Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga) (13 page)

Zahrellion saw the dust trailing behind a small band of swiftly trotting horses that were just on the frontier side of the Midwal Gate. Already she could hear Mysterian calling to her through the ethereal. She found that she was glad she didn’t have to go all the way back to Mainsted. After blasting the Crown Prince, she doubted she would be welcome there. She wondered about the queen. The idea of her own son trying to kill her husband would be hard for the good-hearted mother to bear. The woman had prayed for her son’s recovery every day for weeks and weeks. Zahrellion couldn’t imagine the confusion and anguish she must be feeling.

Come on, lass,
Mysterian’s persistence wore through.
Let me ride behind you. The back of a horse is no place for an old witch.

Warn the others then,
Zah returned.
Crystal and I will be in the clearing that is just ahead of you. I want to speak to Herald, too. King Blanchard wouldn’t be taken to the keep. He made Marcherion and Rikky take him to the Temple of Dou instead.

Richard’s gone mad.
Mysterian almost allowed her mental voice to sob.
He has men, not far behind us, that are loyal to his claim. Gravelbone’s taint has infected him, and now the kingdom
is
crumbling from under us. Before we snuck away, he asked me if I could summon the Nightshade to him.
The Nightshade.
Can you imagine?

The kingdom’s isn’t our firssst concerns,
Crystal hissed into their minds
. The Time of Conflictions draws near. I feels it sscalling even now.

Carry me with you then,
Mysterian reluctantly conceded the kingdom’s lack of importance in the grander scheme of things.
Herald will just have to go it with the others.

Zahrellion knew she would regret it, but it was too late.
Crystal can carry both of you to the keep, or even to the temple, but we dare not linger here. We have places to be. Tell the others riding with you that we will keep the pursuit busy for them, once we’re off.

A short while later Crystal was carrying Zahrellion, Mysterian, and Herald. They were confusing the men on the wall over the Midwal Gate. First the Walguard cheered the white dragon in the sky. They went silent when the big wyrm landed outside the portal. Crystal blasted the closed barrier with her frozen spew and, before the men realized what was happening, the dragon was winging northward. The men chasing the group fleeing Mainsted were trapped, for a few long hours anyway, until the sun warmed enough to thaw the hinges.

***

“To the keep, woman.”
Herald was frustrated to the edge of his ability to contain himself. He and Mysterian had been arguing for most of the day. Herald wanted the rangers to know that King Blanchard was alive, that Richard wasn’t their superior. They had to know.

“We’re going to the Temple of Dou, Ranger,” Mysterian was unyielding.

“To that fargin keep I’ll be going, witch.” Herald’s corded veins threatened to burst out of his neck. “This Dragoneer wouldn’t carry me against my will.” Herald was about to pull his hair out.

“Herald, I will let you off near Kingsmen’s Keep, but I’m going on to the Temple,” Zahrellion informed them both, again. “That’s where the king went.”
Quit riling him, Mysterian. His heart is about to explode as it is.

Just passing the time, dear.

Herald, of course, couldn’t hear them. By some instinct born of spending hours upon hours alone with nature, he knew that they were talking about him. To confirm it, Zahrellion chuckled under her breath at something.

Herald was miserable on the dragon’s back. Crystal’s body was frigid and made the wound on his arse ache as it had done when it was fresh. Everything he knew and loved had been crumpled into a wad like so much unwanted parchment. King Blanchard was trapped forever in Linux’s body, his son a cold-blooded king-slayer. Herald couldn’t conceive a way for the king to rule in such a condition. What he could see was Prince Richard taking control of the throne and wreaking havoc across the kingdom. With the mysterious Confliction drawing near, the kingdom needed to be solid and stable, Herald told himself, not in utter disarray. Getting word to the rangers, telling them the truth, and supporting Kind Blanchard, no matter what body he occupied, was the only way he saw to straighten it out.

If the rangers started taking orders from Prince Richard, then they could become a threat. The idea of that hurt Herald to the core. He was determined to make sure the King’s Rangers served the true king. If that meant marching them north to the Temple of Dou, he would do it. He entertained hopes that Zahrellion would save him the trouble by bringing King Blanchard to the keep. Her dragon seemed determined to get them somewhere else, though, so his hope was slim.

“Look, there below the clouds,” Zahrellion said excitedly.

Herald shielded the sun from his eyes and searched where she was pointing. It took him a moment, but the two specks he saw grew swiftly into dragons. His heart rate quickened until he saw that one of them was Silva; the other was Marcherion’s large red wyrm. The Dragoneers were mounted, and seeing them reminded Herald that the kingdom wasn’t totally defenseless. As long as the Dragoneers were about, there was room for more than a little hope.

***

They landed near Demon Lake to let the dragons feed and rest, and Herald gladly climbed off of Crystal. When they started mounting to leave, Marcherion offered him a place on Blaze. A glance at Mysterian’s smug glare steeled his decision. The warmth of the fire dragon’s scales seeped into his aching arse and melted the pain away. Mysterian had been driving him mad with her superior cackling over who knew best. It turned out that King Blanchard wanted him at the Temple after all. Kingsmen’s Keep would just have to wait. He was happy that he wasn’t stuck sitting behind her while she gloated. At least he was comfortable.

