The Emerald Rider (Book Four of the Dragoneer Saga)

by M. R. Mathias

  What… what should I do when I get there? Jenka was extremely spell weary. He was fading.

  Xaffer wasss powerful, but he won’t have sssurvived this long. The Soulstone, however, may still be bound to the traps he created with it. It isss a powerful device the wizard used to pit men against the demonsss they sssummoned into hisss arena.

  How will I know her? asked Jenka.

  Clover will seem like a ssstatue, but even still, ssshe will ssseem fierce and beautiful. Most likely he kept her in the lower level of the ssstructure. But be wary. Xaffer was clever and he had a following. He created all of this so his priests could battle demons. He will have set unpredictable pitfallsss on the whole place, and Clover’s form, too. The Dour flowing through you will absssorb a lot of his mayhem. He will have had to bind a demigod or a demon to his final wardsss. He may have even—

  Crimzon’s voice continued, but a great exhaustion consumed Jenka, and the slackening flow of Dour he was riding carried him gently into slumber.

  When Jade woke Jenka some days later, Crimzon was sleeping so soundly that Jenka didn’t bother with the old wyrm. A generation or two had come and gone since the dragon left his rider here. Crimzon would be of little more help. When Jade lowered his head for mounting, Jenka reluctantly left his concerns behind and set out to find Clover and release her.

  It was what he had sworn to do.

  Chapter Three

  What the heck did you hear? Rikky asked Marcherion with his mind. I don’t understand what you mean.

  They were flying over the Frontier at a leisurely pace, each eyeing the mostly wooded terrain for movement as they went. March was riding his fire wyrm Blaze, and Rikky was on the smaller, quicker Silva. It was late spring and both boys were restless. The only excitement they’d had since they destroyed the alien was hunting vermin, and even that was starting to lose its appeal.

  Crimzon roared out last night, is what I’m telling you. March looked like he hadn’t slept at all. His long brown hair was a tangle, and the clothes under his plated leather riding vest were rumpled and creased. He hadn’t even bothered to fully lace the armor.

  Are you sure you didn’t just fart in the middle of a dream? Rikky laughed. Were you drinking that harsh stuff again?

  I only drank that stuff once, and it wasn’t a fart. March was clearly mad that Rikky wouldn’t take him seriously, but he couldn’t keep from laughing. Rikky was glad, because when March got mad these days things went downhill quickly.

  Only a few days ago March had sheared one of Swineherd’s pens in two trying to kill a lone goblin who’d managed to ping his head with a rock and then elude him.

  Listen, you one-legged giboon, March barked.

  Rikky had to hold his mirth in check.

  March was rubbing at the fresh knot as he went on. Crimzon, who disappeared when Jenka did, roared out last night. Blaze heard it plainly. We asked Crystal and Golden both if they heard it, and just after it happened, too. I can’t understand why just Blaze and I would—

  Probably because they are both fire drakes, Rikky observed.

  I didn’t think of that.

  Figures.

  After a few moments of March not getting the jibe, Rikky sighed. Can you tell where it came from? I don’t think we can just ignore it, not if you’re sure.

  I’m certain. Blaze is certain. It was Crimzon and he was anguished. Locating the source of the call, though… I can sense it. I doubt I could point a place on a map, but Blaze—

  I cans finds Crimzonss, Blaze interrupted. I think we mussst.

  Wait a minute. We? Rikky asked. Zah is a queen now, and a mother. She can’t leave. And Aikira is the Outland Ambassadora. The Dragoneers can’t just leave the people of the Frontier. King Richard won’t help them at all.

  Weee, the red dragon hissed. Usss.

  Just then a pair of newly uncocooned horn-heads went darting through the trees below. Silva, who had been hunting, not listening, dove after them. It was all Rikky could do to hold on as she snaked herself out of the sky. They went streaking straight at the forest, with only the slightest bit of angle in their descent. Then, with a sudden down-pressing inertia that threatened to send Rikky into blackness, Silva leveled out and took them skimming over the treetops.

  Rikky nearly tumbled off of her backward as he twisted and tried to free his bow from its straps. You’ll have to make another run, Sil, he said as they passed over the fleeing vermin.

