Silver Kings: The Splintered Gods Part 23

Tuuran shoved him. He thought about shoving him right off the cliff. Maybe plummeting to his death would turn Crazy Mad into Silver Eyes, and Tuuran reckoned Silver Eyes might know a thing or two more than 'big dark cloud on the horizon.

'You going to go all weird on me again, Crazy? Crazy didnt answer, and it was, Tuuran realised, a bit of a stupid question. Crazy hadnt stopped being weird since theyd left Aria. 'Theyre a funny lot, these dark-skins. Dont have any truck with G.o.ds yet they have this. In the Dominion all that desert would be one big temple, the whole of it. Theyd have twenty thousand people out there in a city of tents and every one of them a priest. Maybe even in Aria too. Here its all just, yeah, yeah, some half-G.o.d left behind a spire of stone that reaches all the way up to the sky and theres a hole in the world that eats everything that enters and no one has the first idea why or what its for but never mind, just ignore it, just leave it be and everything will be fine. He paused. 'Thats what youre after, is it, Crazy? That why were out here in the desert? What happens when we get there? The last fire of the sun blazed around the black smear of cloud. As it died, the desert began to fall dark.

Crazy Mad sat and stared and didnt answer for so long that Tuuran was starting to think hed fallen asleep, then he suddenly got up and slapped Tuuran on the shoulder. 'I think we go home, big man. He paused. 'I dont know. But I think thats what it is. Wait and see. He puffed out his cheeks and blew, mumbled a bit to himself and then headed back towards the white-faced men waiting back with their mounts. After a few paces more, he stopped. 'Your dragons there, big man. Somewhere.

Tuuran stared up at the stars that night, tried to count them as he sometimes did when he couldnt sleep and tried to remember the names of all the constellations the ones he recalled from his home and the ones he knew from the seas around the Dominion and off the sh.o.r.es of Aria. Different stars in different worlds but not all different. Some remained the same but rose in different places in the sky. Were some stars always there no matter the world? The Adamantine Spear, they had that back in the dragon-kingdoms. Crazy said they called it the Earthspear in Aria. He didnt know if the Taiytakei had their own name for it, but it was here too.

He didnt sleep at all. Usually Crazy was the one kicking him, tossing and turning and complaining about his snoring while Tuuran was gone seconds after he closed his eyes, but not tonight. He watched the half-moon rise, and got up and went to sit at the edge of the cliff again. In the darkness he could see the horizon maelstrom aglow with its own dim inner light, lit by the same flashes of purple lightning he and the alchemist had once seen when theyd crossed the storm-dark together, two slaves on their way to Xican. He stayed there until the sky lightened and the sun rose. A pillar of bright orange light, needle-thin but brilliant, suddenly descended from the sky. The light of the rising sun running down the G.o.dspike to strike the storm-dark and set the maelstrom alight.

Some of the white-faced men came to sit and watch too, although they kept their distance. Then Crazy came and chivvied them and they set off along the cliff and down a narrow trail through a steep cleft out into the sands. They camped again for the afternoon and crossed the sands at night, sheltered in the day and rode on in the dark, and all the while the maelstrom grew closer, swelling with each mile that pa.s.sed, a black blot in the sky in the sunlight, a dark violet glow in the night, until Tuuran found it hard to look at anything else. It filled his thoughts that and what would happen when he and Crazy Mad reached it.

As the sun rose on their third day in the desert, he saw other threads of light forming a circle from the desert sands to the rim of the maelstrom like bars in a cage. Tuuran rode the last few miles alone to the closest of them, a ma.s.sive white stone monolith a mile high. He touched it and looked up at the black stain in the sky above. Its surface was as smooth as gla.s.s and unmarked, like the stone of the eyrie tunnels, the arches in the Pinnacles, the pillars in the Queverra and the one the Watcher had taken him to see. He felt the surge, the adrenaline kick when a fight was on its way. He could almost taste it. Crazy Mad swore the dragons were here so the eyrie must be here too. Maybe old Grand Master Bellepheros could make sense of it all. He closed his eyes and shook his head, throwing off the awe and dread that threatened to overwhelm him, turned away and rode back. He was an Adamantine Man. He dealt in simple things.

