Do you want to leave this food too? She dropped half a donkey onto the ground. There were the remains of some kind of harness around the donkey's head. It clearly hadn't been minding its own business wild in a field somewhere when Snow had taken it.
'I don't think he'll want it raw.' He couldn't help thinking about where the donkey had come from.
Snow gave the dead donkey a pensive look, then she ambled on all fours over to the shore of the lake. She picked up a few stones, some of them roughly the same size as Kemir, and built a ring. Then she gathered some more stones and piled them on top. And then she breathed fire on them.
Kemir took a hurried step away as flames washed over the ground around the stones. Snow didn't stop. She didn't even pause for breath. The fire just went on and on and on.
After a bit the heat was too much and he had to walk right away into the trees. She was still at it a minute later, the flames pouring out of her. Made him wonder how long she could keep it up before she ran out of breath…
We do not need to breathe, Kemir. It is a… He felt her rummaging in his head for the word. A habit. An instinct. It is not a necessity.
Which explained how she'd vanished into a lake for five days. He shuddered. Everything breathed. Everything.
Eventually Snow stopped. She kicked off the stones from the top, gingerly, as though even she could feel how hot they were. Then she slit the donkey open from end to end and shook out all its guts into the first ring of stones. She put one hot stone into the cavity that had been the donkey's chest, then put the carcass on top of its guts and piled the rest of the stones back on top.
Will that be better?
One moment you do that. And the next moment you'll eat him. Or me. 'Since when do dragons do cooking?' he asked, when he couldn't think of anything else.
My… There was a strange tone to her thoughts. Something wistful, winsome, almost awestruck. My first mistress showed this to me. When we thought the world was ending and there was nothing left to be done. Sasya.
Kemir raised an eyebrow. 'You had a mistress?'
A moon-sorceress. The ones who created us. They are long gone. He felt her push the memories out of her thoughts. I found a road. I have not seen this… He felt her plucking the word out of his head again. I have not seen a donkey creature before. I was hungry, but I only ate things with four legs. Kemir thought he sensed a hint of reproach. These are… They taste like horse but sweeter. I like them better.
Kemir slowly came closer again. 'Everything with two legs ran away screaming, then?'
Some of them fell over where they stood and clutched their heads. I do not remember so much fear in your kind. One of them decided to die. He was old.
'What do you mean decided to die? You mean you scared him to death?'
I did not try to. I was hungry. I left your hind alone. I took as many things with four legs as I needed. 'Donkeys?'
Other things too. Horses and dogs and buffalo. I did not even burn their wagons, Kemir.
'I get it, dragon. You were very very careful not to hurt any people. Some of them died anyway, but that really wasn't your fault.' He spat and turned away. 'You still ate Nadira.'
Snow peered at him. Her face had the same hungry expression as it ever did but her thoughts had changed. There was a music in them. She was laughing at him.
I see into your mind, Kemir. You think you can be different from others of your kind. You think the young one we leave behind us could be different too, if only we could find him and take him with us. But we cannot do that if he will not come, and besides, you are fooling yourself. I do not understand why you try to change how things are, Kemir. I am a dragon. Some of us are white and some are black; some are larger and others are smaller; but beneath our scales we are all simply dragons. Your kind are the same, Kemir. All of you. You always fight one another and you always will. I remember more than you can imagine. I remember from long ago, before the world was broken. Your kind were always this way even then, and you, Kemir, are no different. I can see into you and I know this to be true. Embrace what you are, Kemir. Do not try to be something else. Your enemies are merely those with bigger armies and sharper swords. That is the only difference between you.
Kemir bit his lip. 'My enemies have dragons. Dragons are not weapons.'
No, Kemir, that is exactly what we are. But not for you. You are food. The order of things has become twisted. 'I am not food, damn you!'
Snow didn't answer. She was laughing at him again. You amuse me. Perhaps that will save you when I become hungry.
'Oh, I'm amusing food now, am I? Just when I thought useful couldn't get any worse.' He took a deep breath. 'If there was a road and it was busy then there must have been a town not far away.'
You are thinking of the boy again.
'Some things can't be undone and some things can never be forgiven. What you did to him can't be put right. Nor can what you did to Nadira. But you could try.'
Snow was looking at him. Kemir felt her puzzlement.
Why?
'Forgiveness.'
Forgiveness, Kemir? I do not understand this. In your mind, it seems it is the opposite of revenge. I see revenge in you often. All of your kind. You, Kemir, you would rather die trying and failing to have revenge than live and forgive. Why would you do that? I do not understand either forgiveness or revenge.
Kemir laughed. 'Yet that's what drives you too.'
No, Kemir. I seek to free my kind from their slavery. I do not seek to wilfully punish those who did it to us. I will do what needs to be done, no more. I will eat when I am hungry, Kemir, or perhaps for pleasure. But not for spite.
'Some people think that forgiveness is the most beautiful thing in the world. And you can't have that unless you have a little revenge too.'
I see nothing beautiful in being stupid. She cocked her head. I see, however, that you want this forgiveness very much. Why?
His fists were clenched. He hadn't noticed, but now they were so tight that it hurt. Why indeed? 'Because I should have stopped you. I should have stopped you from eating the people that lived here. I should have stopped you from eating Nadira.'
Ah. I see.
Very slowly Snow lowered her head until she held it just above the ground. She moved closer, right in front of him. So close that he could reach out and…
Touch me, Kemir.
His heart was racing. She was warm. He could feel her heat. And she was huge. He reached out a hand and touched the scales of her nose. He was shaking, he realised, like a leaf.
When the snows melt on the tops of the mountains and the melt-water rushes down their sides and the rivers bloat and swell and froth, who will stop the flood? She growled and withdrew. Foolish man. When the flood comes, you run. When mountains topple, you run. When the earth cracks, you run. So it is when a dragon comes. Unless you are Kemir, who wrings his hands and says 'I should have stopped you.'
For a moment the fear went away. Kemir walked past Snow's head to where her front claws sank into the soft ground. He kicked her as hard as he could. Not that she'd even feel it, but it was satisfying, kicking a dragon. 'Fine. Leave the boy. Just take me to the town you saw. We'll find out where we are. And don't burn it. The food there is all useful food, remember, and besides, I might want to stay there. You can find out where Valmeyan and his dragons are and then you can start burning things again.'
As you wish, Kemir. I am no longer hungry today.
'And I will not be afraid of you.'
Perhaps I have taught you something of value then.
'And stop laughing at me.'
He put the boy out of his mind as best he could and climbed onto Snow's back. She lumbered across the ground to the edge of the clearing she'd made in the forest and then started to run. Kemir closed his eyes. This was the bit
