Shay was pressed flat on the roof, face down, with Vulpine's hind-talon pinning the back of his neck. Vulpine was searching Shay, his long serpentine neck swaying back and forth. He held Shay's shotgun in one of his fore-talons. He'd pulled free the belt that contained the bags of powder and shot. The sky-dragon sniffed the flash pan of the gun, his nostrils suddenly contracting, as if he found the smell unpleasant.
"An interesting toy, Shay," said Vulpine. "But not the grand prize. Where are the books?"
"I'll… never… tell," Shay said, straining to breathe.
Smoke was starting to rise from the trapdoor that opened onto the roof. Had the earth-dragons who'd charged in earlier set the place on fire? Jandra had to admit it was a rather straightforward approach to dealing with snipers on the roof.
Vulpine eyed Jandra as she tried to stand.
"Girl, if you move another inch, I'll kill you."
Jandra glanced down at the silver bracelet on her wrist. She still had one chance…
There was creaking noise behind Vulpine. Two sets of human fingertips grasped the edges of the open trapdoor to the roof. The hands were small, tanned, and female. Anza's head appeared above the edge as she pulled herself up.
Jandra's felt a tremendous sense of relief. Short of Bitterwood, Anza was the person she most wanted on the roof beside her.
Vulpine calmly pulled Shay's head backward and slammed it down, hard. Shay went limp as Vulpine leapt toward the trap door. He kicked out with his hind-talons, aiming for Anza's face. Anza ducked, letting her body drop back down into the room below, but maintaining her grasp on the edges of the hole. Vulpine grabbed the wooden door, which was held up by a pole, knocked the pole free, and then slammed it down. Anza let go a fraction of a second before the wood could crush her fingers.
Sparks swirled up from the sudden rush of air. The roof was growing hot. Thick smoke poured from the sides of the building. The fire beneath them roared as the winter wind whipped through shattered windows.
Jandra didn't waste the handful of seconds Vulpine was distracted by Anza. She shoved in the wad containing the gunpowder. She was ramming down the shot when Vulpine turned toward her.
"I told you not to move," he snarled. "I saw how your toy worked," he said, pointing the shotgun toward her with his fore-talon. He flinched slightly as he pulled the trigger, no doubt anticipating the explosion. However, the flintlock shot its sparks into an empty chamber. Shay had never reloaded. Vulpine looked baffled as Jandra pulled the ramrod free. She pressed the gun into her shoulder as she snarled, "This is how it works!"
Before her finger could twitch on the trigger, Vulpine spun. His long, whip-like tail struck the barrel of her gun as she fired. When the smoke cleared, Vulpine was still standing, looking amused. He leapt toward her, his jaws open wide. Jandra swung the iron barrel of her shotgun up, grasping the metal with both hands. The just-fired gun burned her fingers as she jammed it sideways into Vulpine's mouth, blocking his bite. The slavecatcher knocked her backwards, pushing her closer to the edge of the roof. Though his teeth were blocked, the sky-dragon still bristled with natural weaponry. He kicked his hind-talon into Jandra's gut and raked… snapping the tips of his claws. Jandra was grateful that Burke had insisted she wear the chain-mail vest beneath her coat.
"No eat!" a small voice cried. The slavecatcher hissed and staggered backwards as Lizard leapt from his hiding place near the chimney and landed on Vulpine's back, claws digging in, his turtle-beak clamping onto Vulpine's shoulder blade.
Vulpine snarled, whipping his tail up, knocking Lizard free. "Enough of this madness." Vulpine leapt for the sky, the downbeat of his twenty-foot wingspan fanning the smoke. A dozen small fires erupted across the wooden roof.
Jandra tried to reload, but it was hopeless. Vulpine lifted further into the sky with each second. By the time she was ready to fire again, he was hundreds of yards away. Still, they'd chased off the most notorious slavecatcher in the kingdom. She would count this as a victory, more or less.
Lizard leapt onto Jandra's shoulders. "Bad hot," he said, looking at the flames.
"It's okay," said Jandra, going over to Shay. She wasn't certain if it was her imagination, but the roof felt shakier than it had earlier. The earth-dragons couldn't have set the fire more than five minutes ago. Even with the wind, should there be this much structural damage already? Almost in answer, something beneath her groaned, then crashed. She wondered if Anza had made it out.
"Shay!" she cried, kneeling beside him. She shook his shoulders.
He groaned as he opened his eyes. There was a large gash across this chin. He coughed violently as he sat up in the ever worsening smoke. He looked disoriented. "Where's Vulpine?" he asked.
"Gone," said Jandra. "I think he was rattled that my gun worked and his didn't. Lizard pounced on him like a bob-cat and Vulpine turned tail."
"Wait. His gun?"
"He took yours. Your ammo too. I hope he's not clever enough to figure out how to use it." Shay looked like this was a dumb thing for Jandra to say. "I'll cling to any hope I can get at the moment, false or not. You may have noticed we're on top of a burning building. And, unlike that wizard you mentioned earlier, I've never been able to fly."
"Good thing Vance dragged up the ladder then," said Shay, rising. "We can get down to the porch roof with this, then down to the ground."
Jandra nodded. It was a sound plan. Shay lowered the ladder to the roof and held it as he motioned for her to go first. It was an unexpected gesture. The two human men she was most familiar with, Bitterwood and Pet, would have escaped down the ladder first and left her to fend for herself.
"Hurry," he said.
Jandra descended the ladder. Anza was in the street again, crouched over Vance. There were no sign of any living dragons in either direction down the Forge Road. Human families were now rushing into the street, running from house to house to check on the wounded and count the dead.
Shay came down the ladder to the porch roof. The heat from the open windows made it hard to breathe. They lowered the ladder to the street and climbed down, then ran to Vance's side.
"Is he okay?" Jandra asked Anza. Anza looked up, frowning. She shook her head.
Vance's eyes were wide open, fully dilated, focused on nothing. He was bleeding from a gash on his scalp. "Why is it so dark?" he whispered. "Why is it so dark?"
Jandra turned away, utterly powerless. With her genie, she could have looked inside Vance to discover the nature of his injury. She could have repaired whatever damage she discovered from the cellular level up. She looked back toward the tavern as the roof collapsed, sending a whirlwind of flames heavenward. "Thorny!" she said. "He's still in the basement!"
She tossed her shotgun to Shay. "This will only slow me down." She took off running, darting down the alley that led behind the tavern. She looked up as a shadow flickered overhead-Vulpine? -but it was only the smoke blotting out the moon. She tripped as she reached the back of the ally, landing hard, skidding in the dirt. Lizard's weight on her shoulder vanished as he flew off. A darker shadow fell over her. The hairs on the back of her neck rose at the metallic clank to her right. From the corner of her eye, she saw the thick, scaly foot of an adult earth-dragon.
She rolled as the earth-dragon grunted. A battle-axe bit into the earth where she'd been an instant before. The earth-dragon was dressed in full battle gear, breast plate, helmet, shield.
"Bad boss!" shrieked Lizard, sounding terrified.