“Yes, yes, that is right. She gathers them with all her might, facing death and mankind’s spite.” Nefrai-laysh pointed at Erlestoke. “His stone, give it to me. I’ll bear it to her, you see.”
Resolute drew Syverce. “It will be your death to take that stone.”
“You’re part of the plot, deny it not, Resolute so bold.” The fire in the sullanciris eyes flared. “Soon not to be bolder, not to be older, but just very much cold.”
The blue’s nostrils flared as gold flame licked from them. “Do not use that sword, elf, or it’s not cold you’ll be.”
Resolute glared at the dragon, but did not return Syverce to its scabbard.
Will picked himself up off the shelf and stared at the blue. “I’d like to be heard. I don’t know if it helps that I’ve got dragon’s blood in me, or that I’ve bled on the Truestone the prince carries, but I think there’s a way you can see the truth of things pretty easily.”
The blue’s head oriented on Will. “Pray, tell us.”
“Well, it’s like this: I’m a thief. If I’m going to steal things, I figure out where they are and then I go after them. Now, Chytrine took Vorquellyn a long time ago. Maybe there was a stone there, maybe there wasn’t, but she tayed there after she took it. And then, twenty-five years ago, she tried to take pieces from Fortress Draconis, but she didn’t. Still, she had forces far south of it, and my father knows that, because he made up a poem about fighting them long before he saw a Truestone.“
The sullanciri hissed. “Tell your lies, you who was whelped ‘tween poxed thighs.”
Will snorted. “You were there before I was.”
Fire shot in jets from Nefrai-laysh’s eyes, but he remained silent.
The thief continued. “And then she went to Fortress Draconis and sent folks to Lakaslin to get fragments. She got one from Fortress Draconis, the prince has a second, and a third is hidden. And the one from Lakaslin is hidden. But, still, her troops are heading south even though she doesn’t know where the pieces are.”
The grey snarled. “Is there a purpose to your recitation?”
“Well, it’s this. If she wanted the fragments—if that’s what she’s been going after—she’d be stopping when she knows she can’t find them. But instead, her troops continue south.” He pointed at his father. “And you already know she enslaves people and makes them do her bidding. If you look at what she does, not what she says, I would be thinking you don’t want her to have that Crown any more than we do.”
The blue considered things for a moment. “Your point is taken. The request for possession of the Truestone is denied.”
The sullanciri raged. “Hear my plea, do not fools be! They come here in heroes’ guise, concealing venom in honeyed lies. It is plain to see, they are no friends to thee. But mistress mine, the magnificent Chytrine, has your best interest at heart. Keep not the crown apart. Give us the stone, merely a loan. Then with four, she will gain more. Her goal will be at hand. Dragons will rule the land.”
Will blinked. “Four? Four? She has two, this would make three.” He looked at Crow. “The ruby! We left it with Scrainwood. He wouldn’t!”
“Not if we stop him.”
The thief turned back to the blue. “Get us to Meredo, and we’ll bring that fourth stone here. You can keep it, along with this one. That way you’ll know it will be safe.” Will smiled. “In fact, if Chytrine really had your best interests at heart, she’d bring all the fragments here and let you keep them.”
The grey snorted two gouts of flame. “The thief uses wormwords to convince us to gather the stones in one place so he can steal them.”
Will’s head came up. “I’m very good, but I know I couldn’t get them out of here. Neither could Chytrine.”
The blue looked at Nefrai-laysh. “You will convey to your mistress our desire to have her deliver her Truestones here.”
The sullanciri laughed aloud. “You have no grounds; you overstep your bounds. Your request she does deny.“ With his right hand he reached behind himself and circled a finger through the air. An oval hole opened in nothingness. ”You have earned her ire, and in consequence dire, one of you must die.“
Nefrai-laysh drew back his left hand to throw the ruby stone. As his arm came forward, he jerked. A spear passed through his body, lancing down from left armpit to right hip. The haft caught his arm, abbreviating his throw. Instead of the Truestone flying straight out into the heart of the fiery lake, it spun end over end in a long, high arc.
Will watched it fly. He watched it spin and began to run. Light flashed from the heart of the stone as it tumbled, falling faster and faster. Will measured the arc, reckoned where the stone would land, and dove.
His fingers closed on the stone’s smooth surface. His body twisted. He threw the stone back toward the shelf and saw it was going to fly true.
“Qwc, get it!”
As Will’s body passed through the magick wall, he saw the Spritha dart for the stone. The little creature wrapped all four arms around it and hung on tightly.
Then the heat hit Will and he was no more.
74
The appearance of the sullanciri, the revelation of Rym Ramoch as a puppet, the spear, the sharp war cry of a furious Gyrkyme, the ruby’s glittering arc as it spun through the air, and Will’s dive all left Kerrigan stunned mindless. He saw Will grab the Truestone, spin, and throw it. His eyes followed the stone’s arc and saw the Spritha’s flight intersect it. He only caught the explosion of flame in the corner of his eye.
He couldn’t look. He couldn’t confirm that the new fire in that lake was Will. He opened his mouth to shout, to scream, to do anything, but he couldn’t breathe.
Then he saw Qwc flailing and falling. Kerrigan’s left hand went out and triggered a spell. He caught the Spritha softly, then whisked him over to Alexia, redoubling the spell to restrain her from lunging after Will.
Back above him, on the ledge, Nefrai-laysh snarled in anger. “Oh, you can all be dragon-hearted, but my wrath shall not be thwarted!” He gestured with his right hand, and from it burst a golden sphere the size of a ripe melon with little tendrils of golden lightning racing around its surface. It shot forward, piercing the wall, and veered straight for the blue.
The blue snorted, and a magickal shield smashed the spell away toward the grey. With a flick of a claw, the grey sent it spinning farther into the Congress Chamber. The dragons, like adults marveling at a child’s invention, invoked spells to send the sullanciri’s attack skittering between them. The spell lost none of its lethal fury, but this seemed only to amuse the dragons.
Lombo let go of an explosive roar and charged the cliff beneath Nefrai-laysh. In two huge bounds he reached it, then scaled it fast and furiously. The sullanciri half turned to face the Panqui, but the haft of the spear caught on the edge of the magickal doorway. A spell began to gather in his right hand, but before Nefrai-laysh could finish the casting, Lombo tackled him, sinking fangs into his left shoulder. Both of them tumbled into the portal, which snapped shut, trimming head and butt from the spear, and shaving a tuft of black hair from the tip of Lombo’s tail.
The sullanciri’s disappearance did not affect the spell, which the dragons still batted back and forth. Then the golden orb swerved straight up, slamming hard into the apex of the roof arch and spitting rock everywhere. It burned its way up higher, golden sparks drizzling down through the hole. Then a huge gout of red-gold fire shot down and touched the surface of the lake. The spell’s detonation shook the entire mountain, spilling everyone to the landing save for Crow and Alexia, who cradled Qwc between them.
Above the dragons, red cracks spiderwebbed through the ceiling. Chunks of stone began to fall, splashing into the molten lake. Hot rock splattered the shielding spell and dripped down like rain. Some stones crashed into the rocky pedestals, and one dragon spilled from his perch. His scrabbling claws gouged stone, but they found no purchase and he pitched screaming into the liquid rock.