She glared at him. 'Well if I am it's no thanks to your friend the Mad Scientist!' She swung her beak towards Markham and chattered it. 'What kind of a portal exit do you call that? Flinging us out at speed and miles above terra firma, I think I've bent a tail feather, you stupid boy! Do you know how long it takes to grow in a tail feather, you — awwwkV
'Reg!' he shouted, clutching her to his chest. 'Lional said you were dead, he said he'd killed you! He did kill you, look, there's your body! Over there!'
Melissande, grubby and harassed and getting to her feet, stared where he pointed at the forlorn draggle of feathers in the dirt.'Eww What's that?'
'It's Reg,' he said, dizzy with relief. 'At least, I thought it was Reg. Lional told me it was Reg.'
Wriggling free of his embrace, Reg flapped over to the corpse on the cave floor and inspected it. 'That's not me,' she said. 'That's — ' She took a closer look. 'That's a dead chicken hexed to look like me. And it's not even a very good likeness.' She fixed him with a gimlet eye. 'Gerald Dunwoody, are you saving you couldn't tell the difference between me and a hexed dead chook? Please don't tell me you couldn't tell the difference between me and hexed dead chook! Look at it! The beak's all wrong and the eyes are crossed and it's missing a claw on the right foot! And it s fat. How could you possibly think that was me?'
He didn't care that she was scolding, i'm sorry,' he said, getting up. i was a bit… distracted… at the time.' He stared at them, breathless, i can't believe you found me. How — '
'Locator incant and a portable portal,' said Monk. 'A portable por-?' 'Monk invented it,' said Reg.
'Of course Monk did,' he said, dazed. 'But how could it work, Lional set a lodestone, it — '
'What?' said Reg. 'Gerald, what are you talking about?'
Oh, hell. The lodestone. 'Lional hid a lodestone in here so I couldn't escape via magic,' he whispered, nauseous. 'He deactivated it so I could make the dragon… and then he lost himself inside the damn thing's mind. He never turned the lodestone back on. And I've been so busy feeling sorry for myself I — ' i don't know what you're bleating about and I don't care!' said Melissande. 'What the hell were you thinking, Gerald? Making a dragon?' i'm sorry' he whispered.
'How did you do it?' she demanded, hands fists on her hips. 'Transmog a lizard? What kind? The only exotic lizards we have live in the zoo, and none of them look like that flying monstrosity you've set loose!'
He could barely look her in the face, it was a Bearded Spitting Lizard from Lower Limpopo. Lional said Bondaningo Greenfeather got it for him.'
'That's a HeV Her eyes were hot with anger and betrayal. Glittering with tears. 'Bondaningo was a good man. He would never bring something like that into the country!' i'm afraid he did. Your brother can be… very persuasive.' iil bet!' she said, contemptuous. 'So what did he promise you in return for his dragon? Gold? Jewels? Land? Wlrat did he promise you?'
He made himself meet her furious gaze. 'You don't want to know what he promised me, Melissande.'
With a subdued flutter of feathers Reg flew from the floor to his shoulder. 'She may not want to, Gerald, but she needs to. It's the only way she'll understand what has to be done.'
Gently he prised Reg free. 'No,' he said, thrusting her blindly into Monk's unready hands. 'And don't ask me again.' Monk cleared his throat. 'Look, mate…'
'Are you deaf? / said no\' he shouted, and turned away.
'He tortured you, didn't he?' said Monk. He always was a stubborn bastard. 'Tortured him?' said Melissande. 'Don't be ridiculous. He looks fine to me, there's not a scratch on him.'
Her fresh contempt was like acid. Gerald spun around, shaking, and whatever she saw in his face drove her backwards till she struck the cave wall.
'I'm sorry, all right, Melissande? Sorry I wasn't strong enough, sorry I gave in to him, sorry I made his bloody dragon!'
Her chin lifted. In so many ways she was her brother's sister. 'Sorry doesn't help the people it's killed. Did you know that, Gerald? Did you know that it's killed people?'
