Shadows on the Stars by T. A. Barron

Author:T. A. Barron [Barron, T. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780441014477
Amazon: 044101447X
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2006-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

21 • Swallowed

Catha went right to work. Screeching wildly, the silver-winged falcon flew down the side tunnel and around the central cavern, diving at waterbirds and surprised dragon guards, causing a considerable stir. The excitement really picked up when she clawed the eye of one dragon, who nearly leaped out of the water and slapped the face of another guard with his great tail. An all-out brawl ensued. Dragons mauled each other with their teeth, smashed ribs and skulls with their tails, knocked huge holes in the cavern walls with their bodies—and sprayed each other with freezing blasts of ice.

Before long, gulls, cranes, cormorants, egrets, kingfishers, flying crabs, and several huge albatrosses joined in the fray, shrieking as they attacked anything that moved. Roars and cries echoed in the tunnels, along with the resounding crunch of icebergs colliding. Soon it was so noisy that no one could possibly hear Elli and her companions, including the jester, swimming to the portal.

Even so, their plan almost failed. Not because of their captors, but because of Shim. It was no easy feat to get him to end his nap and plunge right into the cold seawater. Or to get him to swim over to the place where underwater flames flickered so strangely, throwing bizarre shadows on the tunnel walls. Then came the challenge of getting him—as well as everyone else—to dive down to the shimmering green fire.

Finally, they succeeded. Following Seth, all of them made the dive. Even as Hargol’s roars of absolute outrage echoed around his lair, the water rippled with the kicks of Lleu, last to leave the surface. Holding Catha in his arms, he swam out of the dragons’ lair—and down to the portal.

A large air pocket, smelling as resinous as a grove of evergreen trees, separated the flames below from the water above. On a ledge of black rock within the pocket, the companions gathered, dripping like freshly caught fish. Elli glanced anxiously up into the water, knowing that a dragon’s body could appear at any moment.

“Quick now,” declared Brionna, as green firelight danced along her braid. “Bend your thoughts toward the place we want to go. And think of nothing else.”

Nuic, riding in Elli’s arm, looked over at Shim and turned his most sardonic orange. “For some of us, thinking of nothing is easy. It’s thinking of something that’s hard.”

Shim shook his mop of white hair, spraying everyone else with drops. “I knows you is making funs of me,” he grumbled. “I just knows it! If I was still bigly, you wouldn’t dare treat me so disrespootably. Certainly, wetly, absolutely.”

Nuic shifted to steely gray, with flickers of green from the portal. “Body size and brain size are different, you bone-headed fool! If you—”

“Stop,” commanded Lleu. “We’re wasting time.” He checked the water of the tunnel above their heads. Seeing no sign yet of dragons, he turned to Seth. “All right, jester. Give us a clear picture of this place where we’re going. And no rhymes, now.”

The jester tensed ever so slightly, though no one else noticed.

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