Chasing the Dragon (27 page)

Thork held up a single black arrow and frowned. He studied it close and then shook his head. It slipped between his fingers before he closed his fist, snapping the arrow in half. "Stupid arrow," he muttered. "Like yous gonna be dumb enough to shoot a dragon wif a bow!"

Carson stiffened and turned his head to look at the bow resting on his back.

The troll straightened and sighed, several pieces of armor, weapons, and various objects lying on the ground around him. "Noffin," he muttered. "Sorry, but Thork's got noffin dat will help
. Just dese potions. Dem will keep yous from getting turned crispy first fing. Yous gots to come up wif a way to keep Misky from flying and bashin yous stupids."

"Thork," Garrick asked, drawing the troll's attention.

The shaman turned and saw Garrick holding up the great sword. "What is this?"

"Dat?" Thork frowned and then grinned. "Dat might help! Dat's good for bashin lizards. Snakes and stuff like dat. Maybe dragons
, too—dem's part snake."

Garrick stared at the sword and studied it, making certain that it truly was as remarkable a weapon as it appeared to be. He reached up to the sword on his back and drew it forth,
and then offered it to the troll. "A trade?"

Thork took the barbarian's sword and looked at it. He shrugged and tossed it in the chest. "Okies."

Garrick blinked. "Okies?" he echoed in a whisper. Mordrim smacked him in the thigh to shut him up. The barbarian sheathed his new blade.

"Good luck bashin da dragon!" Thork said. "Remember to drink dem potions and get lots an lots of
drinkin when yous done runnin."

"
Drinking? Why?" Alto asked.

"Yous gonna see," Thork chuckled. "Yous isn't gonna want to eat nuffin either."

"Are these safe?" Patrina asked. "It's not going to turn us purple and yellow, is it?"

Thork laughed and slapped the table hard enough to knock a few potions over. "Nope, no colors. Just remember dat everyfing is faster, dat's all."

"Everything?" Kar asked.

Thork grinned and nodded. "Now get going. Dem trolls out dere is stupid. Dem's gonna forget yous came in wif me."

"We're in your debt," Alto said.

"Fank Jarook
. Thork's just da messenger," the troll said. He grinned and shook his head as he changed his mind. "No, don’t do dat, Jarook might send yous nightmares den!"

Karthor grimaced but kept his mouth shut while Alto led the way back out of the hut and into the jungle.

Chapter 26

They’d hurried away from the trolls and worked their way west around the swamp and away from the frogger breeding grounds before Alto called a halt. He took out the clay flask Thork had given him and broke the wax stopper free of the end of it. "Well, let’s see what these do."

"
You’re daft," Kar muttered. "Trusting that troll’s haphazard alchemy skills?"

"
Kar, has Thork ever done us wrong?" Alto asked the wizard. "He’s crude and he serves Jarook, but he’s helped us out time and again without asking for anything in return."

"
You forgot ugly, untrained, uneducated, and frighteningly powerful," the wizard offered.

Patrina voiced her disagreement immediately
. "I wouldn’t say uneducated. That man knows more about what’s going on around us than we’ve ever been able to figure out. He always has an answer for our questions, but it’s our job to figure things out."

"
It shouldn’t need to be our jobs," Kar disagreed. "Ask a question, get a simple answer. That’s how it should work!"

Garrick, Carson, and
Mordrim all nodded their agreement with the wizard. Karthor, on the other hand, intervened. "An answer without understanding is not an answer. It’s words on a page, nothing more."

"
What’s there to not understand about that?" Kar snapped at his son.

"
Seven people are killed in a war, just a number that doesn’t mean anything. Even if they aren’t fighting in the battles, they’re just a statistic. Casualties. Not important," Karthor said.

Kar shrugged.
"Yes, so?"

"
Those seven people had families. People who loved them. Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and friends."

"
Everyone has those. Get to your point already!"

"
Fine," the priest said with patience that only made his father scowl. "What if those seven people are all related to another?"

"
Fewer people to miss them," Kar spat.

"
And what if there are survivors? What if two of that family survived, but one of them is now in mortal danger and the other is struggling to save her? Are they still simple answers? Just words in a book?"

Kar’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. He turned and looked at Alto, prompting everyone else to do the same. Kar nodded his head and then turned back to his son and sighed.
"You devious on of a bitch," he said with a smile. "You might be my son after all."

Karthor shook his head but couldn’t hide his own smile, however faint. The priest turned to Alto and opened his mouth but Alto waved him silent.

"Simple words that remind us all there is much more to the deeds we do than even we can see," Alto said. "I will risk the troll’s potion if it can help the girl in Karthor’s story."

Rather than speak
, Patrina lifted her own flask and drank the potion down. She grimaced and stuck her tongue out. "Tastes like wet dog."

"
You’ve tasted a wet dog?" Carson asked while Garrick was already drinking his.

"
No, I mean how one smells—" Patrina stopped talking and her eyes widened. She staggered a step to the side but caught herself before Alto could raise his hand to grab her. "Hurry," she said. "I need to run!"

Alto’s eyes narrowed.
"What did you say?"

"
Why are you talking so slow?" Patrina asked.

Alto looked at the potion in his hand and then at Patrina.
"The potion sped her up. Everything about her."

Garrick laughed and
looked around at them all with wide eyes. "This is great!" he said in a very fast voice.

Alto drank his potion, signaling the others to follow suit. Kar was last, grimacing as he lifted the bottle to his lips. The wizard gagged when he finished it and looked around at the others until his eyes began to shift all around erratically.

