Strife In The Sky (Book 7) (8 page)

“Mind your manners, Horse Neck,” the old man said. “We are not here to make enemies, but allies.”

Horse Neck spat on the ground.

“As you wish, Otter Bone.” He leered at Brenwar. “I’ve never tussled a dwarf before. You look like an oversized beaver.”

“You dare, you undersized troll?” Brenwar said, coming forward. “I’ll break you piece by piece.”

Nath cut off his advance.

“Otter Bone, is it?” Nath said.

“It is.” The blind mind came forward and reached out toward Nath. “Be still. I can sense what you are, Dragon, but I want to feel for myself.”

“And how can that be?” Brenwar said.

“He’s a sage,” Bayzog said, moving out of the clearing and into view. “A formidable one at that.”

Otter Bone gaped and his face brightened.

“Well played,” the blind old man said. “I did not sense you, Wizard. Hmmm. Part-elven. Unusual.”

Nath glanced at Bayzog and the wizard nodded. It let him know Otter Bone was someone to contend with.

“Tell us about Ben?” Nath said.

“He is well, quite well. Just has a large knot on his head, but those lumps are good for readings. That lump told me many things, it did.” Otter Bone moved closer to Nath, reaching out. “May I, please?”

Nath spat a small fireball on the ground.

Horse Neck jerked the old man back and stamped it out.

“Tell me about my friend and what you want with him. What you want with us.”

Horse Neck stuck his wooden club in Nath’s face.

“Don’t do that again,” he warned. “Or I’ll—”

Nath spat fire on it. It burst into flame and turned to ash, leaving Horse Neck’s hand an empty mitt.

“Next time,” Nath warned, “it is you that will feel heat and not some part of a tree.”

The brute’s arms flexed with muscle and his chest heaved with angry breaths.

“Enough, Horse Neck!” Otter Bone said. “I can’t take him anywhere without him wanting to fight something. Please understand, the siege we are under can be quite stressful and my temperamental nephew gets pent-up from all our unpleasant captors.”

“We don’t care about that!” Brenwar said. “Where is our friend?”

“Why, in the River Cities, of course.”

“Whose prisoner is he?” Nath said.

“Ah, now that is the question,” Otter Bone said, “and you have many? I have foreseen this. That’s how I knew you were coming.”

Nath looked to Bayzog. He hadn’t dealt with sages before. Bayzog shrugged his eyebrows.

“You’ve come to visit the Floating City,” the old man said, “to see who cuts the stones that cannot be cut. To see who controls the dragons. Am I right?”

No one spoke.

“I am not your enemy. I’m not friend or ally to Barnabus either, but I’ll not leave my home on account of them. You,” he pointed to Nath. His voice became haunting, “are the one to stop all of that. You are the Black Dragon. I’ve seen you. I’ve seen Nalzambor destroyed and saved. I’ll help if you will.”

“What kind of ally holds an ally hostage?” Brenwar said.

“A desperate one. A selfish one. I crave jaxite crystals for myself. Bring me three, and I’ll free your friend.”

“What will you do with them?” Bayzog asked.

“That is no concern of yours,” Otter Bone said, raising his voice, “but I will have what I will have, and you will get it for me.”

“Or what? You’ll kill our friend Ben?” Nath said. “You don’t seem the type. Nor your oafish nephew.”

“I might not have the blood on my hands that you do,” Otter Bone said, “but my—”

“I tire of this,” Nath said. He grabbed Horse Neck by the wrist and twisted it behind his back. He shoved the towering man to the dirt and put a knee in his back. “Let me tell you what is going to happen. You will stay with us, and this troll will bring back our friend.”

Brenwar sat on the big man’s back and pinned War Hammer under his neck. “Don’t make a sound or move,” he said in Horse Neck’s ear.

Nath towered over Otter Bone and folded his arms over his chest.

Otter Bone cleared his throat.

“Well, I saw this coming. I’m a sage, after all. And I have given you my terms. I will not relinquish them.” He took a quick breath and started to whistle.

Nath closed his fingers over the man’s mouth.

