Blood of Dragons

by Jack Campbell

  Jason looked around. “I’ll let you know if I see anything like that. Hey, Kira, thanks.”

  Kira gave him a baffled look. “For getting you into this mess? You know, if you’d gotten involved with a regular girl you probably wouldn’t be constantly running for your life.”

  “What kind of fun would that be?” Jason asked. “Boring, right? No, thanks for listening to me, and taking what I say seriously. You know so much more about this world and this stuff, but when I say something, you think about it.”

  “You’re welcome. It’s part of respecting somebody. I couldn’t love you unless I respected you.” They cleared the canyon, Kira studying the surrounding terrain again. “The easiest-looking path looks like the one to the north, along the flank of that mountain. They’ll expect us to go that way. If we go southwest, we’ll have to climb up that slope, but it looks like it leads to easier terrain farther on.”

  “That’s a cliff, Kira, not a slope,” Jason said.

  “Jason, I’m too worn out to climb another cliff right away, but I can get up a slope. That’s a slope.”

  He looked at her, puzzled, then nodded. “Got it. Let’s cli— I mean, let’s get up that slope.”

  The sun finally cleared the mountains to the east as they struggled up the nearly vertical “slope.” Kira had to pause twice to rest and plan the rest of her path upwards, but she made it as the sun warmed her back, she and Jason helping each other up over the edge at the top.

  The morning sun highlighted every detail of the angled path along the top, where dirt mottled by patches of tough grass had settled against the mountain behind and inclined quickly down toward the edge. The width of the top varied from a fairly comfortable almost-a-lance to a nerve-wracking half-a-lance or less, the “slope” dropping away almost straight down beyond. Kira led the way, watching her feet, worried that the Imperials might reach the area behind them in time to spot her and Jason up here.

  “Whup!”

  She spun about at Jason’s exclamation, already reaching, and caught his arm as he slid toward the edge. “Was that some Urth way of saying help?” Kira asked as Jason carefully regained his footing.

  “No,” he said. “That’s an Earth way of saying ‘I’m slipping and I’m too scared to remember how to say the word help so I hope someone understands this.’ ”

  “Got it. Ready?”

  “Yeah.” Jason looked ahead. “We’ve got a ways to go.”

  “One step at a time, my love, just like up that slope.”

  He grinned through a sheen of sweat on his face. “I’ll follow you anywhere if you keep calling me that.”

  She felt an urge to rush that kept growing, but Kira kept her speed down, knowing that moving too fast might cause either one of them, or both, to slip again. The sun had quickly become hot enough to be a distraction. She wanted to remove her jacket, but that would be too dangerous with so little room to move and such treacherous footing.

  After a seeming eternity, the ledge finally widened. She looked ahead, seeing it lead to where two mountains met, the area between forming a narrow dell whose sides curved up to meet the peaks flanking it. “It’s downhill. There’s grass.”

  Jason came up beside her as Kira pulled off her jacket. “Maybe there’s water,” he said, taking off his coat.

  “How much do you have left?”

  “One bottle.”

  “Let’s save it until we know if there’s more water down there,” Kira decided. “If you see anything move, and it looks edible, let me know.”

  “Okay.” He peered down at the dell. “What’s our criteria for edible?”

  “Probably anything that moves.”

  They made rapid time, heading down through the smooth footing of the dell. Kira glanced back to see that they were out of sight of anyone following their prior route and breathed a sigh of relief.

  The grass was thick enough to cushion their steps, but Kira saw no trace of water as they followed the dell part way around one of the peaks. They walked for a while in silence, the sun rising higher and gradually casting its rays into the more sheltered depths of the Northern Ramparts. Coming to a branching of possible routes, Kira paused. “What do you think?”

  Jason looked one way, then the other. “They both look painful.”

  “Pick a number.”

  “Five trillion—”

  “Jason!”

  “Sorry. Six.”

