She stopped and looked around the half-collapsed cairn. The grave was surrounded by trampled heather. It was different than the heather that had been torn up where she and the Aerona hordesmen had pulled stone from the ground to cover the fallen Second Hordesmen and their mounts.
The sharp tang of bile clawed at the back of Trysten’s throat. She clamped a hand over her lips. Around her, other cairns had been raided the same way but only the ones that she and her hordesmen had built over the fallen riders of the Second Horde and their dragons. The old cairns that held the ancestors of the long-gone village this burial ground had once served remained intact.
Was it possible the Westerners had retrieved their dead? And if so, how did they know the Second Hordesmen were here? Who would have told them?
Elevera shuffled her wings. The leathery skin ruffled the air, and Trysten glanced back at the dragon. Elevera’s unease rolled over Trysten like a snow squall, filling her with a cold dread.
She stopped. The cairn in front of her had not been disturbed despite it being the grave of a Second Horde rider and his dragon. She saw the bent and broken clump of heather beside it where she had found the dragon tooth pendant now resting in her pocket.
“By all the clouds and sky,” she whispered. The mound was completely intact. Her muscles twitched with an urge to tear the stones away from the cairn, but she knew what she would find—the bodies of the only dragon slayer and his mount to remain in the burial grounds. She wanted to leave as much stone as possible between herself and anything from the Second Horde.
She hurried back to Elevera. The dragon crouched as Trysten approached and pulled herself up into the saddle and started fastening her safety straps with haste. Trysten turned to reach for her other strap and her breath stopped. From the height of the saddle she saw what she hadn’t been able to see when they landed, before the sun had risen.
The heather around the disturbed cairns was not trampled. If Western hordesmen had come to retrieve their dead, the footfalls of the hordesmen would have left trails through the heather. It was possible for one person to move through the ground cover without breaking or bending it. However, experience had taught her that a burial detail carrying a fallen hordesman and his dead dragon would have flattened the heather, leaving a trail of broken and bent stems heading off to the west, or whatever direction they had taken.
No such trails wound themselves away from the disturbed cairns. Whatever had become of the bodies of the Second Hordesmen and their mounts, they were not carried away. Not on foot.
Trysten shivered, and then flicked her heels into Elevera’s shoulders. The dragon leaped into the air. She twisted up and up, wings flapping, turning back toward the village, responding to Trysten’s desire to get away.
Trysten caught hold of her panic, then urged Elevera to fly a large circle around the burial grounds. As they flew, she examined the area and saw no paths leaving the cairns, except for the few made where she and her hordesmen had carried their own dead away.
“Back to Aerona,” she said. Elevera, eager to comply, put on speed for the village.
Chapter 25
The flight back had given Trysten time to think, but she had done little of it by the time Elevera set down in the weyr yard. She leaped from Elevera’s saddle and left the dragon untethered and alone. She raced across the yard as a young weyrboy, caught by surprise, ran out to grab the unattended reins of the horde’s alpha.
Trysten charged into the weyr, then ran back to the bunkhouse and into the dining hall. The clatter of spoons on bowls and plates stopped as all of the hordesmen looked at the panting Dragoneer.
“Trysten?” Paege asked.
“Quick,” she said, then pointed toward the other end of the weyr.
Paege stood and trotted across the room. She led him to the den. Once inside, she slammed the door shut behind him, then turned to rest her back against it.
“I returned to the old burial grounds this morning. The one where we buried the Second Horde.”
Paege frowned with concern.
“Their graves were open. The bodies are gone, men and dragons. The graves are torn up. All but one.”
Paege’s brow furrowed a bit. “But one? Why?”
Trysten thrust her hand into her tunic and pulled out the pendant. “This is the one. I found this near the one cairn that was undisturbed the last time I was there. Not this time.”
Paege gave his head a slight shake. “I don’t understand.”
