Embrace the Fire Page 32

  Kinna grinned, guiding Chennuh toward the castle, cutting to the northern flanks, scanning the ground and the skies, keeping Chennuh to the outside of everything. On Chennuh's right, Luasa hovered, and farther behind, Ashleen followed with Ember.

  “There!” Kinna yelled. Chennuh, sensing her lead, dove toward a large lake that spread on the northern side of the castle. From it, a waterway snaked south toward the castle and then disappeared underground—the castle-city's main water supply.

  Around the lake, boulders piled high, creating rocky cliffs that arched over the lake's blue. The main part of Sebastian's force had gathered southwest of the lake. Kinna headed Chennuh directly for the lake's northernmost tip.

  The Dragon landed on the cliffs, his talons scrabbling along the stony crevices, seeking footholds. Luasa and Ember found ledges just above Chennuh where they perched, their wings beating to maintain their balance.

  Ashleen immediately slid off Ember and stood, shading her eyes as she stared at the castle and then at the western slopes. “Not long now,” she called to Kinna.

  “Aye, but we need to find better shelter. If it's to be tonight, either Erlane's forces or Sebastian's will see us waiting long before darkness closes in, and we'll call attention to Iolar's Clansmen.”

  “What about there?” Ashleen pointed.

  Where the lake drained into a river—which then cut through a gorge, nearly out of sight, until it fell in a spraying waterfall near the castle—a series of deep crevices and overarching trees offered many possibilities for hiding and waiting.

  “Excellent.” Kinna waved, and the Dragons headed for the gorge.

  The roar of the water slammed into Kinna's ears like thunder, and when Chennuh entered the shadows of the gorge, darkness swallowed them. Kinna felt blind. She acquiesced to Chennuh's much keener sense of direction and smell, trusting him as he flew through the sharp turns and overhangs, some places so narrow that the tips of his wings nearly brushed the sides.

  When he landed in the darkness of an overhang, he folded his mirrored tail around himself, and the other Dragons scrambled into the crevice with them, ducking their heads to avoid the low rock ceiling. Kinna struggled to release herself from the feeling of being closed in, leaning toward the rushing water that sprayed across rocks, above which a narrow fissure opened to the sky above.

  “Are you all right?” Ayden asked, eyeing her with concern. “You're pale.”

  “Aye. I'm fine.” Kinna took a deep, steadying breath and inhaled past her fear. She walked to the edge of the water and leaned out again, glancing up at the green, filtered light washing down into the gorge. “One of us should climb up there, keep an eye out for Iolar.”

  “I will,” Ashleen volunteered. “If Erlane's soldiers happen upon me, I can make up a story about doing an errand for Lianna. Not that they would,” she added hastily.

  “They won't trust you anymore after your escape last night with Ayden.”

  “Aye, and they can still track me. Cedric promised, though—” She broke off. After a moment, she continued. “The castle is massive. Word may not have reached everyone of my escape yet amidst the chaos of the siege.” Ashleen shook her head. “But you're likely right. Don't worry. I know how to keep myself hidden.”

  Kinna watched as Ashleen rubbed Ember's snout and then walked to the edge of the stream. She looked up and leaped into the air, catching a vine that Kinna hadn't seen until that very moment. Hand over hand, she pulled herself up, and Ashleen's feet disappeared through the ceiling. Kinna leaned out over the water. The dark-haired girl scrambled for footholds and handholds as she crept up the sides of the gorge toward the light far overhead.

  “So,” Kinna turned toward Ayden, “now we wait.”

  He said nothing, his silver eyes assessing her gravely with some hidden feeling that Kinna was too afraid to consider. She touched Chennuh's snout and was shocked when the Dragon leaped away from her hand, opening his mouth in a cavern-shaking roar.

  “Chennuh!” Kinna gasped, but Luasa and Chennuh had already moved in front of her. Chennuh's tail swung around, thudding against her legs, and throwing her to the ground. Kinna landed on her back, and the breath left her lungs in a whoosh.