The painted men led them to the shadow of the maelstrom and a camp of desert slavers. The G.o.dspike was a place of truce for the tribes that otherwise spent a good part of their time trying to kidnap each other to sell into slavery. Tuuran learned that yes, there was something above the storm-dark now. Gla.s.s.h.i.+ps of the city men flew to and fro far overhead every day, and a monstrous creature lived there too, but that was mostly seen on the other side where the men from the mountains had their camp. He thanked them while Crazy rode on under the storm-dark. The painted men balked at that, but Crazy simply didnt give a s.h.i.+t, so Tuuran told them to stay and wait while he went on at Crazys side, the two of them together and alone the way theyd been for years. The desert men didnt look best pleased at having the white-faced men left milling about with nothing much to do, so Tuuran kept his mouth shut about the thousand or so more who would arrive during the night. Best, he thought, to let them have that as a surprise. Didnt want to spoil their last day, after all.

43.

Dragonthief Zafir took Diamond Eye back to the eyrie. She made him fly slowly, in long gliding sweeps. His blood was up and she needed him calm. She needed both of them calm.

Bellepheros was waiting for her when she got back. She ignored him and sat on the top of the eyrie wall, looking over the chaos of the dragon yard. Idle gla.s.s.h.i.+ps hovered overhead. Gondolas hung empty and abandoned beneath them. The bodies shed seen in the minds of the Elemental Men had been taken away but there were dark stains on the white stone where theyd fallen. Slaves ran back and forth, far more than usual.

The alchemist started telling her something dull about how bringing food out here was hard for whoever ran the eyrie Baros Tsen, then MaiChoiro, then the Elemental Men, now the doll-woman, except the doll-woman was gone. Was anyone at all running it now? Zafir didnt know and didnt care. She looked at the slaves rus.h.i.+ng about and a little smile crept over her face. Shonda had called their bluff and now the killers didnt know what to do.

'Yes, yes. Im sure its very hard to get food out here into the middle of the desert. She waved Bellepheros away. 'I suppose on account of there being no water and the animals dying of thirst all the time? And yet I seem to remember that Queen Shezira managed to feed two hundred dragons at Out.w.a.tch and that was in the middle of a desert. Was it not, alchemist? Show me then, killers, show me how you answer. 'If its that difficult, they can simply move us.

'I have asked them to, Holiness. I am told its not my concern nor my business and I should keep to my dragons.

'My dragons, alchemist, she corrected him. Something in his voice sounded off. She turned to look at him at last but now he was gazing off into the sky, lost in his own flurry of thoughts.

'Ive heard the Taiytakei speak of this, Holiness. They are . . . loud. And often pa.s.s my rooms.

'Its a pity your enchantress isnt here. She could have made something for you to hear every word. She probably had. Shed done it before the pair of golden dragons with ruby eyes, given to Prince Jehal on his wedding to his starling bride Lystra.

'Holiness, Im not certain . . . He wandered off into what he thought Chay-Liang could and couldnt do; Zafir turned her attention back to the dragon yard and stopped listening. She missed most of what he said but his last words caught her attention.

'What?

'I said I fear they are keeping us here so they might drop the entire eyrie into the storm-dark.

Zafir raised an eyebrow, thinking of the lightning and the ride shed taken with Bellepheros pinned in front of her. 'And will that work, master alchemist? Will the storm devour us or not?

'I dont know, Holiness. I would not pin my hopes either way.

He went away after that. Zafir sat and watched and waited, musing. Perhaps the white stone was impervious but even so, that didnt guarantee anything more than a scoured stone skeleton would survive.

She didnt feel the pop of air on the rim behind her, but Diamond Eye rode the Elemental Mans thoughts as soon as he appeared. It was the one whod ridden with her earlier today.

'We have considered your proposal, rider-slave, he said. 'To return Lord Shonda of Vespinarr to this place.

She already knew their answer. Diamond Eye had plucked it from inside his head.

Yes.

