A Quick Sun Rises

by Thomas Rath

  Tam only nodded.

  “You three take cover in the trees,” Thane suddenly commanded while retrieving his bow and setting the string.

  Dor grabbed his arm. “Wait. We can all help with this,” he said, not willing to merely watch as his friend faced death alone. “We all have arrows.”

  Thane pulled the precious arrow the YeiyeiloBaneesh tree had given him and loosely fit it to the string. “I know, but we can’t risk losing any of them should one of us miss.”

  Dor looked like he would laugh. “Miss?”

  Thane’s expression didn’t change. “You will have your opportunity, Dor. But I can’t afford the distraction of having you and Tam out there with me. Not to mention the fact that I want the dragon to come to me.”

  Dor was surprised to find Tam’s hand on his arm gently pulling him back toward the forest. At the mention of the dragon, Domis had happily obeyed Thane’s command and was already lost to view in the thick trees. “It comes quickly,” she said in a soft hush. “We must be away.”

  Thane stared after her, his mouth agape, his face laid bare with surprise at her willingness to let him do this. Dor just shook his head and followed her as they strode back into the woods. When they were lost to his view, Thane turned and rushed out quickly onto the plains, his eyes scanning the sky for his quarry.

  * * *

  Teek and Tchee swooped down and then shot back high banking to the left as they raced after their lumbering prey. Tryg had the secret he needed and was turning east thinking to make a quick getaway and gain the praise of his master when Tchee’s disdainful shriek caught his attention just as the large bird dropped down onto his back. It angered him that such an insignificant creature could cause such trouble to one of his majesty and power. Banking to the right, going south, he tried to shake his attackers cursing all along that Teek was not among the casualties from his attack on the Waseeni swamps. Again, Tchee pressed down on him, forcing him closer to the ground where he would have happily landed and fought, but he needed to get back to Zadok and he knew that Teek and his little pet would not face him head on.

  Multiple times he made to turn east in an attempt to get back to his master, but Tchee’s assault was relentless. Miles passed beneath them as the great dragon moved its colossal body with as much speed and agility as it was able but it was no match for the smaller, lighter bird. And yet, this stalemate was as grating on Teek as it was Tryg.

  Teek screamed with rage at the boy turned dragon that he had befriended and defended for this whole time unknowing of the treacherous wretch he really was. Tchee dropped on him again but her claws were no match for the armor that was the dragon’s skin and Teek knew his blow gun or dagger would have the same impotent affect. The frustration of not being able to mount a proper attack only fed his rage to the point of crazy abandon. He had to destroy this murdering menace not only in revenge for its killing his family and home but to save the lives of his knew friends. But he was uncertain in how to carry out the task. The only vulnerable spot was its eyes. Teek didn’t hesitate. As Tchee made another pass, he slipped his dagger into his mouth and then jumped from the roc’s back landing with a thud on Tryg’s back just at the base of his skull.

  * * *

  Thane raced out onto the plain sprinting northward his eyes searching the darkening sky above for his prey. The arrow pulsed with life in his hand as if sensing its purpose and anxious to be about its business. He hadn’t thought to quiz Tam closer on her discovery, the excitement of finally being able to fight against Zadok’s terrifying creations had spurred him on without a second thought. It was now that he wondered if he’d been premature and if his race to meet the fight would turn out to be unfruitful.

  He paused at the distant cry that could only be a dragon’s wail and then almost leaped into the air with excitement when he spotted the inky black smudge taking shape as it drew closer to him overhead. He stopped and tested the line on his bow before nocking the arrow and waiting for the dragon to draw near. He didn’t have to wait long as the form materialized and he pulled back on the bow and took aim. Taking a deep breath, he steadying himself and was just about to let fly his deadly bolt when his eye caught the flutter of wings dropping down just above his prey.

  Slowly lowering his bow and releasing the tension he cursed at his luck. “Teek!” He couldn’t fire and risk hitting the Waseeni boy and his bird. He watched as they raced toward him and then caught his breath as a small figure flew off of Tchee and landed on the dragon’s neck.

