Gerard returned about an hour after the sun had reached its zenith. He explained that a pack of hounds were leading a group of soldiers to the thicket. Knowing everyone couldn’t hide their scent, he wanted the rest of the riders to reveal themselves and fabricate an excuse for their presence here. If they did not buy the lie, then Clarissa and I were to wait outside the southern end of the grove to be picked up by the whiptails. I wished to join them, of course, but I would surely reopen my wound in the run, so I had to concede.
For the next ten or fifteen minutes we lingered by the thicket’s margin, looking up at the sky for friend and foe. The screech of a griffin made us flinch. The whiptail swooped over the trees, hastily followed by three of its cohorts. They landed nearby.
Jogging up to the group, I asked Gerard, “What happened?”
“They believed Eu-Sook’s story, but it doesn’t matter. The commander wanted the riders to join up with his men. They pretended to obey, but they turned around to pick us up. Now we need to pick you up and get out of here before the commander gets the word out.”
I grabbed Eu-Sook’s hand and leapt on to her steed. Even if it wasn’t under the most ideal of circumstances, I was glad to get moving again.
Seeing plenty of specks on the land and above it had us heading for the open sea. Specks dotted the water as well, but they looked farther apart and thus easier to avoid. With the empire having such dominance at sea, Jegeru recognized that investing too much in coastal patrols would do little to discourage a Wregor invasion.
We flew low enough so that a storm’s swell could capsize us. Despite the cool weather, setting eyes on water not choked by mud and weeds tugged at my love for swimming. It had been a long time since I enjoyed the invigorating pastime on a regular basis, even longer since all of my family shared the experience. Father only really enjoyed swimming with Mother. I never wondered why.
Our flight was going well. No one appeared to be chasing us, and the patrols we had to get relatively close to did not bother investigating us. However, we were drawing nearer Wregor’s half of the delta, an area unlikely being emptied of its defenders. Their imaginary border gained a solid representation when I spotted the yellow and red banner of Wregor flapping over a small lighthouse. On a larger island to the north was a wooden fortress with three watchtowers facing eastward.
Not ten seconds after making these observations, the horizons to the west, south, and north became filled with griffin patrols. No doubt Wregor had noticed all the Jegeru movement and responded by sending reinforcements to guard their interests. Night alone could not hide us under this much scrutiny. Getting caught over the water would put us in too precarious a position, so I told Eu-Sook to head back to the wetland.
As expected, a group of four griffins emerging from across the border promptly provoked an aerial patrol’s duty. We were not going to make it to the marshland proper, but a hundred half submerged islets offered the next best thing. Eu-Sook chose to touch down on an islet that might fit another eight griffins within the reeds. We made sure to have our backs to the water.
The patrol that marked us circled the sky for a couple of minutes as they waited for support. Once three more patrols arrived—putting their total number at a dozen strong—a group of three whiptails and one kingclaw dove to the vacant land in front of us. The others remained in the air, though they converged closer than I believed necessary. So that I could better see and speak with the Wregor riders, I asked Eu-Sook to maneuver her whiptail to be parallel to the meager shoreline.
“Do any of you understand the shared tongue?” I asked.
Mounted as upright as a new pillar on a castle floor, the long-limbed elder answered, “I understand it plenty, young madam. Do you understand that you are in Wregor territory on Jegeru steeds?”
“Aye, I do.” I pulled out a scroll from its little sheath and tossed it to the elder. As he unraveled it, I said, “I am Odet Astor, first princess of Alslana and bearer of Mytariss’ crystal shield. I have been traveling with the dragon knight and his allies to combat the Advent. Extenuating circumstances have forced us to seek sanctuary and aid in Wregor. As I’m certain you’ve noticed, Jegeru forces are withdrawing from the border. This is in reaction to an internal attack by the Advent.”
“An Alslana princess? I heard of the Alslana dragon knight. I did not know Alslana royalty joined him as well. Where is he, then?”
