you. I shall leave at once. I trust you will be safe in the care of your sister.' He turned to Jaslyn and his face became serious. 'There are men I trust not far away. You will be left alone. If you are not, you should assume that whoever approaches von means you harm. You are armed?'
Jaslyn nodded.
'Good. I suppose, apart from myself, you're the one person I will leave alone with my queen until my king returns.' He suddenly looked weary and shook his head. 'It has been a regrettably interesting few weeks. I will not be far away.'
With that he turned and walked slowly away into the tunnels. Jaslyn stood alone with her sister, staring out into the cave, breathing the damp salt air. For a long time they were silent. Then Lystra held out a hand and Jaslyn took it.
'There's another path,' said Lystra in a whisper. 'You can climb down to the cave mouth. Then there are steps carved into the cliff to take you back to the top. It's very steep and very slippery and you'd like it. Shall we?'
'No.' Jaslyn squeezed her sister's hand, then crouched down and put her ear to Lystra's belly. Lystra began to stroke her hair. 'Two more months. And they won't let you fly?'
'Meteroa doesn't want me to fly.'
'But he has to do what you say.'
'No, he has to do what Jehal says.'
Jaslyn put a hand next to her ear. 'I can feel the baby! It's moving.'
'Yes.' Lystra hugged Jaslyn's head. 'Isn't it magic?'
'On the back of a dragon is the safest place in the world,' whispered Jaslyn. 'Why won't they let you fly?' She stood up and held Lystra tightly. Why won't they let you fly?'
Lystra laughed softly. 'Why won't you climb the cliff with me?'
'You might fall.'
'Yes. I might fall.' She pulled away and held Jaslyn's hands. She was still smiling. 'I can't be the Lystra you remember. I have to be a queen now. Soon I will have to be a mother.'
'The speaker is trying to kill you.'
'Jehal will keep me safe.' She spoke with conviction. Love even. Jaslyn winced. The hurt was like a knife.
'Come back to Outwatch with me.' Her voice was trembling. 'We'll slip away in the night when he's not watching you. Speaker Zafir won't know where you've gone. You'll be safe.'
Lystra squeezed Jaslyn's hands. 'Of course she'll know where I've gone. No, Jaslyn. A part of my heart is always yours, but my place is here.'
'Lystra! Sister!' How to make her understand that Jehal was a monster. That he was vicious, that he was a murderer, that he had no love for anyone but himself, that as likely as not he was Zafir's lover. The very woman who's trying to murder you. He doesn't care about you. You're nothing to him. Just something to be veiled behind screens, making babies and heirs until he tires of you. He'll take what he wants, bleed you dry and crush you. Like Aliphera. Like Hyram. Like Mother.
She wanted to say all of those things, but the words stuck in her throat. She saw Lystra's wide eyes and knew she couldn't wound her sister with them. That even if she did Lystra wouldn't believe her. That Jehal, for now, had won. The understanding made her weep, despite herself.
'You don't belong to us any more, do you?' she croaked.
They held each other tight, and then Lystra kissed her. A long, lingering kiss. The sort meant for lovers. 'I will always be your sister, Jaslyn. Promise me we will never be enemies.'
Jaslyn bit her lip and nodded. 'Never. I promise. Promise me you will stay safe.'
'I will.'
'I miss you, little Lystra. I will never, never let anyone hurt you.'
'I know. I miss you too.'
For a long time they stood together, holding hands. Jaslyn wept in silence. Eventually she turned and led Lystra back into the tunnels, back to the eyrie-master's men. Then she left the tunnels, summoned her riders and her dragons and put Clifftop behind her as quickly as she could.
Meteroa watched her go, soaring away into the afternoon skies. 'How very sudden and very rude.' He sniffed and gave his queen a queer look. 'What did you say to her?'
'Nothing. Nothing that she didn't know before she came here.' Her voice was flat and gave nothing away. Inside, Meteroa smiled. Very good, little one. Very good.
She was looking at him, he realised. She cocked her head. 'Why did you lie to her about the halchlings?'
Meteroa shrugged. Did I lie? I don't even remember. He grimaced.
'I apologise if this offends you, Your Holiness. Doubtless I shouldn't say such things about another queen, but your sister is very strange. Hatchlings. What a question to ask.' Now he laughed. You know, I can't remember the last time someone asked me a question and I hadn't the first idea why they were asking it.' 'But why did you lie?'
Meteroa smiled. Because I didn't like not knowing why she asked. Because I didn't like the way she looked at me. Because I think she's dangerous in a way that even Jehal wouldn't understand.
He couldn't say any of that though, not to his queen, so he settled for something else that was equally true. 'Because I'm not a particularly nice fellow, Your Holiness. I've made a career of it. Sometimes I lie simply because I feel like it. Because I can. Keeping my eye in, so to speak.'
He winked, but Queen Lystra didn't see. She was looking back to the sky, watching her sister fade into the clouds.
32
Snow was soaring high when the riders came out of the Worldspine, just as Kemir knew they would. Five dragons, all fast-flying war-dragons, each with two riders. They were wary, flying in a loose diamond formation, one low and close to the ground, another up high, above the little puffs of cloud that hung in the air, and then one to each side and the last dragon hanging back. Kemir didn't know too much about flying dragons, but he knew that riders looking for a fight flew close together where they could quickly support each other. These ones were expecting the sort of trouble that would make them turn and run. In hindsight, that should have been a warning.
As if it would have made any difference. There was probably a right way to attack the diamond. Kemir had no idea what Prince Lai's Principles had to say, but if he had had to guess, he'd have said go for the one at the back. Snow, however, had never heard of Prince Lai. She simply climbed higher, then tucked in her wings and dived out of the sun, smashing into the dragon at the top of the diamond. The impact would have hurled Kemir far into the air if it hadn't been for his harness; as it was, the straps nearly tore him in half and he slammed forward, breaking his nose on Snow's back. The two dragons curled around each other, plummeting out of the sky together. Kemir didn't see what happened to the riders, but they must have been in the middle when the two dragons collided – probably now nothing more than a big bloody smear with bits of armour sticking out.
For a moment everything vanished into a white mist as they fell through a cloud. By the time they emerged, the dragons were apart. Snow had something dangling out of her mouth. She shook her head and it flew off through the air, leaving a streak of fine red mist to dissolve in the wind.
'Ow! Damn you, dragon, you nearly killed me!' He held on to her, arms spread wide, white-knuckled fingers locked around her scales. The other dragon was diving for the ground now and Snow wasn't far behind. He could see the ribbon of the river and the town that Snow had burned, a slight dirty haze that still hung over it.
There. One free. Four to go. She didn't slow down, but arrowed on towards the next dragon, wings folded back, wind howling around her.
'Alive! Take a rider alive!' bellowed Kemir, as if anyone could hear a thing at such a speed. He screwed up his face and tried without much success to shield his eyes with his hand. 'Can't you ever control yourself?'
Why?
