A small shack stood at the end of the yard as if it had been tossed there some time ago along with the boulders. Trysten reached for the hilt of her sword. “Whoever lives there probably won’t be happy to see us.”
“Should we at least introduce ourselves before we draw weapons? First impressions count, you know,” Kaylar suggested.
“Tell you what. You sneak around that shack, up along the boulders. We might need your aim again. I’ll knock on the door if no one comes out sooner,” Trysten said. “But first, I’m going to try to free Ulbeg.”
Kaylar nodded, her face hard and resolute. She stepped back up around the boulders and disappeared.
Ulbeg let out another cry and lowered his head to the ground. His wings trembled as he stretched them out. He was in pain. Discomfort and pain crawled and sparked through Trysten between her shoulders and beneath her neck. The harness had been on Ulbeg a long time, and it was causing issues with the scales underneath.
“We’ll get that off you soon, boy. I promise,” Trysten whispered. She edged forward, her hand stretched out to the dragon. She wished for him to remain quiet and still. Ulbeg lifted his head and folded his wings against his back, obeying his dragoneer.
Trysten resisted the urge to glance up along the line of boulders. Instead, she focused on the wooden door of the shack. She watched for any sign of activity. Hopefully, whoever had taken Ulbeg wasn’t inside.
No such luck.
The door swung open. A woman stepped out and raised a bow as she pulled back on an arrow. “Need something?”
Trysten stopped. She held her hands out at either side, palms open. “I was passing through, and I saw your dragon. It’s unusual to see such a beast out here.”
A bough cracked above. The woman glanced to the tops of the trees over Trysten’s head before returning her glare to Trysten. “What of it?”
“I was hoping to buy such a dragon.”
“He’s not for sale.”
Trysten listened for any sign of Kaylar’s progress. The hordesman was deathly silent. How much longer did Trysten need to stall?
“Where did you get him? I might like to speak to the merchant who can deal in domestic dragons.”
“I got him from my husband,” the woman said.
“Might I speak with him?” Trysten asked.
“He’s dead.”
Trysten nodded. “My condolences.”
“Anything else I can do for you, or are you just waiting to feel the tip of my arrow?”
Trysten peered into the deep green eyes of Ulbeg. Rast was still alive as far as the courier dragon was concerned.
“I’m willing to pay a good price for such a dragon,” Trysten said as she looked back to the woman. “Can you tell me anything about how to get such a dragon? How did your husband come across the merchant who sold him this dragon?”
“I think you’ve wasted enough of my time. You want to buy a dragon, I suggest you go to the mother city,” the woman said. She was becoming agitated.
“They don’t sell dragons there. Dragons aren’t for sale in a place like that.”
“Well they’re not for sale in a place like this, either. Now I’d like to see the backside of you from a growing distance. Move.”
Trysten nodded. She took several steps back. Ulbeg whined again and lowered his head. The woman’s eyes shifted to the dragon, then back to Trysten. Overhead, wild dragons made a ruckus tumbling through the canopy. Several tufts of pine needles drifted down, followed by a small bough that crashed to the ground between them.
The woman pulled back her bowstring a tiny bit more. “Who are you?”
“Me?” Trysten asked. “I’m nobody. I’m just a traveler passing through. A merchant down on her luck. I’m looking for swift passage back to the mother city.”
“You’re no merchant,” the woman said. “Anyone with eyes could see as much.”
Trysten’s eyes darted to the side of the shack opposite of the boulders. There, Kaylar crept along the wall in slow, careful steps, her bow in hand, an arrow notched.
The woman glanced to her right, to the corner of the shack. As she was about to turn that way, a wild dragon let out a high, keening screech. Two of them fell from the canopy, wrapped in a knot of wings and scales. One disengaged and zipped away while the other slammed into the dirt on his back. The thing whipped his tale and rolled over onto his claws before jumping up into the air and taking off after the other.
“Put it down,” Kaylar said as she stepped around the corner and took aim at the woman.
