Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 5-8

by Wilson, Sarah K. L.

  I shivered as my shadow flickered in and out of sight. His saucy grin made my palms sweat. I couldn’t trust him. Because he was me. But what could I do then? There was no other option.

  Wrestle him. Keep him under control. Know he exists. Know he is a potential, but don’t feed him. Don’t lean on him.

  He helped me with Shabren.

  But what if next time it isn’t Shabren? What if next time it’s Zyla? I heard that shadow pushing you to resent her. Pushing you to arrogance and pride. You have to fight, Tor. You have to put chains on that shadow and force him to obey you, not the other way around. You have to leash him and chain him. You have to wrestle with him until he is under your control.

  He thought that if I did that, we’d both be destroyed.

  It’s in his interest to lie to you about that.

  I wished he didn’t exist at all.

  If wishes were fishes the sea dragons would be as rich as ... well, sea dragons, I guess. They’re a wealthy lot. You wouldn’t believe what comes out of the sea.

  I swallowed, clenching and unclenching my fists. My mimic sat right in front of me and laughed. If I was going to follow Saboraak’s advice – and that was the only advice I had to go on – then I needed to find a way to wipe that grin off his face.

  “Zyla,” I said, my gaze holding the gaze of the mimic. “I apologize.”

  His grin disappeared and he flicked out of existence again.

  Chapter Eight

  “IT’S ABOUT TIME!” ZYLA said. “I thought you were going to freeze me out all day and there is a lot I have to tell you, Tor Winespring!”

  I looked over my shoulder, trying hard not to smile at the way her angry eyes grew bright and her arms crossed just under her breasts. She was so pretty when she was angry. And she was angry with me a lot.

  Saboraak ducked down lower into the forest as she flew so that we were flying between the big trees now instead of above them. We were still in the low mountains, following the bases of them through winding valleys and thick trees rather than flying above them.

  If we plan to sneak up on the sky city of Woelran, then we should probably stay hidden. There are outposts in these mountains. We don’t know where their loyalties lie.

  “Like what, Zyla?” I asked, teasing her a little. Now that the mimic was gone again, it felt easier to be myself. “Like how attractive I am in this smoky headband?”

  She snorted, but her expression softened a little.

  “Or maybe,” I said, letting a smirk fill my face, “how much you’ve been dying to kiss me again?”

  “Your head is so big that it’s a wonder Saboraak can fly!” Zyla retorted, but she uncrossed her arms. It was working. I was warming her back up.

  “It’s okay, Zyla, it can be hard to admit these things.”

  She scoffed, shaking her head, but this time she couldn’t stop the smile that slipped out from behind her mock outrage.

  “Just be glad that I saved you again, Tor. Whatever that magical malaise was could have killed you.”

  “I’m tougher than you think, Zyla. It would take a special kind of adversary to bring me down.”

  Dragons!

  Not now, Saboraak! I’m finally getting some points here!

  “Maybe –” Zyla began, but I didn’t get to hear the rest of her words.

  Saboraak lunged left and we were both knocked out of our seats. I grasped at the saddle, catching the horn in both hands. Skies and stars, what if I hadn’t been strapped in? Behind me, Zyla cursed quietly. Her straps had also held.

  I lifted my head just in time to see a flare of flame ahead of us. Saboraak shot above it and then dove down almost to the ground before rolling between the tree trunks.

  “Halt!” a steady voice called.

  I was still trying to stay in the saddle and get my bearings. How many golems must there be to herd Saboraak like that? I hadn’t even caught sight of one yet.

  I told you it’s dragons!

  I looked over my shoulder.

  Two big Green dragons flapped behind us, their riders moving their hands in frantic talk. Hubric hadn’t taught me those hand signals yet. In fairness, there hadn’t really been time.

  Should we stop, Saboraak? They seem to want us to stop.

  A third Green dragon dropped in front of us and Saboraak veered immediately around him, banking hard to avoid a tree. Zyla screamed and I clenched my teeth.

