Black Dragon of Amber Book Two: The Road to Amber

by Barbara Bretana

“Please, Mallei,” he begged. “You have to try.”

  “It’s a mule, Elvan. Not a Knight’s charger.” She ran her eyes over me. “Although, he is a fine mule.” Looked between my legs. “Uncut, too. Who leaves a mule uncut? And why?”

  “He’s more than a mule. He’s almost…human.”

  She snorted. “Unless he gets up, I can’t help him.”

  He went on to tell her about my fountain episode and a dozen more than I thought I’d kept hidden but they had obviously been watching me for days. I felt a sharp sting and then a blessed coolness went through my body taking the pain away. I decided not to struggle, to let them put me out of my misery. It was the easiest way out for everyone.

  “His eye’s dulling, heart slowing. That took care of the pain. Give him a few minutes and try to get him up again,” she said briskly.

  “Should we whip him?”

  She sneered. “Whip a mule? He’ll either kill you or sulk. He has to decide on his own and not even the fires of Dragon’s breath will move him unless he decides to.” They waited. I floated somewhere. Realized I was dreaming of flying the golden skies of Amber with Murphy on my back. A pleasant way to end it, I thought and curled my lips back. Someone tugged on my head and put my front feet out under my chin. Someone else hugged my rear end.

  Oh, I blinked. You want me to get up. I lunged, struggled but something was wrong with my hind end. The minute I made it to all fours, I screamed as broken cannon bone grated inside my skin. I hobbled on three legs, turned my head around to stare. A crowd of men stepped back warily watching my hooves. A woman stood at my shoulder with her hands on my sweat drenched neck.

  “Oh, what a pity,” she murmured. “He must be 16.3hhs. He looks like a cross between an Andusian Jack and a Celanese race mare. A truly magnificent mule, Elvan. You say he’s been wandering loose in the city? No owner and no ownership brand. Now that he’s up, do you plan on walking him to the clinic?”

  “No,” the man said. “Jens and Hennan are bringing the cart we used to transport cattle. We can load him in that and hang him in the harness.”

  “Good idea. You think you can load him?”

  The man’s lips thinned. “I’ll bet you he’ll walk right in.”

  Chapter 28

  I didn’t remember much of the next few days and what I did were disjointed memories of being doctored, fed, and poked with more needles. Lying on a deep bed of sweet straw with blankets piled on top of me. A woman spooning gruel down my throat and mixing plaster near my legs. Sometimes, I stood for days and other times, I lay down only to struggle to my feet and only with human help. I existed somewhere in a void where I thought I had ceased to exist, almost as if the human part of me was gone.

  The two hung over the stall door often and conversed. Mostly, I ignored it until I heard the despair in her tone. “I just don’t know, Elvan. It’s like he’s given up. I can barely get him to eat and he hasn’t passed any manure in days. The leg isn’t healing, either. Are you sure you don’t want me to put him down before he gets too bad? I don’t like to see him suffer.”

  “No. Any other animal, yes. Not this mule. There’s something special about him, Mallei. He’s a Prince of Mules.”

  “That would be a good name for him, Prince,” she suggested.

  “No. That’s too common. He deserves a better, more unique name.”

  “How about Raitt? He looks like one of those crows.”

  I raised my head and my neck hurt. Though the voice was different, the name was when I remembered.

  “You like that name? Raitt? Raitt, it shall be,” she said and patted me. I nuzzled her pockets for the apple I could smell in there. Delighted, she pulled it out and held it. “You want this, Raitt?” She smiled and I nodded. She laughed. “What if I eat it?”

  I shook my head no and snatched for it before she could react. My teeth crunched the sweet apple to bits and I lifted my lips in a sneer before I hobbled to the corner. Staring at my leg, I saw it neatly bandaged with hardened plaster from hoof to nearly hock and the other three legs wrapped in cotton padding and bandages. All four were swollen but the broken one ached the worst. I smelled the cast as the man worried. “He won’t tear it off, will he?”

  “No, Elvan. Raitt is as smart as you said. I believe he knows we’re trying to help him.”

  “I believe he knows what we’re saying. Are you still thinking of gelding him?”

  I backed into a corner and bared my teeth at them. As if a broken leg wasn’t bad enough, they had to threaten me with that!

