'How?' demanded Melissande. 'Look at the thing, half a mile away and it's still enormous!'
Shaking his head Rupert bleated, 'Really, Gerald, I can't leave now, I — '
He raised his hand, fingers widespread. 'Impedimentia assolutaY
Melissande and Rupert froze in mid-protest, voices silenced.
'Whoops,' said Reg. 'They're not going to like that, sunshine.'
Too had. 'So long as they're alive to not like it I really don't care!' he retorted. 'Monk, listen. You have to go. Get the Department off its backside, and the UMN. Raise merry hell till somebody does something. Melissande, Rupert and Reg can help you, foreign royalty always gets attention. Come back with help, lots of it, as fast as you can.'
'And in the meantime?' said Monk. He'd gone very pale.
In the meantime, I die. 'I'll do what I can to keep Lional and his dragon preoccupied. Stop them from hurting anyone else. But you'd better hurry, mate. So go. Now. Please!
Monk pulled the portable portal out of his pocket. His hand was unsteady. 'Dunnywood, for the record, I'm telling you this is a bad idea.'
He tried to smile and couldn't. 'Probably. Monk — '
With a hiccuping sob Reg threw herself into his arms. 'No, no, I'm not leaving you, Gerald! You need me! I can help you!'
Tenderly he lifted her to eye level. She felt suddenly small and fragile, a frantically beating heart inside a brittle cage of feather and bone. 'Darling Reg,' he whispered, and kissed her. i'm sorry but you can't. Not any more. Now if you love me… leave!
'Gerald…' she protested helplessly as he returned her to Monk's shoulder. 'All set,' his friend said. 'Ready when you are.'
He nodded. 'Take care of each other, you two. And our royal friends. Don't let them boss you. And Monk?'
'What?' said Monk, wrapping one arm round Melissande, the other round Rupert and triggering the portal.'Gerald, what?'
He undid the immobility incant. Dredged up a smile. 'Good luck with the princess. You're going to need it.' The portal opened and they disappeared.
Zazoor said, 'Wizard, that was honourably done.'
The stern voice released Gerald from his trance. He let out his pent-up breath, the relief so great it was like a pain. They're safe, they're safe, thank God, they're safe. Whatever life was left to him now, be it hours or minutes or scant swift seconds, at least he could face it with some kind of peace. His friends wouldn't pay the price for his myriad failures.
He turned and looked at Kallarap s sultan. 'You think I'm the kind of man who'd let one more innocent life be lost if he could prevent it?'
Shugat fingered his staff. 'The kind of man you are is yet to be revealed,' he said before Zazoor could reply.
The dragon was almost on top of them now, flames and smoke billowing in its wake. The clear air trembled.
He sneered. 'What's that, Shugat? More of your gods' wisdom?' 'Yes.'
Damn the holy man and his cryptic utterances. He took a step towards Zazoor. 'Magnificence, don't listen to him. That dragon's dangerous, you — '
'Oh lookV cried a lilting voice, it's a party and we weren't invited. Do you know, we think our feelings are hurt'. Lional.
Cold with inevitability, Gerald looked to Shugat and the sultan. Unmoved, they watched Lional make his suave, insinuating way through the ruined flowerbeds to the edge of the carriageway where grass met gravel.
He turned to Zazoor, the blood pounding in his head. 'This is your last chance. Help me. Please!
Unmoved, unmoving, Zazoor sat on his ebony war camel and stared down at his holy man. Shugat inspected the tip of his staff, leathered face creased in thought, then glanced up at Zazoor. After a moment of silent communion they closed their eyes. So. I'm alone.
Something… some hope or belief or faith in the ultimate goodness of man… broke inside him. Bled swiftly, quietly, flooding all the cracks and chasms of his soul.
Lional laughed. 'Gerald, Gerald. Why are you surprised? Didn't we tell you they're a dreadful bunch?'
He snapped his fingers… and in a beating of wings, with a hissing song of welcome, the dragon touched lightly to the ground at his side. Sunlight trembled on its scarlet and emerald scales, striking sparks from the diamond-bright sheen of its spines. Poison, green and glowing, oozed from each razor-sharp tip. Dripped harmlessly down the dragon's brilliant striped hide and Lional's green silk arm. Fell to the ground… which at its touch dissolved in a cloud of noxious smoke.
Kissing his palm to the dragon's cheek, Lional sighed. Some subtle flow of flesh and bone rippled beneath his skin. Seemed to elongate his skull and dagger his teeth. Gerald thought he saw a shimmer of crimson scale, swift as fish-scales in a river.
'We were hunting,' said Lional in a soft and singsong voice, subtly not his own. 'The sheep, the boar, the bullock, the stag… blood like crimson nectar… but before we'd killed our fill we felt the air change. Smelt the rank unwelcome coming of the nasty little man with his stone of power and we thought…'
Abruptly, Lional blinked. The dragon blinked. They stirred as though waking from a dream. Then Lional smiled, a bright flashing of teeth, and the shadows beneath his skin sank from sight.
'Well, well, well,' he drawled. He sounded himself again. 'Hello, Zazoor. What brings you and your holy lapdog to my kingdom? And without an invitation. So rudeV
If Zazoor was unnerved by the ravening beast just feet away he gave no sign. He might have been attending a tedious tea party or receiving a tiresome guest in his own home. 'What brings us here, Lional? Fate. Destiny. The will of the Three.'
Lional's smiled widened. 'Can't you make up your mind? Well, it's nice to see some things never change.'
Zazoor's answering smile was deadly. When we were at school, Lional, I knew you for a cowardly boy who bullied and cheated to get his way. Now you are a man grown and you resort to torture when bullying and cheating no longer suffice. Indeed you have the right of it, my old school chum: truly, some things never change.'
Lional's smile vanished. His caressing fingers — with nails longer and thicker than they'd been just yesterday — dropped from the dragon's face and his blue eyes darkened, the flickering red flame in their depths leaping high. 'Burn them, my darling. Burn them to ash.'
The dragon roared, lower jaw unhinging to reveal a cauldron of fire. Flames writhing green and scarlet burst from its dagger-toothed mouth. Swift as a striking snake Shugat snatched the stone from his forehead and held out his hand. A bolt of blue-white light collided with the gushing fire. There was a hissing of steam and stinking smoke like hot lava striking an arctic sea. The dragon screamed, rearing on its hind legs, wings thrashing. Lional, fingers clawing desperately at his mouth, screamed with it.
Gerald turned on Shugat. 'See? You can hurt them! For God's sake, Shugat, you have to help me!'
Shugat glared, his eyes like the heart of a distant sun. He opened his mouth as if to speak… then froze. His eyes rolled back in his head, his arms flung wide and his tight-clutched staff began to shiver and twist. The stone he held exploded into life.
Its surge of power drove Gerald to his knees. As he struggled to breathe he heard Lional, shrieking, and the dragon's echoing roar. He looked up.
Lional's fingernails had gouged deep furrows in his face; blood flowed from his cheeks, his lips, his chin. The dragon was wounded too, its scales cracked and blackened, thick gore bubbled and stinking. But within moments the scales healed, and Lional's wounds. His hands came up, fingers curved into talons, and his eyes were soaked in scarlet.
Shugat moved in a blur of speed. As a stream of foul curses spewed from Lional's lips he swept staff and stone in an arc that encompassed himself, his sultan and the entire Kallarapi army. In its wake sprang a translucent domed shield; motionless within, Shugat and Zazoor and the warriors of Kallarap waited.