The Passage to Mythrin 2-Book Bundle (40 page)

He was right. Mara wouldn't do anything dumb. “But I have to know what's going on!” She looked up at the tree she'd been hiding behind. It had limbs like an old coal furnace. Five seconds later she was halfway up the tree, gazing through a gap in the leaves.

The great crimson dragon settled in the meadow across the river. She folded her wings and curled her tail around her like a cat, and then kept getting smaller. In a moment, Mara stood there looking just as Amelia had last seen her. Again she had shaped the jeans and red-sequined jacket they'd found for her that time she was a refugee on Earth.
Guess she really liked them
, Amelia thought.

I really did.
Mara's voice had a smile in it now.

Steel winked beside her head and a strand of her long dark-red hair lifted. She didn't move an inch.

“Get down! They're shooting!”

They are missing.

Another bolt flicked past Mara's shoulder. It left a sequin hanging by a thread. She didn't stir. Someone
— Yulith? — called out sharply. After that no more bolts came.

The gold faded from the sky. The dragon shapes along the valley's eastern rim stopped glittering. The river caught a glimmer from the rising moon. Amelia had a dozen questions, but something in Mara's perfect stillness told her to shut up.

“I'm getting cramps in my legs,” she whispered to Simon.

She was just beginning to think that nothing would happen till next morning and she might as well climb down, when someone came out of an opening in the valley wall across the river. One after the other, three people walked down the slope to the meadow. They were just visible in the thin moonlight. One was very small. About two yards away from Mara, they stopped and stood in a row. Then the smallest one took a step forward.

They talked. Amelia heard and saw it all as if she was sitting inside Mara's head, right between the eyes.

“It's like I've got a seat in the front row at the movies,” she told Simon. “Mara wants to help the Casseri move on to a world of their own. She says the dragons can work with Pier to find the right gate.”

“And what do the dragons get out of this?”

“They get rid of the humans. See, there are lots of gates, and the dragons can fly around and find them.
And they can open them right away, which the humans can't. Then Pier and the warriors can check them out. Then, once they find the right one and all the people are through, the gate will be buried so nobody can come back that way.”

“That makes sense,” Simon said out of the darkness below. “Why didn't they do that right at the start?”

“Because the Casseri couldn't imagine ever working with dragons, I guess. They thought they'd find the right door by themselves, or else Pier would find Wayland's Prism and kill all the dragons. But Pier was gone for a couple of weeks, Mythrin time. And now time's run out.”

“But ….” Simon's voice went low. “We have Wayland's Prism. What's to stop them from coming over and grabbing it from us?”

“Dragons,” Amelia said. “Mara's told the Casseri that if they send anybody over here the dragons will attack.”

“We've made things worse, then.”

“I only wanted to save Ty!” But Simon was right. “You'd think the Casseri would be happy, okay? But they're not. They want Mara to promise that the world they move to has no dragons. Funny, it seems there are a lot of dragons in the universe. I never would've guessed that. And Yulith wants a world with no people so they won't have to fight other humans. Mara says she can't promise any such thing.”

“Doesn't sound like things are going so good.”

Things are going badly,
Mara said in Amelia's head.

“Now Mara's saying she'll promise only that the dragons will search for the right door and they won't attack during the search. That should be enough. Pier says, how can we believe you? Mara says …”

I give my word.

The whole valley went still.

“Oh, Mara!” Amelia groaned softly.

A breeze sighed from the cliffs, a breath exhaled from a thousand dragon throats.

“What is it?” Simon whispered. “What's happened?”

Four words that were rarer and more magical than dragon's blood, stronger than the strongest iron. She felt the terrible strain in Mara's mind, and the shadow of fear. No wonder they did their best to never give a straight answer.

“She gives her word. And now Gram is saying that's not good enough. The idiot! Don't they
know
?”

Amelia. You and Simon must go home. Now.

“But it's not over!”

It is all but over. This will fail. What follows will be bad. Go now!

Amelia dropped the Prism Blade to the ground and climbed down after it. “She says it's failed and we have to leave.”