  You think? Of course I’m trying to stop!

  Why would dragons be so aggressive with us? They were on our side!

  A fourth Green dragon was pulling up beside us, flaming wildly, though not directly at us. A tree beside us went up like a lit torch.

  The dragon’s neck seemed wider than normal, almost as if it were swollen. On his back, a true Dragon Rider in black leathers and green scarves cursed loudly.

  So much cursing! You all need to watch your language!

  The Green dragon spouted flame again, hooting wildly – a sound I’d never heard from a dragon before.

  Idiots!

  Saboraak rolled to the side, presenting her armored belly to him and then she backward-somersaulted upward through the trees. Evergreen branches whipped against my face sending particles of frozen ice and fragrant pine needles into my hair, my mouth, my eyes. Ouch! I clenched my eyes tightly and gritted my teeth.

  “What’s happening?!” Zyla yelled, her arms wrapping tightly around my waist.

  I had no time to enjoy the feeling. Above us, another stream of flame spouted and Saboraak barrel-rolled to the side again, barely missing the trunk of a tree as wide around as she was.

  I tried to hold back my own scream. No need to tell the world that I was scared, too. I held on, white-knuckled, to the saddle, trying to think about why under the skies and stars these Green dragons and their riders would be attacking us.

  Saboraak was flying so low to the ground that her wingtips kicked up spouts of hardened snow and wet orange pine needles. She timed her flaps to clear the trees on either side. There was an opening ahead – a lighter patch in the forest. We were aiming for it.

  Dragons had pulled up on either side of us now, both Green and both hooting wildly, their flames bursting as if at random at bushes and trees along the way. I thought there were more behind us, but I couldn’t count in the flurry of fire and flight. Did these Dragon Riders not care what fires they started?

  I risked a glance behind us. We left a trail of fire and smoke in our wake but more fearsome still was the Green dragon directly behind us. His rider sawed at the reins, his face twisted into a fearsome snarl.

  My heart was racing faster than the dragons. I looked up. Was there a way to escape?

  The hard belly of a Green dragon was inches from my head.

  My breath stuck in my throat. All thoughts seemed to freeze.

  And then we were in the clearing.

  Saboraak skidded to a stop, her claws tearing divots into the damp remains of last year’s grass and rotting wooden debris. This small field, sodden and puddle-filled, barely held her and the ring of Green dragons that surrounded her. One of them spouted fire into the air, standing on his back legs and hooting wildly.

  I snatched the dagger from the holster between my shoulder blades, unbuckled my straps and leapt from the saddle rushing out in front of Saboraak. She crouched low, jaw tense, eyes bright. The purple of her skin seemed to pulse as if she was having trouble maintaining her color.

  “If you want my dragon, you’ll have to get through me first!” I yelled.

  Chapter Nine

  THE STANDING DRAGON leaned forward, grabbed my leg with a forepaw and snatched me from the ground. I yelled as he raised me into the air and shook me like a child trying to shake a coin out of a small jar. My teeth rattled against each other. If I’d had knives still in my sheaths, they would be raining all over the ground.

  “Enough!” a voice yelled, powerful and angry.

  How exactly did he want me to comply with that? I wasn’t exactly in a place of auth
ority.

  “Set him down. Tachril!”

  Oh. He was talking to the dragon.

  The dragon flung me to the side like a used rag and I landed with a wet smack in one of the cold puddles. I pulled myself up, my fingers sinking in the clinging dead grass, my boots squelching with water.

  Saboraak growled and I hobbled over to her, my water-filled boots dragging and squelching with every step.

  I’m afraid that they don’t see you as much of a threat.

  Tell me about it.

  “What do you want with us?” I asked, keeping my back straight and my head held high. If they were going to kill us, I wanted to at least die with dignity. Besides, perhaps I could distract them while Saboraak and Zyla flew away.

  They don’t want to kill us.

  That’s not what it looked like!

