by LeRoy Clary
“No. But seriously, I’m wondering how long their memory is. Say, a year from now, if one of those three smells you again, will it remember your scent? Not trying to scare you, but I have to ask these things for your protection and safety.” Tyler fought to keep the humor from showing on his face
Bender said, “I hope it does not remember, but thank you for bringing up a subject that will keep me up at night thinking about it.” He moved across a clearing after checking the sky and ducked back under the protection of the tall trees on the other side.
By late afternoon they reached the foothills. Twice more, Blacks had flown overhead, and it seemed from their different flight patterns they were not the same dragons, although all looked alike from a distance. But both flew close enough to see they had four feet, so they again speculated on the fate of the third, and the Grays that had chased it.
Bender said, “If the one that lost her foot was the same one our eggs belonged to, we might get a respite when the others go back to sit on their eggs. The wounded dragon might have died, or it is perched on a mountain top hiding while healing.”
“If they’re hers, do you think one of the others will sit on that last egg we left in the nest?” Bender asked, sounding guilty.
“No. I hate to think the last egg in the nest may die because of us, but I think that’s what will happen.” Tyler walked on in silence, glancing up in the air now and then. He also watched behind, and now and then ahead. The large foothills they crossed became smaller ones during the afternoon, and they didn’t spot any more dragons overhead.
While searching for a protected place to spend the night, they stumbled out of the forest and onto a road, the King’s Highway from its width and well-maintained surface. They had marched over the mountain pass via the same road five times while invading Queensland, and five times while retreating. They turned away from the mountains, and the pace of their travel increased on the smooth road. Oak, maple and other hardwoods replaced the evergreens growing on the sides, while the undergrowth became increasingly dense and almost impassable if they wished to enter the forest again.
A pair of farmers dressed in their traditional tan canvas work clothing, brothers from their similarities, slowly pulled an empty handcart uphill on the road in their direction. The farmers paused fifty paces away on the hard-packed dirt road their eyes locked on Tyler and Bender. After exchanging puzzled glances and a few whispered words, the one on the left said cautiously, “Afternoon. You in the Unity army?”
“Indeed, it is, and we are,” Bender replied with a jaunty tone and a friendly, but sloppy, salute. “Heading back to your farm, are you?”
“Sold all the produce we had at the market in Tarleton this morning,” the other said, a proud smile slipping into place. “Are you sure you boys want to go that way?”
“Home is that way,” Bender said. “We know our way around here, farmer-boy.”
“But,” the other one began, as the first jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow and whispered loud enough for Tyler and Bender to hear, “It’s not our place to get involved. Besides, he’s rude.”
Tyler and Bender walked past their wagon, and the two farmers fell strangely silent, their eyes shifting from making direct contact. Tyler noticed a single melon remaining in the bottom of the wagon, one side of it flattened as if it was too old to sell and had gone soft. He said from the side of his mouth, “Sort of looks like a dragon egg laying there.”
The same farmer who had begun to talk earlier said tentatively, “You boys might want to change your minds about going that way.”
Bender ignored him and called a cheerful farewell over his shoulder to the farmers. He and Tyler were still chuckling about the shape of the melon, and the odd remarks from the farmers who wanted them to go in the other direction. “Strange people,” attempting to end the conversation.
Tyler said, “He acted like he wanted to tell us something, but didn’t want to upset us.”
When they rounded the next bend in the road, they found a military roadblock set up in the distance. A makeshift rail fence crossed the road to halt wagons, horses, and pedestrians, and four soldiers idled at the side of the road, sunning themselves in the weak morning rays as they stood watch.
Bender said, “Hey, maybe they can tell us where the Dragon Corps is camped so we can get rid of these eggs faster.”
“Don’t forget about our upcoming promotions. But, you’re right. We’ll ask.”
“You know, if we play our cards right, Captain Torrie could also reward us in coin for finding the three nests. He’ll send his men to get those other eggs, and there might be even more in it for us. It sure wouldn’t hurt to ask. But remember, first he has to transfer us to his unit before we tell.” Bender did a little dance of joy and picked up the pace.
“You’ve already said that,” Tyler said. He also laughed at the dance and was about to make a joke in return when his eyes picked out details of one of the guards as the man stood up, and the sunlight revealed the color of his uniform. Drab green.
Bender and Tyler wore the dull blue of the King’s Unity troops. Queensland troops, their sworn enemy, wore green. Drab green, like what he saw at the roadblock.
“Bender, slow down,” Tyler hissed.
“Why? Aren’t you in a hurry to get rid of these eggs?”
“I think those are Queensland troops up there.”
“No way. We control this whole area.” Bender turned from Tyler to look at them and said, “Well, I guess we did control it. I think now’s the perfect time for us to run away. Try to keep up with me.”
Bender darted off the road, Tyler leaping and racing at his heels, the dragon egg jostling at his side. A shout ordered them to stop as if they were going to obey it. Then other shouts followed from other throats, but Tyler had only seen four men at the roadblock. Assuming two remained at blockade to stop other travelers, only two were free to pursue them. That held true only if there were no other troops nearby to draw upon. For all he knew, while they had been on the mountain watching the three dragons sit on their nests, a whole battalion may have moved across the pass. A battle may have been fought. The war may be over. They may have lost.
