Dragon Chosen: The Dragon Riders of Eryieth

by Kristin Secorsky

  “Are you sure we will be safe here tonight?” she asked nervously.

  Zeb was busy making a fire, and Islwyn was unrolling his sleeping sack.

  “Of course. The forest is protected by very old and very strong elven magic. It would take a great power or a skilled wizard to undo the magic. Nothing evil can cross the protective boundary of the forest,” Islwyn assured her. He sat down on the ground and removed his riding boots.

  Zeb had a good fire burning. Evie took out her bladder of water and pressed it to her lips. She was parched. Islwyn stood up suddenly and looked around as if on alert. Evie heard a rustling in the bushes and turned around. A small group of elves approached them, arrows drawn.

  “Islwyn! Zeb! What brings you to this side of the forest?” the leader of the group asked.

  Islwyn relaxed. “Secret quest,” he replied casually.

  “Say no more,” the elf replied, eyeing Evie. He smiled at her. “Is this the female chosen? I thought initiates weren’t allowed on quests?”

  “You think too much, Castien” Zeb replied, jokingly.

  “Give them the food,” Castien instructed another elf from the group. The elf came forward with a sack of food and handed it to Islwyn.

  “Thank you,” Islwyn replied appreciatively.

  “Of course,” Castien replied. “We have more back at our outpost if you need anything.”

  Islwyn reached inside the bag and grabbed an apple. He tossed it to Zeb, who caught it easily.

  “Much appreciated, Castien,” Islwyn replied.

  The group of elves turned and disappeared into the darkness of trees and night. Islwyn reached inside the bag again and pulled out another apple. This time he walked over to Evie and handed it to her. The difference between the way he treated her versus Zeb was not lost on her. She took the apple gratefully and bit into the sweet, juicy fruit. They left in such a rush that all she had for food was the bread and cheese they had shared earlier.

  “We should get some sleep. The earlier we rise, the more daylight we have to search,” Zeb suggested.

  “Should we take watches?” Evie asked.

  “If we were not in the safety of the forest I would say yes, but nothing can hurt us in here, as I said before,” Islwyn assured her again.

  Evie nodded, feeling at ease, and unrolled her sleeping sack. She placed it close to Islwyn’s and the fire for an extra sense of security. She lay down and propped her head up on her arm, covering herself with the flap of the sack that acted as a blanket. The forest floor was hard. She couldn’t believe she once thought the life of a dragon rider was glamorous. The truth was, a quest was hard. Her eyes blinked open and shut as she struggled to sleep. She still had a sense of uneasiness no matter how often Islwyn assured her that they were safe.

  “Evie,” Islwyn said, looking over at her from his sack. “If it will help you fall asleep easier, I will stay awake until you fall asleep.”

  Evie nodded and closed her eyes. It was somewhat easier for her to fall asleep knowing that Islwyn and Zeb were around if anything should happen. The magic protected them from banished evil beings, but it didn’t stop a snake from slithering up on her or a spider crawling on her. She shuddered at the thought. After some time of telling herself to toughen up and stop acting like a sheltered child, she drifted off to sleep.

  She awoke a few hours later to a numb arm and sore back. She was definitely not used to the rough lifestyle. Evie wondered how Áedán was doing with the King’s Army training. Stop thinking about him.

  She rolled onto her back and stretched out her arms, letting the blood flow. Moonlight peeked through the cracks in the tall, old trees of the elven woods. Evie shivered and glanced over at the fire. It was nothing but burning embers now.

  She closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep, listening to the soft sounds of the forest. Then she heard a faint singing in the distance. Evie sat up, alarmed. She looked around in the darkness. She saw nothing but her fellow elf riders, asleep in their sacks. Evie stood up, put on her boots, and walked a few feet away from their camp. She didn’t want to go too far without waking them, yet she didn’t want to wake them for nothing. It could be a bird of the night for all she knew.

  The singing stopped. Evie listened carefully in silence, trying not to breathe too hard so she could hear better. Then the singing came again.

  “Gooooo goo goo goo.”

