by Alan Carr
I looked into his eyes though and saw the apology there, the truth of it. I saw Boe, and knew he needed his best friend. I still felt like he’d betrayed me, but he was truly the same guy I’d grown up beside. He wasn’t someone I would or could turn my back on.
“Look, just go to bed.” I whispered.
He didn’t budge; just kept staring at me with his sorrowful eyes.
“I’m not going to turn you in,” I told him at last.
“Okay.” He sounded relieved.
“Boe, you know I wouldn’t do that.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You wouldn’t do that to Daija.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Okay.”
“Or Daija.”
“Yeah,” he said, and the slightest hint of a smile played across his face. Then it was gone.
We both looked worriedly toward the tents. I heard Gable let out a broken snore and I relaxed.
“So you’re going to die in battle just to protect your secret?” I asked Boe.
“No,” Boe said, “no, I think everyone is wrong. I’m going to kill a dragon. Well, I’m going to give it a shot.”
“If you’re not—” I couldn’t say the words out loud.
“I’m not a Stone Soul. It’s a long story.”
“Maybe you’ll tell me some time.”
“I will. And when I’m a Dragon Master I’ll tell the world.”
“I don’t understand. Your dad stabbed a dragon through the heart, he’s proof that not anyone can kill a dragon.”
“Yes,” Boe admitted. “He isn’t my dad though, not really.”
“All the same.”
“Yes,” Boe agreed. “I don’t know for sure that I can kill a dragon. I mean, that I personally can. I believe that only some people are Masterborn, actually able to kill a dragon. I know that’s true. I just think the Stoneflame ceremony isn’t the whole—”
I cut him off. “I don’t think you can be a Dragon Master if you’re not a Stone Soul. I don’t know how you can think it. You’ve spent more time with Magnilda than I have.”
“Yes, and I’ve seen how the records aren’t nearly as complete as people like to pretend they are. How there are contradicting reports all the time.”
“Because people can’t just tell each other the truth,” I said, more sharply than I probably should have.
“Because the truth gets people hurt.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I remembered Warley nodding to me when he saw me in the crowd. His sister offering me up that small comfort back in the mess hall. “People who don’t deserve it.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” Boe reminded me. He didn’t have to. I was beginning to realize that life was a series of responsibilities and hurdles that we don’t ask for but have to deal with anyway.
“So you’re going to die just because you think the rest of the world has it all wrong?”
“I’m sure they’re all wrong.”
“Then I hope they are,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. It seemed he didn’t know what else to say either because he just sat there beside me on watch. And we watched the darkness until it was time to rouse everyone else.
***
The team spent a week following the path of destruction which seemed to continue alongside Stone Lake forever. If it hadn’t been fresh water I would have believed it to be the ocean for all its endlessness. I felt like we had to be circling around the lake, that it couldn’t truly be as large as it seemed to be, but Boe showed me every day where we were on his little map and reassured me that we were making progress. It wasn’t until the path of destruction finally diverged from the shores of Stone Lake that I finally believed him.
The dragon had seemingly sensed that there were no settlements to destroy in the Wastes that we had been quickly approaching, and had veered off toward the northwest coast of the Realm. My mind could not easily conceive of the distances we had travelled, the amount of death and destruction the dragon had left behind him, the fact that no other dragon quest had managed to stop him before he could do all this damage. We heard rumors of attempts: an entire village tried to fight and was erased. Some of the strongest combatants from the Tournament who had visited Rægena during the Stoneflame festival had taken on the dragon and were killed. And at least two entire dragon quest parties had caught up to the dragon and been taken down. There was also one report that a Master had gone down in combat with the dragon, though the young boy who’d whispered it to me didn’t know which Dragon Master it had been. I’d hoped that it wasn’t the Sandclaw Dragon Master, that it had been someone else. For some reason I’d been putting all my hopes on that one report of the Sandclaw Dragon Master. Acknowledging that he might have failed would mean that I’d snatched Daija out of her home and brought her straight toward a still-living dragon. It may have been what she’d wanted, but I was beginning to seriously doubt that I’d made a good choice.
There was an urgency that the dragon had to be dealt with, and I understood and took seriously my responsibilities as dragon quest leader, but I also had to deal with the fact that there was a very real chance that neither Daija nor Boe even had a chance to kill the dragon at all. My best hope was that someone else would deal with the problem before we caught up to it. The whole situation was wearing on me. I was losing sleep. I could feel the conflicting emotions physically affect my body. They caused convulsions and I developed a twitch in my left eye. To make things worse, I still hadn’t found any way to spend any real time with Daija, even though we’d been traveling together for two weeks now.
We were camping on the outskirts of what had once been the thriving city of Maralune before I finally had a chance to get Daija alone. She had first watch that night and I realized that I wasn’t going to sleep well. I wanted to talk to her about so much, and I just wanted to be with her. For her part, Daija didn’t seem very concerned about finding alone time with me. She was clearly determined to catch up with and kill the dragon and nothing else mattered now that I’d given her the chance by including her on the dragon quest.
