With the work started and the whole city rushing around getting itself ready William turned to an almost unknown pirate among the White Flags. She had seemed to just pop up in Slickrock one day and had been added to Williams’ private fleet shortly after. A position that was highly prized and normally took years of greasing the diplomatic wheels to even get considered for. This unknown pirate Erin Cleat had been Williams’ cabin girl for the last two years. Some might have questioned why William picked her but those with a little more sense would have suspected that she was either his lover, which seemed unlikely as he had many of those and gave them little to no levy on his fleet. The other possibility and what turned out to be the truth was that she was his bastard and illegitimate daughter. Erin had the same slim build and gentle facial features. Her lips were like a slice in the snow of her pale complexion. She was tall for a woman and stood almost as tall as William. Her hair was a dark red almost black and matched the black clothes she wore. Unlike her father she did not opt for brightly colored clothes. She wore snug cotton tights and body-hugging hooded tops, both as black as the night. She covered her shins and forearms with thin iron shields that attached directly around her with thick leather straps. She was a skilled fighter and an even more skilled assassin. Erin hid a blade, barely, under the shield on her left leg and another longer and bronze colored blade in her belt around her waist. Standing with those cold eyes staring at William she smiled and waited. The sparkle in her eyes would have seemed strange to any that knew the truth. It was not the look of a daughter at her father but Erin did not know the truth. Williams’ order for Erin Cleat was to track down the Dragon heart and steal it from this Darcy. A simple task it seemed for an assassin of Erin’s caliber but it would annoy the ginger haired baboon a little more if William got it first so he wanted someone he could trust to go after it. Before her time with William, Erin had worked freelance. She had travelled across half of Valadfar and broken into some of the most well guarded estates and either stolen or killed something or someone that was supposedly impossible to reach. So tracking down some halfwit noble in the wide open plains around Northern Neeska would have been like shooting a sleeping fish in a very small barrel. Erin was as loyal as a lapdog and intelligent as a very learned owl. If anyone could do it then it would have been her. Erin had first come to William when her mother died. She was alone apart from the drunk who called himself Erin’s stepfather. She had no love for the waster and the only reason she had been travelling was to earn enough gold to give her mother freedom from the beastly man. After the funeral of her mother Erin suddenly felt lost and she came to William after finding his name mentioned often in her mother’s diary. Erin hoped maybe to find some aspect of a ‘home’ with this man her mother spoke so fondly of. She did not know that he was her father but William recognized it the first time he saw her. She was a spitting image of his mother. It seemed the apple had not fallen far from the tree. Erin’s so called drunken ‘stepfather’ went missing, rather oddly, just as Erin joined Williams’ crew. Although Erin was almost unknown to most of the Flags, she was well sought by all of the crew of Melinda, but they suspected that she was special to William. They did not know she was his daughter so suspected he must have had a crush on the young and strangely beautiful women. If William didn’t want to make her his love just yet he still would have killed anyone who bedded her so they all gave her a wide birth as much as she teased them, at least openly but behind closed doors it was another story. William had lavished the eighteen year old girl with gifts. Her cabin in the ship was right next to Williams. Adding to the rumor that he just wanted to have her, but the truth was he had turned her advances down on more than one occasion much to Erin’s confusion. She was slim and beautiful. Her ample bosom would sedate a rabid dog at a hundred paces at the slightest flash and William was the only man who had ever turned her down. That was why she respected him so much but she had no idea of the truth. William had wanted to tell her he was her father but never found the words and after the first time he had staggered into bed drunk and found Erin waiting for him under the covers in nothing but a little lace piece. Things had become more difficult. He had kicked her out of his room in panic and now he could not imagine telling her he was her father. How could he. He would never let anything like that happen between them but it had not stopped Erin trying and William could not imagine how she would take the news. So rather than complicate things he treated her like a member of his crew. That way he could protect her and look after her, even raising her as his own without Erin ever having to know she tried to bed her own father. Regardless of their less than perfect father daughter relationship William knew he could trust her with anything and that was why he asked her to go. As loyal as the rest of his men were he doubted any one of them would come back with the heart if it was as powerful as Harvey had said.
