'Geth!' said Batul. 'Now!'
Gatekeeper magic and Dhakaani sword. Geth clenched his jaw tight. He darted to Singe where the wizard knelt with his arms around Dandra. 'Run!' he said over the wind. 'Get everyone away!'
'What?'
'Do it! Do it like Robrand gave the order himself!' Geth reached to his belt, tore free the pouch that contained Tetkashtai's crystal, and thrust it at him. 'Give that to Dandra!'
He spun away and leaped for Dah'mir without looking back. He heard Singe call his name once, then the wizard began shouting commands at Natrac and the others. The shifter heard Batul shout something as well- another prayer, an invocation that throbbed with power.
The wind rose to a storm in answer. The grit it carried became painful, like a rain of needles. Geth reached deep and forced his tired body to shift once more. Renewed energy surged through him and the piercing pain of the wind eased as he plunged through it. Around him, though, the dolgrims that Dah'mir had commanded weren't so lucky. They screeched and tried to flee from the druid's magic, but it was as if nature held a special fury for the twisted aberrations. The creatures tried to flee, but the wind tore at their exposed skin, stripping it raw and bloody. They tumbled before nature's wrath like autumn leaves.
In Geth's hand, the Dhakaani sword began to glow with a dim twilight radiance, an ember fanned by the angry wind.
Geth pushed himself hard, racing with the storm. Dah'mir crouched back, hissing in frustration at the lancing wind that cut between his scales. Geth clenched his teeth. Batul was right, he thought-they had no hope of killing the dragon. If he was fast enough, though, maybe he could hold out against Dah'mir long enough to buy Singe, Dandra, and the others the time they need to escape.
He swept up the ancient sword and hurled himself forward.
'This is for Adolan, you bastard!'
Eyes still closed tight, Dah'mir roared back at him-and lunged, not at the shifter, but up, toward the sky. His body uncoiled. His wings cracked open. Muscular hind legs strained and thrust against the ground…
Geth didn't hesitate for a moment. He threw himself into the air, leaping to meet the climbing dragon.
His body slammed into a foreleg as thick as a tree trunk and he grabbed onto the scaly limb as the ground whirled away beneath him. He was lifted out of the raging stream of Batul's magic, and the air that rushed against him was cool, not stinging. Overhead, Dah'mir's chest thrust and pushed. From his shoulders all the way along the length of his body and tail, his great wings swept the night. For a moment, Geth felt a rushing thrill at the experience-then Dah'mir shook his leg violently. Geth wrenched his head around, his hair whipping across his face, to look up. Dah'mir's neck stretched out straight as he flew, but the dragon had managed to twist his head around enough to look down at his own massive chest. One angry green eye fixed on Geth and went wide.
'Get off me!' Dah'mir roared. He shook his leg again, but Geth clung tight, trying not to slash himself with his own sword. Dah'mir flexed, folding both legs to scrape them together. Geth clenched his teeth against the wind that tore at his breath and thrust himself higher, beyond the dragon's awkward reach. Dah'mir roared again. His wings snapped out, his neck arched and his entire body rolled as he swept into a turn.
For a moment, the night sky, clouds breaking, swung below Geth. The Ring of Siberys flashed past in a shining arc, then Dah'mir righted himself and the Ring was replaced by moonlight reflected in water far below. The long loops of the river streaked by; the Bonetree mound, still lit by Dah'mir's magic, grew like a swelling boil.
'Cling then!' said Dah'mir over the wind. His legs folded close and his wings beat even harder, speeding him forward. 'Cling like a flea and watch your friends die before me!'
A blue-black flash caught Geth's eye. One arm and both legs hugging the dragon's thick foreleg tight, he twisted his head and looked up at Dah'mir's massive chest, straining not much more than an arms length above him. Just as it had glittered against his leather robes as a man, a single Khyber dragonshard seemed set in Dah'mir's chest as a dragon. The scales surrounding it were gnarled and misshapen. Geth clenched his sharp teeth tight.
'Fleas bite, dragon!' he snarled.
He leaned out and swung his sword as hard as he could at the dragonshard and the twisted scales around it.
The Dhakaani blade flashed with a dull glow, as if nature's rage still clung to it, as if the Gatekeeper magic had breathed anger into the metal. Its jagged edge shattered the Khyber shard and bit deep into Dah'mir's flesh- deeper than Geth would have hoped or expected.
Black blood burst out of the dragon's chest, drenching Geth in a hot, steaming spray. Dah'mir twisted and crumpled in midair, the thunderous rhythm of his beating wings out of time. A grating howl louder than anything Geth had ever heard burst out of his jaws. The shifter caught a brief glimpse of a dark cloud bursting up from the banks of the river-the black herons of the Bonetree-before Dah'mir's wings stopped beating altogether and he tumbled out of the sky, plunging toward the rising herons.
Geth's guts pushed themselves up into his throat and he choked on a scream as he fell along with the dragon. He felt Dah'mir's leg wrenched away from him. Talons slashed at him, but fell short. Geth caught a glimpse of acid-green eyes, the bright light of madness in them dimmed by agony but still sharp and now tinged with hate as well.
They flickered-then shifter and dragon were plunging past the darting wings of the black herons. Greasy feathers surrounded Geth, obscuring even Dah'mir's writhing bulk.
A scant moment later he fell out of the whirling flock. He had only long enough to realize that he was falling alone before the water of the river slammed into him.
CHAPTER 18
A blaze of agony woke him, a fire that cut through the darkness and throbbed through his shoulders and torso. Hands held him tight, dragging on him. The sound of a dragon's roar echoed in his ears. He cried out and struggled, trying to defend himself.
The dragon's roar gave way to cursing. 'Twelve moons! Someone get that sword away from him!'
Singe's voice, Geth realized. Then Dandra's. 'Hold him out of the water and I'll lift him.'
A moment later, a gentle pressure surrounded Geth's body. The hands that had held him let go and he rose slowly from water into air. His body turned. There was some pain but not as bad as it had been moments before. Geth's eyes flickered open.
He hung suspended in the air. Beside him, Singe, Ashi, and Dandra crouched in a wide, flat-bottomed boat. Dandra's gaze was focused on him. Her yellow-green psicrystal hung around her neck. Her fingers flickered and his dripping body slid sideways, then down into the boat. Hard wood pressed against his back and he coughed out a groan of pain.
Dandra bent over him. 'Geth, can you hear me?'
Geth coughed again and water spattered out of his mouth, but he nodded. The air was gray with the light of early morning. 'Where-?' he asked.
'On the river south of the ancestor mound,' said Singe. 'Lie still.' He prodded Geth's torso gently. The shifter gasped and writhed at the touch. His arm snapped up-and the Dhakaani sword with it. His fingers were clenched around the weapon's hilt, wrapped so tight they were white and numb. Singe cursed, grabbing his arm and forcing it back down. 'Careful!'
'Natrac? Batul?' asked Geth. His head was still reeling. Stringing more than a few words together hurt.
'Here,' said Natrac's voice. There was a bump as another boat nudged up against theirs. Geth turned his head enough to see the hooked ends of hunda sticks slip over the sides of the boat, holding the two craft together. Orshok and Krepis peered over, then Batul pushed them aside. The old orc looked tired, though Geth thought maybe he looked worse.
'We're all here,' said Dandra. Geth stared at her, then fixed his eye on Singe.
'Told you to run,' he said thinly.
'We did at first. But after you took Dah'mir for a ride, there wasn't much point-the dolgrims and the Bonetree hunters were scattered.' The wizard looked down at him. 'Ashi led us to the Bonetree boats when we saw you