“We were separated in Uratama, one of the cities being besieged by ancient giants. Unless we secure the support of the empire and warriors across Efios, there is a strong probability the Advent’s inhuman power will grow unchecked and threaten all of Orda. I must meet with your emperor and the Warriors Guild so that we may oppose the menace effectively. To accomplish it, I need your help. I request an escort to Tawahori.”
The rider scratched the scruff on his chin with a bony finger, studying my resolve. “I hope for your sake this is no farce on your part.”
“Impersonating royalty is punishable by death in most cases. Soldiers crossing into a rival’s borders without permission should be imprisoned. We are not here to insult your intelligence, and I am certainly not here to waste anyone’s valuable time. I suspect you have survived many battles and commanded hundreds of men by trusting your instinct. What does it tell you now?”
“To request that you cast your crystal ward, as the scroll states you can do.”
“Ah, of course.”
I lifted my hand above my head and cast a crystal dome over my friends. I bent parts of the ward in subtle angles, giving the light a hundred different places to bounce and sparkle.
Nodding, the elder said, “Very well, Princess Astor, I will lend you an escort. You may dismount from your Jegeru steeds.”
Dispelling my shield, I said, “Oh, forgive me, but as far as I’m concerned, these riders should be treated no differently than the rest of my allies. They would love nothing more than to defend their homeland, but at best they will return to a kingdom embroiled in civil war, fighting brothers and sisters in arms confused about who they are serving. At worst they will fly into a slaughter. I will not send them to fight the impossible. Four riders will be no threat to you, yet they will be of great comfort to me.”
The smallest sigh a man could exhale escaped his mouth. “I’ll leave that subject to you and my commanders, then. I will first have to escort you to them. Merely repeat everything you’ve told me and they will undoubtedly escort you to our emperor.”
Hmm, I would have preferred speaking with the Warriors Guild first, but I could argue the point later. “Fair enough. Lead the way.”
Chapter Twelve
Mercer
The worshiper of strife leaned back against the neck of her gitra, her sandals in hand. I laid on my back with my arm over my eyes, blocking the almighty midday sun. Now at our fifth day at sea, I had gotten pretty good at keeping my balance on whatever position I wanted to be in. Even today’s bumpy waves were being continuously and unconsciously countered by nigh imperceptible muscular adjustments.
“You know what doesn’t make sense to me?” asked Kiku.
“Is this like your number guessing game?”
“I was just trying to pass the time. And no, it’s not like that.”
“Okay, then what doesn’t make sense to you?”
“Dragon fire. It’s supposed to be some sacred thing to burn the dead with it, right? But dragons and dragon knights use dragon fire to kill things. That doesn’t add up.”
“That’s kind of the point. You’re supposed to think before you cast dragon fire upon some unlucky soul. Young dragons and humans are expected to use their flame only in defensive strategies until they learn restraint. Not always practical, of course. Anyway, it’s not that dragon fire itself is sacred, but the fact that it’s such a powerful force that should be respected. Burning the esteemed dead with it came more out of an ancient dragon tradition than anything.”
“Ah, I get it now… Wait, maybe I don’t.”
“I’m j
ust telling you what Aranath told me. I didn’t really question the history of draconic traditions and their reasoning. Most didn’t apply to our situation. Maybe someday I’ll learn to burn someone properly, living or dead.”
“That’s the spirit! Lots of dragon fire is in your future, Mercer.”
These past few days had slowly revealed more of Kiku’s fickle personality. She loved to talk, though nothing quite sounded like the truth. I actually believed most of what she said, but the ingenuous inflection in her voice suggested that her throat never grew out of its childish form after it found refuge in her sect. Like myself, everyone she ever met must have initially assumed it was an act. And while she never reached as high a pitch as she did with the guardsmen, she could not help but speak with a puckish squeak.
