EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (203 page)

When they reached a third city, a young man showed a sudden and dedicated interest in her, even taking her to a tavern for a meal. Halfax was hopeful that she had finally found a caregiver . . . until she came running back to him in tears at nightfall, the bag of gold taken. By the time she awoke in the morning, the bag was by her side again.

“How did you get the gold back?” she asked as she finished a meal.

“Never mind,” Halfax grumbled. “This way. There is another village to the--”

“No!” she objected. “No, no, no, no!”

Halfax simply marched on.

“I’m not going any farther. No one is going to take a little girl by herself. We could go to any village you want. Maybe one of them will put me in an orphanage. And I
don’t
wanna go in an orphanage.”

“You are an orphan. You belong in an orphanage.”

“I. Don’t. Wanna,” she said firmly.

“They will be able to care for you.”

“And you can’t? I’m not hungry and I’m not thirsty. That’s better than my last home.”

“You cannot live in a field or a cave.”

“Why not?”

“Because you are a little girl.”

“Then buy a house. You have gold. Plenty of it.”

“I cannot live in a house, and I cannot be your caretaker.”

“Why not?”

“Because I am a dragon.”

“So what? Who made these rules? An’ who says we need to follow them? Why do we have to do things just because you are what you are and I am what I am? You’re a big scary dragon! You don’t need to follow rules! And you’ve taken care of me better than anyone but my parents. You are my friend, Hal! I know you and I trust you. Why would you want me to be with strangers?”

“Because they--”

“No! I don’t care! I’m going with you. You just pick a place and that’s where we live. And if you try to leave me somewhere, I’ll run away and find you, because I wanna stay with you and that’s that,” she declared, stomping her foot and crossing her arms.

Halfax clenched his claws deep into the ground, narrowed his eyes, and glared at the little girl. She returned his gaze without a flinch. The stare-down continued for some time before, finally, Halfax released a hissing sigh.

“There is a tower I passed on the way here. It looked like it had been empty for some time. We may be able to go there.”

“Really!?” she squealed in delight.

“It will be a long journey.”

“Don’t care.”

“You will be alone there.”

“I’ll have you.”

“It is far to the north, very cold.”

“North is this way, right?” she asked, hurrying off.

With a second, more defeated sigh, Halfax lumbered off behind her.

“It is my purpose to see that you are safe. This journey is dangerous. I need to know that you can make it by yourself. If something happens to me, I need to know that you can find your own way to someplace safe. So if you ever need me to carry you, even for a moment, I will carry you to the nearest city and you will not leave until you find someone. Do you understand?”

“I don’t need your help. Let’s go!”

Chapter IV

A
ND
SO
THE
PAIR
BEGAN
their journey. Jade was unfailingly cheerful and upbeat now that Halfax was no longer sending her away. When a town was near, they traveled at night. When far from society, they almost never stopped moving, pausing just once each day to hunt down and prepare a meal and sleep.

For the dragon, the journey was horribly slow. For Jade, it was brisk and tiring, but not once did she complain. She merely walked, a smile on her face, and happily provided a nearly unbroken flow of words, most of which washed over Halfax without acknowledgment or reply. Nights were spent in the shelter of thick trees.

After three days, dark clouds began to form and the drought came to a sudden end. The skies opened, dumping sheets of rain onto the thirsty ground.

At first, Jade was overjoyed, frolicking in the downpour. The novelty quickly wore thin, however, and had she not been in the company of the dragon, the night would have been a difficult one. But the wet wood was hardly a problem when the dragon could use his fiery breath to start the camp fire, and a single raised wing was as good as a tent to keep the rain from her head. When the rain let up, they continued on, but the heavy clouds made the night black as pitch. The little girl lit her lantern, but it was not long before its reservoir ran low. Jade tapped nervously at the lamp as the flame flickered out on the dry wick.

“We . . . uh . . . we need to stop in the next town,” Jade said shakily.

“We are heading into the mountains. No more towns.”

“Then we need to go back. We need oil for the lamp.”

“There is a moon, there are stars. Plenty of light.”

“They’re behind clouds!”

“Plenty of light,” he repeated firmly.

“Not for me. I can barely see anything.”

“You don’t need to see anything. I will lead the way. Just stay close.”

“But what if there are things out there? Monsters!”

“I am a bigger monster than anything the darkness might hide.”

Jade paused at an imagined sound in the bushes, then scurried to catch up to Halfax. She grabbed the tip of his tail and gripped it anxiously. He tensed at her touch and stopped walking.

“What are you doing?” he asked without looking.

“I’m holding your tail,” she said, squeezing it tighter as something scampered across the ground nearby.

“Why?”

“‘Cause I don’t want to lose you in the dark . . . An’ it makes me feel better.”

“Very well,” he said finally.

For the rest of that night’s travel, Jade continued to hold the dragon’s tail as one might hold the hand of a big brother. Halfax had to walk in an awkward, deliberate gait to keep from waving his tail about and tugging it from her grip, but the little girl didn’t seem to notice. She merely continued on, gratefully clutching the tail and keeping her eye on the darkness.

Within another day, the two had made it well into the mountains. The travel had been slow before, but now it was getting slower by the hour. Even on level ground, it took ten of the girl’s strides to match one of the dragon’s. Now that the mountainside was getting steeper, the beast was often left waiting for minutes while Jade struggled to pull herself up the rocky slope. When she reached the first level patch in what seemed like ages, the girl sat on the ground and fought to catch her breath.

“I just . . . I need to . . . I can’t . . . catch my breath,” she wheezed.