  Yesss, the sleek, pewter-scaled wyrm responded, and then banked around.

  Marcherion didn’t need a second pass. He put an arrow right through one of the creature’s vitals. It would die swiftly from the poison with which the shafts were tipped. As would the other one, now that Rikky had his weapon ready.

  Rikky loosed as they came out of their arcing turn and almost missed the beast entirely. He didn’t like using a regular bow, but the one with Silva’s tear mounted in it did far too much damage to use on a typical hunt. This arrow tore through one of the creature’s arms. It didn’t even slow its gait as it continued to flee. Rikky counted up to nine before it pitched forward into a tumbling heap.

  There! I saw something over there. March pointed.

  Blaze was already winging his bulk that way. Silva had to bank around again but came out of the turn in an undulating fury of wing beats that carried them right past the larger fire wyrm. They topped a high section of trees and saw a vast orchard spread across a shallow valley. The tree rows cut across in a perfect diagonal, and the scent of nectars, or maybe peaches, filled his nose. Before he could think, a boulder the size of a barrel keg was coming right at them. Silva swerved, and Rikky hugged himself tight against her. He felt it grind over him, but managed to stay seated.

  They didn’t escape harm. Rikky was spared being maimed, but the rock skimmed across Sliva’s rump and tail and sent her careening into the dirt along a row of fully grown fruit trees. Before they hit, Rikky saw an ogre as tall as the trees around it. It was about to swing a branch at Blaze, who was just now topping the ridge.

  Hold on, Rikkysss, Silva hissed into the ethereal. Rikky hoped the warning reached the others, for he was in no position to call them. Limbs and leaves and whipping branches tore at his face. A very firm peach splattered across his neck and he was coated with the spray of another that impacted Silva’s scales and exploded. Rikky doubted he could hold on any harder than he was.

  Not so badss. It—cras— The voice in Rikky’s head stopped suddenly.

  Rikky’s heart dropped to his bowels. Losing the connection with his bond-mate so abruptly scared him. For that instant he wasn’t sure if she was dead or just knocked unconscious. Then she was there again, angry and grunting as they ground to a stop. Instinctually, they both were feeling for injury in the dragon’s wings. Luckily, Silva wasn’t hurt from the crash, but the boulder had bruised quite deeply the area where her tail met her body. She used those muscles to keep her balance in the air.

  “Fuuu—” March yelled as he and his dragon went flying by.

  The ogre had missed them and was now storming down the lane formed by the tree rows. It had the branch held overhead now and was roaring. Its eyes were locked on Rikky, or maybe Silva, who was gathering herself behind her dislodged rider.

  Rikky’s first thought was that an ogre shouldn’t be trying to harm them; then he saw the charred ring at its neck and knew that it was one of the many ogres the Druids of Dou had collared and mindwashed. It wasn’t a comforting thought. Worse, the thing had been feasting on peaches and was in some sort of rage. It would try to defend the bountiful trees, as if they belonged to it.

  Rikky realized he had an arrow drawn. The poison it was tipped with only affected the alien-blooded creatures. To this ogre it was just a shaft, but Rikky let it fly nonetheless, and then half-charged, half-hopped on his steel-shod, wooden peg leg into the next tree row as Silva met the beast.

  When Rikky turned to see what was happening, he found his dragon hadn’t faced down the ogre at all, but instead h
ad shimmied into another tree row and tripped the thing with her tail.

  The ogre went sprawling and took down a few trees as it went. Then Marcherion and Blaze were landing and Rikky knew to stay exactly where he was. Lie flat, Silva! he called with his mind. Lie as flat as you can.

  Yesss, she hissed, then a roaring gout of dragon flames, and the sizzling hum of March’s eye-rays drowned out everything, save for the sound of falling trees and the keening screams of the dying ogre.

  Chapter Four

  Jenka figured the knowledge he’d gathered from the alien shape-shifter was his own burden to bear. How could he explain to the other Dragoneers that there were other worlds, on other planets? Jenka had seen them through the memories and mind of the shape-shifter.

  He knew.

