A great whooshing sound and a sudden swelling of Cobalt's scaly belly pushed against Braxton's back. The dragon, struggling to suck in air, startled Braxton from his slumber. He'd thought Cobalt dead. Chureal, was in his arms laying still, but breathing. He’d fallen asleep, suddenly exhausted after the red flash of the void had left him standing there next to Chureal and the wyrm.
He remembered that his blood had been sizzling with magical energy. He also remembered falling to his knees, grabbing her up, and falling back against the dragon's side. The feeling of power inside him had swelled to unfathomable, almost painful proportions before letting him fall away into an exhausted nothingness. A long rumbling groan came from the dragon as he tried to lift his head and fold his awkwardly bent wings. Braxton had to scramble away while holding Chureal so that Cobalt didn't accidentally roll over and crush them or step on them as he righted himself.
"Chureal," Cobalt hissed weakly. "Chureal?"
"She is here," Braxton replied. Cobalt's head whipped around toward him, putting his teeth only a hand's breadth away from Braxton's face. The pain of the sudden movement showed in the dragon's eyes, and Braxton was glad the wyrm recognized him, for Cobalt's fangs had grown into daggers and would have shredded any foe who might have held Chureal.
"She will live," Braxton said, hoping that the fear Cobalt had just sent through him didn't show too much.
Cobalt hopped clumsily away, the spear dangling from his flesh bobbed and wiggled, and a fresh flow of blood poured from the wound. The dragon seemed more concerned with his still skewed wing. With a sudden thrust of his neck, he spread his wings wide, and Braxton heard a loud popping sound like breaking branches. Then Cobalt's pain-filled roar filled the air.
Chureal only stirred at the sound, and Braxton was thankful. She was hurt, but Braxton didn't know how badly. He gently laid her on the ground and made his way over to the dragon who was puffing and slobbering and leaning against a tree.
"I need to pull the spear out of you," Braxton said cautiously. Cobalt's wings looked to be folded normally now, but his glazed expression spoke of the cost in pain he'd paid to put the joints back into place.
"Yesss," the dragon hissed. "Do it quickly."
Braxton took the shaft of the spear in his hands, and without warning, yanked it out of Cobalt's side, causing another wash of bright crimson to gloss over the darker blood that had already congealed on the dragon's scales.
Cobalt heaved in a great breath, and then he let out a low rumbling moan and lay silent. For a moment, Braxton thought it might have killed the wyrm, but then Cobalt started taking slow breaths through clenched teeth. Braxton went back to Chureal's side and found that she was still sleeping soundly, or maybe unconscious, Braxton wasn't sure.
"Princess," Cobalt hissed so quietly that Braxton barely heard him.
"What is it?" Braxton asked fighting his own exhaustion while he picked up Chureal and carried her closer to Cobalt's head.
"The princess was taken," Cobalt whispered.
Braxton sat Chureal down in Cobalt's curled tail where she liked to sleep when they were traveling. He then began to look at the scene around them. The dead were all darkons, save for one, who Braxton figured to be Hern Holmberg. Most of the wagon had burned, but there was a giant coil of rope partially exposed, and part of a wheeled crank where it was spooled. Braxton knew instantly how they had stolen the girls out of the keep without passing any of the gates. Straight up the cliff, he thought, and his notion was confirmed when he dug out a leather body harness fitted for a person to be lifted or lowered in. He also found a pack full of bread and cheese and a skin full of some black gooey liquid that made his mouth burn and caused him to vomit up the griddle cakes he'd eaten earlier.
He was too exhausted to do much, but he really wanted to let Cryelos and Sir Jory know what he'd found out. On second thought, he decided that without word of the princess, it would only make matters worse, at least for Sir Jory.
He made his way around the wagon, wishing there was more sunlight to see by. Clouds from the previous night’s storm were keeping direct sunlight from reaching the area, save for a few places. He looked over the half-dozen scorched and broken darkons, back toward Chureal and Cobalt. He noticed that the wagon hitch was set up for four horses and that only one animal lay among the dead. Then the clouds parted, and one of the darkons, one that apparently wasn’t as dead as he thought, started to moan pitifully.
