“By tharuks?” He could almost smell the pungent stench of the tusked beasts.
“Now Zens has him.” Her dark eyes were pits of despair.
Kierion had never seen Adelina so down. He’d do anything to make her brown eyes dance again. “When the blue guards said they’d seen him, they said he was healthy, right?”
Her eyes slid away. So maybe that was a lie. But dragons didn’t lie and Riona had shown him this place. He pushed back a branch so she could pass. Snow slid to the ground. “Adelina?”
Her lip trembled. “The council didn’t tell me to collect him at dawn. I-I heard a rumor that there was a Naobian in the forest. I j-just wanted to see if it was him … whether he’d escaped.”
So, he’d been duped. By a friend who was desperate to find her brother.
Tears glimmered in Adelina’s eyes. He put his arm across her shoulders, following the prints. “Come on,” he said. “We’ve come this far. We might as well find this Naobian. Hopefully it is Roberto and he’s escaped.”
“You don’t think it’s possible.” Adelina shrugged off his arm and glared at him, fists on hips. “He’s done it before, you know.”
“What?”
“Roberto. He’s escaped Death Valley before. And you know Tomaaz has.”
That’s right, Tomaaz had crept in and rescued Maazini. “I didn’t know Roberto had been there.”
She nodded. “And Lovina. She was a slave in Death Valley for years. Then there’s the boy Tomaaz brought back.” Chin up, she stared at him fiercely, daring him to disagree.
That was four people who’d made it out. “And Marlies,” he said. “The master healer was there too. So, there’s a high chance this Naobian could be Roberto. There aren’t that many Naobians in these parts.” His eyes slid to her dark hair and tan skin. Foot in mouth time again. “Well, except you,” he said. “Come on. Let’s find him.” Searching had to be better than arguing.
They ducked around a tree trunk. Adelina wrinkled her nose. Kierion hadn’t imagined the stench of tharuk—it had been real. A spine-chilling growl ripped between the trees. Instinctively, Kierion snatched his sword from his scabbard. Curse the Egg, he should’ve nocked an arrow instead. He could have shot that brute running at them. Too late now.
Kierion ran to meet the monster as more tharuks broke from the trees. Adelina’s arrow twanged through the air and struck the beast in the eye. It toppled to the snow. Kierion spun, claws raking past his head. He plunged his sword under another beast’s upraised arm. The monster howled and lunged at him. Driving his sword hilt deep into its body, Kierion ducked, its tusks just missing his head as the tharuk crashed to the ground. Black blood gushed onto the snow.
Kierion kicked the tharuk over and yanked his sword from its body. It twitched. Quick as lightning, the tharuk’s eyes flew open and it whipped its legs around, sending Kierion flying into a tree trunk. His side throbbing, he scrambled to his feet. The tharuk was on its knees, clutching its wound, struggling to stand. Kierion charged, aiming his sword at the beast’s neck, and hacked off its head. Stinking blood sprayed him.
“Kierion.” A shriek rang out. Adelina.
He whirled.
Adelina was up a tree, shooting arrows at beasts prowling around the trunk. A tharuk sank its claws into the bark, ready to climb the tree.
No, not Adelina. Sticking his fingers into his mouth, Kierion whistled. The piercing tone cut through the tharuks’ snarls. They spun to face him.
“Hey,” Kierion yelled, “I just killed your friend.” He waved his blood-stained sword. “Who’s next?”
The tharuks charged.
“Run,” Adelina screamed.
Kierion’s quick-fire instincts had him running before he could even think. He pelted through the trees, leading the beasts away from Adelina.
Their stench wafted after him, their boots thudding through the snow.
Shards, they were faster than he’d expected.
§
Adelina fired at the tharuks chasing Kierion as he disappeared into the trees, bravely drawing the beasts away from her. Her arrow flew into the rear tharuk’s neck, felling it. All those hours Roberto had drilled her at the archery range were finally paying off.
One of the tharuks whirled back to its dead companion. It roared and ran toward her tree. Adelina fired another arrow and another, but the beast zig-zagged, nipping in and out of the trees to avoid her shots.
Suddenly, it was below her, sinking its claws into the bark.
