Under the Eye of God (24 page)

“He'll get away!”

“Give him to me. I'll hold him.” Sawyer ran to Kask and grabbed; the Dragon pushed him back. Another prisoner slipped past. Kask grunted, “Now, see what you made me do!”

“You made a promise!”

“Damn your human eyes!” the Dragon roared. He shoved Ibaka back into Sawyer's arms. “If you lose him, I'll kill you.”

Sawyer made a show of holding onto Ibaka firmly. Ibaka started to squirm, but Sawyer rapped him sharply on the snout. “Keep still!” Then, stepping back out of the way, and feeling guilty, he whispered, “I won't let him hurt you. Trust me, little one.”

Ibaka looked up at him with big round eyes. Trust? A human?

Slash approached and held her hand up to the puppy's face. He sniffed at her, then licked her fingers tentatively. Sawyer looked down at Slash with curiosity, but he maintained his rigid grip on the little dog-boy's squirming body. “Shh,” he said. He rubbed the puppy's head affectionately and hugged him close. After a minute, Ibaka stopped protesting. Sawyer turned around again to watch the Dragon.

More prisoners came tumbling down the sluice tube now, one after the other; Kask pulled them out as fast as he could, reaching first with one hand, then the other. They came out gasping, swearing, coughing, staggering, and exhausted. Many had injuries—burned and ragged flesh. All had horror stories: the battle-robots, the panic, the fighting to get into the tube—

Sawyer pushed through the crowd of ragged and dirty men. “My brother, Finn! What happened to him?”

“The guy with the gun—? I don't know. I didn't see—”

Sawyer yelled to Kask. “Keep watching! Watch for Finn!”

But Kask just shook his head. “Only dead ones now.” He pulled another body out—only half a body. Sawyer flinched in horror. The battle-robots had melted the poor man's face. Kask let the body fall back into the sluice tube. “No more.” He looked down at Sawyer. “I guess he didn't make it.”

In his revulsion and dismay, Sawyer's grip on Ibaka loosened, and the puppy took immediate advantage. He leapt from Sawyer's arms with an excited yelp. Kask forgot about his promise and charged after Ibaka, shoving Sawyer and twelve other men out of the way. Ibaka scrambled between their legs, ducking back and forth, until he finally saw an opening. He dashed for a gap under the access pipe and slid under it. Kask followed with a roar; he scattered the men like tenpins, and reached quickly into the gap after Ibaka—the puppy snarled and bit, but the Dragon grabbed him by the leg and pulled him out.

Meanwhile, Sawyer had leapt up onto the top of the pipe and struggled desperately to reach into it, grabbing frantically and shouting, “Finn! Finn—” The bodies swept past him, each one in worse condition than the last. Sawyer couldn't look—but he couldn't look away. He had to stay there for Finn. He hung down into the water, waving his arms and grabbing at everything that came surging past.

“Crazy man,” grunted Kask, nodding toward Sawyer.

“Of course, you wouldn't understand,” said Lee-1169. “He only wants to save his brother.”

Kask reacted sharply to that. “I had a brother. I understand.”

“Then help him!”

“Why? My brother died? Why should I save his? His brother probably died too. Why waste the effort pulling a dead body out of the pipe?”

Lee made a noise of frustration. “Dragons!” He started to turn away—

“I've got him!” shouted Sawyer suddenly. “I've got him! Somebody help me! Help me, you goddamn son of a lying lizard! You promised!”

“You let the dog-boy escape!”

“Help me save my brother!” Sawyer gasped out breathlessly. I can't hold on!”

Sawyer hung on frantically to Finn's limp body. He didn't know if Finn still breathed or not, but he didn't dare let go. Whatever had happened, he had to know for certain. He strained to hang on as hard as he could, but he didn't have the strength or the leverage. He could feel his grip on Finn's shirt weakening. And he felt himself sliding as Finn's weight pulled him forward into the tube.

