Jenka looked around. The dragons were poised defensively on the wall on either side of them. Jade wasn’t doing a very good job of watching out because he was worried about his dragoneer. “Is it gone?”
“Yesss, you fractured this stone, Jenka,” Jade responded into Jenka’s mind. Rikky and Silva both heard the green dragon's voice as it carried across the ethereal.
It is only paver stones laid over planked joists,” Rikky explained. “The rock was only this thick.” He indicated the edge of a broken stone to the curious green wyrm. The stone was as thick as a man’s wrist. “The springing of the boards under them must have cushioned his impact. It looks like the pavers gave away easily enough.”
Silva hissed. “Your Dour is unnaturally ssstrong, hatchling. You hardened your dragoneer with it.” She was speaking to Jade, and their conversation faded from the minds of their dragoneers as it continued.
“What do you mean, 'hardened him'?” Rikky asked his dragon, but she didn’t hear.
“What is Dour?” Jenka asked. “Are we Dragoneers?”
“It seems so.” Rikky struggled to stand, and Jenka saw for the first time the scorched wooden peg that was now his friend’s leg. “I think Dour is dragon magic. You know the druids of Dou?”
Jenka thought about Zah and Linux, and an extreme sense of urgency began to rise inside him. “They didn’t even shoe it,” he commented on the wooden leg’s lack of a cap as he got to his feet. “We have to go help Zahrellion. We have to stop the Goblin King. He has something terrible in the works.” Jenka went to Jade’s side and nudged his bond-mate with his mind. “That red was chasing you because the impure strains of dracus, even the un-mudged ones, have a strong repulsion for the High Magic the pure-blooded dragons radiate,” Jenka explained. The tear was not only full of raw dragon magic, it contained a wealth of knowledge as well. “The vermin feel it too, but it causes aggression. Gravelbone agitates that aggression in them. If we can end him, then the trellkin will lose the initiative that has been driving them at us.”
“You called them 'trellkin',” Rikky commented, as he stroked Silva’s scales to get her attention.
“That’s what Jade calls them.”
“Jade,” Rikky nodded his approval at the young green dragon, then climbed onto Silva’s back and settled in. “This is Silva,” Rikky told him. The pewter-colored dragon nodded its head respectfully at Jenka. Its eyes were as grey as ash and slitted by fang-shaped pupils of a luminous orange. Silva leapt into the air from her seated position, which caused Jade to try and do the same. He had to take a step, but only one. If he hadn’t had a rider on his back he could have done it, at least that’s what he told himself.
A few hours later, Silva hissed out curiously. She told them that she could hear Zahrellion calling out to them. The amount of concentration it took to focus on her voice couldn’t be attained while riding the dragons through the sky. After Jenka and Rikky dismounted, the dragons guarded over them again while they sat comfortably on the ground and found some focus. Once they established some concentration they could hear what Silva was hearing. Not only could they hear Zahrellion, but they could hear Mysterian the Hazeltine, and Linux as well.
“The ogre told me that Gravelbone intends to drop some sort of poison on Mainsted,” Jenka informed them all as if he were in command. The power of the tear not only filled him with knowledge and power, but it filled him with confidence as well. “Only the hellborn are immune to the stuff, so the nightshade will have to carry it.”
“It has to be our main objective,” added Rikky.
“Herald here says that Mainsted’s wall is as stout as the Great Wall is and impossible to tunnel under. That’s where we are.” This came from Mysterian. “The trolls are thick outside the city, and several hundred refugees are trapped out there. Duke Watson crawled out from under his mistress’s sheets and relieved Commander Hawlkin. Then he immediately ordered the gates closed. He didn’t care that people were still out there.”
“The soldiers I was escorting from Midwal joined the refugees,” Zahrellion said quickly. “We are having a time of it though. Oooh wait,” she had to duck a stone hurled by a troll riding a cobalt dragon’s back. “They are in some woods on a rise west of the city, and we could use some help. There are mudged everywhere in the sky and they are carrying trolls in what … baskets? Wait … Oh, Dou no, It’s the Goblin King and … ”
Her voice suddenly fell off. A heartbeat later Mysterian cut in over Linux as he started to speak. “They are sounding the bells. The bigger mudged are coming over the wall and setting trolls down in the streets. I can see them out my window.”
