Outposts

by Vickie Knestaut

  “For all the sky,” Trysten said as she looked up to Kaylar, who stared back with eyes also wide with disbelief.

  “What of it?” Rast asked.

  “The army,” Trysten said as she turned back to Rast. “We defeated the army right outside of Aerona. Many of the soldiers escaped and retreated. We slaughtered their bunchbacks and fed them to the dragons. We thought they went back to the Western kingdom through the Gul Pass.”

  Rast shook his head. “It looks like they came back. They’re just south of here.”

  Trysten nearly trembled with the news.

  “We have to tell someone,” Kaylar said quietly.

  Trysten nodded in agreement. She looked back to Mayem. “Take care of him. We’ll send supplies. But we have to get word back to the King.”

  “The King?” Mayem asked. She looked ready to take a step backward in either fright or disbelief.

  “The King has to know. This isn’t...” Trysten looked over to Kaylar. “I don’t know what this is about. This is about more than invading Aerona.”

  Mayem nodded. “It’s an awful lot of trouble for them to go to for just one village. One that I’ve hardly ever heard of before meeting him,” she nodded at Rast.

  “We need to go now,” Trysten offered her hand to Mayem who stared at it a second, and then gingerly took it in own.

  “Thank you,” Trysten said. “Thank you for all you’ve done for Rast. You may have saved the kingdom. We’ll repay you for your efforts.”

  Mayem grinned and blushed. “Can I keep the dragon?” She nodded her head in the direction of Ulbeg.

  “Absolutely not. He’s bonded to my own dragon. We can’t keep them apart. He’s not doing well.”

  Mayem crossed the room and looked out the door at Ulbeg. “No, I suppose not,” she said. “He’s been beside himself to leave ever since Rast there took a tumble.”

  Trysten nodded once, then stepped outside, Kaylar close behind.

  Chapter 20

  After saying goodbye and promising Rast they’d return the next day, Trysten and Kaylar approached Ulbeg. The courier dragon tugged and pulled at his tether. Trysten grimaced at the pain of the leather harness digging into his chest and shoulders. Ulbeg’s pain eclipsed that of her ankle and ribs.

  “Poor thing,” Trysten cooed as she approached.

  “You’re not thinking of riding him back, are you?” Kaylar asked.

  Trysten shook her head. “He’s weak. He could probably carry one of us, but that’d leave the other to walk out of here alone.”

  Kaylar nodded in agreement. “That’s what I thought.”

  Trysten undid the straps of the harness and let it fall to the ground. Underneath, she found what she knew she would find. Scales had been worn away, and raw flesh was exposed. Dried blood ringed some of Ulbeg’s wounds.

  Trysten inhaled a deep breath through clenched teeth at the sight.

  “By the dragon’s breath!” Kaylar spat. “This is no way to treat a dragon!”

  “Go home,” Trysten said, softly patting Ulbeg’s cheek. She filled her mind with thoughts of blue and sky. “Elevera is waiting for you.”

  Ulbeg threw his wings back, flapped them a few times as if testing, and then lunged into the air. As he passed through a gap in the canopy, the wild dragons nipped at him. He let out an irritated roar that shimmered with firebreath. The wild dragons backed off, and then Ulbeg disappeared over the canopy.

  “Bye, Ulbeg!” Mayem shouted behind them.

  Trysten and Kaylar waved to the woman, then started down the mountainside to the edge of The Wilds.

  As soon as they were a short distance from the shack, Kaylar glanced over her shoulder, then asked, “Do you think it’s safe to leave Rast in her care?”

  Trysten resisted a shrug. “He’s survived this long in her care. She may be a bit eccentric, but she seems capable. And she seems to genuinely care for him.”

  “You noticed that, too, huh?” Kaylar chuckled.

  “You mean the way she treated him?” Trysten asked.

  Kaylar shook her head. “Two pillows. Both on the bed.”

  “Kaylar!” Trysten stopped and stared at the hordesman.

  Kaylar shrugged and kept walking. “None of my business. Just something I noticed.”

  Trysten shook her head and hurried her pace, nearly breaking into a run as gravity pulled them down the mountain slope.

