Silver Dragon Codex Read online

  Below them, the forest sped past in a blur of green and brown, trees and hillocks smearing together. He felt Cerisse’s hands on his waist, and he heard her soft squeaks when the dragon suddenly changed altitude. Though he couldn’t tell if Ebano was behind him, he hadn’t seen any lumpy purple robes spinning to the ground below them either. He’d just have to hope for the best.

  They’d been flying for more than an hour, sailing sometimes north and sometimes south along a western horizon as Belen looked for trees, hills, rivers—anything she might recognize. Occasionally she would turn in wide spirals, staring down at a particular landmark until Jace thought he’d fall off. Then Belen would straighten in the air with a cry and shoot off with renewed speed. She couldn’t swoop beneath the trees as they were too close together, but occasionally she would fly so close to them that their uppermost branches smacked against Jace’s boots.

  Suddenly she cried out, the rich trumpet of the dragon’s voice breaking through the rush and bluster of wind. She glanced back at them, snaking her head back and then forward on her strong neck and angling her wings to make for a tall ridge that rose out of the deepest forest. Jace strained his eyes, trying to see what had caught the dragon’s attention. A tower rose from the top of the hillside, a tower unlike any that Jace had ever seen or even dreamed might exist. The tower’s thick gateway was arched and turreted, wide enough for a dragon to walk among the beautifully carved stone. The tower itself was much taller and wider than a human habitation, rising on a massive foundation to admit a draconic body within the safe confines of its walls.

  On first sight, it was beautiful: glittering white marble sheltered by clinging ivy and softly shimmering willow trees growing close to the base. But as they grew closer, Jace could see the signs of weather and wear. Silver banners, once long and fluttering, now hung in rags from the main turrets, and the doors stood open, blocked by a thick coat of dead leaves and fallen branches from the nearby trees. The trees were worn down, branches broken by storms, and the grass all around it grew long and wild with neglect.

  “Did it always smell like this?” Cerisse yelled. “Or do you think there was some … uh … food left out when she left five years ago?”

  Jace frowned. Now that Cerisse mentioned it, there was a putrid sort of scent in the air. The fountain by the side of the tower was filled with stagnant water, brown with a thin veneer of moss and mold floating on the surface. As Belen swung wide around the tower to see it from all sides, Jace noticed more—ragged scratch marks in the earth near the front archway, spattered dark stains on the marble, and broken white fragments scattered on the ground, fragments that Jace was fairly sure weren’t stone. “I think that while Belen was out … something moved in.”

  A roar from the inner rooms of the wide tower confirmed Jace’s suspicions. As Belen completed her circle, he could see that the front courtyard was no longer empty. Crawling out of the shadows from between the heavy doors of the marble spire was a creature nearly half the dragon’s size. It had the body and head of a massive lion, furred and tawny, but no lion ever had wings like a bat’s, nor a second goatlike head that rose from the left side of the creature’s shoulders, and a third, terrible red-scaled dragon’s head to the right. The scaled and serpentine tail lashed around the monster’s rear legs.

  “Chimera!” Ebano’s voice was barely audible. “Very bad!”

  Jace gulped as the creature launched itself into the air. The lion’s head roared in anger, and the dragon hissed as it lashed on its scaly neck. Belen tilted to the side, wings slicing through the air. The chimera was quick to gain altitude, and quicker to turn and spin to chase her, its lighter body more flexible and speedier in the air. “I can’t land or set you down,” Belen growled, and the rumbling in her chest shook Jace’s legs. “We’ll have to fight.”

  They had no time to disagree, for the chimera was attacking.

  It opened its dragon head and a thin stream of liquid fire blazed past them. Startled, Belen jerked to the side, wings lifting to protect her passengers. The fire struck the delicate leather, burning it with a hiss. Belen yelped in surprise, twisting in the air and forcing Jace and the others to cling to her back. She faced the chimera, claws extended, and attacked the lighter creature with a vicious swipe. The chimera rolled like a barrel, slipping out of her grasp, and charged them again before she could recover from her attack. Jace could swear the goat’s head was laughing.

