Disclimer: I do not own the Inheritance trilogy. If by the twenteth reminder you haven't caught onto that, then you need to pay more attention.
"It's beautiful." Mellary breathed. "Come on. Even you have to say that."
Embrald stretched out his neck, looking towards the cloudless sky. It is beautiful. The most beautiful sky I have ever seen.
"Not the sky. The city. It's magnificent."
A dwarf passing by heard her and snorted.
Can we fly? Now?
No, I think they have some political stuff for us to do first. Just enjoy the sun, and soon we can fly.
Are you…
Trust me. I'm going to beg out of this as soon as a graceful opportunity presents itself.
Soothed, Embrald ambled along in silence. Mellary walked next to him, tilting her head back to feel the warmth of the sun on her throat.
Decades of living in the wild had instilled a cautious paranoia in her. However much she mightlaze in the sun, Mellary was constantly aware of her surroundings. Which was how she noticed that, the deeper into the city they went, the more discontented murmurings there were. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the dwarves staring in shock at Eragon. The light reflecting off his new helmet gave her some idea as to why.
This is not going to end well.
Mellary caught the glint of drawn weapons through the bushes.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? She asked.
Sadly, all the time.Embrald responded. Mellary sighed and shook her head.
Out of sight… She began.
Out of mind.Embrald finished.
Mellary stopped walking, pausing to run her hand down a worn fountain curve. The surface was slicker than she expected. Her hand slippedand a sharp dry spike, part of the design, opened a cut in her hand. Mellary hissed through her teeth. Embrald wandered over to her side. He looked at the trickle of blood, making a concerned sound in the back of his throat.
She peeked over his spiked head.
They're busy. Let's go.
The two turned in tandem and slipped away. Mellary clenched her fist around the blood and muttered under her breath. When her fingers relaxed the cut was gone, leaving only a smear of blood to show that there had ever been a break in the skin.
They rounded a corner and Mellary swung up into the saddle. Embrald crouched and leapt into the air, his wings scooping down.
They gained height quickly, the city unfolding below them. From above Mellary though it looked like a series of waves climbing the mountain side.
It feels so good to have living air under my wings again. Embrald sighed happily.
Living air?
Air that moves, that lifts. Air that has currents, instead of dank air that just hangs there, like in the mountain.
Almost as if to prove his point, they passed over a thermal. The column of warm air shot the pair higher into the sky.
Let's look around. There are a lot of ravines in the mountain. Some of them look deep.
Embrald banked, and the mountain rose up around them like arms. The valley they were passing through was wide, with heavily wooded slopes. Mellary leaned over Embrald's side to watch the treetops flashing past below.
Suddenly Embrald went into a dive, heading straight for an open clearing. Mellary crouched in the saddle. Just before her dragon hit the ground she leapt free, rolling on the soft grass. She came to a stop, laughing and stroking the soft green carpet. She looked up in time to see Embrald doing the same thing: rolling on the ground like he had just come out of the egg. The ridiculous picture made her laugh harder, until the only thing she could do was lay still and gasp for breath.
"I am never going underground again." She said out loud.
It wasn't that bad…
"Until you realize exactly how much you miss. Then it's worse than bad." Mellary watched a scrap of cloud drift across the sky. Suddenly she frowned.
"I think this was in my dream… the one I had before we left."
What was it about?
"I still can't remember." Mellary frowned, then shrugged. They watched the sky, enjoying the warm feel of the sun.
Mellary saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. She began to sit up.
Something, no more than a blur of movement, lunged across the clearing and slammed into Embrald. The dragon roared in surprised, and Mellary felt a searing pain across her shoulder blade, a region she always considered to be her phantom wing.
She jumped to her feet and drew her sword. Using both hands, she drove the blade down with all her might.
A shock ran up her arms as the sharp edge sliced through skin, muscle, bone, and came out the other side. The thing's body collapsed to the ground.
It was a lizard, the same size as Embrald but differently proportioned. The neck was shorter, barely a neck at all. The thing was lower to the ground and the tail was merely a stump. It had none of the lengthy grace dragons had, but managed to be ten times quicker. It didn't have scales, in stead a striped body of black and dull poison green.
