Dragonjacks: Book 1 - The Shepherd: A Dragons of Cadwaller Novel

by Vickie Knestaut

  Tyber drew a deep breath and tried to go through all the lectures that Master Gury had given on the care of dragons. He’d spoken of the drawing compounds and what they were used for, and he gave a few examples of when to use them, but he couldn’t recall exactly how they were made.

  He nodded.

  “Then it looks like you just found some work,” Brath said as he swung his attention to Ander. “Get us some drawing compound.”

  Ander shook his head. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass.”

  “Pass?” Brath shifted in his saddle. He drew a deep breath as if pained to have to say such a thing. “And here I thought you might actually be useful.”

  “First off, we don’t have what’s needed to make it. Second—”

  “How do you know that?” Brath asked. “You know how to make it, too?”

  Ander shook his head. “I don’t. But I do know that we don’t have much. Which is why we’re looking for work.”

  “What do you need?” Brath asked Tyber.

  “I’m the one in charge here,” Ander said, stepping forward. “If you want to work with one of my men, you work with me, first.”

  The other riders all swung their arrows from Tyber to Ander as he approached Brath atop his dark brown dragon. The lead rider cocked his eyebrow again as he looked down at Ander.

  “You forget that you’re in my territory,” Brath said. “If you don’t want to work with me, then you can move on.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Ander said, then turned away. He motioned at Ren, then looked over his shoulder to Tyber. “Come on, men, saddle up.”

  “Brath!” Halton cried.

  “Tyber!” Ander called as he approached Verana.

  Tyber looked at Halton. “Sorry. I’d like to help if I could. I know what it’s like.”

  He started for Rius and did his best to ignore all of the arrows pointed at his back.

  “Wait!” Brath called. “Hold on. Ander. Ander of Thralkeld. Talk to me.”

  Ander stopped, but didn’t turn around right away. Ren went ahead and began to undo the knot that held Maybelle tethered to a tree trunk.

  “Tell me what you need, and I’ll either get it for you, or I’ll get the money for you. Once you bring us some of that compound, then I’ll pay you a fair price.”

  “An honest price?” Ander asked as he turned back to the dragonjacks.

  Brath smirked. “Yeah. An honest price.”

  He looked at Tyber. “What do you need?”

  Tyber took a deep breath and looked at Ander. Ander nodded subtly.

  “I need uh…” Tyber began, looking back to Brath. “Uhm. Well. Let’s see. First I’m going to need—”

  “Oh, for all the sky. I don’t need your shopping list! How much? How much do you need to get the makings?”

  “I…” Tyber shrugged. “I guess a… I don’t know. Maybe ten strips of silver?”

  “You don’t know how much?” Brath asked.

  Tyber shrugged. Heat rose across his face again. “I don’t know how fair—how honest your apothecaries are out here. In Iangan.”

  Brath threw his head back and laughed. Several teeth were missing from just below the right side of his nostril. The other riders stirred, and chuckled nervously.

  “Truth be told, they’re probably more honest than the apothecaries in the mother city. Out here, you have to live with the people you do business with. If ten strips of silver will be enough in the mother city, then it’ll be more than enough out here. I’ll send Halton along with you. He’ll be the one holding the purse.”

  “You don’t trust us?” Ander asked.

  Brath smiled at Ander. “Sure I do! As much as you trust us.”

  “Fair,” Ander said with a nod. “But why send him? If he’s just one man, and we’re going to take your silver and run, why not just take it from him?”

  “You two,” Brath said as he pointed at Ander and Ren, “I wouldn’t put it past. But this one here,” he said, turning his finger toward Tyber, “is going to get the three of you killed someday. If he’s dumb enough to hand over a box of dragon salve out of nothing more than the kindness of his gullible heart, then he’s not much of a threat to Halton. And if you two find him acceptable, then you can’t be all that cutthroat yourselves. And also, Halton will just have ten strips of silver. If you bring back enough of that drawing compound to…”

  Brath held his hands as if grasping a quart jar. “Enough to fill a good jar, then I’ll see there’s a bar of silver in it for you. And if the stuff works, then I might be able to find you some more work. Good work.”

