TEMPLE
CALVIN
I WOKE ON THE FLOOR of Nightclaw’s home, and immediately felt like something was missing. I put a hand on the pouch at my belt. The runestone was still inside. I checked the ground to my left. My quarterstaff was still there.
Then I realized what it was. Darren wasn’t standing above me. He was nowhere to be seen.
I sat up quickly, scanning around before spotting him by the door.
“Darren!” I called out. “What’s up?”
He turned to look at me, his face ashen. My stomach did flip-flops. Beyond him, I could see only the backs of three dragons.
Then Miles pushed in past him, holding his runestone in his hand. His face was solemn. Melaine was right on his heels.
The dragons outside the entrance stepped aside, and Blackscale’s massive head slid in through the doorway at the end of his long neck.
“I give you my gratitude for your actions, Keeper of Water,” said Blackscale. “I fear the confrontation would only have grown worse if you had not stepped in.”
Miles barely glanced back over his shoulder at the dragon. “Yeah, yeah, sure,” he said. “Happy to help.” He went to his bedding and slumped down onto it. Melaine sat on the ground beside him. She leaned in close, and they began to speak in a low murmur. Miles absentmindedly shoved the runestone back in the leather pouch at his belt.
“What happened with him?”
I shot a look to my right to see Blade sitting up among his bedding. Samuel was standing beside him, his eyes grave.
Darren came back, sitting cross-legged on the ground at the end of my blankets.
“Chaos above, my Lords, I thought we were in trouble,” he said. He put a hand to his forehead. “My heart’s never beat so fast. Not even during the siege. There, I had enemies to fight, things I could battle with sword and shield. What could we have done against a dragon?”
“Darren, what happened?” I said. “What did we miss?”
Darren gave a nervous look over his shoulder where Blackscale and Nightclaw still sat just outside the entrance. “I didn’t catch all of it, my Lords, you understand, not knowing what the dragons were saying. But there was some sort of argument between them. That one you call Nightclaw was trying to keep them out of her home, but she and her friends were outnumbered, and Blackscale was nowhere to be found. Lord Miles woke up and went out to face them all alone.”
Melaine’s head snapped up, and she cleared her throat.
Darren swallowed. “I mean, of course Melaine was there, too. But Miles held his runestone up in his fist, brave as you like, and told the dragons that if they laid a claw on any of you, they’d be struck down by an enchantment.”
“What?” I said, chuckling. “That’s ridiculous.”
“I know that, my Lord, but the dragons didn’t. Most of them backed off. But the one…the one who started the whole thing…”
“Her name is Redwing,” said Miles. “She’s an Elder, like Blackscale, and she doesn’t seem to like us very much.”
“It didn’t seem so, my Lord, no,” said Darren. “I thought she was going to take a swipe at you until Blackscale showed up.”
The ground rumbled beneath our butt as Nightclaw stepped into the room. She passed over us with two long strides, her belly at least ten feet over our heads. She went back to her nest at the back of the room, curling up in it. Unlike last night, though, she laid down facing us, her eyes peering at us curiously.
The other dragons at the front flew off into the air. Blackscale stepped just inside the door of Nightclaw’s home and laid himself down on the stony floor. “Certainly would she have attacked had I not arrived when I did,” said Blackscale. “But certainly would she have attacked much earlier if the Realm Keeper had not shown himself. You are humans, so you are despised by some here. But you are also new—or at least, something that has not been seen in thousands of years. The fear of the unknown is greater than that of the the mightiest foe.”
“It wasn’t a big deal,” said Miles. “I didn’t save the day. I just stalled for time.”
“And it looks like you saved our lives by doing so, my Lord,” said Samuel from beside Blade. “I, for one, thank you.”
Melaine stayed silent, but I caught a flash of fierce pride in her eyes as she looked at Miles.
