King's Dragon: Chronicles of the Dragon-Bound: Book 2

by William Culbertson

  “Maybe the Tharans are working with the Duke of Bright Bay,” Kemf finally ventured. “After all, the duke’s on his way here with his troops. Even if the king holds the Tharans, Kankasi could find his throne taken by the time he gets back.”

  Garran sighed to himself. From past experience he knew this plot would likely change again before they went off duty.

  Chapter 15

  A sudden flicker of dragon contact interrupted Dax’s thought. He involuntarily jerked his head toward faraway Drundevil Pass. Faintly, he sensed . . . emotions. Anger. Outrage. Indignation. Although dim and distant through the bond, Kahshect’s shared feelings made Dax’s dragon anger stir in response. With Dax busy every waking minute, Kahshect had decided to go hunting in the Kakaras Crags—and to see for himself what was developing.

  Dax explored his connection with the dragon, but there was little more to be had other than the emotion. Kahshect was not hurt, but the dragon was much too far away for Dax to understand what had happened. Dax could tell Kahshect was flying toward him as fast as possible and would arrive sometime late in the afternoon. Until then, Dax could do nothing except carry on with business. He was at the palace today, and a room full of people needed his attention.

  Dax looked back at the man who stood in front of him. “I’m sorry, Minister Gavon.” He rubbed a hand across his brow. “There has been a development, but at the moment, I still need your report on the food supply we can have within the city’s walls in the next five days.”

  Gavon’s fair complexion was marred with numerous age spots, but he dressed himself as a young court dandy. The man ran his fingers through his thin gray hair. “I still don’t see why your time limit is five days,” he protested in his thin, querulous voice. “Even if the Tharans are at the pass today, it would take them a good seven days to march to the city.”

  “Five days, Minister,” Dax replied. He tried not to let his impatience show. “I haven’t given up hope the lancers will hold them, but if the Tharans should win through the pass, they will send outriders and skirmishers riding ahead as fast as possible to disrupt whatever last-minute preparations we are making.”

  “But,” Gavon protested, “there are so many more cattle in the north hills we could drive into the city if we had just a few more days.”

  “Better their owners take them farther north, out of harm’s way.” The glowing ember of Kahshect’s emotions smoked in the back of Dax’s mind, but he kept his tone mild. “If the Tharans come, I don’t think it will be for a long siege.”

  The man finally got down to business and produced papers with the numbers Dax had requested the day before. Minister Gavon was not the first reluctant official he had dealt with today, nor would he be the last. The queen was right. Frohliem’s Shield helped, but even the import of its emblem did not completely overawe the self-importance of small-minded bureaucrats.

  #

  Into the afternoon Dax fought the growing distraction in his head. As Kahshect got closer, Dax’s dragon anger increased to echo his dragon’s. Petty officials, one after another, squabbled over the petty details of their petty functions. Finally Dax found it impossible to focus on the mundane but important details of the current meeting.

  He stood up abruptly. The room went silent. He struggled to control his voice. It would not do to shout. “This meeting is adjourned. We are preparing to defend the city, and I have told each of you what you must do.” He looked around the room. “I’m going to receive important news shortly, and I will get any new information to you this evening.” He paused. There was not a sound in the room. “At our meeting tomorrow, you must be light on your feet, ready to change anything and everything.”

  He looked around the room again and made sure he made eye contact with everyone. “Tomorrow morning you will show me a plan for your area of responsibility. I will say yes or no, but I won’t haggle over details. If I say no, you must redo the plan by evening. If I say no again, you will step down and I will deal with your second in command and his plan instead.”

  Dax’s dragon emotions were fully awake. From the beads of sweat on the forehead of the minister of wells to the frayed hem of the secretary of dockage taxes’ weskit, he saw the world in exquisitely sharp detail. He took a breath to steady himself. Once he was in control again, he said, “We will take this up first thing in the morning. Good day!” The room was absolutely silent. He stalked, stiff-legged, from the room. The hair was standing up on the back of his neck. He had no patience for several last-minute questions shouted at him as he walked out the door.

