He set about washing her arms with a cloth, wiping away the smears. He was tender in his touch, but his eyes held guilt.
‘I’m sorry I left you,’ he said. ‘Try as I might, once I am dancing with death …well, he leads.’
She felt an echo of what she might have said, once, about how it was not his job to protect her. She did not have the heart to say it, though, or maybe she did not really even believe it right now.
‘Thank you,’ she said, touching his face. ‘Thank you for saving me.’
He sighed. ‘I never should have brought you with me.’
‘No, I’m glad that you did,’ she said. Though deep down she meant it, it was hard to inject conviction into her words. In her mind’s eye she saw again the dripping fangs descending, and she shuddered. If she was going to die young, she had always expected it to be in a noose, or by blade, something human …not to have her head bitten off by a monster. Never in all her years of hairy moments and near misses, fights and falls, had she been so afraid.
Downstream Jaya saw Hiza and M’Meska also bathing. The Saurian lounged across the stream as if it were the most comfortable of beds, her tail swishing lazily. Hiza sat in silence, staring at bubbles as he scrubbed his arms. He had been scared too, Jaya supposed, though perhaps like her, he tried not to let it show. She knew he had something to prove, fighting alongside this childhood friend of his who had become the stuff of legend – he wanted to show that he too could play a part. Perhaps the after-shocks of his fear would remain hidden, repressed, and become the kind of thing that made him jolt awake in bed, sweating, years from now.
She hoped they would live that long.
Meanwhile Bel, who always seemed capable of shrugging off danger, appeared much more disturbed by the revelation that Gellan had actually been Losara.
‘I should have guessed,’ he said glumly. ‘There were moments, looking back, when I should have suspected …well, something.’
‘How could you have known?’ she replied.
How could any of them? Bel was not the only one who had spent long whiles conversing with Losara. She too had shared many things with him, in idleness; they now seemed like conversations that would have been worth holding on to. And yet Losara was a part of Bel, so was it any wonder they had gotten along? It was very confusing.
‘He tricked us all, Bel,’ she said, cupping his cheek in her wet hand. ‘We all thought he was our friend. We all told him things about ourselves, as people do on long journeys together.’
‘Mmm.’ He sounded unconvinced.
‘You liked him,’ continued Jaya. ‘I liked him. Maybe that’s what’s worse. But it was all a lie.’
‘Yes. Lies. Betrayal. Hallmarks of the shadow. But we still won! We got the Stone. And,’ he added thoughtfully, ‘some unexpected benefits from that, indeed.’
‘Yes,’ she said, though she wasn’t quite sure what they had won. A tiny piece of the puzzle , came her thought, echoing Losara’s words. And a long way to go yet.
‘But he spared us,’ she added, almost to herself. ‘He spared me.’
A shadow passed across the sun.
Bel felt wind on the back of his neck, making the droplets of water there cold. The ground shook as something heavy landed upstream, and Hiza gasped. Bel turned slowly, almost knowing what it was he would see. There, some thirty paces away, straddling the stream, was the other dragon.
‘If it’s not one thing …’ he muttered to himself.
The dragon was as large as his mother, but much more terrifying – after all, he was alive. Covered with green scales, his long neck wobbled shakily as he considered them first with one eye, then the other – which was huge. Bloodshot veins crisscrossed it like a complex system of roots, and it bulged horribly, fit to burst from its socket. The creature blinked, a scaly lid sliding down over the malformed eye more slowly than over the other, stretching but not fully covering it before retreating. Maybe that was where I am destined to strike , thought Bel, through the eye into the brain, bypassing the creature’s armoured skin .
Hiza and M’Meska, who were closer to the beast, began to back away. The dragon inhaled, wide nostrils flaring, discernibly drawing the air around them towards him.
‘Behind me,’ said Bel. He rose to his feet; this was made more difficult by Jaya clinging to him, but he managed to bring her up also.
‘We should make for the trees,’ whispered Hiza. The woods, into which the stream ran, were only a few paces away.
The dragon spoke, his voice cracked and strangely high-pitched, as if it were an effort to strangle words out of his throat.
‘These are the ones,’ he said. ‘Yes, yes, left their smell in the cave. What do they say, these? What do they say, how do they say, what what do they say, say?’ He took an ungainly step forward, as if he lacked a sense of balance.
‘Back up,’ muttered Bel. ‘Everyone back up.’
‘What about you?’ whispered Jaya.
‘Go,’ he said, and felt behind him to give her a push towards the trees. She grabbed at him but Hiza took her arm, dragging her away as Bel drew his sword.
‘Tiny pig-sticker,’ hissed the dragon, eyeballing the blade. ‘Good for cutting heads off reeds, good for slicing bread …good for swishing ’way the flies, good to make things red. Good, good.’ He chortled, a discordant sound full of many mismatched notes. ‘Good for killing Olakanzar dead? We shall see, we shall see. Shall we see?’
Bel felt the familiar tingling of his blood, but had no sense yet of what move he should make. Something was there, though – he could feel it.
‘We did not kill your mother!’ he called.
It was the wrong thing to say. The dragon’s eyes shone with fury, and it rocked on its heels and roared. As it came forward it opened its mouth, and molten flame spewed forth. Bel stumbled away from the heat and heard Jaya cry out from the trees. He fell into the stream and rolled to look for his companions. They were waiting just inside the wood, watching in terror. There were the steps to be taken. For a moment he lay confused, for they did not lead towards the dragon, but away. Then, bitterly, he understood – he could not hope to win this fight. The path was telling him to flee.
The dragon cantered forward, gathering momentum, and opened his mouth for a second burst. In a second Bel was on his feet, sloshing through the stream and heading for the trees.
‘Fall back!’ he shouted, and his companions drew away into the woods. He barrelled in after them as unworldly heat dogged his heels, then he broke through branches and sprawled headlong into the undergrowth. Trees behind him blazed alight. Then M’Meska was hauling him to his feet. ‘Further,’ he wheezed.
There came a great rending as the dragon smashed down trunks, thrusting his head in after them. Bel forced himself to push on, winded though he was, and together they fled further into the wood. Fire erupted once more behind them, and instantly the entire edge of the wood was burning.
Some fifty paces from the wood’s edge Bel had to stop, for he had no breath. The others circled him, watching the flashing flames and angry eyes that stared back. Bel could feel his face reddening as he struggled to suck in air.
‘Dragon!’ called Hiza, his voice quavering. ‘Do you hear me?’
‘Olakanzar!’ raged the dragon, shaking the trees and making leaves fall.
‘Olakanzar, then!’ shouted back Hiza. ‘It was not us who tore apart your mother! How could we, small that we are, when your mother was so mighty?’
The head wobbled back and forth, the enormous baleful eye searching for them amongst the growth.
‘They lie?’ the dragon said. ‘Do they lie? Do they lie like the grass lies on the ground, like the meaning of words lies within sound?’
‘It like black one said,’ muttered M’Meska. ‘Dragon insane is.’