“Now tell me what is going on with you, boy. What happened to the goat and your mother’s honey? Is it a girl? Did you gift them to a girl you wish to favor you?”
He could say that! His father may understand such a gesture; his mother certainly would. The problem was that he had no girlfriend. Besides, his lies could never get past his mother’s infallible mental powers. All he could do was shake his head.
His father sighed and stepped closer, looking almost remorseful for what he had to do. “I suppose there is only one way I am only going to get answers from you.”
At that moment, his father was the most frightening thing he could imagine. The desert demon was as scary as a housecat compared to the man wielding the leather-wrapped tool of torture.
Fazheel’s mouth opened, and a torrent of words flooded out without any conscious control. “It was the desert demon! It burst from the sand like a trap spider and ate one of the goats then told me to bring it honey and rub sand on its scales or it would eat me too, and it knew where I lived, so I had to do as it said!”
“There is nothing you could have told me that would have made me angrier than that ridiculous lie. I rather you had sold the goat and engorged yourself on the honey than take me for a fool,” his father said, his anger mixed with remorse that his son would lie to him like that.
“Wait, husband,” his mother said, stopping his father’s advance with the switch. “I do not think he is lying, at least he does not think he is.”
Oh, gods bless his mother’s psychic powers for once!
Fazheel’s father looked at his mother then to his cousin. “Feriche, go out and tell your father to come here. You will count every goat at every toll of the bell.”
“Yes, sir,” his cousin said and turned to do as he was told.
Feriche heard the whistling of the goat switch slicing through the air behind him. Pure survival instinct made him leap forward, clearing seven feet without even bending his knees. Unfortunately, his father was a tall man with a long reach, and Feriche’s impressive bound came up nearly a foot short of seeing him to safety. The crack of the switch against his cousin’s backside sounded like a bolt of lightning striking inside the dining room.
Feriche’s second leap, encouraged by the vicious, stinging switch across his rump, took him half again as far as the first, putting him halfway into the living room and out the door a split second later. How he managed to clear the top of the doorway without bashing his head Fazheel could not know.
“And you will count those goats every time they are brought in and taken out, boy.”
Fazheel’s uncle entered the house a minute later, grinning when he saw the goat switch in his brother’s hand and realized why his son was moving so much quicker than usual and was counting the goats when he left for the house.
“I think my son will not only be able to tell you how many goats there are but how many of each gender and color patterns!”
Fazheel’s father did not join in his brother’s laughter, always having been the more serious and stern of the two. “Now tell us again what you saw, slowly.”
Fazheel recounted everything he had seen and done as best as he could remember. No one interrupted him as he told his story, only watching and listening thoughtfully until he finished.
“What did it look like again?” his father asked.
“It was scaly with long, sharp fangs, blood-red eyes, and big bat-like wings,” Fazheel replied, picturing the terrifying visage in his mind.
“You are certain the eyes were red?”
“Well, they may have been kind of green—but a really evil green.”
“What color were its scales?”
“Shiny, like gold or maybe brass.”
“And how big did you say it was?”
“Huge! Almost as big as the house, well, maybe not our house, but a smaller house for sure.”
“When you rubbed its scales with sand, did you scrub its back?”
Fazheel nodded.
“And how did you reach its back? Did you climb on top, or were you standing next to it?”
Fazheel’s father realized that his son was not deliberately lying but knew that such frightening sights often loomed far larger and more terrifying in one’s mind than in reality. Especially young boys who have seen very little of anything beyond the goats they herded and the town they lived in.
“I stood next to it, kind of kneeling at times.”
The brothers looked at each other, and it was his uncle who spoke. “Sounds like a sand dragon, but a very young one.”
“Yes, probably no bigger than a small pony at best,” his father agreed.
“You think we need to get some men and weapons and destroy it, or at least run it off?”
“I do not like the idea of using force against the creature. If it is young, its mother may be around, and such a creature could destroy the town if not for the wizards, and even they would likely not appreciate it if we brought down the kind of wrath a mature sand dragon could bring. It is likely the beast is alone though and preyed upon our goats for a relatively easy meal but, even so, it could devour the entire herd in a year if left on its own.”
As his father spoke, it never ceased to amaze Fazheel how much his father knew. He could understand why he had always impressed the importance of education on his children, but how he knew so much about such things as dragons Fazheel could not even speculate.
“I see what you are saying,” his uncle added. “Besides, if we attacked it and it got away and grew up, well, I would rather not be around the one who it begrudged.”
“I think we will need to speak to it.” The father turned back toward his son. “You did say it spoke to you in our language?” Fazheel nodded. “We should speak to it and try to convince it to go elsewhere. We will take a few men with us in case we need to persuade it by other means. I hope it will simply leave. It would not please me to have to harm it.”
Fazheel drove the goats back to their grazing lands in the morning as if nothing was amiss, but he could not calm the nerves that thrummed inside him like the strings of lute playing a lively traveler’s tune. It did not take long for the dragon to make its appearance, bursting out of the sand just as the goats were settling in to graze. At the creature’s sudden appearance, they huddled together for safety and fled for the far side of the oasis when the predator’s scent filled the air.
