Knights of the Dragon (of Knights and Wizards Book 1)

by A. J. Gallant

  “Mom put me down!” Ash ran over to his father and wanted him to pick him up. “Dad, my stomach is burning.”

  Zedock picked up his son and sniffed him. “That’s because your fire is trying hard to light up in there. Usually, it takes a month or two before it ignites for the very first time. And as long as you don’t get sick your fire will last you a lifetime.”

  Ash tried several times to create fire, but all that came out was some hot steam and a tiny ember. “My stomach hurts put me down.” The little wizard tried repeatedly to make fire.

  Krandar smiled down at the little fella. “Thank goodness he’s red. He looks like me don’t you think?”

  “Not quite all red, he’s got a small black spot on the end of his tail.” Zedock was proud of that black spot. His son was the spitting image of him, but he wasn’t going to say anything.

  “Oh, that’s hardly noticeable.” Krandar picked up Ash and thought that there was some resemblance to him.

  “Grandfather, put me down!”

  When Ash was put down, he ran over to the other two eggs, and he screamed at what he thought would be their faces. “Hey, you two get out of there I want to play!”

  Zedock smiled at his son’s impatience. “Ash, a dragon has to hatch in its own time, even an hour can make a big difference to the development of a dragon. Do you understand? You can’t rush them. They have to use their own ability to get out of there. They’ll be out soon enough.”

  “But I want to play now!” Ash stared up at his father with a mischievous look as the boy dragon appeared to be concentrating, and then suddenly Zedock shrank down to the size of the baby dragon. “Come on Dad, let’s play.”

  Zedock ran around in a panic. “Ella! Why does everyone look so big? What’s he done to me? Ash, turn me back! Ella!”

  Sunfire didn’t want to laugh, but she did. “Oh, my!”

  Krandar thought that it was quite amusing to see Zedock shrunk down to the size of a baby dragon. He picked up Zedock and laughed at his squeaky voice. “Well, well, well. Maybe you’ll stay that way, and you’ll hardly be any bother at all. Look, he’s the spitting image of the boy.”

  “Father that is not the least bit funny!” Ella knew there was going to be problems with a wizard, but she didn’t think it would be so soon. How do you discipline a baby with that much kick?

  Zedock suddenly returned to normal size and accidentally knocked down her father in the process.

  Ash ran to his mother crying. “Why didn’t my spell work? Why did Dad get big again?”

  Ella picked up Ash to either comfort or scold him, depending on how he reacted. “Ash, how do you know about spells?”

  “I don’t know. I know I have two spells but that more are growing inside me. I can see pictures in my head. I want Dad to be small again!” Ash snuggled into his mother and cried, and then went to sleep, snoring rather loudly for such a small dragon.

  Ella smiled down at him. “He snores just like his father.”

  Krandar turned his attention to Zedock. “I should have squashed you when I had the chance.”

  “Ella, your father is being mean to me again!”

  “Father be nice.”

  “Not in my nature to be nice, especially to him. That boy is going to be a great wizard. He will eventually be king, so you better teach him well.”

  Zedock was feeling some ill effects from the spell as he sat down. “Ella, you need to teach your son not to do that. Who knows how small he could have made me? What if I would have stayed like that?”

  “My son? What’s wrong with you? Teach him yourself.”

  “What will he do if we make him angry?”

  Krandar took to the sky laughing. “I give this union a month. I’ll be back to play with the little wizard tomorrow. He should have turned you into a human.”

  “Ella, you need to put your foot down.”

  “Oh, so you want him to turn me into something?”

  She was too good at turning things around. Females always knew the smart thing to say; they must stay up nights thinking of ingenious rebuttals. Zedock thought it best that he apologize because it would save him time and effort. “I’m sorry honey. It’s been a long day for all of us. I still feel strange from that spell. He said he had two spells? What’s his other one?”

  Ella shrugged. “I don’t know, but I imagine we’ll find out soon enough.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  THE DAY WAS OVERCAST AND A LITTLE ON THE COOL SIDE as a moderate wind had blown up. The wizard Clarence walked with King Chromos through the courtyard that had been cleared for their privacy. Chromos had demanded that one of his wizards come up with a way to catch the culprits associated with the assassination attempt; the reward was a hundred gold coins. The king walked with his bear staff as the sorcerer strolled with his cane, the cane being a portal to several concealed spells. In the center of the courtyard was a rock fountain that spiralled up taller than both of them, and that is where they stopped.

  “Do you have it?”

  Clarence nodded. “I do your majesty. It was not a simple spell, and now I’ve run out of several magical ingredients. Not even a pinch remains of dried seahorse.” He waited for the king to speak again. A longer pause than he had anticipated.

  King Chromos stared at the quartz crystals that formed the rock garden, without the sun they weren’t quite as sparkly as they normally were. Artisans had taken weeks to put it together, and the fountain was most impressive, its waters magically frozen in mid splash. “Show it to me and tell me how it works.”

