City of Fire (City Trilogy (Mass Market)) (25 page)

Pele led them through another doorway into a basement. As they descended the rickety steps, the wood and plaster walls gave way to dirt, and the air was warmer. With a snap of her fingers, a small flame danced once again upon Pele’s fingertip.

In the flickering light, they saw they were in a basement with a floor that sloped downward at a slight angle. Against one wall was a table and an old boiler with assorted boxes and crates stacked haphazardly. But most of the cellar was lost in shadow.

“Leave my stuff there.” She used her free hand to point to an old card table. “And don’t forget my feathers.”

Obediently, Leech deposited the cardboard and the new feathers on top of the table as Pele nodded to Bayang. “You change now,
mo-o
. Maybe no time later, eh?”

Normally, clothes were part of Bayang’s magical disguise so she could change them as well as her shape. But she was in the airport coveralls and they ripped as she transformed into her true shape.

Leech and Koko’s eyes went wide. Knowing Bayang’s identity was one thing, but actually seeing her true form was another.

Scirye thought the photos of dragons had never done them justice. Even in the dim light, Bayang looked beautiful. Her dark green scales seemed almost as black and shiny as obsidian, but there were little flecks of gold speckling the pebbled surface and her steel-tipped claws gleamed as if she burnished them regularly. Her slender body managed to look graceful and powerful and deadly just standing still.

Scirye found herself wishing that she could be a dragon, too.

Pele glanced shrewdly between the new deadly Bayang and the small human boy called Leech. Then she shuffled over toward him as he watched her uneasily. Pursing her lips, the goddess flicked a fingernail against an iron armband.

Ting
.

The sound reverberated like a bell.

“Yes,” she said, a broad smile spreading across her face. But she struck it again to be sure. “Yes, it is.”

Remembering how Pele liked to extract tribute, Leech covered up the ring and stepped back. “Please don’t take them, Your High Auntie-ness. I’ve had these since I was born.”

Pele held up her palm. “I wouldn’t think of it,” she said and glanced at Bayang. “And neither should anyone else.” Then she faced the boy again. “This,” she said, tapping the armband a third time, “is a powerful weapon.” She pointed to the disks decorating the top. “And these will let you fly.”

“Really?” Leech asked in amazement.

Putting her hands on her hips, Pele jerked her head at Bayang. “Isn’t that so,
mo-o?
Don’t lie. True facts should go with a true shape.”

Bayang

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Bayang said reluctantly. She wasn’t afraid of helping Leech find his true powers because she was sure he wasn’t a threat to dragonkind. Rather, she didn’t want him to discover her original mission.

Though Pele only came up to Bayang’s chin, suddenly the goddess seemed to loom over her. “We might need him for the battle,” Pele said.

“Need who?” Leech asked, puzzled.

Pele pointed a dirty finger at the iron armband. “We need that.”

“They’re just something I’ve always had,” Leech said, fingering them. “It was with me when I was found as a baby and brought to the orphanage.”

Pele shook her head. “You still got no luck with your family, do you?” She turned commandingly to Bayang. “Tell him.” The brown eyes seemed to swell until Bayang felt she had fallen into cups of molten chocolate.

Bayang was unable to resist. “When a person dies, they’re born again in another life. Thousands of years ago, you were once a hero known as Lee No Cha.” Against her will, the dragon indicated the iron armband. “As Pele said, you can fly with part of it and fight with the rest.”

“Really?” Leech asked in amazement. “But how do I use them?” He poked, prodded, and rubbed the armband.

Aware of Pele’s stern eyes upon her, Bayang directed him. “Take the flying disks off the armband and then spit on them.”

Leech looked skeptical, as if he suspected them of playing a practical joke on him. But when he pulled at the disks, he was surprised when they came off in his hand. “So what am I supposed to do now? Am I supposed to clean them?”

“Spit on them!” Pele commanded. Her voice resonated in the cellar; the sound seemed to fill the boy’s head.

Feeling foolish, Leech spat on one of the bracelets.

“Now say, ‘Change!’“ Bayang said.

“Change,” Leech mumbled sheepishly. Instantly the disks rose from his palm and expanded to eighteen inches in diameter.