Alto felt a warmth rush through him and leave him tingling. He flexed and relaxed his hands, anxious to do something. The potion had worked, he guessed, although he wasn’t sure exactly what it was supposed to do. He looked at everyone else and saw them shifting about just like he was doing. Patrina and Garrick had slowed down though, or perhaps he had sped up? "Are we ready?"

"
Let’s go," Garrick said.

Alto nodded and turned away. He took a few experimental steps before breaking into a jog. The trees and ground seemed to rush past him as he ran. He turned once and saw the others keeping pace with him. He started
to turn back when he crashed into the trunk of a tree and bounced off it, only to land and roll across the jungle floor.

Alto rose slowly, or as slowly as his quickened body would allow. He shook his head and looked around. Patrina and Karthor looked concerned. Everyone else had smirks on their faces or they were laughing at him. Alto grinned and rubbed at his cheek where he’d bruised it against the tree.
"Guess we’d better watch where we’re going."

"
You’re okay?" Patrina asked.

Alto nodded.
"Yeah, just hurt my pride."

She relaxed and burst out laughing. Karthor chuckled as well and even Alto had to admit it was kind of funny. Patrina’s laugh stopped abruptly and she grabbed at her stomach. She groaned and looked around. Her eyes settled on Alto and she moaned again.

"What’s wrong?"

"
I’ve got to go!" she grimaced.

"
Go? Go where?"

She held out her hand and rushed past him and around a tree.

"Trina? Are you okay?" Alto started after her.

"
Alto, stay there!" she cried out.

He could see a flurry of movement as an elbow or a hand appeared around the thick tree she’d hidden behind, but beyond that
, he was all the more confused. A moment later, his confusion was blown away by a sound that echoed through the forest. Several more wet and equally rude noises followed. Alto stared at the tree with his mouth hanging open.

He’d heard noises like that coming from the jakes after a soldier spent too much time celebrating the night before, but he’d never heard them from a woman! He didn’t think girls were capable of such noises.

A groan and a curse from behind him caused him to turn in time to see Garrick moving to squat down himself. He stared, amazed, and then felt something twist in his belly. The twisting was replaced with a hot dagger poking him in the bowels. He gasped and staggered over to the tree that had felled him a few minutes ago. He reached out to it and held on while sweat broke out on his forehead.

Alto shook his head and bit his lip,
and then realized he couldn’t stop himself much longer. It took every bit of control he had. He stiffened every muscle in his body and tried to ignore the agony in his belly. His fingers flew to the clasps on his armor, prying and tearing at them to remove enough to keep him from soiling himself. He succeeded, but only by the barest of margins.

"
By the saints," Patrina groaned several minutes later.

Alto looked in her direction, terrified of what she’d heard and fearful that she might look around the tree and see all of them in the final stages of whatever sickness had overcome them.
"Stay there!" Alto warned her.

"
I can’t," she gagged. "I, uh, I’ll just move away a little bit. Tell me when you’re all okay."

"
Damn that troll!" Kar bemoaned.

"
Fastest I’ve ever almost shat myself," Garrick said with a chuckle.

Alto grimaced and risked standing up. He felt fine, aside from the nausea caused from the combined odors coming from the jungle floor. He sorted his clothing and armor out and then wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"That was miserable," he muttered.

"
That’s why he said we shouldn’t eat," Carson mused out loud. "Everything goes faster, he said."

Kar made a rude noise, this time from his mouth.
"Even our bowels."

"
Especially our bowels," Patrina offered.

Alto spun around and saw her standing beside a different tree nearly twenty feet away.
"You’re supposed to wait for us!"

She shrugged.
"My love, we’ve truly been through it all together now," she said.

Alto’s face turned red but he didn’t deny her.
"They might not have been decent."

"
Some of them have never been decent," she countered. "But that doesn’t mean I don’t love them like brothers."

Garrick grinned and started to reply. Alto cut him off,
"Where Patrina and I come from, brothers and sisters don’t love each other like that."

Carson and Karthor laughed at the large man
who was left standing with his mouth hanging open.

Alto adjusted his armor a final time and then let out a deep breath.
"Okay, let’s try this again."

Patrina took a long drink from her skin and gasped. She capped it and tied it to her belt before she smiled at him.
"Let’s go get her."

Alto felt the warmth in his chest grow hotter for Patrina. He smiled and started off at an easy jog that moved him faster than a speeding horse. Patrina fell in behind him and the others started as well.

"First the snow bears, now your own family? You northlanders are sick!" Mordrim muttered for Garrick’s benefit before he took off at a run.

Garrick gasped and then snarled at the dwarf. He ran after him
, anxious to return the insult at the first opportunity.

Thork’s potion gave them all the energy to run for hours, even the aging wizard. Alto called for a couple of stops to allow them to drink and once to refill their skins at a brisk flowing stream,
and then they ran on until they left the jungle behind with only a few hours until dusk.

"
The road’s over there," Mordrim pointed to the north on their right. "Due west is Deepstar Lake. Legend tells that the Allfather plucked a star from the sky and cast it to the ground ages past so the dwarves could learn from it. Some of the saints were jealous and wanted it hid from the dwarves; they called for rain the lasted ages until it filled the hole left behind."

Alto swallowed the final drops of water from his skin and stared up at the sky. Ominous clouds were approaching from the southwest, darkening the sky before the day was over.
"Too deep to swim down to?"