The Last Dragon [Book One]

by LeRoy Clary

  The thought gave rise to a chuckle, one of the first in days, it seemed. Thinking of Tater took me to the odd expression he’d thrown my way while in the store. The incident with the hot knife my magic had caused, and after, when we’d discovered the guards sleeping when leaving. Elizabeth had asked me to take care of the guards before we left, and Tater had paid attention. He didn’t know what had happened but suspected I was at the center. That meant, carrying the thought to a logical conclusion, he would be watching me far closer.

  He probably also wondered why we were not worried about pursuit. Elizabeth would have to speak to him and convince Tater to remain quiet, or I’d have to break one of the covenants the three of us made and use magic to suppress his memory. Earlier, I’d checked the flow of Springer’s bleeding, and took the time to check it again, with my mind. It seemed to be one of those injuries that bleed and bleed but are not really serious unless they are mine.

  Even with the nap at the inn, we were still sleep deprived. It was late in the day, and we started looking for a place to spend the night. We went through two small villages, one with an inn, but I too had become leery of them. Tater was a good teacher.

  A farmer walked along the road, a pitchfork over his shoulder, and the slump of a man who had worked hard all day. I dismounted and walked beside him. He was local and might know of a meadow beside a stream or clearing in the woods. He smiled a greeting and asked, “Do something for you?”

  “We’re strangers, and inns are expensive. Do you know of a good place to spend the night?”

  “Are you picky?”

  Before answering, I thought about it. “Well, yes.”

  He laughed. “Good answer. Me too. I have a barn. Smells like a barn, which some like. The hay is clean and stored in the loft, and it’s free.”

  “I didn’t mean to impose. Is there a place where other travelers set up camp and spend the night around here?”

  “Sure,” he said with a sly smile while jutting his chin on down the road. “It’s a good place right over that hill. But not when a storm’s coming in, and there’s a dry barn offered.” His chin now jutted to the jagged ridge of mountains in the distance, and the dark clouds hanging low. A bolt of lightning split the clouds, but it was too far off to hear the rumble. “Rain by dark. Looks like a bad one.”

  “Can I offer you a ride to your barn?” I joked, ready to mount and help him up on Alexis behind me.

  His eyes widened, and turned to Alexis in admiration, as well they should. Farmers know animals and seldom see good ones, let alone those royals own. In a single motion, he handed me his pitchfork and leaped into the saddle, misunderstanding my offer. “Mind if I trot her?”

  The idea had been that I’d give him a ride—with me. Nearly speechless, the pitchfork went over my shoulder, as he’d carried it and said, “She loves to run, but not too far. We’ve come a long way.”

  Alexia leaped forward at the touch of his heels, while I walked and ignored the laughter of the other three. There seemed only one thing to do. I raised my head up and kept my back straight as if that was the deal we’d made. A ride on my horse traded for a night in a dry barn.

  Tater said, “He might not come back, you know. Why’d you let him ride her?”

  I pointed to the clouds. “Hard rain by dark and we have a barn with a loft and clean hay to spend the night.”

  Kendra smiled.

  Elizabeth said, “I knew we should keep you around.”

  The farmer trotted Alexis back wearing a grin that told us more than words of how impressed he was. Alexia was bred for royalty. Her ride was as smooth as most cradles, as fast as the wind, and—well she was my horse, and there was none better. He pointed to a stand of trees. “Just past that. Only one farm there. I’ll be waiting.”

  Alexis whirled around, and I admired her from a view I’d seldom seen. Even from behind, she was magnificent. We reached the barn as the first raindrops fell.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  T he farmer had the barn door standing open, Alexis was already inside with an ox, a few goats, and more sheep than a barn should hold. The ox and goats were fine. Sheep smell. Especially wet ones. Kendra led her horse inside, then crowded in the others. The horses mingled together, we retreated to the loft.

  The farmer said, “I got some endless stew on the fire, but you have to contribute or pay.”

  Elizabeth spoke harshly, “How much?”