As for the subject of the mostly one-sided conversations, she often described visions she had seen, tidbits of her personal life, and the friends and acquaintances she made after joining the occult of strife. It was an acquaintance in Watawara who gave her the dress she wore in public. After I asked why she didn’t wear the more comfortable and practical ensemble she left at the room she rented, she explained that merely looking affluent solved many complications before they escalated.
Despite her love of prattling, she was still comfortable with long silences and listening to me recount parts of my journey without interrupting. I enjoyed both the long silences and listening to the callow ambiance her voice provided. She had a natural—or perhaps supernatural—knack for knowing when to talk and when to stay quiet. She was sort of a combination of Ghevont’s elucidations, Clarissa’s manners, and Lucetta’s frankness.
“Oh, big wave!” warned Kiku.
I squeezed my legs tighter against Akachii’s sides and kept my arm over my eyes as I felt the gitra climb the swell. The salt water crashed on Akachii as it neared the crest of the wave, then it swept over much of my body.
When the water settled down, Kiku said, “The land is finally levelling.”
I sat up. To the west rose the Fulns, a tall range of jagged hills east of Pukam Forest. Given that much of the coastline consisted of sheer cliffs, their presence the last three hundred miles made finding places to rest problematic. We had to spend the last night in a cave filled with a foot of water. Now that the Fulns curved inland, we had a view of Yong-Yin’s coastline.
According to Kiku, the Yong-Yin Nation existed more as a collection of city-states than a true unified kingdom, only acting together when a common enemy endangered their welfare. Power struggles between city-states, while as common as anywhere else, rarely lasted long enough to rope in their neighbors. A kind of council of judges mediated over these disputes, often doling out severe punishments to those that didn’t comply with their rulings, which usually came in the form of increased taxes on a traded item or material.
Except for a planned stop at a port city to buy supplies and new clothes for Kiku, most of Yong-Yin would be avoided as we traveled to the Siti Bin River, a journey of about a week on foot. From the river we could take advantage of Akachii again for a couple of days before encroaching on Shia territory.
An hour after noticing the land flattening toward the waterline, the outlines of villages came into view, along with a greater concentration of ships sailing north and southward. The destination and launching point of many of these boats was Thiet, the biggest port city in the region. Since sea trade with Jegeru was Thiet’s foremost reason for existence, it would be the first foreign city to suffer from the upheaval in Jegeru.
Without the worry of a serious invasion from an external enemy for most of its history, it came as no surprise to see that the city had no wall defending it. Kiku had Akachii drop us off outside the city proper, allowing us the chance to dry off in our walk to the town and not attract undue notice at the busy docks.
Seeing the natives fishing, chatting, and roving the road prompted Kiku to say, “Funny, isn’t it? We left a kingdom in crises only a few days ago, and here no one is the wiser to the danger at their doorstep. They should all be running, shouldn’t they?”
“Maybe, but at least they have plenty of natural barriers between them and Jegeru. If the Advent want to go on the offensive, then Wregor will be the ones in immediate danger.”
“True, true. Hmm, I just realized something.”
“What?”
“Thiet is a nest for pirates. Jegeru refugees will be fleeced once they get here.”
“Nothing we can do about that.”
“Really? Interesting…”
“What now?”
“Nothing. I just expected a dragon knight to be more, well, knightly.”
“Disappointed?”
“No. It’s just that my master warned us to tread lightly around your ‘unbendable honor,’ but it seems he might have been wrong about that. Now it makes sense why you sounded more receptive to corrupting yourself than I first imagined.”
“That should still be treated lightly, especially if you ever meet my friends. My honor tends to become clearer around them.”
“Ah, the princess, right?”
“She’s part of it. How bendable is your honor? Do I want to know what your master requires of you?”
“My master requires nothing of me. I can ignore his wisdom if I so wished.”
“But you don’t.”