  It sounded like a long burst, followed by several shorter ones, and not words. It was almost like an owl hooting, but, at the same time, different. Intrigued, she stepped in the direction of the singing.

  “Gooooo goo goo goo.”

  It called to her. Evie raced toward the sound. She paused in her steps and went back to her bag. She reached in and grabbed her short sword for protection and a fire orb out of her magic pouch to light her way. Evie opened the small pouch and shook the powder into the air. A glowing ball of fire began to float before her, acting as a torch. It followed over her as she walked toward the singing. Evie forgot all about her sleeping companions. She needed to find the source of that sound.

  CHAPTER 25

  Islwyn woke up with a heavy feeling of dread settling into his chest. He knew something was wrong. He could sense it. Something dark and evil was nearby. They were just over the magical border of the elven woods. Not to say there wasn’t something lurking on the other side, waiting for one of them to put a toe over.

  He looked over and saw Zeb asleep in his sack. Then he looked behind him to check on Evie. She was gone. Alert with fear, Islwyn jumped to his feet and grabbed his sword. His bow and arrow wouldn’t be as good for a night attack in the dark. He should have warned Evie not to wander off too far. Then he heard its call.

  “Gooooo goo goo goo.”

  Islwyn took off running in the direction of the singing. Shit!

  Evie stepped through bushes carefully and dodged tree branches as she followed the mysterious singing. She heard water running and realized it was a stream. She followed it toward the sound as a way to remember the path she took. She didn’t know the elven woods as well as Islwyn did.

  “Gooooo goo goo goo.”

  Where are you? What are you?

  Evie continued walking cautiously toward the sound. She didn’t know how long she had wandered away or how much longer her light would last. The stream grew wider, and it dropped off into a waterfall up ahead. Evie walked to the edge and looked down. There was a tiny glen below.

  I must be really close to the mountains.

  She slowly and carefully climbed down the rocky sides to the pool of water at the base of the waterfall. It was littered with large rocks and logs. She walked out onto a large log that was wedged between two large boulders in the water, thinking to lean over and take a sip of water. As she was drinking a tiny handful of water, she realized the singing that seemed so close had stopped.

  Something churned in the water. Evie stopped drinking and fell back onto her buttocks and hands as the thing swam closer to her. Arising from the water was a creature more terrifying than she could ever have imagined.

  A large figure with thin, long arms towered over her. Evie stared at the face of the monster. Its long, stringy wet hair hung limply around its horrible face. Its leathery skin was pale green, and its yellow eyes stared at Evie hungrily. It had a long pointed nose that hooked over its large mouth. It smiled most foully, revealing green, pointed teeth. Its hands were clasped together in delight. Evie put her dragon whistle to her mouth and blew quickly.

  Please hear it, Emrys.

  Evie had never seen a green hag in real life before, but she had seen drawings of them in story books her mother read to her as a child. Hags were cannibals. I am in real trouble now. She realized the little enchanting song she had heard was the hag’s song, a song to beckon a meal. There were stories of children who followed the song and vanished, never to be seen or heard from again. While hags preferred children, they would eat any human that crossed their paths in an entire sitting.

  �
��What a tasty little morsel!” the green hag said gleefully.

  The hag was huge, towering over Evie. She was trapped on the log. Hags moved quicker in water and could see in even the murkiest of waters, so Evie didn’t dare fall in the water accidentally. She kept her hand on her sword ready to strike. Oh, why did I follow the song?

  She couldn’t beat herself up about it. No one can resist the song. Hag songs are enchanted with magic. Only someone who knew what the song was could resist it. Sea hags used their songs to lure sailors to crash ships into the rocky coastlines.

  “Please don’t eat me,” she begged the hag, speaking calmly.

  The hag cackled. “Oh, but I shall. Poor old Agnes hasn’t eaten in days.” She made a biting movement, snapping her teeth to scare Evie.

  “Agnes?” Evie asked. Keep her talking.

  “Agnes Muddlewood be my name,” she replied in a mockingly sweet tone.

  “What if we make a trade? My life for two juicy elves.” If I can get her back to camp, Islwyn and Zeb can destroy her.

