Dragon Fire (The Stone Dance of the Chameleon Book 5) by Ricardo Pinto

Author:Ricardo Pinto [Pinto, Ricardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ivory Tower Press
Published: 2020-08-23T22:00:00+00:00

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As his aquar picked her way down the Pass, he had time to think. Osidian was determined to give himself up to Aurum. Aurum had won. The Lepers would have no justice. The massacre of the Ochre was incidental to the political upheaval in Osrakum. The destruction he and Osidian had brought about, the atrocities, were nothing more than an inelegantly played gambit in a game of Three. With Osidian’s capture and return to Osrakum, Aurum and the Wise would pull off a major coup. As for himself, he was a minor piece—depending on the movements of the major pieces, he might be merely chastised. His House would lose influence. He would return to the splendour and luxury of his palaces. The massacres in the Earthsky and Leper Valleys would elicit small adjustments in the tributary lists and measured reprisals of terror against the errant tribes. The ripples that had spread from Osrakum would undulate away to nothing. Order would return, and everything would be as it had always been.

Exhausted, he decided that he had more immediate issues to deal with. Unless Blue’s wounds were tended urgently, he would die. The Lepers were the only source of help. Even if he could contact them and they could do something for Blue, where could a Plainsman without a tribe live out the rest of his days?

Krow’s aquar shadowed Poppy’s. In time she might forgive him. Carnelian could see nothing but difficulties in their return to the Earthsky. Lily came into his mind. Her people had also suffered terrible loss and defilement. Among them, Poppy, Krow and Blue might find refuge and even happiness. That much might be within his power to arrange. But what about the Marula? If Morunasa discovered that Osidian was intending to surrender to Hookfork, he would have his people slaughter them all. Carnelian’s gaze took in the Marula warriors around him. They must be kept busy long enough to get his loved ones to safety. He realized that he was searching for Sthax. Why was he doing that? The Maruli was as much in thrall to the Oracles as the other warriors.

Carnelian urged his aquar to drift towards Osidian’s and waited for him to look up. When he did, Carnelian gestured: No words. With his hands, he told Osidian that he would return with him to Osrakum, but that, first, they must survive the Marula threat.

Osidian watched his signs with half-lidded eyes but gave no response. Carnelian realized that he was on his own.

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