The Far Realm Chronicles Anthology

by Annette Archer

  Slapping her horse’s ass she spurred her way down the canyon floor, swiftly disappearing around a corner.

  “Quickly, you fool!” Estogan roared at Thronimere. “After her! She’s the only one who knows how to get out of this place!”

  The sun went down behind the roof of the canyon, and everything went black.

  The only sound was the stomping of their horse’s hooves as the beasts sidled back and forth, scared now in the dark. Estogan swore quietly and elegantly. That cleric had led them into a perfect trap. There was no possibility of them finding their way out now. In the dark, lost in the canyon maze, where the dragons nested, they would most likely be dead before sunrise.

  A light flared and Estogan saw that Thronimere had taken a torch from his pack and lit a fire to its end. The light spread out around them in an uneven circle roughly twenty feet in circumference. Not much. More than they’d had before, though.

  “Which way?” Thronimere asked him, his voice grim.

  “How should I know?” Estogan snapped. “We can try to follow her and hope she leads us out—”

  A sudden roar split the night and echoed down the canyon from above.

  Dragon. They’d been found.

  “Or we could go back the way we came. Quickly.”

  Thronimere nodded, his face lit harshly by the flickering torch. “I like that plan, my Lord.”

  Turning their horses completely around they set off the way they had come at breakneck speed. The dragon bellowed at their heels.

  It was coming for them.

  The Dragon Prince

  Chapter 4

  The trail split twice and they went to the left each time, Estogan vaguely remembering that there had been right turns on the way in. The horses were snorting and frothing at their mouths, scared and not knowing what to expect next. Estogan was feeling exactly the same way.

  And then they came up to the dead end.

  Reining in their horses they sat there, completely still and staring. “I think,” Thronimere commented. “That we may have taken a wrong turn.”

  “You powers of observation astound me once again,” Estogan snarled.

  “I wasn’t the one who slept with the woman who’s trying to kill us.”

  “Hmm. Quite. It was nearly worth it, though. Come on, back the way we came. As quietly as possible, right?”

  The torchlight fell back on the path behind them. Near the far end, a huge shadow stood. The circle of light from Thronimere’s torch reached just to where it loomed, but no closer. Estogan followed the dark edges of it up, up, to a long and sweeping arch that he knew was the thing’s neck, sweeping up to a wide, thick head.

  Dragon. The beast had found them.

  Now that he was aware of its presence he could hear the deep, powerful breaths being slowly taken in and then expelled again. It shifted slowly, easing toward them a little at a time, until the light fell on a shimmering of golden scales rippling along a heavy arm ending in a claw with sharp talons. This monster seemed to be only just twice as tall as Estogan. Average height for a dragon, by all reports. More than enough to kill both Estogan and Thronimere.

  Its head hovered into the light. It was reptilian, but the eyes held a wily intelligence that was almost human. Tiny, stubby horns protruded in lines up its cheekbones and around the back of it skull. Its lips parted and a long, thin tongue lolled out before slipping back in between a row of sharp, jagged teeth.

  Then it spoke.

  “I am Wayfire,” it said in a deep, rumbling voice. “This is my territory. Many have marked it before me but now it is mine. You are trespassing.”

  Estogan swallowed hard before he could form any words. “We mean no offense, great dragon.”

  The creature snorted and little plumes of smoke rose up into the darkness. “You offend me by breathing the same air, little slug.”

  That was not a good sign.

  “I suppose we should be leaving then,” Thronimere offered.

  The dragon growled. “Do you expect me to forgive this insult so lightly, little slug?”

  “I had always heard great things of the dragons,” Estogan said smoothly. “I have heard of their intelligence, and their forbearance, and their wisdom. I’m sure you can see that we are just two simple travelers. We only want to continue on our way.”

  The dragon took two more steps towards them, head twisting to stare at the two of them, wings settling tighter against its body. “Few people have any reason to travel in these lands. What brought you here?”

  Estogan considered several answers to that question and realized that each one had the very real possibility of getting him killed. What he needed was a believable lie, something that would allow him to keep in the dragon’s good graces and yet still sound reasonable.

  “We came looking for dragon eggs,” Thronimere suddenly said, lifting the torch higher. “We were sent to take the eggs and bring them home with us.”

  Estogan nearly killed the man where he sat on his horse. If he hadn’t thought any sudden moves might get himself killed too, he would have. He glared at Thronimere, who kept his eyes on the dragon, studiously ignoring Estogan.

  “Well, well,” the dragon rumbled. “I hear the truth at last. Doesn’t it feel better than lying?”

  “Honestly?” Estogan couldn’t help but ask.

  “Now that you know,” Thronimere said, raising his voice over Estogan’s. “Would you let us go? We were wrong, and we admit it, oh great dragon.”

  “Your admission means nothing to me.” The dragon took one more step. Then clenched its claws into the hard, rocky earth.

  “You will die for your trespass.”

  It reared its head back, eyes glinting in the torchlight, and then shot forward at them. Estogan ducked to the side and rolled off his horse as the dragon’s teeth snapped close, chomping down on the stallion and nearly severing it in two. It broke off the larger part of the animal, including its head, and crunched it down before swallowing it. Blood ran from its mouth down its neck.

