The Dragon Knight's Curse (The Dragon Knight Series Book 2) (21 page)

With assured conviction, he said, “We’ll see about that.”

I wasn’t sure if the location of the ruins had anything to do with it, but the desert night became bitter enough to force us to use a portion of the gathered wood to build a fair-sized campfire. As I sat on a half-buried tree trunk absorbing a little heat before taking my nap, Leo, Athan, and Menalcus sat down beside me. Of all the pirate subgroups that would form, this particular triad was the most commonly seen together.

“We’ve been wondering,” began Leo, “when are you going to ask us about your father?”

“It’s a long way back to Ecrin, but if you guys are feeling left out, I suppose we can get this out of the way now. Let’s start with you, big guy.”

“Well, truth be told, I’m more of a friend to Thoris than Lorcan,” said Menalcus. “I respect your father, of course. I’ve rarely questioned his orders, and even the ones I don’t agree with are explained well enough for me to understand why he does something. Still, I’m here because of Thoris.”

Athan laughed. “Should I tell him your lust for him or do you want the moment to be special?”

“Shut up! You’re the one here to protect Lucetta.”

With an angry whisper, Athan said, “Keep your damn mouth shut! I was just joking around and you have to spread shit like that?”

“Then don’t call me a queer!”

Facing me, a chuckling Leo said, “As you can see, our fat friend here actually has very thin skin. Poking him always provides a good hour of entertainment.”

“I do not have thin skin,” said Menalcus, slapping his swollen belly. “It’s simply a sensitive subject for me. You see, it turns out that my brother bends that way. I’ve even heard stories that my father might have been… Well, at any rate, the knowledge alarmed me. I know I shouldn’t worry. I have plenty of proof that tells me I’m not, but I can’t help but get touchy about it.”

“This is way more information than I wanted,” I said.

Leo shook his head. “Information I’m sure you’ll find invaluable in the future.”

“Returning to what I do want to know, why are you out here?”

“Nothing as complicated as loving my captain’s woman or my sexuality.” Athan stuck up his middle finger. Menalcus followed his example. Leo only smiled back at them. “I was once caught by slavers not long after I joined the crew. Didn’t think he’d come back for me, but he did. I owe my life to your father, simple as that. I’ve yet to find an opportunity to repay the favor directly, but I think finding you and your brother will finally make us even.”

“And what happens if his next kid gets kidnapped? He’s on his own?”

“Then it’s obvious the gods loathe Lorcan’s children. I won’t fight against that kind of sanctified persistence.”

There were two discoveries as I slept. The first was a crypt beneath what Fardin assumed to be a place of worship. He determined the structure’s purpose by evaluating the size of the wide structure and by the small spires that bookended the center of the otherwise flat roof. Most of the tombs below had writing etched onto them, giving the scholars more rubbings to work with. In addition, the temple’s undercroft held some artifacts the mercenaries avidly snatched up. They included a few dull jewels, silver pots and urns, and clay dishes.

My father wisely let the mercenaries keep most of the discovered relics. He recognized the untested mercenaries would be more willing to fight if they believed they had a store of riches to protect. It was possible this decision disgruntled his inherently covetous crew, but they did not join him for the prospect of more coin. Still, I later caught Lucetta and Sophia admiring a little purple gem before they spotted me. Sophia put it in a pocket, pecked my cheek with her lips, and told me not to let Lorcan know what I had just seen.

The second discovery was actually a marriage of two finds in the same area. Of greater interest to the scholars, the side of a black watchtower revealed itself at the bottom of a small dune. Between this dune and another, a patch of wildflowers and grasses grew a mile from the city ruins. According to the spotters, a group of mercenaries led by Lorcan and Lucetta, there wasn’t a great deal of plant life, but it was thought worthwhile enough to begin sending the weaker beasts of burden to replenish some of their energy. Soon after waking, I and others were sent to watch over the first herd of hungry animals.

Dawn had crawled over the tall horizon by the time my group arrived at the feeding ground. Fardin didn’t want to leave the city, so he asked Ghevont to study the watchtower in his place. Both assistants wanted to leave their master and join their more open-minded colleague, but due to her longer rest, only Janna joined us. Knowing this would be an all-day objective, we set up the wall-lacking tents near the base of the watchtower. From there we regarded the animals, making sure they didn’t eat too much of the scant plant life or stray too far.

I volunteered to look after the second group of animals as well, which switched with the first herd a couple hours before noon. This started the chain reaction of the pirates deciding to stay where they were, meaning Thoris, Menalcus, Yang, Sophia, and Gerard stayed part of my group. One of the four mercs also didn’t change venues.

