‘You do it by talking, don’t you?’ George interrupted. Lily, next to him, had discarded her rifle and had a revolver in each hand. Irene knew it would be a waste of time to bring up her agreement with the Fae: it hadn’t covered what would happen after they subdued the dragons. ‘So right now you don’t say anything, either of you. Or you’re going down as well. Me and my boys, we’re just about to do some dragon-slaying. Or do you want to read them their rights, Venner?’
‘Under the circumstances, I’ll skip it,’ Captain Venner said. ‘Can’t see them asking for a lawyer anyhow.’
Irene shrugged. Then she glanced behind her at Kai and raised her right hand in the air, palm upwards, as though she was lifting something.
George, Lily and the gunmen had seen Kai use the river to take down Jin Zhi and Qing Song, but they hadn’t appreciated the full implications of his power.
Now the Hudson River surged and broke its banks in a wave several yards high. It rushed across the road, bowling over gangsters and policemen alike.
A narrow channel of dry ground still lay between Irene and Evariste and the water’s edge. Irene ran down it to the railing that bordered the river. It would be impossible to get Jin Zhi and Qing Song off this world in their current form. ‘Jin Zhi, Qing Song,’ she shouted, ‘change to your human form!’
She hadn’t expected it to be easy, and it wasn’t.
It was a good thing there was a railing. It stopped her going head-first into the river. She’d managed to change werewolves back to their human shape previously: that had been tiring, but manageable. She’d never tried to affect dragons by using the Language. Dragons were metaphysical heavyweights when compared to werewolves. She gasped for air, and her Library brand seemed to press down on her as if it would crush her to the ground.
But when she raised her head to look at the scene in front of her, she saw that it had worked. Qing Song and Jin Zhi were in their human shapes now, though still – thank goodness – unconscious. The rising water had carried them onto the river bank, and they lay there, soaked and crumpled like jetsam.
There was a bright flare of light along the bank to her left, and she turned to look. It was Hu: he had taken his own dragon form, and his scales shone like hammered copper as he prepared to launch into the air.
Urgency energized Irene. ‘Grab Qing Song!’ she called to Evariste. ‘You’re both travelling on Kai! Kai, pass me Jin Zhi – Hu must carry us!’
‘But my daughter—’ Evariste protested desperately.
‘We’ll get Qing Song to give her back, but we have to get out of here first! Come on!’ She grabbed his shoulder and pushed him towards Qing Song.
The waters thrashed across the street again, knocking down those gangsters who’d managed to get to their feet. Hu reached for Qing Song, but Kai swung between him and the two unconscious dragons, forcing him back.
Lily had dragged the half-drowned George behind one of the trucks and was standing over him, her guns drawn, but she didn’t seem inclined to fire. Perhaps she didn’t want to start a war either. Or perhaps without George to give her the order, she was less inclined to pull the trigger. ‘Are you leaving?’ she called to Irene.
‘Getting the hell out of here, and glad to do it,’ Irene called back. ‘All of us are going. We won’t be coming back.’
Kai backed against the roadside, dipping the arch of his back to allow Evariste to drag Qing Song aboard. Hu hissed furiously, but didn’t try to stop them.
About time I made my own exit. Ankle-deep in water, Irene stood over Jin Zhi on the river bank and beckoned to Hu. ‘We can discuss the details later,’ she called, ‘but let’s get out of here!’
Lily lowered her guns. ‘I hope you realize I could have shot you.’ Her voice carried over the noise of the water.
‘I’ll remember it!’ Irene hooked one arm across Jin Zhi’s chest and turned to see that Hu was directly behind her, his back curved so that she could clamber on with her own dragon cargo. Once aboard, she turned to raise her free hand in a wave.
‘Just one question!’ Lily shouted. ‘What’s your name? Who are you?’
Irene weighed the possible consequences of giving her name against the fact that Lily might well be able to find out anyhow, with a bit of research. She mentally shrugged. ‘Irene Winters!’ she called.
And as she spoke, Kai rose up, followed by Hu, climbing into the night sky.
Irene lowered her head and clung on, pinning Jin Zhi facedown against Hu’s back. She hoped the other woman would stay unconscious. It was much easier to handle her like that.
New York spread out beneath them, marked out in patterns of light and darkness, with the windows of skyscrapers gleaming in impossibly complicated grids, and the gleams of car headlamps moving jerkily along the roads. The oppressive heat had eased with Jin Zhi’s unconsciousness, and Irene breathed in the cooler air with relief.
Ahead of Hu, Kai mantled his wings and roared, and Irene hoped he had a safe destination in mind. A rip tore in the night sky, glowing with a light that seemed to shine from the other side, in a shade that Irene couldn’t name. This was how dragons travelled between alternate worlds: they somehow passed outside the regular flow of worlds, to where the air was like water and where only dragons could find their way. As Hu’s passenger, Irene keenly felt her own lack of control. But as long as Kai had Qing Song, then they had a metaphorical leash around Hu’s neck.
Kai angled his wings and swooped through the rift, and Hu followed.
Irene had expected the shadowy sky beyond, the endless currents of blue and green – she’d been there before with Kai. But she hadn’t expected to find other dragons waiting.
The four newcomers, all of them larger than Kai or Hu, swooped on them in a blaze of wings that shone like gemstone and metal. The sounds that came from them were deeper than Kai’s earlier cry as he’d opened the way. They were organ-tones that throbbed in Irene’s bones and made her shiver in near-panic, flattening herself against Hu’s back. She saw Kai flinch in mid-air, coiling in on himself, trying to draw away from this display of threat and aggression. Hu jerked beneath Irene as though he would have liked to flee, but there was nowhere to go: they were in a great sea of emptiness, surrounded by four strange dragons.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The desert was cold by night, and Irene was grateful for her velvet coat. Evariste hunched his shoulders inside his battered jacket, staying behind her and Kai. The new dragons didn’t object: they were far more interested in Kai than in his human followers. Hu knelt to one side, checking the physical condition of Qing Song and Jin Zhi – who, fortunately, were both still unconscious.
They had been forcibly escorted to a world of the strangers’ choosing. Looking around at the flat sweep of desert and tasting the bitterly dry air, Irene had to conclude that part of that choice was to ensure that Kai couldn’t call on any local water sources.