Chapter ten – into the ash It had been almost two weeks since jugglers and drunken revelers filled the streets of Neeskmouth and people’s hearts had been filled with hope that the new century would bring with it good fortune and maybe, just maybe peace for the first time in generations but that was not the way of Neeska. The days had rolled on and throughout the northern parts of Neeska several stories had started. They all had their own reasons for setting their feet on the paths and different goals they wished to achieve. With all these different journeys there was but one thing they all had in common, and that was the power of the Dragon heart. Darcy and Calvin had left the mages tower on the sixth of Nylar unaware of the changes that would happen in the kingdoms they left behind. They had spent less than a day travelling before they reached the border of the Scorched Lands. In front of them lay a sight that would have brought most men to their knees. Ash clouds floated blocking out the sun turning day into night. The Scorched Lands rolled on as far as the eye could see and was like the landscape of hell. The air was dirty and seemed to steal any attempt to breathe leaving a burning dryness in the throat. The earth was thick with blacked remains. Powdered memories from a war long since finished. The deep ash coated ground swallowed the pair’s steps up to their knees as they braved the borders and pressed deeper into the Scorched Lands as they continued alone on foot after leaving the caravan behind some way back. Shadows hid on the horizon behind clouds of putrid foul smelling silt that when getting closure turned out to be burned-out catapults, the dead soldiers still working the machines had been turned into statues as grim reminders of the heavy losses of life here. Their bones blackened by the heat that must have engulfed the land. The landscape hid stone farm houses that were now tombs to a time long since left behind. In some of the less damaged there were places still set around the table waiting for returning fathers for tea or the bodies of fallen soldiers who would never get to join the battle. Progress for Darcy and Calvin had been slow. The hard slug of shifting through the ash that grew deeper the further into the lands the pair travelled took it out of them. The aged mage Calvin, although driven by the energy of Rinwid the demon, struggled more than Darcy but neither found it easy. They thought it was bad at the start of the journey it soon got worse as they pressed into the dead wasteland. The ash rose and begun to lap at their waist and like a sea of despair it burdened their journey even more as it weighed down the tired would-be adventurers. The ash of a thousand corpses filled their lungs and dizziness had become just part of the course as they struggled ever onwards almost blinded in the perpetual darkness. The plan when they had left the mages tower had been to be escorted by the kings’ guard and ride comfortably in a caravan but as with many things in Neeska, plans rarely run smoothly. The wheels of the caravan had come to an abrupt stop a few miles back and they had pressed on by foot. The guards refused to continue the gold they had been paid not enough to risk getting lost in the shifting hell. The ever wavering landscape confused the two soot covered adventurers as they pressed on alone. The pair would lay to rest at nightfall and by morning, after they had dug themselves free from the ash that had settled over whatever hovel they had
decided to crawl into, the world around them would have changed again in the choking clouds. Hills would have sprung up with the wind and houses or trees that had been buried before would be poking up. Bony hands protruded from the ground as if the dead were still trying to climb to freedom or point to the sky in warning of the fire breathing Dragon that had taken their life over a hundred years before. Skeletons’ could be seen with rusted armor baring unknown coats of arms. Whole bloodlines had been claimed and ended in the last blight. With so many dead their lineage had been forgotten and few records survived as a reminder of the lost. Darcy and Harvey would have been the first eyes to fall on these