Chapter Twenty
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The five dragons spread out, fifty-feet of open air between them, and descended. The horizon loomed, which intimidated, but not as much as the undulatin’ ground. One moment we were a hundred feet above the forest, the next the dragons skimmed the tops of the trees. Iza’s increased wing movement, the up and down motion, sickened me. I slumped against her soft hide, learnin’ quickly never to close my eyes—havin’ to spit vomit.
The miles slipped by quickly. The dragons took turns vainly trumpetin’ for Lucas. When we find the young human, I’m certain it would be through silent calls, but my and Iza’s attempts to connect with the human continued to fail.
The sun rested a hand-width above the horizon as we reached the cleft in the Earth called the Spine. The dragons arched in a long turn east. Completin’ the maneuver, I sighted three more blots in the sky. In ten minutes I made out the shapes of the dragons, but the dragon clan was talkin’ long before.
The three newcomers flew without riders. I felt slighted there was no kind of greetin’ I was privy to, no introduction. Their conversation continued, dulled, outside of my mental comprehension. As the minutes stretched, the mental words and images softened and disappeared completely. They had learned to block me, but I could still frequently get a gist of the emotion, like when I realized they worried about the slip of a moon they would have that evenin’.
The three newcomers would fly on to the peaks. The old queen, Iza’s dam, would not fly without the sun. Iza’s sire and sibling, Kyn, would stay with the elder queen. The two-legged atop the others couldn’t take the cold there, so we’d find a ridge to land in the lower elevations, allow us to huddle around a fire.
“Iza?”
She ignored me for several minutes. I continued to press her.
“Ya’re annoyin’ me, ogre.”
“Then why did ya bring me?”
“Obviously should not.”
I had to smile. I suggested what thrummed in my mind.
“I don’t care to battle the arrows of a goblin clan.”
“Then circle around them until they can see ya mean no harm.”
She remained quiet again for several minutes, probably discussin’ the suggestion with the others. I dismissed that thought quickly. Iza does what Iza wants to do. She’d neither debate nor confer with anyone. Except maybe Lucas.
“If one arrow sails at me I’ll drop ya to them. Ya’ll not make much a meal for a clan of goblins, but better than me havin’ to put up with ya.” So charmin’.
I hoped she’s as full of bluff as Ike. Maybe that’s why she speaks so discourteously about him. They’re too alike. Iza probably holds hidden appreciation for the young ogre. Don’t know why I thought that. Certainly hadn’t seen any evidence of it.
Fifteen minutes later the three dragons separated and headed for the higher Spine peaks. The other five turned due-south, directly for the far saddle Taiz’lin and Iza directed us to four days earlier. I pulled my jacket as closely to my throat as I could and hunkered down, appreciatin’ the warmth where I touched the dragon’s hide.
Would the blasted goblins shoot at us givin’ Iza an excuse to do somethin’ very unpleasant? My staff hummed. Didn’t know if that’s a good sign or bad. Was there some pre-sight? The staff is better at warnin’ me of bad thin’s than good.
I tried to busy my mind with possible names for my inanimate companion. She deserves a name of her own. Has heart, often shows soul. No name I had ever heard made sense for a majical thin’. Names personify. Was it right to personify the staff? I wished to honor her, acknowledge her sentience. Make her more a friend, than tool. Odd, that I had never thought to name her, despite the weeks I lovin’ly spent carvin’ her. More weeks polishin’ her, every night before my fire.
A third of the sun hid beyond the horizon when we reached the goblin camp. The four dragons circled high as Iza soared nearer the two peaks, her wing tip twenty feet from the tree tops at times. I could make out the goblin faces half-hidden behind bows bent ready to be let loose. I raised my hand in the air. There was nothin’ more I could do to look non-threatening.
Gratefully no arrow found its way for us. After the fourth circle, Iza thrust hard to drop between the short scrub scattered across the mountain saddle. Goblins rushed forward, arrows at the ready. Anxious before, fear drilled through my gut. I prepared emotionally for death, but the bows lowered.
“Ya didn’t tell me ya could speak to them.”
“Ya never asked me, ya simple-minded ogre.”
The bent clan leader approached and bows rose protectively again. Iza spoke in their tongue for a moment, and the bows sank back down. Though she’d gone out of her way to be mostly rude to me thus far, Iza mentally repeated in Standish much of what she told the goblins.
The clan leader’s hands stopped fidgetin’ in front of him when Iza explained his two clanmen safely made it to the northern Hamlet.
“They are good sons,” Iza interpreted.
She explained we searched for a human who accompanied the ogre that met with them. “Have ya seen him?”
The white-haired goblin shifted his weight uncomfortably. Not a good sign.
“I will kill every one of them if they harmed Lucas,” she told me privately.
I massaged her shoulder, doubtin’ it would settle her much.
The goblin waved a younger clanman forward. He stood stiffly, but his eyes didn’t move from Iza’s face. “If we had been better hunters,” the goblin admitted. “The man would have been buried three days ago. He shouldn’t have been skulkin’ about our camp. We took it as a threat, as any clan would have. He put arrows in the shoulder and thigh of two of my best bowmen.
“If I ever meet yar human, I will challenge him to a—” Iza couldn’t translate the word.
“He was trained by the best marksman alive,” Iza said. “If he intended to kill, yar hunters would be dead.”
Who might Iza have meant—the best marksman? I looked up, thought of the massive, but elegant bow Ike carries. Could she mean—
“In these mountains,” Iza continued, “I will consider any attack on any of the two-legged who reside here an affront. My clan will deal with ya accordin’ly.”
The chin of the clan leader tilted upward, a bit of fire lit his eyes. His clanmen looked uncomfortably among their peers. The sudden silence sent a shiver up my back. Couldn’t be wise to try to outstare a dragon. Iza could reach out and snap a dozen of the goblins in two before any of them reacted.
Please soften yar posture to her.
A moment later the clan leader did. He pointed to the west in an archin’ motion, south with his other arm as the sun disappeared below the horizon. Iza didn’t interpret for me what the goblin said.
“We will camp here next to ya tonight.”
The goblin’s eyes got big, and he glanced into the darkenin’ sky at the other circlin’ dragons. A moment later he gave Iza a brief bow and walked away, his clanmen fadin’ back with him.
“See. That went well.”
“Get off me, ogre, or I’ll snap ya in two.”
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