Amber and Iron - Margaret Weis [58]
“Well?” the dragon demanded impatiently.
“I came from … the Tower.…” Mina indicated with a feeble gesture the door behind her.
“I don’t mean that,” snapped the dragon, irate. “I mean where did you come from? Where have you been?”
Mina had heard that some dragons liked to play games with their victims, asking them riddles and toying with them before the kill. This dragon didn’t sound as if she were playing, however. This dragon appeared to be quite serious.
I am obviously not a wizard, yet I am here in this Tower. The guardian must think I am here at Nuitari’s invitation. That is why she hasn’t killed me. This may work to my advantage.
“I am a friend of the god’s,” Mina replied. This, at least, was true. She just didn’t mention which god had befriended her. “When those tremors shook the Tower, he sent me to see that the artifacts are safe.”
The dragon’s slit eyes narrowed. She was displeased. “Do you refuse to answer my questions?”
Mina was perplexed. “It’s just … I didn’t think you’d be interested. I have no objection to answering. As to who I am, my name is Mina. As to where I came from, I do not know. I am an orphan with no memory of my childhood. As to where I have been, I have been in almost every part of Ansalon. To tell you my tale would take too long. I am supposed to check the artifacts—”
“You waste my time. Come inside and check the artifacts then. No one’s stopping you,” the dragon snarled irascibly.
Mina realized that the dragon must think Nuitari had revealed the secret of how to enter the globe.
What a fool I was to mention that, Mina thought in irritation. Now what do I say? That I forgot what the god told me? Not even a gully dwarf would believe that!
The dragon glared at her. “Well, what are you waiting for? As for that rigmarole you told me about being an orphan—”
The dragon paused. Her eyes flared open. Her head thrust forward and banged against the crystal.
“By my teeth and tonsils,” exclaimed the dragon. “By my lungs and liver. By my heart and stomach, tooth and toenail! You don’t know!”
Mina couldn’t understand what this was all about. “What don’t I know?” she asked the dragon.
But the creature was muttering to herself and no longer paying attention.
Mina caught a few words of the dragon’s ranting: “… bastard … liar … we’ll see about that!”
Mina could make no sense of any of it.
“What is it I don’t know?” Mina asked again. Something twisted inside her. She had the feeling that this was desperately important.
“You don’t know”—the dragon paused—“how to get inside. Do you?”
That hadn’t been what the dragon meant. The dragon was now teasing, taunting. Her slit eyes glinted. Her green lip curled. “There’s no trick to it, really. Just walk right through the crystal wall. As to breathing under water, you won’t have any trouble. It’s all part of the magic, isn’t it?”
The beast is trying to lure me inside, Mina reasoned. I could stay here and remain safe from the dragon, but that would mean failing my lord.
“Chemosh, be with me!” Mina prayed and walked up to the crystal wall.
She placed both her hands on the glass. Her fingers traced the sharp edges of the runes engraved on the surface. She focused on her destination—the sand castle in the center of the globe and, keeping her gaze fixed on that and away from the dragon, Mina drew in a deep breath, shut her eyes, and walked forward.
The crystal melted like ice at her touch and she found herself inside the globe.
Mina experienced a strange sensation. She was not floundering, drowning, gasping for breath. It was as though her body had lost its solidity. She did not breathe the water so much as she was one with the water. She was water, no longer flesh. The sensation was marvelous, liberating, and frightening all at once. She could not take time to try to understand what had happened. Tensing, Mina turned to face the dragon, certain that now the creature must attack.
The dragon’s lips drew back from the yellowed fangs in a grin. To Mina’s astonishment, the