by Matthew Lang
“The lizards aren’t tired, and we aren’t tired. Besides, the distance we traveled can hardly be called a full sleep’s march!”
“I know that, Magister,” Duin said evenly. “But in a short while, you will not be wanting to march anywhere. Humor me this once, and if you want to ride on in the future, I will defer to your judgment.”
Grumbling, the necromancer gave in, helping to haul lengths of bamboo up a tree, where they were lashed together with jungle vines and erected into a roof of stretched oilskin covered with large banana plant-like leaves for extra protection. Aside from the cutting of the bamboo, it took the five of them remarkably little time to create a shelter large enough to provide cover for them and their mounts. Duin was also adamant that any fire for cooking needed to be done quickly, and was to be started well before the shelter was complete. “I do not see what the rush is,” Xavier muttered as they roasted the catch of the day—a couple of large snakes—over the glowing coals.
Duin looked at what little sky could be seen from the forest floor. “You will.”
“Is it just me, or is it getting dark?” Adam asked. “I didn’t think it got dark here.”
“The sun remains still,” Duin replied. “But that does not stop clouds from blocking out the light. Is that snake cooked?”
“Yes,” Darius said. “But we still need water.”
“Stamp out the fire and get inside,” Duin said. “We can get that later.”
“The stream isn’t far, Duin,” Adam said. “We could nip over and be back in a matter of minutes.”
“We could,” Duin agreed. “But we will not have to. Trust me.”
Shrugging, Adam mounted Zoul, Duin leapt on behind him, and the great lizard scuttled up the tree just as the first drops of rain trickled through the canopy.
At first the rain just bounced off the leaves and trickled down stems and branches, but then the drops became splatters, and then splatters became a heavy deluge as the foliage above proved insufficient to prevent the torrential downpour that hit the forest. Gripping one of the buckets they had taken from the waystation, Duin reached outside their little shelter and in mere moments pulled it back in, full to the brim, although inside, they had barely enough light to see anything.
“If you would be so kind to provide us with some light, Magister?” Duin asked politely.
Wordlessly, Xavier brought out the covered stone bowl and sprinkled a bit of powder into it, along with a small amount of rainwater, and the greenish glow brightened noticeably.
“What exactly is that stuff?” Adam asked, leaning in for a closer look.
“Careful,” Xavier said, holding Adam back. “You’ll block the light.”
“Sorry.”
“No harm done,” Xavier said. “In answer to your question, this is a water slime that grows naturally in the Caverns of Aergon that we have used to light our homes for generations. All it requires is water and some fertilizer and it glows for us.”
“What’s that powder that you throw on it?”
“Bone ash,” Xavier replied. “It has proved to be the most effective fertilizer of all those we have tried.”
Adam stared at a smear of white powder on the rim of the bowl. “Suddenly I wish I hadn’t asked the question.”
Xavier laughed. “Come, let us eat, and then we might as well use the rain to get clean. I do not know about you, but I am tired of swimming in my own sweat.”
Esmeralda wrinkled her nose. “I, for one, am certainly tired of the smell.”
Adam grunted and started unbuckling his armor. “This stuff really doesn’t help with that.”
“It does keep the bugs off, though,” Darius said, starting to remove his own armor.
After a moment, Duin came over to help Adam. “Thanks,” Adam said as Duin’s nimble fingers made short work of the buckles keeping the breastplate tight around his chest. “I’m really not used to this sort of thing.”
“When we get a moment, you and I should train,” Darius said. “From what I saw earlier, you are good with your weapons, but I believe we could hone your skills further.”
“Sure,” Adam said, wincing as Duin helped lift the breastplate and backplate over his head and deposited it in the corner of their little shelter. “Just as long as we don’t run out of that pain-relief oil of Xavier’s.”
Xavier laughed. “I will make some more next time the good captain brings us back some spider for food.”
“If we need to, we can set up earlier next time,” Duin suggested. “It will give us time to hunt and recuperate.”
Esmeralda pursed her lips. “How long does the rain last?”
“Long enough to catch a bit of sleep,” Duin said with a shrug. “I am sorry, Highness, but I have never been able to keep an accurate measure of time here.”
“Then let us rest now,” Esmeralda suggested. “Given we spent this long on a shelter, we may as well use it. And we can see how long the rain lasts—assuming the time of rain doesn’t vary?”
