Dragon Fate

by J. D. Hallowell

  “Fine,” Rita said, “I’ve been four days without a proper bath, and I itch all over. Since the news doesn’t include enemies battering down our front door, I am going to take time to bathe.” Then she smiled mischievously at Delno and said softly, “Want to wash my back, Handsome?”

  Connor blushed and Brock rolled his eyes. Delno said, “We probably don’t have much time before the other Rider. . . .” he gave Brock an inquiring look and Brock said, “Jason, his dragon is Gina.” Delno continued, “. . . . before Jason returns.” Then, at her pouting look, he quickly added, “So it’s probably best if we share the bath so that Connor has time to bathe, also.” She smiled and took his hand and led him up the narrow stairs.

  “I’ll be glad when you two get used to each other so that we can actually get some work done around here,” Brock taunted good naturedly at their retreating backs.”

  Delno simply made a rude a gesture behind his back, and Brock laughed out loud. After being under Simcha’s tutelage, Connor was shocked at the behavior of both grown men.

  Since it was over an hour before Jason returned from the garrison, and the only activity that went on in the bathing room was bathing, they were all washed and dressed in clean clothing when they met in the sitting room. By this time, Nat and Pearce had joined them.

  After introductions, Brock said, “So, Jason, you’ve given me enough information to pique my curiosity, but not enough to really understand what is going on. Why don’t you start from the beginning and tell us all of it?”

  Jason appeared to be no more than twenty and was tall and somewhat gangly, with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. His face was long, and he had a rather large nose and blue eyes. He looked at the people around the room and was reluctant to speak. “I was told to give my message to you and the new Rider, if he was here.”

  “Told?” Brock asked, “Told by whom?” he demanded.

  “The queen of Palamore herself, sir.” The young man seemed a bit unsure of his position in this setting as he spoke.

  “I know Lark, and she knows damn well that she has no right to give orders to Riders.” Then he slid forward in his seat and said to Jason, “Look, lad, I know you’ve only been a rider for about ten years. . . .”

  Jason straightened his back and said, “Twelve years, sir, Gina is mature enough that she’s even mated this year.” Then he added proudly, “She carries two eggs now.”

  Brock smiled at the young man, “That’s good, that’s very good; she comes from good stock.” He turned to Delno and said, “Gina is Leera’s daughter, Geneva’s niece.”

  The boy sat up even straighter as Brock mentioned his dragon’s lineage.

  “However, lad, that doesn’t change things here. Lark, the Queen of Palamore, has no right to order you about, and she can’t expect you to keep us in the dark if she has asked you to deliver some kind of plea for help.” Then he turned to Delno and said, “You see, the Dragon Riders have always shunned getting involved in local politics: even civil wars are normally ignored, provided that they are really sparked by internal conflict and not outside influences. We don’t have a written code, but we have developed customs and guidelines over the years, and Riders are considered to be the equal of royalty.”

  “Well, sir, I just don’t know anymore. There’s been so much happening lately, it’s hard to keep track. Seems that there won’t be any independent forces left if things keep going the way they are now.”

  “All right then, you may as well give us your message. If you wait until we are alone, I will only tell the others gathered here. The only thing you will accomplish by waiting is wasting time.”

  Jason mulled it over for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders before beginning, “Well, it seems it started when that Dragon Blade disappeared. The king was frantic, and the queen was furious. Apparently it has been a symbol of power in Palamore for over three centuries. With it gone, the queen, who is the one who actually rules the country, has been having trouble controlling the advisors. There are some of them who would like to see her gone because they know that without her they can control King Norton; he’s not terribly bright, you see.” The young man paused while he sipped his fruit punch.

  “We already know all of this,” Brock said. “How have things changed so much that Palamore suddenly requires our intervention?”

  “Well,” Jason replied, “Things were running as smoothly as they could under the circumstances. The queen didn’t have quite enough authority to get rid of the advisors that she didn’t like, but they couldn’t consolidate their power enough to oppose her, either. The government was all locked up, kind of.” He again paused to collect his thoughts. “Actually, the government was doing much better than before the blade went missing. Not much big was getting done, but the day to day stuff was still happening, so everyone but the politicians was pretty happy with the way of things. I’d dare say there are those in Palamore who would be just as happy if the blade was never recovered.”

  Jason took a break from his tale to eat a bit of sandwich and drink some more punch before continuing. “Well, like I said, everyone was gliding along, fat, dumb and happy, until that caravan returned from the north with tales of a new Rider who was on his way to Palamore. No one would have believed them, especially because they were saying that the new Rider’s partner was the last daughter of Geneva, and they bore a new Dragon Blade. In Palamore everyone understands dragon lore more than in most other places since so many Riders have come from that royal line over the years.”

  “Great,” Delno spoke out, “I asked those vanners to keep my presence quiet until I arrived. I thought they understood the need for discretion.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t the vanners, sir,” Jason may have been a Rider longer than Delno, but he recognized authority when he saw it. “It was that Northern man. Nice fellow, talks so fast you can’t get word in edgewise, though. He said he was a friend of yours.”

  Delno slapped his forehead with his open palm, “Nassari!”

