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THERE WAS NO TIME TO think about odds or wonder if I was making the right choice. I had mere seconds before the dragons would be gone and with them, my distraction.
I scrambled backward three steps and then ran toward the edge of the roof, leaping at the last moment to clear the edge, over the wolf golem’s snapping jaws, past its broad head and landing cleanly on its back.
The landing hurt, sending shooting pains up my spine and through my hips. It was all I could do to hold on to the slick metal, quickly flipping around and grabbing the molded saddle – a part of its back. Whoever had invented these things had made them to be ridden. That much was obvious. But I was willing to bet that they’d never expected someone in the crowd to take advantage of that.
That was my specialty – doing the unexpected. Surprise was a friend to everyone.
Remember, you can be just as easily surprised as they can.
Did she think I was playing around? Did she think I didn’t know what a dangerous situation I was in?
Do you know? You are riding a golem with no way to stop and no way to get off of it. If you try to do either, it will bite you clean in half!
I shivered. I hadn’t even thought of getting off of it. The creature was already loping forward again. There had to be a way to disable it. What is made by man can be destroyed by man.
Fools rush in where dragons fear to tread. There was a pause as I examined the golem and then she sent another thought. But maybe we need a few fools. If everyone lived safe lives there wouldn’t be any heroes.
I was no hero. She would learn that eventually. She was the one who just saved Bataar.
I examined the golem. There was nothing up here except for a smooth surface with the molded saddle. I could stay on, but I couldn’t disable it. There was no switch or lever, no gear or cog.
The wolf-golem bucked and wove, forgetting the people in front of us in its desperate attempt to get me off its back. I held on to the pommel of the saddle, clenched my teeth, and rode for my life.
After all, I’d ridden a dragon, and she flew in a lot more directions than this thing could run.
I also wasn’t trying to buck you off.
A point. A fair point. I dodged a sign hanging by a chain and then a flapping oak leaf banner. The boardwalk hadn’t been designed for racing down it on the back of a metal golem. If Shabren had weapons like these, why had he fled the Dominion? Why hadn’t he brought them there?
Maybe he found them here. Maybe he is still planning to bring them to the Dominion. Didn’t Apeq tell the other man to watch for his sign tonight?
This wasn’t a sign. It was a massacre.
It can be two things at once.
We were coming to the end of the boardwalk. I could see it far in the distance. When we did, things would get interesting.
Maybe I could leap off of this thing and land on Saboraak. Where was she?
Settling Bataar and the dragons. I need a safe place for them. You’re on your own until I return.
On my own? She was going to leave me to sort this out for myself?
You’re a tough guy. You’ll be fine.
The golem jerked under me, jostling me sharply to the side. My shoulder hit the wall beside us with a smack and I nearly lost my grip.
I was not going to be fine!
The second golem surged ahead of us and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the shoal of people maneuvering around a statue ahead. It plunged up from the masses like an island in the sea. Two figures clung to it like survivors of a shipwreck. One of them looked at me with big golden eyes, her mouth in the perfect shape of an “o.” Her mask hung around her neck, the ribbon torn and frayed. Zyla!
The wolf golem ahead of us raced toward her. If he got there first, what would he do? Already, he was tearing the people ahead of him apart, flinging bodies in either direction as easily as he scattered masks and loose clothing. Some smacked against houses or rock walls with sickly thuds while others shrieked as they soared over the railing to fall to the rocks below.
My heart was in my throat, thudding as loudly as Saboraak’s snores. If anything happened to her ...
I reached behind me, grabbed the spear from my belt – thank the Skies and Stars it was still there! I was no hero, but even a plain street-lad could see a possibility here.
I whipped my golem in the flank with the spear. If we could just get ahead of the other one ...
The spear couldn’t hurt him, but it must have enraged him. He burst forward, metal muscles squealing in his haste. I gripped the pommel as we lunged forward, nearly falling off his saddle before I righted myself. I shifted the spear to my other hand, pulled a leg up to wrap around the saddle pommel. I was as ready as I could be.
This would need to be timed perfectly. I tried to breathe, forgetting in my haste whether it was in or out and then gasping from choosing the wrong one. Come on, Tor! Pull it together!
Here we go ...
She covered her eyes with a hand at the same moment that I leaned out and snatched her from the air with my free arm. All I saw was a look of horror in the other person’s face as I pulled her from the statue island. Apeq. He had been there with her. He couldn’t have been behind this. Not when he was in danger, too. Could he?
