The Half Dragon of Yaerna: The Gathering Arc Box Set: Books 1-3

by Hans Bezdek

  The black in Brenda’s eyes faded as she let go of my arm. She slumped back against the wall, collapsing onto the ground with heavy breath.

  “What was that?” I mumbled, looking down at my arm where the kobold had grabbed me.

  “It was a prophecy,” marveled Cassandra, digging in her bag for something. “I should write this down…”

  “Why did she do that when she touched me?” I asked.

  “It must be concerning you,” said Cassandra, eyes wide with wonder as she scribbled something on a piece of parchment. “Why would it mention a winged one, though? And with a heart of man? That doesn’t make any sense…”

  I shifted uncomfortably. How did the kobold know I was half dragon? There must have been a tell that I didn’t realize. It’s the only thing that made sense. “No idea. Like I said earlier, she’s probably just trying to scam us. Something like we’ll have to pay her, in order for her to interpret it.”

  “I’ll happily pay it,” smiled Cassandra, reaching into her purse.

  “Come on, don’t waste your-”

  “Reimar?” a voice echoed through the alleyway.

  I froze. I knew that voice.

  “By the gods… Reimar, is that you?” said Galdric, just a dozen or so yards away. The two orcs that were with him earlier stood by his side, dumb grins on their faces. Also with him was a gnome, an elf, and two humans. None of them looked particularly friendly.

  “Is he a friend of yours?” asked Cassandra.

  “Fine,” I sighed. There wasn’t any other way to get out of this. We weren’t about to win against that large of a group of Tumblers. “Let’s go.”

  “Go?” she asked. “Where?”

  “To stupid Kra’Gar,” I whispered.

  I threw my hand up towards Galrdic, harnessing my power again.

  Galdric’s eyes widened as he shook his head. “If you know what’s good for ya, you won’t do it.”

  I did it.

  Wind burst forth from my hand, tearing loose paneling and stone off the walls of the alleyway as it went. Dust kicked up into the mix as the wall of wind barreled down, colliding with Galdric and his group. They let out a collective groan, trying to cover their faces with their arms while fighting to not be pushed back.

  I grabbed Cassandra’s hand and took off the other way.

  The chase was on.

  Chapter 6

  “What’s happening?” shouted Cassandra, struggling to keep up.

  “I’ll tell you about it later,” I said, pulling her onto another side street. I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to outrun them for long. It might be better to try and blend in with another group of people. “All you need to know now is those guys aren’t my friends, and we can’t afford to get captured by them.”

  “Fine,” she said. “You better tell me what’s going on, though. And you better take me all the way to Kra’Gar.”

  “I promise,” I nodded, taking another side alley. The more confusing of a path we took, the better.

  We took another turn and ended up in a familiar looking street.

  “Ah, look who’s back!” shouted out black beard. The other dwarves all cheered, raising their mugs up into the sky.

  “Do you know them?” asked Cassandra.

  “Er, sort of,” I smiled, walking up to them.

  “Ya found yer crazy elf, I see,” smiled black beard, elbowing one of the other dwarves. “She find that silly Sword yet?”

  “It’s real-”

  “Not quite,” I said, needing to change the subject quickly. Dwarves were honorable people, generally speaking. They also loved to fight. I hated to cling to stereotypes, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Actually, some people are after us right now to be completely honest. They’ve been trying to fight us.”

  “Aye? They lookin fer a scrap?” asked another one of the dwarves, this one with a horned helmet. “We’ve been itchin fer some fun, ‘avn’t we boys?”

  The dwarves cheered and toasted again.

  Looked like one dwarven stereotype still rung true.

  “Hold it,” said black beard, raising his hands. The dwarves quieted down and waited for him to continue. The dwarf looked at us both, eyes narrowing. “We wanna make sure we only scrap fer the right people. Why these fellas wanna get a piece of ya?”

