The silver dragon went flailing into the trees, but then another roar resounded, and another.
“Crystal.” Prince Jericho grinned. “And Blaze.”
“It is Crimzon,” Pascal said, his awe pushing through his fear. “And your father is riding Jade this time.”
Another week passed for Marcherion and Blaze, then they spotted flocks of birds churning through the evening sky. This lifted the weary wyrm and its rider’s spirits, for the avian clusters meant that there was land in the distance.
It turned out to be a very short rest there, for the island was overgrown with thick, thorny vegetation and the birds all had nests on it. It wasn’t small, but the area available to them to laze on was limited at best.
The morning they left the island, the huge flying creature showed itself again. March watched it for a while and decided it wasn’t hunting them. What it was doing was beyond him, and he didn’t discount that his judgment was based on hope more than any sort of knowledge. When it flew alongside them one afternoon, he finally got a good look at it.
It was a bird. It had feathers and a beak and an enormous wingspan. It was mostly black and darker shades of brown and its neck was long like a crane’s or a stork’s.
March was more relieved than anything, for after taking the whole creature in, he had full confidence that Blaze could either outfly it, or scorch it out of the sky with his fiery breath.
Clover couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d seen a colossal before, fighting in the pits of Harthgar. It had been spelled to obey a fairly powerful wizard, and had gone undefeated the whole time Clover was there, but that was more than a century ago.
She was suddenly upset, for the memory was of one of her and Crimzon’s grandest times in life. She’d made a small fortune by offering a hundred-to-one odds to anyone willing to bet against the monster. The wizard controlling it had been a sneaky, dark-hearted bastard, though; she remembered that, too. He’d wanted Crimzon to fight his beast, but Clover didn’t trust it would be a fair fight.
As Silva went rolling into the trees, Clover was yanked out of her memory when she saw Jenka point his arm and finger out toward the dragon. A tiny stream of emerald-green energy beamed out of him, and when it impacted the silver wyrm, it enveloped her and seemingly cushioned her fall.
The colossal’s tail came around and almost got Jade, then, and Clover barely had time to dodge it’s heavy head.
“DO NOT KILL IT!” she yelled. “DRIVE IT TO THE SEA!”
Can you use the ethereal? Zahrellion asked.
I can, Clover replied, and felt a little silly for trying to scream over the sound of four dragons and a riled beast. She wasn’t used to fighting with other dragon riders, and for a few moments it showed.
Drive it to the sea, she repeated her thought.
Yesss, the huge red wyrm, Crimzon, replied before sweeping across the colossal’s path and blasting a jet of flame, forcing it eastward instead of south. Clover felt her dragon sizing this one up. He might have been able to take the pit monster, but this one was even bigger than he was, and she had no idea where he would start.
The eyesss, he answered with a hiss, and she knew he was right.
It was hard to say if it was even aware of them as it went, but one thing was sure: such a creature would devastate a city by just walking through, and it was trying to go south, where most of the cities were. With its forty-yard-long tail and powerful neck, it could probably level Three Forks. In fact, it could probably charge right through the wall. Clearly, though, it had no intention of doing so. It was moving with a purpose, and every now and then stopping to sniff the southern breeze. To it, they and their dragons were but insects to be tolerated.
Jade used his noxious breath to keep the massive thing from going north, and Crystal kept it hurrying along over the hills and leaping across valleys with short blasts of her icy spew.
Clover had Crimzon dive low and glide back down the length of the thing. There were a pair of huge testicles dangling, and a sheathed member, not unlike a stock animal’s. This made Clover reach back into her mind to recall everything she could about the creature she’d seen in Harthgar.
Now she was starting to get a bad feeling. She had always been lucky, and when she knew she could bet on something, it was probably a sure thing. When they reached the sea, north of Cut, the creature leapt right into the ocean and began swimming south under the waves. Crimzon could see it with his heat-sensing vision, and Clover could see through her wyrm. Her gut told her that this beast was swimming toward something specific.
Go back and tend Rikky and the boys, Clover called. I will follow it and meet you all back in Three Forks.
Jenka followed the large red dragon a few moments longer than Zahrellion did, but eventually he banked away. Clover was worried that her instinct was right, and by the determined way the creature was moving, she knew that it knew exactly where it was going.
It was swimming directly toward the Karian flotilla.
CHAPTER TEN
Clover learned a lot watching the events that unfolded beneath her. One thing was that the male colossal had a hard time trying to figure out why the ships smelled the way they did. Clover knew exactly why, and now she understood why the scheming members of the so-called trade delegation thought they could fight the New World kingdom with such a modest force.
“Are you certain?”
“I’m telling you, Rikky.” Clover narrowed her brows at the one-legged Dragoneer’s questioning of her. They were back at Three Forks Palace now, in the new Dragoneers’ Den, a large, open room boasting a glossy hardwood table shaped like a crescent moon. Jenka was laid back in his central throne-like chair and staring at the ceiling, as if nothing were wrong. Clover spoke to him anyway. “It was after those ships because there are female colossals on them. I think they meant to let them loose on the mainland. They had to turn due north, though, and make for the eastern side of the peninsula, because the male we accidentally rousted was harassing them in the sea. At one point, it nearly mounted the deck and started humping the forecastle.”
