Dragon Plagued: Chronicles of Dragon Aerie Young Adult Fantasy Fiction (Plague Born Book 2)

by Travis Simmons

  The sleep she sought didn’t come. Instead, Wylan thought back on the day. Her muscles ached and her mind was tired, but she couldn’t fight back the nagging sense of how she almost seemed to act normal, as if she hadn’t been through the worst trauma of her entire life just a couple days before. Most of the day she hadn’t thought about her parent’s death, and it worried her, made her stomach surge and her mind reel that she could be so heartless that she didn’t think about them.

  They’d died, and here she was, acting like it hadn’t happened. Acting like she was on a grand adventure with nothing behind her. No matter how she tried to shake the thought, she couldn’t. She knew that sleep would help clear her mind, but that wasn’t happening. She shimmied her way out from between Josef and Millie and stood some distance away from them. The bone wand was a heavy weight in her pocket, though it didn’t really seem to weigh anything. She’d strapped her sword to her side. It was dangerous in the desert with Baba Yaga hunting her and the dragons roaring not far away.

  What was she even doing with these two? She was heading in the opposite direction of the dragons. She needed to head toward them, not away. She knew all of the arguments—if she went to Darubai and learned to fight dragons, she would stand a chance against them. She could be part of something bigger, keeping the lands safe from dragons. But at that moment she didn’t care about the long desert or the dragons, she only cared about the blue, and it was likely the blue was with the crowd of dragons not far behind them.

  Crossing the long desert with Millie and Josef was taking forever, it seemed. Without being able to fly, she was holding Millie and Josef back from achieving their goal—getting Kira behind the safety of the city walls. More than that, she was wasting her own time traveling and training when all it would take was one lucky shot.

  Mind made up, fueled by the need to kill the dragon and the burning sorrow of forgetting her parents for the day, Wylan picked her way around the camp, careful not to wake Josef and Millie.

  The baby cooed at her, as if to say she was making a mistake and not to go. Wylan already knew if the baby truly wanted her not to go, she could force her to stay.

  You were supposed to help me, she thought scathingly. Fat lot of help you’ve been.

  The baby cooed again, but Wylan ignored her. She trudged through the sand, putting more and more distance between herself and the camp. She wondered what the other two would think when they woke and didn’t find her. Where would she be by then? Would she have already made it to the dragons? Did the dragons sleep at night? Was there a chance that she could sneak up on them and kill at least one before they woke?

  The keening roars in the distance told her otherwise. If they were sleeping, there were at least some that were still awake. Maybe she could sneak past their lookout and take out the blue…if it was with the group at all.

  She felt a twinge of regret that she was leaving Josef behind. The thought of him and how he seemed to lift her spirits—even if in a mildly annoying way—was enough to stop her in her steps. She turned toward camp, imagining that she could see his shadowy form watching her, but it was a figment of her imagination. That was a life she couldn’t live while the blue dragon drew breath. If things were different, she would gladly have pursued him, despite what Millie said about him being a scoundrel.

  But she couldn’t think about what might have been. She turned her mind back to the task at hand, and to other times to help fuel her anger instead of her regret.

  She thought of her mother’s librak pudding and how it clung to her tongue with sweetness. She thought of long nights by the fire reading her favorite adventure novels, knowing that in the morning she was going to be too exhausted to help her father on the farm. She remembered how Cuthburt would let her sleep in on those days, knowing that she’d been up late reading and he didn’t want to wake her.

  She’d never have that again, and it was the dragon’s fault. Wylan was faced with a new life that she didn’t choose, no matter how much she’d wished for adventure. This wasn’t the life she wanted—running from dragons, stuck with strangers learning how to protect herself in a hostile world. She wanted more than anything to be back on the water farm dreaming about adventure. In all of those adventure stories, she’d never felt the pain of the characters. The books never talked about the sorrow that came with adventure. They made it seem beautiful by exploring strange cultures and lands and being part of something bigger. That’s what she wanted to feel, the sense of awe that she felt with her books, not the terror she felt with every leg of their journey.