“Tell Herald to put a blade in Duke Watson’s chest,” Linux said coldly. “That’s a direct order from the King. He is here beside me. Put Commander Hawlkin back in charge, or have Herald take command. Did Hawlkin get the swifters we sent and start building the dragon guns?”
“There are two of the contraptions in the square, but the mudged are dropping trolls and goblins down into the lanes, and the men have abandoned them.”
“Zahrellion, if you can hear us, we are on our way,” Jenka said.
“Have Herald find a way to man those guns,” Linux commanded. “There are five shiploads of men due there any time. We are half a day behind them. Use the guns to keep the sky over the harbor clear.”
“Tell the gunners not to shoot at us,” added Rikky. Then his breath caught.
“What in the hills?” Jenka mumbled, as the sun’s rays were eclipsed by something large flying over them.
“It isss the Royal,” Jade’s voice joined the conversation. “Something isss wrong. It didn’t notice us.”
“Prince Richard was riding him,” Jenka exclaimed. “I would recognize that armor anywhere.”
“Be wary of him!” Linux warned. “He has been tainted.”
“Silence, you foolish druid!” Mysterian shouted with her mind. Her witchy magic added to the potency of her voice and it sent tingling chills up Jenka’s spine. “Hurry, Jenka, bring me the dragon’s tear. You gave me your oath.”
“Richard has surly been corrupted, witch, you have no … ” As with the dragons' earlier conversation, Mysterian and Linux' argument faded out of everyone else’s mind.
“Go help Zah and those people,” Jenka told Rikky, as Silva poised to leap into flight. “I’m going after the nightshade.”
A few days ago, Rikky would have argued about that, but after feeling the intensity of the hate and fear the Goblin King radiated, he was happy to give Jenka the honor.
Jade took two steps then leapt into the air behind the silver. “Can you catch up with the Royal?” Jenka asked Jade.
“No, but they can,” his bond-mate replied.
Already Silva was undulating into a swift streaking sprint through the air ahead of them. Jade sighed and began circling slowly to gain altitude. He could barely carry Jenka, much less go streaking through the air like a bolt fired from a crossbow. If they wanted speed, they had to get high in the sky and then dive. Once they were moving fast Jade could sustain the speed, but he couldn’t power them into it. His young wings just weren’t big enough yet.
By the time Jade was high enough to start into a momentum-building dive, Silva was closing on Royal and the mudge-filled skies of Mainsted. It was late afternoon, and there were few clouds, but it might as well have been dusk as gray as the sky was. Rikky surveyed the scene as they approached.
The thirty-foot-tall, roughly-circular block wall was protecting the structures behind it fairly well, but everything that had been built outside of the barrier was destroyed. Pillars of thick, dark smoke rose up around the up thrusting city. The score of towers inside the wall were mostly built for decoration, not defense, but the towers nearest the wall had been converted and were now manned with archers. Deadly volleys of arrows went streaking through the smoke-hazed sky. The wyrms were as thick as crows on a fresh corpse, and the larger ones were toting what looked like crudely-built wagon cart baskets full of goblins an
d trolls. One wyrm stood out among the others, the black-skinned nightshade. Everything in the sky stayed clear of it, even the mudged. Rikky avoided it too and searched the sky for Crystal’s white scales. When Silva finally spotted her off to the west of the city, Rikky saw that she was way above the whole mess and entangled in a tooth-and-claw aerial battle with a dark blue wyrm. Both were falling toward the ground in a writhing tumble.
Rikky felt Silva start sucking in a deep breath as she banked her route toward Crystal. He had learned from several close encounters that he had to watch all around them for mudged swooping in, and for stones thrown from the trolls that rode them. With Silva focusing her concentration on what she was doing, he had to watch her back. If not, they could get torn wide open, bashed by rocks, or separated in the air. The last wasn’t so bad for Silva, but for him it would be fatal. He wished, not for the first time, that he had a bow and a quiver.
Royal was out there over the city too, and the big sparkling blue was snapping and gnashing at the smaller mudged as if they were pesky insects, at least until the huge scarlet fire drake that had collided with the nightshade came upon him. After that, Rikky lost them, for Silva was banking in at Crystal and the cobalt wyrm that was locked in mortal combat with her.
