Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [257]
But that was not happening, and the dragon's panic was rising. I grabbed Snow Tiger's robes with both hands and kicked strongly with my legs, intending to propel us to the surface. In the grip of the dragon's madness, she fought me off.
I hadn't thought about that, either.
If only I could breathe, I thought in despair, I could concentrate. But the water was so, so very cold. It was leaching my life and my wits away with every heartbeat. The weight of my sodden robes dragged at me. If I abandoned the princess and made for the surface, I would be abandoning her forever. I caught one of her arms with both hands and tried again.
Again, she struggled wildly, her braid lashing around her head in the water like…
Like…
An image flashed before my eyes. A black-maned lion with yellow-gold eyes pacing in the innermost circle of an etched star, its tufted tail lashing. A hint the dragon had given me in a fleeting glimpse.
The spirit Marbas, summoned by the Circle of Shalomon.
It had offered me a gift, the gift of shape-changing, the gift the Maghuin Dhonn had lost before I was born. And although I hungered for it, I had refused.
Wise child, it had said. For that, I give you a gift unasked.
And then… ah, gods! My chest ached and my lungs burned. More than anything, I wanted to breathe. But I remembered, I made myself remember, I remembered that the black-maned lion had opened its fearsome jaws and roared without sound, and something like a bright topaz jewel, as yellow-gold as the lion's eyes, had made a home inside my mind, and I had cried aloud at the strangeness of it, at being given this unexpected gift that Raphael and his companions so coveted.
The charm to reveal hidden things, the lion Marbas had said to me. Yours and yours alone. The words will be there if you need them.
What was the dragon's spirit if not a hidden thing? Hidden first within a pearl, hidden twice within the princess.
The topaz jewel nestled in my thoughts sparked to life, dazzling. I reached for it and found myself speaking unfamiliar words in an unfamiliar tongue. A series of round, shimmering bubbles rose from my lips, ascending through the green water as I spent the precious air in my lungs to speak the charm.
The dragon roared in my thoughts, an exultant, triumphant roar wilder and louder than any lion's. The water around us shivered.
Snow Tiger's lips parted helplessly. Her face was transfixed and rapt as translucent brightness spilled out of her mouth—at first a trickle, then a rushing stream. It came and came endlessly, pouring out of her, taking immense shape in the depths of the jade-green water.
Coils, familiar coils, elegant and twining. Legs with pearly claws.
A noble, long-jowled, whiskered face.
I caught a glimpse of my own reflection in one enormous eye; and then the lake erupted around us.
We shot upward like corks. My head broke the surface of the churning water. I took a deep, gasping breath of air. Kicking my legs to keep afloat, I reached out blindly and grabbed a fistful of the princess' robes, hauling her toward me, treading water and turning her face toward the sky.
"Lady, don't fight me!" I gasped.
She made a ragged sound of assent.
The lake erupted again. In the once-placid depths, a wave like a giant hand gathered beneath us, lifting us and carrying us toward the shore. I kicked my legs frantically and kept a tight grip on Snow Tiger, my icy fingers frozen in the folds of her robe, trying not to let either of us drown.
The wave cast us ashore on a rocky ledge. Beginning to shiver violently with the profound effects of the cold, I dragged the princess to safety.
The dragon was not finished.