So many things, such as my friends and family becoming bonded, and even meeting up with Rita and Brock at just the right time to form the strong friendships we have, seem like coincidence, but I have come to realize that very few true coincidences actually exist when powerful magic is at work. Geneva and I have come to the conclusion that her mother is at the root of it all.”
“I’m sorry, Brother, but individually the words you just spoke have meaning, but when strung together that way, they don’t make sense. How could a dragon who died months before any of these events took place have influenced what happened? Are you saying that she is still alive?”
“No, Will, she is quite dead,” Delno responded. “Even Leera felt her death independently of Geneva, before she met us. But Geneva’s mother bestowed on me a Dragon Blade.”
“So you believe that the Dragon Blade you carry is controlling events?” Dorian asked.
“Almost,” Delno answered. “You may correct me if I am wrong concerning the making of a Dragon Blade, Uncle: you know more dragon lore than I,” he began. As Dorian nodded, he continued, “It takes powerful magic to make a Dragon Blade. The dragon who makes one must concentrate her fire enough to etch and strengthen the blade while protecting the unhatched dragon who is still in the shell. That protection carries over and gives some measure of the original magic to the possessor of the blade. Geneva’s mother not only wished to reward me for my service to her and my willingness to bond with her last daughter, she wanted to help me carry on my grandfather’s work. She wanted this partly out of a sense of duty, and partly as a tribute to the Bond-mate with whom she had spent more than three thousand years. She waited until there was no margin of error to make that blade. If she had waited even a few more minutes, she might not have been able to do so. She made it as she passed on her family lineage to Geneva. She infused both the history and the blade itself with that purpose as the last act, besides going off to mourn her Rider and die, that she would ever do in this world. She put everything she had left into my Dragon Blade. She infused this blade with the power to help me on my quest to finish what my grandfather had started. So, Geneva and I believe that since we need all of the allies we can get, the magic of the blade is influencing the bonding process to ensure that those loyal to me are put in a position to help me, and that is why my friends and family are chosen over other candidates.”
No one spoke for several minutes after Delno had finished telling them about the blade. Finally, Dorian said, “Well, it’s nice to know that there is a perfectly good reason for all that is happening.” Though it was meant to lighten the mood, no one laughed at the joke.
After lunch, Delno had Rita meet him on the wall, and they headed off to inspect the Stone Bridge fortifications. As they landed, Rita noticed that it was much dustier than she had remembered from the last time she landed there. Two dragons shouldn’t have kicked up that much debris. Suddenly, to her great surprise, Will and Saadia seemed to materialize out of thin air.
“Very good, Brother, very good indeed,” Delno shouted to Will. “I wondered if you would be able to hide both yourself and Saadia, but it seems to have worked quite well. I had hoped that your connection with Saadia would strengthen your talent enough to allow you to hide the two of you. The only suspicion I saw on Rita’s face was when you kicked up the extra dust landing.”
“You could have let me in on this,” Rita said. She was a bit annoyed. “I was nearly startled out of my wits when they suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”
“We are sorry for startling you, Rita, but if he had let you in on it,” Will said, sliding down off of Saadia’s neck, “it wouldn’t have been much of a test of my ability to remain hidden, would it?”
“So, Rider, you are making bonded pairs appear out of thin air now,” General Dreighton said as he walked up to them.
Adamus, who had been informed as to the happenings of the wild dragons through Geneva relaying information through Beth, had been expecting that he would see newly bonded pairs, but he was just as surprised at Will’s stunt as everyone else. Delno quickly explained how it had been done.
“So,” Dreighton asked, “is this something that all Dragon Riders can do?”
“Unfortunately not, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it,” Delno replied. “If all of us could do it, we would all be vulnerable to invisible attacks at any time. Though I would like it if all of our Riders could accomplish the feat, I’m glad that the only one who can is on our side.”
“Also, Brother, remember, I can hide Saadia and myself because our connection strengthens the magic. However, like when we were kids, the more people who are concentrating on finding me, the more possibility that someone will see something. Also, if they know I am there, the likelihood of detection is increased as well. It is a talent to be used sparingly and kept secret from our enemies.”
“That is why I had us land so far back from the camp, Brother. So far only the five of us humans and the four dragons here know about this. I would like to keep it that way, especially if you are to be valuable as a scout in Horne.”
“I thought he was to remain here and study,” Rita remarked.
“Adamus will remain behind with the newly bonded pairs. I trust him to watch Corice and instruct those new Riders we leave behind. I am also thinking about leaving Jason and several of the wild dragons. Just the sight of dragons circling overhead will be enough to discourage the Bournese. If the wild dragons fly low enough to be seen but high enough to hide the fact that they have no rider, the soldiers of Bourne won’t make the distinction, they will simply behave themselves out of fear.”
“I had hoped to prove myself to you in Horne, Delno,” Adamus said.
