Dragon Force: The Complete Series

by Lucia Ashta

  I turned to Yoon, looking for any kind of reaction to talk of Pumpoo’s malicious nature. I’d been sure Yoon was on the chieftain’s side. Dean trusted him enough to include him in organizational talks.

  “We have no good place to conceal ourselves now that the forest has burned. We can’t go back to the village and beyond. Our only option is to head in the direction past the clearing or stand our ground here.”

  “Standing our ground means open confrontation.”

  “Probably.”

  “Which means casualties. We need another way.”

  “Once the scouts report back and tell us how far we can go beyond the clearing, it might be what we have to do. Retreat. Run. Because standing to fight means death... to someone, to someone’s blood relation. We have to avoid open conflict at all cost.”

  Yoon said, “We know beyond the clearing is more forest, with occasional clearings. We’ve explored them before.”

  “Aye, but not well enough. I don’t dare lead us all down there without knowing if Pumpoo can trap us. What if after days of marching in that direction we walk straight up to a cliff edge with no way out? It’s likely, of course, given that it happens everywhere on the other side we’re more familiar with. I’ve never walked days’ worth of distance beyond this clearing in that direction, have you?” Dean pointed to the forest that was still rich and dense, capable of concealing all sorts of secrets.

  “No, days in that direction, no.”

  “Exactly. None of us has. We’ve never had reason to. We built our lives on the other side.”

  Shula said, “He’s pushing us out of our home.”

  “He’s doing more than that, Shul. He’s trying to obliterate us, push us completely out of his world.”

  “But he can’t. He needs us. The Ooba need us. If there’s some issue with dragons coming to the village, or raiders even, they’ll need us.”

  “There’s never been a dragon who’s come to the village.”

  “But one could at any time. The dragons are unpredictable, you know that.”

  “Of course I know that, but Pumpoo probably doesn’t. I’m sure he doesn’t think that just because something has been one way for thousands of years it could change in a moment. You and I know that, as does Yoon I’m sure, because we understand the dragons’ nature. Pumpoo doesn’t.”

  “He doesn’t even understand human nature.”

  “Oh, that he does, he understands it well.”

  “That’s why he’s been able to manipulate all of us as he has,” Yoon said. I registered how he included himself in that statement.

  “Then what of the raiders?” Shula asked. “If they were to invade, we’d be the ones to fight them.”

  “We would,” Dean said, “if raiders are truly a threat.”

  “They’ve been in the past.”

  “A past recorded by Pumpoo’s ancestors. Stories told by men perhaps no different than our current chieftain.”

  “That’s true. It could all be a lie. Pumpoo is the most dangerous of Vikas vipers, and he’s made his nest among us. So what are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to wait until the scouts return from beyond the forest. They’re only to go as far as needed to get a good vantage point of the area ahead. But that could take a day, because we need to see that far ahead. I won’t lead a hundred forcers into the unknown. We need to be certain to have an escape even if Pumpoo were to pursue us for days.”

  “He’ll come sooner than that. We don’t have time to wait. We need to trust and go now.”

  “Trust the lives of good men and women to the complete unknown?”

  “Aye, we have to. Because the known factor is worse. We know Pumpoo will be unrelenting. We have to get out of here.”

  Dean stopped pacing to stare at his friend, the one he appeared to trust beyond doubt. “Is this a feeling you’re having?”

  “Yes.” Shula didn’t hesitate. “I just started feeling it. We need to go. Now.”

  Dean stared at her, then across the clearing to where the other tamers and charmers were sharpening weapons and standing around with pent-up, nervous energy—the kind that sensed bad things coming. “All right. Then let’s go.”

  “Just like that?” Yoon asked. “You said we couldn’t head out into the unknown without making sure we couldn’t be pinned down in there. The Ooba might be our people, but Pumpoo will have surely convinced them we’re traitors and a danger, and there are many more of them than us.”

