The Last Dragon 4

by LeRoy Clary

  “I was living in the Kingdom of Dire at that age. They didn’t find me, I guess.”

  Kendra wore a faint smile. We may have discovered a portion of our past, and a reason why two children from Kondor were taken to Dire as children. Someone, probably our parents didn’t want me recruited into the mage society. His simple explanation could explain a lot about us.

  “Don’t they have sorceresses in Dire?” he asked.

  “Sorceresses? Sure, but why do you ask?” His question about Dire had come from nowhere and I didn’t know how to answer, so I asked one of my own.

  Big Salim shrugged and said, “It’s them that search out the young boys.”

  I glanced at Kendra again. We were in the middle of what was an impassible, waterless, desert and found the home of what might be the only occupants—and they had already, in only a few sentences, told us more about our probable past than we’d managed to learn in a lifetime.

  Kendra said, “You say that you were recruited by sorceresses to attend training to become a mage in Kaon.”

  “That’s what I said,” his voice no softer or friendlier than before.

  Trying to ease the situation, the best way seemed to be honesty, so I told the truth. “I was not recruited, didn’t know it happened, never heard of Kaon until ten days ago, and have never had any training about how to use magic. However, as you might guess, all you say is of importance to us. We’ve been searching for information about us and our situation all our lives.”

  “Your mother and father?” he asked.

  “Unknown,” Kendra said before I could answer. “Another mystery to solve.”

  I said, “Odd that you asked about our parents. Why?”

  He relaxed, and sat again, leaning closer as if there might be someone trying to listen. “Our powers are inherited. Not always, but usually.”

  That made sense. I’d bet most mages with wives and children lived in Kaon. It also might explain why a mage or sorceress that suspected their child of having magical powers might flee to a foreign land. It was an explanation for our existence—the first we’d heard that made any sort of sense.

  Kendra said, “Interesting to me that sorceresses locate potential mages, but that fits with what we know. They deal more with emotions, feelings, and people, instead of elemental magic dealing with metal, water, and air. It also explains another mystery I’ve wondered about. Sorceresses always seem to live well, have nice houses, plenty of money at the markets. The mages pay them, don’t they?”

  Big Salim motioned for Elinore to come to the table. She did, although it seemed she was reluctant if her hesitant actions were as I saw them. He said to her as he motioned to Kendra, “This woman. Is she a sorceress?”

  In an instant, that told us Elinore was a sorceress, which should not have been a surprise, but was. Elinore shook her head. For some reason I was relieved until she spoke, “She is much more.”

  “More?” Big Salim asked. “What does that mean?”

  I exchange a look with Kendra. What was more than a sorceress? Not a mage, because they dealt with different magics. She was a puzzled as me. We turned to Big Salim and found his brows furrowed, so I looked at Elinore.

  She was watching Kendra, an expression of intense concentration on her face. She turned to Big Salim to answer his question. “How can I describe “more” other than to say no sorceress I’ve ever encountered or heard of has her power. It is as if she carries the power of a dragon inside her.”

  That phrase, the power of a dragon, interested me. Could my powers be working because Kendra had essence inside her, like a dragon or Wyvern?

  “And him?” Big Salim asked, jutting his chin in my direction.

  “Repressed and unrecognized power. His mind is like a young walnut husk with the nut inside growing and expanding daily—and it will soon split the husk wide open. His mind is like that.” Elinore lowered her head and looked at the ground as if somehow ashamed of what she’d said about us, and in front of us. “One day his true powers will burst forth and all nearby will quake.”

  Before I found the words to say, Kendra placed her arm around the shoulder of the woman and said, “What you told us is much of what we have suspected but didn’t know. Thank you.”

  Little Salim, who was not all that little, said to his father, “You act as if these two are our friends. What if they leave and reveal where we live? Will we have to flee again and find a new home?”

  All eyes turned to the boy, his parents looked on him in an admonishing manner, while my sister and I took the time to examine his outburst in detail. Again, with only a few words, an incredible amount of information had been relayed.

  Big Salim’s family was hiding. They were in the driest part of the desert at the very edge of the Brownlands, hidden by that waterless wasteland, protected because few carried the water required to cross the wasteland to reach their valley. Their little area was lush and green, indicating that either they had stumbled on a rare oasis, or they had manipulated the natural forces to provide the water needed to grow food.

  This was not the first time they had fled. Who they had fled from was unknown, but they were not welcome to someone, or some group with power. Enough power to cause a mage and sorceress to hide.

  Kendra said, “Is your son a mage?”

  “I am,” he snapped as if insulted by the question.

  I found that coincidence disconcerting as soon as the words left his mouth. There were perhaps only five people alive in the interior of the Brownlands south of the great river, and we’d managed to stumble upon three of them. It’s not that I don’t believe odd things happen, but more often than not, there is a reason. At home in Crestfallen, I never played Blocks with young William because he always won. Not through magic, but because although he was several years my junior, he was smarter, more decisive, and a better planner for the future moves of the game. He saw moves well ahead of me and anticipated mine.