  She tried to suck in the air, but she couldn't. She knew immediately that Chennuh smelled the sickening stench of Ogres, but as yet, he hadn't seen any and neither had she. She looked around wildly for Ayden but he was nowhere in sight. All Kinna could see were mirrored tails swishing, and all she could hear were the Dragons' roars. Then she heard a shout, and Ayden vaulted over Luasa's back. “Kinna!” he shouted, and then he was there, his hand reaching for hers, sweeping her up into his embrace. He pushed her around Chennuh, who roared furiously into the gorge and the spraying water.

  “Where are they?” Kinna yelled. They'd found a ledge, and Ayden set her on it, following behind her. The ledge was narrow and slippery, and Kinna clung to the side of the rock wall as she made her way on it.

  “Behind us,” Ayden said. “Many of them!”

  Kinna snapped her head around, searching for the Ogres, but she could see nothing.

  “They're crawling up the waterfall, and there are at least thirty. They're coming this way.”

  “How?” Kinna asked. She couldn't imagine anyone climbing the waterfall, but even now, she could hear their distant grunts.

  “Faster,” Ayden breathed, and fear rushed up Kinna's spine. Ogres had fire-resistant hides; it was nearly impossible to burn them, and Dragonfire, while the hottest there was, did little against an Ogre. Luasa and Chennuh and Ember would fight with their teeth, but if there were too many, the Dragons would be in trouble as well.

  “Where are we going?” Kinna asked.

  “Farther up; we have more room.”

  “Why more room?” Kinna asked over her shoulder. “If we stay where it's narrow, they won't be able to come through as fast, and remember, your fire will do little against them, if anything at all.”

  “I know, but I want a place where you can run and run fast if anything happens to me.”

  “Ayden—”

  “Just move!” His frustration echoed in his voice. Kinna reached the end of the ledge, nearly slipping on her last step onto the dry cavern floor. Ahead, sunlight poured into the cavern where the roof ended, and Kinna headed toward it. She didn't know what lay beyond, but suddenly, she understood Nicholas Erlane's strategy against Sebastian's attack. This was not the only underground waterway; if the waterways disappeared into the castle from this lake, they also exited somewhere. Nicholas Erlane would be pouring his other forces through the waterways into the outdoor world, waiting, waiting until he surrounded Sebastian's forces before closing in. Did Sebastian know his own frontal attack was being used against him as Erlane also made use of the diversion?

  Kinna saw the brilliance and the horror of the plan all at the same time. She didn't want to see it end that way, but neither did she want to see Sebastian use his armies to crush the people of ClarenVale and overtake the rest of of Lismaria.

  What a waste. Each person that filled the ranks of both armies had loved ones, responsibilities, a life. Many were sacrificing that for a diversion. Something had to be done.

  She ran toward the opening. She heard a grunt, and turned.

  Ayden sprawled behind her, a bolt protruding from his leg.

  “Ayden!”

  He clutched his leg, his face contorted with pain. “Go, Kinna, go!” he yelled, but Kinna couldn't. Down the tunnel of the gorge, she could hear the shouts of the Ogres as they splashed up through the water. The nearest one held a crossbow, and he took aim at her.

  Kinna stood in terrified indecision, unsure whether to run or to dive. She did the latter, throwing herself down over Ayden, covering his body with as much of hers as she could. The bolt flew over her head and rebounded off the stone wall, skittering across the ground and rolling back into the rushing water.

  The Ogre stopped to reload. His fellows crowded behind him, those who had made it past Ch
ennuh, Luasa, and Ember. What if the Dragons were unable to stop the onslaught of Ogres as they piled up the stream?

  The Ogre leveled his crossbow, taking aim. Ayden rolled over, nearly crushing Kinna beneath him as he released a firestorm that billowed down the stream, driving the Ogres back momentarily. The crossbow caught flame, the bolt burning to ash in its owner's hands.

  Ayden sat up, holding one hand around the shaft in his leg. Gritting his teeth, he yanked hard. The bolt came free. Blood spurted from the wound, and Ayden pressed his hands around it. Kinna watched with wide-eyed horror as blood leaked through his fingers.

  After only seconds, the blood stopped coming. Ayden released his hands, and Kinna gaped at the skin; the hole in his breeches was there, the red stains on his hands and on his clothes and the rock below him, but the wound was gone, covered with a dry, powdery substance that he brushed away.