  Ander nodded. “I’ll accept that deal.”

  Brath smiled, shifted in his saddle, and braced himself with a hand on the lip as he leaned forward and arched his back some. His smile faltered slightly before coming back strong. He offered his other hand. “You need to shake on it?”

  Ander smiled. “No. You have an honest face.”

  Brath laughed again, then looked at the rider sitting beside him, who laughed as well.

  “You think that’s funny?” Brath demanded of the other man.

  The rider on his right wiped the smile from his face, then shook his head. “No. Not really.”

  Brath’s grin came back. “Too bad, you moron, because it really was pretty funny.”

  Brath laughed again and slapped his knee. He turned his attention to Halton. “You and Gurvi stay with them. Get them what they need. And if that compound does what we need it to do, then you bring them on to the weyr, right?”

  Halton nodded once, then looked at Ander sideways, as if trying to hide his nervousness.

  Brath fished in a pouch at his side, then held his fist out. Halton ran up, cupped his palms together, and lifted them as Brath opened his fist. Silver clinked inside the bowl of Halton’s palms.

  “I suppose I don’t have to tell you that if anything should happen to Halton, we’ll hunt you down and kill you all,” Brath said to Ander.

  “I just assumed as much.”

  “Good. And I tell you that this isn’t an idle threat. The man I work for has eyes and ears all across this kingdom and the next. You kill one of his riders, he’ll make sure your dragon is the one that pays. Got that?”

  Ander nodded once.

  “Good. But I hope you won’t fail me. Despite that honest face of yours.” Brath smiled, then grasped the saddle lip before himself. “Stow your bows, riders. We’re taking off.”

  The riders followed Brath and his dark brown dragon as they took off into the sky, circled once, and left toward the southwest again.

  “So,” Ren said, turning to Halton. “You’re a dragonjack, right?”

  Chapter 11

  Halton watched his companions leave then turned to Ren. “You call yourself a dragonjack?” he asked.

  “I call myself Ren. This is Maybelle.” Ren patted his dragon’s neck.

  Halton looked at Tyber, then Ander, then back to Ren. His nervousness made Tyber uneasy as well.

  “So what happened to your dragon?” Ander asked as he began to approach slowly. “Gurvi is her name?”

  Halton nodded. “Yes. I uh…” He gestured back at the violet dragon. “She’s not been feeling well. I guess the lot of them got into some bad air somewhere. Boils. And scale shedding.”

  Tyber started for Gurvi, moving slowly as well. Halton watched him, then backed up as if he wanted to keep himself between Gurvi and the others.

  “Has it reached the wings yet?” Ander asked.

  Halton stiffened some, his eyes growing wider. He nodded, then swallowed hard. “Not Gurvi. But Pendro. She’s got it, too. Her wings are… She can’t fly.”

  “Pendro is the alpha?” Tyber asked.

  Halton swallowed again and nodded. “She’s got it bad. That’s why Brath is willing to take a chance on the three of you. Pendro is in the worst shape. So if you can… I mean, you can do this, right? Make the compound?”

  “We can,” Ander said right away. “And we will. Do you want
to be off now?”

  “Off?” Halton asked. “Oh! Oh. Yes. Uhm… Let me think…” Halton looked at the grass at Ander’s feet. He nodded again, almost as if talking to himself.

  Tyber rubbed his hands over his arms. This was not the kind of person he’d expected to find when they came across dragonjacks. He’d expected a whole horde of people like Brath, or like the dragonjacks he’d fought. Halton seemed so nervous, even more so than when they’d first met.

  “Right. We should pay a visit to Koff.” Halton looked up to Tyber. “He’s got what you need. Or he can get it.”

  “Where is Koff?” Ander asked.

  Halton’s attention snapped back to Ander as if surprised to find him still standing there. “Koff. He’s… Well, uhm. He lives…” Halton looked to the east and pointed. “There’s a place where the Amami here joins the Stalt. It’s in a small bit of woods. Marshy area. And he lives there. It’s not that far away. I mean, it’s a bit of a walk, but by dragon… there and back in half a day. At most.”