  “I don’t like the taste of elves,” Agnes confessed. “They taste like leaves and flowers.”

  Evie had no reply to that. She was horrified that Agnes had eaten elves. She thought quickly about how to save herself by distracting Agnes.

  “Agnes Muddlewood!” a male voice called out.

  Evie sighed with relief when she saw Islwyn standing on top of the rocky ledge of the waterfall, looking down at them. Agnes turned around quickly, surprised by the interruption.

  “You!” Agnes cried out.

  “Yes,” Islwyn replied. “The one who got away!”

  “Not this time,” Agnes said, sliding in the shallow water toward the rocky side of the waterfall.

  Evie crawled quietly back down the log to safety while Islwyn distracted Agnes. Then she stopped and stood up. If she didn’t kill Agnes, the hag would go on to eat someone else.

  Evie drew her sword and took a strong stance. I can do this. I am a dragon rider, a protector of the realm.

  “Hey, Agnes!” Evie yelled out, ready to run the hag through.

  Agnes turned around quickly. She had clearly forgotten completely about Evie. The hag lunged at Evie, splashing water everywhere as she moved. Evie thrust her sword into the hag’s heart. The hag cried out a loud, hideous cry as she grabbed at the sword lodged in her chest. Evie withdrew it. The hag continued to cry out in pain as she hunched over to die.

  Suddenly, Emrys swooped down out of the sky into the clearing above the waterfall. He dove toward the green hag and opened his mouth, swallowing her. Emrys stood in the shallow waters, chewing and swallowing his meal. Evie’s heart was pounding in her chest. That was too close.

  “Evie!” Islwyn yelled, leaping off the short cliff and landing crouched on his feet and hands for a moment. He stood up and ran toward her.

  Evie walked off the large log carefully so as not to fall in the water.

  Islwyn met her at the end and pulled her to him. “Are you all right?”

  “I think so,” Evie replied shakily. “I thought these woods were safe.”

  “The elven woods are protected by a magical boundary, Evie,” Islwyn said. “You wandered far away. You crossed the boundary. We were right near the border of it.”

  “How far did I stray?” she asked. It didn’t feel like she had walked that far away from their camp, a disillusion from the magic.

  “A few miles,” Islwyn informed her. “This is all my fault. I should have showed you the border. I should have camped us further in the woods.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Islwyn,” Evie said. “I awoke and heard her song. There was nothing you could have done.”

  Islwyn hugged her tightly. “You handled yourself very well.”

  “I cowered on the log, pleading for my life,” Evie said, feeling cowardly.

  “You remembered to call for your dragon,” Islwyn said, looking at Emrys over her shoulder. “Your first thought was for Emrys. Emrys will always come for you. You are his rider. That strong bond is there.”

  “Islwyn?” Evie asked, looking around, noticing all the bones that were piled up beside the water. “I thought that hags lived in covens.”

  “Some do,” Islwyn said. “Not this one. I know this hag. Agnes Muddlewood. She trapped a few of us one day, calling to the border guards with her song. She was banished from her coven and lived alone. I’d heard her song before. She had me and a few other guards trapped. This was long before I was dragon-chosen. I had no dragon to save me. Only my wits. She ate my companions.”

  Evie looked at him in horror. “I’m so sorry, Islwyn.”

  “Let’s get out of here nonetheless,” Islwyn suggested, looking around at the bones. “I don’t like it here.”

  Evie nodded, and they headed back toward the cliffs hand in hand. Islwyn boosted Evie up the rocky cliff, and then she reached down and helped pull him up. Emrys took off into the night sky. The woods were too dense, so he could not fly them back to camp. As they walked back, Islwyn related the details of his capture by Agnes. Zeb was still asleep when they finally made it back to their camp. He heard them coming and rolled over.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked sleepily.

  Evie and Islwyn laughed. “Yes,” they replied in unison.

  Islwyn leaned over and whispered to her. “Let’s not tell him until morning. He will be angry that he missed all the action.”

