The lights grew bigger and closer and after a moment Hubric and Kyrowat passed us, leading the way toward the light.
Eventually, we drew close enough for me to see a massive wooden structure nestled into the side of the mountain. A wide platform ringed with lit lanterns was waiting for the dragons to land and a large house with wood beam walls and well-lit windows waited beside it.
Excitement mixed with longing inside me. There might even be a bed there! I hadn’t slept in a soft bed in ... years.
Hubric and Kyrowat landed neatly on the platform and he was already dismounting as Saboraak descended. Her landing was just as minimalist and tidy. At least she could fly, even if she was bad at being ridden.
I heard that. I’ve been flying all my life, you know. Kyrowat says there are dragon cotes here. I’m looking forward to seeing them.
Me, too. It will be a first for both of us.
A greeting party was already assembling, three men carrying lanterns and displaying wide grins strode toward the platform over a long wooden walkway from the large house. The leader carried his lantern on a pole and a dark cloak swirled around him. I had a sudden memory of a crow I’d seen picking through the ashes of Vanika, but that was probably only because his nose looked exactly like a beak.
I’d better go be polite.
I leapt off Saboraak’s back, hurrying to join Hubric. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something flash, but when I looked up there was nothing there, only the welcoming smile of the leader.
I was seeing things.
Wait.
Was that a silver swirl in his eye?
Chapter Nine
“HO! GRANTON!” HUBRIC called, as if he knew who these people were, but though the men approaching us waved, none of them spoke.
I reached for my belt knife, wishing I had the dagger with me. It was still stuffed in my saddlebags, of course. There was something strange about these men. Hubric shifted from foot to foot and in the gleam of the lanterns, I saw a knife appear in his hand.
When they were still two paces away their leader addressed us.
“Hubric I know, but who is this?” His eyes glittered in the lamplight, but I didn’t see a silver swirl in them this time. Was I just seeing things? I was still nervous about Ephretti’s warning – that these men with silver in their eyes were looking for me.
“Where is Granton?” Hubric asked.
He adjusted his stance to put his weight on his back foot. I’d seen that in men before. They shifted like that when they expected a fight. My gaze shifted back to the three men holding lantern poles. Those could be used as weapons easily enough.
“The old man that kept this place? Gone. He left it to us.” The leader tilted his head slightly.
“And the girl with him?”
“A pretty thing and so set on adventure ... ” He let his voice trail off as if the answer was in the words he didn’t say. I shivered. I wouldn’t want a man like that near anyone I cared about. Who was this girl to Hubric?
“What did you do to her?” Hubric asked, his tone low, almost a growl.
The leader grinned. “Nothing. She decided to travel.”
Hubric’s body tensed.
“Come in and eat with us. It’s too cold to stay out here. We can share all the news inside,” the leader said.
I took a step backward. Inside, we’d be separated from our dragons. Saboraak and Kyrowat could toast these three where they stood, but I doubted Hubric and I would be as capable. Hubric looked torn. Clearly, he was worried about his friend. Was he trying to find a way to get more information about her? It was too bad that the dragons couldn’t read these men’s minds.
We can, but we can only read what they are thinking.
And do they know where Hubric’s friend is?
I don’t know.
Are they enemies?
Certainly.
Hubric took a step forward and I cursed inside. Better to fly away and figure out our next move. We could sneak in here later if we needed to. If we followed them into the house now, we’d be outnumbered, and they could easily overwhelm us away from the dragons. How many more men could be hiding in that house?
“Where did Granton go?” Hubric asked, head cocked to the side.
Ah. A testing question. Even I could tell that his next move would depend on the answer. The glitter in the leader’s eye told me he knew, too. He smiled easily, but was that a flash of nervousness in his eye?
“North. He needed supplies and said-”
Surrounded! We’re surrounded.