  The wizard took a small scroll out of his right robe pocket that was the length of his hand and gave it to the king. “The scroll is very delicate your majesty. Crush it with both hands and the remnants will take to the wind; it will seek out the perpetrators of the plot to kill you, that’s if there were any others. Tonight when the sun sets the guilty ones will all have very distinct violet faces.”

  Chromos was pleased as their executions would allow him to relax. There was nothing worse than not feeling safe in one’s kingdom. “That is excellent Clarence. I will have plenty of men on the lookout at tonight’s celebration. Those infidels will rue the day they were born. You have my permission to have several men aid you in your search for magical ingredients. I know it can be a complicated matter and that you will have to instruct them.”

  “Thank you your majesty.”

  The king opened the scroll and noticed that all the foreign characters were in red ink. “Should I wait until sunset before I destroy the scroll?”

  “You can do it now if you so wish. However, their colored faces will not be visible until nightfall.”

  He grunted his approval as he imagined it. If only he had been born a wizard taking over the world would probably not take so much effort and blood. Chromos crushed the scroll and was surprised at how quickly it turned to dust and how readily it took to the wind. Even the wooden rods were easily powdered. The cloud in the air was like sawdust, and with a wave of the wizard’s hand, it took to the wind, turning purple as it went.

  The king nodded to the archer on the wall. Two warriors approached the king and bowed, Enni and Domitry, both bare-chested and equipped with halberds. They were to fight to the death for the king’s entertainment, with the victor possessing all the defeated one’s possessions, including the other’s family to do with as he pleased, along with a reward of a small bag of gold dust from the king. It seemed that they had always despised one another, so Chromos was happy to see the two of them go at it. It was likely that the entertainment value would be high although sometimes the battles were over much too quickly.

  The king nodded and Enni immediately swung his blade at his opponent’s neck but didn’t catch him off guard as he had hoped, the sound of it cutting through the air. They circled one another, both feigning jabs with their long pointy spikes. Sometimes a simple mistake led to immediate death; fate didn’t usually allow more than one in battle. Domitry swung his halberd and managed to catch Enni on
his left knee but it was only a scratch, and in a fight to the death he couldn’t even afford a reaction. Enni went on the attack with such ferocity that it surprised Domitry; he fell backward and just barely managed to roll out of the way. His speed had saved his life.

  “The things that I am going to do to your woman Domitry!” He was surprised at how fast Enni was back on his feet, and his threat had been a grave error as it only served to make his opponent fight that much harder.

  Enni swung his halberd repeatedly and with such ferocity that it was Domitry’s turn to trip and fall. Enni put his spike through Domitry’s chest ten times before he stopped.

  The night came like any other night except that there were plans afoot and a strange purple fog in the air. A second attempt to kill the king was in progress until Achakos saw that Adela’s face had turned bright purple. Achakos had decided to kill the king himself, but they were both seized along with all the others that were in on the plan to kill Chromos. Magic had unfortunately thwarted the chance to change their own destiny.

  It wasn’t long before the stench of death permeated the air.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  KING DARIUS MADE HIS WAY BACK UP ONTO THE WALL in the early morning air, with a murder of crows just barely audible in the distance, and although the army of the Yurrosy had moved back, they were still out there awaiting orders on whether to attack or not. The belief was that Leeander was under the protection of a powerful wizard, and because they had managed to kill Cynric they now were more convinced than ever. They feared a horrible death if they attacked. They knew that King Chromos would sacrifice all of them to find out just how powerful Adorok was, but they had to wait for the command nonetheless. If it had been up to them, they would leave Leeander to decide their fate.

  It was a waiting game that the Yurrosy could afford but also one that Leeander desired. Time might cough up a miracle in the form of magic. But for all King Darius knew Stone and his daughter might be dead, that seemed more likely than not. And what was the fate of his boy Marcus? He didn’t want to guess what happened to him, just the fact that he had not returned wasn’t encouraging. Perhaps he had fallen off the back of that stupid dragon.

  The raven flew onto the king’s shoulder and made several harsh grating sounds to show his disapproval of all the enemy soldiers out there. “Berhtram, it’s an ugly sight isn’t it.”

  King Darius had sent out three archers during the night in a feeble attempt to kill the messenger bird that would bring the order to attack. Had they magic the odds of success would have been much higher, but all three were killed during a brief skirmish with more than a dozen of the enemy archers. Darius would try just about anything to save his people but felt bad for those poor souls that had volunteered.

  As the sun headed toward its noon position loud voices made their way to Leeander on the wind; a brawl had broken out amongst the Yurrosy. The sound of swords meeting swords was a familiar one, and Darius was certainly enjoying them fighting themselves. It took quite a while for the fight to be put down, and from this distance, the king couldn’t tell if there had been fatalities or not. All that he could make out was that one group was being pushed away from another with confrontational screams, and a single horse had run off from all the commotion.

  Archer Ramsey approached the king with a loaded crossbow pointed skyward. “No movement forward your majesty. They await word from their king that will likely come before sunset. Perhaps they will send another wizard to test us? He will not be happy that we have killed his wizard but at the same time, it must worry him.”

