“Lan.”
“— Lan, as soon as we have the horses tied and are in position, drop the travel spells and get back to the boulders with your sister.”
“Drop the travel spells?” Mr. Grimsrud said doubtfully.
“So the critter can find us,” Wash said. “And so it doesn’t get a big boost to its magic by draining Lan here the way it did your Mr. Anderson.” He’d already fastened his horse good and tight to a tree. “Hurry up, before it gets out of range.”
Mr. Grimsrud still looked doubtful, but he went ahead and did what Wash had told him. I went back to the little heap of boulders and crouched down behind it. I was surprised that Lan hadn’t objected to Wash’s directions. He’d never much liked being left out of whatever was happening. I was even more surprised when I felt the travel spells drop and he didn’t join me back of the boulders.
There was a long, tense silence. I could still feel the strange ripple out at the edge of my world-sensing, but it didn’t seem to be getting nearer. Lan made no move to find cover; he just stood there next to the horses. And then I felt a bright blaze of magic all around me, and the ripple paused and began to move straight toward us. I whipped around to glare at Lan, and as soon as I saw the reckless grin on his face, I knew exactly what he was doing.
Lan was using himself as bait.
CHAPTER 28
RIGHT AWAY, WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT, I STOOD UP AND ran over to Lan. He looked startled; he looked even more startled when I smacked his cheek as hard as I could. It knocked him sprawling backward. “Eff! Cut it out!” he whispered.
“You stop that this instant!” I hissed at him. “That thing will be here in a minute.”
“Good,” Lan said, getting up. “Don’t whack me again; I don’t want to be distracted.”
“Lan, stop it!” I grabbed his arm and tried to drag him back to the boulders, but he was taller and stronger than I was, and I didn’t get him very far. I could feel the ripple getting closer, and then I felt something, some magic, come at us. At Lan.
I twitched it aside, the way I’d been twitching and tweaking my Avrupan spells for nigh on two years. It was more difficult to do than I’d expected; whatever it was, it was homing in on Lan like a pigeon headed back to its nest. I just barely knocked it off course enough to send it whizzing past Lan’s left ear.
“What —”
“Turn it off, Lan!” I felt another bolt of magic come toward us. I shoved this one harder, but when I did, it tried to latch on to my magic like a leech. It didn’t quite succeed. I think it was confused by the waves of magic coming off of Lan and by the fact that I was using Aphrikan magic. Even so, it sucked out enough of my magic to make me dizzy before I pushed it away.
“Eff!”
I blinked up at Lan’s worried face. I realized that he’d caught me as I started to fall, and pulled both of us back behind the boulders. But he was still shining his magic out just as hard as ever he could. “Stop it,” I croaked, and finally he did.
“Eff, what —”
“Later,” I said. “Quiet now.” And for a wonder, he was.
I pushed myself upright. My head hurt like anything, and getting my Aphrikan world-sensing working again just made it hurt worse. At least I’d hung on to my rifle. Then the horses started rearing and pulling against their tethers. A moment later, I heard a hooting noise, just like Pierre had described.
Two of the horses went gray and froze. An instant later, something large flew through the tree branches and landed just on the other side of the horses from me and Lan. I got an impression of gray-brown scales and lots of sharp teeth as the thing whipped its head side to side. I couldn’t get a shot with all the horses plunging and pulling at their tethers, but somebody fired. I thought they’d missed, because the thing didn’t react, but then there were three more shots in quick succession, and none of them hurt the thing, either.
The creature slid forward, just past the horses, and I finally got a good look at it. It was an enormous gray-brown lizard. Its front legs were short, but even standing low to the ground, its head would have come as high as my chest if I’d been fool enough to stand beside it. In back, its legs were longer and more muscular, like a frog’s back legs. They looked strong enough to kick a dire wolf halfway across the Mammoth River, and I didn’t wonder that it could jump so high and far as it had. It had a large head with a mouth like a bird’s beak with teeth, long enough that they could take off a man’s arm to the elbow in one bite, if it had a mind to.
I pulled the trigger, but my shot had no more effect on the thing than anyone else’s. Well, it had one — the medusa lizard hissed and turned its head toward Lan and me. As I pumped the lever to reload my rifle, I saw a bump in the crt of the lizard’s forehead, covered by a patch of white scales. As I watched, the scales pulled back, like a third eyelid, revealing a glossy black knob underneath. It opened its mouth, and I got a real good look at all of its sharp teeth.
Lan’s eyes narrowed, and he let his magic loose again. I grabbed at his arm, but before I could say anything, I felt him give a push. An enormous wave of magic went past me. The creature gave a high-pitched shriek and reared back on its hind legs, shaking its head. Four rifles cracked, and bloody holes appeared on its underbelly. It fell over and lay still.
I glanced over at Lan. He was staring at the medusa lizard, his lips twisted. “It couldn’t handle me any better than Professor Warren did,” he said, so low that I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to hear.
After a minute, Wash appeared from behind a tree. He kept his rifle at the ready as he walked to the lizard and examined it. Then he lowered his gun and called, “It’s dead.”
We came out from behind the boulders. Lan staggered and leaned against the nearest one, looking tired and drained but satisfied. The others appeared from behind trees. Professor Torgeson went to join Wash beside the medusa lizard. Pierre and Mr. Grimsrud went for the remaining horses, to try to calm them. And then I felt another ripple, behind me. Close behind.
I shoved Lan down and crouched beside him. One glance was enough to tell me he wouldn’t be any help; he’d used up everything he had on the first critter. Everyone but Lan and me was on the far side of the horses. I swallowed hard and poked my head out from behind the boulders, sighting along the rifle barrel and hoping I would get a clear shot at the thing before it hurt me or Lan. And with all my heart, I wished that it wouldn’t see me before I saw it.
Wash’s wooden pendant went ice-cold against my chest, and I felt all the don’t-notice-it spells unwrap from around it and expand just a little. Just enough to cover me and Lan, as well as the pendant. A second later, I felt the magic leeching, looking for us, but it slid away without finding either of us.
I saw a flash of movement between the trees and everything slowed. My world-sensing spread out around me, clearer and stronger than ever before. I could sense the ants hurrying up and down the bark of the trees in front of me, and the beetles burrowing in the ground below. Farther out, behind a screen of leaves, I felt the second medusa lizard pull the scales back from the knob on its forehead and open its mouth to send its petrifying magic straight at Lan and me. More important, I could sense exactly where the lizard was, even if I couldn’t see it, and I knew the track my bullet would take when I fired. I moved my rifle barrel a hairsbreadth to the left and squeezed the trigger.