Patterns in the Dark (Dragon Blood Book 4) (13 page)

From the way Tolemek scratched his head, Cas assumed this wasn’t a common thing, but her own unscientific mind couldn’t help but think of the way he had described his sister as being mentally unstable. He might have believed it had something to do with the dragon blood in her veins and the magic she had never been properly instructed to use, but what if it was something more than that? Something related to all of this? She shook her head. It was probably an illogical stretch. The sister was from Cofahre, not this remote jungle, and had presumably spent years in that asylum without giving anyone else the disease—or whatever it was—that she held within her.

“I wouldn’t guess that we’re in any danger,” Tolemek said, “but I wouldn’t necessarily want to share a handkerchief with those boys in loincloths until we learn more.”

“I think it’s a good policy not to ever share handkerchiefs with boys in loincloths,” Zirkander said.

“True.”

“Now that we’ve all been so politely roused from sleep, I believe it’s time to continue on,” Zirkander said. “Cas, at least we know who triggered your alarms.”

Cas offered a noncommittal, “Hm.”

The attack had come so shortly after the jangling of cans that she doubted the crazy natives could have covered the intervening ground so quickly. It was possible there were two groups of natives out there, but it was also possible they still had someone following them. She would watch the terrain as they walked and try to find another place to set a trap, maybe one that would do more than make noise this time.

* * *

Mid-afternoon found Tolemek walking behind Duck on a muddy trail, a small notepad open in one hand. It was the first man-made route they had stumbled across in their trek, and even though the footing wasn’t smooth, he managed to scribble a couple of notes. He had two columns, one labeled “crazy natives” and the other “dead porters,” and he was listing the meager observations that he had made on the appropriate sides. Thus far, he was inclined to think the events were unrelated, but a good scientist did not rely on hunches or assumptions. If some new danger out here might keep him from reaching his sister, he intended to be prepared for it.

“Add dilated pupils to both,” Sardelle said from behind him.

Tolemek tripped over a root. “What?”

“That man who landed face-first on my barrier had dilated pupils, abnormally so, considering my nearby light source, and Jaxi and I have been discussing what we remember of the bodies in the river. Two had closed eyes, so we couldn’t tell, but one’s eyes were open. He almost looked like he had been scared to death.”

“I didn’t announce that I was working on this list,” Tolemek said mildly. He hadn’t started it until they had come out on the trail. “And you’re too short to see over my shoulder.”

“Jaxi is not restricted by shoulders.”

“In other words, she’s the one who was spying on my work, not you?”

“Indeed so,” Sardelle said, sounding amused, but maybe embarrassed too. “I have more respect for people’s privacy.”

“Mydriasis is typical after death, so I don’t know if I should put it in the dead-porters list, but I’ll put it in the other column.” Tolemek was impressed that Sardelle—or Jaxi—had been that observant.

“Ah, I guess that’s true,” Sardelle said. “Maybe I’m looking for links that aren’t there.”

“Sardelle?” Zirkander called softly from the head of the group. He and Duck had stopped.

Sardelle slipped past Tolemek to join them. Cas came up from behind, her face mud-spattered and her short, damp hair hugging her head in a way that made her impish features more prominent. The rain had stopped an hour earlier, but the air remained muggier than a steam room, and none of their clothes had dried.

“Doing all right?” Tolemek asked, lifting an arm, even though she was probably fitter than he and more used to long hikes. He didn’t know if she would accept the offering of support.

She looked at it, hesitating, but then stepped close and let him put his arm around her shoulders. “Yes. You?”

“Fine. Making a list.” Tolemek showed it to her. Aware of how keen her eyes were, he added, “Did you notice anything about the dead bodies or about the belligerent natives that would be worth putting on it?”

“I didn’t get close enough to notice anything special about the bodies, except that they didn’t have obviously lethal wounds. Or any wounds, for that matter.”

Tolemek nodded.

“The natives…” She peered at his list. “It may just be a result of adrenaline, but the first man’s hands were shaking.”

“Ah?” Tolemek didn’t know if it would prove significant, but he wrote it down.

