“Your spears?” My voice was a squeak.
“It appears that way,” Shardas said quietly.
“I challenge you, Shardas,” Darrym shouted again.
Murmurs and cries were coming now from the dragons within the temple, and the humans as well. They stared at Shardas, some fearful, some angry, but others with hope or approval. He nodded to them all.
“Darrym has challenged me,” Shardas announced. “I go to face him. Let there be witnesses. ”
Every dragon in the temple scrambled about, gathering up humans and then rushing to the entry. There was very nearly a collision, and Darrym had to dive out of the way before he was stampeded by his own people. Then Velika called two of our friends back.
“Leontes, Niva, guard the eggs,” she ordered. “I will accompany my mate. ”
“And so will we,” I said.
Taking Luka’s hand, I mounted Velika without asking permission or waiting for an invitation. Hagen was right on our heels, and I thought about convincing him to stay behind, but if I was old enough to see such things, so was he, and I knew that it would be maddening to be trapped inside, listening and waiting for the outcome.
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We were the last ones out of the temple, and Darrym was waiting. He stood in a large ring formed by the dragons on a relatively flat area of cooled lava. In his foreclaws he held the spears that Shardas had made so long ago. Or so it seemed, after all we had been through.
“You have the advantage of size,” Darrym said. “I thought I would even things out. ”
“If you must,” Shardas said calmly.
Vannyn came forward. “Darrym, I beg of you, do not do this. ”
“You cannot stop a challenge for the kingship,” Darrym screeched.
“But remember,” Velika said coldly, before Vannyn could answer, “remember that the queen must also accept the winner. And I find it hard to imagine a scenario where I would accept you. ” Then she leaned closer, and almost whispered to Darrym, though still loudly enough for most of the gathered dragons to hear. “And if you kill the father of my children before they are even hatched, I promise you will pay. ” She sat back, and we scrambled to arrange ourselves on her shoulders where we could see everything.
Vannyn looked about to object again, but Shardas caught his eye. The gold dragon shook his head emphatically.
“It was his decision,” Shardas said. “The challenge has been set, and he must fight or die. ”
“I will win!”
Letting out a roar, Darrym lifted one of the spears and threw it at Shardas’s breast.
Shardas lunged to the side, and then batted at the spear with his tail before it could strike the watchers behind him. He picked it up in his own foreclaws, and moved aside again as Darrym threw another. This one nearly got Shardas’s head, but he ducked just in time. It clattered against the ridges of his spine and slid down his back. I saw that where it had struck it had pierced between two scales, but Shardas appeared not to notice and there was only the faintest streak of blood.
Now Shardas, tired of waiting for Darrym to throw his own spears against him, leaped into action. Holding the spear he had captured in one foreclaw, he attacked Darrym, stabbing at the other dragon and lashing him with his tail. He shot a jet of flame at Darrym, and all the watchers sensibly moved back several more dragon-lengths.
Darrym countered with his own fire, and with another spear that went wide as Shardas used his wings to carry himself to one side. Then Shardas moved forward in a rush, flaming as he went, and the fire caught Darrym’s face and neck along one side.
Screaming with rage and now blinded in one eye, Darrym still had a spear in each foreclaw, which he used to stab wildly at Shardas. A lucky hit caught in the thick plates that covered Shardas’s breast, and the dragon king gave a roar of pain. He tried to pull the spear free but it snapped off near one end, and the sharp point was still stuck fast in his chest as Shardas hurled the rest of the glass spear back at Darrym, hitting him hard just behind one shoulder. Where the scales hinged there, the spear sank deep, and Darrym fell.
“Do you submit to me?” Shardas’s breathing was ragged, but his voice was calm.
“Never,” Darrym hissed, and he threw his last spear.
Shardas deflected it easily, and then cast aside his own remaining weapon. I gave a little gasp, but Vannyn sent me a reassuring look. Shardas was moving close to Darrym, one foreclaw held up with the claws fully extended. There was something ritualistic in his movements, and I realized that this was likely the final blow, the one that would end Darrym’s life.
