The Last Dragon [Book One]

by LeRoy Clary

  The combination of jealousy, awareness, aging, perception, and reality made for a dreadful soup to swallow on a cold night. It wasn’t me that needed to change. It was her. A fool I might be. However, I would never tell her what was in my mind today and force her ire.

  There was also the issue of Avery, the Heir Apparent’s servant sneaking out of the palace on that farm-horse. He’d ridden right past me, and there was no mistaking his surprise in finding me standing there watching him. At any other time, he’d have taken time out from his duties to tease or taunt me. The fact he didn’t, told me more than mere words. I had forgotten to mention all I read into the encounter to Elizabeth and would have to correct that oversight.

  Tater still rode, the ugly little dog trotting in front of him for a change. He called back to us, “I’d like to make it a little farther today being it’s the first one, and we’ll be too tired to press on tomorrow.”

  Princess Elizabeth grumbled like no princess I’d ever heard, but she waved him on. For me, my tongue had wagged enough for one day. I caught a nod of approval of my silence from Kendra. The afternoon had warmed, but as the sun went down a chill filled the air. My hand stroked Alexis’s neck. Getting a few steps away seemed a good idea, and the nearest blanket was on the packhorse. After fetching the thing, it went over my head like a hood and covered my arms and chest.

  “You look a fool,” Kendra said.

  “A warm fool,” I snickered in the way only brothers can do with their sisters. She rolled her eyes in the way only sisters can do to brothers, so we were even. In the past, I’d have believed I’d won the war of wits and words, but now knew better.

  I took the reins for Alexis from Kendra and climbed into the saddle, blanket and all. Elizabeth still walked, lost in her thoughts of intrigue, power, and probably lust. I believed she had been thinking a lot about that last item in the past months. Every girl of her age in the palace had married, and many were raising children.

  While lost in my thoughts about Elizabeth’s lust, I heard the whisper of wings beating and coming closer. The thick forest of evergreens prevented me from seeing another dragon approaching. When it burst into view over us, it flew so low it seemed we could have thrown a rock into the air and struck it.

  But what really scared me was not the rows of jagged teeth, the maniacal red eyes, or the sharp talons as long as my forearm. No, what scared me was that it hadn’t looked at me, Elizabeth, Tater, or the dog, or any of the horses. From the instant it came into view, those dragon-eyes were locked only on my sister.

  CHAPTER TEN

  K endra watched with rapt attention as the dragon flew over us, almost as much as it paid to her. It was a beast as heavy as a house. When it flew over us so low the wind from its wings was felt. A person like me can be forgiven for forgetting small details like the proper name of the beast or distinguishing the difference in wyverns and dragons. I quickly glanced at Elizabeth and Tater, to see if they’d observed the same things I had.

  Neither appeared aware of the dragon’s interest in Kendra, or they hid it well. I made a mental note to find more time alone with Kendra and discuss the incident, the third incidence I’d seen a dragon—and each time it gave the impression it was almost obsessed with Kendra, yet they were three different wyverns.

  Tater said, “Just wait a couple of more days, and we’ll see them everywhere. When we get to Mercia, you can see a few in the air anytime you bother to look up.”

  I didn’t doubt Tater, but if he was telling the truth, I wondered if all of them would fly closer to get a good look at my sister. My imagination ran wild. In it, I saw ten wyverns flying about their dragon business, and Kendra walking from a building into a courtyard. All ten twisted and swerved in the air to dive at Kendra before flying off.

  The daydream didn’t end there. She held up kittens, one at a time. The wyverns swept down and snatched them from her hand, each taking a turn, never doing harm to her, and each wyvern ate the kitten as a snack. She controlled them as they flew to her. They were her protectors. She was theirs.

  The daydream took me by surprise, and the images were so transforming I nearly fell from my saddle. Pushing it from my mind proved difficult.

  I glanced behind with guilt foremost in my action. Kendra or Elizabeth would mock me for days if they knew my thoughts. Not to worry, Elizabeth rode at ease on her horse, as comfortable as if she sat on a velvet cushion in her drawing room.

