City of Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

plucked a hair from his paw and tested the blade. Though gold was soft, some sort of magic made the axe keep its sharp edge. “No sirree, we’re riffraff with style.”
    Scirye leaned against the cave mouth, pulling the leather gauntlet onto one wrist while she scanned the sky anxiously.
    â€œDon’t worry, that furry parrot’s too tough to die,” Koko assured Scirye, but he watched for the griffin just as intently as she did.
    Only Tute remained by the fire with M ā ka, who had surreptitiously taken out her pamphlet and was thumbing through it hurriedly.
    Scirye had the sharpest eyes of the friends. “There he is!” she said, pointing and then leaving her arm up as a perch for her friend.
    Finally Bayang saw the griffin as a dot darting over the snow. He was flying with head and body in a straight line like a bullet of feather and fur, and he had barely landed on Scirye’s wrist when he panted, “ Lyaks are coming. About a dozen of them.”
    Scirye stiffened immediately with M ā ka, and Tute got up.
    â€œWhat are lyaks?” Leech asked.
    â€œThey’re the hereditary enemies of the griffins,” Scirye explained, cradling her friend against her. “Did they see you?”
    Kles’s chest heaved up and down still from the extertion. “No, but they have powerful snouts that could find us anyway.”
    â€œHow big are they?” Bayang asked.
    â€œAbout eight feet long,” Kles explained. “They have throwing axes that might penetrate even your scales.”
    â€œThen I’ll hit them before they get within throwing range,” Leech said as he reached for the flying discs that still hovered near him. “I’m a smaller, faster target than Bayang.”
    She had meant to talk to the hatchling when they were alone, but there was no time for that now. “You seemed distracted when you fought the lord of thunder.” The dragon set a paw on Leech. “Don’t try to fly and fight unless you can give it your undivided attention.”
    The hatchling frowned. “I was just figuring out what to do.”
    â€œWell, the cave is a good defensive position so you don’t need to fly anyway,” Bayang insisted. “I can grow big enough to handle any trouble so you stay behind me and take care of anything that gets around me.” She didn’t give him a chance to object, pacing immediately to the mouth of the cave.

 
    8
    Leech
    She knows I’m awake! the Voice said in alarm. She only spared you before because she thought you were alone. Now she wants to keep us trapped in the cave so she can finish us later.
    Leech felt not only scared but sad as well, because he had come to value the dragon’s friendship. She’s just trying to keep us safe, Leech insisted, or at least he hoped so.
    He watched his friend spread her paws, her body bouncing up and down as she flexed her knee joints. He desperately wanted to believe her fangs and claws would harm only their enemies and not him.
    Their visitors came down a pass across the lake, small dots slipping and sliding down the snowy slope. At first they fanned out as they searched, but then they smelled the smoke from the fire, and they began to howl as they crossed the lake, sometimes skidding on a patch of bare ice, but coming forward steadily.
    Leech studied them as they drew closer. Their heads were long like a horse’s with a single large eye in the center and a wide flattened nose. Their skin was as pale and moist as a slug’s belly. They wore little more than furry kilts and vests, revealing chests and limbs almost as hairy as their clothing. Broad leather straps ran diagonally down from the lyaks’ shoulders, and sheathed on it were several axes. Hanging from the belts at their waists were pouches and daggers.
    They ran on all fours, but because their legs were longer than their arms, it gave them a peculiar humping gait. Still, they moved with a