Emperor Mage (30 page)

Teeu
gave a strange-sounding yip—a hyena laugh. Get on with it, the hyena urged. The
night is young, and Ozorne has a head start,

Daine
looked up at Rikash. "It just occurred to me—what in the name of all the
Horse Lords are you doing here?"

The
Stormwing ruffled his feathers. "I was paying my respects to my time
sovereign, Queen Barzha, and her consort."

"Rikash—"
she said warningly, not believing him.

"Well,
as it happens, I'd heard that tonight would be an interesting night for
Carthak."

"You
mean the Graveyard Hag told you."

"Perhaps,"The
Stormwings eyes glittered as he smiled. "There's a chance the emperor
might feel the need to use the gift that I gave him. I wanted to be here to see
the fun."

"If
he has any sense, he's run ofr?'

"Ah,
but a man with sense never would have ignored so many warnings. I doubt he has
fled."

"He
killed Numair" Daine said hoarsely.

"I
know," The immortal rocked to and fro, cleared his throat, and said,
"I am sorry."

"Me,
too," she whispered. She rubbed her sleeve over her eyes and turned to her
skeleton army. "Will you go on tearing things up? I don't know if you can
follow where I'm about to go, and I really want to leave this place a
ruin."

All of
them nodded. Zek clambered down from the mammoths back. She patted each
skeleton and elephant as they passed her, wishing them a good hunt and giving
them her thanks. When they had gone, she asked Rikash, "Would you look
after Zek and see he comes to no harm?"

He
frowned, but nodded. "If he does not object, I will place him in the
dragons cage." He jumped to the ground, using outspread wings to slow his
fall.

It will
be good to see Kitten, Zek said. Even if she's asleep.

"I'd
hate for anything to happen to Zek," Daine said quietly, meeting Rikash's
eyes with hers. "Mithros knows why, but I trust you." She kissed the
top of the marmoset's head, then held him out to the Stormwing. Zek climbed
over Rikash's shoulder, where steel grew out of flesh, and hid under the
Stormwing's long hair, grasping handfuls of it.

He
smells terrible, the marmoset confided to Daine.

"Good
hunting," Rikash said, and took flight. Before he and Zek had gone from
sight, Daine began the painstaking business of entering hyena form. She drew
her memories of Teeu's mind around her, letting her body shift. Her jaw spread

and
lengthened to become a muzzle. Her teeth broadened, widened, sharpened. At last
she sat on the stone of the courtyard, a spotted hyena.

We can
pick up the scent inside, she told her companions. His rooms are through that
hole in the glass.

Teeu
grinned, showing bone-crushing teeth. By all means, let us get a whiff of his
lair. Daine and the males grinned back.

The dinosaurs
still at work inside paid no attention to the four hyenas sniffing the emperors
bedclothes and garments. The reek of Ozorne's many perfumes made Daine feel
queasy; smells that had been almost too much for her as a human were far more
powerful to a hyena's nose.

I don't
see why he soaks himself in all this, Iry complained. It's disgusting.

Don't
whine, ordered Teeu. You should be grateful he left such a clear trail for us.

As they
followed the scent through shattered glass to the outside once more, Daine
found changes in it. Bitter tones, more powerful even than the perfumes,
lingered around his steps. Outdoors, where smells of burned ground and scorched
bone filled her nose, she could still find those bitter traces. The hyenas
snuffled the earth, their nostrils taking information from the odors there.
Daine growled, her rage surfacing at last as a hunters eagerness to find her
prey.

Got it?
Aranh asked.

She
realized she would know Ozorne s scent for the rest of her life, perhaps even
in human form. Got it, she replied.

Then
let's go, Teeu said.

The
hyenas picked up the trail along the outside wall of this wing of the palace.
Teeu led the way, Daine at her side. The males spread out behind them,
chattering in yips and whines.

What
are those bad smells in his spoor? Daine asked the female. The ones that came
into his odor as he left his rooms?

Teeu
bared her teeth in a laugh. Fear, she replied gleefully. Your friends chased
him from his lair and into the dark, on foot. Those are fear scents in your
nose. If he were a wildebeest with that smell, you'd know it was beaten and you
were about to make a nice kilL

They
stopped at a fresh battlefield. A dead human in armor lay against the wall.
He'd dragged himself away from the mammoth that had crushed his lower body. The
mammoth itself was a pile of embers that burned copper and vanished when Daine
pawed at it, whining. Two more skeletons nearby had been crisped by magical
fire. They vanished like the mammoths remains when she touched them with her
paw. A red-robed mage lay moaning in the bushes where he'd been thrown.

Come
on, Iry called to Daine. The trail will get coldi

They
found two more sites where the Emperor Mage had been forced to defend himself.
There were so many bodies at the second—seven in all— that Daine thought of the
sacrifices demanded at the funerals of ancient kings, whose households were put
to death so that the king might have attendants in the afterlife. Carefully she
thanked each of the fallen dinosaurs and elephants that had died a second time
for her, and watched as their remains vanished from sight before moving on.

Next
the trail brought them around a corner and into the light. At the end of a
short mall ahead, the palace was ablaze. Between the hyenas and the fire stood
a squad of armed guards. One of them yelped, seeing the beasts, and brought up
a loaded crossbow.