I spun at Saboraak’s panicked thoughts, only to see dark shapes rushing in. One of them held a rod high over his head. Silver light spun out from it, crackling into lightning bolts. The first one struck Saboraak’s tail and she shrieked. The shriek turned to a roar and she spun, flaming at the figures.
Hubric cried out to my right and I saw him in a deadly lock with the leader, both men wielding knives and tangled around each other like wrestlers.
“Where’s the girl?” he demanded.
I dodged a second man at the last second, narrowly missing his grasping arms. I wasn’t much of a fighter, but I stabbed out frantically with my knife and felt it hit something. It stuck for a moment and I wrenched it loose. There was a cry as the man who attacked me fell into the shadows. Was that blind luck?
I didn’t have time to register what just happened or how Hubric was doing when a second man lunged forward. A magenta burst of flame left his hand, flashing toward me. I dove to the ground. Wincing at the hard smack of my body against the rock. I’d landed on something metal.
My heart was pounding so hard it was difficult to hear. I felt like I should be looking at everything at once, but my eyes were too slow and my hands too shaky.
I heard a squeal of pain as Hubric repeated himself. “The girl! Tell me!”
“North, she went north!”
“Like Granton did?” There was a note of warning in Hubric’s voice.
Another squeal of pain. “With friends. She went with friends.”
Behind me, heat and light burst in steady flares. The dragons were fighting. No time to turn to look. Saboraak could look after herself.
I guess I’ll have to if that’s the best you can do.
I grabbed at the metal lamp pole I’d landed on, hurrying back to my feet just in time to see a second fireball streaking toward me. I never signed up for magical battles! This was madness!
I leapt to the side and then darted forward, striking the Magika with the heavy lamp pole and then spinning to find Hubric in the mess of the battle.
His attacker was on the floor whimpering, but a second man raised his lamp pole and green mist stretched out from the lamp like tentacles, clawing toward Hubric. Hubric’s eyes narrowed and his hand darted out like a viper, the knife flying from it to lodge in the throat of the Magika. He fell to the ground, his lamp and the green mist falling with him.
“Run!” I yelled, taking my own advice and dashing toward our dragons. I grabbed Hubric’s arm as I passed, spinning him around to run with me.
“They always forget that a simple thing can defeat all their flashy magic.”
“They aren’t the only ones who made a mistake here. Why didn’t you realize right away they weren’t your friends?” I asked, ducking under the swinging arm of a fresh attacker and letting his arm clang against the lamp pole. That was going to hurt him in the morning. I could still feel the vibrations of the hit twanging through my arms.
“I was curious.”
Curious? He risked our lives because he was curious? Hubric threw a second knife barely missing my face. I gasped. What in the –? The sound of something heavy hitting the floor behind me cleared up my confusion. The crazy old man just saved my life. Again.
Hurry! There are too many to hold off forever. I’ve never seen magic come from objects before.
I was hardly an expert on magic. Although I already knew I didn’t like it. I was an expert at not liking it, if that counted.
There was a path clear to Saboraak and I rushed across it, leaping up on her back as if I mounted dragons every day. She was so busy flaming shadow after shadow that I thought she hadn’t noticed until she launched so suddenly into the air that I fell backward, barely catching myself on the saddlebags.
Next time worry about clipping in and not about what I’m doing. We can’t be a team if you’re second-guessing me.
Fair point.
The lights below faded as we climbed into the sky. Where were Hubric and Kyrowat?
Right behind us. They’re fine.
So much for hot food and a warm bed.
Stop complaining. You aren’t the one with a bleeding tail and lightning welts.
Was she okay?
Please address all comments to me directly.
It was just a thought!
Please address all thoughts to me directly.
I didn’t know if I was clenching my jaw in frustration at her constant orders or at the frustration that I still hadn’t received a proper meal even after selling my soul to the twin devils of Hubric and Saboraak but if I clenched it any harder it would probably crumble like rock in a landslide. Maybe I should have taken my chances with those madmen below. They probably had hot food and they weren’t any crazier than my current companions.
