Hushed, Tales of Ryca, Book 2

by Shereen Vedam

  “Sorry,” she said in a contrite voice.

  “Isa is not like Ryca, Princess,” Fane said. “You cannot walk around unprotected.”

  She shuddered at the understatement, remembering the enormous fist holding her. If not for Jarrod, who knew what might have happened to her? Silently, she laughed at her earlier assumption that she could not only take care of herself but her friends and family, too. She glanced at her group and realized she was glad every one of them was with her.

  “Now, what?” Thyel asked.

  Fane took out a map he’d squirreled away inside his tunic and unrolled it on the ground so they could all see. “We follow this route to my uncle’s village.”

  “How long will it take?” Jarrod asked.

  “Are there likely to be more giants on the way?” Tamara added.

  “Not long, maybe a day, and no giants. Too close to the dragon stronghold. Except during raids, they mostly respect each other’s territory.”

  They set off, staying close and keeping a careful watch all around. Oddly, this part of the forest seemed familiar to Tamara. She had seen skeletal trees like these before. In her dreams. Had she just woken up and walked into the landscape of her nightmares?

  Soon, they came across a path that led deeper into the forest. A sign was carved into a flat plank and nailed to a tall stump, marking the beginning of the pathway. She didn’t need to read the words to know what the foreign script said.

  Still, as Fane translated the words, a shiver went up Tamara’s spine. “All Who Enter, Beware! For There Be Dragons Here.”

  Chapter 8

  On the gloomy walk through the forest, Tamara listened for a loud “thud” that would indicate the giant was back on her trail. It didn’t help that for the past hour, she’d also been hearing someone whimpering.

  When it got really loud, she stopped and whispered, “Did anyone hear that?”

  “What?” Skye asked from beside Fane, who was leading them.

  “Someone’s crying,” Tamara said.

  Everyone stopped to listen. To the occasional scurrying of small birds. To the wind in the leaves. To silence. Thyel was the first to glance at Tamara with a question in his eyes.

  “I could have sworn someone was in trouble,” she said.

  “We’re probably in more trouble than anyone else in these woods,” he said with a grim smile.

  “Maybe we should walk faster,” Fane suggested, looking around with fearful eyes.

  Their lagging steps picked up speed. Tamara glanced to the side in time to see a familiar green lizardy shape scurry under cover of leaves. She jerked in alarm.

  “What?” Skye asked from right beside her.

  When had she moved back here?

  Jarrod, too, came up to Tamara. “What was it?”

  She shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try us,” Skye said.

  “At this point, I’d believe anything,” Fane added coming up to them.

  “It looked like that green lizardy thing I saw on our way up to the Quinlin Temple.”

  “How could it have got here?” Thyel asked. “It wasn’t in the portal room with us. Was it?”

  “No,” Tamara said. “I said you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “I believe you saw something,” Jarrod said.

  “But why only her?” Skye asked. “Why are we not seeing it, too?”

  “Let’s stay close,” Fane suggested, “then if Princess Tamara sees something odd again, we’re more likely to spot it, too.”

  “We’re all long past formalities, Fane,” she said, absently. “Just Tamara, will do.” She glanced around the forest for that lizard-like creature.

  Skye took her hand.

  She would have snorted at that unnecessarily protective gesture from the thirteen-year-old, except, in some odd way, her niece’s hold of her trembling fingers did provide comfort.

  Jarrod flanked Tamara’s other side. Fane led the way and Thyel dropped a pace behind. Though she appreciated their support, she didn’t like this arrangement one bit. She felt trapped again. What could she do? They wanted to help. As the hour progressed and nothing unusual crossed her sight or her hearing, she felt a complete idiot.

  They passed an old oak with an intricate knot in its trunk. Then the knot begun to whirl. She jerked in fright.

  Skye gently squeezed her fingers. “What’s wrong?”

  She pointed to where the green lizard had appeared by the knot, its claws clinging to the bark while its head turned so it could boldly stare at her. “Don’t you see that thing?”

