On the following day, though, Sara realized they would have to leave the cave, goblins or no. When she returned that afternoon with a hunk of freshly killed deer, she looked out over the ocean and saw storm clouds massed on the western horizon. Her heart sank.
Cobalt sat on the beach, his head into the wind, his nostrils flared. "The air is changing," he said to Sara. "That storm smells big."
Sara could not judge a storm by its smell as easily as Cobalt, but she didn't have to for this storm. The signs were very clear. She studied the towering masses of clouds that piled up like battlements across the sky; she saw the distant lightning flicker in the stormheads; she felt a new damp chill in the wind; and she knew he was right. She also realized that the tide was running out. By the time the storm hit, the tide would be coming in and their cave would offer little protection from the rising surf.
"We need to leave," she told the dragon. "If we go now, perhaps we can find other shelter before the storm breaks."
Cobalt agreed. He ate his meat and waited for her outside while she hurriedly packed her gear, her blankets, and some dry tinder in her pack. She buried her fire ring, then, as an afterthought, buried her pot, too. The goblins got her mule; she wasn't going to give them her pot.
The clouds had obscured the sun by the time Sara emerged from the cave. The air was noticeably colder, and the wind beat against the cliffs with gusty enthusiasm.
She debated about climbing the bluffs to look for shelter in the more rugged hills, but she thought about Cobalt's leg and his bulk and changed her mind. He didn't need to be climbing rocky slopes or plowing his way through trees. She took, instead, the more open southern direction. There wasn't as much cover that way, but the going was easier for the dragon.
With Cobalt close on her heels, she waded out into the edge of tide and led the way back along the headland. The waves would obliterate their tracks and, with luck, throw off the goblins.
Cobalt still limped on his front leg, but he made no complaint about the pain in his leg or the stiffness across his shoulders. He followed Sara through the shallow water as best he could and kept a close watch on the approaching storm.
They had progressed about two miles along the beach when Sara turned up onto dry land and led Cobalt through the tall sea grass and dunes to the path that paralleled the shore. She walked past several clumps of tangled shrubs and vines, came down a gentle slope, and was about to jump over a low, wet spot in the trail when she looked up and stopped so quickly that Cobalt nearly stepped on her.
The dragon choked on a snort of surprise. There, not more than ten paces away, was a large band of goblins coming along the path toward them.
The leader of the goblins saw them about the same time. He slid to a stop, startled. His band screeched to a halt behind him, half of them crashing into each other to keep from hitting him.
For the space of two heartbeats, the two groups merely stared at each other.
The goblin leader made the first move. In a blur of motion, he yanked up a loaded crossbow and released the bolt directly at Sara's chest.
5
"Down, Sara!" bellowed the blue dragon.
Sara dropped to her face in the mud just as a sizzling bolt of lightning shot from the dragon and burned into the milling troop of goblins. The leader fell, his rusty breastplate split in two and his leather jerkin smoking. Others fell, too, seared by the fiery heat. The band burst apart as goblins scattered, screaming, in every direction.
Cobalt sent bursts after them to speed them along.
Suddenly a horn, sounding rather bent, sounded from some nearby bushes. "To me!" bellowed a harsh voice, "Grishnik to me!"
Sara lifted her head. "Leave the dragon!" she yelled in the deepest, most guttural Goblin syllables she could manage, "To the cave! The cave is unguarded!"
Goblin voices rose excitedly out of the grass and undergrowth. "To the cave!" a second voice took up the idea. Loud rustlings came from the bushes where the horn had called. "To the cave," agreed the harsh voice. There was a sudden burst of commotion as the goblins sprang out of their hiding places, and before Cobalt could draw breath to blast them again, they disappeared into the thick grasses.
The dragon heard a strange hacking noise at his feet. He dropped his head and peered at Sara, still lying flat in the mud. Her entire body shook from head to boot. "Sara?" he asked worriedly. "Are you all right?"
She rolled over onto her back, and the laughter she had contained in the mud burst out of her in a long peal of hilarity. "It worked!" she gasped between fits of giggling. "I can't believe they fell for it."
Cobalt curled his lips, revealing his white teeth. Humans called it a dragon smile. "What is the most obvious choice for goblin honor? Stay and fight a blue dragon on foot or go search a cave they think might have something valuable in it?"
The woman picked herself up out of the mud and tried to brush herself off. "Let's go before they realize the cave is empty."
"Maybe if we're lucky, they will stay in there awhile digging for buried dragon treasure and get trapped by the storm."
"We can but hope."
They hurried on as fast as Cobalt's leg would allow. Sara knew they would be approaching Godnest soon and its outlying farms, and she kept a close watch on their surroundings to avoid contact with anyone. She did not want to draw undue attention to the blue or scare anyone out of his wits.
Eventually she left the path and led the dragon east. She hoped that by going cross-country and traveling at night they could cross the low-lying coastal plains and reach her village near the mountains undetected. They were in Solamnia, after all, where blue dragons were not welcome.
They did not go far, however, before the mass clouds overtook them and the wind began to roar. The first drops of rain splattered on the ground; thunder rumbled overhead.
"Over there!" Cobalt called, and he pointed with his nose to a place Sara could not see. He rumbled forward past her and limped to a copse of trees that stood dark in the gathering storm. Sara did not notice until she was nearly among them that the trees hid the ruins of an an old farmhouse. The roof had collapsed at one end of the stone building, but there was just enough shelter left for Sara and some of Cobalt.
The dragon tore out the collapsed section of the roof, knocked over the remains of a wall, and made himself comfortable. His back end stuck out into the rain, but he didn't mind as long as his head and shoulders remained dry.
Sara scrambled into the roofed section of the house just as the rain let loose in a drenching downpour. The woman climbed gratefully among the debris to a seat near the stone wall. Night had fallen with the storm, and the house was black within. Sara could see nothing until the vivid bursts of lightning lit her surroundings for a second or two at a time.
Using the dry tinder in her pack, she started a tiny fire, just enough to see by. She quickly found plenty of wind-blown tree limbs, old furniture, and some pieces of fire-H|wood still lying by the ramshackle fireplace to add to her fire. In a dry spot near the stone wall, she built her fire to a roaring blaze and set a small pot of water near the heat to boil for tea. While her tea brewed, she changed her muddy tunic and hung it outside to wash off.
"Do you suppose the goblins are still in the cave?" Cobalt asked sleepily.
Sara sipped her hot tea and grinned at the darkness. "Sweet dreams, Cobalt."
By slow, short stages, traveling at night, Sara led the dragon toward the Vingaard Mountains. They passed many farms and a few villages on the fertile lowlands, but most of the humans were asleep, and any night creature that saw them did not bother to make a fuss.