  Maybe she could have that with Josef. He seemed attracted to her, unless that was just him making fun of her. There was no doubt in her mind that she was attracted to him. She shook her head. Not that again. Stop thinking about him. It’s best to forget him completely.

  A throaty chuckle to her left stopped Wylan dead in her tracks. Was it Baba Yaga? Had she somehow found her way out of the Dark Below to hunt her again? Now more than ever she was aware of the heavy weight of the bone wand in her pocket. While it weighed nothing, the power of it weighed on her mind much more. She should have left it behind so the hag couldn’t track her…but what would that have done to the others? What if she needed it again?

  To her right several yips and barks answered the first call. The barks dissolved into high-pitched giggles. Wylan’s legs were glued to the sand. Her muscles tense. Her breathing ragged and sharp in her chest. Her hand jerked toward her sword. She hadn’t trained nearly enough to know how to use it.

  How hard can it be? Stab with the pointy end, slash with the sharp edges, right?

  Another yip and more giggles wafted out of the darkness toward her. She could see the glow of eyes surrounding her. All of her bravado faded. There was certainly more to using a sword than that. She was grossly outnumbered. Fear hammered in her chest. She was alone, and she was without weapons. She took a step back, her muscles fueled by the fear that raged through her veins.

  Her other hand twitched toward the bone wand in her pocket, but she refused to use it—not after what happened last time. Resolutely she pulled her hand away from the wand and retreated another step, until a yip sounded behind her.

  Wylan spun around. Everywhere she looked, eyes surrounded her. The dragons sounded off in the distance, and Wylan knew that she would never reach them—they’d never know that she’d been coming for them because she faced hyenas, and she was likely going to die in the encounter.

  She drew her sword. It felt heavy and clumsy in her hand. She shifted it a few times, trying to decide how best to hold it to fight the hyenas off. The beasts sensed her unease, and began circling.

  There was no use in trying to keep them all in sight at the same time, it was impossible and when she had her back turned, the hyenas advanced. The circle closed more and more on her.

  Wylan reached for her fire, the one thing she’d been able to control that day. But the fire was sluggish in answering. Her mind was already tired, and the fire responded to her tiredness. It was like working with a muscle soar from too much strain. Her head throbbed, and the fire responded in fits and starts, working its way up from deep within her.

  She felt the wyvern soul waken clumsily to her tired call for fire. The wyvern gave her enough strength to summon the fire before drifting back to sleep. Wake up! Wylan thought, her fear making the call shiver through her. The wyvern stirred, but didn’t waken. How in the long desert was she supposed to fight when her other form slept? Was that something she’d learn with control?

  She pushed the thought from her mind, it wasn’t helping her now as it was.

  She summoned fire to her hand, but it fizzled out, her fear vanquishing the fire before it could even get started. She tried to call it again, but the hyenas were too close, she had to act. She could see the steam rising from their nostrils and she lashed out with her sword. She’d put too much into the swing, and when she missed, it knocked her off balance. She fumbled to the side, and barely pulled to a halt before she
crashed into the ring of hyenas.

  One darted forward, gripped her arm in its teeth, but before it could do any harm, a blue wyvern head lanced out of the darkness, and snapped its spine in two.

  The other hyenas scattered yipping and crying in fear as they fled.

  Lissandra chose that moment to wake up and shrug her power through Wylan. She gasped feeling the rise of the dragon power, the unfurling scales that slipped beneath her skin. When Lissandra realized there was no longer any danger, she settled back into the depths of the human form.

  Wylan jerked to her feet, her hands smoothing down the front of her tunic. She picked up her sword, and with shaky hands, sheathed it once more. She cleared her throat, trying not to look shaken. She tucked her hands under her arms and stared at Josef as if she hadn’t been trying to sneak away to kill dragons.

