Of Gods, Trees, and a Sapling: Dragonlinked Chronicles Volume 4

by Adolfo Garza Jr.

  Chanté glanced at Nantli before looking back at Quillan. “Well, he’s an uncomplicated man, I guess you could say. His interpretation of the decree is simple. Perhaps too simple.”

  “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you didn’t ignore someone attempting murder.” Quillan turned back to digging in the saddlebag. “As to where you are,” he said, pulling out an item, “you’re in what we call the Northern Wilds.”

  Chanté lifted his brows. He remembered that name. “Then Caer Baronel isn’t too far?”

  “A couple days, maybe, northeast of here.” Quillan glanced at them. “Is that where you’re heading?”

  “Yes. That is, to the Dragon Craft Guild nearby.”

  “So am I!”

  Chanté got the distinct impression that Quillan wanted to join them, but that would slow them down. He wanted to get to the dragon guild as quickly as possible. “Unfortunately, Nantli doesn’t have even a rudimentary saddle, so the only way to ride with her is to be carried. I don’t think she can manage two or I’d invite you to fly with us.”

  Quillan grew pale. “T–That’s okay. I, ah, couldn’t just leave my horse behind anyway.” He pulled another item from the saddlebag and stared at it. “You could ride with me, though, and Nantli could follow.”

  Just as Chanté suspected. They didn’t have time to—

  Quillan turned to him, then, eyes bright in the sunlight. “What do you think?” His lips were quirked in a half frown, half smile. He looked resigned to a negative response, yet also appeared hopeful and a little vulnerable.

  Chanté could only stare. Heart beating faster, a strange, not unpleasant pressure filled his chest. What was happening? The trip would take inordinately longer by horse, but for some reason, he had a very strong desire to accept the offer.

  He swallowed. “O–Okay.”

  Quillan’s face lit up. “Excellent!”

  Surprised at what he’d done, he glanced at Nantli. Y–You don’t mind traveling with him, do you?

  She chirped. It will be a good opportunity for us to learn more of what it is to be human.

  That’s true.

  “Here.” Quillan walked over and held the items out.

  Chanté stared up at him. So tall!

  “They’re for you.”

  “Hmm?” Chanté blinked. He then accepted the items and looked them over. “What are these?”

  “While I don’t know the customs where you’re from—and I personally don’t mind,” Quillan’s cheeks darkened again, “here in these parts, people normally wear clothes.”

  “Ah. Of course.”

  + + + + +

  “The sentencing hearings are complete.” Master Gella set the folder down on the desk and slid it before High Lady Hasana. “The two executions will be this afternoon, and those that will serve time are being transported to prison.”

  The High Lady placed her hand atop the green portfolio. “The trial took weeks. I’m glad these hearings were finished in only three days. The guilty deserve to be punished for their crimes.” She stared at the file under her fingers.

  Gella crossed her arms. Why did Hasana look troubled? “How goes progress at the mine?”

  The High Lady looked up. “The nation has taken ownership of the land surrounding. A rail line obviously cannot pass through the mine operations, so I have invalidated the old deed and given a new one to Continental Transportation Company with a slightly different strip of land, one that is farther east. I don’t want the Korovite mine between it and the nearby villages.”

  “Mmm. Yes.”

  “Construction is under way at the mine to fortify and secure it—a perimeter wall, living quarters, offices, a vault for temporary storage, and a barracks for a garrison. A separate contingent of guards and soldiers was also assigned and has been escorting the shipments.”

  Gella nodded. “Wagon caravans do take a long time to reach their destinations, and heavy armored wagons travel even slower.”

  “Indeed. But eventually, a short line will be built, which the nation will own and maintain, connecting to Continental Transportation Company’s desert line. A locomotive and cars will be acquired so mine shipments can be completed much faster.” A crease formed between her brows.

  “Would you like my assistance with any of that?”

  “No.” Her dark brown hair shone in the sunlight from the window as she shook her head. “I want you to return to Stronghold and further investigate those rumors.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  “I would rather you leave now, but I will not deny you the opportunity to see Pivin hang.”