The woman stared at Kaylar a second longer, then drew her bowstring back a little further yet. “I might run your friend through if you let your arrow fly.”
“You might miss,” Kaylar said. “I won’t.” She drew back her bowstring a tiny bit more.
The dark-haired woman relaxed her bowstring, then lowered her arm.
Chapter 19
The dark-haired woman glared at Kaylar. “What do you want?” she asked, turning to include Trysten in the question. “I ain’t got nothing for you to steal. And that dragon won’t do you no good. He’s an obstinate little cuss.”
Trysten moved across the yard. “Where is the dragon’s rider?”
“Why?” The woman’s shoulders tensed slightly.
“I want to speak to him.”
The woman’s back stiffened. She looked as if she were trying to make herself big enough to block the door to her shack.
Trysten looked around the woman. There was nothing remarkable about the interior of the shack. It appeared neat and modestly clean. The planks along the wall were stained with years of dust and smoke.
“I don’t know where he’s at,” the woman continued. She nodded at Ulbeg. “He was my husband’s. Got him from a merchant. Fool.”
Trysten looked over her shoulder at Ulbeg. The courier dragon lowered his head again and let out a low whine, and then snapped his attention up at the wild dragons as they tumbled through the canopy again. Boughs danced, and pine needles rained to the dirt in a drifting shower.
“He’s a fine dragon,” Trysten said as she turned back to the woman. “Just a little too much time on the ground, tied to a tree.”
The woman’s gaze narrowed. “Who are you?”
“I’m Trysten of Aerona, Dragoneer of Aerona weyr.”
The woman’s eyes grew wide in surprise, and her lips parted with an audible click. “You’re the woman dragoneer?”
Trysten lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve heard of me?”
The woman looked away, off to the boulders. Her face flushed a bit before she looked back at Trysten. “You have a hordesman named Rast.”
Trysten nodded.
“How did you find me?” the woman asked.
“I was flying over. I caught a glimpse of Ulbeg.”
The woman looked up. Her eyes squinted at the dappled light that prodded through the pine boughs. “Where’s your dragon, now? The alpha?”
“She’s waiting for me. We couldn’t land our dragons down here. We had to land them elsewhere and walk in.”
The woman snapped her attention to Kaylar. “Dragons? You have one, too?”
Kaylar relaxed her grip on her bowstring some. She nodded. “Her name is Verillium.”
“Verillium,” the woman said, the syllables bubbling over her lips. “What a pretty name. Unlike him.” She nodded in Ulbeg’s direction, then turned her attention back to Trysten. “Can I have a dragon? Can I ride in your horde?”
“As a hordesman?” Trysten asked.
The woman nodded. She lifted her bow as if to present it, to show Trysten she would be a worthy hordesman. “I’m an ace shot. I wouldn’t have missed you. I’d have gotten you right through the heart.”
Trysten’s fingers went up to the pendant around her neck, resting over her heart between her skin and her tunic and riding armor.
“I can’t say that I’m sorry I missed that,” Trysten said. “But it takes more than skill with a bow to be a hordesman. It takes absolu
te honesty as well.”
The woman’s eyes dropped away, and her cheeks flushed.
“Where is Rast?” Trysten asked.
The woman stepped back, out of the doorway.
Trysten and Kaylar pushed in. Off to the right, Rast lay stretched out on a bed.
“He’s asleep,” the woman said behind them. “I give him some herbs with his lunch. It helps him rest. He has a lot of pain.”
Trysten whirled around. “Pain? What happened?”
“I didn’t do it,” the woman said as she held up her hands. “There was an accident. We were walking along some treacherous paths. Up high. And he... He slipped. Fell. Broke his leg. Cracked his ribs and his arm. He’s in sore shape, but I’ve been looking after him.”
“I didn’t catch your name,” Trysten said.
“Mayem,” the woman said and said no more.
“Mayem,” Trysten repeated. She nodded. “Thank you for caring for him. This is Kaylar of Aerona.”
Kaylar nodded, then looked at Rast as if waiting for him to do something.
