Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga) (2 page)

“The King’s Ranger caravan!”
Rikky called out over the rushing wind. When Jenka’s eyes found him, Rikky was pointing ahead to the not-so-distant brown smudge hovering over the ground that marked Mainsted. Another cloud could be seen in the near distance. A sizable train of a dozen wagons and a score of horses was moving north across the dusty road.

Rikky slapped at the stump of his missing leg, indicating that it would slow him down once he was on the ground, then he urged Silva to speed ahead. Silva was fast. Soon all Jenka could see was a crow-sized speck in the sky.

Jenka tried to clear his mind of Zah and her leaving, but couldn’t manage it. For a long time he envisioned the two of them making a home in the foothills, far away from all the madness of the kingdom. Then he thought of Prince Richard lying cocooned in the stasis that was keeping him from death. He let out a sigh of frustrated resignation. Prince Richard had saved Mainsted, and Jenka had long sworn to save the prince in return. As Jade brought them down over the city, Jenka found that he wanted to go on the quest with Zahrellion and Rikky, now more than ever.
 

Chapter 2

“I don’t give a pixie’s pecker-head,” growled Herald. Normally disheveled, and covered in road grime, the old King’s Ranger had just come from the bath house and looked as spiffy as Jenka had ever seen him. “You’re going north to help what’s left of the King’s Rangers reestablish Crag and the keep. That girl can handle her own.
 
And she’ll have Rikky to help her.”

It was clear to Jenka that Herald wasn’t willing to listen. It was a futile argument anyway. The two of them were the only ones on time for the gathering and they were standing before the lightly glowing cocoon of magic that contained Prince Richard.

The Crown Prince lay peacefully, as if asleep, inside the currently green-colored magical field. He was afflicted with the Goblin King’s poison, a terrible stuff that had maddened and then slowly corroded from the inside out anyone who’d breathed it. If the stasis failed before an antidote was concocted, he would surely die. Jenka knew Herald was right about what had to be done, but that didn’t relieve the urge Jenka was feeling to just ignore common sense and keep his word by saving his fellow Dragoneer.

The Dragoneers’ Lair, as the hall was now called, was an intensely morbid place. Queen Alvazina was often found there arguing with her husband or weeping over her son’s body. Like Mysterian, she was a witch of the Hazeltine, and she fully understood the magnitude of the situation. She knew Richard’s life hung in the balance, and that there was no certainty about the antidotal potion Mysterian hoped to brew. Her sorrow seemed to sap the hope out of some of the others, thus the hall was sometimes the quietest place in Mainsted.

Unlike everyone else, Jenka found inspiration in the Dragoneers’ Lair. The hum of the magical field that was sustaining his peer was the same sort of power that filled him when he concentrated on his dragon tear or held his sword. To Jenka, the mere presence of Dour was hope incarnate. Without it, Richard would be dead. So would most of the people in the city. When the lair was empty, Jenka often meditated in the hall, working the calling spell Zahrellion had taught him, and practicing the Dourcraft he was learning from both Linux and Mysterian. Rikky didn’t seem to find the place objectionable, and sometimes joined him. Rikky read texts about anatomy there, but spent most of his time studying with the healers when the dragons were resting.

Herald was wearing his official King’s Ranger uniform, a new one to replace the filthy set with the hole in the rear. This outfit was too big for him. Jenka was wearing the armor vest emblazoned with the Dragoneer emblem that had been gifted to all of them by the Crown, and his favorite calfskin britches. Standing there, trying to remain calm, he was a confused well of conflicting emotion. The only thought that lessened his frustration was what Mysterian put into his head when she greeted him at the landing in the dragon bailey earlier.

“What if Zahrellion and Rikky fail?” the old gray-haired Hazeltine witch asked with a clever gleam in her eyes. “You swore to see it through, De Swasso. If they fetch my caps, then your word will stay true. Besides that, there are concerns beyond Prince Richard, as you know. The Confliction is drawing nearer. All of the Hazeltine can sense it. It’s like a pesky insect buzzing around inside my skull.

“Never mind that now, though. If Rikky and Zahrellion fail in their quest, then you and Jade will have to make an attempt. By staying behind, you are strengthening the commitment of your promise.”

Jenka decided that maybe she’d spelled him, because her words almost made sense. She and Herald were of a mind
—
and a bed
—
as of late, and with Mysterian’s hold over King Blanchard and Linux, Jenka didn’t stand a chance of changing any of their minds.

The King’s Rangers needed Jade’s might, that was certain, and Lemmy was still up there in the foothills looking over the survivors at Kingsmen’s Keep. Jenka wanted to see what was left of his home and visit his mother’s grave, if she even had one yet. It was true that Zahrellion could handle herself, and if she and Rikky got into a fix, Silva could fly back as fast as lightning to get help.

Jenka shook his head. “So be it, Herald, but I’m not leaving to catch the caravan on the morrow. I’m staying here until Rikky and Zah set out. I can meet the rangers before they get to Demon’s Lake.”

“You were set upon by orcs just outside the wall today, lad.
 
Are you mad?” The old ranger had lost a melon-sized chunk of his arse to a goblin’s maw. Apparently the wound itched all the time, for he scratched at it constantly.

Over the weeks that had passed since the battle over Mainsted, he’d lost a lot of weight. He looked to have aged a handful of years in that span, too. His growl told Jenka that he was wrong.

“You’ll be leaving on the morrow, boy. You can hurry the bastards from Midwal to Three Forks where they’ll be safe for a few days. If you don’t dink around you might make it back in time to see yer fellow Dragoneers off, but after that you’ll be escorting us all the way to Kingsmen’s Keep.”

