“Hsssss!” Ymmen let out a strangled hiss of rage at the merest sight. But its eyes were dark and there was no smoke rising from its maw at all. It was dormant – but what did it mean? Had Inyene set a dragon to guard Montfre? Had she already uncovered us?
No, I considered as we circled high above the tower. “The dragon is useless unless it’s been lit, or brought to life,” I pointed out. The only benefit of it being here was as a carriage to carry someone.
Abioye, I thought with a grimace.
“Nari?” Tamin called towards me from where he was clamped to the dragon’s chest as well. I could sense his alarm in his words, as I shook my head.
“We go ahead with the plan.” I was adamant. Now we had the chance to free Montfre and capture Abioye. Maybe by the time morning’s light broke over the Plains this would all be over and my people would be free!
And besides, I considered. We couldn’t afford to go back and hide in the cave now, could we? Fankin had been working with the mine guards, probably leading them straight back to the cave. He must have been recaptured, I thought, either that or handed himself in to Dagan Mar with the promise of revealing us!
Whatever. What’s done was done, and there was no sense bemoaning a bad apple, I thought. You just had to throw it away and get on with it.
“Take us down,” I said, and I could feel Ymmen echoing my fierce attitude with one of his own. He approved.
The only weapons I had were my ridiculous flint blade and the staff, but Tamin was behind me as well. Even though Abioye was larger than me, and probably had a fine blade – I was sure that I would be able to outfight him if it came to it. Poison Berry. I remembered Ymmen’s name for him and sniggered. He was probably going to be drunk, anyway.
“Down here.” I lifted the trapdoor and, taking a breath, unslung the staff and started to creep down the stairs. Once again, there was a radiance coming up from below, and, just as before, there were muttered voices that became clearer the closer we tread.
“We have to act now!” I heard. It was Abioye’s voice – not slurred like last time, but tight and high with anxiety.
“Wait. Calm yourself, Lord Abioye,” I heard Montfre’s voice returning. He still sounded annoyed with Inyene’s brother. As well he might! I thought of the chains that the young mage wore. It was a burden that I knew only too well.
“No, you don’t understand – the window is closing – even as we speak!” I heard Abioye say, and we were so close now that I could hear him shuffling nervously from foot to foot. The lantern light of Montfre’s room illuminated the arched door and the corridor outside of it, and I could see a shadow cut across the wall.
“Just wait. There is someone you have to meet – an ally,” Montfre said.
“An ally? How on earth have you managed to find an ally in here!” Abioye burst out.
I held the staff low in front of me and stepped out into the doorway. “Some people are more resourceful than you can imagine, Lord Abioye,” I said grimly, mimicking Montfre’s condescending tone.
“You!” The young man whirled, his scarlet cape flaring about his broad shoulders as he did so, and his tousled hair quivering. His eyes were large and wide as they looked at me, and his face flushed a crimson.
“Seeing a ghost, my lord?” I said, unable to keep the grin from my face. “Don’t move,” I said, jabbing the staff forward a little. I didn’t hate him, I realized in that moment. What I had overheard between Abioye and Montfre, and what the mage had told me just last night, made me pity him if anything.
But he could be so much more than he is. The frustrated thought flashed across my mind. Maybe it was my Daza childhood – it wasn’t that we Plains people were ‘tough’ – what a ridiculous claim! – it was that we had to get things done if we wanted to live the life of the Plains. There was no time for bemoaning our misfortune, especially if it was perfectly in our power to change it!
“Narissea – wait!” Montfre was shuffling forward however, holding his hands out between both me and Abioye (not that Abioye had made any attempt to guard himself or threaten me, I noticed). “Abioye has come to help us,” he said to me earnestly.
He has? I frowned.
“I have?” Abioye echoed, looking from me to Montfre uncertainly.
“The window,” Montfre said out loud, while gently tapping the edge of the staff I held to bring it down. “You said that there was an opportunity to defeat your sister.”
“Oh, right.” Abioye blinked, shaking his head as I saw him cast another glance at me as if he still couldn’t believe that I stood there at all, and then look up as Tamin stepped from around the doorway too. “Dear stars – has there been a breakout?” he murmured.
“And why would that worry you, Lord Abioye?” my uncle said sternly to the finely
dressed noble, with all of the authority of an older man scolding a younger.
“Oh, no – I mean good, if there was,” Abioye prevaricated quickly. “But a breakout would mean that it might already be too late.”
“Montfre,” I handed the staff to him, the strange young man’s face lighting up. “No, there’s been no breakout, but yes, my uncle and I have been surviving in the wilderness, and please-please could someone explain to me what this plan is you’re talking about!”
Abioye swallowed nervously, nodding. “My sister has been beside herself since one of the criminals came back. He walked back to the mines; would you believe it! Pounded on the outer palisade gates and demanded to be taken to Dagan Mar, shouting that he knew where a large black dragon was hid!”
Fankin, I thought. It had to be, didn’t it? “The plan, Abioye,” I said. I really didn’t want to hear anything about that creep Fankin again, but Abioye was insistent.
“This returnee said that the dragon was not far from the Masaka camp, and that it had eaten you two!” Abioye looked at us in astonishment. “He promised to lead the way to its lair, in exchange for a post as one of Inyene’s guards.”
“He probably realized that he wouldn’t survive a night out in the mountains on his own,” Tamin muttered under his breath.
“My sister sees it as an opportunity. Track down the living black dragon, use her mechanical dragons to kill it, and then harvest its scales, even though she has enough now for twenty or more of her own.”
“Skrearch!” There was a distant sound of a roar, muffled and far above us, but it was still clear just how furious Ymmen was at the thought.
“Oh, dear stars,” Abioye breathed. “It’s here!”
“He’s my friend,” I growled, with a touch of the soot and fire of the dragon anger in my own voice.
“He’s…” I could see the lordling struggle to grasp the concept. “Does that mean that you two…?” Abioye’s cheeks flushed pink once again. Was he jealous? I thought wryly.
“Narissea is bonded, if that is what you mean,” Tamin said sternly, stepping forward at my side. When he next spoke, his voice sounded strong and clear – and proud. “Narissea of the Souda is the first of our people that I have ever heard tell of to become a true dragon friend.”
“Oh,” Abioye said.
Whatever. I wondered whether Abioye was stumped by the fact that he was no longer the one who could ‘save the day’. But I still wanted to hear his plan, however. Maybe we’ll even let him help us out, I thought charitably.