  “Do you want to go now?” Ander asked.

  Halton nodded. “Brath wants it right away.”

  “All right,” Ander said. He looked at Tyber as he rubbed his chin, then turned back to Halton. “You get ready. Tyber and I are going to have a word about the price, and then he’ll be ready to go.”

  Ander grasped Tyber’s shoulder and steered him away.

  “I am trusting you to handle this on your own,” he said, his voice low as he stepped up beside Tyber.

  “I don’t know how—”

  “This guy is almost as nervous as you. I think the two of you will hit it off quite well. I think Ren and I will only intimidate him. We need to get on their good side, and Halton is our ticket in. He already trusts you.”

  “But I don’t know how to make a drawing compound. Master Gury said what we use it for, but he never explained how to make one.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ander said, squeezing Tyber’s shoulder. “Fake it.”

  “Fake it? But they’re expecting us to hand over a drawing compound.”

  “There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people in the mother city who make a living by selling salves and ointments that cure everything, but don’t actually do anything.”

  “But—”

  Ander stopped. “Don’t ask for anything specific when you meet this apothecary. Better yet, ask for something you made up. Something you definitely cannot get. And when he says he doesn’t have it, look disappointed like he’s wasting your time. Ask him what he does have for a drawing compound. He’ll tell you what you need.”

  “Wait,” Tyber said, holding up a hand. “If it’s just that easy, then why don’t they do it?”

  “Who?”

  “The dragonjacks. Or even the apothecary himself. Why do they need me if he knows how to do it?”

  Ander took a deep breath, then patted Tyber on the shoulder. “That’s a good question. I look forward to hearing the answer.”

  “What? Wait, I—”

  “Think on your feet, Tyber. You got a quarter-day’s ride to think of something. You just need to look like you know what you’re doing. You don’t actually have to get a drawing compound. At least not one that works. You get the door open a crack, then I’ll figure out how to get us in further. Trust me.”

  Tyber let out an exasperated breath. He looked over his shoulder at Halton, who sat in Gurvi’s saddle and watched them, his face unreadable.

  “And another thing,” Ander said as his hand slid from Tyber’s shoulder. “Be sure to spend all of Halton’s money.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  “All right.”

  “Ren and I will wait back at the camp for you. We’ll have plenty of wood for a nice fire.”

  Tyber looked at Halton and Gurvi. “I can hardly wait.”

  After climbing into Rius’ saddle, Tyber followed Halton and Gurvi into the sky. They flew along the creek for a couple of hours. Tyber tried to make sense of Ander’s advice, but he was so far out of his league that everything just fell apart.

  There really should have been a course at the academy dedicated to duplicity. Or Ren should have been the one to come along.

  Finally, as they approached the largest patch of woods Tyber had seen in some time, Halton signaled for them to go to ground. Gurvi landed at the edge of a tree line, and Tyber brought Rius in beside her.

  “That’s an incredible dragon,” Halton said as Rius folded her wings and laid them against her back.

  “Thanks,” Tyber said. “I don’t often see dragons Gurvi’s shade of purple. She’s like a violet in bloom.”

  “Yeah,” Halton said, then patted Gurvi’s shoulder as he looked back along the length of her. His attention dropped to a blemish along her flank. Several scales had fallen away, and an angry red boil glistened among the pink flesh. A generous layer of dragon salve covered it.

  Tyber climbed down from the saddle and tethered Rius to a tree alongside Gurvi before following Halton into the woods. As they pushed deeper, the dry ground became soft. They rounded puddles of mud that swelled in the path.

  “So you learned how to take care of dragons in the King’s academy?” Halton asked, glancing over his shoulder.

  Tyber nodded.

  “Did you like it?”

  Tyber shrugged. “It was all right, I guess. I mean, I ate well. And it was nice to have a roof over my head.”

  “But?” Halton asked.

  Tyber peered past Halton.

  “I didn’t really care for all the rules. I mean…” He took a deep breath. “I had to. I got caught stealing. And this proctor… the one who caught me, gave me a choice. I had to enroll in the academy or be tossed into a dungeon.”

