I’d been toying with the idea of calling home ever since my stalker started hovering on the edge of my senses. Obviously I needed to do so at this point. I couldn’t keep playing this cat and mouse game. Aside from the fact that I didn’t enjoy being the mouse, my limited supply of food had dwindled very quickly. I didn’t have much time before I had to turn back for Sol or face starvation.
Resigned, I pulled the mirror broach out of my pocket and called up the expert.
From the mirror, there were sounds of shuffling, a muted call to hang on, and then finally a clear, “Hello?”
“Hi, Cora.”
“Krys! It’s good to hear from you. How are you?”
“Hot, sweaty, sunburned…you know, the usual when you’re in Libendorf.”
She laughed, the sound light and pleasant. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been that far north. Have you found your dragoo?”
“Forget my dragoo, I haven’t found any.”
“Really?” she sounded surprised. “But it’s mating season right now!”
“Well, about that…” I kept walking, not wanting to give the stalker a stationary target, and kept my eyes peeled as I talked. “I think I know why. Something really big is following me, and by big, I mean much larger than a dragoo.”
There was this hefty pause before she slowly spoke. “Can you give me a description?”
I eyed the mirror suspiciously. She knew something. I could hear it in her voice. “I haven’t seen it. I can just feel it. Whatever this thing is, it’s been keeping carefully out of sight the past two days. Cora, you know what it is, don’t you?”
“The only thing that can scare dragoos into hiding are dragons.”
I froze in my tracks. “Run that by me one more time.”
“The dragoos are hiding. It’s the only explanation. If you’re in the right area, in the right season, you should be seeing dozens. You’re not. The only things that dragoos are afraid of are dragons.”
“Hold on, I thought dragoos and dragons were some sort of cousin-species!” I protested.
“No, that’s a common misconception because they look alike. Actually, they’re a completely different species. Dragoos and dragons like to eat the same thing, so they’re constantly in competition with each other. It’s made for some bad relations. Dragons are fierce fighters. Even dragoos don’t stand much of a chance against them.”
And that was saying something. I’d seen Hayate fight once. It’d taken him seconds to take down a heavily armored swordsman. You in no way wanted to tangle with a dragoo.
“Great. So I’ve got a dragon trailing me. Why?”
“Now that is what I don’t understand. You’re too far south to be in their territory, right?”
“Right.”
“And it’s just one dragon?”
“I only feel one.”
“Maybe it’s lost? Or an exile? I’m not sure what’s going on here, Krys, but you better be careful. Dragons are semi-intelligent, about the same as a dragoo, but that doesn’t mean it won’t think of you as a convenient snack. I don’t know a lot about the breed but they’re potentially dangerous, even for a Fire Mage.”
This just got better and better. I heaved a sigh. “So what are the odds of me finding a dragoo with a dragon lurking in the vicinity?”
“Nil.”
“Kind of what I figured.”
“What are you going to do?”
I had no idea. But I knew better than to tell her that. “Not much I can do. I don’t think I should linger in this area. I’m running low on food, and besides, I don’t dare court danger with a dragon. I’m going to head back south, toward Sol, and re-think my approach on this.”
“Probably the best decision,” she agreed, tone worried. “Krys, be careful. Call Garth the minute that you think you’re in danger. We’ll race up and get you.”
It was reassuring to hear that, especially considering the two-ton, potentially starving creature in my area. “I will.”
~*~
I made my way back south very cautiously, with an eye over my shoulder and my magical senses strained to the limit. For the rest of the day I walked at a good clip back toward the Sol border, my stalker following at the same distance as before, just out of my immediate sight. With the twin suns overhead, the arid wind, and the fire still licking along the edge of my shields, I felt like a roasted duck. Sweat poured from my temples, along my back and chest, and made my clothes stick to me. I’d striped down to the basics of a long-sleeved white shirt and tan pants, avoiding any other layers, but I still felt unbearably hot. I had to drink a lot of water just to avoid passing out. This wasn’t good. I couldn’t keep doing this. I didn’t have an unlimited supply of water on me and the heat could kill a man if he wasn’t careful. Xiaolang had issued strict warnings about this before I’d left his house.
All right, I needed to change tactics. Instead of walking in this blazing heat, I should settle down somewhere and wait until nightfall before continuing on. If I did most of my traveling at night, it would make life easier. I only had about four hours or so of daylight left anyway. If I kept my shields up, it should be safe enough to rest. My stalker wasn’t particularly hostile—if he had been, he would have attacked by now.
Still, I kept a weather eye on my surroundings as I sat down and unstrapped my pack. In this flat, desert land, I couldn’t find anything to shade me. But I could control how much heat could touch me, if I really concentrated.
People call us Fire Mages, and that’s the element that I have control over, certainly. But really, it isn’t limited solely to that. Anything that has an element of heat to it, I can manipulate at least a little. It’s just that, the further away it got from being true flame, the less control I have over it.
I settled on the hard, gravelly ground, closed my eyes to rest them from the penetrating glare, and started pushing the heat away from my skin. I cooled quickly, the sweat becoming cold against my skin. It felt good after almost seven days of baking in this heat. It felt so good, in fact, that I felt myself doze off a little.
