Mortugal didn’t stop anywhere, except when one of the riders needed to relieve their bladder urgently. They drank water from a stream and ate fruits for lunch.
Night was approaching when Mortugal finally declared that they had reached the border of Northang and Dragonland. The area sure looked like a border for they hadn’t seen a single village for quite some time, and in the distance it was snowing.
“Are you sure?” Xuhn asked. Mortugal had been asleep for hundreds of years so the borders were likely to have changed. Mortugal had himself admitted once that he was unaware of the changing rulers of any land during his slumber.
“Look at the snow falling over there,” Mortugal said and Xuhn couldn’t ignore the note of pride in his tone. “I can sense my old land the moment I see it. It’s different for other kingdoms. The dragons don’t easily give up their beautiful land to anybody, be it friend or foe, neither do they feel the need to snatch others’ lands.”
“But they make allies with Malthur?” Xuhn asked. He didn’t want to hurt Mortugal’s pride, but after everything he had heard about the dragons from Norhul— Mortugal’s friend—, he wasn’t very impressed with them. After all, they had laughed at Mortugal and joined hands with Malthur.
“Making allies is different,” Mortugal said, albeit a bit sadly. “Anyway,” he said in a tone that dismissed the subject, “I am tired now, and I think we should rest here for the night. We don’t want to fly into a snow storm without refilling our bodies with sleep and energy.”
He descended down and landed softly. Xuhn and the others climbed down. Coming down always felt so good, Xuhn thought as he stretched his back. The presence of solid ground below his feet always sent waves of pleasure coursing up his body.
“I am hungry,” said Breda.
“So am I,” Mortugal said, and the dragon’s stomach groaned so loud that Xuhn and Breda laughed. Ritika and Ruponi didn’t though.
What’s happened to them? Xuhn thought. After they had drunk blood the other night they seemed to have become quite cheerful, but now they had become the same as they were before drinking blood.
“Are you two all right?” Xuhn asked the two vampires. They had been the ones who had kick-started the quest for ending the war, and now their crestfallen faces made Xuhn wonder if they had lost interest in the quest.
“We are good,” Ruponi said, her voice like that of someone on their deathbed.
“You don’t sound like you are,” Mortugal said to Ruponi, glancing at Xuhn, who shrugged.
“Just sleepy,” said Ritika. Xuhn didn’t ask anything further. If they didn’t want to say what the problem was then so be it.
Breda on the other hand energetically said she would go for hunting and Mortugal told her to bring something for him too, as he was too tired to hunt. Breda changed into her wolf form. Xuhn could only gape for her fur was of the same colour as her clothes had been.
“Wow!” Mortugal said. Benzel had given the werewolf brightly coloured clothes apparently belonging to his mistress. Now even in the low light, Xuhn could see that Breda’s fur had become various shades of black, green, brown and white.
“I-I wasn’t expecting that,” Breda said in a surprised tone.
“I reckon it’s got to do with the clothes,” Xuhn said.
“We werewolves always wear the same coloured clothes. It’s our tradition. Now I know the reason behind that tradition,” Breda said.
“Don’t worry,” Mortugal said, “animals will probably get confused seeing your various colours, and it will be easier for you to kill them.”
“I hope so,” Breda said. She went away in search of animals.
“Be careful,” Xuhn said after her.
He went looking about the place, searching for edible plants. But now most of the plants he found were ones that didn’t grow in Sura, and he was not sure if they were edible. But he kept searching. And then he came upon a knife, lying behind a bush.
He picked it up and rushed to the others. Ritika and Ruponi had already fallen asleep, and the dragon too had his eyes closed.
“Hey, Mortugal,” Xuhn said.
The dragon opened his eyelids slowly.
“I found a knife,” Xuhn said.
“A knife?” Mortugal asked with a tired grimace.
Xuhn showed him the little weapon.
“Anything else?” Mortugal said.
Xuhn shook his head.
“Who do you reckon it belongs to?” Xuhn asked.
“Anybody,” Mortugal said, “perhaps a hunter.”
