The Wings of Dragons: Book One of the Dragoon Saga (27 page)

Balear knelt before the king, his head bowed
and eyes downcast. “How may I serve?”

“
You will not leave with
the other Castle Guard members. I want you to remain in Ceere with
me.” Balear dared a glance up, and for a moment he saw a shred of
his former commander, a reassuring smile on his battle-weary
countenance. “You are, without a doubt, the most skilled and
devoted soldier I have. I need valuable men like you for the
battles to come. When Rondel and Iren attack us, we must be
prepared.”

Balear couldn’t say for sure about Rondel,
but he had his doubts about Iren. He still couldn’t get Iren’s last
words to him out of his head. All the same, he had no intention of
voicing those concerns. He enjoyed breathing too much. Instead, he
said, “You honor me, King Angustion. I look forward to protecting
Lodia alongside you.”

The king nodded, apparently pleased. “When
the new recruits arrive, they’ll be green and vulnerable. They
won’t last five minutes against Kodamas or Tengu, or even the
hardened seafaring humans of Tacumsah. They can become an
invincible force, but to do so, they will need extensive training.
Such an undertaking is too much even for me. I need a
second-in-command. This person must possess absolute loyalty. He
must inspire the troops and carry out my orders unquestioningly to
lead us to victory. Balear, I would like that person to be you. As
a reward for your loyalty, I hereby name you General Balear
Platarch, head of the First Army of Lodia.”

The new general prostrated himself,
murmuring his humble acceptance. When it became clear the king had
nothing more to say, Balear begged permission to leave. He received
only a curt nod in reply, but he considered that more than enough.
He rose and departed as quickly as he dared.

As he trudged through Ceere’s streets in
search of the nearest inn, Balear turned the conversation over in
his head. General of the First Army of Lodia? He couldn’t decide
whether he felt honored or disgusted.

Iren howled as he hit the ground hard. Ten
feet away, Rondel stood, arms crossed.

“
We won’t stop this until
you land a blow!” she roared. “Now hurry up and attack!”

Cursing, Iren struggled to his feet,
massaging the new burn on his right arm. “Hit me,” Rondel had said.
Since she’d said those two words yesterday afternoon, he’d lost
count of how many injuries he’d sustained. This one would heal just
as all the others had, thanks to the Muryozaki in his left hand,
but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

It also didn’t help that he was starving.
The last time he’d eaten was the plate of food his miniature
Kodaman jailor had brought him.

Finally, to make the situation just that
much more intolerable, Rondel hadn’t budged an inch since they’d
started. She simply stood there, as immovable as any of Ziorsecth’s
trees. Anytime Iren got close to her, she sent out a jolt of
electricity from the end of her right index finger. It wasn’t
enough to kill, but each one knocked Iren flat and left him
writhing for a few seconds.

Gritting his teeth, Iren looked around for
anything that could give him an advantage, but he’d long since
tried everything he could think of. He’d attempted feinting,
weaving, even climbing one of the nearby tree trunks and trying to
surprise Rondel from above. Every time, the decrepit buzzard used
the same counter, and every time, it worked.

Next, Iren attempted to sneak up on her from
behind. Just as he raised his arm to strike, the finger appeared
from over Rondel’s shoulder. The blue bolt landed with perfect
accuracy.

“
Get up, slacker!” Rondel
taunted. “This is no time for a nap!”

Iren tasted blood; he’d bitten his lip on
his way down. “I’m really questioning your teaching style.”

“
Do something about it
then.”

Gritting his teeth, Iren muttered, “Fine.”
Short-range attacks weren’t working. To hit Rondel, he needed a
long-distance strike. Since he didn’t have a bow, that left him one
option: magic. He focused, trying to remember how he’d felt when
he’d used it previously. Against Zuberi and Balear, the magic had
come instinctively. Both times, he’d done it without the Muryozaki.
Now though, just like in the cage in Yuushingaral, he couldn’t feel
it at all.

His frustration deepened. Rondel wielded her
magic easily enough. Why on Raa couldn’t he do the same? Incensed,
he stomped his foot against the ground.

