The first beat of the dragon's wings propelled them upward with even more velocity than the beast's initial leap. Marrek's laugh was nearly lost in the sound of the wind and the downward whump of the wings. They climbed into the sky at an alarming rate.

"This is incredible!" shouted Marrek. "I never could have imagined something like this!"

"Yes!" Tyne said. He hoped he sounded calm, a.s.sured. He wanted to betray no signs of his fear before Marrek.

It seemed that the dragon climbed almost vertically into the sky. Despite the hold of the leather harness, Tyne felt he would tumble off the beast's neck and plummet to his death far below.

It felt as if it took forever for this dragon to reach its brethren, though in truth it probably required less than a minute. When Tyne's dragon mercifully leveled out its flight, the others roared what sounded like approval. They whirled in a ma.s.sive circle, waiting.

Tyne sent a command through the Stone for them to go to the east.

His dragon took the lead, the others falling into formation behind him like a flock of geese.

Now that they were flying level, some of Tyne's fear eased. It did not go away completely. He dared not look straight down, which made him light-headed and caused his stomach to clench, but if he kept his gaze toward the haze-shrouded horizon, which looked relatively stable, it reduced the sense of extreme height.

"Where are we going?" asked Marrek.

"Toward Khedesh. We have an appointment with the king."

They did not remain in the air for long before Tyne commanded them to land. His use of the Stone had exhausted him to the point where he was about to lapse into unconsciousness. He did not want to fall asleep in the air, even in the relatively secure harness. Perhaps once he grew more used to flying he would attempt to sleep on the dragon's neck, but not now.

He staggered from the harness and stumbled on the ground. Marrek's hand gripped his shoulder to steady him. "Are you all right?"

He nodded. "Just tired." He gave the dragons the freedom to hunt as they saw fit, but commanded that at least three of them remain close to protect him.

"Marrek, I need to sleep. I told you about this. I may be asleep for days. I don't know. I couldn't tell how long I slept when I was alone." It was an effort to push the words out.

"I understand. I'll watch over you."

"Stay away from me while I'm sleeping."

"But what if you need-"

"Stay away from me, Marrek. No matter what. I won't tell you again. If you disobey me, you won't live long enough to regret it."

He staggered over to a small stand of trees, threw a cloak on the ground, and collapsed on it. Three of the dragons landed around them, their long tales whipping through the gra.s.s.

Just before he sank into sleep, he told the dragons, If the other human gets near me, eat him.

He wondered if he would see Marrek when he awoke.

The sun was high overhead when his eyes fluttered open. His mouth and throat were parched, his stomach empty. He reflexively reached for the Stone and found its comforting presence in his pocket.

He sat up slowly. His head swam; a wave of dizziness washed through him. He ran his hands through his hair.

"You're awake!" Marrek's voice was like the sound of shattering gla.s.s. Tyne winced.

"Don't come near me yet!" shouted Tyne. Marrek stopped dead in his tracks.

Tyne sent a command to the dragons rescinding his order to kill the other human if he approached him. Do not harm him, he thought through the connection.

"You can approach," he said then, and when Marrek did, asked, "How long was I asleep?"

"Four days. I can't believe you didn't starve to death, but I kept away like you asked."

I know you did, otherwise you'd be dead. "I need food and water. Now. Hurry. Bring whatever you have."

While Tyne ate, Marrek recounted what had happened while Tyne slept. The dragons had rotated the three on the ground who guarded him so all of them could hunt. The rest disappeared from the sky for most of the time, and did not return even at night to sleep. "I think they try to sleep right after they eat," said Marrek.

Two of the dragons had returned with arrows stuck through the tough leathery hide of their wings. Tyne ordered them to stretch out their wings so he and Marrek could pull them free.

"I bet whoever shot these didn't live to brag about it," said Marrek with a smile as he yanked out a yellow-feathered shaft and threw it to the ground.

"No one who tries to hurt my dragons will live long," muttered Tyne.

Tyne still hated the ascent into the sky, but he quickly grew used to steady, level flying-much more than he would have thought. He wondered if some power of the Stone, or something through the connection to the dragons themselves, was easing his fear.

It amazed him to view the world from such a height. Everything looked so small. The brown thread of the road, b.u.mps of the hills, trees, streams and lakes, the occasional farmstead-all looked like toys to him.

In the distance he saw what looked like a small city on the horizon to the north. He decided in that moment to conquer it.

He commanded the dragons to fly toward it.