I waited until I was sure everyone else was asleep before squeezing out of my shared tent. Then I waited another ten minutes to make sure I hadn’t woken Boe before I approached Daija. I got within a stone’s toss of her before she jumped to her feet and brought her sword around to bear on me.
“Woah,” I said softly. “It’s just me.”
“I had to be sure,” she apologized, sheathing her sword. I thought about my own watch shifts, how I had failed even to notice Boe approaching me. I felt terribly guilty at my own failures, and also relieved about Daija’s devotion. If we did end up in battle with the dragon, at least one of the two of us would be prepared mentally.
“Do you mind if I join you for a little while?” I asked.
“You know, Bayrd tried that line on me a week ago,” Daija said.
“Oh.”
“I told him to take over my shift or get to sleep.”
I watched her watching me—she was looking for some reaction in my face. I looked for some reaction in hers.
“I should say the same to you,” she suggested.
“Yes, you should,” I said. “But I hope you won’t.”
“I haven’t decided yet,” she answered.
I joined her, and I saw that the remains of Maralune were still visibly glowing orange in the darkness of night.
“It was a major city,” I said. “He must have been here a long time to completely destroy it like this.”
“We’re close,” she said.
“Yes, we are.” I’d felt it, but until I saw these still-hot embers of Maralune I didn’t have any proof. It was one more reason I needed to sleep. Or at least for one of us to get some sleep.
“Okay, I’ll take over your watch so you can sleep,” I offered. I hadn’t intended to say it but the words spilled out.
“That’s what
Bayrd said a week ago,” she responded, without accepting or declining the offer.
“Oh.” I hadn’t expected that from him.
“I told him to sleep,” she answered the unasked question, and I was grateful.
“I didn’t come out here to offer to take your place,” I admitted.
“I’m glad.”
“We haven’t had any time together, just us.”
“No,” she replied, “we haven’t had any time to get to know each other.”
“I know enough, I think. And,” I said carefully, “I know the thing that I’m guessing nobody else knows.”
Suddenly her sword was out again and pressed against my neck. “Did Boe tell you?”
I hadn’t expected this. “He did,” I whispered.
She relaxed and sheathed her sword again. “You’re not planning to tell anyone, are you?”
“Of course not,” I said. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you,” she said. She smiled at me. I felt all the tension and anxiety in my body dissipate in the warmth of that smile.
We sat and watched the remains of Maralune smolder.
“Is this what you were expecting?” I asked.
“The dragon quest? I don’t know. I never expected to be here.”
“I know what you mean,” I said.
“Really? Haven’t you spent your whole life basically training for one of these?”
She had a point. “It never seemed real to me, back at the academy. We were training so much, for so long, it seemed like it would never end. I guess part of me expected to just train forever.”
“Oh.”
“And then around the time of the festival, I started to realize that training was really coming to an end,” I tried to explain. “I started to panic, a little, I guess.”
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything. I almost did. I thought about running away and becoming an outsider.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Nobody knew. I didn’t even tell Boe,” I admitted. I realized that for all the anger I felt toward Boe for holding secrets from me, this was one that I’d kept entirely to myself. It felt good to tell Daija, even though I feared how she must be judging me for it.
“But you didn’t run away,” she said.
“No. Too many people are counting on me. What I have to do, it’s too much responsibility. In the end, I couldn’t run away.”
“I feel it too,” Daija said.
“But nobody else expects it of you.”
“That doesn’t matter. Did you decide not to run away because of what everyone else expects from you? Or because of what you expect from yourself?”
I didn’t know the answer.
“I want to do my part to help keep the Realm safe,” Daija said, “I don’t expect everyone else to feel the same way. But I think it’s stupid that nobody seems to get to choose for themselves.”
“I definitely know what you mean by that,” I said.
“I’m glad you understand.” Daija smiled at me again.
I leaned over and gave her a hug.
“You should go to sleep,” she said to me, gently.
I decided that might be a good idea. “Have a good watch,” I told her.
“Have a good night’s sleep.”
I actually did.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Dragon
It was two more days before we heard the screams. They were not the ongoing screams of a terrified crowd. These were much worse. These were individuals crying out in shock, fear, pain, and then death as a dragon stalked through their city, sniffing out everyone who hadn’t managed to flee in time, who had taken to cellars or closets or beneath beds in hopes, perhaps, that the Dragonsfire would get them quickly and painlessly. If that was what they’d hoped for, they weren’t getting it. The dragon wanted first to feed.
Our horses refused to approach the city, rightly fearing what was within, so we dismounted and everyone looked at me for orders. I tried to think of the best approach. Port Sandclaw stood before us like the ghost of a city, perfectly preserved but seemingly empty. Its presence was ominous. I felt that if it had been burning then I would have known what to do, but it wasn’t, and I was having trouble focusing. My body kept growing increasingly tense as it waited for the silence to be broken by the sound of another dragon kill.