A glow, ever so tiny, appeared in his right
hand. He stopped, wondering if it could really be that simple. Now
that he thought about it, it made sense. Fighting Zuberi, he’d felt
furious at Rondel’s apparent death. Against Balear, he’d gotten
angry over the delay in getting Minawë to Ziorsecth.

He focused again, this time concentrating on
all of Rondel’s insults. He thought about his childhood, and the
way people treated him like a demon. Finally, he let Amroth’s face
appear in his mind’s eye, the arrogant face that lied and said it
cared before bathing Haldessa in flame.

The white beam erupted with a deafening
bang, the tip forming the head of a dragon as it engulfed the spot
where Rondel stood. Iren panicked, certain that he had not only
landed a hit but slain the old woman as well. A second later,
however, a slight breeze wafted behind him, and a single finger
pressed into the back of his neck.

The jolt ripped through his body, and he
crumpled to the ground. Rondel walked into his field of vision and
sat cross-legged in front of him, annoyance on her wrinkled face.
“You used that spell to kill Zuberi.” It was not a question. “It
would probably kill me, too, if you could actually hit me with
it.”

Iren tried to reply, but he couldn’t make
his mouth move. In fact, none of his muscles would respond, no
matter how much he struggled.

“
Don’t bother,” Rondel
said, like she could read Iren’s mind. “I gave a sharp burst of
lightning magic directly to your spine. It overloaded your nervous
system. You can breathe, and your heart will keep beating. Any
voluntary motion, however, is impossible for at least the next
fifteen minutes. All the better, since I want you to shut up and
listen.”

If Iren could have changed his expression to
glare at the sadistic bat, he would have.

“
You’ve used magic before,
but that attack proves you don’t know anything about it,” Rondel
criticized. “That beam had great power, but it was also slow,
predictable, and used an incredible amount of energy. You only have
so much environmental magic at any given moment, and Divinion’s
power is also limited for reasons we previously discussed. You have
to use spells strategically. What would have happened if we’d been
fighting for real just now? You’d have exhausted your energy in
that one blow, leaving you powerless. By contrast, consider me.
I’ve used magic to hit you constantly for the last day, yet I could
still deliver a blow that, in an actual battle, would have killed
you. I’d have plenty of time to finish you while you lay there
helpless.”

Iren half-listened to Rondel’s words, more
focused on the mistake the old hag had just made. She considered
her technique so perfect that she hadn’t bothered disarming him.
The Muryozaki still sat in Iren’s grip, and Divinion’s magic was
already healing the damage from Rondel’s blow.

He had plenty of rage to channel into the
magic this time. As it built up, unable to release thanks to his
paralysis, he began to sense its flow. It pulsed through his body
like blood. Concentrating on it, he found he could direct it
wherever he wanted it to go. That gave him an idea. The large beam
moved slowly, but if he gave the magic a smaller outlet, maybe he
could increase its speed. Instead of his whole fist, he would
channel the magic into a single finger on his right hand.

Without warning, he fired. Instead of a
broad beam, however, the attack was thin and focused. Its smaller
size reduced its power, but when it struck Rondel in the gut, it
still launched her backward twenty feet. Iren leapt up, fully
healed, and raced toward Rondel with a smile on his face. “How
about that?” he cried.

The old woman dusted herself off. “Not bad,”
she replied, nodding. “Now we move on.”

“
Move on to
what?”

Rondel closed her eyes. “To this.” She
opened them again, and Iren blanched at the sparks flashing in
them.

“
I went easy on you
before,” she said. “This time, the exercise is the same, but I
won’t hold back. You’ll face Lightning Sight and the same speed I
used to kill those Quodivar in Veliaf.”

Iren shuddered. He could already feel the
lightning bolts striking him. Rondel didn’t attack, however.
Instead she abruptly vanished. A second later, she reappeared over
fifty yards away, waving animatedly.

Iren’s jaw dropped in dismay. Even running
flat out through the underbrush, it would take him over ten seconds
to cover the distance Rondel had covered in just one. By the time
he reached her, Rondel could easily run off in some other
direction.

“
Long range then,” he
muttered. He channeled magic into his right index finger. His new
tight beam was exactly what he needed. It traveled faster than his
eye could track. Surely at this range, even Rondel couldn’t avoid
it. He raised his finger and pointed it at the crone.

