by LeRoy Clary
Behind him, Thief had shifted his weight and had one hand on another stick of firewood that had been burning before the constable arrived. In one flash of movement, he swung the firewood, at the constable. In reflex, the constable raised his arm to protect himself, the same one that held the knife.
Thief jammed the burning end into the constable’s back and pushed it hard to hold it there. The sizzling of flesh was clearly heard over the screams of the constable. He threw his body to the side, releasing Raymer’s hair.
At the same time, Thief had attacked, Anna had leaped, her slim dagger raised high. The constable was turning to face Thief, his knife in front of him, ready to cut. But Anna reached him first, her knife plunging down to the hilt in his right shoulder. She pulled it free and struck again, nearer the center of his back, striking a rib and feeling the knife get shunted aside. She stabbed again, once, twice, three times.
By then Thief had knocked the constable’s knife-hand to the side and drove his own blade deep into the stomach of the constable. Anna rolled away, but one look told her he was already dying as he half-stood and wavered on his feet.
Thief had also stepped back, still holding his knife, ready to continue the fight if needed. Raymer had also climbed to his feet. He stepped closer to the constable, ready to finish him. He said, “You made a mortal mistake tonight, sir. If I may suggest, you should have taken out the little girl first instead of me. She’s the dangerous one.”
The constable’s eyes turned to her. He had time to consider his error before he slipped to his knees and then fell face first into the dirt.
Raymer turned to Thief. “And you, sir earned your keep tonight. I should have heard him slipping up on us, but he would never have lived to tell about it.”
“Because you were going to make a move that would have got you away from his knife?” Anna asked, never understanding the conceited minds of men. Even after danger, he ‘would’ have won.
She was about to respond when needles of pain on her back drew her attention. She heard a whoosh of sound and the scrape of talons on nearby rocks. She spun and the red dragon had landed ten steps away. Its long neck reached out to Raymer and the dragon nose sniffed.
Raymer was right. One bite from that beast would have taken the head off the sheriff. She saw the jagged teeth as it drew its lips back and made a snort of sound. Then it growled deep in its throat. It had spat at the sheriff, once. His body hissed and bubbled. Wisps of smoke rose.
Raymer reached out and rubbed the snout of the dragon, speaking softly to it. He said, “This is why he wouldn’t have lived. The red heard me call for it.”
Anna turned to speak to Thief, but he was not there. She looked around, but he was gone. Then she caught a whiff of the smell of the dragon up close and gagged. Rotted meat weeks old assaulted her nose. Worse, the dragon turned to look at her, bringing it closer.
In a move too quick to follow, it placed its snout almost touching her nose. She held her breath, her heart pounding. It’s not attacking, or I’d already be dead. She lifted one hand and touched the rough skin on the side of the mouth. It leaned into her hand and made the same sort of sound a satisfied kitten often makes, only deeper and a hundred times as loud.
Raymer said, “It knows you, and of course, it knows you’re Dragon Clan.”
“Does it know I want it to move back away from it ten or twenty steps?”
“I think it wants to cuddle,” Raymer laughed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The dragon departed soon after. In Anna’s entire life she had never been close enough to throw a stone at a dragon, let alone touch one. Well, that was not altogether true. She had been close when it had dropped the goat into the boat, but that had lasted only an instant. Her mind was so lost in wonder she forgot both Thief and the constable. She had taken a few steps back from the dragon, closer to the dead man.
Raymer said, “Don’t touch that.”
Looking down it seemed the sheriff’s body was melting in the firelight, but it was not a trick of the flickering flames. The black-fire the dragon had spat was melting him. Little wisps of smoke still rose, and she heard a soft sizzle. “We need to move our camp. Now.”
“Where’s Thief?” Raymer asked.
“Here,” a soft voice responded from the safety of the depths of the forest.
Anna called, “It’s safe to come back, the dragon is gone. We’re going to sleep further up the creek.”
They didn’t build another fire, and when the sun rose, all three were wide awake. Anna suspected none had slept well after last night. She could still feel the nearby presence of the dragon and knew it could also sense her. The majesty and grandeur of the dragon the night before still buzzed around in her brain, along with the awful stench. Her thoughts were only on the animal until she remembered the knife held at Raymer’s throat and felt guilty. That is what she should have been thinking about at the time, not the dragon.
Worse still, they were out of food. They’d packed enough for five days, but hadn’t counted on eating so much while on the boat. She wanted to eat, and her stomach responded with a growl that agreed with her. Instead, she rolled her blanket and greeted the other two who seemed as grumpy from loss of sleep and the confrontation in the night as she did. They followed the road and at the crest of a hill spotted a stone building fully as large as a castle.
Raymer had his dragon fly over, and he said, “No signs of anyone for months.”
Anna glanced down at the road and found grasses, flowers, and unbroken twigs, but no footprints. Not that she was questioning Raymer, but it was a habit from the drylands. You listened to others, but always checked for yourself. She saw Raymer’s nod of approval from the corner of her eye.
He said, “The two of you fought for me last night. I won’t forget it.”