  The wyvern let out something of a chuckle, and motioned back to camp with his head. He shifted back into his human form, and Wylan tried to ignore his incredibly naked body. Was it just her, or had the night just gotten really hot? Even as she fought the urge to look at him, she couldn’t help notice how firm his body was, and how his blue eyes caught the light of the Great Above. The purple light from the stars played over the sharp angles of his face and nose, making his full lips appear softer than they should have been.

  She cleared her throat and tried to calm her roaring heart. The heat in her face refused to leave.

  Despite the awkwardness of his complete lack of clothing—and her complete lack of will at ignoring it—Wylan felt safer and at ease. She even felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. She hated the fact that he had to come to her rescue, but not so angry that she wasn’t thankful he’d saved her life.

  “Get lost doing some late night walking?” he asked, winking at her, which only increased her discomfort.

  “Yea,” Wylan said. “Had a lot on my mind.”

  “I bet, good thing you woke me when you left.”

  “Does Millie know?” Wylan asked.

  “She woke when I left,” Josef told her.

  Her stomach churned at the thought of facing Millie with such a feeble lie.

  “Better get all the exploring out of your system before we get to Darubai,” Josef told her. “There’s not a lot of places to walk, unless you like climbing mountains.”

  “Never tried it,” she said.

  “Well, I love it. We could go sometime.”

  Wylan nodded, but didn’t trust her voice to answer.

  But all thoughts of Josef, his nakedness, his invitation to climb mountains, or all of his winking vanished when she returned to camp. Millie was waiting for them with a glare that could have frozen fire. It certainly chased the heat from her face and stilled her racing heart.

  “Did you get lost?” Millie asked. Her voice told Wylan that she didn’t believe that for a moment.

  “Yea,” she said.

  “Amazing that you walked in a straight line and were able to get lost…”

  “I hadn’t turned around yet,” she said. “I was just getting ready too when the—”

  “You were running off to kill dragons.” Millie stood and crossed her arms over her chest. “You would have gotten yourself killed. Don’t lie to us, we aren’t dumb.”

  “I’m not?” Josef asked with a smile. It melted as soon as Millie turned her frosty glare on him.

  “If that’s the route you want to take, have at it, but don’t put us in danger when we have enough danger as it is. If you hadn’t noticed, we are carrying precious cargo that could turn the tide for all humanity in this struggle. If you want to act a child and focus on your stupid vendetta instead of helping everyone else, don’t burden us with your presence.” She turned her back on Wylan before she could respond, and hunkered back down to sleep.

  Wylan, however, didn’t think she’d be sleeping much that night. She knew facing Millie was going to be rough. Even if the woman hadn’t been mean to her before, she’d always gotten the sense that Millie wasn’t someone she would want to cross. Her stomach churned, and anger thrummed through her veins. She struggled to defend herself, but she had been trying to sneak off, and anything she said at that point would only make issues worse.

  Embarrassed, she lay down in the sand. Josef curled up close to her for heat, and rested his arm around her. Despite it feeling awkward to her human soul, the wyvern soul churned contentedly and settled back to sleep. She wasn’t sure what he did to her, but peace and calm flooded through her almost the instant he wrapped his arms around her, and soon she was drifting off to restful sleep.

  Why didn’t she answer me? Wylan wondered.

  :Because you aren’t trained yet,: Josef’s familiar voice sounded in her head. She stiffened at the intrusion.

  :You can hear me?: Wylan thought.

  :You’re nearly screaming your thoughts. Try focusing on me, and speak softer in your mind.:

  :Like this?:

  :Still kind of like trumpets,: he said. There was a sense of a wince that traveled down the thread that connected his mind to hers. :Just think like you’re talking to me. It’s like using your voice, but not so much like thinking.:

  It took a few minutes of changing her way of thinking, but eventually she got the hang of it by picturing Josef in her mind and imagining that she was just talking to him.

  :This better?: she asked.

  :Perfect. I wasn’t sure if you had that particular ability or not. Some wyverns can speak mentally, but not all.:

  :Can Millie?: Wylan wondered.