Aranh
leaped, strong legs propelling him across the distance between them, and tore
the weapon from the guard's hand. Bats swarmed out of the dark, blinding the
other men with their wings before they could shoot the attacking hyena.
Snarling, Aranh crushed the bow stave, making the weapon unusable. The rest of
the guards dropped their weapons and fled.

The
hyenas moved on.

The
night air carried a thousand messages.

Daine
ignored the unimportant ones and concentrated on the odor of her prey. The
emperor's scent changed as they followed, as if it were a living thing that
grew under her eyes. In his rooms it had been one of a very well tended man,
tinged with almond rubbing oil, aloe lotion, orris-scented shampoo, perfumed
makeup, the acrid smell of gilding powder and gold, lavender from his clothes,
and the personal scent of a man who ate and drank richly. In the aviary, anger
and then fear had been added to the mix. Outside he'd acquired a touch of
charred hair and bone. Now the smell of burned things was much thicker. So was
the fear.

Thunder
rolled overhead. Flagstones gave way to gravel as the hyenas followed a path
between tall hedges. The smell of recent burning drifted into their faces.
Three dinosaur skeletons must have come at Ozorne from the far end of the path:
their blackened remains lay in a heap there. The emperor had fled through an
opening in the hedge. Stopping to thank those fallen allies, Daine trembled.
He'd escaped her army again. A growl rumbled in her throat, and her mane stood
up.

He's
weakening, remarked Teeu as the heaped skeletons shimmered and vanished. All
the bones of the others were black through and through. These had white in
them, and they still held together instead of breaking apart.

Good,
snarled Daine. The less magic he has, the better.'

The
hyenas yipped agreement and picked up the emperors trail, laced now with blood and
sweat. His thin shoes had given out on the gravel, leaving footprints etched in
blood. Their path twisted around a fountain, followed the curve of the
artificial lake, and headed straight down a path shaded by willows. Here the
great three-horn, the first dinosaur she had awakened, and a huge snake-neck
must have been waiting for him.

The
snake-neck was the first they'd seen who bore few marks of burning. Instead
tiny cracks had riddled its bones. Some had disintegrated completely, leaving
small powdery heaps. When Daine nudged its skull, the skeleton shaped itself,
becoming a living dinosaur. The snake-neck waited patiently while the girl
turned to the three-horn. Ozorne had tried to burn him without success, then
melted him, the way Chioke had melted the bull three-horn. The great skeleton
had gone down fighting: blood painted the tip of a long, sharp brow horn. Daine
sniffed it: the blood was Ozorne's.

He's
running out of fire, Iry told the others with savage glee. Look at this
one—barely charred.'

Sadly,
Daine licked the three-horns beak. It gave under her tongue as flesh might.

Why are
you unhappy? Teeu wanted to know. Does it hurt them to die?

No,
Daine replied softly as copper fire raced over the half-melted skeleton,
calling the owner back to the true shape of its living days. The badger said it
didn't, anyway. It just hurts me.

The
great three-horn stood, his beaded hide a deep, golden bronze, his face, with
its horns, restored. Through him Daine could see the trees dimly. Good-bye, she
said, though she knew he couldn't hear. I'll miss you.

The
three-horn bowed his head, touching her gently with his nose horn, then
followed the snake-neck down a road to a distant jungle. The vision faded as
they left the hyenas, until only the garden trees were left.

Rage
and sorrow built in Daine s heart until she thought it might burst. I want
Ozorne! she snarled at her companions. I want to rip him up like he's ripped me
up!

Then
bunt, cried the hyenas, eerie voice echoing in the dark. Smell, and find!

Daine
set off, nose to the ground, the others behind her. Ozornes scent was nearly
fresh and thick with the sourness of exhaustion. Drops of sweat had fallen with
his blood, the red liquid dripping heavily now that the three-horn had marked
him.

The
 
trail
 
turned
 
beside
 
a
 
wall
 
and
 
passed

through
the shattered gates of the menagerie. Inside the moral animals' enclosure, no
animals were left. The cages were open, the fences pulled down, and trees
reached from the pits to the ground level. The gate of the immortals' menagerie
stood open and whole: someone who knew the spells had unlocked it.

He's
here! she cried, and leaped.

Kaddar
stood before the griffins cage, hand upraised. At the hyenas' snarl, he
whirled, and the shape he wore evaporated. It was Ozorne.

The
moment he spotted her and the others, die reek of fear almost wiped out his
other smells. He was disheveled, sweat-soaked, bleeding, soot-streaked. He wore
only a light green robe and costly, shredded slippers. The fabric over his
chest was torn: beneath lay a long, open wound that stiU bled sluggishly,

He's
trying to escape on the griffin, I bet, Daine told her companions. He can think
again!

She
sprang and hit the emperors magical shield headfirst, making it flare briefly.
She howled, barely noticing the pain of a bruised head and neck as she dropped.
Far more important than pain was the fact that the magical shield had weakened
a hair when she struck it,

Teeu
and Aranh leaped and hit the barrier, sparking twin flares in it They fell,
snarling in fury. Daine, watching, saw that the flares weren't as bright

as when
she'd hit. Iry attacked from Ozorne s left. This time the emperor's shield only
flickered from the impact. It still held firm, but he was losing strength.