“Bender, I just had a nasty thought.”
“Shut up and run faster.”
CHAPTER THREE
Bender continued running into the forest and away from the roadblock. He called over his shoulder, as if providing new information, “Run faster, we’ve been invaded by Queensland.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Tyler said between labored breaths, as he caught up and passed Bender, but speaking in short spurts between gasps of air, “But I know how to find out more. See those brambles? Up ahead on the right? Ambush.”
“What if there’s more than two of them?”
“We stay hidden. Let them pass by. Then we can run south. Fast as the winter wind.”
Bender said, as he dived beside the brambles and followed Tyler as he squirmed underneath them, “We might get stuck here if they took military control of the area. What then?”
“The question is, to wonder about how we’re going to get our eggs to Captain Torrie and the Dragon Corps,” Tyler whispered back. “We’re already so late. Lieutenant Fenton will throw us in the brig as deserters the minute we report.”
Two Queensland soldiers stumbled into view on the path, a fat boy who jiggled as he moved, and so winded he was barely able to put one foot in front of the other. He fought for breath from running, his face so red, an apple would be jealous. The other was soldier skinny and no older than a boy, his cheeks fresh and pink, with no sign of facial hair. He seemed far too young to be in any army.
The path behind the two was empty of other soldiers following. As the two reached the brambles, Bender leaped to his feet and onto the path, his knife in his hand, as he waved it back and forth in a menacing manner, and he wore a snarl on his face that almost made Tyler laugh.
Tyler climbed from the brambles to stand at his side, his knife was drawn
, too, but without the theatrics and snarl. He threw his shoulders back and attempted to look commanding, or at least confident.
The winded Queensland soldiers pulled to a stop at the sight of Bender’s knife, the fat soldier bent over, hands on his knees as he gasped for breath, looking like he would puke from the exertion. The thin one stood more or less upright, but wheezed almost as hard as the other. Neither reached for a weapon or attempted to escape.
The thin one protested, “Hey, we’re chasing you.”
“It was a trap, stupid,” Tyler said in a cutting tone. “And we caught you in it.” He examined them closely. Just like in the Unity Army, the task of manning roadblocks usually fell to the lowest caliber, and the greenest troops. Neither of the two young men wore stripes, chevrons, or stars on their uniforms. They were raw recruits, besides being young.
Bender said, sounding like he was more their adviser than the enemy, “We’re both decorated corporals in the Unity Army, and we have five years of close combat fighting and experience. This,” Bender pointed to a patch on his shirt that only meant he had survived in the army more than four years, “is a battle award presented to us by our king. He awarded them because we lead a charge that slaughtered over a hundred Queensland troops from your army. So, understand, you don’t want to cross me, or I won’t let you go when I’m done with you.”
“Let us go?” the thin boy asked, keying on that one phrase in a hopeful tone.
“Maybe. Let me think about it. For now, you’re my prisoners,” Bender said.
“But, we were chasing you!” the fat one objected again, finally catching enough breath to speak enough to agree with his friend.
“Don’t be stupid,” Tyler said. “This was a well-executed military trap by two of Unity’s best soldiers, and you fell right into it. You are now prisoners of war.”
Bender said as if to enforce Tyler’s statement, “Just a few questions and then maybe you can go back and tell them whatever tale you want. First, what were you doing blockading that road back there?”
The young boy looked at the fat man for help in answering. The fat man shrugged and said, “We, our whole army, crossed the mountains ten days ago, and we took control of the pass and everything over here, all the way to the Middling River.”
“Was there a great battle?” Tyler asked, fearful that Captain Torrie may have been killed and the Dragon Corps overrun so they wouldn’t be able to turn over their eggs. He didn’t share the same thoughts about their lieutenant.
The boy said, “No, I don’t think there was any actual fighting, at least, none that I heard of. Our army was much bigger and took yours by surprise. It ran all the way to the river and swam across it when there were no more boats. They’re camped over there, now. You can see their fires at night. Are you really going to let us go?”
Bender turned to Tyler. “We could keep them as our prisoners, I guess, but then we’d have to guard them. Killing them is probably the easiest thing to do. But, they have cooperated with us. What do you think?”
Tyler kept any trace of a smile off his face. “We should kill them and be done with it.”
“Come on; they seem like good men to me. I vote to let them go.”
“They’ll just tell their officers where we are and they’ll come after us,” Tyler said.
“No, we won’t tell,” the fat one said. “We promise.”
Bender shrugged at Tyler. “Okay, it’s up to you.”
“All right, they can go free, but only on one condition,” Tyler said.
“What condition?” Bender demanded, managing to hold back the laugh that threatened to escape, but a small twitch at the corner of his mouth gave a little indication. He continued, “They must agree to wait here until dark. Then they can go back to their unit and tell whatever lie to their officer about how long and far they chased us. But they can take our advice, saying we turned north and lost them in the mountains. A good story like that, might even earn them a stripe on their sleeves.”