Then suddenly Darrym’s tail swept around, knocking Shardas off his feet. His wings extended as he tried to regain his balance, which gave Darrym the time he needed to get up again. He flew into the air, listing drunkenly to one side because of his wounded shoulder, and flamed at Shardas as he went.
The fire caught the gold dragon’s wings, which had been so badly burned two years ago, and Shardas screamed in pain. But he followed Darrym into the air, and they began to fight as dragons have since the beginning of the world: with four sets of claws, with tails and fire and teeth, spinning and tumbling through the air.
I could barely stand to watch, but forced myself to, knowing that I couldn’t truly bear to miss a single blow. It didn’t take long for the duel to end, though. Both dragons were injured, but Shardas had the advantage of years and experience, besides the more obvious superiority of size.
As Shardas’s golden claws raked Darrym’s throat, the small, brown dragon gave one last gurgling scream. He fell to the lava field with a thud, narrowly missing a group of humans who had scrambled out of the way at the last minute. Shardas soared down afterward, landing beside us.
He had several rents in his wings, a burn or two, and the point of a glass spear in his breast, but seemed steady enough on his feet. He looked around at the assembled dragons and humans gravely.
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“Would anyone else care to challenge me?”
Mutters and head shakes.
“Would anyone else care to cast doubt upon the lineage of their queen?”
Mutters and head shakes, and even some loud declarations of “No!” and “Hail our queen!”
“We will prepare to move to the Far Isles tomorrow,” Shardas said. He spread his gold wings with a snap, and flew back into the temple.
“Now hold still,” I said to Shardas after he had gotten settled beside his eggs and his queen, and Niva and Leontes had been told what had happened. “And try not to burn me to ash, please. ”
“What do you mean?”
Without answering, I put one foot on Shardas’s chest; Luka put his hands on my hips to brace me, and I grabbed hold of the end of the spear that stuck out of his breastplate. With a yank I pulled it free, and Shardas let out a roar that shook some rock dust down from the upper ledges.
“That will teach you to engage in duels like a hatchling. ” Velika sniffed as Leontes rushed to pack an herb-infused moss into the wound.
“I suppose it will,” Shardas said between gritted teeth.
Where There Is Green
But we could not leave without Amacarin, and he and Ullalal were investigating the south until late the next day. When they returned I saw that they had good news, for Ullalal’s eyes were sparkling and Amacarin looked very pleased with himself.
“There is a ravine, a rift that divides this continent,” he reported. “The lava did not cross it, nor did the fire. ”
“And the other side is green?” Velika looked up from busily packing her eggs back in the net. She caught me fingering the silk that bound one of the joins, and gave me a sympathetic look.
“Greener than the forest before the eruption,” he confirmed. “And there are people there. People who do not belong to any dragons. ”
“Runaways,” came the disdainful reply of my former master Rannym from where
he stood near Mannyl’s husk. “Those who refused to serve us. ”
“You mean, those who were too smart to let themselves be enslaved by you,” I snapped, not caring that he couldn’t understand me. Then I blushed, for I had come to think very highly of Ullalal.
“But,” Luka said, raising a cautionary hand, “what if these people don’t want to accept a flood of immigrants?” As a prince he knew a great deal about such matters.
“On the contrary,” Amacarin said. “That is what delayed us. First we had to make them understand that I was not there to enslave them. ” He huffed at the very idea. “Then we asked if there was room for more humans in their lands. ” He preened. “It was difficult: they do not speak our language, but I recognized their tongue as a form of Tonlulat and was eventually able to make myself understood. Once we got over that difficulty, they were quite willing to accept the refugees. ”
“Tonlulat?” Luka looked mystified, and I was secretly glad that for once I wasn’t the only one whose knowledge was lacking.
