Death Flag

  Looking back to the west, he saw pillars of smoke rising into the air, and he was reminded of the forest fire that had helped drive him into the canyon to begin with. The southwestern zone and areas to the east were still smoldering in some places, and he could see pockets of bright orange light that told him the fire was still burning in at least a few places. Surprisingly, the uppermost canopy of foliage hadn’t been completely burned away. Large pockets were completely stripped away where the fire had climbed high into the trees, but most of the highest layer seemed to have remained intact.

  Somewhere far below and to the southeast, he could make out tiny red and orange pinpricks of light that marked dozens of campsites. For the first time, he was given a clear idea of exactly how many people were left in the region. He had no doubt that the raging fire had claimed the lives of dozens if not hundreds who would have been caught out in it, and he, Warren, and Shayna had their fair share of success thinning the numbers. He had lost track of how many people they killed as they fled through the forest, and there were still dozens more below him.

  The dragon leveled out and settled into a slow glide downward, no longer working to gain altitude. Madison looked ahead and realized that they had climbed so high into the sky that they were almost level with the mountain’s peak. The dragon held her course, slowly gliding downward, and they began circling around to the northern side. There was a sharp cliff separating the northern zone and the rest of the east, but then there was a second sharp drop near the top of the mountain as well. It was far smaller than the other, and there were twin fires burning at the top.

  The dragon glided down over the tops of the trees, made a small circle, and then made a sharp drop down into a large clearing. Madison was once again awestruck as the dragon touched down. Despite her large size and the alarming speed at which they made their descent, it was almost impossible to tell that they had ever been flying at all. Her landing was the smoothest and softest he had ever felt, and that included comparisons against all modern aviation standards from his home world that this one had never known.

  The dragon lowered herself to the ground, allowing Madison to swing his leg over her neck and slide off. Shayna came off right behind him, and he reached up and caught her by the hips before she could hit the ground. She smacked him on the shoulder as soon as her feet touched the ground, scowled up at him, and said, “I can do it on my own. I don’t need your help!”

  Madison laughed quietly. He doubted that there was anything dangerous in the area, or the dragon wouldn’t have picked this area to land, but he didn’t want to call any unnecessary attention to them either. “I see,” he said quietly. “That’s why you were shaking in terror the entire way. I get it.”

  She pounded her small fist into his shoulder several more times, punctuating her exasperated words. “People. Are. Not. Meant. To. Fly!”

  Madison caught her hand on the last note and held it away so that she couldn’t hit him again. He was suddenly rather conscious of the dragon staring at them with its large, yellow eye, and he didn’t want to give it the wrong impression about their relationship.

  Once it saw that it had their attention, the dragon hopped into the air again as it had before when taking flight. Madison automatically shifted to the side and held up an arm in front of his face to block some of the wind generated by its wings, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the dragon shift at an awkward angle. Its rear legs swung forward underneath its body, and for one gravity-defying split-second, the gargantuan beast was completely upright. There was a loud crash as something hit the ground in front of Madison, and then the dragon climbed upward once again.

  It was well over the treetops before he lowered his arm and looked in front of himself to see what the dragon had dropped at the last moment. Sitting in the dirt in front of him was an old-fashioned chest that looked like something out of a pirate movie. The black box was constructed from a dark-black metal, was about waist high, and was capped with a domed lid. There was no obvious locking mechanism that he could make out, and he hoped that he didn’t need some magic passphrase or spell to open it.

  He hesitated for a brief moment as he studied the object. It was clearly a treasure chest, but he had no idea what it might contain. She had promised him ‘one last token of aid’ before transforming into a dragon and carrying them out of the mountain, but he had simply thought that it was her advice to visit the north. She hadn’t given him any reason not to trust her, and she had even revived Shayna like she said she would, so he didn’t have any reason to think that she would set up some type of last-minute trap. Still, the wary side of his brain cautioned him to move slowly. Taking parting gifts didn’t exactly sit right with him, and experience had taught him that they came with expectations and strings attached more often than not. People were happy to help you out or give you something so long as you would do something for them in return. That was no gift, no matter what they called it—it was an exchange. And they always wanted something big.

  Madison looked down at Shayna and saw her studying the chest. She was clearly thinking the same thing he was, and her facial expression shifted between curiosity, caution, and suspicion about as quickly as his own feelings on the matter did. Sighing, he stepped forward and reached out for the lid. Just as he was about to touch it, an arrow flew past him and struck the dark metal with a loud clang.

  “Get down!” Madison shouted, turning and diving for Shayna.

  CHAPTER 18

  In the span of time it took for him to react and reach her, she already had her one remaining dagger halfway drawn, and Madison was hyper-conscious of it as he tackled her to the ground, pinning it between them. A second arrow struck the chest and bounced off.

  She cried in alarm, “What are you—?!"

  “Quiet!” Madison hissed into her ear. “I’m going to move you. Get behind the chest and take cover!” He heard a third arrow pluck into the ground next to them and said, “Now!”

