The Hearts of Dragons

by Josh VanBrakle

  The forest shook again, and dozens of rocks of various sizes burst from the ground. They floated in the air around Hana. She smiled. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

  The stones shot forward with such speed that Iren could barely track them. They pummeled the Fubuki, but its hide prevented any serious damage. Even so, several red splotches appeared on the monster’s fur.

  For the first time, the creature stepped back. Iren had no idea how intelligent Fubuki were, but this one was smart enough to know that it had lost. With a final roar, it swung its Ryokaiten in a broad arc. Snow whipped around it, and it vanished.

  The temperature warmed back to what it had been before the Fubuki’s arrival. Iren let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. The monster had retreated. They were alive.

  But not for long. Iren ran to Balear and cradled him in his arms. The man’s eyes were blank.

  “We have to get him to Veliaf,” Hana said. The ground rumbled, and the dirt under Balear lifted up, levitating him.

  Hana next raised the chunk of earth beneath herself. Like a leaf on a breeze, she floated to Iren’s katana and withdrew it effortlessly from the tree it had impaled.

  “H. . .How?” Iren stammered once Hana returned to the ground and handed over the sword.

  “Later,” she said, “after Balear is stable. Come on.” She walked south toward Veliaf. The floating mound with Balear trailed behind her.

  For a long time Iren stood transfixed. He watched Hana as she became smaller and smaller. It wasn’t the shock of learning that she was a Dragon Knight. It was that she could save them, and he could not.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Decisions

  “You can come in now,” Doctor Raebeld said, “but only for a few minutes. He’s still weak.”

  Veliaf’s doctor ushered Iren, Hana, and Dirio from the hallway of the town hospital into the stark sick room. As Iren crossed the threshold, his heart caught in his throat. Balear lay on a bed with bandages wrapped around his torso. Nothing remained of his right arm; it was gone all the way to the shoulder.

  “I did everything I could,” Raebeld said, running a hand through his thinning gray hair, “but I couldn’t save it. The tissue was dead before you brought him here.”

  Iren’s body felt tight. “This is terrible.”

  Raebeld shook his head. “Actually, he was lucky. The ice had only spread through his arm, so nothing vital was damaged. If it had gone into his torso, you wouldn’t be seeing him, unless it was at his funeral.”

  Iren tried to appreciate the optimism, but he couldn’t. This was his fault. If he could have used magic, the Fubuki wouldn’t have posed a threat. Intimidating as it had been, its abilities didn’t match the Fire Dragon’s. A single beam of light would have killed it, and if it had somehow still managed to wound Balear, Iren could have healed him.

  Hana put a hand on Balear’s forehead. “He doesn’t have a fever,” she said. “That’s good.”

  “When you brought him back two days ago, I wasn’t sure I could save him,” Doctor Raebeld admitted. “All things considered, he’s making a remarkable recovery. He has a strong will to live.”

  As if in answer, Balear groaned and tried to sit up, but without his right arm, he couldn’t do it. Raebeld frowned. “Yes, a strong will to live, and a stronger will in general. Do I have to tie you down? I told you to rest.”

  Balear glared at the doctor, but Iren ignored the exchange. He was busy eyeing Hana. His fists clenched. In truth, it wasn’t entirely his fault that Balear was in this condition. The blame fell on Hana too. She was the Stone Dragon Knight! When the Fubuki appeared, she could have defeated it easily, yet she’d played the part of a damsel in distress and fled. Only when Iren and Balear were on the verge of death had she intervened.

  “All right now, that’s enough,” Raebeld said in a tone that forbade argument. “Let the man sleep. Balear, I’ll check back later, and I swear, if you’ve budged an inch, I’ll haul blocks of stone from the mine and set them on your chest.”

  Hana gave the doctor an innocent smile. “Sir, if you want to make sure he doesn’t move, I can stay with him. I promise to let him rest.”

  Raebeld didn’t look happy about it, but he said, “Very well. Balear defies all my orders anyway. At least this way there’s someone to yell at him when he does.” He shooed Iren and Dirio out of the room, then hustled down the hospital hall. Dirio followed him.

