Tears of War (15 page)

The dream shifted again, growing darker as the claws of black memories dragged him further from the golden dream.

Kovan no longer looked on, he was part of it. A boy of fourteen cowering in the hall from his father, trying to ignore the pain, trying not to give his father the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. His father stormed closer, in his hand a thin knife used to open the seals on scrolls.

Kovan screamed as the knife dragged a furrow down the side of his face. The skin ripped open as it tore a twisted path from the corner of his left eye to the line of his jaw.

Something inside his mother snapped. Out the corner of his other eye, Kovan saw her hurtle out of the darkened hallway behind his father. Candlelight from his parents’ room cast dimly into the hall and glinted off the kitchen knife in her hand.

His father roared as she plunged the blade into his back. Blood splattered the wall as she yanked it free and plunged it again. She pulled it free as he turned and she buried it in his chest, missing the mark of his blackened heart.

His father lunged at her as she fled toward the kitchen. Kovan didn’t see everything that happened, but he heard her screams. He made it to the kitchen in time to see his father slam his mother’s head against the stone cooking hearth. She crumpled to the floor in a puddle of blood, her empty eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.

Kovan backed away as the man turned toward him. Staggering forward, his father’s breath wheezed and bloody froth bubbled from his lips. His father fell to the floor a couple of paces away. Kovan didn’t run for help. He sat in one of the chairs in the front sitting room with the side of his face bleeding and throbbing, and watched his father, his tormenter, slowly die.

The dream shifted again, flickering through short images of the grandparents he’d never known. Taking him in and trying to love him. But he was too far gone, too damaged to give or receive love. Never again would Kovan be put in that position. Never would he allow someone to use the power of love to trap and torment him as his father had. The twisted scar on his face was nothing compared to the deep scars on his heart, the ones that festered and seeped their own kind of poison.

V
addoc glanced back as they left the small town behind. Still three days north of Marden, they’d stayed only long enough to take a meal before riding on.

Kirynn twisted in her saddle to look back. “What?”

“Hmm?” Preoccupied with his own thoughts, he wasn’t really paying attention. A sharp jab to his shoulder immediately brought him to the present.

Her green eyes were narrowed and irritation showed plain on her face. Never one to have a lot of patience, she sighed. “Why are you looking back? What has you lost in your head?”

He glanced back at the town once more, a sense of unease worming its way through him. He turned back to her. “Something is wrong.”

Kirynn rolled her eyes. “Of course something is wrong. This is the third town we’ve visited where everyone looks beaten. Unless the people of Shadereen normally look whipped and frightened. I wouldn’t know since I’ve never been here before, although I was under the impression they were a bunch of stone faces like you.”

“Have patience, Vaddoc. You care for her, remember?”
Namir’s sending cut through his the defensive irritation that flashed through him at her words.

“Why should I always be the patient one?”

Vaddoc heard a rumble of amusement in his mind as Namir answered,
“Because one of you must and we both know it won’t be Kirynn. Syrakynn is not much better. Neither of them have much tolerance for round about answers or methods. Both prefer a direct and open approach to everything.”

Vaddoc sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, allowing the negative emotions to flow out with it. Namir was right, as usual. With his emotions fully under control he answered Kirynn. “Everyone here is not a ‘stone face’ like me, but they certainly do not act like that. I have never seen my people so afraid or tense. If the Kojen invade a town, the people will grab anything that can be used as a weapon and charge into the fight.”

He shifted the reins in his hands and guided the horse to the edge of the road as a wagon rumbled past on its way to the town they’d just left. Vaddoc tried to catch the eye of the driver, but the man kept his head down, staring dully at the rump of the horse pulling the wagon.

The driver finally looked up in surprise when the horse stopped short. Kirynn was blocking the road with her horse. Vaddoc watched as wary distrust filled the man’s face.

She flipped her braid over her shoulder and glared at the man. “What is wrong with you?”

“Excuse me?” the man asked, clearly puzzled.

Vaddoc mentally counted to ten and tried to keep his voice civil. “Kirynn, what are you doing?”

She shot him a glare before turning back to the wagon driver. “I asked what was wrong with you. First, all of them,” she jerked her thumb back toward the village, “are slinking around like dogs that have just been beat. Now here you are with the same manner about you. I was given the impression Shaderians were warriors, but that isn’t what it looks like to me.”

Anger flashed on the man’s face. “You must be recently come to Shadereen or you would not talk like this. We are warriors, we are brave.” His face crumpled. “But what is that in the face of dragons?”

“Dragons?” Vaddoc tried to keep his voice even.

The man looked at him for the first time. “She is not Shaderian, but you are, so you should know. Then again, maybe not. These are strange and dangerous times.” He ran his hands over his face. “Yes, dragons. Blacker than a night without a moon and with evil in their eyes, ridden by people with the same evil. There was no defense against them. How do you fight magic shadows? Or fire that is breathed faster than anyone can hope to put out? How do you fight against magic?”

