“What sort of power is that?” asked Olek. “That did not feel like any natural flame.”
“There are many kinds of flame, Sir Dragon. Some are said to be able to scorch shadow itself. Others can only burn on water.”
“And what type is yours?” asked Tamara.
“You heard the sword’s voice, right? My flame’s strength is really his own. A summoned beast whose identity and history I won’t go into now.”
“As you wish,” said Tikhon. “Though I still have to place a precaution on your commitment. If I die during our plot, then my men will be sure to wreak havoc on your cause. Your own life will be forfeit, of course.”
“I understand.”
The same second the letter was sent, our scheming group made our way to the stables on horseback. Myron and I were kept on the same horse in the center of a circle of horsemen, making fleeing a tough undertaking. Even if I was looking to escape or do any brazen horse riding, I assumed Myron to be the superior rider, so I let him take the reins. A quick glance outside had me glimpsing the top half of Kara’s head on a nearby rooftop. I trusted Lucetta to keep her distance, so I said nothing.
Our canter speed made the trip to the stables a short one. Several of the horses broke off from the group when we reached a small plain of rock-hard mud. Unusable rubble laid sunk in the clearing—leftovers from an earthquake a decade old. The debris surrounded the stables and the timber skeleton of what used to be a large home. The stables could house twenty horses in its glory days, but its insides had largely been gutted. I summoned my dragon stones and placed them by or near every opening big enough for a man to squeeze through. There was a main entrance on either end of the building, so one was partially blocked by gathering nearby rubbish.
The plan was to place a “tied up” Myron at the center of the stables and for me to be the “guard” that kept an eye on him. Tikhon and his men would stay outside the entrance. I would have liked to trick Ludomir by making myself look like his son with an illusion spell, but a prana detection spell would surely notice something was off, so that ruse could only work in the heat of the moment. Besides, I needed time to practice getting Ludomir’s look right.
Tikhon stayed wary about leaving Myron and I alone for long, but there came a point a couple of hours into the wait when his nearest man went out of earshot.
Standing next to Myron, who sat on a short stool next to the post he was “tied” to, I asked, “How you holdin’ up?”
“Not well. I know I couldn’t do it if I had to do more than sit here. It helps to remember the times he beat my mother and brother, but it isn’t enough either. He might be a vile bastard, but at least he doesn’t use me.”
“He doesn’t have to. You’re blood. It’s been your family against the world from the beginning.”
He looked up at me with an irked smirk. “You sound like an old rector sometimes.”
“The fault of my sword.” A few snowflakes drifted in front of my face. I looked up to see more were falling through the roof’s fissures.
“Your sword? What kind of summoned beast is linked to it?”
“An old one. Maybe I’ll tell you about him someday.”
“Someday? If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather we never see each other again once we’re done here.”
“I can live with that.”
After a moment’s silence, Myron said, “Still, that does not mean I wish ill on your journey. You must be facing quite an enemy to warrant the travel and coin.”
“Aye.”
“I wish you luck against them.”
“If you’ll take it, I wish you luck on your future ventures.”
“I suppose I’ll take it.”
“You don’t have to take this, but I advise you to make yourself indispensable to Kaspista’s economy by sharing Alslana’s coin as soon as possible. Do it sensibly, of course, but you don’t want bitterness to spread. Gain allies that will protect you from the underworld, but don’t hinder Tikhon’s growth unless he’s attempting a coup in your domain. Everyone will test you. Don’t buy everyone off. Some are too wild and greedy to live, especially in this city.”
“This advice coming from your beast?”
“This one’s mostly on me. I used to belong to a syndicate in Etoc. Picked up a few odds and ends.”
“I see. You say to let Tikhon take the underworld, but what is Uthosis and Kaspista if not a vast underworld?”