Fazheel was much closer to the edge of the oasis than he had been previously, but the dragon apparently felt confident in its command of the situation that it came near without hesitation. He set the pot of honey on the ground and stepped away. The dragon pounced on it like a cat onto a mouse, greedily flipped the top off, and swirled its long, purple tongue around the inside.
Fazheel stepped close to its side as if to make with the sand bath but, instead of scooping up a double handful of sand, he grabbed a thick rope his father and uncle buried last night. He intentionally placed the pot where the dragon would step into the noose and, when he heaved up on the rope, it cinched tight around the creature’s foreleg, trapping it.
His father, uncle, and three of their friends burst out of the trees and thick foliage surrounding the oasis with more ropes in their hands the moment Fazheel pulled the rope tight.
“Hey!” Sandy cried out in surprise then saw the humans rushing toward her. “Uh oh.”
Her first emotion was fear, but that quickly turned to anger at the thought of being tricked by her human servant and trapped like some wild animal.
I will teach you humans what it means to have a dragon by the tail, she swore bitterly and bit at the rope with her powerful jaws and sharp teeth.
Several strands parted, but the rope was thick and well made. There were still several strands keeping the rope intact, and they were enough to continue restraining her.
Sandy knew she was out of time and decided to go on the offensive. She dove under the sand, narrowly dodging the lasso thrown by one of the humans only to appear behind another and wh
ack him in the back of his legs with her strong tail, sending the man tumbling to the ground. Before she could fully enjoy her momentary victory, another man threw his rope and lassoed her around her long neck.
A powerful tingling ran through her body as another ancient memory stirred inside her. She focused upon the sudden surge before the humans could get in place to get another rope around her. Sandy shaped and directed the energy into the ground around her, and the sand seemed to come alive, blowing around her and the humans in a small but fierce sandstorm. Were she an adult, she could bring forth a storm that could practically bury the entire town.
The dragon snapped its clear, diamond-hard inner eyelids closed to protect the delicate orbs as she dove beneath the sand once more. She burst up behind another of the humans while he was trying to affix a scarf around his head and face to block the blowing sand. A small growl was the only warning he got before she sank her needle-like teeth through the thin material of his robe and into the tender flesh beneath. The man howled like Feriche when he had been swatted with the goat switch.
Sandy tried to spit the horrible taste out of her mouth when another rope found its way around her neck. She reared back in fear and hoped to pull the rope from the human’s hands, but another caught her other foreleg. The men pulled the two around her front legs in opposite direction, sending her sprawling face first in a most undignified fashion into the sand. Another rope caught one of her back legs, and before she could think of a plan, they wound all three ropes around her legs and hog-tied her.
Being pinned and rendered helpless brought upon a feeling of humiliation she had never experienced before. She hissed, snapped, and cursed the humans with every vile word she could think of, which was not many because her mother told her that ladies do not use foul language, but her protests and resistance were cut short when another roped was wrapped around her snout and tied her jaws shut.
Azerick was going to kill her unless these humans beat him to it. Why had she not listened to him? Why had she been so greedy and provoked the humans? Because she was dragon, that’s why. Full of pride and a sense of importance well beyond her young age, she thought herself as superior and had the right to do as she pleased. Mama would have been very disappointed in her she suddenly realized.
A tall human approached with her former servant looking wide-eyed but slightly smug in tow. “So, little dragon, are you ready to talk more peaceably?”
“Yes,” Sandy replied morosely, her words muted by the rope around her muzzle.
“What are you doing out here all by yourself? Where is your mother?”
“She’s gone.”
A look of empathetic understanding crossed the tall human’s face. “I see, but I cannot have you eating all of my goats. It would make me and my family paupers.”
“It was only one stupid goat, and it tasted terrible!”
“Ah, one so far, but how many would I lose if you stayed? You see, I cannot have you thinking my herd is your private hunting ground. Not to mention you frightened my son half to death.”
“Sorry,” she said, looking at Fazheel standing behind his father as he crouched next to her. “I won’t eat any more of your goats. I did not like it much, and we should be leaving soon anyway.”
“So you are not alone? Is there another dragon nearby?” Fazheel’s father asked, eliciting nervous looks from the men with him.
“No, he is a human but very powerful. I would not want to make him mad if I were you,” Sandy responded with a hint of warning.
Actually, Azerick was much more likely to be mad at her than these humans were, but she was not about to reveal that fact.
“Ah, I think I see now.”
They had all heard about the battle that took place between the wizards in the tower square, but he decided it was not his place to tell the little dragon that the stranger had been taken since he did not know what had happened to him.
“We will let you go, but you must promise not to eat any more of my goats, and stop terrorizing my son.”
“Fine, I promise. Can I have the rest of the honey?”
Fazheel’s father laughed, a rare break in his normally strict nature, and placed the clay pot next to the dragon while the others untied her. Sandy picked up the pot in her mouth and bounded toward the dune where she made her lair below the sand.
