Dragon Emperor 4

by Eric Vall

  “Chief Fiyero,” I greeted with a nod. “Is there something you need from me? Or do you have an update on the echidnas?”

  “No,” he shook his head, “there has not been an update since Kiran’s earlier one this afternoon. I was simply curious to see you play around with your new skills.” He unfolded his arms and tilted his head in consideration. “Would you like to spar with me? It would help you understand how this kind of magic can be used in a fight.”

  I looked at him curiously.

  “Your tribe won’t be angry if I hurt you, will they?” I asked hesitantly, and the chief laughed.

  “You would have to hurt me to find out,” he responded with a raised eyebrow.

  Then he clapped his hands and opened them, and a sword of flames formed between his palms. He gripped the hilt tightly and nodded to me.

  My competitive nature won over, and I smiled as I formed a shield in my hand. This time, instead of being absolutely huge, it was the size of an average medieval heater shield. It covered my torso, and my head could easily duck behind it.

  “That is not what I expected when I told you we would spar,” Fiyero chuckled in surprise and readied his sword.

  “Yeah, well I seemed to surprise you the first time, too,” I shot back as he began to circle around me.

  I gripped the handle of my shield tightly as I studied my opponent. I’d chosen a shield so I could learn a bit about his fighting techniques. Everyone had a different style while they fought, and it was critical to learn your opponent’s tells and become familiar with their unique style.

  I knew the chief had experience over me, but I had more raw power behind my magic. My dragon soul gave me an extra boost for this type of power, so I was sure that was why my magic reacted differently than expected. I knew I could beat him in a fight of raw strength, but I also knew that wasn’t the point. The chief wanted me to fight so I could gain the experience I needed to become even better with this new magic.

  Fiyero sidestepped easily in the sand as I watched him closely. I knew how to look for clues when an opponent would attack, so I kept my eyes glued to his own, but I was also aware of his feet and their positions.

  I saw the second his posture changed slightly, and then he darted forward. I raised my shield in a flash, and his flames collided with my own.

  He quickly stepped back with an impressed expression.

  “You know how to read your opponent, that’s good.” He raised his sword again and executed a quick string of attacks, but I easily blocked each one. “And you have good reflexes. You must have had wonderful trainers back in Hatra.”

  “I was trained by several different masters in fighting techniques,” I told him with a smirk. It wasn’t technically a lie, I just omitted some key details, like that none of those masters were from Hatra, or even Inati. I was still hesitant to tell anyone outside of Hatra who I really was. I didn’t want them to lose their trust in me if they discovered I wasn’t from this world.

  “Your father must be very proud. You are a fine warrior.” He slashed his sword at my chest, and I quickly raised my shield to block him.

  “I hope he is,” I grunted and pushed away the blade.

  Sparks and ash fluttered in the air next to me as the sword left my shield. The chief took a step back and closed his hands. Then the sword vanished almost instantly, and a whip appeared in his palms just as fast.

  The whip cracked through the air as Chief Fiyero lashed out. The end of it wrapped around my wrist, and he pulled me toward him. I fell onto my knees and quickly summoned my flames to form a dagger. Then I gripped the small blade in my hand and sliced through the whip. My dagger cut through the flames of the whip easily, and I jumped up to my feet and stared at the chief.

  “That was a creative use of the magic,” Fiyero noted as his flames retreated to his arms. “What else can you do?”

  “Why don’t you find out?” I smirked and settled into a low battle stance.

  We sparred together for a while, and Fiyero attacked while I stood back and defended against anything he could throw at me. Eventually, we were both exhausted as we hunched over and panted heavily, so we decided to take a short break. The late afternoon sun hung over us and burned brightly, and the heat of the desert and our fire made sweat run down my face.

  “It seems we have an audience,” Fiyero panted out as he looked over to where the village sat.

  I followed his gaze and saw a group of a dozen or so phoenixes, all with their eyes trained on us. I also noticed Kiran among them.

