by LeRoy Clary
“Not yet,” Carrion said. “Gather firewood for tonight. I’d help, but I have to work.”
Tanner watched with a bit of jealously as Carrion closed his eyes as he reached out for his dragon. Tanner moved around, gathering first rocks from the edge of the stream to bank a fire pit, then enough wood for a fire. He kept a close watch on Carrion.
There were ripe huckleberries. Tanner picked them, gathering them into a makeshift basket from one of the pennants.
Carrion sat up. “The monastery is burning. The red had to spit on that great door you barred, and then it pushed in part of a wall. A torch ignited the door. The wood on the crates caught as soon as the dragon spat on them. Then the whole building went up in flames when the roof beams caught.”
“They’ll bring in more supplies. This will only delay them.”
“We’re not done, yet. The red is on his way to Shrewsbury.”
“I’d forgot that.” He handed Carrion the berries.
“Always liked these. Tart and sweet at the same time. Like me.”
“You’ll be careful at Shrewsbury, right?” Tanner hung his head and continued, “Never mind that I said that. I know you will.”
CHAPTER SIX
Carrion directed his attention through the eyes of the dragon again while Tanner built a fire. They didn’t talk. Tanner watched closely, wondering what it must be like to see the ground from so high up. Not like standing on a mountain because everything below must move. The perspective would change. Did dragons really have the eyesight people said? Could they see the smallest creatures from so high up?
The questions kept coming. Did Carrion feel cold if the dragon did? He didn’t know, but decided to ask about that and several other things. Did they feel hungry together? If so, Carrion should weigh twice as much because dragons are hungry all the time. A fly landed on Carrion’s cheek. Tanner casually brushed it away instead of trying to kill it.
The fire burned cheerfully, and Tanner warmed his hands. He sat near a campfire enjoying himself and the warmth while a dragon was about to burn an entire town to the ground. His hands withdrew from the fire as if of their own accord.
Carrion said in a monotone, his eyes still blank, “The red just made his first pass over the pier. There are no ships in port and nobody on the pier. There’s a lantern burning at the foot of the pier. Before anyone can move it, we’re going to start the fire and then spread it.”
Tanner waited. There was no need to distract Carrion by responding.
“My red dragon spat onto the foot of the pier and missed the lantern. It’s circling around for another pass. Okay, it hit the flame that time. The pier is on fire. People with buckets of water are rushing to put it out. They’re too late. The red just spat again, and the fire moved like an explosion, expanding to the middle of the pier in flames higher than the tops of houses. Now the red’s flying to the other pier.”
Tanner held his breath, imagining what was happening. The people must be wondering why the dragon would attack the pier. He was thinking of what would happen if one of the nearby green dragons showed up to investigate. They needed to burn the town and leave the area.
Carrion said in his monotone voice, “The red flew low and fast right at the crowd of people. They scattered. It spat at four buildings on that pass. One is already burning. The red’s coming around again. Now there are three buildings in flames and everyone is running away from the waterfront.”
“Good,” Tanner muttered.
“It looks like the rest of the buildings are catching fire one at a time. I think everyone in the whole town is gathered in a group near the road. That is, everyone but those who are in the buildings down near the breakwater. I have not seen any of them. We’re going down there now.”
A longer silence ensued. Then, just as Tanner was going to ask what was happening, Carrion said, “All three buildings down there are burning. The people that were in them are moving up the hillside, but they’re going slow. They must have been drugged more than the others. One of those buildings had over fifty people, like a military barracks. They are so drugged; they don’t even understand they’re in trouble if they don’t get clear of the flames.”
Tanner held his breath. They wanted everyone to get clear, but knew from the beginning that might be impossible.
Carrion continued, “Okay, they turned and headed into the forest and made it out. Now we’re flying over Shrewsbury again. Nothing across the road is burning yet, so we’re going down and take care of that.”
Carrion suddenly twisted and turned, grabbing his lower leg as he howled in pain.
Tanner said, “What is it?”
“An arrow. It hurts. Don’t worry, the rest of the town is on fire, but I’m bringing the red here.”
“Here?” Tanner sat straight up.
“We have to get the arrow out, or it’ll fester. It hurts. ”
Tanner didn’t know what to do. First Carrion reacted as if he had an arrow in his leg. That told the extent of the mental contact. Carrion did feel whatever the dragon did. “Should I put the fire out so he can land?”
“No. We’re going to use it to guide us to this place. By the time we arrive, it’ll be dark, and he can’t see well in the dark.”
A dragon flying into his campsite. Tanner had seen dragons from a distance, usually when they flew over, but the total number of dragons he had seen up close in his life could be counted on one hand. He glanced at the small clearing. There was not room for a dragon to land. The wings would hit the trees.
He leaped to his feet and searched the surroundings. Nor far downstream a wide open area stood at a bend in the stream. Only a few trees stood, all of them small. Tanner pulled his knife, wishing he had brought one of the short swords from the monastery with him. Still, the blade of his knife was longer than his hand.
He ran to the nearest of the trees, pine, and used the blade to slice downward as one hand held the handle, and the other pushed the blade. The soft wood cut in a long slice. He cut another slice and another, then reached up and took the top of the tree in his hand and pulled. The trunk snapped and fell to one side.
