The woman shook her head, but responded. “If they were traveling with those poor mages, they might have gone to the stables. I remember the four came in the next morning to pick them up. Oh, this is so unfortunate to think that some of our army could be deceived into helping such criminals.”
Half bowing his head to the two for their help, the brown dragon began to leave as he thanked them for their time.
“Good luck finding your daughter,” the woman added as he started into the hall. “I hope that ruffian hasn’t done anything to her.”
Chapter 15- Race to the Wall
“Fa’Dargan’zer?” the voice caught the dragon off guard as he left the stable yard.
“Elenek and Lystheir? I didn’t expect to see you here,” Cor’Dargan responded to the che’ther title of wizard master.
Elenek was a heavyset man with brown hair and looked like he enjoyed eating. As a heavy red dragon, Dargan had seen the che’ther form and knew it to be true in either body. “We were sent to the west and when we smelled the stables, Lystheir and I thought that we would take a chance and see if they had found a way to buy some horses. It wouldn’t be a preferable choice to flying, especially for the mar’goyn’lya, but it would make finding them harder. Right, Fa’Dargan’zer?”
“You can just call me, Dargan or Cor’Dargan. I don’t work for the academy these days,” the man said hating the sound of a title that he left decades ago.
“Did you find out anything, Dargan?” the female, who made a beautiful human with her raven locks and shining blue eyes, called Lystheir, asked the former master.
“I have been finding many things on our journey,” he said to those he felt that might be trustworthy. Cor’Dargan had kinship with any che’ther of Mar’kal. The original family lines were few and most che’ther could trace their lineage to a common ancestor if they tried.
The two looked at him curiously. Elenek spoke again and asked, “What is it, sir?”
Frowning, the brown dragon stated, “Can I trust you, kinsman?”
The two nodded looking more intent. It was Lystheir who answered for them both, “Always, kinsman. We are che’ther first and protect our own.”
After Elenek nodded, Dargan continued, “Cheleya hasn’t changed from her human body once since leaving Mar’kal. This behavior and the fact that she is so young to have suddenly come up with greed as her motivator has had me questioning the story of what happened from the start.”
Quick witted as she looked, Lystheir asked, “Do you think that she is being forced to help the mar’goyn’lya?”
Shaking his head, the father continued, “I think the story that we have been told is the lie. Malaketh said that he surprised Cheleya so she dropped her bag. Signs of glass and broken gold aside, there were signs nearby that something else had struck the ground with wings. Each time that we have found signs of their camps, Cheleya is a human carrying the bag of broken items. She cleaned it out, but still she remained a human.”
“But our human forms make flight easiest,” Elenek said trying to follow the thinking.
“There were no signs of dragon magic until the travelers’ hut after four days of travel,” Dargan said going over what he had found. “They were moving slowly for ones flying. They landed rarely, but those two took more than a day longer than we did to catch up. I think the mar’goyn’lya was forced to carry her.”
It was Lystheir who seemed confused by his words this time, “But why would he have to carry a girl who has been acclaimed as a prodigy with dragon magic in particular? Unless she couldn’t use her powers at all.”
“I felt alteration magic where they stayed to sleep. Never did I feel a trace of her dragon magic for wings.”
“Perhaps the magic was too little to last for you to find,” Elenek took over questioning.
“Or maybe Malaketh did something to disrupt her magic?” the earth dragon wizard questioned already believing it was true.
“But why would he do that? Wouldn’t that take dark magic to accomplish? Our masters don’t even practice the art.”
“I felt the use of dark magic on the balcony where Cheleya first dropped her bag. There was still a trace where she hit the ground and that was the last time I felt dragon magic. It was weak, unlike Cheleya, and she walked until werewolves and cats appeared. She didn’t fly away then either. If she was hurt and her magic was gone, Cheleya would have been defenseless until Kel’lor caught up to her. I felt his magic there, but never hers.”