  “Hard choice, huh?” Halton asked.

  “Yeah,” Tyber said with a hint of a laugh. “Real tough.”

  “That’s surprising,” Halton said, looking back at Tyber. “That he’d give you a choice like that? I mean, hordesmen are supposed to be all full of honor and virtue and stuff like that. So why would that proctor want a thief among their ranks?”

  Tyber’s jaw tightened. He had to think better, quicker than that. But then again, why not tell Halton the truth? Or at least part of it.

  “They were desperate for recruits. The wing master had taken a giant swell of dragons over the mountains to fight the West. And he was never heard from or seen again. The mother city was left with hardly any riders. They were so desperate for recruits they offered bonuses to people who volunteered, and I guess they had to settle for whoever they could get.”

  Halton smiled and shook his head. “And look where it got them, right?”

  “Yeah,” Tyber said, dipping beneath a bough that grew over the path. “I was happy to stay out of prison, but I sure wild-well didn’t want to spend the rest of my life enforcing the King’s laws. Making sure that the rich stay rich and guys like me stay poor.”

  “I know what you mean,” Halton said. “Poor for life. That’s my lot.”

  Tyber ran his tongue across the roof of his mouth. The words had felt too comfortable as they passed over his lips. It surprised him how close he’d come to forgetting them in his final days at the academy. As they escorted the caravan into the mother city, he and the other surviving recruits had been welcomed as heroes by the people. How easily he’d forgotten that what he had done was protect the investments of the wealthy, the merchants who paid for all the goods in the caravan. His friend Fang had died to protect their profits.

  He shook his head as his chest began to tighten. “How did you end up with a dragon?”

  Halton looked ahead. “Gurvi was my brother’s dragon. He died.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Halton shook his head, but didn’t look back. “Hordesmen. Can’t have commoners riding the King’s dragons, can we?”

  “No,” Tyber said. “Definitely not.”

  “But I didn’t have any kind of training,” Halton said over his shoulder. “Not lik
e you. Brath took me under his wing. Showed me how to fly. How to care for a dragon. He felt bad about Troth’s death.”

  “Your brother?”

  Halton nodded, then looked down as his boot squelched into a puddle of mud.

  “Uck!” He yanked his foot out. A foul odor swelled from the muck.

  “I hate coming here,” Halton said. “I don’t care much for Koff, either. But if you can help us fix up the dragons… Man, I can’t tell you how grateful Sirvon will be.”

  “How long have the dragons been sick?”

  Halton shrugged. “Been a while now. A couple months. Gurvi lost her first scale about three weeks ago. The skin around it was weeping, and then the scale fell off. But that was all. It dried up and hasn’t done anything since. I’m waiting to see if the scale will grow back with the molt. But that angry boil…” He shook his head. “Pendro was the first to get sick. And she’s the worst off. You save her, and Sirvon will do anything for you. You could have a gold-plated saddle.”

  Tyber chuckled. “I don’t think Rius would care much for that.”

  Halton stopped and looked back to Tyber. “You can do it, though, right? You can make the dragons better?”

  Tyber’s heart beat hard. He nodded. “I’ll do my best. I promise. I’m not a dragon healer. But when I was at the academy, I found I actually liked the lectures. At least the ones about the dragons. I learned a lot. I think I can help.”

  “Did you learn why they breathe fire?”

  Tyber smiled and shook his head. “No one knows.”

  “Oh!” Halton said and rolled his eyes up to the canopy. “Don’t let Brath hear you say that! He says he knows for certain why it is. They mix these two gasses in a special organ right about here.”

  He touched his fingertips to a space just beneath his heart.

  “But where does the spark come from?” Tyber asked, cocking an eyebrow and remembering how Master Gury had challenged another recruit the same way in the lecture on firebreath.

  “Flint and steel,” Halton said with an affirmative nod. “Back of the throat,” he went on, pointing to his mouth. “Their mothers feed it to them when they’re whelps.”

  “Really?” Tyber asked, raising a disbelieving eyebrow.