The Wizard and the Warlord (The Wardstone Trilogy Book Three) (46 page)

He urged Talon to circle higher and take in what lay in the direction he sensed the artifact.

“Before we exit, let’s eat a hearty meal,” Hyden suggested. “It will allow Talon and me enough time to explore our course and search out dangers.”

Durge and two of the great wolves had eased up to the cavern mouth and were looking out at the strange, malformed trees that dotted the landscape. Huffa stuck her head out into the sun and sniffed tentatively.

“This might be the last true shelter we see for a while,” Durge said. “Since we are not heading back into the mountains until our return, I think we should cache some of our cold weather gear here.”

“That’ll lighten our load,” Hyden said. “From what Talon can see, the terrain isn’t going to change much, if at all.”

Corva and Jicks took a peek out.

“If we continue to wear these shagmar cloaks, we’ll look like hairy creatures, not civilized folk,” said Corva. “That could work both for us or against us, depending on what we come across.”

“The people from here my father traded with were dark-skinned men with crude animal-hide cloaks, and wild, bushy hair that was dyed blue, green, and red.” Hyden told them. “We will remain cautious, but I don’t think they will be a threat.”

Corva nodded and began removing things from the pack he deemed no longer necessary. Jicks did the same, while Hyden focused on his familiar’s sight and was intrigued, more than alarmed, by what he saw.

From the heights the hawkling reached, the earth below resembled an archer’s target. The solitary rock formation where they currently stood was at the edge of a brownish circle that would have been the queen’s ring, just outside the king’s ring that encircled a curious sapphire wizard’s eye. The scale of the would-be-target was enormous. The strange, sapphire-blue center was easily half a dozen miles across, and the tan ring around it was just as wide. The sharp definition of the different rings was obviously unnatural. Hyden had to assume that the Tokamac Verge was at the heart of the Wizard’s Eye. He decided that maybe its radiant power had caused the anomaly. After all, the words Tokamac Verge translated as “Powered Boundary.” Hyden couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. It seemed that, since he was old enough to draw a bow, he’d been searching for the center of the Wizard’s Eye. Now here he was again.

Hyden had Talon circle down toward the center of the strange phenomenon. As the hawkling grew near, Hyden saw that there was some semblance of life near the edge of the shimmering center circle. Closer observation revealed that the center was a huge, translucent blue dome that sizzled and crackled with static. It was what made up the Wizard’s Eye of his comparative target. Hyden estimated it now at closer to ten miles in diameter. If it was a radiant field from the Verge, it was probably spherical, not just a dome.

The man-made structures outside the magical shell were low-built and crude. A few crop fields and an animal pen could be seen between the huddled structures. Strangely, nothing was more than a few hundred paces from the edge of the dome. Even stranger than that, not a single man or beast could be seen. The faint tendrils of smoke trailing up out of a few of the hovels could be made out, though. Faintly visible in the depths of the glassine sapphire field was a castle. It didn’t look like much more than a trio of towers jutting up out of the gloom. It was inside there, at the base of those towers, that Hyden sensed the Tokamac Verge.

As Talon winged his way back to the group, Hyden observed that there were no trees at all in the flat ring of featureless dead grass that surrounded the dome. He decided that traveling might be easy and worry free. Getting into the sphere might prove troublesome, but then again they might be able to walk right through it. They had to get there before they could find out.

He told the others what he had seen, as best as he could describe it. Since the air was still crisp and wintery, they chose to keep the shagmar coats with them. There was no way to tell how cold it would be at night, or inside the magical sphere. After eating, and hiding their stash of ropes, hand axes, ice divots, and spiked boots, they climbed down to the tree-scattered plain, and all of them, save for Durge, mounted the wolves. With the giant trotting along beside them, they started toward the Tokamac Verge. It didn’t take long for them to leave the company of the deformed trees and the dark ground in which they were rooted. They were then crossing terrain that was nothing but yellowed grass with no trees at all. By early evening, they could see the shining sapphire dome in the distance, but something else presented itself as they moved through the open field.

Alarm shot through Hyden. It was Talon’s alarm.

A dark, winged thing swept by overhead, its huge shadow giving it away to the hawkling. Talon came racing back, and the wolves began to growl and whine.