The sunlight was fleeting, but when it touched the thing’s skin, it changed into an ordinary human man and let out a long slow breath. Braxton thought this might be why they were called darkons. The ones that died in their shifted form hadn’t been affected by the brief sunlight at all. Thinking back, the darkons he’d seen near the farm where Chureal found Skyla-Veltin’s medallion, had been long dead, but a few of the dead there had human features. This meant anyone in Grey Rock Stronghold could be a darkon in human form.
"How many took the princess Cobalt? Which way did they go?"
Cobalt's voice was clear but faint, and Braxton had to put his head against the dragon's jaw to hear him. Cobalt said that after he swooped on the group and blasted them with his breath, they scattered. Both Chureal and the princess were in the back of the wagon held by two darkons with crossbows. Cobalt said he snatched Chureal up with his claw. He said he would have gotten the princess, too, but for the spear that he took. He even tried again and wished he'd have sat Chureal down before he did, because on his second pass a female, darka stood and clapped her hands together, and what the dragon called a magic boom stunned him unconscious. After that, he could do nothing but crash into the trees with Chureal in his grasp.
He saw them take the princess, throw her over one of the horses. Two darkon riders, and three or four on foot, followed as they went farther from the cliff. That's all he knew, other than the female darkon had been one of the ones riding, and the other, the one who had speared him, was the same bald-headed man they'd fought in the camp when they'd freed Sir Jory.
Braxton was so sleepy he could barely stay awake, but instead of letting himself fall away, he sought out the void again, and soon he was circling over himself and the smoldering battle site. He flew west in search of any sign of the princess and any darkons, but all he found was a couple of wagon trains on a winding brown road, one headed towards a citadel near the Mountain Pass Road, the other in the opposite direction toward a city Braxton thought might be called Hillside that he remembered from Prince Trovin's crude map-pointing geography lesson.
The Mountain Pass Road was too far away for the darkons to have made yet, so Braxton flew back and forth across the rocky mountain tops and lush forest covered valleys until he felt his concentration being pulled away.
Dusk was swiftly approaching, and most of the area below was hidden in shadow anyway. He saw several choice hiding places, caves, thickly canopied bits of forest, but no sign of the princess. No sign of any of the darkons either.
When Braxton opened his eyes, he was back beside the dragon, and Chureal was in his lap, with her arms around his neck. She sobbed softly and squeezed him tight. Cobalt's thick scaly tail was wrapped loosely, but protectively around both of them.
Cryelos was beyond himself with worry for his friends. They'd searched the entire keep half a dozen times. Every nook and cranny of every single room from the top of the towers down into the wine cellars, cold holes, and even the cells in the dungeon.
Giant rooms and passages had been carved into the cliff to house women and children if the place was under attack, and also to store grain and casks of water in case of a siege. All of those areas had been searched several times, as well.
Sir Jory was worse than Cryelos though, for he felt that all of it was his fault. He was as hard on himself as he would have been on anyone else. Finally, Lord Amicuss commanded Sir Jory to his chambers to rest, but Cryelos didn't think the knight would sleep. Neither would he, for that matter. The idea that without Braxton or Chureal he was just an elf stranded i
n a foreign land where elves were only legends wasn't lost to him, but he was more worried for the little girl than he was for himself. For some reason, he was sure Braxton was taking care of himself no matter where he'd gone, and Cobalt, well, a dragon was not for an elf to worry about.
Search parties were organized in the morning, but neither Sir Jory or Cryelos were allowed to go with them. Lord Amicuss had to set his guardsmen on Sir Jory to make him stay, but everyone gave a sigh of relief when the knight finally relented, especially Lord Amicuss's personal guards, who wanted no part of the distraught guardian of the prince and princess.
One party was to go north along the cliff wall, the other south, and riders in groups of three were sent out in all directions into the Green Sea. By mid-morning, they were all gone, leaving Cryelos, Sir Jory, and Lord Amicuss all to wait.
