Diviner (8 page)

“Elyssa,” Jason whispered. “Something’s changed. Can you pick up anything?”

“Their minds are being affected by something. They were vibrant when they first came out of the cage, but, except for the man in front, their signals are fading.”

“Mallerin gave them a drug as they left their prison,” Fellina said. “Not only does it ease the pain of the grinding, it is the only way to get them to voluntarily climb the ladder. Forcing them is a messy business.”

“A messy business,” Jason repeated, growling again. These monsters viewed humans as slaughterhouse animals, beasts worth nothing more than the prey they feasted upon at meals. Even Fellina’s tone seemed mechanical. Obviously she knew that this butchering occurred frequently, humans with souls being mercilessly pulverized into a bloody mass day after day. Their screams didn’t bother her. No, the shredding and grinding took place out of sight, within the darkness of a stone enclosure into which no one could see except for the victims and their killers. And Fellina did nothing about it.

Taking in a deep breath, Jason clenched a fist. Well,
he
would do something about it. At least one of their victims would escape the grinder, and any ugly sister who tried to stop them would meet the point of his sword.

The lead man circled the grinding stone and gripped the wheel’s handle. The girl, her expression stoic and faraway, began climbing the ladder, methodically setting hand and foot in place.

Jason swallowed. His father wasn’t first! For some reason, this scenario had never crossed his mind. A jittery “Fellina?” spilled from his lips.

“Yes?” she replied.

“The girl is going first.” He slowly rose to hands and knees. “What are we going to do?”

“Wait for your father to climb. He will go after the girl is killed. Mallerin chose the first man to perform the grinding. He will likely be spared until tomorrow.”

“But …” Jason looked at Elyssa. With her mouth hanging open, she stared at him, fear in her eyes. “But the girl. We have to rescue her.”

“We have the opportunity to rescue only one,” Fellina said. “When the sisters give up pursuit, they will grind the others. Girls such as she go to the grinding mill regularly, and she is of no value to our ultimate goal.”

As the girl neared the top of the stone, Jason repeated Fellina’s words in his mind.
No value. Ultimate goal.
But what
was
their ultimate goal?

Jason looked again. Edison reached a hand up to the girl, his expression confused. He took a step toward the stone but faltered and staggered backwards, his eyes wide as if lost in a dream.

The futile struggle resurrected a memory in Jason’s mind—his father’s spasms as he tried to breathe while lying on the Northlands healing bed. Jason had saved him then, but he would have to do otherwise now.

“No,” Jason said as he rose to his feet.

“No?” Fellina bent her neck, bringing her head close to his eyes. “Hide yourself, or your father is doomed.”

Fighting to keep his voice steady, he met her stare. “We have to save the girl.”

“Nonsense, Jason. Do not lose sight of your ultimate goal.”

He growled once again. “She
is
our ultimate goal!”

“Why? What is that little girl to you?”

“A little girl.” Jason climbed onto Fellina’s back and drew his sword. “And that’s enough for me.”

Elyssa leaped to her feet. With her fist tight around her sword’s hilt, she gave him a thumbs-up.

“I did not agree to rescue the girl,” Fellina said as she spread out her wings, “but it seems that you are forcing my compliance with your rash behavior.”

The she-dragon flew into the air. Jason tried to see in front, but with her body angling upward, only bare sky lay ahead. Then she leveled out. Hanging on to a spine and using his legs as a vise, he gripped her body. With her angle leveling, the bottom of the basin came into view. Edison grasped the ladder and tried to climb, but the man at the grinding wheel wrestled him to the ground and held him there. The girl, now standing atop the stone, advanced a foot toward the hole.

“Remove your clothes first,” Mallerin called, “and throw them down to us.”

As the girl reached for the button at the front of her trousers, Jason fumed. These foul dragons would strip every shred of decency from their victims. And for what? To save clothing? To keep their precious mill from clogging? He patted Fellina’s scales. They were only a moment away. They had to rescue her in time.

Mallerin suddenly launched from the ground. Blasting fire, she stormed toward them. Jason drew back his sword. Fellina ducked under Mallerin’s flames, and as the bigger dragon flew over, Jason slashed at her belly, making a gouge in her soft spot.