  * * *

  Teek scurried up the dragon’s neck and grasped one of the great horns that protruded back just above his ear holes. He slipped on the scales but regained his footing quickly as Tchee screamed at him from above. Ignoring his avian friend, he positioned himself as best he could knowing he’d have only one shot. Tryg shook his head and let out an irritate roar at having an uninvited rider. Tucking his giant wings, he raced toward the valley floor where he could better fight his insect-like menace.

  Teek grabbed his dagger and raised it above his head. “This is for my family!” he screamed swinging the blade forward just as the large talons wrapped around his waist and pulled him free. His dagger hit something solid, jarring it from his hand as he was suddenly ripped into the air.

  * * *

  Thane watched in amazement as Tchee dropped out of the sky on top of the Waseeni boy and tore him away from the dragon just as it belched out an awful scream as if in great pain. He felt like his limbs were lead as the dragon’s gaze suddenly focused in on him, a lone figure on a grassy plain with nowhere to run. As if by instinct, he raised his bow as the dragon suddenly bore down on him, its fierce head pulled back as it sucked in a tremendous amount of air in preparation to blow out its killing breath. He pulled at the bowstring using all of his strength to draw it back in time but the arrow was only halfway to his cheek when the dragon started to exhale.

  Thane watched powerlessly as the great torrent of fire was released, its mass and speed too great for him to turn aside and escape. A distant scream echoed in his ears as he closed his eyes just as he was hit and engulfed in the dragon’s flame.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Teek screamed in terror fighting desperately against Tchee’s talons as he watched Thane disappear in an explosion of fire. Tam and Dor mingled their cries of disbelief and horror as they both broke from the tree line and raced forward in a vain attempt to reach their friend before he was reduced to mounds of ash. But their steps faltered as they both quickly realized that there was no hope of saving him. Teek’s eyes dripped tears as Tchee swung away from the scene with a loud, mournful screech while the dragon turned about and descended to glory in his latest kill.

  Tryg smiled, sensing the agony that envelope Thane’s friends, burning them as completely with pain as his fire would Thane’s flesh. Landing in a large spray of dirt and grass no more than one hundred yards from his foe, Tryg was somewhat curious to notice that Thane’s body still remained upright as if the ash were held together in some way. His memory of the Waseeni was an almost instantaneous explosion of cremated remains that produced particles no large than dust that was quickly scattered by the tailing winds caused by his flapping wings.

  * * *

  Thane felt an instant of dread panic as the flames engulfed him, shattering against his chest and then wrapping around him like a new skin. He screamed in anguish expecting the searing temperature that would devour him in excruciating pain before leaving him a lifeless mass of charcoal. It wasn’t until after the second scream that he realized his flesh was not burning though he could feel a tremendous amount of heat building up from inside. And then suddenly it washed over him like a pounding wave, a feeling of power that threatened to overcome him, coaxing for control and a complete release to its will. He recognized it instantly as kin to the sensations he’d felt while flying. With the wind rushing past him, his ArVen Tane had come to life and sought his complete surrender. This time it was his QenChe Tane that had flared up out of
dormancy. It called for his release, filling him with a sensation of ecstasy that was unlike anything he’d experienced before. It called to him, begged to be let go, cried and then demanded it be given absolute control. But this time he listened. This time he gave into the building sensation, forgetting who he was and becoming the Tane instead. Releasing the last vestiges of what had made him Thane, he opened himself up completely and let the rush of the QenChe overflow and then drown him in its power.

  In an instant, the dragon flame was suddenly drawn into his skin, the fire still raging but sucked in under his flesh. His body lit up in a tremendous glow of light shining from within and making him a beacon in the near evening dusk.

  Tam and Dor stopped in awe, their jaws hanging open as they watched in elated amazement to find their friend was not consumed but seemed to have devoured the dragon’s fire. The forest behind them erupted in the eerie sounding cry of the Kybara as they lifted their voices in worship.

