Order Of The Dragon (Omnibus 1-4)

by Jason Halstead

  The knights remained silent for the most part. A few spoke quietly to one another but it was a single knight who stepped out from his bunk and scooped up his helm off his footlocker. "Dame," he addressed her. "We will ride with you, but I expect we all want to know who we're serving. Do we still ride for Leander, or do we ride to advance Dame Aleena?"

  Celos reacted before Aleena could stop him. He stomped forward with a hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. "Henrick, still your tongue!" he snapped. "How dare you challenge a Paladin of Leander!"

  Aleena stepped forward and put her hand on Celos's arm. "No," she said. She turned to the knight and then looked about the room to meet as many eyes as she could. "Henrick is right to question me. Any of you are right to do so, whether in your hearts or your heads. I welcome your questions."

  She paused and offered Henrick a smile. "Sir Celos and I spoke with Queen Rosalyn about our concerns over the army's treatment of their foes. Yes, they are enemies but a foe that is captured deserves mercy. Moreso, a woman with no interest in fighting does not deserve the fate I stopped an ogre from giving her. No woman deserves that!"

  Henrick nodded and turned to look at a few of the other knights. They looked away from him but still seemed interested in her response.

  "I did not seek the role she offered me. I sought only to make her aware of his behavior. It was not my position in the field to challenge him. We are guests here. Now, with this appointment, I can ensure that this does not happen again. Graak must be brought to heel for his crimes. The same goes for anyone else, ogre or otherwise, who behaves like that."

  Henrick nodded again. "My apologies, Dame," he said and bowed his head. "I said I would follow you, and I will."

  "And you did right in speaking your heart," Aleena reassured him. "I have Saint Leander's favor only so long as I keep his light in my heart. It drives me forward, and I beg of you all to always challenge anyone who you feel might be false. We must always question what we face and what we know, or we will never know the truth."

  Celos turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised just enough to show he was surprised at her words. He nodded and then turned back to the rest of the gathered knights. "Find our brothers and get them ready. We ride out in half an hour, drunk or sober."

  "Drunk?" a knight near the back of the barracks asked.

  "And we won't be slowing down for those who fall off their horses," Celos added. He turned and nodded to Aleena, and then walked past her and back out of the barracks.

  Aleena turned to watch him go before she remembered her own bunk at the end of a row of beds. She walked over to her chest and lifted it open. She pulled out some apples she'd saved for Moonshine, her unicorn, and then slammed the lid back down.

  "Half an hour," she reminded them before turning and walking out. She thought about looking for Celos but realized she knew where he'd be. What she needed was the rest of Leander's faithful. She turned towards the nearest tavern, hoping to find as many as she could and perhaps have a quick bite to eat herself. She missed the dull roar of her father's tavern.

  As she pushed the doors aside and walked in, the smell of ale, sweat, and smoke washed over her. She breathed it in and realized she didn't miss it as much as she'd thought. With a wry grin, Aleena surveyed the room for her knights and started towards them. They raised their tankards as she approached in salute. She raised her hand in response and wondered if they'd still be so gracious if they knew why she was there.

  Chapter 6

  Alto walked up to Namitus at the bow of the fishing boat and settled in beside him at the railing. "What are you looking for?"

  Namitus lifted his head and turned to glance at the warrior. "Trying to spot the shards."

  A chuckle from behind made them both turn. Kar stuck his pipe in his mouth and ignited it with a tiny jet of flame from his thumb. He puffed on the pipe to make the flame take root and then looked at the flicker still rising from his thumb. The wizard frowned and blew on it, extinguishing the flame. "Well, that's new," he muttered.

  "New?" Alto asked.

  Kar stiffened and clamped his pipe between his lips before offering a tight smile. He walked up next to them and peered over the edge of the ship and into the water. He straightened up and used his pipe to point to the west, towards the setting sun. "The Sea of Broken Shards is to the west, boys. This here is still the coastal waters. I dare say we're a day or two west of the Isle of Britanly."

