“You aren’t limp anymore.”
“You caught me when I fell out the window?” she asked. She could vaguely recall his strong hand wrapping around her wrist at the last second.
“I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress,” he said.
Pet’s feet reached the top edge of the lower window.
“Almost there,” Jandra said.
Pet stepped down, feeling for his next foothold, but his foot slipped into the open window. They lurched sideways, slamming into the wall. Pet cursed as he struggled to maintain his grip on the thin, slick rope.
Suddenly, they lurched down even further, another three feet, placing them well past the top edge of the window. Jandra watched as comets of flaming oak and copper rained past them, exploding on the distant ground below.
“The beam’s shifting!” Pet yelled. “It’s going to break!” His toes touched the lower edge of the window but his body angled out into space. Jandra knew he couldn’t pull himself into the window with her weight on him. She tried to rise, reaching her hand up behind her to grab the rope.
“Don’t struggle!” Pet said. “I’m losing my grip!”
Jandra’s hand found the rope and she pulled herself up, taking her weight from his shoulder. Pet lost his toehold on the ledge and they swayed away from the window, the rope twisting. As it swung back in Jandra let go, her momentum taking her onto the ledge. She waved her arms for balance then quickly turned. Pet had swung back out. As he swung once more toward the window, Jandra grabbed him by his belt.
“Let go!” she said, pulling backward as he started to sway away.
Pet released the rope and they both tumbled from the ledge, falling backward into the tower. They landed on a soft cotton cushion, big enough for a sun-dragon to curl up on comfortably. Shadows and light danced around the chamber as flaming debris fell past the window.
Jandra lay trapped beneath Pet’s muscular body, looking into his face which was framed by a mane of golden hair. His bare chest pressed firmly against her breasts. His lips were inches from her own. She stared into Pet’s deep, emerald eyes, seeing the powerful emotion that stirred within them.
“What the hell is going on?” Pet shouted, his voice cracking with fear.
“The castle is under attack,” she said.
“Yes! I know! We were almost killed!”
“Calm down. Panic won’t help.”
“I don’t see how it’s hurting anything!”
“You’re hurting me,” she said. Her breath was still painful and his weight on her wasn’t helping. “Get off.”
“Oh,” he said, looking as if he just now realized he was on top of her. “Right. Sure.” He rolled off, sitting up, looking dazed. “This just isn’t how I planned to spend the evening at all,” he whined.
She sat up, bracing her back against the wall.
“As soon as I catch my breath, we’ll go,” she said.
“Where?” Pet said, shaking his head. “It looked like the whole castle was on fire. Why is this happening?”
“Albekizan must know we’re here,” Jandra said, taking a deep breath and then coughing again. “We need to find Vendevorex. Fight by his side to defend this castle.”
“Fight?” Pet said, twisting a long strand of his golden mane around his fingers. “I don’t know anything about fighting!”
“Would you calm down?”
At that moment the rope hanging outside the window slackened and the flaming roof beam roared past the window. Glowing embers showered the room. Thin white twigs of smoke rose from several spots on the cushion.
“We’re going to die!” Pet screamed.
“If we stay here, probably,” Jandra said, struggling back to her feet. “Come on.” Jandra grabbed Pet’s hand, helping him rise. She pulled him toward the hallway. “Vendevorex will know what to do.”
Halfway down the hallway she heard a crash behind them. The crash kept rumbling for an absurdly long time. Smoke and dust rolled through the corridor as the hot wind at her back pushed her to move faster. She suspected the whole tower had finally collapsed, but she didn’t dare look back. She pushed ahead, ignoring the needles in her chest, dragging Pet along.
The further they went, the more her breath returned. Soon, she broke into a run with Pet still in tow. Racing through the halls of the castle, Jandra heard the sounds of battle all around. She hadn’t been in Chakthalla’s palace long enough to get a feel for what kind of army she commanded. She’d seen perhaps a hundred earth-dragon guards but nothing like the force outside the castle walls. And Chakthalla’s earth-dragons had seemed to exist primarily as dolls to be costumed in elaborate uniforms. She’d seen very few of the rough, ill-tempered brutes that populated Albekizan’s ground forces.
Still, Albekizan’s army was outside the walls. This battle wasn’t over yet. Vendevorex could even the odds, she was certain. The Vengeance of the Ancestors the attackers used must have come from a supply Vendevorex had created. He could extinguish it with a wave of his claw. Better, he could turn it against the attackers.
They ran through the long, tall passageways to Vendevorex’s room. Luckily, this section of the castle was silent; the battle was being waged far from this area. But when Jandra pushed open the door to his chambers her heart sank. Empty. Vendevorex was nowhere to be seen. Of course, she thought, he would already be at Chakthalla’s side.
“Jandra!” Vendevorex said, his voice coming from thin air.
“A ghost!” Pet cried, jumping at the sound.
“Calm down,” Jandra said. “He’s only invisible.”
“Calm down! Of course!” Pet began to chew his immaculately trimmed nails. “I see invisible dragons every day!”
“My apologies,” Vendevorex said, shimmering into view as the air around him erupted in sparks. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, Pet.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Jandra said. “We’ve got a bigger problem. The attackers are using the Vengeance! You’ve got to put it out.”
“That would be unwise,” Vendevorex said.
“What?” She couldn’t believe she’d heard him right.
“The castle is woefully under-defended,” Vendevorex said with a calm, observational tone that one might expect if he were discussing the weather. “It will fall to Albekizan’s forces no matter what we do. Better he gain possession of ruins than another base from which to command his forces.”
“I can’t believe this,” Jandra said. “You’re conceding defeat before we’ve even started fighting?”
Vendevorex sighed. He placed his claw on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes and explained, as if to a child, “We aren’t going to fight. We’re going to run. I fled the castle of Albekizan because I cared for your safety. It would be foolish now to endanger your life fighting a battle we cannot win.”
Jandra pushed his claw away. She poked his scaly chest with her finger as she said, “This isn’t like running from Albekizan. He wanted to kill you! Chakthalla wants to help you!”
“You must see that her desires are not supported by her resources,” Vendevorex said.
Jandra felt like slapping him.
“For what it’s worth, sir,” Pet interrupted, “I have a box of jewels in my room that could be of great assistance in a relocation, if you’ll take me with you, please.”
“What?” Jandra said, cutting him a withering look. “You’re going to run, too? This is your home!”
Pet nodded. He looked sheepish as he said, “Please don’t think ill of me. I’m a good person… I really am. But your master is making a lot of sense.”
“If you were a good person, you’d stay and fight!”
“Think about this,” Pet said. “If Chakthalla wins this battle, what then? The king will send a bigger army. We won’t stand a chance. Your master is right. Please listen to him.”
“Stop calling him my master,” Jandra snapped. “My relationship with Ven is nothing like what’s between you and Chakthalla. Tell him, Ven.”
“I don’t possess enough information to assess the state of Pet and Chakthalla’s relationship,” Vendevorex said. “In all candor, this isn’t the best time to discuss this.”