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smoking ruins of what must have once been a long, gracious building at the top of a cliff.
The path along the bluff and the ruined building looked over a wide, snowy valley that
would probably be beautiful in the springtime.
At the moment the valley was filled with an army.
Calondir whispered a shaken curse.
Dragos walked to the edge of the bluff and crouched like an enormous cat, gripping
the rocks tight with his talons as he stared down at the thousands of Elves. Warriors and
non-warriors. Men, women. Children. Some were better dressed than others. Some were
barefoot in the snow. All of them looked ill fed. His snout wrinkled as he smelled the
rarest of oddities for Elves disease.
As he had reached the edge, all the Elves in the valley turned to look up at him.
All of them, all at the same time. Every single one of them cocked his or her head at
exactly the same angle, in exactly the same way. His sharp raptor s gaze moved from
blank face to blank face.
Wyr came up on either side of him, gryphons and the pegasus and the harpy, then
other Wyr along with Elves. They stared down in silence.
The dragon chuckled. The low, bitter sound reverberated in the rock of the bluff on
which he stood, and several Elves drew away from him in dismay.
I think we just found the answer to one of my other questions, Dragos said. What
happened to all the Elves in Numenlaur?
FIFTEEN
Every Elf in the valley smiled.
Dragos felt the Power of the God Machine pulse to life.
Shouts and screams came from behind him. Fuck. He whirled and lunged back through
the trees, knocking people and horses aside in his rush to find Pia. Both Elves and Wyr
dodged to get out of his way, horses plunging headlong off the path, while even more ran
toward him from the direction of the passageway. He ignored all of them, looking for Pia
and her bodyguards.
He saw a tower of flames through the trees.
Where was she?
In the next moment he saw her running toward him, surrounded by her guards, as she
looked back over her shoulder at the blazing fire. He slowed to a stop, breathing hard,
and waited for her to notice him.
She was the last of her group to do, looking away finally to discover him blocking the
path. She skidded to a halt a few yards away.
Somehow Calondir had managed to avoid being dislodged from his back. Now the Elf
Lord leaped to the ground and raced back toward the passageway, along with several
others. Dragos twitched his shoulders, glad to have Calondir s insignificant yet extremely
annoying weight off of him.
You, he said to Pia. Forget everything I said about hanging back. She squeaked
with surprise as he plucked her unceremoniously off the ground. He raised her up and
held her to his shoulder until he felt her scramble onto him and perch at the base of his
neck.
All right, she muttered. But I m not riding like this if you re going to fly.
Just stay put for now, he snapped. He looked down at her unit, three in canine form
and three in human form, plus apparently Pia had managed to add the Elf girl with the
blue hair to her collection. All seven stared up at him. I don t know, he told them,
answering their unspoken questions. Figure out something to do with yourselves for now
and get the hell out of my way.
They scrambled to either side of him, and he strode after Calondir and the others.
This time the trees weren t burning. The stone itself in the passageway was on fire,
fueled by the Power in the God Machine. The flames roared thirty feet tall, and they
threw off a ferocious heat. Of course the heat didn t bother him any more than the cold
did, but mindful of Pia riding on his back, he took care to get no closer than Calondir and
the others had.
Pia and her group had done just what he had told them to do. They had crossed over
in the middle of the warriors.
It was a good thing they had. Those Wyr and the Elves who had been the last to cross
over had been carried off to one side and were being triaged. Several suffered from
burns. A few of them were severely injured and still screaming.
He sensed Pia s intention to go help those who were injured as she lifted one leg to sit
sideways on him, preparatory to sliding down the outside of his front leg.
No, he said to her.
But I can help them, she said. She didn t try to jump to the ground, although her
telepathic voice throbbed with unhappiness.
You said you were prepared for how ugly this could get, he said ruthlessly. Well, the
ugliness has started. There will be too many people for you to help. There already are.
Not only would you expose yourself but you would spread yourself too thin.
Her breathing hitched, but after a moment she shifted back in place astride him.
Calondir approached. The Elf Lord looked incandescent with fury. He asked, Can you
put this fire out too?
Dragos lowered his eyelids as he probed the magical blaze curiously. It was more
resistant to him than the forest fire had been. Probably, he said at last. But I m not
going to waste time and energy doing it. Gaeleval wants to trap us on this side. Well, so
be it. We don t want to leave. In the meantime, he has an entire army he has to control,
and this fire is taking up more of his Power and concentration. There is a limit to what he
can do. I say we help him reach it.
Calondir s chest moved as he sucked in a deep breath. The Elf glanced at the
wounded, his face tight. He said between teeth, Very well. Just see what you can do to
keep something like this from happening again.
You are mistaken about the purpose of my presence, said Dragos. I am not here to
do what you tell me to do, nor am I here to defend you. I m here to attack him.
Dragos, murmured Pia.
He twisted his head around so that he could scowl at her. She said nothing, just gave
him a steady look.
He bared his teeth and growled at the High Lord, But I ll see what I can do.
He had his sufferance rewarded, as she patted and stroked his neck. Calming down,
he supposed it hadn t cost him all that much to promise to do what he could.
" " "
The temperature plummeted as the day began to fade.
Pia s armor had kept her comfortable earlier. After the sun set, she was constantly on
the tense side of a shiver, and as a result, her muscles were tired and achy.
Dragos had relaxed enough to let her get down off his back. He set the Wyr to setting
up camp around the magical blaze, which continued to burn steadily, the stone of the
passageway glowing bright red.
It s going to get cold tonight, he told them. And Calondir s home on this side of the
passage has been destroyed as well. We should take advantage of the warmth Gaeleval
is giving us. Besides, if we re not going to engage him right away, I d better stay close so
I can keep an eye on this and make sure it doesn t spread.
Then he had returned to the cliff, along with Calondir, Elven and Wyr mages, his
sentinels, and Carling, to study Gaeleval s army.
Pia had gone with them but she hadn t stayed long. After she took one long, horrified
look at the tragedy in the valley below, she pivoted on her heel and walked away.
She understood now why Dragos had said there were already too many people for her
to help. A lack of attending to basic bodily needs, along with exposure and neglect, had
taken its toll on the enthralled Numenlaurians. She could scent gangrene and other whiffs
of disease on the wind, and she didn t trust herself to control either her emotional
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