Alos moaned and fumbled in his saddlebags for a flagon of brandy.
On they rode toward Dragons' Roost, the mountain looming ever closer. With hills in the near distance to the fore, the land began to draw upward toward the great slopes ahead. In the sunlight the snow and ice on the peak glittered pearlescent, shining white with glints of blues and greys where frozen crags cast their shades.
And the cattle plodded slowly ahead.
The sun set and darkness fell, but still they pressed on by the light of the gibbous moon, for they wished to make up some of the time they had lost that morning rounding up their scattered animals.
They had gone another two miles or so, when Aiko hissed, "Peril comes on wings," and she pointed toward the crest of Dragons' Roost, where, silhouetted by the moonlight against the white snow, something large and dark with pinions spread wide hurtled toward them.
"Yahhh!" cried Alos, and he leapt from the back of his steed and ran in panic away.
"Dismount!" cried Egil, and, "Take cover!" though there was precious little shelter at hand.
Still, they sprang from their saddles, and Egil and Aiko, pulling on the reins of their steeds, managed to twist the horses' heads back alongside while taking their front legs down as well, each horse grunting as it fell on its side, floundering but unable to rise. Burel, too, got his own horse down, and behind these three steeds the companions flopped to the ground, all but Alos, who fled across the grass northerly.
And amid bawling cattle and scattering horses and mules, in a thunder of wings the Drake swooped down and snatched up a running steed-Alos's. With its mighty pinions churning and a horse in its claws, up into the air flew the great beast, the steed screaming in terror… but the Dragon, the Dragon itself seemed to bellow in laughter as back toward the mountain it flew.
CHAPTER 72
As the Drake flew away, Egil and Aiko and Burel kept their downed horses from rising, the steeds grunting and thrashing, yet unable to gain their feet. Finally, the Dragon flew beyond sight, and now the trio allowed the steeds to scramble up, snorting and blowing and sidle-stepping, their eyes wide in fear. Yet with soothing words and reassuring touches and strokes, Aiko, Burel, and Egil at last calmed the animals. Burel then gave over his steed to Arin, saying, "Dara, you see best in the night, and our stock is scattered again."
Arin took the reins, then said, "Aiko, I would have thee come with me. Egil, wouldst thou find Alos?"
"Where away?"
"North, I think," said Ferret, pointing.
Egil's gaze followed her outstretched arm, yet he saw nought but prairie in the bright moonlight. Nevertheless, he mounted and rode away northerly, and no more than a hundred yards thither he found the old man lying on his back in the grass, gasping and wheezing in exhaustion.
Egil rode to join Arin and Aiko, and by the time they rounded up the mules and cattle and the remaining horses the moon had moved two hand-widths across the sky.
Arin and Aiko drove the cattle before them, and riding after came Egil, steeds and mules tethered in a line behind. As they arrived where those afoot waited, Aiko looked through the moonlight at Alos now standing with the others, her enshadowed gaze unreadable. Even so, the oldster could not bear the force of her regard, and he turned away and peered toward the Boreal, its waters unseen beyond the dunes to the west.
Without dismounting, Arin said, "Let us move into the shelter of the coppice ahead, a mile, no more. Alos, thou canst ride double with me."
"Double?" Alos looked about. "Say, where is my horse?"
"Taken by Raudhrskal," replied the Dara. "Thou wert fortunate to not be astride at the time."
Alos's knees nearly went out from under him. "The Dragon took my horse," he gasped, his voice tremulous. "And if I'd been in the saddle…" He ran a shaking hand across his forehead. "Lord, I need a-" His words jerked to a halt. Then he groaned, "My saddlebags. He got my saddlebags."
They made a small fire and heated water for tea, and as they sat sipping, Alos said, "Why don't we just stake out the cattle and ride back to Hafen, eh?"
"How will that get us the green stone?" asked Ferret.
Alos glared 'round at her. "It won't, but at least the Dragon will be busy eating cattle instead of us."
"Alos, thou canst take one of the horses and ride back to Hafen if thou dost so desire," said Arin. "We'll press on without thee."
Alos moaned and shook his head. "If you are bound to go on, I can do nothing but go with you, for unlike before, I'll not desert my shipmates in their time of need."
"Ha!" snorted Ferret. "Just as you did not desert your shipmates when the Dragon swooped down upon us, eh?"
Alos shook his head and looked into his cup. "I didn't desert you, you know."
"Oh?" Ferret arched her eyebrow. "What else would you call it? Or was that your twin I saw fleeing north?"
"Yes, I bolted, I admit it, but I didn't go far. Found I couldn't, in fact."
Aiko fixed the oldster with a penetrating stare. "How so?"
"I dunno. It seems the farther I got, the harder it was to run, almost as if I were on a steepening hill."
Delon looked out across the level plain. "When was the last time you ran any distance?"
Alos shrugged. "Twenty, thirty years ago."
"Alos, old man, I'd just say your age has caught up with you."
"Think what you will," snapped Alos.
"I do not fault you, Alos," said Egil. "Many would run in fear from a stooping Drake."
Alos looked at the Fjordlander. "I was just heading for a place out of the way, you know."
Delon laughed. "Yes, old man, like all the way back to the safety of town."
Arin shook her head. "But for a Drimmenholt or the like, no place is safe from a Drake." She turned to the oldster. "And neither do I fault thee, Alos, for, as Egil says, any and all may succumb to the dread a Dragon brings."
Alos bobbed his head to the Dylvana, then looked across at Aiko. Yet he received no reassurance from her nor any indication that she agreed with the Dara, for Aiko's dark gaze gave no clue to the thoughts she held inside.
That eve, as Aiko stood watch, contrary to the experience of the past hundred darktides, her red tiger whispered of no peril whatsoever as mid of night came and went.
Perhaps it was the fell beast slain by the Dragon my tiger sensed all along. If so, why would such a creature be lurking on our trail?
The next day they wound upward into the foothills lying against the northern flank of Dragons' Roost. Gradually the land steepened, and the air grew chill. And gradually as well, Aiko's red tiger began to mutter of peril ahead, for the closer they came to that icy pinnacle, the greater the warning of her arcane ward. Still they pressed forward, herding the slowfooted cattle up the cant of the land. Finally, near sunset, they reached a place where they could see that the slope of the terrain lying ahead was simply too steep for the animals to maintain even the slow pace of the past three days.
"Look there," called Arin, pointing forward and to the right.
All hearts beat a bit faster, for where she pointed they could see the beginnings of the path the folk of Hafen had described: somewhere above lay the ledge, a thousand feet up and three or four miles away, or so the townsfolk had claimed. This was the path they would follow up the mountain flank, hoping to find the place where a fearsome Dragon lay.
Egil looked over at Arin and Alos, the trembling old man sitting behind the rear cantle of her saddle. "I think from here we need to leave the animals behind and go afoot."
Arin scanned the uplift as well, then nodded.
Through his chattering teeth, Alos groaned, then hissed, "Let's turn back. Let's turn back before it's too late."