  Kendra rode stiffly, her fingers white as she grasped the reins too hard in the near darkness. Her back was straight, her lips tight, but her eyes drew me to them. While open, she didn’t see me, or anything around us. A little stream of spittle dripped from the corner of her mouth and ran unchecked down her chin.

  If anything, Kendra was more fastidious than Elizabeth, and half the royalty in the palace. I’d seldom seen a smudge on her face, dirty fingernails, or spittle dripping onto her shirt. I pulled to the side of the trail and said to Elizabeth, trying to draw attention to me and away from Kendra, “Is all well with you? The travel is tiring?”

  “Yes,” she responded cheerfully, “I’m fine.”

  “I’ll go check with Kendra.” My sister’s horse was leading the string of packhorses by a tether tied to her saddle. I pulled Alexis to a stop. Elizabeth rode on past me without glancing behind. My sister’s horse kept pace with Elizabeth’s, but not by Kendra’s efforts. Her eyes were still dull and fixed, and the horses knew what to do.

  When she drew beside me, I reached out and touched her shoulder. She didn’t react. I gave her a gentle shove. Nothing. On impulse, my palm slapped her cheek, hard.

  She snapped awake, her eyes wide and confused as her hand went to her face. “Did you hit me?”

  “A slap, only to wake you. What was happening?” My horse turned and fell into step beside hers.

  “Strange. It was like drifting. The sun was warm on my back. I felt sated, no worries, no wants, no needs or fear. Overall there was friendship. It was just a flash of a moment, but you shouldn’t have hit me because of it.”

  Her explanation didn’t reveal a lot. “A moment?”

  “Yes, it was just a feeling that consumed me for an instant. Although, I’m confused how you managed to get back here behind Lady Elizabeth so fast without me noticing.”

  I leaned closer. “Your moment was longer than our last break beside that stream.”

  “Don’t tease.”

  For once, she hoped I teased her. It was in her voice, the tone and the inflection of the words, the sweep of her eyes that searched for an explanation. In short, she was scared because of something she didn’t understand. Kendra understood the two-finger gesture of mine that we should talk alone when we could find a minute alone, and she nodded.

  The trail was narrow, too narrow for us to ride beside each other, so we fell back into single-file with me in the last position, and I watched her back. As soon as she had the packhorses maneuvered ahead of me and some distance between us, her face turned up to the sky again.

  It didn’t last long. But she seemed drawn to the sky, or to the beast that had flown there. My worries increased. We did not understand what was happening, or why, but the future had grown foreboding with her actions. We were heading for the home of wyverns, the center of where they lived and bred, and the only place in the world that I was aware of they came and congregated in great numbers.

  All dragons, by their warm-blooded nature, avoided the white, frozen lands to the north. The dry, brown lands to the south were hotter and might draw them except that few animals live there, and the few that did tend to be small. Dragons, even wyverns, ate a lot, and there was little for them in the deserts, so it was not where to find them. The book Elizabeth had given Kendra told us far more than she had read out loud. I’d managed a short time alone with it, and the book said both species ate deer, sheep, cows, horses, elk, or other large animals once every two or three days. When compared to their size, that seemed little enough for dragons of any sort.

  The
re were two other things of interest in that book. Wyverns bred on the high mountain behind the city of Mercia. They flew there to breed from all parts of the world, even from across the Dire Sea that lay just beyond the city of Mercia. It also mentioned that ships sailed to the port of Mercia from all over the world, the only place where the borders of our kingdom touched the sea. That made me wonder. Were the two items connected? Had the port or city been constructed there because of the wyverns, or had the borders of our kingdom intentionally been drawn to include Mercia?

  That brought up the other item that bothered me. Why would three mages feel the need to travel there? Why would even one?

  While I was thinking the remainder of the afternoon away, Tater called a halt. I looked around in surprise. Snow covered much of the ground around us, and ahead it covered the ground fully as the trail wound its way up the side of the mountain. The chilly air had turned cold.

