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Part Three
*****************************
She had to suppress a
small snort of amusement remembering the look on Madric's
face when the king had announced his decision. He knew who
was going to be stuck with her had not been at all happy with
it.
Something tickled and
then clicked. "Over land." she said, "Over land," she repeated,
"why not by sea? It would have taken much less time to transport
them by sea this far north. Any of the port cities this far
up would be easily reached from this distance. If they had
enough gold to bribe a guardsman, surely they could have hired
a ship. And the man we have been looking for, why didn't he
go with the rest? They had to know we would recognize him
with that distinctive scar on his face. Why keep him with
Taylen and Willie? It's like they are lighting the way for
us"
"Good points," he nodded,
"let me think on it." Once more, silence overtook them. That
was how it was with them now. Silence punctuated with short,
sharp bursts of anger or hilarity. Sometimes just quiet words
over the evening fire, discussing new information or the lack
of leads. It was good, this thing that had grown between them.
"I've changed my mind.
I don't want to go back to town until we think more on why
those men wanted you dead. Let's camp over in that bunch of
trees tonight. If memory serves me, I filled our water bags
from a pond there on my way out to get you." He turned his
horse off the road without waiting for her reply. She didn't
argue. She had learned to trust his hunches.
*********************************************
"This way"
The sigh touched her ear,
causing her to shake her head like she had a cloud of bitmes
swarming her. Standing up, she made some excuse to Madric
to go into the undergrowth.
"This way"
She found him behind an
immense bush. It was the smell of sulfur and those murmured
words that drew her. The first sight of him shook the very
breath from her. His noble head raised slightly as they examined
each other under the late afternoon light. Heart racing, she
took a cautious step toward him. He didn't appear to be afraid
of her. In fact, he regarded her with something close to ……expectation.
"Why are you here boy?"
she asked, the barest of whispers pushing past her lips. He
was a yearling and couldn't have been away from his mother
long. Even still, he was bigger than three draft horses put
together. It was odd to find him so far north. The people
in this land considered dragons pests and set bait traps with
poison to kill them whenever they could.
Cocking his head slightly
to the side, he continued to gaze at her. She reached out
a hand to touch his skin. He was supple and smooth, not like
his scales would be after his first molting. His skin yielded
under her fingers yet gave the impression of extreme toughness.
It was almost as if she pressed hard, her fingers would sink
into his flesh but would be unable to break through. Silky
gold sparkled under his deep, forest green color. Liquid eyes
contemplated her with such a solemn look it made her heart
ache. His nose snuffled at her, taking her scent. She giggled,
as it prickled her scalp.
She scratched the back
of his neck, right behind his small ears lying flat on his
head. His wings were tucked to his sides. A small rumble emanated
from his throat, as he butted his head gently on her shoulder.
He was itchy then, almost time for his molting.
Time ebbed around them,
waxing and waning under the dying sun. Hands pressed against
his warm neck, she could feel the blood running under his
skin. The thrum, thrum of his slow, steady heartbeat reached
her ears. She could smell the breath in his lungs, hot and
dry. Sinking down into the softness he offered, a feeling
of peace stole its way around them binding them gently together.
She couldn't leave him.
"Oh, Madric is just going
to love you." she sighed.
***************************************
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Why? Just look at him.
We can't bloody well hide him from people. How the hell are
we going to feed him?"
The battle had been raging
back and forth for an hour. They were nose to nose, trying
to keep their voices down. Anytime their tone carried a hint
of anger the dragon let out a distressed honk that resounded
across the countryside. They also had to avoid arm waving,
frowning, and generally any type of body language that expressed
their displeasure. It was difficult having a proper argument
with a smile plastered all over her face.
"I am not leaving him!
He's mine and Taylen promised me one." She was having a hard
time thinking of something better to support her side of the
debate. "Besides, you weren't there. I felt it. He trusts
me and you want me to abandon him!"
Madric scowled but an
anxious rustle from Beauford, as she was beginning to think
of him, made him smooth his face into a smile. Well, almost.
"He didn't damn well promise
you this one, now did he?"
She whirled away from
him. Walking as calmly as she could towards Beau, she snatched
her dagger from its sheath. Drawing the knife across her palm,
she dribbled blood over his head. "In the name of the Goddess,
I claim you as mine. You will never want as long as I live."
Madric gaped in a most
satisfactory way. "You made a blood vow for a dragon?" he
croaked. "Have you completely cracked?"
"No, I just want you to
understand. This is important. The Goddess guided me to him,
I know it in my heart." She sat down beside Beau and he shuffled
around to lie next to her, his head resting beside her leg.
