Azure bonds - Kate Novak [135]
*****
Giogioni Wyvernspur let out a deep sigh of relief as he topped the last rise on the road from Reddansyr and surveyed the city of Westgate and the land surrounding it. Since his narrow escape in Teziir from the sorceress who so resembled the sell-sword Alias, Giogi had been moving overland, first by carriage, then on horseback.
From his vantage point, the Cormyrian noble took in the plain, which ran along the sea coast. Covered with the same rich, slick grass as the hills bordering it, the greenery of the plain ran right to the stock and caravan yards scattered around the city wall. A ring of seven mounds lay south of the city just east of the road on which he traveled. All seven hillocks were crowned with old ruins-stone circles of druids and temples of more sinister cults.
"Now this," he informed the horse he now rode, Daisyeye II, ''has been a much more pleasant experience than my last trip on horseback. That ended, you see, with the death of your namesake, the first Daisyeye, followed by a singularly unpleasant interview with a dragon-an incident that will stick in my mind as long as, if not longer than, the nasty affair of losing Aunt Dorath's pet land urchin."
Giogi sighed again. He had been expecting to be waylaid by any of the hundred thousand brigands, bandits, dark powers, and orc bands that were said to lie in wait just beyond the borders of the civilized world. Yet, despite all the expected awfulness, his trip overland had been relatively peaceful.
About time I had some good luck, he thought, pulling off his wide-brimmed hat and letting the wind rustle through his hair.
At that moment the crash of a powerful lightning strike echoed all around him. Daisyeye II reared on her hindquarters. Directly overhead a great rend appeared in the sky. Through this a huge rock jettisoned into the world.
Giogi reigned Daisyeye in tightly to avoid being spilled onto the road. He might have been better off patting the beast and whispering soothing words, but his eyes were glued on the rocketing projectile. It looked like a rotting basket, with masses of greenery hanging from all sides. Along its trailing edge it spurt out jets of blue flame.
With a piercing howl the gash in the sky began to close. Then a red dragon burst through the hole overhead, pursuing the "basket." The dragon's appearance was Giogioni's first indication of just how big the lump of decay really was.
The head of the dragon chasing the basket shone with a yellow light. Giogi squinted. The yellow light seemed to be coming from a figure riding between the dragon's ears. Then the Cormyrian noble noticed the dragon's color.
"No. it can't be," he whispered to himself. But his heart sank with the certainty that it was indeed Mist.
If Giogi had remained on the hilltop observing the dragon, he might have noticed the other figures on her back; he might even have heard the eerie chant that rose from one of the mounds just south of him, but Daisyeye II decided she'd had enough. She plunged uncontrollably down the hill into the high grass, taking the young Wvvernspur with her.
*****
Akabar kept his eyes glued to Moander. Blue flames spurted from the god, but the mage recognized that the flames did not originate from the damaging fires they had set within the monster. They were some means of propulsion. Somehow the monster's temporary occupation of his mind had left the mage with more than just the memory of the words he'd been forced to say to Alias or the evil deeds he'd been maneuvered into performing. He understood the means of the Abomination's flight, and while he admired its cleverness, he shivered with horror at the reminder of what the god had done to him.
Moander's vast godly knowledge, however, was not going to aid in its escape. The dragon, under the effects of Akabar's spell of haste, was still gaining.