Page 123 of Veiled Flames
Howling in pain, he backs away from me, bent over, and his retreating bulk blocks Egon’s path. I rush past them. Egon grabs hold of me, his fist on Samyull’s coat, and I let it slip off me as I make my escape toward the main canyon.
Once there, I run.
“Fucking bitch!” Egon shouts from behind me.
I’ve got a head start. He must have taken the time to tuck his tiny weapon into his breeches, and I’d wager it might be some time before Amis can move.
I race farther and farther along the rim of the winding canyon. My lungs are bursting, but I dare not stop. And dare not test another side route, lest it leads to another dead end.
Far ahead, I spot a lift like the one at the enclaves. The cage is at the top, and a structure, holding pulleys, sits to its side. Can I operate this lift without help?
It seems my best chance. The lift must lead somewhere, and if I leave it at the bottom, it will take Egon some time to follow behind me.
I jump inside and quickly flip a lever next to the pulleys. The cage jerks, and the rope inside becomes less taut. I’ve released some kind of lock on the ropes. I hope.
This lift seems like the one which took us up from the gauntlet floor. That one was operated manually. I pull on the rope. Nothing happens. Then I reach through the bars of the cage and tug on the rope just outside it. The cage moves.
Hand over hand, as fast as I can, I work the rope to lower the cage. My palms burn and my arms and shoulders cry out from the work, but I’m descending away from Egon.
The cage jolts to a stop. The rope will no longer pull. I try the other rope, and the cage rises slightly.
Either it’s stuck, or I have reached the bottom of the lift.
Turning, I glance through the bars. The cage has taken me nowhere. Ahead lies nothing but open space, and the canyon floor is still a good thirty spans below—the height of five very tall men. Too far to jump, even if I dared.
My only hope is that Egon and Amis are too thick to figure out how to work the lift to pull me back up. Assuming they even saw me get in. With any luck, they’ll run right past, or have already given up their pursuit. I’ll wait here until dark.
A stream of fire blasts from below me.
A dragon!
Is this lift at the far end of the enclaves? Perhaps I’ll get my chance to attempt a mounting, after all.
A loud noise rises, like rocks tumbling down a mountainside. Then it turns into an unmistakable roar. The entire world shakes as something bangs against the walls or the floor of the canyon. It’s as if the entire Seven Kingdoms are shaking. I take hold of the cage’s bars to steady myself.
What can only be dragon wings rise into my sight. Wings so large they could only belong to?—
The behemoth?
What have I done?
I grab the rope, hoping to pull myself back up, but it’s stuck. I look toward the top. Egon is staring down. Did he lock the mechanism, trapping me down here? But his face shows more fear than malice.
“Don’t move,” he shouts. “I’ll get help.”
Egon disappears before I can tell him to flip the lever, if in fact that’s what he did to trap me. I look ahead, and slowly, the back of the behemoth comes into view. Its longest spikes are close to five spans long, almost as long as I am tall, and they’re extremely sharp. Its tail flicks side to side and a growling grumble fills the air, almost as if this beast has been woken from a very long sleep.
Great. The behemoth is cranky. This just keeps getting better.
The beast shifts its position, moving back with earth-shaking steps, and then its head rises.
I freeze in awe and terror as its snout stops in front of my cage. It exhales, nearly scalding me with steam. Then it moves until one of its eyes is pointed toward me.
From every direction, my image is reflected back in the black facets. Compared to the size of his eye, I look so small. I am small. I’m utterly inconsequential next to this magnificent beast.
The eye facets seem to move. But that might be a trick of the light glinting off their shiny, onyx-like surfaces. Dragons can’t see well. If they could see they’d fly away and terrorize the Seven Kingdoms. I keep trying to tell myself that, but the eye movements must serve some purpose.
The beast turns its head again, backing up and away from me. Has it deemed me as inconsequential as I feel? Or is it positioning itself to better incinerate me with fire.
