by R A Lewis
“I thought I’d join you today on your rounds of the sentry outposts.”
Leif paused, looking as if he wanted to run away. She knew he wouldn’t appreciate that she was forcing this on him when he clearly wasn’t ready to talk, but she refused to drag this on any longer. Perhaps this time would be good for them. He continued forward, pulling himself up into Arikara’s saddle and checking that his weapons were strapped into place.
“Sounds good, your Majesty.”
He reached down and offered her a hand up. His face remained stony and her own bright face fell a little as she climbed up to join him. Maska followed Leif and Arikara out of the cavern and onto the ledge. Together both dragons tucked their wings and leapt from the ledge, plummeting towards the earth far below before snapping their wings out and catching the strong updraft that always seemed to exist just beyond the mountain. Every time she left the mountain her eyes strayed to the growing graveyard that crowned it. Sadness threatened to overwhelm her and she buried her face in Leif’s back. She didn’t want to think about her father and Geir up there. Or the thousands of other Valdir laid to rest atop the mountain.
They flew in silence, both of them getting used to each other’s presence once again. Leif kept looking over his shoulder at her repeatedly until finally she began laughing. He grinned hesitantly in return at his own ridiculousness and she settled in, the tension broken. Perhaps he had realized that she could kiss whomever she liked.
The first sentry outpost they came to was nestled into an outcropping of rock that jutted up from the edge of the wastes, creating a natural hideaway and barrier for the Valdir soldiers and their dragons stationed there. They circled the area from high above several times, searching for Ethean soldiers before diving quickly to earth. Two soldiers came running to greet them as they landed just east of the rocks, motioning for them to follow them in. The dragons lumbered over the earth, leaping high to climb between the rocks and into a natural depression in the ground. They jumped to the ground in a cloud of dust.
“Bjorn, Erland, how goes it here?”
Leif removed his red leather gloves and ran his fingers over his braids, smoothing the small pieces of hair that often tried to pull loose during his flights. The two men before them bowed low to their queen before answering their commander.
“Nothing so far, General,” Bjorn answered.
He was a big man, well-muscled and in his early thirties. Erland was the same age but much leaner muscled. They looked to be a formidable pair when they fought which Kalina assumed was why Leif had chosen them to be stationed here together.
“We thought we spotted a small patrol a few days ago to our north.” He pointed towards the Great Grey Mountains. “But when we went to investigate, we saw no sign of them. We’ve been making daily passes since with still no sign. I suspect it was just a large herd of deer.”
Leif raised an eyebrow at this last statement. Bjorn shrugged.
“I saw the movement, General,” Erland said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was tired, and it was at sunset, so I can’t be sure if it was my eyes and the light playing tricks on me.”
Leif smiled and clapped the man on the back. Kalina stayed quiet, letting Leif do his work. He seemed to command respect with her people, something she hoped one day she could do as well. She was there to observe anyways.
“I understand. Why don’t you show me your food reserves and give me an inventory of what you need.”
He left Kalina with the dragons and followed his men into the structure they had built into the rock for storage. The dragon’s large claws were good for digging and they had gouged shelves into the rock for storage of food. Kalina settled in, leaning against Maska for comfort and observing the small out posting. Maska shifted beneath her and looked up.
“Look,” he said, staring into the bright blue sky above.
She followed his gaze and saw a dragon hovering high above, waiting to come in to land.
“Leif!” she cried out, pointing into the sky where a small, dark streak dove towards them.
Once the dragon’s wings snapped out to slow their fall, Kalina recognized Kari and her purple dragon, Yurok, before they landed with a thud. Kari slid from Yurok’s back, her face pink from the wind. She glanced at Kalina and nodded briefly before turning to Leif.
“Your Majesty, General. There has been another attack.”
Leif pushed the inventory into Erland’s arms and strode to Kari’s side. Kalina joined him, worry churning her gut.
“What do you mean? Where?” Kari’s face twisted.
“The northern tribe. The village of Harrowing has been attacked and they’ve called for aide.”
Kalina’s head swiveled north, the same direction Erland and Bjorn had thought they’d seen a host moving. The two men stood stock still, their faces drained of color as they listened to the exchange.
“Take the queen with you back to the mountain, and then I want you to join me in Harrowing with a contingent of men,” Leif commanded.
“I’m coming with you.”
Kalina stepped between Leif and Kari, refusing to be left behind. These were her people too. Kari eyed her for a moment before finally offering a small smile. Kalina would take that as a win.
“My brother already has a small host flying north. We can join them,” Kari said turning back to Leif.
She always seemed to relish a fight, and Kalina had come to realize that it was her own way of handling the shock and horror that war and fighting brought. Leif turned to look at Kalina beside him.
“Are you sure you are up for another fight, my Queen?”
She shifted uncomfortably at his and Kari’s watchful gazes before nodding resolutely.
“Let’s go.”
Leif turned back and gave strict instructions for Bjorn and Erland to patrol the skies, searching for returning soldiers, before he climbed back into Arikara’s saddle, helping Kalina up behind him.
