Order Of The Dragon (Omnibus 1-4)

by Jason Halstead

  "Damn the saints," Carson cursed. The ape was rushing to get to the bottom of the cliff so he couldn't get away. He looked down at the jungle roughly sixty feet below him. Another forty or fifty feet once he reached the boughs of the trees. Carson frowned. There was no way he could beat Bucky to the bottom. His cage had gotten bigger but he was still trapped.

  Carson lifted his head to look to the west just as a green light swept across the ocean. He grunted, surprised at catching the sun at the perfect time as it sank beneath the horizon to see the green flash. Darkness would come quickly now and only the stars and moon overhead would guide his way.

  He looked down at the jungle canopy. The apes seldom hunted at night, especially deep in the jungle. Perhaps he could slip past them in the dark. That, or he could use the trees to his advantage. If he could go from the branches of one tree to another, he might yet get away. Carson nodded and tried to move his arm. It burned when he moved his shoulder very much, but his elbow seemed all right. His hand and wrist felt numb and refused to fully cooperate.

  "I can do this," Carson whispered to himself. He glanced up and saw the outline of the ape still sitting watch on the tower. "I will do this!" he shouted up to her.

  She grunted in return and shifted her position. Pebbles and dust rained down around him. He scowled at her and turned his attention to the wall of the cliff. It was going to be a long night ahead of him but he was determined to see it through.

  Chapter 25

  "Next time leave me behind," Namitus complained after Alto set him down on the wet rock shelf beside the underground river. "It's not that I'm not appreciative; it's just there's only so much of staring at your armored arse that I can appreciate!"

  Alto chuckled and glanced at Patrina. She shrugged. "I wouldn't mind staring at it a while."

  Alto's jaw dropped at her indecent remark. She smiled and turned away but not before the light from his shield showed the pink blossoming on her cheeks.

  Namitus coughed after the silence grew awkward. "So, swimming now?"

  "Just a little," Patrina said. "There's another ledge ahead."

  "The last time I tried swimming with armor it didn't go so well," Alto reminded them.

  "Take it off," Patrina said.

  "What about Bucky?"

  Patrina frowned. "Do you think your armor will help you against him?"

  "Saved me last time from being squashed into a tree."

  "Shine your light downstream. More to the left. There—that's the next ledge I was talking about. It's not very far," Patrina coached the warrior.

  "Still too far to swim."

  "But is it too far to throw?"

  Alto frowned. "Throw? Nobody's going to throw me!"

  "You're such a farm boy sometimes," Patrina chided him. "Take the armor off and throw it over there, then swim and put it back on!"

  Alto clamped his mouth shut and then nodded. "I guess I can try that." He began to unbuckle his armor and after seeing him fumbling with only one hand, Patrina moved to help him. Together they removed the steel and chain in a matter of moments.

  Patrina wrinkled her nose at him once his armor was off. "Finally, somebody smells worse than me!"

  "What? You don't smell bad!"

  "That's what I keep telling people," she said. She shrugged. "Start tossing it. Wait! Let me swim over first so I can keep it from bouncing off."

  "You're going to swim in that?" Alto asked with a gesture at her skimpy armor.

  "I did before. It's light." Patrina laughed and winked at him. "Or were you hoping to get me to take it off first?"

  Namitus laughed, breaking the spell that left Alto open mouthed and stupefied. He turned away, his cheeks burning, and mumbled, "Just get going then."

  Patrina grinned and planted a kiss on his cheek before she slid her axe between her belt and her hip. She made sure the blade was hooked over the belt so it wouldn't slip through and then she jumped in the cold river and swam to the next ledge. She pulled herself up and retrieved her axe. She waved and yelled up to them, "Go ahead, I'm ready!"

  Alto started with the smaller pieces of armor and flung them across to her. He threw them one at a time, even tossing his armored boots to her, until he tried to pick up his breastplate. He could lift it with one hand but there was no way he could throw it.

  "Float it to her," Namitus suggested.

  Alto looked at him, his brows furrowed. "It's metal! It won't float."

  "Flip it so that the hollowed side faces up," Namitus said.

