City of Death (33 page)

“You slept through a lot, didn't you? She was Nanaia,” Scirye said and then explained about Yi the Archer and his arrows and Kemshap.

The news was almost more than he could assimilate. First Primo and now this. But pure joy replaced all his confusion when he saw Bayang limping down the slope toward the waiting cloud. Over her shoulder was Árkwi.

What would Primo do to the dragon when he saw her? Probably nothing, because Bayang had been in a different disguise each time she had hunted Leech down.

Even so, as soon as he had let Scirye off on the cloud, Leech sped toward the dragon. “Bayang, you're alive.”

She was bleeding from numerous wounds and there were raw patches of flesh where whole patches of scales had been torn off, and one eye was nearly half-shut. “I'm glad I can say the same,” she said.

From the corner of his eye, Leech saw Scirye hugging her parents, and then he waved to Primo. “Primo, this is Bayang.” He made a point of saying, “She's our friend.”

Primo stared at the dragon suspicously. “Have we met somewhere before?”

“That's always possible,” Bayang said carefully. “I've spent a lot of time in the human lands.”

They studied each other intently, and Leech had the feeling that if they ever fought each other it would be to the death. He just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Suddenly the mountain stirred again and boulders began rolling in an avalanche of dirt and rocks. When the cascade stopped and the cloud of material dissolved, a huge cavern gaped at the top of the mountain. Inside, stalagmites and stalactites formed of iridescent rainbow bands gleamed at them. Suddenly, with a loud rumble, the hole closed, and when it opened again, streams of mud slid down like drool.

Leech realized that the glimmering pillars were actually Kemshap's fangs.

A hill next to Kemshap began to rise until it became a leg with a huge irregular-shaped disc as a foot. A new chasm snaked from the hole through the city so that the glasslike ruins fell with the sound of all the dishes in the world shattering.

Kemshap's peak swung back and forth, and then it pulled its other leg free.

“And now,” Primo groaned, “Kemshap can destroy again and there's no one to stop it.”

 

61

Scirye

“I can,” Roland said from underneath Koko. “I've trained for years with the best archery masters. Give me the bow and arrows.”

“Why should we trust you?” Scirye demanded.

“Because,” Roland said, “I don't want this world destroyed anymore than you do. What's the point of ruling a wasteland?”

Scirye looked at Bayang who shook her head. “I never had need of a bow.” When the dragon shook her head, the Kushan girl turned toward Primo who was sending his cloud speeding away from Kemshap. “Primo?”

“I'm afraid not,” he said, glancing back at the monster of earth and stone.

“We've used one for a few days in training,” Kat confessed, “but I doubt if any of us could string one, let alone hit what we were aiming at.”

Lord Tsirauñe, his shoulder newly bandaged, looked at Scirye. He was deferring to her now as their leader, which made Scirye feel strange and uncomfortable.

What did the goddess want her to do? She waited a second for inspiration to come, to be given some divine clue, but as usual, there was only the frustrating silence.

If only Nanaia had been able to stay in human form long enough to instruct her. Her first instinct was to let her parents decide, but she realized that wasn't what Nanaia had wanted. And it wasn't what she wanted either. The goddess had chosen her to find the arrows, so ultimately the responsibility was hers.

“Hurry,” Roland snapped and grunted when Koko bounced up and down on him heavily.

“Uh-unh. Mind your manners,” the badger scolded.

The storm was ending, so she could see Kemshap clearly. The monster seemed to fill half the sky now. It took a single, ponderous step, but that step covered half a mile, obliterating anything underneath it.

The last marble column still protruded horizontally from the monster's side. Seen from that angle, the column looked more like a huge arrow. It was just as well that it made Kemshap sluggish, but for how long? Could it pull it out somehow?

Everyone was watching her as they waited for her decision. She just wished she had more time to think, but she would just have to go with a hunch. “All right, Roland, but you only get one chance.” When Roland opened his mouth to protest, she frowned. “No arguments. String your bow.”

“Are you sure about this?” Bayang asked.

