Dragon's Child (The Mindbender's Rise Book 4)

by D J Salisbury

  Rizhanara froze. She plummeted, spinning wildly, but got control and soared.

  Surizhan plunged. He scooped Viper up in one hand and wrapped his fingers tight around him, caging him with his claws.

  Yanked out of his reverie, Viper squeaked and struggled to get free. He wanted to fly!

  They hurtled toward the ground.

  Overhead, Rizhanara screamed and shouted, “Egg traitor! Chewing-dung human!”

  Clutching Viper to his breastbone, Surizhan landed on three feet in the grass.

  The landing jolted Viper’s whole body, rattled his teeth so hard he bit his tongue. He tasted blood before the world turned gray.

  Surizhan dumped him in the thick grass.

  Too dizzy to think, Viper sprawled limp and stared up at the sky.

  The blue dragon snorted with laughter and rolled him toward a grove of trees. Laughing aloud, Surizhan sprang into the air.

  Rizhanara screeched and swooped before he got fully airborne.

  Viper cringed, curled up tight, tried to hide in the greenery.

  Surizhan bugled and flapped awkwardly. “Stop that!” He thudded against the ground, rebounded into the air, and fled back toward Leysamura’s mountain. “Please, Mother!”

  Rizhanara raced after him, snapping at the end of his tail.

  Viper stared after them. Praise the Thunderer his mother wasn’t that crazy. He shook his head and staggered to his feet.

  Blue birds sang overhead. Whitewing butterflies danced around his boots. This had to be the most beautiful place in all of Menajr.

  Horses screamed beyond the trees where Surizhan had pushed him. He trekked toward the sound.

  Aspen leaves chittered overhead. A creek burbled and glittered in the distance. Wonderful sounds. Beautiful sights. Could he take a few minutes to enjoy them?

  A horse squealed again.

  Maybe he should hurry now and enjoy the world later.

  He emerged from the forest in time to see a blue roan streaking down the hill. “Stop, you ninny,” he shouted. “The dragons flew away already!”

  The mare skidded and wheeled toward him. Her ears flicked up.

  Except for humming bees and distant birdsong, the meadow was silent.

  Swords drawn, a pair of humans stalked toward him.

  Viper stared at the female in the lead. It seemed so odd to see someone without wings. Someone only twice his height.

  “Halt!” The human ran several steps forward, and her mouth dropped open.

  “I’m happy to see you, Lorel,” he said huskily.

  And found himself in danger of being skewered by a sword-wielding hug.

  ∞∞∞

  Blood-woven dragons skirmished directly above their camp. The blue one and a green one this time. What happened to the red dragon?

  Lorel lounged next to the fire, cuddling Baby in her lap and glaring at the winged weasels. Just her luck to have a battle overhead when her and Tsai wanted to go hunt through the caves. They were so close to finding the kid!

  Baby Bear murmured sleepily. Better get her tucked away safe before the dragons decided to make trouble. Fighting while holding her baby was a bit difficult.

  “Let’s put you to bed, sweetie.” She hugged Baby and carried her into the wagon.

  Kyri was on the pile of furs on her bunk again, so she eased the puppy into its coils. “Keep her safe, will you, toad?”

  The legless lizard opened one eye. “This one shall attempt to fulfill the anchor’s request. However, this one has doubts it can deflect an attack by a draconian triad.”

  Silly whiny worm. “Just do the best you can.”

  Tsai lifted the door and tossed Izzy inside.

  The rat-dog landed upright and bounced around in circles, stomping as hard as a wool-stuffed former boot could.

  Kyri lifted its head and stared at the leather toy.

  Tsai glanced at the ceiling. “It kept trying to climb up to the roof.”

  That would’ve been a new trick. “Hop up on the bed, Izzy, and help defend Baby.”

  Kyri snorted and closed its eyes.

  Izzy sulked a little more, but jumped onto the bunk and settled down next to the puppy.

  There, the slithering toad could keep them both safe. It better keep them both safe.

  She nudged Tsai out of the doorway and stomped back to the fire.

  The miswoven dragons were still wrangling right overhead. Why couldn’t they take their squabble someplace else? Like clear down to the coast, or even to Sedra-Kei?