“It shouldn’t,” Adam said. “If this is anything like the rainforests back home, the heat of the sun is evaporating water from the forest, which forms lots of clouds and fog. When there’s too much moisture in the air, it falls as rain. Given how long we rode today, I figure we probably have ten or twelve hours between each downpour.”
“And if we had a portable candle clock with us, that information would be very helpful,” Xavier said. “With no way of accurately measuring time, how can we possibly know when rain is imminent?”
“Duin knew,” Darius said softly, peeling a section of snake off the bone with his knife. “He should be able to give us fair warning.”
“Sleep,” Esmeralda said firmly. “We may not have done a full march, but in these conditions, I think we could all use the rest.”
The companions finished their simple meal of snake and rainforest fruits and tossed the remains down to the rainforest floor beneath them, hoping no predators would be attracted by the bones—or if they were, that said predators wouldn’t think of looking up a tree to find them. They took turns “showering” in the rain on the small ledge that they’d built outside their shelter, and Adam was surprised at the casual attitude to nudity that the Aergonites shared. Perhaps it was the bathing culture that they appeared to have, or perhaps they had never developed the puritanical morals that still pervaded life back home. Still, he couldn’t help but be a little shocked when Esmeralda stepped back into the shelter, stark naked, reaching for a towel to dry herself off with. Hastily, he averted his eyes, only to find Duin staring at him, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Everything okay?” Adam asked.
“Yes,” Duin said. “Fine.”
Although Duin was still happy to apply the medical oil to Adam’s sore muscles that rest, it felt completely different with the others in the same small room, and Duin’s strokes were cursory and businesslike, leaving Adam with the vague feeling he’d done something wrong. Still, there was little he could say with everyone in such tight confines, and he resolved to bring it up at a later time if the opportunity arose.
Chapter 7
THE RAIN let up after a few hours, but as Esmeralda predicted, the companions chose to rest a bit longer before moving on.
“It’s such a waste,” Darius said as they loaded the lizards again and resumed their trek.
“What is?” Adam asked.
“Creating that structure only to leave it.”
“I don’t think we can carry the bamboo with us. Do you?” Adam asked.
“Oh no,” Darius said. “I agree we have to leave it. I just wish we did not.”
“You need a mobile hut on wheels that the lizards can tow.”
Darius was quiet for a while, and Adam could almost see him turning the idea over and over in his brain. Finally he shook his head. “No,” he said sadly. “It would work until we needed to run up a tree or cliff.”
Adam smiled. “As you say.”
After their third rest, they encoun
tered the river again, here a wide brown expanse that cut through the forest, winding its way to an estuary somewhere downstream. At the bank of the shore was a large, strangely shaped rock pillar, overgrown with vines and mosses, ferns and small trees growing out of cracks and crevices farther up the rock face.
“And we have to get across that?” Xavier asked as they sat looking out over the expanse of murky brown water.
“Yes,” Duin said. “The most direct route would be to cross it here and again when it loops back, but I normally only have to build a raft for one—an unmounted one.”
“Well, it’s too far to swim,” Adam said flatly.
“You don’t want to swim,” Darius said. “There could be cokudrillos in there.”
“Cokudrillos?”
“A water-dwelling lizard twice as long as Zoul and with jaws big enough to rip your head off,” Darius said, his face grim. “They lurk under the surface with just their eyes and nostrils poking above, looking just like water-soaked logs.”
“Right,” Adam said once it was clear there was no punch line coming. “So how long would a detour around the river take?”
“Another seven or eight sleeps or so, I think,” Duin said.
“We can afford an extra week, right?” Xavier said, eyeing the water nervously.
“Or we could just build a really large raft and go with the river current,” Adam suggested. “I don’t know about you, but I’d be quite happy to not ride for a while.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Duin just said that we’d have to cross the river twice. Why don’t we just build a large raft and float it downriver until we reach the second crossing point? I don’t know if it’ll save us as much time as going cross-country would, but it’ll save a lot of effort.”
“We’d have to gather more food,” Darius said speculatively.
“And we wouldn’t have fire,” Xavier pointed out.
“We can if we bring a flat stone to keep it on, and wet the bamboo around it to stop any burning,” Darius said. “And we can do without if we must—silver scarabs can be eaten raw when fresh caught.”
“Silver scarabs?” Adam asked.
“A swimming scarab,” Darius replied, although the description did little to help Adam. “Good eating, and they’re found here as well as in Aergon.”