  Thronimere swung the torch at it from his horse, smacking it on its nose, spreading flame along its snout that burned out quickly. The dragon finished chewing its bite of horse and then turned to the man.

  “Nice try,” said the beast. “Now, it’s my turn.”

  With a great intake of breath, the dragon filled its bladder in its neck that would allow it to spew fire, hot and heavy, in a blast that would kill anything in its path.

  Estogan drew his sword free of its scabbard and leapt up, easily reaching the height where he could see the bladder expanding, filling, stretching the neck muscles. It was there that he aimed the blade, there that the point of it sank through the thick dragon scale and into the beast’s flesh, piercing the bladder, sliding deep and out the other side.

  A loud popping noise preceded a flash of flame and a blast of compressed air that threw Estogan backward far enough to slam him into the rock wall of the canyon.

  It hurt. Pain flared into bright stars swimming across his vision and it took him a moment to realize he was sitting with his back against the rocks, his ears ringing, blinking stupidly and wondering why there was still light around him.

  It was the dragon. The dragon was burning.

  Thronimere stood next to him suddenly, extending a hand down. “Well played, my Lord. I thought for certain I was dead then.”

  Estogan slapped his hand away. “Idiot. You nearly were.” But as he pushed himself up again he couldn’t help but laugh. “Who in their right mind attacks a dragon with a torch?”

  Thronimere smiled back at him. “The kind of idiot who follows you, is who. Shouldn’t we be on our way? This fire and all the commotion is bound to attract more of these beasts.”

  “We came here for dragons’ eggs. Is there any reason why we shouldn’t get some now?”

  “Well, considering that we almost just died, I’d say so.”

  “Almost died. But we didn’t.”

  “I was a lot closer to that dragon’
s mouth than you were.”

  Estogan’s temper flared. “You are following me, remember? Do as you’re told. We’re alive. My father won’t accept we were almost killed as an excuse. So we do what we were sent here for. Is that understood?”

  Thronimere pressed his lips firmly together and nodded, but said nothing.

  “As I thought. Now. Let’s relight some torches and be on our way.”

  With just the one horse they chose to walk. They led Thronimere’s horse. They’d need it to carry the eggs if nothing else. Going back to the last intersection they went right this time, scanning the canyon walls as they went.

  “There,” Estogan pointed out.

  Halfway up the canyon wall on one side was a dark depression. A cave. There was a narrow ledge that led up to it by way of several switchbacks.

  “This is good,” Estogan handed his torch to Thronimere. “Stay here. I’ll scout it and bring back the eggs if there are any here.”

  “Sounds fine to me, my Lord.” He nodded to Estogan and then drew his sword, standing there at attention with the torch held high and his eyes trying to see into the darkness beyond.

  Estogan couldn’t stand Thronimere, actually. The man was too stiff and too self-righteous for his tastes. He was loyal to the Kingdom of Rikketh even now, after having been basically exiled with Thronimere for something that was the fault of the Crystal Elves. If they all burned in endless fire at the feet of the Maker, then Estogan figured there might be some justice in the world after all.

  Holding the torch aloft in his one hand, he climbed carefully up the rocks, first up this way, then cutting back the other, and up again. Finally he stood in front of the cave opening. It was a space that went back for several dozen feet before it ended. It had obviously been made by a dragon, as shown by the claw marks along the walls and ceiling and floor. Some beast had spent a lot of time making this into a home.

  At first, he thought it was empty. Then in the very back he found a darker patch that his torch lit up in jagged shadows. It took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust enough to realize he was looking at a nest of twigs and straw, daubed with mud, molded to the weight of the objects in the middle of it.

  Dragon eggs.

  Five of them. Larger than his head, speckled with red against the white shells. They were beautiful.

  “There, father,” he said quietly. “I’ve managed to do something right after all.”

  “I might argue that with you,” the feminine voice said from behind him.

  Spinning on his heel and backing up at the same time, he raised the torch defensively and reached for his sword handle.

  Temani stood there, her hands folded into her robes, the hood pushed back so that he could see her dark expression below her fiery strands of hair.

  “I have done everything I can to keep you away from here, Estogan. Yet, here you are.”

  He relaxed a bit, but still kept up his guard, still kept his hand near his sword. “Yes. Here I am. Despite you trying to leave me for dead. Despite a dragon chewing my horse in half. Here I am. And I’m taking those eggs.”

  She shook her head slowly. “I can’t let you do that.”

  “You don’t exactly have a choice. You’re outnumbered and… Hold on. Where’s Thronimere?”

  She shrugged. “I took care of him.”

  He wasn’t exactly surprised. Not that Thronimere wasn’t a skilled fighter, but he had seen Temani back in the tavern taking on the Ice Maiden. Her skills were far superior to Thronimere’s. Even better than Estogan’s.

  “Fine,” he replied. “Then it’s just you and me. And I’m taking those eggs.”

  Taking a step forward, Temani pulled her hands from her sleeves. Estogan drew his sword and leveled it at her, expecting an attack. But her hands were empty. She held them at waist level, fingers spread, and then stopped where she stood. Her eyelids lowered. Her mouth began to move as if she were quietly reciting…something.