“Foolish impulse drove my actions,” said Blackscale regretfully from the doorway. “Your safety should have precluded my desire to find the Council members. I was hunting for one especially, one I think I can trust. But the messenger reached me to warn me of the trouble before I could find him. As quickly as I could return, I did.”
Darren leaned over to me. “What did he say?” he whispered.
“He was trying to find one of the other Council members,” I whispered back. “Someone he thinks can help us in the vote. But he couldn’t find him before he heard about the trouble back on the mountain.”
Sarah stirred and sat up, throwing her blanket aside. “Hey, everyone.” Then she stopped, looking around at all of our faces. “Whoah. What happened?”
Miles sidled closer to her and began to give her the rundown while Darren and Samuel broke out some food from our saddlebags for breakfast. The food hadn’t gone stale yet, but we were almost out. I took the last roll from his hand and began to munch on it hungrily.
“We’re going to have to figure out a way to get some more food,” I told Blade. “We’ll be going hungry soon.”
“There is meat to spare from our hunting,” said Nightclaw from her bed. “I will see to it that it is brought before you.”
Raven and Tess got up just as Miles was finishing the story to Sarah. They only caught the tail end of it, but they didn’t ask for a repeat, for which I was thankful. I wanted to talk with the dragons.
Sarah got up and went to stand before Blackscale. She bowed low in front of him.
“Thank you for protecting us,” she said. “It looks like we owe you another one. We’re racking up a pretty high debt with you.”
Blackscale, rather than dipping his head, raised it slightly until he was looking at Sarah down the length of his snout. “Your gratitude is well-mannered, but unnecessary. My pledge demanded my actions.”
“All the same, thank you,” said Sarah with another bow. Then she turned and went to Nightclaw at the other end of the room. Nightclaw looked surprised and raised her head slightly as Sarah approached.
Sarah bowed low again. “And thank you for risking your life to keep us safe until Elder Blackscale could show up. They could have marched right in here and killed us in our sleep. You stopped them. Please relay our gratitude to your friends who stood by you, as well.”
Nightclaw dipped her snout to the stone floor. “Their names are Wingstone and Bonebreaker. I shall tell them what you have said, Realm Keeper.”
I suppose you expect congratulations for your adherence to proper manners among dragons, said Meridia’s voice in my head. She gave a mental version of a sniff.
Nightclaw raised her head to look around at all of us. “Forgive my manners if they are insufficient,” she said. “But how could you have slept while the argument raged on? Six of you would have made a better showing than one.” She jerked her head hastily to Miles. “Do not misunderstand my meaning. Your action was entirely courageous.”
Miles waved a hand. “No offense taken.”
Samuel leaned over to Blade. “What’s she saying?” he said quietly.
“Nightclaw wants to know why we didn’t all wake up and face the dragons together,” said Blade. “I think she disapproves of us, Sammy Boy.”
Nightclaw’s eyes snapped to Blade, even though his voice was low. I grimaced. Blade seemed to have a lot of trouble remembering how good dragon hearing was. Or, knowing Blade, he remembered quite well and didn’t care much.
“The answer to your question is that we can’t be woken up when we’re asleep,” said Sarah. “I don’t know how much you know about True Earth…” she looked curiously between Blackscale and Nig
htclaw. Blackscale dipped his head, but Nightclaw only blinked. “It’s the world we travel to when we sleep. When we’re there, we can’t be woken up in Midrealm by any means, until we sleep on Earth.”
Nightclaw’s head bobbed. “I see. It seems a terrible weakness. I am glad I do not suffer from such a disability.”
Blackscale’s head jerked up. “Nightclaw!”
Nightclaw’s snout practically slammed into the ground, she dipped her head so fast. “I apologize for my lack of manners.”
Melaine leaned into Miles. “What happened, my Lord?”
“Nightclaw said we are disabled, and Blackscale didn’t like that,” he said with a laugh.
Sarah smiled and bowed. “It’s quite all right.” She turned to look at Blackscale. “We’re not offended, I promise. Really, we’re just as curious about dragons as you are about us.”