“We should fire and freeze them before they make land.” Zahrellion stared hard at Jenka.
“HEY.” Clover kicked the back of Jenka’s chair. “Are you the king or not?”
Jenka jumped up, his body moving a hundred times faster than those around him. Clover lost him when she blinked. Then he was right there in her face, his finger a hair’s breadth from poking her in the eye.
From somewhere beyond the castle walls, Crimzon roared out angrily. Jade roared right back at him.
“I— am— not—” Jenka growled, his voice starting slow and deep, then speeding up to a normal tone as his body began moving at regular speed again. “I never wanted to be king.”
“Well, you are now,” Zahrellion snapped at him. “Stop moving like that! We must sink the ships and keep these beasts from ravaging the land.”
“Sink the ships, Jenk,” Rikky chimed in. “There is no sense risking it.”
“I think we should send them all back to where they came from, and let the beast the rascals woke up follow them away.” This was from Aikira, who came striding into the room.
Though she wasn’t wearing her sleek golden armor, the outfit that Clover had first seen her in, the tight leather riding pants and a loose-fitting blouse under her yellow-brown cloak fit her body well. Clover, as always, found the exotic Outland girl captivating.
“What will sinking the ships and killing them all do for us?” Jenka spoke evenly. “The next time, they will come for vengeance. Just go scare them away. Follow them out to the deep, if you must.”
It turned out that it didn’t matter what the Dragoneers, or King Jenka, wanted. Rikky, Zahrellion, Aikira and Clover found nothing but broken bits of wood and a few floating corpses when they returned to where the trade delegation ships should have been. The wizards must have let loose the female creatures so they could flee the male. There were two men still alive, and Zahrellion and Aikira had t
heir dragons pluck them from the sea before turning back to Three Forks to tell Jenka what had transpired, for no matter how hard they tried to reach him through the ethereal, he wouldn’t respond, nor would Jade.
Crimzon sensed that the male colossal may have fled back toward Cut, Clover told them all.
We will see what we can get out of these two, Aikira said. Watch Clover’s back, Rikky. I’ll find you two when we are done.
Clover let Crimzon fly, and the big fire wyrm took his time, analyzing the path he presumed the thing had taken. All the while, Rikky and his smaller, faster wyrm were flying circles around them, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Look there, at the trees, Rikky called, pointing at a place where the trunks and shrubbery were laid over as if something huge had slunk up out of the water.
Clover nodded. Crimzon was already banking them that way. She doubted all of the men on those ships had just drowned, and she was curious as to what the two men they saved would have to say, but she was also curious about King Richard and if Vikaria really had a hand in all of this. She was starting to doubt that the two happenings were connected.
They followed the trail of laid-over woods, stomped shrubs, and tail-whacked limbs for a good portion of a day. There was a little blood smeared here and there, too, making the trail impossible to lose. Finally, Clover broke the silence.
You know, Rikky, I am amazed when I hear the stories of how you overcame your loss and then impaled that demonized horn-head. It is impressive to be so strong-willed. Clover chanced opening a door into her soul she’d long kept locked tight. Did you know Vax Noffa, my son? How did he die?
Vax Noffa died fighting Sarax in the cavern where you first glazed the vessel. Rikky had never really thought about Clover as Vax Noffa’s mother until that moment, and he suddenly felt very sad for her, knowing that she’d spent almost all of her son’s life in some crazed priest’s trap.
What was he like?
Rikky wasn’t sure he was the one who should be answering the questions, as Aikira had actually studied under Vax Noffa, before she and Golden found them.
He was secretive. I remember the first time I ever met him was the night we were announced as the Royal Dragoneers, just when Jenka learned that he was kettle-born, or whatever. Jenka hated the title Royal Dragoneers because he somehow knew we were not there to fight for the kingdom, but for what was right.
Jenka wasn’t kettle-born, Clover said. Her incredulous tone was clear, even across the ethereal.
Mysterian told him he was. Rikky laughed. You should speak with Aikira about your son. She knew him far better than any of us. He trained her and Prince Richard both.
It is just so strange. I feel as if I have cheated death. I have always had luck on my side. I am not sure why, but I have. Clover’s voice seemed sad. Looking back and remembering Denner and Vax, and the love we shared, hurts. To feel so much regret as I feel, is no lucky thing.
Well, maybe something will happen to get your mind off of it, Rikky said back.
Below them, the trail led into a lake that was far larger than the one from which the male creature had emerged. They spent a good deal of time flying around the shore looking for places the thing might have exited, but found none.
Go see what Zahrellion and Aikira have learned, Clover told him. I would like some time to ponder.
Of course, Lady Clover, Rikky replied.
And Rikky, could you have Aikira return with you when you come? I would like to ask her about my son.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“So, we have a few wizards, three with female colossals, running across our frontier trying to get away from a crazed male?” Zahrellion asked Linux the rhetorical question. “They were going to attack us with these things?”