  Two daggers flew past Jace, swishing through the air to land with twin thunks in the chimera’s shoulder. The impact caused the beast to miss its lunge, and it flinched past Belen’s head. The lion’s head roared in anger. As it passed over Belen’s back, the dragon head lashed out at them, catching Cerisse in the arm with its vicious bite. She cried out and tried to smack at it, but was too slow. The chimera recoiled before she could hurt it.

  As the dragon swung about for another pass, Jace tried to see how bad Cerisse was injured. Her arm was already swelling up, the skin purpling. She tore a piece of cloth from her cape and started wrapping the wound. “Are you all right?” He couldn’t stop staring at it, horrified at her injury.

  “Fine!” Her voice shook. “Just hang on!”

  Unexpectedly, Belen twisted in the air, turning sideways to the ground, her wings pointed straight up and down. Cerisse cried out, grasping onto Belen’s strong wing bone, and Ebano clung wholly to Belen’s back. Jace, who had been turned around, had nothing at all to grab hold of, and felt himself slipping to the side. He spun against gravity, trying to grasp for Belen’s silvery frill as he felt himself sliding into free fall, and managed only to grab the ridge of her back. The chimera swung past overhead, its claws scoring Belen’s shoulder only a few inches above Cerisse’s head—right where Jace had been sitting. The knock of the creature’s strong forelimbs broke Jace’s grip.

  Belen righted herself the instant after the chimera passed. Jace slammed into the dragon’s right foreleg and scrabbled to find a handhold on the slippery scales. Cerisse’s hand swung down, and he grabbed it instinctively. His hand grasped her wrist, her hand clenched around his, and Jace hung there, hundreds of feet above the swirling ground. Staring up, he realized belatedly that she’d done it with her injured hand. Cerisse locked her fingers onto his and pulled with all her might. “I won’t … let … you … fall!” she screamed into the wind, half out of desperation and half out of pain.

  Ebano grabbed Cerisse’s waist and gave her leverage, but it wasn’t enough to allow her to pull Jace aboard again, not with the poison eating away at the strength in her arm.

  Realizing that Jace was in danger, Belen tried to swing the other way, tilting her body so that he would swing forward onto her shoulder, but the chimera had looped around again and was plunging down from a high dive. The beast’s dragon head snarled, flames flickering at the corners as it prepared to launch another gout of fire. If Belen stayed at this angle to allow Jace to climb back aboard, the chimera’s fire would burn her stomach. If she turned to protect herself, Jace would face the full brunt of that flame—and almost certainly die.

  Jace steadied himself. The ground below him spun, and the chimera was swinging close, ready to attack, close enough to reach. Gripping the silken frill at the dragon’s neck, Jace planted his feet on the silver scales at Belen’s shoulder. He didn’t have time to count to three as he usually did before stepping out onto a tightrope. He had time only to make sure Belen saw him, and then he jumped.

  Jace ran out onto the dragon’s wing, keeping his weight light against the fore bone. The wing bone under his feet was wider than a tightrope, but slicker and rounded where the rope always felt solid and hard. Nevertheless, walking on shifting slopes was Jace’s forte. He had no moment to balance or prepare himself, but hurtled down the dragon’s wing toward the chimera as if he were racing beneath the big top’s heavy canvas. Step after step, Belen’s wing tensed under his weight. He was nearing the first joint now. After that the bones became much thinner and less capable of carrying his weight. He
was going to have to jump.

  Images of his last time on a tightrope flashed through his mind. Faces spun again beneath him, and the sick jolt of the rope as it slid under his foot. Jace pushed it all away. If they were going to have any chance of defeating the chimera, he had to reach it. He had to leap from the dragon’s wing to the chimera’s and be aboard the beast before it knew what was happening.

  Jace looked up into the chimera’s horrible dragon maw, the flames licking around its gums and teeth, and launched himself into the air. Wind rushed past, tugging at his hair, his clothes. Jace tried not to think of the ground swooping past far beneath him. One second. Two. Three, and there was the chimera’s outstretched wing!

