Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12

by Wilson, Sarah K. L.

  “I did. There are less than sixty, Tor. That’s bad.”

  I nodded. Was he done? I needed to hurry.

  He grabbed my arm. “You aren’t hearing me, Tor.”

  “Then speak plainly,” I said. I was tired. And I’d never been great at riddles.

  “We need leadership and we need it now. It’s not enough to keep defending. We need to counter attack or we’re all dead.”

  “I couldn’t agree more, but why are you telling me this?”

  “Because that crown on your head got there somehow. If it really means something, now is the time to step up. Now is the time to take the reins and fly us somewhere before it’s too late. All we’ve done is respond. We’re going to lose this city if we can’t get back some of the initiative. Do you understand?”

  I nodded.

  “Good.” He clapped me on the back and hurried back toward his men.

  Ha! As if solving this problem was so easy. ‘You take care of it, Tor.’

  I knew what we needed to do, but I had no idea how to do it.

  I scrubbed my hand through my hair tiredly as my mind sifted through possibilities. It was only when I was halfway down the stairs that I realized my hand felt cold. It had felt cold the entire time that Nostar was speaking to me. Sometimes knowing something was true was worse than not knowing at all.

  Chapter Three

  I found Lenora first. She was in the courtyard just inside the Castel walls in what I could only call a vortex of chaos.

  Screams and sobs filled the air as the wounded were brought in by cart or stretcher and left with exhausted healers and clerks. The courtyard was still choked with civilians in one long milling line waiting to go down the wide steps to the storerooms below the Castel and from there to be ferried to warrens. The smell of fear was heavy in the air around them. Lenora, papers in hand and clerk beside her, worked her way up the line, sorting people, demanding they leave heavy bags or carts behind. Her arms crossed when she came to a man with broad shoulders who was hunched under a large pack.

  I worked my way through the press of bodies toward her hearing only snatches of her words as I tried to keep from injuring anyone as I pressed through the crowd.

  “All able-bodied men ...” she was saying.

  A gruff voice was arguing.

  “... children! In your place!” she argued.

  There weren’t any more civilians coming through the gates. I could only hope that meant these ones packed in the courtyard were the last of them. With the civilians safe we’d be able to concentrate on fighting. And on the wounded. And on not dying.

  Was Lenora sending the wounded down into the safety of the warrens? I hoped she had thought of that.

  One thing at a time, Tor.

  But my mind was racing ahead of me.

  Lenora’s eyes caught mine as I finally made my way to where she was.

  “Tell this man he can’t go,” she demanded, arms crossed over her chest.

  She really must be exhausted if she was looking to me for anything other than trouble. Tears had left tracks through grime on her face. Absently, I pulled the cloth from my brow and handed it to her. Someone should have noticed that she needed a handkerchief. Had everyone lost their manners?

  “For your face,” I muttered before turning to the man.

  He wasn’t much older than me. If he even was.

  “What’s in the bag,” I asked.

  “My master’s goods,” he said, his jaw thrust out determinedly.

  “Did you fight in the Truth Wars?” I asked.

  “Of course not,” he scoffed, his expression turning mulish. “And I bet you didn’t either.”

  “I didn’t,” I said quietly. Strangely, the crowd around me seemed to quiet to catch my words. “But I saw it. I was in Vanika when the city fell.”

  There were gasps around me.

  I went on. The point had to be made. “I saw things no one should see. I saw things that should never be done. Those precious goods you’ve been paid to carry? They aren’t worth anything right now. Your master’s business? It’s not worth anything either. That!” I pointed at a woman huddled with her children in front of him in line. She shrank from my finger. “That’s what we’re protecting here. And who is doing the protecting?”

  “Soldiers,” he said, still unbudgingly.

  I snorted. “Were there a lot of soldiers here before the attack? Because I didn’t see that many. And I didn’t see that many this morning when I went through this city looking for the city’s true treasures – these little ones. These innocent souls.” I paused to let that sink in. “No, what I saw, boy, was men of Estabis. Good men. Carters and fletchers, butchers and vendors, servants and masters. I saw them gathering and finding whatever weapons they could to go out there and defend our true treasures. And I didn’t see them huddled here letting other men fight for them. I saw fathers leave their wives and children to go give their lives for them. And I saw mothers here willing to take a dangerous journey for the sakes of their children. And I saw children like this one,” I put my hand on the shoulder of a boy nearby – the son of the woman who was still staring at me like I was some sort of creature from another realm. “Children who are doing their part to make that sacrifice worth it. And you know what I saw most of all? I saw courage and determination and an unflinching resolve to fight. And that’s why I’m still here. I could have flown off on my dragon and left, couldn’t I? But I’d never do that. If people like you and me don’t stand for the things worth fighting for, then no one will and when they don’t exist anymore, we’ll have no one but ourselves to blame. So, don’t get angry at Lenora for asking you to fight. Be angry at yourself because she had to ask. And let that anger fuel your fight. Because we have a lot more to do today.”

  He nodded reluctantly, leaving the line and Lenora offered me the cloth back. I shook my head. She could keep it. The courtyard was surprisingly quiet. Everyone was watching us.