  He leaped to his feet, glaring angrily at her. “Kinna, don't you ever, ever use your body to protect me again!” He pulled fire into his hands and hurled it at the Ogres.

  “What was I supposed to do?” Kinna shouted back as she picked up loose stones along the walls and hurled them to help drive back the creatures. “Let you take another arrow?”

  The fire was so thick and so furious, that even though it didn't burn the Ogres, they couldn't push forward through it.

  “Yes!” Ayden yelled. “Better me than you! Don't you understand? I'm nobody. So let me protect you!”

  A roar shook the cavern, interrupting Kinna's angry retort, and Kinna glimpsed a fiery body behind them, huge and scaly as it scrambled up the river after the Ogres. Teeth ripped Ogres apart, tearing their heads from their bodies.

  And then Chennuh was there, and Luasa, and Ember as the three Dragons finished off the Ogres.

  When it was all over, Kinna sank weakly onto the stone, her legs no longer supporting her. “You said there were only thirty. It felt like two hundred.”

  The Ogres' dead bodies caught against the Dragons, who hadn't moved from the water yet.

  Chennuh, keep the bodies from washing back downstream.

  The Mirage snagged a body that threatened to float past him. Kinna hurried toward the water. “Ayden, we have to get the bodies into this cave here. If they wash back downstream, ClarenVale will know what happened—that we're here in their waterway, and they'll know that their method of attack has been discovered. We can't let that happen, not if our plan is going to work.”

  “You're right.” Ayden waded into the water to begin the grisly work, and Kinna helped him, dragging the Ogres from the water. The creatures were heavy and disgusting, their skin thick and gray, except for the blood—which was black—that smeared over their hairy naked haunches and leathery chests. Many of them were missing heads. It was the first thing the Dragons went for, and the last thing that kept the Ogres alive.

  Ayden entered the river, wading through, searching out heads, and throwing them onto the shore, black blood swinging in liquid arcs across the stones.

  Kinna fought nausea. She clamped her mouth shut and hefted the creatures by their feet until they lay in piles along the back of the cavern. When it was over, she went back to the river and vomited.

  Embarrassed and fighting tears, she sat down on the riverbank and wished Ayden had been a million fieldspans away when she'd lost control.

  But he wasn't. He was right there, coming toward her. He sat down next to her and pulled his legs up against his chest, hugging them with his arms. “One fight down,” he said at last. “There may be many more before Cedric is returned to us.” He brushed a tendril of her hair from her face and smoothed it behind her ear, trailing fire over her skin. “But you did well. That wasn't an easy battle.”

  “An understatement.” Kinna smiled tremulously. “I'm sorry you had to see ... that.” She flushed as she looked away from the river where she'd been sick.

  Ayden shrugged and didn't comment.

  “Ayden, what will you do once this is all over?”

  “This? You mean the war between Lismaria and West Ashwynd?”

  “Aye. What plans do you have?”

  Ayden didn't answer for a long time. When Kinna had finally decided that he wasn't going to, he pulled in a deep breath and spoke. “I've thought about it, but I haven't made any decisions. What are my skill sets? Dragons and fire, apparently. I suppose I've already done what I do best—serving in the King's Dragon keep, training the creatures, fighting for purses of sceptremarks. But that won't work under your rule, will it?” He glanced sideways at her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We've spoken many times about the Dimn system Sebastian has set up. It doesn't work; right now it only perpetuates cruelty. If the Dimn actually achieve psuche, it's different—it's an understanding between the creatures that is equal and just and fair and right. But when the Dimn merely beat the beasts into submission, that's not right.”

  “No, it's not,” Kinna agreed. “But you're more than a Dragon keeper, Ayden, and I think you know it.”

  “What role would you have me play, Kinna?” His voice was measured, but Kinna understood the deeper meaning that underpinned his words.

  She retreated, confused, into silence. He nodded, looking away, and again, the awkward silence fell between them that neither accepted nor rejected the other. Kinna sighed.

  “What happened here?” Ashleen's voice interrupted their silence as she dropped from the roof onto the floor two spans away. Her black eyes measured the piles of Ogres.