  They’re just ... excited.

  What? They don’t see guests all that often? Craving some interactions with sane creatures?

  The rider on the back of the dragon who’d grabbed me leapt down from his mount, a short dragon prod in his hand. I felt my spine getting stiffer. If he thought he could use that against Saboraak, then I would die keeping him from her!

  A noble sentiment, but it’s not me he’s worried about.

  “I am Nostar Kaardis of the Green Dragon Riders, leader of this wing and stationed at Woelran. We are scouting this area. My dragon is Tachril.” He gave Tachril a worried look. “I’ve never seen him in such a temper before. Usually, he likes Purples just fine.”

  And he likes females even more.

  I felt like the pieces of a blacksmith’s puzzle were sliding loose. I looked from dragon to dragon. Each of the six was spouting flame or standing on his back legs or twitching his tail with agitation, his rider desperately trying to keep his mount under control.

  Was that ... attraction? Dragon attraction?

  These things can be complicated.

  Saboraak seemed completely at ease, maybe even disinterested. She stood with her wings neatly furled, Zyla still sitting straight up in the saddle.

  “These others,” Nostar continued. “Are Janes Wooldancer on Hyoogan, Letina Seedshower on Nazscal, Jordil Runehopper on Elumans, Karilion Daniis on Nelmper and Devind Carthandler on Izhoedi. It’s rare to see a Purple here. Do you carry a message?”

  I nodded. “I have a verbal message to deliver to Captain Arendis in Woelran.”

  The Green nodded, waiting expectantly and I coughed to disguise the fact that I didn’t know what to say next.

  Introduce us!

  Oh, yes.

  “I greet you, Green Dragon Riders,” I said, attempting a flourish of my cloak. What did I say next? We were supposed to be undercover, but no one had given me false names to use.

  Don’t make us look foolish.

  “I am Tor Barnminder and this is my dragon Sabaa.” Best to keep the names close enough to the truth that we wouldn’t slip up. Zyla was looking daggers at me. I’d have to give her a better fake name. And my companion “Zylana Candis.”

  She didn’t look any happier, even though I’d given her a noble surname instead of her real commoner surname. There were two nobles in this group of Greens and I wouldn’t have thought she’d want to admit to being a commoner around them.

  “Well met, Tor,” Nostar said, breaking out into a grin. “I know Purples are an informal lot, but you sure have taken an independent streak to your uniform! I’d almost thought your dragon was stolen, but he acts just like a Purple, standing still when you drop the reins. I’ve never understood how your color trains them to do it. Greens are so exuberant that they take constant minding.”

  I grinned back at Nostar, glad to see the tension fading. We needed his good favor if we were going to make it to Woelran.

  “Well, thank you, Nostar. We appreciate your welcome. For a moment there, it looked like you were trying to drive us away.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, a guilty look on his face. “It’s not like that, Tor. No, no. I mean, we have had some trouble through here lately, which is why we’re riding in a wing instead of as individuals, but we’d never attack a fellow Dragon Rider. I can’t tell you what got into our Greens. It was almost as if they’d smelled a female!”

  He laughed and I joined him awkwardly. “Has that ever happened?”

  There were smirks from around the group of dragon riders and I kept a friendly smile on my face to remind them ‘we’re all friends, just joking like friends.’

  “Of course not! We have not been privileged to travel to Haz’drazen lands and females don’t venture out of their lands. I’m only jesting with you boy.” He looked serious for a moment. “You did train at Dragon School, didn’t you?”

  There was a sudden sense of tension, as if everyone had frozen, waiting for my answer.

  “Hubric Duneshifter was my mentor,” I said easily.

  The tension evaporated immediately.

  “Well, it’s obvious why you’re so unorthodox, then!” Nostar said, still smiling.

  He moved with quick, graceful movements, always looking like he was about to take off at a run. He reminded me of a dog I’d once seen in the city. He’d been full of the adventure of life, certain that the next bone was just around the corner. These riders seemed the same way. I could get used to this.

