Dragon Mage

  "Do you ever leave this cave?" Shilo had meant to press the dragon on the matter of teaching her about magic and pursuing demons, but the question came out. "You're . . . huge. How could you leave this place and someone not see you?"

  ''Some nights I leave. To hunt and fly."

  Shilo noticed the dragon lacked wings. But she supposed its magic let it fly.

  "Though rarely do I leave, else I would risk discovery and bring about my doom faster than the years bring it upon me. My magic cloaks me, and it well hides the entrance to my cave. But there are those who can see through the enchantment."

  "Like me? I found my way here."

  Ulbanu tapped a claw against the cave floor in what seemed an impatient gesture.

  "Back to the demons, huh? And saving dragonkind and perhaps mankind." She settled herself on the cave floor, not minding if this robe got damp. She had the two she'd traded for in the village, and she intended to put one of those on after she discovered a way to take a bath. Shilo looked at the dragon— there had to be water deeper in the cave; a creature of such size would need a water source. There was at least another chamber beyond this; she could see a wide, black slash in the rocks that was the opening. Maybe there was some water there, and she could wash herself.

  "Bad enough that you were gone so long to the village, Shilo. Can you not grasp the importance and urgency in this?"

  Shilo quickly told the dragon about seeing the guards and waiting until they left before going into the village.

  "The rich man," the dragon began, "he wants you badly, Shilo.

  Perhaps he has discerned that you threaten him. He will send more than guards soon."

  Shilo sucked in a breath. "I've threatened no one!"

  "But you will, child, him in particular, if you are to—"

  "—save dragonkind—"

  "—and perhaps mankind."

  Shilo let out a great sigh. "Please tell me what this is all about."

  The dragon's expression changed, and were the face human, Shilo would have called it sad. The huge eyes darkened, and the light that emanated from its hide dimmed.

  "I said I leave my cave, though rarely." The dragon shifted so that its head was directly across from Shilo. It set its jaw against the cave floor, sending ripples in a pool of saliva.

  "I sensed a herd of wild camels to the north, and so I flew to hunt. I require little food, Shilo, magic largely sustains me. But from time to time a hunger comes, and so I went after the camels."

  Shilo patiently listened, curious how camels were going to tie into Babylon and demons and her needing to save dragons and men.

  "I feasted, leaving not a drop of hlood or a piece of fur behind to mark my passage. I gorged myself on their sweet meat. They were easy prey, locked to the ground in their terror of me."

  Shilo wrinkled her nose, picturing Ulbanu swooping down on the camels and swallowing them right and left.

  "Drunk in my fullness, I took to the sky and soared, staying too long away from my lair."

  Shilo rested back on her hands. This had nothing to do with demons and the rich man in Babylon, and were Ulbanu not a frighteningly huge dragon, she would have voiced her boredom at the tale.

  "When I returned to this cave, my eggs were gone."

  Shilo's eyes snapped wide. "Eggs?" Ulbanu was a she.

  "Four perfect eggs, Shilo." The dragon's visage registered more than sadness, Shilo realized; it was etched with despair and utter loss. "There are few dragons in the world in this time, and none in yours unless you aid me. Men have hunted us to near-extinction, and perhaps rightly so. Many of my brethren were filled with darkness and preyed upon men and other creatures. They brought about their own demise, as the men banded together and changed the tide of the hunt. But my eggs, they hold a promise of a future."

  Ulbanu paused and closed her eyes, opening them and seeing past Shilo to another time.

  "Not all of my brethren were cruel and so voracious, yet most of the men could not distinguish us, and so pursued us all. We few who are left live in remote places. I thought only a scattering of men knew I laired here. I thought myself safe. And I thought my offspring would flourish."

  "The sage," Shilo whispered. "The one who had the puzzle. He knew you lived here."

  "Yes, the sage was one. But there must have been others I was unaware of. When I feasted on the camels—a trap that was well planned for me—I left my eggs vulnerable. And I paid the highest price for my foolishness."