He gave a snort of contentment.
Madric stalked to the
far side of camp and plopped down in disgust on his blankets.
She arranged her own blankets and lay down, hoping a night
of sleep would help his mood.
"It means that much to
you?" came the quiet inquiry.
She leaned up on one arm.
"Yes."
Madric sighed in resignation.
"Well, at least we won't
have trouble starting fires." With that, he rolled over in
his bedding and went to sleep.
************************************
Dragons. They flew around
her with violent sweeping motions, their raucous cries screaming
defiance in the face of the enemy. Bright reds, greens and
blues seethed around her. Hot smoke billowed and swirled,
fogging her vision. The cooper smell of blood steeped the
air. The wink and flash of swords glittered through, pointing
the way to her enemy.
Her sword slashed, breaking
through the enemy's line. She must find them. Panic took her
and with it a beserker fury she had never felt before.
She must find them, she
must, she must…
************************************
Kara startled up out
of her blankets so hard she knocked over the water bottle
a foot away from her. Sweat soaked her and she swore she could
still taste blood in her mouth. Beau snuffed her in worry,
her agitation strung tight like a wire between them. She glanced
up to find Madric looking at her in curiosity.
"Bad dream?"
"Yes, I think. It was
odd, almost like it was too real to be a dream." She rubbed
her forehead, trying to dispel that strange sensation. Telling
him of her dream, she described everything she had felt.
He listened, interested
but only said, "Dreams from the God or Goddess can be tricky
things. Don't think on it too hard."
She noticed how high the
sun was in the sky. "You let me sleep in?" she asked incredulously.
He busied himself with
spooning eggs onto a plate. "You needed the sleep." he mumbled.
Not looking her in the eye, he continued. "We will camp here
a couple more days. We haven't had a real rest since we started
out."
She knew that would be
the closest thing to an apology that she would ever get from
him.
"Thank you." She said,
giving him a blinding smile that caused blood to rush to his
face.
"Eggs and venison for
breakfast. We haven't had anything this good in a while. You
have been busy." She stood up and walked over to sit beside
him. Taking a plate from him, she began to shovel food into
her mouth. "The deer carcass is in a tree. For Beau."
She swallowed. "Oh, he'll
love that, thank you." She gave him an enigmatic smile. "If
you gather up what clothes you want washed, I'll do yours
the same time I do mine." It was her turn to receive an unbelieving
look.
After breakfast, she gathered
up the dirty laundry. "Come on Beau." She called over her
shoulder. Pointing up, she showed him where the carcass was
stored. With a bleat of pure joy, he reared up and pulled
it out of the tree.
Leaving him to his food,
she made her way to the pond. She spread out Madric's shirt
across a stone lining the pond's edge and worked soap into
the fabric. She searched for a rock to fit her hand and began
beat the shirt vigorously. The next shirt and then the next
fell under her ministrations.
The rhythm of pounding
rock joined the cadence of her thoughts. Three things kept
running through her mind. Dragons from the dream, no bloodprice
asked, a cunning foe. These thoughts connected somehow and
if she could just make them clear enough to see, she could
draw the triangle.
The answer came to her,
rushing along her veins like embleberry wine on a hot summer
night. She picked up the wet clothes and hung them over tree
branches as fast as she could. Craning her neck, she could
see Beau munching away. She decided to leave him to his food
and ran back to camp.
Madric was examining the
tack to check for needed repairs. She squatted next to him.
Excitement made her voice tremble. "What was the last war
we used dragons in?"
"The war with the Petonians.
That was around a hundred years ago." He said tugging at a
repair he had made to test its strength. "Their nation was
under a severe famine. They sailed across the Benonei Straight
with every warrior they had to try to take our land. If it
hadn't been for the dragons, we would have lost. They were
terrified of them. We scattered their army across all the
Northern nations. It took a year to hunt most of them down."
She chewed her lip. That
concurred with everything her tutor had taught her. "Why did
we stop using dragons in battle?"
He glared up from his
work in exasperation. "For the very reason every ten-year-old
student learns in history. One of the dragons set fire to
a tent with the prince's son in it. He was only one and perished
in the fire. We didn't want to take the chance of killing
an innocent again, so after the war we made the decision to
stop using them. Where are you going with this?"
"Absili law forbids the
killing of innocents in battle. We tried to give bloodprice
to the Petonian prince under the only flag of truce raised
in that war. What happened then?" she prodded. She wanted
him to take the same path she had, to see if he would also
come to the same conclusion.