“He told me about you,” Mayem said. “He told me that he was a hordesman and that he served a woman dragoneer. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought he was funning me.”
“How long will he be asleep?” Trysten asked. “I want to speak with him.”
“Rast!” the woman hollered loudly. Trysten and Kaylar both jumped. “Rast! Wake your lazy backside!”
Rast stirred. His head lolled to the side, and then his eyes opened slowly. He looked up at Trysten, and then his eyes snapped open wide.
“Trysten?” he croaked.
Trysten grinned. “I decided I’d never see you again unless I came looking for you.”
Rast looked over at Kaylar and then attempted to push himself to a sitting position on the bed. He grimaced, then fell back against a pillow of patched and worn fabric.
“Don’t bother,” Trysten said as she held out a hand to still him. “I heard that you’re pretty banged up.”
Rast peered up at the ceiling. He blinked, then swallowed. “I fell off a trail. We were high up in the mountains.”
“He tried to save my husband’s life,” Mayem said.
Rast nodded.
“What happened?” Kaylar asked.
“It’s a long story,” Rast said. He then looked to Trysten. “You have to get word to the mother city. There is an army amassing in the forest—”
“I know,” Trysten said. “We’ve already dealt with them.”
Rast blinked in confusion. “Already?”
“They marched on the village,” Kaylar said. “They didn’t make it. And most didn’t live to regret it.”
Rast visibly relaxed. “How? How did you turn them back?”
“Some brilliant planning,” Kaylar said. “Courtesy of our dragoneer.”
Rast looked to Trysten, his expression a mix of confusion and disbelief. “What about their staging area?”
“What of it?” Trysten asked.
“Did you route them from it? We need a find a way to stop the pass.”
“The pass? No. Prince Aymon is on the other side. He took a swell of four full hordes with him. He’s going to deliver—”
“Hordes? He took hordes? No.” Rast shook his head. Deep bags hung beneath his eyes. “We’re not talking about the same thing.”
Trysten’s breath stopped. “What do you mean?”
“There’s another pass. A second one. Just south of here. It’s how the army is getting into the kingdom. But it’s up high, and there is a network of tunnels cut into the mountain itself. There is no way to get dragons through. Men only. And these beasts that they have. Huge things. They fit through the tunnels, but just barely.”
Trysten frowned. What in the wilds was he talking about?
“They’ve been coming through for some time now,” Rast went on. “Building up an invasion force. They have an encampment to the south of here. A fort hidden in the woods. Not far from the border between Aerona’s territory and Hollin’s.
“Dear sky,” Kaylar gasped.
Rast nodded. “It’s why they took out Hollin. To keep their patrols from discovering it. And why they tried to take us out as well. I tried to get word to you—”
“I couldn’t leave him,” Mayem blurted out. “What was I to do? I would have brought you the message, but I don’t know how to fly a dragon, and I couldn’t leave him alone anyway even if I did know. You can’t blame me.”
“No one’s blaming you,” Trysten said over her shoulder.
“I thought of tying a message to Ulbeg and letting him go,” Rast went on, “but I was afraid he wouldn’t make it. An unmanned courier alone in the sky is a tempting target should he come across a Western patrol. I didn’t want them to find the note and force their hand.”
“Good thinking,” Trysten said.
“I was nursing him back to health as fast as I could,” Mayem went on, her voice rising in pitch. “I would have had him on his feet in a few weeks, honest.”
“I believe you,” Trysten said over her shoulder again.
“He can only heal so fast. He broke himself up trying to save my husband’s life,” Mayem went on.
“It’s all right,” Kaylar said as she stepped closer to Mayem. She laid a hand upon the short woman’s shoulder. “We believe you. You did the best you could. We’re thankful that you kept him alive.”
“I can’t go back to the weyr,” Rast said. “Not yet. There’s no way I can fly.”
“Can we put you over Verillium?” Kaylar asked. “That’s how we got Prince Aymon back to Aerona.”
“Prince Aymon?” Rast asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Kaylar said. “You’ve missed a lot.”