  “I thank you for that, my lady. I will leave for Stronghold immediately after, and will meet with my people there so we may begin the investigation this evening.”

  High Lady Hasana smiled. “Coatl?”

  Gella chuckled. “Exactly. If Fillion is available. Another, if not.” She would enjoy riding a dragon again. “There is one thing, if I may make a suggestion?”

  “Please.”

  “A subtle hint to Lord Eldin to complete Continental Transportation’s rail lines as quickly as possible wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

  High Lady Hasana nodded. “True enough. I’d rest easier if Korovite could be shipped via train the entire way.” She frowned. “Though, Lord Eldin will likely ask for some sort of concession for devoting more effort to constructing the rail lines quickly.”

  “Perhaps you could offer a kind of toll payment for the nation’s use of his rail lines, to sweeten the request?”

  “As a last resort, of course.”

  “Absolutely. Offer him that first, and he’ll ask for more.”

  The High Lady shrugged. “He is a businessman, after all. I won’t begrudge him attempting a favorable agreement.”

  “Fair enough. I do wonder at what point that propensity becomes avarice, however.”

  “Have no worries.” High Lady Hasana smiled. “I grew up around extreme greed and I’ll have no truck with it now.”

  Gella nodded. The gleam in the High Lady’s eyes was like that along a sharpened steel blade. Who the High Lady was referring to was certain, and Gella wondered what had become of the Divo. After what had happened to his political career, could he even find work in opera? Where was the man these ten or so years later?

  + + + + +

  Terry frowned. It was impossible, wasn’t it? Who bonded? And how? Weren’t wild dragons skittish? Where would this new dragonlinked have even found a dragon?

  The whole time since he’d felt the Bond earlier, he’d been trying to figure out how it had happened. No matter where they were, how far away they were, every dragonlinked felt the enchantment that linked human and dragon, just as he had earlier. The news had spread through the Guildhall like a prairie fire, but for some reason, most of the others seemed to be taking it in stride. Not him. He wanted to—

  “Terry, I’ll not ask you again. What are you doing?”

  The voice penetrated his thoughts.

  Renata stared at him, hands on her hips. “You’ve been standing there just looking at the ground, deaf to me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Terry said. “I just keep thinking about the Bond we felt.”

  All around the training room, the candidates in class two stared at him with grins on their faces. Terry was getting in trouble again, they seemed to be thinking. They all appeared to know him, but not all the candidates were familiar to him as of yet. With the completion of enough rooms in the Guildhall, open applications had begun, and applicants, for dragonlinked and otherwise, had been arriving almost daily. They’d even had to start a third class for candidates. At fourteen and fifteen, he and Korrie were currently the youngest members of the guild bonded to dragons and the only members of class two who were. So Korrie was the only other person in the room, aside from Renata, who’d also felt the Bond earlier.

  “He’s right to be worried,” Korrie said. “There’s someone out there bonded to a dragon. Someone who isn’t in the guild.”

&n
bsp; “Let the Guildmaster worry about that,” Renata said. “We all should be focused on this lesson.”

  Terry knew Renata was right, but it was difficult to focus with that unknown dragonlinked out there. He let out a disgusted breath. “Why do we even need to know hand-to-hand combat, anyway? All we have to do is kill any nahual we come across with magic.”

  “While it is true that almost all nahual you encounter can be dispatched with the combat spells you are learning,” Renata said, “you will come across nahual who are very good at countering spells, who are very good at getting close enough—”

  Terry felt a pulse of magic and Renata was suddenly within inches of his face.

  “—to touch you.” She grabbed his nose and used it to shake his head.

  Laughter burst from the others and even he had to smile at her very effective use of the slide spell.

  “In those instances,” Renata said, “hand-to-hand combat skills could save your life.” She turned to address everyone. “You may have seen the scars on some of your seniors. Almost all of those came from close encounters with nahual. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security. Yes, most of the nahual you encounter will be easy enough to dispatch. But never forget, like people, nahual vary in their abilities. You will run into very skilled nahual. And the guild will prepare you for that.”