  "Why would anyone want your eggs?" The moment after Shilo asked the question, she realized the answer. To tame a dragon—dragons—to have them under your control, would make you powerful. Like a man in modern times having possession of a nuclear bomb. "So you need me to find your eggs, right?"

  "Not find them. I know where they are, Shilo."

  Shilo sputtered and shook her head in disbelief. "Then why do you need me? Why is my magic required? Never mind that I don't understand what my magic is and what I can do with it. If you know where your eggs are, why not just swoop right in and take them? Swallow the men who stole them and ..."

  The dragon's growl was low and sent a soft tremor through the floor. "The common citizens of Babylon, even the great King Nebuchadnezzar, do not know I exist. My image is on their gate, but so too are the images of lions and bulls and suns. 1 cannot risk showing myself. In doing so I would risk my life, my eggs, and the lives of other dragons who lair elsewhere."

  "Because everyone would know for certain that dragons exist." Shilo scratched her head. "But wont they know dragons exist anyway if your eggs hatch and someone controls your offspring?"

  "Not if you are successful, Child of Sigurd."

  This time Shilo did not tell the dragon that she hated that title.

  "So I'm supposed to use my magic to rescue your eggs." She stuck out her lower lip and exhaled, her breath cool against her sweat-dotted face. Shilo pushed back her hood, wriggled out of the robe, and sat on it. The heat was only a little more bearable in her shorts and tank top. "I don't even know how to use my magic, beyond finding your cave and finding my way to ancient Babylon."

  "I will teach you a little, Child of Sigurd, just enough, as our time is short. You must discover the extent of your magic on your own. My eggs will hatch before ten days pass. You must be successful. "

  "I realize that." Shilo was angry with herself for tarrying in the village—she should have left as soon as she'd made her trade for the clothes, shouldn't have gone there to begin with. But without the clothes, she'd be easily recognized in Babylon, and perhaps easily caught. "I have to find your eggs and bring them back here." She pursed her lips. "I understand how important this is to you and to dragonkind. But how is this going to save mankind?" There, she'd asked it—what's in it for her?

  "The m,en who have my eggs will use them for ill, Shilo. Look." Ulbana scratched her talon across the stone floor, making a deep groove that shimmered in the pale light cast by the dragon.

  The shimmering spread to the rest of the stone, and within heartbeats the floor resembled a frozen-over lake. Shilo had not personally seen one, but her father had pictures of Wisconsin lakes in the winter in an old album. She wished it felt cold like ice, but it felt no different than the stone that had been there moments before. The surface sparkled and became as clear as glass, and then an image formed in the space between her and the dragon.

  "That's Babylon?" Shilo gasped.

  Shilo recognized part of it, from her tour with Nidintulugal. The view the dragon presented in the magical vision was top-down, like she was a bird hovering over the city and trying to take it all in.

  The Hanging Gardens seemed larger and more amazing than when she'd walked by them. She stared—they were larger. There were more tiers, stretching up and up like a skyscraper, and the shades of green were amazing. She saw trees from distant parts of the world—birch trees that she knew weren't found anywhere near Mesopotamia or Iraq, massive weeping willows laced with kudzu, cypress trees found in swampy lands,
pinyon pines, and more.

  "How did they?" She let the question hang as she continued to ogle the city. Three waterfalls graced the gardens, in addition to the water conveyor that siphoned from the Euphrates to keep this place verdant. Colorful parrots flitted here and there, macaws from South America, toucans, and African grays. Spider monkeys scampered in the branches, and she had a hard time pulling her eyes away from it. "It's like Busch Gardens in Florida, but better."

  She looked to the Processional Way, which was longer and wider, the walls and buildings rising on either side of it more spectacular than before. More images of dragons, lions, and bulls were displayed, some carved, some molded and glazed. The Ishtar Gate was still there, but there were three more gates beyond it, each taller and more impressive than the one before.

  "When is this?" Shilo continued to study the gates, and the palace that was easily three times the size as before. The temples were still there, and she located the Temple of Shamash by the river. It was no longer in the southern part of the city— Babylon had expanded that much. Now the temple sat roughly in the middle.