  “Yes, sir,” Jason replied with a smile, “that’s his name.”

  Delno said, “I’ll kill him. I’ll strangle him, and then I’ll feed his entrails to the vultures.”

  Jason was suddenly alarmed, “If he isn’t a friend of yours, sir, we have big problems.”

  “Calm yourself, son, he’s a friend,” Delno responded. At the young Rider’s perplexed look, he added, “I’ve know him since we were both children. We’ve been friends for over twenty years. He’s a good man, but sometimes he lets his mouth run several minutes ahead of his brain.”

  “Yes, sir,’ Jason replied, “I’ve noticed that about him.” Then he went on with his tale. “Well, anyway, within a couple of weeks, Nassari has the queen’s ear and is sleeping on satin sheets at the palace. It looked like everything was going to return to normal at first. Of course, everyone assumed that, since Nassari is your friend, and he is the queen’s newest advisor, you were coming to help the queen. That didn’t sit too well with the other advisors.”

  Delno rolled his eyes and said, “Nassari may not actively seek to cause trouble, but he definitely has a habit of stirring the pot once it’s brewing.”

  Jason nodded and went on, “Well, the advisors started talking about other Riders who were going to come in and take over everything. They seemed to think that there were Riders close by who want to oust the rightful rulers of Palamore.”

  “Who are these other Riders?” asked Brock.

  “That’s just it: no one has seen them yet, but the people believe they are there, somewhere in Llorn, and ready to fly in and take control. Things are pretty tense in Palamore right now, and the queen figures that you showing up would set people’s minds to ease.”

  “Llorn,” Brock said, “that certainly makes sense. First Simcha comes flying in from Llorn with his grandiose talk of the Riders being the rightful rulers of the world, and now we hear of Riders in Llorn poised to make a strike on the neighboring kingdom of Palamore. I wonder what has become of the
rightful rulers of that little kingdom. Have they become puppets of these Riders, or are they even still alive?”

  “Well, there’s certainly one way to find out,” Delno replied. He was about to add more when a knock on the door interrupted them.

  They heard Missus Gentry open the door and greet the visitor. The man’s voice coming from the entryway sounded familiar, but he was speaking too quietly to identify who he was. Nat got up to see who had arrived, and a moment later he came back in with Winston.

  “Sorry to barge in, gentlemen,” Winston began, then seeing Rita he added, “and lady, but something has come up which I believe may be of interest to you all.”

  Pearce stood and motioned the Captain to his seat while he went to the corner of the room and produced a folding chair from the small cubby there. Winston smiled and said “No, sir, I won’t take your seat. I’ll take the camp chair. I’m a soldier, so I’m used to it.” Saying that, he took the chair from Pearce, unfolded it, and sat down. He then took a piece of paper out of his pocket, and looking at Delno, he said, “Officially, I shouldn’t tell you about this, since it’s an army communiqué, but I figure you’re close enough to one of us, and I believe that it directly concerns you.”

  Winston said, “The gist of the thing is this: Ondar has already sent men to Horne in response to a call for help against the beast-men. Now Palamore is calling for aid because they fear an impending invasion from Llorn. Palamore and Ondar have strong alliances; the royal families from each kingdom have intermarried often over the years. I’ve only got fifty soldiers at the garrison at any one time, and now I’m to leave twenty of them and my lieutenant behind and take the rest and march to Palamore where we’ll meet up with men who have been pulled from other garrisons around the kingdom.”

  “Won’t that leave the garrison terribly short handed?” Delno asked.

  Winston said, “I’m worried about a couple of things. One is what’s going to happen here with only twenty men to handle the patrols. This may look like a fair-sized town, but it’s still just a poor agricultural community. The city maintains a guard, but they are more of a skeleton-crew than a real peacekeeping force. Orlean relies heavily on that garrison for protection.”

  Connor, who had remained silent and almost forgotten, spoke up. “I will be staying here and patrolling the countryside; that should free up your men some so the city proper isn’t left unprotected.” At Winston’s look of uncertainty, he added, “I may be young, Captain, but I am a trained Rider, and while my own sword skills are somewhat lacking, as you have been told, my partner’s flying skills are up to the task.”

  “Also,” Delno added, “his youth won’t be so apparent when he’s several hundred feet off the ground. The bandits who are in the area will still be plenty impressed.”

  “Well then, that eases my mind considerably; I thank you,” Winston replied to Connor. He then turned to Delno and said, “My other main concern is what is going on outside of Orlean. First; we are called to send help to fight the Roracks in the southwest, then we have to take men from our local garrisons to reinforce our neighbors to the east against those who are north of them. As a military man who is familiar with the concept of divide and conquer, I can’t help but wonder if the two are related events designed to split our forces.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment until Nat said, “I’ve known you a long time, Winston; what else is bothering you?”

  Winston took a moment trying to decide just how much to tell them, then shrugged his shoulders and said, “This communiqué,” he held the note up for emphasis, “states that the original date my men and I were to leave was three days ago. The first message was sent so that it would get here in time to give us two days to prepare. This is a repeat message, since the original messenger disappeared and the message was never received.”