Embrald roared again in pain. Mellary looked up and blanched. The thing's head, slitted green eyes now dull in death, was still locked onto Embrald's wing. Its fangs were buried in the thick muscle. Mellary had cut off the head before it had had a chance to unlatch from her dragon.
Her sword fell to the ground as Mellary rushed forward. She locked her hands on the jaws.
This is going to hurt. She warned. Pushing with all her strength, Mellary pried the jaws apart. Slowly, little by little, the unnaturally long fangs came free of the muscle. Both Mellary and Embrald shrieked at the burning pain as venom ran through the dragon's blood.
At last the fangs popped free. Mellary dropped the head to the ground and laid her hand over the twin puncture wounds, murmuring the ancient words. The burning faded, and when she lifted her hand the punctures were gone. She collapsed against his side, closing her eyes and breathing hard as the strain of the healing hit her.
Uh, Mellary? You might want to open your eyes now. Embrald sounded anxious.
Mellary opened her eyes, then gasped. They were surrounded by the lizard things. And from the look in their eyes, this little scenario wasn't going to end well for the Rider and the dragon.
Moving faster than she thought possible in her weakened state, Mellary grabbed a strap of the saddle and swung herself up. At the same time, Embrald crouched and took off.
The sun disappeared behind the wide black wings of a giant bird. Embrald shrieked as they collided. The jolt loosened Mellary's hold. Her fingers lost their grips on the spike, and her feet slid free of the straps. The solid dragon back disappeared and she yelled as she fell through empty air.
She landed on something soft and leathery. Mellary opened her eyes in time to see the lizard she hit twist it's head all the way around and hiss at her.
Mellary rolled to the side and hit the ground. She leapt to her feet, sword drawn. The lizard lunged at her. A swipe of her blade opened up a cut in its black hide, making the lizard draw back. Her foot bumped against the sword she had dropped earlier. Mellary flipped it into the air and caught the hilt in her other hand.
Embrald landed heavily beside her, one wing dragging on the ground.
Bleeding?
No.
Good. A greenstick break, then. Anything else would have broken the skin. And I remembered what my dream was about.
What?
This. Coincidence?
It's our lives. Most likely, the two are connected somehow.
A lizard lunged, fangs bared. Embrald's head snaked past Mellary and grabbed the lizard by the back of the neck. Her dragon growled as he threw the lizard into a tree.
You better call for help. Mellary said as she slashed at another lizard. She leapt to the side and rolled, bracing her swords against the ground in time for a lizard to spear itself on the bare blades. As she wrestled the body off her swords she heard Embrald reach out for anyone who could hear.
Tarnag, this is Embrald. We have a problem.
Look. Embrlad said sometime later. She had lost track a while ago.
Mellary opened her eyes and slowly lifted her head. Over the tops of the trees she saw a flash of blue winging its way through the sky. She let her head drop back to her chest.
Good. I can't find the energy to stand up.
I don't have the energy to fly.
As if you could fly with that gunk on your wings. Mellary commented.
They were lying in the middle of the clearing. Scattered around were the bodies of the lizards. Their green blood was everywhere; coating trees, making the grass slick, coating Embrald's scales and weighing down his wings, caking Mellary's hair and clothes.
Both Rider and dragon were covered in various cuts and bruises. Embrald's broken wing was healed, but that was the last bit of magic Mellary had been able to perform. The only thing she had energy to do was hold her eyes open.
Saphira landed in the clearing. Eragon slid off, looking around at the carnage.
"What happened here?"
"Excellent question." Mellary croaked. "When you find the answer, let me know."
Eragon knelt next to her and held a hand over the long cut in her side. Under his palm the skin closed up, leaving only blood soaked cloth to show that there had ever been a mark.
As the boy moved from injury to injury, Mellary felt energy fill her dull limbs. When the last bone had been seen to she stood and stretched. When she looked over Embrald and Saphira were standing nose to nose. Not a scale was out of place, and as she watched a sheet of blue fire ran over his wings, burning away the blood and guts.
"My appreciations for the help. We can fly ourselves back."
Eragon looked dubious.
"If he needs help I can lend him energy. The connection goes both ways." Mellary snapped, exhaustion making her more-that-characteristically short.
