Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [127]
Lee Ark nodded.
“You might remember,” interrupted Leetu in Kale’s mind, “ who is in command. It is more proper to ask Lee Ark if you can go, rather than tell him.”
Kale felt her face burn red. She looked quickly from Leetu’s disapproving face to Lee Ark’s amused one. She heard Dar chuckle and looked at him.
“I think,” said the doneel with a cocky grin, “our little o’rant slave girl is doing a good job of thinking for herself.”
Are you sure you don’t read my mind?
“Never. Go see if you can help our kimen friends.”
Kale followed Metta and Gymn, dragging the meech egg on the cape. The passageway came to an abrupt end, opening into a chamber. Kale crouched in the tunnel about halfway up one wall.
In the center of this stone room, a sphere floated. Smaller than the ones Kale had seen from a distance, hanging over the city of Vendela, this orb contained the two kimens. Kale caught her breath. Shimeran and Seezle sat back to back, legs crossed, knees pulled up to their chins, eyes closed, and their arms folded and resting on their knees. Their hair fell limply around their shoulders and flowed to their feet. As still as stone, they looked liked lifeless carvings.
Kale examined the empty room. She could drop to the floor some six feet below her, but how would she reach the floating sphere?
“Can you fly to them?” she asked her companions.
The emphatic no surprised Kale.
“Shimeran? Seezle?”
No response.
Shimeran! Seezle!
Still no response. She wouldn’t give up. Around the room many tunnels led out of the chamber. If she could find something to aid her in one of those tunnels…
She tied the blue scarf to the corners of the cape once more, slipped the makeshift sling onto her back and sat down on the rock edge, preparing to jump to the ground. Her legs and feet felt cold as if she had submerged them into Baltzentor’s Pond near River Away.
It must have something to do with whatever it is that floats the ball.
Both Metta and Gymn objected, chittering warnings about the room, but their thoughts came in an overlapping rush. Kale couldn’t sort them out, and she was in no mood to wait. She pushed off the shelf created by the end of the tunnel and plunged into air as thick as water.
She fell but did not land on the floor. The meech egg thumped against her back. Kale bobbed upward like a cork on a fishing line. It felt so much like being in the pond Kale instinctively kicked her legs and “swam” toward the orb. She put both hands on the surface of the sphere and felt the transparent material give under her palms. She pushed harder but did not break through. However, in response to her shove, the orb floated away from her.
I wonder if I could get this ball back to Fenworth. He could probably open it.
She looked back at the tunnel where Metta and Gymn sat anxiously waiting for her.
That direction only takes me back to a tiny slit in the wall.
She looked at the numerous other openings leading out of the small chamber. She made up her mind almost immediately.
That one looks the right size and the right direction.
Kale shivered against the cold air surrounding her.
Best get moving before I freeze.
She put her shoulder to the sphere and pushed, moving her legs in a strong swimmer’s kick. The meech egg dragged behind her, making her movements clumsy. Finally, she bumped into the wall above the tunnel she’d picked out. She pulled herself to the top of the kimens’ prison and sat on it to push it downward. After several tries she pushed it into the rock opening.
The sphere burst, spilling Shimeran and Seezle onto the hard floor. A sparkling light filled the room for an instant. The kimens curled into balls, rolled over a couple of times, then sprang to their feet. They shook their heads, sending their already wild hair flying in all directions.
Shimeran placed his hands on his hips and surveyed his surroundings. Seezle squealed with delight and sprang across the expanse to hug Kale’s neck.
“I thought you were dead.” Kale laughed with relief. Seezle’s warm body tickled a