  Kinna motioned behind them. “Erlane's Ogres came up the tunnel. I assume they were the first squadron planning to swing around behind Sebastian's army—but it's likely more will be coming.”

  Ayden stood. “In which case, we'll either have to fight to hold our position here, or head back up the river to find another hiding place.”

  “We can't,” Ashleen said. “Sebastian is even now heading to where he is to meet Lianna. We will be seen if we come out by the lake. And Lianna is coming up the river from ClarenVale.”

  “With a contingent?” Ayden asked.

  Ashleen shook her head. “Nay. This is the one point where Lianna and her uncle do not see eye-to-eye. He has been set on Cedric as his Dragon-Master since he first heard of his arrival in Sebastian's palace. Any plans Lianna has for a prisoner exchange are done by herself, in secret.”

  Kinna brushed her hair back. It had long since come loose from its braid. “That was why she came by herself to Sebastian last night.”

  Ashleen nodded. “Most likely. At any rate, we can't move from here until nightfall without being seen. That is to say,” she added as an afterthought, “you two could go. But Ember will be spotted immediately, day or night. He can smother his flaming scales for short time spans, but I don't know if he could hold it for long.”

  “That's it, then,” Kinna said, straightening. “If we go, invisibly, near Sebastian's meeting place with Lianna, we can wait there for Ashleen, who will come at just the right time, when Cedric needs her most.”

  “Aye.” Ayden nodded. “But what to do about the forces coming up the gorge? Ember and Ashleen will be trapped. Nay, we need to stay here to ward off danger as long as we can. We'll just pray to the Stars that it's soon.”

  Kinna walked to the edge of the cave, peering up at the sun, which was now visible through the narrow opening. It had moved overhead, and she judged it to be just past the noon hour. “We still have some hours yet. As soon as dusk comes, we'll make our move. Iolar specifically overheard Sebastian promise to meet Lianna at dusk, and we don't want to risk missing our only chance.”

  Ashleen nodded her acquiescence. “I'll scout downstream with Ember. You'll hear my call if I see anything.”

  Kinna nodded, her stomach still rolling from the stench of the dead Ogres. “Aye, and you'll hear the same if anything surprises us from this end.”

  Ashleen turned for the ledge and edged along it out of sight.

  * * *

  Kinna huddled as far away from
the Ogres as she could get. “Ayden, I'm curious about something.”

  Ayden glanced up from where he sat by the bank, rinsing his leg and breeches in the clear, cold water. “You want to know about the bolt and why I didn't bleed to death when I yanked it out.”

  “Aye.”

  Ayden shook his head. “I don't know, Kinna, I can honestly say that.”

  Kinna shook her hair from her face. “What do you mean?”

  Ayden shrugged. “Just that. I don't know. All I know is that it has something to do with the power of the Amulet, and that it has affected me ever since I handed it over to Sebastian at the Tournament. How that power works, why it split its powers between Sebastian and me, I don't know.”

  Kinna nodded thoughtfully. “I bet Helga could help. Remember last year—”

  “Yes, she terrified me last year. Telling me all about the Amulet and how I could break my Ash-Touch curse by giving it to Sebastian. But she never said anything about this fire or any other powers.” He spread his fingers wide, staring at them.

  “We should go speak with her as soon as we possibly can.”

  “We?” The word was too quick. Both of them jerked away from the rash response.

  “I—I mean, you could,” Kinna amended, and then wished she'd just left it. That didn't sound good either.

  “Yes, I could,” Ayden returned heavily.

  Kinna trailed her fingertips through the water. “What if—what if the Touches that came with the Amulet...” she trailed off, and then tried again. “Ayden, what if the Touches are controlled by feelings? I mean, look at—”

  “Your Grace!” Ashleen's cry ricocheted over the crashing water of the river, and Ember appeared with Ashleen on his back. “Iolar calls for our help; his scout reached me at an open point in the gorge just south of here. He and his Clansmen are under attack, and if they are defeated, our whole plan will fail!”

  Kinna scrambled to her feet, not heeding the water as she splashed into it, and met Chennuh midstream. Crawling onto his back, her streaming boots sliding on his scales, she urged him forward as Ayden vaulted onto Luasa. Kinna quickly twisted Chennuh's fin, and they vanished.