  “Tor?” Zyla said coolly. “Perhaps you could ask our friends if we could continue on. We haven’t reached Woelran yet, and our message is urgent.”

  “Oh!” Nostar looked surprised, but then he smiled. “I’ve thought of the best plan! We’ll escort you, of course! We were going to head back to Woelran tomorrow anyway. We’re still newly posted there and we’d only set down in the city for an hour when we first arrived before they already had us on our way without half the supplies we needed! The rumors of huge wolves were either exaggerated or a complete fabrication. We found nothing, but we do need those supplies and you wouldn’t want to tangle with trouble through the mountains.”

  “I thought we were almost out of the mountains,” Zyla said.

  “Even more reason for protection,” Nostar said. One of the female Dragon Riders – Letina? – nodded enthusiastically at his words. She was short and redheaded, and I liked how she smiled at me. “The north is flooded with Magikas. Most are no problem, but the Reds are having a devil of a time with some of them. They’re torching farms and causing trouble from Dominion City to here. Winter is hard enough this year – even here in the West where the war didn’t touch them as much. We don’t need more trouble. And we’ve heard of travelers disappearing.”

  “We shouldn’t let these people disappear,” Letina said with a knowing smile.

  I risked a glance behind me at Zyla. If storm clouds could turn into people, they would look just like Zyla right now.

  “Right ho!” Nostar yelled. “We fly in five! Stand ready!”

  Five what?

  Minutes.

  There was a flurry of sudden activity, people fishing in their saddlebags for items and leaping off their dragons for a quick run behind the bushes. I tried to shake the water out of my clothing, but I was dripping wet and I didn’t have spares.

  I mounted Saboraak soaking wet, hoping that I didn’t catch my death. Just because it was warmer here than in the mountains didn’t make it warm enough to fly all day in wet clothes.

  They’ll dry. Try to lean over my neck to warm up.

  Zyla tapped me on the shoulder and I looked back at her feeling as guilty as Nostar dealing with his hormonal dragon.

  “Yes?” Did I dare hope she was going to congratulate me on diffusing the situation?

  “What were you thinking?” she hissed. “How are we going to sneak into the city surrounded by six green dragons?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered back. “Maybe we’ll look natural. Do Purple dragons usually have an escort?”

  “No!”

  “We’ll figure something out,” I hissed back.

  I hope you do, or our protectors might become priso
ners before we can blink.

  Well, I wasn’t the one who’d drawn them all to me like some dragon-sized magnet.

  Can I help that?

  I don’t know. Can you?

  No!

  Well, I’d figure out something. After all, the Dominion was our nation. We should be welcome here.

  Most places, that’s true. But you know that Zyla heard rumors about Woelran. And the rumors aren’t good.

  How bad could it be? After all, these Dragon Riders seemed nice enough. Was that a dragon sigh I heard from my Saboraak?

  Tor? Saboraak asked as Nostar gave the command and we launched into the air surrounded by Green dragons.

  Yes? I couldn’t believe how majestic six dragons looked when they were flying together above the trees – seven when you counted the majestic one I was sitting on.

  Why did you stand in front of me back there?

  No one was going to hurt my dragon while I was there to stop it!

  You are aware that I am a massive hunk of bone and muscle capable of ripping another dragon’s neck in two and able to produce a flame that can melt some metals?

  I was aware.

  And you – brave as you are – are only human?

  Still aware. Did she have a point?

  I admire your courage.

  I smiled, drinking in my dragon’s companionability, the beauty of a late winter afternoon, and the majesty of the powerful dragons flying all around us.

  Woelran wouldn’t be all that bad. In fact, Zyla was probably just overly anxious.

  Zyla leaned forward in the saddle. “I need to tell you about Woelran.”

  Chapter Ten

  “WHAT DO YOU ALREADY know about Woelran?” Zyla asked.

  “Coastal city on the northwest corner of the Dominion. Common last name.”