by Nathan Roden
“And you as well, my King,” Lamont said. “Did I hear correctly? This is your brother, Boone?”
“Yes, My Lord,” Boone said.
Ben began to kneel.
“No, no, no, Son,” Lamont said. He held out his hand.
“I am not royalty. Nicolas Lamont, Steward of Islemar. Very pleased to know you.”
Ben took his hand.
“Benjamin Blankenship, My Lord.”
“Lord Lamont,” Boone said. “I have had a thought. I believe that I can obtain something that may prove valuable on our mission. It will require…money.”
Lamont reached inside his coat and took out a pouch. He tossed it to Boone.
“We plan to cross the border late tomorrow night,” Lamont said. “Will there be enough time?”
Boone looked at Simon.
“The trip would be impossible—without a dragon.”
“Is this important?” Magdalena asked. “It will do us little good to show the people a dragon that cannot keep his eyes open.”
“It will be a short trip,” Boone said. “I want to visit the healer again.”
“I will come with you,” Helena said.
“I was hoping you would say that,” Boone said. “I was going to ask you to come.”
“Because you need my help or because I am adorable?”
Boone smiled.
“Because I am not stupid.”
Twenty-Eight
Sterling was up at dawn. He walked to the stables still fuming from the humiliation of the previous day. Raynard was there, filling his skins with water for the day’s work.
Sterling took his horse’s reins from the trembling hands of a stable boy. The boy quickly thought of something else to do—outside of the stables.
“Do we still have a King?” Raynard whispered. “Or should my question be, does the King still have his head?”
Sterling donned his gloves. He flexed his fists several times.
“In my dreams he has lost it many times—over and over again.”
Raynard handed Sterling a cup.
“It’s only water.”
Sterling took it and drained it dry. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
“No, this is not the time to exact revenge on the piss-ant king!” Sterling said with a sneer.
“It would not bode well for us to fight among ourselves. The blasted dragon remains on the loose. I want it and this wizard dead—or back across the sea where he belongs! Can you imagine if word was to reach other lands that our people are divided? That we are weak-minded and fight each other? No. We are safe only because we are strong.”
“The pup insulted you—in front of many,” Raynard said.
Sterling stepped forward and glared into Raynard’s face.
“And the pup…will not live long enough to become a dog. But it will happen when I say. And not one moment before. Remember who controls this kingdom, Captain.”
“As you wish, My Lord,” Raynard said.
Sterling looked around.
“Now, where is the giant?”
“He and the laborers left before dawn—for the next cave.”
“Bah!” Sterling said. “Has everyone forgotten who is in charge of the realm? Have I gone soft? Is it time that I filled the dungeon—perhaps mount some heads upon the wall?”
“Dathien is not our people, My Lord,” Raynard said.
“Thank the gods for that.”
Sterling and Raynard traveled south on the King’s Road for two hours. They came to a wagon that was stopped by the side of the road. A solemn-faced man stood to the side. Three women and two children tried to comfort each other while they sobbed.
“What is wrong here?” Sterling asked.
“The widow Brewer,” the man said quietly. “She lies dead in her garden.”
The man stepped closer and continued in a whisper.
“Her children are missing.”
“Brewer, you said?” Sterling said.
Sterling looked at Raynard.
“You had a man, Brewer, did you not?”
The man spoke up.
“Aye, Brewer was a member of the King’s army.”
“I remember teasing him,” Sterling said. “A man named ‘Brewer’ should be able to make a fine ale.”
“He was one of us,” Raynard said. “Until the day that…”
“Say no more,” Sterling cut him off.
“Are there signs of foul play?”
The man shrugged, uncomfortably.
“It’s hard to say, My Lord. She’s been dead a while, would be my guess. The crows…well, you know….”
“Right,” Sterling said. “Well, the children will likely turn up. If not, we will send a detachment to look for them when we return to the village.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
Twenty-Nine
Simon landed well outside of Morgenwraithe village.
“I’ll be right here,” he told Boone and Helena. “I may be asleep.”
“That means ‘be very careful’,” Boone said. “He doesn’t always behave well when he is startled.”
“That would be a good thing to remember,” Simon said.
Helena and Boone crept toward the apothecary, and the home of the healer and his wife.
Boone waited in the shadows. The street was quiet. They had not seen or heard anyone.
Helena tapped on the door. She waited. She knocked again, louder.
The healer snatched the door open.
“Who is waking us at this ungodly—?”
“Oh…What is the matter, girl?”
“Is your wife here?” Helena whispered.
A lady’s head appeared from behind the large man.
“What is it, dear?”
Helena looked to the side.
“I am with my friend. You know him.”
Boone stepped to Helena’s side.
The woman stepped past her husband. She grabbed Boone and Helena by the arms and pulled on them.