  When they’d gone, Iren stole back into the room and shut the door. Inside, Hana stroked Balear’s nose with her thumb. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.” A tear dripped from her cheek and landed on the bed next to him. Balear reached up with his left hand and wiped away the trail it left on her face.

  Iren’s cheeks flushed, but he had come too far to leave. “So what happened out there?” he demanded.

  Hana sniffed. She kept her gaze on Balear as she said, “My master taught me that advertising yourself as a Dragon Knight attracts those who want the power for themselves. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. Now I realize that was a mistake. If I’d attacked right away, none of this would have happened.”

  Though Iren scowled, he understood Hana’s reason. Rondel had once given him the same advice.

  Balear stirred. “I don’t blame you, Hana,” he said. “You came back. That’s what matters. We would have died without your help.”

  Another tear fell from her face.

  Balear shook his head. “No more of that. What concerns me now isn’t what happened, but why. The Fubuki only live in the frozen lands of Charda, farther north even than Akaku. What was this one doing so close to Veliaf?”

  The door opened a crack. A voice from the other side of it said, “I might be able to shed light on that subject.”

  Dirio entered the room. “I had a feeling everyone would be in here, despite Doctor Raebeld’s orders.”

  He sat on the floor against a wall. He looked old. “I’m beginning to think removing the Yokai from Akaku Forest was the worst decision Amroth made for Lodia’s security,” he said. “Well, maybe not the worst, but it ranks right up there.”

  “What do you mean?” Iren asked. He and Dirio knew firsthand how brutal the Yokai could be.

  “I suspect the Yokai created a balance of power in the north. They lacked the numbers to invade Lodia, yet neither was Lodia in a position to attack them. At the same time, they had enough strength to keep out the Fubuki.”

  “So what you’re saying,” Hana cut in, “is that without the Yokai, the Fubuki are moving south and taking Akaku for themselves.”

  Dirio nodded. “We’ve lost a few patrols in the woods, but I always thought it was remnant Yokai. The events of two days ago changed my mind. There may be a few Yokai left, but I think they’re being overrun. The Fubuki saw their chance and seized it.”

  “Forgive me for saying it, but that sounds speculative,” Balear said from his bed. “We saw one Fubuki. That doesn’t prove they’re invading.”

  “True, and had you run into any other Fubuki, I’d dismiss it as a random event. But because you fought a Dragon Knight, I believe that changes the situation.”

  “Why?” Iren asked.

  “Children in Veliaf grow up hearing stories about Fubuki,” Dirio explained. “According to those tales, they can’t survive warm temperatures. Normally that would mean we’d have nothing to fear from them. Based on your account, though, this Ice Dragon Knight can change the weather. Do you see where I’m going?”

  Iren put a hand to his forehead. “With that Dragon Knight as their vanguard, the Fubuki aren’t limited to cold climates. They can invade not only Akaku, but Lodia at any time of year. With the civil war going on, Lodia’s in no shape to stop them. There’s no way they wouldn’t take advantage of a situation like that.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. “Mayor Dirio? Sir, are you in there?”

  Dirio stood, care-heavy wrinkles on his not
yet fifty-year-old face. “Yes, what is it?” he asked as he opened the door.

  A guard stood on the other side. “We’ve apprehended two newcomers at the gate,” he said. “One of them claims to know you. I thought you’d want to know.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Dirio replied. He looked around the room. “You three show up, and within days I have a Fubuki Dragon Knight breathing down my town’s neck. I wonder what these guests will bring.” With that, he left.

  Iren leaned against the wall. “Insane,” he said. “It’s insane. What are we supposed to do?” He wanted to help Veliaf, to help Lodia, to help Balear, yet he could do none of those things. Without magic, he couldn’t defeat even a normal Fubuki. If they did invade, he would be useless against them.

  He slammed his fist into the wall. “If only I could use magic!”

  Hana eyed him for a long moment. Then her face lit up. “Iren, I may have thought of a way to help you.”

  He started. “How?”

