Max reached the bottom and could tell he had broken his ankle when he landed as he had heard it snap. Max looked up and could see the torch peering down into the hole he fell in. He could barely make out faces but little else as he was in too much pain. Max tried to get out of their line of sight and backed up into a boulder about his height. One of his pursuers let the torch drop which fell to the ground and illuminated the room.
“I think I see him down there” Max heard the griffin rider say.
“Well then go down there and get him” another voice said.
“How am I going to do that?” the griffin rider asked. “We don’t have any rope, besides I don’t trust the area we are standing on, it already collapsed once and that is a long way down”.
“Well we gotta finish him off, we still have the others to find” a voice said then paused. “Well he cant get out of there anyway, but we still need to make sure he is dead”.
Max turned around and at the top of the strange craggy boulder looked like a sword. Finally a bit of good luck Max thought as he tugged hard on the sword and yanked it out. The sword looked to be in good condition from what Max could see from the light given off by the fallen torch. Max climbed down with his sword and picked up the torch.
“If you want me you come get me yourself” Max cried out as he waved the sword around.
“I knew I should have brought my arrows” Max heard a boy say that he thought was Tom from yesterday.
“Well you didn’t” Max teased. “And you were too stupid to look up in the tree last night. Why don’t you come down here so I can kill you”. Max didn’t really believe he could kill Tom, but right now he had no way out of the hole. If anything he could trap Tom down here with him, if he had to die maybe he could take Tom with him.
“Nice try street rat” Tom said with a laugh. “I can tell your leg is busted and you have no way out of that hole. I should let you starve to death down there, maybe I will come back in three weeks or so and throw another street rat down there. You could fight to the death and the winner could eat the loser. In fact I may go get another street rat right now”.
Max went to reply with the ground started shaking. Max looked up and could see the hole he fell down was crumbling. Almost mesmerized, Max was too slow to move out the way as a large chunk of rock conked him on the head. Max went down and had blurry vision. The torch landed just to the side of him as Max was fighting not to lose consciousness. He could make out people swearing and shouting as another piece of rock bashed him in the head and sent him into oblivion.
CHAPTER 3
MARY
“Mary come here and be a part of this conversation” Queen Alissa demanded as she pat the seat next to her. “This is something that involves you more than I”.
Mary sat next to her grandmother and took a deep breath. Her Grandmother Alissa had ruled Gale for over 50 years, Alissa’s mother had died during childbirth which made Alissa next in line for the throne. Her grandmother had been including her more and more in the decision making process but her grandmother was a cold woman. There wasn’t any love between them Mary thought; this was more like a business arrangement. The feelings could have come from the fact Mary was directly responsible for her mother’s death but had put it out of her mind long ago. Mary looked around the table and could see the Duchess of Pem was busy with what looked like a list of names.
“Now Grace” Queen Alissa said to the duchess. “Repeat what you just said to me”.
“Your Highness” the Duchess said to Mary. “I was telling her majesty about an impending attack by the Macom Empire. They are a nation far to south who has begun making war all over the place. They have conquered three small nations so far, and are currently at war with our neighbor Razon to the south. The Razonians are our mortal enemies so I do not expect for them to ask for our assistance, not that we could give it if we wanted”.
“There has been unrest amongst the poor people” the Queen began. “Especially those who live near the border with Razon, they have been complaining of Razonian raids. They are a small but sizable number who I expect will try and revolt in the next couple years or so. If we go to war on the behalf of the Razonians then the timeline for revolt would be moved up. Imagine being raided for years by the enemy then being forced to go fight on their behalf”.
“Why haven’t we just stopped the raids?” Mary asked.
“That is difficult to do without starting a war with Razon” the Queen said as she pointed to a map on the side of the table. “This is a dry horrible stretch of land which separates us from Razon, the only game to be found are rabbits and rodents. Making the matter worse is the fact grasses needed to feed livestock doesn’t really grow there either so bringing food is out of the question. It is because of this, the land there is unowned by any Lady, it is a desolate place. Poor men tend to flock down there to make a life for themselves where they are free to do as they see fit, including not paying taxes. Taxes pay for standing armies, if I don’t receive any the troops do not move. Now in order to fight off some raiders, we would need to move a sizable force down there complete with supplies. This force if seen by Razon would get our neighbor to send out an even bigger force in return. Soon a war would be started over a couple of men too stupid to look out for themselves”.
“So what do we do about Macom?” Mary asked.
“Well we know which way Macom will have to come from” Duchess Pem spoke. “I recommend building garrisons as close as possible to our fertile lands”.
“Why do you think this is Mary?” Queen Alissa asked.
