by Cyn Bagley
He listened to her murmurs. His alarm started to grow when he realized what she was saying—
“I know you are a spy. I should have had you killed long ago.” The cloth in her hand rubbed down his back and he relaxed into her.
Damn if she killed him now, he wouldn’t care.
“It wasn’t easy,” she continued. The cloth did circles on his back and then she came toward his front. He was chest deep in the tub and felt like he was drowning in her eyes.
“So, do you want to tell me about it?”
“Uh, uh.” He couldn’t open his mouth to say the words.
“I see.” She looked intently at his chest. “They put a spell on you so you couldn’t tell anyone. How distrusting.”
She helped him out of the tub and he felt weak. She helped him dress. “Lie down.”
It didn’t feel good to be the weak one. He was used to being rowdy and dangerous, but he obeyed her. If anyone could help, if there was anyone he could trust, it would be her.
For the first time in his life, there was someone more important to him than his king.
Chapter Eleven
In the Forest
Davi Dracson
Davi woke shivering in the blankets. During the night it had rained again and the dew had frozen over him. He pulled on his clothes under the blankets. The fire had gone out. He had thought that Hilda would wake him for early morning watch. She was leaning against a tree with her eyes wide open. He shook himself, went to the stream and washed his face.
The cold water opened his eyes and he started thinking. Hilda struggled to her feet and saddled and packed the horses. He went to help her. She wasn’t lifting the bags as high as usual. Probably lack of sleep or the cold. The constant travel seemed to be aging her.
Every morning she was stiffer than the morning before. When he asked if she was healthy, she would laugh and say that “old age and cunning are better than youth and foolishness.” Under her breath so he wouldn’t hear, she would mutter that old age and foolishness shouldn’t go together.
Davi rolled up the blankets and put them in saddle bags. He took the bags from Hilda and loaded them on the horses who moaned and groaned. He gave Hilda a lift up and instead of handing her the reins, he led the horses down the path. When Hilda complained, he told her to sleep.
“You were up all night.”
She looked down and tried to smile through her tiredness. “Well I have done it before—a long time ago.”
Hilda fell asleep minutes later. There was a light snore coming from her mouth. She slumped and stayed in the saddle even though she looked like she was completely asleep.
She had done this before. Davi smiled and walked. The horses’ heads were down and they snorted at each other and Davi. Just the three of them talking a walk down the path.
A few miles down the path, it widened to a muddy road. He walked the horses on the side of the road so that the mud didn’t stick to their hooves. This type of mud clung. You could walk through it, gather mud on your boots, and eventually carry several pounds of mud. The horses didn’t like to walk in it. At least on the side of the road, there were short bits of dried grass. He brushed the mud off his boots.
He kept an eye on the horses and when he made it to a cobblestone road, he stopped and cleaned their legs and hooves. When he stopped, Hilda woke up. She got off the horse, stretched her legs, and then pulled out one of the backpacks. “We need to eat,” she said. She pulled out some dried meats and handed a piece to Davi.
His stomach growled as he tore into the meat. Hilda ate more daintily. Then she pulled out some oats for the horses. She passed some water to Davi and they gave some to the horses. It was never good to have a lamed or hungry horse when you were on a long trip. You had to care for them better than yourselves. Horses were fragile.
Once Hilda finished eating, she walked up the cobblestone road. Davi led the horses behind her. He kept the horses on the side shoulder so that the stones wouldn’t lame them.
“What is this place?” Hilda muttered to herself. She swung her arms and stretched as she walked up the road. The place was silent except for the sound of birds in the trees behind them. As they left the forest and continued on the road, the terrain changed from trees to shrubs and then to grasses. The grasses rustled around them.
They walked through a small fog bank. Davi shivered, but Hilda seemed to be impervious to it. She was on the hunt and was going to see what was at the end of the road.
Davi imagined an abandoned castle similar to an old lady who was nearing the end of her life and had settled into the age of ruin. Most castles were supported by farmers and craftsman. Cities have sprung up beside castles. It was a symbiotic relationship of food for security. Out here there were no cities, no farms, and so far no castles, just this road in the middle of nowhere.
Davi started to feel tension in the middle of his stomach. He looked around, looking for the reason his hackles were rising. Someone was watching them. But he saw no one. Hilda trudged in front of him and the horses. Her movements had become jerky like she didn’t have control of her body.
“Hilda,” he said softly. “Hilda, I don’t like it here.”
He could hear her mumbling something. Sassy popped her head up out of the bucket. She began screeching. Hilda stopped and turned around.
Hilda’s eyes were wide and staring. The mumbling he had heard were chants. The last time he had heard such chants was when he and Michael had cleansed the damned village.
The only thing that had saved him from the possession, caused by the road, was because he had been walking the horses on the shoulder of it. Hilda stumbled toward him as Sassy’s screaming grew higher and higher. The screams made his head ring. He saw Hilda’s eyes go glassy.
“Hilda,” he yelled. “Get off the road.”
Sassy began to get smaller as she screamed. At this point Davi could feel a pulsing headache start. Hilda walked toward the shoulder of the road. She tried to step off, but someone or something had control and was forcing her to turn.