For Cryelos, the disappearance of Braxton was the bigger mystery. Had Braxton found something? And if he did, what was it?
They all sat around a large stone table in the bailey yard awaiting reports, eating bread and leftover meat from the recent feast. Sir Jory was silent, angry, and full of foolish shame. Lord Amicuss, on the other hand, was just plain angry. He had no choice but to send birds to Ormandin to let his brother, King Stronick, know of the death of his son and the taking of the princess. Cryelos couldn't imagine have to pen such a message. Having to tell your brother that his son had been murdered in his bed and his daughter taken prisoner by the killers all while they were under your protection and surrounded by knights, guardsmen, and thirty-foot walls, seemed a terrible thing.
Cryelos was lost in thoughts about the two human men and how much their immediate emotions ruled them, where he let the emotion slide by and tried to reason out a solution. In this instance, though, there were no solutions to be had. Still, anger, guilt, and rage only clouded one's judgment.
His thoughts were interrupted when a large white bird came thumping down into the middle of the table. Lord Amicuss made to swipe at it but Sir Jory stopped him and Cryelos shushed them both. It was Braxton's white falcon, and Cryelos knew it.
The bird hopped toward Cryelos, twisted its head to the side twice, then leapt into flight. Cryelos ran after it while, behind him, Sir Jory quickly explained that this was some sort of Lord Braxton's magic at work. Then he tried to follow.
The falcon led them to the man-high wall and perched at the top of it waiting. Sir Jory and Lord Amicuss were coming up behind Cryelos, who turned toward them.
"What's beyond this wall?" he asked.
"The Wood Haven where the princess and Lady Chureal were riding," Sir Jory answered. “The gate is nearer to the stables.”
Gracefully, Cryelos leapt up and caught his hand on the top and pulled himself up. When he looked back, Sir Jory and the large lord were racing, one swiftly after the other, toward a building he figured was the stable. Cryelos dropped on the other side, and the falcon glided down in the open space between the walls and the trees, where it landed on a lower branch until Sir Jory could catch up with Cryelos. Neither waited for Lord Amicuss when the bird led them through the woods to a notch in the cliff where a leather harness dangled just above the grass from a long rope that came all the way down from the top edge.
"Well, we know how they got in and out without using the gates," said Cryelos. Sir Jory looked down at the bird, who stood in the grass.
"I might be crazy to talk to a bird," he said. Lord Amicuss came bursting through the trees and saw the knight on his knee before the falcon. His look conveyed that he though Sir Jory was crazy, too.
"I must find the princess. Can you pull me up?" the knight said.
The falcon screeched and bobbed its head up and down. It waited while Sir Jory put the leather harness on, and then flew to Cryelos' shoulder, pecked him on the head, and motioned him toward the harness several times before flying away to circle his way up to the top.
A few moments later, Sir Jory gave a yelp as he was yanked roughly up into the air. Slowly, he rose and rose until he was gone. Half a turn of the glass later, the harness came back down far more swiftly than it had gone up. Scratching the knots on his head, the falcon had left, Cryelos strapped himself in, and as he started to rise, he spoke to Lord Amicuss. "I will send a note back down.”
The Lord of Grey Rock’s only reply was, "Please do."
Chapter Ten
Sir Jory was disappointed when he reached the top of the cliff. The whole ride up he'd hoped to find the princess waiting. Instead, he found an impatient dragon with an injured wing, an overly talkative little girl, and Lord Braxton, who couldn't tell him much more than he already knew.
He was, however, thankful for Braxton's persistence and his discovery of how Grey Rock's security had been breached. Knowing how the princess had been taken and how the assassins had gotten to the prince didn't make any of it any easier, but at least they had a place to start looking now.
Cobalt stayed and guarded Chureal near the cliff while Sir Jory, Braxton, and Cryelos followed the trail of the wagon. Cobalt planned on gliding back down into the keep as soon as he was able. He was feeling much better, especially after Chureal used her healing touch on him, but the joints in the wing that had been bent askew were no less tender, even though most of the damage was healed. He had pulled Sir Jory and Cryelos up by simply walking away from the cliff with the rope tied around a hind claw.
