Dragons of Dark (Upon Dragons Breath Trilogy Book 3)

by Ava Richardson

  Silly den-sister.’ Jaydra’s sudden intrusion into mine. Her mind sounded harsh and rough, but not unkind as it said, You, I, and Bower do not need to feast together or have ceremonies to be what we are. We three bonded naturally, you and I when I was still a hatchling, and Bower, you, and I, when we traveled and hunted and fought together. My other den-sisters need me, and the humans need you.

  It was a rebuke of sorts, I knew, but I couldn’t find it in my broken heart to be upset with the dragon.

  “Saffron,” said a warm voice behind me, and I turned to see Dol Agur striding forward, with Mother Gorlas at her side. Mother Gorlas, with her dark skin and wrinkled features was clearly the older of the two, and her wild hair and multiple braids and bangles stood out from Dol Agur’s stark, spare simplicity, however, it seemed that the two wise women were getting along very well, and talked much about the places where their lore joined and diverged.

  “Dol Agur, Mother Gorlas,” I nodded at them both.

  “There are other things that we must discuss.” Dol Agur nodded towards the tents that had been erected beside the feasting bonfires, one of which was set apart a little from the rest, and ringed by Three Rivers guards.

  I felt a pang of sorrow that I couldn’t be flying with my den-sister and Queen Ysix.

  “Lord Bower?” Dol Agur called, and I saw Bower and the boy Tan with Chief Vere and some of the other chiefs following on behind. It was time to forge an alliance and plan how we would fight back against King Enric.

  18

  Bower, the War Council

  “This is preposterous,” Vere thundered as he stood, his wide frame filling the tent as he twirled one of the handlebars of his mustache.

  “I still do not understand why you refused to send aid to Kingswood!” Aldermaston Toby, an aging gaffer from the ruined town above us, spat in fury at Vere.

  We had been arguing in the minutes since the meeting had opened. Everyone was so desperate to fire their barbs at each other, and mostly at me, that it was hard to see how we could ever formulate a solid battle plan. The tent I had called for was barely big enough for all of us, but there was a small space in the center before the small fire pit for someone to stand and talk. At the moment that space was Aldermaston Toby’s, and he used it to accuse the chiefs of the Three-Rivers clan of causing the death of more than half of his town’s citizens.

  Vere turned to address not Aldermaston Toby, but me. “Lord Bower, you have to admit that it would have been foolish of me to send more Three Rivers riders out here to defend a village when I didn’t know where our leader could be! I had no idea whether you were dead or alive, even!”

  We’ll never get anywhere like this, I thought, trying to not look too frustrated as I sat next to Saffron, who was doing nothing to hide her dismay. She looked a little stronger than she had this morning, but she still appeared a little off, as if Dol Agur’s new load of potions and herbs were preventing her from being herself.

  Anger spiked from the soles of my feet to my throat. “Chief Vere, I was with the Stone Tooth clan. You were briefed on this. You knew we had to connect with Dol Agur’s people,” I said sharply, standing up myself. Aldermaston Toby sat down immediately, but for a moment Vere just stood with his shoulder to me, as if daring me to order him to sit down. Would I do it? Would he listen to me if I did? I doubted it, but luckily, he lowered himself to the benches in deference.

  “Chief Vere, Aldermaston Toby, please. As much as we mourn the losses of the past few days, we need to decide our next move from here. These are chaotic times, and no good will come of us at each other’s throats!”

  “But, sire—” the Aldermaston and a few other heads of the Kingswood families started to protest, but I felt another flash of annoyance, and stamped my foot.

  “Please, ladies and gentlemen! I am not telling you to forget the mistakes of the past. But for now, I would have us work together. After we have won, then we can ask questions. I’m sure you need no reminder that we are all threatened with almost certain death if we stay here and do nothing,” I said sternly, and earned an approving nod from Mother Gorlas.

  Well, at least someone has faith in me, I thought as I cleared my throat. “Now, may I officially welcome Dol Agur and the other family heads of the Stone Tooth clan, here to join in our fight against the tyrant king.” I indicated for Dol Agur and the others to stand up, dressed in what seemed to be the lower hill-land version of their snow suits. Still white, and still predominantly made out of animal hides, but not as large as before.