He had that thought just a moment before a hammering gust of wind nearly slammed them out of the sky. Crystal fought it, while Blaze’s bulk allowed him to remain stable, but Rikky and Silva went diving out of sight into the storm-darkened valley below.

We have to land,
Zahrellion called to Marcherion. He didn’t hear her. Crystal spoke to Blaze, though, and the two larger dragons fought the gusting rain on their way down to the lee side of a ridge. Even after they landed out of the wind, all of them save for Crystal
were
shivering from the sleet.

“Where is Rikky?” Marcherion asked worriedly.

“He went down back there,” Zahrellion pointed.

“I’ll circle back and look,” March started, but Zah stopped him with a gesture.

I’m all right, Zah,
Rikky voiced with his mind.
I found a dry cave just a short way below where you two landed.

What you waiting for, lass?
Mysterian snapped.
Get us out of this rain before we catch the snuffle.

“Follow us,” Zahrellion told Marcherion and Herald. “Rikky found a dry cavern.”

“I’m not going off into any cavern,” March said flatly.

“Are ye daft, man?” Herald asked from his place behind March. “This fargin rain’s bitter.”

“I’m not going far into it, I assure you,” March told Herald as he urged Blaze to follow the white dragon. “The last time I ventured into a cave my whole world was ripped apart.”

Herald gave a grunt of understanding and stewed silently as they lifted back up into the wind.

That night the three Dragoneers and their dragons felt the force that was drawing them together. It was an insistent and steady song, and when the rain storm finally passed them over they knew that their stop at the Temple of Dou to set off Mysterian and Herald would be a short one. What they were heading for was deeper in the mountains, and they were full of nothing but an undeniable desire to get there.

Chapter 16

Jenka blinked open his eyes and looked around. He was lying on a tiled floor inside a chamber formed of plain stone work. Hanging on one wall between two ensconced oil lamps was a tapestry depicting a turquoise dragon flying over snow-capped mountains. The scene was so well portrayed that it held his attention for a heartbeat or two. There was a bed and a table in the corner, and an empty iron fire stove as well. He was alone.

He reached out for Jade through the link they shared and found his bond mate resting peacefully. He sat up and realized that he was hearing a familiar voice singing across the ethereal. The song was urgent, yet slow and melodic. He’d heard her singing before, when he and Jade had gone deep into the Orichs to retrieve the dragon tear from Jade’s mother’s corpse. The voice had almost lulled them into compliance then. It was trying to now.

Suddenly alarm shot through him like a whip crack. What if Jade wasn’t sleeping contently?
And what about Lemmy?

Lemmy,
He called into the ethereal.
Lemmy, can you hear me?

Hear you? I’m too far away to hear you,
Lemmy chuckled.
Perceive your voice in my mind? Yes, I can do that. How’s your head?

Jenka didn’t answer, but rubbed at his knotted skull. He was relieved that Lemmy seemed calm. His cheek was swollen and his eye probably blackened. It hurt like hell, but the slit in his skin was already healing over.
What happened?
he
finally asked.

We startled Aikira,
he chuckled.
She’s another Dragoneer.

Aikira,
Jenka repeated stupidly. He remembered seeing the ebon-skinned girl in the golden skullcap. “Don’t startle Aikira,” he mumbled a reminder to himself.

She said she’s been waiting here for months,
Lemmy told him.
She’s from the Outland settlements. Her dragon has honey-yellow scales and is called Golden. I met the wyrm face to face and nearly filled my britches for it.

Jenka couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Where are they?

Can’t you hear her?
Lemmy entered the room through a heavy wooden door, bearing a tray of cheese and hard bread.
She’s at the top of the spire singing a summoning to the other Dragoneers.

Are they coming?

I suppose they are. There’s more, though. She’s seen the star ship and says that the only thing keeping the Sarax from pouring forth and devouring us is the will of Vax Noffa. She says he is exhausting himself and will soon be beyond recuperation.

She says a lot.
Jenka groaned as he rose to his feet. He saw that the room opened into another that had a large open window. The tip of a bright green dragon’s tail was dangling over the sill. He looked around and judged the size of the room. Jade was lazing on the roof, he realized. He looked up, fearing the idea of having his dragon’s weight above his head. He was relieved when he saw the size of the timber beams that supported what was above him
.
There was a central pillar of stacked stone disks shouldering the load of the center span, too. Once he was convinced he wasn’t going to be crushed, he took a big piece of cheese from Lemmy and munched it down.
 
I wonder
,
who will the fifth Dragoneer be?
He pondered while he ate.
I wonder if Zahrellion and Rikky made it back from their quest, and if Mysterian used the mushrooms to remedy Prince Richard.

You wonder a lot,
Lemmy joked.
But I, too, worry about Rikky and Zahrellion.