  “Mules are sterile, no point in keeping him for breeding,” she shrugged. “But he can wait until he…either makes it or not.”

  “He ain’t studdy,” Elvan noted. “Not like a stallion at all. I saw him go by mares in full season and ignore them.”

  “I admit, sometimes I feel like I’m doctoring a person not an equine. I wonder where he’s from and who he belongs to. Surely someone is missing him. Did you post any notices?” Elvan looked guilty. “Did you steal him, Elvan? From some Lord or refugee coming in? If you bring the City Watch down on me, I’ll–.” She burst out.

  “No, no!” He denied. “We saw him wandering in City Green Park for a week. Followed him to Cooper’s Alley and planned a trap. The rest you know.”

  “If he’s stolen, it’s from some rich Lord who’ll pay big rials to get him back, you can be sure. You might hang for this, especially since you broke his leg. He’ll not race again, not on that. He might have been good for breeding if he was a stallion.”

  “He certainly seems to like apples. I’ll bring you a bushel. Does he take his medicine?”

  “Yes. Surprisingly. Usually, I have to hide it inside a treat but he’ll take it from my hand,” she admitted. “I have him on boneset and flegicinn, he seems to be tolerating that and his fever has gone down. No infection, either.”

  “Does he get up on his own or do you have to force him?”

  “He needs help and sometimes, he just tries and gives up. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was in mourning, Elvan. You’re right, he’s so smart it’s uncanny.”

  I snorted and wondered how they would have dealt with Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web.

  They left me to see to their own dinners and I hobbled over to the Dutch doors to hang my head out. I could see a bright alley between two rows of stalls. Smelled cows, sheep and horses. Goats, chickens and even hogs. Just like every farm, there was a menagerie of animals only I’d heard him call it a clinic. Wondered if she was this Shadow’s equivalent of a veterinarian.

  I saw a youngster come out of the stall with a wheelbarrow loaded with straw and dung. He saw me and his eyes grew round. “Cor,” he said. “You’re a big one! You’re up, too.” He came close and opened my door, asked me politely to move so he can maneuver the wheelbarrow and proceeded to pick out my stall. I stood nearly in the open doorway in shock, reached down, grabbed the handle in my teeth and shoved it out of my way. Three legged, I lunged for the aisle and was headed for freedom.

  I made it all the way to the barn doors only to see a high fence around the barn enclosing it inside a paddock but built more like a stockade. Easily ten foot high, I could only have cleared it if I were a dragon.

  The boy ran out after me. “Oh Lord, O Lord,” he begged. “Please, Raitt. Let me catch you before Mistress Mallifer finds out I let you out. Please don’t hurt yourself! Please let me touch you!” He circled me, his hand out, in it a shiny red apple. Like bribery would work. “Come on, boy. Easy does it. If Mistress Mallei finds us, she’ll beat my ass with a whip so I can’t sit down for a week. Easy there, handsome.” His voice had an almost hypnotic tone and I found myself leaning towards his hand and the juicy apple only to pull back when I realized what I was doing.

  I grumbled low in my throat, decided I would wait a few more days before I would attempt an escape so I casually hobbled around on three legs to put myself back into the stall. Leaned on the wall and used it to lie down, tucking my legs under me. The boy f
ollowed, his mouth agape as he latched the stall door. Came in, hugged me around the neck and gave me not only the apple but handfuls of clover and grass he’d picked fresh.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Raitt,” he said, his face so sweet I almost felt sorry for him. He kissed me on the forehead, scratched my ears and unlatched the top door leaving me in darkness.

  The days passed. I wished I could’ve said in boredom but I wasn’t that. I ate, drank and slept. Moved when they told me, stood still as they brushed me and just existed. I almost forgot I was anything but a mule until the day when the Army officers came.

  Mallei opened my top door and stood silently as a strange man in dark blue uniform with lots of gold braid leaned in. His eyes widened and his smile was broad. “We’ll take this one. Sergeant–,” he turned to the noncom behind her.

  “You can’t,” she said calmly and he stiffened.

  “By order of the Council, all equines are confiscated for the war,” he started. “You’ll be compensated.”