“They’re looking at something.” Cas tilted her head toward Sardelle and Zirkander and walked up to join them.

Zirkander was pointing toward a jumble of mossy boulders off to the side of the trail. “Should we consider them interesting jungle decorations and continue on, or is it possible there’s some significance? Like maybe they have something to do with why this trail is here? Not that I mind, but I’ve been wondering who’s been maintaining it and why.”

Tolemek stepped on a log for a better look and realized they weren’t boulders but the foundations of a building and the remains of some walls. In addition to the moss, plant leaves stretched all over the area, nearly covering the evidence. Now that he was looking for it, Tolemek spotted the remains of a few more structures, including a stout black post that rose from the mud. Its top had long ago been lopped off, but the moss didn’t quite hide numerous carvings on the surface.

“They’re probably a thousand years old, or more,” Sardelle said.

“Jungle decoration it is.”

“Wait a moment.” Sardelle stepped over branches and around trees, heading toward the post.

Curious, Tolemek trailed after her. Cas remained on the trail, her gaze shifting back and forth from the route ahead to the route behind. He had caught her watching the route behind them numerous times during the day. He would have to ask her if she was simply being alert or if she believed someone might be on their trail, someone aside from those crazy natives. The group hadn’t seen them again after that initial attack.

“It’s a dragon.” Sardelle had stopped in front of the post, and she wiped away some of the moss and grime to show more of the carvings. “Several of them. You can’t see the colors, but from the size and facial features, I’d guess we have a bronze, a silver, and those are perhaps the feet of a gold on top, where it was cut off.”

“You say the ruins are a thousand years old?” Zirkander asked from the trail.

“At least. Some of the histories suggest dragons originally evolved in the jungles. Others claim they came from another world altogether, but either way, they’ve been documented—if only by pictographs and petroglyphs—in this part of the world dating further back than anywhere else. They’re also still worshiped in a lot of the cultures out here—or at least that was the case three hundred years ago. I haven’t brushed up on recent history yet.” She gave Zirkander an apologetic shrug, then walked around to the other side of the post.

“Half of our Iskandian gods have dragon bodies,” Zirkander pointed out dryly. “The aborigines aren’t the only ones who found them powerful enough to worship.”

“Yes, but it’s been many centuries since anyone back home did more than make lucky charms out of the dragon gods, considering them whimsical spirits who might or might not help with life’s problems.”

Zirkander cleared his throat and touched his pocket. “Yes, I suppose that’s true.”

“Those with human form have replaced… now this is interesting.” Sardelle leaned closer to squint at a carving.

Tolemek stepped past a patch of mushrooms as big as his head to join her on the back side of the post. Sardelle was still wiping away mud and moss, but he sucked in a startled breath, recognition striking him like a hammer.

“It’s the dragon. Tylie’s dragon.”

“
Tylie’s
dragon?” Zirkander asked.

Tolemek scarcely heard him. The dragons on the front of the post had possessed different faces. This one was distinctly similar to the one his sister had painted all over her asylum room. Not similar. The
same
. A pointed snout, angular reptile-like features, closed eyes, a high brow that made him look interested, or perhaps amused, by the world around him, diamond-shaped scales visible in the rock even after all this time.

Tolemek rubbed his face. How could it make sense that Tylie would have drawn this dragon from two thousand miles away? Without ever having seen it? Maybe the resemblance meant little beyond a similarity shared across many members of the species. Or maybe this was some distant ancestor to the one Tylie had drawn. It couldn’t be the
same
dragon after all these centuries. All of the histories said that dragons were long-lived, but not
that
long-lived. They could see a couple of centuries at the most, wasn’t that what he had read?

“Sardelle?” he whispered, though he didn’t know what he meant to ask.

“It’s definitely similar.” She raised her voice. “We found a dragon carving that looks like the image Tolemek’s sister painted on her wall.”

“That’s a thousand years old?” Zirkander asked.

“Hm, maybe not.” Sardelle ran her finger along the ancient black stone. “Judging by the wear, this carving isn’t as old as the ones on the front of the post.” She lifted her gaze toward the branches and leaves above them. “It’s possible this side is slightly more protected from the elements, but I think it may be more like five hundred years old.”

