The Power and the Glory

Book 5 Chapter I: Kitri Hears All About It

If you make any sentient creature jump, you render it by no means improbable that it will jump on you. -- G. K. Chesterton

Kitri had spent ages considering what she was going to say to Abi when she finally got her hands on her. There wouldn't be much said at first. That would wait until after Kitri had wrung Abi's scrawny neck. Then she would order Abi to undo whatever she'd done. Then she would place Abi under arrest and arrange a trial for necromancy.

There was a time and place for being loyal to an old friend. That time and place was not in the middle of a zombie apocalypse caused by the old friend.

The gentle hills gave way to flat meadows. A steadily-growing dot loomed in the distance. It resolved itself into the city of Gradoné. An ominous cloud of smoke rose from somewhere in the city centre.

Kitri watched the ground below. Roads criss-crossed beneath her. They were all deserted. Occasionally she passed over an abandoned carriage or wagon. When she reached the city's outskirts she saw no signs of life anywhere. The buildings' doors were closed. The streets were empty. The only thing moving was the smoke.

She reached the ghurmalath-úthernu station nearest to the smoke. She braked and turned off the engine. For a minute she sat still in the driver's chair. What now? Was it safe to get out?

A flash of light caught her eye. Kitri looked up.

She stared.

Oh gods no.

As if the monsters weren't bad enough, now the city had a dragon too!

It rose out of the smoke. The sunlight glinted off its blue scales and deer-like antlers. Even from this distance Kitri could tell it was much larger than the carriage. It reached the level of the highest building's roof. Then it slowly flew in a circle. Its head was pointed downwards. Was it scanning the city for something?

Kitri suddenly wondered what would happen if the monsters encountered the dragon.

A flash of blue light beneath the dragon caught her eye. For a dreadful moment Kitri thought that a dragon had made its nest in the city centre. No one had seen any dragons for over fifty thousand years, but stories still lingered about the destruction they caused. She would rather run a hundred miles in the other direction, straight through an army of monsters, than risk going near a dragon protecting its baby.

The blue light darted above the dragon. It hovered in mid-air. Kitri squinted. It wasn't a baby dragon. It was... a bird wreathed in flames?

A dragon and a phoenix together, in a country where neither had been seen for countless years? It could only mean Abi was involved.

What have you done this time? Kitri thought, trying to telepathically convey her displeasure to Abi in spite of the distance between them.

The two creatures stayed in the air for a few minutes more. Then the dragon glided slowly down. The buildings' roofs hid it from view. Seconds later the phoenix followed.

Kitri let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. She sank back in the chair. What now? Was it safe to wander around a city where she might at any moment find a horde of zombies, a fire-breathing dragon, or a bird that supposedly incinerated people by looking at them?

~~~~

Abi turned back into her immortal form as she landed. "No sign of the survivors coming out yet."

"Good," Lian said. "Let's get out of here before they come and ask questions."

"How are we going to get out?" Irímé asked, while simultaneously Abi said, "But we need to tell them it's safe!"