'When its dark, she told them. 'When they dont see me coming. The gla.s.s.h.i.+ps were long out of sight but Diamond Eye kept staring after them. He was watching them in his mind, following the faint whispers of their thoughts.

If we just didnt come back . . . How long before they came looking? We could run, couldnt we? Should we? She laughed, harsh and bitter. Run? But to where that would change anything? To the north or the south and the sea? To the east and the ruin of Dhar Thosis? To the west and the great cities of TakeiTarr? And then what? Burn them? But nothing would make any difference any more. She could run all she liked and shed never get home. And then there was Shonda, and that little gesture he made, reminding her she was a slave and that he was not.

Just this once, my deathbringer. Just this once. Afterwards . . .

Tsen watched Shondas gondolas fly. He watched the dragon rise from the desert and give chase and then turn away, and his middle finger told him that Shrin Chrias Kwen was watching too. Atop their sled full of barrels of water even Sivan and the other slaves stopped their games of dice and peered out across the burning sands, squinting and s.h.i.+elding their eyes. The gla.s.s.h.i.+p fleet of Vespinarr. Tsen had no idea why the dragon might throw itself against them but as the lightning cannon began to glow and the monster thought better of it, the sight filled him with an unexpected joy. No matter that it was Shonda pa.s.sing overhead, no matter how Shonda deserved to hang, hed shown there was a limit to what the dragon could do. Hed shown it could be turned back.

'Even monsters can fall, he murmured.

'Thing is, muttered Sivan beside him, 'they keep getting up again. Its the riders that dont.

Tsen shuddered then. Hed never forget the first time hed seen the dragon fly, the terrible speed and strength and power, the lash of the tail that cracked the unbreakable stone of his eyrie, the fire that burned the desert sand to gla.s.s. Now he watched it fly into the sky, back the way it had come. That was what Sivan wanted? Really? But it was. The s.h.i.+fters face gave away his naked hunger, the gleeful hate of vengeful ambition. Yes, he wanted that, and no matter the cost.

So you have to stop him then, TVarr. But how? O Kalaiya, how?

The sled drifted under the fringes of the storm-dark. A gla.s.s.h.i.+p lowered its chains to snare them. Sword-slaves on fast-flying sleds skimmed in and jumped down among the barrels. It was a tricky manoeuvre and Tsen quietly admired their skill. They slowed the sled to a stop, made fast the chains, and the gla.s.s.h.i.+p dragged them in its slow leisurely way through the sky and lowered them to the earth. As it did, Tsen stared at the waiting chaos of this new Vespinese camp, the tvarr in him aghast. Men milled everywhere, most of them doing nothing. TVarrs and kwens prowled with small groups of soldiers, bawling orders and poking at slaves with sticks. The air was tinged with a crazy madness, discipline and order hanging by a thread. The desert, the dragon, the storm-dark, the G.o.dspike: everything was out of control and simply too much to grasp, and Tsen wanted to laugh, a wild crazy laugh because he knew exactly how the Vespinese felt, long past fear and well on the way to madness.

'We need to get up there. Sivan threw a hard look at Tsen. 'Those were Shondas gla.s.s.h.i.+ps we saw, werent they?

Tsen nodded. 'Silver gondolas. Vespinese. Abruptly he gripped Sivan by the collar. 'Understand me, s.h.i.+fter. I will not lift a finger for you without Kalaiya. And I will not be fooled. I will ask questions, and the answers will be things you cannot possibly know. Try to trick me and youll never leave my eyrie. Remember that I saw through you before.

'Ill bring you your slave, TVarr. That is the least of your worries. Sivan delicately lifted Tsens fingers away from his s.h.i.+rt. 'Whether you get to keep her depends on you.

They busied themselves doing what they were told, rolling the barrels of water off the sled and half-burying them in the sand under the shadow of the storm-dark above. The sun set and they worked on into the twilight and then the dark. A kwen paced among them, barking at them now and then to work harder. When they were done, another giant sled drifted over with a pair of Vespinese on the back to guide it. Water for the eyrie. And now Tsen found himself unearthing other barrels that were older and rolling them onto the new sled while the tvarr in him howled at the waste of effort. Why didnt they just take the load theyd brought straight on up?

