Order Of The Dragon (Omnibus 1-4)

by Jason Halstead

  Patrina nodded and smiled. "Good. Let's get what rest we can. We'll need to be ready at first light."

  "We only have two rooms," Carson pointed out.

  Patrina nodded. "You boys stay here then," she said. She grabbed Namitus by the shirt and tugged on him. "Us girls will take the other room."

  "Hey!" the rogue protested. His outburst as she dragged him to his feet and out the door was lost in the laughter of their friends.

  Chapter 17

  Jethallin let out a yelp as she overbalanced and nearly went over the edge of the raft. She swung one arm and regained her balance, and then leaned back and pulled the pole out of the water. She looked around and finally let her eyes fall on Whiskers. "How do I know how deep it is? It's muddy water!"

  The rat's nose twitched before he looked away from her. Jethallin snorted and put the pole back in the water. She crouched down and explored with it until her hand was beneath the surface of the water and she felt the end of the pole dig into the soft bottom. She pushed against the bottom and moved the raft back closer to a line of trees that rose out of the swamp to their left.

  She pulled her hand out of the water and stared at the muddy brown liquid. Were there any of the meat-eating fish down there? She'd escaped them once without so much as a nibble. She doubted she'd be so lucky a second time.

  "Why didn't they bite me?" she asked. Neither the swamp, Whiskers, nor the napping Jennaca had a response for her.

  She tested the water again with her pole and found the bottom more easily reached. She moved ahead, altering her course but still heading to the west. Already the mountains loomed ahead of her but she wasn't close enough to see the shore yet.

  "West and then south," she mused. "Except the dog admitted he'd never seen it." Jethallin sighed and shook her head. She put the pole back in the water and pushed the raft ahead. She turned to stare out over the open waters to the north and noted the mound of dirt in the middle of the water. It was barren of any trees or moss, a rarity in the swamp.

  The raft bumped into something and made her stumble. Whiskers squealed and Jennaca let out a startled cry. Jethallin stepped away from the edge and turned to see an alligator opening its jaws near the front of the raft. Whiskers stood in front of the reptile and bared his teeth.

  "No!" Jethallin shouted as she took two quick steps to straddle the rat. She held her pole in both hands like a spear, much as she'd seen Snake-Killer hold his weapon when he sparred with her.

  The alligator clamped its jaws shut and sank beneath the surface. Jethallin spun and watched the surface of the water as the raft continued to float. The alligator didn't reappear. She glanced at Whiskers and saw the rat had settled down. She relaxed and moved back to her position to push the raft ahead.

  She kept a watch for the gator but it never returned. In the heat of the midday sun, most of the swamp wildlife was either hiding in shadows and trees or sunning themselves on the shores. She poled the raft out of the large open water and past a copse of haunted looking trees with moss hanging from their limbs. The trees rose off a soggy patch of ground that was barely above the surface of the swamp.

  Jethallin studied the small copse, turning to watch it as she floated past. The moss looked different. Dark shapes dotted it, making her wonder if large birds, snakes, or some other type of creature was hiding in them until the day grew cooler. A bird flew through the trees from below and swooped up. It went to land in a tree and stopped as it hit the moss. The swallow's wings beat but the bird only thrashed in place.

  One of the dark shapes closest to it moved. She watched legs unfold and stretch out, and then the large spider approached the sparrow and spun around to coat it in fresh webbing. The spider twisted again and bit into the captive bird. In seconds, it grew still and the spider grabbed it and retreated back to the shadows portion of the tree with its fresh meal.

  "It's not moss; it's spider webs," Jethallin muttered. She glanced at Whiskers and said, "Those spiders aren't the size of horses. Giant rats, maybe, but not horses."

  Jethallin turned her attention back to the water ahead and saw the islands growing thicker. She frowned and glanced up. The mountains were looming closer. Only a few hours remained until they'd block the sun. It would still be early, perhaps four in the afternoon, but if Karlton's words had any truth to them, the swamp would get dark soon after. She drove her pole into the bottom and moved the raft faster.