Screaming, Mallerin wheeled around and surged toward them again. Fellina dove toward the stone, but she couldn’t possibly avoid Mallerin this time. The larger dragon was closing in too quickly. From near the base of the monolith, Julaz spewed a torrent of flames. They splashed against Fellina’s chest and arced over Jason, singeing his hair. With Mallerin bombing toward them from above, and flames erupting from below, a cataclysmic collision lay only seconds away.

Then, out of nowhere, Xenith zoomed in, Elyssa brandishing her sword. The younger dragon sideswiped Mallerin, and Elyssa whacked at Mallerin’s flank, but as Fellina steepened her dive, a river of flames blocked Jason’s view.

Fellina suddenly shot upward, beating her wings furiously. Jason whipped around and looked back. Xenith flew toward the opposite edge of the basin, Elyssa still riding and Mallerin in pursuit. Although Xenith began with a sizeable head start, Mallerin was catching up. Xenith flew erratically, as if she had injured a wing in the collision.

Jason scanned the ground. The girl was gone. Had she fallen in? Or had Fellina snatched her away in time? The dragon’s wings blocked his view of her claws, making his hope impossible to confirm. Julaz sat next to the stone, eyeing Fellina but apparently unwilling to give chase. Edison sat on the ground while the other man stood behind him, his posture indicating victory in their struggle.

“Father!” Jason shouted. “It’s me! I’ll be back for you!”

Edison raised a hand, but Fellina’s flight angle shifted, moving him out of sight.

Jason strangled the hilt of his sword. His father was wounded and drugged, yet he still tried to rescue the girl, in spite of two dragons and a muscular slave standing nearby, ready to make sure the execution commenced. But what would they do with him now?

“Did you pick up the girl?” Jason shouted forward.

“I did, but I will have to deposit both of you immediately. I must help my daughter.”

“Yes,” Jason said. “Set us down anywhere. We’ll be all right.”

“So you think.” Fellina dove again and landed in a trot. Jason slid down her flank and patted her scales. “Go!”

Fellina launched back into the air, her wings raising a wave of sand and grit. Squinting to protect his eyes, he ran into Fellina’s wake. The girl sat cross-legged, her head hanging low. When he reached her, he dropped to his knees and laid a hand on her bony, welt-covered back. Blood oozed from a claw mark at one shoulder blade where Fellina had dug in. “Are you all right?” he asked.

The girl swiveled her head toward him, making her eyes visible behind a curtain of scattered bangs. Her dry lips pursed, forming a whisper that came out slurred.

“Who are you?”

“Jason Masters.” Straightening as he slid the sword to its place, he searched the area. The basin was perhaps five hundred paces away, and only bare, heather-covered ground spread out in between. In the opposite direction, however, a refuge lay in sight. Fellina had deposited them near a stand of trees, close enough to reach within seconds. He checked the stardrop pouch. It was still there, safe and sound.

Jason scooped the girl into his arms and lifted her as he rose. As light as an eight-year-old, she felt like a heap of bones wrapped in damp skin. She laid her arms loosely around his neck, staring at him with glazed eyes. As he hurried toward the trees, her head bobbed in time with his gait.

After passing several narrow trunks with low-hanging limbs, he turned and looked back. Although not densely packed, the trees and branches shielded them well enough. Anyone standing in the heather field wouldn’t be able to see them.

Jason set the girl down. As she crossed her legs again, he knelt at her side and spoke in a soothing tone. “Stay here, and stay quiet. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She grasped his sleeve and called out with a stronger voice, her eyes suddenly filled with panic. “Don’t leave me.”

He wrapped his fingers around her thin hand. It trembled in his grip. “You’ll be all right, at least long enough for me to rescue my father. The dragons can’t see you.”

She squinted at the sunlight above. “Not so.”

Jason looked up at the sparse canopy overhead and frowned. “I see what you mean.”

She slung her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his chest. “Don’t let them get me. They want to crush my bones and grind me into bait.” With a quaking sob, she added, “One of the men said I would be all right. It would hurt a lot, but as soon as I died, an angel would sweep me up to heaven where I would never have pain again. But … but …”

“But what?” Jason prompted gently.

“I don’t want to die.” She buried her face in his chest and cried, her sobs muffled by his shirt.