“Help me!” he shouted again—and then suddenly, he felt hands grabbing at him, pulling him. “Get Finn! Get Finn!” he cried. Somehow Sawyer hooked his fingers into the sleeve of Finn's jacket and pulled. Someone else reached past him, also grabbing—

—and then, amazingly, Finn reached up and grabbed his arm! They hung onto each other, staring into each other's eyes, both wet and grateful, while all the other hands pulled and tugged at them. Slowly, Finn came rising up out of the surging water; he flopped over the edge of the pipe and hung there gasping. Harry and Lee pulled him the rest of the way over and laid him down on the wet ground. Sawyer sagged down next to him, one arm still wrapped around his brother. “I thought I'd lost you.”

“You almost did,” Finn coughed. “It got pretty hairy up there.”

“What happened—?”

“Later. I'll tell you later.”

Harry and Lee and a couple of other men that neither recognized stood around them, concern showing on their faces—and relief that Finn felt well enough to sit up to cough and spit the dirty water out of his lungs.

And then, Sawyer remembered. He jumped to his feet and advanced on Kask. The Dragon had pulled Ibaka out from the hole under the pipe; now he lifted him high in the air like a prize, where he squirmed and squealed and tried to bite the hand that held him.

“You tailless son of a lizard!” Sawyer started shouting. “You couldn't keep a promise if the Lady Zillabar herself nailed you to it!”

“You let the dog-boy go! I caught him,” Kask roared back. “I can reclaim my honor now.”

Ibaka screamed down at him, a high-pitched yapping sound. “I saved you! You can't turn me in! I showed you the way!”

Slash began beating at Kask's legs, shrieking her rage too. “You owe me! I helped you escape! Give the puppy back to me! You have the honor of a pig!”

Kask remained resolute. “I have found the Lady's gift. I have erased my shame. I can return to my rightful place.” He lowered his hand in front of his face and gave the squirming dog-child a furious shake. Ibaka calmed down immediately. “You must not run away.”

Ibaka spat at him. “I saved your life. You owe me!”

Lee-1169 also added his voice to the argument. “Join the Alliance of Life, Kask. We
all
saved each other here. Don't betray that.”

Slash continued to pound on the Dragon's thigh. “You have to listen to them! Give me my puppy!”

Harry Mertz, former High Justice and Arbiter of Thoska-Roole, pushed forward. “Listen to the dog-child, great Dragon. He saved you—to give him back to Lady Zillabar would bring an even greater dishonor to your family. Everybody would know what you had done.”

Kask started to look confused. “You people know nothing about honor.” he said, turning around in annoyance. “You don't even deserve to have an opinion about honor.”

The humans traded dumbfounded looks. Dragons!

“So much for your ‘Alliance of Life,'” Sawyer said to Lee.

“They breed them for strength,” Harry explained sadly. “Not brains.”

With Sawyer's help, Finn had pulled himself to his feet. “Well,” he said. “Now we know how far we can trust him.”

“What do you know about trust?” Kask rumbled.

Finn shook his head. “You'll never know.”

Kask started to answer, then—in annoyance, he reached down and swatted the insistent Slash away from his side, knocking the boy tumbling. “Go away,” he said. “Or I'll kill you.”

“If you do, you'll die here!” Slash shouted, picking herself up. “The Guards will find you and kill you. Or you'll starve to death in the desert. I know how to get out of here. You don't.”

For the first time, the men began looking around. Even Kask stopped to consider Slash's words. They stood in a rocky gully scattered with boulders the size of houses. Beside them, the pipe led down to a covered reservoir—and from there to the dirty gray dome of the Old City detainment. It blocked their access to the desert. It lay across their path like a wall.

“Maybe we can go back up?” Lee suggested.

Slash shook her head. “It won't work. I know this place. You don't. You'll all die here if I leave you.”

A couple of the prisoners shook their heads in contempt. “Only a fool would listen to her. We'll go up.” They turned and began climbing roughly over the huge rocks that lined the broken channel.

Three other prisoners started working their way downward. “If we keep to the cover of the rocks, we can find our way around the dome.”

Sawyer and Finn looked at each other. Finn said, “The kid brought us to the sluice tube. I think we should trust her.” Sawyer agreed with a nod. The brothers looked to Harry and Lee. “Don't you agree?”

Kask had followed all this with interest. “This doesn't affect me,” he grunted. “I have the Lady's gift. I can go back.”

“They shot at us, you stupid worm!” Ibaka screamed. “Have you forgotten that already? They said you had no name! They turned their backs on you! They shot at us!”