“We’ll split in two groups. Boe, Daija, come with me around to the far city gate. Gable, Bayrd, stick together and enter through here in a few minutes.” I gestured at a towering gate that stood at the entrance to town. It was hanging ajar. “When you’ve spotted the dragon, yell out and we’ll all converge on him.” Boe and Daija were both taking quick, deep breaths. “I want Bayrd to attack first, but not until I’ve gotten the dragon’s attention. Gable, you provide a secondary distraction and prepare to strike if Bayrd falters.”
I waited for them both to nod their understanding, and then took off running with Boe and Daija trailing behind me. There was an incredibly loud thump of stone crashing to the ground and I looked over the city rooftops trying to spot the dragon. I saw only a plume of dust rise up and cloud the skies. Another scream rang out into the muggy late morning air.
When we reached the far side of the city, we paused to catch our breath and I gave out the last of my orders. If the dragon ignored my distraction and tried for Bayrd and Gable, I would go in to try to get a kill. Boe and Daija would be clear of this action, trying to find rooftops from which they could drop down on the dragon and catch him by surprise. Once they were in place, they were to remain still and silent and wait for the dragon to come near.
“I’ve trained for a direct attack,” Daija protested. She saw my plan as a kind of plot to keep her out of the action. She wasn’t exactly wrong.
“I know. But this dragon has already killed so many who’ve trained for direct attacks. We need someone to try for the element of surprise.”
“I’m already an element of surprise,” she said. “How many women do you think have taken up arms against this dragon? Do you think I’d be more of a surprise dropping from a rooftop than I’d be standing in front of him with a sword in hand?”
“Yes,” I said. I wanted to sound firm, but I couldn’t hold any conviction in my voice. She was probably right, but I wasn’t going to send her into any more danger than I’d already done by bringing her here. If I could keep her and Boe out of combat, I would do it.
Daija wasn’t going to let me do that.
She yelled out a battle cry and began charging ahead into the city, ignoring my orders. Oh, no. We sprinted to try to catch up. Boe moved quicker than I’d ever seen him move before and when she slowed for just a moment to turn a street corner, he caught up to her and tackled her, tossing his sword aside so that he wouldn’t accidentally stab anyone with it. The two of them collapsed onto the street. Instead of struggling to get free, Daija stared up into the sky.
I turned the corner too, and there he was. For only a moment, I thought the dragon small. Then I realized I was comparing him to the endlessly massive dragons of my nightmares. As I stood and looked up at him, I saw how he towered above the rooftops, how his wings were larger than entire buildings. A single curved talon on his foot was as long as the sword I now held shakily in front of me. His bulk had been initially concealed in the absolutely blackness of his scales, but as I looked closer I felt like his body was as wide around as the Stoneflame Watch towers back in Rægena. No, the dragon was not small. I was. I was very small indeed.
“Get to the rooftops,” I told Boe and Daija when I figured out how to breathe again.
Time to kill a dragon.
I ran along the wall of a building. I didn’t see Bayrd or Gable, but I suspected they were on the far side of the beast. It wasn’t until I had run a wide arc around the side of the dragon that I finally saw what he was doing. I followed his stout, spiked neck up t
o the flames that were spilling out of his massive mouth. A tortured eye swiveled to look in my direction, then shot forward as something fell from his mouth. It was a small brown something, and as I looked closer I could tell that it was a full sized boot. The dragon snapped his mouth around it and I heard a snapping and crunch as rows of sharp teeth closed on the boot and its contents.
“You’re just a big flying pig!” I yelled out. It made no sense, but was the only thing that came to my mind in the moment.
“Why don’t you eat someone your own size!” I heard Gable’s voice call out from the far side of the dragon.
I wanted to look back and make sure that Daija was following orders now, but the dragon was suddenly in motion, moving faster than a creature of its size had any right to move. His head turned to face me for a moment but then his body spun and I leapt in the air to try to avoid the sweep of his greasy tail. I couldn’t jump high enough and the tail caught my feet. I threw my sword sideways to the nearby building and tried to brace my head. My armor made loud sounds as I crashed to the ground and then tumbled over a cobblestone walkway and into a rose bush. If any thorns pierced my armor, I didn’t feel their sting above the wracking aches that were coursing through my body. I ignored all those sensations and forced myself to my feet, grabbing my sword as I spotted it lying near me. The dragon’s tail was stationary now, supporting the dragon as he raised himself up on hind legs, his back to me.
I charged up to the base of the dragon’s tail, intending to climb the spikes that formed long lines down the dragon’s back, but I fell as the dragon came crashing down to the ground. I slipped onto my back as I tried to regain my feet.
I shook my head to clear it, and then I saw Bayrd’s body flying high over me, his arms and legs stretched out behind him like trailing ribbons on a kite. He still gripped his sword tightly in one hand. I closed my eyes and winced when I heard him crash sickeningly into a rooftop. He let out no grunts of pain, no involuntary cries for help. I didn’t have time to think about it.
