Rinbok was so still he could have been mistaken for a statue. He had been preparing to leap at the Zweigelan but now he was mired in place, as though he had become stuck in his gold. He was staring straight at the humans. More specifically, at Sarah.
“No one accuses me of cowardice.”
Sarah held her ground. “Prove it.”
“I should kill you now,” Rinbok growled.
“You could,” Sarah agreed. “But you won’t. You’re the king. As the king you will do the right thing.”
“Lord,” Steve corrected again.
“Fine, whatever. So, Dragon Lord, what are you going to do?” Sarah gave a quick glance back at Syrreth and Ferreth. “Are you ready to listen to those two?”
“Your point is taken. Very well. Syrreth. Ferreth. Step forward.”
Syrreth cast a worried look down at Sarah while Ferreth looked back at Pryllan, who gave an encouraging nod of her head.
“My Lord,” Syrreth began, “we regret our participation in a plan designed to bring about the downfall of every wyverian in this land.”
“Including you, too,” Steve reminded him.
Both of the Zweigelan’s heads nodded in agreement.
“Since we have also been stricken by this curse,” Ferreth angrily added, “we are not sure whether our inclusion was intentional or accidental.”
“Tell me what you know about this curse,” Rinbok demanded. His eyes darted from the Zweigelan’s left head, over to the right, and then back to the left. “Which of you speaks matters not. However, one of you will speak.”
“We felt his anger,” Syrreth told them all. “They were so very angry, even more so than we ever were.”
“Who was?” Steve asked.
“The other Zweigelan forced to join the Collective.”
“Ah.”
“More than you?” a small voice piped up.
Rinbok Intherer cocked his head as he stared at Pryllan. His eyes scanned over her back and paused near the juncture of her wings. He approached Pryllan and glanced down. Once he found the owner of the voice, and had noted Pravara’s frightened expression on her face, his attitude softened.
“What are you doing down there, young one? Why are you riding your mother’s back?”
Pravara hesitantly stood up on her mother’s back. Two fearful golden eyes peered up at the much larger adult gazing down at her.
“She made me do it. I tried to tell her I’m not a baby anymore.”
“Indeed you’re not.” Rinbok stepped away from Pryllan in an effort to allow the dragonlet to calm down. “Are there any other members of your party hiding about?”
“Nope, that’s all of us,” Steve jovially answered.
“Quiet,” Sarah scolded. “Syrreth was telling us his story.”
Rinbok shared a brief sympathetic look with Steve, who nodded his appreciation.
“Go on.”
“Where were we?” Syrreth asked as he looked at Ferreth.
Ferreth looked with disgust at his twin.
“Your memory is terrible.”
“Yours is worse,” Syrreth accused.
“Guys!” Steve shouted as he waved his arms to get their attention. “Focus! The second Zweigelan. He was mad. We get it. What else? Did he ever say anything to you?”
“He spoke to us only once after his assimilation,” Ferreth recalled. “Cryptic, it was.”
“What did he tell you?” Steve asked.
“That we will be free soon enough.”
Sarah looked at Steve. “Does that sound like he was holding a grudge against them?”
Steve shook his head. “Not to me it doesn’t. Syrreth and Ferreth getting hit by the curse had to be just an accident.”
“Or…”
Six heads, five of them dragon and one human, turned to look at Sarah, who had just sat down on one of Pryllan’s talons.
“Before I go into that, let me ask another question. Do we know if the second Zweigelan had been hit by the curse?”
Steve shrugged. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“If number two wasn’t infected,” Sarah explained, “then it would suggest that numbers two and three are getting their revenge against Syrreth and Ferreth for spilling the beans.”
Pryllan caught Steve’s eye.
I’m not familiar with that phrase. Spilling the beans?
Um, it pertains to Syrreth and Ferreth disclosing their whereabouts to Rinbok.
Oh. Thanks.
You bet.
Rinbok began nodding.
“I understand. If the second is also stricken then that would indicate a hidden agenda for the third.”
