“Look out!” I yelled at him, not that he could do anything even if he knew of the attack coming.
I yanked Fezzik from its holder and sprayed bullets at the gold dragon. They bounced off a magical shield, as I’d expected they would, but he looked at me and adjusted his target. His green eyes flared brightly as he dove toward me.
There was nothing to hide behind, the ski slope cleared of boulders long ago, and the trees were too far away. I crouched, facing him like an idiot. An idiot with no other options.
He opened his maw as he descended, fire preceding his dive. I ran to the side as flames blasted the shale on the ground, rocks snapping under the heat. My fire-protection charm kept me from suffering the same fate, but the blast of heat turned my skin pink.
The dragon came through the flames, jaws snapping at my head. I shifted my body out of his reach as I whipped Chopper up to meet those fangs. I connected with his mouth, the blade clanking as it sank into scale and flesh, but a wing swept in from the side and knocked me back.
Only by a near-impossible feat of agility did I manage to keep my feet under me. Which was good because he landed, his neck swinging to the side, his maw coming in for another attack. Dark blood dripped from the side of his mouth, but he wasn’t seriously injured.
I sprinted, not away from him but away from his neck and head. His tail lay ahead of me, flexed out a few feet above the ground. I rushed toward it as his maw followed me, his jaws snapping at the spot where I’d just been. Springing, I landed on the curving, flexing, balance beam of a tail. In a move I couldn’t have replicated in saner moments, I ran up it onto his back, his scales as slick as ice under my boots. Or maybe that was his magical shield.
The dragon spun in a circle, bucking to throw me into the air. I went up but somersaulted and jabbed outward with Chopper as I came back down, trying to plunge my blade into him like a mountaineer burying his pick in the rocks.
Fearing my sword would bounce off, I cried, “Eravekt,” the only command for it I knew, and dumped all of my will—all of my power—into that thrust.
Chopper flared intensely blue and sank through the shield and into dragon flesh.
My foe stiffened and cried out in startled pain and rage. Unlike with Dob, my sword had stabbed into his back to one side of his spine, not hitting a vital target. But I was shocked the blade had entered at all. I gripped the hilt with both hands to stay on as the dragon bucked and writhed, trying to knock me off, roaring in fury. Only thanks to my grip on the hilt of the embedded sword did I stay on. But then a spearhead of magical power slammed into my chest like a battering ram.
Chopper was torn from the dragon’s flesh, and I flew backward, unable to do anything except slam down onto the ground. The power had hit me right in the solar plexus, and my muscles spasmed. I couldn’t breathe, and a magical weight crushed down on me from above, keeping me from rolling over and jumping to my feet.
The gold dragon stalked toward me, my death blazing in his eyes.
26
As I struggled to rise, to at least get off my back so I could face my death head on, the gold dragon stalked straight at me. His magic held me down. I couldn’t move. Even as I tried to will Chopper’s power to free me, or my own power, I knew it wouldn’t work. The dragon wouldn’t underestimate me again.
His great maw yawned open, orange fire roiling up from the back of his throat. If I couldn’t move and it hit me straight on… even my charm wouldn’t save me.
A shadow came in from the side, and something black landed atop me, blocking my view of the gold dragon.
Zav.
Blood dripped down his sides and splashed the rocks to either side of me, but he crouched, powerful leg muscles rippling under his sleek scales, and he breathed fire at the gold dragon even as the gold targeted him. The flames should have targeted me, but Zav blocked them with his body.
Heat and dancing flames scorched the ground to either side of him, shale blasting apart and striking my face and hands.
Distracted by Zav, the gold dragon no longer held me down with his magic. My chest muscles were still spasming from the blow to my solar plexus, but I managed to suck in a few wheezing breaths as I rolled to my hands and knees and then into a crouch. Zav was so large that I could almost stand straight under his belly.
But what could I do from under there with fire blasting down all around him? He was my shield, and I feared the sacrifice would cost him, that he could only withstand so much fire. This entire battle would cost him, even if we somehow beat the odds and won.
The gold dragon’s fire halted. Zav’s fire also halted, and darkness returned to the mountainside. I sensed the two other dragons farther up the slope, one injured and lying on his side and the other facing us. But he didn’t advance. All of the dragons had stopped moving.
Since their auras were so powerful, it took me a moment to sort through all the magic that I sensed to realize that a portal had opened. I scooted to the edge of Zav’s body, reaching up to rest a hand on his scales to try to convey that I appreciated his help, and saw the glowing silvery pane floating vertically in the air. The portal was huge, large enough for a dragon to fly through. Maybe someone was calling back the inquisitor and his cursed allies. Dare I hope?
