Gabe slipped from his perch and toward the ground. He let out a scream just before he hit. “Yaaaah!”
The dragon whirled. Its eyes locked on him. With the cunning look of a natural-born killer in its lidless eyes, it charged in for the kill. From out of nowhere, Saul flung himself bodily onto the dragon. He clung to its neck. The beast thrashed as if it was on fire, screeching and rattling an awful sound. Behind it, the hunters stabbed away, piercing the flesh time and again. The dragon did not slow.
The dragon’s front claws latched onto the man’s back and flung him aside. Saul let out a painful scream. “Ahhh!”
The beast turned its vengeance on the other attackers. Dripping in sweat and fear, the wide-eyed hunters’ stalled in their efforts. The stalwart men had taken down plenty of lizards, but they’d never faced anything like that before. Doubt filled their eyes as they cast glances between one another. Fear dripped from their sweat. Without Malak pushing them, they didn’t know what to do.
“Come on, brothers!” Buggy said, but his voice was weak. “Let’s kill that chicken. Do it for Malak! Do it for Otis and Ross!”
Iron Head rushed headlong for the beast, his spear aimed square at the monster. The metal tip of the sawed-off pipe glanced off the hard bone of the dragon’s dodging skull. The pipe’s tip skipped into the ground. The dragon’s neck coiled back. Mouth wide, it struck. Iron Head’s metal helmet filled its jaws. The monster shook the man like a rag. After a sound like the breaking of a dry branch, his screams stopped. The dragon slung the limp corpse aside. It zeroed in on Saul, who was crawling his way back to his feet. Only a handful of the hunters remained.
Gabe locked eyes with his father for a moment and saw dread. Saul waved at him. “Get out of here, son! Run!” Low to the ground, the dragon, its back to Gabe, eased into his line of sight, blocking his view of his father. Deep inside, he felt he’d never see his father alive again. He turned, searching for help, screaming.
The hunters were flat-footed and wounded, bleeding and ailing, leaderless and lost. Some of them tried to creep forward and attack. Buggy was one of them, but he kept glancing back at the corpse of Iron Head. Every moment moved impossibly slowly. He searched for his father, who was still blocked from view. All he could see was the dragon’s clawed wing tips beginning to fold in—a predator moments from the kill. Malak’s spear was still protruding from its back.
With his father cornered in the rocks, Gabe somehow swallowed his fear. A rush of adrenaline overtook his body. Without a thought, he raced over the ground, jumped the dragon’s swishing tail, and climbed on its back. He grabbed the spear and put all of his weight into it. He was screaming to Buggy, “Help me! Help me!”
Buggy responded. In an instant, the lanky hunter was crushing Gabe in a bear hug from behind and putting all of his weight behind the spear. Both of them shoved down on the shaft, screaming as if they were hanging on for dear life.
The dragon bucked and twitched. The rattle in its neck sounded like a thousand angry locusts. There was an earsplitting screech that split the wind. The spear plunged through the dragon’s breast from one side to the other. The death spasm lasted an eternal moment. With a throaty sigh, the dragon flopped onto the ground and died. Its frame flattened the stones.
Gabe glanced up at Buggy, who still held onto him for dear life. The man’s eyes were squeezed shut, and he was mumbling, perhaps saying a prayer.
“It’s dead,” Gabe said. “It’s dead.” Panting for breath, he envisioned his father. He fought his way out of Buggy’s arms, shouting, “Dad! Dad!”
CHAPTER 9
Saul’s eyes were closed. His legs were pinned under the dragon’s body. The dragon’s neck lay across his chest. His face was bloody. Gabe shoved the dragon’s head and neck aside, freeing his father. “Wake up, Dad, wake up!”
“He’s breathing, Gabe,” Buggy said, sucking for breath. “Look.”
His father’s chest rose and fell. Gabe took his father’s hand in his. “I’m sorry, Father. I really am.” Sitting down, he rocked back and forth. “Just wake up. Please.”
Saul’s eyes opened. His lips parted. Seeing Gabe, he said, “What in the hell are you doing here?”
“Dad!” Gabe threw his arms around him. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “You’re alive!”
