Dragon Blade

by J. D. Hallowell

“Well,” he answered, “now we have to keep moving.”

  “What about our new friend? I’ve been listening to his rantings, and he seems more angry at how he was treated than surprised that he was on the wrong side.”

  He thought about her question for a few moments and then said, “We have two choices: we can either take him with us, or take him back to Orlean and leave him in the care of the garrison. I’m in favor of the former over the latter.”

  “I know you tend to look for the good in all people, Handsome, but not all people are good. I believe he will betray us, given half a chance.”

  “Who will he betray us to, Warrick?” he asked. “Warrick just told him that he was only worth anything as long as he was willing to sacrifice himself to Warrick’s schemes. He appears to have had a change of heart in that respect. No, Beautiful, rather than place him in the care of men who have been taught to revere Riders and in the company of a young impressionable boy who might be swayed by the lure of adventure, I think we are all better off if he comes with us. We can watch him closely, and we have three dragons to keep track of his dragon.”

  As she opened her mouth to protest, he added, “Besides, as punishment for his transgressions, we can make him carry Nassari as a passenger.”

  He winked, and she shook her head and laughed.

  Chapter 6

  “I don’t like having that man, Paul, come along with us,” Nassari said. “It’s dangerous. Suppose that whole thing was nothing but a charade to get you to bring him along so that he can report on our activities?”

  “That is precisely what I think he is here for,” Delno replied.

  It had been one full day since the whole incident that left Paul in their custody. One more full day of travel should see them at the city of Larimar. Nassari had spent the entire flight with Paul on Mariah. Apparently, the young Rider hadn’t been much on conversation, and Nassari didn’t trust him.

  “If that is what you think, then why are you bringing him along?” Nassari was incredulous.

  “Do you remember the old saying in Corice, my friend? Keep your friends close . . .”

  “And your enemies closer,” Nassari finished for him.

  “Exactly,” Delno replied.

  Rita added, “We couldn’t just kill the young man in cold blood, and we didn’t want to risk leaving him with only one young Rider, Connor, to watch over him and his dragon, not to mention that taking him back to Orlean would have cost us a day’s travel time.”

  “This way,” Delno said, “he can’t get into much mischief because what we are doing isn’t a secret. Also, with Geneva and Fahwn keeping constant watch on both of them, even when they are asleep, they will have a hard time contacting Warrick and telling him anything, especially with the talisman Warrick gave them for that purpose destroyed. In the meantime, he may let something slip that could possibly give us an edge against Warrick.”

  “I still don’t understand. How has he managed to get those dragons to work with the Roracks?” Rita asked. “In all other instances, they are mortal enemies; they kill each other on sight.”

  “I’ve asked Geneva to find out about that for me. Her powers have been growing at least as rapidly as my own. There is little one of our dragons can hide from her now if she puts her mind to finding out, and they all seem to obey her without thinking about it.”

  Later that night as he found himself in the Dream State with Geneva, everything was as he remembered; the reddish changing hues of the cloud formations, the soaring dragons, and the mountain ledge. The only difference was the female dragon sitting near them. She had a distinctive marking that Delno had seen when she was soaring before. He had met her once, very briefly. She was a wild female. Geneva had told him her name; he strained to remember it so he wouldn’t appear disrespectful.

  A few moments passed then he turned to the wild dragon and said, “Hello, Marlo, it’s good to see you. How are you this evening?”

  “Lonely, as always.” Wild dragons didn’t have a knack for human pleasantries, and while they enjoyed the interaction, they tended to answer questions about their state of being honestly rather than using a standard social response such as ‘I’m fine, how are you?’ “You are very polite, human. It has been several weeks since we met so briefly. It is good of you to remember my name.”

  “Marlo has been telling me some troubling news,” Geneva interjected. “Now that I have been talking to them about the trouble in Horne, many of them have been telling me about something disturbing.”