“Mortals need strong leadership. I admit I am no leader, and the gods of day and night have done nothing for my sake, so I follow the only words that have ever cared that I existed. Yes, I’ve had to perform deeds few beings would consider honorable to gain liberty from my family, and I would do it again and again.”
“So you killed them?”
“Just my uncle. I poisoned both him and my mother, but only my uncle ended up dying. The malice churning in my mother must have been stronger than the snake’s venom. No matter, I enjoyed how sick it made her. That’s when I picked up my brother and ran.”
“I thought you said he died when you were still with your family?”
Kiku looked at the ground. “Yes. He was already dead when I grabbed him.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“I waited too long. I still thought being a good girl would bring me some kind of good fortune… then came the day I noticed little Mitsu’s chest had stopped rising and falling.” She stared forward again. “Everything became so clear after that.”
“That doesn’t sound too far from justice to me.”
“I imagine my uncle’s children and wife disagree. They believed him to be a good man, which had me believing the same for a while. I must have been the one making a mistake. My mother would have stopped him if the pain wasn’t supposed to happen. I even remember telling him to touch me in his special way sometimes, so how could it be my fault? It took someone worshiping the gods of strife to show me my delusion, and I waited too long to heed their guidance. That won’t happen again.”
“I suppose you could have just ran instead of trying to kill them, but I won’t be the one condemning you.”
Perking back up, she said, “I knew you’d understand. Orda needs a few people like us.”
“Grand conclusions are beyond me. Let’s just take this one step at a time, Kiku.”
She jumped forward with both feet. “What about two steps?!”
My multitude of single steps took us to the town’s business district. We received directions from the locals, who mostly spoke the shared tongue. Teaching the Yong-Yin populace the shared tongue seemed to be a way to deter the city-states from becoming too isolated and independent from one another. It must have also been an answer to Wregor’s attempt to spread their tongue over the southern continent.
Being that they lived far from armies and other major city-states, the town’s people emanated a mellow, friendly attitude I appreciated. It wasn’t often I witnessed laborers and farmhands intermingling with those whose hands touched parchment more than tools and animal guts. Pirates may have made this place their haunt, but they appeared to keep their misdeeds at se
a. I felt very sorry that the outside world would shortly intrude upon them, and I would leave it to the incoming refugees to break the bad news.
Kiku carried a small coin purse that she kept tied around her thigh. Spending some of her silver standards and trading in her tight orange dress bought her a dark purple traveler’s cloak, a loose-fitting green dress to go underneath, and simple leather shoes. The new, less confining clothing did little to unbalance her symmetry. Kiku claimed her only talent concerning combat was running away from it, but she could handle a dagger pretty well if the need arose, so I bought her a couple baby blades to hold on to.
In addition, I made her buy a small knapsack to put some of the food we procured for our future journey. In response to this day’s hunger we asked around for a good inn and ordered simmering bowls of noodles and beef. As the food was being prepared, I learned from a fellow patron that Thiet maintained a courier office that could send messages to Shia, and thus assumed Shia could send that message across the Wregor Sea. It promised to be a costly two letters, one of which was a backup that would be sent the next day, but I needed to apprise Odet and the others about my situation.
With the narrow bed, little table, and stool taking up most of the borrowed space, my room was less impressive than the food, not that needed it to be anything other than practical. On the table I wrote my letter on the parchment I bought earlier, then headed out to drop it off at the courier office. I did not explicitly state it, but I hoped the guild master would read my hints well enough to begin contacting other guild houses and getting them to organize their warriors for a possible mission in Jegeru.
The young woman that took my letter had to get her employer to confirm the price of a missive meant for the Warriors Guild in Tawahori. My austere bearing and northerner appearance had him assuming I belonged to the guild, so I used that imparted authority to get myself a little reduction in the fee. With a combination of humans, horses, pigeons, and ships to transport my message, I expected it would take anywhere from ten days to a fortnight for the guild to receive my words.
The Dragon Knight and the Light Page 13