  So, coincidence exists, but there are other times when there is more than chance that controls happenings. Not always magic. Manipulation, coercion, threats, and accurate predictions also create what appears to be a coincidence.

  Kendra could see mages in her mind. She hadn’t known of these, not at a distance, and not as we sat and ate a meal with them. She was taken by surprise. “Do you have a way to hide from others with magic powers?”

  Big Salim turned to her. “You can tell if a mage or sorceress is nearby?”

  “Yes.” She didn’t mention she could also do it from a distance.

  He wore a rare smile. “Good. I maintain a shield about our valley to keep all magic within it.”

  I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded truthful. My mental ramblings returned to the central focus that concerned me. I seized the spark of the beginnings of a flame of knowledge and said, “I saw a glint of light, like a reflection of sunlight off a polished surface, that brought us here. A single random incident in a sea of desert. It was not a glint of light, was it?”

  Elinore said, “I have heard of such things happening with mages. They say that they follow the light, a common enough expression among some who control magic. I think it tells them where to find friends.”

  “Meaning?” I asked.

  “Meaning that you did not arrive here by accident,” she said.

  Warnings cluttered my mind, all centered on the Young Mage. “Who directed me here?”

  She shook her head, “No, I don’t think it was a person. I believe the occurrence is far simpler to explain. Your mind searches for something, a place, destination, or objective. Without knowing how, it reaches out and locates those things. The glint or flash you believe you saw was probably only in your mind. That is how I’ve heard the process explained but have never experienced it.”

  Her explanation was better than thinking a random act of chance had brought us together. I turned to Kendra. “Can we delay our trip a few days?”

  She nodded. “If these good people will allow us to remain here. We h
ave so much to learn and finally have found people who know much more than us.” She turned to them. “We can pay.”

  Elinore was already shaking her head, refusing payment. Big Salim said, “We also have things to learn from you.”

  Little Salim spun and strode away as if angry or fearful. He was at the age where anger rules his daily life.

  “He has chores to complete,” his father said lamely.

  I’d never been so anxious to do my chores that I’d almost ran to them but said nothing. Instead, I allowed my mind to wander, thinking of subjects to speak about. It seemed obvious we’d been drawn here, probably by my mind as Elinore had suggested. Since arriving, in the space of eating a meal, we’d learned so much. What else were we going to find out? What questions should we ask? Where should we begin?

  *We were ambushed,* Anna’s voice burst into my mind like being struck on the back of my head with the blade of a shovel.

  *What happened?*

  *They came in the night where the lakes narrowed, probably a hundred soldiers in twenty boats. Instead of fighting, Will ordered the sails raised and all of us to row. They chased us, but as the old fisherman said, they were not very good rowers.*

  *You all escaped?* I asked.

  *Yes, for now. We are in another large lake but along the shore are soldiers on horses keeping pace with us. The lake is narrower and we will never be out of sight of them.*

  I turned to Kendra. “We have to leave.”

  “Trouble?” she asked.

  “There are soldiers on horseback keeping pace with them.” I glanced at Elinore and Big Salim. “Our friends. We have to go help them.”

  Big Salim said, “Then you must go. Elinore will gather food for travel while we talk.”

  “About?” I asked, anxious to leave but knowing to remain. We needed food to take and he wanted to talk.

  “We are in hiding. This place,” he threw his arms wide to indicate the small valley, “was a desert with a small spring. Using magic, this is what we made of it. I failed at being a mage, and because of that, Kaon wanted me dead. All who fail to meet their standards are put to death.”

  “You escaped?”

  “And found Elinore a year later. We hid in Dagger for years, then came here when a new mage came into power and detected me. He is in Kaon, the leader of all mages, but he was only a child back then. He started searching for any who failed the mage society and lived. Those who didn’t agree with him were killed. We were lucky to escape. You must be wary of him.”

  I said, “Our name for him is the Young Mage. We’ve had a few confrontations already.”

  “Then you are either more powerful than I suspected or very lucky.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  We departed the green valley and our new friends a short while later, our horses laden with food, our water jugs filled to brimming, and our minds overflowing with new information to mull over. We had spent only one precious day with them. That short time left me feeling empty. There was so much to learn—and that they could teach us. Even Little Salim knew far more about magic than us. His initial fear of our appearance had eventually turned to friendliness.

  Our destination was to ride north again, to quickly reach the lakes and attempt to help our friends trapped on the waters of a smaller lake. How we would help them was still an unknown, but with an army pacing them on each shore, they couldn’t leave the boat. Sooner or later they would have to row ashore and surrender. There was no trail or path to follow left by Big Salim and Elinore on the few trips where they had departed their secure valley because paths and trails are two-way. They could take them from their home but could also lead others to it, so they left no trace of their passing.

  Kendra said, “Any ideas of what we can do? Does Anna have any information?”