“Or else they were double-crossed by whoever cast the spell,” Steve casually added. “Maybe the spellcaster also has a grudge against the dragons. All dragons. Be that as it may, what I want to know is this: why’s this curse acting like a virus? Why not just hit all dragons at the same time? Why stretch it out like this? And why are there still unaffected dragons, like Pryllan? Does this make sense to anyone else?”
“I have become stricken as well,” Pryllan quietly informed the group.
Steve cursed loudly while Sarah gasped with alarm.
“Are you sure?” her rider asked, genuinely concerned. “You used your fire earlier today.”
“I believe it happened not long after that,” Pryllan sadly told him.
Pravara stirred on her back.
“Mother, are you sick?”
Pryllan hesitated, unsure what she should tell her dragonlet.
“For now, yes,” Steve confirmed, answering for her. “Don’t worry. It’s only temporary. She’s going to get better soon. Very soon, if I have anything to say about it.”
Satisfied with that answer, the young dragon fell silent.
“So we don’t know how the dragons fall victim,” Sarah added, exasperated. “Let it go. The fact of the matter is that they are falling victim and there aren’t many more unaffected dragons. For all we know it could be whenever someone tries to use the Collective. You never know.”
“The human female is right,” Rinbok’s deep voice boomed. “How the curse spreads is irrelevant. How to break the curse is top priority. Syrreth, Ferreth, any information, anything at all would be helpful. Have you anything to add?”
“We do not know any of the curse’s nuances,” Syrreth explained, his voice tightening. “We are affected as well.”
Steve and Sarah shared a look with each other.
“He really doesn’t like Rinbok,” Steve whispered to his wife. “You can see it in his eyes and his body language.”
“And also by the fact that he really hasn’t stopped glaring at Rinbok ever since arriving here. I’ve been watching him.”
Steve straightened. “Let’s get to the bottom of this. Syrreth and Ferreth, what do you have against Rinbok?”
Two reptilian noses lifted into the air. Syrreth looked away while Ferreth dropped his gaze to the ground. Neither head said anything.
“Come on, guys,” Steve pressed, “if you ever want to clear the air between the two of you then you need to come clean. Tell him. Tell him why you’re angry with him.”
Ferreth slowly lifted his gaze from the mass of gold coins on the ground and met Rinbok’s eyes.
“Lost our loyalty, you did, many hundreds of years ago.”
Pryllan checked to see what Rinbok’s expression was. She sighed. The Dragon Lord hadn’t moved a muscle.
“Go on,” Rinbok urged.
“Went poorly, it did,” Syrreth remembered.
“What did?” Rinbok asked.
“Our first meeting,” Ferreth answered.
“What happened on our first meeting?” Rinbok asked, curious.
“Do you remember anything out of the ordinary?” Steve inquired, looking up at Rinbok’s enormous head.
Rinbok was silent as he thought back, centuries ago, to the first meeting he had ever had with a Zweigelan.
“I was young,” the Dragon Lord rec
alled. “I had just been bequeathed my regency. There was much to learn and little time to learn it. I do not remember much about our first meeting. Will you tell me what happened?”
“We were there at the urging of Dirgis,” Syrreth reminded him, citing Rinbok’s predecessor.
“We had just introduced ourselves when you said it,” Ferreth said with disgust.
Rinbok’s interest was piqued, as was everyone else’s.
“What was said?”
Both Syrreth and Ferreth gazed impassively at the wyverian ruler.
“Thought you were far enough away, you did,” Ferreth spat. “Said it in a loud enough tone, you did.”
“Said what?” Rinbok demanded, growing angry.
“You said that Zweigelans were freaks and didn’t deserve to call themselves ‘wyverians’.”
Shocked, Pryllan stared with undisguised disgust at the only wyverian ruler she had ever known. She noticed that everyone else’s reaction mirrored her own. In fact, even the Dragon Lord had reacted similarly.