“Get inside. Quickly!”
The woman pulled them inside and closed the door.
“Great Vehaillion’s ghost!” the healer exclaimed. “Who are these people?”
The woman shook her finger in Boone’s face.
“Have you lost your mind? You were never to return here!”
“I’m very sorry, My Lady,” Boone said. “I had no intention of returning. But this is important.”
“Important!” the woman flailed her arms in the air. “What could possibly be so—?”
The woman was unable to complete her thoughts. She shook her head and then looked at Helena.
“I suppose this is your—the shawl does look lovely on you, child.”
Helena touched her shawl.
“Thank you.”
The woman looked back at Boone in disgust.
“What do you want?”
“We travel south—across the border. We go seeking support to restore the kingdom.”
“What is this madness you speak?” the healer interrupted. “You talk of treason—and bring yourself into our home? What have we done to you? I should alert the King’s Guard this instant!”
The woman turned to her husband.
“You will do no such thing!”
She lowered her voice.
“They are friends of the boy prince. The rightful king!”
“The cursed king, is what you mean!” the healer said.
“We intend to use the curse to our advantage, My Lord,” Helena said. “Simon is not only the rightful king; he is just, and kind. And as a dragon, he has the power of a thousand men! I have seen it!”
“Simon and the sorceress Magdalena have made peace,” Boone said. “When he takes the throne, the curse will be lifted.”
“Bah!” the healer rejected the thought with a wave of his hand. “A dragon—sitting the throne of Morgenwraithe? Do you think the people will stand for such a thing? Were you in the arena on the king’s name day? The people cheered the death of on suc
h beast! Some of us are old enough to remember the days that we lived in fear of dragon fire!”
“The people of this Kingdom—no,” Boone said. “We are going into the Southlands.”
“The Southlands?” the healer said. “Why should they care about the affairs of the kingdom? They may as well live across the sea!”
“Sickness has fallen upon them, My Lord,” Boone said. “Three generations of Morgenwraithe kings have sworn treaties with the people of the south. They promised to forward medicines and essential supplies from the ports of Islemar. But these treaties have been ignored—by Bailin, and now by Sterling.”
The healer glared at Boone.
“How can you know these things?”
“My brother has lived in the south for the past three years. He married and had a child. The same fever that runs rampant throughout that land took his wife from him.”
The healer’s wife took her husband’s arm.
“These children have suffered more than you can ever know.”
The woman gripped Boone’s shoulder.
“I believe in this young man. And his cause is a just one.”
“I will ask it again,” the healer said. “What do you want from us?”
“I want to buy some medicine,” Boone said. “To take with us on our journey. It may help to prove our resolve and establish goodwill.”
“We are people of simple means,” the healer said. “I recently returned from a sea voyage which cost me dearly—”
Boone produced Lord Lamont’s money pouch.
“I can pay.”
“Where did you get this money?” the healer’s wife asked. “We will not be a party to theft—”
“We do not steal, My Lady!” Helena said. “This money came from—!”
Boone squeezed Helena’s arm.
“My Lady—it would serve neither of us to tell you exactly where this money came from. But suffice it to say, our group includes those whose names and titles you would surely recognize.”
“If there is to be a revolution it may include some of the lowest among us. But they will fight alongside some of the most prominent people in the kingdom. This is the way it should be.”
Boone and Helena ran into the night, with packs of medicine slung across their backs.
In the shadows a pair of steel-blue eyes watched them go.
Thirty
“Bloody hell,” the healer said, as he swung his legs out of bed.
“Why in the world did you ever invite these children into our lives?” he asked his wife. He stomped toward the front door. His wife was at his heels.
The healer pulled the door open.
“What do you want now—?”
Dathien ducked his head and pushed his way past the healer. The man stumbled backward, knocking his wife to the floor.
“The boy—and the girl,” Dathien growled. “What was their business here?”
“How dare you invade our home!” the woman said. “Lord Sterling will hear of this!”
“Lord Sterling?” the giant snarled. “The same Regent that hired me?”
The wizard stood tall and sniffed the air.
“I smell the tainted stench of dragon!” the wizard roared.
“Dragon?” the woman said. “We have seen no dragon!”
The wizard’s lips curled into a humorless grin.
“Aye, but the boy and girl carry its scent with them!”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” the healer said. “They came to buy salve to treat a flesh wound—”
The giant grabbed the healer by the collar of his nightshirt. He lifted him off of the floor.
“A flesh wound, you say!”
The giant opened his hand, and the healer fell to the floor.
“Who has sustained this…flesh wound?”
“They would not say,” the woman pleaded.
“Please, we have nothing to tell you, My Lord.”
The wizard looked around the room. He lowered his head and walked into the couple’s bedroom. He returned moments later.