  There was a ripple through the Dream State: almost as if Delno had been watching the clouds through imperfect glass and the glass had moved. He had come to recognize that as a warning that their emotions were upsetting the nearby dragons who were communing here. If it continued, he and Geneva would be ejected.

  Geneva looked around and then said, “Marlo is close by and would allow you to approach enough to speak with her if you would be willing. You must not bring everyone: she hasn’t accepted us completely yet.”

  “If it makes you feel more comfortable, you may bring the small female human who sometimes accompanies you here,” Marlo added.

  “You are showing great trust by meeting with me, Marlo; I would dishonor that trust if I brought someone else along. Geneva and I will meet with you by ourselves,” he replied.

  He tried to disentangle himself from Rita without waking her and failed; the woman tended to sleep lightly as of late. She followed him out of the tent and said, “Now that I’m awake, could you try repeating that? It sounded like you said you were going to meet with a wild dragon, but that couldn’t be right; no one has ever met with a wild dragon face-to-face.”

  “I told you that my grandfather has, and now I shall do so, too,” he replied.

  “Then I’m coming with you.” She stopped to put on one of her boots.

  He turned and said, “Rita, I need you to stay here. If you recall, the only two Riders here we can totally trust are you and me. I need you to stay with the others and keep the camp in order.”

  “I don’t mind so much now that I haven’t earned your complete trust, Delno,” Adamus said from the darkness. “After all, it’s only been a few weeks since I flew with a group that tried to kill you, but Rita is right: if you are going to meet with a wild dragon face-to-face, you shouldn’t do it on a dragon who still can’t breathe fire. You should take Rita with you. If you don’t feel that you can trust me enough to watch Paul and Mariah, then leave Rita and take me along.”

  Delno smiled and said, “You are rapidly earning my trust, Adamus, but I still have to decline your counsel. This female, a little over one hundred years old, has agreed to meet with me. It would be an insult if I abused her trust by bringing someone else. Besides, Geneva may not have flame, but she is a lineage holder and that gives her great authority in Dragon Society even though she is young.” He placed one hand on each of their shoulders and whispered, “Stay and watch the camp, both of you, I need to know how, if at all, Paul reacts to me going to meet this wild dragon.” To Adamus, he added, “I’m sorry for the subterfuge, my friend, but it serves our purpose right now to have Paul think that I trust you less than I do.”

  Adamus smiled and nodded, realizing that he had just been brought even closer to Delno’s inner circle. He saluted and walked to the fire.

  Rita looked like she was about to continue the argument, so Delno took her in his arms and whispered so quietly that someone standing right next them wouldn’t have been able to hear, “This is the chance we have been looking for. We know that there are riders working against us in the southwest. This is our chance to start making alliances with the wild dragons which could very well give us the allies we need to end this conflict quickly and decisively.” He looked down into her eyes and then added, “I have to do this alone, but you don’t have to be left out; I will have Geneva relay what is happening to Fahwn. We’ll only be about a league away.”

  She smiled and stood on tip-toe and kissed him. “Be careful, Handso
me, it’s taken me over a month to housebreak you; I wouldn’t want to have to start all over again with someone else.”

  He swatted her playfully on the fanny and she clubbed him gently on the shoulder in return as he walked away toward Geneva. Paul was climbing from the tent he shared with Nassari, and he said to Delno’s back, “You’re insane meeting with one of those wild females alone; Warrick lost two riders trying to establish dialogue with them.”

  “That’s probably why I’ve had so much trouble arranging such a meeting in the first place. Stay in camp and behave yourself. I want to talk to you about Warrick’s attempts to contact the wild dragons when I return.”

  Delno was pleased at the look of despair on Paul’s face. Obviously the young man wasn’t supposed to have mentioned Warrick’s attempts to contact the un-bonded dragons.

