Chapter Twenty
The edge of the dragon plains appeared as little more than a haze in the night. It was different than the surrounding landscape. Whereas everything else around them had been tall grasses spotted with the occasional tree, the dragon plains were bleak, barren rock, and a strange and surprising heat emanated from it. The air held a bitter stench, and he resisted the urge to shiver.
“From what Talmund told me, everyone is uncomfortable the first time they come here,” Alison said.
“And how many people come here for the first time at night?”
Alison glanced over and smiled. “I doubt many are foolish enough to do that.”
“What’s the commander planning?”
“I don’t really know. He thinks he can get ahead of Carter.”
“And what will that serve?”
“If he does, there’s a place where he thinks to pinch Carter’s mercenaries. We have numbers, and hearing him talk about it, this place should let our numbers make the difference.”
“Even with a fire mage?”
She sighed. “I don’t know.”
Carter moved quickly, and if she had the priest, she’d know where she was heading. “Wouldn’t it be better if we found the dragon heart first? We know where Carter will be. If Talmund is guiding them toward the dragon heart—”
“Do you think you’re Deshazl?”
Fes blinked. “What?”
“Do you think you’re Deshazl?” she repeated.
“You know that I don’t.”
“Then how do you think you’ll find the dragon heart? That’s what the commander counts on, but if you’re not Deshazl, there doesn’t seem to be any way for you to actually find the heart.”
That was the challenge.
Then again, from what Carter had said, they should need a fire mage to even be able to cross the dragon plains, but they had been able to do it without one so far. Would there come a time when that would change?
“Let’s hurry,” he said.
She nodded and guided them onto the dragon plains. The horses’ hooves sounded incredibly loud across the stone, clattering strangely. The longer they went, the more the sound began to fade, becoming almost muted. It was an odd noise, and he looked over at Alison, thinking that she would notice it, but she didn’t seem to.
He focused on the ground beneath them and saw the dragon fields spreading out around them in the faint moonlight. Something like a haze hovered over the ground, making it difficult for him to see clearly. Then again, if it was difficult for him, then it might be difficult for others to see clearly. It might be the perfect night to attempt a rescue of Talmund. If they were able to get in and then back out quickly, they might be able to spring him before anyone was wiser.
The rumors of the dragon plains were true. The ground was barren and rocky, and in the faint moonlight, it seemed as if it were all a gray or black rock. The haze seemed to drift up from the ground, steam rising from rock that still was heated by the dragon flames.
“I can’t believe a flower could grow here.”
“That’s why it’s so unique. The flower should not be able to grow, and somehow it is. That’s why we need to find it. If we can find the flower, and we can reach the dragon heart, we can…”
There was a sound off to the west, and Alison trailed off, looking into the night.
Fes’s gaze followed the same direction, but he could see nothing other than the haze of the strange fog that drifted up. He fought the horse, keeping it from moving and stamping its feet. Any sound they made would only draw attention to them.
“I think we have to leave the horses,” Fes said.
Alison glanced over, her eyes wide. “If we go by foot…”
“What choice do we have? Listen to the horses as we move. If I can hear it, then others can. We need to go by foot where we can sneak more quietly.”
“What do you propose that we do with them? They can’t be left in the dragon fields. There’s nothing for them to graze on, and it’s possible we won’t be able to return this way.”
Fes glanced back at the direction from which they had come. “There’s only one thing we can do with them. We need to send them back.”
Alison was shaking her head. “That’s a terrible idea, Fes. The moment we do, we commit ourselves to staying here.”
“I thought we were already committed to rescuing Talmund.”
“How do you intend for us to break free if we don’t have any way to escape quickly?”
“I didn’t say that we wouldn’t go on horseback, only that we wouldn’t go on the horses we came in with.”
“Think about what you’re saying, Fes.”
“I don’t think that we have many options. If you want this to succeed…”
Alison stared at him for a long moment before climbing from her saddle. Fes joined her, and when his boots thudded on the ground, he stiffened, afraid of how much noise they were making.
He leaned toward the horse’s ear. “You need to go back to the others,” he said, patting the creature on the side. The horse huffed softly but tipped his head toward him. He patted it another moment and shook his head. “You need to go. What we’re going to do isn’t going to be safe for you.”
When he patted the horse on the side again, the creature took off, heading back the way they had come, and moving quickly and surprisingly quietly. It was almost as if the horse understood what he wanted of it.
Alison was having a harder time. Her horse seemed to be fighting, shaking his head as she was trying to whisper something to it.
Fes looked at her with an urgency in his eyes. He hadn’t heard the same sound again, but he worried that he would, and he didn’t like the idea of staying here, especially with something as noticeable as a horse outlined against the night. At least by themselves, they could crouch down behind the rocks and hopefully disappear.
Finally, she patted the horse on the side, and the mare took off, heading after the other.
“That took you long enough,” he said.