“You have already proven yourself to me, my friend; that is why I am trusting you with guarding my homeland. I don’t think that Bourne will be foolish enough to attack, but if they do, we will need one or two experienced Riders here. Also, I need experienced Riders to train the newly bonded hatchlings and their Bond-mates.”
Adamus nodded and saluted. “By leaving me alone, you show that you trust me completely. For that I thank you. I won’t let you down.”
Delno returned his salute and smiled. Then he turned to General Dreighton. “The king is curious about the fortifications. How are they progressing?”
“Better than expected,” the general replied. “With the masons and engineers working round the clock, we have done more than we could have hoped for. The men, civilians and soldiers alike, seem to understand the importance of this project and are working accordingly.”
He motioned for Delno to precede him to the work so that he could show the Rider what had been accomplished. There were at least twice as many men working as Delno would have figured would be needed, and they all seemed to be making a coordinated effort. The progress was amazing. The work, which normally would probably have taken a year, would be finished within six weeks.
When he mentioned this, the general replied, “We are working double crews all the time, filling in with soldiers when we don’t have civilians to do the jobs. It’s expensive and tiring, but the men have been promised a good rest when it’s done.”
“I noticed that the bridge itself has been shored up: why is that?” Delno asked.
“Because we weakened it first,” the general answered with a smile. “The Bournese got a new commander; some pock-marked moron who probably would be better at running a supply depot than commanding combat troops. He kept massing their troops as if he couldn’t decide if they should try another attack. They weren’t actually doing anything more than posturing, so we didn’t have your Rider call you. But the threat was still there, so I had the engineers weaken the bridge and then shore it up. The Bournese sent a messenger over to ask what we were doing, and I told them straight out that we would either hold our side of the bridge or knock the damn thing down. Since we did that, they’ve backed off completely and behaved themselves.”
Delno looked at the work done to the bridge itself
and shook his head, “I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. I had hoped that the Bournese would see reason.”
“I don’t think reason has entered into the equation for a long time,” Dreighton replied. “Have you seen any of those so-called ‘infantry men’ over there?”
Delno shook his head, and Adamus interjected, “At least half of them look to be nothing more than older boys, and half of those are probably younger than fourteen; some are no older than eight or nine. Even in Llorn, where the harsh climate and small population calls for drastic measures to protect the country, they don’t allow boys younger than sixteen to enlist.”
“Most of the youngsters can barely lift a sword, let alone actually fight with it,” the general added, “They’re there as arrow fodder to keep the real soldiers from getting killed long enough to get into the fray. It’s a despicable way to run a campaign, but it’s not new to the Bournese. And the thing is, you can hear them telling those boys how tough they are and that they can do this, whipping them up with false praise so they’ll charge blindly and take the initial brunt of it when the time comes. That’s one of the reasons the soldiers are so keen to finish the stone works; they hope that if they get it done, the Bournese will give up and we won’t have to kill children. That king of theirs should be made to dangle at the end of a rope.”
Delno could only shake his head in astonishment at the tactics that the Bournese had sunk to. Rita was outraged and disgusted. She was all for mounting up and going after the King of Bourne right then before there was even the possibility of any of the young boys being sent into battle. It was all Delno could do to calm her down before she carried out her threat and went alone if no one else would go with her. Several of the men gathered around voiced encouragement and offered to go along, but the general told them to go back to work.
As Rita walked back to Fahwn, Delno told Geneva not to let them do anything unwise, and she agreed to curtail any such action on Fahwn’s part.
“I didn’t mean to upset her,” General Dreighton said to Delno.
“In the culture she comes from, children are revered above all else. Child abuse is the worst crime you can commit on that island, and as far as Rita is concerned, putting children in harm’s way like the Bournese have done is nothing more than several hundred acts of child abuse,” he replied. “I think it is time we return to Larimar. Otherwise she may try and carry out her threat.”
Chapter 22
Geneva had repeatedly tried to relay messages from Delno to Rita on the way back to Larimar but Fahwn had told her that Rita refused to respond, even to her. Rita was furious at not being able to do anything to protect those young boys the Bournese had conscripted. Once they had landed, Rita quickly dismounted and ran from the wall, refusing to speak to anyone. She had even neglected to remove the saddle from Fahwn.
Delno got some of the soldiers to remove the gear from both dragons and went in search of her. He found her locked in the bathing room in their quarters. She wouldn’t answer when he knocked on the door, and he had to have Geneva, through Fahwn, check and see if she was all right. Geneva also relayed that Nassari was looking for him concerning the newly bonded Riders.
“Damn,” he replied, “trouble always comes in sets. Why can’t I ever get one problem resolved before another arises?”
“I’m sure Rita will see the logic of your actions earlier today, Love; she just needs more time. Nassari wants to see you about getting more equipment for the Riders. It seems none have any but the most basic supplies. Two of them come from families who are not wealthy and don’t even have their own basic weapons.”
“Tell Nassari and the others I will be along as soon as I can. I have to talk to my uncle first. Perhaps I can get some funds from him to equip our new Riders.”