Rast looked back and forth between Trysten and Kaylar. The look of confusion on his face deepened. As Trysten opened her mouth to explain as quickly as she could, Rast shook his head. “It doesn’t matter right now. I can’t stand. You can’t carry me down the mountainside. And you certainly can’t put me on a dragon.”
“He has broken ribs,” Mayem said, gesturing at him as if his presence was proof enough of this. “He fell off a trail. A high trail.”
“You have to get word to the mother city,” Rast said. “Now. You have to tell them about the fort. The King has to send an army. Two of them. The Western kingdom is set on invading Cadwaller. You have to warn the King.”
Trysten nodded. Her head spun with the information, but something wasn’t adding up. She turned to Mayem. “How long ago did your husband die?” she asked.
“It’s been twelve days. No, thirteen,” the woman said.
Trysten looked back at Rast. “Twenty-two days ago, a Western army of a thousand or more soldiers marched on Aerona. We defeated the army, although many soldiers retreated. Are you telling me that was not the army you saw?”
Rast nodded. “I don’t know if it was the same army, but I saw soldiers at the staging area after that.”
She turned back to Mayem. “Can you take me to the staging area? I want to see this fort.”
Mayem’s eyes grew wide. She shook her head. “I don’t dare. We barely escaped the last time we went there.”
“No,” Rast said with a shake of his head. “You have to warn the King. Send word first.”
“We can do that,” Kaylar said. “We can go back to Aerona, dispatch a courier, then come back here. We’ll want to come back here, right? There are things Rast will need.”
Mayem shuffled half a step closer to Kaylar. “I’m taking good care of him,” she went on, her voice nearly pleading.
“We know you are,” Kaylar said. Her grip tightened on the woman’s shoulder slightly. “We appreciate it. And we want to bring you some things. As a show of our appreciation.”
Kaylar looked about the tiny shack quickly. “Food. Clothing. Anything you need.”
“Protection,” Trysten added as she thought of the wildmen they had encountered on their way down the mountain.
“I don’t need protecti
on,” Mayem said with a shake of her head. “I’m good with a bow. I could have undone your braids from where we stood.”
“It’s a good idea,” Trysten said to Kaylar, and then turned her attention back to Rast. “The rest of the horde is looking for a Western horde to the south of here. Do you think they could see the fort from the air?”
Rast shook his head. “I can’t say. I wouldn’t dare fly over it on Ulbeg, but from what I’ve seen of it, it’s camouflaged really well. The fortifications aren’t very formidable. It was meant to be invisible, rather than defensible.”
“Their mistake,” Kaylar said.
Trysten drew in a deep breath, and her fingertips traced the outline of the pendant beneath her armor. She turned to Mayem. “When I come back you’ll show me this fort.”
Mayem shook her head. “Don’t need to. You can follow their road.”
“Their road?”
“Down the hill,” Mayem said, then pointed toward the east. “You’ll come across it. But you be careful. You’ll come across them, too. The road was quiet for a long time, but it picked back up a couple of weeks ago. Quieted down again some now, but you never know.”
Trysten’s stomach tightened. “Picked back up? Which direction? Where is everyone going?”
“Back to their fort,” Mayem said. She pointed to the south. “Though not nearly as many as what made the road in the first place. Hundreds of them. Came with bunchbacks.”
“Bunchbacks?” Kaylar asked.
“They’re like oxen,” Rast said. “But much larger. And gray. Shaggy. Hard to see their faces in all that hair. Funny looking things.”
“Yeah,” Mayem said as if considering whether or not Rast’s description worked. “But there wasn’t anything funny about them when they went by headed north. Loaded down. In places, they had to fell trees to get them through. All night and day. Hack hack hack. Chop chop chop.” She chipped away at the air before her with the side of her hand. “Hard to miss their road thanks to them things.”
“And now they’re coming back,” Trysten said. “And they don’t have their bunchbacks, do they?”
Mayem shook her head. “Don’t know where they left them, but they ain’t coming back with them. And ain’t but a handful of men going by as compared to the last time.”
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