by S. J. West
The creature’s talons hadn’t slashed as deeply as I first thought in the dim light of the moon, but the oozing yellow puss seemed to be slowly eating away at the raw open flesh. I quickly unbuttoned Fallon’s leather jacket to pull the ruined garment away from the wounds. I grabbed my water canteen hoping to wash away the pus but it seemed like the more water I poured onto the gashes the more pus bubbled forth. I wasn’t sure if I was helping draw out the poison or if I was actually causing more poison to be made. I decided to stop what I was doing and think of an alternative plan.
I heard the snort of Fallon’s horse before I saw him walk around from the other side of the creature’s corpse. He cantered over to stand beside my horse. I walked over to him to see what might be in Fallon’s packs. Gabriel had given us each the same things except he had packed a small iron skillet among Fallon’s items. I stared at the pack Fallon had brought with him for a few seconds before deciding he probably wouldn’t mind me pilfering through his belongings in a time of need, especially if he had brought something which would save his life.
Luckily, disregarding common courtesy panned out.
Fallon had packed a roll of bandages, a pair of small scissors and a bottle of laudanum. I felt ashamed I hadn’t thought to bring any medical supplies on our trip but silently thanked Fallon for having the foresight to do so.
I laid out what supplies I had by the fire. Since Fallon was out cold, laudanum wouldn’t be necessary just yet. The bandages would help cover the wound and prevent further infection but I needed to find a way to get rid of the pus from his wounds first.
I mentally shuffled through the various herbal remedies my father had taught me trying to decide on the appropriate one for the situation at hand. I quickly rose to my feet and made a torch by wrapping some bandages around a small fallen tree limb to light my way into the forest praying I could find a clearing which would be exposed to a great deal of sunlight for the plant I hoped to find.
Just a few yards away, I found exactly what I was looking for.
During the time my father and I spent out in the woods together, he taught me about the plant life around me explaining nature was the greatest healer.
“Whatever might be wrong with you,” he said, “nature has a cure for it.”
Growing low to the ground in a small clearing of the redwood forest was a patch of chickweed. I knew it was good for healing minor cuts and hoped it would lend itself to healing major ones also.
I grabbed as much as I could carry in one hand and made my way back to camp. I got my tin cup and found a short stick. I poured some water into the cup and began grinding the chickweed into a poultice. I had to make a few trips to the chickweed patch in the forest but I soon had enough paste to cover all of Fallon’s wounds. I then placed strips of bandages over them to prevent infection from an outside source. I gathered some more chickweed and put it into my cup with some water. I set the skillet in the fire with the cup inside to make some tea for Fallon to drink.
With nothing better to do than watch water boil, I decided to study the creature which had caused us so much havoc. Its scales were smooth and the color of blue topaz.
I noticed what looked like a small pouch at the base of the creature’s belly. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled the upper layer of skin away to look inside. Nestled there was an egg the color of a robin’s egg and the size of a chicken egg. I reached in and pulled it out. There was what looked like a fleshy cord attached to one end of it. As soon as the forest air touched the fragile tube, it evaporated leaving only the egg in my hand.
As I held the egg, it began to vibrate, almost causing me to drop it on the ground. I assumed the egg I held might be the creatures progeny, but I wouldn’t fully understand the treasure I held in my hands until much later.
Not knowing what else to do with the egg, I laid it by the fire to keep it warm.
After the tea was done, I cradled Fallon’s head in my lap trying to coax the healing liquid down his throat. He swallowed some but most simply ran down the sides of his face.
I wondered if I should try to make my way back to the Iron Wall and get help, but couldn’t bring myself to leave Fallon so unprotected. Who knew what other creatures lurked in the forest around us? Instead, I lay down next to him and draped the Mantle of Power over both of us soon finding myself fall into an exhausted sleep.
My dreams were filled with a series of distorted images causing me to wake up with a start sometime later. I looked over at Fallon and found him awake and staring at me.
“Bad dream?” he asked in a weak voice. I could see a sheen of perspiration covering his brow.
I quickly sat up and leaned over him touching his forehead with my hand. He was burning up with fever.
“How long have you been awake?” I asked.
“Not long,” he answered, closing his eyes like the two words had cost him more than just air to say.
I removed the mantle from his chest and saw that the wounds did indeed look a bit better but certainly not completely healed. The yellow pus still oozed from his wounds.
“I think I need to change your dressing,” I said. “And make you some more of the poultice to put on your wounds. Are you in a lot of pain? I found the laudanum you packed. Do you need some?”
Fallon shook his head slightly, not having the strength to make a verbal reply.
“I’ll be right back,” I promised.
I got up and went to my patch of chickweed to gather some more. The sky was lighter now and I could only assume morning was fast approaching. I didn’t even need a torch to see where I was going.
Once I reached the chickweed, I sat on the back of my heels and pulled up as much of the weed as I could.
I was diligently pulling up the plant, root and all, until I heard a woman’s voice say behind me, “If you don’t mind dear, could you leave a bit of that in the ground?”