  Outside the meeting room, he took up his sword and Frohliem’s Shield from the table where his guards, Doke and Narsus, waited. The two men were veteran members of the palace security force. They had showed up at Dax’s tent the night the queen gave Dax the charge to protect the city. Dax had grumbled at the men that night and told them to go away. Doke, the bigger of the two, stepped forward and unabashedly confronted Dax. “Sir, beggin’ your pardon and all that, but the queen said she’d have our balls off if we was to leave your side.” He paused, but Dax said nothing. “She would, sir,” he added, almost pleading.

  Finally Dax nodded in agreement. “Yes, I think she would. All right then, make yourselves useful.” Dax had put them to work finding people to organize this day’s meetings, the last of which he had just cancelled. Once Kahshect arrived, Dax feared the dragon’s news would mean they had to start over planning for tomorrow’s meetings.

  The three marched through the corridors of the palace. Guards snapped to attention and opened doors for them. Dax led the way to the stables, where they mounted and rode out of the city. He needed to meet Kahshect well outside the walls. The dragon was close, and Kahshect’s outrage filled Dax’s mind. The city was already in turmoil. The arrival of a dragon would not help keep the peace. Once outside the city, Dax prodded his horse to a gallop, heading for the same spot where Lady Aylssandra had tried to assassinate him.

  #

  The ride took a quarter hour. Dax called a halt at the edge of the clearing, dismounted, and handed the reins of his horse to Narsus. “My dragon is coming, and horses do not like dragons. Stay with the horses while I go meet him.”

  He was distracted from giving further instructions by Kahshect’s thought, “A dragon! They have a dragon!”

  The thought was clear, but Dax was confused. “A dragon? You saw a dragon with the Tharans? How can that be?”

  “They march with a monstrous drakon.”

  “How is that possible?” he asked. Anger boiled in his bondmate, and Dax’s hackles rose in response.

  “I flew down close, but it wouldn’t talk to me!” Kahshect was obviously distressed, but there was more. “They had cut his wings so he could not fly. They drove him like a draft horse. The drakon was yoked to a team of Tharans on either side who controlled him with ropes. Another team with pikes prodded and guided from behind.”

  Kahshect winged around in a tight circle overhead and landed heavily nearby. Dax immediately went to his bondmate and put his hand up to pat his neck reassuringly. He had never felt Kahshect so upset. “Could you do anything?” he finally asked.

  Dax shared another surge of hot anger from Kahshect. “He was a captured drakon. I had to do something.” Kahshect’s anger was scalding hot. Dax fought to keep his own reaction under control. He had to understand what Kahshect had seen. This was the heart of the problem. Kahshect swung his head around to look at directly at him. The dragon’s eyes burned with anger, but he was confused. “The drakon tried to attack me. He sent a burst of flame up at me as I flew by. I felt his anger. He couldn’t talk, but I could feel his anger! At me! I was trying to rescue him.”

  A memory came to Dax, and he thought about it for a moment before he tried to put it into words. He stroked Kahshect’s neck and calmed himself before he replied. “I remember a traveling show in Dinwiddie one year while I was at Iron Moor.” Dax caressed Kahshect reassuringly and unclenched his other fist. He had to relax. Dax drew ou
t the memory, trying to calm the dragon. Kahshect was upset, but he was listening. “The show had a number of acts. One was a dancing bear. I was amazed to see a wild animal doing tricks.” He tried to picture the memory in his mind so Kahshect could see what he remembered. “I asked the man who owned the bear how he got a wild bear to do tricks for him. He told me the bear wasn’t wild. He’d raised it from a cub and kept it hobbled between shows so it couldn’t run away. The man told me he’d fed it and treated it like a pet until the animal was more like a house cat than a bear.”

  Kahshect settled to the ground and lay there for a time saying nothing while Dax stroked his neck and rubbed his ears. Gradually the dragon’s burning anger diminished. Dax still sensed the cold, focused fury that remained. “A pet dragon. This is beyond endurance.”

