Dragon!: Book Two: Revenge

by LeRoy Clary

  He listened to Tad tell Amy of his adventures, so far. Amy told of what the family was doing, and of the dissension within the family over leaving Bitters Island. However, a family meeting was called, and Sara explained the dangers of remaining, convincing all to travel with her. Gareth was relieved that he hadn’t been part of that, but Sara had insisted he leave. She would handle the family while Gareth went in search of whoever killed Cinder and Gareth’s father.

  They talked until the sun settled over the tops of the trees and the air turned chilly. Gareth let them be. If nothing else, Tad was learning how to control his mind. Hopefully, Amy learned that Gareth was trying to help and protect her son.

  Ann, much to her dislike, stayed close to the other boy, avoiding his eyes when he opened them. She kept her pouch of herbs nearby, ready to stuff his mouth full if needed. She had not cleaned or medicated any of the cuts, scrapes, or wounds since the night before when she had touched his mind. Instead of asking her, Gareth decided to do it himself.

  He kept a mental watch on Tad while also listening to the other boy’s mind and keeping all thoughts private and limited to their clearing. The boy weighed nothing when he lifted him and carried him to the edge of the stream. Setting him down on the sand with his feet in the water, Gareth began splashing handfuls of water on his legs and washing them.

  Ann passed them and dropped soap and medicine to treat the wounds. She acted as if they fell from her hand unbidden as she gathered more firewood from the tangle at the bend of the stream.

  Several of the smaller wounds had formed scabs, a good sign of healing. More were not as infected or swelled as the day before. Gareth pulled the clothing off of him and found no new flea bites. The lye soap had killed the few left on him, as well as the lice and other crawlies.

  He started with the hair and soaped everything until he even had soap between the toes. Then he rinsed and dressed him. The boy remained as still as a corpse.

  When Gareth sat him beside the fire, Ann asked, “That is all wasted effort if you have to kill him.”

  “I don’t plan to kill him.”

  Ann raised her eyes to meet his. “Will you ever be able to trust him?”

  “No.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Gareth couldn’t fully answer Ann’s next question. He didn’t believe he could ever trust the malnourished boy, but what choice did he have? Casting one last look at him, Gareth went to the stream and the boulder Tad sat upon.

  “Tell your mother that you have to leave her for now, but since you both know how to touch minds you will do it again, soon.”

  Tad screwed up his face, “Aw, do I have to?”

  Gareth laughed. He had expected no less a protest. “Yes.”

  A short while later, after a gentle suggestion from Gareth, both boys were fast asleep. Gareth watched the fire instead of talking. Ann’s question had upset him because she was exactly right. Could he ever trust the boy? If not, what were the risks? If he relaxed for a moment ten years from now would the boy seize the opportunity and slaughter Gareth or one of his loved ones? How could he know for sure?

  With Ann’s questioning eyes still on him, he reached out and touched the mind of Blackie for an instant, telling him that he needed to relocate further away in the morning. Then he found Sara and assured her things were going well, but did not mention much of what he was finding. She told him that after the disappointment from learning the news, the family pulled together and accepted their fate. Most had already speculated or suspected what was happening.

  When Gareth abruptly left the island and word of his father’s death, not to mention the death of Cinder, many started packing. Sara relayed several small incidents; the tears at sailing away from the only home many of them knew and the surprisingly general feeling of adventure of going somewhere new.

  *Gareth?*

  He told her he loved her but had to leave. Quickly, he touched the mind seeking his. It was the Brother who had helped raise and educate him. Gareth said, “Can you talk?”

  *At least for a while. Can you shield our conversation from all others?*

  “That is being done. I understand that the Brotherhood and King have come to terms on an agreement concerning me. The Brotherhood is at every bend of the road searching for me.”

  *And for another.*

  “That is the reason I am here and why I have contacted you,” Gareth explained, making no excused for the thirty years since their last conversation. “I need your help.”

  *I suspect that we need the help of each other.*

  “You always were one step ahead of me.”

  *Except for the time you chose to escape.*

  Gareth chuckled to himself. Escape was not the word he’d choose for being carried by a dragon across the mountains and dropped into the ocean. It had not even entered his mind that such a thing could happen, let alone that it would to him.

  “The angry new voice you hear. Tell me about it.” Gareth said.

  *We believe it is the voice of one ill. Tainted, is perhaps a better description.*

  “Would evil, demented, or mad also apply?”

  *Perhaps our description is too weak. Our consensus is that it is the mind of an untrained youth, but a strong mind. We speculate that the mind could not have survived as an infant or toddler. However, we also sense that it is so warped that it may have destroyed the mind of a father or mother, or both, perhaps over something as minor as a slap on the wrist.*

  “That is similar to my guesses. Have you come to the conclusion that it is out of control and a menace to all? It must die?”

  A pause of emptiness filled the air for the space of several heartbeats. Finally, the Brother answered. *We have not.*

  “Well, that is why I am contacting you. I have at least two tasks for you.”

