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

by Travis Simmons

  Millie sighed. There was no way out of this. Wylan knew if she declined to help, they would kill them on the spot. More than anything they needed to get Kira to Darubai and though this situation might stall them, or make their journey all the more difficult, there was little to be done. She handed Kira off to Josef and took Geffrey by the hand. “Show us,” she said.

  Tensinar motioned for Millie and Geffrey to follow them. When Josef made to follow, Alisar held up her hand and shook her head. “For now, you may rest and enjoy the sights of High Haven. I will collect you when they’re done.” With that, she left them as well.

  “Well, a few hours to ourselves,” Josef said. “What should we do?” He waggled his eyebrows, and Wylan rolled her eyes at him. She punched him in the shoulder.

  “Come on,” she said.

  Josef followed her away from the cave entrance. A mile or so ahead of them, Wylan could see smoke billowing high into the sky, though she couldn’t determine where it came from. It didn’t seem to bother anyone else, and so Wylan didn’t let it bother her. She figured it was the dwarves, and she wondered what their caves must be like, or their homes. The way the elves talked, the dwarves must live below-ground as well.

  Their feet carried them to the foot of a great, arching bridge that spanned a river so clear that Wylan could see the white stones that made up the riverbed. Great red and golden fish swam through the water, their fins fanning out behind them like wings. She was hesitant about crossing the bridge because it didn’t look like it would hold any amount of weight. It seemed more for decoration than anything else, even though marks along the surface showed that horses and possibly carriages went over it on a regular basis. Josef must have been able to tell because he gripped her smaller hand in his warm grasp, and tugged her along. He didn’t drop her hand when she started walking, but he relaxed his grip.

  Wylan felt a thrill go through her chest. For the last several days she thought Josef had lost interest, or that he was angry with her. His hand in hers chased the dark thoughts away, but it also worried her. She had vowed that she didn’t want anything until she’d killed the blue dragon, but she wanted this very much.

  If she lived through the encounter, Wylan wanted something normal again…at least as normal as she could have, being a wyvern. And what was normal besides people around her, people to share her life with. Friends and family. To her family had never been about blood. Blood had forsaken her, but strangers that formed bonds tighter than any blood were true family. She wanted a family again.

  With a sigh she broached the topic.

  “Josef, I have to kill the blue. That complicates things here. I know what it’s like having someone you love taken from you. I don’t want that to happen to anyone because of me.”

  “Who said anything about love? We are friends, right? Just two friends in High Haven, enjoying the company of elves.” Josef smiled at her.

  “I can handle friends.”

  Wylan didn’t pull away. She felt something strange then, as if her wyvern soul brushed against another soul just as alien and as powerful as she was. A glimpse of rain and of distant shores filled Wylan’s mind. From Josef’s hand she felt the stir of his wyvern soul, and Lissandra thrilled in its power.

  “I’m sorry I got us into this,” she said.

  “Are you, really?” There was no accusation this time.

  “I’m sorry you got injured, but I’m not sorry that I need to kill the blue dragon. You understand that, right? That I have to kill the blue and that I might not live through the fight?”

  “I understand you think you need to kill the blue.” Josef sighed. “I know that’s your mission, yes. I also know that taking on a dragon on your own isn’t wise, and you are right in thinking you won’t live through the battle.”

  Wylan didn’t say anything. What could she say to that? He understood, even if he didn’t agree.

  “Anyway, you didn’t do this to me. If what we’ve heard is right, the elves did this to me.”

  Wylan nodded. “We will get you sorted out.” She squeezed his hand reassuringly.

  Josef winked at her.

  “So tell me about Darubai,” she said.

  “Such cheerful conversation,” he joked.

  Wylan laughed. “All right, what was it like before the plague?”

  Josef sighed. “Well, I was homeless, so it wasn’t that grand for me, but the city was spectacular all the same. Streets bustling with people eager to hand out coins to a street musician.”