A growl rippled through Saboraak, shaking me in my seat.
Skies and stars! These two were going to be the death of me!
Chapter Ten
WE FLEW FOR SO LONG in the dark that I had no idea where we were when we finally set down in a cluster of thick trees.
“Get some sleep. We’ll talk in the morning,” Hubric said, but it barely registered as I slid off the saddle and fell to the frozen earth.
Ugh. I should find somewhere warm, so I didn’t freeze to death, but I was so tired ... so very, very tired.
Something leaned up against me and then warmth flooded me. Oh, soup and biscuits – yes! That was nice. Mmmm. I was mostly asleep before I realized that I was being warmed by a fire-breathing dragon. A cranky, demanding fire-breathing dragon.
Just give the attitude a rest for a few seconds and get some sleep.
I woke to the smell of a wood fire.
I rolled over, regretting it immediately as the cold hit me like a vengeful hammer. Ngh! I blinked life into my eyes, scrubbing the crusty sleep out of the corners and sitting up.
We were camped on a rocky hillside looking over the pine forest below. Hubric was busy with a tiny wood fire and a kettle. It looked promising. I gathered my cloak around me and stood. Both dragons lay with heads on their forepaws, eyes shut to the world.
“They flew hard yesterday and both need to heal,” Hubric said, blowing gently on the tiny tongue of flame he’d created. “Caf?”
“Do you have any food?” I asked hopefully.
“Check your saddlebags. Remember when I filled them at the cabin?”
I walked stiffly to the Saboraak’s side, trying not to disturb her as I rummaged in the bags. Skies and Stars! There was food in here!
He couldn’t have said that before? There was also that cloth package Ephretti gave me. I grabbed it, too. This was the first chance I’d had to even look at it.
My stomach rumbled so loudly that I was afraid it would wake Saboraak as I returned to the fire, hard crackers and dried meat in hand. I was already stuffing them in my mouth as quickly as I could.
“Go easy on it,” Hubric warned. “I had expected to resupply at the post last night.”
I was holding more food than I’d seen in a week. There was no way I wasn’t going to eat it. I’d worry about finding more after I was done eating what I had.
Hubric cleared his throat and I looked up guiltily, my mouth stuffed so full with food that I could barely chew. He was only offering me a steaming tin mug. I accepted it gratefully, ducking my head in thanks since my mouth was full.
“What did you learn from last night?” he asked when my mouth was empty enough to talk.
Last night? I’d been too busy surviving to learn much – except that I was really beginning to hate Magikas.
“Those Magika guys are trouble. But if you’re fast you can get past their defenses.”
“And?”
“They said that they didn’t know who I was, but they seemed to have an interest in you.” Although, if Ephretti was to be believed, they had an interest in me, too. I would just have to keep my eyes open to see for myself. No point mentioning that, though. It would only make me sound crazy.
Hubric sipped his caf. “No surprise there. I’ve been more in the eye of the public than I ever asked to be.”
“I thought you were a spymaster.”
He laughed. “That’s still new. And I’m going to have to become more forgettable to make that work.”
“They took that friend of yours, didn’t they? Do you think they have her back at that house?”
“I don’t think so,” Hubric said thoughtfully. “That place was clearly a trap. They can’t stay there for long. There are only supplies for a short stay and no way to get more when they are on the run.”
“So where is your friend?”
“With other Magikas, somewhere in the north of here like they said. The man who admitted it was in too much pain to be lying.” I shivered at his words, remembering those squeals of pain. Hubric didn’t notice my reaction. “She’s a smart girl. Her name is Zyla. About your age. I recruited her as soon as I could trust her. Her parents were traders. They traded oddities all through the northlands as well as the Dominion. But in the war, a loose Ifrit slaughtered them in front of her.”
I shivered at my own memories of the dust demons. “Thank the skies and stars those things are gone now.”
