezing, Bayang fell onto her side. Immediately, Badik's head shot out like a cobra's, but Bayang rolled, and though fiery pain raced along her back, she spread her injured wing clouting Badik on his head.

Her chest heaved as she tried to draw air through her bruised windpipe, and the dazed Badik struggled up on all fours, his drooling jaws and a forepaw slashing viciously at her. All she could do was try to shield herself with her wings, but as he shredded them, she wondered if she would ever be able to fly again—but then, given the odds against her, she would never live long enough for them to heal.

She thought of her old instructor, Sergeant Pandai. Bayang thought she'd almost had the wily veteran pinned when she suddenly found herself flat on her back. As the sergeant had helped her up, she'd said, “Remember, you can use your enemies' own eagerness as a weapon against them.”

She lowered her wings as if she were helpless to control them, no longer trying to hide the agony the motion caused her.

As Badik's jaws lunged at her with a triumphant hiss, she raked a paw across his cheek.

Blinded in one eye, he tilted back his head and roared in agony. Immediately, she stretched out her hind paws and caught one of his hind legs. He tried to stagger away, but she yanked hard and he spilled onto his back in the snow.

Her head shot forward on her long neck and the moment her jaws clamped on his throat, she bit down hard, felt her fangs crunch satisfyingly through his armored scales, tasted his blood, felt his breath trying to pass in vain along his throat.

She used her tail to fend off his twitching body and the paws that, even in his death throes, were trying to rip her open. And then Badik, the greatest enemy the Clan of the Moonglow had ever known, lay still.

 

55

Scirye

There was nothing as majestic or as terrifying as dragons in their full wrath, and for long moments it was silent on the battlefield, except for the wailing of the winds. Scirye was just about to give a cheer when Roland shouted, “Kill that dragon! Kill her!”

Finally, a guardsman recovered his wits and fired. Soon all the guns were blazing away at Bayang as she struggled to rise.

“Cover her,” Kat said, and the Pippalanta began to fire in the quick but deliberate rate they had used before.

Some scales must have been torn off in the fight with Badik, for Bayang quivered every now and then when a bullet found an exposed spot where a scale had been turn off. But she kept limping back to her friends.

“Hurry, please hurry,” Scirye murmured. Blood dripped from several wounds and down her beautiful scales.

Leech cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. “Shrink. So you won't be such a big target.”

Scirye added her voice to his. “Shrink.”

The others joined them and somehow Bayang heard them through the roar of the guns. Her outline shimmered and dwindled until she was only as tall as a human.

Still, some bullets hit her. Ten yards from the fort, she staggered and fell to her knees. Even so, she kept crawling forward.

Five yards. Then three.

She reached out a paw as if to touch the fort but with a last shudder pitched forward.

 

56

Leech

“Bayang,” Leech sobbed.

Is she dead?
the Voice asked sadly.

Leech felt an ache inside as terrible as when his friend Primo had died.
Yes.

She really meant it when she said she loved you,
the Voice said in amazement.

She said it to us. She had stopped thinking you were a monster,
Leech pointed out.

It's too bad,
the Voice said regretfully.
Maybe we could have changed things between us if she could have lived.

“Charge, charge!” Roland shouted, and the Wolf Guards and thugs cheered as they began to move forward. Perhaps Roland had forgotten about the lanterns in the excitement, or was so confident in the success of their numbers that he didn't care about casualties, but he didn't order the lanterns to be shuttered again. His men began falling to the defenders' bullets.

When the lyaks heard them and saw what was happening, they began to howl as they surged toward the fort as well.

As the others hurried to their posts, Leech got on his flying discs but took one last glance at Bayang.

And that was when he thought he saw the dragon wink.

 

57

Scirye

Leech hovered a few inches in the air, clutching at the east wall. “Bayang?” he called.

“Come on, buddy,” Koko said, taking his arm. “We got to get ready.”

“But I saw her wink,” Leech said.

Wishing desperately that was true, Scirye looked over the stones at the dragon, but her eyes were shut, her body lifeless. “It must have been some trick of the light,” Scirye said. The lanterns gave off a flickering light as their bearers moved, casting shadows that danced about the slope.

“I guess so,” Leech sighed and reluctantly pivoted and moved with his friends to the center of their little fort.