Scirye pointed at the column. “I'm hoping that the weather's worn away some of the dirt so Kemshap's hide is thinner.” She glanced at Oko. “But if Roland aims at anyone else but the monster, hit him.”

The big Pippal still had the imperial battle-axes. She took one of them from her belt and reversed it to use the blunt side as a hammer. “With pleasure.”

Roland nodded at her. “I underestimated you, my dear.”

Kat undid the belt from around Roland's arms and Wali returned the parts of the magical bow to him while Oko stood ready to swing the axe.

The bowstring had been disguised as a necklace. Quickly he undid the knot to reveal loops on either end of the cord. Puka shells fell into the cloud as the string writhed and curled like a long, slender worm.

“The bow's so thick,” Bayang said, already reaching for it. “Do you want me to bend it?”

Roland slipped Yi's ring onto his thumb. Carved out of bone, a triangle projected horizontally from the top like a pointed ledge, with the apex aimed away from his body.

“This will give me all the strength I need to use the bow,” he boasted.

Oko raised her axe, ready to end the experiment immediately. “You mean, it makes you superhuman?”

“No, you fool, just when I handle the bow,” Roland snapped, but he was sensible enough to freeze while he waited for Scirye to make a choice.

“Go on,” she said.

Roland fastened one loop to the top of the wooden shaft. Then, setting the bow behind one calf, he pulled the top down, and the thick wood bent as if it were a straw. So it was easy to fit the second loop over the other end of the shaft. Roland's face was flushed and excited as he held it up. “The energy! The power of this bow!”

The string, now taut, sung a low, eager note, almost as if it were humming.

Kles fluttered in the air, ready to attack Roland too. “The bow must sense its ancient enemy.”

And so had Kemshap. Ponderously, trailing piles of debris, Kemshap turned and began to stomp toward them.

 

62

Scirye

Roland placed himself at the front of the cloud and then called over his shoulder to Primo. “Take a bearing on that column sticking out of the monster and get me within a hundred yards, and then hold this thing as steady as you can.”

Primo frowned at being ordered around by the villain, but he swung the cloud around in a wide arc. The cloud was so large and heavy with passengers now that, even though it still moved swiftly in a straight line, it was as ponderous as a barge in turns.

As soon as they saw the cloud returning to Kemshap, one of the prisoners shouted, “Are you crazy?”

Wali had armed herself with a rifle and aimed it at them now. “Shut up.” And the prisoners lapsed into a sullen, frightened silence.

Like birds hypnotized by a snake, they stared in fascination as the monster loomed larger and larger in front of them. Even Oko couldn't help shifting her gaze momentarily from Roland to Kemshap.

Pivoting, Roland swung the bow hard against Oko's temple. Even as Oko's knees buckled, Roland had hooked the little triangular point on the side of the ring over the string. Then, fitting the arrow to the string, he pulled the string back with the help of the archer's ring and aimed the arrow at Primo. “Take us away from here,” Roland commanded.

“I knew we couldn't trust you,” Bayang growled.

“Take one step toward me and he dies,” Roland warned and the dragon stopped.

“I thought you cared about what happens to the world?” Leech demanded.

Roland shrugged one shoulder. “By the time that monster demolishes Asia, I should either have worked out the secrets of this weapon or I'll have found some remote island where I'll be safe.”

Even as the cloud veered away slowly, Kemshap began to shrink in height. Huge knobs popped up from the surface. Then the knobs burst, lengthening into monumental spines that shot outward with the speed of an express train.

Helplessly, Scirye watched the stony spikes rushing to impale them with thunderous grinding noises.

Roland spun about to meet the new threat. “Don't come near me,” Roland yelled at Kemshap.

“We're still out of bow range,” Kat said.

But the panicked Roland had already released the string. As the arrow sped from the bow, it grew longer and thicker with each passing second until it was twenty feet long, and the wooden shaft hardened into marble.

“Please, please,” Scirye murmured as it shot like a rocket toward Kemshap.