  Everyone peered at the knot.

  Thyel came around to stroke the trunk. “Is something here?” The doubt in his voice rang in her ears.

  Tamara turned away. “Not anymore.”

  Jarrod’s look was filled with concern and then she sensed the gentlest touch of soothing calm brush past her.

  She pulled away, mentally and physically, shutting him out. Don’t read me. I’m not one of your books of strange tales to be dissected and probed.

  She shook off Skye’s hold, too, and fell back. “I want to follow behind. You’re all crowding me.”

  One little encounter with a giant and she began imagining things. Only no one wanted to admit to it. If she had a smidge of magic, they might have thought what she saw was real. She didn’t. She was as ordinary as a piece of grass or a grain of sand.

  As their trek continued, Tamara wondered about that problem. She didn’t have any special gift to offer in support of this journey. Now it looked as if she were also losing her mind. How would she fare during the rest of this dangerous trek? Would she be of help, or end up a hindrance as always?

  Jarrod opened his book and took out his quill.

  She could just guess what he was going to write down. Tamara is acting strange again. She seems unstable. I worry she may break down completely before we ever find Bevan.

  “Must you record everything?” she asked.

  He ignored her scoffing tone and shook his quill. A drop of red appeared, covering the tip like a bead of blood.

  Despite her family’s ease in using magic, appreciation of Jarrod’s unique talent bloomed within her like that droplet. A glance over his shoulder at his book showed no blotches of ink, just neat script as he added a note about where they were currently headed. Amazing! She could barely write legibly while sitting with her elbow steadied, let alone while walking.

  “That reminds me, Jarrod,” she said. “I meant to ask. How is it your magic works here? Isn’t it confined to Ryca?”

  He stopped and she stumbled into his back. “You’re right. My magic shouldn’t work, and yet it has, many times.”

  The others gathered close to listen.

  Jarrod shut his eyes a moment and then opened them, gazing at her with regret. “No teleportation off this world.”

  “Perhaps your magic works for the same reason we can see the three sisters in the sky,” Skye said.

  Jarrod gave her an approving nod. “Yes, exactly. We’re still on Ryca, or where Ryca should be. This world must be overlapping it. I can move myself by magic within it but not between the overlapping worlds.

  Resting his quill in the middle of his book, he took out his water cask strapped to his hip. “Anyone thirsty or hungry?”

  “Yes, please,” Skye said.

  He passed it to her and then tore up a flat bread and shared it with everyone. Skye drank and gave the cask to Fane who passed it to Thyel. When it finally reached Tamara, she shook it. It was completely full!

  After drinking her fill, she returned the cask to Jarrod who then drank last.

  “I wonder how everyone is doing back on Ryca,” she murmured. Her mother would have received Tamara’s note but if she then sent someone to the temple and found them missing, her worry would have spiked.

  Jarrod frowned and said, “Let’s keep going.”

  Remembering the problems with his people disappearing that had first brought him to the
castle, she regretted reminding him of his troubles. By the time they returned home, all of his people might be gone. The thought made her worries seem miniscule.

  “Fane, how did the first pairing with the dragons happen?” Skye asked as they set off again.

  Tamara was glad for something more cheerful to think about. Fane’s next words, however, brought her good spirits crashing.

  “The giants were to thank for that.”

  Of all the topics to discuss, why must their conversation keep returning to giants? An involuntary shiver speared through her.

  “While we feared them stealing our children and wrecking our homes,” Fane said, “the dragons hated them most.”

  “Why?” Thyel asked. “Presumably dragons are of matching or larger size. Not easy to intimidate.”

  “From the time they’re young, giants take great sport in throwing boulders and trees at dragons that fly too low. They steal their eggs…to eat.” Fane added that last with utter disgust.

  “I take it they’re tasty?” Thyel asked with an amused quirk to his lips.

