The Dragon Of Trelian - Part 6
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Part 6

She started walking again, quickly, her feet nearly silent on the soft path of dirt and hedge needles. The tall hedges blocked most of the sound from outside the maze. It was like a separate world, self-contained and indifferent to what went on beyond its borders. Lanterns hung from poles at long intervals, creating pools of light in the otherwise dark pa.s.sages. Meg looked up. The moon was large in the sky tonight, nearly full, but even so its light seemed unable to penetrate deep into the maze. The moon was the symbol of the Hunter G.o.d, the dark consort of the bright G.o.ddess, who ruled the day. Most people preferred to make their prayers to her, since the Hunter was more inclined to justice than to mercy. Still, Meg thought she would take whatever help she could. Besides, I'm not asking for mercy. She closed her eyes and sent a quick, silent prayer up to the moon. Tonight, I'm a hunter, too. Please, if you can, help guide my steps so I can bring my sister safely home.

When the pa.s.sage came to a fork, Meg hesitated only a second, then turned to the right. She dug a line in the ground with her foot, so she'd know which way she'd chosen if she circled back this way. She continued to walk quickly, searching for signs of her sister and straining to hear the sound of footsteps other than her own. Any time she had a choice of path, she chose without thinking, stopping only to make her mark upon the ground.

Suddenly another of those terrible screams tore through the darkness, close enough that the shock and force of it made her stumble into the hedge wall beside her. She sank to the ground, barely aware of the needles that scratched her arms and face, for the moment unable to move or even think coherently. Her mind couldn't seem to focus on anything other than the one repeating thought that it was close, it was very close now; that thing, whatever it was, was very close and possibly getting closer and closer and closer and closer a"

Meg dug her fingernails into her arm, using the pain to break herself out of her spiraling panic. She couldn't remember ever feeling this afraid before in her life. Something about that sound was so . . . wrong. What kind of creature made a sound like that?

The silence that followed the last echoes of the scream was oppressive. The small sounds of her feet against the path as she forced herself to stand again seemed to ring out like the bells of noontime. It can't hear you, Meg told herself angrily. But how did she know? Maybe it could. But she couldn't cower in the dirt forever, regardless. She had to find Maurel. She made herself step forward. When nothing darted out of the darkness to kill her, she took another step. She kept going until she came to a T in the maze. Left or right? The task of choosing suddenly seemed beyond her. She looked down the left-hand pa.s.sage, at another featureless green walkway. There was nothing to indicate that this path was better than any other. Sighing, she turned to the right. And there, at the far end of a lengthy green-walled pa.s.sage, she saw a flash of red.

Afraid to call out, she nevertheless found her mobility again and raced down the long tunnel, arriving just in time to see another flash of color vanish around another corner up ahead. It had to be Maurel; no one else selected clothing of quite that startling a shade, and certainly no one else would be dashing through the maze right now other than the guards, whose uniforms were uniformly blue and gold and gray.

Meg lunged around the next turn and then the next, whereupon she emerged into a long straightaway that clearly did not contain her sister. She spun around, saw the narrow, backward-angled pa.s.sage she had missed; and continued running. This wasn't going to work, she realized; Maurel could easily outrun her and had the additional advantage of knowing where she was going. Meg lurched to a stop and struggled to quiet her gasping breath so she could listen. Several quick footsteps and then silence a" Maurel must have stopped when Meg's own footsteps ceased. There was no help for it; she was going to have to call out while her sister was still in earshot.

"Maurel!" More than a whisper, less than a shout. "Maurel, please! It's Meg!"

"Meg!" Another quick series of running steps and then Maurel appeared, coming from the direction Meg had already been. She ran up and bounced to a stop, not the slightest bit out of breath. "Why didn't you say it was you? I thought a"" She stopped and stepped closer, lowering her voice even further. "I thought you were the monster. Did you hear it? Did you hear it screaming?"

Meg dropped to one knee and pulled her sister into a quick, relieved hug, then pushed her away again in irritation. "Of course I heard it. That's why I came in here after you, you idiot. They were trying to take us all inside to safety, but Nan Vera said you ran away from her and she couldn't find you."

"Oh," said Maurel. She half gasped in sudden understanding. "Is that why the guards are in here, too?"

"Yes, of course." She took Maurel's hand firmly in her own and stood up. "Now they're probably wandering around lost, thanks to you." Meg chose not to mention the additional guards who must have followed when she ran into the maze herself. She looked up and down the pa.s.sage doubtfully. "I think I might be lost, myself. What were you thinking?"