The memory of Shabren with lit hands filled my mind, but I had no time to puzzle out anything more. We were careening toward the end of the boardwalk where both the walk and the buildings beside it ended in solid mountain rock. I needed to stop this creature.
The other golem surged past us, something brightly colored and limp in its mouth. I tried not to look too hard at what it was. He sped ahead, whipping the last survivors out of the way with swiping metal paws and then dashing vertically up the rock.
My head suddenly felt light. I couldn’t hold on to the pommel hard enough to keep us both in the saddle if this golem did that. Zyla was scrambling to find a seat behind me, her arms wrapping uncomfortably around my neck. I tried to ignore the choking sensation as I readied my spear one last time.
It was a long shot. But better a long shot than nothing, right?
And we couldn’t jump. There’d be no way to control our landing if we did. We’d be as likely to smack walls or fall to our deaths as anyone else.
Shaking Zyla off my neck, I leaned as far forward as I could, aimed, and jammed the spear in the golem’s glowing eye.
There was a howling whistle and a gust of steam whuffed up from the golem’s mouth as his front legs collapsed under him.
I lost my grip on the spear and rocketed forward over the slick metal of his wide head, falling to the ground and bouncing from the force of my landing. Oof! Pain made me hiss as something hard and heavy landed on top of me.
“What were you thinking!” That low, velvet voice made me want to melt into it at the same moment that I wanted nothing more than to get her agonizing elbow out of my belly.
“Ngh!”
At least she was alive. At least we were both alive.
I risked a look up to the golem, but the light was out of his eyes and he was frozen mid-stride, only his front legs collapsing, the back ones still stiff and solid. In his place at the end of the boardwalk, it looked as if someone had poorly chosen the site of a new statue.
I barely managed a breath out in relief before my vision was filled with Zyla.
“Look at me! Look at me, street scum!”
Her eyes were alight with fury, dancing with irritation, and yet somehow that made her prettier. I looked into them, just looking at the color, at the flash, treasuring the fact that they were still alive to be angry.
“We could have both been killed! You would have killed us both with your fog-brained foolery!”
I pushed myself up to a seated position. Everything hurt. My back, my arms, my head. The screams had stopped but shouts and cries continued. Who could even guess how many were dead or injured in the insanity of the golems? How many dead would need burial? Did they bury people here? How many people still dangled from railings or lay injured in crumpled heaps?
“I didn’t want to see you hurt,” I said stupidly. “I thought it would rip you to pieces.”
I flinched at the thought. Too many images of others being shredded or flung to their deaths were trying to flood my mind.
“So you rode it? And you pulled me up there with you?” Her curls shook with her fury, but she looked like she was on the verge of tears. “When I find out where your brains went and what Hubric replaced them with, I will stuff you both into jars and keep you in my pantry for the rest of your lives!”
My eyes felt dry from growing so wide. You saved a girl’s life and this was what she did! I would never understand women. They were as crazy as dragons!
“Do you hear me, Tor Winespring? Do you?”
I nodded.
She seemed to sag, looking up at the golem with glassy eyes. She turned back to me and leaned in so close that I thought she was about to yell at me again, but instead, she leaned all the way down and kissed me so thoroughly that I almost forgot I was aching all over.
My arms wrapped around her instinctively, but almost as soon as they did, she pulled away leaving them suddenly feeling emptier than they ever had been before.
“Stop being a hero. I don’t want you to die.” She sounded so serious that I almost smiled, but at her frown, I shifted the smile to match her seriousness. At least we could agree on that.
“I don’t want you to die, either.”
She gave herself a shake, stood up and straightened her party dress. It was torn and smudged in a dozen places, but she seemed satisfied with simply rearranging it before she spoke.
“I need to find Apeq. His plots won’t stand still just because half the nobility of Ko’Koren are dead or wounded.”
I gaped. “Don’t you think you should come with me.”
“Don’t go thinking that just because I kissed you, you have the right to arrange my life, Tor Winespring.”
I held up my hands defensively. “Of course not.”
She nodded firmly. “He still has Zin. And I still have a job to do.”
And then she was gone before I could catch my breath, a flurry of determination and energy.
One thing was certain. I would never understand girls.
I can help you now if you want. Things are settled here.
Or dragons.