Heart thudding, she aimed. The foliage deflected the arrow, and it hit the snow. The tharuk climbed closer, its snarls turning to grunts as it hefted itself onto a branch, making the tree shake.
Adelina’s next arrow got embedded in a branch. The fetid stink of tharuk wafted up to her.
“Got you.” It grunted, heaving itself higher. Adelina stowed her bow on her back and climbed. If she got high enough, the furry brute would be too heavy for the branches. She scrambled up, pushing off with her legs and yanking her bodyweight up with her arms. As she reached for another limb, her bow snagged on a branch. Shards, she was suspended by her bow and her arms. Kicking with her legs, she tried to find a foothold so she could disentangle herself.
A raucous guffaw came from below. The tharuk climbed onto the branch she’d just been on, making the whole tree shudder. Adelina kicked out as it snatched at her. Her boot struck its head. The tharuk roared and grabbed her legs, yanking hard. Her arms were just about pulled from their sockets. Thank the Egg her bow was snagged, or she’d be in its grip already. Adelina tried to free her legs, but the tharuk yanked again.
The branch snagging her bow snapped.
Adelina fell in a tumble of branches, limbs and tharuk, bashing her body, arms and head. She landed in the snow, winded. The tharuk fell beside her and rolled to stand. Adelina whipped her dagger from her boot, and scrambled up, facing the beast.
§
“Kierion, run into that clearing and I’ll help you,” Riona called in his head. “I can’t see through the foliage. I might burn you instead of those monsters.”
Kierion couldn’t see a clearing, let alone think. The tharuks were practically breathing down his neck. One snagged his archer’s cloak, but he ripped free. His feet churned up snow as he twisted and turned through the trees, trying to dodge the tharuks. “Help Adelina.”
“My duty is to you, Kierion. You’re my rider,” Rona replied.
“Forget your sharding duty.” A tharuk swiped at him, and he spurted ahead, heart pounding. Dragon’s claws, that was close.
“Linaia is with Adelina.” There was a pause.
“What is it? Is she all right?” Kierion faltered.
“Get the human,” a tharuk bellowed.
Another tharuk leapt on him. They crashed to the ground.
Riona’s roars ricocheted through the forest. Flame blasted from above, but it couldn’t penetrate the foliage, only singeing the treetops.
Kierion palmed a dagger from his sleeve and thrust it at the tharuk’s chest. It slid off the beast’s leather breastplate. The tharuk’s claws gashed Kierion’s side. He struggled to free his dagger, but it was trapped beneath his enemy’s body. The beast grabbed his neck, digging its claws into his flesh. Warm blood ran down his throat as the beast squeezed.
Kierion gurgled, his airways tightening. The tharuk’s weight pressing down on his chest didn’t help much either. Desperate, he yanked the dagger out from between their bodies and whacked the tharuk on the skull with the handle.
The beast growled and squeezed harder. Kierion thrashed, hitting the brute again.
The rest of the tharuks formed a ring around them. Guffaws rang out. “Go, 1777. Get the runt.”
“Throttle the human.”
“Choke harder.”
“Riona,” Kierion called.
Above the tharuks’ heads, wings swooped. Riona’s mighty talons grasped a young tree, wrenching it from the earth. The tharuks stopped laughing and spun. Riona swung the tree through
the air, clods flying from the roots, smacking a tharuk with the trunk. Others scattered. 1777 loosened its grip on Kierion’s neck. Kierion jammed his dagger into the soft tissue under the beast’s chin. The tharuk slumped, blood gushing over Kierion’s jerkin.
He rolled, thrusting the hulking beast off him, and ran, gasping. Snarls echoed through the forest. His side throbbing and bruised throat aching, he slipped in the churned-up snow.
Behind him, Riona swung the tree trunk. “We must get back to Adelina,” she melded.
“Is she all right?”
Once again, she was peculiarly silent. Something was up. Being a prankster, he recognized the complicit silence of his dragon—better to say nothing than reveal what was going on. Kierion rounded a grove of trees.
A group of tharuks jumped out from behind the bushes.
Shards, they’d sneaked up from another angle. He darted away. The Egg knew what direction Adelina was in.