About an hour later, Sophia stood up from her meditation pose, a stance she often used when she cast her prana-detecting spell. She stepped over to me and said, “I felt something to the west. It’s faint, but I can definitely tell it’s not human. It’s way too big.”

I waved over Thoris and the three of us climbed to the top of the dune’s steep slope. It was hard to see anything in the horizon’s hazy heat, but we could soon make out a moving dust cloud a thousand yards away. It hovered just above ground level and charged toward the ruined city.

“Is that one of those worm things?” asked Sophia. “It’s moving pretty damn fast.”

“No way we can intercept it before it hits the city,” I said.

“We’ll have to try,” said Thoris.

Just before Thoris shouted at the others below, I said, “Wait, what if we attract the worm to us?”

Making sure he heard me correctly, he said, “You want to attract it to us?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think that’s wise? The city does have walls and more manpower.”

“Sure, but I think I have a good way to kill it quickly. Once it’s dead, we can start moving out of this godsforsaken place. That sound okay with you?”

“You’re certain you can kill it?”

“If it behaves like I’ve been told it will, then yes. Bring up a mule with a pack for me. I’ll get the worm to come to us.”

The pirate nodded and ran back down. Sophia remained beside me, bow in hand. I summoned ten of my bigger explosive stones and chucked them as far as my arm strength allowed. I ignited them as they struck the ever-shifting ground. The first four explosions didn’t bring any reaction from the sand cloud, but the fifth one had it finally turn in my direction. Under the billowing dust was an incoming groundswell of sand ten feet wide. Thoris came back up with a mule when the enemy was about three hundred yards away. Just about everyone else came up with him.

I told everyone to stay as still as possible and summoned a heavy pile of dragon stones, dropping them in the pack slung over its back. With the worm less than a hundred yards away, I slapped its rear to compel it to move away from us. The mule sensed the groaning ground and started galloping away from the sand wave.

“Clever,” said Gerard. “If a little cruel.”

“I could strap stones on you next time, if you prefer.”

“That will be unnecessary.”

We watched as the sand wave rushed past us, chasing after the scampering bait. The speed of the underground enemy was easily faster than the mule’s sprint over the malleable ground. While a part of me hoped the mule outran its otherworldly predator, a bigger part of me wanted my plan to work. Sixty yards later, my plan bore fruit. A few feet behind the mule, the stretched wave vanished a moment. The still running mule then disappeared in a splatter of sand. It stayed missing when the sandy splash settled.

Wanting to bring the worm back within my range, I heaved a few rocky explosives, set those off, and told everyone to move behind me. The ploy worked. The sand wave appeared again, twisting and shifting the sand near its latest feeding ground before heading our way. I focused and waited to sense my dragon stones enter my prana’s influence.

My training said I could ignite the stones from thirty or so yards, but the chukurn’s thick hide blocked an easy transfer of prana. I had to wait for it to get an uncomfortable forty feet away before I felt the glimmer of prana come within my extrasensory grasp. I poured enough spirit energy to trigger every last stone at the same time.

A geyser of sand blasted into the sky. Immediately succeeding that was a gurgling growl coming from a lofty shadow. The tubular shape writhed in the air a moment before its enormous girth crashed onto the dune’s surface. The murky dust and blurry shadow transformed into the squirming body of a chukurn, fifty feet of which was above ground. All its frills were flared and it was trying very hard to screech out the seething agony raging in its stomach, but a chukurn did not have a well-developed voice. The best it could do was mutter its misery in warbling grumbles.

With strained effort the worm lifted its head and opened its three mandibles wide enough to almost unhinge off its face. It next fell forward and swallowed half a mountain of sand, looking for anything that could smother the internal flames. It was either not enough or too much. The beast spun its bulk to dig deeper into the dune, but it stopped tunneling a few moments later. A segment of its twisting body was still exposed, sluggishly stirring the sand around it. Whether it was dying or not mattered little. It was obviously incapacitated and that was enough for us to gather our animals and get them back to the ruins.

Fardin tried to convince everyone we were safe from chukurn attacks as long as we stayed within the debilitated city walls, but no one bought it. We gave him two hours to collect everything he wanted to bring before the expedition would begin to move through the Kitiri tunnel, with or without him.

The start of our trip back to Prusal did have the disgruntled enchanter uniting with us. The mules who had their sariff sold were now lugging precious artifacts and rubbings. To try and stifle the telling vibrations of our movements, we elected to keep the caravan as sparsely bundled as possible, placing the more lucrative animals at the center. This arrangement appeared to work. Sophia’s spell and the vigilant guides didn’t pick up any chukurn activity as we moved briskly through the Howling Dunes over the next two days. The strong winds also helped deaden any noise we produced.