  The horses whinnied and spun in circles, like they didn’t know where to run. Fraying silly nags. They’d be safe under the trees.

  She strolled toward them, and they trotted over to meet her. She crooned rude sweet talk and stroked their necks, all while watching the Loom-warping flying pests.

  Tsai edged away from the wagon and snuggled close to Sumach, whispering to her, but her gaze was on the battle overhead, too.

  The skirmishing dragons separated. Both plunged toward the ground, but the green one swooped back upwards.

  The blue dragon landed on the far side of the trees and sprang back into the air, roaring fit to shatter the world. The green one bellowed back.

  The horses screamed and reared.

  Lorel grabbed at their halters, snagged Periwinkle’s, but missed Poppy’s.

  Tsai clutched Sumach’s lead rope and dragged the mare under the trees.

  Poppy raced away from the wagon.

  Lorel yanked Periwinkle’s head toward the trees and swatted his butt. “Stay out of sight, noodle brain.”

  Sing to the Weaver, the gelding chose to obey her. He bolted into the forest.

  Poppy galloped across the meadow.

  A tiny rock troll hobbled out from under some tall bushes.

  Tsai groaned, but freed Sumach and drew her sword.

  Blood dripped from the troll’s mouth, and more blood pooled over one hip from a wide gash around its middle. Tatters of gory gray skin flapped around its scrawny arms. It limped kinda weird, like one leg was shorter than the other. Ropes of granite hair hid its face, but the black pits of its eyes gleamed like a Kerovi hell.

  Lorel sighed. She’d always thought trolls were bigger. Lots bigger. Killing a gimpy, wounded, pintsized monster was just plain embarrassing. The battle could never be worth a song. That thing wasn’t a rock troll, it was a pebble troll. Hardly worth killing.

  Still, she had to get rid of it before scared off the horses. She drew her long sword and stalked toward it.

  Tsai marched right behind her. “What is that thing?”

  “I think it’s a troll. We’ll ask the kid when we get him back.”

  Tsai snorted.

  Poppy shrieked and swerved away from the monster.

  “Abid, zou gouk,” the troll screeched. “Ze dragounen flugen forz her-biforne!”

  Digging her hooves into the grass, the mare dropped to her haunches and wheeled toward the troll. Slowly her ears came up.

  The meadow went silent.

  Weaver snip that horse! Lorel marched between the mare and the troll. “Halt!”

  Tsai stalked up and stood beside her.

  The fraying troll kept on limping toward her. Didn’t it notice she was seven times as big as it was?

  She jogged a couple of steps forward and raised her sword.

  Something about the pebble troll looked familiar. Those odd black eyes, maybe, or the way its left leg seemed too short.

  Her mouth dropped open. That wasn’t– it couldn’t be–

  “Sely icham eow behawian, Lorel,” the troll croaked.

  Tsai gasped.

  Lorel gaped at the filthy little creature. Blood trickled down his chin, more blood coated his sleeves, but the ‘wound’ around his middle was a shiny red belt.

  He was alive. The toad was right all along.

  He’s alive.

  She stumbled forward, knelt, and wrapped her arms around his skinny shoulders.

  The kid hugged her and patted
her back. “Nay whan scaeth zy sord?”

  She leaned back on her heels and stared at him. “What’d you say?”

  He tilted his head, blinking like the light hurt his eyes. Finally he grinned at her. His teeth were the cleanest thing about him, though his breath smelled like rotted crap. “You… sheath… zy sword? You might… me impale.”

  Lorel hesitated. What was with the weird accent? When she finally figured out what he meant, she yelped and slapped at his shoulder, taking care to miss him. “I won’t never!”

  The kid laughed, an odd sort of sound, halfway to a roar.

  She let him out of her sight long enough to take a whizz, and he comes back talking weird and acting weirder. It might take lunars to straighten him out. Shaking her head, Lorel stood and led him to the wagon.

  Tsai shadowed them like a proper bodyguard.

  Poppy trailed after them, and Periwinkle pranced out of the forest.