  Alto frowned but turned it upside down. On all but the bottom of it, a lip of metal curved in. He knelt down next to the end of the ledge and set it carefully in the water and watched it. Water slipped over the bottom and flooded, pulling it below the surface. Alto pulled it out of the water and shook his head.

  "Then swim with that piece and keep it above water," Namitus suggested.

  "What about you?"

  "I'll be fine," Namitus said. He pantomimed swimming with his arms. "I don't need my leg to swim."

  "It helps."

  The rogue shrugged. "Sure, but for that short distance I don't need it."

  "Go ahead. I'll come last."

  Namitus frowned and then stuck out his hand. Alto grabbed it and helped the wounded man to his feet. The rogue hopped over to the edge and then sat down. He dangled his feet in the water, hissing at the cold, and then slid in and began to stroke for the other ledge. Patrina met him there and helped him crawl out of the water.

  Alto looked at his shield and his breastplate, all that remained of his armor. He didn't expect either one would make it across without his assistance. He frowned and then grabbed his shield. With the magic in it that lit his way, he deemed it was more important. Alto slipped into the water, the icy temperature stealing his breath for a moment. He struck out for the ledge, kicking and trying to use his left hand to aid his progress. He made it and clung to the edge with his elbows, gasping for breath from the short swim.

  "Out of shape?" Patrina asked.

  "You try swimming with a shield!" he sputtered.

  "Come on, Namitus says the water's cold."

  "It is," Alto agreed. He stared up at Patrina and frowned. "You're halfway to being bare as a babe—why aren't you chilled?"

  Patrina shrugged. "The armor, I think. Magic."

  Alto grunted. He pushed the shield farther onto the ledge and said, "I'll be right back." Before Patrina could respond, he swam upstream to retrieve his breastplate. The current was steady and the effort left him winded. He waited a few moments to catch his breath but the chattering in his teeth told him he dared not tarry. Alto slid his breastplate into the water and tried to hold it so that it would float along the water.

  By the time he reached the far ledge, he barely managed to get the piece of armor on to the ledge. Patrina grabbed his shirt and heaved, keeping him above water until he could get his hands on the ledge and pull himself up. Once there, he lay gasping and shivering.

  "Get up, you lug," Patrina said. "You need to move to warm up. It'll be warmer once we leave the cave, too."

  "It's night out," Alto stuttered.

  "But it's still warmer out there than it is in a cave, or have you forgotten your time in the mountains?"

  Alto frowned and then nodded. He rose slowly and looked down at his sodden clothing.

  "I can't help you there," Patrina said with a shrug. "You could take it off and wring it out. I won't tell anyone."

  "Now you're trying to see me," Alto accused.

  "Alto, my father gave you my hand. We're betrothed. Does it really matter? I can turn around if I must."

  Alto shivered in spite of the heat in his face. "We're not wed yet; it doesn’t seem right."

  Patrina sighed and turned around. "Hurry up, farm boy."

  Namitus snickered while Alto watched her for a moment and then hurried to pull his doublet off and squeeze out as much water as he could. He put it back on and repeated the action with his pants, and then cleared his throat. "Ok
ay, I'm decent."

  "Far too decent, I might add," Patrina said as she turned. "Now get your armor on, dragonslayer. We've got an ape to kill."

  "You want to kill Bucky?" Alto asked.

  Patrina nodded. "He'll be after us and the island is only so big. Carson survived because he and Bucky had an understanding. That understanding is over now, or at the least it doesn't apply to us."

  "But he's thirty feet tall!"

  "More than twenty, but not thirty," she argued. "And since when have you turned down a challenge? You've killed giants, ogres, and a dragon."

  "Bucky's different," Alto said. "Unpredictable. Fast. Dangerous."

  "Good thing giants and dragons aren't dangerous. Like stabbing a teddy bear."

  Alto sighed. "Fine, we'll hunt the ape."

  "No, the ape's hunting us," she corrected.

  Alto started to put his armor back on, with Patrina helping him. While he dressed, he asked, "So we just wait for him then?"