  She worked the raft through the waters of the marsh and found her pole didn't need to dip into the water as far as it once had. Soon she could stand without bending and even see the muddy bottom of the swamp. She used the pole to keep them far enough from the shore of the islands and ridges so the raft didn't run afoul and pushed the raft farther to the south.

  When the sun slipped behind the mountain peaks and plunged the swamp into shadows, Jethallin felt that she was getting close. The land rose out of the water to the west more and more often. The trees were littered with vines, moss, and spider webs, now that she knew how to tell the difference. She pushed around a peninsula of land filled with dangling webbing and saw a channel of water that ran to the west. On the south side, land rose up again and she saw darker strands of webbing connecting the trees and the ground.

  She gasped as something flashed in the trees. She dug her pole into the water to stop the raft and watched as the flash returned a moment later. Elsewhere, she saw other trees sparkling with the faerie lights.

  "What is that?" she whispered. She stared at the flickering lights for several minutes but couldn't tell what caused them.

  Jethallin put her pole in the water and started to push against it when she gasped and felt herself splash into cold water. She jerked herself upright and looked around. She was in the swamp still, but it felt different. The raft was gone and a faint mist rolled off the water. She turned slowly until she'd completed a full circle. Snake-Killer stood before her.

  "So I'm there then?" she asked.

  Snake-Killer nodded. "Follow that river," he said. "It will go into the mountains and end at a waterfall. Beside it, you can leave your boat and go up the trail. My cave is at the top."

  "Your cave?" Jethallin asked.

  "Where they left me," he said.

  "And what will I find?"

  "My body, held on a rock. Cut your hand and spill the drops of blood in my mouth. That will revive me."

  "That's it? You're unguarded?"

  He scowled. "Their foul magic keeps outsiders away. Go, quickly!"

  "Wait," Jethallin said as he began to turn away. "What about these lights in the trees? What are they?"

  "Swamp lights," he said. "They pull in animals and foolish men."

  "They're bad?"

  "Spiders," he said. "As large as a man, some bigger. They lure fools to their deaths. Too strong for your call, beastmistress."

  "Beastmistress?"

  "Your pets," he said with a wave of his free hand. "The rat? The dogs?"

  Jethallin shivered. Her pets? Hardly! The rat was one of Thork's and the wild dogs had just worked with her because she'd fed them. "Okay, up the river. What then? What will you do? Will you help me? Your people are gone."

  He scowled at her. "You won't need to worry about me," he said.

  The muscles in her shoulders and neck tensed. "After all this? You're just going to go and hunt down the men who trapped you? They're long gone. Probably dead, too. I don't remember hearing the splisskin live forever."

  He slammed the butt of his spear into the water. "Go," he demanded. "Or do you need a final lesson in fighting?"

  She leaned back, surprised by his outburst. "I'd think you'd be a little nicer, what with all the help I'm giving you."

  "You'll be rewarded when you free me," he said. He turned and walked away.

  Jethallin saw the mists disappearing until she could make out the channel of water that led west, into the mountains. Enough of the spiders were blinking to provide a constant flickering light. In a few more hours, as the sun set further in the w
estern sky, she imagined it would be a fascinating light show.

  She glanced at Whiskers and Jennaca and then looked back to the west. She stretched her arms and drove the pole into the water. It wouldn't be long and she'd be free of the demanding savage. Then she could focus on taking care of her daughter and making sure she had a future that didn't involve stealing or whoring.

  Jethallin heard the waterfall before she saw it. The dull roar grew and grew until she saw the water plummeting from over a hundred feet in a narrow column. At the base, a wide pool roiled and grew still near the edges. The water was dark and seemed bottomless as she peered into it. She suppressed a shiver and stuck her pole into the water to move the raft along the edge. She couldn't find the bottom to push against.

  Jethallin cursed and sat down to kick off her boots. The raft was drifting closer to the waterfall. It was slow and made no sense, but she couldn't deny their direction. She scooted to the edge of the raft and stuck her feet in, and then gasped at how cold the water was. She yanked her feet out and stared at the water a moment, and then sighed through her nose and thrust her feet in and started kicking.