“I am not sure Your Majesty” Mary replied. “It seems that our good land stops almost a day from the border with Razon. If we are way back here they could march their armies right through our land for a solid day before meeting resistance”.
“That’s common sense girl” the Queen snapped. “Now act like you have paid attention to the lessons I have been teaching you. What do you know about the land beyond the border with Razon up until our proposed garrisons”.
“That the land is desolate?” Mary replied a little nervous.
“And how long would it take them to walk a big army from their desolate side until they reach our border?” The Queen asked as Mary finally got the idea.
“It would take them at least two days with a big army just to get to our lands” Mary began as the idea formed. “It would take at least another two days for them to reach our well rested fighting force”.
“Exactly your highness” the Duchess said as she clasped her hands together. “During this march of theirs, the griffin riders could do great damage from above. They can do even more damage to the resupply points the Macomian army would have to set up”.
“That would cripple them, but based on the size of their army, couldn’t they just overrun our garrisons and live off the land?” Mary asked. “I don’t think we have enough griffin riders and I know we don’t have enough dragoon riders”.
“That can be settled easily enough” the Duchess replied. “We can just give them away to worthy poor males”.
“The nobles would have a fit” Mary replied, the biting tone in her voice surprising even her.
“They would but it is about time to take some of them down a peg” the Queen said as she stood up. “I have known I have been dying for the last couple of months. Our mages cannot seem to find the answer, it is likely I will die before this war with Macom has been decided. You child are my heir, now you are going to need your own”.
“What does me having an heir have to do with the war?” Mary asked.
“Silence girl, I am not finished speaking” Queen Alissa snapped. “Now many nobles have presented their sons as suitable partners. I don’t trust any of those conniving bitches, it is a shame Grace had only daughters. Talk has spread amongst those with aspirations to take the throne from you when I die, you are not a mage and will be seen as easy pickings. With the war looming I want to have tournaments all over this Queendom. The way I imagine it, it
will be weapons combat. The winners will get the opportunity to become dragoon riders, we will spread rumors a war is coming starting now. The tournaments can start happening in two months from now and can stretch out for a period of up to year. This would allow our very best warriors to become riders, if a war is coming, how many nobles do you know want to send their sons off to that?”
“Not many your majesty” Mary replied.
“Of course not” the queen continued. “These tournaments will be held in conjunction with smaller weight limited tournaments, can you guess the reason why?”
“In order to find griffin riders?” Mary replied.
“Of course except the rules will allow anyone under a certain weight to enter” the Queen said as she faced Mary. “This would allow children in, since we are not mandating them to be riders but they would join with their parents blessings the pushback would be non-existent. Now in the middle of all this is the grand tournament, tell me Mary do any of the noble men around catch your fancy?”
“Of course not” Mary protested. “Many are lazy and good for nothing other than making babies. Even the dragoon riders tend to let themselves go since their animal normally does all the work”.
“I suspected as much” the Queen replied. “The Grand tournament winner will get the biggest prize of all, your hand in marriage”.
Marriage?” Mary said shocked.
“Yes marriage” the Queen continued. “Whoever you marry should be strong enough that they inspire fear from anyone stupid enough to make an attempt on your life. Men from all over will train as hard as they can, especially since it will be an open tournament. You will get strong heirs from the strongest male in Gale, this would eliminate most of the fat sons from trying to get into your bed”.
Mary thought about what her grandmother was saying and admitted it made sense. The populace could be trained right away without using any funds for the upcoming war. The problem she saw with this though is that the tournaments only had one winner, what if there were other worthy males in the fight. They should not remain anonymous, they may not become beast riders but they should be singled out.
“The runners up, maybe those in the semifinal they should receive something” Mary said as her plan came together. “Maybe they could be made cavalry; we still have a great many horses and no riders. Or maybe they could start off in the military with some rank already”.
“Now you are thinking” the Queen said smiling. “If I am not around you should do well in this war. When in war I will tell you what my mother told me. It is not okay just to win, your enemy must also lose. If you don’t know the meaning of those words you soon will. Now leave me a Grace to talk, I have other things to discuss than a war more than a year away”.
Mary left her grandmother and thought about the tournaments. There couldn’t be too many since there were only five dragoons at the moment without riders and the female only produced an egg every other month. Luckily dragoons got big fast and would be ready to ride within six months. The griffins though were always plentiful, though Mary wished she knew more about how they reproduced. The griffins only laid eggs in one place, griffin isle, a small island towards the western end of Gale. Mary would have many more griffin tournaments, probably one in every major city and in some out of the way towns. This could get everyone excited, especially if everyone in the semifinals of every tournament is automatically entered into the Grand tournament. The populace would go crazy and really buy in to the war, and why shouldn’t they, they would already have their heroes. Not to mention the mages were still on the table and were a big threat in their own right, this war would be won no matter how tough Macom was.