"He refused. They didn't
believe in bloodprice, only life for life. We ended up killing
the prince and his wife as well. The queen, his mother, escaped.
We never did find her…." His voice trailed off. "You're not
thinking…." He stopped again. Laying down the piece of leather
he was working on, realization broke over his face. "It does
make sense, doesn't it?"
"My dream of dragons in
battle, the fact they asked no bloodprice, plus they are a
worthy enemy, it all points in that direction. We are following
the wrong trail. Or rather, we are following the trail they
set for us. Instead of looking for a man with a scar, we should
be asking about Petonian survivors," she said. Her feet were
going to sleep so she sat next to him on the ground. Picking
up a leather strap, she worried it between her fingers as
she thought. "Even still, that doesn't answer why they decided
to kill me after only playing at it before. It also asks another
question. Why not take me when they took Willie and Taylen?"
"I don't know," he answered
patting her knee, "but if we keep thinking about it. I am
sure we will discover the truth."
*****************************************
"I want a whole one."
She pointed to the huge cow carcasses hanging on hooks in
the back of the butcher's shop.
"A whole one?" The butcher
boy gawked at her. Squinting through one eye like she was
some sort of exotic bird he asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes," she said, exasperated,
"and I want it delivered to my camp, cut into strips. It is
a mile south of town, set off the road in a big glade of trees.
Can you find it?"
"Yes, mum. We'll have
it out to you by the end of the day." He took her money and
disappeared, shaking his head. She strode out of the shop
and mounted her horse. Tied on the back were the other supplies
she had purchased. She grabbed the reins of the three horses
she had bought. Two were for carrying supplies while one was
for Taylen and Willie.
Once she had reached camp,
she set out the supplies so she could properly pack them for
travel. Spying Beau lazing under a tree, she shooed him away.
"You need to stay in the trees so the people from the butcher's
shop don't see you." He ambled off into the underbrush.
In the four weeks that
they had traveled together, Beau had picked up an astounding
understanding of language. It wasn't unusual for a dragon
to understand the spoken word well, it was just he learned
it so quickly.
Madric wasn't back yet.
She really didn't expect him until late this evening so she
set up branches to serve as drying racks. They had tracked
rumors of the Petonian Queen's descendants northwest. All
stories agreed that the queen had married a wealthy glass
merchant in Mehetan City and bore him a son although she must
have seen forty-six summers at best.
They had to prepare to
cross the grasslands of Mehetonian to reach the capitol. It
was a two-week journey, which is why she had to dry so much
meat. Beau gorged himself on meat about once a week while
snacking on berries, nuts and grains in-between kills. They
didn't want to attract the wrong sort of attention if he killed
some farmer's livestock. There were roaming herds of big game,
but no assurances they would come across one and she didn't
want to risk him flying far away from her to hunt. How they
were going to hide him without forest trees to rely on wasn't
something they had figured out yet.
The butcher's men came
and went. She busied herself placing strips of meat over the
drying racks, smoldering fires under each. She didn't have
spices to flavor the meat so it would be rather bland, but
it would do.
Once the men were well
out of sight, she had Beau come out and help her. His firebreath
made an excellent meat dryer, with only two batches of burned
meat before he got the hang of it.
The sigh and creak of
branches sang as she worked. A sharp smell of smoke filled
the air. The glowing embers hissed and spat, died and flared
all around her. It was chilly out, with the sun disappearing
behind the horizon. She was always cold now, not the cold
that bit at fingers and toes during a heavy frost, but a raging
winter in her soul. She missed the heat, the burn and tingle
of Taylen's presence, driving away all impossibilities. She
missed the fire that would burst to life, scouring away time
and thought whenever he was near.
Some nights she dreamed
she couldn't remember Taylen's face, and the very thought
made her shudder. She new it was the way of the Goddess to
dim hurtful memories, easing the path of life, but the very
thought still frightened her.
Beau rubbed his side against
her back, almost knocking her over. "Stop it" she said as
she waved the brush she had been basting the meet with gently
in front of his face. She felt sympathy for him, as itchy
as he must be.
Beau was molting, much
to Madric's aggravation. His armor scales were developing
though he still carried himself with a sinuous grace that
belied any dancer she had ever seen. His sloughed off skin
clung to everything it touched. They had been in this camp
for three days and it was difficult to find one item that
did not have some skin clinging too it. For Madric's sake,
she tried very hard to make sure none got into the drying
meat. The first time she had picked a piece out of her food
and calmly went on eating, she had discovered Madric looking
on with horrified fascination.