  Thane was lost in the rapture of the Tane as it seemed to grow in strength, feeding on the fire that raged inside his body. No longer did he exist as a person but was instead one with the consciousness that was the QenChe. Heat. Fire. Burning. Flame. Purity. Clarity. The dragon’s fire, now his own, was a molten river in his veins that suddenly rushed from his legs and into his core, gathering its entire mass and strength into one whole that was then directed up his arms and down to his outstretched hands.

  Tryg approached, his amazement that Thane had not been destroyed quickly replaced with hot anger that a mere mortal dare steal his fierce power and not die from it.

  The QenChe watched the dragon with an equivalence close to amusement as the massive serpent approached. The flames in its hands grew in strength materializing into two large orbs that peered through the near darkness like great eyes. Brighter and brighter they became until it hurt ones eyes to behold them, giving Tryg pause as he was forced to look away. And then, suddenly, they shot out, shattering the distance between them and the dragon and striking him full in the chest, sending him sailing back in a shower of sparks and embers.

  Tryg’s roar of pain and anger echoed across the valley as he crashed against rocks and dirt sending them shooting out in all directions before he finally came to a stop. Dark spots danced in his eyes, but other than his pride, he was uninjured. The flame had been his own. Even turned against him as it was, his scales could not be burned by his own fire.

  “And what kind of sorcery is this?” he screamed clumsily regaining a standing position.

  Thane found, with a jolt, that the rush and unity of the QenChe Tane was suddenly gone, leaving him as he was but without the slightest drain of energy. If anything, he felt rested without the least sense of fatigue. No scent of smoke clung to him or his clothing; neither dirt nor grime of any type. It was as if he’d just come from a bath, though he felt much cleaner than he could ever recall feeling.

  The dragon loomed up on him, his great legs quickly overtaking the ground that separated them. “So, you have magic do you?” Tryg sneered. “Well, let’s see how well you do with teeth and tongue!” Tryg leered over him, his mouth agape in preparation to swallow him, large fonts of saliva escaping his massive maw.

  Reaching back, Thane pulled the heart arrow from his quiver and fit it into his bow in one fluid motion pulling it back in preparation to fire.

  Tryg blinked at Thane’s quickness, but then roared back with laughter, turning a mocking grin on his insignificant opponent. Puffing out his chest, he gave Thane an easy shot at his heart. “Go ahead, if it will give you comfort to know you tried to fight before you died. I’ll even wait until you’ve fired before I eat you.”

  Thane smiled up at him. “You are too kind,” he hissed and then released the arrow. Tryg let out another roar as he brought his head down, teeth bared, darting his head forward to devour his opponent. But his bellow was cut short as the arrow passed through his scaly armor like thin silk, piercing his heart and then continuing on through his back. The look of triumph in his eyes turning at once to shock as the light in them flickered out. Thane jumped to the side, just avoiding his great head as it crashed into the dirt the shocked disbelief permanently fixed in his visage.

  Tam reached him first, her arms thrown with a vice grip around his neck chocking off his air as she rambled on about thinking him dead. Dor was close behind, adding his own asphyxiating grip while laughing almost uncontrollably in nervous relief. He was seeing small exploding dots of blackness before he was finally able to extricate himself from their deluge of exuberant sentiment.

  “How did you do that?” Tam demanded, still holding his arm as if afraid if she let go he would fall down dead or disappear completely.

  “It was my Tane,” he stated flatly, as if it were the most obvious and normal thing. “Do you remember flying with the rocs?” he asked her.

  Tam smiled. “Yes. I have never felt so alive in my life.”

  “It was the same for me. But take that and apply it to the QenChe Tane. All I had to do was give myself over to it.”

  “Completely?” Tam asked, a sliver of anxiety slipping into her voice. “I was afraid that to do so would cause me to cease to exist. Like I would become lost in the Tane’s power and never return.”

  “I had originally thought the same thing,” Thane soothed. “But now I understand better. It is in the surrender that true control is obtained.”

  “That’s what makes using the Tane so difficult at times,” Dor added as if fully understanding for the first time.

  “The possibilities are endless…” Thane started but Dor finished for him.