Saphira said something, and Eragon went over to her and swung into the saddle. They waited until Mellary managed to strap herself into the saddle. Embrald took three bounding strides before launching into the air. It was a sign of how tired he was, that he had to get a running start in order to take off. For a terrifying second they dropped lower. Then, wings straining, Embrald pulled them into the sky.
Mellary stroked his scales and murmured encouragement. Halfway through the flight back to the city Embrald's wings began to tremble. Mellary leaned against his neck and closed her eyes.
She wrapped her mind around the thick connection between them. Slowly she drew up a thread of energy from her core and fed it into the connection. In her mind she felt the energy begin to drain away, racing down the unbreakable connection between Rider and dragon. Her physical body felt their flight even out.
Mellary slipped into a trance for the rest of the flight. With all her energy being pulled away, she didn't have the strength to sit upright, or open her eyes. Even the power of coherent thought was leaving her. The only thing her mind could hold together was the connection and the strand of power.
We're almost there. I can coast from here. You can stop now. Embrald's voice filtered through the haze. Mellary, can you here me? You can stop now, we can make it. Mellary?
She was too exhausted to respond. Her magical grip slipped from the junction, but it remained.
Mellary! You have to stop! You're killing yourself, and I can't break it. MELLARY!
She felt his panic, but couldn't do anything about it. Her body registered a sudden change. Wind was whipping past her face, and a lightened feeling took hold of her as they fell.
A wave of freezing water crashed over her head. It slammed into her face and forced its way into her mouth and nose.
The connection and strand of energy separated with a snap that threw her backwards.
Mellary choked, trying to breath air and inhaling water. Her head broke through the surface. She gagged and coughed. Water poured from her mouth and nose. She took a deep breath of sweet evening air and hacked up the rest of the water in her lungs.
YOU IDIOT, YOU ALMOST KILLED BOTH OF US!Embrald shrieked at her.
Falling out of the sky would also kill us. Mellary snapped back.
Do you honestly think I would let us crash? Embrald asked disgustedly. I had everything under control.
Oh don't give me that. I knew exactly how low on energy you were. I thought it was for the best.
Not if you get so wrapped up in it that you don't recognize when it becomes dangerous. You would have drained yourself until you died.
I thought I could stop it before it reached those levels. Mellary said ruefully. I underestimated my own exhaustion. And your consumption of energy.
Just don't do it again. I had to crash-dive into the lake to get you to let go.
Ah, so that's why I'm all wet. I was wondering.
You needed to rise off all that blood anyway. Embrald said cheerfully. Mellary scowled at the back of his head as he paddled them to shore.
I had a plan to get it out.
Yes, but my way is better. I got to crash-dive into a lake. His joy made her smile, even though she was soaking wet and beginning to shiver.
The rest of their small company met in her room once she had had a chance to clean the rest of the black blood off her body and change into something less blood caked. Mellary greeted them with a warm mug in her hand. The cold from the lake had sunk into her bones, accompanying the deep weariness from almost draining herself.
"What were those things?" Mellary asked once she had related her story. Embrald was still small enough to fit in the room; he was curled up behind her, looking over her shoulder.
"I believe what you stumbled upon was a nest of Kuuluris, a type of venomous lizard that inhabits these mountains. They are intelligent, tricky, and quick. They are also another of the five animals of the dwarven clans. This particular clan lives deep in the mountains and it's members are respected for their guile and sharp tempers." Orik said thoughtfully.
I can see why. Mellary commented to Embrald. Then she groaned and dropped her head into her hands.
"By killing so many of their patron animal, is there a possibility that I offended an entire clan of dwarves? Because I would like to make it known that I was the defendant, not the aggressor."
Orik looked calm. "There isn't much cause for concern. The Kuuluris recognize that their animal is aggressive and protective of their own territory. They should not blame you."
Mellary's shoulders sagged with relief. "Thank you for your assurances. Now, if there's nothing else, I need to sleep." She ushered them out of the room and locked the door.
Don't worry.Embrald said as he curled up to sleep. I'm sure it will be fine.
I hope so. Mellary said before slipping into a deep sleep. I'm not sure I'll be awake enough to do something about it if there's a problem.