Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [78]
They’re safe.
“Now we wait,” answered Dar.
Kale turned her head and saw he was lying beside her, also watching the dragon fly away.
Too bad you can’t play your flute.
“Oh, I could play it. We just couldn’t hear it.”
Kale started to laugh at the image of Dar trying to play louder than the river, but a horrible dread cut off the humor.
Dar!
“What?”
He knows where we are.
“Risto?”
Yes, I think so. He’s evil. He’s strong.
“Call on Wulder to protect you, Kale. Say the words Granny Noon gave you.”
I did. I did! Kale grabbed his arm, and her fingers dug into his damp coat sleeve. Oh, Dar, no!
“What? What?”
He’s planning some force, some evil spell. He’s so angry. It’s boiling within him. He’s cursing us and Paladin and Wulder. But he’s aiming the evil at us.
“What’s he going to do?”
Kale tried to sort out the impressions she was receiving. The tangle of dark images confused her. Something was coming apart. Something huge. She gasped.
Dar, he’s going to shear away the side of the cliff. He’s going to melt the rock under our feet. He’s destroying the ledge we’re standing on.
Dar looked off after Celisse. “How soon?” he yelled over the thundering waterfall.
“Now!” Kale screamed.
29
PALADIN
Kale and Dar rolled away fro—m the edge as the cliff began to quiver. They knelt as close to the stone wall as possible.
Should we escape through the cavern, back to the fortress?
“The whole mountain might collapse on us.”
He wouldn’t destroy his own castle, would he?
As if in answer to her question, a deafening roar shook the rocks around them. Kale screeched. Dar grabbed her arm and pulled. They scrambled on all fours back toward the waterfall and the wider ledge.
Shards of broken rock pelted them, stinging their skin. Coarse gravel-like pebbles bounced and skittered like hailstones on the flinty shelf around Kale and Dar. The mountain continued to rumble under their hands and knees. A strong shudder knocked them flat on their stomachs. As soon as it passed, they resumed crawling. Kale heard a loud crack and looked over her shoulder. A few feet behind her, a section of the ledge split, hung for a second, and then slid down and away. The exposed rock, several shades lighter than the weathered surface around it, looked like a huge scar on the face of the cliff.
Dar entered the cavern and collapsed with his back against the wall. Kale followed and huddled beside him. The doneel stretched an arm around her shoulders. She raised her head and looked at the dismal scene.
The vapor off the waterfall clouded her vision. From the cavern ceiling a fine spray of gravel fell like a gray curtain. The mountain groaned. Rock ground against rock as the earth travailed under Risto’s destructive spell. Kale placed her hands over her ears to block out the grinding noise.
The vibration in the rock made her want to scream and run. But where could they go?
We can’t just sit here!
“I know. I’m thinking.”
I’m scared!
“So am I.”
Back through the tunnel?
“Too dangerous.”
Sitting here is dangerous!
“Merlander!”
What?
“She’s coming.”
How…?
Dar jumped to his feet. “Come on, Kale. She’s almost here.”
He ran outside the cavern. Kale followed as he darted away from the waterfall along the crumbling ledge. She kept her head down, watching her feet and trying to keep dust from the disintegrating cliff out of her eyes. A shadow passed and then another. Kale looked up in time to see the tail of a white dragon disappear in the mist. As she watched, two small globes of light appeared above them, and then two more. The light became clearer as it descended, drifting closer to where she and Dar stood on the precarious stone shelf.
The mountain shook. Debris rained down on them as the ground trembled. Dar and Kale collapsed in a heap to keep from being tossed over the edge by the violent surges of the rock beneath them. A crash in the distance meant another cliff section had broken away and fallen. When Kale opened her eyes again, four kimens stood around them—Shimeran, Seezle, Zayvion, and Glim.
The little people