  “No. But I think before we do anything at all, I need to communicate with Anna again and let her know we’re coming, as well as ask for their ideas. Will might have something.”

  “Really?” she asked, her voice jabbing at me for stating the obvious. I might as well have told her the sun was in the sky.

  I should have said something clever and biting in response, but the jostling gait of the horse was making my behind tender again and my mind slow. It hurt my full stomach, jarred my teeth, and blurred my vision as I peered into the distance. While the animal under my behind was bred to be adapted to the desert, it seemed to me that the breeders could have considered the comfort of the riders too. I longed for the smooth, easy stride of the horses at Crestfallen.

  They rode so easy after being trained by the Stablemaster that I’d slept in the saddle more than once. Ahead of us spread a vast openness and more brown sand. Here and there a withered plant clung to life. The horizon was obscured by waves of heat rising.

  Kendra called over her shoulder, “Big Salim never asked me how we crossed the Brownlands. Did he ask you?”

  “No. He must have made some assumptions. That means he either did the same when he crossed it, or he has another method. I wish we could have spent the time for me to learn from him.”

  Kendra pulled up, so we could ride side by side, our knees bumping now and then despite the emptiness of the Brownlands. It was as if the horses wanted to walk closer to each other because they were the only animals alive. “He helped us understand more in a day than we’ve ever known. I agree. There is so much for him to teach you and me if he is willing. We will return to their valley and spend time with them.”

  I glanced at her and in all seriousness said, “It’s dangerous when you think of all we don’t know. For instance, we could have died out there in the Brownlands if you hadn’t forced me to make it rain.”

  She laughed. When I didn’t, she said, “Think about it. We needed a drink, a jar full of water, so you made an entire storm and soaked us all, small as it was. It was a thousand times what we needed. Don’t you think that’s funny?”

  I glared at her. “No. Maybe it was a hundred times too big, no more than that.”

  Her laughter rang louder in the empty desert air. Whatever animals that might have heard it probably dived deep into their burrows or raced away at full speed. I just looked directly ahead and tried to think of how I’d gotten myself to be the butt of another joke. No doubt, she would tell Princess Elizabeth and together they would giggle half the night.

  I needed to change my thoughts so reached out and asked, *Anna, are you there?*

  *I’m here if that’s what you mean.*

  Yes, I heard the humor in her tone, too. Of course, she was there, wherever there was. Where else could she be? *Have things improved so much you feel like joking?*

  There came a pause. *Things are the same. Boring. We are playing a game like a mouse teasing a cat. We row closer to shore and spot them about the same time they see us. They race their horses along the shore nearest where we are, and we turn and row deeper into the middle of the lake and try to disappear. There are soldiers on both shores.*

  *What is Will’s plan?*

  *There is only one more lake before reaching Dagger. We can’t sail there, and even if we could, they will have lookouts, guards, and more soldiers at the neck between lakes. We must get to the south side of this one, and then head into the desert on foot.*

  *But you have to avoid the army on the shore, first.*

  *Yes.*

  I cut off the communication as I pictured the situation in my mind. I imagined the lake, the shore, the boat, and where we were, as well as our objective, which was the fishing village called Ander on the edge of the sea and find Thom. We had intended to go there on our own and meet the others along the way or at Ander. Now things had changed.

  I explained the mental conversation to Kendra, and she listened without interrupting once, which demonstrated how important the information was. I guess it was possible she was not feeling well, or perhaps she was too tired to critique me, but I preferred to think of the danger rather than tease me again.

  She gave it some thought before saying, “My
dragon?”

  After denying it was her dragon for so long, it was nice to hear her slip of the tongue again. She was beginning to face facts. I said, “Yes, but the army would scatter and then reform right after the boat lands and chase us all the way to Ander and beyond. Our friends will not have horses. The army will.”

  She sighed and said, “You’re right. Our best course would be to slip them ashore in the middle of the night and quietly depart.”

  “They will still come after us on horseback first thing in the morning.”

  “Not if my dragon is between them and us.”

  Kendra had hit on a perfect scenario. If we could get our friends out of the boat and travel for any distance at all into the Brownlands, we could pull it off. My first idea was to have them land on the north side of the lake. They could reach the place where the lake narrowed into the river and swim across and avoid the army to confuse them.

  There were too many problems with the idea. First, was another army on the north shore. There had been at least three armies chasing them before they escaped, and it seemed reasonable that boats with messengers were rowed across and information passed from one army unit to another. The second problem was that there would be sentries posted where the lake narrowed again, downriver from a dam. At least, if I were the military commander, that is what I’d do. My assumption was that to become the captain, or general or whatever, he was far smarter than me in military matters.

  All of which took us back to our original problem. We needed to get our friends ashore and heading south before anyone knew what they’d done. The idea of a diversion came to me. A diversion instead of trying to sneak ashore with disastrous results if discovered was a better alternative. Once that idea overtook my thinking, all I had to do was find a way to create one that would work.

  Kendra still rode alongside and said in a thoughtful tone, “What we need is a diversion.”