He looked wildly between Vaddoc and Kirynn. “You can call me crazy if you want!” His voice rose until he was nearly shouting. “Think whatever you will, but magic and dragons are loose again and it will be your own heads you lose if you do not start believing real quick!”

He slapped the cart horse with the reins, nearly running it into Kirynn. She quickly moved her horse out of the way and watched the man and wagon pass with her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. She turned to Vaddoc. “You have strange people in your birthplace, Vaddoc.”

Vaddoc stared at her. “He just said Shadow Riders and their dragons were here burning things and you are worried about how he acted?”

She shook her head and gazed back at him. “I’m not surprised. A little irritated they beat us here, but I rather expected it.”

“You expected it? Why?”

She rode her horse past him, reaching out to pat his cheek on the way by. “Because it’s what I would do if I were them. They need control of the nations too. Now it’s up to us to see if we can wrest Shadereen’s freedom back from them.”

He nudged his horse forward and rode next to her. “Why did you not say anything?”

She smiled. “Why didn’t you think of it? Besides, I was hoping we would make it here first. Your plan to ride in on horses and approach all of this quietly made sense if we were first. But, we aren’t. Tomorrow we stable the horses at the next town and finish this trip on our dragons.”

“Are you sure that is a good idea?”

She nodded. “If the past three towns are any indication, Shadereen has been torn down and is drowning in fear and apathy. We need to shock them out of it. Tell me, how shocked do you think the King of Shadereen will be when two dragons land on his doorstep?”

Vaddoc couldn’t help the chuckle that rose at the mental picture she painted. “Shocked enough that I hope they do not kill us before we can explain.”

Kirynn glanced up at the sky. “They won’t.”

He followed her gaze. Namir and Syrakynn circled so high above them, that even his bond-enhanced eyes had trouble seeing them. She was right, they wouldn’t. Not because they wouldn’t try, but because he wasn’t the newly emerged magic user he was the last time he was here. He was strong enough and skilled enough to shield both of them and their dragons this time. No one would succeed in trying to harm Namir, or Kirynn and Syrakynn.

The next morning, Vaddoc rose with the first light of dawn in the sky. He stood and stretched, his mind automatically reaching for Namir. He found him, miles to the northeast slumbering in the endless grasslands of the Ash Plains. He bent down and grabbed his sword belt, buckling it around his hips. A blood curdling scream whirled him around. He whipped his swords from their sheaths and embraced the flow of his magic. In his mind, he felt Namir come fully awake.

Kirynn stood balanced on top of a rock no more than a few inches high, hands engulfed in flames as she looked around, her expression a mixture of terror and anger. A few paces away a patch of grass burned in the semi-darkness. “Creepy, filthy thing is as big as a blasted horse!”

Vaddoc swept his gaze around the campsite. He saw nothing that warranted her behavior. The way she was acting he expected to find…what? Not even Shadow Dragons elicited this kind of response from her. What would scare her like that? He looked closer at the ground. There it was, crouched beyond the burning clump of grass.

He threw back his head and laughed. Until now, he wasn’t entirely sure he had believed it and the proof was hilarious. A small ball of fire narrowly missed his head. Kirynn glared at him. “Next time, I swear your head will light up like a torch.”

Vaddoc managed, with some effort, to gain control of his laughter as he sheathed his swords. “It is only spider.”

“Only a spider! That’s not a spider—it’s a monster. ”

Vaddoc looked at the spider again. It was only about a foot across, including legs. He shrugged. “It is a sand spider. They are all over the southern part of the desert. They keep rodents down.”

She didn’t move from her rock. “I will take mice and rats, thank you very much.”

“You will have to get used to them at some point. They are quite common and you cannot go around burning everything down because of a spider.” He couldn’t help his amusement as he prodded her a little. “Besides, you can eat the larger ones.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide. “The larger ones? You mean there are spiders bigger than that? You’re lying.”

“No, I am not.” He picked up his saddle, ignoring the spider. “That must be a young one. The adults can reach twice that size.”

Vaddoc felt Namir’s approach.
“Do you have need of me?”
came the sending.

“No, Kirynn is just confronting her own eight-legged demon. She will be fine and I am not bothered by the spider.”

He set the saddle on his horse and tightened the cinch. Glancing over his shoulder he asked, “Are you going to stand on that rock all day, afraid of a spider, or are you going to saddle up your horse? We have a big day ahead of us. Unless you intend to spend the day here.”

“Fine.” She stepped gingerly from the rock and walked toward her horse, keeping an eye on the spider still crouched against the ground. She reached for her saddle then hesitated. “What if there is one under here? Laugh if you will, but I don’t think I can handle that right now.”

Vaddoc studied her face. It was unusual for her to admit defeat—the same way it was unusual for dogs to fly. He picked up her saddle and placed it on her horse’s back. Her hands no longer flamed and she stood with her arms crossed.