  “Even. We go that way,” Kira said, pointing. They had to walk carefully along a fairly steep slope, watching out for loose spots that might send them sprawling in a long, tumbling fall.

  Reaching a ledge that was almost a lance wide and offered fairly level footing, Kira sat down, looking up at the sun. “It’s about noon.”

  Jason sat down next to her, took out their last water bottle, and offered it to Kira. “You first.”

  “Thanks, my love.” She drank about a quarter, passing it back to him. “What do you want to have for dinner when we get home?”

  Jason fixed a startled glance on her as he finished drinking, leaving half a bottle remaining. “What?”

  “Dinner. Mother says we can have anything we want. I’ll go first. I want roasted chicken and fried potatoes. With all the water and wine I can drink. And for dessert I want Ihris cake with sweet syrup. What do you want?”

  “Uh…the same as you. Only shave ice for dessert. Nice, cool, wet shave ice.”

  “I’ve never heard of shave ice.”

  “I guess I need to introduce it to your world. You’ll thank me. How come you’re torturing yourself with that?” Jason asked. “Imagining food we can’t have?”

  “It’s fun, isn’t it? Girls like to dream of food we can’t have. Don’t guys do things like that?”

  He made a noncommittal face. “Sort of. Only we don’t dream about food we can’t have. We have fantasies about girls we can’t have.”

  “Oh?” Kira looked a question at him. “And just which girls have you been having fantasies about, Jason of Urth?”

  “Me? None. I was talking about other guys. I haven’t thought of any girl but you since the moment I first saw you.”

  “I’m sure. What about Devi?”

  “Devi?”

  “Yeah,” Kira asked. “Do you ever think about Devi?” Her Aunt Asha’s eldest daughter had inherited her mother’s beauty and attracted guys the way a magnet drew metal.

  Jason shook his head in feigned bafflement. “Devi who?”

  “Liar. You are such a liar.”

  “I’m still not going to answer that question.”

  “I’m sorry.” Kira leaned her head back against the rock behind them, closing her eyes, the sun warm on her face and bright even through her eyelids. “I wonder how long we can keep going without food? It wouldn’t be so bad if we could just hole up somewhere and rest all day, but this work requires fuel for our bodies, and we haven’t got any fuel.”

  “We can get by for a while on our bodies’ stored fat reserves, but, yeah, at the rate we’re having to burn it those won’t last very long.”

  Kira giggled. “The Imperial diet. They chase you through the mountains with no food until you lose all that fat.”

  “And if you slow down, they shoot you,” Jason said. “I thought you didn’t giggle.”

  “I don’t. That was—” Kira tensed as the sound of a shot echoed among the peaks. With little room to move on the ledge she dropped down as best she could, Jason beside her. “Where did that come from?”

  “No idea,” Jason said. “The sound is bouncing off every rock within hearing distance.”

  “I didn’t hear a bullet or an impact,” Kira said, gazing around carefully. “Maybe the shot was fired as a signal.”

  “They could be trying to herd us,” Jason said. “Making noise to drive us in the direction they want us to go.”

  “That’s brilliant, Jason. Just like hunters.” She came to one knee, gazing outward. “And we’re the prey.”

  Another shot sounded. Kira tilt
ed her head, trying to sort out the echoes from the original. “That was a little west of here, I think, but a ways behind us. More than a thousand lances.”

  “Two kilometers?” Jason shook his head. “I can’t tell. But I agree that it’s behind us. They’re definitely trying to send a message.”

  Kira looked at the pair of peaks rising to the west of them, the two mountains joined far above where she and Jason now were. “I wish we could head straight that way, but that’s not a passable route. And, if we tried, once we got that high the Imperials might be able to spot us easier.” She pointed closer to north. “If we continue around this high ground we might find something easier beyond. Or we could double back to the east.”

  “Those steps were hard enough the first time,” Jason said. “I don’t want to go over them again.”

