Already, his body was screaming at him, sending hot wires of tight, burning heat from his fingertips, up his arms, and over his shoulders into his back. A glance at the coil of rope that remained told him the egg was barely halfway to the bottom. The idea that his arms might get too sore for him to make the climb back down crossed his mind and added to the panic swirling in the back of his head. His shoulders and back were throbbing. His grip was getting looser and looser, and his palms were starting to feel raw, and slick with blood. He had to stop and rest, but how?
Cole shimmered into being on a tiny island, which was only large enough to hold the roots of a single drooping tree. A huge snapper had crept up alongside the canoe he had left there. It probably thought it was another of its kind, lazing in the sun. It was as startled by Cole’s sudden appearance, as Cole was by its unexpected presence. Cole stood stock still and let the bird that was flying loose in his chest settle, while the big beast slithered casually away into the water.
Once he had calmed himself enough to move again, Cole glanced up at the opening in the eastern side of the Dragon Spire. Nothing was there yet. He was glad he didn’t have to hurry. He found he was greatly troubled by appearing so close to a deadly predator. One could make plan after plan and be as cautious as possible, Cole thought grimly, and still one could end up the victim of pure chance and circumstance. The concept was eye opening to him. Until that moment, he had firmly believed in Pael’s theory that careful planning, and well-timed execution, could overcome anything. It was the first time he had ever come close to thinking against what his mentor had taught him.
Pael was wrong about this, he understood now. There was always the random chance that something out of your control would force you to improvise. Of course, that’s why Pael so adamantly studied the situations that he might find himself in. Cole chose to re-evaluate his ideas just a little bit. Unlike Pael, he didn’t have an endless supply of research material, and the quantified power of a master wizard. Had he only appeared a few feet closer to the snapper’s maw, the creature could have gotten a hold of him before he even knew what was happening. He decided that later he would think about ways to avoid such a predicament. That’s what Pael would tell him to do, but right now he had other things to attend to.
He stepped into the canoe and shoved off in one fluid motion. He didn’t have far to go to get into position. He had chosen the tiny island because it was impossible for him to appear in a drifting canoe. Unlike a larger craft, the canoe would spin and twist with the currents and the wind, even if it was anchored. As with the snapper, being just a few feet off could mean appearing over open water.
Once he had the egg, he would have to row back to the island before he could transport himself back to Shaella. It wouldn’t do to shimmer into existence in the middle of the body-strewn clearing while in a sitting position, with an egg in his lap. He would have to be ready for anything, and on his feet in case he had to duck and run, or otherwise flee the dragon when he appeared.
He looked up again, and was relieved to see the egg coming down. He had had his doubts about the mountain-clan boy’s plan, but hadn’t been able to doubt his confidence. The boy had been certain that his plan would work, and since Gerard had proven his loyalty back on the riverboat, Cole had given him the respect he deserved. He didn’t want to doubt him openly, or do anything that might take away from the boy’s confidence. And besides, the plan was a fairly good one.
In a small way, he was jealous. He was supposed to have been the one to get the egg for Shaella, but every time he attempted to teleport himself up to the dragon’s cavern, he had failed. Whether the place had wards against such comings and goings, or it was just too high from the surface of the earth for his magic to take him, he couldn’t say. Maybe it was because it was surrounded by water. He was sure that if he could shape-change, he could fly up into the cavern, but that level of spell casting was beyond his ability as of yet. He had once thought that Shaella was powerful enough to change forms, but now he wasn’t so sure. If she could’ve gotten the egg without risking Gerard, she would have.
Cole saw how much she had come to care about the young man, how protective of him she was. He knew it would soon be a problem. He only hoped that she would make the proper decisions when the time came. If she chose well, Cole was certain that she could have everything she was after, including Gerard; but too much was at stake to let love blind her. Far too much was at stake.
When Cole looked up again, he saw that the egg had been lowered a considerable distance. He stared up at it from the drifting canoe for a long time, before he realized that it had stopped coming down. It was just hanging there a few hundred feet above him, swinging slightly with the breeze.