  :Not often, it takes a lot for her to mind speak,: Josef said. :We would have found out with you once you reached Darubai and were tested.:

  :I’m sorry,: Wylan said, putting all of her sincerity behind her thoughts.

  :Don’t be. I can understand why you did it, but please don’t die on me. Let us train you so you might live through an encounter with a dragon.:

  The weight behind his words, the unspoken plea to not die so maybe they would have a future together wasn’t lost on Wylan. Her mind churned worse than ever before wondering what in the long desert she was getting pulled into. This was the last thing she needed right now, no matter how much she wanted it.

  During breaks the next day, Millie ignored Wylan and only answered direct questions, and even then her answers were short and to the point. There was no sense in Wylan continuing the lie that she’d simply gone off to clear her mind. Millie had seen straight through it.

  Josef didn’t seem any different toward her. Through the day he communicated to her through the mental voice he’d taught her to use the night before. Wylan was grateful that he wasn’t speaking out loud—she wasn’t sure how Millie would react to their conversation. She got the feeling that Josef was as scared of Millie as Wylan was at that point. For a green wyvern, she was rather testy. Maybe if red wyverns had a fiery side, then greens had a toxic side? Millie was in good control of her wyvern soul, though, so wouldn’t she be able to control her anger as well?

  Unless she truly doesn’t care how she affects me. Wylan understood Millie being angry, but she thought maybe she was going a bit too far with her reaction.

  Wylan didn’t speak to Millie the rest of the day, until night came and she braved talking at camp.

  “Wouldn’t it help to learn more about my wyvern?” Wylan asked

  “Yes, it would, but I don’t think you’d find me very helpful tonight,” Millie said. “It would be best if Josef taught you to use that sword.”

  She did, however, join them a few feet away to watch the progression Wylan made with the sword. Wylan’s thoughts were filled with how she’d nearly betrayed them the night before, and how she would give anything to have Millie back working with her again, have her trust and her care. Maybe it would come in time, but while Wylan felt bad for what she’d done, and wished Millie would talk to her again, she wouldn’t have changed what she’d done. Given the chance, with more training, she’d go after the dragon again.

  Ultimately she needed to ki
ll the blue dragon. Wylan wasn’t sure it was her job to make Millie understand that. Nor did she feel she needed to explain her actions. Millie and Josef had their own task, and that was getting Kira back to Darubai. She owed nothing to them, and hadn’t known them long enough to feel she needed to repay their care.

  “Have you ever used a sword before?” Josef asked, pulling her from her own thoughts.

  “No,” Wylan said. She hoped that meant he was going to take it easy on her.

  Josef stripped off his shirt and tossed it on the ground a few feet away. Great, just what she needed, the distraction of his perfectly toned arms, the sweat trickling between the gutters of his abs, the…

  Focus! She scolded herself. Once more Lissandra chuckled at her and she growled at the wyvern.

  “Is that something I should do too?” She smirked. “Is strutting around shirtless part of the training process?”

  “Oh, by all means!” Josef spread his arms wide, his lips splitting into a grin. “That would certainly make this more interesting.”

  Wylan chuckled and made a rude gesture at him.

  Josef laughed at her. “If you’re going to be a soldier, you’re going to have to know a thing or two about weapons. Have you used any before?”

  Wylan shook her head. “I thought it’d be a lot easier to use…”

  “Like you were using it last night with the hyenas?”

  Wylan didn’t answer him.

  Josef laughed. “Guess that’s answer enough.” He stopped and turned toward her. “If you were hoping I’d take it easy on you, you’re out of luck. I feel the best way to learn is by jumping in, both feet, and see how deep the water is from there.”

  He launched at her with a flurry of attacks. Wylan barely had time to get her sword up and block his blows. Most of the time she managed to deflect his sword. The only concession he gave her was by attacking with the flat of his blade. Still, flat or not, her arms and legs throbbed from where he struck her.