“Oh, is that all?”

Tolemek touched the carving. “Its eyes are closed. The ones on the front have open eyes.”

“I noticed that,” Sardelle said.

He lowered his hand and walked toward the ruins, wondering if they might yield more clues. Of course, he didn’t know if he had truly
found
a clue, if the resemblance meant anything. It wasn’t as if he had seen hundreds of dragons or could trust every picture in the text books. For all he knew, every third dragon looked exactly the same.

The murmur of a quiet conversation came from the trail. Zirkander’s head was bent as he listened to Cas. Had she explored farther up the path? She was pointing in the direction the group had been heading.

Afraid he would be called back to the trail soon, Tolemek walked quickly, searching the ruins for other carvings. Some held smaller etchings, but of hieroglyphs rather than anything as big and sophisticated as a dragon. He couldn’t tell what the buildings had been for, either, whether they indicated a gathering place for religious ceremonies or if there were enough of them to signify an entire village. The dense shrubs and thick, flowering vines hid too much.

“Tolemek?” Zirkander said.

“I’m coming.”

“No hurry, but it sounds like you might have the opportunity to examine some bodies after all.”

When Tolemek looked toward the trail, Cas nodded at him, her face bleak.

“A village?” Sardelle guessed, picking her way back to the trail.

“What remains of it,” Cas said. “The people are dead or missing. It looks like something happened recently.”

“How far ahead?” Tolemek asked as he returned to the trail. “Did the people die from wounds or in the same manner as the porters in the river?”

“I didn’t get that close,” Cas said. “I smelled… the smell of death, rotting meat, and went to look, but I wasn’t sure if it was safe. Aside from the bodies, it looks like most of the people left, and I thought they might have ordered the area quarantined. The trail goes right into the village, but I didn’t know if we wanted to investigate or… make a wide circle around it.”

Tolemek wanted to investigate, but he understood her reasoning. If there was something contagious, something that might affect their group, as well…

“Sardelle?” Zirkander asked softly. “My thought would be to avoid it so we don’t risk catching anything ourselves, but is it inevitable that we’ll continue to encounter people out here? People who may or may not be dead? Maybe we need to do our best to figure out what’s going on.”

“I’ll go,” Sardelle said. “I won’t be so presumptuous as to say I’ll be unaffected, but those with more dragon blood in their veins tend to have higher immunity from common pathogens that affect humans. Also, I can usually go into a meditative state and speed up my recovery if I’m ill or injured.”

Zirkander’s expression grew grim. He was doubtlessly reluctant to let her go—Tolemek wouldn’t want to let Cas risk herself, either—but all he said was, “Oh? You think we’re going to stop and let you meditate if you get sick? We’re on a quest here, you know.”

Sardelle smiled. “I assumed you would carry me while I meditated.”

“I’m already carrying two bags’ worth of gear, and I’m not at all convinced that Jaxi is making my load lighter. I think she’s teasing me, making it weigh something different from hour to hour.”

“I’d like to tell you that Jaxi wouldn’t do that, but… you’ve met her. I don’t think you would believe me.” Sardelle lifted a hand and headed up the trail. “Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll come back.”

“Wait.” Tolemek removed his pack and started untying his microscope case and tool bag. “I have dragon blood, too, right? I’m going in.”

Cas frowned at him. “Isn’t yours more diluted?”

“I don’t know, but someone needs to perform an autopsy on one of these dead people, try to figure out why they’re dead.”

Sardelle gazed back at him, her lips turned downward, too, but she didn’t object. Tolemek took his case and jogged after her.

“What do we do while we wait, sir?” Duck asked. “Have lunch?”

“Have lunch?” Zirkander asked. “When there’s a village of dead people over the next hill?”

“You think they’ll mind?”

That was the last Tolemek heard of the conversation, but he did give Cas a long look over his shoulder before rounding a bend in the trail. He was fully aware that by going into the village, he risked not only becoming a victim of some illness but also becoming a carrier. Sardelle may have been trained as a healer, but he didn’t know whether that had anything to do with diseases, or if she merely doctored wounds.