Chapter 11
I put my golden ring on
Unseen I went down where
War and peace collided
Inside the dragon's lair
-Simplify, Wes King
_______________________
The dragon was sitting in his cage, gazing into the distance like a monstrous statue when we sneaked to the foot of his cage. His giant paws were on level with our eyes, and the muscles in them were tensing and relaxing, tensing and relaxing. I looked at Knuckles, who had accompanied me. His eyes lingered on the flexing claws. "I think it's mad, Zephyer." He did not add that releasing it was a bad idea, but I knew he was thinking it.
"We'll just wait here," I said. "We can't open the door until they've had time to get Tails in a Ghost."
Knuckles checked his watch. "Thirty minutes." He looked at me. "What if they get caught? Should we still let this thing out?"
"They won't get caught," I said, looking at the dragon's distant head. "We'd better find the gate and look at the locks." A voice in the back of my head whispered that I was being irrational, but I ignored it. Knuckles was looking at me and shaking his head. I walked around him and circled the dragon's cage, trying to keep out of sight of any watching Shellizaas. I hadn't forgotten Kita's warning that they wanted to kill us.
The dragon's cage was built on a five-foot-thick cement foundation, which adjoined nearby crystal buildings. I had to circle these, Knuckles trailing behind me with a disapproving expression. On the far side, to the dragon's back, was the cage door. It was locked at the top and bottom with two iron latches as big as I was. The highest one was twenty feet from the ground.
Knuckles came up beside me and scanned the door.
"Think we can open these?" I asked.
"Sure," he said. "Getting to the top one will be tricky, though."
Our voices must have carried, for the dragon's head turned, and one red eye glared down at us. Then it recognized us and turned around like a moving mountain. It put its head down on the floor of its cage and rumbled, "You came back." Its attention settled on me like a heavy blanket, and I felt its pleasure at seeing us. I struggled to answer.
"Yes sir. We're going to try to open your cage."
The nostrils flared, and the eye flicked between Knuckles and I. "If I am set free, I will destroy the Shellizaas."
"We know that," said Knuckles. "Do you know that the Shellizaas have human slaves?"
The dragon made a grunting, angry sound that meant, "Yes".
"We're going to try to rescue the slaves," I said, struggling to form words without buckling under the dragon's stare. "We can't let you out until then."
The dragon grunted again.
Knuckles checked his watch. "Twenty minutes."
The dragon lifted its head and gazed across Diamonda. "You must not open the door. Once I am freed, none shall stand before me."
I looked at Knuckles, and he gave me an 'I told you so' look. My resolve wavered.
"Do you know about their planes?"
The dragon made a scornful sound that meant, "Yes."
"One of our friends is going to use one to rescue the slaves. Then we'll let you loose."
The monster looked at something beyond us and snarled, its eyes becoming balls of red flame.
"Admiring Sulfire, are you?" said a voice behind us.
Knuckles and I spun around to see a lone Shellizaa standing with his hands behind his back. I recognized his purple-painted shell and round glasses. "Hello Devan."
Knuckles shot me a startled look, but Devan Shell was unsurprised. "Hello, outlanders. Sulfire is a dangerous dragon, you know. Capturing him was difficult."
"What do you want?" said Knuckles, but Devan went on looking at the dragon.
"He was far from here, high in the mountains. We had to hurt him to cow him into accompanying us back to Diamonda."
I glanced at the dragon. It was crouched in his cage, snarling but silent. I disliked having my back to it. I disliked still more facing down Devan Shell.
"And now I hear a rumor that someone wants to open his cage," said the turtle, tilting his head to one side. "Would you know anything about that?"
"No," I said, wondering if he had a weapon behind his back, and calculating the amount of time it would take me to morph my hand and plant a laser in his face.
"Run," Knuckles whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
"No," I whispered back. "Let's take him out before he sounds the alarm."
"Too late," Knuckles replied. "Just run!" He charged at Devan.