“Good for me, unlucky for you. I’m going to bust your hide, Gabe. What in the nine cities are you doing out here? You could have been killed!” Saul started to push himself up and grimaced. His face creased. “Is my back on fire or something?”
Gabe and Buggy grabbed his arms and helped him up into a sitting position.
Buggy took a peek at Saul’s back and made a sour face. “Now, that’s a flesh wound. Let me get something to stitch you up with. Eh? You’re getting the ground all bloody.” He hustled away.
With a struggle, Saul managed to pull himself free of the dragon’s body. His eyes were as big as saucers. “Damn, that’s a big thing. Who killed it?”
Gabe pulled his shoulders back a little. “Me and Buggy shoved the rest of Malak’s spear through it.” He got choked up. “I thought you were gonna die, Dad. I don’t know what happened. I just knew I had to do something.”
Under his breath, Saul said, “Perhaps you were meant to be here after all.” He grabbed Gabe by the forearm and gave it a squeeze. “But there’s going to be hell to pay for it.” He scanned the area. “From here on out, son, keep your mouth shut. I’ll do the talking. Do you understand?”
Gabe nodded.
“I mean it, Gabe. Not a word. I mean, I’m grateful to be alive, but a price is going to be paid for it.” He extended his hands. “Help me up.”
Gabe popped up, grabbed his dad’s hands, and leaned backward. The move got Saul back on his feet.
Saul started forward. His knee buckled under him, and he hit the dirt. Propping himself up on the back of his elbows, he said, “Great. Twisted knee and a busted ankle.” He bent his left knee in and out a few times. He wriggled his foot. “Maybe a bad sprain. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.” Hands out, he added, “Help me up again, dragon slayer.”
The camp was filled with long and sorry looks. Malak was on his knees, crying over the dead body of Ross. It was disturbing to see such a big man cry as if he were all broken inside. “It was his first trip out. His first trip out!” he wailed.
Buggy removed Iron Head’s helmet and straightened the man’s bull neck, which had been twisted into an unnatural position. His slender fingers closed Iron Head’s eyes. He gave Saul a look and sniffed. “He was one of the best of us. We’ve never lost one before. Why today, Saul? Why today?”
“I’m as sorry as you are,” Saul said, grimacing.
Gabe clung to his father’s side as the morbid sadness spread. Bodies were busted. Hardened wills were broken. None of them had seen anything like that before. Saul picked up his spear and leaned on it. He stood for a long moment, surveying the sadness and carnage. It made Gabe’s heart ache. What had happened wasn’t his fault, but he felt as if it was. He felt as if he’d somehow let everyone down.
Saul turned his back on the fallen and headed to the dragon. Sage was squatting down by the beast. His fingers ran over the scales and wings with avid fascination. In a soft voice, he spoke to Saul. “It’s a female. Yes?”
Nodding, Saul replied, “Yes, Sage.”
“Humph.” Sage looked up at Gabe with an eerie stare that chilled his bones. The man’s skin was like stretched leather over his face. “He’s a bit young to be out here, is he not? I must report this to the Count. She won’t be happy.”
Gabe opened his mouth, but the stern glare from his father made him close it again.
“I know,” Saul replied. “For now, I just want to get what’s left of us back in one piece.” He turned his head over his shoulder and, keeping his voice low, said to Sage, “A magnificent thing. I’ve never even imagined one so big.”
The dragon’s scales covered its body like iron diamonds. Its wings, one open and one closed, we
ren’t quite big enough to lift the hard slab of its thick body. The bones in the wings were like skeleton fingers with a membrane of brown skin pulled over them. Buggy was right, though—the dragons were like chickens. They had wings but couldn’t fly. But with dragons, it was scary as hell when they came at you.
Saul took one of the dragon’s front paws and held it up. There was fresh blood on the hooked black claws, which were bigger than three of a man’s fingers. “I’m surprised any of my back is still back there.” He let out a shuddering breath. “I feel like we should all be dead.”
“That spear lanced the heart,” Sage said. “If it hadn’t, I agree—our days would have ended forever.” Sage procured a small oil lantern and lit the wick with a metal lighter.
Gabe’s eyes fastened on the warm glow of the flame. The members of the dominion had the most fabulous things, and it was a treat every time he saw one. A tiny metal box that makes flame. I want one.