“I do not recall ever saying that.”
“We do,” Syrreth informed him.
Sarah stepped out from behind Steve and confronted the Dragon Lord.
“Shame on you! Just because Syrreth and Ferreth are a little different doesn’t give you the right to disgrace them. They’re your cousins. They are wyverians. They deserve to be treated with the same respect you extend to every other dragon.”
Rinbok growled and brought his nose down so that he was practically face-to-face with Sarah, who inadvertently took a few steps back.
“Are you quite finished?”
Sarah swallowed nervously.
“Yes.”
“Good. Now, I said before I don’t remember saying that. That being said, Syrreth and Ferreth, I hereby apologize for my disparaging remarks. They were words spoken by an immature and selfish wyverian who had no business judging another creature by their looks alone. Can you forgive me?”
Speechless, Syrreth and Ferreth could only nod.
“I realize now that more tact should have been taken with your inclusion into our Collective,” Rinbok continued. He glanced somewhat sheepishly around his cave of treasure. He gave a great sigh and turned to face his guests. “I regret my actions have brought about this curse. Syrreth, Ferreth, will you help me rectify this situation?”
“We will, my Lord,” Syrreth instantly agreed.
Ferreth bowed his head before the Dragon Lord and began to speak.
“My Lord, we felt our cousin’s rage when he was captured. He tried to resist with every fiber of his being.”
Sensing the potential for a long story, Sarah returned the two of them to Pryllan’s back so they could settle down next to Pravara, who nestled up against Steve’s side and fell asleep.
“Don’t say it,” Steve whispered when Sarah smiled.
“How many Zweigelans existed back then?” Pryllan asked. “Did they all know about Rinbok Intherer’s remarks?”
The Dragon Lord shuffled uneasily as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“There were five of us then,” Syrreth told her. “Two have since passed. One from old age and the other was defeated in an ill-advised move to claim a new cave. The Zweigelan’s allegiance to wyverian rule was broken that day. We vowed to remain hidden and stay away from other dragons, thus avoiding drawing any attention to ourselves. Over time it worked. We were forgotten.”
“No, you weren’t,” Rinbok assured him. “We knew of your existence.”
Ferreth nodded. “Aye, but without a reason to seek us out, we were not worth the effort to locate us. So in this fashion, we lived. For hundreds of years.”
“Without anyone to talk to?” Pryllan asked, appalled. “No family to turn to? No support from your brethren? It is a sad way to live.”
“We learned to rely on ourselves,” Syrreth told them. “Everything we needed we found in each other.”
“After the other was forced into the Collective,” Ferreth continued, “the third sent the first message we have received from them in centuries. They knew of a human who could help. For the right price, that is.”
“How in the world did they ever make contact with a renegade wizard?” Sarah wanted to know. “I would think a two-headed dragon slinking around one of the villages would have been noticed.”
“They weren’t the ones who made initial contact,” Ferreth clarified. “They had recently learned, from a victim, of the wizard’s existence and his penchant for gold and jewels. They gave an informant a jewel to give to the wizard in exchange for a meeting.”
“So the wizard met with them and not the other way around?” Steve nodded. “Smart. They could then pick and choose when and where to meet.” He raised an eyebrow. “Are we sure Shardwyn doesn’t have any other sons?”
Sarah smiled and shook her head. She elbowed him in the stomach.
“Quiet. Listen to what Ferreth is saying.”
“Right. Sorry.”
Ferreth had paused his narrative while he waited for the humans to fall silent.
“Contact was made,” Ferreth continued. “The wizard said he’d be willing to cast the curse.”
Syrreth suddenly growled. “For a hefty price.”
Ferreth nodded. “Aye. He wanted gold. More gold than the third Zweigelan had. The wizard refused to negotiate. If this curse was to be powerful enough to ensnare all dragons then he wanted to be compensated appropriately. We all contributed.”
“My gems,” Syrreth moaned. “All of my horde of treasure was confiscated and given to that human.”
