“But the other four can fly?” Morgan asked.
“Yes, they can.”
“And… um… you guys are pretty big, right? So you’d be pretty strong?”
“Compared to a human, yes, I suppose we would be.”
“So you can move rocks, and stuff?”
Lynette gasped as she suddenly realised where Morgan was going with this. “No, you can’t be serious,” she snapped.
“I’m absolutely serious,” Morgan replied, just as sharply. “Do you think your dragons would be able to move big boulders?” she asked the demon.
“They could clear the road,” Charrice said, her hands clutched over her heart. “Oh, by the gods, do you think they could…?”
“Yes, they could move some fairly large boulders,” the demon said. “What would you like us to do?”
“You’ve got to be out of your mind,” Ann said, and Lynette was relieved to find she wasn’t the only one who thought this plan was insane. “There’s no way we could trust them.”
“And without them, there’s no way to clear that road,” Morgan said. “And maybe you don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to the men over there, but I want my husband back.”
Ann’s face twisted in a snarl. “Don’t you dare start telling me what I do or don’t want,” she began, but Lynette cut them both off before the argument could get any worse.
“What sort of injury does your dragon have?” she asked the demon. She still wasn’t committing to the deal, but it was worth asking a few more questions.
“He has a large tear in his wing muscle. We’ll need thread for some stitches, bandages, and some herbs to prevent infection.”
“How tame are they?” she asked next. “If they’re hanging around the village, we can’t have them eating our livestock. Or our children,” she added with a snarl. “Or setting fire to our houses. So how certain are you that you can control them?”
“I can give you an absolute guarantee that none of the dragons will do any harm to your village. My men and I have trained with them since we were very young. They are no threat to you.”
It was the answer Lynette was looking for, though the question of whether or not she should believe the words was another matter.
“What would you have us do?” the demon asked again.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name the first time,” Lynette said.
“Koradan,” the demon said. “What is your name?”
“Lynette,” Lynette said.
But before she could say any more, Morgan interrupted. “There was an earthquake yesterday morning,” she said. “A lot of our men work in a copper mine a little way up the mountain. There was a landslide that’s blocked the road to the mine that we can’t get past. A lot of the men were underground when the earthquake hit. One of the main tunnels collapsed, trapping them down there. If you can clear the road and free our men, we’ll give you what you need to fix your dragon.”
“And after that, you must promise to leave Varismont,” Ann added, holding her rake up like a shield between herself and the demons. “And never come back here again.”
Koradan turned to look back at the other demons. A few long moments passed in silence. One of the dragons made a slight growling noise. Two of the demons nodded.
“We accept your terms,” Koradan said, turning back to the villagers. He slowly rose to his feet. “Please, show us the road, and we’ll get to work.”
“It’s the middle of the night,” Lynette said. “You’re not going to be able to see a thing in the dark, and besides which, we’re all exhausted.” The village had spent the day running back and forth to the site of the landslide to fetch tools and planks of wood, and moving whatever rocks and dirt they could manage, and then when it had finally got too dark to work, it was a fairly sure bet that most of them hadn’t been able to sleep, too wound up with worry about the men in the mine. “We’ll get started first thing in the morning.”
“Our dragon needs attention sooner rather than later,” Koradan said. There was no impatience or demand in his voice, just a simple statement of fact. “If his receiving treatment depends on our helping you clear the road, then I would rather start now. The dragons have excellent night vision. The darkness shouldn’t be a problem for them.”
Lynette wondered how she should reply. Then a moment later, she wondered why she was the one to make the decision at all. Varismont had no official leader, too small to need a mayor or a sheriff, but usually people looked to Markon whenever a big decision needed to be made or any of the residents needed a dispute resolved. Unfortunately, Markon was currently trapped at the bottom of the copper mine. Which meant that any leadership role would come down to whoever was most willing to do it.
Lynette weighed up her options with regard to the demons. Perhaps it was possible for them to work at night, but given that she didn’t trust them, they would need to be supervised by some of the villagers – just to make sure they did what they said they were going to do. And she didn’t want to risk anyone’s safety by making them work in the dark. But if the dragon’s injury was going to cause a problem, then the easiest way to solve that would be to start treating it now. At the very least, they could apply a salve and wrap the wound, buying them some time to get work on the road started. There was a risk that by treating the wound before the demons had upheld their end of the deal, they might just leave without helping with the mine. But on the other hand, antagonising them could mean they decided to stop playing nice and just slaughtered the villagers anyway.
The short answer was there was no real way to predict the best outcome.