  Darius crossed his arms as he considered their fate. “Indeed. The world would be much better off had that monster never been born. I’m expecting the worst but hoping for the best. Perhaps we will all be dead soon. Only their hesitation keeps us alive. Maybe the time it buys will see something to save us.”

  In the distance, the troops were suddenly being screamed at and commenced to line up again and in less than an hour they were on the move and headed for the walls of Leeander.

  “Looks like our candle has just been extinguished your majesty.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  STONE AND ALEXA SHARED A PASSIONATE KISS even though it wasn’t the time or the place to engage in such behavior. She touched his face and enjoyed his strength; she thought his week old beard made him, even more, handsome. Alexa ran her fingers through his hair and placed her face next to his. They were behind an outcropping of boulders trying to decide on where to head next in search of a wizard. Their affection was a strange way to plan strategy. They were getting a little too close to the land of the Yurrosy which would mean certain death should they be spotted. Going back without a wizard wasn’t an option either.

  It gladdened their hearts to see Stone and Alexa as a couple. At least, something could still make them smile. All thought they were a perfect match and why they hadn’t seen it sooner was beyond them. The couple came back to their senses as they realized that they were being watched; Stone thought that they should be able to find something else to do instead of using them for their amusement. He wondered if they survived how his life would change if he remained with the princess. It was a grim picture to focus on at the moment.

  Because Stone had defeated Arabaj they had been permitted to go on their way and their course of action rested on Stone’s shoulders with suggestions from Alexa. Her father told her to respect Stone’s experience and judgment. Obed knew of a small village to the northeast and Stone was considering a stop there before deciding on their next move. Obed said that wizards occasionally stopped there for a supply of salt, that slim chance was better than none.

  Alexa had never dared to ask what she had heard of Stone but now that they were a couple. “Stone, is it true that you believe in ghosts?”

  “It is.”

  “May I ask why?”

  “I’ve seen my dead mother on several occasions.” He smiled as his eyes caught hers. “I must say that it is not something that one can get accustomed to seeing, and no I wasn’t dreaming.”

  “Does she speak?”

  “No, she simply smiles and then fades away. She does make my room colder when she appears.”

  The next afternoon they rode into the village of Eumelia. It was a single sandy road, circular buildings flanking both sides. A small place with about five hundred people, with just under a hundred homes, mostly constructed of rock held together by mortar. Sheep hides were drying in the sun in front of two of the dwellings. Two young boys ran down the street dueling with whittled branches. A yappy black and white dog ran up and down the street chasing a chicken, but the fun was in pursuing it not actually in catching it. A rooster appeared from behind one of the buildings and sent him running.

  There was a pub to imbibe; it looked to be two dwellings pushed together to form a larger building. There was a stable that seemed out of place, or rather it didn’t fit in with their style, square though all the other buildings being round. Conjured a long time ago. They also grew various vegetables on a large patch of enchanted ground; no matter what they planted it would grow. In front of the inn were five tired horses all having a drink, but the thing was they looked to be war horses equipped with armor and of course that didn’t go unnoticed.

  Stone got off of his horse and tied it. “Looks like the enemy inside.”

  Alexa dismounted. “Let’s just kill them and get it over with. For all we know it’s already too late for Leeander.”

  Stone couldn’t argue with that reasoning.

  Obed, Merrill, and Lance pulled their swords and headed inside as the others followed. An enormous oval table was in the center of the single room dwelling. Nothing fancy just the basics for sitting, eating and drinking. Seven people were sitting around the table drinking mead. The five soldiers immediately stood up pulling their weapons. One took off out the back door that was surprising to all of them, was he a coward or was something else going on? A big fellow jumped on the table and ran towards them like some maniac wit
h his sword. Alexa cut him open before he hit the ground. The skinny barkeep didn’t look impressed with the possibility that his inn would sustain damage, but he did hope that the Yurrosy were going to breathe their last as they paid for nothing. It seemed that they didn’t know how to be cordial, with an implied threat every time they opened their big mouths.

  Merrill ran back out the front door, and sure enough, the fellow that had run out the back was readying to kill their horses. An arrow in his chest dropped him before he could do any damage, with the second one in his heart to make sure he was dead. He was sure that after he dispatched their horses, he would have come in behind them.

  Inside a vicious swordfight was going on between Alexa and their leader, but when he extended himself too much, she ran him through with her sword. Stone took out another as did Lance. Stone loved to watch the reactions on the faces of Alexa’s enemies; no man wanted to be bested by a woman. When the air cleared the barkeep helped them to drag the bodies out the back door. He would see that they would be buried later that afternoon.

  “What brings you knights here so far from home?” asked Cyrus. He wore a dirty white apron that was now also spotted with blood.

  Alexa thought he was a funny looking fellow; his nose was too big for his face. He also walked with a limp having arthritis in his right knee. “What makes you think we’re so far from home?”

  “Anyone that doesn’t live here is far from home. Can I interest you in some cold mead? On the house.” Cyrus took off his apron and put on another.

  Merrill sat at the table. “Cold?”

  “Aye, made cold by an enchanted barrel. Some come here from miles away just for the cold mead.”