Elenek shook his head. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”
“I am saying that Malaketh lied to us. His story is a piece of fiction. Until we find Kel’lor and Cheleya, we only have his side of the story. Why were there werewolves and then those shrikes as well? Both hunted them, but where did they come from and why did they chase Cheleya? Where did they go afterwards?
“I am going to find her and get the truth.”
“You plan to leave us then,” Lystheir stated rather than questioned him.
A simple nod made the two che’ther decide as one. “Then we will go with you, master,” Lystheir stated without room for change. Once a che’ther made up their mind, it was set in stone.
He didn’t even ask if they were certain. When a che’ther made a commitment, it was as solid as a mar’goyn’lya’s promise, a thing of stone.
Turning to leave the town, the three che’ther soon walked out the southern gate. None of the others had made it to the gate yet and they were gone before the remainder of the pursuit team knew they had left town.
Two days of horse riding had left much of the group saddle sore, but amazingly Cheleya felt fine each day. The others couldn’t believe the first time rider could spend all day in the saddle without being sore. While pain wasn’t her enemy so far, being tired at the end of each ride definitely was. Worse, each day seemed to see Kel’lor getting sicker and sicker. Cheleya checked him multiple times a day with her magic, but her frustration grew as it let her down every time. Her bare hand could feel an increase in his temperature and her ears heard his coughs as they came more frequently.
With his strange illness, Kel’lor had tried changing into a mar’goyn’lya at night. He still coughed and if anything, Cheleya thought that it made matters worse. Each change into human form seemed accompanied by coughing fits while the gargoyle in either form looked ill.
“Orlerin, do you think that the horses can be pushed a little harder? If we can cut even one more day off of our time, maybe we can find someone who can help Kel’lor before things get worse,” Cheleya said as she moved Dolly to the side of the mage leader and Tilana on his other side.
The man nodded and replied, “I was pushing close to the limit from the start with worries about the weather slowing us, Cheleya. If I am correct, we may be there almost a day early if the snow doesn’t slow our progress more.
“With Kel’lor’s strange illness, I have been doing what I can to get us to Hala as fast as possible.”
Appreciating the man’s kindness, Cheleya’s eyes moved to the large man on his horse. Kel’lor had taken to wearing a blanket as he sometimes shivered as if from the cold. While the che’ther noticed no real change in the outer temperature, she knew of fevers, though rare in the people of Mar’kal. Such things were a bad sign and cooling a body was said to help that. They could do little to cool him more as they rode in winter, she thought.
“I am worried about him. This doesn’t feel like a normal illness. Could he have been attacked with something that is hurting him magically?” the girl pondered aloud.
Over the horse and mage, Tilana stated, “Kel’lor fought that shrike leader with its magic. Do you think that it somehow infected him with something?”
Wondering at the idea, the girl gave it a moment before she retreated to the side of Kel’lor. The gargoyle in human form looked at her appearing miserable and not just from being sick. “I am sorry, Cheleya. I was meant to protect you and now I can barely ride this god awful steed to keep up with you.�
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Her hand reached out touching his arm for comfort and not to bother using her ineffective magic. “We were talking up front, Kel’lor. Do you remember what happened in your fight with that magic shrike? Did he hit you or scratch you in some way?”
Coughing in a fit for a moment, the man finally settled and tried to remember the battle as best he could. “We exchanged attacks. The dragon claws tore through his black shields. The only time he was close, he used my chest to spring away from me when you came to help. The dragon scale armor protected me from his claws easily enough.”
She frowned and felt like there was something missing in the explanation and asked again, “Was there anything strange about it when he struck you? Even if he didn’t hurt you, was there something that happened or looked like he hit you with his magic?”
Again he tried to think. His fever and the chills that sometimes struck him made the man feel miserable and want to just lie in the snow to curl up in a ball as if it would avoid the misery.