  I pitched my next words loud, knowing they’d ring out across the ranks of scared, nervous people. “What you’re doing is valuable, Lenora. Hold on. We’ll keep the enemy back for long enough to get the rest to safety. You have my word.”

  I knew better than to look to see if my words had the desired effect. I knew they would only work at all if I walked on and left them to do their job while I did mine.

  I strode with determination to the arched gate of the Castel and out into the chaos beyond.

  Chapter Four

  If I had hoped for more order and less panic on the other side of the wall, then I’d been a fool. People ran through the street with stretchers, water, oil for the fires, and mismatched weapons. Some of the younger boys – thirteen or fourteen – were stripped down to their shirts and breeches, running messages. Which was all well and good, but just as many men ran from the frontlines of battle, their faces etched with terror.

  I grabbed the first one to cross my path, throwing him against the wall of a house.

  “Pull yourself together, man!” I shouted.

  His eyes were wild, mouth working soundlessly. I clucked my tongue. What to do about them? There were dozens running toward me on this street alone. Every man lost to fear was one less to help his brothers on the front line. And Lee Estabis and his officers were too busy fighting to be rounding up fleeing men like a children’s nurse.

  “I’ve got him, Dragon Rider,” a voice said from behind me.

  My eyebrows rose. It was the man from the Castel. He didn’t have his master’s goods weighing him down anymore.

  I nodded briskly letting the man take hold of the deserter. His scolding words sounded an awful lot like my own from moments before.

  I strode to the middle of the street, raised my spear with the red flag still attached and waved it in the wind, shouting from deep in my diaphragm. My throat was still raw, but what did that matter? By tomorrow, I might not have a throat to worry about.

  “All men fleeing the golems, rally here. All men! Rally! Rally, flame you!�
�

  They weren’t paying attention. Fear ruled them.

  I pointed my spear at the closest one. “You, sir, rally or I will spear you myself!”

  “Really? You’ll spear him?” my mimic laughed. “The man who couldn’t even kill Katlana and prevent this?”

  That stung.

  But the man I’d pointed to stopped in his tracks, his eyes on me instead of skittering off everything in sight.

  “Rally here,” I barked, and he moved like I was an officer.

  I pointed at the next man. “Rally, sir, or so help you I will make you rally!”

  He swerved toward us, nearly tumbling into us in his haste to obey. The man from the Castel was hustling the deserter into line with us. I stepped up on top of an overturned crate nearby.

  “All men fleeing, rally here!”

  Below me, I heard the men talking.

  “That’s what he said in the Castel. I heard it myself. This Dragon Rider has a plan.”

  “No one has a plan! I saw Jand from the butcher’s shop torn to pieces right in front of my eyes! And our officer was next.”

  “My brother fell from the wall. He was right beside me. One of those things knocked him right off. That’s no way to die!”

  I looked down at them, setting my jaw.

  “Enough.”

  “You don’t know what it’s like out there!” someone called.

  “You need to rule your fear instead of letting it rule you,” I said. Did they think I wasn’t afraid? Did they think Lee Estabis wasn’t? We were all afraid or we wouldn’t be alive.

  “That’s easy to say from the back of a dragon,” one of the men said.

  More were rallying to us as I waved the spear. There were thirty now, there’d be fifty in a moment. Now was the time to grab them and turn them around.

  “Life isn’t easy. None of it is. It might feel like it’s impossible right now. Like it would be impossible to get back out there and fight, but that fight is coming for you. Whether you face it with a weapon in your hand and courage in your heart, or whether it comes for you, leaping out of the shadows to plunge its jaws into your defenseless back – well, that’s up to you. You don’t get to walk away from this fight. None of us do. We only get to choose how to fight it. Who you are – what you’re made of – we’re going to see that today. Don’t let your families down. Don’t let yourselves down. And don’t flaming let me down or you’ll wish a golem had you in his grip. This is the Dominion. We fought the Truth War for our freedom. We fought and we won. We can win again. But only if every one of us stands and fights. Only if every one of us does what we need to do today and does it with courage.”

  Speeches like that shouldn’t work. They were just words. Useless, flimsy words in a world where only steel and muscle made a real difference.

  I rubbed at the tiger’s eye pendant on my chest. Sometimes I wondered if it were lucky. If it was, I could use that luck right now.

  As if in response to my hope, I heard murmurs of agreement below me, and whispers at the edges where men who had heard my speech passed it on to new arrivals.

  “Now lay hold of your arms, or if you’ve lost them, lay hold of what you can find. And follow me.”

  I leapt from the crate, landing between two owl-eyed men and marched forward, flag swirling in the wind above my head. I was no leader of men, but I’d seen leaders and I knew how to copy them. Hopefully, this would work. I was no Lee Estabis with broad shoulders straining in the confines of my metal armor and a brave, firm jaw. I was just Tor Winespring, troublemaker.

  And I was about to make trouble for the golems.

  The man from the Castel caught up to me, falling in step beside me with a barrel stave clutched in one hand.

  “What are we going to do when we get there, Dragon Rider?” he asked.

  “We’re going to show them how easily metal crumples.”