  Zahrellion, who was a schooled druida, and Aikira, who knew wizardry, might grasp it, but March and Rikky would only act like they did.

  Even though the creature that crashed his vessel here wasn’t fond of much anything other than feeding, Jenka decided that some of those worlds out there would be pleasant. The creature’s limited thought process gave Jenka’s glimpse of it all a narrow perspective.

  The fact that he understood his insight was limited was a testament to the wealth of understanding he and Jade had gathered, though. Neither had to use mental or physical voice to communicate; not even the ethereal was needed these days. They were an extension of each other, at least when they were both awake and flying. The connection between them when they weren’t in physical contact was still heightened, but not so much. No, Jenka reflected. His memory was a wavering flicker of images all lensed in green. He knew his bond with Jade had been that way before the alien, since even before they and Rikky had slain Gravelbone.

  As it often did now, Jenka’s mind drifted to some random place from his past. This time it was the sky above Mainsted, where Jenka’s half-brother, Prince Richard, sacrificed his soul and the eternity of his beloved dragon, Royal, for the sake of the kingdom. Then even those thoughts faded, and Jenka sat in a daze as the wind flowed through his untended mess of brown hair.

  It was a beautiful day. He didn’t know if it was spring or fall on this part of the planet, but it was clearly one of those two seasons. Considering the rotation and alignment of the orb over which he was suspended sent his mind off again. The vastness of space, and the idea that they were but a speck in it, consumed him. That lasted for some time.

  The constellations and swirling bands of circular light he and his wyrm were gliding through slowly faded into clouds, which faded into something else.

  Now it was Zahrellion occupying his mind. Slender and beautiful, her white hair, lavender eyes, and delicate skin still radiated exotic beauty, but then his mind applied the tattoos to her face. Circles and squares on her cheeks and a triangle on her forehead the color of old, dark wood. No, wait, Linux had the darker triangle; he was… he was… He is in a different body than his own now. And King Blanchard?

  As Jade carried them over the sea, Jenka’s mind drifted even farther away. He might have fallen into a full state of reverie had Jade not trumpeted a snort of disdain at a flock of giant sea dactyls that ventured too close.

  When he cleared his head, Jenka found that they were closing in on a land mass that was more like a small continent than an island. An endless strand of white, sugary sand lined an emerald green shore. A few cattle-pens, built from stacked stones, could be made out inland. The land along the shore, though, seemed like some wintery tundra full of random drifts speckled with thin clumps of prickly-looking scrub. It wasn’t snow. The sand was just that white. The contrast with the almost glowing seashore was a wonder within itself.

  They rose in the sky and followed the seemingly deserted beach from a considerable height. They didn’t want to come upon a town or village and cause a stir. Then they saw a few fishing boats outside a small inlet, and what might have been a village. The road leading away from the huddle of structures went straight inland as far as the eye could see. As they continued, the shore grew rockier, but no less spectacular in color, for a few dozen yards out from the rising land was a reef just under the surface of the sea.

  The colors of his eyes, Jade hissed in awe.

  Jenka heard the musing, even though Jade hadn’t meant it for him. He considered that his eyes were so unnatural that his dragon would have that thought. It made him feel alien. Like he was the only one of his kind and always would be.

  As they continued north, Jenka wondered what would be waiting for them. He didn’t have to wonder long, for there was a great temple built on a prominence that thrust itself proudly out of the sea like the bow of a gargantuan ship. Sitting just beside it, like some forgotten ruin, was a smaller rock building with a more modest tower. Jenka figured that was Xaffer’s old abode, but getting there now presented other problems.

  You’ll have to let me off and I’ll creep into the sanctuary, Jenka suggested. The sun was getting low in the sky. It would be dark soon. There, over by those woods, but wait until full dark.

  Yesss, Jade grumbled out what might have been a laugh. But you can ussse the Dour to get there, Jenksss.

  I’m not comfortable teleporting and levitating, he replied.

  Someday sssoon you may have to use the Dour. I would rather you tempered yourssself to the task than let it overwhelm you in a moment of crisssis, Jade lectured. I will land on the cliffs below the temple and wait for your call. Return before the sunrise or I will come for you.