  “You’re right and I know it. But I’ve depended on my senses to keep me alive for too long to ignore them now.”

  “This isn’t your sense, it’s Shula’s.”

  “And?”

  “And... that doesn’t change a thing.”

  “Exactly. We’re a team. We honor all of our contributions. This is far from ideal, but we can keep planning while we’re on the move. We honor Shula’s warning, and we prepare while we go.”

  “All right.” Yoon didn’t sound like he considered it a good plan.

  “Unfortunately, it’s all I’ve got for now. If you have something better, I want to hear about it—right now.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then it’s settled. We’ll move, and while we go, we’ll figure out how to best prepare for Pumpoo’s attack or whatever it is he has planned.” But as Dean brought his hands to cup his mouth to call to attention everyone scattered across the clearing, one of the scouts he’d sent up the mountain trail exited the remains of the forest.

  He was moving far too fast for good news.

  Dean brought his hands to his weapons belt and waited.

  My heart thumped while I waited too. Whatever news we were about to receive would define the future of all of us here—and however much of a future we would have.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “What news do you bring?” Dean called out before the scout even reached us.

  “It’s Pumpoo,” the younger man said, breathing heavily. “He’s almost here.”

  “What? How’s that possible?”

  The scout didn’t say more until he skidded to a stop in front of us. “I don’t know, but he’s coming, and he’s coming fast. He’ll be at the pools in minutes.”

  “Which means we don’t have time to do much to prepare, dammit. All right. How many does he come with?”

  The scout stood up straight and somber. “With everyone.”

  “What do you mean, everyone?” Shula asked.

  “I mean, he comes with every single person of the Ooba tribe, as far as I can tell.”

  “He can’t come with every single person. Some are too old, young, or infirm to participate.”

  “Aye, I mean every single Ooba but them. The mountain trail is crowded. They even travel with oxen.”

  “Oxen? What on O could they want them for?” Dean asked.

  “I have no idea, but what are we going to do?”

  Dean stared at the scout, dark hair stuck to his forehead with the slick of sweat. “The only thing we can do. Thanks for getting the news to us so quickly. Now I need you to spread the message, everyone is to assemble here, on the clearing. As quickly as you can, as quickly as they can. Got it?”

  “Got it,” and he tore out of there, back in the direction he’d come.

  Dean didn’t waste any time watching his retreat. He turned toward Rane and Traya. “Get Rosie into one of the caves and keep her out of sight until I send for you.”

  It was easy to read between the lines. Rane and Traya were to escort Rosie and me to the caves. Dean claimed to trust Yoon, but he wasn’t revealing my presence. Or maybe that was just because my secret wasn’t his to tell, just as he’d claimed for Yoon.

  “Go now.”

  “Pumpoo already knows about Rosie, so why hide her?” Rane asked, even as he stood to comply.

  “Because him knowing about her, and us tempting him with her, are two different things entirely. Better to keep her out of sight—”

  “And out of mind.”

&n
bsp; “Right. You’re catching on, son.”

  Only because I knew my brother so well did I notice that the casual use of “son” caused him to tense. It was just for a second, and it wasn’t obvious, but that still-open wound of our father’s death was a constant reminder of what we’d already lost.

  As sharp as Dean was, he definitely didn’t notice. He was already turned to face Shula and Yoon in intense conversation. “The best I can figure,” he was saying, “is to make ourselves look as intimidating as possible.”

  “Pumpoo doesn’t get intimidated,” Yoon said.

  “He doesn’t, but all the people he brought with him do.”

  Yoon nodded. “True. So you want all of us here on the clearing, what? With our swords drawn?”

  “No, I don’t want any overt threats. We’ve heard what Pumpoo said about us, but he didn’t say it to us. As far as we’re concerned, we’re still the Dragon Force, protectors both of the dragons and the Ooba people. Let’s remind the people of who we are.”

  “We’ll have to override all the lies Pumpoo’s been feeding them,” Shula said.

