They were speaking words of arcana that Jenka could make out, but that his subject didn’t understand, so he didn’t remember them correctly. After the few words he heard, Jenka pushed the man’s brain a little too far trying to make them out.
There was a commotion and an explosion of wood and broken rigging. Then one of the wizards was mounted on his colossal, and it was swimming like a dog again, keeping the four robed men riding farther down its back above the water.
Suddenly, the man Jenka was violating began to tremble and convulse. Jenka had to peel himself away from his mind, and did so just before a flash of sparks and a cloud of churning smoke filled the chamber in which he, Linux and the two men were.
Before he could shake the sailor’s memory completely free of him, Jenka saw the wizard he had just seen in the man’s head, only he was standing there, or actually hovering there, with one of his hands on the back of each of the survivors’ necks. The next thing he knew, both men were crumpling to the tiled floor, and the wizard began to laugh, but only until Jenka’s radiant eyes met his and flared.
In that moment, Jenka saw the surprise the mage felt, but he couldn’t tell if the fear he was sensing was the wizard’s or his own.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“We do not wish to harm the people of this land,” the tall, black-eyed mage said, in a powerful voice. “Do not fight us. Lay down your blades and allow us to assume command, and we will not destroy a single home or person.” The wizard narrowed his brow. “Resist us, and we will trample your good folk into pulp.”
Jenka knew the thing before him was not the wizard. The wizard could be anywhere. Still, he had heard of apparitions like this being able to throw spells if the original caster was powerful enough. After all, the two men he had just been questioning had been affected somehow. The longer he sat there looking, the less intimidating the wizard’s apparition seemed, though. Still, Jenka could see why men might follow him.
He was tall and had dark hair that was corn-rowed back over his head, where it dangled in thick, rope-like clumps past his shoulders. His beard was thin and hung like a black stalactite from his narrow face. His cheeks were sunken and his thick brows owlish, and maybe too big for his head.
He was intimidating, Jenka was sure, to most. A glance at Linux told him that the druid wasn’t so afraid. The men on the floor were too dead to show fear, and Jenka wondered what they knew that might make the wizard just end them.
The fact that he had ended them from his illusionary spell made Jenka a little more aware, but he was saturated with dour magic and the essence of the alien, and he decided it was time to let these fools know that they were barking up the wrong tree.
Jenka sat forward slowly but then went into his hyper-movement. He walked to, and then around, the apparition and ended up standing directly before it. Jenka walked casually for the entire series of steps, but the act took less than a heartbeat of actual time.
Just as the wizard’s form was registering what it had or hadn’t seen, Jenka reached into his misty chest and sent out a visionary casting of his own.
For a few moments, the wizard took in the images of Gravelbone and the Sarax that Jenka was sending him. Jenka was filling him with visions of the battles they had already won, but then Jenka let Jade project through their bond-link, and the wizard let out a scream when he felt himself being swallowed by the pale, fleshy alien.
I knows where he is nowsss, Jade hissed into Jenka’s mind through the ethereal.
The wizard, in a show of defiance maybe, or perhaps out of fear, sent back images of his own ilk battling a dragon, of all things. It was huge, but by the darkness of its scales, Jenka could tell it was a mudged. Jenka doubted they understood the difference. Either way, the wizard disappeared with a static pop, and Jenka went racing to Jade. As he climbed onto his dragon’s back and buckled himself into his saddle, Linux reached to him through the ethereal.
Tell me where you are going, so I can direct the others when they return.
They are about to be ambushed, Jenka answered simply, and then he and Jade were flying like an emerald comet speeding across the sky.
“KIng Richard, please elaborate a bit more about these dragon riders we have been hearing so much about,” King Chad asked.
They were seated across from each other on a cushioned divan in an opulent parlor room of King Chad’s castle. The tall, robust man was pale and had an aversion to the sun, but he was not sickly. He wasn’t so much a “good king” either, which Richard found he liked.
Richard had seen firsthand how cold the man could be. More often, he was being invited to court, and he was learning how the Vikarian system of rule was handled. The daughters had narrowed down to three who were still interested in him, but Richard had learned that there were dragons in the mountains farther inland, and he was determined to find another one to ride. Now he spent his time trying to get closer to the curious, intelligent king, for he had the men and equipment to make such a journey, and Richard was growing more anxious with each passing moment.
One day he was sitting behind and to the right of the throne. There were side mirrors staged for the King’s Guard to use, and in the reflection of one, Richard could see the king’s face clearly.
King Chad’s icy blue eyes sparkled brightly as he made the decision to have a man beheaded. And when the man’s wife wailed out in protest, he offered to throw her and the children in the dungeon. They grew quiet, of course, but that is when the king gained Richard’s true favor, for he didn’t let it end there. The family was made to come stand before their father, and Richard couldn’t help himself, for like he had been a hundred times before, he was giddy with anticipation.
“Make him confess to them what he did, first,” Richard whispered loud enough for the king to hear. He received a look of total dissatisfaction from over the king’s shoulder, and then a second look that showed a slight upward turn of King Chad’s mouth.
“Tell your children what you did, man,” the king barked.