'Yes. I know.' He saw them whenever he closed his eyes.
'Then how could you do it? How could you make such a monstrous creature? Why weren't you strong enough? You're a wizard, you swore an oath). You as good as killed those people yourself.'
'You think I don't know that?' he demanded, his voice ragged. 'You think I don't know I've got their blood on my hands? I tried to resist your damned brother, Melissande! I did resist him, at least for a while. But in the end… in the end…' Helpless, he stared at her. 'In the end I wasn't good enough. I broke. I failed.'
'That's not fair,' Monk said quickly. 'We know what Lional's been up to, Gerald. The stolen potentias.We know he had access to illegal grimoires, the kind of filthy magic he's got at his fingertips.'
Melissande turned on him. 'How dare you make excuses for him, Mister Markham? Haven't you been listening? People have died because Gerald made that dragon. He's an oath-sworn wizard, he should have died before — '
'Do you think I didn't try?' Gerald said, grabbing her elbow and hauling her around. 'He wouldn't let me, all right? Everything he did was designed to keep me alive. Alive and — and — ' 'And what?' she said. Her tone was scathing.
He opened his mouth and the memories poured out. By the time he was finished she was crying, Monk looked like a ghost and Reg was stamping to and fro across the cave's dirt floor swearing a blue streak.
'There's something else you should know,' he said tiredly, as Reg finally ran out of curses. 'Lional's controlling the dragon using the Tantigliani sympathetica!
Melissande smeared a dirty sleeve across her wet face. 'What does that mean?' she said unsteadily. it means your brother and the dragon are two bodies with one mind. He sees through its eyes, it breathes with his lungs. It's got all his cunning, his intelligence, his knowledge. And he's got its… savagery'
Shaken, Monk said, 'Bloody hell. Every wizard who's ever tried that incant has gone mad. Even Tantigliani in the end.' He frowned. 'You said he'd lost himself inside the dragon's mind? Does that mean…'
Gerald looked at Melissande. Despite everything he could have wept for her. 'Yes.' In his memory, Lional and the dragon whispering. 'I'm pretty sure it's too late for Lional.'
Reg rattled her tail feathers. 'Then the only way to stop the dragon is by capturing the king.'
'How can we capture him, Reg?' said Monk. 'He's as good as half a dragon himself now!'
'Fine,' she said, shrugging. 'Then we don't capture the bastard. We kill him.'
'Kill him?' Melissande stared. 'You can't! / can't! He's my brother!'
'He was your brother,' Gerald said gently. 'What he is now… is anybody's guess.'
'It's a simple equation,' said Reg. 'Kill Lional and we kill the dragon.'
'And if we kill the dragon instead?' demanded Melissande, folding her arms.
Monk put his hand on her shoulder. 'Lional still dies. But the chances of us killing that dragon…'
'Are non-existent and none,' Reg said briskly. 'Sorry, ducky. Lional's got to go.'
Melissande dissolved into tears again. As Monk put his arms around her, cradling her against his chest, Gerald picked up Reg.'Can't you even try to be tactful?'
'Who cares about tact in a crisis?' she retorted. 'And after what she said to you — '
He sighed. 'Forget about what she said to me. It doesn't matter. She didn't understand.'
Reg's eyes were bright. Birds couldn't cry but he could tell she was weeping on the inside. 'I never should've left you, Gerald. If I'd stayed here with you — '
'There'd still be a dragon. And we wouldn't have Monk with his portable portal.' He kissed her beak. 'Reg, it's all right. It wasn't your fault.' He released a hard breath. 'Now, what about the Department? Are they — '
She made a rude noise. 'We can't trust those idiots Markham works for to get here in time! They're probably still discussing the matter over crumpets and cocoa! No, Gerald, it's up to us. And if we don't act now, it could be too late! For New Ottosland, for Kallarap… maybe even the world!'