forgotten shields in years. They both prayed they would not end up the same way. Huge sculptures that looked like giant white trees, on closer inspection became bones from the giant long dead Dragon lords that beckoned Darcy and Calvin onwards teasing them that the heart might be behind the next shadowy outcrop. They had both entered the desolate clouds of the Scorched Lands for their own reasons, Darcy was desperate to prove he was worthy of his own name and not just a shadow to follow his father and Calvin had no choice but to press on if he ever wanted to be free of the demon forced upon him but it had taken more courage than either had been prepared for when the guards turned their backs on the pair. Both Darcy and Calvin had wanted to give in the moment the wheels stopped but were forced on by a sense of determination that had faded quickly when the world vanished. They might have turned back after the first night but the clouds had hidden the way out and they had no choice now but to continue walking and hope for the best. Darcy and Calvin had expected to have been back at the tower within a few days but time continued to roll on as the pair wandered lost in the shifting ash. The eighth had become the ninth, and then rolled on in blackness to the tenth. On their fourth day in the ash and the morning of the Brunwek the 11th of Nylar the pair struggled on towards what had looked like mountains in the distance. Everything else had shifted with the wind but these outlying shadows seemed to have stayed just out of view for the last few days. The Scorched Lands covered roughly seventy-five miles by fifty of desolation and hopelessness. Its shape of a sideways boot had taken the two from the longest point were the Scorched Lands protrude out towards the Tower Plains and south east towards the mountains that marked the worst of the blighted land. They had been guided on by the demon Rinwid who sensed the power of the heart from the shadow realm using Calvin as a conduit but it seemed the bond between the mage and his dark secret was not as strong as it could have been and the flashes of foresight made for a hard map to read. They were approaching the eastern border of the Scorched Lands, once home to the lesser Dragons of Neeska. The mountains they could see were the ones that would have long ago, before the Great War, before the millenniums of slavery to the Dragon lords, have been part of the Kingdom of Goldhorn. The mountains belonged to the Dwarfs who lived east of Neeskmouth but they had been left empty for so long. The great kingdom of the Dwarfs was now half the size it had once been and their tunnels had been sealed off separating them from the rest of the Dwarfen kingdoms – at one time all the great Dwarfen settlements were connected by massive tunnels that ran under the surface of Valadfar but they had all over time been sealed off. This left the Goldhorn’s surrounded in mystery and isolation from the races of Neeska who had almost no dealing with them. Those empty tunnels that had not collapsed were rumored to be filled with thousands of gold and treasure, hidden and buried since the Dragons left but this was far from Darcy or Calvin’s mind, for it was not their goal and no one dared to explore the long dark as it had grown to be known. Not even the greediest of Dwarf had dared set foot inside the old tunnels in centuries for fear of the rumors that the Dragons had nested in the tunnels or worse the unknown evils that gave birth to legends of shadowy beasts stalking around in the darkness. The old caves had been taken from the Dwarfs when the Dragons had flown in from distant lands and bred in the mountain caves, no one knew exactly why the great black Dragons had first flown from Gologan in 1625db but whatever their reason it was from here they had pressed out across Neeska in all directions. It was the north that had taken the brunt of the scaly beasts’ attention for most of their reign until their fall and the remaking of the calendars at the end of the Great War.
Darcy and Calvin had spent many dull and eventless days trailing blindly through the ash before they had started to make any progress of finding the heart but the 13th Nylar would offer change.
