Dragon Call (The Throne of the Dragon Queen Book 2)

by Clare Smith

  He was contemplating resorting to violence again when his tracker’s urgent call pulled him from his grim thoughts.

  “My Lord! I think I may have found the path that the one you seek has taken.”

  He rode over and stared down at the space where the man was pointing but couldn’t see anything apart from more stones and dirt. That didn’t surprise him. His tracker was Syrian and everyone knew that their sense of smell was exceptionally strong because their mother’s slept with dogs. This one even looked like a dog with his pointed features and his quick, darting eyes.

  “Can you follow it?”

  “Yes, master, it climbs upwards amongst those rocks where the ground is rough and full of stones, but I can find the way.”

  Tesiclese smiled, the first time he’d done so since the successful hunt the previous day, but then scowled as several of the guards behind him muttered uneasily. “Is the climb to hard for you?”

  “No, my Lord,” replied one of the youngest guards nervously. “It’s just that this is Mount Kriphis and it’s rumoured that a beast lives in its higher caves.”

  “Are you afraid?” asked Tesiclese in disgust, “Because if you are I have a cure for that.” He fingered the sword at his side, easing it slightly in its scabbard.

  “No, my Lord,” responded the guard hastily. He’d heard stories of how his lord dealt with those who displeased him.

  Tesiclese didn’t bother saying anything more but indicated to the tracker that he should continue. The tracker hurried on, bent over and carefully studying the narrow pathway in front of him. For one of his skill the signs were easy to follow, and despite the fact that goats had recently passed this way, the seer’s passage was clear to see.

  There were only the occasional footmarks, partly obscured by the scuffing of goat’s hooves, but on either side of the track there were small, round indentations as if something had been tapped into the ground at regular intervals. He followed the marks upwards until he reached a solid wall of rock and then moved sideways until he discovered the passageway through. It was narrow but not so narrow that his master’s horse couldn’t squeeze through with a bit of encouragement.

  On the other side was a small, hidden ravine with a stream running through it, and at its head there was a cave. The Syrian smiled to himself for his cleverness, as in front of the cave stood the seer that his master sought. Tesiclese heeled his horse forwards, almost pushing his tracker out of the way, and followed the stream to the cave where his men formed a semi-circle behind him.

  There was no doubt about it, he’d found the woman he was looking for. Now that he stood in front of her and could see her for himself, he could understand why Pellecus had been so protective of her. The woman was as beautiful as any goddess, and despite her milk-white eyes and the four pale scars which marred her cheeks, her features were enough to make a man’s pulse race.

  She surely had to be Aphrodite’s handmaiden, as she was taller than most, and beneath the flimsy robe she wore he could make out the gentle curves of her body. Her golden hair, which caught the sunlight hung to her shoulders, framing a graceful neck, and drew his eyes down to where her breasts pushed tantalisingly against the loose weave of her robe. He could almost feel the hardness of her nipples and what it would be like to have his hands around them and himself inside of her.

  He eased himself in the saddle as his manhood hardened and cleared his throat. “Good day, priestess. My name is Tesiclese of Corinth and I have been sent here by the Oracle to learn from you that which I need to know.”

  He’d expected the woman to look imperious or say something mystical, but she just stood there wringing her hands nervously in front of her. For a moment he wondered if he’d found the right person. “You are the seer the Oracle spoke of, aren’t you?”

  “No, my Lord,” she said in a low, husky voice. “I am no seer but I have had a foretelling which concerns you.”

  At last he had what he wanted. “Go on then, out with it.”

  “You are in grave danger and must turn and ride away from this place as quickly as you can, or you and all your men will die most horribly.”

  His initial reaction was one of shock, but then he gave a harsh bark of laughter. “Is that it? Is that what you have foreseen?”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  Tesiclese leant forward in the saddle and pointed at her. “You lie, girl, you are no foreteller but a charlatan who takes me for a fool, but even a charlatan may have some use. I have promised my men that if you prove to be a fraud then they may use you for their pleasure, but only after I have finished with you.”

  He gave another harsh laugh as the woman took a frightened step back. “Dacos, strip the witch and hold her down for me.”

  Dacos didn’t hesitate, knowing that when his master had finished with the girl he would be next in line, and ran forwards with three guards behind him. The girl turned to run but he was too fast for her and grabbed her arm, swinging her around so the others could catch hold of her. Two of them held her by the arms whilst he tore the robe from her body. She was such a beauty that he was sorely tempted to take her for himself, but he could hear his master moving just behind him.

  Tesiclese dismounted, never taking his eyes off the girl as the tattered robe fell around her ankles revealing her lithe body. Her breasts were firm and her nipples were hard and she had long, silky legs. He undid the straps of his breastplate and threw it aside and then released the ties of his tunic. The girl was on the ground now with her legs apart and her body writhing against the hands that held her down.

  He wanted to feel her flesh beneath him and thrust himself inside of her and hear her cry out as he took her by force, but something was holding him back. Behind him he could hear his men moving and when he looked back he could see the lust on their faces as they waited their turn. He wasn’t like them, who were happy to rut whilst others looked on; he was a lord and lords didn’t perform in front of common armsmen.