  He rolled off of her, sat up, and roughly jerked her off of the ground and away from in front of the chest in a single motion. He half-pushed, half-shoved her forward, dove beside her, and then crawled around behind the large black box with her. The archer aiming for them must have realized that it was a waste of arrows because as soon as they were behind the large metal object, the firing stopped.

  Madison scanned the area of woods around him as best he could while keeping his head down. Despite the fact that the sun was coming up in the east, and they were in a large clearing, the trees surrounding the small field were large enough to block out the feeble early morning sunlight. Everything was still shrouded in darkness, and he couldn’t see a single thing beyond the edge of the forest. There had definitely only been a single archer firing at them, but that didn’t mean that others weren’t lurking out there as well.

  “Ahh . . .” He growled in frustration and leaned in close to Shayna until he was practically hugging her from behind. “Can you make it to the trees behind us?”

  Shayna cast one furtive glance around him and then snapped back into position, nodding her head slightly.

  “Good. Stay low, crawl there. I think it’s only one guy. Don’t know what he’s doing up here alone, but you should be able to take him out if you can get to him, right?”

  She nodded again, and Madison swapped places with her so that she was behind him. He waited until she started moving, low-crawling through the grass, and then peeked around the edge of the box. He hung his head out for just a moment before jerking it back, and an arrow ricocheted off the side of the chest where his head had just been. He crawled over the chest next, peering out through the darkness for whomever it was shooting at him, and then ducked down again. He knew the game wasn’t going to last long before the archer gave up and got tired of wasting arrows on him, but he had to keep it going as long as he could and buy time for Shayna. He hung his head out on the left again, just long enough to get a visual on what he thought was a person in the tree line. He automatically pulled
his head back when he saw a flicker of movement, and another arrow bounced off the chest a moment later.

  A strange idea suddenly ran through Madison’s head. He flipped over onto his stomach, squared off against the box, and shoved as hard as he could with his legs while pushing with his shoulders. The heavy chest jerked forward an inch and then slowly started sliding forward. He knew he’d never be able to move it far, but he only had to hold out long enough for Shayna. He pushed off with everything he had for what felt like a minute before he collapsed again, his legs and arms burning from the effort. Sucking in a giant breath of air, he flipped over and peered around the chest again. He had just enough time to make out a shadowy form in the tree line before a startled yell sounded out, and he knew that Shayna had found her mark.

  Madison instantly jumped out from around the heavy chest and took off sprinting. He was already winded from his effort moving the giant metal box, but he pumped his legs for all he was worth. He knew he had to rely on Shayna, and he knew that she was competent enough as a fighter, but that didn’t mean he liked letting her go into it alone. He had already come close to losing her once tonight, and he didn’t want to do it again.

  He broke through into the trees and then came to an abrupt halt, slamming his feet down and dragging them through the leaves. He took one look at the situation and reached back to scratch his head as he figured out what to say. There, in front of him, was Shayna, grinning like a cat who had caught a mouse and sitting on Warren’s chest. Madison stared down at the duo in astonishment for a moment before shaking his head and throwing his arms up.

  “I give up!” he declared. He looked back and forth between Shayna and Warren twice and then asked, “How in the world did you get all the way up here?”

  Warren seemed to still be struggling with the fact that he had been caught out—or perhaps the fact that Shayna was straddled across his chest. He took a breath and said, “It’s a long story . . . But uhh . . . Would you mind getting off me now?”

  Shayna smirked down at him triumphantly one last time and then sprang to her feet. Madison reached forward, clasped Warren’s hand, and helped him to his feet. The archer took a moment to brush himself off and asked, “Before we get into how I got here, how did you get here?”

  Madison looked taken aback. He couldn’t possibly pass up an opportunity like this. “You mean you somehow missed the giant dragon?”

  “No. How could I possibly miss that?” Warren shot back.

  “Well . . . Then . . .” He trailed off, letting it sink in.

  He couldn’t see clearly, but he was certain Warren’s face drained of color. “You mean . . .”

  “Really, Warren? You’re acting like you’ve never seen a fully-grown dragon before. Is it really that unusual for people to ride them around here?”

  “Alright,” Warren said, almost too complacently, before registering what Madison said. “What?! Wait . . . We need to seriously have a conversation about where you come from if riding dragons is commonplace there.”

  Madison turned and started walking back to where he’d last left the chest, and the other two fell in behind him. “Isn’t there some rule about asking where people come from?” he asked without turning to look at them. “Something about, yadda-yadda, people’s origins don’t matter? It’s against the rules like asking about time or some such?”

  “Yes,” Warren answered quickly. “But we’re not in K’yer Utane.”

  “Oh ho. So, the rules don’t apply then,” Madison observed casually. “I’ll keep that in mind. I think we both have stories to share, but I’m really curious to find out what’s in this.” He stopped in front of the large metal crate and kicked it with the edge of his boot.

