"Marik and Caderan summoned a major demon, a Lord of the Rakshasa, and he was going to give me to it. The Dragons"— "Forgive me, Akor, it is the word they know"— "do I not tolerate demons on their island. The Guardian has destroyed it."
"Come," he said to me, and turning to the people said calmly, ''There is no need to fear. I have delivered both you and my own people from a great evil. I will not harm you." ''Let us leave them, dearling,'' he said in the Language of Truth. ''It seems your people are no more prepared for our friendship than are mine. Will you come with me?"
"With all my heart," I answered. "Is there somewhere we can go to rest?"
''We shall go to my chambers near the Great Hall. Come.''
He gathered me in his hands and leapt into the night. I held tight for the very few moments of flight until we came to land outside his chambers. He brought wood and lit a fire, then curled around it and let me sit against him.
I thought I was doing well until I sat down against his warmth. It was as though someone had suddenly cut the strings that had held me up, for I began to shake and to babble about nothing, and finally to weep in earnest. I sat huddled against his neck with his head beside me and his wings soft about me. and I told him as I sobbed of the haunted dreams and tortured wakings, of the demon and the dread sinking in my soul when it touched me, of the horror of helplessness in the face of so great an evil. He had the wisdom to say nothing, but when I had finished talking and had only tears left, he kept repeating, "It is gone, Lanen, back to its dwelling place. It is destroyed in this world, it cannot return until it has recovered so far as to enflesh itself again, and that will not be in your lifetime."
My lifetime. So short a time we had together. As long as a Weh sleep, no more—"Dear Goddess, no!" I cried.
She seemed so fragile in that moment. I had not been prepared for her storm of tears, though when it came I understood. In times of great stress my own people take to the air, and flame and sing to the sun or the stars until the madness has left them.
"What is it, dearling?" I asked gently in truespeech. "I am here, I will let no harm come nigh you.''
"Not me, you," she said, and I felt her fear. "Akor, your wounds—" She dropped her voice. "Blessed Shia—will the Weh sleep come on you?"
I closed my eyes in relief and pulled her close with my wing. ''No, dearling, they are not so bad as all that. They will heal of their own in time."
She let out her breath in a great sigh, and her fear was gone as swiftly as it had come. I thought for a moment and was surprised at the conclusion I came to.
"Lanen Kaelar!"
"Still here," she said aloud, smiling gently now, wiping the tears from her face, reaching out to touch me.
''You feared that the Weh sleep would take me from you.''
"Yes."
I had no words, no response, but unbidden my mind rang with the first notes of the song we had made between us, and I opened my mind to my beloved. She joined me, just for a little while, and in the Language of Truth we sang again our joy. Soon, though, Shikrar bespoke me. He had gone to tell the Council of the killing of the
Rakshasa, as I had asked, but it had not helped matters. They wished to ask me particulars of the battle, and if I knew which of the creatures I had fought. I left Lanen safe in my chambers.
I was greatly relieved when Akhor bespoke me and said all was well with them. He asked that I keep Rella company until the Council could come to some decision. My father was in the Great Hall now, telling them news they would not wish to hear. For my part I was intrigued the the Gedri who sat before the fire I had made, and I understood Akhor's wishing to speak with them. The Boundary was safe between us—I stood a little back in hiding and listened on all levels for any trespass by others of her race—but I longed to hold converse with her. Yet I was bound even as Akhor was bound; I could not speak first. She had gathered the wood in silence, and when I had lit it for her she only looked at me. She would have to—
"Dragon? Are you still here?"
"I am, Lady Rella. I stand Guardian, and Lord Akhor has given you into my keeping."
She moved so that she could at least partially face me. "How kind. Am I your prisoner?"
"Forgive me, lady, I am not so fluent in your language as Akhor. I do not know that word. What does it mean?"
"Will you hold me here against my will?"
I was shocked. ''Lady, what do you think of us? My Lord Akhor thought you would be in danger if you returned to your own people, so he has asked me to watch over you here. We await only the word of the Council to bring you where the Lady Lanen waits now."
"So I am free to go."
''Wherever you wish, though we cannot cross the Boundary to protect you."
"Why not? Akhor did. Three times."
"All three were to save the life of—of Lady Lanen."
"I see," said the Gedri. "And I am not as worthy of protection as she is."
"It is a different case, Lady Rella. Lady Lanen is—"
"Oh, spare me the 'Lady'! Just use our names, Dragon. And I don't see why her case should be different." She put her hand to her face. ''I have two black eyes thanks to that girl— though I did ask for one." She made a noise which I guessed was a kind of laugh.
"And thanks to Lady Lanen, I have a living mate and a son, where all was death before," I answered a little sternly.
"What?" She stood and came up to the Boundary. "Do you tell me that she saved your wife and child?''
In as few words as possible, I told her our half of the tale. She told me the rest, then fell silent for some time. "Wretched child," she said, shaking her head. "Idiot. Burn your arms off for—oh, dear Lady." She put her hands before her mouth for a moment, then looked up at me.
"Dragon, did you see her before Akhor brought her here? Did you see her wounds?"
I bowed my head. ''I did not. I never thought she might be in such pain, she made never a sound, all her heart was in the saving of my child—''
"I am—my work has taken me many places, and I have seen death in forms more terrible than most have to know, but in all my life I was never so sickened by anything as by the sight of her burns. Her arms were naught but shreds of muscle stretched over—oh, I can't." She turned away for an instant, then looked straight at me. "If your Akor had taken a single moment longer to get her to the Healer, she would have died in agony. You owe her two lives, Dragon, you know that."
I bowed to her. "I know it full well. And my name is Kédra, Lady Rella."
"I told you, it's just Rella."
"No, lady," I replied. "By your actions this night you have preserved the life of the Lady Lanen, and that for no hope of gain that I can see, simply of your kindness. 'Lady' is among my people a term of respect, and for that kindness I am afraid that you shall always be Lady Rella to me." She smiled at me then, a crooked grin that suited her well. "Oh, well. I suppose I'll just have to put up with it."
I finally stopped running about a quarter mile from the place. I was heading south from some instinct of finding safety on the ship, but my true fear was that there was no safety anywhere.
Call me coward, but what is the point of bravery in the face of certain deaths Perhaps Berys could stand up to an angry Dragon, but I couldn't. When I realised it did not pursue me, I began to walk cautiously back along the dark, rough path to the cabins.