as you and your rather resourceful sister will make my ultimate conquest all the more sweet.”
“You’re broken in the head, Zuhl. You’re going to die, permanently, before this is all over. See, while I was looking for you, I actually found the chamber where you keep your real body. I know,” Alexander said, holding up his hands to forestall Zuhl’s protest, “your chamber is warded, I shouldn’t be able to see inside, but I can. I figured out how to circumvent those kinds of magical defenses a few weeks ago. In short, I know where you sleep, and one of these days, I’m going to walk into that room and cut you in half.”
“And yet today, here you stand, nothing but a projection, impotent. Even if you do manage to kill me, how will you defeat them?” Zuhl asked, presenting his army with an outstretched hand. “Face it, you’re doomed, it’s just a matter of time … and I’m very patient.”
“Without you, your soldiers will lose interest in the rest of the world and go back to fighting each other.”
“So kill me then, if you can,” Zuhl said, then held up his hand with a look of confusion mixed with concern as he examined a ring on his middle finger that was glowing brightly.
“How can this be?” Zuhl said, looking out at the giant dragon aerie and seeing nothing to indicate any trouble, then walking quickly out the door, his guards falling in behind him without a word.
Alexander shifted to the clearing where Ixabrax was hiding.
“Zuhl knows what we’re doing—they might need your help.”
“Understood,” Ixabrax said, unfurling his wings and stretching them before launching into the sky.
Chapter 43
“We haven’t much time,” Izzulft said, midflight. “Zuhl will know I’m free and he’ll order the others to fight or flee.”
He landed briefly, carefully depositing Abigail on the floor, but leaving her off-balance just the same, before leaping on top of Nix, his mate, and pinning her head to the ground, exposing the collar to Abigail.
“Quickly,” Izzulft hissed.
In the same moment that Abigail cut Nix’s collar, all four of Ixabrax’s siblings came awake, roaring in unison. Rather than fight, they launched into the sky, one after the other, flying from the aerie into the night.
Izzulft didn’t hesitate, he snatched Abigail up again, ignoring the threat the Thinblade posed to him, or perhaps trusting Abigail to avoid harming him, and launched into the sky toward the nearest of his children attempting to escape.
If felt like time slowed down for Abigail as she watched events unfold, helpless as she was, clutched in a dragon’s claw. Soldiers poured into the aerie from three different entrances while drakini floated into the aerie from above. Izzulft gained with each stroke of his powerful wings, reaching his child just before he reached the opening atop the dome-shaped aerie. With his free foreclaw, Izzulft grabbed his child’s leg and dragged him back into the aerie, bringing him down hard, protecting Abigail, though not gently, while subduing his son and holding his head still so Abigail could cut his collar.
The collar came free easily. She looked up to see soldiers everywhere, then the turmoil was interrupted by Ixabrax, roaring in challenge as he descended into the aerie, savagely attacking the drakini before landing in front of Abigail and Izzulft.
“You have done well, Ixabrax,” Izzulft said, “but we still have family to free.”
“These humans are necessary,” Ixabrax said. “We must preserve them.”
“Agreed,” Izzulft said, turning toward a troop of soldiers fanning out to surround Anatoly, who was already battling three men. The huge dragon belched forth a great cloud of super-cold air that billowed out, engulfing the entire platoon, freezing them solid to a man in moments.
“Gather your human friends and we will make our escape,” Izzulft said, turning back toward another platoon of soldiers and freezing them solid as well. Frozen statues spread out in a battle line, terribly lifelike, terribly still.
Ixabrax moved to surround Abigail with his body and wings while dealing fatal damage with his tail and teeth to any drakini that ventured too close.
“Call your friends to you,” Ixabrax commanded.
Abigail climbed up onto his neck and settled into a space between two of his back bone spikes, drawing an arrow and taking careful aim, letting it fly just a moment after she sat down, killing a soldier circling around behind Anatoly without anyone’s notice.
The big man-at-arms and Magda were squared off against twelve of Zuhl’s palace guard, brutish soldiers, most of them bigger than Anatoly and they were