  Lorel snorted. “You’d think they weren’t one bit scared.” She helped him sit next to the fire pit. “Listen, you’re one big mess. Or one skinny little mess.” She’d never seen nobody so scrawny, not even in the worst of Zedista’s back alleys. If he got any skinnier, he’d float away like a dandelion seed.

  Tsai crouched next to them. “What can I get you?”

  “Food, first.” The kid rubbed his belly where it was all sunk in, just above his lumpy red purse. What did he put inside that thing?

  Tsai grabbed the shovel and raked a bunch of tubers out of the fire.

  He sorta bowed at her. “And a bath later, if you can stand the smell of me that long. Thunderer, I want a bath.”

  Sing to the Weaver, she was finally starting to understand his creepy accent.

  “I think I can stand it.” She held her nose and grinned to show she was teasing. “But I’m gonna heat water for the tub. It’s too cold to wash in the creek, but your rags can soak there.”

  “Bury them. I’ll owe you my life if you make that tub ready.” He made a giddy sound, halfway between a groan and a laugh. “Tell me what happened to you.” He grabbed a hot tuber from the edge of the fire and peeled off the mud with shaking fingers.

  Kyri slithered out of the wagon and coiled around the kid, hugging him, wordless for a change.

  He hardly seemed to notice the legless lizard.

  “I saw that thread-snipping dragon circling us.” Lorel put the kettle on the fire and sat down to watch him gnaw at the tubers. He carried on like them weeds were the best food he’d ever tasted. “When it dove, the horses panicked, and it took all I had to rein them in.”

  Kyri edged a coil under the kid’s legs and eased him off the grass.

  He nodded. “I knew you’d have your hands full.”

  “By the time I looked up, the Loom-warping dragon was almost out of sight, but it looked like it was carrying something. I went back looking for you, but…”

  “I wasn’t there.” He bit into another tuber before he’d gotten all the mud peeled off. Bony wrists showed through the rags of his jacket. One naked, stick-like, blue arm was covered with goosebumps, but he wasn’t shivering.

  “The toad talked like the dragon had filched you.” Lorel glanced at the coils wrapped under and around him like a living chair. “That’s a stubborn snake, it is. I thought you was dead, chewed up, like the dragon ate that guy in Sedra-Kei. Old toad kept saying you were fine, that we had to go after you.”

  “Initially this one could perceive the hatchling’s awareness.” Kyri eased another coil between Viper and the ground. “The hatchling was distant, but hale.”

  “It said it knew where you were.” Tsai took the kettle off the fire, poured hot water into a mug, and added dry leaves of what Lorel hoped was tea. “Wasn’t so hard to get here, really, but it took forever.”

  “I’m glad you came.” He glanced up at the mountain. “I didn’t think you could get this far. The trip required enormous courage.”

  Lorel grinned. Nice that he really understood what it took to get to him. “Promise me something, kid.” She forced a frown onto her face.

  “If I can.” He took a swallow of hot tea.

  “Never, never leave us alone with that talking toad again!”

  The kid spewed water out of his nose, leaned back against Kyri’s coils, and laughed so hard the toad’s whole body shook.

  ∞∞∞

  Viper wiped mirthful tears from his face and reached for another tuber.

  Coils shifted to support him.

  He yanked his hand back.

  That the Kyridon felt a need to show such devotion unnerved him a little. Admittedly, Lorel probably got on the serpent’s nerves more than the other way around, but it had never been demonstrative before.

  Come to think of it, it had. Way back when they first met, he seemed to remember the Kyridon curled around him, warming him the way it comforted him now.

  Had he run it off by trying to take charge of everything? By trying to be grown up?

  Somebody had to be the adult in their crew. Lorel was older, but she acted younger. Tsai’dona was too timid, too docile. And the Kyridon simply didn’t understand what it took to make a campsite function.

  They’d managed without him, though. And they’d managed to take care of themselves for hundreds of miles. He might be out of a job.

  It might be nice for someone else to be in charge for a while.

  He stretched to the edge of the cook fire, scraped out another tuber, and broke it in half. Eaten without salt or oil, the baked root was still food fit for the Thunderer. Even the mud encrusting it tasted good. Careful not to burn the roof of his mouth again, he nibbled on the soft, sweet pulp.