  “…if we’ll allow it to happen instead of trying to wrest control!”

  Tchee’s exuberant cry brought all their heads around as she gently released Teek to the ground before flapping away and then coming back to rest near them. She cooed and bobbed her head in cheerful greeting bringing smiles to all their faces as Teek relinquished the reverent awe in which he held them and gave each a great hug in turn. “It is so good to see you all…alive,” he finished, looking at Thane.

  “As well as you,” Tam said, tussling his hair. “We missed you.”

  Teek’s countenance fell as did his eyes. “I am sorry I failed you.” Then pointing an accusing finger at Tchee, he added, “but she is most stubborn at times with where she wants to go and who she wants with her.” Tchee hooted in reply without the slightest hint of apology. Teek’s face suddenly brightened. “But you were successful,” he added gesturing toward the dragon’s corpse that lay like an ominous mountain mere feet away. “You found the trees. Will this give us the victory then?” he asked with wide eyed innocence.

  “I’m afraid not,” Dor replied, “but it will even things out quite a bit.”

  “It was Tryg,” Teek suddenly announced, the sorrow in his voice tinged with venom. “He was the dragon. He was the one that killed our people.”

  “Tryg was a dragon?” Tam repeated as if trying to convince herself that the idea was even possible. “But how?”

  Teek shook his head. “I don’t know. All I know is that one moment we were talking to him and then the next he was growing and changing into that.” He pointed toward the dragon corpse, a look of disdain on his face.

  “Zadok’s sorcery,” Dor hissed.

  “That would explain the deaths in the camp with the merchant’s family butchered,” Thane said.

  “So the others can change as well?” Tam asked the obvious question.

  “I would think so,” Thane reasoned.

  “But then how will we know if one is among us?” Teek asked.

  “We won’t,” Dor said and then looked back at Tryg. “That is, until they turn. But now we’re a bit more prepared to deal with them.”

  “That reminds me,” Thane said turning back to the dragon carcass and walking around behind it. The others watched for a moment as he got further and further away, his eyes stuck to the grassy plain.

  “What are you doing?” Tam yelled, starting to follo
w after him.

  Thane suddenly stopped and bent over and then rose again, the heart arrow in his hand. “Found it!” he smiled.

  “Right,” Teek exclaimed circling Tryg’s great head and then clapped for joy. “I knew it! I knew I had hit him.”

  Dor followed around after him and nodded approvingly as he saw what had given Teek such a rush of excitement. Stuck in the dragon’s eyelid, just below the crown of his right socket was a dagger that Teek reached for and then pulled at with some effort before he was able to dislodge it from its place. “A fine mark,” Dor said with a nod of approval.

  “I was trying to get his eye,” Teek said excitedly, “but Tchee grabbed me. I bet I would have hit it square in the center had she not pulled me off when she did.”

  “Still,” Dor encouraged, “it is no easy feat to wound a dragon with a mere dagger—especially while it’s flying.”

  Teek smiled up at him, radiating with the compliment and feeling for once like a real warrior. Wiping the bit of blood from the blade on the grass, he then pushed it back into its sheath on his leg and silently wondered how he’d fare in a fight against something on the ground.

  “We need to get going,” Thane said, motioning toward the distant keep after placing his arrow back in its quiver.

  “Tchee won’t carry you,” Teek announced dejectedly.

  “Not to fear,” Thane countered, his voice becoming somewhat distant. “We have our own ride.” And then his eyes went dull as he caught the breeze and released his spirit to ride its many currents. Gathering strength and speed at once, he turned to the east willing himself forward to the place where they’d left the rocs outside of Aleron.

  * * *

  “And what now that the way in be compromised?” huffed Bardolf. All of them had been shaken by Tryg’s sudden transformation from a seemingly insignificant Waseeni boy harboring a chip on his shoulder to a massive serpentine killer. The revelation was enough to explain how Thornen Dar had been infiltrated and how Jack’s caravan of refugees had been attacked without anyone having witnessed it. This was dark magic indeed.