“I can’t help that she cared about me.”
“Or maybe she simply knew that you had the food.”
Alison frowned.
“And mine listened better…”
The sound came again, this time a little more distant than before, but just as distinct.
Fes frowned. He glanced over at Alison, and she nodded. “I heard it.”
They started across the rock. It was uneven, and Fes paused at one point to pick up one of the stones, examining it. He hadn’t seen anything like it before. Some of them were light, almost porous, while others were smooth and slick, reminding him of his dagger.
They paused every so often, attempting to listen, but there was no other sound. Fes surveyed the land around him. It was incredibly bleak, nothing more than the broken rock, with no sign of life. They were it. He began to understand what Alison and the commander had said about the possibility of a flower growing here. If flowers could grow, then what else could be here?
As they walked, Fes unsheathed his daggers. Alison looked over, but he only shrugged. He felt foolish, but he would have felt much more foolish not having them in hand if they were jumped. With the haze that rose up from the ground, the steam or fog or whatever it was, it made it difficult to see well enough whether anyone would be approaching. He wasn’t about to be surprised here. Fes would not have his last days be in this place.
Gradually, the ground began to rise, though the slope was gentle. Every so often, there would be a gust of cool air, and it was a welcome reprieve from the heat around them. It was strange that they should feel so warm here, especially as they had felt nothing but cold air over the last few days.
“Do you know where we’re heading?” Fes asked.
Alison pointed. “They were heading north, and this is the safest path for that.”
“How do you have any sense of where you’re going?”
“How do you not?” she asked.
“With the
fog around us, I can’t see a thing.”
“We both know that it’s not fog.”
“Fine. With whatever steam this is, I can’t see a thing.”
Alison pointed to the sky. “Every so often, I catch glimpses of the moonlight. With that, I can see through it clearly enough that I can get a sense of which way we’re heading.”
Fes wasn’t sure that was the best way to navigate, but he wasn’t going to argue with Alison, not on this. They continued to make their way across the dragon fields, and night continued to grow deeper around them. There was a strange stillness to the air, and at first, Fes thought it was his imagination, but the longer they walked, the more he began to be aware of it. It was almost a physical presence, one that reminded him of the heat that had radiated from the fire mage. As he went, he thought about what Carter had said about needing a fire mage to cross the plains. How was it that they were able to do it without one?
After walking like that for nearly an hour, the heat continuing to bother him, Fes grabbed Alison’s arm. She frowned at him. “Do you feel that?” he asked.
“Feel what?”
“The heat. Does it feel familiar to you?”
Alison looked away from him and scanned the ground. “I don’t feel anything different.”
“There is something different.” Fes was certain of it, even if he couldn’t put a finger on what it was or why he would be feeling it.
They continued on, and though they managed to walk softly, with muted feet, every so often the rock would tremble beneath his feet, and he would slip, almost enough to give them away. It made him extra cautious with each step, almost unpleasantly so.
The longer they went, the more and more certain Fes was that there was something more that he detected. How could Alison not be aware of it? The heat was building, rising around him, and it was so similar to what he’d experienced in the place beneath the dragon base. Did that mean the fire mage was here?
They weren’t ready for her, if so. He’d gotten lucky the last time. He doubted it would happen again.
Fes swiped at the air with his daggers. The heat dissipated, just as it had when they’d been attacked by Reina.
That wasn’t his imagination.
“I think we will need to move more carefully,” he said.
“What is it?”
“I’m not certain, but I think the fire mage is nearby.” He turned to Alison. “We know Carter has a fire mage.” Fes still didn’t know if the fire mage employed Carter—and if that were the case, it meant there was something else taking place that Azithan hadn’t known about—or whether she’d hired them. “We know a fire mage destroyed the caravan. And we came across Reina beneath the dragon base. She got away from us, which means she’s probably with Carter.”
And for him to feel the effects of her spell meant they were close.
And now he might have revealed himself.
Alison pressed up against him, her body not nearly as warm as the air around him had been. It was better now, but it was still hot, the wind pushing out, making him uncomfortable. “You don’t know that.”
“Alison, I know what I was feeling. It was the same thing as what I felt beneath the dragon base. And just like there, there was a relief when I cut through the air with my daggers.”
“I trust you. If you say that we need to be careful, then we will be careful.”
They continued forward, and as they did, Fes paid attention to the shifting currents in the air. All he needed to detect was the presence of the heat. If he could pick up on that, it might be enough to know whether the fire mage was active again, or whether there was something else taking place. Maybe it had been only his imagination. Perhaps it was nothing more than the strangeness of this place getting to him.
Fes didn’t think that was the case. He had been in strange places before, and he had done things that made him uncomfortable, but this was different. He wasn’t sure how to explain it any differently than that, other than that it was so similar to the heat that he had experienced when in the tunnels.
It didn’t come again.