“I think he had a spell of darkness around the hand that struck my chest. It didn’t penetrate the armor though and I barely felt him hit me,” Kel’lor stated thinking the idea of being hurt by such a weak attack was ridiculous.
Gesturing for him to pull his shirt aside to see where the gargoyle had been struck, Cheleya gasped at a strange black mark branding Kel’lor’s chest. Five black dots surrounded another mark that resembled an infinity symbol. It was too precise to believe that it was anything other than a sign of magic. Bruising wouldn’t appear like a design.
“When did that appear?”
Kel’lor looked at the brand in surprise and replied, “I haven’t pulled my shirt off since we left Televal. I’ve been too cold for most of that time. When I’ve changed to my true form, I’d never noticed it either.”
“Is it where the shrike hit you with its claws?”
“Yes, I think so, but I wasn’t even scratched.”
She called over Tilana and Orlerin to see the strange mark and the wizard tested the black tattoo with her magic examining it. A feeling of illness and dark let the wizard know that it was definitely some form of corruption.
Cheleya looked at the wizard and said, “Do you have any idea what that is?”
Shaking her head sadly, the woman replied, “It’s like nothing I have seen, but the creature definitely used dark magic.”
Orlerin surmised what the other two were thinking, “The attack wasn’t meant to wound his skin, but to strike the armor on it. It’s corrupting his magic and poisoning him slowly.”
“But why leave him alive to maybe die later?” Cheleya asked the others though no one could know the shrike’s mind. Her words held the hope that it would not result in her friend’s death, but fear was in her heart as well.
Kel’lor coughed as he replaced the shirt to preserve his warmth. “I think it decided that I would use my magic to kill myself off sooner, but I’ve only been using the amulet most of the time. Then when I was dead, you would be an easier target.”
A chill not brought on by the cold went down the dragoness’s spine. “Then that would mean that they plan to keep chasing me or their master will anyway.”
The other mages had moved closer and Evantus proclaimed determinedly, “We wouldn’t leave you to go it alone.”
Orlerin looked at the young man thinking that might be his thinking for the moment, but time would eventually bring them to have to fulfill their obligations with their own nation. Unless Evantus was going to give it all up to protect the dragoness indefinitely, they would eventually have to leave her to her own devices. It wasn’t something that needed to be said when Kel’lor needed to have a positive attitude, however, so their leader said nothing for now.
Apparently Cheleya didn’t believe it either as tears came to her eyes for her friend. The droplets made her suddenly realize, that they still had her bottled dragon tears. “You could try the tears, Kel’lor,” she suggested knowing that they had healed Colbie when her magic couldn’t through her own thought.
The gargoyle brought out the flask and revealed that only half remained from the last time she had seen it. “I tried them last night when I was desperate. They did nothing unfortunately to help alleviate any part of it.”
Knowing how he had guarded her tears as being precious, Cheleya knew that he must feel truly awful to have tried them as a last resort. It made the need to get to Hala even more imperative. She could only hope that one of the healers or researchers in the capitol city would have someone that could save her friend from the darkness eating away at him.
Two full days the group pushed the horses even harder stopping hours into darkness to make up for the slow travel in the snow. Cheleya had even used her magic to give the animals more stamina. Like a wizard sharing power with another, her magic strengthened the animals for a few extra hours until it was Kel’lor’s flagging energy that made them stop to rest the mar’goyn’lya each night. He no longer dared change and began to lie in his blankets like a normal human. Without his wings, the man didn’t have to worry over harming them and being trapped in his human form began to teach him a different way to sleep.
On the morning of the third day, Tilana checked the ground and frowned. She looked in the direction of the way that they had come and said, “Something is coming along the ground quickly. It doesn’t feel like horses, so I don’t think it is any of the nomads.”
Cheleya looked back as well and said worriedly, “Someone must be coming from Mar’kal or the one who has been summoning creatures to chase me maybe.”