  “I can’t imagine you as a minstrel,” Wylan said.

  “Have you seen my incredible hands?” He let go of her hand and waggled his fingers before her face. They were incredible hands—graceful, long fingers that ended in calluses, and strong. She laughed and pushed his hand away. He took hold of her hand again and pulled her to a stop at the apex of the bridge. They leaned against the railing and looked down into the crystalline stream.

  “Honestly, I wasn’t that old when the plague hit, but I was on my own. There was a nice lady who took in the younger street rats like myself, but we normally left during the day. I joined some of the older kids and learned to play. We would split the money and be on our way.” Josef shrugged. “There’s not much I remember of the time before the plague.”

  Wylan nodded. “More than I remember.”

  “Awe well, that was another life that we will probably never have again. How about we go get some elvish food to eat?”

  “We don’t have any money,” Wylan argued.

  “No, you don’t have any money,” Josef said. “I’ve got a lot of coin, and a baby I can probably trade too.” He made a silly face at Kira and she giggled. “And we could use more milk for her also.”

  They’d managed to get enough milk to fill two canteens and enough water to fill the rest.

  But before they were able to get any food for themselves, a great boom rattled the earth. The water danced in the river, sloshing onto the banks, upsetting the fish and showering passersby. The trees rippled, leaves rained down around them, and more than one tree split with the low of force.

  Elves scurried into buildings and against rocks, cowering to the ground to shelter against the onslaught.

  Wylan shouted and spun around, her eyes following to where all the elves were looking—the small building they’d seen Millie and Geffrey enter.

  Before she could try to figure out what had happened, they were running for the bridge, the house their destination.

  Houses nearby had barely been disturbed, which was a testament to how well the elves built their structures. The force of magic had toppled trees, splintered roots, and upset the water of the river, but the wood and stone houses nearby had hardly been damaged.

  When they arrived on the scene, the house was in chaos. Glass and pottery lay shattered along shelves, their contents spilled over the floor in a river of seeds, dried beans, and nuts. Great rivulets had been torn from the wooden floor, the splinters and chips of wood sticking out from the walls like arrows that missed their mark. Ethereal flame, green with a tinge of white still smoldered near the top of the walls.

  Millie stood near the door, her body sheltering Geffrey who cowered behind her, frightened by the noise. A great wind was just coming to a halt from within the house, stirring debris and paper around the floor and amidst Millie’s feet. Wood clung to her bushy hair.

  “What was that?” Josef asked.

  Millie didn’t answer. As she turned, her mouth fell open. Wylan felt her stomach plummet, and she knew even before she turned, that dragons had found them. The sound of wings thundered against the air, stirring up a breeze. She turned in time to see the first of what had to be hundreds of dragons crest the side of the mountain, and wing above High Haven.

  It could have been her fear, but she thought there were more than she’d ever seen in one place. Colors that ranged the entire spectrum of dragon kind, except black. A giant white dragon led them.

  A scream rose up from one throat, and that’s all i
t took to break the stillness on the ground. Moments before the dragons began their attack, the elves were running.

  A great plume of fire resounded through High Haven. Trees ignited and blistered in fire and popped from the intense heat. Wood shuttled through the air. More than one fleeing elf was skewered by giant shards of what used to be a tree. They fell, their blood cascading over the ground in a macabre scene straight from nightmares. Wylan’s stomach churned as she watched the life wink out of more than one set of eyes.

  Leathery wings blotted out the sun, casting High Haven in an ominous twilight. Scales shimmered their own malignant light down on the emerald land, casting it in harrowing rainbow hues. There were more dragons than Wylan could count. Their heads snaking down from the sky, chomping up elves as they fled.

  Blood flowed across the ground in scarlet torrents, mingling with the once clear river.

  Josef tightened his grip on Kira.

  Another roar sounded from behind the house, and Wylan grabbed Josef, fleeing for the cave.

