Draconis' Bane (29 page)

“That’s what Kumanius
said.” The voice accused.

“You know I hate it
when you nag.” Socolis laughed. “Besides, you know the boys plan as
well as I.”

The ground shook
under Tristan’s feet, roughly in time with four legs lumbering
towards them from the tree line not a hundred yards away. A great
silver dragon of impossible size slipped through the dense trees as
Tristan’s breath caught in his throat.

“Draconis.” His
whispered.

“That’s right boy.
You’re a little larger than I remember you. Still far too skinny
though.” His voice carried, scaring away the birds at the edge of
the woods.

The fountains he’d
seen and the description of the great silver dragon hardly did the
Dragon King justice. He easily towered above Socolis, being closer
to fifty feet in height. The backswept horns looked sturdier than
the thickest keep wall. His scales were the size of Tristan’s
entire torso. He had deep black eyes and massive wings which were
folded over what Tristan knew to be a heavily armored and scaled
belly. His powerfully muscled legs carried him forward as if he
were a playful pony instead of the enormous master of all dragons.
He smiled, or that was what Tristan took a dragon smile, and looked
at the young Prince.

“I see your mother in
you lad.” He said quietly.

Thoughts came
unbidden to the young man’s mind as the events of the last year
came crashing down on him. Draconis sighed out loud as he shared
those thoughts. The Prince thought back to the day or his attack,
his month of suffering in a nightmare spell and finally the last
few months of battling. Tristan could feel the old dragon’s pain as
he watched the trials and sacrifices the young Prince had endured
in his name.

There is much we
need to discuss it seems.
He sent.

I would welcome
that. I feel as though I’m fumbling around in the dark.
Tristan
admitted.

Draconis chuckled,
lowering his considerable size down. He laid his gigantic head next
to Socolis’ and Tristan found himself sitting down on a rotting
log.

I’m glad you’re
not bitter lad.
Draconis sent.

“Why would I be
bitter?” Tristan asked aloud.

Socolis chuckled.
“Why indeed?” He asked.

Draconis cast him a
warning glare out of the corner of his eye, to which Socolis
answered with an even wider grin and Draconis was forced to smile
as a result. Tristan was enjoying this by-play, and it reminded him
of his sister. His thoughts dwelt on Euri, wondering how she was
and what she was up to as Draconis began to unweave the puzzle that
was Tristan’s heritage.

Eurydice Vallious sat
at her window looking out over the setting sun. She missed her
brothers and her parents. She longed for her lessons to be over so
she could run away to be with at least one of them. Hanna had
explained, in irritating detail, that Euri had at least another
year or two before she was ready to begin accepting suitors.

Suitors.
The
idea alone left her feeling dirty, like coming home from a long
ride. Between that, the annoying hours learning how to use the
side-saddles that
befitted a lady
and the never ending
stream of useless etiquette pointers. Euri was quickly becoming
frustrated at the whole ordeal.

She chaffed to be
with her brothers, having adventures and drinking beer. Watered
down wine with her evening meal just wasn’t the same as the
soldiers toasting themselves and their patron God’s. The toasts
became more and more boastful and slurred with each flagon and Euri
found her jealousy at their brotherhood mounting.

The
ladies
here in Irudin were the most spiteful kind, constantly jockeying
with one another to be the most popular, no matter the cost to
their friends honor and feelings. More often than not the young
Princess found the powerful merchants daughters telling her asinine
little bits of gossip about one another annoying beyond measure.
Their vain attempts to curry her favor irritated the young lady and
drove her to madness.

Even now they
gathered at the local theater, batting their eyes at the actors and
giggling at the attention it earned them like a swarm of gnats.
Tristan had now been gone for six months. She wished he would ride
into the gates so she at least could have someone to talk to
without the constant reminders to sit up straight, stop fidgeting
or eat smaller portions with more delicacy.