A streaming gout of hot liquid spewed forth from Silva’s maw and coated the cobalt dragon’s wing. Silva’s hind claw ripped open the unsuspecting wyrm's back as she shot past it. The dark blue mudge turned loose of Crystal then, and just before they crashed into the ground, the frigid white dragon got air under her wings, lifting herself and her rider above the treetops. The cobalt didn’t fare as well. Its wing was ruined and it slammed into the forest hard, impaling itself on a half a dozen tall pines. Rikky saw the people that Zah was fighting to protect. Several had been crushed by the falling wyrm. Others were scrambling about the forested area trying to pull the survivors back into the cover and quiet them.
At that moment, a roar filled the sky from back over the city. It was the scarlet drake blasting Royal with a massive jet of flame. Royal disregarded the scalding attack and latched his big jaws onto the bigger dragon’s neck. A moment later, the red was falling from the sky limply. It crashed into the formidable-looking ancient wall that had protected Mainsted for a nearly a century before the Great Wall had been built. The carcass crumbled an entire section of the barrier on impact. Goblins and trolls began swarming into the city over the dead wyrm.
From somewhere in the area, Gravelbone laughed out manically. His deep, crusty voice traveled through the ethereal clearly and resounded with both malice and confidence. Oddly the nightshade started carrying the Goblin King to the northeast then, away from Mainsted.
Using all the concentration he could muster, Rikky reached out and told Jenka this.
“He is probably going for the poison.” Jenka replied. “I’m almost to Mainsted. Jade and I will try to meet them to the east.”
“You bring me that tear, Jenka De Swasso!” Mysterian’s voice was sharp and actually stung Jenka’s mind with its infliction. “You have no idea how to use its power, and I do. Now bring it to me as you promised, before all is lost.”
“I’ll go after the Goblin King,” Rikky said.
“I’ll do it!” Jenka yelled both aloud and into the ethereal. “The witch can wait!”
“Don’t be a fool, Jenka,” Mysterian scolded. “Your mother would be ashamed!”
That did it for Jenka. He had to keep his word. He couldn’t just stain the memory of his mam. He just couldn’t do it.
“You better find some stairs, witch,” he barked. “I’ll drop it to you as soon as I find you, but after that … ”
“Just bring me the tear, Jenka,” Mysterian seemed eager now, as if she couldn’t wait to have the thing. “Remember who sent you my way, boy. Don’t you ever forget it!”
“Bah,” Jenka cursed, as he willed Jade to veer back south toward Mainsted.
“I’ll stop the bastard,” Rikky said. “I’m already closing on them. I will …”
A scream, long and terrible, resounded through the ethereal, then cut off abruptly. It had been Rikky screaming, there was no doubt.
“Oh, Rikky, no.” Jenka heard Zah sob.
When Jenka tried to ask Zah what happened, he got no response, no response at all. He scanned the sky, but couldn’t find any of them. He did see the smudges of smoke lifting up from Mainsted ahead of him.
Such was the clench of his jaw as he and Jade navigated the busy sky over Mainsted that he nearly shattered his molars. It was no easy task the keep clear of all the mudged that were swarming. They were like gnats around a night lantern. Jenka saw Mysterian atop an old castle-like structure, huffing for breath and clutching at her chest. She had just run up several flights of stairs to get to the top of a wide, flat rooftop to meet them. Jade landed, and the old structure creaked under the weight of him, but it held.
Below, out in a park-like square of lawn, amid the city's more formal-looking structures, Jenka saw Herald and a score of well-armed men fighting to get to one of the dragon guns that had been built. They were holding their own, but making little progress. There were as many goblins and trolls as soldiers on the lawn.
Jenka felt as if he couldn’t trust the old Hazeltine Witch. He definitely didn’t want to. Every instinct he had told him that letting go of the tear was the most foolish thing he could do. He was about to have Jade lift back into the air, but a deep feminine voice repeated something he had heard before into his mind, and it stopped his dragon cold.
“Do not be afraid to turn loossse of it, Jenka.” It was the voice of Jade’s mam, and hearing it caused the young green dragon to hiss with sorrow. “If it wasss meant to be yoursss it will find itsss way back to you.”