“Dragon!” Corva said, looking up into the sun behind them. “A good-sized one at that.”

“No wonder the people live so close to that thing,” Jicks said as he slid off of Urp and drew his sword. “Out here there’s no cover at all.”

“Put the sword away,” Hyden said. “Your blade is useless against a dragon.” He turned to Corva. “What color was the wyrm? Could you tell?”

“It was dark in shadow, but not black. Deep green, I think.”

Corva strung Vaegon’s bow as he spoke. It amazed Hyden that the elf did this without taking his feral eyes off of the dragon. When he was done, he slid gracefully from Oof’s back. “It’s circling back to us,” he said as he nocked an arrow.

“It probably thinks we’re a herd of young trolls,” said Jicks nervously. “In these coats, we look like supper.”

“Get back on the wolves,” Hyden said. “That wyrm will get more than a mouthful, if it won’t listen to reason. I want all of you to ride like the wind to those structures.”

“What about you?” Durge asked in a deep whisper, as if speaking quietly might keep the dragon from hearing him.

“Huffa and I will be along shortly,” Hyden said. “Now go.”

The dragon had circled around and was already getting close enough that it eclipsed most of the sun from them. Like any high predator, it knew that using the sun would allow it to get closer before being detected. Hyden could tell that it wasn’t an adult dragon. It was maybe fifty feet long from nose to tail. He used Talon’s vision and his own at the same time, a trick he had learned from Dahg Mahn. By doing so, he could see the dragon more clearly, and its spirit aura as well. The creature wasn’t evil, or even dark natured. It was just hungry.

Hyden didn’t want to kill the wyrm so he tried to use his ability to comunicate with animals and the power of Claret’s crystalized tear to speak with it. Before he spoke, he checked to see that the others were fleeing. They were already a good distance away and moving so quickly that he had to laugh at them. Dragons were extremely scary creatures, but he had met more than one of them and survived to tell the tale. He would never forget what happened to Brady Culvert, though, so he checked his confidence.

We are not a proper meal for you, young draca
, Hyden said with as much authority he could muster in his ethereal voice.
Go feed elsewhere.

The dragon swooped down lower and established its diving course down toward Hyden’s position. Its chosen target was clear. Hyden had to pat Huffa’s neck to ease her fear. She wanted to bolt after the others, but she had the deepest trust in Hyden Hawk and steadied herself.

From nearly a half mile away, Corva stopped his retreating great wolf mount and looked back.

“Oh, by the Heart of Arbor,” he muttered as the dragon shot out of the sky straight at Hyden.

The others heard him and stopped to look, as well. The dragon swooped like an eagle on a baby rabbit. Urp let out a whimper upon seeing that Hyden and Huffa were about to be snatched away. At the very last moment, when the dragon was about to pluck Hyden and the wolf from the earth with its claws, Hyden threw up his hands and screamed out a single word. Talon shrieked from somewhere overhead. Oof raised onto his hind legs so that he could see better and nearly threw Jicks from his back. Durge sucked in a deep, bellow-like breath in anticipation.

To everyone’s great surprise, even Hyden’s, the dragon threw out its wings and stalled its dive to a dead stop right before them. As if it were stepping down off an invisible pedestal, the dragon sat its hind claws on the ground, pulled in its leathery wings, and fell to its foreclaws.

Its scales shimmered like wet emeralds. It turned toward the group and let out a long, low, gut-shaking roar. It seemed satisfied that they were afraid and not going to come to their friend’s aid. It turned to Hyden, its lower lids sliding up to blink over bright amber eyes, and then spoke. “Your meat is no worse than any other. Why shouldn’t I eat you?”

The dragon’s slitted eyes were the size of pumpkins, and its nostrils were as big around as a rabbit’s hole. Behind its prideful gaze was a pair of sharp, white horns, not yet yellowed with age. They were the girth and length of a man’s arm. Its snarling mouth was full of dagger teeth with incisor fangs the size of short swords. It didn’t seem impressed with Hyden or his great wolf mount.

“If you try to eat me or my companions, young drake,” Hyden warned with no trace of fear in his voice. “I’ll kill you, and that’s not bravado.”

The dragon cocked its head curiously. Its eyes went to the medallion hanging at Hyden’s neck. With narrow brows, it asked, “How did the likes of you come across a treasure such as you wear?”