Hands running over the dragon’s body, Sage continued his inspection. His lips hid his teeth when he gasped. “There is a bulge here. A notable one. Do you agree?”
Without hesitation, Saul hobbled over. He ran his hands over the belly of the beast, looked into Sage’s eyes, and huffed a laugh. “This Lucy is pregnant. Far-along pregnant. She’s ready to burst.”
With his fingers clutching in and out, Sage asked, “Can you safely extract the eggs?”
“I can.” Saul stood up and shouted, “I need a blade. Quickly, I need a blade!”
Buggy came over with a long blade in his hand. “Will this do?”
Saul thumbed the edge. “It’s as keen as any. Let’s see what this hide is made of.” He stuck the tip just below the bulge in the dragon’s belly. The tip slid in.
“Easy now,” Sage said. The wiry man opened up the flap of a satchel hanging from his side. He pulled out a pair of gloves and slipped them on. “You cut. I’ll fish.” He eyed Gabe and the men. “And nobody touches the eggs.”
“We know.” Saul started sawing at the soft white underbelly of the dragon’s skin, making a slit big enough for a man’s hand to go through. He set the knife down and peeled the skin back. “Do your thing, Sage.”
Sage slipped his hand inside the dragon’s body. His eyes brightened. He pulled out an egg. It was smooth as stone, oval, and the color of a bruised plum. It filled his hand. He held it up to his eyes. “Fabulous. Just fabulous.”
CHAPTER 10
Gabe counted ten eggs in all, each one just as big as the other. Sage’s tight face was filled with a deep but hidden glee. Dragon eggs, especially grand-dragon eggs, were a treasure, and ten of them made for quite a find. With no celebration, Sage secured all of the eggs in his satchel. “Our losses were not in vain.”
Wild dragons were one thing. Tame dragons were another. The dragon hunters’ main purpose was to search for the eggs and return them to the dominion. More often than not, they’d fight the bigger dragons for them if the nest hadn’t been abandoned. They’d kill pregnant dragons, too, and check their bellies. The hatchling dragons that survived were raised in captivity along with the eggs.
In the dark of night, the tragedy of the battle began to subside. The dead were laid side by side, four in all—Ross, Iron Head, Trotter, and Otis. The skin of the dead was pale and lifeless.
A sudden coldness made Gabe shiver. The tear streaks on some of the men’s dirty faces were hard to take. He’d never seen any of those men cry before that day. He sniffled. With a glance upward, he caught Malak staring right into his eyes. He looked away but could still feel the man’s eyes on him.
Saul walked over to Malak and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry for your tragedy, friend. All of you.”
Malak’s hands balled up into meaty fists. Without warning, he slugged Saul in the jaw. Saul fell hard to the ground. He sat up, shaking his head and rubbing his jaw. Malak stuck a finger out at him. “Your son lives! My son dies! Your son should be dead, not mine!” He pounded his chest with his fist. “If your son wasn’t here, it would not have happened. He broke the law. He brought a bad omen!”
Sounding firm, Saul said, “That’s not true. Gabe’s presence has nothing to do with this at all.”
“It does!” Malak rushed Gabe, grabbed him by the shirt collar, and shoved him in front of the dead bodies on the ground. “You see! You see, boy! You brought misfortune to us all. You did this!”
Saul sprang up out of the dirt and slammed into Malak. He drove the bigger man to the ground. The pair locked up in a knot, swinging fists. They rolled over the rock and dirt, hammering away at one another. Just as the other men started in to break it up, Malak clipped Saul upside the temple with a stone. With Saul prone underneath his legs, Malak raised the stone for the deathblow. “A life for a life!” he screamed.
Buggy and Olley bum-rushed Malak. They shoved him back. The rest of the hunters formed a wall between their leader and Saul.
It was Sage who brought order to the chaos. “Enough. The dominion will settle this.” He stepped over to Malak and looked him in the eye. “You’d best hope you did not kill that man. You know the law of our land. Shed another man’s blood, and so shall yours be shed.”
Puffing, Malak shot Sage a look. “And what about my son’s blood? Where is the justice for him?”
“Your son was killed by the dragon. We are all witnesses.”