  There was an uneasy murmur of greeting from the Three Rivers and the Kingswood families, all of whom remembered times when they had warred with the Stone Tooth during the past.

  “People of the lowlands,” Dol Agur said in her thick mountain accent. “I thank you for your hospitality, and hope that together we are strong. We, the Stone Tooth people, recognize Bower of Torvald as the rightful heir to the throne of Torvald.” She nodded as if there were nothing more to say, and sat down again.

  “She’s forcing them to follow suit,” Saffron murmured at my side, and I saw that she was right, that one by one many of the other family heads stood up and copied Dol Agur’s example.

  “Drink, sire?” whispered another voice, and I looked across to see Tan passing a pitcher of watered down wine. I nodded, smiled, and passed the pitcher on as Vere took his turn to pledge his clan’s allegiance to me—at least I hoped.

  “I of course also recognize Lord Bower, my lord will recall I was among one of the first to do so before Ryland.” Vere’s voice petered off. “But my willingness to serve the rightful king has nothing to do with the fact that I think that we are losing this war!” His voice rose to almost a shout, and many of the Three Rivers and the Kingswood families murmured in agreement.

  “Why are we fighting anyway?” One of the Kingswood elders asked, and Saffron gasped.

  “As much as I hate to say it, if Bower cannot defeat the evil king in open battle—” Vere started.

  “How dare you,” Saffron interrupted, rising from her seat.

  “Saffron, it is okay,” I murmured, trying to calm her down. I was still worried when she got angry, as Mother Gorlas and I had seen what she was capable of up there in the ruins of Kingswood.

  “No, it’s not, Bower. Where was Chief Vere when we fought the balloon-platforms? When we fought the Iron Guard? When we lost Zenema?” Saffron said, her fists clenched.

  “Saffron,” Dol Agur snapped, managing to reach my friend somehow even when I couldn’t. Saffron flushed in embarrassment, and sat back down though her chin was still up and defiant.

  “Chief Vere,” I said, catching a glimpse of something then in my accuser’s eyes, a flash of malice or victory perhaps. He had managed to make me look weak before the other Three Rivers Chiefs, and, for all his worming words and his simpering gestures, I, and everyone else, knew he really didn’t support me at all. But what does he want? Does he want to rule all the tribes, or does he just hate me personally? I couldn’t work it out—he was in just as much danger from King Enric as the rest of us.

  “What would you have us do, Chief Vere? What would be your plan of attack?” I challenged him.

  Vere stuttered angrily. I was calling his bluff, and making sure everyone saw it.

  “Well… I would wait until we had more numbers, and more dragons on our side—”

  “There are no more tribes,” Mother Gorlas interrupted.

  “And the dragons will come of their own accord,” Saffron added, speaking as our only dragon representative in the meeting. “We cannot command them, and we barely have time to train the new riders we do have.”

  “Every battle we lose means that we lose more warriors, and more dragons!” Chief Vere bellowed. “The king is attacking the mountain realms and we are running here and there, defending small villages like Kingswood when we should be making major, decisive gains.”

  “Such as?” I asked him. “What sort of decisive gain would you like us to achieve?”
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  “Well, if we could hold the mountains free from attack, then we could send a signal to the lowlands to rise up, or the southlands?” Vere suggested. “We should find where King Enric’s largest encampment is, and use our forces to draw them into a trap! Send a symbolic message that will make the evil king think twice about coming back up here!”

  It wasn’t such a bad idea, if King Enric were any other normal, non-sorcerous king who just wanted land and money and for people to like him. If King Enric were one of those ordinary tyrants, or so I had learned from my illicit childhood studies, then he would indeed be worried about losing a battalion or two of his army. But after what I had seen last night, with one of the Iron Guards left behind as a magical trap through which to influence the now-dead dragon One-Eye, I knew King Enric was no normal tyrant.