  Dax sighed. He finally understood the outline of the Tharans’ plan. He knew Kahshect could feel his despair, so he explained. “Just as some dog handlers train their animals to attack, I think the Tharans bring a trained dragon to attack East Landly.”

  “Lances against dragon fire. I would not want to be the one with the lance.” Although still upset, the dragon had regained his wry way of expressing himself, even if the thought was dark.

  “Indeed,” Dax agreed. He thought a moment. “Did you warn King Kankasi?”

  “No. My first thoughts were to get to you as quickly as I could. On the way here, I did think about it, but there are no dragon-bound among the lancers. I couldn’t communicate directly. I saw the lancers in the pass, and I thought about stopping them before they emerged into Chammanie Valley.”

  “You might have been able to delay them,” Dax agreed, “but Kankasi was hell-bent to take on the Tharans. He would have either attacked you or outwaited you.”

  “My thought as well. I’m also confused about whether the Great Treaty would allow me to give him warning.”

  “You are warning me,” Dax reminded him.

  “Bondmates are an exception. I would warn you no matter what. But in warning you, I am warning the humans of Frohliem City at the least. I am confused by my commitment to not interfere in human attacks on each other.”

  Dax and all the dragon-bound guarded the Great Treaty, which governed relations between dragonkind and humankind. Negotiated long ago by the Kotkel using the dragon-bound as go-betweens, it had kept the two aggressive species from open conflict for hundreds of years. Now the Tharans brought a dragon to attack East Landly.

  After thinking about Kahshect’s concern for a time, Dax said, “I think we have a responsibility to protect the people of Frohliem City.” The more Dax thought about it, the more convinced he was. “I’m certain the treaty doesn’t say anything about this type of situation, but a devastating attack by a dragon on the city would almost certainly start a war between dragons and humans.” The dragon did not reply, but Dax felt his miserable acceptance. Finally Dax asked about the most immediate and pressing problem on his mind. “So how do we fight their dragon?”

  “You don’t fight dragons.” Kahshect’s reply was an odd blend of amused despair. “You avoid them.”

  That was not what Dax wanted hear. “The Tharans have a drakon that they mean to use against the lancers. What can we do to help?”

  Kahshect heaved a sigh and settled himself more comfortably. “There is hardly time to fly back to warn the lancers. I’m sorry.”

  Dax patted the dragon’s side. “I’m certain Kankasi would not have listened anyway.” Dax knew he was helpless to prevent the certain slaughter—for slaughter it would be if the lancers went up against the dragon. Even worse, the lancers would die, and East Landly would still be in peril. Edges of black despair clouded his thoughts.

  Kahshect had followed his thoughts. “They’ll bring the drakon through the pass and on to Frohliem City.”

  A wave of melancholy threatened, but Dax wrapped himself in grim resolve. He sat and thought. The heat of dragon anger burned away the hopeless pall that had almost overwhelmed his thinking. He focused on the Tharans. There would be Tharans to kill.

  No! He could not think only about slaughter. The queen had given him Frohliem’s Shield and a charge to protect the city from the Tharans. Protect the city, and he protected East Landly. If East Landly fell, where would the Tharans stop? With a dragon, why should they stop? He could not worry about the lancers he could not protect. He had to think about how to stop the Tharans.

  After several minutes of thought, Dax asked Kahshect, “How tough is a drakon?”

  “You know they’re big and muscular. With their horns and all, they are tough enough to fight off a hungry draig.”

  Dax’s eyebrows went up, but as he thought, it made sense. Drakons were grazers, while draigs were predators. “Is their skin as tough as yours?”

  “You’ve sat on one for days at a time.”

  “Right.” After a moment Dax thought, “Could a drakon pull down a city wall?”

  Kahshect took some time before he replied. “I don’t know. I’ve seen an angry drakon uproot trees, and this one looked big enough to reach the top of the wall.”

  “How about their fire?” Dax asked.

  “Nasty. They can throw it at least as far as a draig, and the volume of fire in one burst is huge.”

  Glumly Dax asked, “Does a drakon have any weaknesses?”