“But there are no villages in this area,” Xuhn said.
“You can’t say that for sure,” Mortugal said. “But I just hope it doesn’t belong to any bandit or robber. There are humans in Dragonland too; it’s not like only dragons live there. At least that was how it was before I went to slumber in that blasted lake.”
This made Xuhn worried. If there were human settlers in Dragonland they were likely to frequently travel between Dragonland and Northang, since Northang was a human kingdom. Travellers were easy prey for bandits waiting in remote areas like the one they were in. Xuhn looked towards the woods Breda had disappeared into. He just hoped she wouldn’t run into any bandit.
Thankfully Breda returned after sometime, carrying a rabbit in her jaws. A small one. Her colourful fur might have warned away larger ones.
“Whom is that for?” Mortugal asked the moment she appeared in the scene. Xuhn noticed Breda wasn’t moving with her usual agility.
“For you, of course,” she said after dropping the dead animal in front of Mortugal. In a flash the rabbit disappeared into the dragon’s mouth.
“Hey, I was joking!” Breda said, looking at Mortugal like she was aghast with him.
“What?” Mortugal asked. “Thanks for the snack though.”
“Couldn’t you at least have asked if they are hungry?” Breda said, pointing at Xuhn and the sleeping vampires with her paw.
“Er, sorry,” said Mortugal.
“No problem,” Xuhn said, not really meaning it. While he had found a few edible fruits, some roasted meat would have been great. “I had some fruits.”
“Did you find anybody's scent in this area?” Mortugal asked Breda much more seriously.
Breda nodded.
“Humans,” she said, “at least two or three. But how did you know? You scented them too?”
“Nah, dragon’s have poor sense of smell… because we dragons don’t give off any scent in the first place.”
“So that’s why I have never found any unique scent on you,” Breda said.
“That’s right,” Mortugal said, “but anyway, it was Xuhn who found a knife while searching for the tasteless things humans eat.”
Xuhn held up the knife to Breda, ignoring Mortugal’s comment.
“It can belong to the humans I scented,” Breda said.
“Yeah,” Mortugal said. “But they might be innocent men too. After all knives are used for a variety of purposes—from killing to cutting fruits. I reckon it belongs to some traveller.”
That was a possibility too, Xuhn thought. Bandits were not the only ones to carry knives.
Deciding that it was best to forget the knife for the moment, Xuhn went to Mortugal and slumped against his warm body. Breda didn’t change to her human form, but she curled up and went to sleep as well. Xuhn closed his eyes and let the fatigue leave his body. Soon he was dreaming about selling firewood in Bindi.
Chapter 23
Xuhn felt something tug his clothes. He opened his eyes to see the hazy figure of Breda.
“Now what?” he asked the she-werewolf. He had only just fallen asleep, for a certain bright star in the sky had barely moved from its previous position.
“It’s Ritika and Ruponi,” Breda said. “They have gone somewhere!”
“What?” Xuhn said as the words sank into his head. He wondered if Breda was worrying too much, maybe the two vampires had just gone to relieve their bladders.
“I thought they woul
d return soon too,” Breda said, almost reading his mind, “but they have been gone for some time, and I cannot smell them nearby any longer.”
“They will return, don’t worry,” Mortugal said in his sleep.
“All right,” Xuhn told Breda. “You think we should search for them?” His eyes then fell on the knife that was lying near him, and suddenly his heart began racing with worry. He stood up as all sorts of imaginations about Ritika and Ruponi being confronted by bandits flew to his mind.
“Come, come,” he told Breda, before she could answer him. Breda scented the ground and said which ways the two vampires had gone. Xuhn got more and more worried as the time passed, and they followed trail of scent through the sparse vegetation. It was his entire fault. He should have told the two vampires about the knife he had found. Ritika’s face flashed in his mind’s eye, and he felt almost like he had betrayed her.
Then finally, Breda said “They are there!” pointing at a certain group of pine trees. She raced ahead of Xuhn. But then he saw her stop abruptly. When he reached her and saw the scene ahead, Xuhn froze.
