Delno nodded to Jhren, who stepped forward with a small bundle in his hand. He walked to Kern and stood in front of him expectantly.
“If you agree to this, Kern,” Delno said, “you will travel to the Elven lands with Walker and his clansmen. If you refuse, then we have no choice but to keep you here in chains, quite possibly for the rest of your life. So you see, you can accept this, and face the prospect of redeeming yourself, which will give Serrin a chance at getting the healing she needs; or, you stay here as a prisoner and condemn her to a life of disability. Which is it to be?”
Kern stood straight, and for a moment, everyone thought he would refuse. Then his eyes went slightly blank, and all of those gathered understood that he was in contact with Serrin; when he looked back at Delno, much of the defiance, though not all of it, had gone from his eyes.
“I accept the terms,” he said, and hung his head.
Jhren opened the bundle and pulled out a small flat stone. There was no cord by which it could be suspended. Jhren said, “Remove your shirt.”
Kern looked at him coldly for a moment, but then pulled the garment off over his head.
“There will be some pain,” Jhren told him. “We didn’t make it painful on purpose, and we take no pleasure in your discomfort.”
Kern nodded his understanding. Jhren brought the stone up to his lips and said the words that would complete the spell that he had placed on it. He then held the talisman in front of Kern’s chest, right over the man’s heart. It shimmered for a few seconds and then became somewhat fluid and moved onto the man’s skin. Kern screwed up his face to resist crying out as the stone bubbled and shifted until it was imbedded into his flesh. The stone solidified, and Kern looked down in a mixture of curiosity and disgust, while Jhren moved to Walker and handed him the pouch that contained the master stone.
“The Elves have accepted custody of you, Kern,” Delno said. “They are your jailers, and hopefully, they will ultimately be your saviors; for it is our hope that you will learn compassion and humility while you live among them. We would like to, in the future, welcome you back as a contributing member of Dragon Rider society.”
Kern said nothing as Raymond and Nadia stepped forward and led him away to the Elven camp just outside the walls.
“Now then,” Delno said, “the rest of you have to be dealt with.”
He looked at other prisoners. Two were barely older than Paul’s brother, and the older two were no more than in their early twenties. One of the younger two rubbed his chest and stared directly at Jhren, looking to see if the wizard had any more bundles with him.
Delno drew a deep breath. “You have all been part of the war effort in Warrick’s camp, but we can connect you to no specific crimes; you haven’t committed murder, or even stolen anything, as far as our lineage holders can tell from questioning your dragons. You killed no one during the last battle, and your worst offense is that you have acted as lookouts and scouts for Warrick. Your dragons have displayed remorse at any part they had in this whole affair, and they believe that you are basically worthwhile human beings. Therefore, it is the decision of this council that you are to be released. We require that you separate from each other, but you may join any group of Riders here with whom you wish to travel, providing you stay clear of Kern. This council will meet once a year from this time on, and while you may return and be present at those meetings, you won’t be eligible to join us for three years. If you agree to those terms, you are free to go.”
None of the four refused to accept the terms. They left quickly, as if half expecting to find out that the offer had been a cruel joke, and they would be brought back and punished. They didn’t immediately leave the area, though they did stay away from the Elven camp where Kern was settled.
“Now our last bit of business,” Delno said to those still present. “I am obligated to go back to Corice and deal with the problems that have plagued my homeland for generations. I must go back and put an end to the cycle of war between Corice and Bourne. Any Riders who will go with me will be welcome. I would like to take such a show of force that the Bournese will feel compelled to talk rather than try to fight. However, I also understand that some Riders must remain here in Horne to ensure that the beast-men that got away don’t somehow regroup and again threaten the people of this land.”
“I will stay,” Chureny spoke up. “I have lived here so long that I consider this land to be my home anyway. I can’t see myself leaving.” He turned to Derrick expectantly.
“Before I met this company and took that oath, I might have said the same,” Derrick intoned. “Now, however, I realize that I have come to resent the people of this land for their slights over the years. I cannot stay and serve them to the best of my ability while that enmity is still within me. Therefore, I believe I need to travel for a time to put such pettiness behind me. If they will have me, I will travel with the Elves for now. Perhaps I, too, can find healing in their fair lands.”
“I would like to stay,” Raymond said. “I have never been far from my homeland, but I find that, despite the harshness of the country itself, these mountains give me a strange sense of peace. Terra likes it here, too. I have only met a very few people from Horne, and they have, thus far, treated me well. While I understand Derrick’s sentiment, someone should stay in his place.” Then he nodded and said, “Yes, I will stay, at least for a time. I trust that Delno, and those who accompany him, can handle the situation in the north without my assistance.”
“I too, feel compelled to return to Corice,” Nassari put in. “When we’ve settled things in the north, I believe that I will return here and organize this fort properly as the ‘Headquarters of the Legion of Riders’ should be organized. Once that is done, I intend to travel south and see the marvelous lands of the Elves that my good friend, Walker, has told me so much about.”
