60. Affinities
60
AFFINITIES
Ris gestured toward the command staff, toward Gwydinion. As soon as the veils of energy fell into place, Gwydinion recognized them as Ris’s trademark wards.
Inside, it was quiet.
The ground shook more often now, and more violently. A glass orb on the far side of the room that had some unknown significance lit up. Gwydinion couldn’t hear what anyone said, but he saw people rushing to the orb and then shouting panicked orders. Whatever had happened wasn’t good.
Should he try to find Overbite? Convince her to come back? But no… she was rightfully terrified of dragons. He didn’t think his polite suggestions would be nearly enough to convince the titan drake to do something that suicidal.
He just needed to find an animal who let him see through their eyes.
Later, he opened his eyes unhappily and gasped, “I can’t. It’s not working.”
“Have you done this before?”
His face twisted. “Yeah.”
“Then it’s nerves, and you absolutely can.” Ris crouched down next to him. “I have never seen anyone figure out how to block tracking spells in a single night of studying. But you did. You can do this.”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Just believe in myself?”
She ruffled his hair. “You get the idea. And think how impressed Kimat will be.”
Gwydinion cleared his throat. He hadn’t even asked about Kimat… “Is she okay?”
“I’m sure she’s been better, but we left her with your mother, so she’ll be fine.”
Gwydinion inhaled deeply. If she wanted to distract him from worrying about this by having him worry about something else instead, she was doing a fantastic job. “Right. Just believe in myself.”
He was good with birds. Best with birds, really, although Legless had come easily enough, probably because he was just a baby. The night flyers would all be tucked in for the night, but blood crows were everywhere, and there were also those seabirds he’d seen flying over the bay. Any of those would work. He searched.
After a few minutes, he opened his eyes again. “There’s a white dragon perched at the edge of the Bay of Bones,” he told Ris, “looking this way. Does that help?”
Ris looked sick. “That’s Zentoazax. He’s nearly indestructible. And given enough time, he can cause earthquakes.” To underline that statement, the chamber shuddered.
Gwydinion straightened. “Wait. Zentoazax? That’s Brauge’s dragon! You don’t think she’s with him, do you?” It was an ugly thought, because it meant Brauge was helping Zentoazax kill a lot of people.
Ris pointed a finger at him. “Distract him by attacking her. That’s evil. I like it. Think you can handle it?”
“What? But I—” He inhaled. “I mean to say, sure, I can arrange something.” It still wouldn’t be anything more than birds, but birds could be very annoying.
Seeing that the situation seemed in hand, Ris began to leave again, sword drawn.
“Wait,” Gwydinion stood, horror clutching at his throat. She’d had that with her the whole time, hadn’t she? It wouldn’t have meant anything to him before, but now that he understood how sympathy worked…
“Ris, your sword.”
She glanced down at it. “What about—”
She froze, and what little color had ever been in her face washed away completely. A second later Ris shook herself, mouth pressed in an angry line. “It’s too late to do anything now,” she murmured, and then continued running.
One more time, the room shook… and this time, it didn’t stop. He couldn’t claim any sort of steady feet with the floor shifting the way it was, but he tried. “What’s going on?”
The white-haired man looked positively sick as he pointed at the pool. “We found Notile.”
Gwydinion crossed over to stare down into the water, or whatever it was. In the reflection, he saw what the man meant.
Notile was a sleek, beautiful deep black dragon with indigo accents. She was breathing out a painfully bright white fire that simply melted whatever it touched—including stone. She was using it with horrifying abandon on the city itself. Rock glowed red-hot, softened and collapsed, turning every building into a boiling mass of molten rock.
She showed no sign of stopping, either. Everyone hiding in the shelters would be trapped inside until Zentoazax dropped the roof on their heads or the air ran out.
Ris must have left to do something about her.
Gwydinion felt sick, too, and more than a little like crying. There was no way Ris could stop that dragon. How could she even begin?
He ground his teeth together and sat back down. If Ris was going to do something about Notile, the least he could do was make sure Brauge had a terrible day as well.