  “We will, and I doubt Pumpoo will allow us much opportunity to speak with them, but an image can be worth more than words. If we stand as the force they’re used to seeing as their protectors, that might trigger in them the understanding of who we are and what we’ve always done.”

  “That’s not a very solid plan,” Yoon said.

  “It isn’t, but it’s the best given the circumstances, I think. We can’t fight the people, right? And we don’t have time to retreat. Besides, what would be the point of retreating when Pumpoo still hasn’t outwardly threatened us?”

  “He threatened us plenty at that underground trap,” Shula growled.

  “True, but he let Jore do most of his dirty work. He might still think there’s time for diplomacy.”

  “There’s no true diplomacy with that man.”

  “Exactly, but he might believe he can warp words and the truth in such a way as to bring about the outcome he wants, without getting the people, whose support he counts on, killed.”

  Traya had already started in the direction of the caves when she turned and asked, “What does Pumpoo want?”

  “That, smart girl, is the key question. Because no matter what Pumpoo says or does, this is all about him and his ultimate desires. And even though I might not yet understand the specifics of his particular wants, I do know that what he craves is power.”

  “He already has power,” Rane said. “More than any other Ooba. More than you.”

  Dean smiled with little mirth. “I don’t have power, nor do I want it. I have trust, and therefore I have influence. What Pumpoo wants is different. He wants to control everyone and everything.”

  “He already does!”

  “We heard him with our own ears. He has faithum, he says. He wants more of it. I don’t know exactly what he wants to do with whatever faithum he already has, but whatever it is, it won’t be good for the Ooba, you can count on that. The fact that he wants to use the dragons to expand his access to faithum indicates that he has plans beyond what I’m aware. And that, son, is something we’ll need to find the way to defend against.”

  “He’s coming,” Shula said. For the first time, I heard anxiousness in the solid woman’s voice.

  “But he should barely be at the pools!” Yoon protested.

  “It doesn’t make sense, but I feel him.” Shula looked straight at me. “Move.”

  The urgency, which vibrated through her deep voice, propelled me forward. I didn’t risk a word to Rosie in front of Yoon, but guided her with my hand, even though she probably would have followed me anyway. Rane and Traya were right behind us, making it seem for anyone who bothered to look as if the baby dragon was leading the way.

  We reached the entrance to the cave just as I caught sight of a shade, its colors muted by the dipping Plune Moon.

  “We cut it close,” Rane whispered, even though we were too far away for the chieftain to overhear us.

  “How’s he even moving that fast?” Traya said. “I’ve never seen him move fast.”

  “He always draws his movements out to receive the most attention,” I said.

  “Strange,” Rane said.

  We watched Pumpoo, flanked by Jore and another emissary, who held the shade above the chieftain’s head, step onto the clearing we’d just occupied. An avalanche of people flooded onto it behind him.

  Dean hadn’t managed to assemble all the charmers and tamers behind him as he’d hoped. We weren’t yet the imposing threat he’d wanted to portray. Nothing had gone to plan since I’d first met Dean by the sacred pools not that many days before. But that didn’t stop the Dragon Force from shoring up with all the strength they could muster, and between all of them, it was a lot.

  Charmers and tamers continued to arrive and assemble both behind and on either side of Dean, Shula, and Yoon. Dean didn’t have to instruct them to look formidable. It was something innate to them. Decades of training had transformed people much like the Ooba who stood behind Pumpoo, and sharpened them into the forcers who stood with us.

  The villagers with Pumpoo weren’t weak. Most of them were strong and fit from the hard labor required to sustain an agricultural village. But they weren’t forcers. They’d had to face the harshness of life under the rule of a corrupt chieftain, but they hadn’t stared down dragons—day after day. They hadn’t lived with the knowledge that, if any threat ever arrived from the outside, they’d be the ones to defend against it.