Chapter 14
Startled by the unexpected presence of another human being, I dropped the chickweed in my hand, quickly stood up and spun around to find the woman standing a few feet behind me. She was short in stature, possibly five feet tall, with a shock of short white hair cut close to her scalp. Her thin frame was draped by a dark colored cloak contrasting dramatically with her pale white face. The woman’s honey colored eyes watched me closely.
“Sorry to have frightened you, child,” she said in a soothing voice, taking a cautious step closer to me.
The woman looked me up and down as if she were trying to make up her mind about something.
“Saw your friend back on the road,” she said. “There is only one type of herb which will draw the dragon’s poison out of his system.”
“Do you know if there is any close by?” I asked desperately, fully willing to admit how little I knew about the poison ravaging Fallon’s body.
“I can show you where it grows if you can trust an old fae woman vankaran child.”
“Are you a healer?”
“Of a sort,” she said.
As I studied the elderly woman before me, something deep within my soul told me I could trust her to help and not hurt Fallon.
“Where is it?” I asked.
She showed me where the weed we needed grew in the clearing, one I had never laid eyes on before, and told me to pick as much of it as I could and bring it back to camp as quickly as possible.
When I returned to camp, the old woman was sitting beside Fallon in a squat which seemed incredibly uncomfortable to me but perfectly comfortable to her. Thankfully, Fallon had fallen back to sleep. I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be to having a fae help heal his wounds.
“Bring that to me, child,” the woman bade, waving me over with an age fragile arm. “I’ll need you to grind that up just like you did the chickweed and I’ll spread it over the torn flesh. It will draw out the dragon’s poison.”
I sat down and began grinding. While I ground the herb, the old woman packed the poultice into Fallon’s wounds. I watched in amazement as
the green paste turned the same pale yellow as the pus.
“It’s working,” the woman said with a nod of satisfaction. “We’ll need to change it out again once it’s completely yellow.”
We sat there for at least an hour me grinding, the old woman exchanging old poultice for new. Finally, the green of the herb stayed green, no longer turning yellow.
“That should be all of it then,” the woman said satisfied with our work.
The morning sun was full upon us now, driving away the thick shadows from the forest surrounding us.
The old woman sat cross legged beside me, giving me her full attention.
“So, what is your name, child?”
Such a simple question for most people. For me, it was confusing.
“I’m Emma,” I finally said, setting the tin cup down beside me and giving the woman my full attention. “Can I ask your name?”
“Lanai.”
Lanai looked at me and tilted her head slightly to the left like I was a curiosity.
“Would you like to know what it is?” She asked.
Initially, her question confused me. I had no idea what she was talking about. It finally dawned on me she might have seen the egg still lying by the fire. I quickly stood up and retrieved the forgotten egg holding it gently in the palm of my hand as I came back to sit beside Lanai.
“I took it out of the dragon’s pouch,” I confessed. “Will it still live?”
Lanai nodded. “As long as it stays warm, I see no reason why it won’t hatch. I would suggest keeping it close by you. It’s bound to emerge from its shell soon since the cord is no longer attached. You could keep it stowed in your jacket quite safely to help keep it warm. The shell is as hard as marble. You won’t break it.”
“Thank you for the advice.” I unbuttoned a middle button on my jacket and stuffed the egg into a small pocket in the jacket’s lining.
I walked over to my horse, which was grazing on a patch of grass by the road, and retrieved the block of cheese, dried beef and loaf of bread Gabriel had packed from the saddle pouch. I sat back down beside Lanai breaking the loaf into two pieces and offering her one.
“Thank you, Emma,” she bowed her head a small degree and smiled, nibbling at the sweet yeast bread.
“So you called that thing a dragon,” I pointed to the corpse still lying in the road. “Are they always so aggressive?”
Lanai shrugged. “Depends on how they are raised. The dragons which live by the wall are feral. The ones which live with the others of my kind have been domesticated and don’t normally attack people unless they are provoked.”
“So the Fae keep them as pets?”
“In a way, they are considered highly prized companions.”
I felt the egg vibrate against my side and heard the unmistakable pop as it opened. There was a wiggling sensation against my chest as it dislodged itself from the remnants of the shell. I quickly reached inside my jacket intending to help the struggling baby dragon out. Just as I wrapped my fingers around it, I felt the animal clamp its tiny razor sharp teeth on the tender flesh between my thumb and forefinger. I yanked the creature from my jacket and used my other hand to pry its tiny mouth from my skin, unceremoniously dropping it onto the ground. It looked incredibly like a miniature version of its mother even though it wasn’t much bigger than my thumb. Its light blue eyes with tiny black pupils looked from me to Lanai and back at me. It quickly scurried up my crossed legs and arm to perch itself on my shoulder.
“Well now,” Lanai said looking at the baby dragon sitting on my shoulder. “I didn’t expect that would happen.”
“What? That it would bite me?” I asked, rubbing the soreness away from where the baby dragon had sunk its teeth into my flesh.