The tharuks were gaining on him. Not again. His legs were tiring. There was no way he could outrun them. Climb a tree? Trick them somehow. Shards, his throat hurt. Every gasp of air was agony. The stench of the beasts enveloped him. Their breath rasped in his ears. Dragon’s claws.
A tharuk with a twisted tusk hurled itself at Kierion. A blinding flash of green light zipped between the trees. The beast twitched on the ground, engulfed in emerald wizard flame. A cloaked, hooded figure ran through the snow, flinging a second fireball at another tharuk. Its face caught fire. The beast shrieked with pain.
A few ran off, but two stubborn tharuks remained—a beast with only one ear and another with missing fingers.
The mage threw Kierion his sword. “You dropped this.”
“Thanks.” Kierion snatched it out of the air and lunged, parrying One Ear’s claws. He hit its arm.
The mage shot more flame at Fingerless. Then he aimed his fire at Kierion’s sword. Green flames ran along his blade until it blazed red-hot.
With one look at the glowing sword, One Ear snarled, “Retreat.”
As the beasts ran off, the wizard shot two last fireballs at their backs, felling them to the snow. Mage flame consumed the writhing beasts until they were burned carcasses.
The forest was suddenly quiet, except for crackling fire and Kierion and the mage’s harsh breathing. The stench of tharuk and mage fire hung in the air.
“Kierion?”
This strange mage knew him?
The mage pushed his hood off his face to reveal blond hair and startling green eyes. “Is that you, Kierion?”
It couldn’t be. Not here, in the middle of nowhere, so far north. “Fenni?”
His friend clapped him on the back. “Hey, long time, no see.”
“By the Egg, am I glad to see you.”
Fenni grinned. “My turn to save your sorry carcass.”
Kierion kicked at the snow. “Did your ma ever forgive me for stringing up her chickens?”
Fenni laughed, shaking his head. “You had to have the last word before we left, didn’t you?”
“I am so glad that wizard was here to help you,” Riona mind-melded. “How do you know him?”
“I helped him out of a few scrapes in Montanara.”
“No doubt, after you helped him into them first.” Riona, circling above them, snorted. “Follow me, I’ll take you to Adelina.” She flew over the treetops.
“My friend, Adelina, is back there. We have to help her.”
Kierion and Fenni followed Riona, jogging through the dirty snow. Acrid smoke from mage flame hung in wisps among the trees.
Fenni gazed up at Riona wistfully. “Must be amazing, riding a dragon.”
“It is, but it’s the bond that’s the best. Mind-melding. Nothing quite like it. What are you doing all the way up here? I thought you were staying in Master Giddi’s cabin.”
“We’re up at Mage Gate for the wizard trials.”
A long way to come. “How’d you go?”
Fenni grinned. “I thought I was a goner, but I passed my trials. Seems they’d pitted me against some Naobian master mage.” Fenni blew his breath out. “Jael’s about our age, so I didn’t know he was a master. Even though I lost most of our duels, I still passed.”
Naobian? “What does he look like?”
“Our age, dark hair to his shoulders, dark eyes and skin.” Fenni shrugged. “You know, Naobian, I guess.”
Sounded like Roberto. Maybe that was the man Septimor had seen.
“There are a whole lot of Naobian mages here, and more from Spanglewood. Never knew there were so many wizards around. I thought most of them went through the world gate years ago. What about you? How long have you been a dragon rider?”
“Just a few days.”
“And they let you—Ssh, what’s that?” Suddenly alert, Fenni held a hand up, sparks flitting from his fingertips.
Kierion’s hand flew to his sword. A fox broke out of the underbrush and ran off. “Thank the Egg that wasn’t a tharuk. Come on, I don’t know what’s up with Adelina, but we’d better hurry. Things are way too quiet.”
“I prefer the quiet to those stinking beasts snarling,” Fenni said as they picked up their pace.
“Adelina’s just through those trees,” Riona melded.
“Any tharuks around?” Kierion asked.
“Just dead ones.” Riona’s tone was full of grim satisfaction—and worry.
Kierion and Fenni rounded a strongwood trunk. A huge tharuk was sprawled in the snow among a tangle of branches. It was dead, its neck bent. Beyond it lay Adelina. Face pale and lips tinged blue, she was unconscious. “Dragon’s teeth.” Kierion leaped over the beast and ran to her.