  “Take her into the cave,” he snapped.

  Eager to obey the two men who held her legs released them and the other two pulled her to her feet and dragged her into the cave. She struggled to break free but they were too strong for her, so she tried to plead for their mercy, but one of them hit her making her head reel and stopping her words. They dragged her to the back of the cave forcing her down into the hollow where she’d slept.

  This was Dacos’s chance. He was tired of having Tesiclese left over’s and for once he wanted the prize and be damned to his lord. He undid the laces of his tunic, pulled his loincloth free and knelt between her legs. There was no doubt about it, she was going to be the best fuck of his life. He leaned forward so she could see what she was about to receive and laughed viciously when he saw the fear on her face.

  Amalaya struggled as hard as she could, but the men were too strong for her and their hands held her down in a vice-like grip bruising her flesh and threatening to break her bones every time she tried to pull away. She’d been a fool to believe she could persuade the lord to leave with just a foretelling, but when she’d heard them come into the valley, it was the only thing she could think to do. Now the brute above her was going to make her pay for her naivety and after him all the others and there was nothing she could do about it.

  She went to plead for mercy but screamed instead as the man thrust himself inside of her with a shout of triumph. Her back arched with the pain and the horror, and her fingers clawed at the stone until she touched the gemstone she had left there. The man bit down hard on her left breast and thrust into her again but even harder this time, and the only thing she could do was clutch the gemstone tightly in her hand and pray to Athena that she would send someone to save her.

  Outside Tesiclese was fully aroused and ready to repay the witch for the time she’d wasted. He strode into the cave full of anticipation of what was to come, but hesitated after just a half dozen paces. It was surprisingly dark in the cave and his rapid breathing echoed eerily from the smooth walls. Up ahead h
e could hear someone grunting and swore that if Dacos was already fucking the girl he would have his head from his shoulders.

  He hurried on through the cave which smelled dry and musty but there was something else too which was becoming stronger by the second. It was an animal smell, but behind that was the stench of fresh spilled blood and voided bowels. He peered into the darkness searching for the four men and the girl, but only found two yellow lights like the flame of a candle staring back at him. The lights blinked once and his mind was flooded with the knowledge of what he’d found.

  Tesiclese screamed in horror and turned and ran faster than he’d ever run before in his entire life. He exploded from the mouth of the cave screaming for his men to save him but only made it three more paces before a dagger like talon tore through his back, slicing his spine in two. Now the guards screamed and pulled their swords but it was too late, the creature was already onto them. It used its teeth to rip men’s heads from their shoulders and its talons to dismember and disembowel until no one remained alive.

  Then it tore at their flesh, ripping out chunks and swallowing it whole until memory drove back the mindless anger and reason returned. Her name was Sybaris, the she-dragon who destroyed those who came to Mount Kriphis. Except that wasn’t true because a part of her had another name from a time and place which wasn’t here and now.

  There was another one as well who had used the crystal to call the dragon’s spirit. She had called it from far away and had left behind the one who had held it within him. He was alone there and she should go back to him so they could be joined once again, but she wasn’t going to. There were people here who had caused her harm and pain beyond bearing, so there was no room left in her heart to care about the one who had carried her spirit for so long.

  Now there was only room for revenge and the taste of her persecutors hot blood as they died. The she-dragon gave a great roar of anger, incinerating the last scraps of those who had died, opened her wings and launched herself into the air.

  ~ * ~

  EPILOGUE

  Poddorrin sat on the Watch Stone and stared out at the summit of the Fire Mountain absently watching the clouds casting dark shadows over the mountainside. They stayed for a moment and then scudded away again leaving the sun to light up the crystals in the rocks. A fitful breeze blew eddies of dust around his feet, and every time a cloud covered the sun the temperature dropped, but it seemed to him that it never recovered its warmth again when the sun returned.

  It was the same with the sunlight which was less bright every time it reappeared from behind the clouds, as if something was leaching the colour from the land. He felt as if the world around him was dying and him along with it. The cold made him shiver, and he thought about returning to the protection of the archives, but he was too numb for that. In fact he was too numb to think of anything except the empty space within him, where the dragon spirit had once been.

  He could still recall the moment when the dragon spirit had been torn from him, as if it had been just seconds ago instead of hours, and it was the depth of that loss which put every other thought out of his mind. The space where the dragon spirit had been was a deep void, as wide as the sky and as black as a starless night. It left him hollowed out, so that any minute he expected the bones and the flesh that remained to be pulled down into the hole and be swallowed up forever.

  That hadn’t happened yet, and neither had he died which puzzled him. In the past when the dragon spirit had flown to freedom it had left his body cold and dead until the moment it returned, pulled back by the thread of life which connected them. This time though, the dragon spirit hadn’t gone of its own free will. Instead it had been snatched from him, so that the thread which held them together had been severed, and what remained had rebounded back into his soul to keep him alive.

  It should have given him some hope that the dragon spirit would return to him, but it didn’t. He knew that the spirit of the dragon which had once lived inside of him had gone from this land and space and time, and wasn’t coming back. He’d resigned himself to that fact many hours before, but it hadn’t helped him to come to terms with what he now was or what he should do.