Trysten shook the pendant in her fist. It swung from side to side. “All of them are gone, except the one who lost this when his dragon plummeted to the ground with him on it. If someone raided the graves for treasure, how would they know that he didn’t have this pendant on his body?”
Paege’s brow lifted as his eyes went wide. “Surely you’re not saying…”
“I’m not sure what I’m saying. What are the chances that whoever did this not only left a body behind but the one that didn’t have a pendant? On top of that, I looked while I was on Elevera’s back, and there is no way that anyone carried the bodies away. The heather isn’t trampled except for where we retrieved our fallen men and dragons,” she said.
She rubbed her fingers across her brow. “I’ve been feeling uneasy for days. Then last night I dreamed that the Second Hordesmen rose from their graves. But they were no longer men. They were men and dragons combined,” she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “And I dreamed they came for me.”
Paege turned pale as his eyes sank to the pendant. “We have to go back to the burial grounds. We have to look in that grave.”
After Paege saddled Sone, they flew to the cairns. For the second time that day, Elevera clutched at the rock and heather of the graveyard as she folded her wings around her. Behind her, Sone dropped to the ground as well. The maroon dragon shook her wings then folded them. She lowered her head and swung it from side to side, searching for the reason she felt such unease.
Trysten slid to the ground and approached the undisturbed cairn. Rocks crunched and shifted beneath her feet. She stopped before the mound of stones where she had found the pendant. Paege stepped up beside her.
“This is it. I found the pendant there.” She pointed to the crushed bit of heather.
Paege looked around. “I wish I could say I remember burying this rider. To tell you the truth, I was in so much pain and shock, and Leya had just died. I don’t remember much else about the day after…”
“After I killed the Second Horde’s Dragon Lord,” Trysten said, her voice quiet.
Paege sucked in a breath through his teeth.
“It made no sense,” Trysten said with a shake of her head. “Galelin told me that they were the personal guards of the Originals. Their death was meant to be a message to whoever sent them. If they didn’t return, that would be the signal that they had found what they were looking for. It turns out that they weren’t messengers at all. They were the portals. The gates.”
“You think they have come back to life as Originals?” Paege asked. “That seems a bit far-fetched, even knowing what I know about you.”
Trysten reached into her pocket and gripped the pendant again. She nodded at the cairn. “I think I know wild-well what we’ll find in there.”
Paege didn’t respond immediately. He gave a sharp, definitive nod. “Well, we have to be sure.”
Trysten shivered. “What do we do when we find the man buried in this grave does not have a pendant?”
Paege took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then exhaled. “I hope by the time we uncover him, I’ll have figured that part out.”
He stepped forward and picked up the nearest rock from the cairn.
Chapter 26
They were deep enough into the pile of rocks to uncover the stench, but not the dead hordesman when Trysten noticed three dragons approaching from the northeast. In the mostly sunny sky, it was plain to see that the central dragon in the set was more brilliant white than even the clouds.
“Oh, for all the sky,” Trysten spat.
Paege stopped, turned, and ran a sleeve over his brow. He said nothing, but stood and panted with his hands on his hips.
Prince Aymon and his escorts circled once, then settled to the ground on the opposite side of the cairn, away from Elevera and Sone. Trysten and Paege stepped to the side and watched as the Prince and his hordesmen approached.
“Paege, Trysten,” Prince Aymon called with a nod. “My companions and I were out for a ride, allowing our dragons to stretch their wings after a few days on the ground. Imagine my surprise to find both of you out here, apparently violating a grave in an ancient burial ground.” Prince Aymon eyed one of the cairns as he strode past.
“You followed us,” Trysten said.
“Robbing graves is befitting of only the vilest thugs,” Prince Aymon said.
“This is where the last battle was fought,” Trysten said. “The Second Hordesmen fell here by their own hands. We buried them. Why would we come here to rob their graves?”
“Why, indeed?” Prince Aymon asked as he stopped a short distance away. “Soldiers are not known to carry riches into battles. If you wanted their boots, you would have taken them, as you took their swords. So why are you chucking stones from this man’s grave? And what have you done with the bodies of the other soldiers and dragons who fell here?”
