by LeRoy Clary
Some things are meant to be done alone. I turned my horse and walked slowly away from my only two friends and directly into danger. My mind strained to hear what Kendra and Tater did, even a wisp of the buzzing of bees, or whispers of a wyvern, let alone the drums of a dragon.
Ahead stood Mercia. The details of the gray stone buildings grew clearer with each step. There stood six or seven huge structures that were mini-castles, their walls the same gray as the slate of their roofs. All the surrounding buildings were smaller imitations. The streets were paved with the same gray granite, making the city blend in with the granite cliffs. If it was not for the straight lines of the buildings, Mercia would be nearly invisible because of the color.
Only a few splashes of tint stood out. Each of the largest structures had pennants or flags that stood out against the starkness of the rest. The four waterfalls gave the city a magical appearance. But, despite my intense observations, I saw nobody. Not a single person, horse, dog, or pig.
However, the wyverns that had been flying in tight circles began flying faster and screeching, first one, then two, and now a hundred. They shrieked and screamed, and a few broke ranks and flew away.
A stone bridge crossed where the water from the falls pooled and reformed itself into a river that flowed along the base of the cliff in the direction of the sea. The bridge arched, as had so many others, although this one was far larger. At the far end stood a massive wall built along the edge of the far side of the raging river. The city gate.
One glance down at the whitewater tearing under the bridge assured me nobody would attempt to swim across. The flow from four waterfalls raged across the solid rock in the channel it had cut. The wall across the bridge, again built of huge granite blocks, stretched out to either side of the bridge, and a giant gate stood closed.
A rampart along the top provided the fortifications where an army could defend against any who crossed. That rampart provided safety from spears, arrows, and anything else. Yet, it allowed them to fire down on any attackers, who would be herded into the narrow space created by the bridge. No matter how large an army attacked, only eight or ten could attack at one time as they crossed that bridge.
My mind appreciated the defensive construction while ignoring the fact that it was the gate we must pass through to reach Mercia. There were no soldiers on the ramparts, nor any I could see in the city. It remained empty. I was aware that if we crossed the bridge, soldiers who were hiding could leap into sight and release a rain of arrows.
We hadn’t come all that way to stop now, and there seemed no place to go but ahead. Alexis sensed my mood. She took a single step onto the bridge and pulled to a stop. Without me telling her to do so, she took one more hesitant step, then another. A quiver in her shoulder warned me to hold on because she might whirl and run at the slightest provocation.
We continued like that until we reached the highest point of the arc. Alexis came to a stop as if she’d hit a wall. I used my heels, but she didn’t move. I cajoled her. Threatened.
Then Kendra groaned. Her body tensed, and her head turned enough to look at me. “Get me down.”
There was no sway in her words, no way to argue and refuse. She used her arms to scoot off the horse’s neck until her weight caused her to slide down without help. I leaped off and helped her feet touch the bridge. She stood on wobbly legs.
“Sit?” I offered.
“No,”
She said no more. Her eyes were on the city, darting from one place to another, but she needed my strength to remain standing. It was as if she used her mind on other things besides her body.
She stiffened, standing erect and rigid, her eyes now closed. She screamed, sounding like a miniature of the wyverns in the distance. My eyes turned to them, and their sudden silence after her scream. They were still there, but barely. Each of them was flying away, their wings no longer making lazy flaps, but instead, they flew with powerful strokes. They flew for the jagged peaks to the north as if they offered protection.
Another sound drew my attention. A deeper thrum almost at the lower limit of what I could perceive. It rose in volume until my ears convinced me they did not hear it. The sound came from inside my head. It was more than sound. It had feeling.
Kendra threw her arms wide.
The thrumming ceased.
Another sound replaced it. The new roar was in my ears, and above me. I looked up. Higher. Above Mercia rocks, boulders, and slabs of granite shifted and moved. Some fell, others tumbled, and more slid down the mountainside, all heading for the city of Mercia.
The avalanche created the new sound of thousands of rocks and boulders tumbling down the mountain. To my horror, the first rocks went through the city like a bull through a haystack. The largest struck buildings and threw the blocks used to build them into the air like a child throwing sand at a beach.
Then others did the same. The buildings of Mercia didn’t even slow down the largest blocks and slabs. I glance to my right and found the sky empty of wyverns. Then I looked up to the disturbance at the top of the mountain above Mercia, where another roar drew my attention.
Movement told me where to look. The head of a dragon shook itself free of rock, and it roared in anger as it continued to twist and turn, dislodging more rocks and boulders. Many tumbled down after the others. I heard them crashing into buildings, and a few rolled as far as the river, where they plunged in, but I saw none of that or the destruction they caused. My eyes refused to leave the dragon.
It lurched forward, sending another avalanche down the mountainside, while it wriggled forward and managed to push upward. With a great thrust, the rock above shattered with a loud crack, and fell away. The dragon crawled ahead, where it managed to stand.
Wings spread. Each wing extended a distance greater than from wingtip to wingtip of the largest wyvern. The massive head was wide, bearing no resemblance to wyvern. It opened its mouth and exposed teeth as long as my arm, and it roared in defiance. The anger in that sound brought me chills.