Maurel starting walking, pulling Meg along. "You're not lost. I'll show you," she said. She looked up at Meg, not seeming to even need to glance ahead to know which way to turn. "And I didn't mean to run away from Nan Vera," she said. "Well, at first I did, but that was just for fun. I was right behind her practically the whole time. But then we heard the monster, and I was so scared . . ." She looked away, all lightheartedness gone. "I jumped right into the hedges. I guess I thought maybe if I hid in there, it couldn't find me. By the time I felt okay to come out, Nan Vera was gone. I didn't even hear her calling me."

She had stopped walking, still looking down and away. Meg reached over and touched her face, tracing one of the scratches the hedges must have made. "It's all right to be scared, Maurel," she said. "The sound of that thing screaming was the scariest thing I've ever heard. I'll tell you a secret, if you promise not to tell anyone."

Maurel looked up, hopeful. Her eyes were blurry with unshed tears. Meg whispered, "I was so scared, I fell down. Right into the hedges and down onto the ground. I bet I've got scratches just like yours. Maybe even worse."

Sniffling, Maurel examined Meg's face. She nodded soberly. "You ripped your dress, too. And it's dirty." She looked down at her own dress, which was in a similar state. "Mother's going to be mad at us."

Meg smiled. "I think Mother is just going to be glad to see us safely home. Now, come on. You said you knew how to get out of this crazy place."

Maurel smiled back and quickened her pace, pulling harder on Meg's arm. "The entrance is just around here," she said, her normal bounciness back in her voice as well as her step. "Do you think the guards came back out already? I'd feel a little bad if they're still walking around in there. They probably should have taken a copy of the map."

Meg stared at her sister. "There's a map? To the hedge maze?"

"Sure," said Maurel, surprised. "Didn't you know? It's in the library. I'll show you." They turned the corner and there was the entrance, wide and welcoming and right where Maurel had said it would be. She chattered on, literally bouncing now, punctuating her words with little jumps along the path. "Of course, it's more fun to find your own way, but still it's probably good that a"" She glanced up, her eyes growing huge and frightened as she froze, staring. Meg looked up to follow her sister's gaze.

The monster was in the courtyard.

It was very large. It had four squat legs, thick with dark knotted muscle, but most of its bulk was its ma.s.sive body hulking just inside the row of delicate thistle trees that lined the outer edge of the royal garden. The moon's light seemed to slide right off it, leaving it cloaked in shadow and darkness, but what little detail Meg could see was far more than enough. Two thick horns, one larger than the other, stretched out and upward from either side of its wide head, each ending with an evil-looking hooked point. That head, thank the G.o.ds, was facing slightly away from them, but not so much that Meg couldn't see the way its narrow eyes seemed to glow with a sickly red light. It moved with an eerie silence; nothing that enormous a" and certainly nothing that could scream the way it did a" should be able to move so quietly, but it didn't make a sound as it slunk slowly among the trees. It twisted its head from side to side as though looking for something. Looking for dinner? Meg couldn't help wondering. The thought made her want to cry and throw up at the same time.

Meg managed to pull her eyes away for a second to look longingly at the straight, inviting path that led from the maze entrance to the inner courtyard steps. Several guards stood grimly at the top of those steps. Too far away to help in time if the monster should turn and see them. It was much closer to the hedge maze than the castle.

As she watched, one of the guards turned slightly and noticed her. His eyes grew wide with surprise and then darted quickly toward the monster, as if to be sure she knew it was there. As if she could have missed it! She nearly rolled her eyes at him in exasperation. The guard a" it was the same one who had spoken to her earlier, to convince her to go inside a" stared at her helplessly. They both knew there was nothing he or the others could do.

Moving slowly and oh so silently, Meg pulled Maurel back against her and reached around with her free hand to cover her sister's mouth. Maurel probably would have screamed by now if she were going to, but Meg did not care to take a chance at this particular moment in time. It hadn't heard them talking as they approached, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hear them now without the hedge walls to m.u.f.fle any sound they made. Meg swallowed and then, pulling her sister along with her, backed deeper into the maze until they reached a point beyond the monster's line of sight.

Meg desperately wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go; the maze had only the one exit. She looked down at her sister; Maurel was staring up at her, terrified. Expecting me to know what to do, Meg realized. And I have no idea.

Maurel was trembling. Meg sank to the ground and hugged her sister tight against her. And tried to think. There were only two choices, really. Wait here, hoping the monster didn't see or smell or otherwise sense them and that eventually it would just go away, or be driven away, or be killed by a great horde of deadly royal soldiers and chopped into tiny, harmless pieces. Or try to leave the maze and get inside the castle without it seeing them.