  Confused, Estogan raised an eyebrow. “What, exactly, are you doing?”

  She didn’t answer him, just kept on with her silent chanting.

  “Really? This is what we’re going to do now? Stand here and not talk to each other? Oh, come now, great protector of the dragons. Do something. Anything.”

  He waited. She just continued on like that.

  “I grow bored with this. Perhaps I’ll just run you through and be done with you.”

  He lunged forward, sword first. She spun and dodged the strike without opening her eyes, without changing the position of her hands, and without any interruption to whatever she was saying to herself.

  He came at her again. She spun away again. He slashed at her and she glided backward as if she were floating on the air. Angry now, he tried harder, slashing, striking, thrusting at her. Every move he made, she countered by simply moving. He never touched her. It was as if she were made of air herself, a vision without substance.

  It infuriated him. Dropping the torch he drew his dagger with his other hand and came at her with both weapons.

  When she spun this time, she had a blade of her own in her hand. Catching the side of his dagger with her own, she twisted the crosspieces and the force of it bent his hand back and his weapon went clattering across the cavern’s rock floor.

  Twisting inside his guard, she pressed herself up against him, her back to his chest, and brought the handle end down on the wrist of his right hand so hard that his fingers went numb. His sword fell at his feet.

  Temani nestled up against him, the curve of her ass pressing hard into his groin. “I want you to know,” she said. “That I did enjoy our night together. It was the best I’ve had in a very long time. And I’ve had some men that were paid for what they did.”

  Estogan wrapped his arms around her, one around her neck, one around her chest to feel the firm mounds of her breasts.

  “We could always do it again,” he suggested. “What do you say?”

  Her laugh was playful, but harsh in its echo. “I don’t have sex with dragons.”

  “What?”

  What was she talking about?

  With so little effort that again he wondered if she weren’t just a walking illusion, she pushed her way out of his grip and stood before him with her arms spread wide and her lips curled.

  “Ka’thilni,” she yelled in his face.

  Pain gripped his middle and bent him over double to fall to the floor of the cave, curled around himself. He whimpered and tried to breathe, but his lungs were suddenly on fire. Everything hurt. Everything.

  Temani knelt down next to him, bent herself low next to his ear.

  “I am a cleric of the Order of the Blazing Dragon, oh Estagon former Prince. We are renowned for our skills in fighting, and our skills at sex, and also for our use of magic. Everyone forgets that last part. Maybe it’s because we do so little of it anymore. I myself haven’t used a turning spell on anyone in, oh, a hundred years or so.”

  His muscles rebelled against him. He was shaking all over, spasms that he could no more control than he could stop the liquid fire that now coursed through his veins. Something was happening to him. Something he didn’t understand.

  “We’re actually forbidden from using our powers against another human being,” Temani went on. “Except in moments of dire need. Like when the dragons we are sworn to protect are threatened.”

  Grabbing his hair roughly, she forced his head back so that he had to look up into her eyes. “Like when you killed Wayfire. She was never the smartest of dragons, but she was a good mother to her children. She’s had four different broods, all of them strong young dragons. We had hoped with her and a few others, we might be able to repopulate the dragons in this area, at least. But now she’s dead. At your hand.”

  When she let his head drop back to bounce against the rocks his vision went dark. He was scared. He was more scared than he had ever been in his life.

  And he realized what he must do.

  Gathering his strength, forcing himself to b
reathe and move at the same time despite the racking pain that made even his bones hurt. “What…what if I promised not to harm the eggs?”

  Temani raised a hand and the pain didn’t so much stop, but it hovered over his heart. He gasped and nearly thanked the Maker above that he could at least think again.

  “What did you say?” she asked.

  He forced his way to his knees, worked up spit in his mouth and realized it was mixed with blood.

  “I said, I was wrong. I don’t need the eggs.”

  Her hand pressed down above him, condensing the air into a force that pressed against him.

  “Hmm. You aren’t just saying that so that you don’t have to face me turning you into a dragon, are you?”

  So that was what she had planned for him. The cleric, this witch, had planned on changing him bodily into a dragon to protect the eggs. Well. He could think of worse fates.

  None came to mind, but he was sure there were some.

  “I don’t wish to be turned into a dragon, no.” On wobbly legs he stood up next to her. “But that’s not what I mean. My father has basically disowned me. I have schemed and plotted to create opportunities for myself that have hurt countless people.” He stopped himself as he said that, his train of thought drifting.

  Had he really meant those words? He’d hurt people, certainly. But why did he care? He had always been about getting the best he could for himself. Was this woman forcing him to look at his life differently?

  She stepped closer to him. Her presence was something that rocked him back on his heels. Her eyes blazed into his own.

  “Do you understand now?” she asked.

  Did he? No. Not completely. What he did know, was that he was being offered a choice here. To either continue with his old ways and suffer for it, or make a change and come out the better for it.

  He chose to change.

  “Cleric Temani, I will do what I can. You need the dragons protected. Let me be that protector.”

  She smirked at him. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Then how could I convince you?”