  Geneva was ready to fly when he reached her, and he decided against the use of a saddle. He didn’t want to take the time to rig it on her, and he didn’t want to show up at this meeting looking like he was ready for combat. If this meeting didn’t go well, he would simply leave, not fight.

  “I have given Mariah strict orders that she is not to fly while we are gone, with or without her rider,” Geneva said.

  Delno shook his head and said, “It amazes me how easily you and I slip into the role of leaders. Before we bonded, I would have thought that Dragons and Riders were more independent and less easily led.”

  “You must remember the basics about being bonded, Love,” she responded. “Each partner shares everything with the other: emotions, pain, joy, everything. You are bonded to a lineage holder. That is so very much more than just a title of honor among my race. It is also a position of great authority. It is akin to being born a queen among your people. Since I have that authority among the bonded dragons with whom we travel, you tend to have that authority with their Partners.”

  “Yes,” he replied, “I do tend to forget such basics about the bond. I suppose I shouldn’t find anything surprising when magic is involved, but it has only been such a short time since I even considered magic in my everyday dealings with the world around me. Before I met your mother, which was such a very short while ago, I wasn’t even sure I believed in dragons, let alone the magic surrounding them and everything they do.”

  Geneva launched herself, and they gained altitude rapidly. As always, he was thrilled and somewhat in awe of Geneva’s power, grace, speed, and agility. He fervently hoped that he would never lose that sense of wonder at flying with her.

  It seemed that they were only in the air a few seconds before Geneva angled her flight in what he had come to recognize as a landing glide. Within a few moments they were on the ground not more than fifty yards from Marlo. Delno dismounted and slowly approached her.

  When he was within ten feet of her, she said, “It is good of you to come, Rider of Geneva.”

  Geneva hadn’t informed him of any particular etiquette so he responded to the formal greeting with, “It is good of you to meet with me like this, Marlo.”

  Marlo seemed satisfied with the return greeting and said, “I have much to tell you. First, know this: your attempts to contact the un-bonded females haven’t been met with great success because your enemies have tried such in the recent past. They came to us in the Dream State and talked us into meeting with them. At the first meeting, they tried to convince us of the nobility of their cause, and at the second meeting they tried to use magic to force us to be obedient to them. They received flame for their efforts. We won’t be used like they use our beast-men enemies.”

  “As you have noted,” he said formally, “those men were our enemies. I believe them to be the enemies of all intelligent creatures everywhere. They seek only power for themselves and will use whatever means they can to get it. That is why they tried to coerce you with magic. You have my promise that I will do no such thing. If I seek your aid, then I will ask for it and not hold it against you if you refuse for your own reasons. I simply come to you as a friend.”

  She suddenly looked pained, and, thinking he had erred, he quickly said, “If I have offended you, I apologize. I meant no disrespect.”

  “I am not offended, Rider. You have come to me with an open mind. You have spoken your thoughts, and I can see them to be true, and you have offered me friendship. Mine is a solitary race by necessity, not choice. Most females feel the need for companionship. That is why some choose to bond and the others choose to dwell as much as possible in the Dream State. I feel the loneliness more than most, and you have offered me real friendship. It makes me happy, but it makes me more aware that I am alone.”

  “I am sorry; I would never intentionally cause you pain of any kind.” He had moved closer while she was speaking, and he placed his hand on her snout like he had with Geneva’s mother.

  “That I believe,” she responded, and allowed the touch, reveling in it.

  Geneva had to fight down the urge to challenge the older dragon for being so openly affectionate with her Rider. She spoke softly, “Marlo, there is still much you must share with my Partner, and daylight will come soon.”

  Marlo drew her head back away from Delno’s hand a bit reluctantly and said, “You are right, Mother of Your Line, we have much to discuss, and I am taking liberties with your hospitality.”

  Geneva nodded, but said nothing.