  The large phoenix watched with a neutral expression and crossed arms. His eyes were narrowed with suspicion, and he frowned when he met my eye.

  For a moment, I wish I was sparring him. It would feel much more satisfying to kick his ass than the chief’s.

  I gave the group a short wave that a few returned before I returned my attention to Fiyero.

  “I’d hate to beat you in front of all of your people, Chief Fiyero,” I told him with a smile.

  “Don’t let your talent go to your head, Lord Evan,” he chuckled. “That will be your downfall.”

  Then the older man stood straight and summoned his flames. He created a long bo staff out of the fire and nodded at me as he spun the weapon in his hands and struck out with it.

  I quickly stepped to the side to dodge the staff as it soared past my head, but Fiyero immediately struck out again and caught me behind my right leg. I grunted as the staff connected with my leg and made me stumble forward. The rod lashed out again, and I dodged to the side once more. Then I summoned my flames and pictured a similar staff. I let the fire take form, and I could feel the flames become solid under my hand.

  Fiyero lunged forward again, but I blocked this strike with my own staff. Embers exploded off our two staves and drifted to the sand below. I could feel the heat of the two weapons as they pressed together, and I pushed forward and shoved Fiyero’s staff away.

  Fiyero stepped back and spun the staff lazily, and I watched him closely as I held my own flame weapon tightly. I’d learned his different techniques from our time sparring, so I knew what to look for before he attacked. His orange eyes would dart around and appear to focus on an area to strike, but I learned this was just a ruse. He would look at one area but would strike on the opposite side. If he looked left, he would attack on the right. If he looked to my feet, he aimed for my arms. He was faster with the bo staff than he had been with any of the other weapons we’d sparred with today, though, and with his quick and precise movements and the bold confidence behind all his attacks, I was sure the bo staff was his weapon of choice.

  The chief lashed out again, this time at my waist, and I missed the block. I grimaced as his staff connected with my side, and I knew a bruise would form there later, so I quickly sent a small tendril of my healing magic toward the wound.

  Fiyero had started to pant again, and I smiled to myself. Soon, he would be tired, and tired fighters meant sloppy fighters.

  I kept out of his range as we circled each other, and he struck out a few times, only to be met with empty air. I could see his frustration begin to grow as he continued to miss. Then I saw his arms start to hold the staff loosely, and I knew it was now or never.

  I struck my staff forward and aimed for the chief’s hands. He quickly adjusted his stance and prepared to block me, but as soon as his stance shifted, I redirected my attack to his legs. I caught him behind both knees and knocked him onto his back. He dropped the staff as he tried to catch himself, and it returned to his arms as nothing but flames. Then he landed on his back, weapon gone, and quietly groaned.

  I crossed my hands over one end of the staff and leaned over the chief.

  “I guess this means I win?” I asked in a cocky tone.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” he responded and narrowed his eyes.

  Then, faster than I’d ever seen him move, Fiyero jumped up and summoned his flames into a whip. He cracked the whip around my left ankle and pulled me down to the sand. I somer
saulted out of his attack just as his flames returned to a staff and stabbed into the dirt, inches from where I’d nearly fallen.

  I watched the chief closely, and then we both moved at the same time and thrust our staves forward. I froze when a staff touched my Adam’s apple, but then I smirked when I realized my staff was pressed against Fiyero’s throat as well.

  The chief laughed as he lowered his weapon and let it dissipate into smoke.

  “Impressive,” he said as I dropped my staff, too. “Though, I warned you to not let your talent go to your head. Had you kept your ego in check, you would have easily won.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I chuckled. “I think I actually did win, but I didn’t want you to look bad.”

  Fiyero laughed again and held out his hand.

  “You are a formidable fighter,” he complimented me as I grasped his arm, and then a mischievous glint entered his eye, “and I might have played a little dirty with that last move, so I’ll concede the victory to you.”