  “There is only one thing that bothers me though. Do we have enough fighters to make such a symbolic act?” I asked. “We would need to split our forces, some to defend the mountains, and others to trap the king’s forces.”

  “No,” Mother Gorlas and half a dozen other chiefs said.

  Vere made an angered, grunting noise and shook his mustache. “Lord Bower, we are entrusting you to win this war, and you have to show us that you are strong enough to do so.” This time when he said the words the cheers were louder and angrier from his side of the room.

  I was frustrated at their lack of faith, but I couldn’t blame them. They had not spent time in the king’s dungeons as I had. They had not seen the evil king for what he truly was. As I looked around at the rows upon rows of angry faces, I felt as though I had no choice. These are my people too, I thought, even if they hate me. I need to win their trust.

  “Well, can you win this war?” Vere asked pointedly again.

  That was it, I thought. Finally, Vere had said what he had meant all along. He wanted to show I was a coward unfit to rule, and he would do that by proving that I couldn’t win a battle. Well, I would prove it to him!

  “I accept your plan,” I said, to the scandalized gasps of Mother Gorlas and Dol Agur on our side of the tent.

  “Sire? We have to stay together, and stay strong! We cannot split out forces at a time like this,” Mother Gorlas was hissing at me.

  “Saffron?” I half-turned to her, wanting to know what she thought. To my dismay, she was looking back at me helplessly.

  “I don’t know which is best, Bower,” she said in a low and empty voice.

  I had to make this decision on my own. I nodded. “We will do as Chief Vere suggests. Half of the new riders will sally forth to find the closest encampment of the king’s forces, and the other half will stay here, where we will train.” I saw a mixture of excitement, fear, and anger in the faces all around me.

  “And, if our dragon and my co-rider agrees, then I will ride with the attackers, too,” I said finally, to a warning hiss from Mother Gorlas. I knew that seeing me in battle, perhaps, would insure that the people had at least some faith in me. I’ll just have to hope that I’m ready, I thought, catching the scolding glare from the Three Rivers wise woman. I could tell that she thought it a terrible idea, but she appeared to be in the minority.

  “Yes, Bower,” Saffron stood up beside me, almost looking like her old self again as she grinned at me. “We will ride with you to battle, gladly.”

  My heart suddenly felt a little stronger. With Saffron and Jaydra at my side and believing in me, then how could I possibly lose?

  “We will ride in two days, the morning after tomorrow, and head due east,” I announced to the throng and the command tent erupted into cheers.

  Part III

  The Battle for

  The Battle for Torvald

  19

  Saffron, Betrayal!

  The camp was quiet when I woke up in my tent, as it was still the dark before dawn. I would like to say that I awoke feeling refreshed, but the potion that Dol Agur was making me take every morning and every night made me wake with no feeling of rest at all. I felt curiously flattened out, as if I were walking around wrapped in wool.

  If I felt anything at all, then it was just the aches and pains of spending yesterday in the blanket-saddle behind Bower, helping to train the new riders.

  They are still terrible, I thought as I readied myself for the day, though the Choosing Ceremony had seemed to make a difference. The Three Rivers riders who had ridden before now appeared to be much more in tune with their dragons and the new Stone Tooth riders appeared to be willing to listen, wait, and let their dragons take the lead. It was a far cry from just a few days ago, as the unchosen Three Rivers riders had been caught in a stubborn war of wills with their mounts.

  But are they riders yet? Able to fight off Iron Guards and fighting balloon-platforms, and whatever new and foul trick that the king can come up with? Of that, I was still very skeptical. It had taken me my entire life of learning how to move on Jaydra before I had started to do battle with King Enric’s forces.

  You are still learning even now! I felt Jaydra’s faint voice, and even in my current state had to smile.

  Yeah, thanks to you, I thought back, only to hear silence. I stood for a moment, feeling suddenly anxious. Since taking the Stone Tooth potion, I hadn’t been hearing Jaydra’s thought-voice in my mind as much as I had been, and when I did it had seemed far away and distant. Was this what Dol Agur had warned me about?