  She kicked for nearly two minutes and managed to soak her pants and even splash herself in the face and chest. The raft bumped up against the shore, causing her to roll over and jump up. Her feet burned as she raced across the uneven logs and then stepped onto the muddy bank. She grabbed the raft and tugged on it, managing to get it up on the shore enough that she felt it was safe.

  Jethallin cleaned the mud off her feet and from between her toes as best she could before sticking them back in her boots and gathering Jennaca. The baby yawned and reached for her while making sucking motions with her lips. Jethallin sighed and shifted the sling and her shirt so her daughter could feed.

  "Great timing, dearheart," she mumbled. "I can feel Snake-Killer grinding his teeth."

  A quarter hour later, Jennaca was happy and blowing bubbles while Jethallin climbed up the trail. Whiskers walked behind them, sniffing and pausing every so often when a bug caught his attention. By the time Jethallin reached the top, she was winded and her legs burned, but a glance back down the winding trail proved that she was much stronger and in better shape than when she'd left Mira.

  She turned back around and saw a narrow crevice that led into a cave. It was wide enough for her, but a man such as Snake-Killer would have to turn sideways to enter it. She took a breath and let it out, shoring up her courage. Alto would have to enter sideways too, she realized. He wouldn't hem and haw and think about others, either. He'd just go in and do what needed to be done.

  With that thought providing motivation, Jethallin slipped Jennaca off and laid her on the ground. "You keep her safe, all right?"

  Whiskers sat up on his hind legs and looked up at her, his dark eyes holding her gaze while his nose and whiskers twitched.

  "All right," Jethallin said. She stared at her daughter as she reached for the oversized furry rodent and tugged on his hair. Whiskers let out a quiet squeal and dropped back to all fours. He lay down next to her and let the infant roll onto her side and start rubbing and tugging on his fur.

  Jethallin shook her head and turned back to the dark crack. She nodded to herself and reached for her sword and dagger. She pulled them free, careful not to get them tangled in her clothing again, and stepped into the darkness.

  Chapter 18

  The darkness gave way to a soft silver light that seemed to coat the rocks of the cave. Jethallin blinked and stepped deeper into the cave. She had to turn right to follow the opening in the rock and stopped to gasp at the sight before her.

  The opening before her was roughly rectangular and stretched wide enough that it would take two of her stretched head to feet to touch both sides. The far end of the chamber was half again as far away, but the limits of the colorless cave weren't what made her lips part.

  Nine glowing diamonds were spaced evenly around the room and connected by glowing silver dust on the ground. There was enough space around the circle of gemstones to allow her to walk, but her feet remained frozen as she stared at the body lying on the stone plinth.

  "Snake-Killer?" she whispered and took a half-step forward.

  The body didn't answer. In fact, she doubted it could ever answer. It was shriveled and emaciated. The skin on the man had been browned and shrunk over the ages, pulling tight and splitting open in places. There was no sign of blood or injury, only of decay.

  "A few drops of blood won't bring you back," she breathed. She shook her head and turned away. Her eyes burned and her chest felt tight. She'd come all this way only to find this? A body so long dead that he was mummified.

  A hot tear burned its way down her cheek and hit the ground. She squeezed the hilts in her hands and then forced her grips open. The blades hit the rock with a muffled clang. She clutched at the ring on her finger and pulled at it, only to find it was stuck fast. She worked harder, twisting and yanking until her finger was red and bloody. She even used her teeth on the ring and, failing that, tried to smash the jade against the rock wall to break it. The ring was stuck fast on her finger.

  She turned and glared at the skeletal warrior. "Damn you!" she shouted. "I don't want this anymore! I don't want any of it! I want to be free! I want to do what I want, not what I'm supposed to. Not what someone else tells me!"