He went to the next tree and repeated the process. He didn’t need to cut the trunks all the way through, only enough to break when he used his weight to bend them. The few trees turned into ten, and the area was still not clear enough for a dragon to safely land. He cut ten more and surveyed the area.
Dragons were not that large, but their wingspan needed a clear area, and they were huge. He worked on clearing more, despite fatigue. The sun was down and darkness falling fast. He glanced up to find Carrion on the other side of the clearing cutting down more trees. I guess it was not big enough.
But even as the thought crossed his mind, Carrion called his name. “Tanner, that’s plenty big enough. Good thinking.”
Running to his side, Tanner said, “I didn’t know how much room it needs.”
“You were right. I left him so I could tell you, but saw you were already hard at it.”
“How long before it gets here?”
“It’ll be a while. I’ll let you know when we see the fire. Keep throwing wood on so we can find it from far away.” Carrion went back to his blanket. His eyes glazed over.
Tanner put more wood on the fire, then gathered more. The larger fire gave him the light needed to find more. In the excitement of the impending dragon arriving, he gathered enough to last a few nights. A dragon. Close up.
“I see the fire ahead. Landing at night is difficult because we can’t see to judge distances. Carry a few burning sticks and put them around the perimeter of the clearing.”
Carrion spoke in the same dull, slow way the drugged people in Shrewsbury did, which reminded him to ask Carrion more about the town. Did it all burn? He found a hundred questions on the tip of his tongue, he wanted to ask.
But instead of asking him, he gathered several sticks from the fire and placed them on the edges of the clearing. As he finished, he heard the rasp of leathery wings.
Backing into the trees so he wouldn’t be under the dragon when it landed, he waited.
As the dragon came closer, the winds created by the powerful wings first stirred the grass and twigs, then blew anything not heavy or secured into the air. He closed his eyes and held his forearm up as a shield.
Then the air returned to normal, except for a stagnant, pungent odor. The dragon smelled. Tanner lowered his arm and found himself looking at the dragon, face to face from only a few steps away. If he hadn’t been petrified, he could have reached out and fed his hand to the beast’s mouth.
The dragon’s eyes were on him. He said, “Carrion if you’re trying to scare me, you are.”
A twitch of the head and the dragon looked elsewhere. Carrion’s laughter came from the campfire. Tanner relaxed slightly and took a step towards the fire.
The dragon’s head spun, and the eyes pinned him still again.
“Carrion?”
The dragon relaxed again as Carrion called out, “Come over here.”
Tanner side-stepped until he was near the fire, his eyes on the huge beast the whole time. As he neared the fire, he saw a splash of blood seeping from an arrow in the hip of the dragon’s rear leg. The dragon lowered its head and peered at the arrow. It licked at the blood with the forked tongue, but in doing so touched the arrow. The creature mewed like a stray kitten.
Carrion said, “You know I can’t promise you it won’t hurt you, right? But it does know you’re Dragon Clan.”
Tanner realized he hadn’t been aware of the tingling, or the stinging pain as it came closer. He’d been too excited, but now, as close as the dragon was, he expected to feel more. Instead, his back was warm, almost a good feeling. It had been the same with other dragons.
Carrion moved closer to the dragon. He looked at the arrow and the shaft. “The wound looks larger than the shaft. Probably an iron head on it.”
“How will you get it out?”
Carrion gave him the lopsided grin that always meant trouble. “Easy. I’ll let you do it.”
“What?”
“I’m going back into his mind. I’ll calm him. You need to get a good grip on that shaft. Don’t try to be gentle. Just grab it and yank it out. The red’s not going to like it. Pull it out and back up as fast as you can.”
“But you’ll be in its mind keeping me safe.”
“Remember that time you got into the cactus? Your mom held you down while I pulled them?”
“I was maybe ten. I hit you and gave you a black eye.”
Carrion nodded, “It’s sort of like that. Reflex. I’ll try to keep him at bay, but you have to get out of the way, too.”
Tanner looked at the exposed teeth in the dragon’s mouth, at the cold eyes, and then at the seeping wound. “Maybe we should wait until morning.”
“It has already been in there too long. We need it out now. You’re Dragon Clan, sworn to protect this animal. Now’s the time to live up to your pledge.”
Carrion settled down as if the subject was settled. Tanner moved closer to the hip with the arrow, noticing that the dragon turned its head away and now looked off into the darkness. Carrion's doing.
Tanner set his feet and reached for the shaft. He wrapped his fingers around it and took one deep breath, after looking for an escape route. He pulled as fast and as hard as he could. The arrow came free. The dragon howled, the head twisting to find the source of the pain. Tanner retreated three steps and fell, then crawled ten more steps until he was behind a tree only as big around as his wrist, and wishing for a larger tree.
He paused long enough to look up at the dragon’s head. The eyes were locked on him. As Tanner was going to put more distance between them, the dragon lowered his head and examined the wound that was no longer running with blood. It licked the wound several times. Then it lifted its head and roared.