  ''Not quite one hundred years from now," Ulbanu answered.

  "A long time," Shilo said. But not so long considering how much the city had grown. She couldn't spot the poor quarters she'd traipsed through. All the buildings were shiny and fine, and all had doors and wide windows, many of glass. The roofs were glazed tiles, some with decorations on them. It was all so incredibly beautiful. How could this he a had thing? she wondered. How could this upset the dragon?

  The image shifted to the south, so all she could see was the outer wall now, ten feet thick and patrolled by guards with bows and spears. The land beyond looked blasted, as if bombs had been dropped on it.

  Scrub grass grew here and there, near the banks of the Euphrates. Once more she remembered her father reading the Bible, and that the "great river Euphrates" had been mentioned in connection with apocryphal events. One such event had certainly happened in those hundred years.

  "Show me more, Ulbanu."

  The image shifted farther south, and Shilo saw the remains of village after village, all looking like they'd been bombed. Everything was in ruins. Farther south she saw small clusters of people, living in tents and keeping camels and sheep, but the people and animals looked emaciated and hopeless. The image turned to the north now, finding the land parched where once irrigated fields had thrived. The village Shilo had traded with was gone, only scattered bricks and chunks of tile hinted that something had been there. The hills beyond, where Ulbanu laired, had been flattened, as if some great earthquake had leveled everything.

  "Was there an earthquake, Ulbanu?" Shilo hoped something natural and beyond anyone's ability to prevent had been responsible. "Or was it your offspring?"

  "Neither," Ulbanu rasped. The word was audible this time and sent a tremor through the floor.

  Farther north and to the east was another city, where Shilo guessed Baghdad would sit in modern-day Iraq. It looked like a miniature version of Babylon, and there were similar images of lions, bulls, and the Ishtar dragon on walls and towers. Again the land around the city looked bleak and blasted, and farther out were the ruins of more villages. The only crops she'd seen were within the walled cities.

  "Beautiful and horrible at the same time," Shilo said. "How did this happen?"

  The dragon tapped a claw and the image quavered, like a camera going out of focus and coming back in. This time it was night, or perhaps Shilo looked into some dark cavern or cellar. Tiny red flames flickered, but they didn't produce enough light to reveal anything of the surroundings. The flames were set in pairs, and as Shilo stared, she saw twisted faces, some with scales and bulging lips, some with no lips, all of it too shadowy to make out many details.

  "They're not lights," she said after a moment. "They're eyes." The red flames flickering were eyes blinking. "Demons."

  "Yes, those are demons." The voice came from behind Shilo. Standing a few feet back, sweat-soaked and trembling, was Nidintulugal.

  16 Babylon Badly Reborn

  THE RED EYES AND SHADOWY SHAPES BECAME A SWIRLING MASS of dark fire that spread like a surging wave across the land, moving so frenetically that Shilo and Nidintulugal could not see the actual forms of the demons. They could tell that the malicious creatures devoured everything in their path— buildings, pens, animals, trees, and people.

  Shilo stared as the swarm circled a well in a prosperous village, the stones of it withered to dust and the water boiled up and turned to steam that scalded birds that had been flying overhead.

  The swarm of demons seemed to be selective, passing by some villages and nomadic bands and leveling others into ruins. There was not enough left of the victims to bury.

  "There are always a few survivors so they can relate the horrible tale," Ulbanu supplied.

  The dragon continued to speak aloud, the power of her voice sending stone dust down from the ceiling.

  "Others need to be told of the terror so others could be afraid. Fear makes it easier to conquer people."

  The swath of red came to a sizable city, which Nidintulugal said was southeast of Babylon. "It is a place King Nebuchadnezzar hopes to take under his influence. For years they have resisted the king's attempts."

  Red flowed up the city walls, which melted beneath the highly corrosive demons. Sound came with the image, a chit-tering, hissing, cackling cacophony that caused both the people in the city under siege and Nidintulugal and Shilo in the cave to cover their ears. Man upon man fell to the swarm, and no woman or child was spared. Then the demon hoard melted into the ground, turning the earth blood-red and sending the city into ruins. The chittering subsided, replaced by the moans of the dying.

