The Sword and the Dragon wt-1

by Michael Robb Mathias

  The Sword and the Dragon

  ( Wardstone trilogy - 1 )

  Michael Robb Mathias

  The Sword and the Dragon

  M. R. Mathias

  Chapter 1

  Gerard Skyler used his free arm to wipe the sweat from his brow before it had a chance to drip into his eyes. Scaling the towering, nesting cliff for the second time was far harder than he had expected it to be. No one had attempted the climb two days in a row before. His body was still sore and raw from yesterday’s climb, but he could not afford to stop and rest. He was more than three hundred feet above a rocky canyon floor. A fall would undoubtedly be fatal. The last thing he needed at the moment was burning eyes and blurred vision.

  A few dozen feet above him, was the wide, flat shelf they called the “Lip.” Once he was there, he could lie down, stretch out his aching body, and relax his muscles before continuing up into the nesting shelves to gather the precious hawkling eggs he sought.

  Why the blasted birds nested so high on the cliff, and so late in the spring, he could never determine. All of the other avian species he knew had hatched their young and headed north already. Why he was foolishly climbing the cliff a second time was another question he kept asking himself. He already knew the answer though: he was doing it for his older brother, Hyden.

  Gerard’s free hand reached up and slid snugly into a small gap above him. As he pulled his weight up, the hold suddenly crumbled. Dust and scree rained down on his upturned face. Luckily, his mouth was closed and he hadn’t moved his feet from their points of purchase yet. He didn’t slip, but he had to contend with his racing heart and the sandy grit that was collecting on his face.

  “Damn it all, Hyden! You owe me a dozen pairs of boots now,” he muttered.

  He shook his head, trying to face downward so that some of the crud might fall away. Then he stuck out his bottom lip and blew up at his eyes, shaking his head awkwardly. The thought of how silly he looked at that moment almost made him laugh. He had to fight to contain it. Having mixed with his sweat, most of the grainy dirt had turned to mud. He finally used the thumb and index finger of his free hand to rub his eyelids. Eventually, he cleared his vision and then reached up for a different handhold. This one held his weight.

  Far below, Hyden Skyler paced the canyon floor, looking up nervously at his younger brother’s progress. He was supposed to be the one making this climb. Gerard had already made his own. Their father and uncles had decided that Hyden should stay on the ground this year. He was the Skyler clan’s best hope to win the coveted Summer’s Day archery competition, their best hope to come along in a generation.

  Hyden had argued vehemently against not being allowed to claim a rightful share of the hawkling eggs. His Uncle Condlin had to physically restrain him when they told him that this year’s climb wasn’t going to happen. Hyden had called them all to the settling circle in his anger, even the Elders.

  “Why can’t I do both?” he had argued.

  The Elders had explained that it was because the archery competition and the egg harvest this year were too close together. Not even the most experienced climber could finish his grueling harvest without a tear or strain. The Elders, who consisted of Hyden’s grandfather, his father, and five of his uncles, wanted nothing to happen to him that might affect his ability to aim. Nothing.

  Like most young men who feel like they’ve been wronged, Hyden had been caught up in the moment. The Elders’ arguments made sense to him now that the heat of his frustration had cooled, but it had taken a while. Only after long hours of soothing and explaining did he finally relent. The fact that the prize money from the archery competition was equal to the value of more than a dozen hawkling eggs helped him put things in perspective. The idea of having his name etched permanently into the Summer’s Day Spire had its own appeal. Eventually, he decided to comply with the Elders’ wishes and stay on the ground. If he managed to win the competition, the honor and respect he would gain, not only in his clan, but also among the men of the kingdoms, would far exceed the satisfaction of making his egg harvest.

