Chapter Nineteen
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I reached the veranda just as the golden queen landed on the lawn, hard. Her face plowed into the turf and bounced, wings flattened out unnaturally behind her, tail slammed into the edge of the Lake sendin’ a splay of water fifty feet into the air. The old, slate-gray bull landed beside her three seconds later. Their necks entwined and thrust back and forth. The trumpetin’ from the two dragons, Tir aloft, with another yellow and brown bull, had all of us claspin’ our hands to our ears.
A jumble of intense mental messages made me sick to my stomach. I worried about Ike, fallen to the floor of the veranda, not respondin’ to Eina’s queries. I had to do somethin’. My staff rang in my hand like a tunin’ fork from the majic floodin’ it, numbin’ my arm. Somehow I made it down the stairs without collapsin’, struggled to build a strategy for easin’ the pain of the dragons.
I stood and raised my staff away from me, still with no clue what to do. But the staff worked independently. I found my mind clearin’. “Silence!” I shouted at the three dragons above. “Listen! Listen to me.”
The queen lay her head on the ground, eyes closed, neck extended, within a step of me. I reached out and set my left hand across her broad forehead and felt power rushin’ from the staff, through me, into the magnificent dragon. The gray bull quieted, but stroked the body of the queen with his long neck.
The moments stretched and the three other bulls landed nearby, crouched, reachin’ out to be in physical contact with the queen. But they remained quiet. The only noise was the hum emanatin’ from my staff.
“I am sorry,” Taiz’lin whined. “I read the thought in Ike’s mind. Before I knew it, ya had sensed it.”
“Despite what ya read,” I felt broadcasted somehow to the four dragons, “it doesn’t make it so. We lost Lucas’ trail and chose to turn back. True we crossed a feedin’ site of wolves, which troubled us. But I don’t believe it had anythin’ to do with Lucas.”
The queen raised her head six feet off the ground and trumpeted, long, softly, almost a song. She wanted to believe what I said I think, but her heart ached. She bugled again, a long, keenin’ sound the other four dragons took up.
A hand on my shoulder made me jerk. The old, troll bull, Yoso, stood next to me. Tears flowed down his cheeks from red eyes. He gasped for a breath. I wished to console him, but my staff wasn’t finished with the queen. The black ash vibrated. Pain shot into my shoulder, but the intensity lessened. A full minute later I allowed the staff to fall to the ground. I flexed my fist, workin’ at the numbness.
“Let me—” My voice rasped. I cleared my throat. “Let me help ya try to communicate with Lucas.”
The dragon queen blinked two enormous eyes at me. I picked up my staff, but even it seemed weakened by the previous exertion. I tried to mentally connect with Lucas through Iza, but no path formed. Was it the exhaustion from calmin’ the dragons, or did the communication only work to, not from the dragon?
“I’m sorry, Iza, but I can’t sense him.”
Her nostrils flared, none too friendly.
“We can leave first light to search for Lucas,” I said.
“We leave now,” Iza answered. “My sire, dam, and sibling Kyn will meet us at the base of the Spine.”
Without considerin’ how bizarre the situation was, I climbed the lowered shoulder the queen offered. Settlin’ between two neck ridges, I looked across to see Ike strugglin’ to seat himself atop Taiz’lin. He moved awkwardly. His hand reached twice before findin’ a hold, his feet hunted for positions on Taiz’lin’s extended arm.
“Are ya all right?” I asked.
“If he falls to his death there will be no big loss,” Iza hissed.
“It wasn’t his fault.”
“He should have sent word immediately.” Her words reached me like an echo, spoken aloud and mentally. “Unless there’s somethin’ ya haven’t told us.”
Yoso shouted, “We’ll keep Johanson and yar guests from goin’ at each other.”
I wasn’t ready when Iza launched. I grasped at the folds of her skin as she twisted, throwin’ me to the right. Only her violent down thrust kept me from immediately fallin’. Her body slammed up into me. As she thrust her wings downward again, I slid into the next, lower neck ridge and held fast. I cut off the scream that escaped from my throat.
The dragons shared no mental laugh. I never got to explain that we tried to reach her. To my left I met the eyes of an ogre hen I hadn’t yet been introduced to, on the back of the brown dragon. To my right, Janding, the orc-artist, rode the yellow bull dragon, and Asr, Ike’s sibling, sat atop Tir.
Ike sat motionless on Taiz’lin, head down. I tried to shout at him but my words were pressed back into my mouth by the wind.
“Only Lucas can save his life,” Iza told me.
The emotion jolted me. “I will not let ya harm him.”
Iza trumpeted, a jarrin’, raspin’ thin’. “Ya’re talkin’ to a dragon, ogre. Do not let yar mouth get ya into a battle ya cannot even start.”
“I stand by my words.”
She didn’t argue. Taiz’lin drew nearer as the two dragons spoke privately. Again, I thought about the scenery below too late. I leaned forward but there was nothin’ but the dark-green of pine forest and black mountain ridges. I tried to look over my shoulder, but vertigo made me straighten. One day I would look upon the Lake from up here. It’ll be a sight worth seein’, I think.
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