Hubric frowned. “For now. There are other enemies and other dangers. Don’t get too comfortable or they’ll sneak up on you.”
“So, I should count on ulcers and digestive problems then, should I? A life of living on edge? No, thank you. I didn’t sign up for a life of terror.”
His smile was wry. “Zyla is the perfect recruit to spy on Ko’Torenth. I was planning to pair her up with you and send you both to Ko’Koren - one of their larger cities. She and I are already working on communication routes and protocols. But I expected to have time to help the two of you ... get to know each other.”
“And now she’s been kidnapped. Are you saying she can’t be rescued?”
“I’m saying that I’m not the one who can rescue her. They know me.”
They certainly did know him. They’d set that trap for him. The old codger must be more valuable than I ever thought.
“Worse,” Hubric continued. “Did you see that rod they used?”
“The one that hurt Saboraak?” I asked, glancing over at my dragon. She looked better in the morning light, but I hadn’t had a very good look at her wounds in the dark.
“Dragons heal remarkably quickly if they can get deep sleep,” Hubric said, sipping his caf. “And yes, that’s the one I mean. I’ve never seen an object that was magical. Magic is something that Magikas use to tap the life force of the earth and use it to alter the world.”
“Mostly with colorful fireballs. Yes, I’ve noticed.” My tone was dry.
“That is a weak use.”
“You sound like an expert. And a fairly haughty expert at that.” I tried the caf to hide my grin at calling him out. Skies and stars, it was bitter! Who chose to drink this stuff? I put it down and grabbed the cloth packet Ephretti gave me.
“I’ve seen things that would make your hair curlier than a sheep’s, boy. Magic great enough to level armies and build statues as tall as a sky city.”
“Keep talking old man,” I said with a laugh. I could use some entertainment. I loosened the strings on the cloth packet and carefully unfolded it. The cloth was white and of a fine weave. I was going to keep it as a handkerchief. It had been a while since I had one of those.
“You saw what Ephretti did when she saved Vanika. She rose up out of fir
es that should have killed her and saved us.”
Point for Hubric. I couldn’t deny that what Ephretti did was somehow magical. I paused in unwrapping her gift.
“She fulfilled a prophecy.”
Hubric nodded, his eyes serious. “I’ve seen bigger prophecies than that fulfilled.”
Now I was feeling awkward. “I don’t know about prophecies.”
“Maybe you should learn.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slender book, bound in red leather and shoved it into my hand. A book? Really? For all my spare time?
“What’s this?”
“The Ibrenicus Prophecies. This copy belonged to Savette Leedris.”
“Never heard of her.”
Hubric rolled his eyes. “Just take it and try to learn something from it. At any rate, there are other magics, like I was saying. Truth magic – which is a powerful bending of what is to what should be. And deception magic, a mirror magic. There are others still that I’ve never seen. Tonight, I saw what I think might be artifact magic. The magic of ancient items. Someone needs to fly south and warn the Dominar that it is loose in her lands. Maybe that someone should be you.”
Was he kidding? I was meant to have adventures, not get myself stuck helping fancy court ladies in and out of carriages. “I’m not going to talk to any Dominar!”
Hubric laughed. “Well, someone needs to do the harder task. Someone needs to fly north to the border of Ko’Torenth and the Dominion. There is a camp of Magikas there. Someone needs to sneak in and rescue Zyla.”
“That’s not a tall order or anything.”
“Or they could attack the camp head on and hope she survives the carnage.” The glint in his eye told me he was teasing. “But don’t worry. I knew you weren’t up for that.”
“How many of them do you think there are?” I looked back at the package to avoid his gaze. Inside the cloth was a fine silver chain with an oblong stone the thickness of my thumb hanging from it. It rippled in the light from golden to dark brown like a boiled candy.
He shrugged. “More than there are here. Is that Tiger’s Eye from Ephretti? It seems to suit you.”
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 1-4 Page 5