“ Calvin. Wait a minute will you. I don’t think I can go on much longer. I’m so tired.” Darcy said staggering forward almost falling into the ash. His clothes were stained gray and laden thick with ash and grime. His once fine noble clothing looked like the worst of blacksmith aprons. Finding his feet Darcy continued. “We’ve been stuck here for days and I cannot even remember the feel of a good night’s sleep. Can’t you use that demon to find the heart? I thought that’s why we had brought you mages into it. The king said you’d find it and so far all you’ve done is run us around in circles. I don’t want to die in here.” Darcy continued as he pulled himself onwards at a crawling pace. Darcy had started to feel desperate as the days moved on and he had lost the drive of becoming a hero days before. The dreams he had had of returning to Neeskmouth as the savior were all but gone and now all he wanted to do was return alive. Although the pair had only been in the Scorched Lands for a few days Darcy could barely remember what the sun even looked like and the Scorched Lands threatened to drive him insane before they ever found the heart. It was Nylar, the first month of the planting. A time of changing wind that brought warm weather, sun and flowers but all they could see was different shades of grey. Day and night were not that different under a blanket of ash. The noble who had lived his life so strictly by time had lost all track of what hour it was or even what direction they were heading in. Darcy did not know if they were inches from escaping the Scorched Lands or if it would be days to reach the ashes edges. The only thing Darcy could find to be thankful of was that he had his little break down in Briers Hill and cut away his long hair when he did. It was an odd thing to be thankful of but as the ash had imbedded in his clothes and seemed to weigh him down almost to breaking point. Darcy could see how thickly the ash had lain in his companion Calvin’s grey hair like a rug and it seemed to get thicker by the day. Darcy was sure he would not be strong enough to carry another gram of weight with his back already feeling like it would break and his legs buckle under the relentless assault the landscape made against them. The fat old mage looked more like a grumpy misshaped and discolored gargoyle under the layers of dust but he seemed oddly unfazed by it. Unlike Darcy that had grown weaker the longer they spent in the clouds Calvin seemed to be growing stronger every day. Darcy couldn’t explain it but the old man seemed to be changing. All around them dead bodies had been loaded with ash and froze forever in a pose. Darcy had to wonder if they would become another statue in the drab garden, their hands turned to rock clawing for freedom like so many others. The cold winter they had left behind outside of the Scorched Land had little effect inside that putrid place. The ash still held heat from deep below. In places as it shifted it still smoldered and kept the darkness steadily warm.
“ Stop your panicking Darcy. We are not going to die. You’re worse than a washer woman from a slaughter house with your moaning.” Calvin said as he slugged on leading the way. His hood had fallen off his head and his hair that flowed down into it had been covered with ash that filled the hood to the brim. It must have held a tremendous weighted but the old man did not seem to notice.
“It’s easy for you to say. Unlike me you’re not getting tired. You seem to be getting stronger with that demon inside you.” Darcy said shooting Calvin a glance through slit like eyes. Darcy had been uncomfortable with Calvin’s possession since he had told him shortly after the two were alone together in the Scorched Lands. Darcy had always thought that he was tolerating of anyone, he after all had mixed races on his father’s ships and he had not been all that worried about dealing wi
th the mages or soldiers, but a demon. That was different. Darcy knew little about demons other than the stories Granny had told him when he was growing up.
“I wish I hadn’t told you about Rinwid. I had thought that maybe the other mages were wrong and not all nobles were complete arses.” Calvin said with a snarl. It was not as if he wasn’t trying to find the heart but things within the clouds were difficult and the bond with the demon had made thinking hard for Calvin. He was angry all of the time now. He missed the tower. He missed the gardens and the lessons. He even missed the Arch Mage, which was saying something. Calvin could feel himself slipping away. Rinwid seemed delighted in the Scorched Lands and Calvin wondered if Rinwid actually wanted to find the heart at all. Calvin could not remember much before the time he entered this place. His memories seemed lost. They were still there but it was like trying to find a shard of glass in a desert. He could when he tried hard enough, remember back to things like the orphanage, and the cat he saved but things like what his room looked like. What fresh potatoes tasted like was gone from his conscious. Calvin could feel magic surging through him like a waterway but he had started to feel like that was all he had become. The demons memories burnt brightly like a candle and over-shadowed everything else. Calvin could tell you exactly what the insides of a baboon tasted like and he had never even seen one. The dreams came when he was awake now and the premonitions distorted his already loose grip on reality. The way Darcy had spoken to Calvin had changed since he had known about Rinwid, but Calvin had to tell him. After all it was becoming more obvious by the day and the boy Darcy, as soft as he was would have noticed something had been happening. The demon was not the real reason Calvin and Darcy were arguing. No, that was down to exhaustion. They had hardly any food left. The water was full of dust and the pair had little choice but to face the fact that it was highly probable that they would die if they did not find the heart soon and leave the clouds behind them. They were days into the Scorched Lands and could not see a way out. They were no closer to their goal of finding the heart but it seemed almost peaceful to think it would soon be over, at least to Calvin. He had been so desperate to get the demon out of him and return to a normal life but the more he lost of himself the less he worried about death.
Dragons Blight (Valadfar Book 1) Page 14