  His wagon appeared to be in good shape, for all it was covered in spiny blue starfish. One wheel spoke had been inexpertly repaired, but that was to be expected, given the terrain.

  But that sandblasted Lorel had plastered serdil and coney hides all over his wagon again. And this time they probably were decaying. It was much too warm for her wind-scouring leather cure to work.

  It was blissfully warm. For the first time since his kidnapping, he didn’t feel frozen to his core. Maybe he’d even take his coat off.

  No, he wasn’t that warm. He’d wait until he had a tub full of hot water to peel off his rotted clothing. Even if he did reek worse than Lorel’s stinky serdil hides.

  Green light whooshed overhead.

  Both Lorel and Tsai’dona leapt to their feet and drew their swords.

  Viper sighed. “Don’t hurt her. She’s a friend’s grandmother.” Well, a friend’s daughter’s grandmother, but that was too complicated to explain.

  Lorel’s jaw dropped.

  Tsai’dona’s face paled.

  Rizhanara plunged toward them.

  “Don’t hurt it? You falling off the Loom?” Lorel grabbed Tsai’dona’s upper arm and dragged her toward him, out of dragon-landing range.

  She might be right. Maybe he had gone crazy. “Just hurt her enough to drive her off. Don’t kill her.” He didn’t want to think about what Surizhan would do if they killed his mother.

  Rizhanara landed only ten feet from the campfire. The ground shook with the impact of her weight. Wood clattered into the fire pit.

  Praise the Thunderer, she hadn’t grabbed anyone and flown off. He’d have a terrible time rescuing them. Making Rizhanara release her prey was only the first step. Now that he was safely on the ground, he wasn’t quite sure how his flying chant had worked.

  Dashing in together like trained guards, Lorel and Tsai’dona attacked the dragon’s weak spots. A few quick stabs and they darted out of claw and fang range.

  Blood dribbled from Rizhanara’s ribs and flanks.

  Amazing. As tough as dragon hide was, he hadn’t expected to see any damage. The enchanted scimitar and Lorel’s bahtdor-bone swords held more magic than he’d dreamed.

  Tsai’dona grimaced and backed away from the fight.

  Blast, he hadn’t even noticed her free arm was splinted and wrapped. Lightnin
g strike him, she’d been fighting with her off hand. Sorcerers were supposed to be more observant.

  Rizhanara bated her wings and charged toward the injured girl.

  Tsai’dona stood her ground and raised her weapon.

  “Bitter blood!” Lorel sprinted in and stabbed the green dragon’s flank with both swords. “Don’t set the miswoven thing on fire!”

  Rizhanara hissed and spun to face Lorel.

  This nonsense had gone on far too long. He hoped Leysamura would forgive him for using his magic against a dragon.

  “To me! Both of you, to me!” Viper pointed and willed mage-fire to flow from his fingers.

  Light streaked from his hand to the tip of the green dragon’s tail.

  Rizhanara squawked, jumped high, and flapped upward. “Flaming, dung-eating human!”

  Lorel sprinted around the dragon’s downdraft and rushed to his side. “That was weird.”

  Frowning, Tsai’dona staggered to join them. “That almost sounded like words.”

  “It sounded like the noises the kid was making a while ago.” Lorel turned and glared at him. “What you mean, we can’t hurt it? It wants to eat us!”

  They were arguing with him already? He hadn’t been back an hour. He hadn’t even had a bath yet.

  What would they be like once they started traveling? He had a feeling it would be a long, uncomfortable journey to Noran.

  Green wings swept overhead. Rizhanara roared incoherently.

  A very long, interesting journey. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on a pen and a notebook. Oh, the stories he had to tell.

  No one would believe him. They never did, especially when he told the truth. Not a problem. He’d just label that volume as fiction. Wouldn’t that torque Rizhanara’s pride.

  Viper waved at the dragon and laughed.

  About the Author

  I’m a misplaced Californian who now lives in Texas, but I’d love to become an interstellar traveler.

  The finished novels in The Mindbender’s Rise series are

  Illusion’s Child

  Sorcery’s Child

  Serpent’s Child

  Dragon’s Child

  Necromancer’s Anchor is a stand-alone novel based in the same world.