Together, the three of them raced north, and before too long, a big plume of smoke rose into the air before them.
Chapter 10
The three dragons circled before coming in to land. Below them, Rangvald’s host was already on the ground and they could see Valdir soldiers and dragons roaming the decimated village. Kalina couldn’t make out whether there were any survivors, but the army that had destroyed the small farming village was nowhere to be seen. This hadn’t just happened; it had happened at least a day ago. It was like they had come and gone in shadow, vanishing without a trace.
The fires were out, the houses smoking ruins. Arikara landed with a thump, blackened dust rising around her and Leif. Maska alighted beside them, his own dust cloud rolling over them. Kalina coughed, covering her nose and mouth in the thick, smoke-laden air. Around her, Valdir soldiers worked with a purpose putting out fires, their dragons helping to scoop dirt over the still smoldering parts of buildings and to dig through the wreckage for survivors. Maska snorted beside her.
“These poor people. Where are their dragons?”
His deep voice reverberated through her, and her own heart twisted. Together they walked through the village, Leif having run off to give orders to his men, Kari and her dragon jumping into the rescue effort. A large wooden structure loomed out of the drifting smoke clouds, its roof half collapsed, a smoking charred skeleton of a building. It was large enough for dragons and Kalina realized with a shock of disgust that the damage must have come from the flaming catapults Ethea had been taking into battle. The devastation of the building was absolute where the dragons had been.
They rounded the corner of the burned-out structure and Maska let out an anguished roar as they beheld the broken, burned, and bloodied bodies of dozens of dragons. Some still lay curled into their makeshift nests, as if they’d died in their sleep. Kalina fell to her knees, her heart felt like it was shattering in her chest at the sight. Tears obscured her vision before spilling down her cheeks and beside her, Maska stumbled into the wreckage. She was too devastated to call hi
m back. He nuzzled the corpses of his fallen kin, as if trying to revive them.
The Valdir were a dwindling people, having most of their population wiped out in the long war, but the dragons were a dying species as well. They had been hunted into extinction on other continents, and only the Valdir had discovered the deep magic that could bind a dragon and a Valdir together. On this continent the Valdir were bonded with the only population of dragons as far as anyone knew. There were no more wild dragons in existence, according to the texts. Kalina empathized with Maska’s sorrow.
She searched the wreckage and found a few fallen Valdir just inside what was left of the doorway. It looked as though they had been trying to warn the dragons, to save them, but the flaming projectiles launched too quickly, and they hadn’t made it out alive.
Leif found her standing at the doors, tears making tracks down her cheeks that were now stained with the ash that floated through the air. He placed a hand on her back and she looked up into his grey eyes, seeing the sadness echoed there.
“Come. I want to show you something.”
Kalina left Maska there to grieve his people and followed Leif numbly through the village. She saw men and women carrying charred bodies on makeshift stretchers from the wreckage of houses and laying them side by side in the field beyond. The land here was on the edge of the wastes, the Great Grey Mountains rising high above them and there was much more vegetation here along a small river. It was perfect for growing crops. Leif led her to the edge of the small village to great swaths of burned land.
“What was planted here?” she said.
Her voice was hoarse from the smoke, her throat tight from crying. Leif’s face was stony as he kicked at a clod of smoking plant matter.
“Crops. There were fields of wheat and barley, and beans and potatoes. But this one here-” He gestured to the one before them. “This was our only existing crop of Emberweed.”
She looked at him in shock and confusion. Emberweed was mythical, something spoken about in hushed whispers or told about in stories long since ended.
“I thought Emberweed didn’t exist?!”
Eira had told her about their history when she was still training to be princess. The older woman had mentioned Emberweed, otherwise known as Valdiserum, had once been grown and cultivated all across Ethea. The Valdir fed it to their dragons before battle and it allowed the dragons to breathe fire. But none had been seen in hundreds of years, and it had passed into legend. Dragons didn’t breathe fire anymore.
“Last year, before you came to us, your father discovered that a trader from Saldor to the far south had come across some seeds. He sent me with a small contingent of men to find this trader and pay him whatever he wanted for them. We brought them back here and planted them. This was our only crop. It wasn’t fully grown yet, but once it was, we were going to feed it to a few volunteer dragons to see if it truly made them breathe fire.”
Kalina’s heart sank. If Maska could breathe fire, it would give her a greater advantage in battle. It would give them all a huge advantage over the king of Ethea.
“Did I do this, Leif?” she asked, walking down the smoking rows. “Is this my fault?”
She didn’t turn to look at him. She couldn’t. If this devastation was her fault, she would never forgive herself.
“No.” His answer was definitive. “There’s no way you could have known he would attack here. We didn’t even know he knew of this village.”
She paused on the edge of the field, her hands clutched across her stomach, as if she could hold herself together. She felt like shattering, blowing out across this expanse. She hurt so badly for her people.
“But if I had agreed to attack the capital-” she trailed off. Leif turned her toward him, his fingers digging into her arms.
“Not even then. You were right to be cautious. He had probably already sent this group of soldiers. There was no way to stop this.”