CHAPTER 4
DRAGONBREED
Max opened his eyes slowly, as soon as the light hit them he slammed his eyes down shut as the pain was intense. Where ever Max was, he was cold as he could feel the wind whipping around him. Gingerly, Max opened his eyes and looked around. He was on the ground near what looked like a wall, he would have thought it was the wall of city he grew up in but this one was made from different materials. Max rolled over and got to his knees and almost lost it. Gone were his hands, in their place where red scaled claws attached to thick muscular scaled arms. Max moved one of them to make sure he was not imagining things then hurried and climbed to his feet. Max was taller, this he could see as he looked around at his body. He was covered in scales from practically head to toe, only his neck, face and groin seemed to be spared. The rest of him though had thick dark red scales, Max stuck out a claw and scratched one, other than pressure he didn’t feel anything. Max wanted to scream but his stomach did that for him. Max had no idea how long he had been out or even how he got here. What he did know was that his head should have been hurting and he probably should have died from the hands of the beast riders. Max sniffed the air and looked to his left, he smelled rabbit. This frightened Max all over again.
Max had never hunted a day in his life, even if he had how did he know rabbits were in the area based on smell alone? Max sniffed the air harder and peered into the wooded area surrounding the wall. His eyes sharpened and he could make out faint tracks of a rabbit among the vegetation. How did Max know this? Then things started coming back to him in memories, just not his own. Max was now Dragonbreed, a human bonded with a dragon. The dragon he bonded with was called Xander, he was a alpha dragon. Female dragons were smaller and a lot more plentiful than male dragons, they had no wings and normally found themselves a hunting ground and stayed. Male dragons, the few that existed would visit these hunting grounds and claim them for their own. Males would often run afoul of each other and violence would ensue, because of this male dragons became fewer and fewer but the ones that did survive passed on their best attributes. Those with thicker scales and more horns atop their neck were likely to win fights and mate, as were those with incredible speed, they could handle their business then flee before other dragons could catch them. A rare few dragons had the ability to spit fire, Xander the dragon that had bonded to Max could do all these things.
Xander and the other dragons had been hunted to extinction; the only ones to survive were those who made pact with human mages to place them in the deep sleep. Xander though had been tricked and had a magical sword thrust into his brain. This should have killed the dragon, but instead it put him in a deep sleep. The how or why the dragon did not know. The sword had been removed, it was the same sword laying at Max’s feet. The sword was magical despite its unassuming nature, it could channel the heat of dragon fire and effect any within a three foot radius of the blade. It was also wickedly sharp and could cut through things with ease once it got really hot. Max picked up the sword and stared at it, it just looked like any plain old sword to Max. Max held the sword and focused on heat, nothing happened. The memories he had said it would work but Max felt no heat coming off the blade. As Max lowered it to the ground, the vegetation around him began to get dark and wilt, some even caught fire that Max had to stomp out with his now weird clawed feet. Max had been turned as gratitude for waking up Xander, according to the dragon’s memories Max had been about to die before the change took place. Each dragon could only bond once in their life, Max now shared in the dragon’s power which explained everything that was happening to him. Max needed to find out what kind of city he was in and get some food but admitted this would be tough. He was practically naked since he busted out of his old clothes when he became Dragonbreed and it was likely his scales would go noticed the instant anyone saw him. Luckily though it would be dark soon, he could sneak into the village and see what he could find from there. He had no idea where he was, his memories from the dragon only lasted from right up until the bonding.
As soon as it became dark Max snuck into the village, not that it was very hard since it seemed no one was manning the walls anyway. Where ever Max was at must have had been a very military type place, he could hear steel ringing out on steel practically everywhere. Max looked at himself and could see not only was his vision sharpe
r he had some kind of night vision going as he could see much more than normal. In the dark it looked like he was wearing some type of weird clothing as long as no one looked at him too closely. Max walked down the main street, or what he thought was main street as merchants screamed out prices of goods. Everything seemed to be combat related, there were weapons and armor of every kind being sold at a time merchants should have already been locking up shop. It didn’t look like a festival or anything special was going on to bring in outside travelers, that was the only reason Max could think of to stay open so late. The only other thing was that they somehow got new items that were in demand.
“Why are you open so late?” Max asked the woman at a cart obviously filled with cheap looking leather armor.
Max the Dragon Warrior Page 2
