activity as the wealth of the kingdom flowed through it. Vendevorex and Jandra watched the nearby river docks. A few dozen people could be seen going about their business.
“Where are you going?” Jandra asked.
“I think our best course at this point will be to take a boat,” Vendevorex said. “We can save our strength rather than exhausting ourselves on foot.”
“When you say take a boat, do you mean steal a boat?” Jandra asked.
Vendevorex turned his long, narrow face to her. His face was back to normal. He’d taken ten minutes to concentrate on the cut to his cheek, and now there was little sign of the wound, only a thin, pale line of blue scales that were fresher than the others.
“Yes,” he said flatly. “I mean steal.”
“But-”
Vendevorex raised his talon to his mouth in a gesture of silence.
Jandra clenched her jaw at the dismissive signal. She understood, of course, the danger they were in. But it always bothered her the way that dragons treated human property as their own. “People need-”
“These people are all dead,” Vendevorex said. “You saw the slaughter in the courtyard. It’s only a matter of time before the king’s troops descend on this place. Albekizan means to kill every last human in his kingdom. These people have much greater things to worry about than a missing boat.”
Jandra could hardly breathe. She had thought that the king was slaughtering only the palace workers in retribution for Bodiel’s death.
“Did… did you say…” she could barely think the thought, let alone speak it.
“Every last human,” said Vendevorex.
“We have to stop him!” Jandra said. “We have to go back!”
“We would return to our deaths,” Vendevorex said. “We escaped due to the haste with which I acted. We had the element of surprise. I turn invisible, not invulnerable. You of all people know how many of my magics are based on illusions. In a direct, violent confrontation with Albekizan, I could possibly best him, but then what? If I kill him, we’ll wind up with anarchy, or worse, under the rule of a buffoon such as Kanst. I see no immediate good options.”
“B-but, you’re his advisor. You can reason with the king, can’t you?”
“Albekizan’s notion of reason was to lock you in a cell to blackmail me into assisting him. I defied him, Jandra, for your sake. I won’t throw away our lives by returning to the castle.”
“Then, what? We sit idly by while all of humanity is slaughtered?”
Vendevorex shook his head slowly. “I… I need time to think. Let me secure a boat. There may be allies we can contact. Albekizan’s decision to wipe out the human race will meet with opposition from other sun-dragons, I’m sure of this.”
“We should at least warn the people of Richmond,” Jandra said. “Give them time to flee.”
“We’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Vendevorex. “We must be careful to leave no clues of having passed this way. I’m certain Albekizan’s troops are searching for us. Worse still, he may put Zanzeroth on our trail. We can’t be careless.”
“I can’t believe you,” Jandra said. She was thinking about the cries from the courtyard. She remembered the wet sound the axe made as it fell. Perhaps Vendevorex was content to allow these people to die, but she would have no part of it.
Without another word, she ran. Vendevorex reached to grab her but she slipped past his grasp and dashed from the trees, heading for the docks.
“Run!” she shouted. “Run! Albekizan wants to kill you!”
Instead of running, the men working on the docks merely looked up, bewildered. As she drew closer and her shouts grew more urgent, more people emerged from boats and buildings to see what the commotion was.
She reached a gray-bearded man who stood coiling rope at one of the nearest boats.
“Calm down, girl,” the man said. His eyes twinkled with bemusement against this leathery, tanned face. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re all in terrible danger,” she said. “You need to run. Albekizan plans to kill everyone.”
The old man chuckled. “Is that right?”
More men approached.
“What’s wrong?” a young man shouted as he strolled up.
“This girl says the king wants to kill us!” the old man said, sounding amused.
“He’s doing a good job of it,” another man shouted. “Takes half my wages in taxes, he does. That wicked old beast is starving my family.”
“Let the king try something,” another man shouted, brandishing a large, dangerous-looking hook. “He shows his scaly hide around here, I’ll give him what for.”
Jandra was out of breath. She bent forward, resting her hands on her knees, and said, “Please. This isn’t a joke. He’s killing people right now in the palace.”
A tall man appeared on the deck of a large boat twenty yards away.
“Oi!” he shouted to the assembled men. “Get back to work. We’re behind schedule already.”
The gray-bearded man shouted back, “Girl here says Albekizan’s killing people. I reckon this means we can take the rest of the day off.”
The crowd of men laughed.
Then, as one, the men turned pale and sucked in their breath, their eyes fixed behind Jandra.
Jandra turned.
Albekizan dropped from the sky, only a few steps away. As his shadow fell over her she suddenly felt very, very small.
Albekizan landed, his weight on his hind claws, his enormous wings spread for balance, the tip of his tail swaying like a cat’s with prey in sight. His red scales glistened as if wet from blood. His eyes smoldered with hatred.
“You mock me?” he roared. “I’ll kill the lot of you!”
Suddenly, the dock shuddered and banged with the panicked dance of a hundred feet. The men behind Jandra fled, some leaping into the river, others racing for the narrow alleys of Richmond. Inside of thirty seconds she faced Albekizan alone.
She swallowed.
Albekizan lowered his serpentine neck, bringing his face close to hers. His head was bigger than a horse’s, the long jaws capable of opening wide enough to close around her torso with a single chomp. His white teeth glistened with saliva. The pale wisps of feathers around the king’s nostrils swayed with each breath. Yet… she didn’t feel the breath, though his face was now inches from her own. And the perfumes the sun-dragons soaked themselves in… There was no smell.
“Ven?” she asked.
“That would be a lucky break for you, yes?” Albekizan said in her mentor’s voice.
“I can’t believe you’d frighten me like this,” she said.
“More important, I frightened the townsfolk.” The image of Albekizan fell away in a shower of sparks revealing her master at the center. “You’ve got your wish. They are warned.”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I suppose they are. Let’s steal a boat and get out of here.”
“An excellent suggestion,” said Vendevorex. “I wish I’d thought of it myself.”
CHAPTER SIX: SPARKS
Tulk and Cron had barely spoken to one another on their daylong flight along the riverbank. Tulk felt there should be a bond between them; they had been, literally, in the same boat earlier, drifting downriver until the dawn made travel by water too risky.
Yet Cron barely looked back as he raced through the woods. He showed no willingness to slow his pace or assist Tulk who lacked his companion’s youth and stamina. It was all Tulk could do to keep up.