“Yes, we know!” Ferreth snapped irritably. “You can always get more. Pester us no more with this nonsense!”
“Every last piece of gold…”
Ferreth glanced apologetically up at the humans still on Pryllan’s back.
“He still hasn’t forgiven them. Moans incessantly about his loss, he does.”
“You weren’t required to surrender any of your collection as payment,” Syrreth angrily reminded him.
“Had it been requested, then I would have.”
“Liar!”
“Am not!”
Pryllan stared at the two bickering heads then returned her gaze to Rinbok. The Dragon Lord was staring at the Zweigelan with a look of annoyance in his eyes.
“Where is this wizard?” Rinbok’s voice boomed out. “If he cast the curse then he can break it.”
“We don’t know,” Ferreth admitted.
“We really don’t,” Syrreth confirmed. “We were never told.”
“Do any of the other two know where to find him?” Steve asked.
The Zweigelan gave the closest approximation of a shrug that they could. “That is unknown. We only know that it was the third Zweigelan who brokered the deal.”
“Tell me where the third Zweigelan is now,” Rinbok demanded.
“We would if we could,” Ferreth added, eliciting an appreciative look from its twin. “However, we cannot. We do not know.”
“Sounds like number two knows where number three is,” Steve guessed. “I say we find him. He should be able to help us find the third one.”
“What makes you think he will?” Sarah countered. “It sounds like he was madder than Syrreth and Ferreth ever were. I don’t think we can count on his help.”
“We were against rendering aid,” Syrreth reminded her. “Now we give our aid. Freely.”
Sarah nodded. “Point taken. So where’s the second Zweigelan at? What’s his last known location?”
“Ylani,” Rinbok answered. He shook himself to dislodge the last remaining gold coins that were stuck in his thick scales. “In the mountains north of Barod.”
Steve sighed and turned to Sarah. “I assume that’s a long ways away? You can teleport us all there, right?”
“Just because I saw a picture of the castle at Zaran, their capital, doesn’t mean I can just randomly teleport to any city up there.”
“I know that. Sorry. What I mean
is, if you saw a picture of the city, could you get us there?”
Sarah shrugged. “If there’s a picture, possibly. The problem is, the picture would have to be so good that I could visualize Barod in my head. Even then it’d be a stretch, and that’s just for us. Trying to teleport two dragons that far north would be too taxing on my jhorun. I don’t think I could do it.”
“I don’t think we’d need any wyverian help,” Steve argued. “Teleporting just the two of us shouldn’t be too bad, should it?”
“Do you really think we’d have a chance? Everyone here knows we’re friends of the dragons, but do you think this other Zweigelan knows this? The way I see it we’re going to need to have some help.”
“We would have to accompany you,” Syrreth guessed.
Sarah turned to Syrreth and smiled. “Yes. With you two with us then we might have a chance to hear what he has to say before they try to kill us.”
“So Syrreth and Ferreth are going,” Steve decided. He looked up at huge green dragon he had come to know so well. “And I don’t want to leave Pryllan behind, either. Especially since Pravara’s safety is tied directly with hers. We already know Pryllan’s been hit by this curse so the last thing we need is for her to get worse and leave Pravara unprotected. So she stays with us, too.”
Pryllan felt an immense wave of gratitude flow through her as moments ago she had had similar thoughts about not wanting to be left behind. With both her and Kahvel suffering from the effects of the Zweigelan curse, if they were unsuccessful in breaking it, then the duties of raising Pravara would fall to… Well, they would fall to…
We’d be honored to look after her for you if it comes to it, Steve’s thought spoke to her. For the record, you shouldn’t be thinking such negative thoughts like this.
I specifically made sure my senses weren’t being shared, Pryllan thought back to him. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep my thoughts private. An effect of the curse?
Sarah approached and laid a hand on one of her massive forelegs.
We’ll beat this yet, Sarah vowed. We promise. I promise.
Something Wyverian This Way Comes Page 14