  At one hundred paces, Hyden could put three out of five arrows in the Wizard’s Eye. The other two arrows would be in the King’s Ring, only because the center of the target wasn’t big enough to hold them all. Only on rare occasions did an arrow from Hyden’s bow venture out into the Queen’s Circle, but it did so only because the wind was blowing, or for some other extreme reason. Even on the windiest of days, his arrows strayed no farther away from the middle than that. He was as accurate as a target would allow a human to be. To put four arrows in the Wizard’s Eye was nearly impossible. The elven archers who had won the competition for the last four years running had done it though. If Hyden wanted to win this year, he would have to do it too.

  Hyden’s stubborn arguing over being kept on the ground had paid off in a sense. He had contested that the financial loss of not being allowed to harvest his rightful share of hawkling eggs would be ruinous to his home and family. He pointed out that the Elders could give him no guarantee that he would win the archery competition. He was only eighteen winters old, had no family of his own yet, but he would soon enough, and it was the principle of the matter anyway. By clan law, a large portion of the money generated by the sale of the harvested hawkling eggs went to the individual who had harvested them. None of the Elders could deny Hyden, but then Gerard suddenly volunteered to climb in his stead. The Elders reminded the younger of the two headstrong young men that a second climb would be very dangerous, and that all the credit, and the yield of the harvest itself, would be Hyden’s, not his. The Elders were pleased, though, that Hyden would still be receiving his due without having to climb.

  Hyden had never felt a stronger bond with Gerard; nor had he ever felt more love for him. When he saw his little brother finally gain the edge of the Lip, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He had never felt this much worry, or concern, over Gerard’s safety in his life. Usually, he was trying to kill him for some reason or another.

  Little Condlin, or maybe Ryal, had helped Gerard up onto the ledge. Hyden couldn’t tell which of his many cousins it was who was up there. They all looked the same from where he was standing, with their sun-darkened skin, their thin frames, and the thick mop of dark hair that all of the clansmen shared.

  Hyden had been out behind Uncle Condlin’s hut shooting arrows all week, while all the other members of the Skyler clan took their turns on the sacred nesting cliff. He wasn’t sure which of his cousins had made their climbs yet. All he knew was that Gerard had come down yesterday from his harvest with eight unbroken eggs. From what Hyden had heard, it was the best single take so far this year. Gerard had strutted around with his chest puffed out the whole evening. Uncle Condlin had brought down only seven eggs this year. Hyden and Gerard’s father would have had seven as well, but an angry hawkling had caused Harrap to drop one in order to protect his eyes from its razor-sharp talons.

  It was a shameful thing to waste an egg, even when protecting oneself. Their father hadn’t been seen since he’d packed his six remaining eggs in a small crate full of “keep moss” two days ago. He had gone off into the woods seeking absolution. The eggs would be safe until he eventually returned. The keep moss, as the name indicated, would keep the hawkling eggs from hatching for as long as they were packed in it.

  Gerard and Hyden knew that their father was off in seclusion somewhere seeking forgiveness from the clan’s goddess. He hoped that the White Lady would give his father a sign soon. Hyden had done the same thing last year, after one of his eggs had broken in his pack while he was climbing down.

  The hawkling eggs were sacred to the clan, and very expensive to the
kingdom folk who had purchased them each year at the Summer’s Day Festival. The location of the nesting cliff was known only to the Skylers, and though they could have made a king’s fortune by harvesting all the eggs at once, they didn’t. Each clansman able to climb the cliff was allowed one opportunity each year to make his harvest, but only if he spent his share of the days in the off-season attending to the roosts and vacant nesting areas. Loose rock, old nests, and other harmful things, such as scorpions and blood ravens, were removed or frightened away so the hawklings would have a safe place to breed and hatch their young each spring.

  During the harvest, it was forbidden to leave fewer than two eggs in a nest, so much of the climbing a man did-sometimes his whole harvest-was fruitless. The hawklings were fierce hunters, and their wingspan, from tip to tip, could be as wide as a man is tall. Sometimes, an angry bird would attack and maim, or even dislodge, a climber. Many a member of the Skyler clan had met their death on the rocky canyon floor.