  "No, we need to find a place to set up some defenses. Keep him from coming all at once. Him and his lady-friends."

  "Where?"

  Patrina shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think somewhere along the cliff. That will keep them from surrounding us."

  "And it keeps us from being able to escape," Namitus pointed out.

  "Like you're in any condition to fight," Patrina said. "We'll keep you somewhere safe, don't worry."

  "You said Thork was here. How close is he?" Alto asked.

  "He's at the mouth of this cave. He's got a hut set up on the beach."

  Alto grinned. "Thork will help us, I know it!"

  "Kill Bucky?"

  "Maybe not directly, but he'll give us something to help do it."

  Patrina glanced at the axe in her hand and nodded. "He does seem helpful, now that you mention it. I wouldn't want to be his assistant, though."

  "Bonky?"

  She nodded again.

  "He's not very nice," Alto agreed.

  "No, he's not, but that's not what I meant. The abuse he goes through—Thork experiments on him with his potions!"

  "So? He's a goblin."

  Patrina ran her thumb along the blade of her axe to test its sharpness. "He is a goblin, but that doesn't mean he deserves this treatment."

  Alto shrugged and finished tying his boots. "It works for them."

  She sighed. "I guess it does. Are you ready then?"

  "Ready to go for another ride, Namitus?"

  "If you break wind again, I'm going to stab you in the arse!"

  Alto sputtered and stammered until the rogue's laugh gave him away for lying. Patrina leaned over and gave Alto another kiss on the cheek. "Told you, you stink."

  Alto stared at her as she walked down the ledge away from them, a little extra sway in her metal-clad hips. He sputtered for a moment and then hurried over to Namitus. "Hold me!" Namitus cried out with both hands raised.

  Alto scowled and then threw the rogue over his shoulder like a sack of wheat. He hurried to catch up to Patrina, jostling the rogue with each step and earning a stream of curses from the colorful man.

  The beach was beautiful and isolated, as Patrina had told them. With the stars and moon to guide them, they walked along the river until they could see where it left the grasses behind and split the sand on its path to the ocean. What they didn't see was a hut, a table, a troll, or a goblin.

  "Where's Thork?" Alto cried.

  "Gone," Patrina said in a flat voice. "I'd really gotten my hopes up, too."

  "You got your hopes up to see a troll?" Namitus asked.

  Alto shrugged his shoulders, jostling the man and making him groan.

  "Thank you," Patrina said.

  "Well, now what?" Alto asked.

  "What's that?" Patrina pointed to the rock wall that isolated the beach from the rest of the island to the north and west.

  Alto squinted but couldn't make out anything in the darkness. "I don't see anything."

  Patrina was already moving towards it. Alto followed her and picked up his speed to match hers when she gasped. When he got closer, the light from his shield played across the flat rock and showed a crudely drawn picture. A large green face with large white teeth was next to a smaller black face. Beside it was a message painted just as crudely with a white paint.

  "Gon sowth for skaree fings. Deez iz for yoo stoopids if yooz iz hurtin."

  Underneath the broken message three stopped bottles lay sitting in the sand.

  "Amazing," Patrina said while she shook her head.

  "I can think of a better word for him," Namitus suggested.

  Alto lowered Namitus to the ground and handed him one of the bottles. "Drink up. Maybe you can be useful after all."

  The rogue raised an eyebrow and then sniffed the bottle. He grimaced and waited for Alto and Patrina to take one. "Does it bother anyone that we're taking some alchemical concoction created by a troll who's not even here anymore?"

  "If he wished us ill, he wouldn't have helped us," Patrina said.

  Alto nodded. "Why'd he go south?" the warrior wondered aloud.

  "Scary things, he said," Patrina said.

  Alto frowned. They'd just come from the south and left his sister there. Or maybe the troll meant somewhere else. Thork had once told him, a long time ago, that he came from some swamp in the south. And how did he leave if they didn't have a ship? Alto scowled and raised the potion to his lips. He tilted it back and drained it in three quick swallows, and then grimaced at the taste of fish.