  She loudly clapped her hands, once. “Alright. Get with your partners and work on those stances. Renny, I’ve got my eye on you.”

  The young man frowned. “I just need more practice. I am getting better.”

  “Show me.” Renata moved over to him and watched his movements.

  Terry turned to Korrie and they began their own stance rotations.

  Korrie leaned closer to him. “Renata has a scar on her thigh. I’ve seen it in the bathing room.”

  “Really?” Terry glanced at their trainer and then back at Korrie. “I wonder if it came from a nahual.”

  “It did. The new candidates whisper about it with a little jealousy as they watch her bathe. They seem to think it makes her more alluring or sensual.” She frowned. “I’ve never understood that kind of attraction to someone.”

  Terry slid his feet, moved his arms, and spun the bo into position, slipping into the ready stance. “Me, either. I mean, I’m curious about sex, but people seem to be really preoccupied with it. Some can’t seem to think of anything else. I just don’t understand that.”

  Korrie grunted and nodded. “It is a mystery.” She moved into the ready stance. “So you’ve been thinking about the unknown dragonlinked?”

  Terry looked over her stance, reviewing the position of her limbs, the weapon, and her gaze. It all looked good, so he had no comment and moved into the next one himself. “Yeah. It worries me that they’re out there with no training. Will this person know how to care for their bond-mate? Will they know about our purpose?”

  “And where in Yrdra’s deepest hells did this person find a dragon to bond?” Korrie looked over his positioning. Apparently not finding anything wrong, she whipped her bo around and fell into the attack stance.

  “Exactly.” Her stance looked good, so Terry spun his bo and stepped into the defensive stance.

  Renata’s voice came from behind. “Though you seem to have been lost in thought earlier,” she said, “it does appear as if you’ve studied the stances. Good.” She nodded at Terry and Korrie, then moved on the next pair.

  Terry made a mock frightened face and chuckled. “I had no idea she was there. She’s scary-good at being quiet.”

  Korrie chuckled and moved into the next stance.

  A few minutes later, Renata said, “Let’s pick up the pace on transitions. As soon as you’ve got a stance, your partner should immediately move into it as well. Then you switch to the next one immediately after. Switch as fast as you can, only stopping for gross errors. Go!”

  Sweat was starting to drip down Terry’s face by the time Renata called a halt to the lesson. He leaned on his bo as he caught his breath.

  “Keep practicing when you can,” Renata said. “Next time we’ll learn how the stances assist with attacks, blocks, feints, and parries.” She glanced at the door of the practice room.

  Jessip stood there waiting for her.

  Terry smiled. That’s why the lesson was over five minutes early!

  Renata headed across the large room as the candidates began getting ready to leave.

  “They’re so cute.” Korrie said, smiling. She, too, leaned on her bo. Several strands of sweat-darkened blond hair stuck to the sides of her face.

  Terry stared at her. Even tired, sweaty, and red-faced, Korrie was crazy pretty. “Mm hmm,” he said. “Very cute.”

  She looked at him and his cheeks warmed.

  He quickly turned to Jessip. “They’ve, ah, been seeing each other for a while, huh?”

  “Yes,” Korrie said. “Their getting together was kind of romantic. He helped her when Xochi got sick and stood by her when she revealed her previous involvement with the Corpus Order.”

  Terry nodded. “As he should have. You stick by the one you love.”

  He turned to Korrie when she didn’t say anything. She was watching him.

  After a tiny smile, she turned back to Renata and Jessip. “Exactly.”

  Jessip put his arm around Renata when she reached the door and smiled at her. “Ready to work on the dragon show?”

  Renata said, “Does that mean they’ve approved the ideas?”

  One side of his mouth lifted a touch. “Mmm, not exactly. Let’s get to the meeting before we’re late.”

  The two left down the hallway.

  “Aside from watching them take off and land,” Terry said, “I’ve never really seen a full-grown dragon doing much of anything. I have high hopes for the performance they come up with.”

  “Me, too.” Korrie stretched. “Daddy’s idea to add a dragon show to the Summer Festival was brilliant.”