  I ran a few options in my head. If I told them the full truth, this might not quite go like I hoped it would. It would eventually get to how I have a bounty on my head, and a pretty high one at that. Their mugs seemed to be getting a little low on liquid, and the 50,000 quats could get them all refills for months to come. Outright lying to them might now work either, as black beard looked like he could spot a liar a mile away.

  I opted for a mix of both.

  “The bald guy chasing us, he’s been taking elven women whether they want to be with him or not… and it’s usually not,” I explained. “He was after my friend, here, but she wasn’t interested. We had to get out of there before it was too late.”

  Black beard’s eyes widened. He looked over to Cassandra. “Is that true, lass?”

  Cassandra looked to me, eyes searching mine. I knew she had no idea what was going on, but she had to trust me. We needed all the help we could get.

  Suddenly, drops of water sprang from her eyes. Her face contorted before she covered it with her hands, collapsing into my chest.

  “I-It’s true,” she sobbed. “I-I-I was s-so scared!”

  Black beard’s eyes softened for the briefest of seconds before hardening. The dwarves all around him sobered up as one, straightening their backs.

  “Aye, don’t worry lass,” said black beard. “Ye two are with Solveig’s Scrappers now. We’ve got yer back.”

  The dwarves let out a cheer again, this time setting their mugs aside.

  Cassandra pulled away from me, wiping her eyes and sniffing. “T-Thank you Solveig. You all are too kind.”

  I cast a quick glance at her with a new level of admiration. She was really convincing there. To be honest, even I was beginning to think Galdric had tried to make a pass on her. I would need to remember how great an actress she could be in the future. No telling if or when it’d be used against me.

  “Reimar!” shouted Galdric.

  I turned around to see him and his group storming over towards us.

  “That them, boy?” asked Solveig.

  “Yes,” I nodded.

  “Take yer girl and run. Me Scrappers got this.”

  “Thank you so much,” I smiled, taking Cassandra’s hand again and backing away.

  “Out of our way, dwarves,” barked Galdric as he got closer. “We’ve got no problems with you.”

  “Aye, but we’ve got one with ye,” said Solveig, cracking his knuckles. The dwarves around him stretched out, a few hopping up in down, getting their blood flowing again.

  “Your funeral,” shrugged Galdric. His goons rushed forward, causing the Scrappers to charge as well.

  Cassandra and I paused when we made it to the corner of the street, looking back to see how the fight was going. While the dwarves outnumbered the Tumblers, Galdric’s group seemed to be getting a bit of an upper hand. The two orcs were taking on several dwarves at once, although Galdric struggled with Solveig. The leader of the dwarves seemed to know how to handle himself in a close boxing match. Bobbing under Galdric’s strikes, black beard lunged up with a tight jab, knocking the human back. When Galdric tried for a kick, the dwarf closed the distance with a hard right to the man’s stomach.

  “Enough!” groaned Galdric, looking over at the elf with him. “Turn it up to a hundred!”

  The elf jumped away from two dwarves that were trying to take him on, getting a bit of space. He cupped his hands together and began to mumble something.

  “Oh no,” I said, yanking Cassandra further around the corner with me. I recognized that spell… was Galdric really crazy enough to bring out such a spell in the middle of town?

  “Hold on,” she said, trying to look back ar
ound. “I think the Scrappers are-”

  A ray of blue lightning shot out through the alleyway, crashing into the building to our right. Brick and wood went flying, a small fire appearing in the middle of the attack. Screams bounced around our street as people ran to and fro, unsure of what was happening.

  “We’ve got to keep moving,” I said, running down the street. I glanced behind, hoping Cassandra was wise enough to follow. Thankfully, she was.

  We cut through a few more streets and alleys, until finally we made it to the eastern gate of Trenton. We paused as we took a few steps out, looking at the land sprawling out before us. Dark and gray clouds hung over most the scorched land. Hardly any trees or vegetation could be seen, and there was no wildlife. An unimpressive and beaten path began from the bridge, arching out and flowing in a winding manner into the distance. You could see for miles over the open and flat territory.

  “This is quite a bit different from back home in Aelric,” mumbled Cassandra.