Davi had to do something. He dropped the reins of the horses and pulled the pack from the packhorse. The only thing he could find that would keep him off the road as he pulled Hilda to safety was the rope.
He put a knot in the rope, and threw the end to Hilda. There was enough of herself in her eyes that she was able to hold the end. He pulled her slowly to the edge of the road. Instead of touching her, he wrapped the rope around her and pulled her the last few inches until her feet hit the ground.
Hilda’s eyes rolled back into her head and Davi caught her as she fell. At least her head didn’t bounce. He pulled her to the middle of the grass and set up camp. As she lay there he watched the road. He still could see no reason that Hilda would be affected by the road like that.
Even Sassy collapsed. He set her into the small fire so that she could feed on the flames. She gave him a peep of thanks and then slept.
Just those few moments on the road had turned to hours. The sun set almost immediately. He sat and watched the road. As the darkness descended his eyes began to see what was really there.
There are tales of places that are haunted by tragic events. This must be one of them. The road was filled with wraiths that reached their hands toward him in supplication. They were bound to the magical road.
Davi checked Hilda. She was breathing normally. Hopefully she would wake normally. Then he would ask her if she knew of such a place. A place where peoples’ entire souls were used to power this darkness. As a dragon, good and evil were just pure black and white logic of human thinking. Many good actions had caused evil and many evil actions had caused good.
This binding of souls into the service of a mage was evil. He could feel the sadness in his bones as the wraiths cried and swirled there. This bondage pulled at him. He could feel the wraiths offer companionship. But that thought of being bound to that road forever made him sick.
As the moon rose, the road began to glow with an inner light. Davi w
ished this night was over. He was the guardian, even though he was so young. He had hoped he would have more time to learn before he had to do magic again.
The White Road
Hilda Brant
The sun pricked Hilda’s eyes. She was nauseous and headachy, like she had spent the last two days on a bender. She rolled over and vomited in the grass. It was a wimpy effort, just a few drops. She began to dry heave like her body wanted to rid itself of something evil.
She felt Davi hold her hair and rub her back. After a few moments of this, she felt well enough to stand up. She swayed back and forth until Davi grabbed her arm to steady her.
“What happened?” She wanted to bend over and heave anything else in her stomach. She swallowed a couple of times and tried to listen.
“Repeat?” This time she turned her attention to Davi. The road hummed to her and her legs wanted to get back on that road and see what was at the end of it.
“You were possessed.”
“Huh,” she felt a shock go through her body. “Where is Sassy?”
“She’s fine,” Davi pointed toward the small fire. Sassy was jumping up and down in the flames. She leaped toward Hilda and landed on her wrist. Hilda swayed again.
“The road.” There was exasperation in Davi’s voice as if he had been repeating himself to her. “Someone has bound souls to it.”
It took Hilda a few moments. Her head didn’t want to work. “Possessed?”
“The Road,” Davi almost shouted. Hilda clutched her head and Davi quieted his voice. “Sorry. The road is a spell that steals souls. It took you.”
Hilda sat down hard. It felt like a long fall and jerked her back. She tried not to look at it. She could hear the hum and the enticement in her head. It wanted her.
She dry heaved a few more times. Davi made some tea and held the cup while she sipped. Once she could think a little, she said. “Davi, we need to get away from this road. It wants me badly.”
Sassy had jumped back into the flames when Hilda fell. “So which way should we go?” The forest was far behind them. This area looked stable, but it could have pitfalls if they went from the road. If they defied the road, would some mage show up to capture them?
With another mage, they might have a chance, Hilda said to Davi who, looked uncomfortable. Hilda knew she wouldn’t have a chance in her present shape. Davi wasn’t trained well enough to handle a mage. He had a lot of power. Someone of his heritage would have a lot of power in his blood. Even so, cunning can overcome power.
Davi got a faraway look in his eyes. “I can try something. But the road might try to take me.”
When Davi explained the plan, Hilda refused at first. “We should run this time. We are too weak to confront it.”
“There’s something I haven’t told you.” He said. He looked away and down. “It smells like dragon magic.”
Chapter Twelve
The White Road
Davi Dracson
Davi heard the sharp inhalation of Hilda’s breath, and then she slowly let it out. He knew Hilda enough to know that her shock didn’t show on her face. Davi could hear the sound of her rapidly beating heart. He looked at the road. There was a glow from it.
As he gazed at the road, there were bright flashes of light. It could be the souls that had been bound to the road or it could be the sunlight that lit the road when the sun peeked out of the clouds.
He could hear Hilda mumble about being a sacrifice so that Davi could escape the area. “Let’s do this,” Hilda said, and walked toward the road. Before she reached it, Davi grabbed her arm and swung her away. She didn’t give him much fight. Maybe she was trying to fight the road.
Hilda’s eyes were glazed. Davi dragged her to the small fire and she gazed into it. This was so unlike her that he almost didn’t continue. But he had to see what the road was besides a trap. He needed to know the spell. He silently prayed to any power that would listen that Hilda would stay near the fire.