The shot never fired. Just before Iren
released the magic, Rondel disappeared again. A second later, she
reappeared behind him, kicking him in the back and sending him
sprawling. His concentration lost, the energy he had gathered
dissipated back into his body.

“
Lightning Sight let me
read your lips,” Rondel said with a mix of amusement and confusion.
“Why do you do that?”

Iren rolled onto his back, coughing in the
dirt. “Do what?”

“
Talk to yourself. You used
to do it at Haldessa too.”

Iren’s brow furrowed. He’d never noticed
before. He thought for a moment, and then he said, “Nobody in the
castle would talk to me. I guess I just needed some conversation.”
He paused. “Hang on. How do you know I talked to myself at
Haldessa?”

Rondel deactivated Lightning Sight and sat
on the ground beside him. “Iren, I’m sorry.”

“
For what?”

“
I’ve known of your Maantec
heritage from the day Amroth brought you to the castle. I could
have taken care of you, raised you, protected you. I did none of
those things. Instead, I let my hatred of you cloud my
judgment.”

Iren shoved himself to his feet. “What do
you mean ‘your hatred of me?’ What did I ever do to you?”

Narrowing her eyes, Rondel murmured, “You
were born.”

Iren threw an arm out to his side and
roared, “What is this? Everyone in Haldessa hated me because I was
a Left. How can you, a fellow Maantec and Dragon Knight, feel the
same way? I didn’t choose this life! I didn’t ask to be a
Maantec!”

“
Do you want to know the
truth, Iren? I hate Maantecs. I hate every single one of them.
That’s why I betrayed them a thousand years ago.”

Iren’s mind flashed back to Minawë in Akaku,
telling him how Rondel was the most famous traitor in Raa’s
history.

Rondel continued, “During the Kodama-Maantec
War, both sides fought to a standstill. The Maantecs couldn’t
penetrate Ziorsecth, and the Kodamas couldn’t make any progress in
Serona. The stalemate lasted years. Thousands died on both sides.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I’d had enough of taking
orders and killing because someone else said so. I decided to start
a new life, one independent of everyone else. I dedicated that life
solely to Okthora’s Law: evil must be annihilated.”

The crone’s wrinkled face became cold and
determined. “I started with the Maantecs, a race of fools willing
to sacrifice Raa for the sake of conquest. I offered the Kodaman
king, Otunë, my support. With my knowledge of Maantec defenses and
my power as a Dragon Knight added to his army, we crushed all
resistance. We stormed through Serona, wiping out Maantecs until we
reached the capital. It should have ended there, but Iren Saito
cast his curse and slew the Kodaman battalions.”

She raised her open palms before her face,
and they shook horribly. “For a thousand years after that terrible
day, I avoided my own species, perfectly content to shun and be
shunned in return. That is, until that interfering Amroth had to go
and bring you and the Muryozaki into my life.”

“
You could have killed
him,” Iren pointed out, “or me, for that matter.”

Rondel shook her head. “Evil must be
annihilated. You were just an innocent infant. I couldn’t kill you.
And while I didn’t trust Amroth, I had no proof against him.
Truthfully, what I really wanted to do the moment I laid eyes on
you was to flee Haldessa and never return.”

“
Why didn’t
you?”

She laughed a harsh, self-deprecating bark.
“You think I didn’t try? As soon as Amroth left my home, I ran.
Then the dreams started. The farther I got from Haldessa, the more
I had them. They were all the same. I saw you in some pain or
danger. In a few you died. They became so bad I couldn’t sleep.
Only in Haldessa could I get any rest. Even there, you were always
on my mind. The only way to relieve the dreams completely was to
see you. I’ve watched you from the shadows nearly all your life. It
made me hate you all the more, because you kept dragging me back to
a past I desperately wanted to forget. I dared not let you notice
me. If you did, I feared you would seek me out yourself. Then I
would never be rid of you.”

Iren stared at the old woman, dumbfounded.
He’d never caught her observing him, yet somehow, he knew she spoke
the truth. Numerous times, he’d sensed that he wasn’t as alone as
he appeared. Most recently, he recalled the shadows moving oddly in
the baths before Amroth’s feast. Now he understood. Rondel had been
watching him, even there.