Two men lay on the ground, and beside them were Ritika and Ruponi, busy sucking blood from their necks. There were weapons lying nearby, and Xuhn wondered if the two men were bandits or ordinary travellers. He kept staring at the scene, and it was only many moments later that the two vampires realised the presence of the newcomers, so lost they were in their blood sucking. Blood drooled down their mouths as they looked up at Xuhn and Breda, expressions of being found red-handed pasted on their faces.
For a moment everyone remained staring at each other, then Xuhn spoke up, his gaze fixed in Ritika’s eyes.
“Why?”
Ritika made a clumsy attempt to get onto her feet, but she was so drunk with blood that she fell back down on her knees.
“We- we ‘eard you zalking about ze ‘umans,” Ruponi said, just as a thief tries to explain his deed after being caught.
“I am z-zorry,” Ritika said, looking down.
“I brought you the goat that other day,” Xuhn said, feeling as though something had broken within him.
“I am zorry,” Ritika repeated and sobbed.
“They might have been innocent travellers,” Xuhn said to the two vampires, pointing at the corpses of the men. One was obese while the other was slimmer. Though Xuhn couldn’t see their facial features properly, their blank eyes were shining due to the moon up above.
“Zhey attacked us,” Ruponi said.
Xuhn waved his arms, dismissing the explanation.
“Who wouldn’t if you tried to suck their blood?”
Ritika managed to get up unsteadily.
“We hampires are a wordles raze,” she slurred, her words coming out of her mouth like that of a heavily drunk person. Xuhn would have never wanted to see her in the form she was in tonight. It would have been better if Benzel hadn’t saved them from the river. For the first time in his life Xuhn regretted being alive. “We are not ‘orth of being wiz… wiz you.”
Ritika turned around and stumbled away into the vegetation.
“No, Rizika!” her mother said, and she too staggered away after her daughter.
Xuhn couldn’t help but stare.
“Vampires are vampires aren’t they?” Breda said, more to herself than to Xuhn, from what he gathered from her tone.
Xuhn took a step forward, intending to go and bring Ritika and Ruponi back. But his legs wouldn’t move after that one step. Not with the ghastly sight of the two dead men lying in front of him, blood oozing out of the holes in their throat—in which Ritika’s and Ruponi's fangs had been but a short while ago.
He heard the faint voice of Ruponi calling her daughter. But the voice got fainter and fainter until the other sounds in the forest made it indistinguishable. Xuhn knew Ritika was never going to come in front of him again, not even if he forgave her. And he knew deep in his heart that he would never forgive her. She had committed a sin too big.
Tears came to his eyes and he sobbed.
Why should she do it? He had been okay with the fact that she craved blood. He was ready to bring her all the goats and pigs and what-not to satisfy her—but why humans?
He shook his head and wheeled around.
“Let’s go,” he said to Breda. And the werewolf followed him back to where Mortugal was sleeping.
The dragon was quite awake.
“In my sleep I thought I heard you say Ritika and her mother went somewhere,” he said. “Did you find them?”
Xuhn gritted his teeth. Anger flared within him and he felt in dire need of an outlet.
“Yes,” he said, his voice quivering.
“So, where are they?”
“They killed two people and drank their blood!” he yelled.
“They didn’t,” Mortugal said, his eyes wide, not believing Xuhn’s words.
“The other day,” Xuhn continued in his fury, “they said they felt very tired because they hadn’t drunk blood in a long while. So I risked my life and stole a goat from that stupid town!”
“You never said about that before,” Breda said.
“I didn’t want to go about saying that they are blood thirsty monsters!” Xuhn said. He was shivering with the intensity of his emotions. Ritika and Ruponi had said they knew how to control their thirst for blood when he first met them. It had been such a lame idea to help their ‘noble’ cause. Now he knew why vampires were hated everywhere.
Some silent moments passed by. Xuhn then made up his mind.
“Hey Mortugal,” he said to the dragon, “Take me back to Bindi, all right? And drop Breda in Werewolf country along the way. Then you can go to sleep as well.”