She couldn't really imagine trying to sneak out past that thing. She looked up at the hedge wall across from them. Too thick to push through; Maurel had managed to squeeze herself into the hedges before, but even she couldn't get all the way in and then out the other side. Toward the middle the ancient branches were just too wide and strong. Maybe if they'd had a knife or something, but of course, they didn't.

Another dreadful scream tore through the night, far worse than any of the others a" it was so close! Meg and her sister both clamped their hands tight against their ears. The force of the sound was like a sword thrust deep inside Meg's head; it hurt, it hurt, and it wasn't until the dire echoes finally began to fade away that she realized both of them were screaming along with it. Maurel seemed to realize it at the same time. They snapped their mouths shut and stared, horrified, first at each other and then up over the edge of the hedges closest to the entrance as the now-ominous silence stretched out for several long, terrifying seconds. And then the monster's hideous head swung slowly into view. Staring down at them with its impossible glowing red eyes.

For a moment none of them moved. Then Meg saw the creature's chest expand with an intake of air and she had just enough time to shout, "Cover your ears!" to Maurel and slap her hands back over her own before another gut-wrenching wave of sound crashed over them. It was slightly better having been prepared, but not by much a" especially since the latest scream was accompanied by a blast of the monster's unspeakably foul breath. Meg didn't want to imagine what it might have been eating. Staring up at its immense presence, she had a short, stupid moment of relief as she thought, Well, at least it's too big to fit through the maze entrance. And then it smashed directly through the outer hedge wall, and suddenly Meg was staring at several long, red-tipped talons attached to one of the monster's misshapen five-toed feet, which was now close enough for her to reach out and touch if she wanted to.

Maurel was moaning softly beside her. The monster was moving slowly, either because it saw no need to hurry or because that's just how it moved. Meg prayed it was the latter. She groped for her sister's hand, found it, held it tight, and whispered fiercely, "Get ready, Maurel. We have to run. We have to run right now." Maurel's moans didn't change, but Meg just had to hope she had heard. Or at least that she'd be able to drag her sister along with her. She lunged to her feet, yanking Maurel up and launching them both past the creature's front leg. Its head jerked back in surprise and then snapped forward a" not slowly now, she noted with sick dismay a" but Meg ran on, directly toward it, pulling Maurel beside her and then pushing her onward, ducking under the barely existent neck and out the other side before the creature could twist its head around. The hedges were now an impediment as it tried to turn to follow them. They ran out through the maze entrance and flew along the blessedly clear, wide path. And nearly collided with the palace guard who, it appeared, had been ready to attempt a rescue after all. Just a little too late.

Meg heard the hedges tearing behind them. She kept running, past the startled soldiers, pulling Maurel on relentlessly, up the inner courtyard steps and into the castle. She wasn't once tempted to stop and look back.

CALEN SAT ON THE OLD HALF-WALL near the small gate, swinging his feet against the stones and watching for a familiar face. He hadn't seen Meg in several days; security had been tight, to say the least, since the appearance of the monstrous creature in the royal garden, and she had been unable to find a suitable pretext for slipping away unsupervised. At least, that's what her note had indicated, though Calen wouldn't have been surprised if she just hadn't wanted to go anywhere on her own. From the tales he'd heard from servants and some of the soldiers, she and her little sister had nearly been killed. Calen found himself looking over his shoulder half the time after just hearing the story a" he wouldn't blame Meg if she was frightened of leaving the castle after actually having lived it.

He had managed to miss the entire thing, for which he was profoundly grateful. Serek had been long in conference with the king and queen, and then stayed by the side of the wounded soldier late into the night, studying the continued effects of the poison and trying to ease the man's pain as much as possible. That had left Calen free to begin his dragon research undisturbed a" except by Lyrimon, who, after twice startling Calen so badly that he nearly fell off the ladder, found himself forcibly evicted from the library with the door slammed in his furry, annoying little face. Calen's arms still showed the scars of that encounter, but it had been worth it.

He squinted up at the sun. Where was Meg? He pulled her note out of his sleeve and checked it again, to make sure he hadn't misremembered the time. The note had come by way of Lammy, who demanded a coin for his trouble, and had been signed by "Mellie" in a rough script that Calen suspected bore little resemblance to the princess's normal handwriting. He had been relieved to receive it. Not just because he wanted to see his friend again, but because he needed to tell her what he had discovered in his research regarding Jakl.

Soon.