There was no trace of the normal humor in his voice. The remark made her vaguely uncomfortable, and she said, “I’m hungry. There might be food in that building.”
“I can send my red for a deer or whatever he can find,” Raymer offered.
“Hold off on that. Two reasons. First, I don’t want to spend half a day while he hunts and brings the kill to us and then we have to butcher and cook it. But second, I want you to keep the red grounded as much as possible. Fly only at night. I know he doesn’t like that, but do it.”
Looking set to argue, Raymer held back. “As long as I don’t look at you and see a little girl speaking, your orders make sense.”
“When I was here before, we found where the greens roost, probably three day’s walk from here. We watched them. Every morning they flew off, always to the north. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them today.”
Raymer slowed as if lost in thought. Anna decided he was mind touching his dragon, but he said, “And we will not feel them? You’re sure?”
“When that green knocked down the wall at the Summer Palace, did you feel the presence of that dragon?”
He thought before answering. “There was another dragon, too. It had been flying over for days. In all the excitement, I may have confused one for the other. Give me a moment.”
He pulled to a stop and closed his eyes. This time, he was speaking with the dragon, and his lips moved as if talking. When he opened them, he said, “He does not want to stay grounded but will obey. I’ll check on him later. I also warned him to stay on the ground if he sees another dragon in the air, but if he does, his natural fighting instincts kick in, and he wants to fight.”
“Will he stay on the ground?” Anna asked.
“I’ll try, but at any time, he may see another and get excited. I’ll feel that excitement and reach out to him, but no matter what we’re doing, I’ll have to stop.”
“That’s not a problem. Come on, I want to see that building up close.”
The monastery stood atop a small, bald hill without another building in sight. While the walls stood, the roof had caved in, and the inside walls were blackened with soot from the recent fires. What remained of the
roof didn’t look safe, so they went to the doorway and peered in. The remains of the thousands of boxes were strewn where they landed as the wood burned. Swords, parts of helmets and breastplates lay in heaps, while cooking pots, knives, and spearheads lay in others. Much was undefinable, but they assumed blankets, tents, and clothing had all burned. All the supplies to outfit an army.
Thief picked up a sword and examined it. The leather handle was burned, the blade black, but otherwise it looked like it could be cleaned up and put to use.
Raymer said, “A blacksmith could probably temper these blades again.” He also selected one and placed the flat side over his knee. He bent it easier than he could a stiff piece of wood. “Soft. Never hold an edge.”
“So it’s no good?” Anna asked.
“Not like it is. But, like I said, give this to a blacksmith, and he’d probably have all the knives and swords tempered, ready to be fitted with new grips in no time at all. Much easier than digging ore, smelting it, and pounding it into shape. There’s a fortune in good metal in front of us.”
“But no food.”
Raymer said, “Anna, I have to say that you do keep things on track. Unless I’m mistaken, the kitchen was around the backside.”
Thief tossed the blade aside and started walking without waiting for them. Anna decided he was also hungry. Waist high grass grew all around the monastery, and off to their left was the remnants of an orchard and vineyard. There might be ripe fruit if they didn’t find any other. They found three more entrances, all similar to the first, two of them leading into the same vast room, while the third was a hallway. The caved in roof filled the narrow hall, and they quickly passed it by.
Around the rear stood a smaller, one-story stone building, five chimneys still standing. The walls were solid, and after kicking open a door, they found the kitchen or one of them. The ovens were covered with brick, and the room was obviously a bakery, placed outside in the smaller building, so the heat didn’t spread to the other structure in warm months.
While the bakery was hardly damaged from fire, animals had found their way inside. Anything to eat was gone or spread over the floor and rotted.
Disappointed, Anna turned and found another door to the large building. The door stood open, and she had few hopes. The roof was open to the sky, but the preparation tables and shelves of plates, bowl, and mugs still stood. Another set of shelves next to the doorway drew her attention. Stone jars. Large, small, and in-between. All remaining jars on the sturdy shelves had lids. The animals hadn’t destroyed them, yet. Thankfully, no bear or raccoon had broken everything in a search for food, but the stench of the burned wood and all else had probably discouraged them, unlike the bakery that had escaped the fire.
She opened the nearest jar and found salt. That alone made it worth the stop, and she set it aside. She opened another and found dried herbs of a type unknown to her.
Thief held another jar, the lid in his other hand. He used a finger to test the contents and smiled at them. “Honey.”
He sat that one next to the salt and reached for another. Raymer joined in the search. Soon there were jars of raisins, nuts of three kinds each in their own jars, along with dried apricots, apple slices, and pear, and with several kinds of grains.
It became a party, each of them trying to find something better than the others. Their laughs and giggles echoed in the kitchen until Raymer froze, his face suddenly turned serious. “Don’t move. Better yet, move underneath the tables.”
All three dropped their knees and slipped under without asking why. Anna held her knife, and Thief reached for his. Raymer slipped into his dazed expression, the one he used when he communicated with the dragon. After several long heartbeats, he mumbled, “Green dragons flying over us. Three of them.”