“There is some delightful poetry in that language,” Amacarin said. “I have a fine collection of it. I had no idea it originated in such a place. ”
“Tonlulat. ” Smiling, Ullalal turned the word over in her mouth, her voice soft and almost musical.
“Yes,” Amacarin told her, head bobbing, before he turned back to Velika. “Once I recognized it, I began to understand this woman better as well. I think they are Tonlulan, or used to be. ”
“Then you should stay here, with your own people,” Velika said to Ullalal. She raised her head, and announced to the temple at large: “The humans of this land should stay, and learn to live as they once did, free of dragon servitude. ”
Immediately several dragons began to protest. I suspected they had meekly agreed to travel to the Far Isles only because they would still have their villages with them, and hoped to reestablish themselves as masters over the humans in some out-of-the-way place where Velika and Shardas would not notice.
It was interesting to see, as well, that no humans protested this. Many of them looked nervous, but mostly they seemed excited, whispering among themselves and hugging their children, as though already imagining their young ones growing up free.
“For this reason,” Shardas said, indicating the protests, “we will not take any humans with us to the Far Isles. ” I jabbed him with my elbow. “Saving those three who came with us,” he amended. “If you are to put aside this abominable slavery of the humans, then you must have all temptation removed. ”
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“I agree with my consort,” Velika announced. “The Tonlulan people should feel free to remain here, in their ancestral lands. After the funeral for your elder, we shall take the humans south. ”
“Tomorrow,” Amacarin said to Ullalal and her daughters, “you will have a new home. ”
She patted him on the foreleg in a way that was both bold and fond. Luka and I shared a look, and then laughed at the expression of surprise on Shardas’s face.
It was Velika who voiced my thoughts: “Having a mate has been most improving for Amacarin. ”
The Lost Ones
Not knowing what to expect, we landed to the south of the village that Amacarin and Ullalal had found the day before. Well, Amacarin called it a village, but really it was the same size as Carlieff Town, if not larger. Few of the buildings were taller than two stories, but they were of stone with clay-tile roofs, and the streets were paved with flat, black rocks that were undoubtedly of a volcanic origin.
We startled some strange, long-necked, shaggy creatures that had been grazing in the field, and I swear that one of them spit at Feniul. Hagen slipped off Leontes’s neck and started to follow the creatures into the little copse of trees they had taken shelter in, fascinated, but I called him back.
“They spit,” I said. “They probably bite as well. ”
“They are ill-tempered things,” Amacarin agreed. “But I saw someone riding one yesterday. It did not look like a smooth-gaited beast, though. ”
Now there was even more longing in Hagen’s face.
Luka started laughing. “I shall buy you one when you finish your apprenticeship,” he told my brother. “It can be your mastery-gift. A hairy, spitting cow- horse. ”
“Unayama,” Ullalal’s oldest daughter said to me. She pointed at the things. “Unayama. ”
Vannyn nodded. “Yes, I believe that is what they are called. They are very tough meat, so our ancestors got rid of the ones living on our side of the country. A shame, really. They have such soft fur. ”
Our attention was caught by a large group of people streaming out of the town toward us. At their head was a sort of open carriage, draped with fur rugs, and pulled by two proud unayamas. More people followed, some on foot, some riding unayamas. The people wore brightly colored cloths draped about their hips and sometimes over their chests, but their main covering seemed to be jewelry. Their necklaces were fine, though: gold beads, and red and blue and purple stones. They were a splendid people, rich and proud, and I worried anew for Ullalal and her friends.
But I needn’t have.
When they reached the pasture, the townspeople began to run. With outstretched arms festooned with bracelets, they embraced any human they came upon. There were many tears, and they cried out in a loud singsong, the same words over and over.
At a nudge from Shardas, Amacarin translated.
“They are welcoming the ‘lost ones,’ ” he said, clearly also surprised by the warmth of this welcome. Now many of the townspeople were taking off their own jewelry and putting it on the people with us. I was relieved to see that the dragon-people, as I had come to think of them, also seemed moved, and they handed back their own lesser adornments with tears and kisses.