“It is, by most accounts. Tikhon will even have a large hand in choosing the next regent, but your merchant allies can support banks, make deals with other nations, and pay armies. It will take patience, experience, and even supporting Tikhon until his death to gain any real breathing room, but that’s what it will take. You’ll be in your prime in a decade and he’ll be entering his weakest phase.”
“Makes sense. I think I can be patient. Can’t be worse than waiting this night out.”
“Yes it can.”
Myron’s longest night of his life (so far) lasted three hours more, long enough for Myron to start thinking that his father was willing to sell him out. Then I heard the lonesome echo of Kara’s bark—a signal to update her master of new bodies in her area.
The meaning of the background bark was lost on Myron, so I told him, “They’re close.”
“Don’t be shocked if I start vomiting.”
The sound of stamping hooves came nearer. The horses and riders themselves became visible through the surplus of cracks.
“I thought you smarter than this, Tikhon,” said a booming voice.
Trying and failing to raise his own voice to that level, Tikhon said, “And I assumed the same for your son, or at least for you to have better control of him. It’s not my fault my men caught him doting on some girl on my turf. You should be glad I’m not asking for more. He harmed one of my men trying to protect that skinny thing. Alas, I’ll keep this a mere formality and ask that you tie a stronger leash on him.”
“Don’t you dare counsel me on anything regarding my sons! Is he harmed in any way?”
“Perfectly unspoiled. Myron! Daddy has arrived! Tell him you’ve been treated as an honored guest!”
Looking at me with murderous hatred, Myron, after a deep inhale to think it over one last time, said, “I’m fine, Father! Let’s just get this over with!”
“How much did you bring?” asked Tikhon.
I heard a bag of coin drop and Ludomir say, “You’ll take whatever I give you. Delay anymore and I’ll presume you want a war. Bring him to me!”
“Tsk, tsk. For that little outburst and this little bag, you’ll have to get him yourself. He’s tied to a post inside. Let’s go, Mercer! My business is done.”
“May your horse fuck you in the ass, Tikhon!”
“I wish you a better fate, Master Kosenko.”
As I started slowly stepping toward the exit, I told Myron, “Stay where you are. This place will burn down quick, and the biggest hole is right above you.”
Tikhon and his trio moved out of the way while Ludomir and two of his men dismounted. I was halfway down the path when the three men entered. The beardless Ludomir, under a coat of black fur, looked the part of a gallant old rogue who had found treasure in his bygone adventure days. However, his half bald head and wrinkled brow effaced much of that earlier verve. Myron’s mother couldn’t have been much of a looker if Myron inherited only an inferior resemblance to his male ancestor.
“All this blasted trouble because you can’t put your dick in another whore!”
Ludomir passed me without a glance, as did his men. This was when I unleashed the prana necessary to ignite every dragon stone in the stables. The speed at which the gale of starving flames climbed and ate through the structure almost made me panic. I held my ground, though. Ludomir and his men stopped in their tracks, needing to take a hand up to their face to brace for the waves of heat and light. In three seconds the temperature rose to be as high as the noontime Hadarii.
My right hand unsheathed Aranat
h while I stuck out my left to cast my illusion spell. The man closest to me barely turned around in time to see my blade going into his unarmored chest. Blood spurted out his mouth and smeared my shoulder. The second, an older guard wearing a thick set of leather armor, swung his mace at my illusion before the real me spun around and lunged at his flank. I couldn’t pierce him deep enough to kill him at once, but he did collapse to the ground with a dog-like whimper. My sword plunged through his chest as I looked for Ludomir.
Myron’s father had drawn out a showy longsword, its hilt speckled with rounded jewels of red and blue. His left hand appeared to be trying to manipulate the inferno, which was by now popping the beams and sending splinters raining down. I couldn’t keep dragon fire hovering over my hand longer than a few seconds, but I felt competent enough to take a roaring bolide from a nearby incandescent spasm and throw it at Ludomir’s legs.
Instead of dodging, his arrogance attempted to break up the fireball with a slash of his sword. A magical airburst accompanied the swing, but its effect would have been the same were he to blow out the flame himself. Ludomir’s trousers caught fire.