Chureal was feeling much better, too, and she was happy that Cryelos had thought to bring her up a bag full of food, which included sweet cakes. Cryelos, however, was a bit miffed, for the sweet cakes hadn't been for Chureal, they'd been for him. He'd been so glad to see her, though, that he couldn't refuse her, and she made off with the whole bag, leaving him only the day old beef and hard bread, and a few pieces of roasted boar. He shared what he had with Braxton. Luckily, Sir Jory had no appetite or Cryelos wouldn't have even gotten a full belly out of the deal. By early evening, he was already hungry again.
They were on the trail of the darkons, though they were more than a day behind now, and some of them were on horseback. Cryelos scanned the bases of the trees for mushrooms, or edible roots, and was fairly happy to be back in a forest after having been on the treeless Green Sea for so long. Not even the tree-filled riding area in Grey Rock could compare to a true wilderness like they were in now. He kept his bow strung and handy just in case their movement flushed a deer or a rabbit. He vowed to put one on the spit if Arbor gave him the chance. It was as he moved off to investigate a certain mushroom when he saw something alarming.
There was a footprint as big as his chest, and it was fairly fresh. Two paces away, he found another that was the opposite foot of the first. He called ahead to Sir Jory and Braxton, who returned immediately.
"Ogre," Sir Jory said worriedly, looking around.
After a search of the area, two more sets of ogre prints were found. His concern for the princess quickly turned into concern for he, Braxton, and Cryelos. Already, it was too close to sunset to make it back to the cliff, and the valley was falling further into shadow with each passing moment. At the knight's suggestion, they moved into the thicker woods, where a big creature wouldn't be able to get at them as easy, and made a camp.
"I don't think we're going to catch up to them," Sir Jory said to Braxton. He sat on a piece of wood with his back against a tree, while Braxton sat cross-legged a few feet away. Cryelos was within earshot searching for anything he could kill to eat.
"I figured as much," Braxton said.
Braxton could've told Sir Jory they wouldn't catch up back at the cliff, but he hadn't had the heart, and he held out hope that they might find at least a sign of them. It was becoming apparent that Sir Jory had feelings for the princess, Braxton figured that was why he felt so guilty over her getting run through. Even though Chureal had saved her, he had let her get stabbed by one of Prince Venom's men, and he couldn't forgive himself. She is a very beautiful girl, Braxton thought. Who could blame him?
"She mentioned they would probably ransom
her to her father," said Braxton.
"Aye, for that stupid orb."
"What orb?" Braxton asked.
"It's one of the wizard's prizes, and it has caused more trouble than it's worth."
"What's so special about it?"
"I'm sure you would know more about it than I," said the knight as he got to his feet. He started pacing as he talked, a short three step circuit. Step, step, step, turn, step, step, step, turn, step, step, step, turn. "They say that these changed ones, the darkons, have plagued the three kingdoms as of late. They have a master who was defeated a long time ago. They say his body lies atop Mount Preal, but his soul is trapped inside the orb. If the two ever get put back together then—"
"Drar," Braxton said, causing Jory to stop his pacing and stare at him. Braxton had read about Drar when he was in Lord Amicuss's library.
"Yes, this thing called Drar would be reborn and lead his changed ones to take over the world, or some such. What do you know of it?"
"I read that the Drar had many servants to his evil. Ogre, darkons, and darka, the fearless females who can use certain magics like the kind that brought down Cobalt and another dragon I know. That dragon's rider wasn't as lucky as Chureal. She died in the crash. The males are called darkons and are many times faster and stronger than the men they once were. Only I think they can’t be darkons in the sunlight, thus the name."
The sound of sticks breaking under the weight of a step caused both of them to turn toward the sound in alarm, but it was only Cryelos stepping back into the camp. His yellow eyes glowed with pride and he held up a pair of fat rabbits and grinned.
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