  Hyden didn’t expect much from Gerard. The lower nests would all be down to two eggs by now, and the climb took such a toll on a man’s body that Hyden didn’t think Gerard could push himself into the higher reaches today. Two or three eggs would suffice. He had told Gerard as much this morning as they broke camp. Hyden would wait until all the other eggs had been sold, and then would drive up his price. The money from two eggs would sustain him through the winter. Three would provide him not only what he needed, but also what he wanted.

  “I’ll get you half a dozen at least,” Gerard had bragged. “You’ll win that competition too. And when you do, you owe me a new pair of Valleyan horsehide boots and a wizard’s hat.”

  Hyden laughed, thinking about his brother’s simple desires. Gerard’s immaturity still showed itself often. He was just a year younger than Hyden. At least the new boots were a reasonable and responsible request. Gerard could buy himself a wagon full of wizard’s hats and a dozen pair of boots with what he would earn for his own eight eggs. After the Elders took out the clan’s share, Gerard would still have a small fortune.

  Hyden found a rock, sat in the shadow thrown by the midmorning sun, and munched on a piece of dried venison. Gerard would rest awhile on the Lip before continuing up into the nesting shelves. The cliff face would be warming quickly now. It would grow as hot as a skillet in the morning sun, but only for a short while. The sun would swiftly put the cliff in its memory, and for the better part of the day, its face would be cooling in its own shadow.

  Movement from above caught Hyden’s eye. A long, green ribbon on a crooked stick, poked up into the air from the edge of the Lip. There wasn’t enough wind to make it do more than flutter lazily. It disappeared as quickly as it had shown itself, and then one of his cousins began the long climb up to make his harvest. Hyden could tell by the bright green color of the climber’s headdress, that it was one of Uncle Condlin’s sons. He knew that Gerard’s headdress was red, with blue highlights. That was the only headdress that he cared to see.

  The bright, ornamental hats were worn more to deter the fierce birds than for any other reason, yet each branch of the clan had its own colors and designs. Hyden’s was made of light wire, and shaped like an open-winged bird, with red and gold ribbons tied about the frame. Gerard’s was similar, but with red and blue ribbons fastened to it. The headdresses made it appear that a brightly colored bird was already on the climber’s head. They were a distraction at best, and they usually ended up on the canyon floor long before the climber came down. Hyden hated wearing one, especially when the wind was up. He usually threw his off after a while, but one time, an angry hawkling had torn it off his head for him, and nearly caused him to fall to his death.

  It was rumored that his Great Uncle Jachen’s fatal fall had been caused solely by complications with his headdress, but it was still considered an ill omen to start up from the Lip without one. Two of Hyden’s cousins had attempted to climb after the wind had blown theirs off the ledge a few years ago. Both boys perished that day, thus reinforcing the ancient superstition.

  It wasn’t long before Hyden saw his own red and gold headdress starting up the cliff. It made him smile. Gerard must have taken it from his pack earlier at the camp. Hyden hadn’t expected Gerard to wear his headdress. He was proud that his little brother was honoring him by wearing it for this climb. His heart swelled with emotion, and he decided on the spot that he would buy Gerard a wizard’s hat, a wizard’s robe, and even a magic wand at the fair, even if he didn’t win the archery competition. It didn’t even bother him when Gerard later let the awkward headgear fall away and tumble down the canyon.

  It became clear that the cousin making the climb ahead of Gerard was Little Condlin. Little Con was chubby; slow, and deliberate in his moves. He climbed more sideways than upward, as if he was trying to cover the entire width of the cliff. He never extended his reach, and he always used caution. Gerard, on the other hand, was quick like a lizard, and before long he was a few hundred feet above the Lip.

  The cliff itself was well over a thousand feet high. It looked to Hyden like Gerard was trying to climb to the very top of it. As far as Hyden knew, that had never been done before. An area not too far above Gerard’s current location was so thick with the nesting birds, that the gray and brown stone seemed to be striped black with them. It was obvious now that Gerard had been completely serious when he’d bragged that he would bring back half a dozen eggs. Hyden hoped that his brother wouldn’t put himself in a bad spot up there while trying to show off for him. At the moment, Gerard was as high up into the nests as Hyden had ever been in his life.