  The closest he’d come was to understand that Poddorrin, as he used to be, no longer existed, and that someone else sat on the Watch Stone, to whom life had no meaning or purpose. In as much as he could think at all, he thought that person would sit there forever until his bones turned to dust and blew away with the wind.

  *

  Tingallent pushed his weary horse on through the trees, wondering if it would live long enough to reach the cave below the Dragon Watch, and if it did, would there be anything there for the poor beast to eat. He’d stolen the horse from a knacker’s yard, so it hadn’t been in the best of condition to start with. Then there was the long ride from Phillos with himself and the boy on its back, which hadn’t improved its stamina at all.

  Still, if it at least managed to carry him through the trees before it collapsed, they could do the rest of the journey to the mountain camp on foot. It would be a bit of a trek, but after they were rested they could come back again and butcher the horse to augment their supplies. That seemed to be a good enough plan to him, but there was one problem with it. Whilst he was worried by the state of his horse, he was even more worried about the boy who rode in front of him who was barely conscious.

  When they had fought the brief battle at the holding sheds he’d seen that Plink was thin, but it wasn’t until he’d lifted him onto the horse that he realised he was just a bag of bones held together by a thin layer of skin. Their hurried escape from Phillos and the lack of food hadn’t helped the boy either. However, in a way that was all too the good; he needed to remind Poddorrin of what they were fighting for, and what better way was there than a half starved child at death’s door?

  He chuckled to himself at his own cleverness, but then stopped as he caught the sound of horses moving along another path to his right. It sounded like there were four of them, angling towards where he was but making no effort to hide their presence. If he had a sword he could probably use the element of surprise and take them all down, but his sword was stuck between the ribs of a city guard who had tried to stop them leaving Phillos.

  That left him with just his knife, which wasn’t going to get him anywhere. Under the circumstances all he could do was ride as hard as he could and hope he could lose them in the trees, so he dug his heels into his horse’s side forcing it into a stumbling trot. The horse managed a dozen paces before it staggered to a halt and refused to go on, leaving Tingallent with the option of staying where he was and taking his chances or trying to escape on foot.

  He hated running away from trouble and had done far too much of it in the last few days, so he eased Plink’s body from across his saddle to give himself more room to fight and pulled his knife. Then he waited for the riders to reach him, but when they pushed their horses through the trees, he nearly fell off his horse with surprise. Of all the people he thought it might be Rabayan wasn’t amongst them, and for that matter neither was Todden, but they both seemed as pleased to see him as he was to see them.

  Tingallent wanted to leave straight away, but Todden insisted that they took a few minutes to exchange stories whilst he tended to the boy. He supposed it was the sensible thing to do as the boy looked as pale as milk, so he used the time to swap his exhausted horse for one of the pack horses Todden had brought with him. Then he stood with his arms crossed impatiently kicking at a fallen branch so they would know he was ready to leave. When Plink looked stronger he mounted his horse, took the boy up in front of him and led the way at a trot.

  They could go faster now as the trees began to thin out, and soon after that they were clattering over rough stone as they rode up the mountainside. When they reached the small cave where the horses were usually stabled, Tingallent almost threw himself off his horse and dragged a bewildered Plink after him. He was in such a hurry that he left the others to unsaddle his horse, and clim
bed up to the plateaux where he’d seen the lone figure sitting on the Watch Stone, staring up at the mountain.

  Somewhere at the back of his mind Poddorrin had heard Tingallent arrive and the others following close behind, but their presence didn’t mean much to him now. Even when they came to stand around him, it was almost as if they weren’t there. As far as he was concerned they were just the ghosts of the past come back to haunt him, and if he ignored them they would go away again.

  Tingallent had thought Pod would be pleased to see him, but instead he just sat there staring at nothing, as if he didn’t care that they’d returned. His silence and his stillness were unnatural and made his skin crawl. “Poddorrin, are you all right?”

  How could he answer such a question when he didn’t know who he was?

  “Poddorrin, is there something wrong?” Tingallent asked again.

  Of course there was; couldn’t the man see he was an empty shell with nothing inside of him.

  “Pod, we’ve come back to help you,” said Rabayan stepping forward with a bundle in his arms and holding it out to him. “Look, I’ve brought you something you can use to call the dragon’s home.”

  Nothing would help because everything had changed, only they couldn’t see that.

  “And I’ve brought fresh supplies,” put in Todden. “I also have a message from the men who told me to tell you that when you call the dragons back, they will fight and die for Assimus’s freedom.”

  No one would have to die because the dragons weren’t coming back, ever.

  “Poddorrin,” said a quiet voice by his side. “My name is Plink and I’ve been inside the Enclave and have seen what it’s like.”

  There was silence then whilst they waited for Poddorrin to respond, but when he said nothing Tingallent nudged Plink forwards again.

  “Please hear me, Poddorrin, “They are going to use Devil Fire to burn the Enclave down and all those people who are trapped inside will burn with it. You can’t let all those people die, you’ve got to call the dragons to Assimus and set the people free.”