Kalina didn’t believe him. But she appreciated he was trying. She was queen, she was supposed to lead these people, and she was failing. He let her go and she walked a few steps away.
She looked down at her feet and noticed a flash of bright green among the charred remains. She bent down, brushing away some fallen ash and dirt to find a small plant, a seedling really. It had barely broken the surface of the ground, so it had been protected from the fires. Hope bloomed in her chest as she scooped the tiny plant from the ground.
“Leif.”
She wanted to leap in joy but the combination of the lump in her throat and her own trembling excitement caused her to barely whisper. He turned and saw the tiny green plant. He rushed over and gently unfurled her fingers to inspect the seedling.
“One survived,” he breathed.
“If one did, perhaps others did as well,” she said excitedly.
Leif called his men and a few came running.
“Dig up this entire field. We found a seedling, and where there is one, there may be others.”
His people got to work. Kalina continued to cradle the Emberweed seedling on the edge of the field while people bustled around her. She felt numb, the adrenaline of the last few hours beginning to wear off. Her body felt heavy and she was exhausted.
Gentle hands took hers and she looked up into Leif’s kind eyes. He had a small burlap sack that he had filled with a bit of dirt. She gently buried the seedling in the dirt before he tied a loose knot in the top, leaving plenty of room for airflow and then handed it back to her. She took it gratefully, gently and hugged it to herself, afraid to let it go.
“You should go check on Maska.”
He gave her a small push back towards her dragon. She could see Maska and other dragons working together to dig large pits for burying the bodies. Normally the Valdir would burn their dead, but as many of these bodies were already burned, and there were so many, hundreds, they opted for burial. Maska’s dark eyes found her and she buried her face into his warm scales. Just the dragon’s presence made her feel calmer. She showed Maska the Emberweed, hoping it would lift his spirits.
“We’re going to fly it to a new home,” Leif said as he joined them a few minutes later, Arikara beside him, her golden scales reflecting the sunlight.
“Where will we take the seedlings?”
Leif pointed up into the Great Grey Mountains.
“Somewhere the King of Ethea cannot find us.”
Kalina looked up and beyond to the distant peaks of the mountains before them. She had only been in them once, almost a year ago with Savath when the wyvern had taken them there for a night. She hadn’t been back since but she did remember the wind and the cold.
“Can it grow there?” she asked, doubtful.
“There are high valleys that are inaccessible from the ground that have rich soil. We’ve had our cattle there before.” Kalina knew that the Valdir had once lived in these mountains, before the war with their northern neighbor Askor forced them to flee south to the Wastes.
“What are we waiting for?”
She turned to look at the two dragons and Leif. He gave her a small smile and nodded. They mounted Arikara, strapping the bags with the dozen or so seedlings their men had found and launched themselves into the air, leaving the majority of the host on the ground with Rangvald and Kari.
Chapter 11
Kalina dug a small hole in the ground, reverently placed her small Emberweed seedling in the depression and covered it over. The high meadow around them was lush and green, wild flowers in their final bloom in a profusion of color as if they were all saying goodbye to summer. The mountains towered above them, their snowy peaks reflecting the sunlight, making the valley bright. It was a perfect place to plant the seedlings. With luck, there would still be a few more months of the growing season left.
There was a small hut along the edge of the meadow and as they landed an old Valdir couple had emerged. The couple dragons lay basking in the warm sun on an outcropping of rock, their pale green and yellow scales reflecting the light and making it
bounce across a small pond. It was an idyllic setting and Kalina wished that the Valdir still resided in the mountains. She had never really understood why her father had chosen to move his people south to the Wastes.
The Wastes were a lonely, inhospitable place and being there forced their people to be separated from one another. The mountains were unsurpassable enough that the majority of fighting forces could not penetrate, which was why the king of Ethea had ordered the Valdir and their dragons to fight for him in the treacherous mountain passes and the deep valleys during the long war.
Her father had called it more of a series of small skirmishes than an all-out war, as no sizable Askorian force had made it through the mountains. But Kalina supposed the Valdir had needed to disappear, and if they had been seen flying through the mountains then the king of Ethea would have known where to find them and could try to force them into his army once again.
The Valdir had groups of people, small enough to avoid detection, stationed all along the mountains. This couple had a herd of sheep which provided wool and meat for the greater Valdir forces when needed. They would be perfect for protecting the Emberweed until the crop was mature enough to experiment with.
Leif came to stand by her side as the old man and woman approached. Kalina was grateful to have him with her. Together they tasked the couple with farming the Emberweed, promising provisions and other Valdir to help. The couple were gracious and kind, setting her mind at ease. One less thing for her to worry about.
“There is another village south of here I want to check on. Warn them about the attack,” Leif told Kalina, looking at her over his shoulder as they strapped themselves back into the saddle.
“Good. I want to see more of our people.”
Leif studied her for a moment, as if assessing her sincerity. It didn’t surprise her. She hadn’t chosen this job, but they all relied on her so much. They took to the air and she relaxed as the mountains melted away beneath them until they soared out over the vastness of the Wastes once again before turning east. Flying always helped to clear her mind, and think more freely.