Jenka was listening and taking in what the others were saying.
“According to the captives, they still are. They helped their beasts break out of the ships to avoid the male. Apparently, they are capable mages, for they supposedly teleported their animals, and themselves, away from the wreckage, leaving the seamen to struggle and die.”
“Well, three wizards are not in the bottom of the lake Clover is watching over,” Rikky said. “And teleporting to a place you have never seen is extraordinarily hard. I don’t think all of the colossals are even in there. Maybe one.”
“The sailors said the females were magicked, not natural like the one that was attacking them, save for when the wizards were in the hold with them.” Linux shrugged. “If these magi are even half clever, they probably led you there as a trap. We need--”
“I’m going,” Rikky said as he ran out.
Aikira was right behind him, and then Zahrellion. Linux started to follow them, but Jenka stopped him.
“Bring both of those seamen here and have food and fresh water brought as well.” Jenka’s curiosity had been piqued. “Have a couple of girls clean them up in the royal bathhouse. Make sure they are fully serviced.”
Linux’s look showed his utter confusion.
“For what I intend to do to them, I need them wholly relaxed.” Jenka used the dour to imprint his command in Linux’s mind, and the druid nodded and went about it.
Jenka wasn’t surprised about the attack. In fact, he’d expected something to happen much sooner. The bits of alien intelligence he had assumed when he was swallowed by the shape-shifting alien during the Confliction told him it was inevitable. He had pondered the idea of war for a long time and decided that, even though it was a messy business, it was one of the most effective ways to bring about change. But he understood that conflict wasn’t always the answer.
A short while later, two scrubbed and seemingly content men were brought before Jenka. They both stood tall, and the larger of the two managed to avoid Jenka’s eyes, but the other one met them and was instantly lost in their coral-green depths.
Jenka saw a harbor as if being approached from the sea. A woman, round-faced and brown-haired, waved as her dress flapped in the breeze. A strange flag, one of the many Karian flags, was flapping over a trio of lesser pennants. He felt the sensations of missing his mother, excitement, and fear all mingled in confusion.
The man’s mind skipped forward as Jenka dragged it away from his home. He found the present and began peeling away backward until he saw the beasts. They were there, each with a robed figure riding it, and they looked very little like the colossal they had battled in the mountains, save for in form.
These creatures were smaller, but still as large as a dragon. They had gills and webbed, clawed paws. Their bodies were muscled and sleek. They were a mottled mixture of gray and brown, being darker everywhere there was webbing. The skin looked like that of a whiskerfish or a shark, smooth and thick. They had arm-length teeth, and their bottom fangs, when their mouths were closed, stuck up around their noses, giving the creatures the look of having three horns, when in fact they had only one. The tails were long, and the tips looked to be covered in thick, plated hide, which allowed them to batter and bash without hurting themselves.
Jenka saw the webbing that stretched from the heel of their hind legs out and back and down the length of their tails. The same skin created a wing, or fin-like plane from the forelegs to the abdomen. He imagined these things could swim reasonably fast and maneuver well in the water. Then he saw one of them trying to throw its rider because it didn’t want to ease into the hold of the ship.
Jenka felt the sailor’s fear as the memory played through his head, as if it were happening again. He searched the man’s memories for the wizards themselves but found that they were not on the vessel this man was on.
Jenka turned his attention to the other man. Linux pressed him down, and he knelt while looking at his companion to see if harm had just been done to him. His eyes met Jenka’s then, and suddenly he was slipping backward through his memories to the same point in time as the other man had first seen the colossal creatures.
Jenka was pleased that this one was easily twice as smart as the other. Th
is man had paid better attention to detail, and when Jenka started querying the man’s brain about the wizards, he found out enough to alarm him. He also found that the agitated colossal threw its ropes and carried the wizard riding it out into the bay.
Jenka wasn’t that surprised when it swam, sort of like a dog, with its head out of the water, as if it were trying to keep its rider dry. Jenka wondered if the wizard saddled on its shoulders was the only reason it wasn’t swimming underwater, because with those bright red gills, it surely could.
The somewhat nervous-looking wizard kept the creature under his control and slowly got it swimming back toward the dock. Jenka was reminded of a story Clover once told him of a harbormaster who used a spelled octerror in his bay to manage the pirates. This wasn’t a Harthgarian harbor, he reckoned, and Clover had been telling him of a time long forgotten to these people. Either way, the wizard looked to have heard the tale, too, for he was looking this way and that, into the water around his beast, as he eased it to shore. It broke off a sizable portion of the wooden dock’s structure when it finally climbed back up and moved toward the cargo hold.
Jenka started probing the sailor for information about the wizards and finally found something of interest.
A cabin in one of the ships with the door cracked open was before the man. He put his eye to the sliver and peeked in. Inside there were at least a dozen robed men, all of them speaking to what appeared to be their leader. When Jenka’s eyes found him through the captive’s memory, the man actually saw him looking. Jenka saw his black eyes, even through the memory, and was suddenly aware that at least one of these wizards was very, very powerful.
Rise Of The Dragon King (Book 5) Page 5