  *You cannot ‘assign’ tasks to the Brotherhood.*

  “I am assigning them to you, as one of my mentors and friends. Listen carefully, and do what you will. There is not one new mind out there. There are at least five working in conjunction with each other. One of them is the leader.”

  *We have not heard that there is more than one.*

  “The insane leader controls them. They perform his killing for him. They have killed my father, the one known to you and his dragon.”

  Gareth felt the shift in the Brother’s mind. It was as if a student in school suddenly sat up straight in his chair and began paying attention to the teacher.

  *You said there are tasks for me to perform. I can do nothing to violate my vows, and all I learn from you must be passed on to my Brotherhood. Do not put me in a position of choosing, because I choose my kind.*

  “I would never do such a thing. The first task is to pass on to the Brotherhood what I have told you. All of it. Also, tell them that this evil mind is intent on destroying me, the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood, and the King, as well as most of the people.”

  *You believe this is true, Gareth?*

  “Look into my mind and see the truth. I will prevent you from seeing nothing. I will hide nothing.”

  *That is not needed. I sense your truth. You said there are two tasks, or more,* The Brother told him.

  “The second task is to relay all of this conversation to the Sisterhood. A Sister named Ann is with me and has asked that you tell any Sisters you encounter of this danger and that she has called for the entire Sisterhood to help in defeating this evil in any way possible.”

  Another pause, and then the Brother said, *I will pass on the message. I have seen two of the Sisters on the road today, so would expect to see more tomorrow. What is the third thing you ask of me?*

  “Only that you communicate back with me tomorrow with the response of the Brotherhood, and hopefully the King.”

  *Are you near the place where the evil minds exist?*

  “I should keep some information to myself, and then you do not have to share it with your Brothers.”

  *If you do happen to encounter the one you seek, be careful my friend
. Our world would be a lesser place without you.*

  The link was broken. Gareth was sitting with his back to a cedar tree, the stream chuckling beside him, the fire snapping and spitting in the darkness, and Ann watching over all three of the men. He said, “Your message should go out to your Sisters tomorrow.”

  “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to you just up and telling me something like that. It’s as if you just made it up in your mind.”

  “I’ve been talking to Tad’s mother, my dragon, my wife, and a Brother, who helped raise me. That Brother will pass on your message to any Sisters who are on the road.”

  “He will know us how? It’s not like we wear tattoos on our foreheads.”

  Gareth said, “That’s a good question, now that you bring it up. He also said there were two Sisters who passed his watch post today.”

  “How could he know that? We often dress alike in the field, but that’s almost for ease of travel, not identification.”

  “This particular Brother never quite fit into the Brotherhood. Now and then he would act on his own. Once he consoled me as a father. Another time I caught him smiling at me when he shouldn’t have. They never smile.”

  “Now that you mention it, they don’t. No laughing or any indication of humor. I’ve always envied them their powers, but if they have to sacrifice the joys in life, I’ll stick with what I have. But that does not answer the question.”

  “It would be simpler to just ask him. I can do that.”

  “He would answer?”

  “Perhaps not, but he may. All I can say is that he has never lied to me that I know of, but there were many times he didn’t provide answers because of his vows. There is a difference.”

  “Do it.”

  Gareth reached out with his mind and touched the Brother. In essence, he gave the Brother a mental tap on the shoulder and asked if he could ask a question.

  *Of course.*

  “How will you recognize Sisters when you see them?”

  *I require time to consider your question.*

  “I’ll be here,” Gareth said and pulled away. He turned to Ann. “He is considering the question. It may take time, the Brother said.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Gareth shrugged and smiled as if he found it funny. “I asked him how he knows Sisters when he sees them. He answered that he would need time to consider the question. Understand?”

  “No.” Ann crossed her arms over her chest and set the scowl on her face.

  “He neither confirmed nor denied the ability. He was not surprised at the question, so that tell us he must consider how to split the hair, and both conceal information while telling the truth.”

  “That’s so convoluted for me to follow.”

  “It is speaking without lying in a logical progression, something he taught me to do. He could have said that he didn’t recognize them when he saw them and ended the subject. But that would be a lie and therefore against his principles. He didn’t do that, so there must be more to consider, and it will take time. The full answer is probably that the Brotherhood has a method to determine who are Sisters that you know nothing about, but saying so would betray his Brotherhood.”

  She stood and glanced to her bedroll. “I have to warn the Sisterhood.”

  “No need. He told me that he would relay the conversation between us to the first Sisters he sees. He is a man of his word. He cannot do less than reveal the entire conversation.”

  “How do you know he will?”

  “Again, he gave me his word, and he had never lied to me.”

  “He has also made promises to his Brotherhood. What about that?” Ann demanded.

  “He will break no vows. None.”

  Ann settled back down. “Will he tell you what information he passed on?”

  “If I ask. Tomorrow, if you wish, I’ll make sure he passed on the information that he can tell who is in the Sisterhood. He will not tell them if others can do the same if indeed they can.”

  “He might be the only one?”

