Ivory Lyre Read Free

doorways seen close at hand, of
palaces and crowds of people and the smell of taverns. Yes, their
sleeping thoughts had been the same as his waking ones. It is time,
Teb thought. Time for me to go into the cities.
    The dragons nodded.
    He felt shrunken and small knowing he would
walk alone and earthbound when for so long he had soared aloft
between the wings of dragons and had been protected by dragons.
    But he and the dragons had done their work
on nearly all the smaller continents. Only a few islands were left.
Their usefulness through song was nearly gone for the present. The
larger lands were ruled by the dark, except for half a dozen, and
one bard and four dragons could not free the minds of a whole
continent at one time. The dragons would be discovered, the dark
put on alert. They must play the game close until their band was
larger.
    He must join the underground. He must search
for bards. He must learn the ways of the resistance, and how best
to help it. He must make himself and the dragons known to the
resistance, so they could plan together for the greater battles to
come.
    “Yes,” said Seastrider. “Yes. But you will
not go alone.”
    He stared at her. What nonsense was this? He
had always known that when the time came, he must go into the
cities alone. “What do you plan to do?” he asked her, touching her
great silver cheek. “Walk the roads pretending to be my
war-horse?”
    “Yes,” she said. “I will do that.”
    Teb wished she could. It wasn’t a moment for
joking.
    “I will shape-shift. We have spoken of it
before. It is not impossible.”
    “But you said it was unreliable, with the
powers of the dark so strong. Even if you could make shape-shifting
magic strong enough to counter the dark, it could be dangerous. You
said you might not be able to change back.”
    “With practice, Tebriel, we will manage.
Nothing in this life is without danger.”
    “And what do you mean by we?”
    “One saddle horse and three to follow you.”
Seastrider stretched out over the lip of the nest, her wings spread
on the wind so she hung motionless in the sky. Then she turned and
curled down into a tight circle. Suddenly she vanished.
    In her place reared a dazzling white mare,
her neck bowed and her green eyes blazing. Teb stood gaping.
    Then Starpounder disappeared, and where the
blue-black dragon had coiled there wheeled a snorting blue-black
stallion. Then Nightraider, two stallions and a mare now, and then
Windcaller. So two and two they were, their eyes flashing with
powerful magic.
    “How can you do that?” Teb said, caught in
wonder. “How can your bodies compress so? How . . .
?”
    We do not compress, Seastrider
managed to tell him. Our bodies are caught in another dimension.
What you see of us is the stuff of magic, of the shape-shifting
spell, and not real.
    Teb touched her shoulder and neck, and wove
his fingers in her mane. She felt very real to him, warm and
silken, with the wild, sweet smell of a good horse. He put his hand
on her back. She stayed steady. He tightened his hand in her mane
and with a sudden thrust leaped across her back and swung astride.
She stood quivering and snorting; then she reared and pawed in a
battle stance, so he had to grip tight with his knees. She galloped
in a small circle, leaping logs, then stood quiet, sweating.
    Will I do? she asked demurely.
    “Oh, yes. Only . . . you are too
beautiful. All of you are. You will attract too much
attention.”
    Seastrider lowered her head and looked at
him with wry teasing that made him laugh. We cannot help being
beautiful, Tebriel. Dragons are the most beautiful creatures alive,
and so we have become beautiful horses. They had no false
modesty, these dragons.
    Teb sighed. “Not only will you make me more
conspicuous,” he said, “but the armies of the dark would like very
much to have such mounts as you. What will you do if they try to
steal you?”
    When she did not answer, he grew annoyed. He
knew her silences. “What