  “It occurred to me just now as I was thinking about my teacher. He’s one of the oldest Maantecs alive, and he knows more about magic than anyone I’ve ever met. If you talk to him, maybe he’ll be familiar with your affliction. He might even know a way to cure it.”

  It wasn’t much to go on. Seeing Balear on that bed, though, with flat bandages where his arm should be, convinced him. “Where does your teacher live?”

  “In Shikari,” Hana said, “far away at the southernmost tip of Raa. You could travel on foot for months and still not reach it.”

  Iren’s head dropped to his chest. He didn’t have months to cross the continent on a “maybe,” and he let Hana know it.

  Instead of looking upset or even surprised by Iren’s reaction, Hana smiled. “It would take months if we had to travel on foot, but who said we had to go that way?”

  Placing her hand on the floor, Hana slowly raised her palm. As she did, the war hammer she’d held when she’d defeated the Fubuki appeared and rose up with it. Grasping the hammer, Hana sunk halfway into the floor.

  “This is the Stone Dragon Hammer, the Enryokiri,” she said as Iren gazed in astonishment at the half-woman before him. “It follows me underground no matter where I go. With its magic, we can travel through the rock faster than we can run. If we leave now, we can reach Shikari in two days.”

  Iren leapt to the door. “I’ll get my things.”

  * * *

  Balear lay alone, forgotten by everyone. The room where Doctor Raebeld had put him was utilitarian, like all of Veliaf. His bed was a straw mattress laid over intertwined ropes tied to a wooden frame. A single chair gave the doctor a place to sit. That was it for furniture.

  The only other object in the room leaned upright on the far wall. Balear couldn’t stop looking at it, yet he desperately wished it would go away.

  It was the Sky Dragon Sword.

  According to Raebeld, Hana had brought it for him on a floating bed of earth. He could still feel the touch of her thumb on his nose. His remaining hand was wet with her tears. They made him furious. How could she come in here and give such an emotional display, and then dash off with Iren to the other side of the continent?

  It was because they were Maantecs, and because they were Dragon Knights. Balear was neither. Ariok had given him a chance to be a Dragon Knight, but the Fubuki had taken that away. He would never fight again.

  Footsteps approached Balear’s room. Outside the door Doctor Raebeld yelled, “No! My patient needs to rest. I was lenient with you before, but I will not exhaust him with all these people!”

  “I understand how you feel,” Dirio’s voice replied, “but these two have come a long way.”

  Balear wondered who would bother to visit a disgraced former general like him. He got his answer when a familiar high-pitched female voice said, “That’s right, doc. Do you know how many times I nearly broke a hip walking here? And look what happened to my hand along the way! Honestly, if you want to stop me from seeing him, it’s going to take more than you’ve got.”

  Balear smiled despite himself. The speaker had to be that crazy old Maantec, Rondel. Only she could pretend to be so frail yet finish with an undertone of threat.

  “Please, I must insist—” the doctor began, but then Rondel opened the door and strode inside.

  “Well look, doc!” she called. “Balear’s wide awake and looking fine to me. I think we’ll be all right without you for a few minutes.”

  She was the same as Balear remembered her, five feet tall and with a broad, stupid grin that he knew was false. Behind that expression, Rondel’s emerald eyes scanned the room with poorly veiled wrath.

  Those eyes concerned Balear, but more disconcerting was seeing Rondel’s left arm in a sling. He couldn’t imagine anyone wounding her that badly.

  The most surprising part of the old woman’s arrival, though, was not Rondel herself. It was the person who walked in behind her. Dressed in leather with a long cap that covered her hair, the woman might have passed for a young Beranian. Her rich tan complexion, green eyebrows, and longbow covered in living vines, however, all gave her away.

  “Minawë,” Balear said, doing his best to sound cheerful, “I never expected to see you in Lodia. Welcome.”

  Rondel looked hurt. “Oh sure, ignore me. Typical male, notice the outwardly attractive lady while missing the real beauty in the room.”

  Balear couldn’t help but smile a second time. The cagey old woman usually grated on his nerves, but something about seeing her again made him happy.

  “Now,” Rondel said, an edge in her voice, “I think you two should leave us alone. We’ve come far, and we’d like to catch up with our old comrade.”