“Please, just kill me.” The convicted man’s face was twisted in a knot of anguish, as it had been since the crier read the heinous charges.
King Chad slammed his staff on the floor hard. “Tell them what you did, or I will snip their digits half a finger at a time until you do.”
Richard knew the groveling man hadn’t dismembered the young chambermaid, for he had done the deed himself, but nevertheless, it was gripping listening to him confess the crimes to save his family’s fingers.
“Highness?” Richard shook his head and cleared it, bringing him back to the present. “What do you want to know about the Dragoneers?”
“The Dragoneers.” The king said the word as if he were tasting their flavor. He even let out a slow “Mmmm” before responding. “Why, everything, of course.” He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. He was clearly very interested and eager to learn more.
Richard looked around the room and then nodded for the king to dismiss his attendant.
“Bring us a full carafe, and then you can retire, Jameth,” King Chad called to the man by the door. He took a deep breath and sat back. “What I wouldn’t do to have a dragon to ride at my leisure.”
King Richard smiled to himself. This was going to be far easier than he had thought.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Crimzon and Golden were flying an ever-widening circle around the lake. Their riders were talking through the ethereal about Clover’s son, while the dragons searched for signs of the colossals on the ground. Rikky and Zah were in closer, flying more or less directly over the shoreline.
Rikky hadn’t seen or heard from the other riders in some time, and he was suddenly aware that he was alone with Zahrellion. He found his heart was racing because of it. This wasn’t the first time he had felt something for her. The truth was, he always had. When Jenka married her, he’d been jealous, but being the true friend he was to both of them, he buried those inclinations and moved on with his heart. It was strange, for he
loved Zah as a sister, too, but there was part of him that would always want more.
Over his life, Rikky had overcome so many things that he knew he could have her, too. Where there was a will, there was a way, and Rikky had more will than any score of men, but he wasn’t willing to betray the Dragoneers, or his honor, to have that end. No matter how determined he was about some things, like matters of the heart, the outcome just couldn’t be up to him. Still, he enjoyed the fresh feeling of being close to her, and held a bit of hope that maybe she would willingly separate from Jenka and choose to be with him. Jenka was in a daze most of the time anyway. Rikky doubted he would care.
Do you think they are safe? Zahrellion’s voice held enough concern to draw him back to the moment.
Who?
Jericho and Pascal, of course.
Crystal lurched ahead of Silva, but with two quick wingbeats, they were side by side again.
They are fine, Rikky told her honestly. The castle is magically fortified, and nearly two hundred rangers have taken up residence in the valley.
I wish Marcherion were here, she said, and the words stung Rikky. He understood, though, for March was the most defensive and protective-minded of them all. If he was guarding the children, it would be one less thing for them to worry about.
Rikky was about to ask her about a funding issue that needed resolution so that the rangers could continue expanding with the populace, but what had appeared all along to be a huge boulder near the shore was now a massive, leaping colossal. And a roiling mass of flame, thrown by the wizard sitting on its back, was heading right for Crystal’s underbelly.
Rikky didn’t see the other beast, but Silva felt it as it narrowly grazed her hind section.
Get higher, he heard Zahrellion’s voice. Then she and her wyrm were tumbling away. They’d tried to dodge the fireball, but only managed to avoid the brunt of it. Crystal roared out in agony, for her icy scales were more sensitive to heat than other dragons’ were.
Rikky saw that Zah’s wyrm wasn’t going to crash, and then Sliva pulled them into a steep climb. A moment later, they were diving, and Silva was adding the thrust of her speedy wingbeats to their momentum. They leveled out and banked around the colossal before them. A streak of red-hot magical force shot past them. Rikky felt his hair curling from the proximity and was glad they avoided the blast. To the creature’s surprise, Silva kept banking, causing it to have to twist and turn to keep them in its sight. Then, when it was about to stumble, she turned sharply up, coming to a near hover a few hundred feet above the thing.
She didn’t expect it to leap up at them so swiftly, but it played into her attack, for Rikky’s dragon shot a blast of her molten pewter spew straight down and then simply pushed herself out of the creature’s way with one casual wing-thrust.
The colossal was scorched down its side, and the wizard riding it, half-melted as it slowed its rise and then started back down toward the ground. For a full heartbeat, Rikky felt confident, then he saw Crystal and Zahrellion fumbling around on the ground where they’d landed. Zah was defenseless, and it was plain that he had to get there before the other monster did, or she was done.
“So, with the amulets, we will be able to control the dragons we collar?” King Chad asked as he looked over the dusty crate holding a pair of newly made, and recently enchanted, dragon collars. Richard was familiar with them because his grandfather had used them on the dragons he fought in the pits on King’s Isle. Royal’s twin had fought there, and after attacking his grandmother, had been beheaded by young Herald Kaljatig before a cheering crowd. The thought made him seethe, but he didn’t show his emotion to the king.