I stood there in indecision, and was thrown on my face by monkey thugs who had crept up behind us. They had Knuckles down before he reached Devan, although it took six of them to hold him. I struggled, but my captors were binding my hands and feet. I lifted my head and saw Knuckles writhing in the grip of the primates. It wasn't supposed to happen this way! I turned my head and looked at the dragon in time to see it reach its giant forepaws through the bars and slash at the monkeys. One of the monkeys was too close, and the dragon grabbed it and dragged it into its cage. I heard its scream break off.
Then they were carrying me away from the cage, Devan jogging along in the lead. The monkeys snarled and gibbered to each other, upset over the loss of their companion. They took out their rage on me, scratching my face and pulling my hair. I was thankful that my body was made of metal, and hoped they wouldn't hurt Knuckles. I had got him into this. Please God, don't let them kill him! And what about Jazz, Tails and Sonic? Would their safety be compromised? What would Zinc and Chimera do, back in camp, if we never returned? Zephyer, you're a fool and now you've stepped in it bigtime.
I smelled ammonia as we entered a busy stretch of road. The monkeys called to the Shellizaas, who crowded around us, leering. I looked up into rows of leathery, beaked faces.
"Barbarian scum!"
"So they finally caught them."
"Releasing Sulfire, were they?"
"Kill them both!"
"I saw them with Jackrabbit."
"They look dangerous."
"I hope Devan has something nasty planned for them."
We were paraded through the streets, and more Shellizaas crowded around to hurl abuse. Some came close enough to aim blows at me. I could not defend myself, and I realized why Jazz wanted to destroy them all.
By the time we arrived at the green section where Devan lived, my nose was bleeding. All the Shellizaas in Diamonda were following us, and I was surprised to realize there were less than a hundred. Still, they were a vicious mob, and Devan ordered us taken into his lab, thereby saving Knuckles and I from a lynching.
We were dumped on the floor in a large room off the same passage Kita and I had taken. The room was filled by a massive chemistry set, in addition to tubes, wires, spinning disks, sparking electrodes, and other things I didn't recognize. The monkeys left, and I twisted around and looked at Knuckles. His face was as beaten as mine was, and there were bite marks on his arms and legs. His eyes were closed.
"Knuckles," I whispered. "I'm sorry!"
He opened one eye and glared at me, then returned to playing possum. Maybe he had a plan.
A moment later Devan Shell entered the laboratory, rubbing his hands together. "Rough trip, but at least you're in one piece."
"What are you going to do?" I asked, forcing fear into my voice.
"As I mentioned before, I'm a student of Dr. Robotnik's work," said Devan, pulling on a pair of gloves and laying out instruments on a table. "I'm interested in the process of robotization."
"Do what you like with me," I said, "but let my friend go. He's hurt."
Devan glanced at Knuckles. "Nonsense. He's simply had too much entertainment. He'll wake up in a few minutes. In the meantime, I can begin my research on you."
He grabbed one of my arms and dragged me toward his equipment, my metal squealing on the floor. This was bad. I twisted my hands against my handcuffs, and with a jolt realized they had tied me with ropes. I could cut them with my sword blade! But why show Devan I was armed? Maybe I could stall him. "Why do you experiment on humans?" I asked as we arrived at the foot of a table, and he paused for breath.
"Humans are fascinating creatures," puffed the turtle. "They are not from our world, yet our cell structures are remarkably similar." He tried to lift me up on the table, but I went limp, and he was forced to lower me back to the floor. "Can't you be more accommodating?"
I did not want him to put me on that table. "Why use them at all?" I asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to catch Mobians?"
He mopped his bald head. "I have discovered that humans are immune to chaos. As you know, Mobius is located amid a chaos field, which is why many inhabitants have extraordinary powers. But these are not imparted to humans, perhaps because they are not native to this planet." He lifted me and slung me across the table. He had to pause and rest again, and I wondered if I could get the better of him in a hand-to-hand fight. He wasn't the strongest Shellizaa in Diamonda.