It was another two hours before everyone had declared his or her future plans as Riders. Then they all retired to their respective camps. Delno and Rita had taken Warrick’s old quarters. There was even a bath, though the water had to be drawn from the pump in the central yard, heated, and carried by the bucketful. Delno found that he could use his magic to heat the water once it was in the tub, which saved time.
“So, explain something to me, Handsome,” Rita said as Delno moved the sponge back and forth over her back.
“If I can, Beautiful.”
“Why didn’t you just force Kern and the others to take the same oath the rest of us took?”
He was thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Jhren and I thought about that. However, binding someone with magic is similar to binding them with rope. The magic is stronger, but the bonds can still be cut if you work hard enough at it. If we had forced Kern to take the Rider’s oath, he would have simply started looking for a way to break that oath without incurring magical consequences, and he would eventually have succeeded. Then he would be free to seek revenge.”
“Ok, I’ll give you that one. But what about the others? Now that Warrick is gone, they actually seem like decent young men.”
“Yes, they do,” he replied, “and that is why we didn’t give them the opportunity to take the oath right now.” She leaned forward and gave him a look over her shoulder like she thought he was crazy. “Look at it this way,” he went on, “if those young men were sworn to service now, they might begin to resent it. However, we sent them on, and they are now traveling with others from our original group who have taken the oath. They want to be part of the group, and they will see the oath as a way to get that. So, taking the oath becomes a desirable thing. In the meantime, those men, still young enough to be influenced, will begin to work at becoming worthy of taking the oath so that by the time they are sworn to service, service will be second nature to them.”
“Ok, then,” she said, “Why take an oath at all? It is only binding so long as the person taking it is serious about it.”
“Well, this oath is binding on a slightly deeper level than that, but
essentially you are correct.” He paused while he rinsed the soap off of her back. “I originally wanted to work a spell that would bond all Riders to service and completely eliminate the possibility that someone like Warrick would be able to try to take power again. After talking with Jhren and Brock about it a few times during our trip, I came to realize that there are just too many variables to do that. No matter how specific you think you are, you will always have some kind of loophole. So, we settled for creating a cohesive group of Riders who are willing to swear an oath that binds them to service. This way we create a group of Riders who have a strong bond with each other. Hopefully, when the next threat comes, we won’t have as much problem putting together a response to it, and the enemy won’t get as strong a foothold before we get organized.”
“That sounds a bit off from what you originally said you wanted to accomplish,” she said.
“Farther off than you think.” She gave him another ‘look’, and he said, “Remember that part about loopholes?” She nodded, so he continued, “Well, the loophole in this oath is in the intent. We have sworn service to uphold the ‘just and rightful’ rulers and the ‘just laws’ of the land. So, if we see a ruler as unjust, or think a law is unjust, we are not going against our oath if we act.”
“I had actually wondered about that,” she said.
“Yep,” he said as he grabbed a towel and held it for her, “that’s how I intend to get away with removing Torrance from the throne of Bourne.”
He paused and watched while she wrapped the towel around her head, then handed her a second towel to dry her body. Then he began drying himself.
“If one of your first acts as a member of the Legion of Riders is to remove the rightful heir from the throne of Bourne—not that I’m complaining, mind you,“ she said, “then why did we go through all of that out there today?”
“First, no man can be considered the rightful ruler of a land if he is willing to send two hundred children under his rule to their deaths in combat simply because doing so will help him further his ambition to subjugate his neighbors.” She nodded her agreement, and then wrapped the towel around herself for warmth before starting to dry her hair. “Also, I don’t intend to ‘participate in any attempt to usurp power from the rightful and just rulers of any sovereign nation in an effort to gain power for myself or any master’. I have no master, and I don’t intend to try and hold power in Bourne myself. I simply want to stop this insane ritual of Bourne trying to conquer my homeland every generation or so. That will stop the killing of hundreds of men from both sides, and stop them nearly bankrupting both kingdoms every time it happens.”
He remembered that he hadn’t pulled the plug from the tub and did so before continuing. “The main reason for all of that today is to bind us together as a group. The council will meet once a year, more often if it becomes necessary, and we will work out policies that we all agree to abide by. Also, before now, the Riders didn’t even try to keep in close contact. Craig is an extreme example of it: this is the first time he’s left those Elven libraries in over a century. The only reason you ever met him was that you traveled to the Elven lands with Brock, and then again over a decade ago when you took some correspondence to the Elves as a favor to the King of Trent. However, even in the less extreme instances, many Riders go decades without seeing other Riders. There’s no peer pressure to do the right things, or even just be good people. This way, we stay in touch, and help keep each other honest.”
“And you said you weren’t any good at this kind of thing,” she said.
“No,” he replied, “I said I wasn’t any good at lying, and I’m not. This isn’t a lie, it’s subterfuge.” At her raised eyebrow, he added, “It’s a fine line of distinction, but there is a difference.”
He paused for a moment and then added, “Joking aside, though, the magic is still binding. Also, remember that each Rider who takes the oath is part of a bonded pair, and therefore brings the powerful magic of the pair, which strengthens the magic of the oath itself. Therefore, I wouldn’t plan on trying to take over the world any time soon if I were you.”
