Song of the Dragon

cannot live with what he feels. I cannot live with what I feel. I want to never know that pain again. I want to forget.”

She began to sob. “Please take me home. .”

“Mala,” Soen said in a soft, warm voice. “You have, indeed, done everything that you were meant to do. I am sorry. . but the demons must stay with you.”

Mala looked up into the Inquisitor’s face, her shoulders shaking as she spoke. “But. . Master. . you’ve come for me! You. . you’ve come to take me home!”

“No, Mala,” Soen replied, “I cannot do that.”

“Why?”

“Because, I am not the Inquisitor whom you serve,” the elf replied. “I am not Soen.”

The robes began to shift as the Matei staff fell heavily to the deck. The black elven eyes contorted, and the flesh around them shifted. The robes collapsus into smoother forms. Two arms became four as the expressionless and all too familiar face looked up.

“I am sorry, Drakis,” Ethis said from the forecastle, where Mala lay quivering at his feet. “There was no other way.”

CHAPTER 48

Chimera

“Ethis!” Jugar sputtered. “You! I have seen a number of feats of legerdemain in my time, but how is it that you have thus magically appeared on this ship?”

“In a moment, friend Jugar,” Ethis said looking toward the afterdeck. “Captain Urulani, may I suggest that a few of your crew take charge of this human woman. I believe she is now beyond doing us any further harm, but her actions, I believe, warrant some prudent caution.”

Urulani broke from her astonishment and nodded. “I agree. Zinbar and Gantau. . go forward and take charge of her. Bind the woman hand and foot, but I don’t think a gag is necessary. Make her comfortable, but I want her secure.”

“Aye, Captain!” they responded and moved forward, Zinbar picking up a coil of rope stowed next to the main mast.

Urulani raised an eyebrow as she spoke to the chimerian, “Anything else?”

Ethis bowed slightly, “It’s your ship, Captain.”

“And I’d like to see that it remains my ship,” the captain replied. “Is there anything else you would like to tell me?”

“Only that my name is Ethis, that I am-as you plainly see-a chimerian shapeshifter, and that I serve you aboard this ship.”

“That’s all?”

“Oh, and that you’ll find that there is no longer a seasick manticore in your hold.”

“Which is because?” Urulani urged.

“Because. . because I was that seasick manticore.”

“Ah-ha!” the dwarf crowed. “That’s how you got aboard!”

“And how I’ve been aboard since we made our hasty retreat from Nothree,” Ethis replied taking a step down the deck then turning back to the dwarf. “Oh, here is something I need to return to you.”

The chimerian reached into folds in his flesh that had been smoothed over moments before and pulled out a shining, black-faceted stone.

The dwarf’s eyes went wide as his hands instinctively patted down his waistcoat and discovered it empty. “The Heart of Aer! How did you. .?”

“I am a creature of many talents,” the chimerian replied. “Besides, I could hardly have a real wizard conjuring up spells against a fake one, could I?”

The dwarf frowned, holding out his open palm.

Ethis shrugged and set the stone carefully in Jugar’s hand.

“I am just a poor fool of a dwarf, but it occurs to me that the shapeshifting talents of the common chimerian do not include the ability to mimic clothing and even hair down to a degree of complexity that would pass even a cursory examination.” Jugar’s eyes narrowed, but there remained a brightness to them as he spoke. “Such capabilities are rare, indeed, and often put to rather specialized use in behalf of the chimerian state interests. Such dangerous creatures have been rumored to be abroad in the land. You wouldn’t happen to be one of them, would you now, Ethis?”

“And are you, friend Jugar, no more than a common dwarven fool?” The chimerian’s face remained as blank and inscrutable as ever, but he leaned forward as he continued. “Just as a pure matter of speculation, it would be an interesting contest, though from what I have heard of such beings, it would be better not to know them. You, of all creatures, should recognize the advantage of anonymity. However, should any such creatures be made known to me. . I should be glad to direct you to them.”

The dwarf, for once, held his silence.

Drakis was vaguely aware of Ethis as the chimerian turned and stepped carefully over to where he remained kneeling. His head hung down, his chin nearly resting on his chest. His mouth hung slackly open and his eyes were closed. Drakis was still aware that he held his sword loosely in his hand, his shoulders rising and falling with his quick breaths. But the rest of the world seemed so far away. . and the sounds so muffled.

Ethis knelt down in front of the human. “Drakis.”

He continued to breathe raggedly, the sound of his breath roaring in his ears. Ethis was saying something to him.

“Drakis, I’m sorry,” Ethis continued. “It was the only way I could have convinced you.”

The human opened his eyes slowly, his head still hung down to his chest.

“You would not have believed me,” Ethis continued. “You haven’t really trusted me since that day we awoke in House Timuran. Your suspicions were only strengthened in the Faery Kingdom. You thought I had betrayed you there, but in truth it was the only way to save you. . to save us all. The Iblisi were closing in on us. Murialis was our only chance, but I had to prove to her that all of us were who we claimed to be. She trusted me to find that out.”

“You did,” Drakis said, his voice rough from deep in his throat. His words sounded disconnected, as though he were talking through a dream.

“Yes,” Ethis continued. Drakis could feel himself being drawn out through the chimerian’s words, being coaxed to come back to the realm of consciousness and pain. “We had met many years before when. . well, it doesn’t matter when. . and I knew that she could help you.”

Drakis’ eyes shifted upward and peered at Ethis from under his brows. “So. . you were only helping me.”

“Yes, Drakis,” Ethis urged. “I had suspected Mala ever since my interrogations in the Faery Kingdom, but it was not until the dwarf discovered the beacon stones on the savanna that I knew with certainty. The Iblisi were closing in on us. I had to act. .”

“For my own good,” Drakis found the words distasteful as he spoke them.

“For your own good,” Ethis nodded. “I waited for an opportunity. Then, when we reached Nothree, that day she was bathing at the pool. .”

Drakis shuddered violently, closing his eyes again, but Ethis’ words kept coming at him.

“. . I took some of her beacon stones from the hem of her gown. I went back through the pass to a crossroads on the fringes of the savanna and used the stones to call him. I suspected the Inquisitor did not actually know which of us was helping him. I changed form and appeared to him as RuuKag. He never suspected me. I told him the stones had been compromised by the dwarf, and he gave me an entirely new set of stones. Now that same Inquisitor Soen is chasing the wrong stones instead of us.”