In the darkness two of the slaves got into a fight and it took the kwen, three of his soldiers and a couple of sharp doses of lightning to separate them. Five minutes later a second fight kicked off. As soon as the Taiytakei were distracted, Sivan touched the soldier beside him lightly on the arm and stopped his heart. It was done and over in a second. A sword-slave squatted in the shadows and began stripping the dead soldiers clothes and weapons and armour. Sivan took down a second soldier from behind and then took the last two together. He walked up to the kwen, quick yet obsequious as anything, begging the kwen not to kill the quarrelsome slaves for their terrible discipline, a stream of placating words until he was close enough, and then killed him with a touch. The final soldier gawped, and that was the look on his face when he died, a split second later. The rest of the sword-slaves stopped, stripped the bodies, then finished loading the barrels as though nothing had happened. They opened the last few, half-emptied them and, one by one, got inside, all except the three now dressed as soldiers and Sivan dressed as their kwen, until only Tsen was left. The s.h.i.+fter gestured at the last barrel. 'Yours, TVarr.

A bath, at last, said some stupid voice inside him. Tsen climbed in. For Kalaiya, he told himself. 'And then?

Sivan laughed at him. 'You were tvarr to a sea lord. Use your imagination. The s.h.i.+fter closed the lid.

Zafir spent the last hours of daylight with the image of Shonda in her mind, remembering when the lord of Vespinarr had come to see Diamond Eye and one of his men had thrown lightning in the dragons face. That one. Find him. And Diamond Eye remembered that day too and found the distant pattern of Shondas thoughts. When he had it, Zafir pictured a gla.s.s.h.i.+p and a gondola, Shonda inside it, Diamond Eye falling like a stone to s.n.a.t.c.h both in his talons and flying away, carrying the gondola between his claws. She imagined it over and over until she knew that Diamond Eye understood. It filled the time, waiting for midnight.

They sent an Elemental Man. He climbed onto Diamond Eyes back, sat behind her and showed the bladeless knife he carried as if somehow she might have forgotten. 'Any one of us, slave. Any one of us can end you. Zafir hardly heard him. It didnt matter. If not today then they would kill her tomorrow. If not then, the day after. But not if I kill all of you first.

Star by star, the constellation of the dragon crept over the horizon. Zafir turned Diamond Eye to the west and flew him high into the deep dark of the night, far above the gla.s.s.h.i.+ps, hunting them out; and when he found them, Zafir circled slowly down as her dragon picked through all the thoughts that whispered below. Shed never understood quite how it worked, back in her own land, but shed always known that it did. Picture the foe you wanted to find, and if the dragon you rode knew that knight then they would hunt them out no matter how thick the battle, even in the turmoil of a thousand dragons and riders and rage and fire and air made of scorpion bolts. No matter what, theyd find that rider if you held your mind hard enough. Shed done it once over her home, over the Pinnacles, when Jehal and Hyrkallan had answered Valmeyans challenge and burned him out of the sky, but then shed let it go and taken life over death. There were times she regretted that choice. It would have been a proper way for a dragon-queen to die.

Diamond Eye s.h.i.+fted under her. Hed found what she was looking for.

Not so fast, my deathbringer. We have another wasp to swat.

Trapped in his barrel, sodden and cramped, Tsens legs went to sleep. He felt the sled move and rise and then for a long time nothing. His ears clicked and popped. His heart beat faster. His head started to hurt, just as it had when hed first come here after his flight to Dhar Thosis. He closed his eyes and tried not to whimper at the pain hed forgotten how thin the air was. At least he had water. Then a jolt as the sled landed he supposed in the dragon yard but there was no real way to know and voices. And then, for a long time, nothing until a tiny tap on the lid of his barrel.

'You just stay quietly there, TVarr. My men will get the eggs; Ill get your woman. Ill come for you when I need you. Tsen hissed something back but the s.h.i.+fter was already gone. He found himself quietly hoping that one of the dragon eggs might hatch halfway to the gla.s.s.h.i.+p. When he tried to move, his legs had gone to sleep and the lid of the barrel was firmly shut.