  Suddenly, we heard faint cheers and turned to the audience we’d built up. Even more phoenixes had gathered, and I could see Ravi’s dark orange hair among them. We started to walk toward the crowd, and a few clapped as we approached.

  “Well done, Chief Fiyero!” I heard a male phoenix yell as we drew up to our audience.

  “That was amazing!” a female added.

  “I wish I could learn to fight like that,” another said.

  More voices spoke to us, but they all began to run together. The chief paused to talk to a few of his people, and then we passed the group and walked back toward the village.

  “Papa, Lord Evan!” Ravi called from behind us.

  We stopped and waited for her to catch up.

  “Hey Ravi,” I greeted with a smile. “Enjoy the show?”

  “You certainly got the village’s attention,” she said as she slipped between us, and we continued to walk.

  “That wasn’t our intention, I simply wanted to see how well Evan could control his newly learned magic,” Chief Fiyero replied before he turned to me. “Again, I am very impressed. This technique is supposed to take years to master, yet Lord Evan nearly had me beat after only one day. I can’t believe how much raw talent you have.”

  Ravi smiled at her father, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I remembered how worried she was about her own advancement in the fire magic, so I reached out my hand to find hers and squeezed tightly. She looked over at me and smiled softly before she squeezed back.

  “I’m sure I just have an advantage because I’m a dragon,” I suggested and winked at Ravi. “My fire magic is fueled by power, so it would make sense for such powerful magic to be increased when I use it.”

  “That’s an interesting theory … ” Chief Fiyero trailed off, lost in thought. “And I suppose that does explain how your magic seemed to flare up once you finally understood your connection.”

  “It just seems like the only logical explanation for what happened,” I said with a shrug. “A dragon has never learned phoenix magic before, so we couldn’t have known how it would react.”

  Ravi’s hand was still firmly grasped in mine as we continued to walk across the sands. When we arrived back at the village, the chief turned away toward the center and then glanced over his shoulder at me.

  “Lord Evan, come with me,” he ordered in a loud, authoritative voice.

  Ravi and I shared a worried look before we continued after him.

  We walked in silence for a while, and I followed along with the chief and Ravi as we passed the tents of the tribe. Chief Fiyero strolled to the back of the group of tents and vanished inside. I made to follow him, but Ravi stopped me with a hand on my chest.

  “Wait, this is the cartographer’s tent,” she explained. “Nix doesn’t like it when too many people are inside.”

  I nodded and crossed my arms as I stood back to wait.

  After a few minutes, the tent opened, and the chief walked out. Behind him was a phoenix I hadn’t met. He was small and scrawny with dark hair and eyes. I thought that seemed odd, since every other phoenix had hair and eyes that were some color of fire. This phoenix was dressed similarly to the rest of the tribe in sandy colored shirt and trousers, though. He also carried a bundle of rolled up parchment in their arms.

  “Hello,” the phoenix said in a soft, deep voice. “I am Nix, the cartographer of Chief Fiyero’s tribe.” He tried to hold out a hand but dropped some of the parchments onto the floor.

  “Oh Nix, let me help.” Ravi knelt down to pick up the papers and placed them precariously back into the cartographer’s arms.

  “Thank you, Princess Ravi,” Nix told her and bowed his head. Then the dark-haired phoenix turned back to me. “I was told you requested maps.”

  “Yes,” I responded with a nod. “That was the only thing I required for my assistance in killing the echidnas.”

  “Yes, indeed,” Nix murmured. “And what, if I may ask, is the reason for your desire to acquire my maps?”

  “My reason?” I stopped short.

  I knew my main reason for the maps was to find the caravans that never returned from the desert and take their treasures, but I didn’t think Nix would appreciate that reason very much, so I decided to tell them the second reason.