  He landed lightly, barely tapping it with his toes before pushing off toward the creature’s back. The chimera screamed, gouting flame where Jace had been and nearly scorched its own wing in the attempt. Jace was already three feet farther in, almost to the creature’s shoulder. Luckily, Jace thought as he reached out to grab the lionlike mane, the creature was almost certainly too stupid to just—

  Roll. The chimera twisted in the air, abandoning its attack on Belen. The wings clamped in close to the body, the lion’s head roared wildly, and the beast spiraled over onto its back. They were dropping through the air at a sickening speed, the tail of the creature hissing up toward Jace like a stabbing spear. He managed to avoid it and clung tightly to the chimera’s back, driving his short sword between the shoulder blades. The wounded chimera screamed and began to right itself—and that’s when Belen struck.

  The act of rolling to try and unseat Jace had opened the monster’s belly to the mighty silver dragon, and with no other way to save her friend, Belen drove forward. Her claws sank into the creature’s skin, tearing at flesh and bone alike. The chimera screamed in anguish and spouted flame at Belen and her passengers, but the heavy wind of her wing beats kept them safe from the fire. Taking advantage of Belen’s attack, Jace reached up, grabbed hold of her claw, and swung himself over the chimera’s shoulder and onto her foreleg. Belen let go of the wounded chimera, thumping her wings furiously to slow her fall, and Jace clung for dear life.

  The beast fell, goat’s head braying, lion’s head yowling wildly, and dragon’s head spouting a twisting gout of useless fire. The chimera spun through the air until it struck the ground below with a crunching sound that made Jace’s blood run cold. The monster lay silent upon the hillside outside the tower.

  “Jace, are you all right?” Cerisse screamed, peering over Belen’s side. Her face was like a small white moon beyond the dragon’s beating wings. Jace stared up at it, wondering if he’d ever seen her look so pale in all his life. It must be the poison from her injury that made her look so terrified, he thought.

  “No!” He gulped, trying not to remember the sound of bone breaking on earth. It reminded him too much of his father … of the day … that moment when … “Get us down!”

  I hate falling. I hate falling. The words rang like a mantra in Jace’s mind. What had he been thinking? He could still feel the absence of solid foundation, the sense that there was nothing between him and the ground. And then, that sound …

  Belen landed swiftly, curving in a wide spiral that brought them quickly to the earth outside the silvery tower. The chimera’s body had fallen just inside the inner courtyard, crushed by the weight of the fall. Cerisse leaped from the dragon’s back and flung herself at Jace, hugging him with all her strength. “You did it!”

  “It wasn’t just me.” Jace untangled the half-elf from his neck. “Everybody helped.”

  “True. But you were the bravest.” She beamed, gasping back tears.

  Jace tried not to think of the sick feeling in his stomach, and attempted to smile.

  Once everyone had dismounted, Belen changed form again, slipping easily from mighty dragon back to slender girl. She crossed the courtyard and stared down at the dead chimera, sorrow etched on her face. “I didn’t want to fight it,” she said softly.

  Ebano took her hand and smiled sympathetically, but Cerisse was the one who gave voice to what everyone was thinking. “You didn’t have a choice. It would have killed us.” She let Ebano tut-tut over her arm, smearing the wound with a particularly vile-smelling paste and binding it gently with a piece torn from his purple sash.

  “Yes, but it was just an animal that had found a home in an empty tower. The chimera was just defending its territory.” Belen’s shoulders fell.

  “I don’t think so.” Jace interrupted her.

  “What?”

  “I don’t think that chimera just moved in here randomly,” Jace said. “I think that the curse affected it too. That stone’s absence sickens everything it touches—the villagers, your memory, and now this creature. Everything that’s gone wrong here traces back to it.”

  Belen considered this for a moment and then nodded. “You might be right. The hag said that the power of the stone affected the whole forest—and this tower is within the forest’s heart.” She shook her head sadly, turning away from the body of the dead beast. “It’s likely that the creature was once an innocent pet or a keeper of this tower charged to protect it while I was away.” She pressed a hand against her forehead. “This whole thing is such a tragedy.”