The city stretched along the shoulders of a long narrow lake with a dogleg bend in the middle. Trees rimmed the stony sh.o.r.e like a fringe of beard. Tyne could see several boats out on the still blue water. Farming fields st.i.tched the landscape around the lake, with homesteads and a few small villages scattered about, linked by the slender threads of dirt roads.

A masonry wall, perhaps forty feet high, protected the city. There were a number of smaller settlements outside the city walls, with no clear design to the streets.

He commanded the dragons to swoop in lower. Defenders were running along the wall-walk toward the western side of the city. Tyne fought down a laugh when he spied the bows in their hands. Arrows could never pierce the scales that covered the dragons' underbellies. There were also a few small trebuchets atop the walls that the defenders were in the process of loading.

"Burn the walls," he said aloud. He felt the command reach his dragons through the Stone, which converted his words and thoughts into some language or power the dragons understood. He did not know how it worked, and did not care. All that mattered was that it did work, that his thoughts and words could control these powerful beasts.

The dragons dived headlong toward the city. Tyne gripped his harness in terror at the rapid descent, the overwhelming sense that they were destined to smash themselves to bits against the earth.

Two of the trebuchets flung their loads into the sky. The defenders had filled the buckets with bricks and small rocks and broken bits of gla.s.s that glinted wildly as they spun through the air. The two dragons closest to the projectiles easily veered away from them and continued their descent. Before the defenders could reload the trebuchets, the dragons unleashed streams of orange fire that set them ablaze. Burning men tumbled from the wall. Others fell where they stood, instantly overcome by the fire. The timbers of the weapons caught fire like dry kindling. The ropes burned through in seconds. The trebuchets collapsed on themselves, with portions tumbling inside the city and setting smaller fires below.

Volleys of arrows streaked toward them. Most missed entirely. A few bounced harmlessly off the dragons' scales, and even fewer managed to pierce a wing or two, with no real harm to the beasts.

The dragons washed the walls in fire. The defenders had no chance. Some flung themselves from the wall before facing certain death from the flames. They crashed onto the cobbled streets below or caromed off a tiled roof.

But most died in the fire, unable to escape the crisscrossing streams of flame that shot from the dragons' mouths. The fire had a sticky, almost tarlike element to it, so that it clung to everything it touched, even the stone of the wall.

"Look at 'em run!" shouted Marrek.

Tyne was about to respond when a needle of crimson light shot upward from the city and just missed the neck of one of the dragons. The light vanished before he could determine its source.

"Did you see that?" asked Marrek.

"Shut up and help me find where it came from!"

Another lance of red light shot toward a dragon. The light was about to strike its wing when it suddenly bent away from it. Tyne did not understand why it had veered off; all he knew was that his dragons were under attack by sorcery.

The light vanished quickly, but it was enough for Tyne to see where it had come from-a balcony near the summit of a tower a few streets behind the city wall. Tyne sent a furious command for the dragons to destroy the tower.

Several more needles of light shot at the dragons as they closed on the tower. None of them struck the beasts. All of them bent away, repelled by some unknown force.

Whoever was on the balcony did not retreat. Tyne ordered his dragon to descend so he could get a better look.

There was a woman on the balcony, her hair and cloak billowing in the wind. The crimson light was shooting from her hands.

The woman spotted Tyne on the dragon's neck and shot a lance of light toward him. The dragon lurched violently to the left even as the magic bent away from them. Tyne's harness bit into his flesh as he was thrown against the straps. Marrek cursed loudly as the light sizzled the air where it pa.s.sed by them. Kill her now! he commanded through the Stone.

A moment later the dragons blasted the tower with fire.

The woman on the balcony made a gesture of some kind, pulled her cloak around her shoulders and lowered her head. A blast of fire that should have incinerated her bent around her body as if deflected by an invisible shield. Tyne realized she was using her sorcery to protect herself.

But she was not strong enough. Several other gouts of fire struck her magical barrier, which could not withstand the attack. It collapsed, and the fire engulfed her. Her clothing and hair burst into flames as if they'd been soaked in oil. She fell backward through a doorway and was lost to Tyne's sight.

The dragons circled the tower and continued to bathe the structure with fire until the stone itself started to slag. The slate roof collapsed inward as the wooden support structure burned away beneath it. The balcony tore away from the tower and broke apart as it fell toward the street below, leaving behind a gaping, fire-filled hole.

Tyne sent a command for them to stop.