  Tater began to tie the hobbles to the legs of his horses as we dismounted, stretched and enjoyed the last of the daylight. He said, “We’ll spend the night here and push out early in the morning.”

  “Why not continue?” Elizabeth asked. “I thought we were going to ride on today.”

  “We did.” He paused and spat, “As far as we can, anyway. But I don’t want to sleep on snow and be cold all night, so we stop here and hope to get past the snow by sundown tomorrow.”

  Sometimes he had a way of speaking that cut through all the gloss and expressed the facts without being offensive. There was plenty of firewood in sight, the ground looked dry, and a small stream flowed over bare rocks. “What about tomorrow night?”

  “That’s why we’ll start early. We want to get past this snow tomorrow and sleep on the dry ground again.”

  It made perfect sense. Yes, we were in a hurry, but a certain practical aspect had to be met, and Tater couldn’t be held responsible for how much, or how little, snow lay on the ground. Kendra helped with the saddles and unpacking the gear the packhorses carried. She then gave me the two-fingered meet me in private signal while hiding it behind her leg from the others. She asked, “Help me gather firewood?”

  “Sure,” I agreed to her ploy.

  She led the way, just out of sight and hearing of the others. When we had a few scraggly pines to hide us, she whispered, “Something is wrong.”

  “Tell me,” I responded, thinking Tater had done something and I’d make him pay.

  “When a wyvern flies near, my mind goes blank. It turns stupid.”

  “You’re not the smartest . . .”

  She didn’t smile at my lame joke. “There have been three times I’ve seen them, now. The first time, I just got a little dizzy and weak in my knees. It was far off, and the effects were not as strong.”

  I said seriously, “When dragons fly over, we all have the impression they are looking right at you. Not me, or us. You. They don’t even notice us. It seems they are somehow curious or interested. They even seem to change directions to get closer.”

  “Really? It’s like going to sleep as my mind shuts down. No vision, a blank mind, and I even can’t move. When they are past me, I wake up disoriented and dizzy, and don’t know what happened and can’t tell you what they did when they were here. If one wanted to eat me, I wouldn’t be able to run away.”

  “Okay, let me think about this. When it happens again, I’ll try to be at your side, and maybe we can figure out what’s happening. For now, don’t tell anyone.”

  “Elizabeth? Not even her?”

  “Nobody. Perhaps this is related to my magic, or it may even be dangerous if others find out. Keep her out of it, for now. Listen, when I do magic, do you get any sense of the same sort of feeling? Even a little?”

  “My only sense is to make you stop doing your stupid magic before you piss people off or reveal your secret and we get into trouble. You’re only supposed to do it with permission from Elizabeth, and you know it. Lately, you’ve started to show off.” She had her index finger pointed under my nose again, threatening to jab my upper lip with it.

  “You’re right. I need to take things more seriously, especially now that we’re out in the wilds.”

  “Not just out here. We are getting older. Adults. At least one of us is. You are a scamp and known for foolish actions, but it may be time to grow up. We’d better grab some firewood and get back before they wonder about us.”

  Princess Elizabeth had spread a blanket and sat on it, a small campfire already burned at her side. She flashed a look that could have been irritation or curiosity at the length of time we’d spent alone but said nothing. Tater was warming flat-cakes over the fire and spat such a large wad into the new fire it almost extinguished. I tossed my armload of wood with the rest and went to gather more, but not before noticing the look Elizabeth and Kendra exchanged.

  While I didn’t like to do it, I’d have to keep them apart as much as possible. We loved Elizabeth, but we were brother and sister, without other family. She watched out for me, and the other way around. Elizabeth was going to question her. Kendra would have to lie or reveal our suspicions.

  As the sun settled, all the nearby firewood that was available without chopping had been gathered, and we had a large, roaring fire for a change. Usually, we built smaller ones and sat closer, but the air was thin and so cold my ears hurt. The fire warmed more than our outsides. The night felt ominous. A thin blanket wrapped around my head and neck, leaving only an opening large enough to see out and to insert broken pieces of flat-cake through, which constituted our dinner.