  Clouds raced across the sky, and the sun rose and set in rapid succession indicating the passage of time. A city grew up in place of the devastated one, this looking like another miniature Babylon. It was swiftly populated with hundreds who migrated there.

  "Loyal to the King of Babylon," Nidintulugal guessed. "Loyal because they fear his demon army. Fear makes the conquering easy."

  "I thought demons were all made-up," Shilo said. "The stuff of Stephen King stories and bad horror movies."

  "At least as real as dragons," Ulbanu said. "More powerful than dragons because of their numbers and their intent."

  "Are they in my time, the demons?" Shilo didn't want to think about such a hoard sweeping across the face of Wisconsin.

  The dragon scratched a talon on the cave floor. "Hidden, like dragons are now. But far less in their numbers and strength if you are successful, Shilo. Never to be wholly destroyed, but they can be crippled."

  So she could save dragonkind and perhaps mankind by saving Ulbanu's eggs.

  "But what do your eggs have to do with all of these demons? I see demons ruining cities and killing people. I don't see a single dragon or any of your eggs. Your eggs don't hatch into demons, do they?"

  "No." The dragon let out a great sigh that gusted across the cavern and evaporated the sweat off Shilo. "My magic is not absolute, Shilo. I only know that my offspring will play a role in the coming catastrophe. And I know that only you have a chance to stop it. Only you, Child of Sigurd. My magic has divined that in all of the world, in all of the times, you are the one."

  Shilo stood and shook out her arms, still keeping her gaze on the image of the reborn city. "I'm fifteen years old."

  "And I am nearly fifteen hundred."

  The dragon's age did not surprise Shilo.

  "Look, I understand that you don't want to swoop down on Babylon, reveal yourself and thereby let the world know dragons still exist. But I would think you'd risk all of that to stop all of this." She stabbed a finger at the image. The scene had shifted once more, showing demons sweeping at the front of an army, heading to the east.

  The chittering resumed.

  The dragon sighed again, the force of the breath nearly knocking Shilo over. "I would risk all of that, Shilo, and more if I knew I would be suc
cessful. But I have divined the fate of a direct approach by me as a failure. The world will know of dragons, my eggs will be lost, and the demons will still be loosed. I would accomplish nothing good."

  Nidintulugal stepped up to Shilo's side. He quivered, though not as pronounced as a few minutes earlier. He swallowed hard and looked up to stare into one of the dragon's eyes. "How can this one girl succeed when a creature as powerful as yourself is destined to fail?" He shook his head to emphasize his disbelief. "This makes no sense to me."

  The cave floor trembled when the dragon growled. More stone dust filtered down, and a crack appeared at Nidintulugal's feet.

  "Because she is magic," the dragon said. "Powerful, even though she does not realize to what extent. And above all of that, she is small."

  "Small?" Shilo raised her head from the image. "What's small got to do with it?"

  "My eggs are beneath the earth, Shilo, hidden from me and from men, in a horrid warren twisted by the foulest of men. Beneath Babylon. They are below a place beautiful and green."

  "Tunnels below the Hanging Gardens?"

  "I do not know what men call the place. But my divinations show it to be the greenest land in all of Babylon. The tunnels below, though, are dark and hidden from my magical prying. Narrow and—"

  "You're saying that you're too big to go get the eggs?"

  "Shilo, do not ask why I cannot dig for them."

  Shilo was going to ask just that. "Because in doing that, you'd probably collapse something and break your eggs."

  "Yes."

  "Dragon eggs are fragile, huh?"

  "All life is fragile," the dragon returned.

  Shilo sagged against Nidintulugal. "So I need to sneak into Babylon, which I can do because I have new clothes, find my way beneath the city, retrieve the eggs, and bring them back here?"

  "Yes."

  "Oh, that'll be a piece of cake."

  The dragon gave her a quizzical look.

  "How heavy is one of these eggs?"