The dragon watched her as she slowly recovered. When her breathing was almost normal, she struggled to her feet, ready to move on. The young girl raised her eyes to find Halfax crouching and leaning his shoulder low.

“What are you--”

“Get on my back,” he ordered.

“No!” she objected, trying to shove him angrily. She only succeeded in pushing herself back. “I told you I can do it by myself!”

“I am not going to take you back to a town.”

“You said you would . . .”

“I am saying different now.”

“You promise? You promise not to take me back?”

“Yes.”

“Say it. Say ‘I promise to take care of you forever.’”

Halfax stood and turned, placing his face inches from her own.

“I promise to take care of you . . . forever,” he said.

Jade stepped forward and wrapped the dragon’s neck in a tight hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

The dragon shuddered uneasily at the gesture of affection.

“Yes . . . you are . . . we should hurry. We’ve wasted enough time,” he stuttered when the embrace lingered.

Climbing atop the beast proved awkward. It took a boost from Halfax’s tail before she finally managed to take a seat at the base of his neck. As smoothly as he could, the dragon rose. Jade’s frantic grip on his neck suggested it hadn’t been quite smooth enough.

“Easy. Go slow,” she urged.

Even at the barely walking pace that Halfax maintained at Jade’s behest, the journey became a much swifter one. Icy patches were no match for the dragon’s claws, and steep slopes meant little. Before long, the initial jolt of fear had worn off and Jade began to enjoy herself.

“You can go a little faster, if you want,” she said.

His pace quickened to a trot. The gray mountainside slipping effortlessly below them, the steady rhythm of the trot, the breeze in her hair, they all combined into something Jade hadn’t expected. It was . . . fun.

“Faster,” she said tentatively.

Halfax quickened his pace to a slow run. The landscape was rushing by now. Gullies that Jade would have had to find a way around passed below them with one powerful leap. She had never traveled this fast in her life. Her little hands held tight to the scales of his back in fear of being thrown free. It was terrifying. At the same time, though, it was thrilling. She was charging across the mountaintops on the back of a wild dragon!

“Faster, faster, faster!” she squealed.

Soon the beast was sprinting. Great, bounding strides covered in seconds what had previously taken minutes. Jade gasped with exhilaration, and by the time Halfax slowed, half of a mountain was behind them and her heart was racing as fast as his.

By the end of the following day, they had reached their goal. Jade’s eyes widened as their destination revealed itself. It was certainly a breathtaking sight. The building--and, indeed, the whole of the clearing that it occupied--seemed to be experiencing entirely the wrong season. In the center of an icy gray forest, there was a bed of emerald green grass and a tree that bore juicy ripe apples. Along one edge, a stream flowed out from under a shell of ice, threaded a curving path through the clearing, and slipped back into the snow.

Though the setting was astounding, to the average adult the building itself wouldn’t seem like anything special. It was little more than a humble wood cottage wrapped around the base of a precarious stone tower perhaps three stories tall. A large wooden shack extended from one side to form what had been formerly used as a stable, and the front door was splintered and broken. Nothing remarkable.

Jade, though, had grown up in a small farming village. She’d only seen a building half as tall a handful of times, so even the dilapidated stone spire was an object of wonder for her. Neither the spring clearing nor the stone tower was the first thing on her mind, however. No, to her the most important thing was . . .

“A wizard really lived here?” she piped, scrambling from the dragon’s back and running up to it.

“Several, over the centuries.”

“Who defeated them?” she asked.

“Defeated them?”

“Yeah! It must have been a great hero. Maybe Desmeres!”

She spoke of Desmeres Lumineblade, by far the most popular and enduring folk hero of the north. His story was one of two histories of a very turbulent time, and had become the generally accepted one. This was largely due to the fact that literacy and academics had fallen out of favor, and his was considerably shorter and easier to remember. The fact that it seldom bore any more than a passing resemblance to the truth was largely beside the point.

“Why would Desmeres have had to defeat them?” Halfax asked, surveying the structure for any dangers.

“Because he was a hero, and that’s what heroes do! They kill wizards and dr--and other things,” she said. “Look, an apple tree!”

Jade threw down her bags and scurried to the edge of the clearing where the tree stood, its branches heavy with fruit. After a few failed attempts at climbing, Jade looked imploringly to Halfax. He butted the lowest branch and down tumbled a handful of the apples. She eagerly scooped them up and bit juicily into one.

“It’s a Myranda,” she said sloppily. “My dad used to grow these.”

She turned to toss the dragon one, but Halfax was busy investigating the tower.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Wizards protect their towers.”

“With magic?”

“Yes.”

“Can you find it just by searching?”

“You cannot find it without searching.”

After scrutinizing every inch of the structure he could reach, all while the little girl noisily worked her way through two more apples, Halfax could find no sign of danger. He turned to Jade, but his mouth hadn’t yet opened to give permission by the time she had dashed inside.

“Be careful!” Halfax urged.

“There’s all sorts of stuff in here. Tables, chairs! Oh, look, a big fireplace. Everything is dusty though.” She coughed.

Her voice and footsteps darted this way and that inside of her new home as she excitedly cataloged the contents. Soon she was spiraling up the stairs, peering out through missing bricks, until she reached the single room at the top.

“There is a great big bed up here! Here, shake this out!” she called, hurling a set of bedding out the window.

The dust-covered blankets managed to land squarely on the dragon’s face. By the time he shook them free, Jade was outside again. She snatched up the bag of gold and hurried to the doors of the tiny stable.

“Come on!” she piped, tugging them open.

Halfax plodded over and peered inside.

“Look! You can sleep here! It is big enough, and there is a door right there that leads into the house and everything. I’ll get it set up for you!” Jade trilled.