  The sky darkened even more, and the stars grew brighter. The moon would rise later, but for now, the blackness between the stars was the hue of coal. The stars took on an intense blue-white tinge without a cloud to obscure them. I looked up, awed, much like Kendra did when wyverns flew over. No words were needed or wanted. Each of us was lost in the beauty of the sky in a way we had never seen it. Well, Tater may have seen it. He’d crossed the mountains this way before, but he appeared as entranced as we three.

  Elizabeth whispered, “Is it always like this up here?”

  “Not so much,” Tater said. “Only before the moonrise on cloudless nights. But when it is, a body tends to feel small.”

  He was right. The hint of all things unknown looked down on us from above. I listened to the crackle and hiss of the fire, to a few insects that dared the cold, and an owl hooting off to our left. An answering hoot came from our right, and I hoped they managed to find each other in the stillness of the cold night air. The world could use a few more owls.

  Tater started to snore, and Elizabeth had curled up with three blankets to protect her tender skin. Kendra also slept, a small lump in the darkness not far from me. She stirred a little, rolled over, and then sat up, her eyes locked on me.

  “Feel it?” she asked in a husky, wide-awake whisper.

  “Not a thing.”

  Kendra stood and peered into my eyes, then sat again. “Inside your head. A sharp, evil feeling, like a pin sticking your mind. Nothing?”

  “A dragon?”

  “No, this is completely different,” she said.

  “He has different powers than yours,” a calm voice behind us said. A woman emerged from the darkness and walked past us to the fire where she reached out and warmed her hands in a familiar gesture. She wore an ankle-length dress that shimmered blue and emitted its own faint light, so she moved in an eerie glow. Her white skin was so pale under a head of hair so black that both reflected the blue light from the gown.

  I was already on my feet, my knife in my hand. Kendra stood a single step behind me, also ready to defend herself, but as usual, she wanted me to go first. As she stepped to my side, she looked ready to attack or run.

  However, the strange woman made no threatening motions and appeared to ignore us as she watched the flames. She finally turned our way after giving us time to get used to her presence. She appeared old, yet her skin was unwrinkled and blemish-free, so how could that be? The pale blue light seemed to e
manate from everywhere on her body equally, not just her dress. She stood taller than most women and moved with a quietness and grace that suggested royalty, her feet barely touched the ground when she walked. That caught my attention. Looking at the soft ground behind her revealed no footprints because they didn’t touch.

  “Who are you?” I asked in a hushed voice while holding my knife higher. “What are you?”

  “Do not be afraid to speak up and talk to me in a normal voice. The others will not wake until we are finished with our business. I am called any one of several names, none of which you will recognize or should care about. Perhaps it is better if we do not share more information between us than necessary. Our time is limited.” Her speech patterns were refined and educated.

  Kendra said, “What do you mean they will not wake? Not even the dog? Why not?”

  “I have drawn a morsel of power from the essence of the world and used it to place them into a deeper sleep. They will awaken in the morning, none the wiser and much refreshed.” She smiled as if that was acceptable and desired.

  Kendra, always stronger and smarter than me, stood taller and demanded, “What is this essence you speak of?”

  The woman still stood near the fire, still calm and glowing blue. Her movements were more than graceful when examined again. She moved slowly, precisely, and calculated in a stiff manner. I glanced at the dirt under her feet again. Still no footprints, and that held my attention more than anything else about her. Was she a dream? My mind wondered if her action of warming her hands on a cold night was also done a diversion intended to convince us she existed.

  She looked directly past my shoulder at Kendra and answered, “Essence is the force that holds our world together. It is the power that binds, and it is the receptacle for all unused energy, the same source your brother draws his miniscule needs from when he performs what he refers to as his small-magic. Of course, no magic is really small, nor is it really magic. It is, in plain terms, the judicious use of what we call essence. Some use more than others, which is the reason for my visit.”