Simon looked back across the river. “We can't just go away and leave all those people to die!”

“Well, how are we going to save them? It's all their fault because they won't trust Mara!” She wanted to bash something. She picked up the Prism Blade and hacked at the tree. It bounced off. The blade wasn't even sharp.

“Trust? How can they, after what happened to them? Dragons killed Pier's whole family. What are they saying now?”

“Don't know. Mara's cut me off.”

Simon balanced on a rock at the edge of the river. “We have to
do
something.”

“Mara gave her word!” Amelia said bitterly. “If Pier knew Mara — I mean, really knew her. If ….” She looked at the Blade in her hand. She took a breath. “Simon!”

“What?” He turned around, wobbling on his rock.

“We have to get this thing to Pier, and fast!”

“The sword? But ….” His eyes widened. Then he leaped from his rock to the grass. Not so dumb, Simon. “But how?”

“Like this,” Amelia said. She wasn't sure she could do it. She'd done it before, but never on purpose. Mara had never told her how. Maybe Mara couldn't have explained. To a dragon, it must be like breathing.

She closed her eyes tight. Inside herself, she saw reddish-brown scales creeping over her hands and up her
arms. She saw her nails growing out strong and curved. Saw her bones growing longer, her muscles stronger. On her shoulders, wings sprouted and unfolded. Hot air gusted in her lungs. She sucked it back down.

She felt light.
Funny, you'd think I'd feel heavy with all this extra body, but I don't. I feel like I could …

Could ride the wind.

She opened her eyes. Simon was scowling at her. She remembered how much he hated her being a dragon. Maybe he was afraid she wouldn't want to change back.

She looked down at herself. Grinned with all her teeth.

He took a step back. “How will you get over there without getting shot?”

“Can't worry about that!” She grasped the sword and bunched her hind legs beneath her. That felt right. You leaped, and out with the wings, and then —

She sank down again as Simon scrambled onto her back. “What are you doing?”

“Coming with you.”

“You're nuts! Get off!”

“You'll need me,” he said calmly. “Let's go!”

In the first two seconds she nearly lost Simon in the river. It wasn't the gentle lift-off he'd been ready for. Ammy shot high into the air, and the leap continued into a back flip. The moon whirled beneath his feet.

For a moment, he felt himself sitting on nothing. Then he clamped on with his legs and got a good hold on some sticking-out things that he afterwards found out were her ears. When they came out of the spin they were circling the four people down beside the river. Four faces looked upward.

Steel whistled all around. A bolt hit Amelia's armoured shoulder and bounced off. Another whizzed through Simon's hair.

“Pier!” He waved wildly. “Stop the shooting! It's me, Simon!”

That must have worked. The bolts stopped coming.
One more circle and Amelia swooped down to land right between Mara and Pier. It was more of a crash than a landing, though. They both sprawled, and Ammy jolted back into her own shape.

But she didn't let go of the Blade. She staggered up, rubbing an elbow, and grinned triumphantly at Mara, who was standing statue-still.

Then Ammy turned and looked at the three unfriendly faces on the other side. Pier still wore the jeans and oversized white T-shirt from Earth, and her hair was still a neon-red mop. Her face underneath was stark white. Amelia's grin faded.

She took a deep breath and got a tight grip on the Prism Blade. She looked at Mara.

Then she handed the Blade to Pier.

“Traitor,” Mara said softly. Amelia flinched and didn't look at her again.

Mara began to change. Pier stared at the sword that weighed down her hands.

Yulith and Gram whispered at her. She didn't seem to hear them.

A burst of yellow-red light, high up, caught Simon's eye. Then another. Some of the dragons on the cliffs and the hilltops were starting to flame.

“It is over,” said Mara in her dragon voice. She stretched out her wings.

Amelia grabbed Pier's wrist. “Use it!” She yelled. “Now!”

Pier raised the sword and looked the dragon in the eye.

Light blazed.