  Namitus glanced at the water and sighed. "Is it true? What they say of the shards?"

  "I'm not sure who 'they' are," Kar said after puffing on his pipe, "but it's true enough that on a calm day you can see deep into the waters. With the sun at the right spot, you can even see the shards themselves."

  "I've barely heard of these things. What are the shards?" Alto asked.

  "Legend tells of a great dragon that was so mighty he flew through the void itself and feasted upon worlds. He set his eyes on Kroth and thought it would make a tasty mo—"

  "Void?" Alto interrupted.

  The wizard sucked on his pipe and blew the smoke through his nose in displeasure. "Yes, the void," Kar said. "It's the ether, or lack of ether, that Kroth floats through. Much like other worlds you'll like as not never see or imagine."

  "Other worlds?" Alto breathed. "Like ours?"

  "Like it and not like it," Kar confirmed. "Each with their own peoples, monsters, heroes, and villains."

  "Hard to imagine such a thing," Namitus said while peering up at the sky. "It's been a long time since I heard anyone suggest that the sun doesn't rise and set around us each day."

  "It's true." Kar nodded. "But not fashionable for people who consider themselves the center of attention."

  Alto's lips were parted and his brow furrowed. "I don't understand," he admitted. "How can the sun not rise and set around us? We see it every morning in the east and every night in the west."

  Kar puffed on his pipe a couple of times and then blew the smoke into spheres that floated in the air. He gestured at the balls and reached out to stick a finger in the larger ball. Color flared into it, making it burst from red to orange to yellow before their eyes. He waved his hands again and set the balls to spinning in the air, with the smaller globe of smoke circling the larger one.

  "This is Kroth," he said as he followed the smaller orb with his finger. "The one in the middle is the sun."

  Alto laughed. "I'm sorry, Kar. I never stopped to think how rough our pace has been on you. Perhaps we should slow down so you can rest more?"

  Kar scowled and glared at the former farm boy. "Think I'm daft, do you?" he spat. "Well, you're the thick-witted one."

  "That doesn't even look like Kroth!" Alto protested.

  "By the saints!" Kar muttered and threw his hands up in the air. "It's a ball of smoke, you dullard! Of course it doesn't look like our world!"

  "Ok, then why is the sun so much bigger?" Alto squinted and looked up at the sun in the western sky. "Kroth is obviously much larger."

  Kar stared at him and shook his head. He reached into his pockets until he found a gold coin. He held it up, earning a puzzled frown from Alto, and then thrust out his hand so that the coin was inches from Alto's face. "This big enough for you?"

  "You're blocking my view of everything else!" Alto protested.

  Kar turned and threw the coin in the air. With a sweep of his arm, he sent magic to whisk it across the deck until it hit the single mast of the fishing boat and remained stuck in the wood. "How big is it now?"

  Alto squinted at the distant speck of gold. "It's the same size; it's just so far away it's hard to see it."

  Kar waved his hands in a flourish. "If you lived on that coin, how big do you think the three of us would look?"

  "A bird's-eye view," Namitus suggested. He turned to Alto. "Like being on the side of a mountain, we can see forever and the things we see are small, but they're not small when we're next to them."

  Alto turned to squint at the sun again. He turned away, blinking, and lo
oked to the wizard again. "So you're saying the sun is bigger than Kroth, but so far away it looks small?"

  Kar nodded. "There's still a bit of wits about you."

  Alto returned his attention to the rotating spheres of smoke. "And we're spinning around the sun, which is why it rises in the east and sets in the west."

  Kar winced and then shrugged. "That's more or less how it works," he said. "There's seasons and years to consider, but I've rattled your brains enough for one day."

  Alto smirked. "So this dragon? It flies through the void and wanted to eat our world."

  "So the legends claim," the wizard said. "The saints wouldn't have it. They came together and fought him off. Such a creature could not be destroyed, nor easily turned away. His tail struck the ground and dug a mighty cleft in it, but in so doing, he was wounded and cast aside many of his scales. Those scales became the Dragonspine Mountains, and those that fell in the canyon were broken pieces that the sea was named after once the water rushed in."