Kevin and Alison had
visited last month, which had been a pleasant distraction. Euri
enjoyed her time with her brothers’ humble wife. Alison had
convinced Hanna to let her take the young lady out camping for a
couple of days. Hanna was against it, but Kevin calmly explained
that to learn how to rule wisely, Euri would need to know what it
was like to take care of herself. In the end Hanna reluctantly
agreed much to Euri’s surprise.

Early the following
morning, the two of them left on horseback. The ladies had no
purpose or destination in mind, they simply chose a direction and
rode. After riding for hours, Euri was convinced her legs would
never heal. Alison had no experience with a side saddle, so they
had ridden out on standard horn saddles. Eurydice tried to keep the
pain to herself, using the exercises her mother had taught her to
overcome the pain with her mind. However, hours later when Alison
brought her horse to a halt, Euri sighed openly in relief. Her
relief was enough to convince the pair that they should camp here
for the night.

The ladies laughed as
they dismounted and began unpacking their tent. After an hour of
laughing and muffled curses they had erected their tent and
prepared a small fire. Euri could hear a stream nearby and after
Alison confirmed it, the ladies decided that fish would make an
excellent supper. The two of them enjoyed hours of sitting near the
river bed, their makeshift poles with live earth worms dangling in
the water, laughing and enjoying company neither of them often
had.

They returned to
Irudin covered in dust, sunburned and laughing. Hanna nearly
fainted at the sight of them, which only caused Kevin’s laughter to
re-double. While there was nothing about Alison that Eurydice found
masculine, her sister-in-law had a love for the outdoors and the
freedom to enjoy them that the young lady couldn’t help but be
jealous of. That night Kevin, Alison and Euri enjoyed a last meal
together. The following morning Alison and Euri shared a tearful
farewell.

This was also, no
doubt, part of Euri’s dark mood tonight.

There was also the
nagging sensation that wherever Tristan was, he was in grave peril.
A month after he left, Eurydice experienced a sharp pain where her
left shoulder met her chest. It throbbed like mad for hours, but
when the matron had examined it she couldn’t find anything wrong
the young woman.

Tonight Euri had been
laughing at a prank Gerald had played on the horse master when an
intense depression had set down on her. She couldn’t quite explain
the feeling; it was as though her heart was breaking.

Afterwards, Euri
locked herself away in her room and had taken to brooding for
hours. She tried to contact her mother telepathically and failed;
she then tried her brother and failed again. Eurydice felt hopeless
and she couldn’t bring herself to understand why she should feel
so. She walked away from her window and lay down in her bed. As
sleep began to take her, a name flared inside her mind;
Mina.

~

“I’m sorry you’re
what?” Tristan blurted, shocked at what he’d just heard.

“Your grandfather,
boy.” Draconis admitted again.

“Impossible.” He
muttered.

“Impossible is it?
You know what your sister told you as well and I do lad.” He
insisted.

“Look. I’ll accept
most of this, the dragons, armies of impossible monsters…hell, I’ll
even accept fathering a bastard child. At least most of that is
within the realm of the absurdly possible.” Tristan explained,
clearly still clinging to the nightmare that damaged his mind,
completely obscuring his memories like a scroll damaged by
rain.

“But this half-dragon
story, I mean you people don’t expect me to believe everything you
feed me do you?” He accused.

“Defend yourself then
boy. I’ll give you the proof you need.” Draconis ordered.

The immense dragon
pulled himself up to his impressive height as Tristan rolled
backwards off the log drawing his sword and dagger.

Draconis’ mouth
opened as he leaned forward and Tristan felt the air from the area
being driven away by intense heat. It robbed his lungs of fresh
oxygen and he felt slow beneath the heat gathering around him.
Reflectively he raised his sword and dagger, crossing them
pathetically in front of his torso. He tried to focus all of his
will, as he’d done before, to protect himself.

An enormous ball of
fire, not unlike those that burnt down the
Bane’s
fort in
Guis, erupted from Draconis’ mouth. It hissed and sizzled as it
hurtled the hundred or so feet between them. Tristan’s will was
bent on blocking the fireball. Unlike the pathetic sorcerer’s
spell, this fire had a life all its own; it surrounded the young
Prince.