The son stood up behind him. To my surprise, Myron ran up to his father and pushed him to the ground as he flailed and screamed.
“Now, Mercer! End it!” My blade was already on its way down when he said my name. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
I grabbed Myron by the scruff of his coat and dragged him to the exit. I snuffed out the flame wall at the threshold, making an opening we crossed through. On the other side I saw one bodyguard full of arrows and the other lying dead twenty feet away. We joined Tikhon’s group watching the stables burn to nothing, something wholly accomplished ten seconds later. The heat was so intense that the rigid ground melted back into sloshing mud over fifty feet away, and that was taking into account that the vast majority of the heat rose fast into the sky. I swear I saw a hole in the clouds directly above the bonfire.
Myron was breathing hard for a while. The appetite of his lungs mimicked the vehemence of the flames, so he reached a quivering calmness at the same time the blaze died down to a piled simmer.
“Thank you for your aid, Master Loktev,” I said.
“Alslana has my thanks as well. Do you need anything more?”
“Two horses, and I’d like for Tamara to help me escort Myron through the streets. Can’t risk losing what we gained to random bandits.”
“Then I’d recommend more of my men.”
“Unnecessary. I have a little escort waiting close by. That will be enough.”
“As you wish.”
“And is your flask for sale?”
“My flask?” He grinned. “The one with the black pearl over it, eh?”
“A friend of mine would like it.”
He pulled out the flask from his coat pocket and handed it to me. “Then take it as a gift.”
“Thank you.”
“Well, I have a notion that keeping myself in your good graces is smarter than not.”
“One more thing, Ludomir’s death should not be bragged about just yet, not until Alslana gets the deal done with Myron. As far as anyone is concerned, you had nothing to do with Ludomir’s death. Bragging about your involvement might ruffle some feathers.”
“I’m aware, and I’m no boaster to anything outside a bedroom. I’ll even send people to bury the bodies.”
“There won’t be any bodies to bury.”
“A flame that leaves nothing behind, eh? I have a hunch many people will be seeking to keep themselves in your good graces.”
The ride back to Ut Kila Mec’tis was a quiet one, but I eventually had to bring up Myron’s next step. I said, “Be at Ut Remeck Sor at noon. This is where official Alslana representatives will go to meet you. This should also be when you publicly declare yourself the new head of your family.”
“I imagine I’ll see a lot of happy faces when I announce that both publicly and privately. You know, seeing him face-to-face made it easier. The idea of my father turned out to be stronger than the actual man. I guess that says something, I just don’t know what. I do know I’ll go mad seeing all those happy faces.”
“Begin hitting others weaker than you. That seems to make some people feel better.”
“I’m guessing you’re not serious, so that’s a dreadful joke.”
“It wasn’t a joke. It was a reminder of the man now gone and the man I hope you wish to avoid becoming.”
When we came upon the inn’s street, Myron said, “It’s going to take me a long time to decide whether to stop hating you, but I respect your decisiveness.”
“You never have to stop hating me. More than that, I’m thankful in advance for all the help you can bring to my cause.”
We hopped off our horses and I watched Master Kosenko enter the inn.
Tamara, grabbing the reins of the loose steeds, said, “I’ll try convincing Tikhon to go easy on him whenever I can. I think he can do a lot of good for us and all of Kaspista if he lets him.”
“I agree. How influential is the mother on him?”
“I don’t remember them being together all that often. She’ll be glad not to have regular thrashings anymore, so his influence over her will probably be greater than the other way around. What’s next for you?”
“I have to finish paying someone off, then I’m planning on sleeping until I wake up in the middle of the Vyalts.”
Lucetta caught up with me as I headed for Nirvana’s Gate. I gave a pouch of four gold and eight silver standards to Shifo, telling her to keep one of each for herself. It was then a matter of telling Lucetta, then Eudon, about the details of what happened. Once Eudon agreed to validate my work by handing his coin to Myron, I went to rest my stiff mind and heart.
