once in a while, blood runs.'
'That should be when it's unavoidable, Hot Pants,' I said, in a huff. I can't stand it when people give me that 'accidents of war' garbage. 'This is avoidable. Short of searching everybody, we can't find these tricks until they try to use one, but that doesn't mean they get to keep it once we see it' I tossed the disk in the air and caught it again. 'He can have it back at the end of the race.'
Carisweather sighed. I looked around again for Glory. She had shot away on foot from the starting position so fast I hadn't seen which way she went. Once we hit the skies I saw her prints on the soft ground. She had always been a good runner when she was a little thing, able to outdistance elk-deer and wrestle them down with her bare hands. She told me she'd been training hard for more than a year to make this the best contest Brakespear had ever seen. I wanted it all to work out for her.
With only suspicions on her part and Aahz's spotting of that mystery figure in the woods it was tough to figure out who to keep a eye on. None of them had a good-conduct prize coming that I could see. Besides Snake- dude trying to mess up the dragons, we'd already spotted the scrawny-butt black-furred nymph scattering slow weed for the other 'hippuses to eat, making sure they'd all be too groggy to run after Glory in the backstretch I knew was up ahead, and both Deveels had tried to make alliances with other riders to let them win.
The noon sun beat down on my back like a hot towel. I wanted to show the colors for Glory, but I'd have been happier in my usual lightweight clothes. A girl my size doesn't need the extra insulation; we generate a fair bit of heat on our own. How she kept moving the way she was amazed me.
If I levitated high above the forest I could see her in the distance, sure-footed as a unicorn. Not the only thing she had in common with that fabled beast, if you get my drift Once in a while when she crested a ridge the others could see her. too. That Prince Bosheer practically bounded out of his saddle-ridge every time he spotted her. That boy had it bad for her. He must have been bitten by the love-bug the second he set eyes on her. I wondered if Glory knew it.
Silly me. She must have known it even before he did. I knew when Hugh fell for me; Crom knows ! waited long enough for Mr. Right that I was certain I recognized that look on a man's face when it finally happened. I was seeing it in front of me at this very moment. I started rooting for him to win.
It wasn't going to be easy. The Cosus of Elova had easily the fastest steed, bought directly out of Glory's dad's stables not two weeks ago. The big white 'hippus knew the terrain and didn't have to be magikally adapted to the local atmosphere and gravity as some of the others did. He was in the lead, spurring Sugarpie every time Glory's blond head became visible amid the sparse trees. The others fought for distance, galloping heavily behind him.
The occasional peeks were for the benefit of the riders, she'd told me The dragons were following her own scent plus the spoor she laid down from the brimstone pellets in her belt pouch. One of the big reds suddenly got frustrated with having to thread its way through the trees and let out a blast of fire. With an expression on his big chops I can only call smug, he slithered forward on his belly over the smouldering ashes. The rest of the dragons followed his lead, and the king had a head start on this year's controlled burn. I had a coughing fit as the wind carried clouds of hot cinders up into the sky, so I missed Belizara, a Weeka from Sowen, zoom down on her broom to break up a disagreement between a pair of contestants as to who got precedence to cross a bridge.
Riding alongside but not with the group was the king. He rode a handsome black stallion. Behind him, a litter slung between two beasts carried the prize. No one accompanied him; I mean, who was going to bother the king? Nobody would, especially not a king as well prepared for an attack: Hank was in full armor, carrying a sword, sixteen spears including the famous Broken Spear, a dagger in his belt and each boot, bandoliers of throwing stars, a shield, a mace, and a morning star. So far, everything was running well. With Aahz keeping an eye on the action down below, and me up here, nothing should go wrong.
'You!' I demanded, as Nunzio slunk out of the shadows. 'What are you doing here? You ought to be back there keeping an eye on Gleep.'
'He doesn't need me, Aahz,' the Mob enforcer said. 'I had to talk to you in private.'
I eyed him. 'What's going on that you couldn't ask me back there? Who don't you want to hear you?'
'Massha,' Nunzio sighed, sitting down on a stone and fanning himself with his broad-brimmed hat. 'She's queering the whole deal.'
'What deal?' I glanced over his head. No sign of the dragon pack yet, but they couldn't be too far behind me. 'Talk fast.'
'The safe, the first prize, isn't supposed to be in circulation. It was going to be stopped, but there's been a mix-up.'
'What kind of mix-up?' I asked. 'Who doesn't want it out there?'
'The Council of Wizards.'
'Uh-huh,' I nodded, thinking hard. The COW was a transdimensional advisory board that had a representative for every gateway to a dimension that used magik. They did a pretty good job of helping keeping items out of a place that wasn't ready for 'em, but there were occasional slip-ups.
'Yes. The safe was a prototype, designed to protect irreplaceable artifacts, but once the scientists let the critics get a look at it, they figured out it was just too easily used for ill-gotten gains,' Nunzio said. 'Think of what would happen if you put loot from a... business transaction into it Law enforcement could retrieve the merchandise, but all a perpetrator would have to do to get it back again was to reach into the safe ...'
'I get it,' I said. I let out a long whistle. 'Pretty smooth. Another case of technology running too far ahead of the law. So of course they've got to get it out of circulation again. You'd think something like this would have a major APB out. I never heard anything about it.'
'You might not have, perhaps because you've been a little out of the loop lately.' Nunzio looked abashed, thinking he'd hurt my feelings. I felt a twinge, but he was right I had had a lot of other things on my mind.
'So the transaction's going to take place where no one can see it Who's out there?'
'Someone from COW,' said Nunzio. I shrugged again. Who was I to disagree with COW? 'They're going to stick up the king.'
'What?!!?' My voice echoed down the narrow valley. 'Let it happen,' Nunzio said, quietly. 'He's the one who called COW in the first place and told them he had it He's an honest man. A crook would never have let it go.'
I peered closely at Nunzio. 'So he never intended to give it away at this race?'
The race is good cover,' the enforcer said. 'So's a robbery. Otherwise there might have been too many questions asked, the king just giving up a choice piece of merchandise like that. It's a shame that Princess Glory caught some mention of it She called Massha, Massha called you, and here we are, where none of us ought to have been in the first place.'
'Uh-huh.' I nodded, as all the pieces fell into place. 'So that'd explain the figure in the woods.' Another truth dawned on me. 'So I'm getting saddle sores for
Nunzio nodded once. He was a man of relatively few words; once he knew he'd convinced me he didn't waste any more of them. He slid into a crevice, vanishing among the shadows. Pretty good disappearing act for someone with no magik. I gave Fireball a kick to get him started again. He didn't need it Just as Nunzio disappeared, the knot of dragons caught up with me. Fireball whinnied and took off, me clinging to his neck. We bounded down the canyon with the yelps of thirty couples of drakes, wyverns, wurms, firebreathers, and Gleep behind us.
While Fireball ran I had time to think. I needed to figure out a way to distract Massha and the other judges at the time of the stickup. I glanced up as the airborne quintet zoomed overhead. I owed it to her to tell her the truth, but there wasn't any time. The day was rushing by.
I had to get out of the way of the dragons. With the help of the tracker I located the next handy pocket canyon, and yanked Fireball aside as we reached it. The horde thundered past me with the hunters in their wake. Now that I knew none of the others were involved I could stop babysitting them. As he rode by. Prince Bosheer tipped me a merry wave and a salute. I grimaced back. Whelves wrote the book on cheerfulness. I could only take them in small doses.
Now, to locate the king.
I quivered with joy as we flew along above the hunters. We were in the ride to the finish. Over the top of