Sweat poured down his
brow; the heat was so intense it was wilting and burning the grass
in a circle around him. He opened his eyes, seeing a feint blue
glow in a perfect sphere around him. The grass inside was still
lush and green. The fireball burnt itself out around him and the
blades dropped from his limp fingers.

Tristan looked up at
the two dragons in total and complete shock. So much of what had
occurred over the last year could be explained away, a flight of
fancy, a beautiful and terrible daydream to escape the pain.
Instead, when he’d focused his will to protect himself, the last of
his memories released themselves in a torrent of anguish and pain.
The reality of his life and the fiction of his nightmare laid over
one another as if they both had happened at once.

He dropped to his
knees and grabbed his head as his memories came crashing down on
him. Fights with his father, with his brother, his tutors, behaving
like a spoiled little trollop, all of these and more came crushing
down on the young man.

So you finally
remember?
Draconis asked him telepathically.

Yes.
Tristan
choked.

Have you learnt
from your mistakes yet?
He insisted.

How could I
not?
Tristan replied looking up at his grandfather as tears ran
down his soot covered face.

“No enemy of flesh
and blood could ever match the sheer intensity of the enemy you’ve
faced tonight.” Draconis explained as Tristan looked up
questioningly.

“Yourself.” He
concluded with a wry grin.

~

A hooded figure sat
crouched over a small black crystal sat in an ornate four pronged
base. Above it a large black dragon spoke; “Born into this world
will be a son of a mighty King and Queen descended from dragon
bloodlines. He will shake the foundations of man and bring forth an
era when man and dragon will live together for the benefit of
all.”

“What word?” The
Consul demanded impatiently as a servant interrupted her
musing.

“The Spy Master
reports they have entered into their second week of the siege at
Heatherington, M’lady.” The servant reported.

“How goes the
battle?” She asked casually as she flipped the pages of the large
tome.

“Not well M’lady. The
dragons have taken a hand.” He answered.

She looked up,
clearly furious. “I thought Amanda had taken care of them all!” She
shouted.

“Blandis’ agents
report that a white dragon laid waste to two towers and a dozen or
more ladders full of Terum soldiers and their allies.” The servant
answered with growing fear.

“Fetch Master Slayer
Eberts.” She barked at another servant in the room, who quickly ran
from the room to fulfill her masters bidding. Turning back to the
servant reporting she narrowed her eyes.

“Tell me everything.”
She hissed.

~

Euri shot up in bed,
a cold sweat gripped her young racing heart as she looked around
the room wildly. Lately she’d been having visions of a strange dark
chamber, a woman who exuded power and her fearful servants. The
images had been disturbing enough, but to bear witness to her
cruelty was the real punishment. If her mother were here she would
easily have confided in her, but this was not the case.

She got out of bed,
filling up a glass with water from a pitcher on her night table and
she walked over to the window. Feeling the refreshing cool breeze
helped to clear her troubled mind. She employed the breathing
exercises her mother had taught her to calm her mind as she looked
out into the calm Irudin night.

Weeks ago she had a
similar dream, someone had died painfully and that had woken her
up. Tonight the feeling was different, there was pent up rage
again, but this time it was more frustrated with apparent lack of
progress. The sun began to rise in the east as her heart rate began
to even out. She slipped into a comfortable dress and headed
straight for the dining hall.

Gerald and Hanna were
already seated at the table enjoying their breakfast as Euri came
rushing in. She barely sat down when she blurted; “Any news from
Tristan?”

Gerald swallowed his
mouthful, smiling at her candor. “None since they arrived in Delhi
little one.” He replied.

“They arrived in
Delhi?” She asked, annoyed that she wasn’t being included as part
of the communications.

“Aye lass.” He said.
“Minor trouble, but your brother is safe and well.”