Azure bonds - Kate Novak [121]
For several moments, the only sound was the rush of the wind. Finally, Mist said, "Why the shift in loyalties?"
The halfling considered how much she wanted the dragon to know. The game I've been playing for Phalse has become too dangerous, Olive thought. I'd have no trouble fooling Alias. Dragonbait, however, is not so easily deceived.
To Mist Olive simply said, "Let's just say I do not trust our companion. He has misrepresented himself and that makes me uncomfortable. I'm not sure I want to continue traveling with him much longer."
"But you still want to rescue the woman."
The dragon was no dotard, Olive realized. "Yes," she admitted. "I want to rescue Alias. You might wish to reconsider which warrior has done the most to earn your vengeance. If you decide on the lizard rather than the woman, you will find yourself with an ally."
"I see."
"Besides," the halfling added, "Alias has a lot of enemies. She is bound to get her comeuppance sooner or later."
The dragon banked again, then spoke. "I'll take your suggestion under advisement. Speaking of His Righteousness, turn around and see what he wants."
The bard twisted in her makeshift saddle. Dragonbait was banging on the side of Mist's neck with the flat of his blade. Having caught the bard's attention, he pointed southward.
"I think he wants you to get on with the hunt. He's pointing south."
"Everyone thinks they're an expert."
"I imagine he thinks he's the boss," Olive replied slyly.
Mist's neck stiffened some, and she remained silent. She banked again and began to glide away from Yulash.
"Can you see the monster's trail from this height?" the halfling asked.
"Bard, I can see field mice from this height."
"Um, I guess I meant, could I have a look?"
Mist turned her head ever so slightly so Olive could peer down at the ground. Yulash looked as though it would fit in the palm of her hand. Four roads stretched away from it, east, west, northeast, and northwest, but far wider than the roads was a path of crushed vegetation and broken copses of trees heading south by southeast.
"Just how wide is that trail?" Olive asked, unable to judge size from such a distance.
"About fifty feet. Though it seems to be growing the farther south we go," Mist mused.
"This Abomination must be huge," the halfling cautioned. "Think you can handle it?"
"Not handle a shambling mound with a gland problem?" Mist sniffed. "So far you've only seen me in action in Feints of Honor. Unfettered by conventions, I am a force to be reckoned with."
"You fight dirty," Olive translated.
"That walking garbage heap will want a bath when I'm through with it," Mist bragged.
The bard smiled. She turned to look at Dragonbait. He kept his eyes fixed on the plains.
"Does he have a name? Besides Dragonbait, I mean."
"Indeed," the dragon answered. "But it doesn't translate well. I much prefer Dragonbait. It's so appropriate."
Without the thermals rising from Yulash, Mist was forced to pump her wings to preserve her altitude. The conversation with the halfling ended as Mist conserved her breath for the exertion of flying.
Far in the distance, on the southern horizon, a line of green marked the Abomination's destination-the Elven Wood.
22
Moander's Revelation and the Rescue
Attempt
"You really don't know, do you?" Moander asked with Akabar's tongue. Carefully it rearranged the merchant-mage's face. Placing a hand against his cheek, it dropped his jaw, mimicking a look of extreme shock.
"I don't know what?" Alias asked, but even as she spoke, some notion stirred deep within her consciousness like a serpent that had slumbered heavily and was only now rising, rising quickly to strike at unwary prey-her.
"You carry my sign," Moander said in Akabar's cheeriest voice. "And you have done me a great service, so I should return the favor. It will help pass the time, and, I think, upset you."
"First, understand this," Moander said, using the formal words of a southern scholar. It pointed one of Akabar's fingers at her face. "You are a made thing, no