“I don't know—” Kask admitted abruptly. He sat down with a heavy thump.

The humans all looked at each other. A Dragon admitting ignorance? “Consider this progress,” said Finn. He sat down opposite Kask. He held out his hands. “Let me hold the dog-boy for a minute, so you can think. I won't let him go.”

Kask hesitated, but Finn's expression remained resolute. Reluctantly, Kask pushed Ibaka into Finn's arms. “Here. Take him. Maybe he speaks the truth—I have to think about this.”

Slash came over and sat down next to Finn. She reached over and stroked Ibaka and made reassuring noises. “We'll figure something out.”

Now, Lee came over and sat down too. He had an expression of great concern on his face. Finn looked at him curiously, but Lee held up a hand as if to say, “I have a thought here. Let me try something.”

“Kask,” Lee said. “May I help you remember one thing?”

The Dragon didn't respond. He glared at Lee—the traitor, the man for whom his brother, Keeda, had died—but he didn't turn away either.

“You Dragons, you have a—a wonderful discipline. The whole family of warrior-lizards has a proud heritage. Everybody envies the strength of the Dragons. I don't have to tell you that. You already know it. But I can tell you something that you don't know. And that may help you make the right decision here.”

Lee hesitated, waiting to see how or if the Dragon would respond. Kask merely continued staring at him.

Lee-1169 took that as assent, and continued. “You have a tradition that one Dragon defends all, and all defend one. You belong to the family of Dragons. Well, the rest of us want to have that same kind of tradition in our lives—some people call it family, others call it community. I call it an alliance of life.”

“You humans can't know,” Kask protested, but without real enthusiasm.

“Yes, I know. But if we could know,” Lee said, “we would want to have the same spirit among ourselves that you have among your brothers.” Lee stretched out his hand and laid it on the Dragon's broad claw. “You can help teach us.”

Kask looked up at that. “Teach? Me? What do I know?”

“You know right from wrong. You know honor.”

Finn touched Lee's arm. “Let me say something. Kask—” The Dragon's gaze shifted warily. “Your brother died for the honor of your family. You will too, if you have to. Let me ask you this—can you imagine an even greater honor? One worth
living humbly
for?”

Kask didn't answer, but both humans knew that he had heard their words. The great Dragon had actually begun considering the import of what they had said. After a moment, he grunted. “This confuses me. You start talking and I understand even less. If I had the honor of my family, I would have killed you both, long before this.”

“Yet you trust me—as you trusted my brother—to hold the dog-child.”

“I had no choice—”

“Yes, you did,” said Finn. “You chose the honor of life instead of the honor of death.”

“What you did,” explained Lee, “perfectly demonstrates this idea of an alliance of life. We helped each other, all of us.”

“Dragons don't help,” said Kask. “Helping fosters weakness. I have brought dishonor to the Dragon's Claw.”

“And gained a
larger
honor,” Finn put in quickly. “Can you imagine an honor held by
all
life? An honor so big that no individual race can hold it all?”

“No,” admitted Kask. “I can't.” And yet, even as he admitted that he couldn't, the two humans saw his armored forehead furrowing in concern. Even as he shook his head in denial, still his patient mind had already begun trying to encompass such a strange and terrifying concept.

By now, a small crowd had gathered around the group. One or two of the remaining prisoners grumbled, “Why waste time with the Dragon? Let's go.” But others insisted on waiting. Finn glanced around, counting. He saw his brother, Slash, Harry, and three other men waiting nearby. He didn't like it; they would make too large a group—too easy to spot, too slow to move. But . . . he and Sawyer had no choice. If nothing else, they owed a debt to Slash for showing them the sluice tube, and they could only repay it by achieving the freedom of the little dog-boy. Finn sighed. He hated situations like this.

“I have a suggestion,” said Sawyer. He had put on his shoes again, and had slung his weapon over his shoulder.

Kask looked up. A suggestion? Nobody ever
suggested
anything to a Dragon. They always ordered. He found the human's courtesy an intriguing and disturbing new behavior.

“Let's get out of here before the Dragon Guards and the battle robots start tracking us. Postpone your decision for a while, Kask. Let's all help each other to escape—then, maybe, we can help you find a way to regain your honor. If not
this
way, then maybe some better way. How does that sound?”