  Evie nodded in agreement. She lay down in her sack and tried to sleep again. Islwyn moved his sack right next to hers and lay down. He pulled her closely to him and threw his arm around her waist.

  “I won’t be able to sleep unless I know you’re safe,” he explained.

  Evie didn’t argue. She felt safe in his arms and soon drifted back to sleep.

  CHAPTER 26

  “No way!” Zeb exclaimed as Evie and Islwyn related the events of the night. “The same hag that captured you a long time ago?”

  “Yes,” Islwyn said. “And Evie killed her.”

  “That’s my girl!” Zeb said proudly.

  Evie laughed.

  “She’s going to make dragon-rider history,” Zeb continued. “I can’t believe I slept through all the action last night.” He sounded genuinely disappointed. Evie knew he would have loved to fight a hag.

  They cleaned up their camp and made sure the fire was out. It was early. The sun was still rising. Evie was exhausted from the unexpected events of the night.

  The riders discussed their plan for the day as they made their way to a clearing, and then they called for their dragons. It wasn’t long before the three dragons swooped down into the clearing, and the riders were up in the air to continue their search, picking up where they left off.

  They made their way down the Dragon’s Teeth Mountain range for hours, finding no signs of a plateau that matched the description. They decided to split up for a while to cover more area quicker.

  Evie flew farther south from the other riders. Not wanting to go too far away, she was about to give up and meet back up with Islwyn and Zeb. Just a few more minutes. She scanned over the mountains and squinted, spotting a plateau with long, winding crevices. Excited that she might have found it, she flew back to Islwyn and Zeb.

  “I think I found it!” she shouted in the distance, waving her arms at them wildly. They were flying together again, probably on their way to get her. She signaled for them to follow her.

  The three riders flew determinedly back toward the plateau Evie had spotted. It did indeed have narrow, long fingerlike crevices in it.

  “We need to check each one for a river,” Zeb said, hovering in place on his white metallic dragon. “I’ll take the one over there. Islwyn you take the one next to it. Evie, head toward the middle one.”

  “Don’t descend into the valley alone, Evie,” Islwyn advised. “Just see if you can see a river from up here.”

  She nodded that she understood and set off for her crevice. She peered down in between the rocky sides and saw nothing
but mist. She tried to steer her dragon up, but he kept going lower. “Wait, Emrys,” she commanded.

  “Anything?” Islwyn asked as he and Zeb approached.

  Evie shook her head no. “I can’t tell. It’s too hard to see. We need to get lower, past this mist.”

  Zeb and Islwyn nodded in agreement. Their dragons flew them carefully between the narrow fracture in the plateau. Below the mist, they saw a dark-blue river. It was cold and damp in the valley, with patches of mist on the ground and coming off the surface of the water. A waterfall broke over a cliff from a smaller plateau inside the one they were in. It seemed to run through the mountains. Grass and rocky ground with large boulders lay on either sides of the river.

  “This is it,” Islwyn said, pointing by the waterfall at two phallic-looking rock pillars atop a small hill to the left of the river.

  Smaller stones and boulders with swirling marks and runes surrounded them. Evie had never seen anything like them before.

  “The mage was telling the truth,” Evie remarked.

  “He told you the truth about a place. Whether the amulet is hidden here or not remains to be seen,” Islwyn said doubtfully.

  “Let’s go take a look around,” Evie suggested.

  The dragons landed so that they could dismount. Islwyn and Zeb each drew an arrow and nocked it to their longbows, ready to strike if necessary. Evie drew her sword, leaving her short bow and quiver with her dragon. She felt uneasy now that they had landed. Something was off about this place. Mist swirled around her feet.

  “I don’t like this place,” Zeb said.

  “Nor do I,” Islwyn said.

  “Come on you two,” Evie said. They couldn’t give up now. She headed toward the tall rock pillars with Zeb and Islwyn spaced out behind her. Evie stumbled over a small mound in the ground. She looked down and kept going. The ground became foggier, up to her knees. She couldn’t see where she was stepping.

  They reached the smaller stones and began examining the runes.

  “They are ancient elven runes,” Zeb remarked. “Can you read them, Islwyn?”