  Gerard could see something glinting and shining. It was a few dozen feet to his right, a little below him, and sitting in an old broken nest on the other side of a wide vertical fissure. He couldn’t tell what it was, but it was metallic and golden. For some reason, there were no hawklings screeching at him or making sweeps at his intrusion in this area. He wasn’t paying attention to the hawklings’ activities any more though. Whatever that thing was in the nest, it was commanding his attention and causing him to lose concentration on his climb. He already had five eggs for Hyden nestled in his padded shoulder bag. He was determined to have the sixth he had boasted of, but five, he knew, would please his brother immensely. He also knew that he needed to start back down soon, so as not to be caught on the wall after sunset. Climbing down in the dark was impossible, but that blasted shiny thing was fiercely calling out to his curiosity.

  His mind began filling with visions of jeweled riches and praise from his clansmen and Elders. He had to reach it. He wouldn’t be climbing here again until late summer, or just before winter set in. It might not be there then. If he didn’t get it now, he might not be able to find it again, even if it stayed exactly where it was.

  He cleared his head by shaking it, and then tried to spot a way to surpass the open gap between him and the prize. If he just climbed a few dozen feet higher, he could reach across a narrow place in the fissure, and then he could climb back down to the thing. It was risky, but he told himself that he could do it.

  As he started up toward the niche, the sun passed over the ridge, sending the whole of the cliff face into shadow. It took him longer than he thought it would, but he finally reached the place where he could stretch across the span of open space. He positioned himself on a tiny ledge, and when he leaned into the cliff, he could stand with all his weight on his feet, leaving both of his hands free.

  His palms were wet and slimy from the numerous patches of excriment he’d encountered in this higher, more heavily nested area. He shook his arms at his sides, letting the blood flow back into them while waiting for the muck to dry. A warning began to sound in the back of his mind, telling him that he should already be headed back down, but he chose to ignore it. He had gathered another egg on the way up to the niche, so he now had the full half-dozen he’d promised Hyden. All he had to do now was reach the little treasure that was beckoning him. Once he had it, he could start down.

 
After a few moments, he rubbed his hands on his hips briskly. The crusting stuff on them powdered and fell away. He then took turns scuffing the toes of his old boots on the ledge until they gripped with ample traction. He found a good handhold with his left hand, not too far above him, and stretched his body out to the right, reaching across the gap as far as he could. He was still at least two feet shy. He harrumphed in frustration and pulled his body weight back over the little ledge.

  He repositioned himself so that his handhold was lower. This would allow him to reach farther. He tried again but found that his right foot was still some inches away from a safe purchase on the other side. As he started to retract himself this time, his left foothold slipped a fraction. His heart fluttered up through his chest like a startled bird. He almost fell, but instinct, and common sense, took control. After a few deep, calming breaths, he gingerly started easing his weight back over.

  He would have to give up the prize and make his way down. It was the only sensible thing to do. If he started to hurry down now, he could still reach the canyon floor by nightfall. Hyden would be happy to take the six eggs, and the Elders, along with the rest of the clan members, would praise his efforts and his skill as a climber.

  A quick glance back over at the object caused him to change his mind. He was here, and he didn’t want to waste the chance the Goddess had granted him. He would retrieve it, whatever it was.

  Gerard squinted. In the shaded light, the object finally revealed itself to him. It was a ring. Golden and shiny, it had a fat, yellow gem mounted on it, and it looked extremely valuable. He rolled his neck across his shoulders. It would be his, he decided. He could reach it and still get down before dark. If not, he could even sleep on the Lip if he had to.

  He looked at the other side of the fissure and studied it intently. He took in the subtleties, the nooks, the crannies, and the shape of the stone. Then, he sucked in a deep breath, resolved himself, and leapt for it.