That made him uncomfortable. It should be a relief that the heat didn’t continue to rise and the presence of the painful burning didn’t return, but the fact that it had not returned left him worried that perhaps the fire priest was aware that they were here. Fes had been lucky the last time to escape her and didn’t like the odds that he might be forced to encounter her again. And now that she might know that he was coming?
Deshazl.
He could practically hear her call him that, the strange way that she had spoken seared into his mind.
Alison looked over at him. “What is it?”
“Nothing but my imagination.”
They took another step, and he heard rocks tumbling nearby.
He grabbed for Alison and pulled her to the ground. “There is someone here.”
Alison reached for her sword and unsheathed it quietly. Fes still gripped both daggers, and he crawled forward, leading Alison now. He made his way toward the sound. He would rather find whoever might be out there before they reached him.
It was possible that they didn’t know where to find him, not yet, and if they moved quickly enough—and silently enough—they might not ever realize where he was.
A soft gust of wind picked up. It carried a little of the haze away and cleared the night for a moment.
A shadow stood outlined.
Fes nodded toward it, but Alison shook her head. “I don’t see it,” she mouthed.
Fes crawled forward, and when he was near where he had seen the shadowed figure, he launched and slammed into the person. He found a tunic and grabbed it, sliding his dagger up into the flesh of whoever was standing guard. The man let out a strangled cry, too loud in the silence of the night, and then fell to the ground. He landed with a soft thud.
When he was down, Fes was able to examine the man. He wore the crimson colors of the empire, and that left Fes nervous for a moment, but nothing else struck him as a soldier. He carried a crossbow but surprisingly didn’t have a bolt readied.
Had it been Fes standing guard out in this place, he would have been ready with not only a crossbow bolt but he would have had a sword in hand. There was just something about this place that made him incredibly uncomfortable, and he would not have been willing to stand so helplessly, especially not when he was forced to stare out into the darkness, unable to see anything.
Alison reached him. “How did you see him?”
“How did you not?”
“I heard the rock, but I couldn’t see anything through the haze.”
“The wind picked up, clearing it.”
Alison frowned. “There hasn’t been any wind since we’ve come to the dragon fields.”
“There’s been an occasional gust of cold northern air that’s cleared some of the haze.”
Alison stared at him. “If you say so. I haven’t detected it. But I can’t argue with the fact that you saw this man and managed to get to him before he got to us.”
“If there’s one guard, there will likely be others,” Fes said. “We need to be careful and keep our eyes open.”
“I think that you need to be the one to search through here. Maybe there’s something to your Settler heritage.”
And, she didn’t need to say, the possibility that he was Deshazl.
Fes took a deep breath and crawled away from the fallen man. He made his way along the rock, and when they were far enough away, he stood. At least now they knew they were heading in the right direction. If Carter was here—and had sentries stationed—then they had to be getting close.
The hardest part of all of this would be getting into wherever she was camped and dragging the priest out without anyone noticing. Then again, it was possible that with the haze hanging over everything, they wouldn’t have as difficult a time sneaking in and out as he had thought. Maybe the haze could be used to their advantage.
When he moved forward another dozen steps, he b
egan to feel the same strange heat building once again.
This time, he knew it wasn’t his imagination. This had to be the fire mage. And yet, he wasn’t willing to use his daggers to cut through it, ending whatever spell she was creating. Doing that would undoubtedly reveal their presence, if she didn’t already know how close they were.
Fes paused every so often, listening to the air. There were no other sounds, nothing that would reveal whether there were other sentries. The last time had been a fluke, nothing more than chance, and he didn’t count on the same chance occurring again. Somehow, they would have to find a way to reach the other sentries—or slip past them.
“Have you heard anything?” he whispered.
Alison leaned in, pressing her mouth up to his ear. “Nothing other than you.”
“I’m moving quietly.”
“As quietly as you can.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means that you are a man. You move quietly, but you’re quite a bit heavier than me, so there’s only so quiet that you can be.”
She spoke directly into his ear, her voice barely more than a breath, and it left him shivering, thinking of the times long before when they had shared different whispers.
“I haven’t heard anything, and I heard the rock tumbling the last time.”
“Like I said, you’re moving as quietly as you can.” She smiled and stepped away.
Fes continued forward, and the wind shifted again, gusting slightly out of the east. When it did, he saw a slight clearing in the haze. With it, he caught sight of a strange glow.
Hopefully only a campfire, but with what he’d detected from the fire mage, he couldn’t know if it wasn’t her magic.
He nodded in the direction that he’d seen the light. “Did you see that?”
“I didn’t,” she said.
“It’s either a campfire or something worse.”
“Like what?”
“Like a fire mage.”
Her breath caught. “I don’t see anything but darkness.”
“Maybe that’s your eyesight. You blamed me for being too heavy, but maybe my heaviness is offset by my much better eyesight.”
Dragon Bones (The Dragonwalker Book 1) Page 23