The mages called up their vision spells looking back, but if there was something coming it was still too far to see it. The group hurried to drive the horses onward. The forty foot high North Wall would be seen less than an hour later. Three hours saw the group entering a gate in the base of a tower designed to admit friends to the country. The horses had maintained the lead enough on whatever followed for the mages to have never spied their pursuit and with the wall between them, the group felt like they could make it to Hala and lose themselves in the city before whatever it was could find them.
Cheleya gaped at the high white walls of capitol city and the black stone of the king’s keep standing near the cliff which ran north and south for miles. Strange construction for the Winter’s Edge tournament had been built to the north of those walls, but they hadn’t detracted from the impressive strength of the city.
While Hala wasn’t as large in scale as the buildings in Mar’kal, the girl was still impressed by the high walls, but even more shocked at the many people wandering the streets. Unlike Televal which had seemed crowded to Cheleya; the crowds in the streets, whether on the ground or horseback, were nearly packed as the day of the tournament’s beginning neared.
“There are so many people,” the girl said as she tried to lead her horse into the city. Even her friends from Staron seemed overwhelmed by the throngs moving around them.
Orlerin led the group to a stable near the outer wall. With so many pedestrians, it was safer for both the horses and humans to get them off of the street as soon as possible. Once they had stowed the animals with the stable boys, Orlerin shouldered his pack waiting for the others to follow.
Cheleya was curious about how they could possibly find anyone in a city so crowded with people. “Where should we go first?” the little blond asked trying to not to look up at all the tall buildings. If they hadn’t been pushed so close together, the heights would have rivaled and even surpassed parts of Mar’kal.
“I was thinking of heading into the inner city to find Kel’lor some help. We can work on finding your people after he’s well,” the battle mage leader stated.
More than happy to see her friend healed, especially fearing what the poison could actually do to him, Cheleya nodded happily.
“Try not to get separated,” the man added to the whole team. “If anyone gets lost, we will meet at the northwest gate of the inner city,” he added pointing to the inner wall that appeared
at least a mile away to the little blond.
“We should really buddy up. I call Cheleya,” Evan said jokingly.
Receiving glares from his team, Colbie pointed at Kel’lor, “Then he’s your buddy. You’re the tallest of us, so you can help support him on the walk.”
Grumbling about no one being able to take a joke, Evantus moved to help the gargoyle by taking his pack in addition to his own. Colbie meanwhile took Cheleya by the hand thinking that the girl was the most likely to get lost of them all for some reason.
The two girls followed Orlerin and Tilana. Without acknowledging Evan’s joking plan, the six had actually wound up doing as he suggested. The crowds as they moved deeper into the city just seemed to get heavier and harder to navigate. Colbie lost sight of Orlerin from time to time, but keeping along the same path she managed to find him again. Being almost as short as Cheleya, the mage quickly realized the one flaw in her plan of putting the two tallest men together. They could see over much of the crowd unlike the girls.
By the time the six managed to get to the inner gate, Colbie was almost crushing Cheleya’s hand from worry of losing her leader in the crowd. “Sorry,” she apologized to the dragoness as the little blond shook out her fingers as they paused taking a break. Orlerin had stopped to ask a guard for directions giving them a moment where the six didn’t have to worry over losing one another.
Cheleya checked on Kel’lor, who was leaning on Evan more and more as his energy waned. If not for the horses, the girl thought that he would never have made it to the wall. Flying wasn’t magic for him, so maybe staying as he was would have kept the poison from spreading, but she doubted it looking at him.
“How are you doing, Kel’lor?” her emerald green eyes looked up at the giant with sweat beading his forehead.
A shiver took him as he tried to answer with chattering teeth. “I could be better,” was all he would admit.
Looking to Evantus carrying both packs and part of the gargoyle’s weight besides, she could tell that the mage was tiring from the extra work as well. Mouthing the word thank you to the young man, she was pulled away once more by Colbie.
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 20
