Kyrtian looked for Shana—and found her in the embrace of another wizard, shaking like a leaf, and whispering what sounded like a name. The wizard, who looked vaguely familiar, stroked her hair comfortingly, but spoke straight to Kyrtian.
"I hope you don't want to get back in there. Ever. The dragons are sealing the entrance."
Shana relaxed against the support of Lorryn's shoulder and cradled the wineskin in both hands; she didn't usually drink much wine but after today—
If anyone deserves a drink, I do.
She had never been so glad to see anyone in her life as Lor-ryn—in fact, she hadn't realized that the other dragons were there until they were all out of the caves.
Keman, Alara, Dora, and Kalamadea had sealed the entrance past anything other than another dragon getting through. They'd brought down half the mountain, it seemed, then fused the rocks together until they were exhausted and limp, their bright colors gone pale, their scales dull. The work had been urgent enough; they'd only just brought the rocks down when something began attacking the pile from inside the mountain, audible even down below. That was when they'd begun fusing the rocks together, and the moment that the monster contrivance encountered the fused section, the blockage was obvious even to an idiot—or a construct—for it began bashing something—itself? its claws?—against the rock-fall. But if it intended to loosen those rocks, it was going to meet with failure.
The dragons worked the pile from the top down, creating a plug of rock that was not going to move. The only way to get out now was to blow out the top of the mountain, or tunnel out at another place.
There was no way—they hoped—that the construct was going to get at them now.
The sound of battering still came from within the pile, but it was weaker now, and slower. Maybe—hopefully—it was running out of magical energy, and would relapse into its quiescent state.
Whatever; we're not going to wait around here to find out.
She took another pull on the wineskin, and closed her eyes. Lorryn. Oh, thank you, Lorryn. Thank you for thinking, for being here. It was perhaps at that moment that she really, truly realized how much she cared for him.
Lorryn had just finished explaining the situation with Cael-lach Gwain to Lord Kyrtian—who, at this point, was stunned and battered enough to accept just about anything. He just nodded—at all the salient points, so at least he was listening— and took it all in as if the affairs of Wizards were everyday things to him.
Huh. Then again, after the politics of the Great Lords, our little quarrels probably seem small beans.
Kyrtian's men had bandaged their scrapes and bruises, applied remedies inside and out, and supplied all of them with food and drink. Including the dragons. Bless them, they'd gone out and dragged back three dead deer—a small meal by dra-conic standards, after all that exertion, but enough to help revive them. The fire they'd built was immensely comforting, and for once, it wasn't raining.
"... so after we made sure he couldn 't come straight back to the Citadel, we waited. When he didn't come back at all, I finally decided that he'd either followed you, or he'd finally let his arrogance take him into a situation he couldn't get out of," . Lorryn said.
"And good riddance to bad rubbish, if you ask me," Keman grumbled under his breath. He—and the others—were too bone-weary to shift; they'd curled themselves around the entrance to the camp, making a formidable barrier between the camp and anything that might even consider going after what was inside it. Kyrtian's men were still wide-eyed and a little nervous about being surrounded by dragons, but were handling it all remarkably well. Keman was flank-to-flank with Dora; the sight of two young dragons being as affectionate as any two young lovers seemed to go a long way to reassuring Kyrt-ian's men.
I suppose it makes them seem more human. .. .
"Keman has been talking with me, at night," Dora said, and the bare skin around her eyes and mouth flushed a delicate pink. Shana saw two of Kyrtian's men exchange a knowing look, and hid a smile. When humans who'd never seen dragons before this could recognize a shy blush on the face of one, things would be all right. "We can speak over greater distances, mind-to-mind, than you can. And—we miss each other when we're apart." She eyed Shana with guilt. "I'm sorry Keman didn't mention it before, but—we didn't want you to feel badly because we could talk and you and Lorryn couldn't."
"Of course," Kyrtian said, with a slow smile. "I can certainly understand that." He passed his wineskin to one of his men, and settled back against the bulk of Keman as comfortably as if he used a dragon as a backrest every day.
Dora flushed again. "So I knew where you were, generally. And, of course, Lorryn had already been to the place where Shana and Keman transported to in the first place and he knew how to get there himself."
I should have known the lovebirds were chatting instead of sleeping, she thought—with a little envy. It would have been a lot nicer if she'd been able to do that with Lorryn without the aid of Keman. On the whole though, it was a damned good thing they had been billing and cooing every night. If they hadn't been, she might not be here right now.
"So when Dora told me that you had found the cave and when Caellach Gwain didn't come back, I decided it was more important to get out here and see if we could find him before he found you," Lorryn said with a shrug when Shana tilted her head up to give him a measuring stare.
"You supposed he'd been able to follow us, then?" she asked. "I couldn't take the chance that he hadn't," Lorryn replied. "I figured that bringing three dragons along would make certain he didn't try anything if—or when—we caught him."
"I knew they were coming of course," Keman put in. "But all they were supposed to do was to look for the Old Whiner. They weren't going to butt their snouts in on us, why should they? There was no reason to. When we got back, you'd have just found out they'd caught the wretch, so I didn't see any reason to bother you with it."
"You left me in charge to deal with Caellach," Lorryn told Shana, meeting her gaze frankly, and she gave his hand a little squeeze. "Without Caellach, there was no one to organize discontent. Frankly, knowing where he was and keeping him from making conspiracies out of half-truths was more important than my being directly in command for a day or so."
She nodded, and smiled. How could she not agree with him when he was obviously every bit as competent as she was? She left him in charge; that meant to be in charge and make decisions without consulting her if there was no need to. It would be pretty absurd to be angry with him for doing just that.
But she could tell him all that later, when they were alone. For now it was enough to know that she didn't have to be "the Elvenbane" alone anymore....
"We transported in this morning and flew here, but we never, ever expected you to wake up a monster! And let me tell you," Lorryn concluded, "those last few moments when that thing attacked you and we were still in the air were the worst in my life."
"They weren't any joy for us, I can tell you," Keman grumbled.
"So that was why you went ahead and attacked the thing!" Shana exclaimed.
"You surely didn't think I'd be stupid enough to do that without being pretty sure I knew what I was doing, did you?" Keman replied indignantly. "I think I did all right without their help, thank you. We didn't even really need them to get out of the cave, and I know I could have at least blocked the entrance enough by myself to hold that monster, long enough for us all to transport out of here, anyway! I'll admit I was glad to see them, and it made getting that thing bottled up easier, but we three were perfectly able to deal with it on our own."