Suddenly, Lizard popped to the surface, gasping for air. His limbs flailed wildly as he splashed across the surface of the lake in a bee-line toward Jandra.
"Bad fish!" he shrieked as the water mounded up behind him.
Jandra ran to the edge of the shore. The ichthyosaur's mouth gaped open, creating a suction that drew Lizard back toward its teeth.
Jandra aimed at the top of the ichthyosaur's snout and fired. The explosion knocked her onto her butt as her feet slipped on the slimy stone. The scaly sea beast snapped its jaws closed with Lizard only inches from its teeth. Lizard shrieked as the monster flipped in a sudden u-turn. Bright red wounds speckled the ichthyosaur's snout. It dove beneath the water. The wave it left behind lifted Lizard, carrying him toward the shore. The wave broke over Jandra's legs, leaving Lizard sitting in her lap. Lizard swung his tail around and looked at it mournfully. The last four inches of it were missing.
"No more fish," he said, shaking his head.
"I'm comfortable with that," said Jandra.
Shay walked down the shore toward the still form of the first guard to fall. He poked the body with his foot, though it was pretty obvious from the angle of the man's head in relation to his shoulders that he was dead.
"This certainly wasn't the wake up I had in mind," he said.
Jandra chuckled grimly. "Me neither." She looked at the wings jutting up from Shadrach's corpse. The goddess memories stirred faintly and she realized she knew how to use the wings. "At least we don't have to build a raft now. We can just fly over to the island."
"Fly?" Shay asked, sounding skeptical. "I mean, yes, I saw them doing it, but it didn't look safe. None of these men had pleasant landings."
"The wings have an artificial intelligence that will do most of the flying for you. You'll be fine."
"If man were intended to fly, God would have given us wings," said Shay.
"The goddess corrected his oversight," said Jandra.
She stood up. She was covered in slimy grit all the way down the back of her legs.
"Looks like we'll need another bath," she said. "As long as we've got a pool of fresh, clean water-at least, we will once we pull Guido's corpse out-we should take this chance to wash our clothes."
"I only have one set of clothes," said Shay. "I don't want to walk around all day in wet pants."
"We can spend the day under the blanket while our things dry," said Jandra.
"Oh," said Shay, brushing his curly orange locks back from his face. "Yes, then. Of course. That sounds like a perfectly acceptable plan."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
HER DRAGON SOUL
Shay's pants were stiff after they'd dried by the fire. He carefully tugged them up his legs, wincing. Many of his body parts were somewhat tender. Beside him, Jandra hummed as she pulled on her boots. The worried look that normally haunted her face was completely gone. She stood, buttoning the fine blue coat she'd recovered at the palace.
"What are you humming?"
"It's called 'Original Air Blue Gown,'" she said. Instantly, her face fell.
"What?" he asked.
"It's one of her memories. This song is a thousand years old."
Shay moved to her side and took her hand.
"It's okay," he said. "You're here now. Don't worry about all that other stuff in your head."
Jandra leaned into him. "I hate it when the lines blur. Some of the things we did came so naturally. What if I was drawing on her experience?"
Shay kissed her forehead. "Don't let it bother you. No one is a clean slate. We all have other people's voices in our heads. After all the books I've been through, I have a hard time untangling my own thoughts from the things I've read."
Jandra nodded. "I hear Vendevorex inside me sometimes. Perhaps one day I'll accept these new memories as part of who I am. I'm afraid I'll get lost inside my own head if I surrender to these thoughts."
Shay squeezed Jandra's hand. "I'll be beside you to help you find your way back."
Jandra smiled. She took the bracelet off her wrist and slid it onto Shay's hand. "Take this," she said.
"You need it to turn invisible," he said.
"I need you even more," she said. "It's all I have to give."
Shay knew she had given him so much more.
In the dead tree near the waterfall, Lizard was still sound asleep, his limbs dangling from the tree branch. The bandaged tip of his tail twitched in response to dreams Shay could only imagine.
Jandra pulled her hand away, her fingertips lingering until the last possible instant. "As wonderful as this moment is, we should do what we came here to do."
"Lead on," he said.
Jandra reached down beside her pack and picked up one of the three metal plates laying there. She handed one to Shay. It was remarkably light for a grooved steel disk a foot across and two inches deep. He'd watched as Jandra pulled these from the backs of the dead guards. The huge wings had folded into these compact shapes. Looking into the edge-groove, hundreds of delicate metallic feather tips could be seen, all packed up in neat rows.
"It should weigh more," said Shay. "It's as big as some cast iron skillets I've used, and they're pretty hefty. This weighs little more than a quill."
"It's made of carbon nanofibers. It's like woven diamonds. The wings generate some lift with their shape, but an ion discharge provides the real thrust. That's why you can hover in these."
"I have no clue what an ion or a nanofiber is," said Shay.
"It's not important," said Jandra. "Just stick it between your shoulder blades. Hyper-friction will hold it. Then, think about the wings unfolding."
Shay stood up and reached behind his back. He didn't see how it was possible to get the disk centered directly between his shoulder blades, but when he got the disk near, he felt a tug. The disk leapt from his fingers and grabbed onto his back. His skin tingled as the disk adjusted itself to the correct position. The tingling stopped abruptly. He turned, expecting to find the disk behind him, certain it had fallen off. Seeing bare ground, he reached behind his back and found the disk was still there.
He imagined the wings spreading. Instantly, they did so, growing outward in an intricate unfolding pattern until they stretched from his body several yards in each direction. The feathers chimed like tiny bells. To his surprise, he could feel the wings as if they were part of his body. The wing nearest the fire was warm-the wing extending out over the pool was cool, and he felt beads of water dripping across the surface. All the tiny breezes stirred by the waterfall ruffled the feathers. It felt as natural as the breeze playing with his hair.
Until this moment, he'd been skeptical that the wings would lift him, despite having witnessed the flight of the guards. Now, flight felt like it could occur with only the slightest flick of his wing tips.
He flicked.
The sensation of his feet leaving the ground was one he knew would remain with him forever. He rose three feet in the air and hung there, holding his breath as his heartbeat pounded in his ears. When he finally allowed himself to breath, he found himself giggling.
Jandra rose into the air in front of him, leveling out. They both hovered on outstretched wings. The air smelled curiously fresh.
Jandra tilted toward him and drifted over. He leaned forward to meet her. This resulted in a sudden acceleration. Their lips met with what could fairly be called a collision. They each jerked back.
"We, uh, should practice before we try that again," Jandra said, her voice muffled by her hand over her mouth. She seemed to be checking for loose teeth.
"Scary birds!" Lizard screamed.
The little earth-dragon was awake on his branch now, looking ready to leap into the pool. His eyes narrowed when Jandra spun around in the air to face him. Shay had to duck to avoid her wings as they passed over his head.