  “Do you think that whoever stole the stone knew what they were doing?” Jace asked. “Can anyone really be that evil?

  “Evil is a serpent’s tooth in the heart of man.” Ebano’s comment was unprompted, and startled them. The hypnotist’s purple eyes were soft, sweeping up from the creature’s torn body to stare at each of them in turn. Ebano struggled for a moment to come up with one of his rote fortune-telling predictions that seemed to fit, and then said hesitantly, “Man does not think of others when he follows his heart. Let your heart be your guide.” Although the words were out of place, Ebano meant them earnestly, conveying all the meaning and sincerity he could through his eyes and delicate hands.

  A sad stillness followed his words. Cerisse, ever irreverent, was the first to break it. “Wow. For someone who doesn’t know our language, Ebano, you can sure turn a phrase.”

  Ebano smiled, gesturing toward the horizon. He moved his hand over the forest first, then lower, sweeping over the creature’s body to encompass its death. Reciting his fortunes in a somber tone, he intoned another of his memorized babblings, “Grain by grain a loaf, stone by stone, a castle.”

  “All right, now we’ve lost him again.” Jace chuckled, patting Ebano on the back. “Don’t worry, Ebano. We’ll figure it out on our own.” Ebano shook his head and said something in his native tongue, clicking his teeth over the syllables. Unable to understand, Jace turned to Belen. “Ready to go inside?”

  She shuddered. “I don’t think it’s going to be pretty in there.”

  Belen was right. The main chamber of the lower tower was roomy and had once been well decorated, with couches, bookcases and tables, a large fireplace, and other comforts, but now, it was ruined. The chimera had not been a tidy guest. It tore down the tapestries to create a rotting bed in the corner and left scraps of old feasts on the floor. The stench was almost enough to make Jace climb to the ceiling to get away from it, but he compensated by holding his arm to his face to bury his nose in the fabric. Belen seemed less affected by it, ignoring the smell as she knelt by the pile, pulling one of the tapestries out far enough to look at the grime-stained picture on the fabric.

  “Belen?” Cerisse caught their attention on the far side of the massive chamber. “I found a set of stairs that leads up. I think they’re too small for the chimera to use, and they look dusty.”

  “That means the upstairs might be in the same condition that it was on the day I left five years ago.” Releasing the tapestry, Belen stood and crossed the room. “If there are any answers in this place, they’re up there.” She gave Jace a faint smile, and his heart leaped to see it. “Let’s go find them.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  espite the tower’s size, there were only two floors. The first, as
Jace had seen, was roomy and had been plush, possibly meant for a dragon to sit or curl up comfortably. The ceiling was high and well reinforced. The second story, at the top of a long, coiled set of stairs, was smaller, built for a human-sized occupant. The top floor was divided like a wheel into three wedge-shaped areas by wooden walls. The first area, where the stairs emptied, was obviously a small study and library. There was a mahogany desk, ornate but still serviceable, made of fine dark wood with lighter details. Shelves of books lined the walls, along with trinkets, bric-a-brac, and other odds and ends to give it a homier feel.

  Jace picked up book after book, brushing the dust from the spines. “History, history. Oh, look.” He traded it for another. “Another book on history. Hey, Belen, I never knew that you were so interested in the past.”

  She tried to smile, tapping her forehead. “Apparently, I got over that.”

  They all shared a laugh, then spread out to look through the room. There were doors in the two interior walls, one to the north and one to the east. Ebano opened the north one, then reddened. He pointed, turning his face away, and Belen looked past him.

  “Bedroom,” she chuckled. It seems I wasn’t very tidy.”

  Cerisse was tugging on the other door, the one that led to the east. “I think this door is locked. Belen, can you remember how to get in?”

  Belen was sifting through the paperwork on the desk. “I don’t think so. Nothing here is bringing back any memories.”

  “Not at all?” Cerisse tugged on her auburn braid thoughtfully. “Maybe you didn’t live here?”