  “Worse,” Fane said. “They think if they eat one a day for a score of days, it will make them as light as the dragon and therefore able to fly. After a raid of the dragon caves, they even have competitions to see which giant gets to eat all of the stolen eggs. Fools!”

  “Over the years, that must have dangerously reduced the dragon population,” Tamara said in a thoughtful tone. “From what you said before, dragons don’t lay many eggs to begin with, do they?”

  “No, they don’t,” Fane agreed, “and the giants stealing the few that were laid drove the dragons close to extinction. The elders say that in the ancient days, a villager saw perhaps one dragon in a month. Now they’re as numerous as the giants. That’s mainly because they befriended humans.”

  “How did that come about?” The question leaped out of Tamara’s mouth without conscious thought. She was curious about the answer. Making friends wasn’t easy. She should know. She had none. For two such vastly different species in size and power, to trust each other enough to form an alliance, even befriend each other, seemed improbable.

  “There is an ancient story of a villager who found a dragon trapped beneath a boulder, and left to die. The villager went to help and was astounded to find he could mind-speak with the beast.” Fane’s eyes were bright as he gazed at them. “It led to the first ever natural pairing on Isa.”

  “Natural pairing?” Tamara asked. “What other kinds are there?”

  The light died from Fane’s eyes and his gaze skittered past hers like a mouse that had stumbled across a snake.

  “It’s a saying.” He went on with his story, leaving Tamara wondering, What is he not telling us?

  “From that first encounter,” Fane said, “the collaboration between humans and dragons was born. Now, once a village acquires the protection of a dragon, that dragon’s cluster will patrol the skies and we in turn send warnings of any swarms near the Dragon Mountains.”

  “Swarms?” Skye asked.

  “That’s when the giants travel in family groups, sometimes as many as fifteen or twenty, all scaling the mountains in search of dragon eggs.”

  “How does warning the dragons help?” Thyel asked. “In those numbers, the giants could still pound away at any dragons that fly by.”

  “When a swarm approaches the mountains, the dragons do not defend themselves, sir. Instead, the queen and all the young ones take the eggs to safety while the males fly to the giants’ terrain and burn everything to the ground. Over time, that’s helped reduce the number and frequency of swarms.”

  Skye chuckled. “Clever beasts.”

  Her encounter with a giant still fresh on her mind, Tamara grew tired of this conversation. Her steps lagged and soon put her two lengths behind her group. Sound of nails frantically scrabbling against rock had her hurrying forward again. Ducking under a low hanging branch, she skirted a large tree to rejoin her companions.

  “Fane,” she asked, “how did the Quinlin stones come to play into all this?’

  “When the dragons carve out their caves in the mountains, they collect the stones and hoard them in their nests. The stones are fed to newborns and old ones to help ignite a deep belly fire.”

  Tamara perked up at that news. “We should try to acquire one of those stones then. We could use it at the temple we came through to return home.”

  Skye sent her a worried look.

  “I only meant if we don’t find a dragon that’s willing to bond with Fane,” Tamara added quickly. “It never hurts to have a backup plan. Father used to say that.” Not that he’d followed his own advice.

  “The dragons don’t give them up easily,” Fane warned. “They consider the Quinlin their treasure. However, it’s also a ritual gift they present to a human after bonding. So, we’re sure to acquire at least one.”

  “Not that we need one,” Skye said. “I’ve every faith we will find a dragon Fane can bond with. Then we’ll be able to travel to where we can rescue my brother. After that, we can all return home on the dragon, with or without a Quinlin stone.”

  “It would still be prudent to take a few stones back with us,” Thyel said. “They’re obviously powerful in and of themselves for traveling between realms.”

  “Only one,” Fane warned. “And we can’t steal it. It must be given as a gift.”

  “Agreed.” Jarrod said, busy writing in his book.

  “Fane, tell us more about the pairing,” Tamara said. “Is there something you haven’t told us?”