Finally, he saw her dirt-smudged face appear among the pa.s.sing servants and other castle folk. He jumped down from the half-wall and walked over to meet her.

"I'm sorry to be late," she said. "Maerlie made me repeat every promise I made to her a hundred times before she'd let me go."

"You told her where you were going?" he asked, surprised.

"No," she said, falling into step beside him as they headed for the gate. "We have a" an understanding. I told her I had something very important I needed to do and swore that I would be very careful and not place myself in any danger." She flashed a grin at him. "And that I wouldn't be alone."

"Oh, so I'm your bodyguard now, is that it?"

"That's right. So don't let anything kill me, or you'll have Maerlie to answer to."

"She can't be nearly as difficult to deal with as you are," he said. "All your pushing and punching and the like."

"Huh. That's what you think." She looked up at him again, smiling. "I'm so glad you've left behind all that *Your Highness' nonsense. Sometimes it gets so tiring."

Calen laughed. "Sure. Everyone bowing and doing everything you say all the time. Must be awful."

She shook her head at him. "You'd be surprised. Outside of my immediate family, no one ever sees me as a person. Just a princess. Royal daughter number three."

They stopped talking as they pa.s.sed by the guard at the gate a" not someone Calen knew by name today. Calen was glad for the chance to adjust his thoughts. He felt a little stupid. Again. It had never occurred to him that Meg might have wanted a friend as badly as he had.

"So a" how are you?" Calen asked after a moment. "I mean, are you all right? You know, since the, um, thing. And everything."

Meg nodded. "Yes. I think so." She took a big breath and let it out slowly. "It was terrible. That creature. I thought it was going to kill both of us. And those screams . . ." She glanced at him. "Well, you must have heard them."

He shook his head. She stared.

"How is that possible? Were you off the castle grounds?"

"No. In Serek's library. I think it must be magically enhanced to block out sound. Once I closed the door, it was absolutely silent in there the whole evening. I didn't even know anything had happened until the next morning."

"Well, that's probably fortunate. The sounds were . . . just horrible. I can't begin to describe it." She took another breath. "In any case, we were lucky, and it didn't touch us. We both got back inside, and then the soldiers killed it."

"Is it true that you ran right between its legs?"

Her mouth couldn't seem to decide whether to smile or smirk. "Not really. More like under its neck."

Calen could only shake his head again. "G.o.ds, Meg. I think you're the bravest person I've ever known." Not that that was such a big sampling, but still.

She laughed. "Hardly. I was so scared I could barely think."

"But to run right toward it a""

"There was no other choice. It would have torn us apart if we had stayed where we were."

Calen felt his face go a little green. Meg must have noticed, because she quickly moved on. "Anyhow, it's done now, and the creature is dead, so there's nothing else to worry about. I'm just glad I could finally get away today. Poor Jakl must think I've forgotten him entirely!"

"I'm glad, too. I have some things to tell you."

She looked at him, studying his expression. "Tell me."

Now it was his turn to take a deep breath. They had reached the meadow and were getting close to the edge of the forest. Calen fought the urge to turn his face up to the warm sun and kept an eye out for ill-natured rocks instead. He took a quick moment to organize his thoughts.

He had not been disappointed with the wealth of information available in Mage Fredrin's library a" his biggest obstacle so far, other than getting to and from the library without being caught, had been choosing which references to pursue. The Erylun had a wonderful summary of information on dragons, and it had taken him several visits just to finish scanning through it. Most of it was fascinating but not immediately useful: common sizes and colors, various mages' historic confrontations with specific dragons, uses of dragon scales in spellcasting, and so on. Apparently dragons were highly resistant to magic, or mage magic at least, which was probably good to know. There had been some information about growth rates, which indicated that Meg was going to have to find another place for Jakl very soon, probably before another month went by. And then he had finally found an entry on something called linking.

"All right," he began. "The good news is that you were not imagining things regarding your connection with Jakl. You really are sensing his feelings. And he should be beginning to sense yours, if he's not already doing so."

She nodded, her eyes guarded. "What's the bad news?"

"It's not a" it's not bad news, exactly. Just, um a""

"Calen."

"Right. Okay. This connection that you have, it's called linking. Dragons usually link with other dragons, if they link at all a" many don't a" but sometimes they can be led to link with humans instead. Hundreds of years ago, there were people who regularly stole baby dragons from their nests and attempted to link with them. Actually, I think this might be the source of some of the legends we have today a" I found a whole book of those, mostly nursery stories, and you probably heard some of them yourself when you were little a" those tales of people enslaved by dragons, like that one about the woodcutter's son who goes off and . . ." He noticed Meg's impatient stare, which seemed to be deepening toward more of a glower, and skipped ahead. "Well, anyway, those people who stole the babies, depending on how successful they were, either they raised the dragons into a sort of symbiotic partnership or, uh, the dragons killed them."

