Ileth wondered what Taf would think of one of her night-dresses being described like that.
“I think—” At the last second she changed her phrasing from I think you’re wrong to something more indirect. Once in a while a stutter could save you. “I think the eggs are gone. They went out in a food cart. Yael Duskirk did it.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway. Their relative sizes made her feel like an insistent child hauling a parent to a sweet-cart.
“You’re sure?”
“There’s vomit at the intersection.”
They came up to the puddle. He squatted to examine it. “Human. It smells like . . . wine.”
“I’ve cleaned up enough sick to know the smell and look. The s-smell of dragon stomach makes Duskirk vomit. I bet she made a terrible mess in her throes.”
“How’s he getting away, then?”
“A boat? There’s fog on the lake. Or . . . or maybe—”
“Maybe what?”
“Fespanarax. Did he come to see Vithleen?”
“No. Never even heard his step.”
“Zwollen in Galantine, and now one here, with the s-same results. Blue teeth. I think Fespanarax brought some poison back with him in that sealed box. Something that turns your teeth blue.”
“Yes. Called gravesleaf. Hael told me that tale. He’s been buried in herbs and lore on the stuff. Killed a couple pigs with his experiments. It makes sense. Fespanarax was there, and here, and now he and three priceless dragon eggs are gone. And that Duskirk kid’s been about him a lot. Seen ’em together.”
“What’s to be done?”
“We need to fly, and fast. Fespanarax has a head start. You’ll have to jump if you’ve a chance to catch him.”
Ileth was forming a reply when the Borderlander grabbed her hand and pulled her along. Now he was the parent pulling a poky child up the passage toward the kitchens. She struggled to keep up with his long, fast strides.
They moved through the chaos, one more loose leaf in a swirling river of activity.
“This isn’t the way to—” Ileth said.
“I know. Catherix ain’t even in the caves. She’s way above.”
“Without you?”
“She has brains, more’n me. She’s keeping watch, high above, where only she’s strong enough to get to—just in case there are some other dragons coming from, say, the Galantine lands to help get these eggs. Catherix likes a height advantage. It’s her favorite move. When she comes down, well, it’s like getting hit by an avalanche on fire.”
“Then where are we going?”
“The flight cave.” The Borderlander told her to save her breath for running.
They found Aurue on watch in the cave, guarding the entrance.
“We need you up and after Fespanarax now, Aurue,” the Borderlander said. “You’re our only hope of catching Fespanarax.”
Aurue twitched in thought.
“Me? Fly against Fespanarax?” Aurue asked. His Montangyan had improved while she was in the Galantine lands. “First: why? Second: he’s many times my size! Many. Third: you must be mad. Fourth: I’m already at my post.”
The Borderlander threw a wool blanket on Aurue’s back. “First, keep quiet. Second’s also ‘keep quiet’ and that goes for the rest of the listed items as well.” The Borderlander took off his cloak and handed it to Ileth. “This’ll have to do.”
“He has n-no scale,” Ileth as she accepted his overlong coat.
“I am aware of that,” Aurue said.
“You should fly on him,” Ileth said. “You’re the d-dragoneer.”
“Well, you have extra brains to make up for that mouth full of sling-stones. He’s not full-grown yet, and you’re light as a feather. Aurue with you is the best chance we have. Having no scale means he’s quick as hot oil and he can change color so’s a cat wouldn’t see him at night if they were sharing the same tree. Just the thing for following Fespanarax wherever he takes the eggs. My guess is he’ll make for somewhere familiar, and that means the Galantine Baronies. You know the Galantine lands, speak the tongue. If anyone can track him there, it’s you.”
“I don’t know the Galantine lands as well as all that. I can find my way to exactly one estate.”
“Figure it out as you go along. That’s what I do.”
The Borderlander found a cable about the thickness of his thumb and tied it neatly around Aurue, expertly putting three loops in it, one for each foot and a third atop the dragon’s spine; fortunately he was young and his spikes were still small. He also dug up a cargo net from the flying supplies and tied it around Aurue’s neck expertly.
“You’re doing it emergency-fashion, Ileth. You’ve been working your legs two years now. Time to test ’em. The net’s just in case you get a chance at those eggs.”
“I’m not threaded for reins!” Aurue said.
“Good, she won’t be hauling on your ears when you should be listening with them,” the Borderlander said. “Catherix isn’t threaded for reins. We do all right.”
Ileth climbed on and wrapped her dance-slippered toes around the stirrup lines. She didn’t feel at all ready to go after perhaps the biggest dragon in the Serpentine, and the most expert fighter.
“What is going on here?” an apprentice with an etching board said, running forward. Dragon departures were scrawled all over it. “Who is she?”
“Ileth flying Aurue, and if you knew your job you’d recognize them.” The Borderlander grabbed him by the shoulders, spun him, and launched him clear of the dragon and rider by the expedient of pressing his boot against the apprentice’s backside and kicking hard. “Going after the stolen eggs.”
The Borderlander returned, checked Ileth’s seat, and slapped the gray dragon at the base of the throat. “I’ve seen you fly. You got speed, Aurue. Time to use it. He’ll probably follow the river south, low, next to the hills while the moon’s low, keeping in the moon’s shadow.”
Aurue blinked. He took a deep breath and warmed his wings.
“Warm them up there,” the Borderlander said. “Fly like you’re escaping hell, you two.” The Borderlander brought his fists up and together in that gesture Ileth had seen. But not to her. He did it to Aurue. Aurue reared up and Ileth clung on, white-knuckled, for dear life. But she still saw the dragon mirror the man with his own front claws, making the tightest fist a dragon could with them.
With that he moved to the opening.
Fly they did. Aurue jumped out of the cave, almost leaving Ileth behind as she tightened her grip on the rope and about his neck, made the turn, and stayed low.
Ileth couldn’t help but think it was a fool’s errand. They’d delayed too much. Unless Fespanarax had also delayed, he was well ahead of them. Fespanarax was too clever to count on confusion lasting until morning.
Dragons with dragoneers on their back circled over the gate, hunting the approaches to the Serpentine. One swooped low, executing a neat trick as she (at least Ileth thought she was green, it was hard to tell at night) shot through the pillars of the Long Bridge, looking for boats rowing away. Aurue followed her. Ileth closed her eyes as he went through the bridge, briefly closing his wings and turning himself into an arrow.
Aurue was fast, frighteningly so. It was like Vithleen riding a greased fish-chute. The lake slipped by beneath them at a horizon-eating pace.
Then, near the great Heartbreak Cliff south of Vyenn, they both saw a shower of fire. Dragonfire, it had to be, and in its light she saw the flash of a white dragon belly.
Ileth saw her first aerial dragon duel that night and learned two important lessons: first, that they were often over quickly, and second, that you could lose one before you knew you were in it if you were taken by surprise. In later years, those early lessons would save her life more than once. But on this night she was mostly an observer.