About an hour later, Madric
returned to camp. He dismounted wearily. Not saying a word,
he began to unsaddle the horse for the night. His shoulders
hunched against her gaze on his back, blocking the questions
she was going to ask. Watching him in silence, she scooped
some beans and rice on a plate for him.
The delicate smell of
the temoria beans reached him and he turned away from his
horse with a sigh. He sat on the ground and scrubbed his hands
over his face. "I found what we needed to know." He mumbled
through his fingers. "Right now all I want to do is eat and
go to bed. We will talk in the morning."
She handed him the plate
of food. Glancing up, he caught her expression and a tired
smile crossed his face. "Don't worry. I am just exhausted."
"Alright, you go to sleep.
I'll bank the fires." She smiled back at him.
****************************************
The golden light of morning
filtered its way through the trees, waking her with a gentle
insistence. Madric was snoring and even Beau was still asleep.
She pushed her blankets away and sat up. Raising her arms
over her head, she stretched the tingly feeling out of her
shoulders. Yawning widely, she stood up and walked over to
the firepit.
Beau woke with a snort
at the rattling of pans as she started breakfast "Don't you
make sound." She warned crossly as she looked over her shoulder
at him."Madric needs his sleep."
Beau seemed to tiptoe
as he made his way to the stream for his morning drink. Walking
past a drying rack, he knocked it over, sending it to the
ground with a clatter that could have been heard a hundred
yards away. Madric sat up quickly, looking around wildly until
he saw her looking at him.
"I am sorry, I was trying
to keep him quiet for you." She said as she hurriedly hiding
her smile at the site of him.
Shooting Beau a disgruntled
glare he growled, "That's alright. It's past time I was up
anyway."
Eating his breakfast,
Madric explained to her the plan he developed with the information
he discovered the day before. "If we can believe the rumors,
the queen definitely married a glass merchant. The estate
he established for her is well outside Mehetan City, to the
southwest. I believe that we should by pass the city completely
and proceed to the estate cross-country. If we don't pass
through the city, maybe word won't reach them of our arrival.
Not only that, the likelihood of someone spotting Beau will
be smaller."
Setting his plate down,
he took her hand and the grave look returned to his eyes.
"I don't think we are going to have time to send back word
to Absili. If we find them, we will have to get them out ourselves."
She sat with her head
down, knowing he was right. "Yes, that makes sense. We have
gone too far afield. The time to send back word has long past."
Pulling her hand away, she rose to her feet and turned meat
on one of the racks. "The meat should be done in a few days,
we will head out then." she said.
"Good, I have a map that
shows the best water holes on the plain, we shouldn't have
too many problems reaching there."
*****************************************
Wave after wave of golden
grass rippled around them in endless eddies and whorls. The
heady scent of dried grass permeated the air. Tall grasses
rose to their thighs as they rode along. The sky was a beautiful
cerulean blue with whipped white clouds drifting by on gentle
breezes.
As lovely as it was, it
was also devastatingly lonely. The vast open plain bore down,
making them acutely aware they were only two people and one
dragon. Even Beau picked up on the sensation, frequently nudging
her for comfort and curling himself around her when they slept.
The sun dripped blood
red rays onto the horizon, signaling an end to their traveling
for the night. After they set up camp, Kara brought out her
sword and daggers, using her whetstone to sharpen the edges.
The steel reflected the firelight, shaping the blade into
a sword of fire. Setting her whetstone aside, she raised the
blade, resting it on her forehead.
Beau curled his tongue
around her braid, huffing his breath down her shirt. Sheathing
her sword, she laid it aside also. She wrapped her arms around
Beau's head, hiding her face in his neck. Loneliness twisted
her, threatening to sweep her away under its force. Hot tears
flowed down her cheeks.
She felt a hand on her
shoulder. Not wanting to look up, she pressed against Beau
harder. The unrelenting hand forced her to turn. Madric looked
at her, his face mirroring her pain.
Drawing her closer, he
sat next to her and placed his arm around her shoulder. Clearing
his throat, he began. "Do not be ashamed of your tears. Never
have I been prouder of someone than I have been of you. Not
the day my son joined with his wife. Not the day my granddaughter
was born. Not the day Taylen was crowned prince beside his
father." His voice was soft, a soothing sound that glided
along her soul. "I have watched your determination. I have
seen the love you bare for them in your eyes. What ever happens,
you have not failed. No man could ask more from a wife than
you have given."
With that, her sobs broke
free. Madric held her strong and tight, a bulwark against
the rising tides of sorrow. Long after the fire died they
pulled apart, ready to face what was to come.
continue
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