More men were out there. He could hear their breathing in the woods.
How did I miss that?
He could now sense that Otter Bone had a strange power.
He dulled my senses!
But now that had changed. He heard swords slide from sheathes and bowstrings being drawn back. Otter Bone was well prepared. Nath uncovered his mouth.

“You are fast, Nath Dragon. But are your friends?” Otter Bone said.

“Hurt them and who will fetch your crystals?”

“I only need you to get the crystals. The others will just slow you down. Now let’s talk about this, shall we?” Otter Bone lifted his brows. “No one has to get hurt.”

Nath could sense sincerity, but desperation too. He wondered if there were more out there that he hadn’t noticed.
It doesn’t matter. I am a dragon, and they are just men.

“No,” Nath said.

“Disappointing, then. Very disappointing.”

Bow strings stretched and fingers released.

Twang! Twang! Twang!

CHAPTER 19

Gorlee stood among the gaping crowd. Soldiers of Barnabus were falling from the sky. He pushed his way closer and eyed the broken bodies on the street. A man shoved him out of the way.

“Excuse you,” Gorlee said in an old man’s fragile voice.

A rugged character looked down into his eyes.

“Go back to your quarters and knit some trousers, why don’t you?”

Gorlee pulled a shawl over his narrow shoulders and moved on, taking a moment to lean on a lamppost. His body quavered a little. Typical of older men he’d seen before.
They’ll be looking for someone bigger. Someone stronger.

“Out of the way!” a soldier said, leading squads of them out of the great tower. He dispatched them throughout the entire city in groups of four. Their eyes were wild and fearful. He could hear them whispering among themselves. Two of them were to die for every hour he was not found. It chilled him. They started shaking everyone down and questioning them about the triant and where it went. Fingers pointed in all directions.

All of this over me. How twisted Selene is.

He fought the urge to look up. He swore he could feel Selene’s eyes on him from above.

A terrible sound filled the air, causing him to shudder. Screams came forth from the crowd, and people scrambled through the streets. Dragons dropped from the rooftops and onto the road. They roared at everything that moved. People fell to their hands and knees, cowering in front of the terrifying beasts.

Dragons and soldiers are looking for me now! Guzan!

Gorlee shuffled in with a mob and went with the flow. He had no idea where to go.

Need a safe place to hide. Away from the commotion.

The farther the crowd went, the more it thinned. He sighed and took a seat on the porch of a storefront. All the doors were closed and the streets were becoming empty. Gorlee wrung his withered hands together and dipped his head. He was exhausted. Drained.

Need rest. Need much rest
.

Escaping from The Deep had taken it all out of him. And then the long trek here. He could barely move.

Dragon roars echoed down the street, causing him to jump.

Sultans of Sulfur! There are dragons and soldiers everywhere. Working together! This is madness!

He swore he could feel the great presence of Selene above.

She certainly must be the most powerful person in the world.

A person who controlled both men and dragons. And her tail. Blacker than coal and full of scales. The scales looked just like Nath Dragon’s. He and Bayzog had talked much about the return of the black dragons. Now, he had no doubt he knew of two of them. They were the most formidable people he’d ever met in the world.

“YOU!” a hard voice said. “Get over here!”

A pair of soldiers approached. Both had swords out and nervous looks in their eyes.

Gorlee struggled to rise and sat back down.

“I said get over here,” the soldier said.

“I can barely move my withered legs,” Gorlee said, holding out a trembling hand, “can you help me up? That mob ran over me.”

The soldiers marched over. One grabbed him by the wrist and jerked him up.

“Oh!” Gorlee exclaimed. “My bones are brittle. You’ll break me in two.”

The soldier grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to his toes.

“I don’t care if I break all your bones. What I want to know is if you’ve seen anything strange.”

The soldier held his sword to Gorlee’s throat. Desperation was in the man’s eyes. Gorlee’s head beaded with sweat.

The soldier said, “Someone like you would notice when strange things happen. Did you or did you not see something odd coming out of the Great Tower of Narnum?” He pressed the sword into Gorlee’s wrinkled neck. “I’m a good judge of character. I’ll know if you’re truthful or if you’re lying.”