“You said
us
.” Jenka felt a spark of hope. Traveling with Herald was seldom dull. “You’re going too?”

“If I can shake that witch I am,” he had to whisper the last few words because ‘that witch’ and the other two Dragoneers were quickly approaching.

Rikky’s chair made a rhythmic creaking as he rolled himself across the tiled floor. The sound filled the sudden silence.

Even before she was in the light thrown by the ensconced torches on the blocked stone walls, Jenka could see Zah’s lavender eyes. Her stark white hair hung in neat, wetly combed strands, the ends splaying over the shoulders of her emblazoned armor vest. The silver triangle tattooed on her forehead glowed amber with the reflection of the torch flames. The thin lines across the bridge of her nose and the square and circle designs on her cheeks were barely visible.

Jenka was so taken with her exotic beauty that he just stood there and looked at her until Mysterian whacked him on the shin with her cane. “I see you’ve not been pondering my reasoning,” the old gray-haired witch cackled sarcastically. Then to Herald, she said, “I’d bet the makings of my most sought-after curse that King Blanchard tries to get me to undo him and Linux this night.” She cackled again. “Sooner or later I’ll do it, but it won’t be today.”

Just then a side door opened and Linux, in King Blanchard’s bulky body, stepped into the lair. “It needs to be soon, witch,” Linux said in the king’s voice. “The way his Highness abuses my core, it won’t be fit to inhabit before long.”

“You should have thought about that before you soul-stepped him, then,” she retorted.

Linux stopped and took a deep, calming breath before nodding a greeting to the others.

Jenka shivered, thinking what it must be like to be trapped in another man’s body. It was even stranger being around King Blanchard. He was still the boisterous, often drunk, monarch of the realm. But more than just being trapped in the druid’s body, it was clear he hated having to act the part of the druid in public. No one but the Dragoneers, and a handful of others, knew about the switch.

As if he’d been reading Jenka’s thoughts, King Blanchard came bursting in through the main entry. “I don’t care what you do with the man, dear. Just get it done.” He was talking to Queen Alvazina as a husband speaks to his wife, but it was Linux’s body having the conversation.

Jenka had to shake his head.

“Watch it,” the queen scowled at her husband. He scowled back at her,
then
motioned for Herald to take a seat at the long, oak table board. The queen paused in front of her son’s impotent form and sniffled a few times. But then, with a huff, she gathered herself and joined the table.

Jenka grinned knowingly when Zah eased past him. She smiled a smile that only he could see and he was lifted by it. Rikky looked up and rolled his eyes. King Blanchard spoke to Linux and Mysterian for a moment. A short, snapping argument of hissed whispers ensued, after which both men skulked to the table with their heads hung low. Herald chuckled. Jenka could have told them that Mysterian wasn’t going to listen. She and the Outland wizard, Vax Noffa, were the only two people alive that could undo their predicament. She wasn’t ready to do so yet, and it was said that finding a coin at the bottom of the sea was easier than finding Vax Noffa.

Zah smiled at Jenka brightly. She was patting the cushion, indicating that she wanted him to sit there beside her, instead of across the table where he normally sat. He took the place, and under the table squeezed her hand. She squeezed his back, but the sharpness of the gesture worried him. He didn’t have time to question his concern because Linux was already tapping a long pointer on the map that had been unfurled before them. In the king’s voice, but with a precise articulation that didn’t belong to the huge body, the druid commanded the room’s attention.

“You’ll see that the destination island has been added to this map, here.” Linux tapped a thumb-sized horseshoe-shaped blot of ink that was darker than the markings on the rest of the map. It was a long way east from Fisherman’s Isle, which was a longer way south from Gull’s Reach. “It has been written, by early explorers and ship captains, that the serpent who claims the bay of this atoll is a stupid creature. The last herb-gathering expedition succeeded by landing on the outer shore and then hiking overland to the island’s interior. Then, on the cusp of morning, they combed the beaches and gathered the precious mushrooms we seek.”

“Why don’t we just buy some from them?” Rikky asked.

“That was sixty years ago, boy!” the king bellowed with Linux’s not-so-heavy voice. “Listen.”

Jenka couldn’t tell if Rikky’s expression was a smirk or a cringe. Zahrellion gave the boy a look that showed her distaste over his interruption. Rikky rolled his eyes and shrugged.

“Them folks were lucky,” said Mysterian. “The witches say that the coral wyrm feeds at night,
then
it slithers across the beach polishing its scales on the sand.” Herald nudged her with an elbow and made a face, but then shrugged at the others. “It leaves its scat just above the tide line,” she continued. “That’s where the mushrooms grow.”

“You need mushrooms that grow in serpent refuse to save my son?” King Blanchard asked incredulously.

“Moonlit,” his wife corrected. “Only the mushrooms that form under a full moon will be potent enough to pull the poison out of our Richard.”

“So what we need only grows in moonlit serpent shit?” Rikky asked with a chuckle.

Zahrellion let go of Jenka’s hand and grabbed Rikky by the ear. Jenka hadn’t known about the coral serpent. He would have worried about it more if he weren’t enjoying seeing Rikky squirm under Zah’s sharp twist. He decided it wasn’t a concern or more would have been said about it. He’d seen Zahrellion nearly blast a huge fire wyrm out of the sky with her druidic magic. He had no doubt she could handle a stupid, overgrown sea snake. Still, the added danger gave him more to think about than his emotions.

“If you have to stay any length of time on the island,” Linux went on. “You should stay on the ocean side of the land. That coral beast destroyed an unprepared exploratory ship back when the Expansion first began. You might be able to see its remains out in the bay.”