The bronze arrowhead shattered one of the spines, its pointed tip vanishing in a puff of dust, and then bounced off a second and then a third, clattering about as it bounced downward from one remaining spike to another.

Roland wheeled around, raising the bow over his shoulder in both hands like a club. “You, boy, give me the flying discs,” he snarled at Leech.

Leech started to speed backward. “Never.”

Roland swung Yi's bow in a vicious blow but missed the boy. The motion threw the man off-balance. Terror filled his eyes as he flung the bow away and raised his arms to try to right himself.

Bayang stretched her long body toward him to catch him, but her paws just missed.

Roland screamed as he went over the side.

And Scirye watched helplessly as the bow and Roland disappeared below. There was still one arrow in Kemshap's side, but it might as well be on the moon now. That left only the arrow she had, but with no way to shoot it, there was no way to stop Kemshap from destroying the world.

 

63

Scirye

As the giant spikes rumbled toward them, Primo tilted the cloud skyward, knocking Scirye from her feet. Desperately, she dug her fingers into the cloud for handholds, but only grasped mist. Suddenly she was sliding across the cloud, her shouts drowned out by the thunderous rumbling of the oncoming spikes.

And then the cloud was bucking up and down and from side to side as if it had become a wild bronco, bouncing Scirye about. Beneath her, the cloud thinned so it was like looking through a murky window as the dirt-and-rock spires roared beneath them, skinning enough of the mist from the bottom of their craft so that she could see through it.

A moment later, Primo leveled off the cloud and sent it racing forward, away from Kemshap. And the cloud's surface became opaque as it thickened again.

“
Whoo-ee,
” Koko panted. “I've never had a near collision with a mountain before. I'd hate to see what he's like when he doesn't still have an arrow in him.”

Scirye glanced about. Her friends and parents were still here and picking themselves back up, but some of the prisoners had fallen off. Even if they were her enemies, she still felt sorry for them.

Kles fluttered about her, adjusting her clothes. “Are you all right, lady?”

Scirye didn't answer as her mind raced. There was probably dynamite at the camp, but she was willing to bet Kemshap could replace whatever the dynamite blew up. Even if they had enough dynamite to fill a cargo freighter, that still might not be sufficient.

Anyway, that hadn't been what the goddess had been trying to tell her. Desperately, she tried to recall all the things that Nanaia had said as M
ā
ka, some inkling of Her plan that might have slipped out of Her human form unawares.

“He's trying to hit us with the spikes,” Kat shouted.

Kemshap had shifted his feet so that he could swing his spikes at them. Immediately, Primo sent his cloud up, but not at such a steep angle this time, so they were able to keep their balance.

Balance!

Scirye remembered what the goddess as M
ā
ka had said about how things balanced out. Nanaia was powerful as a goddess but a bumbler as a human. Strengths in one thing compensated for flaws in another. The good evened out the bad. She ran through the vision again, keeping M
ā
ka's words in mind and remembered the goddess reversing her cape.

Scirye had the answer, feeling as sure as if the goddess had written it out for her: the Inside equalized the Outside. Weakness matched strength. And as frightening as the solution was, it was also almost a relief after wondering what she was to do for so long.

She remembered how Nishke had faced a dragon with just an antique weapon that was liable to break at any moment. She couldn't do any less with Kemshap.

With Kles on her shoulder, Scirye crossed the spongelike cloud, kicking up wisps of mist as she went. When she had reached Leech, who was standing with Bayang, she whispered, “I need a ride. We're going to give that monster a little surprise.”

Leech's eyebrows knit together in puzzlement as he said in a low voice, “We don't have the archer's bow anymore.”

“I'm going to deliver the arrow personally to Kemshap's heart.” She twirled her hand, motioning for Leech to turn around. “That's what the goddess meant when she reversed her cape in the vision that she sent.”

Leech was even more confused. “You're supposed to switch your clothes around?”

“No,” Scirye said. “She was trying to tell me that the inside was more important than the outside.”

Bayang nodded. “Pele's charm should let me breathe inside that monster just like it did when we were submerged in lava. I'll go.”