  “Then we go north. Careful. If we start sliding we’ll have a lot of trouble stopping ourselves.”

  Kira took a deep breath and started along the side of the slope again, trying to set her feet on any rock bulges or outcroppings that would offer better footing. As she put her foot on one outcropping, it proved to be a rock barely embedded in the slope that gave way almost immediately. Kira managed to jerk herself backwards to better footing, breathing heavily, Jason grabbing her arm to help steady her. She heard the rock bouncing and clattering for what felt like a long time before it reached the bottom.

  Ironically, the near-deadly rock left behind a pit that offered a decent foothold as Kira edged farther along the slope. She was getting increasingly worried that this perilous route would simply wend its way around the mountain, bringing them back to heading east, but finally a flatter area came into view. Her legs tired, she had to keep her progress slow to avoid more missteps, but eventually reached a spot where a gentle slope covered by rock fragments led down to a flatter area that gradually widened as it descended.

  Getting down the slope over the treacherous rocks proved almost as difficult as walking along the side of the mountain, but Kira finally found herself on level ground covered by grass and a scattering of bushes twisted by the harsh environment. She stood, breathing slowly and deeply, grateful for a safe place to stand.

  Jason stood nearby, his eyes closed as he caught his breath. But he suddenly looked at her. “Do I hear water?”

  “Water?” Kira listened, catching a sound like crystals striking lightly against each other. “It’s down there.”

  Her legs found new strength as they walked quickly down the vale that was widening out before them. Dirt had gathered here over the ages, providing a welcome place for vegetation tough enough to withstand the winters. “There it is. Jason, wait.”

  “What?” he stared at her, impatient and upset.

  “If the Imperials get to any source of water before we do, they'll plant an ambush. We go slowly, and carefully, and watch for trouble,” Kira said.

  “Oh. But they shouldn’t be—” He caught himself. “Unless they found an easier route. Okay. Slow and careful and all that.”

  Kira went to one side of the dale, gesturing to Jason to go to the other. They moved along the edges with their eyes on the heights on the opposite sides. The sound of the water grew agonizing as it teased them, but Kira kept her attention focused on sweeping her gaze across any spot where trouble might lurk. But she saw nothing, and if her Mage foresight was still present it offered no warning.

  They finally reached the source of the water with no danger apparent. A stream burst from a fissure in the mountain to wander away along the narrow valley they were now in. Where the water splashed down to the dirt, a small pool had formed.

  Kira drank gratefully, scooping up handfuls of water and letting them satisfy a thirst that had once again gotten agonizing, then filled her bottle. As Jason filled his two bottles, she sat back to enjoy the break and spotted something where the small pool spilled out into a shallow stream. “Hey. I wonder if that’s what it looks like?” Scrambling to her feet, Kira walked carefully to where tall green shoots rose among the scrub grass. She pulled out the Imperial dagger and dug carefully until she was able to unearth a white root the size of her thumb.

  Jason knelt next to her as she washed it off. “What is it?”

  Kira rinsed off the root in the stream and took an experimental nibble. “Wild onion. I don’t believe it. Wild onion. We can eat the bulbs and the green stalks.”

  Shoving the first one into Jason’s hands despite his protests that she should eat first, Kira dug up another, washed it off and wolfed down the bulb, then chewed and swallowed the green stems. The bulb itself was sharp, but that didn’t bother Kira enough to slow her down. Jason had brought out his knife from the ship and was digging up more.

  They didn’t stop until the patch of wild onion was gone, loose soil marking where each onion plant had been. She and Jason ate most, but left a small amount to carry with them. “I guess that goddess was looking out for us,” Kira said as she stowed away half of the remaining onions in one of her jacket pockets.

  “Demeter?”

  “Dematr. If you’re going to live here, you should say it right.”

  “But— Never mind.” Jason studied the dug-up ground as they got ready to leave and shook his head. “I guess they’ll know we came this way.”