More boulders rolled down the side of the mountain, through the city, and continued tumbling until they reached the river. Several struck the rock wall across the bridge, and a slab the size of a house hit the gate so hard it sat askew, leaving a gap horses could walk through.
Kendra said, “If you're scared, leave.”
My feet refused to move. “Leave?”
“They’re fighting us.”
“Us?”
She didn’t answer. She stood on the highest part of the bridge in full view of anyone in Mercia looking at her, but even after the rocks knocking over and flattening houses, nobody ran into the streets. However, I didn’t believe it empty.
The dragon roared again, then moved the great wings slowly up and down as if testing them. The skin of the beast was dimpled, the same color gray as the rock it emerged from, and the tongue red. The wings beat faster.
Then, as if groggy and slow, the dragon pushed itself forward again, and over the lip. Air filled the underside of the wings like windsocks at a festival. The body of the dragon left the mountain, and with one sweep of the giant wings, the dragon ceased to fall and flew. Another beat of the wings and it rose a little and gained forward speed.
“Free,” Kendra muttered.
“What about those you were fighting?”
“They’re coming after me.”
“What?”
She pointed, “Isn’t it beautiful?”
The dragon now flew higher than the peak above Mercia. It slowed and swung in a wide circle. The head peered down, watching Mercia, then it roared again.
“We’d better get off this bridge,” Kendra said.
“They’re coming after us?”
“No, the dragon is going to destroy it all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I wanted to leap upon Alexis and ride at a gallop back across half the stone bridge, but the horse wanted no part of me. Her eyes were wild, and at my first step in her direction, she fled. Not at a gallop,
but a full sprint. I shouted at Kendra to run with us. Instead, she stood and watched the gate.
“No,” I shouted, and grabbed her arm. That broke her concentration like a glass breaking on a stone floor.
Her eyes went as wild as Alexis’ had, and she ran, easily outdistancing me. I looked over my shoulder as the dragon fell from the sky and struck the far end of the bridge. It exploded like a sandcastle kicked by an angry boy. Blocks of granite flew. Worse, the bridge under my feet trembled.
No, trembled is the wrong word. It lurched with the first contact, then trembled and vibrated. Kendra and the horse had reached the safety of the land, but I had ten more steps. The roadway twisted and lurched to one side again. I managed to maintain enough balance to stay on my feet. Five more steps and the roadway began to drop. Two steps to safety and my toes gave warning I’d be running on air. Impulsively, I dived.
Kendra was there to grab my outstretched hands. She pulled me the last step, but I needed to get my feet on land. Alexis was almost out of sight, running down the road at full gallop.
Kendra pulled again, and my feet found solid ground. We ignored a hundred things we could have spoken of, as we watched the dragon take to the air again. It roared and spun in mid-air, to fall on the roof of one of the great houses. It crumbled and fell. The dragon used its head to butt the one remaining wall standing. After a snort of what I interpreted to be self-satisfaction at a job well done, it moved to a smaller house and pushed it over.
A blue shimmer at my side startled me.
“Are you satisfied with yourself?” The voice was familiar. It was the Blue Woman, although only a faint blue pulsated at my side.
“I am,” came an automatic response from me.
“Not you. You are nothing.”
“Don’t talk to my brother like that,” Kendra said. Another pair of houses were flattened by the dragon.
“You have no idea what you’ve unleashed on the world.”
A few more houses were destroyed as the dragon swung its tail in the short time it took to tell us that. I wondered if we’d done the right thing as if I had anything to do with the work of my sister. There were still no people running into the streets or trying to cross the bridge that no longer existed. The dragon walked on all four feet, using its chest or tail to ram into anything in its way.
“It is not over,” the voice threatened, then the blue shimmer faded into nothingness.
The dragon pushed against another of the great houses. It was one of those where the wealthy, influential, and royal lived. My thoughts turned to Lord Kent, Princess Anna, and Avery, the servant for the Heir Apparent. While none were truly my friends, I cared for all in some manner. Then my thinking shifted to the three missing mages. From there it went to the Blue Woman and the six mages she’d mentioned that were involved. Were the three mages from Crestfallen part of those six?
Kendra said, “Is it going to destroy everything in that whole damn part of the city?”
“Only in Mercia, I hope.”
“It has been penned in that cave for about four-hundred years. Can you imagine the horror?”
“How?” The single word I uttered asked several questions. How had it been placed in that cave, who had done it, why, and what kept it there? As well as who? Well, mages had been who, but that took me back to the other questions.
“There is no way to know right now,” she said. “Can you feel the anger and revenge?”
“No. You can?” Before she could answer, I said, “Do you know who kept it there? Are they trying to contain it again?”
“Mages are over there. At least ten, at a guess. They are trying to cast spells to regain control of it.”
“Will the dragon knock over the building they’re in and kill them?” Even to me, my voice sounded hopeful.
“No. They went into a basement and then into a connecting tunnel that has a way outside. They are really upset and threatening me. And you.”
