'There may be some discomfort, but no more than at any other time. I'm sure a special harness could be made if it gives you any trouble.'
Well, that wasn't what you're hiding. Do I really want to thinly about it? But if I don't hear it now, I'll hear it from Zafir, and that will be worse. 'And?'
'Wait and see, Your Holiness. It may not be as bad as it seems.' Everything in Jeiros' voice betrayed him.
'Holiness?' Jehal croaked out a laugh. 'I'm not crowned, Master Alchemist. Perhaps I never will be. Now is that all? A limp and an aversion to horses and feats of athletics I can live with. Or is there more?'
You should really wait, Your Holiness. It is too early to know-'
'To know what?' He knew. He already knew and it turned him cold inside. He might even wish he'd died after all. 'What of women? What of that?'
Jeiros sighed. 'I cannot say for sure, Prince Jehal. It will be a long time before you can… Well. And there will likely be some pain. At best. For some time to come, at any rate.'
'And what of heirs?'
'It is much too early to say, Your Holiness. I think, once you are healed, you will still perform as well as you ever did in that particular regard. Until you can be sure, however, I suggest you take great care of the heir you have.'
Jehal didn't hear the alchemist leave. The numbness had spread right up his spine and down his arms and into his head.
Take great care of the heir you have. So maybe Shezira got exactly what she wanted after all. Did he want to be alive like that? He wasn't sure. Perhaps Jeiros was right and he should wait. The alchemist's voice hadn't held much certainty either way. Best not to even think about it. If only it was that that easy. But I can think about other things. Distractions. I owe it to myself to heal. I will heal, and I will be whole again. Yes, and when I am healed there will be blood, and a great deal of it will come from the Night Watchman. Think about that. Much more pleasing.
29
Snow landed in the town. There weren't many places large enough. In fact, there was only one, right next to the little building that Kemir had called a castle. The space had people in it, but Snow ignored them. Sure enough, as she swooped out of the sky, they ran screaming, senseless with panic. The ones who weren't quick enough were crushed or sent flying through the air as she smashed into the hard-packed dirt. The stupid and the slow. Around her, rumbles of tumbling stone and several clouds of dust marked where the people of the town hadn't made their little houses strong enough. Snow swept her head from side to side and shrieked.
It is habit. It is what we do when we return to our nesting place. It is our way of greeting our kind. Kemir was far away, but she talked to him as if he was still on her back. She wasn't sure how useful he really was, but she missed having him with her. She missed the company, the sharing of thoughts. She missed being part of a nest. It will be good to have other dragons around me again.
She ate a couple of the people she'd crushed in her landing. Then she shifted back onto her hind legs, lifted up her head and sent a column of fire into the air.
Let them know that you're here. That is done. It seemed all too easy. Would that really be enough to make other dragons come? Scare them. That was done too. She could feel the fear all around her. Make noise. Let them see you.
Do whatever you want to do. Kemir had only the slightest idea of what that would mean. What she wanted to do was burn the town to ash, slaughter the little things that lived here and spend a few delicious days hunting down the ones that escaped. The hunting was the best part. The feelings of her prey when they realised they'd been found. The hopeless despair, the laughable defiance, their pathetic rages, the pitiful pleading and begging. As if she could be swayed…
I miss what we once were. When we fought together, all dragons side by side with the silver riders on our backs and armies that filled the horizon.
No. Burning the town wasn't going to bring back the glory they'd had before the silver men had broken the world. That would have to wait.
A long pause followed. The realisation slowly settled on her: she'd landed in a place that didn't have enough space for her to take off again.
Why did I do that? She knew the answer even as she asked herself the question. She'd done that so that she wouldn't have any choice about smashing up at least a part of the town on her way out. Except now she didn't want to. Or rather she did, but she'd decided not to. Kemir is right. We are old and wise in our way, yet we are impatient like children. That is how we were made. Creatures of impulse and destruction and whim.
She looked at the roads and alleys that led into the town square. They were small and narrow. Houses pressed around them. They most certainly weren't built for dragons. She was wondering what she should do and whether it really mattered that much if she knocked a few buildings out of the way when she picked up a familiar taste among the thoughts around her. Anger. Fear. Anticipation…
She knew it was coming. She lurched up into the air. A scorpion bolt slammed into her neck about a yard from her head. She felt a fierce pinprick of pain, as though she'd been stung. If she hadn't moved, it might have hit her in the head. It surprised her. In the great war of long ago, the humans had had nothing like this. They'd had a lot of other things, magics and devices that could kill, but nothing that could hurt, nothing that stung.
The anger hit her like a wall. She skittered and turned to face the castle. Her tail flicked back and forth, smashing the houses behind her to bits. She barely noticed. Someone on the castle had tried to kill her, and now they deserved everything they were about to get. I am sony, Kemir. I know you will be angry.
Sorry? No, not really, since that implied regret, and dragons did not understand regret. Maybe she was sorry that Kemir would be sad. Maybe that was it. She lunged forward, propped her front claws against the castle wall and reared up. Her long neck arched over the castle walls; slowly and methodically she drenched its innards with fire. Men screamed and died. Wave after wave of joy rippled through her. Fear my fire, feel my power, little ones, she told them. You should have fled when I came. She reached up higher and pushed, trying to forced her way inside the castle walls so she could get at the inner keep. Stones fell, but the wall held. She backed away as far as she could and hurled herself at it, crashing into the stone with her side. It still refused to fall.
Now I am ANGRY! Those who should fight hide in caves or now behind ramparts of stone. So where else shall I spend my wrath? Where else shall I take my pleasure?
Furious, she turned on the town. She rose up again and spewed fire in furious arcs all around her. Then she crouched and sprang at the widest of the roads, smashing her way through the cramped and fragile buildings with all the delicacy and care of an avalanche. Houses splintered and smashed as she barged past them. Dust and smoke swirled around her, pieces of debris rained in sporadic showers, and then she was at the city walls, clumsily levering herself over them, head and neck and tail and front claws scrabbling for purchase along the top in an effort to pull up the bulk of her body. Her wings flapped furiously and with a lurch she rolled onto the top of the wall and down the other side. Without a pause she was running, charging through the nearby fields as fast as she could, hauling herself up into the air.
Even as she rose, she was turning, twisting back towards the town. If anything, the fury burned stronger that it had at the start. This was how it felt to be a dragon.
You will not escape me. Stone will not save you. Not this time.
She scattered fire across the town. Unleashing the flames always felt good. Like mating, before the alchemists dulled her mind. It left the same hunger inside her too. She would need to eat when she was done here, and eat well.
Below, amid the smoke and the flames, men and women ran and screamed. Food, all of you. Nothing but food. She flew around the castle, gave the tower in the middle of the castle a long blast and then landed on top of it. Stones crumbled under her claws, almost tipping her off. Such was her anger that she tried to sink her teeth into the towers. When they didn't give, she smashed them to pieces with her tail. Every time she tore a new hole in the