Jason embraced her fully and laid a hand on the back of her head. “Go ahead and cry. I’ll be here as long as you need me. I promise.” He ached to run back to the basin and help his father, but how could he leave this poor girl without a protector? Unlike the man Cassabrie had fabricated in the Northlands as a test, this girl was flesh and blood, as real as love and pain. He had failed his earlier test badly, not even bothering to ask the man his name after giving up on bringing the healing stardrop.

A breeze filtered down from above, cooling his skin. He was drenched with sweat, but the girl didn’t seem to mind. She kneaded his back, shaking gently as she wept. Somehow he had to comfort her, settle her down enough so that he could sneak back to the basin.

He pushed away and ran a hand over her dark hair, dirty and tangled. Her sunken cheeks told of starvation, and her probing gaze hinted of a longing for love that had never been fulfilled. Jason sighed. Yes, she was real, tragically real. He wouldn’t miss his opportunity, not this time. “What’s your name?”

She sniffed and swallowed. “Acknod.”

“Acknod? I have never heard that name before.”

Her voice slowly steadied. “It sounds like the dragon word for spittle. When I was born in the breeding stable, they saw how weak I was, and the Trader spat on the ground and said
Acknod.
The name has stuck ever since.”

Jason rolled his eyes upward. “Maybe we should give you a different name, something that —”

A shriek sounded from the basin, sharp and clear. Then, as abruptly as it began, it ceased.

Acknod threw her arms around him again. “The kind man,” she cried.

“Shhh …” Jason’s shushing died on his lips. He added his own swallow. Acknod was right. The scream was too deep to be from one of the boys, too human to be a dragon’s bellow. It had to be his father’s cry.

Jason bit his lip hard. Father was dead. But he couldn’t lose control, not now. He had to keep his wits sharp and his perception skills active. Who could tell when one of those dragons might fly over and …

His thought melted away. The horrid phrase trickled from his lips. “Father is dead.”

As his body began to shake, Acknod rubbed his sleeve. “Your father? The kind man was your father?”

Looking at her through a wash of tears, Jason nodded, but he couldn’t speak. His throat had clamped shut.

Acknod rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around him, her chest now level with his. She set her hand behind his head and drew his cheek to her shoulder. “Go ahead and cry, Jason. I’ll be here. I promise.” She hummed, then whispered softly in his ear. “An angel came and took him to heaven. His pain is over.”

As Jason wept, her gentle voice brought back a memory—Elyssa, when the two of them were both eleven years old. She crooned a song she had written herself, a gift for Jason when his grandfather died.

Allow your tears to fall on me;
I’ll catch them all, and you will see
That friends who love are friends for life,
Together walking paths of strife.

 

Jason cried on, trying to imagine Elyssa holding him close, but Acknod’s bare shoulder and moist skin brought him back to reality. He gently pried her arms loose and slid back on his knees. After wiping one sleeve across his eyes and the other under his nose, he gazed at her sincere face. She blinked her sunken brown eyes.

“Thank you,” he said as he laid a hand on her cheek. “You are truly an angel of comfort.”

A slight smile bent her lips. “Did you think of a new name for me?”

As he studied her expectant countenance, a dozen common names flew through his mind — Madeline, Elaine, and others. Then the girls from the Northlands entered his thoughts. Their lovely names matched their personalities—Deference and Resolute. Why not give this girl a name that matched her gifts?

“How about Solace?” he said, using his thumb to brush a tear from her cheek. “It means comfort.”

She dipped her head and repeated his words slowly. “Solace. It means comfort.” Then, looking at him again, she smiled and nodded. “I like it.”

“Then Solace it is.” His hands trembling, Jason unbuttoned his outer tunic, stripped it off, and helped her put it on. “It’s so big it will be like a dress, but it’s better than nothing.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said as she rolled up a sleeve. “I have never worn anything so lovely. The slave trader let me borrow a nice tunic for a while, but this is much softer.”

Once she had fastened the buttons, Jason laid a hand on her shoulder. “Can you be brave for me?”

“I think so.”

“I want you to hide next to one of the tree trunks and bury yourself in that tunic as much as you can. I will be back soon. I promise.”