We watched another of the grand houses fall, then the monster knocked down a row of smaller ones, taking care to place one of its four feet on each one, so it was flattened. All the buildings in the section of Mercia where it landed were nearly destroyed. It swung its tail, and three houses that remained intact broke apart as easily as a small boy breaking a toy house made of sticks.
The dragon stood on hind legs and bellowed what I’d call a cry of victory. Finished, it paused and looked at the wreckage of the bridge—then at us. Or Kendra. It spread its wings and took flight, passing directly over us before turning and flying to the next part of the city that lay beyond the next waterfall. When it had destroyed that one, I expected it to go to the other. It showed no signs of slowing or relenting.
“Beautiful,” Kendra said.”
“What it’s doing?”
“No silly. When it flew over us. I noticed you didn’t run. You didn’t even duck.”
She was right. The dragon was the size of a barn, and I’d just stupidly stood and watched as if it was a puppy playing with a bone, never once thinking of the danger. “Is it going to tear down the rest of the city?”
“Yes.”
That didn’t finish the subject. “Will it do the same to other towns and cities?”
That gave Kendra pause. Her answer came slowly and after consideration. “Maybe a few. If she senses a mage or evidence of strong magic, she might attack.”
“She?”
“It is a female. The last of her kind. She came here to lay her eggs in a cave where they would be safe and was trapped by the magic of mages who had set a trap.”
How could Kendra know all the things she had told me? Only a few days ago she had to look up dragons in a book to gain a rudimentary idea of them, but now she spoke in a way that revealed intimate knowledge. Her lack of fear was far beyond mine, almost as if she knew the dragon’s intentions.
To do that, Kendra would have to read the dragon’s mind. That was ridiculous. But Kendra knew the dragon was a “she” and how long it endured in that tunnel, as well as the reason the dragon had been seeking a tunnel so long ago. Kendra had not been out of my sight, so how could she have learned all that?
Worse, if she had, from where? From the dragon? If so, the dragon must have a method of communication, and to pass on that detailed information, it must be intelligent. Nothing I’d heard or read suggested that might be true.
The easy answer to all that might be to ask her. I spoke in a non-confrontational manner, trying to suggest a sudden idea that had entered my mind. “Say, how do you know it’s a female?”
She laughed softly before saying, “Come on Damon, you can be more subtle than that. No, we are not talking together. However, she is telling me things, in some way. Not words, but thoughts. Impressions. It's hard to explain but imagine hearing a mother coo to a baby. You just know it is a mother and not a man with a similar voice. It’s special and distinct.”
“I see how you can tell it is female. What about the rest?”
“Sort of the same thing. I feel hatred and fear of mages. She tells me they are mages by what they do and how they act.”
“Do you believe there have been mages in Mercia all that time? The same ones?”
Kendra paused again, considering how to answer. She faced me. “That may be the reason Mercia was built. Look around at the barren place this is. All food must be brought here. There is no reason for a city to exist here. Unless it is to house and care for mages to keep the dragon restrained.”
“Why didn’t they just kill it?”
“That is an answer I don’t know, but it has to do with essence. I think they steal her soul and use it.”
Her voice had taken on a sharp edge. A change of subject seemed in order. “Listen, Elizabeth and Tater are probably worried. We’d better return to them.”
We turned our backs as the dragon destroyed the rest of Mercia, building by building.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
W e found Elizabeth kneeling at Tater’s side, tending to his broken arm. Sp
ringer announced our return long before we arrived, and Alexis grazed on small tufts of grass near the other horses. I gave a weak wave, my mind and body too wound up and preoccupied to do much else. Even from that distance, the roars and screams from the dragon were audible, as were the last buildings of the city of Mercia being methodically destroyed.
“She’s going to be very upset at you,” Kendra said from the side of her mouth as we approached Elizabeth.
“Me? Why me? I didn’t do anything.”
“For allowing your sister to make such a mess of an entire city that is ruled by her father. Prepare yourself for a tongue lashing—and who is going to pay for all the destruction you caused?”
I threw my head back and laughed like a man gone mad, and perhaps it was true. Even Alexia turned to look at me. We talked no more until reaching our friends. Elizabeth stood and waited for us. I went to her and wrapped my arms around her and cried.
It was an emotional release. I could see a dragon stomping on buildings in the distance, mages and worse were threatening our lives, and despite it all, we were alive. I cried, sobbed, and realized that the three of them would view me differently.
My mood shifted to one of anger. We hadn’t asked for any of the happenings. They were forced upon us.
Tater said, “No matter when they left, all the people from up there didn’t use this road.”
“What are you saying?” Elizabeth asked.
“It’s on the other side of that river. Once, a long time ago, someone wanted to go to the port from Mercia. If memory serves, there is another road across the river. Since there are only a few farms and villages this way, they went to the port where there is transportation. That’s been bothering me. People can’t just up and disappear.”
Kendra said, “Then the port must be overflowing with people.”
“Not necessarily so,” Tater said. “Ships probably sailed away with some, but Mercia never was like other cities. No trade, nothing they made there, no reason for most to go there. The streets were always pretty empty, only a few noblemen and servants moved about.”
