Rise Of The Dragon King (Book 5) Read online

  “You know,” Zahrellion’s voice broke into his tranquil state, “if you took Linux, I’d feel even better. I know what he did, and so does he, but before I moved us all back to Three Forks from here, he helped raise Jericho, and I know he will watch over the boy.”

  “He soul-stepped an innocent, Zah,” Rikky sighed, as he realized that the depth of his anger and frustration over the terrible things that happened in the past had faded over the years. There were times, especially when hunting with March, that he’d considered talking with King Richard. There was a place deep inside him that kept telling him he might forgive the man, if he could understand why he’d killed Herald, for no other thing Jenka’s brother had done bothered Rikky all that much.

  Oddly, the prospect of traveling into an adventure with Linux was exciting.

  “Zah.” Rikky spoke evenly as the dour rush was subsiding. “Remember when me, you, Solmon, Jenka, and all the others first rode out of Crag?”

  “I do.” Her smile was suddenly wide and genuine. “I was so excited. And I didn’t know it at the time, but Jenka thought I was an elf and hundreds of years old or something.”

  Rikky shrugged, for he had no idea what she was talking about. “I didn’t even have Silva then.”

  “And you had two legs.” Zah’s expression showed that she was suddenly worried she might have offended him.

  “And you were the farthest thing from a queen I could imagine. I was afraid of you and those lines and shapes tattooed on your face.” Rikky shivered then. “I can’t believe the druids used Sarax blood to mark themselves. I can’t believe you did that.”

  “I did it, too.” Linux entered the room carrying a tray of bread and cheese.

  Rikky had just been remembering the old Linux, not Linux in Rolph’s body, and his previous revulsion for the man swelled slightly, but only until his memory of that old Linux shifted to the peg-legs they’d constructed, and the rolling chair Linux devised in the months after Rikky lost his leg.

  “Want to go on a little adventure, Linux?” Rikky asked, as he speared a cut of cheese with his dagger.

  “I don’t know?” He looked at Zahrellion, for permission maybe, or approval.

  She nodded.

  “I suppose I do.” He grinned. “But I’m not sure our last adventure is over yet.”

  Blaze had been carrying Marcherion over the sea for nearly two full months now and the lack of variety in the scenery was taking its toll. Watching the waves roll and swell wasn’t so bad when the sun wasn’t reflecting harshly in March’s eyes, but most of every day it was. His exposed skin had tanned at first. He would have been blistered by the sun were he not bonded with a fire wyrm. As it was, he was a deep shade of brown now, like the summer field workers or the sailors he used to see at Port.

  One day, after Blaze landed in the water and floated around like a giant duck in a hissing cloud of steam, March relieved himself and then scrubbed as much filth off of his body as he could manage while swimming. It wasn’t until he was climbing back onto his dragon that he saw something large gliding in the sky above the clouds as if it were watching them.

  He climbed into his saddle and got situated for the jarring lurches that would lift them from the water up into the air again. After that was over, he began scanning the sky.

  Twice again that day he saw whatever it was, but it never came under the clouds so he could see it. He thought about urging Blaze up above the cottony ceiling, but decided that if it wasn’t bothering them, they should just let it be.

  For a few days that seemed like a great decision, but then, just as a heavy rain started to pound down on them, causing even more steam to sizzle off of Blaze’s hot scales, the thing made a sweeping pass that almost unseated March.

  He knew it wasn’t a dragon, now, but what it was he couldn’t say, for he’d never seen such a thing. What he did see of it was feathered and shrouded in all the evaporating water rising from his dragon.

  The question March kept asking himself as he turned his head from side to side, and over his shoulders, trying to see the creature, was: Is it coming back?

  Later, after the camp around Clover’s Castle was settled, and Rikky was alone, he reflected back to a time when he was the age of Jericho and Pascal. He and Solmon, who was a few years older, were best friends. Jenka and Grondy were also best friends. They’d competed endlessly at everything back then, under the tutelage of Master Kember, and all of them were the better for it.

