The Hunters and the Hunted
When the white dragon came back, she caught them all by surprise. Sollos had barely started on the fire when a great shadow flashed over his head. The knights looked up and stared as the dragon wheeled overhead. She was clutching something in one claw, Sollos saw. She flared her wings and stretched out her massive hind claws, swooping down like an eagle towards them. When she landed in the river bed and took a few steps to steady herself, the mountains seemed to shake. Then she stood there, still, poised on her hind legs, wings not quite fully folded, head raised a little on her long neck, her massive tail stretched out straight behind her for balance.
Sollos retreated slowly from the beginnings of his fire towards the woods. He'd seen dragons stand like that before. So had the riders, who began to fan out across the river bed.
'How long before your own dragons get here, Rider Semian?' Sollos muttered. Semian wasn't there to answer, but Sollos already knew as much as he needed to. Not for some time.
Slowly, the dragon reached down with one forelimb. She opened her claws. There was a man curled up in there.
Holy Ancestors, Sollos thought when the man got up. It's the Scales. He looked well enough. A bit stiff and battered perhaps, and he walked a little awkwardly, but for a man stuck on his own in the Worldspine for a month he was remarkably alive. Maybe having skin as hard as stone that flakes like slate helps with that.
Rider Semian and Master Huros came running out of the trees. They ignored him and went straight towards the dragon. Kemir came after them and stopped at his shoulder.
'Oh well! That's going to make all this a lot easier.' He grinned.
'She's very tense.'
'Who?'
'The dragon, you idiot. Look at her.'
'Mmmm.' Kemir nodded. 'Ready to run. Wouldn't you be? Do you suppose she even remembers her knights after all this time. How do you know she's a she-'
Sollos shushed him. The Scales was walking towards the dragon-knights. He seemed very unsure of himself.
'That's enough!' Rider Semian held up a hand and stopped the Scales when they were still a good twenty feet apart. Semian had the alchemist beside him and one other knight. The rest of the riders were still slowly spreading out, edging towards the trees. Sollos did the same.
'Um, what is your name, Scales?' shouted the alchemist.
The Scales replied, but quietly. Sollos couldn't hear him.
'Scales Kailin. We, er, are here to take you home. You and your dragon.'
'Queen Shezira will congratulate you herself,' called Rider Semian. 'Her dragon is still intact, and has not been lost. She will be greatly pleased. There may be a reward.'
The Scales said something else. Sollos screwed up his eyes and strained forward, as if that might help him make out what the Scales was saying.
Then Kemir had a hand on his shoulder and was tugging him back towards the forest. 'I don't like the way this is going.'
'Did you hear him? What did he say?'
'He said no.'
Kemir was right; Sollos could see that by the way that the alchemist and Rider Semian were standing.
'This is not a request, Scales,' shouted Rider Semian. 'This is an order!'
Kemir was still edging back into the trees. He was stringing his bow.
The alchemist suddenly Stepped forward and walked up to the Scales. Sollos had no idea what they were saying, only that the alchemist looked very determined, and the Scales looked, well, if anything, he looked stunned. Aghast.
Something in the air changed. Sollos felt an irrational anger build up inside him. The Scales was gesturing frantically at the alchemist, trying to make him… Trying to make him stop? The dragon had lowered itself to all fours. It was utterly still. Sollos could feel the tension radiating from it like waves of heat.
Kemir put a hand on his shoulder again. 'You know what? I think we should back off a little way further.'
'Yes.' He took a step backwards. Then another. 'Yes, I think we should.'
When the dragon moved, it was so quick that Sollos barely saw it. Its head and body stayed exactly where they were; its tail, all hundred feet of it, flicked like a whip. In the blink of an eye it flashed over the dragon's head. The tip coiled around the alchemist, lifted him up into the air and held him inches from the dragon's bared teeth. For long seconds everyone froze except for the Scales, who sank to his knees, wrapping his arms around his head. And then everything happened at once.