Tyler watched the two men nod their heads in unison at his words and knew he had their attention. “But going back to your unit too early in the day makes your story sound weak, do you understand? You have to sell your story by not going back until after dark, if you see what I mean.”
The fat one up and down in agreement and looked at his companion. He said, “We can find our way back in the dark. Right?”
“Promotion would be great after only my first month in the army,” the other said happily.
They looked pleased watching Bender and Tyler leave. Tyler gave them a friendly wave after deciding a handshake carried things too far.
Once out of sight, Bender said with a smirk, “How long do you think they’ll stay there?”
“Until dark. Those boys may not have been the best combat troops Queensland has to offer.”
“Don’t laugh at them, Tyler. We were innocent just like that not too many years ago,” Bender sounded sympathetic and sincere, a fine acting job as he refused to laugh.
Tyler was determined to prevent his friend from getting the last word again. He said, “I was just like the thin one back then, but better looking.”
“Nope, that was me. You were more like the other.”
“Was not.” Tyler walked faster to avoid repeating the conversation. But they now understood the entire area on their side of the river was controlled by the enemy. They would have to move carefully. Any chance of building a campfire for the night was gone. The Middling River flowed down the Chaste Valley from the bottom of the foothills of the Grey Mountains, which had been at least three days’ march away when Queensland troops were not occupying the land. Now, they didn’t know how much longer it would take as they slunk along paths too narrow for men to follow.
Bender strode ahead with his long legs covering large pieces of ground with each stride. He spoke softly, “They’ll have men posted all along the roads. That’s why those farmer-boys back there looked at us oddly and asked if we were sure we wanted to go that way. They knew we should be hiding or fighting, but you were rude to them, so they didn’t tell us.”
“Hiding sounds better than fighting, to me. It’s like the whole damned Queensland army crossed the mountains one day and took our leaders by surprise.”
“That doesn’t say much for our side, does it? Okay, I have a general idea of the lay of the land ahead, which is mostly flat and filled with trees, shrubs, and brush, broken up by patches of stickers or thorn bushes. We’ll stay hidden and work our way to the edge of the river. Then we’ll figure out how to cross it,” Bender said. “I think we can scavenge enough food to last a few days.”
“As long as we don’t have to cross any more logs over bottomless valleys with raging rivers at the bottom, what other choices do we have?”
Bender snickered, “At the bottom of a Bottomless valley. Anyhow, I’ve never heard of Queensland crossing onto our side of the mountains. Before, it’s always been us crossing over there in spring or summer, and then they beat us back because our supply lines close during the winter when the pass closes from snow. They’ll be heading back in the fall.”
“Maybe they plan to bring in enough supplies with them to last the winter, or take all the supplies that are over here to last them until spring.”
“Captain Torrie and his dragons will play hell with that idea if that’s their plan. I’ll bet he’s already flying them over and attacking.”
Bender sounded confident in his prediction, but Tyler didn’t buy into it. He hadn’t seen any military dragons in the air. Besides, Queensland traditionally followed the formal rules of warfare with little or no initiative, using the same old stodgy tactics repeatedly. When they attacked, they won. Either that or they didn’t attack. Their generals conducted a steady, safe, predictable method of fighting. It was both their advantage and weakness.
The Unity generals, on the other hand, often took wild chances. Those chances sometimes shifted battles in Unity’s favor. It also lost them major encounters. If Queens
land had invaded across the mountains, they intended to remain, and their generals had determined nothing would turn them back.
Bender said, “You didn’t leave anything of value at our basecamp, did you?”
“I don’t have anything of value except my bow and spare uniform. By now, those were either divided up by the men in our company, or the other army has them.”
“But you brought your purses with your gold?”
Bender was talking about their pay, as well as the coins they’d won playing ‘Blocks,' a simple yet deceptive game of tiles. Over the last three years, the two of them had devised and perfected methods of cheating that allowed them to win consistently. They never allowed themselves to win big, nor too often, but at the end of a nights’ game, they were usually well ahead. That gold was kept in their retirement purses and never spent.
Tyler said, “Lieutenant Fenton will be after our butts for missing the retreat. He probably has us listed as deserters.”
“Only if he made it across the river alive. I’ll bet he can’t find half of his men in the confusion.”
“Not if they’re smart and avoid him.” That idea brought up other speculation. If Fenton hadn’t lived, their unit might be disbanded, and if that had happened, they had no formal attachment. They could be assigned anywhere, or even separated. But if they located Captain Torrie, their chances of being accepted into the Dragon Corps were far greater. With the Queensland troops camped on one side of the Middling River and the Unity Army on the other, fighting dragons became even more formidable weapons. They were about all that could cross the river to take the fight to the enemy unless one army or the other decided to attack.
Oh, there would certainly be raiding parties to save face and bolster morals, but Bender and Tyler were too savvy to allow themselves be assigned to those. Five years earlier Bender and Tyler had spent a year in the trenches before learning how the army functions—how to avoid most work details and all dangerous assignments.