“Yes. Usually a dragonling will only project onto a fae. Or at least that’s what I always thought. Perhaps it has only been that way because they had no other choice.”
“What do you mean by project?”
“The dragonling is connected to you now.”
“Connected to me how?” I asked, leery of Lanai’s true meaning.
“It has chosen you to be its life companion.”
“What?” I exclaimed. I felt the smooth head of the dragonling rub the side of my neck as if to confirm what Lanai had just said. “Well, how do I break this connection?”
Lanai seemed taken aback by my suggestion. “You can’t. Once a dragonling chooses you, the bond can only be broken by your death.”
“But I can’t take it back over the wall with me,” I argued. “It needs to stay here on this side of the wall.”
“I would suggest you find a way to take it with you or you will never feel whole again. The bond goes both ways. It can not survive without you. If you try to abandon the dragonling, you will feel its emptiness within you for the rest of your life. The dragon is yours Emma whether you want it or not.”
I looked to my shoulder as the dragonling curled itself there to lie down and promptly go to sleep. I felt sure Lanai was over exaggerating the connection between me and it. I certainly didn’t feel anything for the small creature except pity: pity that it would have to grow up without its mother. But I knew that circumstance was beyond my control. Fallon had to kill her in order to save his own life. Perhaps the female dragon was simply following some basic motherly instinct to protect her unborn child. It was an instinct I could well understand.
But a dragonling was the least of my worries. I had to decide what to do with Fallon and if I could accomplish the mission I had set for myself on this side of the Iron Wall without him.
“How far is your capital city from here?” I asked Lanai. “I came here to discuss something with your leader.”
“You want to see Queen Nuala? Why?”
“I assume you know about the plagues. I’ve heard they’ve taken lives on this side of the wall just as they have the vankaran side.”
“Yes, I have heard of them,” Lanai confirmed with great hesitation.
“I’ve been given information I hope your Queen can help me confirm. I need to speak with her as soon as possible. I’m hoping she and I can figure out a way to stop the plagues from happening again.”
“Are you some sort of leader of your people?”
It was the first time someone had asked me that question outright. Everyone assumed I was the Queen in Vankara because I looked like her. I had never been required to verbalize who I was or what my station was in Vankaran society. But now I needed to answer. I had to take responsibility for the role I had accepted to play.
“I am their Queen.”
Lanai didn’t seem the least bit surprised by my revelation. It was almost as if she expected me to be nothing less.
“Then you carry the heir to your country in your belly. Someone in your condition should not be making such a hard trip alone. Riding a horse for so long could damage the little one growing inside you.” Her chastisement was like a cog thrown into the gears of my mind slowing my thoughts to almost a standstill.
“Heir?” I asked completely confused by Lanai’s insinuation. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not pregnant.”
Lanai’s head tilted and again she looked at me like I was a curiosity. “How can you not know? You’re at least two months along, child. I can see it as plan as the sun in the sky.”
“No, you have to be mistaken. I can’t be pregnant. I haven’t even…” I physically felt myself choke on the air trapped inside my throat.
The meaning behind Aleksander’s words of ‘where we left off’ suddenly became crystal clear. The Queen had been in Chromis exactly two months ago.
Aleksander and Queen Emma had been lovers.
An important point the Queen had neglected to share with either me or Gabriel. But why keep it a secret on her death bed? And, more importantly, how on earth had the child transferred over to me during the transformation? But each of those questions was based on the assumption Lanai was right. Was the nausea I felt the night before confirmation of
my condition? I needed to speak with Gabriel first before I allowed myself to be drawn into madness over something which might not even be true.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Fallon’s head begin to move from side to side.
I knew he would be waking up at any moment.
“Don’t tell him what you just told me,” I begged Lanai. “I’ll inform him of the situation when the time is more appropriate.”
“Is he the father?”
I shook my head. Lanai’s eyebrow popped up in a moment of surprise but she nodded her head confirming she would not say anything to the man she probably assumed to be my husband.
“Would you like to know what it is?” She asked.
It had been the same question she asked me earlier. Only then I assumed she was talking about the dragon’s egg not a supposed child in my womb.
But right or wrong, it would do no harm to listen to her prediction on the baby’s sex. So I nodded my head.
“A male child,” she said with a smile. “Very strong, just like his mother.
Fallon’s eyes slowly opened squinting against the filtered sunlight of the forest. I willed myself into a composed state and leaned my head over his to peer into his eyes.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Not as bad as I was,” his words said but the tense expression on his face told a different story. “Doesn’t sting anymore, just feels like someone sliced me open pretty good.”
“Can you move?”
“Yeah, just give me a minute. My head feels like a rock landed on it.”
Fallon laid there for only a few seconds more before he tried to raise himself up. I placed my hands on his back and helped propel him into a sitting position.
“Greetings, Vankaran,” Lanai said brightly as Fallon came face to face with her.
He looked over at me with an unasked question on his face.
“Lanai was the one who showed me how to leech the dragon’s poison from your wounds,” I explained, subtly implying the gratitude he owed the small, fragile woman sitting next to him.