There was some relief when we exited the Hadarii’s heart, but the animal bones we found earlier told us we were still well within chukurn territory. In any event, without an oceanic amount sand to traverse, it was believed the chukurn couldn’t move as speedily in the shallower sand and hardier dirt.

Our first real rest came on reaching the first settlement we had rediscovered. Two of the weaker animals we didn’t get a chance to feed were getting too frail to carry anyone or much of anything. I chose these animals, a mule and a camel, to act as more sacrificial temptations for the worms. They would also be the first to go should our food supply get too low. The items they carried were conveyed to others and replaced by my dragon stones. A long rope tied to these unwilling martyrs kept their fates aligned. I put Ghevont in charge of them.

Waiting for the hottest part of the day to subside, a big group of us began playing cards, which included my father. I assumed I would be good at reading body language and calling bluffs, but it turned out that my people-reading skills failed me when I didn’t much care about the outcome. However, the more I lost, the more I started caring. Just as I was going to show everyone the hand that would win the latest round, the group turned to notice a sprinting Gerard coming up to us.

The Alslana knight said, “The guides picked up a crawling dust cloud to the east. It’s not heading for us right now, but it’s out there.”

In the midst of the group getting up to see what Gerard spoke of, Lucetta was entering the west side of the camp in her own run. To her husband, she said, “Malu saw something. I got Sophia to double check, but she didn’t have to use her spell before we saw the dirt cloud ourselves. She cast her spell anyway and picked up another worm a little farther out.”

“Three of them?” said Thoris. “Shit, we’ll have to split up.”

Turning to Lucetta, my father said, “Gather anyone who can’t fight and round them up by the wall over there. Stay with them.”

She nodded, kissed him, and dashed off. Not waiting to hear whether my father assigned me anywhere, I left to get my baits. I cut the rope in the middle and handed the camel to Ghevont. I took my mule eastward. Hearing the success of my last plan, a few animals had their packs removed and their pirate or mercenary handler pulled them toward the margins of the expedition. I didn’t have enough dragon stones to fill anymore packs, meaning they would have to use different strategies on their lures.

The protectors of the expedition encircled the ruin, watching as the dust clouds circled us like sharks at sea. The region did not have many large dunes, so I was glad to see the dust clouds were slowed down by the bumpier soil. Yet even their slowed speed looked faster than a narrow-footed human running across this unstable land. A few minutes later and word came that Sophia sensed another worm enter her range. Still, they kept their distance.

“Fascinating behavior,” said Ghevont, who helped keep my camel-decoy near me. “I wonder if they know what happened with the last chukurn? Or does being in a group increase their intelligence? Aranath doesn’t know if they often work together, does he?”

“He doesn’t. He does know they won’t stay wary for long. This desert doesn’t have the food they need to sustain themselves. Even with the animal offerings, they must be starving.”

The sand-sharks appeared to be circling closer to us, foot by foot. I was getting anxious and began inching my way toward them. The heavy dust trails they kicked up had me feeling as though we were in the eye of a sunny typhoon, and all we could do was wait for its tumultuous winds to break for us. An unseen cue finally had the storm rapidly contracting. The worms continued their circular pattern in their new haste, making it difficult to determine where a worm was going to end up.

As before, I tried being proactive. Towing my nervous mule behind me, I broke from the defensive line to approach our ravenous enemy. The continuous tunneling through the hard soil generated a steady thunderclap that grew louder and louder. The soles of my feet felt the dull rumble increase with it. Since I was certain releasing the mule prematurely would simply have it run deeper into the camp, I had to keep hold of it longer than I liked.

When one of the dirt waves crossed eighty feet in front of me, I let the rope go and insisted the mule go forward by jabbing its hindquarters with my sword. The animal whinnied away from me, too pained to notice it was heading straight for the sand wave. The worms on the opposite side must have attacked sooner than mine did, as the area behind me erupted with the crackling hums of spells being cast and launched. With no word from a nearby Thoris or human screams forcing a review of the battle, I reserved my focus on what was ahead of me.

The worm’s wave turned toward the mule. To prevent the mule’s wits from turning it back, I threw an explosive stone and ignited it over its head. The little blast actually seemed to confuse the damn thing and stopped it in its tracks. All the same, by the time it perceived the netherworld hunter, it could do little more than turn around before it was sucked below ground. I waited a moment longer until releasing flames no known creature had yet learned to overcome.

Mimicking the first worm, this one surged upward, a shallow moan going up with it. Flames bared through its open beak. The chukurn hooked its head and then flung it sideways. A ball of fire catapulted out of its mouth. The cautious worm had evidently held its food in its beak or mouth longer than the first, giving it the chance to cough up its devitalizing indigestion before it inflicted the intended mutilation.