The powerful ring on Hyden’s finger wasn’t visible to the dragon’s eyes, but dragons, he knew, could sense magic. He was fairly certain the wyrm was speaking about Claret’s teardrop, though, not the ring. The young wyrm’s eyes were now fixed on the shower of tiny sparkles fountaining from the medallion.

“A friend and I shared a tear once,” Hyden answered. “She gave me hers because she cares for me.” Hyden snarled then. “If you’d like, I’ll call her. She’s fiery red and you would fit nicely in her jaws.”

The glittering green dragon withdrew its head and took a half-step back. Instinctively, Huffa took the same step forward.

Hyden was just relieved that he had the dragon’s attention.

***

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Jicks asked Corva and Durge.

“I’ll swim the Cauldron if I know,” said Durge.

“Phen wasn’t lying when he told me Hyden was the most powerful wizard in the realm, was he?” asked Corva. “Not even the greatest of elven masters would dare to do such a thing as stand before a dragon.”

“Just because he has the stones, or lacks the sense to avoid standing in front of a dragon, doesn’t mean he’s powerful, elf,” Durge said. “Your old masters probably place a lot more value on their lives than Hyden Hawk seems to.”

“By the gods, he's not even afraid,” Jicks said. “Here we are, nearly a mile away from the beast, and I’m trembling in my boots.”

“See there, man,” Durge said. “You’ve got more sense than Hyden Hawk, too. Only a fool wouldn’t be afraid of such a creature.”

The sound of Hyden Hawk’s laughter came to them on the breeze and they all shared a look of utter disbelief.

A few moments later, the dragon leapt back into the sky and winged away toward the setting sun. Huffa carried Hyden to them quickly, and when they arrived, even the humans could sense the pride she showed at having faced the wyrm with her rider. The man on her back was grinning ear to ear. He looked like a kid who just had a cherry pie placed on his plate.

Hyden didn’t say what he and the dragon had spoken of, and no one asked as they closed on the huddle of dwellings at the sapphire sphere’s edge.

“What if we can’t get in there?” Jicks asked.

“We’ll get in,” Hyden answered.

“How can you be so sure?” Durge asked.

“Look.” Hyden pointed ahead of them.

Looking as if the gods themselves had arrived to greet them, a crowd of brightly dressed, dark-skinned people started streaming out of the huts. As the companions grew even closer, the people began falling to their knees and bowing their heads to the ground. Not only was their hair dyed every color imaginable, so were their clothes. Through his link with Talon, Hyden suddenly understood why they would do such a thing.

“I’m the greatest wizard that ever lived,” Hyden chuckled sarcastically. “They just saw me send away one of the dragons they are so afraid of. Do you think you were the only goofs gawking at me out there?”

Inside, Hyden was still feeling the exhilaration of being so close to, and speaking with, such a wildly powerful creature. “These people must think we are the gods.”

At the moment, Hyden felt like he was one. But even the incredible encounter with the dragon and the ecstatic glee he was feeling couldn’t eclipse the dire warning his goddess had recently given him. Even though they’d avoided a confrontation with the dragon, and these people were no threat, he knew somehow that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he hoped.

The strange people spoke in a language that none of them could understand. While the women went about preparing a feast for the wolf-riding gods and the giant, Hyden tried to communicate with an orange-haired shaman by drawing pictures in the dirt beside the cook fire. The others were ushered into a community building made of sun-baked mud and straw bricks. It had a thatch roof that was just high enough for Durge to sit under comfortably. It smelled of sweat and spices. Flaming wicks floated in big pots of oil at the room’s corners.

“Why did Hyden say they were dressed so strangely?” Jicks asked Corva as a topless young woman with jiggling breasts and green hair poured them cups of some brown pungent tea.

“When they venture away from the big blue thing, the dragons that fly over the plains feeding don’t see them as food,” the elf answered.

“When they see a dragon they sit down and stay still,” Durge added. “Hyden said that, from a dragon’s eye view, they look like flower bushes or shrubs.”

“That’s what they look like from right here,” Jicks said in a whisper.

“You don’t have to whisper, Jicks. They don’t understand you,” Corva laughed at the boy.