At last the woman who had ridden in the back of the carriage came forward. She had necklaces so thick across her chest that I wondered how she could stand straight, and there were feathers braided in her graying hair. She called out in an imperious voice, and Amacarin answered, which made her frown. All of the townspeople were studiously ignoring the dragons, and it clearly displeased her to speak to one.
Ullalal also came forward, and with Amacarin’s help spoke to the woman, most certainly the ruler of this place. It was some time before Amacarin had a chance to translate for our benefit, but when he did the gist of it was this:
The magnificent woman was indeed their queen for, like dragons, they were a people ruled by their queens. This was not the largest of her cities, but she had traveled all night so that she might be there to welcome back the lost ones when they arrived. Her people had mourned those enslaved by the dragons for many generations, but knew they had no way to defeat their cousins’ captors. It pleased them greatly to see the dragon-people freed, and they would find homes for all of them. In return they asked that no dragon ever again cross the ravine that divided the land.
Velika, through Amacarin, explained that the volcano had destroyed the lands of the dragons, and that she was now taking them away. She promised, one queen to another, that dragons would not again trouble the humans of this land, and this seemed to satisfy the feather-bedecked ruler.
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Evening was coming, and we had barely eaten in days. Amid cries of excitement in their singsong language, the people brought tables and a feast was spread before us. Sides of beef and fruits and vegetables in huge bushel baskets were provided for the dragons, and there was music and dancing.
Luka and I joined the dancing, though we didn’t know the steps. I nearly knocked over a small woman wearing nothing but a red skirt and a necklace of gold beads. She smiled good-naturedly, and soon Luka was dancing with her and I was dancing with a man who was either her husband or her brother.
As dawn touched the tops of the mountains, furs were laid out and we settled down to sleep, not waking until it was nearly noon and the sun could not be ignor
ed any longer. More food was being brought from the town, and Shardas ordered us to eat quickly; he wanted to leave as soon as we were satisfied.
It was time for the dragons to return home.
There were some tears from humans who had been fond of their dragon-masters. I noticed that Ullalal shed none, but her youngest daughter was caught trying to climb into a basket slung over Rannym’s shoulder. In the end the girl was hauled off, weeping, by her sisters. Ullalal herself came forward and thanked Shardas and Velika, bid a fond farewell to Amacarin, and then came to me.
“Thank you,” she said through Amacarin. She gave me a necklace of bone beads and then rejoined her daughters.
Finally Velika took to the air and coolly said that any dragon who did not follow her immediately would be punished. She turned and flew north without looking back. Niva, Leontes, Roginet, Amacarin, Feniul, and Shardas all waited to make sure that the queen’s orders were followed. At last they, too, took to the air, with Luka and me aboard Shardas and Hagen on Leontes, and headed over the ravine and across the fields of cooling lava, toward the distant Far Isles.
Home
The reception for the lost ones had been warm, but it was nothing compared to what occurred when we at last reached the Far Isles.
Those dragons who had been left behind were flying patrol, watching for us, and when we arrived there was much roaring and flaming, with one of the sentries streaking back to the shore to take the news to the others. Mates, hatchlings, and friends rushed to meet us.
Gala crashed right into Amacarin, bringing him down into the surf with her in a most undignified tangle. Ria, Feniul’s mate, twined her neck with his in midair, and they landed clumsily on the sand beside their children, who were screaming with shrill delight and doing their best to flame a greeting for their father.
Seeing the net of eggs slung beneath her, an honor guard formed about Velika, guiding her back to the portion of the shore that was her and Shardas’s special place. Solicitous females helped Velika out of the harness and nestled the eggs into the sand. They wanted to take them immediately back to Velika and Shardas’s cave, but both of the royal pair objected.
“Let them rest in the sun,” Velika said. “They have been kept below the earth too much. ” She shuddered.
“Who are these strangers?” Gala had released Amacarin, who was now being swarmed by more dragonlets than I could count.