It was the silence that woke Peri from her sleep.
She blinked open her eyes and immediately shielded them from the beam of light filtering in through the shutters. She turned her head to the side and waited a second for her vision to clear, then looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary at first glance, but something was off. Quickly, she rolled out of bed, bounced to her feet, and crumpled to the ground, letting out a barely suppressed cry of pain. She'd forgotten about her ankle. She laid there for a long moment while the stabs of fire shooting through her right ankle died down to a low smoldering, then sat up slowly, taking care not to jostle her injured limb. Gingerly, using her bed for support, she stood, keeping her foot an inch or so off the ground. Once she was upright, she eased herself back onto the edge of her bed and drew her right leg up to her chest. She rolled up her pant leg carefully, wincing whenever she was too rough, and gasped.
Her ankle was swollen to nearly half its size, easily, and it had turned an ugly shade of purple overnight. With every beat of her heart Peri felt the blood throbbing in her veins, making sure she always felt a dull ache in her ankle. How on earth was she supposed to get away with her ankle blown up like a Dragon's Festival balloon?! It looked like someone had replaced her ankle with a cannonball. Peri let out a low growl and whipped her dagger free of its sheath, sending it spinning blade over handle through the air. It stuck, quivering, it the wall at the far side of the room, but that did nothing to dispel Peri's anger. If anything, it made it worse, because in order to retrieve her dagger Peri had to hop across the room on one foot and yank it out of the wall with a massive heave when she could have easily pulled it free if she had two feet to brace with. Peri sent the blade flying again, this time back towards her bed, and it thudded into her pillow. Peri made to storm back across the room (or as close to storming as she could get while hopping), when a low hum sounded in her mind and successfully derailed her rage.
Peri.
Peri eyed her dagger longingly, but she turned/hopped to face the corner where her egg- her egg, she thought with delight and a little fear- and hopped towards it. Once she reached it she managed to get to a kneeling position without falling over or jostling her ankle and pulled the boards up. She brushed aside the folds of her cloak and the deep blue of her egg greeted her. The dragonling hummed in greeting and Peri sent a greeting back while she lifted it out of its hiding place. She drew the egg into her lap and shifted onto her left hip, relieving her right ankle of her slight weight. The dragonling sent her a sympathetic thought and reached out. Peri felt its mind take root in her body and its attention focused on her throbbing ankle. Almost immediately, she felt the pain diminish and was replaced by a strange numbness, like her ankle was no longer stuffed with a cannonball, but cotton. The dragonling withdrew with a self-satisfied hum and Peri smiled in amusement.
"Thank you," she murmured, and she examined her ankle. It was still painfully swollen, but at least she could put a little pressure on it without excruciating pain. I wonder if I can stand on it now. Peri decided to find out and got clumsily- and painlessly- to her feet, wobbling slightly. Slowly she placed her foot on the ground, adding more and more pressure until she was placing almost half her weight on it. It began to pinch uncomfortably, so she didn't push it anymore. She grinned triumphantly and stood there for a few heartbeats, gathering her thoughts. In the silence she was again struck by the feeling that something was wrong. And it hit her. The silence. Dragon's Landing was never, ever silent.
Frowning in confusion, Peri recalled last night's events, which were still fuzzy from sleep. The Lodge, the freezing spell, Iridessa's strange behavior, the curfew… Ah, right, the curfew. Peri glanced over at the window and decided it was time to test her walking abilities. She took a hesitant step with her right foot, but she felt nothing more than a twinge as she quickly brought her left foot up next to it. Emboldened, she limped over to the window without pausing and pressed her eye to the crack in the shutters, resting all of her weight on her left foot. The sights that greeted her were unfamiliar and eerie.
The streets were completely vacant. Not a person, animal, or breath of wind traversed the deeply rutted streets. There were no drunkards passed out in the streets or stumbling home with a bottle in their hands. There were no worn, weathered women hurrying along with their belongings hugged close to their bodies, heads bowed under the weight of their poverty. There were no mud-covered children playing in the alleys or chasing each other across the streets, knowing that no cart could traverse the cracked and ruined streets where they lived. Even the flea-ridden dogs or cats that usually slunk along the edges of the street were gone, either sensing the danger that hung over the city or eaten by some poor wretch with nothing better to feed himself. Peri smiled bitterly; Dareth had accomplished the impossible. He's silenced the Living City.
Peri closed and rested her forehead wearily on the shutters, which she had boarded shut when she'd first claimed this house as her own. What had she gotten herself into? Turning away from the window, she let herself fall against the wall and slide to a sitting position. She was in the worst position possible. She was injured, cornered with no way of escape, hunted from the air and the ground, and she was wanted by a potentially crazy, definitely lethal man with an invincible assassin that even she couldn't hide from. Why, why, why?
Peri.
This time it was a scolding. Peri blinked and glanced down at the egg in her arms. It sent her an irritated hum that Peri understood perfectly: Quit moping and get thinking. It's annoying me. Peri smiled and gave a tiny nod. The dragonling was right. Despair was getting her nowhere. She had to focus on the positives and figure out how she was getting out of this blasted city.