  He laughed nervously.

  “You can call me, Tor,” I said. “Not Dragon Rider. Just Tor.”

  “I’m Honam. I worked as a clothier’s apprentice.”

  “Cut a lot of cloth?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good. It’s time for you to cut some golems down to size.”

  It was a weak joke, but at moments like this people would laugh at just about anything. They just wanted to think that something out there could still be funny. There was laughter behind me and I was relieved to hear it was more than I expected.

  I didn’t turn to look. I didn’t want to seem uncertain. Leaders never looked uncertain. They always looked like they could do anything. Like nothing surprised them. These men needed that right now.

  I could see others joining us from my periphery. Stragglers from side streets or fleeing right into our ranks were somehow absorbed by their fellows, turned around by whispered conversation and looks of awe. They could be in as awe of me as they needed if it got them back to the battle. It was only an illusion. No more real than my mimic. But for now, it was all I had to offer them.

  We were more than a hundred strong by the time we reached the battlefront. And it wasn’t nearly enough.

  Chapter Five

  “Hold!” I’d yelled the same thing so many times that it hardly seemed to mean anything anymore. “Hold, golem! Hold!”

  Sweat dripped down my face as day bled into night and the streets around me bled red into the gutters to rain red to the ground far below. We’d lost men. We’d gained others. We’d fought until we were forced back, an inch at a time.

  And my hoarse throat had screamed golems to a stop one after another after another until they stacked up like children’s blocks. And yet their fellows ran over them again and again and again.

  I wondered, when I had time to think at all, if the sheer weight of them might bring the city down. It was built for the stress of high buildings and human traffic, but the builders could never have anticipated hundreds of metal golems clogging the streets in high, motionless piles.

  Just the thought of clearing them from the city when all this was over made me want a long sleep. Actually, I still wanted a long sleep. And something to eat. I was bone weary. So bone weary that I didn’t care that my golden day crown was fading into the dripping night crown – brighter and bolder and more noticeable than the day one had been.

  I’d thought that fighting on the front lines was the best thing I could be doing. I’d thought that standing shoulder to shoulder and putting courage into the fearful was the best thing, but no matter how many golems I stacked up, there were still more to fight.

  And I still hadn’t found Lee Estabis. I needed to find him. We needed a better plan than just damage control.

  I was starting to suspect that the only way to get the information about what was really going on would be to sneak out of here with Saboraak and fly down out of the city and try to locate any Magika camp or other source of control over the golems.

  Tachril and the others would never let me leave their sides. They worry about me.

  She had been fighting air golems with them off and on while I fought below. But a whole wing of Green dragons would be far too conspicuous to take with me. One dragon, especially a chameleon dragon, blending in with her surroundings – I hadn’t realized she could even do that – that was one thing that might get through unseen.

  I told you I was a Chameleon. I can change colors.

  Yeah. But I thought she could only assume standard Dragon colors, not that she could take on any color at all. If I’d known she could melt into the landscape like that I might have had better strategies before.

  It was the first time I’ve ever done that. Even I have tricks up my sleeve sometimes, Tor. You aren’t the only one with surprises for us.

  Apparently not. And we were going to use her surprises to our advantage, just like we were going to use mine.

  There was a ripple down the ranks of my men.

  “Castelan Estabis! Glory to Estabis!”

  Finally.

  Lee Estabis strode down the r
anks with a limp and a weary wince whenever his foot hit the ground, but he held his head high, nodding to each man who shouted his name as they fought.

  “There you are,” he said to me as he stopped in front of me. “You’re a hard man to find.”

  “Yeah, the red banner blends right in,” I said wryly.

  “I’ve heard reports of a man rallying others under that banner and holding the line here.”

  “Sounds like an interesting guy. I’d love to meet him.”

  He rolled his eyes and leaned in close. “We’re losing.”

  “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

  “Any more tricks up those sleeves?”

  I pitched my voice low for his ears alone, getting serious again. “I need to fly out of here and find out what’s going on behind their golems. Who leads them? How? Can they be stopped?”

  He nodded.

  “I heard rumors that you’re the one piling them up like kindling.”

  I grimaced.

  “Is that why you haven’t gone already?”

  “It’s a bit of a unique hobby, but I don’t know anyone else who can do it.” I tried to make my tone light, but this was exactly why I hadn’t gone. This was exactly why I’d stayed to fight. If I left, that power left with me.

  “So is sneaking around on a flying dragon,” Lee said. “You need to trust us. And we will trust you to go find answers.”

  I nodded, reluctantly.

  “Can you go now, or are you too tired?”

  I’d been awake for two days straight. If I didn’t get sleep soon, I wasn’t going to be able to think.

  “I’m not just a man. I’m a legend,” I said lightly, pointing to my face. “Or hadn’t you heard?”

  He frowned. “Try to snatch a nap before you go. No sense dying because you’re too tired to react.”

  I nodded. I couldn’t shrug that off. Everyone needed sleep.

  “Honam!” I called. The man rushed to my side. I shoved the spear in his hand. “Take over. I have business for the Castelan.”

  Honam’s eyes shone with pride as he held the banner up. “Hold them, boys!”