Chapter Eight
A nettled Clarissa was waiting when I woke up, who didn’t like me throwing myself in Kaspista’s underworld and politics. I assured her I wasn’t going to do anything that would have put me in over my head, but that didn’t satisfy her.
“I can see you’re upset, so I’ll give you my present later.”
“Huh? What present?”
I stood up from my cot and stretched. “Nothing. Later.”
“Ugh, you bastard. Fine, I’m not mad anymore. Now gimme!”
“It’s nothing much. Just something I saw that made me think of you.” I removed the flask from its confines and showed it to her. She snatched it away and examined the flask. “Thought you could store extra blood in it, and I heard you like pearl.”
She giggled. “That’s why Ghevont asked me those funny questions! You sent him to find out what I like, right?”
“Aye.”
Despite being only a foot away, she leapt at me to give me a hug. “I love it, Mercer. Only the best blood will go in it.”
“I’ll hold down Ethan and you squeeze.”
Several days of delivery needed to be done in order to dole out the coin to the proper people and establishments, work I stayed in the periphery of. I involved myself a little more in reading the maps and learning which routes we intended to take to the mountains.
The journey to the Vyalts promised to be one of three hundred and fifty miles. The most secure paths were those used by mine workers bringing in their earthen loot to be processed in cities and sold in ports. Employing the eager allies of Myron’s family, a collective of mercenary forces was bought to fortify the favored route chosen by Eudon and the captains. Half their payment was paid in advance and the rest would be given once we made it to the mountains.
Messengers were sent to prepare the way for us. The captains also planned for a smaller, faster team of fifty soldiers to traverse and secure the path before a second party comprised of Eudon and the main unit followed soon afterward. If all went well, then changing for good horses at designated towns and stopping for only brief rest periods would take us to the perimeter of the Vyalts in four days. Considering the sky started dropping a blizzard’s worth of snow, that schedule might need to add
another day. Since few horses were capable of navigating the death-defying terrain, the plan called for both them and the mercenaries to be abandoned on reaching the Vyalts.
The best maps of the Vyalts were gathered and studied, most of which identified mines new and ancient. A proclamation invited the best mountain guides in the area to advise Alslana soldiers on the best ways to navigate the treacherous heights and devious valleys. Ghevont spoke with them as well, and read as many scrolls and books he could about the topography of the clustered range.
After two days of cramming, the scholar determined that the first region we needed to investigate belonged under the shadow of a long active volcano named Mount Dulcet. “Dulcet” was at least the best translation Ghevont came up with. Its true Kevlehan name twisted Ghevont’s tongue far too much for it to make any sense to my ears. Activity from the volcano had been recorded for as long as humans discovered the smoking peak four thousand years ago. Its name originated from its abnormally docile nature. Unlike its neighbors in the range, no great eruptions had ever arisen from the alp of molten stone.
This detail intrigued Ghevont the most. The scholar suspected powerful magic could be keeping the volcano in check. At the same time, its active state discouraged anyone from getting too close. Made sense to me. The site was nestled in the northern slice of the Vyalts four hundred miles from its western edge. There were other areas of note Ghevont picked out on the way there and deeper into the range, but Dulcet aroused the greatest expectation in both him and me.
Though the majority of coin made the rich even more so, Kaspista’s streets only showed enthusiasm toward Alslana soldiers, as though they were there to liberate them. They probably just enjoyed the idea of something new happening that didn’t involve someone robbing or killing them. It helped when word spread that Eudon himself led the assembly, making the former ruler the closest Uthosis’ people had to seeing a legitimate leader in three hundred years—not that they had many opportunities to see him. The most time consuming and precarious venture was unloading the crates of treasures in the ships, an undertaking that wouldn’t be completed until days after we left.
Flight of the Dragon Knight Page 10