A little bit of studying revealed that the devices could be made easily enough and then enchanted with certain charm and binding spells by a capable wizard. Richard had tried, but couldn’t manage it. He had a knack for the destructive magic Vax Noffa and his Nightshade had taught him, but not much else. Luckily, the king was in league with a clutch of wizards who cared not why they were making the items, but about how much the king was donating toward their attempts at establishing a trade agreement with Zahrellion. Richard doubted that was what they were doing with all the coins the smaller kingdoms were donating to them, for Zah would readily agree to anything fair and reasonable. Giving a bunch of aligned wizards gold seemed like a foolish thing to him, but they ensorcelled his collars with minimal fuss, and he was thankful for that.
Richard looked to the king and smiled a genuine smile. “Yes, but collaring a dragon will not be easy. And on that note, I would like to have the honor of leading the quest to collar our wyrms. I know you have duties, and risking your life isn’t what the kingdom nee—”
“Nonsense, Richard.” The king nodded, as if hearing Richard’s offer pleased him. “We will lead the expedition, and we will travel in luxury, until we can no more.” Richard wasn’t sure the man could spend a day outdoors, even in the mountains, without being scorched raw by the sun. He was as white as fresh linen.
“I fought legions when Kar started breaking into smaller entities,” King Chad went on. “I am no castle-raised king, but I will ride to my battles in a carriage on my arse while being fed fruits by naked women, not in a saddle, and definitely not on my feet. And if you ask me why—” The king stopped and laughed, and then put a hand on Richard’s shoulder. “—I’ll answer: Because I can.”
“What of the wedding?” Richard asked, knowing what the man would say. What any king would say.
“We will spend the weeks between then and now organizing the party.” The king hugged him in a fatherly fashion. It was clear that he would have been a great father to a son, had he had one. “I think three days is a long enough time for the two of you to consummate the union. On the fourth day after the wedding, we will depart.”
Richard laughed out loud, and so did the king. Richard knew the king was thinking he might get control of a dragon and try to abscond. By having a huge public wedding first, the union would be undeniable, no matter what happened on their quest.
This was all fine with Richard, for once he was married, if something happened to the king, Richard’s son would be the heir. That meant that for eighteen years, Richard would be King Regent, and if he had it his way, he would have a dragon to help him hold his son’s throne the whole time.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Clover urged Crimzon around toward the lake. She looked over her shoulder and checked that Aikira was there, and was glad that she was. She’d had no idea that the Outland girl had been orphaned, just like Crimzon, and that Clover’s son had taken her in and trained her. Clover’s previous thoughts of the young ebon-skinned woman dissipated, for here was what she could only see in her heart now as her granddaughter.
Crimzon topped the hill that kept them from seeing the lake, and Clover was just in time to see the colossal that just missed Rikky foul its landing and send up a huge splash as it crashed, half in, half out of the water. Another of the beasts, this one with a robed figure riding it, was pouncing on Crystal, where she was struggling on the ground.
Clover sent a thought to her dragon, and he complied by lurching them closer and sending a streak of blood-red lightning sizzling across the sky. It missed the wizard but arced deeply into the monster. For the brief moment it was touching them, Crimzon elevated the amount of power he was expending and caused the colossal to rear up. This not only saved Zah and her dragon from being savaged like a mouse under a hungry cat, but it allowed Rikky and his speedy wyrm to get there and engage the thing, so that Zahrellion could tend to her dragon.
Clover saw the injured beast slide into the lake and dive under the surface. At first she could see it by using Crimzon’s heat vision, but soon the thing was too deep to make out with those senses.
Aikira blasted at the other beast from near Rikky, and soon the creature had a dragon on three sides of it and was thrashing and turning just to keep them all in its vision. The wizard riding the colossal wasn’t panicking, though. His attack hit Golden ha
rd, then he sent Silva back-flapping through the air with another invisible fist of force. Clover had Crimzon bathe the beast in fire and was certain it felt a good deal of her wyrm’s violent heat before the pair teleported away with a static pop.
Something else comes, Crimzon voiced through the ethereal, so that the others could hear. It turned out to be Jenka, though.
A short while later, Rikky was tending Crystal’s burns with his exceptional healing magic, and Zahrellion was cursing the colossals and their wizards for all she was worth.
“We’ve got to eliminate them, Jenka,” she growled.
“We will, Zah.” Jenka nodded, but instead of going to his rattled wife, he went to Clover’s side.
“What do you think we should do now?”
“I think we should go hunting for those bastards, is what.”
It was no easy chore getting Crystal back to Clover’s Castle, but together they managed it. They decided to hunt in groups of two, and Jenka and Clover were off while the others were still discussing strategies.
Rikky watched Zahrellion and could sense her disappointment when she learned this, but the boys were there, and both she and Aikira were aglow with motherly adoration for their children. Amelia was giggling shrilly, and Rikky decided that, since she was running on her own two feet now, she was about to be a handful. He also noted how eerie the child was. It was as if she shared her father’s mind-drifting episodes, or maybe she just stared vacantly at times.
It wasn’t fair to ask the women to go hunt these beasts, as they had so much more at risk than he, and so many more responsibilities. Aikira insisted, though, and Zahrellion agreed to watch over Pascal while she and Crystal rested their wounds and tended to the kingdom’s needs.
Rise Of The Dragon King (Book 5) Page 6