“You got that right!” I said, holding up a hand.
Sarah sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, especially Calvin.”
“Great importance rides upon every waking moment of the next two days,” said Blackscale. “Though the Council will not meet on the subject of the Realm Keepers until the evening of the second day, I am certain that each member will wish to see you for themselves. They seek to be resolute in their decisions before the meeting. You will receive invitations, which you must accept. Redwing alone will not speak with you; she knows all she wishes to know about you.”
Miles snorted. “I’ll bet she thinks she does, anyway.”
Darren leaned over. “My Lord, what was that he—”
Chaos take us all!
A bright flash of light exploded from Blade’s ring, blinding me for a moment. My vision began to return just in time to see Darren slump to the ground. The other Runegard did the same.
“Meridia, what was that?” cried Sarah. She leapt up and went to Cara’s side, then felt for a pulse.
Oh, calm yourself. They are unharmed.
A deep rumble came from the door, and in a moment I recognized Blackscale’s laugh. “Meridia, impatience fills you as much as it ever has. It could be the death of an army.”
It has been, said Meridia.
“What did you do?” I said angrily, grabbing Darren and rolling him onto his back. But even as I spoke, he began to move. His eyelids fluttered open.
“My Lord?”
“Darren! You’re okay!” I said.
“It seems so. What happened?”
Blackscale gave another rumbling chuckle. “I am most mistaken if Meridia did not grant you a great boon, one to aid you greatly in the days to come.”
Darren’s head snapped around to stare at Blackscale. “I…I heard words in your speech!”
“As I now hear words in yours,” said Blackscale.
I tired of your endless repetition of every meaningless tidbit of information, said Meridia. I granted the Runegard the gift of understanding. No longer need you flap your lips whenever the dragons tell you what they had for lunch.
Cara came to her feet, shaking as Sarah helped her. She stared at Blade—or more appropriately, at the ring on his finger. “You enchanted us?” she said. “Without our permission?”
Meridia scoffed in my head. Permission? Did you ask permission before boring me nearly to my death with trivialities?
Cara’s jaw clenched.
“Are you okay?” I said, looking at her, hoping to draw her attention from Meridia before she started shouting. Or worse, got ideas about stealing Blade’s ring and melting it.
She glanced at me, and the tension in her face dissipated. “I am fine, my Lord,” she said. “And, I suppose, it will be more convenient to understand the speech of the dragons.”
Of course it will, said Meridia. It was my idea.
Sarah sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, can we just move on? Meridia, I’d appreciate it if you’d warn us next time. You wouldn’t like it if someone cast a spell on you without your permission.”
As if anyone could, said Meridia haughtily. But then she fell silent.
“Okay, Elder Blackscale, so what’s next?” said Sarah.
“Blackscale is a sufficient title when we are alone,” said Blackscale. “As for today…Council members will seek your audience one by one,” said Blackscale. “As such, let me be the first to request it. I shall show you the Wyrmspire and the wide lands that the dragons rule with wing and claw.”
“Sweet!” I cried, jumping up. “That’s awesome!”
Blackscale’s lips peeled back from his teeth in what I hoped was a smile. “A guest’s pleasure belongs as much to the host. Come, then, and let us venture forth.”
With that, he rose to his feet and backed carefully out of the house. I leapt up from my blankets. There was a snort from the back of the room as Nightclaw’s head jerked up.
“Are you coming with us?” I said, looking at her eagerly.
She blinked a couple of times. “Such had been my intention, but now I find myself weary. Here will I wait until your return, to regain the rest I lost in the night thanks to our…unintended visitors.”
“Oh, right,” I said, nodding my head. “Good call. Well, see you later!”
Her mouth opened, and her jaw stretched so wide that I thought it would dislocate. I had an excellent view of both rows of her razor-sharp teeth and the long, sinuous tongue within her mouth. A thick wave of hot, moist air filled the nest.
“Fare well on your excursion,” she said, before curling her head under a wing.