“Well,” she said, “you promised me more than a bath tonight, and that better not have been subterfuge.”
He smiled and let her lead him to the bed.
Chapter 51
The white flag blew gently in the wind as Delno and General Dreighton, along with Brock, Nassari, Rita and Adamus, waited halfway across Stone Bridge. The flag had been hung on the massive iron gate of the fortification a quarter of an hour before they walked out on the bridge, and since they had come out from the gate, they had been waiting that long again. Finally, a group of Bournese approached the other side bearing their own white flag, indicating that they were willing to talk peacefully. Delno recognized the pock-marked face of the general who had taken command after he and Geneva had killed the former commander during the last failed attempt the Bournese had made at taking the passage.
Delno and his group had flown straight across the mountains on the south-western edge of Corice to Stone Bridge from Horne. They had pushed hard, stopping only long enough to rest at the end of each day, and the trip had taken three and half days. Then, using the dragons to relay messages, Delno had gotten Dorian to place the Corisian forces gathered on their side of the bridge under his command. He was now ready to push forward and get this whole affair over with.
“Have you finally regained some measure of good sense and decided to surrender?” the Bournese general said. “If so, open those gates and have your men stack their weapons and ready themselves to be taken prisoner.”
“Enough nonsense!” Delno snapped. The Bournese general took a small step back. “I have not pushed myself for more than three days to get here from Horne to listen to any of your posturing. Be silent and pay attention if you want to avoid many needless deaths.”
“You have no right to speak to me that way!” the man replied. “I don’t have to stand here and listen to this.”
“No, you don’t have to stand here and listen,” Delno retorted. “You can turn and leave, and I will be left with no choice but to rain fire down upon your camp until you, and all of your men, are dead.”
“You have neither the authority nor the means to do such thing,” the general sneered.
“Oh, don’t I?” Delno looked behind him and Geneva and all of the other bonded dragons present moved to the edge of the Corisian side of the canyon. He looked at the men from Bourne and asked their commander, “Does that do anything to change your mind?”
The Bournese general’s staff officers visibly paled. The general himself wasn’t so easily intimidated, though. He had taken over the command after his predecessor had been killed and had no first-hand knowledge of what dragons could do. “I see nine dragons. That is hardly what I would call an overwhelming force.”
“That is because you weren’t there when just three of those dragons killed five hundred of your troops and forced the remainder to surrender on the plain outside Larimar. Nor were you here when those same three dragons put an end to the first and only attempt to take this bridge since we began construction of the fortifications. It is because your predecessor was foolish enough to believe that he and his pet magic user could stand up to our dragons that you were given this post. You may have seen his remains in the burned out command tents when you arrived.”
The Bournese staff officers inched away from their commander as if to prevent being considered guilty by association, or possibly killed by accident if the man continued to anger the Dragon Rider.
“Who is posturing now?” the man said. “You may have won some temporary victories, but we will soon be reinforced with dragons also. Then it is you who will be at a disadvantage.”
“Do you refer to Warrick and his Riders?” Delno asked. “I wouldn’t hold my breath while waiting, if I were you.” The Bournese’s eyes widened. “Do you not recall me saying that I just came from Horne? What exactly do you think I was doing down there?” Delno gave them a
moment to absorb the implications of the question before he removed any doubt. “I killed Warrick two weeks ago. He is interred at the old fort on the edge of the Roracks’ territory. Those of his Riders who weren’t killed or taken prisoner were scattered and will be a long time recovering before they will be a threat to anyone. His mighty army of beast-men is destroyed.”
“You lie,” the general responded.
“As I once told your predecessor, I never lie. I’ve never been any good at it,” Delno replied. “However, just in case you think that your forces would stand a chance against the nine dragons you have seen. . . .” Delno looked at Geneva for a moment and she nodded.
More dragons began stepping up to the edge of the canyon. Within minutes, the nine bonded dragons had been joined by twenty-seven more who wore no saddles. They were, of course, the remnants of the un-bonded dragons who had been part of the dragon army in Horne. These twenty-seven, most under three decades old, had traveled with Delno and his group from Horne to help Delno, but also to get help finding Bond-mates. Although Delno had not made helping with the war a condition for finding them human Partners—in fact, he was emphatic that he would help them regardless—they all volunteered anyway.
Delno turned to the Bournese men, many of whom had gone the color of bleached linen: even the general had visibly paled at the site of nearly forty dragons set against him. “As you can see, we have more than nine dragons.” He paused to let them look at the dragons for another few moments. “What you see arrayed against you on our side of this canyon is more than enough firepower to kill every man on your side within moments of beginning our attack. We have no desire to kill you or your men. Our quarrel is with your king. However, make no mistake about our resolve. Tomorrow, our troops will advance across this bridge. The dragons will lead the way and annihilate any resistance that lies between our army and your capitol. If you oppose us, your men will not die honorably, killed in battle by enemy men. They will die horribly, burned to death by dragon fire before our soldiers even step foot on the bridge.”
Dragon Blade Page 39