  “I travel the world and watch your kind closely,” Marlo said to Delno. “I am one of the few of what you call wild females who doesn’t keep to a specific territory. I avoid the territories of others and hunt on the fringes of human lands. I am careful not to be seen. In fact, the last time I was seen was near the city your people call Larimar. I have always liked watching the people of that city: that time I was distracted watching the young lineage holder finding her wings and was seen by someone who was hunting.”

  Delno exclaimed, “Then it was you who was seen and not Geneva. That’s very interesting, but how come Geneva didn’t know you were there?”

  “Her powers weren’t great enough at the time to penetrate the shield I used to block myself from her. I knew that if she found me, she would be upset that I had inadvertently invaded her territory,” she answered. At a slight prompt from Geneva, she went back to the original subject. “Since I travel so extensively for one of my kind, I am in a position to know much about what is going on in the world around me. Nearly a month ago, two dragons and Riders came out of Horne to the city you call Larimar. They kept themselves hidden, but nearly two weeks after they left, a sickness began to sweep through the municipality and people began dying. The sickness continues to devastate Larimar even now.”

  “Did these Riders use some form of magic to cause this sickness?” Delno asked.

  “I do not believe so,” Marlo answered. I observed them closely and could sense no extraordinary magic about them. I believe that they brought some sickness with them and released it in the city somehow. I was able to watch them, but not able to get close enough to hear them when they talked to each other.”

  Delno asked, “How are you able to observe other dragons so easily without being seen?”

  “Since I must occasionally cross the territories of others of my kind in my travels, I have gotten very good at avoiding being caught,” she replied. “Otherwise, my urge for companionship would get me into trouble quite often.”

  Delno smiled as he thought about that, and then said, “Well, what you say makes sense. If our enemies thought we might look to the north for help, plague in their biggest city would certainly prevent them from sending men and arms. The Riders could have been carrying something as a vector without fear from the disease because the magic makes them immune. Since the plague is not magical in origin, magic will be less effective against it.”

  “Something must be done,” Marlo exclaimed. “I am fond of watching your species, and it pains me greatly that those people suffer and die like this.”

  “Is there nothing you can do to heal the sick, Love?” Geneva asked.

  �
�I will do what I can,” he replied, “but sickness is different than a broken bone or a cut. It is more of a foreign invader and harder to find and eliminate.” He slammed his right fist into his left palm and said, “Damn it, we should have brought Nat along with us.”

  Marlo asked, “What is Nat? Can it help these people?”

  “Nat is a ‘who,’ not a ‘what,’” Geneva explained.

  “Nat, or Nathaniel, is perhaps the best healer in the kingdoms right now,” Delno added. “There may be a better healer among the elves, but not among the humans.”

  “Where is this Nat now, and why can’t he be brought here?” Marlo inquired.

  “He is in Palamore, and the reason he can’t be brought is that we are escorting a prisoner as well as trying to carry out a diplomatic mission,” Delno answered.

  He quickly explained about their mission, and about Paul, to her while he paced impatiently. She watched him and listened until he had finished, and then she was silent for several moments, deep in thought.

  “You are right,” Marlo said at last. “It would take you over a week to get your whole party to Palamore, and then you would have to collect the healer and return, which would take at least another week.”

  “Not to mention the time spent there dealing with the myriad problems that the Queen will lay on us that will further delay our return trip,” Delno said disgustedly. “In the meantime, this plague will continue to sweep through my homeland.”

  Geneva added, “We can’t even contact Brock and ask him to fetch Nat because he is so far away, and we need to keep Gina away from Palamore until her eggs are laid.”

  They were all silent for several minutes, and then, suddenly, Marlo said, “I will go and fetch this healer from Palamore.”

  Geneva and Delno were both stunned. They knew that Marlo liked humans, but to put herself in direct contact with them like this to save the people of Larimar was totally unexpected.

  Geneva said, “Are you sure of this, Marlo?”

  “Yes,” Delno added, “you will have to go to Palamore and deal directly with the people there, and once you have found Nat, you will have to fly him back here.”