  “It is pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Kira said. “And look at our footprints in the moist soil around the pool. But there’s no way to cover it. We have to hope they don’t find this particular spot, or don’t find it for a while. Hey, let’s walk in the mud on the edge and leave footprints in the grass heading back the way we came. Maybe that’ll confuse them on which way we went when we left here.”

  It took a little while to carry out that plan, while Kira eyed the sun. “We’ve got maybe an hour left before the sun sinks enough to put low areas in shadow. I want to keep going as long as possible, but we need to watch for a good place to hide for the night.”

  As if triggered by her words, three shots sounded, one right after the next. Jason pointed to the south. “One was there, I think.”

  Kira nodded. “And another was almost due west of us. How did they get that far? Maybe it was farther south than that.”

  “The third was between those two. Why aren’t we hearing any shots to the east?”

  “Because you were right. They’re trying to herd us. Groups to the east aren’t firing shots so we won’t know they are there.”

  Half an hour later as they walked up a slight rise headed north out of the vale, Kira stopped and pointed. “A trail.”

  Jason stooped to examine it. “Not much of one. Is this even a trail humans use? It’s pretty narrow.”

  “It could be larger animals use it. There are goats in these mountains.”

  “Where? I could eat a goat.”

  “Raw?” Kira shrugged. “Me, too. But people from the Free Cities hunt the goats, so they stay away from people, and those gunshots probably spooked every goat within hearing distance. Odds are we won't see any. This trail leads a little west of north, I think. Let’s take it.”

  They walked in and out of shadow as the sun sank lower in the west and the trail wended among the peaks and up and down along ridges. Reaching a place where the trail split, Kira paused to look down each possible path.

  “Hey, Kira!” Jason gestured upwards.

  She followed his gaze, seeing a series of ledges above the trail. “One of those looks big enough to lie down on, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah. One of us could lie down and the other one sit up to keep watch and make sure the sleeping one doesn’t roll off.”

  “There’s a route up, I think.” She bit her lip, looking around again. “We could keep going for maybe another hour before it got too dark.”

  “Are we going to find any place better than this to sleep?” Jason asked.

  “I don’t…” Kira remembered the Imperials coming up over the ridge last night, imagining what might have happened if she had been dozing at the moment, or if she had waited even a few minutes longer
to wake Jason. “You’re right. It’s better to have a safe place. Let’s get up there and try not to leave obvious signs we climbed along here.”

  * * *

  Kira had taken the first watch this time, watching the light fade to be replaced by the dark of night before waking Jason and lying down to instantly fall asleep.

  At some point her dreams found her back on the street in Ihris, people moving around her with the vague features of those in dreams. Kira saw two police officers walking her way and felt her heart begin to race, afraid to turn and look across the street. Turning with painful slowness, she—

  Awoke to Jason’s fingers across her lips. She stared at him in the dark while he gestured down to the trail about two lances below their perch. She lay silent and listened, hearing the rattle of a rock and a soft exclamation. Vague noises resolved into the tramp of boots along the path. Jason already had his knife out and was leaning back against the rock behind them so that his seated figure was as concealed as possible from whoever was below. Kira slowly and silently drew her pistol, making sure the safety was still on before rolling a little to be able to look down on the trail from her prone position.

  As she waited, Kira wondered what might have happened if Jason hadn't woken her, if that all-too-familiar nightmare had reached its usual end. She should have warned him before now. She had to tell him before another night fell.

  “Watch your feet!” someone growled.

  Kira recognized the accent. Whoever had spoken was from the Empire.

  Dark shapes became visible, moving along the trail with the weary shuffle of very tired men and women. It wasn’t easy to see individuals in the darkness shrouding the trail, but she thought there were about fifteen. Even in the night, though, she could see the straight lines of rifle barrels jutting up.

  The column stumbled to a halt. “It splits here,” someone said. “Which way do we go?”

  “Keep it down. Let me check the map.”