  It was a price, also, that I was unwilling to pay, especially today of all days, as we rode due east on Bower’s orders, to find and destroy whatever unit of the king’s forces we could. It would be the first time that we had willingly gone on the offensive, and I didn’t want to think about how small our numbers would be, and how unprotected we were leaving the others. I had asked for the longest-trained riders to join us on the foray, so that the new riders could have at least another days’ worth of training before they had to fight.

  My hand hovered over the dark, glass bottle that Dol Agur had left with me. Could I take the risk?

  “Lady Saffron?” Tan murmured outside the tent. I had asked him to fetch me when it was time to start mustering.

  “Almost ready, Tan,” I called, searching for the last of my weapons. Taking a deep breath, I resolutely left the bottle untouched and unopened behind me as I stepped outside. I knew what danger this might cause, but I couldn’t allow myself to feel any more drugged than before. Today, for this battle ahead, I wanted to remain as close to my sister Jaydra as I could. I nodded, knowing that this was the right thing to do.

  “I’ve got the fires going, set the porridges, and have collected the equipment just as you ordered, lady,” Tan yawned, bleary-eyed as he set down the coils of rope and leather strips to use for harnesses. “And I saw to it that there’s extra honey in the porridge, just because of what you’re about to do today, ma’am…”

  “Good job, Tan.” I thanked him. “Go on, go get some sleep now, you’ve done enough already.”

  “Aye, ma’am, I wish you well,” he said warily, looking up at the sky as if King Enric himself or one of his fighting balloon-platforms might be there, ready to deal death to us below. Tan’s hands went to a small bird-skull charm on a bit of string at his throat, one he thought could ward off bad luck, perhaps.

  “Don’t worry, Tan, you just get some rest. Lord Bower knows what he is doing,” I reassured the boy.

  I hope he does, anyway, I thought, because I really don’t.

  There was a nervous tension in the air as we rode through the skies, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care over much.

  Curse this brain fog! I thought, my hands tightening on the edge of the harness that I wore. Below me Jaydra’s broad neck muscles twitched in response to my movement, as I murmured to her, “I’m sorry, sister, it is nothing.”

  Saffron-sister thinks that large things are small and small things are large, Jaydra said cryptically, her own thought-voice faint at the edges of my mind. Even though I didn’t understand my dragon-sister’s words, they cheered me somewhat.

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nbsp; “I see that at least you are still just as quizzical as ever,” I answered, but heard no response.

  We were flying due east as per Bower’s plan, and behind us the high mountain ridges were giving way to smaller ravines and gentler slopes as our dragons’ powerful wing beats ate up the leagues. What an incredibly long way we have come, I thought, and what an incredibly long way the Dragon Riders of old had traveled to their disparate communities. I found the idea amazing that all of the cut-off and separated peoples of the world, the Western Archipelago, Torvald, the Stone Tooth, the Three Rivers, had been brought back together by dragons.

  Dragons, my heart responded, seeing the V formation behind me. It was the one strength that we had that the tyrant king did not. King Enric was denying his people that friendship with the noble beasts, and all the adventure and magic they had to offer. He was effectively trapping them all in their citadels and fortified villages, terrified of ever venturing out of their door.

  One of the Island Blues croaked, and I looked to see it agitated and flying erratically.

  Bower tapped my shoulder. He had noticed it too. I nodded, and turned my mind to Jaydra.

  “Jaydra?” Nothing. What was wrong with me? Was this cursed potion still coursing through my veins? “Jaydra?” I tried again, this time to feel rather than hear a response.

  …sister? she spoke faintly.

  “Saffron, what’s wrong?” Bower asked, alarm creeping into his voice.

  “Wait a moment, Bower,” I said and directed my thoughts once more to Jaydra, only to come up against a disturbingly blank wall. What had I done? My heart quaked. Had the potion permanently affected my ability to connect with my dragon-sister?

  There was a shout from behind and I turned to see one of the newer Three Rivers Dragon Riders had lost control over his dragon. What was happening? I watched in horror as the dragon bucked, craning its long neck to screech at its rider, as if protesting or complaining.