Trysten took a deep breath. She fixed the Prince’s gaze in hers. There was no explanation that she could come up with that would fit what they were doing here. There was nothing left to expose beyond the fallen soldier’s body and the truth.
Trysten pulled the pendant from her tunic. As the hordesmen grasped their swords, she allowed the dragon tooth to drop from her fist. It danced and dangled at the end of the chain before settling into a hypnotic sway.
Prince Aymon shrugged. “You present that as if it ought to explain something quite clearly, but I’m afraid I am at a loss.”
“I found this there,” Trysten said, pointing to the ground next to the burial mound. “A few days ago, I was just flying to be flying and wound up here. I found this near the cairn and had no idea what it was. But last night I had a dream. I dreamed that the soldiers who killed themselves rose from their graves. I flew out here this morning to make sure that the graves were as I last saw them. Instead, I found them as you have seen them from above. All except this one, the one where I found the pendant.”
Prince Aymon glanced from the pendant to the cairn and back. His face grew serious and dark. “Muzad.” He flicked his finger at the pendant.
Muzad stepped forward and reached for the pendant. Trysten yanked it back.
“I’m quite tired of you stealing things from me,” she said.
“Allow Muzad to have a look. He is a man who is well versed in antiquities and treasures.”
Muzad held out his gloved hand in expectation.
Trysten made a show of wrapping the chain around her fist, then stuffing it back in her tunic. “Help us dig out this soldier,” she said with a nod to the cairn. “You can have his pendant.”
“You know as well as I do that we’ll find no such pendant on his body,” Prince Aymon said. “His pendant is in your pocket. That is why he failed to rise from the dead, isn’t it? His pendant either fell from his person when he dropped from the sky, or it was removed by one of your men, perhaps as spoils of war, only to be dropped in the bustle.”
“I heard you say in Galelin’s cottage that there was no such thing as magic,” Trysten said. “And to be clear, we do not take spoils of war. That must be a custom of the royal horde that has not reached our village yet.”
Prince Aymon ignored the insult. “I did say that magic does not exist. I am not telling you what I believe, I am merely stating what you expect me to believe.”
“What do you believe, then?”
Prince Aymon looked around as if everything he needed to know was right there, among the stones and heather of the burial ground.
“I believe that you should allow Muzad to examine that pendant. And if it will expedite matters any, then I give you my word that he will return it once he has looked it over.”
“Will you return the dragonslayer sword once we return?” Trysten asked.
“You have more than one sword. I believe I’ll keep the one I have,” Prince Aymon said with an icy smile. “Now, I suggest you hand over the pendant so that we can continue. Or, we can say that I found you and your commander robbing graves, a crime punishable by dismemberment in this kingdom.”
Trysten’s brow tightened. She was getting really tired of his cockiness. She pulled the pendant from her pocket and held it out in her open palm for Muzad. He swiped the pendant and chain from Trysten’s hand, then stepped backward, careful not to trip on the stones or turn his back.
Once at the Prince’s side, Muzad made a show of examining the tooth, the setting, and the chain. The Prince did the same. The two men huddled with their backs to Trysten and Paege, exchanging whispered comments as Muzad held the pendant in his open palm. Trysten could tell by their secrecy that they knew something about the pendant or pendants like it.
The remaining royal hordesman kept swinging his eyes back and forth between Trysten and Paege, his hand firmly on the hilt of his sword. Trysten had no idea what he expected them to do.
Finally, the Prince and his dragoneer turned around. Muzad approached Trysten and held out his hand, the pendant dangling from his fingers. As Trysten reached for it, he snatched it back, then threw it as high as he could. The pendant arced toward Trysten and Paege. She snatched it from the air and returned it to her pocket where it belonged, never once taking her eyes from Muzad’s laughing gaze. She turned and glared at the Prince.