"Oh."

"But you're definitely past the stage where Jakl would have killed you if he were going to. So don't worry about that."

She looked at him in exasperation. "So what's the bad news?"

"Well, so you're linked with Jakl, right? Somehow you managed to do whatever needed to be done to forge the connection without, um, getting killed, and so now the link will continue to get stronger over time. You won't be able to sense what he's thinking, exactly a" dragon's brains don't work like ours that way a" but if the link gets strong enough, you'll be able to sense what he's feeling so clearly that it will almost be like you can hear his thoughts."

He glanced at her and went on, quickly. "The bad news, if you want to call it that, is that dragons, if they link, link for life. It can't be undone. You and Jakl will stay connected, no matter what." He swallowed, watching her face. "Even in death."

She was quiet for a moment. "Do you mean that if one of us dies, the other dies, too?"

"Um, well, not always," he said weakly. "The book definitely mentioned a few cases where the survivors, um, survived."

She looked at him. "But?"

"But then they went mad."

"I see."

They kept walking. Calen was quiet. He thought Meg could probably use a few moments to digest what he had told her. He knew he had needed a few moments when he realized what the book was saying. She and Jakl were connected in a way most people would never understand. He imagined parts of it must be powerfully appealing a" to be so close to someone that he or she could actually feel what you were feeling, to never, ever be alone a" but there were risks as well, and Meg had taken this on without the slightest idea what she was getting into.

When they reached the cave, Meg sat down near the entrance with her back against the rocky wall. Calen sat beside her.

"You said it was a symbiotic partnership," she said. "How so?"

"Each of you can draw on the strength of the other. I'm not sure if that means physical strength, exactly a" although you will be able to lend each other healing energy if one of you is sick or injured. But also emotional strength. Force of spirit."

Meg nodded. She hesitated, then asked, "Will it a" will it change me? Change who I am, I mean? Will I start to think I'm a dragon?"

"Oh, no. No. I don't think it works that way. I mean, I'm sure it will change you in certain ways a" obviously, someone who's linked with a dragon is going to be different from someone who is not a" but you won't lose your personality. You'll still be yourself, and Jakl will be himself. You may just . . . overlap at times."

"But you don't really know that. You can't really know."

Calen sighed. "I don't know it from personal experience, no. Of course not. But nothing I read made any mention of that sort of thing happening. And there are ways to shield your emotions from your link, to a degree. I read about those. I can't see how that would be possible if you weren't still a separate person."

"And you can teach me? About shielding? And . . . and everything else you found out?"

"Of course," he said. "I'm not sure I dare remove any of the books from the mage's quarters. But I can take notes, and maybe we can find a way to sneak you into the library, if we know Serek will be away."

She took another deep breath. "Well. I'm sure we'll figure something out." Some of her usual confidence was edging back into her voice. She smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Calen."

He smiled back. "You're welcome."

They stood up. Meg stepped into the cave entrance, then turned back. "Does Jakl know? Did he do this on purpose?"

"I don't know. I think it's probably something dragons know how to do instinctively. Maybe when you found him, after he was alone so young, he latched onto you the only way he knew how." He hesitated, then went on. "Meg, there are some other things I need to tell you about."

"I'm sure there are. But tell me inside. He knows we're here, and he's impatient to see me." She shook her head, her expression a mixture of wonder and chagrin. Then she disappeared into the dark.

Calen hurried after her. He didn't want to navigate that pa.s.sage alone.

Jakl didn't look impatient to Calen; he looked asleep. But of course Meg would know better. As Calen emerged from the darkness into the dim light, the dragon uncurled and wrapped himself around Meg, who laughed and hugged him. Calen remained a respectful distance away, not wanting to intrude on their greeting. He squinted, trying to discover if he could actually see anything to indicate the link, now that he knew to look for it. There was nothing a" at least nothing that his inner eye could make out.

His regular eyes, however, noticed that Jakl was larger than he'd been only a few days ago. His wings were especially changed. They were larger, fuller a" more like the wings of the adult dragons Calen had seen drawings of in the library.

"I think you're going to have to move him, Meg. Very soon."

She glanced at Calen and then extricated herself from the dragon's embrace, stepping back to take a good look at him. Jakl sat and looked back at her calmly.

"You're right, Calen. G.o.ds, he's growing so fast. Is that normal?"