  “That’s not what I mean. He’s lame, three legged. He broke his right rear. I still don’t know if it will heal or he’ll have to be put down.”

  “Bull. You’re the tenth owner that’s told me the same story. Sergeant, lead the Jack out here.”

  As soon as the soldier entered the stall, I lunged for him with my teeth and threw him over the stall door. Fell and struggled to get up and only succeeded when Mallei came in and helped me. Stood on three legs, holding the cast off the ground and in pain because I had fallen on it. Instant sweat darkened my hide.

  The officer’s eyes glared as Mallei took his hand and placed it on the pulse in my jaw. She held my mouth closed, warning me not to bite. He could feel my racing heart as the pain grew.

  “He’s not gelded either and would be too much of a hassle in the lines, even if he were sound,” she added softly.

  “How did he break his leg? Why are you trying to save him, or was it a spiral fracture?” The officer seemed interested and had a keen appreciation of equines that showed through.

  “Racing. He fell and snapped the cannon in half. His owner wanted him put down–I convinced him to let me try and save him. He’s a rare breed cross, a fine mule.”

  He turned my head and stared at my missing eye. “Too bad he’s blind in one eye.”

  “It makes him skittish to be handled on that side. Not a good trait for an army mule,” she said helpfully.

  “Never mind this one,” he told the sergeant. “But we’ll take the bay mare and the chestnut gelding.”

  “They belong to Lord Livermore,” she said and the captain shrugged.

  “We’ve already been through his stables and taken all of his animals.”

  She shrugged herself and stood there as they led off every able-bodied equine on the place. The boy who cleaned stalls for her crept in and stood at her side, tears falling silently down his face. “Mistress Mallei, where are the horses going? Will we see them again?”

  “I fear not, Juniper. They have been confiscated for the King’s Army. The only reason Raitt was not taken is because he has only three legs.”

  We saw Elvan again, late that week. He was dressed in an Army uniform but did not look happy or proud. He told her he had been drafted and had not tried to escape because there was no place left to run to. The Red Witch’s Army was bearing down on the city of Alameth and no ship would take on any more passengers. Besides, if he was caught deserting, he would be instantly hung or shot.

  “How is Raitt doing?” He asked, leaning over the stall door. I was eating grain held by the boy, he had mixed apples and cinnamon in it with a bottle of ale. Sort of like a sour mash. I could slurp it up and pretend it was good wine.

  “His appetite is good, his coat is coming back and his eye seems brighter. He near tore a chunk out of Captain Macy’s Sergeant but he fell when he did it. I don’t think he did any more damage but he still won’t put that hoof to the ground and you can see the muscles in his right haunch have shrunk. No fever, he passes manure and seems generally content. I’m going to remove the cast in another week to put on a smaller, lighter one with a brace in it so he can transfer his weight off the heel and into the upper thigh.”

  “Keep him safe, Mallifer. I have a feeling he’s a very important piece in this war.” He kissed her. “And you, Prince of Mules, you survive this war and you owe me. Right?”

  Slowly, I nodded my head yes before I pawed at the straw beneath my feet. “I told you, Mallei, smart as a human. I’m scheduled to leave tomorrow morn. I know you can’t leave but be careful. If the city falls, they’ll not take him for a mount, they’ll kill and eat him.”

  “What can we do, Elvan? He can’t walk, let alone run. And I can’t hide him,” she protested.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Mallifer. The world is changing and not for the better. We need a miracle, we need a Great Black Dragon like the stories of old to rise up and slay the Red Witch.” He kissed her, patted me on the forehead once more before he left us, his new sword clanking against his metal water container.

  Chapter 29

  Mallei never left the gates unlocked, we had all sorts of strangers coming into the yard even over the fence until she took to leaving a big cur dog roaming free. People were desperate for any animal to get out of the city as every available ship had left and those entering the harbor were warned before they reached the docks.

  The Watch kept the streets in check mostly, except at night. She had decided to leave the heavier cast on longer because it was more of the deterrent to any thieves who wanted to try and steal me.