Now Simon knew what it must have looked like to Amelia and Ike when he used the sword on Zeph. Up to a point, anyway. Pier and Mara stood frozen in a haze of rainbow light, their eyes locked. That lasted about a minute. Then the light faded. The tip of the sword thunked into the grass.

Strangely enough, Pier and Mara kept on staring at each other. Pier looked stunned. After a moment she bowed formally, head and shoulders. Mara dipped her head on the end of its snaky neck. Simon didn't know what he'd been expecting, but this wasn't it. Then Mara spread her wings and flew away into the night.

And that was it. No more bursts of fire showed on the cliffs. Amelia held out her hand and Pier gave back the sword. Yulith yelped. “You can't let it go now!”

“We must,” Pier said. “That is part of the bargain.”

“Bargain?” Gram snapped. “We do not bargain with dragons!”

Simon was afraid then that what they'd done was all for nothing. He opened his mouth, and Amelia started
to speak, but Pier held up both hands. “We no longer need Wayland's Prism.” She looked at Yulith and Gram, and then at Amelia. Her eyes were large and calm. “The dragon has given its word.
Her
word. I trust her. And you, you must trust me.”

Night darkened. The moon turned small and silver as it crept up the sky. Instead of falling quiet, the camp of the Casseri buzzed with excited talk. People built fires, brewed tea, packed bags of supplies for the explorers. A small child laughed.

It grew cold. A man brought blankets to Amelia and Simon, who were trying to stay out of everybody's way. Wayland's Prism lay on the ground between them, still looking like an ordinary, rather dull, steel sword.

“We've really done it!” Amelia rocked inside her blanket to keep warm. “The Casseri learned to trust the dragons. That's all it took.”

“That's not true,” Simon pointed out. “Pier trusts Mara, and the Casseri trust Pier. I don't think there's any more trust around than that. You notice? The warriors haven't put down their arbalests.”

“Well, so long as ….” She flung off her blanket and jumped up as a silvery-green dragon settled on the
meadow grass beside them. This, Simon knew, was what she'd been waiting for. It was the reason they hadn't gone home an hour ago.

The dragon looked at her out of pale green eyes, and after a moment she nodded. “Mara wants me,” she said to Simon.

“And me?” He started to his feet, then caught his foot in the blanket and fell down again.

“No. Go home.”

“I can't go home without you. You know that.”

“For heaven's sake! Will you stop being such a ….” She saw his face and smacked herself on the forehead with the heel of her hand. “Oh, Simon. I'm a jerk.”

“You're not kidding.”

“And you're a sweetie. But all the same —”

She drew in a deep breath and changed shape. It happened faster this time and seemed easier. It must have felt that way to Amelia too, because she sat up on her reddish-gleaming hind legs and did a silly little dance of celebration.

“How do I know you'll come home?”

“Because ….” She tilted her head, listening. Then wilted. “Because Mara doesn't want me to stay.” The silver-green dragon hissed. “Okay! Okay!” Amelia said. She pointed a claw at Simon. “You take care of the Prism Blade. Don't take your eyes off it!”

They sprang upward, first the stranger, then Amelia, and vanished into the black sky.

Perched up here on the cliff top, the highest point of land for miles around, Mara looked more than ever her people's chief. It was hard to imagine ever having hugged her, still harder to imagine that time, last winter, when Amelia thought she was protecting a helpless refugee.

Amelia kept wanting to scrunch down and make herself small. She forced herself to sit up and hold her head high.

First Mara's eyes on her, bright and hard as emerald. Then the deep, sweet cello voice: “So you have truly become a warrior. Brave enough to defy even me.”

“I — I know you hate me now. I can't blame you.”

Mara's fearsome dragon mask didn't change, but a smile warmed Amelia's mind.
I don't hate you.

I never betrayed you!

I know that now.

You forgive me?

There is nothing to forgive, Amelia, more-than-sister.

Oh, I could dance!

But I hope you never know how it feels to have your whole heart and mind laid bare. To have no secrets left unseen.
Not even the old chief, my grandmother, ever saw me as that ardin child saw me.
Mara turned her head away.