  In the end, the greatest foe proved to be the one within. The forcers who converged on the clearing were all armed, and their hands twitched close to their weapons belts. I didn’t think most of them even noticed.

  But Pumpoo must have, even if he didn’t let on, even if he didn’t appear threatened.

  “Why doesn’t he look afraid?” I asked my siblings.

  “I was just wondering the same thing,” Rane said. “If I were coming up against that force of warriors, I’d be freaked out.”

  Traya said, “They do look pretty amazing, don’t they?”

  “Like they could crunch Pumpoo between their fingers,” I said.

  “So why does he look smug as a cat who just captured the mouse?” Rane asked.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. I don’t feel good about this.”

  “What’s there to feel good about? Our chieftain, who’s supposed to be the one protecting us, looks like a dragon with his prey in his sights.”

  “That’s exactly what he looks like.” I petted Rosie nervously. “What do you think, girl? Does he look like a big, bad dragon?”

  “He most definitely does,” Traya answered for Rosie.

  “I can’t stand that puny man.” Rane spit the words out.

  “Let’s just hope for the best.” It’s what I was doing; it was all I could do, and it felt far from enough. “Remember what Dean said. He said thoughts and words are energy that can create effects.”

  “I heard him, but that’s not helping me now. This is definitely not good.”

  I wanted to tell Rane to just believe, to trust in Dean and whatever faithum apparently he and his elite team had managed to access. But the reality was that I was squirming inside. I felt decidedly uncomfortable watching Pumpoo glide across the clearing as if he owned it, as if he were a master puppeteer, who maneuvered everyone to his wishes.

  Pumpoo drew to a stop a body’s length from Dean. The throngs of people behind Pumpoo stopped when he did. There were so many Ooba following Pumpoo that they continued to trail through the smoldering forest after they’d filled their side of the clearing. They didn’t all fit, there were that many of them, and the clearing was large.

  Dean had a hundred or so fierce men and women behind him.

  Pumpoo might not have declared war on the warriors—yet—but the division between forces couldn’t have been more evident.

  It was us against them, and it didn’t much matter that we didn’t want
to be against them, just Pumpoo. The chieftain was dragging innocents into a battle, and I would bet he was wagering we wouldn’t be willing to hurt them. He ruled unfairly; he would fight the same way.

  The moon completely dropped behind the horizon. We dipped into darkness. I couldn’t see a thing beyond the cave where we hid out of sight, but I knew Pumpoo must be speaking. What I was beginning to identify as his energy rolled off my skin, making me want to bathe and scrub him off me. “He’s talking.”

  “I don’t hear anything,” Rane said.

  “Neither do I,” said Traya.

  “He definitely is. I can feel it. I need to hear what he’s saying.”

  “Dean will tell us what to do when he can,” Rane said. “We just have to wait.”

  I’d spent a lifetime waiting to do whatever little thing I managed, whatever I was allowed within a life I walked in shadows. I wasn’t doing that anymore. Whatever was going down right now, it was big, and I wasn’t about to watch from the outside and have to live with the regret of doing nothing later.

  “I’m going out there to listen.”

  “No you aren’t.” Rane reached for my arm. In the darkness, he didn’t find it in time.

  I knew everything he was going to say and all the good reasons he was going to give for staying put. It’s what Dean had asked me to do. It was safer, especially now that my invisibility fluctuated.

  But I wasn’t up for listening to reason. I needed to get out on that clearing to understand what was going on; the urge was strong. I needed to do this, the message thumped through me, urging me forward before the sun had the chance to rise and illuminate my rippling edges when I moved.

  I’d stepped out of the cave. Rane seemed to sense he’d already lost me. “What about Rosie? She’ll give you away. She’ll be in danger if Pumpoo sees her.”

  “You’re right.” Rosie was already moving with me. “I’ll just make her invisible again.”

  “But that didn’t work last time. You lost your control over her. That’s what started all this mess to begin with.”