Blackscale waited for us on the stone outside as we left the nest. “Follow,” he said. “Try not to fall behind, and do not stray too far from the path. For the wingless, it is a long way to the ground.”
He took us around the side of the mountain, away from the path that led back to the dragons’ great hall. Another, similar path wove around the mountain in the other direction. Though it wasn’t very wide, at least this one had a stone handrail. As Nightclaw had done the day before, Blackscale flew beside us as we walked.
The path rose at a steep angle, climbing the side of the mountain for a bit before hooking back on itself and climbing again in the opposite direction. A few zig-zags like that took us to a large, wide platform about halfway to the peak from where we’d started.
The platform was wide, stone, and looked like it wrapped all the way around the mountain. The space was nice and wide, and Blackscale landed among us just seconds after we’d reached it.
“Behold, the claimed kingdoms of the dragons,” said Blackscale. He used his wings like a limb, waving them around us in a semicircle, revealing all the land we could see from our perch. “If it may be seen from the high platform of Wyrmspire, then under the domain of the dragons it lies.”
“Blackscale, this is beautiful,” said Sarah. “The view is incredible.”
Blackscale’s lips pulled back in what I was beginning to recognize as a dragon smile. “The view seems poor to me, but then I am used to viewing the world aloft upon the air. Next to that, this vista pales.”
“Of course,” said Sarah. “But for someone who usually has to walk around, this is amazing.”
“You can see all the way down to the road leading up from the foothills. This would make a fine command post if the mountain were ever attacked,” said Cara. “Has that ever happened before?”
“Stories speak of such things, but it has never happened since my hatching,” said Blackscale.
I stepped closer to Cara. “You’re right, though. This platform would have been the perfect place for the Realm Keepers to fight from, back when they were here on the regular. They could have rained down magic on anyone trying to climb the mountain, and if they had any soldiers with them, they could line the railing and use archers. And the thing is so wide that dragons could easily land here to relay information and coordinate defense. That’s got to be what this place was built for.”
Cara smiled at me. I averted my gaze. “I often forget your mind for strategy, little Lord,” she said. “It’s just ho
w I’d defend the place myself.”
“Oh, to be a dragon,” I sighed, looking at the lands sloping away from the mountain. To the North they seemed far below, but to the South they were so far they were barely visible.
“You…wish you were a dragon?” said Blackscale, hesitating as he spoke.
I looked up at him. “Are you kidding? I’d love to be a dragon! The flying, the strength. I mean, you get to live here! It’s so awesome!”
Blackscale studied me for a long moment. “Strange thoughts fill your mind. You are not a dragon. You could not be. You are what you are, a creature unlike us. Certain wishes can be fulfilled through hard work and a careful plan. This is impossible. Why do you hold to the wish?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Isn’t that part of happiness sometimes? Hoping for things, even if you know you’ll never get them?”
Blackscale looked back out over the lands below. “Happiness has not concerned my thoughts in many years. It has little role in the life of a dragon Elder.”
I followed his gaze. “Wow. I’m…really sorry to hear that.”
The others went to the railing, looking down at the world below. Soon it was just me and Darren standing by Blackscale. The others looked to be out of earshot. My pulse quickened as I looked up at Blackscale.
“Hey, can I ask a question?” I said. “Without you getting offended?”
Blackscale’s eyes latched on mine. “Many questions can give offense, others may be harmless,” he said. “What is yours?”
“Well, listen…I was told…I mean, Meridia told me…”
Sarah’s head whipped around at the railing. “Calvin—”
“Why can’t we even ask if we can ride a dragon?” I blurted.
Blackscale didn’t move. Didn’t make a sound. He just stared at me.
“Calvin!” said Sarah. “What in the world are you thinking?”
“I’m not trying to be insulting,” I said quickly. “It’s just that I almost asked the first time I saw you. But Meridia screamed at me that I would get myself killed. I just don’t understand. Is it so rude just to ask?”
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 54