I woke back up just enough to anchor the shield to the ground and then went right back to dozing. No harm in doing that and I would need the rest if I were to be walking all night.
Somewhere in my subconscious mind, an alarm screeched in warning.
For the first time in my life, I was wide-awake in less than a second.
Outside my shield, lounging with his front legs crossed at the ankle was my Scaly Stalker. He was slightly different than how I’d pictured him to be. For one thing, his skin was a dark red, almost black in some places. He didn’t have nearly as many ridges and horns on his head and neck as textbook illustrations had depicted. He was sleek, with signs of heavy muscle. My senses had put him at about the size of a small house, perhaps twelve tons or so. I was wrong on that, too. Dragons apparently put out an extraordinary amount of heat. This one was half the size I’d been envisioning.
That still made him larger than a dragoo and much more than I wanted to tangle with.
I swallowed hard and very slowly gained my feet. Why I stood, I had no idea. Running would be absolutely useless against a creature that could fly, after all. It just seemed a better idea to stand while facing a creature that could eat me for a midnight snack. As I stood, his eyes flickered to my shields, which were still fully up and flickering with fire.
Was he waiting for me to drop it before pouncing and devouring me whole? Fat chance, then, I could hold those shields indefinitely.
I should’ve called Cora right then and there. I should’ve called Garth for that matter, and asked for a ride. Something made me pause. He’d spent the past three days shadowing me around and then he suddenly came right out in the open. Why?
I didn’t get it.
Now, I was no Life Mage, but Cora had said that dragons had about the same intelligence as a dragoo. Hayate was smart enough to talk to, although he couldn’t say more than a few words at a time back to you. I decided to try talking to h
im. Why not? I had nothing to lose from the attempt.
“What do you want from me?”
His ears shifted, head tilting slightly as if he were focusing more on me. Maybe he hadn’t heard me? Were those long ears of his more for show? I repeated myself, a little louder. The dragon’s eye ridges drew together, as if in confusion, with not the slightest sign of comprehension on his face.
Huh. Odd, Hayate would have understood that. Of course, Hayate had grown up in Sol. Maybe I should try a different language? I tried again in Hainish, with no luck. Maybe it didn’t understand any of the human languages at all? After all, dragons hadn’t been around humans for two generations. I wasn’t sure if they’d even known a language before they moved.
All right, talking obviously wouldn’t work. What next? Cora couldn’t talk with a dragon through a mirror, she had to be near it to communicate, so that was out. I stared up at him for several moments, mind whirling without giving me any good ideas.
He eyed me carefully as he stretched out his neck so that his nose came into contact with my shields. Far from flinching like anyone else would at the magical backlash, he actually opened his mouth and tried to bite into my shields!
I stared at him in stunned incredulity. Had he…yes, he had. He’d just eaten some of the fire shield. Not only that, but looked quite happy doing it. A whimper escaped my throat. My shields…were useless against a dragon. Not good.
All right, I couldn’t panic. Just because a dragon could bite through my shields didn’t mean I was totally defenseless…or did it? I felt my throat tighten, and I had to swallow hard past the lump in my throat. After all, these creatures were one of the few races that could manipulate fire as they wished. They were naturals. If it came down to a fire battle between me and them, did I even stand a chance?
But he didn’t attack or take advantage of this. He gave another long lick at my shields, taking off another large chunk as he did so, smacking his lips as if thoroughly enjoying the taste. Then he sat back and licked at his mouth with a forked tongue, and resumed watching me intently.
If he wanted to attack, he could obviously do so. The shields were like paper for him, or even thin air. So why didn’t he? And why did he treat the fire from my shields like some sort of delicacy?
Something about fire and control wriggled its way through the coursing fear and sparked an idea. On a hunch, I started juggling fireballs in and around my head, letting some bounce from hand to hand, and others disappearing in mid-air. The dragon’s head lifted, eyes intently following every fireball, the tip of his tail twitching in excitement.
The fire! Of course! Dragons were the only creatures that could produce and manipulate fire; it made perfect sense for them to be interested in someone else that could do the same thing. Now that I realized it, I felt like an idiot for not putting it together sooner. He must have seen my shield one night when I was sleeping, and he’d been following me around ever since, wanting me to do more.
I let the fire in my hands die, watching his reaction. His ears drooped slightly and his tail stopped twitching. I swear it was just like watching a dog that had been denied a treat. Unbelievable.
So what now? I knew what was attracting him, but I couldn’t think of a way to convince him to go away. Where was Nolan or Cora when I needed them? All right, if he truly didn’t have any hostile intentions, maybe I could safely call home for advice again. Still keeping an eye on him, I pulled the mirror back out of my pocket.
“Cora?”
There was a few seconds of silence before I heard, “Krys?”
“Hi. There’s been a…development.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. What development?”
“Well, the dragon is sitting not ten feet away from me.”
“WHAT?!”
It was amazing how much volume the mirror could convey. That yell nearly set my ears ringing. The dragon jumped a bit too, I noticed. “Cora, you might want to tone it down. You don’t really want to spook the carnivorous reptile right in front me, right?”