  Let’s search from the sky before dark falls, and no, give me three days before you come storming.

  The third sunrise, then?

  Yes.

  A bit of circling and studying the terrain revealed that a sizable city separated the temple grounds from the rest of the land, and a sizable vineyard separated the city from the temple. The idea that there was an arena under the temples, and that demons and magicked men once fought there, was hard to believe, but the layout looked as if it were designed for defense, or maybe containment.

  They concentrated their spying on the grounds of the newer temple, for the symbol in its courtyard was a larger version of the one in the older building’s open bailey. There were a half-dozen black-robed men doing precise movements in two rows of three. Another figure in a gray robe trimmed in olive green mirrored them, or led them, through the routine. They all had a staff and, what with the twirling and jabbing they were doing, they looked as if they could use them handily. Jenka hoped they wouldn’t notice his intrusion into the old place. He would follow Jade’s advice and use the Dour to get by them. They wouldn’t be able to see him, much less confront him, if he was invisible.

  It may be a few levels deep, Jade, Jenka voiced. It may take me a while to find her and then a longer while to try to free her.

  We must try all we can try, Jade offered. But if we cannot free her, we must end her. We promissssed to let her suffer no more.

  Yesss, Jenka responded, and noticed curiously that he’d slurred his response just like his dragon sometimes did.

  Jade only chuckled and then turned them around for another pass over the temple.

  Chapter Five

  Rikky looked up to see another ogre charging down the tree lane at him. It was a long way away yet, but no less menacing. It was a female, with filthy olive-skinned breasts the size of flour sacks bouncing crazily as it came. Hobbling through the soft dirt over toward his dragon, he crossed out of that tree row into the next. That was when he realized there was yet another ogre in the area. It was not much bigger than a man, but twice as thick of limb, and it was right there walloping him into the dirt.

  Things went black, but only for a moment. He was able to roll away from the next blow. He then managed to crawl out of the creature’s reach.

  Two things happened next: Silva thumped the juvenile creature into a tree trunk with her tail, and the thing’s mother crossed into the row just in time to see it happen.

  The mother ogre literally ran up Silva’s bulk, bear-hug
ged her neck just under her head, and began choking her. Rikky had no idea where his bow was. He never carried a sword when they went hunting because Marcherion always handled the blade work at the end. March said he liked it, but Rikky knew that March just wanted to save him from having to dismount over and over again in the field. Nevertheless, there he stood with no weapon at all as an ogre was violently choking his bond-mate.

  Rikky struggled to stand up. March! He screamed into the ethereal. He hobbled over to the nearest tree and leaned against it for support. From there he tried to see where his bow was. He saw Silva swing her neck around and bash the clinging ogre into a tree. It was a savage impact but the creature didn’t let go. Worse, Silva looked to be fading from the fight.

  Where are you, March? Rikky screamed, his heart hammering into a panic. He could feel Silva’s need to draw breath. He knew she was nearly done. “MAAARRRCCCHHH!”

  I’m here, a musical voice responded. It wasn’t Marcherion, but it was just as welcome.

  Rikky looked up to see Golden sweep past Silva’s upper body. The glittering dragon ripped the ogre across its back. Three slices started like dripping lines, but slowly opened into deep scarlet furrows.

  Silva shook the ogre off then, or it fell off, for she wasn’t doing much shaking. Rikky limped over to her with tears flooding his eyes. He’d been helpless. Like a lump. He loved his dragon, though, and he was relieved beyond measure that she was starting to recover.

  March needs me, Aikira voiced. A limb punctured Blaze’s wing skin. He’s stuck in an awkward position. The younger ogre is hiding now, two rows over. Watch yourself.

  I will. Rikky ran his hand over Silva’s pewter-plated brow. He could see his bow lying a few dozen strides away now but wasn’t ready to leave his dragon. He took a deep breath and then began exploring her wounds. He healed what he could, but Silva’s delicate esophagus was almost crushed and would take a long time before it was anywhere close to normal. Rikky was certain he would have to have the butchers at the keep grind her deer meat so she could swallow it.