  “Quarter-copper will do.”

  “For each of us?” she demanded.

  He barked a laugh, then followed by saying, “Nobody has that much money.”

  Elizabeth said, “What exactly is endless stew?”

  “I have this big old pot that hangs over the fire. Whatever is gathered today goes inside for eating tomorrow. When others come to visit, they bring what they have and add to it.”

  “Doesn’t that get old? Eating the same thing every day?” she asked.

  “Same thing? Hardly ever tastes the same. A clove of garlic, two onions, and a cubed turnip went in just yesterday. The day before, it was thinly sliced mutton.”

  “How long has this endless stew been cooking?” Elizabeth asked, then quickly added, “Never mind. We’d love some. Can we help you carry it out here?”

  She followed him by running through the sprinkle of rain to the cabin. Tater said, “Never had a princess deliver my food right to my bed.”

  Kendra said as she climbed the ladder to the loft, “Don’t get used to it. Hey, this is really nice up here. Throw the blankets up, will you?”

  We built nests in the hay, unsaddled the horses and fed them. I’d ask Elizabeth to leave the farmer a coin or two because if not for him, we’d be out in the storm. The thunder rolled, the lightning flashed, and the rain fell in torrents. We were dry and eating stew as we talked with the farmer about mostly nothing. We did find out that Mercia was a long day’s travel, and that relieved me.

  Kendra and I had to talk and plan, she needed to know what I did, but not with Elizabeth and Tater present. Tater dampened a rag and washed the new wound on Springer’s leg. It seemed to be healing already, probably thanks to a touch of magic.

  One specific item bothered me more than any other—as far as things not understanding goes. Even the Blue Lady, the six mages that were now waiting in Mercia, and the attraction of wyvern to my sister were complex things not understood. However, the single item my mind kept going back to was not a thing. It was Stata.

  If I understood correctly, Stata only lived because a mage far away had inhabited the body of one long dead. He resurrected it with his magic. Hard as that was to believe, I could accept the powers of a mage performing such a thing. However, my concern was one of those smaller things that eats and eats at a person until they reach an understanding.

  Stata had been with the dozen bandits for a time, which meant that all day while awake, a mage controlled the body and made it act human. It had done that for days or even weeks. Every day, all day long. Why had it chosen that precise place to be?

  Doing the same thing along a well-traveled road to Mercia made sense, or at the walls of Mercia, but at the gates of the city there might be too much competition with other mages. But why spend days and days on a cold mountain pass that nobody uses?

  Isn’t that much like fishing for your dinner in a mud puddle and expecting to land a meal? No, the odds were less than that. Nobody uses that trail, and in a year, perhaps only three or four people travel it. What are the chances that one of those few is the one called the Dragon Queen?

  It didn’t make sense. Yet, it must. Kendra might know an answer.

  “Or you might ask me for your answers.”

  I turned in surprise to find the Blue Lady standing in the loft with us. Elizabeth, Tater, and Springer slept soundly, probably with her help again, and certainly, the farmer inside his home did, too. She wouldn’t want him noticing her blue aura in the barn and thinking it was on fire as he rushed to save it.

  Kendra was climbing to her feet, her
fists balled, and she did not look happy. She asked, “Why? Why didn’t you warn us of the men from Kondor and Stata?”

  My thoughts were that she would deny all, but instead, she said in a pleasant sort of way, “Because if he killed you, our problems would be resolved.”

  I reached out with my magic and attempted to touch her. My magic placed a tangle of hay around her ankles—or tried to, just to see if it was possible. Where the hay should have twisted into a rope of sorts, at her shoe tops, a flash of orange appeared. The hay disappeared. She smiled at me, with the smile a mother gives her son when he imitates her knitting—and fails. Tolerant is the word that came to mind. She didn’t object, she was tolerant and smiling. I was the child.

  Kendra was angry. She shouted, “Why do you wish to harm me?”

  “Harm you? No, not harm. You must either control your powers or die.”