  I had thwarted a few that made it into the stall, kicking and braying with such fuss that both Juniper and Mallei ran in carrying pitchforks and a bloody big knife that could qualify as a short sword. By now, most of the neighborhood knew I was the three-legged mule that couldn’t walk. Wasn’t worth much and luckily, food wasn’t in short supply so I wasn’t on anyone’s grocery list for roast. She was waiting for me to heal well enough that she could smuggle me out of town to the head of the Danverse River where a farmer client had a barge that could take us to safety in the mountains.

  She had changed the cast twice, checked the bones with gentle fingers and prodding. All the hair had sloughed off the surface of the cannon bone and there was a huge knot of calcium where the bones had fused together. The tendons had shrunk, pulling the toe up so that even if I wanted to, I couldn’t force the toe of the hoof to the ground. It still hurt but not that bone deep ache like before.

  Jasra had broken my same hind leg as a Dragon but converting to my regular size had healed that injury without a trace. I wasn’t so sure that this one would, I feared it might have been left too long.

  I wondered what the phrase was that allowed me to transform back to Dragon. I could fly Mallei and the boy to safety and then search for Lyndseye and Tegan not thinking how stupid it was to risk the appearance of the Dragon with Jasra’s expected arrival. I knew the moment I saw her, I would crawl back to her like a sick puppy.

  Mallei had sent Juniper to the market to procure an order of herbs and baled hay for me. He came back sooner than expected and found her in my stall, checking on the progress of my leg. “Mistress,” he panted hoarsely. “The Witch! The Watch saw the Witch’s scouts coming this way!”

  Mallei straightened up from my hoof and pushed her hair back off her forehead. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek and wisps of straw in her hair. “How far? Are the Knights mobilizing?”

  “A day’s ride back, they said. The Knights are on the way to engage them at the Line.”

  The Line was a magic barrier that protected the city from wildfires, evil minded wizards and sorcery. I wouldn’t bet my lunch that it would stop Jasra and certainly not his earthborn soldiers.

  “Do you think that our guards will stop them, Raitt?” She asked me and I shook my head no. “Tell me the truth, Prince of Mules. Are you an enchanted human in this body or just a really smart jackass that can mimic underst
anding?”

  I pushed my way out to the courtyard where the sand was soft and freshly raked. Carefully because I was still on three legs, I dragged my hoof in the sand, making large letters and words.

  YES. DRAGON. ONCE BOY.

  “Oh my!” She flayed her hand to her mouth. “Your name?”

  RAVEN. PRINCE. AMBER.

  “You were the Black Dragon? How do I revert you? Do you know the spell? Did Elvan steal you? Are you a wizard?” She ran out of breath before she ran out of questions. It took a long time for me to spell out the answers until Juniper retrieved a board and a pencil. He called out a letter and I nodded yes or no until we had spelled out my story. By the time I was finished explaining, I was exhausted and sat down right in the yard.

  Mallei fussed over me, having Junie bring blankets and straw to bed around me leaving me where I had collapsed. She even brought me a bucket of water and fresh pulled grass from under the fence. “Juniper,” she ordered. “Gather up clothes, food and whatever means the most to you. When you’re done, leave the cages open on all the animals. Leave the back gate open and the door to the feed room.”

  “Yes’sum,” he scurried off and she curtsied, making me snort.

  “I’m going to pack, too… Raitt. We’ll leave at first dark if you think you can walk. I’ll give you something for the pain and I think it’s time for us to try that new walking cast.”

  She hurried into her cottage leaving me to rest. I lay my head against the stacked bales of straw and dozed. Come eventide when the sun slipped behind the top of her fence so the light faded abruptly to an eerie darkness, Junie and Mallei entered the courtyard where I lay. Her whispered words brought me to my feet where she briskly removed the cast asking me to try and extend the toe to the ground. I did, stretching the muscles and tendons were immediately, the leg began trembling.

  Her fingers ran up both sides of the bone massaging the muscles and ligaments under the thin skin. “The bone seems solid, Raitt,” she continued to call me by my new name. “I’m going to put the new cast on it so you can walk without stressing the bone. You shortened the tendons and muscles from lack of use. The only way to fix that is to just use them.”

  She rewrapped the leg in cotton and strapped the two shells together that were reinforced with steel like a finger splint only this one was designed for equine limbs. Really, she was a genius when it came to adaptive devices for injured animals. “Does it still hurt, Raitt?”