Three more dragons flew out of the portal. I groaned. Had this many dragons ever been on Earth at once? Was all this because of me? Because I’d killed Dob?
Two of the new dragons were black, but I had no idea if that denoted a relationship to Zav. The third was a striking lilac that, under other circumstances, I would have admired.
Zav’s wings drooped.
“Are we even more screwed now?” I asked.
That is my mother, my sister, and Shaygorthian’s brother. They are all on the Dragon Justice Court.
“I’m not sure that answers my question.”
The arrival of two of Zav’s kin seemed to suggest that he had reinforcements, but Shaygor and his relatives outnumbered them. And I didn’t know if Zav’s mother and sister were here to help him… or to punish him for his role in Dob’s death.
You think this is some lawless frontier where our rules and regulations will not be enforced? one of the black dragons boomed into my mind—into all of our minds, judging by the shuffling feet of the dragons. Only Zav stood immobile, still over me, still protecting me.
The voice sounded female and old and confident. I guessed this was Zav’s mother.
We came to collect this mongrel who admits to having killed Dobsaurin, Shaygor replied. This is not breaking any regulations.
You were trying to kill her, the mother said.
Had Zav been communicating with her somehow from across the galaxy? Or did dragon magic allow them to look into what was happening on other worlds? How else could she know? Maybe she had the power to read the minds of other dragons.
She deserves that fate, Shaygor said. And our laws were never meant to protect verminous human criminals.
Our laws are for all.
The mother looked at me, violet eyes similar to but harder than Zav’s pinning me.
I stepped out from under him, Chopper in hand, and held my head up. I wouldn’t cower or hide behind someone else in front of her.
And, she continued, this one is not fully human. Did you smell her blood?
So, she’s some elf’s illegitimate child. It doesn’t mean she didn’t commit a crime.
She is King Eireth’s offspring.
I blinked. My mom had slept with a king? If she’d known that part of the story, she’d failed to mention it. But would it matter at all to these dragons?
So, she’s King Eireth’s illegitimate mongrel child, one of the gold dragons said. What does it matter? He wisely abandoned her on this backward scab of a world.
If you let her go after she killed Dobsaurin, you yourself will be violating our rules and regulations. Shaygor looked at his colleagues, speaking to them as much as to her, and I sensed him scheming, maneuvering politically to try to take advantage of the situation.
Zav growled low in his throat. I wasn’t sure any of the others would hear it. He wasn’t talking much, but he was listening and doubtless had opinions.
This is true. Zav’s mother looked from me to him. If she truly slew Dobsaurin, she must be taken for punishment and rehabilitation. Not— she looked pointedly at Shaygor, —to be killed.
I grimaced. Death sounded more appealing than what Zav had described.
She is unaware of our laws, Zav said. This entire world is. They are ignorant of dragons.
Maybe the Dragon Justice Court should establish a presence here to educate and train them, one of the gold dragons said.
Who would volunteer to rule over billions of mouthy vermin? Shaygor stared at me with cold intense eyes. I care only about exacting justice upon my son’s killer.
Whatever happened, if I managed to survive to see another day, I would have an enemy for life. That was nothing new, but it wasn’t as if I could defend myself against a dragon.
Justice is for all in the Cosmic Realms, Zav’s mother said. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
Funny, we had that saying too. Maybe someone had originally gotten it from an arrogant visiting dragon.
She will learn dragon law as part of her rehabilitation. Zav’s mother, the larger of the two black dragons, walked down the hill toward me.
If a dragon could look smug, Shaygor did. I was surprised he wasn’t arguing harder to have me killed, but maybe he knew the truth, that their punishment and rehabilitation was worse than death.
Zav turned to stand beside me and face his mother, his dragonly shoulder much higher than but still next to mine.
Step aside, son, his mother said. I will take her. Our family is not above the law. Our family, with so many eyes upon it, must uphold the law even more than others.
And I always have, Zav replied. But she was only defending herself against Dobsaurin, who not only tried to kill her but also came to this world specifically because he believed he could kill me and get away with it. He is the one who broke the law first.
That may be true, and our official inquisitor will have to determine it, but that does not make it acceptable to kill a dragon. You knew this. That is why you did not try to land a killing blow. His mother looked to Shaygor and the other dragons, as if she was making a point. Am I right, Zavryd?