  “Because I use too much essence? Why don’t you simply teach me how to avoid using so much and I’ll stop.”

  The Blue Woman’s glow increased in intensity as she said, “If it were only that simple.”

  I said, “You told us they’re waiting for Kendra at Mercia. Six mages and who else? Who are you? All of you evil people!”

  “We are not evil, and not all are people. We are those who are entrusted with the power to control the trees, the animals, and all living things. Not gods, but natural beings who maintain the order.”

  “Nature,” I said.

  “A silly name, but we accept that it encompasses much of our work.”

  Kendra said, “How do I fit into all this? I don’t destroy forests or wipe out animals.”

  “Do you understand how many generations it took to rid the world of the terrible dragons who killed indiscriminately and ate anything that moved? Oh, we still have the little wyverns to deal with, but they all return to the barren mountain peaks above Mercia to breed, and that’s how we contain them, and we will eventually wipe them away, too. But, not yet. We destroy their eggs, defile their nests, and kill what few we can. Each year, their numbers decrease, and one day there will be none. And then you come into our world and upset all we’ve achieved.”

  “Stata,” I demanded. “How did he know to wait at that mountain? Not any other, but there?”

  “The mage who resurrected Stata is extremely old and powerful. He is all but bedridden, despite his powers. He followed you, my friend, knowing that where you went, so would your sister.”

  That couldn’t be right. I said, “He was already waiting there before we left the palace.”

  “Age, wisdom, and luck. For whatever reason, he suspected you might avoid traveling on the main road, and you did. Never gamble with the old. They’ve seen all the tricks, bluffs, and bluster. Besides, there were others on the main roads to stop her. He was just eliminating a possibility.”

  “Why are you here?” Kendra said. “You want me dead, yet you are warning me. It does not make sense.”

  “To plead with you one last time. Do not attempt to enter Mercia.”

  There were mages and others waiting. But this creature didn’t want Kendra captured by them. It reinforced the idea that there were sides in the conflict we knew nothing about. We all stared at each other for what seemed a very long time, trying to understand what was happening and what it meant. Finally, Kendra said, “If we return to Crestfallen all will be well?”

  “For a time. But already, the wyvern come searching for you. In Mercia, the dragon also will come to you, and that must be prevented at all costs.”

  “If I shoot you with my crossbow, will you die?” I asked casually, hoping to trick her into revealing something important.

  She giggled like a young girl and said, “Silly boy.”

  Because of the response, I wanted to try. “My magic will not work on you?”

  She paused. “You are too clever. Most of your attempts will be as fruitless as trying to tie my legs with strands of straw, but even a gnat takes a bite of a lion now and then.”

  “So, I’m a gnat?”

  “Essentially. It is your sister who is of extreme concern.”

  Kendra said, “If we return home, we only delay the inevitable? Why not allow me to enter Mercia and help me?”

  “It has never worked before.” The Blue Woman started fading as she spoke, and by the time her image shimmed out of existence, even her last syllables were fading, too.

  Kendra was flushed, her face red, hair soaked, sweat rolling down her forehead. “What was all that?”

  “You cannot go to Mercia. They’re waiting for you,” I told her. “The reasons do not matter right now.”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. Not tears of sadness, but of anger and frustration. “Why are they doing this? I can’t go, I can’t return home. What do they want of me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Who is that damned blue creature?”

  Kendra had put her finger on a critical point. I’d seen the image and accepted and acted as if it was a woman, so my thinking and responses had been as I would speak to someone’s mother. My sister was correct in her question. The Blue Woman was no more a woman than me, and probably less. She was like Stata, which meant, the image we saw had little to do with who she was in reality. It might not even be a she. The image could take on any shape, and whoever was behind it chose what it wished to portray and what would sway us to her side.

  If the Blue Woman had appeared to us a giant snarling blue wolf, we would have reacted completely differently. If she was a grotesque image of a helpless child, another.

  “Motivation. She is trying to move us to do her bidding in some manner.”