When he was sure she wouldn’t run back to the road, Davi sat down locus-style, unfocused his eyes, and stared at the white cobblestones of the road. When they first had walked this road, the cobblestones had looked like gray, white, and blue stone. Now as he looked under the facade, he saw white lines running through each stone. Whoever had constructed this was a master at Earth magic.
He looked closer. Each stone enclosed a wraith. He pulled back from his vision. He sat quietly as he tried to understand what he had seen. The road had hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of stones. No wonder there were no people, no animals, no living thing except the grassy vegetation in the area. Anything that could move had wandered to the road and had been bound to the spell.
It made him want to roar. He could feel his body gather energy as it tried to change. It had to be destroyed. His body wanted to rip apart to reveal his beast. But he was too young. Not yet. Not yet. He calmed himself down, little by little, until he was back in his small, puny human body.
“What’s the matter?” He felt Hilda touch his shoulder. He looked at the hand on his shoulder and could only see a red hue from his fear and anger. He wanted to tell her what he was seeing, but he couldn’t speak. There was a purr of steam coming out of his mouth.
He tried to calm some more. His eyes were still the eyes of a dragon when he looked at Hilda. She was herself again, except he could see lines binding her to the road. If he couldn’t unbind her, she would become part of this vile spell. “Breathe,” she said to Davi, as she looked into his slitted eyes.
He pushed out the air, and then his lungs pulled in a huge breath.
He rolled over and began coughing. Hilda pounded on his back until his lungs could breathe properly again. She kept talking to him calmly, calmly until his eyes went back to normal. When his human eyes came back she hugged him. He wanted to cry on her shoulder. He was still a dragonling and not ready for the challenges of adulthood. There should be someone to guide him and protect him.
Then he remembered. Her. “Do you want to meet a dragon?” He asked Hilda. Hilda’s eyes widened just a bit.
“Do I get a choice?”
He shook his head, no. “Step back,” he said. Then he pulled in a breath that filled his lungs. He held it there for a moment, then he opened his throat and roared. The sound shattered against the road and swirled into spears that bounced back into the sky. He pulled in another breath and then roared again.
This time the sound didn’t attack the road, but went to the sky and bounced as far as he could send it. A few moments later a humorous voice spoke in his head. “Well, dragonling, what was so important that you had to wake me from my nap?”
He opened his mind so that the dragon could see the road, and the souls trapped there. He showed her the compulsion every living thing had to travel the road to the end. There was something or someone at the end of this road that drained power from the living and dead.
“A dragon,” said the voice in his mind. “Dragonling, you and your companion go to this place…” she left a destination in his mind. “I will meet you there. And don’t touch the road.”
Hilda was quiet. He knew she was apprehensive about meeting an adult dragon, considering that the last one she met was on the battlefield. She grabbed her sword and strapped it to her hip.
Davi loaded the horses and they turned from the road. It was behind them as they walked through the grass as far as they could. In the middle of the grass was a cleared place. This was their destination.
Davi heard a roar from the sky and a voice in his head that said to step back. Hilda had already moved back from the clearing, her hand on her sword hilt. Davi moved back and held the horses tightly. Seeing a full-grown dragon would cause a lot of fear in the horses. They knew predators.
He held the horses, minds with his own, and whispered as the dragon fell toward them. He admired the way her wings spread as she beat her wings backward several times. He could feel the wind as it swept past him and the horses. Hilda stood still and watched.
> The dragon hung there for just a moment, then she put her legs down. Her feet hit them ground and her legs collapsed. It was graceful and Davi felt awe.
“Dragonling,” he heard her say in his mind. “Will you turn while I change?”
Davi turned his back. “She is changing now,” he told Hilda. Hilda watched as she changed to a human form. Davi rummaged through the bags for a blanket. When the change was complete, Hilda took the blanket and threw it to the dragon.
“What should I call you?” she asked the dragon.
“Varia,” The dragon looked amused as she wrapped the blanket around her nude form. Davi turned around. Even in a blanket she looked regal.
“She-dragon,” he said and bowed to her.
Varia snorted. “Young man, you will be the death of me.” The sound of her voice swirled around the grasses and made them move with joy. He straightened and looked into her eyes. Her eyes were the only thing that hadn’t changed into human form. It reassured him when he saw the slitted eyes. Hilda stepped back a pace.
“Show me the road,” and the warmth in her words spread through his heart. He hadn’t known that he would see her again so soon. Not after the fight with the black mage who had turned the villagers’ children into dragons.
“This way, mistress,” and he walked toward the road.
***
There were no sounds around the road, no mice and rabbits stirred in the grass, and no bugs scurried away from their feet as they tramped toward the road, breaking a path through the grass.
When Varia stood before the road, he noticed that the light and swirling had diminished. The road was shrinking away from the she-dragon. It sent feelings of I’m just a road, just a road. Nothing to see here.
To his normal sight, the cobblestone road was ordinary, except it was in the middle of nowhere. That in itself was a curious thing.
Varia bent over to touch the road, Davi’s thoughts wandered toward how graceful she looked, how regal, and he wanted to touch her.