He held his fingers under her nose. Still breathing. Felt her pulse. Heart beating. Covered in scratches and bruises, she had gashes on her legs. He picked her up, cradling her against his chest.
“Wait.” Fenni took off his cloak and tucked it around her. “Hang on for a moment. She’s half frozen. You don’t want her to die on the way to Dragons’ Hold.” Fenni ran his hands over her limbs and face. Adelina’s skin lost that blue tinge. Her icy body grew warmer against Kierion’s chest.
Kierion raised an eyebrow. Useful skill. They had to get her home before more tharuks came.
They traipsed through the trees until they found somewhere the dragons could land. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that Adelina was hurt?” Kierion demanded of Riona.
“Quite frankly, you were in no position to help. You had tharuks breathing down your neck.”
Adelina’s head lolled against his shoulder. What if she didn’t survive? Anger surged in Kierion’s chest. “Don’t withhold information from me again,” he snapped at Riona. “Ever. If we’re partners, we can’t have secrets.”
“I realize now that I should have told you.”
Linaia nuzzled Adelina’s face, her breath gusting over Kierion’s neck.
“She’s worried about her rider,” said Riona.
“So am I,” Kierion admitted. Something fierce stirred in his chest. He wanted to protect Adelina, make sure she was never hurt again.
“Linaia wants to help,” Riona said.
The sapphire dragon sat on her haunches, holding out her front limbs. She wanted to hold Adelina. That made sense. He couldn’t climb into the saddle with Adelina in his arms. He passed her to Linaia and climbed on Riona’s back.
Fenni steadied Adelina as Linaia passed her back to Kierion. “Hang onto my cloak,” he said. “It might come in handy. It’s magicked to make you invisible.”
“I’ll get it back to you.”
“Nah, keep it. I have a spare.” Fenni hesitated.
“What is it?”
Fenni’s brow crinkled. “You know, we fought well together, back there. I think we should practice together. This dumb prejudice about wizards and riders stops us from being our best.”
Kierion tilted his head. “You’re right. I would’ve been dead without you. Besides, you need a ride on a dragon. I’ll meet you at dawn here, the day af
ter tomorrow. Unless Adelina …” What if she didn’t recover?
An icy hole yawned in Kierion’s belly. She had to get better.
“She’ll be fine,” said Fenni. “See you then.”
Wings flapping, Riona lifted off. Linaia flew beside them, crooning. Kierion gazed down at Adelina’s tiny form, cradled against his chest. By the dragon gods, hopefully she’d be all right.
A chill wind sliced through his damp clothes, and he shivered.
Recovery
By the time they landed on the broad infirmary ledge, Kierion’s backside was numb and Adelina’s face was as pale as when he and Fenni had found her. The wizard cloak had protected her from the worst of the chill, but it hadn’t been enough.
“I’ve melded with Liesar, so Marlies is prepared,” Riona said.
Kierion sighed in relief. The master healer was the best in the realm. If she couldn’t heal Adelina, no one could. He swallowed. Gods, it had better not come to that.
The infirmary door opened and Marlies rushed onto the ledge. Riona landed and Linaia dropped to the snow beside them and held her forelegs out for Adelina. Kierion handed her over carefully, then slid to the ground.
Marlies frowned, her turquoise eyes flitting from Adelina to Kierion. “Let’s get her inside.”
Kierion lifted Adelina out of Linaia’s limbs and strode after Marlies into the infirmary. Warmth from a blazing fire hit him.
“Over here.” Marlies indicated a bed near the fire.
Kierion lay Adelina on it.
Whipping off the mage cloak, Marlies rolled it into a tight bundle and handed it to Kierion. “You’d better put this somewhere before someone sees it,” she said in a low voice, glancing at a patient in a nearby bed.
Possessing a mage cloak would get him into trouble? He’d known riders didn’t like mages, but things were worse than he’d thought. Kierion stowed it under the bed, and eased his aching body into a nearby chair.
Marlies examined Adelina’s eyes and ears and felt her head for injuries. “She’s taken a blow here, at the back. That’s probably what’s knocked her out. Would you mind lighting this candle?” She passed him a stub.
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