Malak retorted, “On account of a man.”
“Again, there will be an investigation,” Sage said. “We’ll see what the dominion says. And I firmly suggest that you keep yourself settled between now and then.”
Gabe scrambled over to his dad. Saul was up again and holding a bump that was forming on his head. “Are you okay?” Gabe asked.
Eyeing Malak, he gave a quick nod. “I am.” He gathered his feet under him and stood up. Leaning on Gabe, he limped a few paces. “We need to get you back.”
As the other hunters milled about, Sage approached Saul and Gabe. “Your son has breached the wall, Saul. It’s possible that the dominion will not let him back in.”
“What?” Saul said in shock. “What do you mean? He can’t return?” Saul’s brows buckled. “That’s not how you made it sound earlier. Now, all of a sudden, we are to be abandoned out here?”
“Calm yourself, and think about the issues that are unique to this situation. The dominion will require all the details of what has happened.” Sage shifted his egg-loaded satchel behind his back. “Four deaths could put Newton in turmoil. It won’t be taken well.”
“That’s insane!” Saul said. “It’s not as if dragons haven’t caused the death of men before. It’s just been a long time.”
“And if you recall, the last time, riots broke out,” Malak yelled. “You’re a fool of a man, Saul. You always have been. Four dead. Men with families. It’s on your head!”
“Calm yourself, Malak!” Sage warned. His tone became dead serious. “The dominion will handle the trouble from here on out. Until they render a decision, every man in the company, every last one of you, will keep silent. Not a word even among yourselves.” Sage walked past the men, eyeing them all. “And if so much as one of my ears tickles, I’ll see to it that you have a face to face with the Count. We all know how the Count despises troublemakers.”
Buggy swallowed. Several of the other hardy men shrank in their boots—everyone but Malak. He still had something to say. “The Count hates lawbreakers too!”
CHAPTER 11
Sage and the other hunters departed quickly without so much as a word. Buggy was the last to go. He left some thread and a needle along with the rest of his food and water. He gave Gabe a wink before he hustled away and out of sight.
“Can you use that thread?” Saul said as he took off his shirt. Several places on his back were clawed open, but only the worst required stitches. It was a nasty gash, still fresh with blood, about a finger long.
Wiping the sweat from his goggles with the hem of his shirt, Gabe said, “Of course I can.” He threaded the needle before Saul�
��s eyes. “See?”
Saul handed over Buggy’s canteen. “Just clean the bad ones. Save the water in case we need it later.”
Gabe’s tummy rumbled. His stomach was in knots so bad that he thought he might pass out.
Saul looked into his rucksack and removed a hunk of dried meat. “Eat this. I can’t have you getting all shaky when you thread me.”
Hesitating, Gabe asked, “Aren’t you hungry?”
“No, the pain has washed my hunger away.”
Gabe frowned.
“My pain will pass, Gabe. It doesn’t last forever. Just eat, and get me stitched up.”
Gabe tore off a hunk of jerky with his teeth and chewed. The dried, salty meat squelched his hunger the more he swallowed. Finishing the sparse meat, he dusted off his hands, thanked his dad, and got to work. It wasn’t the first time he’d sewn up his father. His grandmother, Mabel, had taught him how to do it a couple of years earlier. She stopped talking shortly after that.
He sank the hook into the skin, and one loop at a time, he sewed the gaping wound back together. Gabe rubbed a little water on it. “All done.”
“Good job, son.” Saul patted Gabe’s head. “Help me over to that rock. It looks like a good place to keep an eye on things.”
With his father’s arm draped over his shoulder, Gabe led him back to the rock. He’d never seen his dad so beat up before. The man’s lip was split. The lump on his head Malak had given him was the size of a plum, and Saul could barely put any weight on his leg.
“This is my fault, isn’t it?” Gabe said.
With a stern look, Saul replied, “I’m not going to lie to you. There’s going to be a price, Gabe. When you break the rules, there are consequences. I’ve told you that more than a dozen times. But you aren’t the reason those men died. The dragon is. Nobody saw that coming.” He poked Gabe in the shoulder. “Nobody.”
“I’m not a bad omen?”
Squawk: Beginnings (Book #1) Page 4