  “Hatra is under reconstruction,” I explained. “Once it is complete, we will need trade routes and posts set up along the paths to get there. The fastest way to get to my city is through the Crimson Canyons, but they are not an option. Valerra doesn’t trust humans, or any strangers really.” I looked up to where Valerra soared high above the clouds, and she was nothing more than a crimson dot against the blue sky. “I won’t force her to give up territory for them, either. The next logical route is through the desert. We know ancient caravans used to travel back and forth through here, via their own unique trade routes. I want to use those routes to help Hatra become a trade port again and boost our economy.”

  Nix eyed me for a long few seconds before he responded.

  “I can see you speak honestly, though there is more to say. However, I will not question you, and I offer my maps in gratitude of your heroism for my tribe.” The phoenix bowed his head and held out the parchments in his arms to me.

  “Thanks, Nix,” I replied as I grabbed a few in confusion, “but I don’t understand. I haven’t even fought off the echidnas yet, so why would you give these to me now?”

  Nix pursed his lips and looked to Fiyero.

  “It is a sign of trust between us,” the chief explained to me. “I trust you to not run off with our maps and leave us alone to fight the echidnas. You have proven yourself to be an ally and friend to us, and now I wish to offer you the same.”

  I nodded and grabbed the remaining maps from Nix’s arms. Thankfully, I was bigger than the phoenix was, so I could easily hold all of them under one arm.

  “Thank you,” I said to the both of them. “I’m honored you think so highly of me.”

  “You have offered to protect us,” Fiyero said as he clasped his hand around my shoulder. “If all goes as planned, we will never need to worry about the echidnas again. My people will be free to simply live our lives.”

  I slipped most of the maps into my spatial storage but left one out to inspect. Then I unrolled the parchment and inspected the map drawn inside. It was immaculate. The desert was drawn out across the entirety of the map and seemed to continue off the page. There were routes drawn across the whole parchment, and all were marked with names and an estimated time to complete. There were also different sand dunes and a few oases marked with little triangles and small palm tree icons. Small ‘x’s were marked across the page as well.

  “The rest of the parchments are different sections of the maps,” Nix explained as I flipped the page. “I don’t have everything drawn, but it should be enough for what you need.” Then he pointed to an ‘x’ on the map side. “The ‘x’s stand for the areas we have made settlements. They were safe and secure areas, until the echidnas eventually found thei
r way to us.”

  I rolled the map back up and slipped it away.

  “Thank you, Nix,” I said. “I won’t forget this.”

  We shook hands, and with a small nod, Nix retreated inside his tent.

  Chief Fiyero, Ravi, and I walked back through the village, toward our own sleeping areas. Fiyero walked with me while Ravi skipped a few steps ahead of us.

  “I thought you could explore the desert a bit more while you’re here, that way you can become familiar with the area,” Fiyero said from my left. “You are also free to keep any treasure you so desire, since my people have no need for such things. You can explore in the morning. The echidnas are still a few days away, at least, and there isn’t much more for you to do in the meantime. We should be fine without you for a few hours.”

  I imagined all the treasures that were buried in the sand, and I could feel it in my blood as they seemed to call to me. With the current maps, I could easily fly across the desert along the caravan routes to find all kinds of riches.

  “You are also welcome to take the Crimson Dragon with you,” Fiyero added as I got lost in thoughts of treasure hoards. “I don’t think she enjoys the presence of my people too much. She seems to prefer her solitude.”

  I laughed at his words.

  “Valerra is definitely a creature of solitude, that’s for sure. She doesn’t like being away from her canyons. It makes her anxious.” I didn’t want to explain Valerra’s history without her consent, so I just stuck to the bare minimum I could tell him.

  “I see,” Fiyero murmured as we reached the area with our tents. “Then perhaps a task is exactly what she needs. Something to keep her busy could help ease her mind.” He shook his head and smiled ruefully. “I will leave you now. I’m sure you are eager to look at Nix’s maps.”

  “I am, actually,” I replied. “Thank you again, by the way.”

  “It was nothing.” The chief smiled as he appraised me. “You have done more for my people than I could ever thank you for. The maps are nothing compared to that.”