  After letting them think about it for a moment, he stated the obvious, “It’s entirely possible that someone knows we are coming and will have an ambush ready for us along the way.”

  “I believe,” Delno said, “that this news not only concerns us, it changes our situation considerably.” He looked directly at Brock and the older rider nodded.

  They quickly brought Winston up to date concerning what they had already found out. He was quite impressed by how much they had put together, and said, “So, it is obvious that Delno can’t go off to Palamore alone on an immature dragon.” He looked at Delno and added quickly, “No offense: Geneva is impressive, and she has already handled one mature dragon, but if she is alone and outnumbered. . . .”

  Delno held up his hand and said, “No offense taken, my friend, you are absolutely right. Our plans to divide our own force must change to deal with the new threat.”

  Brock added, “I just wish we knew which threat is the greater. It could very well be that we are being drawn off to Palamore to keep us out of Horne for a reason. After all, no one has actually seen a hostile Rider in Palamore yet.”

  “Well,” Rita interjected, “before I left Trent I had some news that four Riders were already planning to go to Horne. That is more than double the normal force of dragons there.”

  “I’ve heard of five that have definitely gone,” Jason added, “With the three already there, that makes twelve: that’s a lot of firepower by any standard.”

  “Provided all of them are on the same side,” Nat replied.

  Jason looked scandalized, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means,” Brock answered, “that if Riders are working against us in Llorn, they may also be doing so in Horne. At this point, we must be careful; we can’t be sure where someone’s allegiance lies until we have met with them. It is possible that any of the Riders who have gone to Horne could be working against us.” He didn’t add that none of the original three Riders who stayed there could be considered trustworthy at this point, either.

  Leera said to Brock, “Delno wants to know, since we are wondering whom to trust, can we be sure of this young Rider? After all, he has been living in Palamore on the edge of Simcha’s old territory.”

  “Relay this back to him: Jason is the rider of your daughter, and you would have told me if Gina was hiding anything. However, that does not mean absolute trust, but he has learned nothing here today that our enemies don’t at least strongly suspect, if not outright know. For that matter, Connor, despite the fact that he is my son, was Simcha’s student. We will remain watchful, and if new information presents itself, we will be careful who listens when we talk of it.”

  Delno smiled slightly and nodded as Geneva relayed Brock’s words to him.

  Chapter 42

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather use a mule?” Sergeant Winslow, the Troop’s chief teamster, asked Nat and Delno as they continued loading supplies on Nat’s small wagon. He was looking at the pony Delno had originally purchased in Larimar. “That poor beast doesn’t look big enough to keep up.” The pony stood eleven hands tall.

  “No, thank you, Sergeant. He may look too small for the job, but these northern mountain ponies are a tough breed. They’ve been bred for strength and endurance for thousands of years. I’ve a feeling that it won’t be long before you start wishing that you had more like him instead of your mules.” Delno replied.

  Winston came over and said, “I do appreciate you Riders coming with us. I know that it will slow you down when you could just fly straight and not have to wait for us to catch up each day.”

  “Well,” Delno responded, “Brock and I talked it over, and this serves two purposes: first, you’re friends, and we can’t just leave it to chance that you’ll get through without a problem; second, if trouble comes, we may be able to take a prisoner or two and get some real information. Right now I’d trade half our supplies for some good intelligence reports.”

  Winston chuckled, “What commander wouldn’t?” Then he observed, “At least we’ll have the advantage of air surveillance.”

  “That’s true: many was the time I could have used that in the war
up north. If I’d had it, I’d have a lot more friends than I do now.” He and Winston exchanged knowing looks before he continued, “Of course, if our enemies have the same, it isn’t as much of an advantage.”

  Winston shook his head and said, “I just don’t understand how Riders could do such a thing. I’ve spent my whole life being taught that all Riders are like you and your group, and now I may have to fight those who aren’t. It kind of sets my world at an odd angle, if you get my meaning.”

  “Well, Riders are men; they may live a long time, but they are men just the same.” Delno replied.

  Brock had overheard the conversation as he approached and added by way of greeting, “Which reminds me of something I want to make sure your men understand.” The Captain gave him his full attention. “If your men have to fight dragons, they need to know that their arrows most likely won’t penetrate the scales: they have to target the Rider; he is the weak part of the pair. Also, they really have to fight down their panic; facing a dragon is scary business. They need to be sure who they are shooting at, too; if I end up taking an arrow through the chest, I’d rather it be from an enemy’s bow.”

  “Any advice about dealing with the dragon’s fire?” Winston asked.

  “Yes,” Brock replied, “Don’t. Find cover and stay out of the way when they breathe, and don’t clump together in groups.” Then he shook his head and added, “I wish I had more for you on that subject, but dragon fire is one thing that really sets the creatures apart from all others. It’s a devastating weapon.” Then he turned to the healer and asked, “Nat, do you have any of the glass that Delno gave you as a souvenir?”

  The physician looked in his pack and pulled out several small pieces. Brock took one and handed it to Winston. “That,” he said, “and the others like it, were made when Leera used her breath once on a sandy patch of ground.”