  “Welcome to Gorland,” I said. “See now why I didn’t want to go to Kra’Gar?”

  She smirked, about to say something smart. Unfortunately, she was cut off before she could start.

  “Move out of the way!” barked an orc’s voice from behind us. I wasn’t sure, but I was betting that it was one of Galdric’s crew. I looked over the bridge to see if there was anywhere we could get too quickly. Unluckily for us, Gorland was notoriously flat, and this area was no exception. We could probably outrun the orc, but Galdric would always be hot on our trail. There was only one option I could see.

  “Under here,” I said, dashing over to the side of the bridge. Cassandra and I dove down, sliding through the mud alongside the bricks. Before we made it to the river, I pulled up, stopping her as well. I motioned for her to follow me, and the two of us struggled over to a small section of land directly underneath the bridge.

  “You okay?” I whispered.

  Cassandra nodded. “They seem strong.”

  “They are.”

  “I hope Solveig and his group are okay,” she whispered, a slight look of guilt in her eyes.

  “Me too,” I agreed, staring down into the river.

  Waiting in silence for a few minutes, we listened to the sound of hooves and feet above us. So far we seemed to have avoided the Tumblers, but who knew where they were looking. If we tried to make a break for it, they could randomly look out east again and see us running. We could try to swim in the river, but again we would almost surely be seen.

  However, we couldn’t stay under the bridge forever. Sooner or later, I had to risk sneaking a peek back at the town gate.

  “Stay here, but get ready to run or fight,” I whispered after a couple of minutes. Cassandra nodded, pulling a dagger from her belt.

  I slowly made my way up the side of the bridge, careful not to make too much noise. I pulled my hood back, tilted my head to the side, and stood on my tip toes to see just over the bricks.

  One of the orcs that was with Galdric had his back turned to the bridge, arguing with a couple of human guards. Looked like all the ruckus we caused was coming back to bite them in the butt. I watched as they argued back and forth, one of the guard raising his polearm up and pointing it towards the Tumbler. Maybe the guards would arrest the Tumblers? That would slow them down and allow us a chance to escape unnoticed.

  The Tumbler orc grabbed the shaft of the polearm, yanking it from the man’s grasp and spinning it around before the human knew what was happening. The other guards rushed at the orc as the Tumbler jabbed the weapon into the middle of the unarmed guard’s chest. Several passerbys screamed as the guard collapsed, causing the crowd to fan out in a circle around the remaining guards and Tumbler.

  Jumping back down, I slide back down to Cassandra.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, a look of concern on her face. “I heard screaming.”

  “That’s our diversion,” I said, grabbing her arm and leading her back up with me.

  The crowd blocked most of our view, but I could just make out the top of the orc’s head. He raised a club, swinging down with all of his might. A man cried out, followed by more screams from the terrified crowd. While I felt bad leaving the guards to die, now was our chance.

  We jogged across the bridge, not looking back until we were far enough away to not be distinguished from any other travelers. By that point, most of the crowd had broken up, running in various directions.

  “Looks like the orc won,” muttered Cassandra.

  I nodded, turning back around and continuing down the beaten road. Kra’Gar was just a day’s journey away, but I had a feeling it would be a long one.

  Chapter 7

  The first few hours of our journey up to Kra’Gar was filled with a tense silence. Constantly looking over our shoulders, we weren’t confident that we had escaped the Tumblers for quite some time. Eventually, we realized we weren’t being followed and got a chance to relax. The pace never slowed, however. I was eager to get to Kra’Gar in order to leave it. Who knew where the next crazy person would point us?

  The Gathering has begun.

  The final part of that old kobold’s message to us rang in my head. She was vague throughout most of the whole speech, a classic con artist technique. That way, the person that was hearing the message would fill in the blanks, believing the fortuneteller actually knew what she was talking about. I wasn’t about to fall for that…

  But why would she tell me a prophecy about someone with wings? Could she sense dragon blood running in my veins? I could qualify as a winged person with the heart of man, but what did the rest of the prophecy even mean? Blood and darkness of old? An ancient crown? The Gathering?