“I’ve no desire to lie,” Gorlee said, pushing himself into a sitting position. “I’ve always wanted the best for this city. I saw a monster—Great, huge and scary—running through the streets. It fled toward the stables.” He pointed. “The roadway out perhaps. Even with my old eyes I could see him, but when the ground shook under his great feet, I trembled and hid my eyes.”

The soldiers looked at one another and one said, “How could something that big disappear so fast?” He looked up. “And with all these dragons around too. Lousy overlooking lizards! No, we have to find him.”

Gorlee withheld his smile. He had pulled off quite a feat.

A dragon roared from above. The soldiers’ heads snapped up. The dragon had a soldier in its claws, and it circled the great tower. Gorlee could hear the soldier scream when the dragon dropped him and he was falling. The soldiers glanced at him and each other with terror in their eyes.

The soldier here stuffed his sword in his scabbard and grabbed Gorlee by the hair. “If you see anything, you’d better tell us!” He let go gruffly, and they both took off running toward the stables.

Gorlee shook his head.

I almost feel sorry for them. Should I?

Once he was sure they were gone, he got on his feet with a groan. At the moment, he really did feel old. Every bit of his energy was sapped.
At least I made it this far
. He shuffled down the street, heading away from the sounds of commotion and dragons.
I just need a nap. There must be somewhere safe a man can curl up around here.

All around, soldiers pounded on doors and kicked them in. Dragon claws, blue, grey and yellow, clicked on the cobblestones as the dragons slunk through the streets. From the tops of buildings they watched, making piercing cries like hawks. There wasn’t sanctuary anywhere in the city.

He slogged through the town, peering into storefronts, down alleys. His entire body was shaking. His stomach groaned and he rubbed his belly
. How long did Bletver the triant say I slept? A week? No wonder I’m so weak and starving.
If he could, he would have changed into a soldier and blended in, but he didn’t have the strength. That would be the easy way, assuming a dragon didn’t snatch him, fly him up, and drop him for dead.
I’ve flown with a dragon once, and that should last a lifetime for me.

He sighed, shuffled along, and continued on his quest to find rest. Narnum the Free City was huge. Wide open. There must have been a thousand places to hide, but without any friends or allies, he couldn’t find one. He kept walking until he found himself face to face with the edge of the city. The countryside, its farms and green hills, looked like freedom, but it was anything but that. Towers, bulwarks, and great weapons of war surrounded it now. He could see dragons crawling through high grasses and soldiers marching through the fields. He shook his head.

Is there anywhere peaceful left in this world?
He leaned against a building.
If I were a triant, where would I hide? That’s where they’ll be looking.
Narnum had bridges, huge barns and storehouses. The rivers were said to be as deep as they were wide.

While running through town with the crowd, he’d seen soldiers rowing up and down the rivers, poking sticks into the water, and a dragon slithering through the grass to slip into the river.

He pulled the shawl tighter around his shoulders.
If you can’t hide in the river, where can you hide?

He scanned left and right. No one was about. It was just him leaning back against a building that overlooked the river.
Maybe the best place to hide is right in front of their faces.
He pulled his knees up to his chest and tucked his head between them. His belly growled.
Just rest, Gorlee, rest. You can find something to eat later.
A gentle breeze stirred, bending the reeds along the river. The sweet sound of the wind put him right to sleep.

Gorlee hadn’t moved for hours when his head popped up and hit the building.

“Ow,” he muttered. It was dark now. He could hear the voices of soldiers and see lanterns and torches in the fields, and others cast shadows in the streets. He was rubbing his eyes and yawning when he heard a rumble nearby. The blood in his veins turned to ice, and his heart pounded in his chest. A large black creature moved toward him. A lion-like face emerged from the shadows and came face to face with him.

Gorlee swallowed hard.

The feline fury touched him nose to nose. Its scaled paws pinned his toes to the ground, and smoke rolled from its nose. Hot saliva dripped from its mouth and sizzled on his leg.

Gorlee screamed.

CHAPTER 20

“What is it, Brother?” Faylan said to Finlin.

Finlin stood inside her tent just inside the flap, hands clasped and one thumb rolling over another. They’d been marching hard for days and were finding things difficult to navigate from time to time.