After giving Geneva Nassari’s instructions, he said to the closed door, “Rita, I know you can hear me. I couldn’t just let you go off to the capitol city of Karne to take on the King of Bourne by yourself. You are certainly a woman to be reckoned with, but you are not up to taking on an entire kingdom on your own. You would have accomplished nothing, and gotten yourself and Fahwn killed in the process.”
He waited for a moment, but there was still no reply, so he went on. “Even if Adamus and I had joined you, we wouldn’t have accomplished what you wanted to do. Do you really think that Warrick wouldn’t just put a replacement in the king’s seat if you killed the man? We would have to take the city itself and hold it. That would require that we have ground troops to hold any ground we take. To get ground troops there, we would have to fight our way through the very children you so desperately want to protect.”
He waited another moment and was about to continue when the lock on the door clicked and Rita opened it. She had been crying. She fell into his arms and sobbed uncontrollably for several moments.
“I just want to keep those children safe,” she said as she got control of herself.
“I know that, Darling, but the best way to ensure their safety right now is to do nothing.”
She looked at him, and he could tell she was about to give him an angry reply, but he cut her off. “If we do anything aggressive, we put them in harm’s way. The best thing we can do is make that bridge so heavily fortified that they won’t attack. Then the boys on the Bournese side will get nothing more than some exercise. That is what General Dreighton is doing. That is why he weakened the bridge itself and threatened to destroy it. They can’t do more than posture, and we don’t have to fight children because of the standoff we have created there. Meanwhile, it would be very costly to try and move that large a force to one of the other passes, and they would need seasoned veterans to make an attack in those confined spaces. The boys won’t be moved, and they won’t attack. It isn’t as good as sending them home to their mothers, but it does keep them safe. In the long run, the Bournese will send the boys home because it will simply become cost prohibitive to continue to feed them.”
“I hadn’t thought the whole thing through,” she said. “When I look at it your way, I see that you are right.” Then she looked sternly at him and said, “Just tell me that you have a plan to make that callous bastard pay for putting those children in danger like that.”
“For that and numerous other crimes he has committed,” he sounded so harsh when he said it that she actually flinched slightly. “I am already working on a plan to deal with the Kingdom of Bourne in a way that will stop these wars for all time.” At her perplexed look, he said, “I’ll tell you about it later; right now I need you to play politics. Oh yeah, you should also let Fahwn know you are all right; she has been a bit worried.”
Rita suddenly looked pained and said, “I ran off so fast that I didn’t even get her saddle off of her. She must be angry with me.”
“Relax; I had some of the soldiers take care of both her and Geneva. I believe that she is waiting for her turn at being washed and oiled by some lads in the central auction area of the stockyards right now. Just tell her you’re sorry and that you love her; she’ll be fine.”
“You really do think of everything, Handsome.”
“Fortunately, when I do make a mistake, I have you around to cover for me, Beautiful, so nobody ever notices how fallible I really am.”
They found Dorian in the main hall surrounded by the city council members. He looked as though he would rather be anywhere other than where he was at the moment, so Delno said, “Could I have a word with you privately, Uncle?”
The council members looked upset at the interruption, but Dorian looked immensely relieved. He accompanied Delno and Rita to a nearby alcove.
“As much as I appreciate the interruption, Nephew, I can only spare a few moments of my time. Now that the immediate threats of pestilence and war have both been averted, the council wants to get back to the business of running the affairs of state, and I must attend to them.”
“This won’t take long,” Delno spoke directly. “What I need to do is outfit our seven new Riders. You have already aut
horized their saddles, but they need other equipment as well.”
The king was pensive for a moment, and then said, “The council won’t like it, but I can authorize you enough funds provided that you do it discretely. Give all of the letters of debt to that sergeant I appointed to act as go between for the Riders, and he will give them directly to me.”
“I will also try and go through the military whenever possible to further confuse anyone who might be watching for such purchases,” Delno replied.
“I wish you didn’t have need to do so, Nephew, but not only do we need to keep the council from getting involved if possible, we can’t be sure just how much we can trust anyone. You are trying to keep your new recruits a secret from your enemies, and there may be spies anywhere.” He looked around the room as if he expected to see someone trying to gather information for the enemy.
“I’ll leave Rita here in case we have any problems; that way she can get the message from the dragons, and we can save time.”
“Very well,” Dorian replied, “but it might be better if she then went through my newest advisor.” At Delno’s perplexed look, he leaned closer conspiratorially and said with a smile, “Your mother: I’ve made the position official.”
Delno smiled and saluted before turning to go about his business while the king sent Rita off to find Laura Okonan.
Chapter 23
Once he left the palace, he didn’t have to look far to find Nassari and the other new Riders. They were waiting right outside the front doors. Delno looked them over and found that while two of them owned long knives, and all but two had good belt knives, none of them owned a sword.
“Normally, I would assume that since you are Corisian you have had at least basic weapons training, but I’ve learned to assume nothing. Who here has not had any training with sword and bow?”
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