  “Whatcha thinking about?” asked Cassandra, glancing over at me.

  “How anyone could live out here,” I said, gesturing around us at the blank landscape. Aside from occasional travelers passing by on the path to Trenton, there wasn’t much to look at.

  “I know that different parts of Yaerna have different terrain, but why is Gorland so plain looking?” she asked. “There aren’t even landmarks out here.”

  “I’m not much of an expert, but I think it has to do with them being the closest territory to Ra’Chok,” I shrugged. “When those dragons came to take over everything back in the day, this was their first stop. It looks like they scorched the ground as they came, killing any chance of growth for years to come. Guess it reminded them of home, based on what I’ve seen.”

  “You’ve seen Ra’Chok?” she gasped.

  “Once or twice,” I shrugged. It wasn’t the nicest territory to visit, and was across the Fralur Ocean, making it a pain to get to. Ra’Chok was the land of the black and red dragons. Even though war between them and the rest of Yaerna had been over for a long time, it was not a safe or friendly place to be if you weren’t a black or red. While there were some other races that dotted the few towns they had, they were an extreme minority, and had to pay high taxes.

  However, that meant some serious quat making opportunities. I had gone over as part of Dmetri’s fleet back when that was a thing, trying to figure out a way to smuggle various supplies, alcohol, and weapons to them for a high premium. Fortunately for me, I only had to go a few time. Unfortunately for Dmetri, that was because a black dragon caught wind of what we were doing and disintegrated most of his ships.

  “Sounds like you’ve had quite a time traveling around Yaerna,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “Looks like you’ve made some strong enemies along the way, too.”

  “You could say that,” I said, itching the back of my neck. I knew she would ask me to explain what happened sooner or later. Looked like it was sooner.

  “Who was that bald man? Why was he after you? Why did he have such a powerful mage with him?” she asked.

  “It’s not really important anymore, is it?” I tried.

  “I helped you get those dwarves on your side, and have risked my life by being seen and sticking with you,” she said, not wavering. “You owe me a
n explanation.”

  She had a point. Still, I’d have to keep some of the details to a minimum.

  “Okay, okay,” I sighed. “Remember how I mentioned I was raised by the Tumblers?”

  “Yes, and that you were essentially a slave.”

  “That part might have been a little bit of a stretch,” I said. “While I didn’t have much of a choice when I was a kid, I still stuck around with them on my own accord for quite a while.”

  “Why did you stay?” she asked.

  “The leader of the Tumblers, a gnome named Dmetri Goodwin, kind of took me in as one of his own when they found me. I sort of viewed him as a father figure, and the rest of the Tumblers as family. It felt like if I turned away from being a Tumbler, than I’d be spitting in their faces for all they had done for me.”

  “But you eventually left, right?” she asked.

  I nodded. “We had a code, and we stuck to it. We weren’t to hurt women or children. We only killed if we absolutely needed to. We never did anything to sell out another Tumbler. Things like that. While the Tumblers were always on the shady side, we mostly stuck to stealing, protecting our assets, and bribing. I’m not saying the things we did were necessarily morally right to do, but they weren’t the worst. Does that make sense?”

  Cassandra looked off into the distance as I talked, nodding slightly. “More than you you can imagine,” she mumbled.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked, curiosity piqued.

  “What changed?” she asked, ignoring my request.

  I thought about pushing for her to share some of her history, too, but decided to save that conversation for another day. Maybe she’d be in a more talkative mood once we were out of Gorland.

  “Overtime, things started to change,” I continued. “Slowly, Dmetri started bringing rougher people into the group. He started hiring assassins, hitmen, and kidnappers. First, he would attack other gangs before they could strike. He argued that it was to protect our assets, and most of us could see his reasoning. Then, he started taking jobs for us to do political assassinations and kidnappings. He claimed he wasn’t breaking the code by having us do these jobs, but the older members knew better. By that point, it became clear Dmetri had compromised his morals too far, and he’d do anything if it was the right price.”