“Where’s the red?”
“Safe.” That was all Raymer uttered, but it was enough.
Anna forced herself to hold back from sticking her head out from under the table and looking up. She knew dragons had far better eyesight than people, but didn’t know if one might spot her. She said, “How do you know?”
“My red spotted them.”
“Is it in danger?”
“No, I don’t think so, not as long as it holds still, but it and I are going to have to have a serious talk after they pass. He won't stand a chance against three of them if he’s spotted.”
Anna considered his answer and asked, “Can you do that with at dragon? Have a serious talk?”
“No, I was kidding. They are like big sloppy dogs who just want to please, but anything you tell them has to be in single concepts and small words. They can’t put two ideas together.”
That sounded more like what she thought. When Raymer motioned for them to emerge from under the table, Thief went first, his eyes glued to the sky. But there were no dragons up there, at least, not anymore.
Raymer asked, “Did they all fly each morning?”
“No, one sat on eggs. Tanner and Carrion killed it and broke the eggs.”
A look of pain crossed his face, and he set his jaw. “I suppose it was necessary, but I didn’t want to hear that.”
Anna said, “Let’s take what we want and get out of here. I want to head for the Highlands. It shouldn’t take more than two days.”
They stuffed food into their backpacks and departed, cutting across country to reach the road leading south to Racine. They came to it in the early afternoon, shortly after Raymer paused long enough to order his red to fly further inland, but to remain at treetop level the whole time. He wanted to make sure it was out of the normal flyway of the greens.
The near encounter with the green dragons had changed the attitudes of all of them, even Thief. His eyes kept lifting up to the sky. Anna intentionally kept them under the canopy of the forest as they moved.
“My red’s far enough inland to be safe, I think. Still, your idea of only flying at night was a good one that we’ll follow.”
They slept in another cold camp, but with plenty of food to eat. While sitting and talking in the evening, Raymer said, “All you’d told me about the invasion were just words until we looked inside that monastery. At a rough count, I’d guess there were more than two thousand swords.”
Anna said, “Can you imagine what two thousand troops marching from Shrewsbury would do?”
An odd look crossed Raymer’s face as if he tried to form his next words. “Anna, those two thousand swords were only replacements, I believe. The soldiers arriving would carry their own weapons with them.”
“God’s dancing in the streets!” she hissed, realizing for the first time how large the invasion force must be. “We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“We have to find a way to stop them. Burning Shrewsbury slowed them, and it was a good idea, but the invasion is still on.”
“You’re sure?”
Raymer nodded in the dim light of the stars. “Yes. They would not make all of those preparations and give up because of a few burned buildings. They can still land in the same place; only it will be more inconvenient. They might also land at another port, even Castle Warrington. There is a small navy stationed there, and a garrison of troops, but not enough to even slow an army of that size if the ships land there.”
Anna shuddered. “I was about to go to sleep. Now I’m wide awake.”
“Me too. I feel like I should be doing something. I wonder how Quint is doing in Princeton with King Ember. Maybe I need to go there and tell him what I’ve learned. You can carry on here.”
“I know the feeling. Until today, this was an adventure. I mean, I knew it was serious, but not like now. Even the constable attacking us didn’t scare me except during the actual fight. But for the first time I’m scared. Really scared.”
“Me too,” Raymer admitted.
“No, I mean worse than that. Look, I’ve been in charge and giving orders like a little girl at a tea party when everyone around her is pretending she the mother. The girl tells the others at the table how to act and w
hat to do. Raymer, it’s time for you to take on that responsibility. I’m too young and inexperienced.”
Raymer chuckled without humor. “I am the last one to be a leader. You have all the natural skills and instincts. Following you is a pleasure.”
They sat in silence most of the evening. Surprisingly, Thief did much of the talking as he asked questions. “Why are dragons different colors?” And “The red dragon does what you tell it?” Followed by, “How many dragons are there?”
His questions were relentless, but Raymer answered each as if it was the most critical question ever considered. After the first hundred, he turned to Anna, who was huddled with her knees pulled to her chin and a blanket wrapped around her. Raymer said, “Thief is giving me an idea of how to stop them.”
“Really?” Anna asked, “You’re not just trying to make me feel better?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
They woke at sunrise and ate handfuls of nuts and dried fruit from their backpacks. They found the road to Racine and followed it over a series of small hills and a few mountains, then departed the road at midmorning to head east. The day was warming when Thief said, “Look.”
He was pointing up. Three green dragons flew north again, one in the lead and the other two behind in a formation like ducks use. A perfect triangle.
Raymer said, “As soon as the sun warms their bodies they fly in search of food.”
“Is that important?” Anna asked.
“Yes. We’re learning their habits. For instance, I would have few qualms about my red flying now, as long as he flies to the east. Maybe after we see them return to their nests, he will fly again.”
“But you’re thinking, right? That idea of yours?”
Raymer said, “Hey Thief, can you come up here and walk with me? I need someone who won’t talk my head off.”