  “What do you mean?” Thyel asked. Then he grabbed Fane by his arm and brought him to a stop. “What does Tamara mean? Have you kept something from us? This journey is dangerous enough without any of us keeping secrets.”

  Fane looked worriedly from him to Tamara. “It’s nothing important.”

  “We’ll decide what’s important,” Thyel said.

  Fane shuffled under his grip but he refused to release the young man. Finally, Fane sighed and spoke in a rush. “I might have left out that the common type of pairing usually only lasts a year.”

  Thyel let him go. “Is that all? Well, that’s okay.”

  From the hooded look lurking around Fane’s eyes, Tamara guessed there was more. She prodded his shoulder with a pointed finger. “And?”

  “Then the dragon’s left infertile and the human might die.”

  “What?” She turned Fane toward her in shock. An icy tremble swept through her at what they’d inadvertently done. They’d not only trapped themselves in this other world, but the only way out could mean this boy’s death.

  “You didn’t think that was significant?” Skye asked, coming up to him, looking as upset as Tamara felt. “You said if the dragon bonding were broken, you might lose your sight or have some other injury, not that after a year you would die!”

  “Fane, why didn’t you mention this before?” Jarrod asked in a concerned tone.

  “Rather a vital bit of detail,” Thyel agreed.

  “The opportunity to bond with a dragon is what I’ve lived for all my life.” Fane squirmed out of Tamara’s hold. “It’s what I want to do.”

  “How can you choose to die in a year?” Skye asked.

  “It explains why the dragon cult kept the ritual such a secret,” Tamara murmured.

  “We can’t allow you to sacrifice yourself like that,” Skye said in an adamant tone, though Tamara could see how much it hurt to say it. She was admitting they must give up their chance to find Bevan, leaving them trapped here forever.

  Tamara stumbled back, seeking the support of a tree trunk. She hugged it to her back and ordered the world to stop spinning.

  “I suppose the choice is his,” Thyel said.

  “It’s not,” Tamara and Skye said together and then looked at each other in surprise.

  “Wait a minute,” Jarrod said. “You master bonded with a dragon and he’s an old man.”

  Her companions crowded around Fane, looking as thoroughly conf
used as Tamara felt. Did the dragon/human-pairing kill the human or not?

  “There are two types of pairing,” Fane explained. “One that lasts a year, with dire consequences for both participants. There is a second type – a rare one. This second type can last a lifetime. This is the kind my master had with his dragon. The first is a superficial bond, while the other,” he paused and a gentle smile settled on his young face, “is a natural linking. A melding of minds without any effort. The kind the villager who found the dying dragon formed.”

  “Have you left anything else out?” Skye asked, now all suspicion, as she grabbed his tunic. “Tell us everything. Now!”

  “All right, but let me go.” He waited until she did so.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Fane stepped closer to Jarrod, no doubt the safest to hide behind. “Only one type of bond will enable a rider and dragon to fly between realms.”

  The silence this time was long and pregnant.

  “The natural kind,” Tamara said in a dead voice.

  The chances of them leaving this world plummeted as if a sinkhole opened beneath their feet. Her world shattered for the second time and her throat closed. She took a breath and then another, forcing air in and out until her foggy head could clear.

  “Until the pairing process is complete,” Fane’s words tumbled out, his eyes pleading with Tamara to forgive him for bringing her here, “one cannot tell if it has taken a deep root or formed a superficial bond. If you want to find Prince Bevan, if you all want to return home, you have to let me try.”

  “You believe you can bond in this particular way, don’t you?” Thyel’s skepticism layered his tone. “That’s why you’re so eager for this adventure. Once bonded, you don’t believe you’ll die in a year.”

  “That’s my hope, sir.” There was quiet dignity in Fane’s tone. “I come from a family where for four generations we’ve made natural pairings and lived to old age. That was one of the main reasons my master chose me over all the others children to train to become a dragon rider.”

  “You’re willing to risk your life on it?” Skye asked.

  “The choice is mine,” Fane said with finality and continued up the path with purpose.