  A roar of another kind came from behind the house. Wylan glanced over her shoulder in time to see trees in the distance buckling and swaying, as if they made way for a more powerful force.

  “Water,” Josef breathed.

  Houses exploded before the might of a huge wave that jettisoned over the river, swelling its banks and carrying houses away in a waterfall of debris, bodies, and fish over the edge of the mountain and to the sands below.

  Wylan tugged Josef closer to the stone mountain face where the tunnel down to the desert resided. She pressed him against the wall, water sluicing around their feet, but they were on an incline and in no danger of getting swept up in the torrent of water.

  Heart racing, fear thundering through every fiber of her being, Wylan glanced back to the house. Millie stood in the doorway, Geffrey held close to her side. They watched the water swirl around the stairs. Wylan hoped it didn’t climb higher. Already the house was rocking on its foundations. Any higher and it might sweep the entire building over the edge of the cliff, taking Millie and Geffrey with it.

  The roar of water lessened, and then fell silent as the deluge rushed back toward the banks of the river. As the water abated, another form caught Wylan’s attention, climbing over the back of the wizard’s house to crouch on the roof, its head dangerously close to the doorway where Millie and Geffrey stood frozen in fear that the water might return.

  There was no doubt in her mind that this was the blue she hunted. Its sapphire body was speckled with missing scales from the night the scale wraiths had taken it down, but failed in securing its body. She knew if she could see its tail, she’d see where her father had stabbed it. Until the night with the wraiths, she’d thought the only way to penetrate the protective armor of the blue was through the wound her father had inflicted on it. Now she was heartened that there were so many more targets.

  Her heart thundered in her throat. This was the closest she’d been to the dragon since it killed her father and destroyed her old life. She couldn’t pass up the chance to slay the blue this time.

  Millie fled, dragging Geffrey behind her. She stopped long enough to take Kira from Josef. She said something, but Wylan didn’t pay attention. Then the healer was pounding earth toward the cave.

  Wylan released Josef’s arm as the dragon readied to strike Millie. She yanked her sword from its sheath and darted between the healer and the dragon. Flame wreathed her hand and as the dragon struck, she let loose a great plume of fire, taking the water dragon in the mouth. She rolled to the side, the dragon’s great maw missing her by mere inches, and came up swinging.

  The dragon’s teeth were buried in the dirt and it was having a hard time tearing free from the ground. The dragon was close enough that she could feel the ripple of its power flow over her like a morning breeze. She could smell the musk of its scales, the snort of its breath as it tugged at the ground to free itself. Wylan struck at its eye, putting behind her stroke all the strength and all the weight she could muster. The dragon tore its head free moments before her stroke hit, and her sword glanced off its eye, cutting deep enough that the dragon recoiled, and took to the air.

  Great wings slapped her aside, and Wylan stumbled away. She let loose a gout of fire, but the dragon was already too far for the fire to be effective.

  She forced her heart to calm, her brain to think rather than act. Her eyes tracked him. Where was it going?

  “Wylan!” Josef dove for her, taking her to the ground moments before the white dragon’s claws tore through the earth where she’d been standing. The back of the beast’s foot caught Josef, slamming him against the rock face, where he crumbled to the earth, motionless.

  Wylan let out a shout and made to go to Josef when the blue crashed to ground yards away, pawing at its wounded eye.

  The blue was so close, and it was wounded. She could dart in now and finish it. Her eyes traveled back to Josef. Blood oozed from his head and his chest barely lifted and fell with breath.

  “Dammit!” she swore and sheathed her sword. :Lissa, give me strength.:

  The wyvern soul answered without question, and Wylan’s body was filled with strength she’d never known before. She rushed to Josef, tossed his prone body over her shoulder, and darted after Millie and Geffrey.

  Wylan’s hands shook as she laid Josef down before the basin in the cave. They’d left the cave door open in case elves needed safe passage. So far they were the only ones that had come to the cave.