  “Are you going to tell King Cadwaller about Prince Aymon?” Kaylar asked.

  Trysten slowed her pace some. A screech and a series of cracks echoed through the canopy above. Trysten looked up in time to see a flash of color pass through the treetops. Boughs waved with the antics of the wild dragons.

  “Fish and birds!” Kaylar spat as she craned her neck back. “Those things sure make it hard to move around the woods without attracting any attention.”

  “They’ve certainly proven their use,” Trysten said as she resumed her pace.

  “Are we taking them home with us?”

  “No. They’re wild dragons. They belong in the trees, not the weyr.”

  Kaylar stopped and stared into the canopy. “They’re cute.” She looked back to Trysten. “I wouldn’t mind keeping one or two of them around the weyr. Can’t you just imagine them in the rafters? If one of them were to land on Verillium’s back while I was riding, I think I’d squeal.”

  Trysten grinned and turned away. “Come on. They’re not ours to take.”

  Pine needles and stones ground underneath Kaylar’s boots as she followed Trysten down the mountainside. “You never answered my question.”

  “What question is that?” Trysten asked.

  “Prince Aymon. You’re going to send a courier to the mother city as soon as we get back home, right? You have to let the King know what is going on. Are you going to tell him that we haven’t seen his son yet, even though we’ve seen a Western horde leave the pass?”

  Trysten didn’t answer right away. She pushed a branch back, then held it as Kaylar stepped past. Once she released it, a brown and yellow wild dragon dropped out of the canopy above and smacked the branch with its tail then retreated to the boughs above.

  “I don’t see that I have much choice,” Trysten said.

  “What do you think he’ll do? He’ll send an army.”

  “I’m going to ask him to send two.”

  “Two?” Kaylar asked.

  Trysten nodded. “This is far bigger than I thought it was. We need their help. We need them. I can’t...” She let it go as she recalled the sight of dragons dropping into the flaming heather and fleeing soldiers before her.

  “Do you think the armies will stop here?” Kaylar asked. “If he thinks his son is dead, I don’t know that they’re going to stop at the border. They’re going to find this other pass and push through, I bet you.”

  Trysten looked up and ahead. Elevera and Verillium were barely visible through breaks in the canopy. They circled, and little Ulbeg did his best to keep up. Even at this distance, she sensed his relief and joy at not only returning to the sky but being with his alpha again.

  The corners of Trysten’s lips turned up.

  Kaylar looked over her shoulder. “What?”

  “What?” Trysten asked.

  Kaylar halted. “That grin. That wasn’t what I was expecting.”

  Trysten nodded to the dragons circling above, out at the edge of The Wilds. “Ulbeg. He’s a happy little fellow. Now.”

  Kaylar looked out in the direction Trysten had indicated. She turned back to Trysten, but none of the dragon’s joy was visible upon her face. “What is this all coming to?” she asked.

  Trysten drew in a deep breath as she peered out over Kaylar’s head. Their dragons were but dark spots caught in glimpses through the canopy as they sailed beneath the gray clouds. A wind passed through the trees overhead, and the whole forest spoke of it, sent shivers down Trysten’s spine. She looked around. There was nothing appealing to her about the woods. They were unsettling at best.

>   “I don’t know,” Trysten said. She continued on, brushing past Kaylar and stomping down the hill as quickly as possible while trying to be stealthy despite the endless bustle and racket from the wild dragons above.

  They traveled in relative silence for a while before they stepped out onto the army’s road. They stopped and peered in both directions along the churned ground. The path had been kicked clean of pine needles. Trees that had fallen across the forest floor had either been trampled into damp splinters to finish rotting, or they had been cut up and dragged aside. In the rubble beneath their feet, they could easily see the deep, round and split tracks of the bunchbacks, like two half moons facing each other. Each hoof print was the size of Trysten’s head.

  Trysten looked to the south, to the point where the road disappeared around a slight rise in the slope. This was definitely more than a mission to get her, the Dragon Lord of Aerona. The Western army had tramped through here as if they owned the place. They had not passed through merely to run an errand or complete a simple task; they had come to stay. Just as Rodden had said.