Jenka yanked the leather bag from his neck and threw it at the witch, and was suddenly filled with the horrible absence of the magic. It had been sustaining him and Jade. The void it left filled quickly with despair. Jenka almost fell from Jade's back, but after a moment he gathered himself. He found that he wasn’t going to die of want for the thing. Still, he longed to feel the tear’s wonderful power again. Jade’s anger and sadness was a tangible thing as well. After Mysterian darted over and grabbed up Jenka’s pouch, she wisely backed away from the wyrm.
“Lead the nightshade here, Jenka,” Mysterian cackled joyously, as the tear's power filled her. Jenka could see the years melting away from her visage. It was disturbing. An attractive woman of middling years stood where a matronly hag had just been. “Poison or no poison, lead the hellwyrm to me. I will use the tear to its full effect, and then we will see where we stand.” She turned and started away, but stopped. Looking back over her shoulder with her eyes rolling from the rush of the tear's vast power, she added, “Go help that foolish King’s Ranger get control of those blasted spear launchers before you go. He’s going to get himself killed.”
Chapter Thirty Six
Rikky had nearly been knocked from Silva’s back by a powerful blast of magic that some half-mudged wyrm had mustered up. The hair was scorched from his head and brows, and his flesh was slightly blistered, but he was still clinging to the silver dragon's back, and they were still chasing Gravelbone. The dragon that had blasted them was almost immediately bathed in Crystal’s frigid breath and had ended up pounding into the earth like so much stone. Eventually Zah and Crystal turned back, and let Rikky go after the hellwyrm alone. The king had ordered her to protect those pike men. She had let half of them or more needlessly perish already. She wasn’t about to abandon the rest of them, especially since the common folk that had been locked out of the city were huddled with them.
It was all Silva could do to stay close to the tireless, hellborn wyrm. Only when the black thing had left Mainsted far behind and then slowed and started into a circling dive did Rikky wish that he and his bond-mate weren’t alone. The nightshade saw them and started back toward them, but Gravelbone told it no.
“Gons geh da petulenz, ooh ard. Na go,” he ordered, and the nigh
tshade went.
Down and down into a dark, shadowy valley it circled. Then it went swooping across the dusk lit plain until it came upon a clustering of orcs and ogres working around several open fire-pits. The ogres were being whipped and forced to do some sort of shoveling work. Huge sheets of hammered steel spread out between the fires. On them were shriveling lumps of some sort of vegetable matter. A huge, high-sided wagon cart that had been turned into a basket was being filled with the powdery stuff. Rikky figured that it was the poison Jenka had told them about.
He had Silva bank away from the area. In the fading light of the evening they happened to see a trench filled with dozens of ogre-sized bodies, each and every one of them still writhing and groaning. They were covered in bleeding black scabs from head to foot. It was disgusting, and the idea of it set off a deep primal fear inside Rikky. His instinct told him to flee this place, but he couldn’t. His anger at the foul demon responsible for this was overwhelming. If he died keeping that poison away from the people at Midwal, then so be it. It was a death he could live with.
The nightshade circled back around and went into a slow hover out away from the fire pits. Gravelbone slid deftly from his wyrm and landed in perfect stride, then moved away into the darkness. The nightshade gathered up some speed, came around again, and latched onto the nearly full basket of powdery poison by its crude iron handle. It then started back toward Mainsted, seeming to ignore Rikky and Silva as they started after it. Rikky saw, or rather heard, the roar of a mid-sized fire drake as it swooped in at them from the side. He saw that Gravelbone was riding it and realized his mistake. Only Silva’s agile wings saved them from being roasted in flames, and now instead of being able to chase down and attack the nightshade, Silva had to avoid the crimson-scaled wyrm and its ivory-horned rider.
*** * ***
Jade dove into the park where Herald was battling to win control of the big swivel-mounted dragon guns. Jade tried to use his fire, and was surprised that even without the tear's power coursing through him, he could do so. The jet of emerald flame cleared the way and soon big grizzled Herald was shouting out orders and spears were flying up at the mudged from the newly-built weapons.
The Royal Dragoneers (Dragoneers Saga) Page 30