  Doctor Raebeld opened his mouth to protest, but Dirio silenced him with a look. “You don’t want to argue with that one,” the mayor said. “They won’t stay long.”

  Raebeld huffed and complained, but Dirio shoved the doctor out of the room. He then left as well, shutting the door behind him.

  “Well, Balear,” Rondel said, “it looks like you’ve seen better days.”

  Balear touched the bandaged empty socket of his right shoulder. “How much did Dirio tell you?”

  Rondel’s grin vanished. “Enough. I wish we’d been faster catching up to you. I didn’t expect you to fight the Ice Dragon Knight, and I never thought that if you did, that it would be a Fubuki on top of it. You’re lucky you survived.” She glanced at the gigantic sword leaning against the wall. “I see you have the Auryozaki to thank for that. I should have realized last year that Zuberi had it. It didn’t seem possible to me, though, so I assumed it was another big sword. Zuberi was a giant himself, after all. I’m impressed it chose you.”

  Balear shrugged as best he could considering he only had one arm and was lying on a bed. “It once belonged to my father,” he said.

  “I see.” Rondel walked to the blade and stroked it with her wrinkled hand.

  Balear shifted his attention to Minawë. She seemed tense. “Iren’s not here,” he said, “if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  Rondel’s hand continued to probe the Auryozaki as though Balear had never spoken. Minawë, however, dropped her eyes to the floor. Her shoulders slumped. “Dirio told us we’d find him talking to you,” she said. “Did he step out to let you rest?”

  “I wish,” Balear said. “I don’t think he’s in Veliaf anymore. He left after you two arrived.” He told them about his journey across Lodia with Iren and Hana.

  Minawë looked distraught throughout Balear’s explanation, and she peppered him with questions. Rondel, though, listened in silence. Only when Balear finished did she turn away from his sword and eye him with fury. “Do you know how I broke my hand?” she asked. “The Stone Dragon Knight attacked me in Serona. She almost killed me.”

  Balear paled. That was impossible!

  Lightning Sight sparked in Rondel’s eyes, turning her expression murderous. “I never thought she would dare do something like this.”

  Balear’s conf
usion increased tenfold. “Wait, you know Hana?”

  “Only a little,” Rondel said. “I rescued her from some thugs about twenty-five years ago, but she was just a regular Maantec back then. She couldn’t even fight. I never figured she would become the Stone Dragon Knight, let alone attack me or kidnap Iren.”

  “She didn’t kidnap him,” Balear protested. He trusted Rondel more than he did almost anyone, but this was absurd. “If she’d wanted to do that, she had plenty of opportunities while we traveled across Lodia. He went with her willingly. She said that her teacher might be able to help him regain his magic.”

  Rondel’s brow furrowed. “There aren’t many Maantecs who could teach a Dragon Knight. Did Hana say who they were meeting?”

  “She didn’t say his name,” Balear replied, “but she said he lived at the southern end of the continent. Shikari, I think she called it.”

  Rondel spat. “So this is his doing.”

  Minawë spoke for the first time in a while. “His?” she asked. “Who do you mean?”

  “Melwar.”

  “Who’s Melwar?”

  “Katashi Melwar is a Maantec lord about my age. His clan was second in power only to the emperor’s. During the Kodama-Maantec War, he was Iren Saito’s best friend and closest advisor.”

  Rondel paced the room twice. “This is bad. If Melwar’s behind this, then Iren is in terrible danger. We have to follow him.”

  “That’s crazy!” Balear shouted. “You’d have to cross all of Raa. Hana said that would take months.”

  “Which is why the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll arrive. Whatever their purpose is with Iren, I doubt Hana and Melwar will let him go now that they have him.”

  Minawë nodded. “I’m ready.”

  Rondel cocked an eyebrow at Balear. “What about you?”

  “What about me?” Balear shot back.

  “Melwar isn’t a Dragon Knight. At least, he wasn’t the last time I saw him. Still, he has impressive magical abilities. If we have to fight him and Hana, we could use another Dragon Knight.”