  The others drank but Alto paid no attention to them. He steeled himself and waited. Every time Thork's magic was used on him, there was a price to pay. A waking nightmare or, in the most recent example, a visit from Saint Jarook. After a few moments, he felt nothing save for a burning sensation that started in his hand and spread through his body. It passed in a minute, leaving him sweating and cold again. He held up his hand and flexed it, and then grinned. Even his back where the boar had stabbed him felt fine.

  Patrina slammed into him, making him stagger and nearly falling over. "What—" he started to ask before her arms had wrapped around him and pulled her tightly against her.

  "Just promise me you'll never leave me," she whispered. The urgency in her tone wasn't lost on the warrior.

  "Um, I won't. I promise. Do you mean like a journey to the kingdom or something else?" Alto asked her, confused.

  "I mean you leaving me. For someone else. Another woman. Another warrior."

  Alto forced a laugh to show how crazy the idea sounded. "Never," he reassured her. "Was that what Thork's potion did, made you afraid that I'd leave you?"

  She nodded and buried her face into his neck.

  "Another warrior? That's—"

  "Her," Patrina whispered. "The girl playing knight."

  "Aleena?"

  She nodded.

  Alto pushed Patrina's face back far enough that he could look into her eyes. "You have nothing to fear."

  "Good," she said. "Because if I did, I'd—"

  Alto kissed her, silencing her threats. "Thork's magic does this. You face your fears."

  "What did you see?" Patrina asked him.

  "Nothing."

  "Nothing? Aren't you afraid? What if we never get off this island?"

  "I still have fear. I learned how to master it," he said.

  "Oh!"

  "If you two are done, I guess I don't have any excuses to avoid helping you anymore," Namitus said from where he stood nearby.

  Alto nodded and smiled, and then turned back to Patrina as she backed away from him. "How's your leg?"

  "Knee," she corrected him. She lifted her leg and swung it at the knee a few times before she grinned. "It's perfect!"

  "Time to go monkey hunting then," Alto said.

  Patrina stared at Namitus but the rogue turned away before she could open her mouth. She frowned and followed after the two men, and then she remembered they'd never been to this part of the island before. She jogged to get ahead of them so she coul
d lead the way. Alto watched her move past him and found his eyes drawn to the way she moved in her new armor. He didn't mind following her, for a little while, at least.

  Chapter 26

  They walked three abreast through the edge of the jungle. The cliff was on their left, with Namitus closest to it and Alto in the middle. A few feet separated them and they took care to move as quietly as possible. The soggy jungle ground aided them but Alto's metal armor clinked with almost every step.

  Their discretion seemed unnecessary. The apes were ahead of them in the jungle and grunting and roaring. They heard the sound of leaves and branches shaking against each other and wood cracking. Alto wondered if the apes knew where they were already.

  Patrina hissed and held her hand out to them. She crouched down, causing her skirt to rise up on her leg. Alto jerked his eyes away from her thigh, reasoning that he shouldn't be looking in the first place, and even if he did, the darkness in the jungle stopped him from seeing more than a shadowy outline of her legs.

  "I see them!" Patrina whispered. "Ahead, they're climbing trees and bending or breaking them."

  "Why?"

  "So much for the Britanly spears," Namitus whispered. Both of his companions gave him a sharp look. "What? The wood of the trees can't be that strong if it bends under their weight."

  Patrina scowled and looked away from him. "Are you sure about this?"

  Alto nodded. He had a plan. It wasn't a great plan, but it was a plan. "Namitus, along the cliff. Patrina, you flank them through the jungle. I'll draw them to me."

  Patrina raised her axe and nodded. Namitus drew his scimitar and a dagger. "Let's get this monkey business under way."

  Alto closed his eyes and shook his head. He heard Patrina hiss at the rogue, "Just go!" He felt Patrina's lips on his, prompting him to open his eyes and try to return the kiss but she'd already pulled back and turned away. Alto nodded and watched her disappear into the darkness.

  He waited a few minutes and then walked forward towards the sound of the apes. He drew his sword and clanged his hand against the mountain under the crown emblem on his shield. Light flared into the jungle before him.