  “Their teeth aren’t long and sharp like a draig’s. They can only manage about three bursts of fire before they have to wait for hours. They can’t fly as skillfully as we can.” Kahshect thought for a moment and added, “The skin of their chest is relatively thin, and that is where they are vulnerable.”

  “So how does a hungry draig take a drakon?”

  “The easiest way is to get someone else to kill it first,” Kahshect sniffed scornfully. When Dax did not respond, he added, “When attacked, drakons hunker their heads down to protect their chests. First you have to get past their horns. If you manage that without getting gored, their neck muscles are so strong you could lift them off their feet before you lifted their heads.”

  “So how does a hungry draig take a drakon?” Dax repeated.

  Dax sensed a touch of fear in the dragon, and he seemed reluctance to talk. It was a minute before Kahshect continued.“Wild draigs hunt drakons in packs. It takes at least three to harry a drakon to exhaustion. Then one will make a killing move to get under its head.” The dragon paused and looked carefully at Dax. “You cannot fight a drakon. About half the time one of the attacking draigs will be gored because the drakon still can fight. The best thing to do would be to surrender.”

  “Tharans have a habit of killing anyone who surrenders to them,” Dax observed. “Ten years ago they laid siege to an independent city-state on their far eastern coast. Today the city lies in ruins, and a colony of Tharans fish the Morning Ocean from there.”

  “You think you can kill a drakon when even draigs are wary?”

  Now Dax understood the dragon’s concern. “Don’t worry,” Dax replied. “I do not want to fight a drakon.” When Dax said it, he knew it was the truth, but deep inside, a new thought took root. Now that he had facts, the way he approached the threat had changed. Instead of an overpowering force of nature like a great ocean storm or a ground shake, the drakon was a problem in strategy and tactics. A problem to be solved. He would let the puzzle ripen in his mind for a time.

  He had a thousand things to do, but the first was to get this information to the queen. He called out for Doke and Narsus to ready the horses. He patted the dragon’s side. “My friend, we must talk much more about this.” He gave the dragon’s right ear one last rub. “Right now I have an obligation to tell the queen what you have told me. She will like this information as little as I do, but she must know what I know.”

  #

  Dax rode back to the city with Doke and Narsus. They trotted rather than galloped, but they made good time. On the way, Doke broke into Dax’s silence and asked what news the dragon had brought. At first Dax was reluctant to say anything until he had told
the queen. However, the men never left his side. Dax was curious to see what the reaction might be once the information got out to the public.

  Dax looked at Doke. Narsus listened just beyond. “The Tharans are bringing a dragon against East Landly. If the lancers flee, some will live. If they fight, they will die.”

  Both men were silent and looked pale after the report. They rode on grimly. Finally Doke’s deep voice rumbled out, “So are these dragons good eatin’? Might like to see one up on a spit.”

  Narsus laughed. “Need a damned big spit.”

  It was dark humor, typical of soldiers, but Dax was relieved. They might not fully appreciate what they were up against, but they were brave men. Although he had not yet fought with the soldiers of East Landly, he had gone into battle with like men.

  #

  With shield in hand, no one questioned his order to be taken to the queen. A page led them directly to the queen’s sitting room and knocked. Dax heard her voice from inside. Doke and Narsus waited outside while Dax entered. Queen Layna and two aides stood at a desk, going through a stack of papers. “You have news?”

  “Not good news, Your Majesty.” Dax told her about what Kahshect had seen.

  Queen Layna was silent for a long time. She had just heard that her husband, her son, and most of the nobility who had ridden out to challenge the Tharan invasion would soon be dead. Even with those deaths, the dragon would still come against the city before there was time to flee to safety.

  Finally she blinked twice and focused on Dax again. “What hope is there?”

  Dax started to say, “None,” but he could not get the word out. Surprised, he thought about his answer. He could not say there was no hope, because it would have been a lie. He had to think. Dax looked at the queen. “At the moment I do not have an answer, Your Majesty. I must think about options.” While there might be some chance, he did not want to give false hope.