An interminable wait later someone pried open his barrel. For a moment Tsen didnt recognise the face in the darkness. When he did, his eyes flew wide. Chay-Liangs alchemist! 'What are you- 'Its Sivan, you idiot. Sivan clamped a hand over Tsens mouth.

His legs still didnt work. There was a lot of clumsy heaving and shoving and then Sivan gave up and tipped Tsens barrel over and spilled him onto the dragon yard. Tsen managed to lift himself half-up. He still couldnt feel anything in his legs. 'Are you mad? How can people not see what youre doing?

'Of course they can see! How would they not? They think I have a reason. They think Im the alchemist and so they let me do as I wish. His eyes glittered in the starlight. 'Cant you feel the tension, Tsen? Something has happened. The place is almost empty. Now come with me!

'I cant move! Tsen gasped and tried not to whine as the first pins and needles slowly worked their way from his feet to his hips. Alchemist-Sivan stood there, taut as a halyard. He was right. The air was electric. Uncommonly still. Even the wind . . .

'Come on, TVarr!

This was Sivan wearing the alchemists face but it was so hard to keep remembering. He kept starting to think or speak as though the real alchemist, Liangs slave, was there. 'Where is she? Wheres Kalaiya?

'Patience! Sivan propped him up as he dripped all over the sled and the barrels around him. There were dozens of men in the dragon yard. The Scales and others too. They were hauling eggs out of the hatchery and into the open.

'Dear forbidden G.o.ds!

'Dear G.o.ds indeed! Whenever youre ready, TVarr. I have her. Shes waiting for you.

Alchemist-Sivan jogged across the yard with far more grace than the real alchemist had ever shown and climbed one of the walls. Tsen looked about, still trying to remember how his legs were supposed to work. The dragon wasnt here but no one seemed bothered. As soon as he could walk without veering sideways and falling over, he followed to the other side of the wall and onto the bare rock rim where one of the six gla.s.s.h.i.+ps Chay-Liang had used to move the eyrie was chained into the stone. Its gondola hung nearby, close to the surface. The ramp was open.

Sivan handed Tsen his black rod. 'Release the chain!

Tsen touched the rod to the enchanted gla.s.s welded into the stone and thought of the chain coming loose. The gla.s.s s.h.i.+fted and parted and the chain jerked free. Sivan nodded to the gondola.

'Inside now! Get this over the yard where the eggs are.

Tsen shook his head. 'Kalaiya first.

The s.h.i.+fter shoved him hard. Tsen almost tripped and fell. He stumbled halfway up the ramp and staggered into the gondola. And there she was, scared and shaking like a leaf, but it was her.

'Kalaiya!

Zafir flew in straight and fast. Shondas gla.s.s.h.i.+ps couldnt possibly miss her. It will hurt, deathbringer. It will hurt us both. But it has to be this way. The lightning cannon of the nearest gla.s.s.h.i.+p began to glow. Theyd seen her. And after one lit up, another followed and then another. Shed felt it in Dhar Thosis. Lightning hurt but lightning didnt kill, not a dragon. And she had the armour that Chay-Liang made for her, while the Elemental Man behind her had nothing. Bound to the dragon by his harness, he couldnt simply s.h.i.+ft away into the air, and when the lightning came he would die. There was no way to be sure that he would die and she would not, but she didnt care any more. If Shonda killed her too, then so be it. Another gamble poorly made.

At the last moment Diamond Eye veered just as the first bolt hit him square in the shoulder. Zafir felt his mind blank and squealed in shared pain as his wing fell limp and he spiralled sharply down. A second blast hit him close behind her. Sparks arced over her gla.s.s-and-gold armour. The Elemental Man . . . But she had no room for those thoughts any more. She screamed as Diamond Eye tumbled and tipped onto his back, plummeting through the air towards the distant sand. A third blast hit him in the belly. The world spun, sky, earth, sky, earth, all roaring closer. The wind ripped at her head, trying to tear it off her shoulders. She clung to him. Her vision narrowed. Red tinged everything. For a moment she heard only a roaring, louder and louder in her ears, more than a hurricane wind the screaming wail of death and a thousand vengeful ancestors. The gla.s.s.h.i.+ps drifted away, lost into the darkness and a million twinkling stars. The desert sand rushed at her face. Zafir screamed again, one last savage burst of will to live, to stay breathing, for hearts to keep beating. Screamed into the chaos that was the dragons mind.

