Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [142]
“I’ve kept you safe when I could, and agonized when you had to suffer. You must see that to come with me will make not only me happy, but you as well.”
Kale looked into Risto’s face. He looked so like Paladin, except for a hard glitter in his eyes, stern lines of disapproval around his mouth, and the tight angry line of his jaw.
“Believe in me, Kale. I will teach you the wonders of your powers. No one else can give you the answers you need because no one else is like you. I am the perfect guardian for you, Kale. No one wants to help you as I do. No one can but me.
“I would be greatly distressed should anything happen to you, and if you leave me, I’m afraid disaster will befall you. You would be destroyed. There is no doubt about that. Make the wise decision, Kale. Go, pick up the meech egg, and come.”
Kale remembered Pretender had told the kimens that he had mastered their weather and had the power to destroy them. He had lied.
She remembered Leetu saying that when Risto lied it sounded like truth.
She remembered Granny Noon’s advice.
“I stand under Wulder’s authority.” Kale spoke the words aloud.
Risto grimaced.
Her friends appeared with not even a wisp of the gleaming clouds clinging to their clothes. Metta sang. Her song soared with praise. Its trills and runs echoed off the stone walls. Shimeran and Seezle twirled in place and then began to dance. Dar pulled out his trumpet and blasted the air with a triumphant call.
Risto glared at them all.
“We won?” Kale asked Librettowit under her breath, keeping her eyes on the volatile wizard.
He nodded. “He tried to weaken each of us with evil words in our minds. We all stood firm in our allegiance to Paladin.”
Fenworth put a hand on Kale’s shoulder. “Caution, my dear. Do not assume. Tut-tut, my dear librarian. I think you spoke too soon. Look at our enemy’s demeanor.”
Kale glanced at Fenworth’s serious face, and then her eyes went back to the evil wizard. The man shook with anger. As each second passed, the tension in his body escalated. The energy of his hatred radiated from his eyes. Kale wanted to duck behind someone. Fenworth and Librettowit, who were wise. Lee Ark, Leetu, and Brunstetter, who were strong. The kimens and Dar, who somehow always gave comfort by their presence. Kale hoped Paladin would walk through the glowing mist at the cave entrance and banish Risto. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the giant urohm scoop up the meech egg and cradle it protectively in his arms.
The stone floor quivered under Kale’s feet. The air around the wicked wizard crackled. Rage poured out of his body into the small cavern. Vibrations of malice intensified, and the rock walls began to shake. Kale trembled, but she couldn’t tell if it was fear within that made her shake or the undulating world around her.
“Come close now,” ordered Fenworth. “Time for an exit. I think we’ll whirl. Kale likes to whirl. Hold hands. Let’s stay together, children. I want no one lost.”
Metta and Gymn flew to Kale, darted under the edge of the moonbeam cape, and burrowed into their pocket-dens. At the same time, her comrades gathered around Fenworth. A blinding light burst into the cave.
A roar of anger filled her ears and gradually diminished as if a distance was growing between her and the one who roared. Risto had been left behind.
“Destination?” Fenworth’s voice came to her, although she could not tell where he was.
She held someone’s hand. She thought it was Dar’s, small and slightly furry. A racing wind buffeted her.
“Oh dear, oh dear. We’re being followed.”
The fierce cries of wild animals surrounded them. Sharp teeth nipped at Kale’s heels. She could not open her eyes to look, and yet she could see in her mind the black shapes of huge hounds racing beside them. Their red eyes pierced her soul and made her want to scream in terror. Throaty snarls raked along her nerves, and the air filled with a fetid smell of rancid meat.
“Detour!” Fenworth exclaimed, and the next moment water splashed against