Azure bonds - Kate Novak [26]
The heat grew unbearable, and Alias wondered if she might already be burned so badly that she would die but her muscles and mind didn't know that yet. The halfling was still squirming in her arms as she made a final leap toward the opening in the mountainside, praying to Tymora that she would clear it before the hot air singed her flesh and the fire stripped it from her bones.
The moment Alias cleared the stone passage, Dragonbait's tail snaked out from the right. The powerful muscles in the scaly, green ribbon knocked the swordswoman and her passenger down the slope of greasy grass.
Alias looked back. The opening where she had been only an instant before was now filled with flame and soot. The rock about the cave entrance melted in the heat, twisting and flowing until the passage was sealed shut. Silence settled over the mountainside.
Dragonbait rubbed his mildly scorched tail and gave a reptilian whimper. Akabar, upon hearing the sound of the dragon's inhalation, had assumed a safer position several paces away from the back door. He now looked down at the soot-blackened women with amusement.
Alias looked down at Ruskettle, and it suddenly dawned on her why the halfling had been so heavy. On her tumble down the hill, the bard had lost, in order, Alias's dagger, two pouches of gold coins, an opal the size of a cockatrice egg, a handful of jade statuettes, a ratty scroll, and a large, ornate book marked with the sigil of Akabar Bel Akash.
For half a score of heartbeats, Alias lay among the flowers of the mountain meadow. She gasped in the thin mountain air, trying to will away the stabbing pain in her chest and the searing agony across her back. She imagined the dragon-heated metal of her chain shirt burning through her jerkin and inwardly cringed.
Dragonbait, having knocked her and the halfling out of the direct path of the dragon's breath, was at her side immediately, his clawlike hands on her shoulders, helping her rise. He smelled heavily of woodsmoke, but his chivalrous aid helped make Alias feel a little better.
Farther down the slope, the halfling was scurrying about, trying to recover the items lost in her tumble. She grabbed one of the leather-bound tomes, but a sandal-clad foot suddenly appeared and held it tight to the ground.
"I believe," Akabar Bel Akash said, "that this particular item is mine."
The halfling gulped. "You were the wizard in the caravan," she piped, wheels visibly turning behind her eyes. "Of course. I brought this from the dragon's lair to…" she sighed deeply, "… to return to you."
Akabar harumphed and, keeping his foot atop the book, reached over and picked up the age-torn scroll lying near it.
"That's for you, too," the halfling offered, jamming the opal and the jade figures back into her pockets.
Alias had by this time removed her charred cloak and shucked off her chain mail shirt. The cloak was a total loss; the heavy cloth had taken the brunt of the blast. The heat had been enough to fuse portions of her chain into solid lumps along the back and leave the light leather jerkin beneath hard and cracked. The leather must have insulated her back just enough though, for what she could see of her skin there, while pink, was not charred.
Blind Tymora's luck, Alias thought. Her back ached as though she had a sunburn, but no more. She abruptly shouted to the others, "Let's get a move on!"
The newly rescued bard ambled up the hill with the mage. Akabar held his recovered tome pressed tightly under his arm and used his hand to hold open the battered scroll, scanning its contents as he approached Alias.
The halfling planted each foot firmly at shoulder-width, and stuck out her hand toward the swordswoman. "We haven't been properly introduced. Ruskettle is the name, song and merriment the-"
"Not now," hushed Alias. "Look. In about five minutes, ten minutes at most, the red reptile is going to check to be sure we're dead. She'll come lurching out of the cave entrance. It's at least a mile to decent