He carried the healer’s crossbow.
“You are quite certain that you have nothing to tell me? Nothing about the boy and the girl that might interest me?”
The giant bent low, into the woman’s face.
“Nothing I might want to know—
“About the friends of a dragon?”
“No,” the woman cried. “We know nothing about any dragon!”
“You know nothing,” the giant repeated.
The giant turned the crossbow over in his huge hand. He looked at the healer.
“You heal your people—yet you must protect yourself from them.”
“We live in perilous times—”
The wizard raised the crossbow and pulled the trigger. The arrow pierced the healer’s heart.
“NO!” the woman cried out. She caught her husband in her arms.
“NO! WHY? You…you…MONSTER! NOOOO!”
They crashed to the floor.
The giant dropped the crossbow.
“Crude weapon. But effective. I will find your friends, old woman. And I will show you their heads.”
He fingered the teeth of his necklace.
“You will not find the dragon so charming—or so menacing—when its teeth hang around my neck!”
Thirty-One
After a day of rest, Lord Lamont and his small group of men gathered on the side of the forbidden mountain. That night, Ben led the climbers to his ropes that hung against the mountain’s face.
“We wait for the late hours,” Simon said. “I should be able to transport the rest of you to the mountain’s summit in four trips.”
The members of Lamont’s army who were going to scale the wall grumbled their displeasure.
“We are able to scale the wall, so we don’t get to ride the dragon? That hardly seems fair.”
“When this journey is over,” Simon said. “I will make certain that everyone gets to ride—before the curse becomes a thing of the past.”
One of Lamont’s men stepped forward.
“May I speak freely, Viceroy Lamont?”
“What is on your mind, soldier?” Lamont asked.
“We suffer at the hand of Lord Sterling because of the curse of the sorceress. And yet, we are now to accept her as an ally? What assurance do we have of her loyalty?”
“Your concerns are valid,” Simon said. “But don’t forget; my seventeenth name day was less than two years ago. Without this curse, the kingdom would still have suffered from the madness of my mother and father. Sterling would have been my Regent.”
“You are not the frightened little boy that Lucien was. And still is!” the soldier exclaimed.
A few of his fellow soldiers chuckled.
“I was a child, nonetheless,” Simon said. “Would I have been able to stand against Sterling’s lust for power? We will never know.”
“I will tell you this, my friends. Lady Magdalena has proven herself valuable in our quest thus far. She has made herself vulnerable. She does not fear Sterling. And she does not fear me.”
“One blast of fire, and her loyalty would never be in question again,” a different soldier said.
“I prefer to rule the kingdom as a man, thank you very much,” Simon said.
“If she wishes to prove herself, let her lift your curse now!” the first soldier said.
Simon turned his head and sighed. A short blast of fire and smoke escaped his nostrils. He continued to stare at the night sky. The moon was bright. Two more nights, and it would be full.
“I believe that there is purpose behind it all. I once demanded the same thing of her. But in many respects, the hope of revolution was born in her mind. I am the rightful king. But that right does not promise anyone a better life—nor does it encourage anyone to risk their lives in war. But as a dragon—with the strength and power of dozens of men—maybe we can inspire others to join us. We have no hope of building an army within our own borders.�
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“I don’t know if you can expect different results in the south,” Ben said. “I only know the heart of my own village, but its people live in constant fear. They know that Sterling is not honoring the treaty, but they prefer to ignore that rather than risk death at the hands of his army.”
“People from the kingdom have traveled south before,” Lamont said. “They shook hands in alliance with the leaders of Drakal. This was Helena’s family—the young lady who travels with us.”
Ben shook his head.
“Drakal is only mentioned in a shroud of mystery in my village. I know that it lies deeper in the south. Is that where you’re going?”
“Eventually, yes,” Lamont said. “But one village will not be enough. Our first stop will be the village of Vallen.”
“I traveled to Vallen only once,” Ben said. “It was after I ran away from home the first time. I was very young, and I was hungry. I begged for work, just to be able to eat. Two children brought me food from their own tables or I would have starved. These people have no trust of outsiders—especially of those from the north. I doubt you will find allies there.”
“It is two nights until the full moon,” Lamont said. “Perhaps meeting the rightful king in the flesh will change their minds.”
“It is possible,” Ben said.
But he did not believe it.
Thirty-Two
It was almost dawn when Simon completed his final trip across the border.
The skilled climbers of Islemar scaled the mountain wall, assisted by Ben Blankenship’s ropes.
Simon made six trips. He underestimated the weight and the bulk of weapons and armor of Lamont’s men.
Simon sat down heavily against a tree trunk. He exhaled dark smoke and closed his eyes.
Lamont, Magdalena, and Helena were passengers on his final flight.