“You two will continue your work,” Prince Aymon said as he folded his arms behind his back. “We will investigate the other graves. Do not leave before I speak to you again.”
Without waiting for a response, the Prince and his men proceeded to the nearest open cairn.
“What do you suppose that was all about?” Paege asked as soon as the men were out of earshot.
“It was about them being royal pigs’ behinds, as Kaylar would say,” Trysten fumed. “Like I told you, he suspects something.”
She didn’t mention her ability to see the duality of the tooth. She wasn’t sure if Prince Aymon knew about it either. She had watched for Muzad to pinch the pendant in his thumb and forefinger and hold it as Trysten’s mother had, but he had not done so. Like Galelin, they had seemed more interested in the metal than the tooth.
“Come on,” Trysten said. “We’ve come this far. We might as well finish what we started.”
Once they had exposed the body, Prince Aymon and his men showed up unbidden. They ordered Trysten and Paege aside as they examined the remains. At first, Paege objected, but Trysten silenced him. They found seats on nearby rocks and watched the Prince and his men search the grave. She knew full well that they would find nothing and their fruitless search would be the confirmation that she and Paege needed. She might as well let them do some work since they were here.
Finally, the men removed enough stones to satisfy themselves that the dragon was in the grave as well. With haste they stacked the rocks back into place, leaving the cairn as neat and orderly as Trysten had found it.
“Have you brought provisions?” Prince Aymon asked as he approached Trysten and Paege.
“We brought water,” she said. “I didn’t expect to have much of an appetite after this.”
Prince Aymon pointed at the man who was not Muzad. “Bring these two food and more water.”
As the man returned to the royal dragons, Prince Aymon took a seat on a rock across from them.
“You found no pendant, right?” Trysten asked.
The Prince nodded. “This man and his dragon was left behind by whoever emptied the other graves. He has no pendant. The other burial sites are completely bare. No scrap of cloth nor scale of dragon left behind, as if nothing had ever been there. When grav
e robbers dismantle a cairn, they toss stones to either side like the two of you did, resulting in two distinct piles of rocks. But each of these empty graves lacks those features. The stones are…” Prince Aymon made a slow sweep forward with his hand, keeping his open palm parallel to the ground. “They are laid out in a fan, evenly.”
“As if opened from the inside,” Trysten said quietly.
Prince Aymon gripped his knees with both hands as he surveyed the burial grounds. “One might say that.”
“Do you honestly believe that to be the case?” Trysten asked.
The Prince turned his attention to the middle space between Trysten and Paege. He stared hard, concentrating, apparently trying to figure out what to say, if anything. Finally, he looked up at Trysten. “I keep finding the impossible everywhere I look around you.”
He leaned forward and rested his elbows upon his knees as the hordesman returned and handed a water skin to Trysten and a pack to Paege before retreating. Paege opened the pouch and pulled out bits of dried meat, cheese, and coarse bread.
“Recently,” Prince Aymon continued, “I was called into my father’s receiving room to hear the story of a man just arrived from the village of Aerona on the back of a tired, dust-beaten mule. The man claimed to be a hordesman from the fallen village of Hollin who had seen his weyr destroyed and his village set ablaze. The Hollin horde absconded, he said. And as they sought help from a village to the north, they came across the Aerona horde, led by a woman. A female dragoneer, he said.”
Paege offered the pack to Trysten, and despite her dislike of the Prince, and the odor lingering in the air, she found herself starved, having skipped breakfast. She took some food from the pack and began to chew.
“Many people in the court couldn’t believe it,” Prince Aymon went on. He held his hands out, fingers extended in a mild expression of disbelief. “A female dragoneer? Who has heard of such a thing? Everyone knows that women can’t bond with dragons. The bond with a dragon requires a level of emotional and mental fortitude that matches that of the dragon. Women simply are too emotional and too weak of mind to make the bond.”
The Dragoneer Trilogy Page 43