  Alto stared into the water and then to the west, though the mountains were many miles distant and impossible for him to see. "I've seen dragons," he mused. "As big as they are, it's hard to imagine one big enough to do the things you claim."

  "I said it was a legend," Kar huffed.

  Alto turned and offered the wizard a smile. "I'm not saying you're wrong. You've already shown me things aren't always as they appear. I wonder if Thork would know."

  Kar rolled his eyes and turned away. "That's right, ask the troll. Maybe he can tell you how to make a stew out of your boot and convince you to drink it in hopes of being able to fly."

  Alto looked to Namitus and saw the rogue shrug his shoulders and shake his head. Thork was a shaman and he'd given them all many magical potions that had helped them time and again, even if they were often fraught with peril and had a taste that made water used for pickling seem tame.

  "Kar?"

  The wizard stopped and turned back to face them. "What now?" he grunted around his pipe.

  "Your thumb earlier—you said that was new. What do you mean?" Alto asked.

  The wizard's frown disappeared with a sigh. He glanced about the boat and then made his way back over to the two men. "Just some things I've been working on," he said. He held his hands up and wiggled his fingers. "Magical things."

  "Good things?" Namitus inquired.

  Kar chuckled. "A greater understanding of anything is always good. My experiments take me in places few others, if any, have tried to go."

  "Is it dangerous?" Alto asked. "Your experiments, I mean."

  Kar shrugged. "There is always danger in the unknown, but that is where we all must go."

  Alto nodded. "I understand."

  Kar straightened and raised a bushy eyebrow. "You do?"

  "Yes," the young warrior said. "We don't know what lies ahead of us but that is the only place we can find the answers we seek. Hiding from them would make us fools who deserve whatever fate hands us."

  Kar leaned closer to the two men and asked, "What if the answers aren't what you wanted?"

  Alto's eyes swept across the boat to where Patrina sat with Mordrim. She held her battle-axe on her lap and the two seemed quite animated as they discussed the weapon. "Then I'll just have to keep searching until I find the answers I can live with."

  Kar and Namitus turned to follow his gaze. The wizard nodded. "A wise course, my young friend. It's all we can ask of ourselves."

  Alto nodded and opened his mouth to speak when the owner of the boat cried out from where he stood on the raised stern deck at the boat's wheel. He pointed ahead and said, "Land ahead! We'll make Peltarch shortly after the sun sets."

  The fisherman and his two sons went to work tightening the lines of the ship's sail and changing course to head straight for the free city. Alto's companions made their way to the bow to join him.

  "Think word of Shazamir's fall has reached this far north yet?" Carson asked.

  Kar snorted and knocked his pipe against the hull of the boat to drop the ashes into the sea. "The world knew within hours, if not minutes," he said. "A being such as Shazamir does not go quietly."

  Alto shrugged. "We'll do what we must," he said and reached down to place his hand on the hilt of his magical blade. He felt better knowing it was within his grasp, even though he'd recently discovered he could summon it to him from across the room. With confidence boosting his tone, he met Patrina's smiling eyes and added, "We won't let the Order of the Dragon pose a threat to us or our people ever again."

  "Aye, and that's all well and good," Mordrim said from beside Lady Patrina. "I'm still hoping they stand aside and let us walk up to the castle proper to have words with the man running the show. On account of our deeds and all."

  Garrick chuckled. "On account of our deeds, maybe," the barbarian said. "You can slip between their legs while they're busy watching the rest of us."

  Mordrim's hand froze in his beard where he stroked it. He turned to the gloating barbarian and opened his mouth to retort.

  "Enough," Alto said, stopping him. He strode past his friends and stopped out of reach of the sail's rigging. "Olan, if the docks look guarded, we'll swim ashore. You've earned your price for sailing us."

  The fisherman looked down at him and frowned. "I'd hoped to see what they might have for sale in the market. Promised my wife I'd fetch her a thing or two."