  “Hold up. Is this actually a treasure chest?!” Warren exclaimed.

  “You were shooting at it!” Shayna cried. “You were shooting at it, and you didn’t even know what you were shooting at?!”

  “Hey!” Warren shot back defensively. “I’ve only learned a low-level version of Cat’s Eyes. It’s not strong enough to see clearly that far away.”

  “What?” Shayna said, sounding shocked. “It’s no wonder I was able to sneak up on you so easily!”

  “You mean you can actually see in the dark?” Madison asked, turning around and interjecting himself into their exchange.

  Both of his companions looked at him as if he had just asked a dumb question. “Of course,” Warren answered while Shayna snickered. “It’s a basic skill that all who train with the rogues learn. There are more powerful versions, but I never put the time into learning them. I always had other things to focus on that were more important—like archery!”

  Shayna grinned broadly. “I’d say it was wasted time based on the way you missed us!”

  “Alright, alright,” Madison said. “Calm down, children. We have more important things to do.” He didn’t necessarily want to ruin the moment, but he didn’t have much choice. Shayna was clearly enjoying having someone else to tease for a change so that she wasn’t on the receiving end, and poor Warren likely couldn’t come up with a decent insult if he had to. He was simply too kind-hearted to tease her back, even though it was all in good fun. That said, the levity was welcome after the harrowing night he had lived through, but Erin and Alyanna were still unaccounted for. He felt a small pang of guilt as he remembered them, and it spurred him to reach down and open the crate.

  The lid swung open easily and silently, folding back exactly as expected. Disappointingly, the chest was completely empty. The pre-dawn light made it hard to discern much other than simple shapes through the murky gloom, but even those were conspicuously absent. He couldn’t make out anything inside the chest other than an ink-black darkness that his vision couldn’t penetrate. Brief images of booby traps and venomous animals flashed through his mind’s eye as he recalled some of the more sinister movie plots he had seen in the past. He could only imagine someone hiding a poisonous asp inside a chest such as this as a means of waylaying anyone who might tamper with it, but that didn’t seem likely to be the dragon’s style.

  “What do you think?” Madison asked, thinking aloud. “Think it’s safe to reach in?”

  “Why did she even leave this for us?” Shayna asked, stepping forward and peering over the edge. The chest was tall enough that it came up well past her waist, and she had to crane her neck forward a good bit to peer inside. If anything was going to spring out and attack, she had to make a tempting target.

  “She?” Warren asked.

  “The dragon,” Madison answered. “It was a she.”

  “Wait, you weren’t kidding . . .? You really did ride in on that dragon?”

  “You mean you didn’t believe me?” Madison asked, feigning astonishment at not being trusted. “I don’t know what to say, Warren. I thought we were friends.”

  Warren eyed him coldly. “If someone told you that they rode on a dragon as calmly as they would a horse, would you believe them?”

  “I mean . . . Perhaps if I’d seen the dragon like you did,” Madison answered pointedly. “You saw enough that you had to see two people climb down off of it, and then we appeared telling you that we did. So . . .”

  “Alright, alright.” Warren held up two hands defensively. “I get it! I’ll believe you next time you tell me that you rode a dragon!”

  “So, this chest?” Madison asked, acting the part of the practical voice instead. “Is it safe or not?”

  Shayna shrugged visibly. “Probably. If she wanted us dead, she could have just eaten us to begin with.”

  Madison sighed. “Fair enough.” Then, without further question, he reached out and plunged his hand into the chest without giving himself any more time to think about it. Like jumping off cliffs, the longer he thought about it and what might be inside, the longer he would have to think up excuses not to do it. To his partial relief, his hand passed through the darkness without making contact with anything. Bending over at the waist, he felt around inside until he found the bottom of the chest,
followed it to the edges, and then moved his hand back toward the middle. Nothing. He straightened back up, staring down at the box.

  “Well?” Shayna asked expectantly.

  “Nothing,” Madison answered.

  “What do you mean ‘nothing?’ There has to be something,” Warren answered.

  “Nope,” Madison responded. “Nothing.”

  “What?” Shayna asked in disbelief. She plunged her hands into the chest and felt around for a moment before standing back up empty handed as well. “I don’t believe it,” she said. “There really is nothing in there.”

  “But why would she go to the trouble of carrying it here and then dropping it off for us if it’s just nothing?” Madison asked. Something about it just didn’t add up. “Dragons aren’t known for being tricksters around here, are they? Creatures who enjoy playing pranks on people and messing with them and the like?”

  “No,” Warren answered with a small laugh. “Are the dragons where you come from pranksters?

  Madison glanced back at him and saw that the younger man was grinning devilishly. “What? No. Wait, what do you know?” he asked suspiciously. “I know that look. You know something. What are you up to?”

  Warren’s grin grew. “It didn’t take very long for you to call me out,” he noted.

  “Warren . . .” Madison said by way of warning.

  “You just don’t know what you’re looking for, that’s all!” he offered as an explanation.