The hurt was gone, it seemed to say. The sharp thing that hurt its leg was removed and healing could begin. Like the cactus spines that Carrion removed from Tanner’s leg so many years ago.
“You all right, boy?”
Tanner said, “It was close there for a bit, but I got the arrow.”
“The arrowhead, too?”
Lifting his hand, Tanner saw the arrow, the iron head still attached still clenched in his fingers. “Yes, I got it, too.”
Carrion sat and smiled. “You wouldn’t happen to know any medicine tricks for healing wounded dragons, would you?”
“No.”
“Just as well. I suspect him licking it will do as much good as anything else.”
“Will he eat me tonight?” Tanner asked, wondering how far away he should sleep. Maybe in the next valley.
Carrion’s voice changed to one of seriousness. “Not many live to tell after being so near a dragon. He knows you helped him. Both my persuasion and the relief of pain told him you were helping him. That arrow was right at his joint, so every move, every sweep of his wings hurt. You removed that. It knew you were Dragon Clan, of course. Now it knows you helped it stop hurting.”
“Then we’re friends?”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but you may find that if you’re ever in trouble, this red will be the one to respond. I wouldn’t want to be the one hurting you.”
“Can I pet it?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s your life.”
“It stinks.”
“You’re right. Funny, but when we touch minds I can see with its eyes, hear with its ears, and smell what it does, but it doesn’t smell rank at all. Right now, I’m about to puke.” Carrion chuckled as he stood and moved to the rear leg and examined it. “The blood is clotting.”
Tanner said, “Tell me about Shrewsbury.”
“Burned. The piers are gone, even the pilings burned right down to the water. All the buildings are ashes. The residents gathered and retreated up the road. But there were others there. Strange people.”
“The ones working on the breakwater?”
“Yes. We got several good looks as they ran from that barracks. Their arms had tattoos. Dragon tattoos. Both arms.” Carrion said.
“Like ours?”
“That I can’t say. But they moved like they were drugged.”
“What does all that mean? What is happening?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Carrion asked, “What does that mean? Are you asking about their tattoos? I have no idea.”
“We have tattoos on our backs. They have them on their arms. I wonder if that’s the difference in us? Maybe the green dragons can communicate only with people with dragon tattoos on their arms,” Tanner said.
“Or maybe they are simply tattoos, not things they are born with like ours. Just ink under the skin and nothing to do with the greens. If there is a connection, why were they moving like they were drugged?”
Tanner gave it consideration, then said, “Were there any other people down by the breakwater?”
“Yes. Four or five in a building that was also the kitchen. No tattoos on them. They acted normal.”
“That confuses any ideas I had.”
Carrion laughed. “I know the feeling. Nothing about this makes any sense. But nobody will be using Shrewsbury to land troops for a while unless they plan to ferry them ashore in small boats and camp in the ashes.”
“After what happened at the monastery, they better bring their own dry-goods and weapons, too.”
The fire was burning lower, and Carrion confessed to being very tired. Tanner was wide awake. He stood and circled the campsite and dragon, making sure all was secure. He found one of the firebrands he’d used to mark off the safe area for the dragon had spread. The fire was in the pine needles, but a few kicks safely put out the fire.
Tanner turned to continue his circle and came face to face with the dragon again. It had shifted positions and the serpentine neck extended to place the head to within two steps of Tanner. He stood still, knowing his reflexes were nowhere near fast enough to save him.
The dragon flicked out its to
ngue. The tip nearly, but not quite touched Tanner. It sniffed twice, testing his scent. Then it pulled back and curled itself into a tight ball, much like a contented puppy sleeping at its master’s feet. He managed to exhale.
The night had brought on a chill, but Tanner didn’t feel it. He was a few steps from a sleeping dragon. Tanner could walk up and touch it. Well, maybe that was a bad idea as he pulled the blanket over himself and kept his eyes on the dragon.
He woke as the dragon pumped its wings a few times before it leaped into the air and flew off. Tanner didn’t get up. He just stayed under his cover and watched it grow smaller in the distance.
Carrion said, “The wound was scabbed over. No signs of infection.”
“You got up and checked?”
“It’s been light for a while. You sleep late like a girl I once knew.”
“I was tired.”
“So was she,” Carrion laughed. Then he tossed some sticks on the fire. “I want a real meal. Meat, eggs, maybe griddlecakes.”
“We don’t have food to cook.”
Carrion was still smiling. He pointed. “Right over that ridge is the road. There are two farms, one on either side of the road. I’ll bet with one of those coppers in your purse we could get a meal to remember, and maybe a little gossip to boot.”
“Gossip about Racine? I guess we could do that.” Tanner’s stomach growled loud enough for Carrion to hear, but the older man said nothing as he rolled tighter in his blanket.
The walk to the ridge didn’t take long. Tanner realized that Carrion must have seen the two farms when the dragon flew off in that direction. It must be nice to see where you’re going before you leave your campsite. Safer, too.
From the ridge, they saw the road, which was more of a wider path than a road. The two farms were at the end of the fenced pasture. Cows, sheep, and three mules grazed. Both farms had crops almost ready to harvest. Between the two houses was an orchard.