The dragons rose upward to join the rest of their brethren. The tower continued to burn like a beacon, the stones charred black, the mortar dripping from the joints like thick dark wax.

Tyne needed to know about that woman. Were there more sorcerers in the city, waiting to attack him? He did not like the air-scorching lance of light the woman had hurled at them. It did not harm the dragons, but if she had managed to strike him instead...

Yes, he needed to find out more about who she was.

"Y-You sent for me, good sir?" said the thin man wearing a black wide-brimmed hat. He swept the hat off his head and turned it nervously in shaking hands.

"Are you in charge of this city?" asked Tyne.

"Y-Yes, good sir. I'm the mayor."

Tyne was seated in a folding chair a half mile from the main gate. He'd sent Marrek into the city to demand that whoever was in charge be brought to him at once, along with a chair and food and drink. Marrek returned with five trembling men carrying the chair, a table, and food that they placed upon it.

Tyne had told the men to remain, not because he needed them for anything, but because he could, and he liked exercising his power over others. Now that the mayor had arrived, he dismissed the men with a wave of his hand. They nearly fell over themselves as they rushed back toward the city.

"Well, Mayor, I have a question for you," said Tyne. "Who was the woman on that tower"-he pointed toward the smoking husk visible behind the city's walls-"who attacked us with sorcery? Are there more like her skulking somewhere inside? Don't lie to me. The price for lying is not only your death, but the death of your city. I'll unleash my dragons upon it until there's nothing left but ash and bones."

The thin man trembled so much he dropped his wide-brimmed hat. He froze for a moment, unsure whether he should stoop to pick it up. He decided to leave it where it was.

"I don't know her name, good sir, but she is a wizard from Hethnost." He'd managed to recover some strength in his voice. "They pa.s.s through here from time to time on their travels to the west, and on their return."

"Was she traveling alone?"

"I-I don't know, good sir. They often travel alone, but sometimes in pairs. Rarely more than two."

"You will find out if she had a companion. If she did, kill the-What did you call her? A wizard? Kill the wizard and bring me the head."

The mayor turned white. "You...uh...you..."

"The price for disobedience is the same as for lying."

The mayor swallowed heavily. "Yes, good sir. I'll see to it at once."

"You will personally tell me what you find. Do you understand?"

The mayor picked up his hat. Sweat dripped down his face, though the afternoon was cool. "Yes, good sir. I understand."

There were no other wizards in the city, according to the mayor. It was possible that the man was lying, or that any other wizards had been spirited away through other exits. But it was no matter to Tyne. He'd made his point. He spoke, and these people obeyed.

"Where is this Hethnost you spoke of?" asked Tyne.

"I've never been there, good sir. It's the home of wizards in these lands, is all I know. It lies northeast of here, in the Redhorn Hills, I believe."

The home of wizards. If they were a threat to him and his dragons, better to strike them first and take them by surprise rather than wait for them to attack him.

"You looked pleased," said Marrek.

"I am," said Tyne. "We're making a slight detour."

30.

The Havalqa sent no one to recover the bodies on the field. The man with the broken legs had crawled less than fifty feet before falling still. Gerin was certain he was dead. He could almost hear the flies buzzing over the corpses, laying their eggs in the still warm bodies, crawling across open, drying eyes.

He descended the stairs in the gate tower to a small guard room where food had been laid out for them. The forward wall contained three arrow slits, all of which were manned with soldiers of the Sunrise Guard.

Gerin sat at the table, tore a loaf of bread in half and began to chew on it. He'd almost finished when Balandrick entered.

"h.e.l.lo, Your Highness. G.o.ds, I'm famished." Balan grabbed an apple and a handful of dried strips of beef, then dropped into a chair across the table from Gerin.

"Are our friends up to anything interesting?"

"They've started building siege towers, but that's the extent of what I could see," said Balan with a mouthful of apple. "Their commander must be worried about what kind of magic we can throw at them."

"Good. Let him worry."

"I don't think they sent their Loremasters with the expectation that they'd be slaughtered. I wonder what they'll do now that they know there are defenses across the valley? I can't see them sending troops to try to push their way through, but how else are they going to get those siege towers to the wall once they're built?"

Gerin knew better than to underestimate the Havalqa. So far they'd been lucky in their encounters with them, but the foreigners had powers they did not understand and a seemingly endless supply of soldiers. The Staff of Naragenth could not save them as it had before. That was a onetime manifestation of power he could not create again.