Rather than let Rinlon hurt me or be forced to kill him, I leapt into the air and flew off. Circled the Tower and used my acute vision to search the interior for the Queen. Saw her seated in her room attended by women and unguarded. I was puzzled as to why she was alone and the Master had not sent others to retrieve her. Far below, I heard the guard shouting for Vialle to run as I dropped lightly to the balcony and rested my wings. Scrunching them as close to my body as I could, I squeezed myself through the doorway. Her women screamed and ran. She stood her up and spoke.
“Who or what manner of creature are you? Have you come to kill me or ransom? Or rescue? Can you speak? I can smell you and hear your heartbeat.” She paused and her face reflected both shock and wonder as she advanced towards me, her hand outstretched. She was as lovely as ever, still in the same gown I had last seen her in though it was terribly tattered. I lowered my head so that her slender hand reached between my head spikes and my eyes. Her touch was electric, soothing and memorable. “I recognize your heartbeat, Raven,” she whispered in awe. “Though your form is somewhat changed.”
I snorted and a puff of sulfur scented breath hit her in the face and blew her hair loose. I apologized and she laughed. “I take it this is your Chaos form? Can you change back to your human one? It fits neatly in this space and would make conversation a trifle easier.”
I nudged her just as the door flew open and Rinlon burst in, blade extended. She turned to face him.
“Stand back from the beast, Majesty,” he gasped, a trifle winded from his run up two hundred feet of stairs.
“No,” she answered. “Rinlon, is it? This creature would never harm me, it is Raven, my nephew.”
Rinlon dropped his blade on the floor such was his astonishment, his mouth open and gaping. “Prince Raven is the Blackbird, this thing?” His face paled in shock. “Oh, my Lady, the things that bastard has done to him! The things I have done to him! My Lord, forgive me?” He fell to his knees and bowed his head to the ground. I hit him with a leg and stood him up. Placed both of them on my back between my shoulders and the muscles of my wings. Opening them inside was impossible. I climbed up the rest of the Tower and perched on the roof. Diving off was exhilarating for me and terrifying for them. I could feel their tiny heartbeats against my scales as they hung on with arms and legs.
Rising high, I flew as fast as I could until the Tower and the Master’s territory lay far below and behind. I kept my eye on my surroundings, discovered that I had a sense that told me what was around before I could see it.
My passengers whispered conversation was clearly audible to my dragon ears. They updated each other on the recent events and Rinlon shouted a question at me. As if I could answer. A dragon’s throat was designed for two things, eating its prey and belching fire. Neither choice would suffice here.
I flew carefully not just because I carried two humans who were not capable of flying but because I did not know if the Master had put up a barrier here to keep me in.
We flew on for hours and just when I thought we were safe, I hit something that stopped me in mid stroke, I fell hundreds of feet before I thought to level off and fly backwards.
Landing on the ground, I shrugged them off my back and walked forward on all fours until I met the solid, invisible obstruction that denied me forward momentum. It took them a few minutes to figure out the problem, they had no trouble with crossing it, only me. We stared at each other from either side and frustrated, I lifted my head and howled. It echoed off the mountains but went through the barrier. Rinlon walked back over. “I can’t feel anything. What is it? A spell?”
Vialle tilted her head and touched it. “I can’t feel anything, Raven but I can sense it. A sort of tingly, sparkling net of force. It’s part spell and part something else. There must be a series of lodestones that power it.”
I shooed them back away from it and let loose a horrendous mouthful of flames that stopped at the wall and shot up it for hundreds of feet without any effect on the barrier at all. Rinlon gaped. “What happens when he farts?” he asked in wonder and Vialle surprised me with a big belly laugh. She almost cried she laughed so hard and he joined her. I shook my head and flew up a few yards to check out where we’d landed.
We were in a small valley, a hollow between two ridges that were on the lower slopes of some truly magnificent mountain ranges of granite and basalt. There were trees scattered here and there. Bushes with masses of pink flowers and no leaves. A stream chuckled over gray, blue and reddish slate slabs, and over rounded stones that were soft limestone and sparkled in the water. Something that resembled grass grew sparsely where there was a pale pinkish soil. The sky had a pewter look to it with fish-scale clouds. I dipped my muzzle into the water and sucked up a bellyful, it was cold, clean and potable. They followed me, wiping their mouths with their hands.