  Jethallin stood with her chest heaving and her cheeks on fire. She paused, uncertain of what to do, and then bent down and picked up her dagger. She threw it at the warrior's body and found a glimmer of satisfaction when it bounced off his thigh and left a fresh tear in the cadaver's skin.

  A primal cry surged from her lips and she rushed forward, hands rising so she could batter and destroy the skeleton. She crashed into an invisible barrier and bounced back. She ended up on the floor, staring at the air that had assaulted her. She spit the blood from her mouth where she'd bitten her tongue and picked herself up slowly. Her sword was on the ground nearby so she grabbed it and glanced around the room anxiously.

  "Who's there?" she called out, trying to find the hidden assailant. She reached out with her sword and swung it back and forth, only to have it swish through the air unimpeded. "Show yourself!"

  She remained alone in the cave, aside from the corpse of the warrior trapped in her ring.

  Jethallin moved forward, reaching out with her arm and her sword. Her left hand struck something. It felt hard and unyielding but she couldn’t feel any texture on it. It was the same temperature as the air around her, confusing her further. She slid her hand across it and then up and down, finding no edges but determining it had a curvature to it. She glanced down and saw the silver dust beneath her hand.

  Jethallin backed away and stared into the empty air. "Magic?" she wondered. Her eyes dropped until she saw her hurled dagger lying on the cave floor next to the plinth. Her eyes narrowed and she moved forward with her hand outstretched again. When it touched the barrier, she stopped and raised her other arm up. She felt her knuckles brush the invisible wall but the sword she held in her hand passed through.

  "Okay," she wondered, "now what do I do? I can't toss my blood and hope it hits him in the right spot."

  Jethallin chose exploration over self-mutilation. She walked around the circle of glowing diamonds and dust, rubbing her hand against the smooth wall until she was back near the entrance to the cave. It was impenetrable. Jethallin kicked the magical barrier for good measure and earned a sore toe for her efforts.

  "This is a fool's errand," she muttered as she backed away. She looked around the room, hoping to find some way around it. Another tunnel that might lead over or under the barrier. Anything!

  Jethallin's eyes fell on the gemstones. Why were they glowing? And the dust—it had a silvery sheen all its own. She knelt down and reached for them, only to have her fingers blocked away by the magical barrier. She snarled and punched the wall.

  "Wait!" she gasped. She thrust her sword through the space where the barrier blocked her body and swept it across unti
l it tapped the diamond. The gemstone resisted, but she felt it budge when she'd first hit it. With a snarl, she swung harder and knocked the diamond over. It rolled inside the barrier and came to a rest. The light shimmering in its depths faded and winked out.

  "Yes!" Jethallin jumped to her feet and pushed her hand out at the barrier, only to have it turned away again. "Damn the saints!" she cursed. The other diamonds were still glowing.

  She stepped over to the next diamond a few feet to her left and repeated the process. This one she struck hard enough to send it rolling out towards the entrance of the cave. She tried the barrier again and found it just as resistant as before.

  Jethallin rose from her crouch and fetched the fallen diamond. She picked it up and admired it in the silver lighting of the cave. It was the size of a small apple and looked to be nearly flawless as far as she could tell. It would fetch enough gold she could live in comfort for years, if not her entire life. If she could find someone to sell it to who wouldn't try to kill her for it instead. She turned and looked; there were seven other diamonds remaining.

  "But why can't I get past you?" she asked. The dust was still glowing and so were the remaining seven diamonds in place around the circle. "I hate magic," she muttered.

  Jethallin knelt down and scraped the blade of her sword across the stone. She shoveled a couple inches worth of dust aside and broke the line. The light vanished in the room and a wind swept through the cave, whipping her hair around her face and drawing a startled cry from her. The wind left as quickly as it came.

  Jethallin stumbled back and fell on the floor. She scooted until her back hit a wall, and then she stared into the darkness until she began to make out shapes again. She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't imagining things. The room seemed the same, though dark enough she couldn't make out the far end of it. The only light came from the entrance, and with the sun hidden by the clouds, she was hard pressed to see more than a half-dozen feet away.