And lit, for a moment, a spark. A flicker of order, a surge of instinct. Diamond Eyes wings stretched and flared and tore at the rus.h.i.+ng wind with a savage bite that crushed her into his scales and squeezed every gasp of air out of her and then squeezed some more. She felt her ribs bend and creak, and there were her ancestors, riding their whirlwind to take her, and this time she had nothing left.

They hit the ground hard, hard as the smack of a dragons tail, and for a moment everything went dark; but her ancestors never came, and when she opened her eyes Diamond Eye was on the ground, his wings stretched wide, glaring at the sky while her body was one long tortured shriek of pain. She weathered it, waiting for the waves to fade enough for her to move. Three long painful breaths and then she sat up and never mind the hurt. Her face was bleeding where her helm had been slammed against it. Her ribs had taken the worst but those pains were hard throbbing aches, not sharp stabs. Nothing broken, then. Cracked maybe, but not broken. Diamond Eye pawed at the sand, hungry to smash and shatter and burn and rend, waiting for her to release him to be what a dragon should be but she didnt. He let out a cry, a challenge of fury and pain.

Is the killer dead? She couldnt feel him behind her but she couldnt turn her head enough to see. It hurt too much.

Diamond Eye threw himself into the air. Patience was something for others. It didnt matter. Death didnt matter. Death was the little death, and then came rebirth and hed come again, over and over until the creatures that flew and spat their white fire were smashed and gone. Zafir rode his rage, taking it in, mingling it with her own and the Great Flame knew she had plenty enough of that turning it and guiding it. Nudging him until he eased gently down from his fury. She let him race back and forth, burning the sand to gla.s.s to let the fire out of him until at last he was ready to listen.

Wait. Just a little, she soothed him. Just a little. Is the killer dead?

She brought him down and this time he stayed long enough for her to turn her head to the Elemental Man whod come to make sure that she obeyed. Neck snapped, lightning-charred, doll-limbed. Very, very dead.

She was free.

From above this time, she told the dragon. The way it should have been.

She started to laugh.

'Kalaiya! Tsen gazed at her face, and Kalaiya stared back as though he was mad and a complete stranger.

'Tsen? Youre not dead? But I saw- 'The rod. Quickly. Sivan pushed her away, none too gently, and if Tsen had had a knife on him he might have used it, but as it was he clenched his fists and did as Sivan asked. The gla.s.s.h.i.+p moved over the dragon yard. He felt Kalaiyas stare on his back as he lowered the gondola and watched in a daze as Scales brought four dragon eggs and rolled them up the ramp, doing exactly as alchemist-Sivan ordered. When they were done, Tsen brandished his black rod at the s.h.i.+fter. Sivan pointed to a small sled. The Scales loaded that too.

'Now do as you promised, Tsen hissed. Kalaiya was still staring at him. She wasnt stupid. Shed seen him use the rod and knew he was no illusion, and yet her eyes wouldnt have it.

'I saw you dead, she said. She touched him and his vision blurred with tears because she brought everything he loved back into the world simply by being there. Baros Tsen TVarr, short and fat and happy, only without much of the happy just now.

'Touching. Sivan pulled Kalaiya aside for a second time and stood at Tsens shoulder, a hand on his back. 'Down to the desert! Now! And quickly! We dont have long, TVarr. The Elemental Men will not be kind to you if they catch us.

Tsen touched the black rod to the pilot golem and they drifted away from the eyrie. 'What happens if they catch you, skin-s.h.i.+fter? Do the rest of your brother Righteous Ones under the Konsidar pretend you dont exist? Is it war between us?