"So what do you do with humans?" I asked. I was lying on my side with my hands behind me, out of his line of sight. The table had metal binders on it, and there was no way I would let him put my arms and legs in them.
Devan smiled. "I wanted to see if humans could be given chaos abilities if a small instrument were placed in their bodies. Some became ill, and some remain unaffected. But a few--ah! A few received limited chaos powers. Kita, a slave girl, has the ability to fly. It improves her dancing no end."
Poor Kita! To have foreign things implanted in you that gave you abilities ... it sounded like being robotized. I hoped this lunatic turtle never met Dr. Robotnik.
He began to untie my feet. I watched him, poised to cut my ropes. "What are you going to do with my friend and me?"
"I am going to open your hull and look inside," said Devan. "I'll find a use for your friend, never fear."
I'll bet you would, I thought, looking at the chemistry set. I morphed my hand into my sword and began sawing at the ropes.
From across the room I heard Knuckles whisper something. It sounded like a different language. I kept sawing, and Devan locked one of my feet into a table binder. One of my ropes snapped, and I felt my wrists loosen. Knuckles repeated himself, this time louder.
Suddenly something shifted in my head, and I pieced together what he had said, as if I had once known that language. An old memory came to me of lying in my cradle and listening to my father read aloud something in Old Mobian. Knuckles had said, "Cover your face."
I yanked my ropes, which came untied, and I threw my arms over my face.
Knuckles exploded through the chemistry set in a cloud of flying glass and multicolored liquids. The stuff struck Devan Shell and me but none hit my face. Devan fell back and screamed, but he was more angry than hurt. Knuckles slid to a halt, smashed my leg binding with one punch, and pulled me off the table. He was soaked in stinking chemicals. I glanced at the snapped ropes dangling from his wrists and wished I were as strong as he was. "Let's go," he said.
We sprinted around the ruined chemistry apparatus, slipping on the wet floor. "I'll kill you!" Devan shrieked after us. "I'll kill you for this!"
As we ran through the crazy passages of the crystal, Knuckles's fur began to smoke.
"What is that stuff?" I asked. "Is it burning you?"
"Yeah," he said. "I've got to wash it off, quick."
"We could try that hot river."
"I thought of that." His red fur was turning gray in the places where the liquids had touched him, and his eyes were desperate.
We bolted out of the crystal and found ourselves amid the mob of Shellizaas, who had not yet dispersed. "Hey, there they are!" someone yelled, and we were surrounded by a crush of clawing, biting turtles.
"Fight them!" Knuckles yelled, and began to hurl punches in all directions. I turned my hand back into my sword blade and slashed at the turtles nearest me. We landed several blows, and the surprised Shellizaas retreated. I wondered if they were used to docile human children who did not hit back. We bolted up the street, and the mob followed.
I was trying to figure out how far it was to the canal that ran through the city. We had to be within a few blocks of it, I remembered seeing it when Kita led me here to rescue Zinc. Knuckles was running like a maniac, smoke pouring off him in a cloud. What if he died before we could wash it off him? What if it didn't wash off?
We rounded a corner, and the river appeared before us, smooth, crystal clear and steaming. Knuckles plunged in and stood, neck-deep, frantically scrubbing himself. I stood on the edge and looked back, hearing the yells and stamping of the Shellizaas. The rest of the city was silent and empty--all the Shellizaas were after us. I looked at Knuckles. "Is it helping?"
"Yeah," said Knuckles. "Dang, this water is so hot I can't tell how bad the burns are. Help me out." I hauled him onto the stone bank, and he shook himself like a dog. His fur was mottled with gray, but he was no longer smoking. To my surprise he turned to me. "Is there any on you? Are you okay?"
"There's probably some on my metal, but it can't hurt me." I looked at him for a second and noticed a cut on his muzzle from glass. "I'm sorry about all this."
"Too late now," he said. "Here they come, run!"
The Shellizaas rounded the corner and yelled as they saw us. We fled before them along the canal, back toward the dragon's cage.