  They’d wanted to be foresters, and then King’s Rangers, though. Jericho and Pascal had no great future plans or desires as of yet, and they were not best friends. They were here to gain experience, and hopefully some sense. Both of them were castle born, and soft, but they’d already started trying harder to outdo each other, and that was good.

  Rocky knew that finding a nice, respectable elk to kill was as easy as asking Silva to find the herd and cull some their way. These boys needed more than that.

  Rikky decided he would take them to the ancient dwarven tunnel where they’d first found the old red dragon, Crimzon. It was a three-day ride by horse, and if they got that far without incident, Rikky knew he could spook the softness right off of those two down in that scary, molten hole. There was a lake there, too, and Linux had mentioned setting fish lines nearer to the castle, so maybe they could borrow some hooks and string.

  Rikky figured they would stay out about ten days and then make the long journey back south along the Strom River to the coast and sail to King’s Island to attend the solstice festival.

  Rikky then decided that he was thinking too far ahead. He hadn’t been on a ship in as long as he could remember. He would probably be tired of the rascals by then and take the journey on Silva’s back.

  He missed the days of hunting with Jenka, Solmon, Grondy and the rest, and he missed Master Kember and Lemmy, too. Not only did he have two legs back then; in those days the hope he held for an exciting future was enough to keep him eager. Now, all he seemed to ever hope for was a way to end the boredom.

  He couldn’t help but laugh at himself for complaining about not having anything to do. He did have a dragon to ride, and he was trekking into the woods with two boys who were beginning to see this as their greatest adventure.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Seven men and two boys rode out of the area protected by Clover’s enchanted castle and started deeper into the Orich Mountains. The procession was led by a ranger named Willian. Captain Will was older than Herald had been, and just as grouchy. Rikky had worked with him over the years and liked him the second he saw the pronounced knife scar on his ear. When Rikky started training the foresters and putting the King’s Rangers back together for Jenka, he’d spotted the ear-nick and given the man rank on the spot.

  A forester named Olly rode behind the captain with a loaded crossbow in his lap. Then came Prince Jericho and Pascal. The two of them rode side by side when they could, and they did a good job of staying out of Rikky’s earshot.

  Rikky rode right behind the boys so he could keep an eye on them. Behind him was Linux, then another forester, a green young man whose name Rikky never got. Bringing up the rear was a veteran ranger named Braag Brauntly, who everyone always called Brawn.

  The sun was high, and though the morning was as perfect as any summer morning could be, the air grew thick and still, and the heat became oppressive. The lush, forested slopes were green and rich with animal life, but even the rabbits and squirrels moved in a slow, efficient manner. In the few short stretches the group had to travel through the woods, they could feel the steamy moisture the trees hoarded. Then the procession moved onto a wide, rocky road with nothing between them and the cloudless, pale blue sky.

  “It feels like we are climbing into the sun,” Prince Jericho said at one point.

  “It’s like riding through a forge furnace,” Pascal added.

  “It’s the rocks beneath us that make it so warm, boys,” Brawn called up from the rear. “That sun be trying to melt ‘em.”

/>   Rikky cautioned them all to drink plenty of water so they didn’t cramp later, but eventually the heat disappeared completely. Toward the end of the day, the wind broke the stillness around them, and they found themselves struggling to stay warm in the shadow of the steep face up which they were zigzagging.

  The day’s travel was rewarded, though, when they camped on top of an elevated flat that overlooked the dark valley neighboring the castle. The idea that there might be wild creatures still roaming the area was only strengthened when a loud, howling roar erupted in the distance and a few hundred birds leapt into flight. The cloud of avian life swirled and churned and then resettled a short distance away from where they’d been rousted, but the men kept their eyes glued to the area for a long time after.

  The sky was wide open and full of twinkling stars, but the air chill enough to warrant sleeping fully dressed under a blanket. The breeze was slight and only added to the comfort the group seemed to be feeling as they laughed around the fire Olly had built.