She had the dragon egg, that was always a plus. She wasn't captured yet. And she knew the city's secret passageways and shortcuts like the handle of her dagger. How could she combine those advantages and overcome the disadvantages? She was drawing a blank. The dragonling gave an exasperated hum (it was clearly a professional hummer) and shoved a scene into Peri's head.
She saw flashes of a ruined city, fires ablaze on its rooftops and men engaged in bloody combat. Women and children fled through the smoke, but none of them made it far before they were cut down by enemy soldiers. The scenes flashed by before Peri could commit any of the images to memory, until they landed on a small group of people crouched by the outer wall and stayed there. The group was made up of an older man, his clothes obviously of expensive origins, along with those of the two women with him. One of the women, the younger one, clutched a small bundle to her chest and Peri realized it was a newborn child. The older woman had one arm around the other, who was crying softly. She held something clutched her fist, and she refused to release it even for a heartbeat. The man turned back to the two women and whispered something to them in a strange language. The younger woman sobbed harder but nodded, her tears carving trails through the soot that coated her face and the rest of her as well. Just then, a group of enemy soldiers appeared further down the wall and began marching towards them. The shadows hid them for now, but it was only a matter of time before they were spotted and killed. Just when Peri thought they would be discovered, the man rose to his feet and drew a magnificent sword from an equally beautiful sheath at his waist. He screamed something at the soldier and charged from his hiding place, but he didn't engage them in battle. Instead he turned and fled down a side street leading deeper into the city, and the a triumphant cry rose from the group. The mob of enemies ran after the man without thinking twice, and soon the space along the wall was abandoned except for the two women, whose sobs had been muffled by the thunder of feet and the bloodthirsty cries of the soldiers. The pair rose to their feet despite their grief and ran along the wall's length, until they reached a small door that had previously been barred by enemies. It was locked when they reached it, but the older woman pulled a key from her pocket and fitted it into the lock. She turned it and the door swung open on oiled hinges. Before the two women stepped through the door, they glanced back at the ruined city, just in time to see the colors of the enemy hung from a castle in the distance. The pair turned away as if the sight was too much to bear and they disappeared through the gaping doorway, the cool night wrapping them up in the folds of its shadowy cloak.
Suddenly her room reappeared before Peri's eyes and she jumped at the unexpected end to the vision. She had to rub a hand against her cheek to convince herself that she hadn't actually been transported to another place, and when her hand came away free of soot, she marveled at how real the vision had felt. The dragonling gave an impatient hum, like she was missing the point. Peri frowned and tried to recall what they'd been discussing before the vision. It had been how they were getting out of the city, she remembered. But how did the scene the dragonling had showed her relate to that? Another exasperated hum and a few scenes from the vision flashed by again. The three people, obviously royals, then the man fleeing, then the two women and the child stepping through the gate. Peri's brow furrowed in thought. What the man had done… it was important. He'd led the soldiers away so the two women could escape… a diversion!
Peri shot upright and the egg nearly rolled out of her lap in her excitement. Of course! She would create a diversion, and while Dareth and Iridessa were off chasing it, she could slip out of the city unnoticed. Why hadn't she thought of that?
"You're a genius!" she exclaimed, running a hand along the shell's surface. The dragonling gave a smug hum that Peri felt in her fingertips and she laughed. "But don't go getting a big head," she warned, tapping one knuckle lightly on the egg. The dragonling sent her an indignant thought and she laughed again. She could easily picture the dragonling with its head tipped to one side, eyes wide with innocence, staring up at her with an angelic expression on its reptilian face.
Just then, a loud cry came from the streets outside her window, startling her out of her thoughts. She quickly set the egg to the side and gripped the windowsill above her head, using it to pull herself up. She pressed her eye to the windowsill just in time to spot a ragged-looking man dash out into the open, clutching a small bag to his chest. A flash of movement off to the side caught her eye and Dareth stepped out of the shadows of an alley. He sneered at the man, who was fleeing him, Peri realized, and raised one hand. He pointed at the man's receding back and his lips fluttered. A narrow bolt of light erupted from the tip of his clawed finger, shooting after the man and hitting him in the small of his back, bringing him crashing to the cobblestones. Peri bit back a gasp. The man remained where he was and didn't move, but as Dareth began strolling leisurely towards him, she thought she saw his chest rise and fall. She turned away from the window and gritted her teeth at the injustice of it all. She knew the man, although not personally, and she knew that he had a wife and three children to feed and no food to do it with. All he was trying to do was protect those he loved. She sent a quick prayer to whatever gods listened that he would be found innocent and sent back to his family soon, because she wasn't sure how long they would last without him.
Peri waited until she was certain Dareth had gone and only then did she move. An unsettling thought had occurred to her while she waited: if Dareth was just outside her house, he must have been tracking the egg. Dragon's Landing was too big for such a huge coincidence to occur. That Dareth had some way of following the egg was the only explanation for his appearance. It was only luck that the man had chosen to venture from his home at that exact moment. If he hadn't, Peri feared she would have been the one shot down in the streets. And once they found the man innocent, Dareth would be back. Peri wasn't willing to trust fate to protect her a second time. She had to move, before she was found.