Page 26 of Magick and Lead
She didn’t process what was happening until she reached out a hand and felt a familiar surface. Wood, scored with many marks from her own desperately raking fingernails.
“No. No! NO!” she wailed, but the lid thudded shut above her, muting her screams.
She was in the box again.
12
ESSA
The rain was a blessing, a gift from the Earth Mother. I’d wondered how I’d sneak a dragon into a city of over a million people. But as we approached our enemy capital, visibility was so bad Othura’s silvery wings probably looked like just another fold of storm cloud—that is, if anyone bothered tilting their heads back to stare up into the pounding rain in the first place.
Because of the poor visibility, the city seemed to sneak up on me. One minute, we were flying through a cloud-strewn gray sky, the next, a huge rectangular shadow loomed before us. And as we came closer, I saw that it was a tower. As we got closer, more shadows appeared, a whole forest of them, so tall they made the turrets of Charcain look like hedges in comparison. A gust of wind blew aside a sheet of low cloud, and I caught sight of the streets below. They were perfectly straight, and lined up on them were rows of motorcars, pedestrians with bobbing umbrellas, and a crisscrossing web of wires that I guessed, from what I’d learned of our enemies, must contain electricity.
It's amazing,I said to Othura.
It stinks of soot, she sniffed.Let’s get this over with and get out of this place.
Back at the hatchery in Issastar, we had a room full of tattered old maps someone had smuggled out of Admar years before. Like every other Skrathan trainee, I’d been forced to memorize those maps in case we ever decided to attack the enemy’s mainland. Leadership had never ordered us to attack Ironberg, and I now saw why. It would take the fire of ten thousand dragons to burn all this brick and steel to the ground.
But I remembered the map. And I had a plan.
Actually, I remembered a part of a hypothetical invasion plan I’d read once. It detailed a way one could smuggle a dragon into Ironberg. Whether the intelligence it was based on was accurate and whether it would work, I didn’t know, but it was the only plan I had.
So, Othura and I veered south, scanning down through the rain for a specific landmark on the shore—a fountain.
Our intelligence—probably from Prelate Kortoi’s whisper network or perhaps from Mother’s scrying—told of a park with a fountain in the center and a ferry boat docked there. The place had been abandoned, closed for renovations and never reopened because the needed materials had been reallocated to the war effort.
We flew south for so long I was beginning to think we must have passed it. Yet the sprawling city continued, its breadth at least twice as large as Issastar’s.
This city…I thought to Othura.
I know,she agreed.It’s massive... There. Look!
We both spied it, a manmade spit of wood reaching out into the water, a pier. And further inland, a lichen-covered concrete statue of an elephant standing rampant in the middle of an empty basin. The fountain.
Here, I told Othura, and we swooped to a landing.
I saw immediately that the intelligence report had been correct. Here was a broad green lawn left to go to weeds. Along pier, sorely in need of repair, cut into the choppy water. A curious round structure with painted horses and animals on it stood near the beach. The painted beasts wore saddles, and I wondered if perhaps adults would push it around in a circle while children rode on it. Although knowing these necromancers, it was probably run by one of their infernal machines. Regardless, it was still and silent now. Everything here was.
This way,I told Othura, and she loped ahead down a weed-strewn path. If I remembered the map correctly, there should be—yes!Ahead, a dilapidated metal gate spanned the dark archway of a tunnel entrance.
In here,I said. Othura easily dashed the gate aside with one swipe of her tail. Back in Maethalia, there were all manner of alarming creatures that might take up residence in a creepy abandoned tunnel. Wisps. Wargs. Knockers. Echo folk… but here in this magick-depleted land, I doubted I’d find much except dust and cobwebs. At least, that’s what I hoped.
I took a glow stone from the inside pocket of my cloak, illuminating the way as I rode Othura down a set of musty-smelling stairs. We emerged onto a platform. Below us, a tunnel ran away into the darkness. At its bottom, a pair of metal rails spanned by wooden planks sat on a bed of gravel.
Othura sniffed.It smells of rats,she said approvingly.
You’ll have plenty of time to eat rats.I said.You’ll stay in these tunnels while I complete my mission.
I felt her irritation as she chuffed.How am I to help you if I stay in the tunnels?
You won’t be able to,I countered.But there’s no alternative. We can’t have a dragon spotted running around Ironberg. And the city extends for miles in all directions. There’s no cover, no forest for you to hide in. This is the safest place for you.
She gave a low growl, but I sensed her acceptance. Othura was stubborn, but she was no fool.
Now let’s go,I told her.I’d like to get into the city center as soon as possible. Just watch out for the machines that use this place as a road.
When we get there, are you really going to kill Kit?