  "I share your hopes," Alto told him. "But I'll sleep better knowing you make it back safe and well, even if you don't find something pretty for her. You've got our horses, a fair trade for passage here. If there's no landfall for you here, I'll add gold to pay for your voyage back."

  The fisherman nodded and a smile came to his face. "You're a poor businessman, but I'll not turn away from a deal such as that!"

  Alto chuckled. "I was a farmer once. I know the value of hard work often goes without reward. You and your boys have earned it."

  Alto accepted the fisherman's thanks and turned back to see Patrina watching him with a ghost of a smile on her face. The others were watching the coastline as it slowly grew nearer to them. He returned her smile and started back towards them. His eyes went to the coast and he wondered what he'd find in Peltarch. Or not what, but who. Was Shazamir's son a dragon pretending otherwise or was he a man?

  It didn't matter, Alto supposed. Whatever he was, he had to die so that Alto could be certain Patrina and everyone else was safe. He'd deal with that first, and then once that was finished, he could worry about his future.

  Chapter 7

  Jethallin sat up with a groan. Jennaca stirred in her sleep beside her and then cried softly. Jethallin frowned and sniffed, and then grimaced. She glanced back at the darker spot of sand and wondered again if there was water to be found. Jennaca needed her smallclothes changed and she had precious few to spare if she couldn't wash them out.

  She rolled onto her knees and let out a gasp. She felt like she'd been stabbed with a hundred needles. She stretched her left leg out slowly, gritting her teeth against the agony. She could move it and nothing was broken, but she wasn't moving fast. She repeated the movement with her right leg and felt ready to collapse when she pulled her leg back beneath her. Only a cry from Jennaca made her force her head back up.

  "I know, I know," she mumbled. "You need to be changed and fed. I can rest later, when I'm dead."

  She forced herself to her feet and whimpered through her clenched teeth. Sweat dripped into her eye, blinding her for a moment. "Saints below," she cursed. "My rest might not be far off after all."

  Jethallin forced herself to stagger over to the dark spot and she collapsed back to her knees. She drew the dagger she'd almost used before and plunged it into the sand. She tugged on it, digging up a furrow in the sand. She plunged it in again and again, forming a trench that she soon had to lean down into in order to pull out more water. Her sweat dripped off her face into the moist sand, making it take a moment for her to realize the sand was getting wetter and starting to pool in the bottom of t
he ditch.

  Jethallin stared into the small pit, panting, and grinned. A small puddle of water gathered in the bottom. It wasn't enough to drink from—indeed, she was worried about the sand and grit if she had tried to drink it—but it was enough, combined with using the sand to scrub, to clean Jennaca's diaper.

  She fetched her daughter, moving a little easier as she stretched her muscles and got the blood flowing through them again. Jethallin cooed at her while she changed her smallclothes and had the infant giggling as she tickled her. She glanced up after bundling her back up and saw the rat staring at them from a few feet away. His whiskers twitched as he sniffed.

  "Looks like you've got a pet rat," Jethallin said. She shook her head. "If a troll can have a hundred of them, I suppose you can have one."

  Jennaca giggled again and reached for her mother. Jethallin picked her up and tucked her back in the sling and then shifted her shirt to nurse the babe. She winced as she felt her gums press down on her flesh and glanced at the rat again.

  She shook her head and turned back to the body of the sand wyrm. The coloration of the creature blended in with the sand, making it hard to pick out against the desert floor. It was still there and looked the same as when she'd killed it. She could cook it and they'd eat well. All she had to do was make a fire and—

  "I need some wood," she muttered.

  The rat squeaked and turned away to start scurrying towards the wide mouth of the shallow cave.

  "Wait!" Jethallin called out.

  The rat stopped and turned back to her.

  "You understand me?" she asked.

  The rat stood there and stared at her.

  "Too much time in the sun, I'm daft," she muttered. She shook her head and said, "There's no wood around here. Maybe some grass, but I don't see how I could burn that. Not enough to cook this thing, anyhow."