“Whoa,” Leech said as his jaw dropped open. The disks hovered only inches away.

“Give them a gentle push from above,” Bayang instructed.

Cautiously, the boy tapped one with a fingertip. It spiraled downward where it waited a few inches above the floor. When Leech nudged the other one, it, too descended until it was next to the other.

“Now step onto them,” Bayang said.

Puzzled, the boy set his right foot on one. “It’s sticking like glue to me,” he said in surprise as it clung to the sole of his shoe.

“Now the second disk,” Bayang said.

As soon as his left shoe touched the other disk, Leech began to rise into the air.

Leech

Leech’s feet felt so light that it almost seemed as if they had turned into balloons as he began to rise unsteadily. “Hey!” He spread his arms to keep his balance.

“Whoa,” Koko said as his mouth dropped open.

Leech had always been shorter than his friend but suddenly he was gaping down at the top of Koko’s head. And then everyone was looking up at him as he floated eight feet in the air.

Suddenly his legs crossed and he began to spin madly like a top. “What’s … what’s happening?” he yelled as the cellar seemed to whip round and round.

“Oops. The disks must be on the wrong ankles,” Bayang said. “They’re like shoes with a left one and a right one.” She gripped his ankles so that he stopped whirling.

“I feel sort of dizzy,” the boy said, feeling almost at the point of throwing up.

She pulled him down until she could hold him by the shoulders. “Lift your legs against your chest,” Bayang told him. He obeyed, feeling like a human beach ball. With Koko and Scirye’s help, he made the switch.

“Ready?” Bayang asked.

When he nodded, she let go. This time he shot up into the air until he almost bumped against the ceiling, ten feet up. It was scary being that high without a ladder or anything, but also thrilling. He gave a whoop.

Inside his head, he heard a voice exult,
Yes!

As the fierce joy washed through him, he did not stop to wonder where that came from.

With a kick, he sent himself zooming across the cellar into the darkness. It was like skating on an invisible rubber sheet because he felt how the air bounced beneath his feet occasionally, making him dip a few inches or rise up a foot. It didn’t matter. He knew his body would adjust and keep him upright—knew with every fiber of his being, knew as certainly as the sun rising in the east—because this was where he was meant to be: flying through the air.

The next moment, he whizzed back toward his friends, outstretched, hair flying behind him. He let out a joyous yell for the sheer pleasure of being alive.

The boy’s delight was so infectious that Kles rose into the air and darted beside him. Boy and griffin looked at one another and laughed at the ecstasy of it all.

“Race you!” Leech challenged.

“You’re on!” Kles brought his wings down in a sudden slap and shot forward, but not for long.

With another kick, Leech shot after him. Bending his knees, he
crouched in a more aerodynamic shape. He caught up with the griffin. “Bye-bye.” He grinned, and with another kick left Kles behind.

Leech almost ran into disaster as he reached the far wall. He tilted so that he could bank to the right, but at that speed he found himself capsizing. As he swung upside down, he saw the cellar’s right side looming ahead.

Somehow he managed to get himself turned, and as he headed back, the chagrined boy thought,
I guess I’m not automatically going to stay upright after all
.

“How do I stop?” he shouted as he flailed his arms at the air.

Bayang ran forward on her hind legs to meet him, her forelegs raised. “Say ‘change’ again,” she ordered. “But wait until you start to slow—”

But Leech was so panicky that he misjudged the timing. The landing was abrupt but not particularly violent except for a few bruises. As the boy lay on his stomach, the flying disks shrank and hovered over him.

Bayang stopped in mid-stride and lowered her forelegs. “Oops. Sorry.”

Koko was almost immediately by his side. “You okay, buddy?”

“My body felt so light, like I was the wind,” Leech enthused as his friend helped him to sit up. “I bet you could ride on my back.”

“You were flying as if you were made for that.” Scirye beamed.

Leech’s face was pure joy as he took the flying disks and attached them to his armbands again. “I was, wasn’t I? I knew it. I just knew it. This is better than wings.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Kles said indignantly as he settled on his mistress’s shoulder. “I won, after all.”