The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

hill. I tripped and fell, but I got up and kept running.” He winced slightly and shifted his weight off his right foot.
    Jaanus rushed to get him a high stool. Rollett sank onto it gratefully, still cradling his left arm. He stretched out his long legs. His torso slumped a little as if he suddenly realized how tired and hurt he really was.
    “Halfway down that hill I tripped again and rolled. That must have been how I wrenched my shoulder. I could hear the shouts of the mob. Their blood lust was up and nothing was going to stop them. They were coming my way again, I don’t know if they sensed me or not. I thought I was done for, but I suddenly stopped rolling. Something very big stopped me. Shayla.”
    Everyone in the room nodded. They all knew precisely how big Shayla was. As wide as two sledge steeds and as tall as two more. Several tons of dragon presented a formidable wall to run up against.
    “She didn’t speak to me, but I knew a compulsion to climb up onto her back. It was a struggle with the ankle and the arm, but I managed to hold onto her spines, and half a heartbeat later we were airborne.”
    Nimbulan lived again the bunching of dragon muscles between his legs, the tremendous wind generated by the first downstroke of powerful wings. The sensation of his throat sinking to his belly as the Kardia fell away and they broke free of the pull of gravity. Shayla had insisted she and her consorts bring him and Myri and the children back to the island. He hoped to experience those thrilling moments of true flight again some day.
    “We stopped on the other side of Moncriith’s camp and plucked Myrilandel and the girls from a hilltop. The mob seemed to be pointing at them and getting ready to run after them. But one sight of that dragon and they all turned tail and ran. All except Moncriith. I saw him whip out his knife and slash his forearm to begin a spell.” Rollett swayed briefly with relief and pain. “Shayla flew high and fast, and we stayed ahead of whatever he threw at us.”
    “Let me send for Myri. You need to have her look at your injuries.” Nimbulan pressed the young man’s uninjured shoulder in reassurance.
    “Sorry, she’s not here,” Rollett replied. “On the way back we flew past Lord Hanic’s army. They’re on their way here, but I don’t know if they can get here before Kammeryl does. Shayla took Myri back that way. Maybe they can hurry them along. I’ll have to hunt up Ackerly to look at this shoulder. Maybe Guillia can fix me a poultice for the ankle.”
    “Ackerly.” All thought and movement ceased in Nimbulan. In the rush of the spell and the excitement of Rollett’s return, he’d forgotten Ackerly. For a moment, disbelief riddled him with guilt for his harsh words. Ackerly couldn’t have betrayed him, tried to murder him with an overdose of Timboor. They’d been friends and colleagues for too long. They depended upon each other for too much. They had saved each other many times. Shared too much of their lives.
    “Shall we bring the man to the refectory for judgment or take him to Lord Quinnault?” Jaannus asked reluctantly.
    “I suppose we should take him to the lord’s hall. These islands still belong to him. He has the right of governance among us. But I hate to turn over a magician to a mundane,” Nimbulan said.
    “He’s Quinnault the Peacemaker, not Kammeryl the destroyer,” Lyman reminded him. “He’ll understand that Ackerly is still human, with a man’s motives and failings and not a demon. We have to obey the laws if we are to set an example for the rest of the kingdom and bring about peaceful living under the law.”
    “We can’t let personal feelings get in the way of the law.” Nimbulan hung his head in a moment of grief. “The evidence suggests the man tried to murder me. He must face the law as represented by Lord Quinnault de Tanos.”
    * * *
    “I wish I could fly,” Myri said. Idly, she twirled a long stem of grass in her hands while she leaned against Shayla’s flank. The grass was very like fennel, but not the precious herb of protection she sought. Maybe if they sought farther north, in a warmer, drier clime, they would find what she needed.
    Below the hillside where they perched, Lord Hanic’s army hurried along the trader road. If they marched all day and night, they might arrive in time to bolster Quinnault’s small defensive force. But then they’d be too tired to fight.
    Myri wondered what she could do to prevent the battle