“Do you know where we are?” Vialle asked. I could not answer and did not know. Rinlon looked around.
“We flew due east towards the Cascadia Range. I’m not sure how fast it flew,” he stopped when Vialle gently corrected him by saying he, not it. “He flew. We passed over the Hegremon River so I suspect we are near Whichgren.”
I climbed the ridge and studied the back-trail. I smelled something like a hart and leapt, forgetting that I was forty feet of monster aiming for a tree break. I broke the trees and it more than my hunting skills knocked down the hart breaking its back. I bit off its head and crunched the tasty morsel, throwing tree trunks out of my way like matchsticks. Carrying the body back to the pair, I dropped it in front of Rinlon and sat back on my haunches. He grinned.
“Looks pleased as punch, Majesty. Got a grin on his...face like a cat ate the cream,” he said. “He’s brought us dinner. Or lunch. Mighty handy to have a portable cook stove and gamekeeper.” Removing his knife, he gutted and butchered the roe throwing me the parts he didn’t want. I caught them on the fly and ignored his comments of here, Spot. Sit, Rover until he said Fetch, boy.
I snorted steam at him and nearly blew him off his feet. I didn’t mind being used for a cooking stove but I preferred my meat bloody, not scorched. I ate what was left over, hides, hooves and horns. Lay down and rested my head on my feet with the two of them tucked close to keep warm as the sun went down.
Vialle murmured, “you’re so warm, Raven. Like my own heated blanket.” We watched the sun set and the twin moons rise. At the first ray of moonshine hit my scales, I felt the same stretching, cramping pain and cried out, waking the pair. We stared at each other.
“Oberon’s beard!” Rinlon yelped. “You’re naked!”
I looked down at myself and I was. All six foot, pink and scarred. I was human again. I didn’t say anything but turned and ran for the barrier, stopping inches from where I’d last felt it. Sucked in my breath and pushed my hand through. Followed with the rest of me. “Vialle,” I said in joy. “Vialle!” I broke down, sobbing as if my heart had broken and she enfolded me in her arms, pulling my head into her breast so that I heard and felt her heartbeat. She rubbed my naked back.
“Oh, my poor dear boy,” she whispered, her tears as copious as mine. “I thought I would never see you again.” She saw me with her hands, exploring my face, my chest and back, stopping at the rise of my buttocks. “Rinlon, your cloak, please,” she ordered and he placed the heavy wool tenderly around my shoulders.
“Gods, boy. Is there an inch of your skin that bastard didn’t mark? How did you survive such tortures? The scar tissue on your back is...” He was speechless.
“The Master is very generous with his whip,” I said flatly, wiping my face with my hands. “We can’t stay here. He’ll know I’ve exited his spell boundary.”
“Raven, why can’t you change as you will it? Like Merlin does?” Vialle asked me.
“It’s not me that changes, it’s the Master’s spell. He made me into a dragon. So he could use me in the war. He means for Corwin, Merlin or Random to slay me and destroy the Pattern and the Logus. One of Amber’s blood must spill mine for his scheme to work. I won’t choose sides, Vialle. I can’t. That leads to a worse scenario. I am the Balance.”
“I don’t understand, Raven but I will follow where you lead,” she said.
“Rinlon, can you lead us out of here? Towards the next town or village?” I asked.
“There are none for a hundred leagues. We are near Whichgren Fens. Home of the swamp cats and other not so friendly creatures. Bogs and snakes and other nasties. Too bad you can’t just pop back into the beastie and fly us out of here.” He looked down at my bare feet. “Will you be able to walk without foot coverings, lad?”
“I’ll have to, none of you have any extra pairs. Too bad I ate the hide, I could have made moccasins. Sorry. I have no control over it. Be grateful the Master took off the bridle, with that on me, I have no free will.” I stared off into the darkness and he took a brand from the fire and led us deeper into the woods.