“I can’t go back now,” Breda said hotly, “not after all that I did to my clan!”
“Calm yourself down, Xuhn,” Mortugal said. His voice was unusually warm. “I know that you are feeling cheated.”
“They said that they were better vampires,” Xuhn said, pointing in the direction he presumed the two vampires had gone away. He wiped his face as a tear made his way down his cheek.
“They are cursed, can’t you remember?” said Mortugal. “After Bnomes, they are the lowest race. It was in their instinct and they gave into it. And let me tell you, you are partially to blame for this.”
Xuhn looked up at the dragon with daggers in his eyes. How dare he say so?
“Me?” he said to Mortugal. He was ready to slice Mortugal’s throat with a knife if he had one at that moment.
“Who told you to bring them the goat?” Mortugal asked sternly.
“Didn’t you see them that day?” Xuhn said, “Ritika almost fell and hit her head on the ground! She was so weak!”
“If they were weak, then you should have given them the entire goat to eat!” Mortugal said, raising his voice. “Instead, once they were done, you gave me the blood-less carcass of the goat and I gulped it down without a thought!”
“But they were so weak--”
“Doesn’t matter. If they had eaten the entire goat after roasting it, they wouldn’t have done what they did tonight. The goat’s blood reignited their old lust for blood that they had tried so hard to control.”
Xuhn didn’t reply. So now everything was his fault.
Fine.
“So what am I supposed to do now?” Xuhn asked the dragon.
“You must continue their aim of destroying the Hatred, Xuhn,” Mortugal said in a much more tender voice. “Their dream of bringing peace between the vampires and the werewolves was a noble one, you cannot deny that. Sometimes the person who first has the noble dream may go astray, but that doesn’t rob the nobility from their dream.”
Xuhn nodded. His anger was cooling now and he was beginning to see Mortugal’s point. If they returned home without destroying Hatred, then what Ritika and Ruponi initially set out to achieve would be left undone.
“T-they went away somewhere,” Xuhn said.
“Let them be away for some time,” Mortugal said, “that should fix t
he guilt they must be feeling as of the moment… Now you two get on top of me. We are going to Dragonland tonight. We are going to find out the location of Hatred and the method of its destruction. There are many answers for the seeking. And at the end of the day, like Norhul said, it was Malthur who was responsible for cursing Vampires with blood-lust. Now come on, climb up!”
Driven by the energy in Mortugal’s words, Xuhn slowly climbed onto his back. But Breda didn’t.
“Now what’s up with you?” Mortugal asked the she-werewolf. “You want to return to Werewolf country without achieving what you set out for?”
“I- I can’t go with you,” Breda said. She turned into her human form.
“We can fix all this, Breda,” Xuhn said, “the war will end.”
“The war will end of course,” Breda said, “but I think it will be best if I stay here. Ritika and Ruponi will need me. I’ll keep an eye on them so they don’t do anything else that will make them feel guilty in the future. Plus, you’ll be able to fly faster without me, won’t you?”
“Are you sure, Breda?” Mortugal asked. “You have got a point, but still.”
Breda nodded. The moonlight falling on her face showed her determination.
“Then so be it,” Mortugal said, “look after them.”
Breda nodded and turned into her wolf form, and then she disappeared into the woods. Xuhn guessed she should be able to find the vampires with her sharp nose.
“A strange night it is today,” Mortugal said as he flapped his massive wings and took to the air.
“A strange night indeed,” Xuhn said, his heart heavy like it hadn’t been in a long time.
Chapter 24
Mortugal flew over the border into Dragonland, and after sometime they entered a region where it was snowing and soon flecks began to gather on Xuhn’s clothes as well as the dragon’s back. The snowy terrain was beautiful in the moonlight, but Xuhn’s head was stuck in the event that had occurred. And then Mortugal suddenly said,
“Hold tight to me, boy!”
Xuhn didn’t. But Mortugal turned upside down in the sky and Xuhn barely managed to hang onto the dragon’s neck.
The Banishment of the King Page 15