He didnt get an answer. Sivan stood at his shoulder, tense as a drum. He flinched as Tsen almost skimmed the edge of the storm-dark in his haste to be away and only relaxed when they were underneath it where they wouldnt be seen. 'Now tell the golem to take us to the ground. Sivan clambered past the eggs and opened the gondolas ramp. A great wind rushed in and swirled around them. He grabbed Tsen and pushed him at the sled the Scales had loaded with the eggs.

'Ive done my part, TVarr, he shouted over the howl of the air. 'Ive got your woman for you. Now you do yours. Ride with me! Release the other gla.s.s.h.i.+ps. Drop your eyrie to be devoured by the storm-dark and no one will ever know!

Far away, out in same the desert night, Diamond Eye tucked in his wings and dropped from the sky like a falling star, straight and hard and fast, and this time the Vespinese never saw him coming. He hit Shondas gondola like a ball from a cannon, ripped it off its chains and fell on, and all the Vespinese saw was a blur and a mighty shape and a gondola that was hanging in the air one moment and gone the next, while the heart of the gla.s.s.h.i.+p above cracked and then shattered into fragments. The great gla.s.s disc shuddered in its spinning and began to slide out of the air. Diamond Eye barely even slowed. He levelled out across the dunes and not a single lightning cannon glowed in his wake.

How it should have been.

Zafir flew him skimming across the sand, miles and miles, and then brought him down. She unbuckled the corpse of the Elemental Man and threw it off and then slid down beside it. It was hard to resist the temptation to have her dragon pick up the gondola and shake it, but she simply knocked on the ramp instead. When nothing happened, Diamond Eye bit the ramp open and ripped it off. A crack of lightning shot out at once and hit him on the nose. She felt its sting but the dragon understood her mind and, dulled or wild, dragons always enjoyed playing a little with their food before they ate. He backed away and waited, watching her.

Zafir peered warily inside. One battered Taiytakei in emerald robes crouched behind an upturned table. She ducked instinctively as he fired his wand, but he was shaking so badly that the lightning hit the inside of the gondola. Behind him Shonda quivered under a table cut from a single diamond. The gondola walls were silver and jade, carved into dragons and lions. Six chests of gold sat against the walls, and three gla.s.s cabinets. The cabinet doors had fallen open and golden bottles and white clay pots rolled around the floor. Behind the diamond table a silver staircase curled up to a second level. Zafir narrowed her eyes. Diamond Eye felt three souls, all of them deliciously terrified, but she saw only two.

'Its up to you whether we make this b.l.o.o.d.y. Zafir stepped into the hole where the ramp had been, trusting to the armour the enchantress had made. 'Wheres the third of you? I know hes here.

Shonda fired straight at her chest. Her skin tingled, a few muscles twitched, a corona of sparks fluttered around her but nothing more. The man in the emerald feathers drew a long knife from his belt and threw himself forward. Zafir stepped back, letting him stumble past her and out of the gondola. He slashed. The blade skittered off her armour. She looked at him as he wheeled to face her, c.o.c.ked her head and then laughed at him, wondering whether to have Diamond Eye squash him or burn him. 'What do you think youre doing? Him in his emerald feathers and her in gold-gla.s.s armour. It seemed hardly fair.

Another thunderclap sounded behind her. She s.h.i.+vered and twitched. Shonda had shot her in the back. The enchantresss armour shrugged most of it aside, but the man with the knife took his chance and jumped, thrusting at her neck, and he might have killed her too if it hadnt been for the dragon-scale she wore underneath with its high collar. As it was, she staggered back, choking from the blow to her throat, while the emerald-feathered man feinted a thrust at her face, quick as a snake, kicked at her legs, almost knocking her down, then slashed at her chest and cut at her hand so quickly she only just whipped it away. He was limping. It slowed him, and that was probably the only reason she was still standing. Careless.

'Youre good. Zafir raised an eyebrow. 'Bodyguard? If I wasnt wearing this armour, youd win. I dont even have a weapon.

He was circling, trying to manoeuvre her back round to the hole so Shonda could shoot her again. She folded her arms.

'You realise I have a dragon?