9
Her gear was ready. Her cottage was barred and prepared for winter. If all went well, Sara thought, she would come back in a month or two after the furor over the dragon died down in the village. She would find a new cave for Cobalt and let her life return to normal. Everything would be all right.
So why did she feel like she was lying to herself?
She loaded her packs, her weapons, and the dragon saddle on the bay and hurried him up the trail behind he cottage into the trees. Dusk had turned to dark night, for clouds obscured the sky, but Sara knew the trail so well she didn't need extra illumination. Her feet followed the familiar contours of the trail without mishap, and in just a few short hours, she and the horse entered the clearing before the cave.
"Cobalt!" she called to warn him of her presence.
Silence met her cry. She peered in through the entrance and sensed the cave was empty. Cobalt was not there.
Impatiently she unpacked the horse, stacking her gear close to the cave. The dragon would be back soon; he was probably out hunting-she hoped. As soon as the horse was unloaded, she removed his harness and the lead rope, leaving only the halter. A quick slap on the rump sent him trotting toward home. The old bay knew the trail so well, she had no doubt he would make his way back to the cottage, where someone was bound to find him. That done, she sat down to wait for Cobalt.
Her wait was a long one. It was just past dawn when Sara heard the rush of wind in dragon wings and looked up to see the familiar shape of the blue wheeling down to land in the clearing. He rumbled happily to see her.
At that same moment, she heard unmistakably the distant keen of a hunting horn.
"Oh, bleeding moons!" she snapped. "Cobalt! Where have you been?"
Ignoring the horn and the urgent tones of Sara's voice, Cobalt carried something under his forearm into the cave. There came the sound of digging and stones being moved.
Sara strode into the cave, her gray eyes flashing. "Cobalt! We must leave, now! What are you doing?" In the deep gloom of the cave, she could see nothing, but she could hear the dragon industriously digging in the far end of the cavern. "You're burying something." Her voice was an accusation.
"Just a few little things I picked up from some hill dwarves," he muttered.
There was no time to argue this. Sara strode forward and grabbed the first part of his anatomy she reached, his blunt tail, and tugged hard. "Cobalt, if you have a stash here already, fine. I don't care, just bury it well. We will be gone from here for a while."
The dragon paused, for her worry had reached him at last. "Why?"
"There are people from my village coming to look for you. I don't want them hurt."
"Where are we going?"
"Neraka," she replied flatly.
Cobalt's eyes gleamed gold in the darkness. "Why?"
Sara was exasperated. "Is that all you can ask?"
"I want to know. You've been stewing over Neraka for days."
Sara tried to sort through the jumble of her feelings, and it was out of the jumble, not from any reasoning process, that she said, "Because I have to."
What the dragon made of that he did not say. He only shoved the dirt back in his hole, tossed on a few rocks, and trampled it all down. Then he nudged Sara out the opening.
For the moment, they said nothing more, postponing for a breathing space anything else that needed to be said. Sara hurriedly harnessed the dragon saddle to Cobalt's back and strapped on her packs.
In the quiet of the coming morning, they heard clearly the bay of dogs and the muffled shouts of approaching men.
She donned her cloak and gloves and, without further hesitation, pulled the helm down over her silver hair. It was time to go. Cobalt bent his foreleg to help her up, and she swiftly climbed into the saddle.
As soon as she was strapped in, his powerful hind legs thrust them up into the cold, clear air. His translucent wings unfurled, blue sails against a cerulean sky.
The sun lifted above the eastern peaks just in time to gild his scales with pale gold. He gleamed like a blue diamond caught in a beam of light.
From below came more shouts and angry cries. Sara glanced down and saw several dozen men running through the trees below. They carried flails and pitch-forks, few old swords, and bows. One man even had a lance. Sara knew they wouldn't have stood a chance against a dragon like Cobalt. She did not know whether to admire them for their courage and determination or laugh at their idiocy. Briefly she saluted them before the dragon carried her away out of sight.
They flew south for a time, paralleling the range of peaks in the Vingaard Mountains. The day was crisp, the air crystal clear, and the winds aloft were just strong enough to provide lift for Cobalt's wings-perfect flying weather. The blue stretched out his neck. He flattened his horns and reveled in the joy of flight.
Strangely, Sara was able to share in his pleasure. She had left her work, her home, her friends, and perhaps her future behind to face dark intrigue, evil, and dismal danger in the days ahead. And yet she felt relieved, almost excited. A terrible tension in her mind, one she had not even recognized, was gone, shattered with the strength of her final acceptance of her duty. This journey was right. She knew it with every fiber of her being, and if she died or failed in her attempt, at least she had made the effort and not languished in Connersby, always wondering if she should have.
Sara smiled to herself. Steel would have been proud of her actions whether or not he approved of her intentions.
She let Cobalt fly for most of the morning before she suggested he find a place to hide and rest.
He did not argue, since he was already tired from a night of hunting and chasing hill dwarves, and he banked down to a narrow canyon where a creek provided water and a cliff offered an overhang just large enough to shelter a blue dragon.
Sara cut some pine boughs for a bed and, weary from her long night, wrapped herself in her cloak and went to sleep. Nothing disturbed her, and she woke several hours after sunset feeling refreshed, if a little stiff from the unyielding ground.
Get used to it, she told herself. There was no telling what lay before her in the days ahead. To be honest, Sara did not know exactly what she planned to do when she reached Neraka. Ideally she wanted to hide on a high vantage point overlooking the city and just watch what was going on without stepping foot in its foul streets. When she had seen all there was to see, she and Cobalt could slip away unsuspected. That was the ideal.
But Sara knew from long experience that life was rarely ideal. Scouts or flying dragon guards could spot her; she and Cobalt could be captured, possibly executed as spies. And if she did not go into the city, she would miss a wealth of detailed information about the knights: their organization, their leaders, their strength, their plans.
Lord Ariakan had studied everything he could about the Solamnic Knights before he formed his own order for the Dark Queen. Know your enemy, he used to expound to his men, and his precepts had worked. The knights had been highly successful against the Solamnics – until the god of Chaos turned against them all.
Yet if she went into Neraka itself, there were dozens of new difficulties to think through. She had never been to Neraka before. What was it like? Could she get in undetected? If she was questioned, how would she explain her presence to the authorities? How would she get out? Should Cobalt go with her? Would he want to go?
When she asked the blue that question, he cocked his head to one side and repeated what he had told her earlier in the mountains near Daron. "I've already lost one rider. I do not want to lose another."
"Will you keep my identity secret from the other dragons?"
He huffed a cloud of steam. "Since they would kill you if the knew, of course I will." He thought of something else and added, "What if one of the older knights recognizes you?"