  “I would think not, but who knows?”

  Ann stepped directly in front of Gareth and asked, “Do you ever get the feeling this is all evolving into something we cannot control?”

  “I have the feeling it is out of control, but not that we cannot control it. Two different things.”

  She stepped away and turned to check on the boys. She said, “You and your Brother friend are beginning to sound a lot alike.”

  “Thank you,” he said, trying to turn away before she could cast her scowl at him.

  But she was right. The Brother had been his teacher and mentor. Gareth had learned how to examine information from different angles and approach solutions differently. He learned to tell the truth, but not all of it, all of the time. He answered what people asked with their words, not with their hearts. He didn’t insult them by telling them a project was doomed to failure.

  If a farmer wanted to plant the seeds for his crops on the side of a hillside before a rainstorm was it Gareth’s responsibility to tell him that it was a bad idea because the seeds would wash away? Had he lied? Could he suggest he talk to another who had tried the same thing and failed? How could one man enter so many lives? The answer was that he could not. There were too many individuals and most of what happened it their lives was their own business.

  But there were also larger issues. If a drought made the crops fail in the southern part of the kingdom and people were starving, could Gareth do less than suggest farmers in the north transport their excess food there? If invaders from across the sea attacked could he do less than help the King’s generals with their battle plans? And if an insane youth from across the mountains arrived with intent to kill all in the kingdom . . .”

  His thoughts turned to the past, to stories and lessons the man he’d come to find as his father, had relayed to him. While Gareth considered him his father, in fact, he had been far more. Over a span of around four hundred years since he had bonded with a black dragon called Cinder, his father had watched over the entire kingdom and beyond. His work had been done in the background, and few knew of his existence.

  Those that did know of him envied and desired his powers so his mentor had isolated himself and performed his deeds in obscure manners as had the one before him, and the one before him. For a thousand generations, there had been one man referred to as The Gareth, an ancient word most believed meant protector, or guidance, in a language so old nobody remembered it.

  Gareth considered the man he knew to be The Gareth as his father, even though another man who had died quite young had sired him. For nearly thirty years the two had spoken with their minds interlinked daily. His father found and corrected problems before others knew they existed. The number of plots foiled against the aging king was endless. As his father discovered a plot, he deftly resolved it.

  In one instance, the elder son of the king, on advice from power hungry friends, sprinkled a deadly poison into the wine mug the king was using at dinner. Gareth’s father made a lowly servant deliver a plate of cheese to the table, and while the servant’s back shielded his actions of the delivery, he switched the two mugs. The son died, and nobody ever knew or suspected the plot to kill the king.

  Ann still fussed with the fire and small chores around the camp that didn’t need doing. Gareth wanted to console her. He wanted to reassure her that all would be well, but that was as impossible as making mental contact with his family and consoling them.

  “Are you going to just sit there all night?” Ann asked. “Or are you talking to someone?”

  “Thinking.”

  “Worried?”

  “Yes. There is a lot I don’t know.”

  “The Brotherhood provided you with training for years. Your mind should easily defeat that of a boy who has had no training.”

  “I escaped before the Brotherhood could fully train me. What I learned from my father was to be benevolent, kind, and compassionate. He never instructed me in how to figh
t. I did learn to set up locks on my mind that would be difficult to defeat. But they are not enough in this instance.”

  “How so? I mean, since I’ve been alive you’ve been considered the most powerful mind alive, and you’re acting like a scared bunny.”

  “I am scared. But you are mistaken. I was never the most powerful. My father was. Before they killed him. And Cinder was the most powerful dragon. Cinder is in a field, rotting. Blackie and I are far less powerful.”

  Ann withdrew from the anger, hurt, and fear in his voice.

  He said no more as he squeezed his eyes closed and refused to look at her.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Gareth, still lost in thought, tossed the blanket around his shoulders and continued watching the fire until it was no more than a bed of orange coals. Some time ago Ann had gone to sleep, but his mind was spinning and churning with doubts and possibilities. Most of them dark.

  He’d put his finger directly on the problem while speaking to Ann. His father had lived four hundred years without ever losing a challenge of any sort. His dragon was the largest and the only adult black in existence. Together they were a force, a team nothing in four hundred years could defeat, and he was preceded by his ‘father’ and his. A thousand generations, some said. A thousand generations of being the strongest in the world.

  But he and his dragon now lay dead.

  Charging up the valley into the jaws of whatever had defeated a stronger mind and mature dragon was stupid. If it had defeated them, it certainly would defeat him.

  Yet, he couldn’t leave it alone, or it would remain in the kingdom and defeat the entire population. But his emotions and desires to rush up the valley and charge into his father’s home were more than stupid. It was careless and dangerous.

  Sacrificing himself for a cause he believed in was acceptable if needed. But needless death was unacceptable. The words he used to describe his dilemma were nearly the same but meant entirely different outcomes. The single item that he dwelled upon was that he was the best chance of defeating this new enemy. If Gareth failed, the kingdom would fall, and tens of thousands would perish.