  Terry smiled. He couldn’t seem to keep in mind the fact that Korrie was Lord Baronel’s daughter. The man owned Caer Baronel and the lands surrounding. In Terry’s mind, Korrie was just a normal person. She never really mentioned her high-born status, and in fact, she tried to distance herself from it.

  A few guild members who’d come from the Caer, who knew who she was, had called her Lady Korrie for a while. Each time they did so in her hearing, she stopped them. ‘Please don’t call me Lady Korrie. I’m just Korrie, or Accepted Korrie, if anything.’ And, too, whenever she mentioned her father, it was never as Lord Baronel. She always called him daddy. It made him smile every time she did.

  Having caught his breath after the short rest, Terry practiced a few bo swings.

  Korrie groaned and headed to the weapon rack. “I need a bath.”

  Terry followed, spinning his bo from one position to another. “Yeah.”

  She paused in setting her bo into the rack and chuckled. “Pardon me?”

  He quickly switched to a defensive stance and twisted his face in mock fear. “We both need one, is what I meant. We had a great practice session today. We worked really hard and a hot bath will feel good.”

  She laughed at him.

  He liked the way her face changed when she laughed. Smiling, he set the practice bo in the rack. “We should hurry. I don’t want to be late for lunch. There’s cobbler for desert!”

  + + + + +

  Frowning, Fillion sat in one of the small meeting rooms in the Guildhall with arms crossed. They’d been talking for over half an hour about the ideas submitted so far on what could be done at the dragon show. Some suggestions, however—like his—had been dismissed outright.

  Did they have any idea how long it took to get Snow comfortable flying on Coatl? Now, that cat was just as comfortable in the saddle as he was on the couch. He even poked his head out of the special leather carrier every now and again for a quick peek before the rushing air made him pull back inside.

  “The thing we can’t forget,” Aeron said, “is that the audience, the
ones we’re putting the show on for, are all on the ground. They aren’t flying alongside us, so they can only see things we do when we are in the area above the sports field.”

  “And, too,” Liara said, “they can only see so far and so much. We have to perform most maneuvers close to the ground, not hundreds of feet above them, and any tricks that they’d have to be within a few feet to see are pointless.”

  “Exactly,” Jessip said. “Some of these ideas fail to take those limitations into consideration.”

  “Oh,” Fillion said. “I see what you mean, now.” Even flying low, it would be almost impossible for the audience to see Snow and appreciate the fact that a cat was riding on a dragon.

  Did they like the idea? Nervous expectation came through the link from Coatl.

  Well, it’s not that they didn’t like it, they just pointed out that no one on the ground would be able to tell that Snow was with us.

  Oh. I had not thought of that.

  I think it’s a great idea, though. Coatl had been so excited about the trick that it broke Fillion’s heart a tiny bit knowing they wouldn’t be doing it.

  “Still,” Willem flipped through the sheets of paper with the suggestions, “some of these can be performed as long as the exciting bits happen above the field. The bond-mates can just bank around and head back to the field for each of those.”

  Polandra nodded. “That would work. And for some, the bond-pair could just fly in a close, circular path around the field. At least for those where the flight speed can be fairly low, or where a fast banking flight in a circle won’t interfere with or make the trick dangerous.”

  “Keeping all that in mind,” Willem said, “I’d like to see more suggestions. The demonstration is scheduled for the hour before the track and field events start, and as we’ve only got a few tricks that we all agree on so far, that leaves a lot of time to fill.”

  Fillion nodded. Guildmaster Millinith was allowing them to determine what would be in the demonstration, so long as they discussed ideas among themselves to ensure the tricks were safe. Now that he had a better understanding of the requirements and limitations, he just might be able to come up with something that would get approved.

  He looked at the other senior dragonlinked seated around the table: Gregor, Aeron, Willem, Renata, Jessip, Polandra, and Liara. The only ones not here from class one were Sharrah and Cheddar. But, other than Guildmaster Millinith and Master Doronal, the people in this room were the only members of the guild who’s bond-mates were old enough and big enough to ride.