  “Damon, what’d you mumble?”

  “You’re right. She is a creature, but one that can appear in any shape I’ll bet. A vicious wolf or helpless child. But it chose an older woman with a soft, reassuring voice. Never threatening. Always acting as if she is trying to help you, but she allows you to walk into danger.”

  “You mumbled all that?” she asked, her tears slowing as she understood I’d figured out something that might help.

  “Motivation was my comment. Why did she choose that image, and why come and warn us at all? She let us walk directly into that trap with the Kondor, but now she warns us of another?”

  I noticed Elizabeth was awake and listening intently, but Tater snored on. Maybe not including Elizabeth earlier had been a mistake. So, I ignored her and continued, “Think about this from the idea the Blue Woman knowingly let us walk into a trap, not only with Kondor but with a more powerful mage than I’ve ever heard of. She knew and didn’t warn us.”

  “She also let us go into that storehouse where huge men should have had no problem killing us. She wants us dead. Well, me.” Kendra folded her arms across her chest, a sure sign of defiance.

  Elizabeth quietly sat and pulled her blanket around her to fend off the damp and cold of the night. In the next flash of lightning, her face was stern, her jaw clenched. There would be future sessions of explaining our actions and trust to rebuild, but that would come later.

  I continued, “So, after not warning us of danger twice, she now tells us that six mages and ‘others’ will sense your powers when we enter Mercia. They are there to kill you.”

  “She was not warning us. She was trying to scare us away from going there. Preventing us.” Kendra’s fingers were still curled into fists. “She also said I cannot go home because that has never worked before.”

  “I think that was a mistake on her part. Not the truth in it, but she didn’t mean to reveal that there have been others before you.” My answer was deliberately short. It hung in the air like the punctuation of a thunderclap. “And if she is trying to prevent you from going there, I’m inclined to do the opposite.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  E lizabeth didn’t appear happy, but it didn’t seem her emerging anger was directed at us. Well, some of it was, but not all. She stood, the blanket pulled around her as she might a royal robe in the king’s chambers, and said
, “There are happenings we know nothing of, but you must know that you are more than my servants, you are my only true friends. I will listen to your tales in their entirety, but for now, we continue to Mercia. Damon is right. The more this strange being wishes to prevent you from going, the more determined we should be to do the opposite.”

  Kendra and I exchanged relieved glances and turned our attention back to her. We didn’t know what, or how much she had heard, but the general feeling of relief washed over me. At least it was in the open.

  She peppered us with questions until I could not keep my eyes open in the wee hours of the morning. I rested my head on the straw for just a moment and woke to dim daylight. The storm hadn’t fully passed. Rain pattered, but the thunder and lightning had ceased. Kendra and Elizabeth were still sleeping. My eyes closed again while waiting for my head to clear and I fell back asleep.

  My rest was needed, but it was also comfortable where we slept. Not the hay or the relaxing sounds of the rain. It was because of telling all to Elizabeth and holding nothing back. Her insights were keener than mine, and in several instances, she added small bits of information we’d failed to see or understand. However, the primary result of answering her questions was that she agreed the Blue Woman was trying to keep us from Mercia, first by allowing the Kondor trap, and Stata, then the men at the store, and finally the warning she issued to us last night.

  Might there be six mages and ‘others’ waiting for Kendra? We all agreed there might. There might also be green elephants and water-sprites, too, but who could know? So far, the Blue Woman either lied, spoke in riddles, or withheld important and dangerous information. The most valuable thing she’d said was by accident.

  Would avoiding entering Mercia help us? Again, we were all in agreement that the clue had been accidental. She said it had never helped before but was that true?

  My sister was going to wake the last dragon. The Dragon Queen was also involved, although I believed that might be the name they used for Kendra. The Blue Woman had also said that, and I believed her on that point. There didn’t seem to be any reason why. The Blue Woman didn’t want the dragon awoken, and that made me more determined to do it. The only problem with that line of thinking was that dragons didn’t exist.