  She turned to the north. Her chest tightened to think that the road ran through The Wilds, past the place where Chyrvan, Aymon’s first dragon, had died and Trysten and Kaylar had rescued the injured Prince.

  The road went on over the hills and out into the plains before ending in a wide swath of ash and a handmade ridge of stone, rotting flesh, and bones right outside of Aerona.

  This road went all the way to her home. The thought chilled her almost to a stop.

  She looked back to the south. And there, in that direction, rested a fort and a secret pass through which the Western forces had come, big enough for their bunchbacks even.

  To her surprise, Trysten wished Aymon were here now. She missed his expertise. He was never at a loss for an answer, no matter how annoying it may be to hear.

  “Let’s keep moving, all right?” Kaylar asked. She picked her way across the stiff mud, around a large pile of offal.

  A hot rage pulsed deep within Trysten. She had an urge to take off now, to race down the road and find the fort. Tear it apart. Call the dragons from the sky and the dragons from the woods until she stood holding her curved sword before a pile of ash and the remains of those who would hurt her people, her family, and friends. Her dragons.

  Her hand drifted to the hilt of her sword.

  “Trysten!” Kaylar snapped. “Let’s go.”

  Trysten looked back to Kaylar, and then her eyes rose to the sky. The breeze was steady now, the trees constantly swaying in the wind. She would almost forget about the wild dragons shadowing them until she heard them screech, or saw a few of them dart across her path. At one point, a rain of feathers fell down on the forest floor in front of them, and then more screeching tumbled out of the boughs as the dragons fought over food.

  Between the swaying trunks and canopy, Trysten caught glimpses of the plains. Fish and birds, she would be happy to get out of this place with its dank smell and endless noise. They were getting close to the edge of The Wilds now. Elevera, Verillium, and Ulbeg were there, waiting. She sensed them.

  “Trysten? Come on,” Kaylar said. “We need to stay out of sight.” Kaylar looked up and down the road.

  Trysten crossed the road, and it felt like accepting a challenge. This was the line the Western kingdom had drawn, and she was crossing it. Whatever had brought about this war that had lived longer than memory, she would end it. And if she had to, she would find a way to seal every pass in the Cadwaller Mountains. Enough.

  Chapter 21

  The entire horde was waiting for them by the time Trysten and Kaylar stepped out from the edge of The Wilds. Trysten had sensed it long before they caught sight of the Aerona dragons, grounded and milling about with Elevera and Verillium in the center, one on each side of Ulbeg. The courier dragon paced about and flicked his wings in agitation.

  Kaylar ran ahead at a jog. At the sight of them, Paege started in Trysten’s direction.

  “I see you found Ulbeg,” he said as he approached.

  Trysten nodded. “Rast, too. He had to stay behind. He’s too injured to travel, but a friend is taking care of him. What of the enemy horde?”

  Paege drew his shoulders back. “We couldn’t find them.”

  “How far did you fly?”

  “To the Bilbo peak.”

  “Not far enough. They went beyond that. There is an enemy encampment—a fort to the south of there, in Hollin’s territory,” Trysten said.

  “What? How...? Rast?” Paege asked.

  Trysten nodded.

  Paege looked to the southern horizon as if he could suddenly see the fort. He turned back to Trysten. “Should we go find it now?”

  Trysten looked to the south as well. Dark clouds built up over the peaks of the mountains to the south. A storm was about to sweep down the mountainside.

  “What in the wilds?” Paege asked. He stared behind Trysten, his mouth open.

  She looked back to see a ball of wild dragon wings and scales drop from the boughs of an aspen. One dragon shot away before the rest of them hit the ground. The knot of dragons broke up and took off after it.

  “Wild dragons,” Trysten mumbled as she turned back to Paege.

  He rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me...”

  Trysten shrugged, then shook her head. “I don’t know. But we have to get back to Aerona. We have to let King Cadwaller know what the Western kingdom is up to. He has to send soldiers. Armies.”

  Paege looked off to the south again. A gust of wind blew the hair back from his face. He squinted, and in the light fading behind the growing storm clouds, Trysten saw the paths of wrinkles that would soon emerge alongside his eyes. Crows feet from squinting into the wind and sun, always on the lookout. Always on guard.