  “Where is Silva?” Prince Jericho asked Rikky after a particularly long silence that was only interrupted by Linux’s healthy snore.

  “She is out there hunting somewhere.” Rikky made a broad sweeping gesture out over the darkened valley. “She is not too far, I hope.”

  “Can you speak with her? I mean, in your mind, like Mother does with Crystal?”

  “Can you?” Pascal added his query. “My mam can speak with Golden in such a way.”

  “I can if I want, but I do not want to interrupt her—”

  “By the gods, man,” Brawn roared out, his fearful tone startling them all. “Did you see that?” He slapped the green forester on the shoulder and pointed skyward. When Rikky saw the younger man’s eyes, he knew the lad was really seeing something.

  “What?” someone asked.

  “What is it?” Prince Jericho’s eyes were wide with worry.

  “Something big just passed over us, Dragoneer.” Brawn was still searching the sky. “I seen it myself.”

  “Aww, Brawn don’t be scaring turds out of these youngsters,” Captain Will growled. “There’ll be enough time for that lat—”

  “I ain’t foolin’ with ya.” Brawn’s tone was bold and conveyed that he was indeed being serious.

  Rikky believed him, too, for he and Silva sensed dragon dour of the most potent sort. He only knew of two people alive who resonated in such a way, which was a comfort, but the impression this brief surge left on him wasn’t all that familiar.

  He didn’t let the others know what he’d sensed, for whatever it was, it was gone.

  “He’s pulling your leg, boys,” Captain Will said. “Ain’t nothing but a low-flying cattle hawk, or a rogue Sarax.”

  Rikky didn’t think that was funny, but again, he didn’t give voice to his thoughts. He was busy speaking to his dragon through the ethereal.

  What was it? Rikky asked his bond-mate.

  Maybe Jenka, maybe Clover, she replied. Maybe something else?

  Will you move closer to us?

  I could swat you with my tail from where I am.

  Learning this made Rikky chuckle. “The captain is right.” Rikky gave Brawn a stern look through his mirth. “It was probably a low-flying cattlehawk.” His gaze shifted to Captain Willian then, and his eyebrows narrowed. “It weren’t no Sarax.”

  The sound of the older man swallowing was loud. Rikky could sense his regret at mentioning the terrible alien creatures that had violently destroyed so many lives across the kingdom. Instead of scolding him, Rikky came up with another idea.

  “Linux told me the ogres were finding more snakes this year than ever before.” Rikky changed the subject. “Not just the mousers and farm snakes, but rattle fangs and strikers, too. We should all check our blankets good before we crawl in ‘em.”

  “Yes, sir,” Captain Will replied.

  The rest of the group responded similarly, and soon they were all hunkering down, save for the captain and Olly, who had drawn first watch.

  Rikky could have let them sleep, for Silva was a better guardian than all of the party combined, but he didn’t want anyone to know she was as close as she was. And the younger men needed to learn to keep watch. Men might have tamed the frontier and the foothills, but the mountains were still as formidable as they’d always been.

  When he lay down and shut his eyes, Rikky spent a while wondering what the sensation had been. Then he began to wonder if Linux could tell if Silva was there or not. He knew the druid was as powerful as they come, and that he could communicate in the ethereal when necessary, but he wasn’t sure if he’d been tuned in.

  He decided to speak with him about things. They had the last watch. Jericho and Pascal were watching with them, which was a good thing, because Rikky needed them for his prank.

  After a while, he began to wonder where March was, and if he and Blaze were really still flying over the sea. Then he found sleep, where black-skinned, shark-mawed Sarax devoured families in the streets, and child-sized, grey-skinned goblins feasted on his limbs.

  “Shhh,” Rikky hissed at the boys. He was having a hard time controlling his mirth, too, but was too determined not to let it loose.

  “We’re ready,” Linux whispered. He was standing out of sword’s reach of Brawn, holding a long stick near the sleeping ranger’s neck.

  “You?” Rikky asked the boys, who both stifled giggles while nodding that they were.