  “Can you heal him?” Wylan asked, turning to Millie. “Please tell me you can heal him.”

  Millie gripped her shoulders and peace washed through her. “Calm, Wylan. That was brave of you back there. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving me and Geffrey.”

  Wylan didn’t want to admit that part of what she had done had been selfish. Instead, she nodded. The blue dragon had been so close she could nearly taste its blood. She would have had him. She could have had it. But if she did, what would have happened to Josef?

  “We will do our best,” Millie said. “We don’t need the elves to release him, the healing we worked on Josef the other day is still working. It will just take longer than if they’d released whatever they’d done to him. Fill what canteens you can while I get to work.”

  Wylan nodded and focused more on her simple task than was necessary. There were canteens they hadn’t filled in High Haven, and she filled those with water while Millie and Geffrey worked.

  The sounds of destruction and screaming sounded from the top of the mountain, issuing down the path like a nightmare.

  Kira whimpered.

  Wylan tried to ignore the sounds of screaming, of cries cut short, of wood burning. She wanted to wipe the memories from her mind of that beautiful place falling to such destruction. Tears stung her eyes and she violently dashed them away. If only she’d killed the blue, it would be one less dragon up there, one less dragon to terrorize the long desert.

  Josef shifted behind her and groaned. Wylan dropped her canteen and fell to her knees beside him. He smiled up at her and brushed his fingers across her face.

  “Don’t worry, I’m as good as new.”

  “No, you’re not,” Millie said. “We need to rest here for the night. In the morning we head out.”

  “What’s wrong with him?” Wylan asked.

  “The blow to his head was severe. His skull is fractured. I can’t mend bones that easily, but the healing energy will keep working. By morning, he should be good enough to travel.”

  “We are just going to sleep here?” Josef asked. “With the screams of High Haven to lull us into restful slumber?”

  Millie frowned, but nodded.

  The haunted screams of High Haven followed Wylan through the night, and when she woke in the morning, all was painfully silent at the top of the stone tunnel that lead to the elvish settlement.

  If she thought what had happened at her home had been bad, it was only a taste of the destruction that dragons could leave in t
heir wake. There was a burning desire in her to put an end to the dragon tyranny, more so than the need to kill one dragon. She was to train as a member of the dragon guard, and now she knew that she had to do that. More than anything, she wanted dragons gone. She didn’t know what life was like before the dragons, and she never would, but at least she could know peace and relative safety.

  Millie had been right. Josef woke the following morning with glancing pain in his head, but good enough to walk. While he didn’t have complete control of his water yet, he was able to raise a trickle of water to the surface of the sand within the cave.

  The sun was bright, again, and warm and full of promise. But Wylan didn’t want any of those promises of a beautiful day, unless it was the promise of her family returning; of venturing to Darubai with her parents where they could start a new life together. A new life that would still consist of her helping to sort beans for dinner, of reading by the fire, and of Cuthburt and Kethill watching as she grew into position in the guard.

  Her wishes were cut short when the sun shimmered off a tall pillar, its point glittering in the morning sun. At first Wylan thought it was just a trick of the light, but when Millie tapped her shoulder and pointed to it, Wylan knew that it was real.

  “What is that?” she asked the healer.

  “An obelisk to the old gods. Unlike most obelisks you might see in Darubai, the obelisks to the old gods have three sides, one for each of the old gods—the Great Mediator, the Lady of Terrors, and the Lord of All.”

  “What I could never understand was the Lord of All,” Wylan told her. “I understand the Great Mediator mediated between the Lord of All and the Lady of Terrors, but why did the Lord of All have an issue with the Lady of Terrors if he was Lord of All creation?”

  Josef spoke up from behind them, “the Lord of All saw the balance that was needed to keep the world turning. The Lady of Terrors wanted only a land of nightmares. Because of that, the Lord of All wanted to kill her and create a new god in her place, but the Great Mediator rose from their strife and helped ease both sides.”