CHAPTER 71

“Adon!" exclaimed Delon. "Look at this." The others moved toward the bard, misty halos blooming about their lanterns in the fog.

"What is it?" asked Ferret, bending down. "A great leather cloak?"

"No, luv. This is no cloak, but part of a wing, I believe."

Ferret sucked in her breath and drew back.

"Wing?" quavered Alos, stepping back as well, then peering over his shoulder as if seeking monsters in the pale night mist. "Wing from what?"

Arin squatted down and touched the leathery membrane. "A fell beast from the elder days, I would imagine. Slain by Raudhrskal."

"Is that what it was, the fight in the sky?" asked Alos, his eye wide with fright.

Arin nodded. "The beast encroached upon the Dragon's domain and was slain for its trespass."

Alos threw back his shoulders and glared at Ferret and said, "See! I told you they could sense intruders."

Ferret took a deep breath and said, "If that's true, then it means Raudhrskal can sense us."

The air puffed out of Alos; his triumphant glare collapsed. His face fell and he uttered a small, "Oo."

Aiko, squatting on her heels next to Arin, stood. "I think we'll find no more steeds in the dark. The two back at the camp will have to do for rounding up the others in the dawn."

Arin also stood. "As soon as the fog lifts, we'll look. It's not as if the animals can hide from us in this grassland."

Alos looked at Arin beseechingly. "Perhaps we should go back to town and wait until the Dragon gets past his rage. I mean, it would not do to approach him when he's upset, now would it?"

Arin just shook her head, but Egil said, "We are yet two days away from Dragons' Roost, Alos. More than enough time for him to settle."

"We don't know that, Egil," protested Alos, wringing his hands. "It seems to me that a Dragon might hold a grudge a very long time."

Burel looked at the oldster. "And why would the Dragon be vexed with us?"

"Well, we're intruders, for one thing, trespassers," replied Alos, wiping his brow. "And for another thing, perhaps the beast he slew was after us, and that's why it was in his domain."

Aiko's eyes widened, and she touched her breasts where the tiger lay. "Perhaps, ningen toshi totta, you have struck upon something. Perhaps the fell creature is what my tiger sensed in the dead of nights past."

"But why would he be following us, my love?" asked Burel.

Aiko shook her head. "Who knows the mind of such a beast?" she replied.

"Nevertheless," said Arin, "whether we led the creature here or no, we will press on for Dragons' Roost as soon as we recover our animals."

At these words, Alos groaned.

The wind from the Boreal shredded the fog and the sun overhead burned the remnants away by midmorn. Aiko and Arin rode the two remaining steeds and rounded up missing horses and mules and cattle, all found placidly munching grass on the open plains.

As they again resumed their journey, they rode past the severed head of the fell beast, its leathery neck torn in twain as if by mighty claws, its glaring yellow eyes now glazed over and dull, its long, fang-filled beak silenced forever.

"Adon," breathed Delon. "Raudhrskal must have ripped the beast apart."

Egil nodded, then said, "Can you imagine how powerful this beast must have been? Look at the size of that beak, and think on its wing as well. And for a creature as powerful as that, think how much mightier a Dragon must be to rend it asunder."

Alos moaned and fumbled in his saddlebags for a flagon of brandy.

On they rode toward Dragons' Roost, the mountain looming ever closer. With hills in the near distance to the fore, the land began to draw upward toward the great slopes ahead. In the sunlight the snow and ice on the peak glittered pearlescent, shining white with glints of blues and greys where frozen crags cast their shades.

And the cattle plodded slowly ahead.

The sun set and darkness fell, but still they pressed on by the light of the gibbous moon, for they wished to make up some of the time they had lost that morning rounding up their scattered animals.

They had gone another two miles or so, when Aiko hissed, "Peril comes on wings," and she pointed toward the crest of Dragons' Roost, where, silhouetted by the moonlight against the white snow, something large and dark with pinions spread wide hurtled toward them.

"Yahhh!" cried Alos, and he leapt from the back of his steed and ran in panic away.

"Dismount!" cried Egil, and, "Take cover!" though there was precious little shelter at hand.

Still, they sprang from their saddles, and Egil and Aiko, pulling on the reins of their steeds, managed to twist the horses' heads back alongside while taking their front legs down as well, each horse grunting as it fell on its side, floundering but unable to rise. Burel, too, got his own horse down, and behind these three steeds the companions flopped to the ground, all but Alos, who fled across the grass northerly.

And amid bawling cattle and scattering horses and mules, in a thunder of wings the Drake swooped down and snatched up a running steed-Alos's. With its mighty pinions churning and a horse in its claws, up into the air flew the great beast, the steed screaming in terror… but the Dragon, the Dragon itself seemed to bellow in laughter as back toward the mountain it flew.

CHAPTER 72

As the Drake flew away, Egil and Aiko and Burel kept their downed horses from rising, the steeds grunting and thrashing, yet unable to gain their feet. Finally, the Dragon flew beyond sight, and now the trio allowed the steeds to scramble up, snorting and blowing and sidle-stepping, their eyes wide in fear. Yet with soothing words and reassuring touches and strokes, Aiko, Burel, and Egil at last calmed the animals. Burel then gave over his steed to Arin, saying, "Dara, you see best in the night, and our stock is scattered again."

Arin took the reins, then said, "Aiko, I would have thee come with me. Egil, wouldst thou find Alos?"

"Where away?"

"North, I think," said Ferret, pointing.

Egil's gaze followed her outstretched arm, yet he saw nought but prairie in the bright moonlight. Nevertheless, he mounted and rode away northerly, and no more than a hundred yards thither he found the old man lying on his back in the grass, gasping and wheezing in exhaustion.

Egil rode to join Arin and Aiko, and by the time they rounded up the mules and cattle and the remaining horses the moon had moved two hand-widths across the sky.

Arin and Aiko drove the cattle before them, and riding after came Egil, steeds and mules tethered in a line behind. As they arrived where those afoot waited, Aiko looked through the moonlight at Alos now standing with the others, her enshadowed gaze unreadable. Even so, the oldster could not bear the force of her regard, and he turned away and peered toward the Boreal, its waters unseen beyond the dunes to the west.

Without dismounting, Arin said, "Let us move into the shelter of the coppice ahead, a mile, no more. Alos, thou canst ride double with me."

"Double?" Alos looked about. "Say, where is my horse?"

"Taken by Raudhrskal," replied the Dara. "Thou wert fortunate to not be astride at the time."

Alos's knees nearly went out from under him. "The Dragon took my horse," he gasped, his voice tremulous. "And if I'd been in the saddle…" He ran a shaking hand across his forehead. "Lord, I need a-" His words jerked to a halt. Then he groaned, "My saddlebags. He got my saddlebags."

They made a small fire and heated water for tea, and as they sat sipping, Alos said, "Why don't we just stake out the cattle and ride back to Hafen, eh?"