  Pascal was poised just like Linux, only he was over the green forester. Prince Jericho was sitting on a rock over Olly with what looked like a fishing pole. The line was a spider’s web the boy had tried to sling off of the limb. It was perfect for tapping and sliding across Olly’s wide open mouth.

  The sun was starting to lighten the sky, so Rikky counted down: “Three, two, one, NOW!”

  “SNAAAAAKE!” Rikky yelled as loud as he could.

  Linux and both boys screamed and hollered, too, all while trying to simulate snake movements against their sleeping victims. Linux’s distance probably saved him a good bruising, for Brawn came out of his bedroll like a lion. Olly was now screaming and coughing out the bit of web the prince had dipped in his face. Pascal was laughing shrilly and rolling around, his victim having come up batting at his blanket like he was on fire.

  It was a comical sight, but Rikky’s victim’s reaction was the best, for Rikky wasn’t simulating a snake at all. Silva’s tail quickly wrapped around the captain’s leg and started pulling him across the ground toward her. She looked more like a pewter-colored boulder than anything else, and no one but Rikky, Linux and the boys knew she was among them.

  “ENOUGH!” Rikky yelled.

  When Silva let go of Captain Willian, the man did a fifty-yard face-up crab-crawl backward. He managed this in such a speedy fashion that the boys and Rikky were howling. Even Olly and Brawn were laughing now.

  The captain looked at them with confusion and fear showing plainly on his bright red, vein-lined face, then he grabbed at his chest and began convulsing in the dirt.

  Rikky’s mirth evaporated, and he charged over to him. His guts felt hollow. Fear that they had sent the man into a stupor or popped his heart poured over him.

  Rikky rolled Captain Willian over and saw that he’d gone still. His heart sank into his bowels. Had they really frightened him that badly? He began sifting through his mind, searching for a healing spell to save him.

  “Baaaah!” The captain suddenly jolted and lurched up, causing Rikky’s heart to skip a beat and his foot to fail him as he stumbled backward.

  Everyone was laughing then, at least until Silva leapt into flight, but even the dragon was chuckling as she went.

  It turned out Captain Willian was a prankster, too.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  They saw the lake later that second day, but wouldn’t reach its shore until the afternoon of the next. Linux explained that most of his fishing gear was designed for river krill and pan-sized lake fish, not mudsuckers or big whiskerfish, but he did have one
rig to catch something sizable. To use the rig, they had to catch some sunfish or minnows to bait the hooks.

  Once they started down into the next valley, they lost sight of the water, but saw it again when they topped the ridge. Like a shimmering mirror reflecting the world and the rose-colored evening sky, the surface lay across a lush, green valley surrounded by snow-topped mountains. Even on the top of the ridge, though, the air was warm and only slightly crisp.

  “Can we make it down before dark?” Brawn asked from the rear.

  Rikky started to say yes, but the captain spoke before him. “There is a shelf the men used as a camp last year. It’s about two-thirds of the way down. We’ll camp there and not risk unpacking our gear in poor light while everything in the area is trying to get a sip.”

  “Aye,” Rikky added, glad to have picked Captain Willian. Rikky’s arse was as sore as it ever had been, anyway. He would rather be off the horse sooner than later, and since the cat was out of the sack about his dragon being near, he decided he might just ride Silva in the morning to scout the area.

  “How far is Crimzon’s cave?” Prince Jericho asked.

  “On the far western side of the lake,” Rikky replied, pointing ahead of them and to the left.

  “It looks like we will have to take the eastern shore and go all the way around to the north.” The prince’s voice was a thin squeak, but the boy possessed a certain quality of confidence that Rikky knew had been passed down from Jenka. He was impressed by both of the lads and the way they were coming along.

  Truth be told, he’d expected a lot more whining, and hadn’t expected the boys to keep as much company with Linux as they did. It wasn’t surprising, though. Zahrellion had moved the royal family to Clover’s castle for the first few years of Jericho’s life. Linux had assumed the role of castellan there, after he escaped Richard, and had helped with him since he was born.