Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [80]
The man turned at the waist, reached back, and gathered Kale into his gentle hand. As if she were a large rag doll, he tucked her under one side of his riding jacket.
“Shimeran says you’re cold.” His deep rumbling voice vibrated through his chest. “We’ll be landing in just a few minutes. We’ll set you before a fire and dry you out.”
Kale nestled within the warmth provided and wondered if this was how Gymn felt in his pocket-den. The urohm smelled of soap and the earthy scent of a man who has worked all day.
Kale listened to the beat of his great heart and felt safe. Pulling Gymn from her pocket, she cuddled him under her chin and enjoyed the flow of health and contentment between them. With each pulse, she gained physical comfort and a feeling of serenity.
Gymn jerked to attention, squirmed out of her hands, and plunged back under the edge of her cape. His fear coursed through her veins before she identified the source.
Fire dragons! Kale gulped. Fire dragons? Like the evil fire dragon in The Tale of Durmoil? Like the monster fire dragons who emerged from the volcanoes in ancient days? Fire dragons are real?
Kale shook her head. Why not? Paladin is real. Gateways are real. I’m riding inside the jacket of a urohm on the back of a giant white dragon.
She wasn’t the village slave anymore, and she probably knew as much as the schoolmistress when it came to what parts of legends were real and what was made up. Master Meiger had said Kale didn’t know much, but she was learning every day. She would not sit in darkness and let others fight for her.
She struggled to sit upright and moved closer to the opening of the jacket. Her hand clutched a large button that covered her palm as she inched the fleece of the coat out of her way. Ahead she saw four dark shapes in the sky. Dragons flew toward them from the east, but they didn’t look any different from the few dragons she’d seen before.
“Nine—no, a dozen,” she heard Shimeran’s voice from above her. He still sat on the urohm’s shoulder.
Kale craned her neck to see him. He sat looking back toward the fortress they’d escaped.
“We have help coming,” said the master rider of the white dragon.
“Just so long as it isn’t too little, too late,” said Shimeran.
Kale looked ahead and understood. She saw four dragons coming to help them. Shimeran saw a dozen coming to defeat them. The ones before them were ordinary dragons. The ones behind them were fire dragons. Kale felt Gymn’s panic as he shivered, hidden in his pocket-den. She placed a hand over the bulge in her cape where he lay.
I’m not panicked, Little Gymn, but I’m so weary of all this trouble. One thing after another. Will we ever rest like normal folks in a bed, in a house, by a fireplace?
“They’re gaining on us,” reported Shimeran.
“Our help is here,” answered the urohm.
The four dragons swooped past them, but a moment later they circled to join the white dragon, heading in the same direction. One flew in front, one flew on either side, and Shimeran reported that the last had taken up position behind Merlander.
“An escort,” said the urohm. “Now I wonder what Paladin is up to?”
“Look!” Shimeran pointed off to the south. “I think we’re going to find out.”
Kale pushed herself up and leaned out of the jacket. In front of them, the horizon flushed pink with the approach of a new day. To the south, a gleaming dragon crested a steep hill and cast a shimmering light on the forest below. He soared heavenward and in moments flew over the small band of six dragons trying to reach safety. The regal dragon circled. The riders of the dragons below cheered, waving their swords in a salute to the one above. Then that radiant dragon turned to the west.
Shimeran now stood on the master rider’s shoulder and jumped up and down. Kale climbed out of the urohm’s coat and stood on the man’s thigh. She leaned against his chest and peered over the other shoulder, hanging on to his collar.
Merlander flew behind them, and Kale could see Dar, Glim,