“Right. Sorry. So…describe the dragon to me.”
“About half the size of a small house, dark red, and more streamlined than the textbooks show. He’s quite comfortable sitting here watching me. Actually, I think I’ve figured out why he’s watching me.”
“Really?”
“Cora, I think it’s my fire. I’ve been erecting fire barriers around my camp each night and just now I played around with it a bit and he watched me so intently it was kind of funny. It’s the fire. He likes the fire I’ve been producing.”
A beat of silence. “You know, that makes an odd sort of sense.”
“Doesn’t it? Of course he’d be interested in some human that’s wielding fire like a dragon. I feel like an idiot for not putting that together sooner.”
“No, Krys, that’s not why this makes sense,” she disagreed and it sounded like she was choking back laughter. “Dragons only spit fire for one of two reasons, according to the books: one, they’re fighting or two, they’re doing fancy flame work to attract a mate.”
“…Cora, that’s not funny.”
“Really? I think it’s hilarious.”
Yes, she would. “So you’re saying that playing around with fire will actually…er…”
“Make her more enamored with you?” she finished helpfully, a smirk in her voice. “Yes. Also, from your description, that’s probably a girl.”
“A girl? Really?” I couldn’t see anything that would suggest gender. “What makes you say that?”
“Girls are smaller, and usually have a darker skin tone than the males. From your description, I would say this one is a girl.”
That didn’t make the situation any better. “So what do I do to get this dragon to go away?”
“You don’t. They either get bored and leave on their own, or they’ll follow you around forever.”
“You’re not helping.”
“Want me to tell Garth to come get you?”
If Garth took me on the earth path, there was no way that the dragon could track me and keep following me after that.
“Please?”
“Will do. You might have to sit tight for a few hours. I know he left to go get some new students.”
“Roger that.” I could put up with this for a few hours, surely.
~*~
Three hours later I was more than ready to leave. I hadn’t heard one word from either Garth or Cora, which made me a bit anxious. That was only half the problem, though.
The real problem was the dragon.
She intently watched my every move. Most of the time I tried to sit still, going with the theory that if I didn’t do anything showy, she’d get bored and leave. I even took off the fire shield, leaving the weapons and power shields in place, hoping that a lack of fire would help encourage her to go away. Every time I so much as twitched, though, she perked right up with this expectant look in her eyes.
Despite the whole situation fraying my nerves, I couldn’t help but study her as carefully as she studied me. In an alien, reptilian sort of way, she was fascinating to look at. Her skin looked like tanned leather under her belly and head, the rest hardening into scales that protected her back, legs and the top of her head. Relaxed as she was, the ridges along her head and back were down, resting along her body. Her tail was certainly different than the pictures I’d seen. Instead of a sleek taper at the end, it fanned out at two different points. I couldn’t imagine what the purpose of that was. To help her change directions while flying, perhaps?
She certainly wasn’t acting like the ferocious beast dragons were rumored to be. At one point, completely bored, she let out this disappointed sigh and curled up so that her head was resting on her front legs, tail coiled up around her. The position was so feline that it made me smile in bemusement. Quite a bit of her appearance reminded me of a cat, especially her dark golden eyes.
“Krys.”
The abrupt end of the silence made me jump. I scrambled
to pick up the mirror lying next to me. “Cora?”
“We might have a bit of a problem. Apparently Shad has gone off on some sort of secret solo mission. Garth didn’t give me the details, but whatever Shad is up to, it’s got him worried sick. He’s rushing all over the place trying to find someone of the Red Hand to go after Shad.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Garth wants to know how much danger you’re in. If it’s bad, he’ll detour to come get you.”
“It sounds like Shad is in more danger than I am,” I told her honestly, knowing as I spoke that I was probably resigning myself to a very long walk back to Solian soil. “Right now, she’s just sitting next to me, waiting.”
“Good. I’ll tell him. If we need to, we’ll call Sallah from Coven Ordan to come get you. Just sit tight for another day or so until Garth can come.”
“Right.” I put the mirror down, feeling a little anxious. Roughly two years ago, King Guin of Hain had assembled a special team to go in and rescue the emerging magicians of Chahir. The team had been formed of a mercenary group, the Red Hand, of Ascalon and two magicians—Garth and Chatta. Along the way, or so I was told, they’d rescued Shad from being trapped in a two hundred year old crystal in northern Jarrell. The captain had joined the team and helped them until they’d finished their mission a year ago. One of the last people they’d brought out of Chahir was me. I was friends with all of the original team that’d rescued me out of Chahir. Shad especially was a fun guy to be around. I didn’t like the idea of him in trouble. I hoped whatever it was, wasn’t too serious.
I didn’t really know what to do at this point. Walking further south would be useless if an Earth Mage really did come get me. At the same time, I didn’t have anything else to do. With the sun steadily setting, the day’s heat waned slightly, making it more bearable to walk.
Perhaps I should just stick with my original plan. It didn’t hurt anything to be further south when my ride arrived. So I got back up, shouldered my pack, and went back to walking. To my complete lack of surprise, my dragon stalker kept pace with me, hovering ten feet or so to the side and behind.
Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Page 2