  Suddenly sad, Trysten stepped past her commander. “Storm’s coming. Let’s ride,” she said.

  As they neared the weyr yard, rain began to fall on Elevera’s outstretched wings. A rumble of thunder rolled down the side of the Cadwaller mountains and lumbered across the plains.

  Trysten gripped the lip of the saddle with numb fingers as Elevera landed. The pitch of the rain changed, diminishing in intensity as the alpha folded her wings behind her, then rose and fell as the rest of the horde landed and the dragons all folded their outstretched wings.

  “Oh, they’ll never forgive you for this!” Borsal called as he dashed into the yard. “Flying in the rain! Such indignity. What the...?”

  A dark green ball of scale, wings, and tail crashed into the mud beside Trysten. The little wild dragon popped up onto his claws and shook himself off, then tried to contort his wings to cover his head.

  “Can we keep him?” Kaylar called from the back of Verillium.

  “He’s not ours,” Trysten yelled back, loud enough for the others to hear. “He’s wild.”

  “Wild about you!” Paege retorted.

  Laughter rang through the dismounting hordesmen.

  Trysten handed off Elevera’s reins to Iven and hustled into the weyr. A shiver passed over her. She shook off her rain-dampened cloak, then made her way to the den.

  “Sa yalla!” Rodden called.

  Trysten slowed as she looked over her shoulder.

  “Sa yalla,” Rodden repeated as he trotted down the aisle. “Battle. Sa yalla win battle?”

  Trysten sighed, a deep weariness heavy in her bones. For a second, she thought of the Originals and the eerie way they looked as if there was something right behind them, always moving in perfect unison. It seemed that her weariness must do that. That it had piled up to such a degree that it had become its own being, always with her.

  “No battle,” Trysten said. She stopped and turned around. “We lost them. They went south. To the fort.”

  Rodden slowed his pace, then glanced to the first of the Aerona dragons being led through the side door. His face lit up. “Echem yallit!” He pointed at the wild dragon as it flitted through the door and landed in the aisle. It shook its
elf off and looked thoroughly disgusted at having to do so.

  “Rodden,” Trysten called.

  The grin dropped from the man’s face as he returned his attention to Trysten.

  “They went to a fort, Rodden. Yallum flew south.” She pointed toward Hollin. “To the fort. To the base. Where did the army come from?”

  “Army? Army come Opplenot.”

  “Then where? Where is the pass they... Oh, forget it,” Trysten said. She waved a dismissive hand at him before trudging up the stairs.

  As she opened the door to her den, her hand went to the hilt of her sword. She just knew they were there, at least one of them, waiting for her.

  The fire in her stove crackled. The den smelled of wood smoke. She tossed her cloak aside and strode into the den with purpose. She pulled the sword from its scabbard a couple of inches and turned in a circle to survey the room.

  Nothing. The den was empty. Too bad. She was ready to take them on today. After everything she had learned from Rast, combined with Aymon not returning, the Originals weren’t even near the top of her list of worries.

  Lightning lit the room. Rain beat against the glass, which someone had been thoughtful enough to replace before the rain came. Probably the same weyrboy who struck a fire. Iven, most likely. He would make a fine hordesman one day with his attention to detail.

  Trysten looked at the charts and maps on the wall, at an ink drawing on brittle parchment of her great grandfather’s dragon. How could she even begin to tell the King everything that had happened? Rain murmured against the glass but offered no answer to her question. Thunder thrummed through the wooden walls, the storm had reached Aerona.

  The door thudded in its jamb and startled Trysten. Rolls of distant laughter drifted up to her.

  She replaced the sword in its scabbard, crossed the room and flung the door open. The little wild dragon waddled in past her knees.

  Below, the hordesmen laughed and pointed. “Uh oh!” Karno called. “Look out, Elevera! You’ve got competition!” He winked at the great, golden alpha.

  Despite her agitation, Trysten grinned at the men and women below, wet and bedraggled, but still finding cause to laugh. They were a good group. A loyal bunch and she was lucky to have them with her.