The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

of the hot dry air, willing the air to feed his undernourished body and give him reserves of strength. He’d found no ley lines in this hellhole to replenish his magic. The dragons had deserted this part of the world centuries ago, taking their special magical energy with them. He had only himself to fuel his talent.
    He drank deeply from the skin tied to his belt. The sulfur-laden water almost tasted good. He drank again until the rancid flavor made him gag. Then he knew he’d had enough. He’d learned his first week in Hanassa to avoid dehydration at all cost. Water was more precious than food these days.
    Both were in short supply.
    Without food and fresh water, he didn’t have enough of himself left to give at the rate Hanassa used him up. Excavating the tunnel was their only hope to open the city to outside supplies.
    “Why don’t you just climb up the crater walls and slip through the holes in the fence?” the mason asked. His eyes kept returning to the tumble of dirt and boulders behind Rollett. The mason crossed himself and stepped back into the daylight.
    Six moons ago, three men had died in the last cave-in. Rollett hadn’t been close enough to stop it with magic then. He and his crew had lost nearly a year’s work in a few moments of quaking kardia.
    “You needn’t fear the ghosts of those men. They died honestly.” Rollett stood up and squared his shoudlers. But they are the last ones to die in this tunnel.
    “You’ve got the strength and courage to climb the crater,” the mason encouraged him, returning to the issue Rollett couldn’t explain to himself let alone to one of his crew.
    “You have the strength to escape, too, friend. But I made some promises that keep me here. I intend to keep them.”
    “No one else in this cursed city believes in promises.”
    “And they have lost their belief in themselves. They have lost control of their lives. Until I finish what I set out to do, we must make do with the few supplies some of our comrades send through those gaps in the barbed fencing. Not enough to make life easy again, but enough to give Hanassa hope that we will burrow out of here.”
    He remembered the first time he had encountered the fence a year and a half ago. The climb up the outside slopes of the mountain in the desert heat without enough water and food had nearly killed both him and Nimbulan. Then the disappointment of encountering the unbroken line of barbed fencing had nearly ended their mission before it truly began. He and his master had been trying to break into Hanassa to rescue Nimbulan’s wife. Now men braved the crater and the fence to break out of Hanassa.
    “I hope you succeeded, Old Man,” he whispered to his memory of Nimbulan. “I hope you found a way back to Coronnan where you can lead the Commune in the fight for justice and peace. I don’t like to think you died in that last battle we fought together in the Justice Hall. Your body should have been among those we carted out and buried, but it wasn’t. Though if you escaped, I don’t know how.”
    Scarface, the Battlemage who had become a mercenary, had also disappeared that night. Rollett had never trusted the man, although Nimbulan had. Something about the way the man manipulated the camaraderie of his companions . . .
    If you were responsible for making certain I got left behind, Scarface, I’ll see that you pay in all of your next existences.
    Rollett deliberately separated himself from past grief and suspicions. He needed all of his concentration here and now.
    He probed the tunnel one more time with his magical senses. “It’s safe to come back in, but you’ll need to shore up the walls here and here.” He pointed out the weakest spot to the hovering mason.
    “I have decided that masonry and mortar require too much precious water,” a newcomer said from the tunnel entrance.
    “Would you rather watch your city starve, Kaaliph Piedro?” Rollett asked the Rover who had grabbed power the moment the old Kaalipha had died, taking the previous Rover Chieftain and her pet Bloodmage with her.
    Piedro’s dark eyes narrowed, hardly veiling the animosity behind them. His lithe body betrayed him, he looked more than ready to spring upon Rollett like a legendary spotted saber cat. Then he twisted his head as if listening to a light tune borne on the wind. He shook himself a little and replaced the mask of reasonableness on his face and posture.
    “I feed the city. My people work hard at cutting a