“You should remember this day, Fazheel. It is a rare thing for a man to see a live dragon these days, much less to speak to and touch one. She owes you a debt for your services and gifts. Perhaps one day, should your paths cross again, you may be able to call in that favor if your need is truly great.”
“Do you think the dragon would see it that way, father?” Fazheel asked. “It seemed rather selfish and arrogant to admit to such a thing.”
“You are lucky it was a sand dragon; one of the more beneficent of the dragon kinds. She is just young, and the young lack wisdom and make many mistakes. I think she saw her errors and will gain wisdom in the years to come the more she learns from them. A goat and a few pots of honey is a small price to pay for such an experience. Now go tend to your duties.”
“Yes, Father.”
CHAPTER 14
It was late the second night of his capture when Azerick was awakened by several people entering the summoning chamber. Five forms in black robes stood in a circle around him. Azerick identified two of the wizards. Shakrill and the woman he had injured during the fight stood with three other men he had not seen before.
No one bothered to speak to him. Instead, they all seemed to have their own duties to attend to and went about them without preamble. Shakrill pulled a knife from beneath her robes and slashed Azerick across his chest. He hissed more in surprise than pain when the sharp blade opened a three-inch gash in his flesh. Shakrill showed no emotion, only focused determination as she dipped a small, fox-hair brush into the bright blood flowing from the fresh wound and painted several unfamiliar runes around his prone form.
Sasha used a minor spell to light five of the six braziers that stood near the circular wall of the summoning room, surrounding both captive and captors while the others cast several spells of protection. Shakrill began chanting in a low, droning voice that the others quickly took up. He tried once more to call his staff to hand, but it failed to materialize just as it had every time he had tried to summon it since his capture. Something in the room, or possibly the chains that bound him, blocked his ability to reach out for it.
Azerick felt nothing at first and had a momentary thought of hope that the spell was not working, but then the room began to spin. It was nothing like the spinning feeling one got from drinking too much, where one felt as if they were spiraling with the room. It felt to Azerick as if the room was spinning yet he remained stationary, each of the wizards faces flashing past his open eyes. Every few seconds, the door came into view then quickly disappeared, spinning faster and faster.
He could not contain the scream that tore from his chest when the floor dropped out from under him. He saw the five wizards’ faces as if peering down at him through the opening of a well, and they drew farther and farther away as he fell down a deep, dark hole. The faces disappeared as he plummeted too far away for him to see, and the orange glow of the braziers became nothing more than a pinpoint of light, like a single star in an endless black sky before it too winked out of existence.
Azerick had no idea how long he fell or if he even kept falling. Once there was nothing to fixate his eyes on, it felt as if he simply floated in the ether of nothingness. It reminded him a great deal of when the psyling had invaded his mind but, this time, there was no flaw or fissure through which to escape.
After an indeterminate amount of time, he began noticing that the darkness was taking on a different color. The black began to fade and take on a reddish, rusty hue. Azerick soon stared up into a grey, lifeless sky and discovered solidity under his back. He had never thought he would ever welcome the feeling of a stone jabbing uncomfortably into his flesh but, at this moment, it w
as the most wonderful sensation he could imagine.
He got to his feet and stared at the bleak landscape. There was no sun, but there was light; a reddish diffused sort of glow that came from no obvious source and cast no shadows. The ground and land all around him was reddish stone and sand. Far in the distance, he spied the black walls of a sinister-looking fortress built in an architectural design he would not have thought possible. With no other real options, he began walking toward the strange fortress.
Without knowing how big the castle was, it was impossible to tell how far away it lay. He felt as if he had been walking for at least an hour, but it did not seem as if he were getting any closer. Azerick could not shake the feeling that someone, or something, was watching him. He scoured the rocks that projected out of the ground in clumps and piles but saw nothing. He cast a look over his shoulder several times but could not see the source of his discomfiture.
The sorcerer continued his trek toward the black fortress. He tried to call his staff to him, but wherever he was must be beyond its ability to reach him. He did not even have his rings or bracers to help him touch the Source or provide additional protection. He had become so accustomed to wearing them that it felt as if he were missing a part of his body.
Azerick spun toward a flicker of movement out of the corner of his right eye. He stopped and looked at the jumbled pile of stones for several minutes, but nothing moved. Azerick picked up his pace and began walking faster. He thought that the castle looked a little closer now.
The clatter of small stones falling down a slope was the only warning Azerick got when the creatures finally got up the nerve or numbers to attack him. Hideous, long-limbed monsters with knotty hides the same color as the landscape leapt from behind piles of rocks and out of narrow crevasses in the ground. They looked almost like smaller versions of a troll, perhaps a foot shorter than he was. It was hard to tell because they bounded across the rocky landscape on all fours.
Long, sharp claws tipped each of their twelve fingers and toes, pointed teeth filled their overly large mouths, and solid, glossy black eyes glared hatefully from their hairless heads. Azerick ringed himself in stone spikes he conjured from the ground. Several creatures ran heedlessly onto the protrusions, shrieking in pain when the stone tips pierced their pinkish flesh.
The Sorcerer's Path Box Set: Book 1-4 Page 124