Despite Xavier’s continued misgivings, they set about building their raft, using several layers of long bamboo to create enough deck space and buoyancy to keep them out of the water once fully loaded with people and lizards. They also managed to construct a small lean-to at the back, which could be used for sleeping, and a larger shelter for the lizards and their provisions.
Adam was cutting creepers for cord when he found something. “Hey, what’s this?” he asked, pulling vegetation away from the rocky surface.
“A boulder, surely,” Esmeralda said irritably from where she was weaving tough coconut husk fiber into netting for carrying extra provisions.
“Maybe at one point, but seriously, look,” Adam said, stepping back to reveal a large stone face, pitted with age and covered in a beard of moss.
Esmeralda gasped and ran over so quickly, she nearly tripped. “I don’t believe it! That must be the statue of King Teodoros the Wise! It was said to be twenty feet tall and carved in granite from the quarries of Atacosca!”
Adam stared up at the vine-covered effigy in front of them. “Well, it probably was twenty feet when the head was on it,” he said.
“King Teodoros on his throne,” Esmeralda said, her voice soft with awe. “Magister Xavier, is this not one of the landmarks mentioned in the Book of Solmento?”
Xavier paused. “Why… yes, Your Highness. I do believe it is.”
“Then we are on the right track,” Esmeralda said, her eyes sparkling. “Come, we should hurry.”
Adam took one last look at the statue before him, fancying he could see the detail now he knew what he was looking for—an ancient king on his throne, proudly welcoming those crossing into this domain. A rocky protrusion became a hand, and a swell in the ground became a foot—more so when he scraped away the layers of moss and humus. How much power the man must have had to have this statue erected with no other purpose than to stoke his own ego. How many men it must have taken to carve this tribute to a king’s vanity. And now both the king and sculptors were gone, leaving only this headless statue to be reclaimed by nature as a base for her plants or a nest for her birds—or not-birds, as was the case in this strange land. Sighing, Adam gathered his vines and turned back to the raft construction.
The progress of their build was interrupted by the rain, and the companions spent a few cold hours huddling under their lean-to while they waited for it to abate. Then, loaded with coconuts from nearby palm trees and their dwindling supplies of dried fruit, they launched their raft into the rippling waters of the river, poling it out into the current and allowing the water to carry them where it would.
The middle of the river flowed deceptively quickly, and soon the five companions found themselves moving at a fair pace, watching the vegetation-choked riverbanks pass by on both sides. Looking at them now, Adam found it hard to believe that the inside was as open and spacious as it was. From the raft it looked as though the trees came all the way down to the banks, merging into a mass of rushes and grasses that yearned toward the water and the red of the sun. Insects flitted here and there across the water, seeking out food of rotting meat or fresh blood, or even other insects, as Adam found when a dragonfly as long as his forearm swooped down to carry off a waterbug. Every so often, Darius cast one of the pieces of luggage netting into the water behind them, then, after a while, pulled in a number of silver scarabs, which turned out to be a long, smoothly helmeted crustacean with crablike swimmerets. They tasted much sweeter than Adam would have expected, and when he threw the remains of one such meal overboard, there was a rush of water as a reptilian head rose to snap up the carcass in powerful jaws.
“Cokudrillos,” Duin said as their raft bobbed in the ripples caused by the creature’s sudden appearance. As the giant swam off, Adam caught a glimpse of a flipper and a long rudder-like tail.
“Maybe we should have taken the long way around,” Adam muttered. “I don’t like the idea of what would happen if one decided to try to overturn our raft.”
“It’s never happened to me before,” Duin said.
“Obviously not, you’re still here,” Adam said, grinning to take the sting out of his words. “But have you ever spent this long floating down the river before?”
“Now that you mention it, no,” Duin said. “Still, hope for the best, prepare for the worst, right?”
“How do we prepare for the worst in this case?” Adam asked.
Duin reached out and picked up one of the long bamboo lengths they were using for poling. “We might want to consider getting into shallower water, for a start,” he suggested.
DESPITE ADAM’S constant fretting, the river ride passed uneventfully, and a few sleeps later they disembarked after selecting a landing spot and prodding the shallows carefully to ensure no cokudrillos lurked nearby. The lizards scrambled happily onto the land—all four of them had been ill at ease on the raft, although they had been content with the diet of scarabs that had been offered to them. However, just as they were getting ready to set off again, a loud roar shook the jungle, and a dark shadow appeared over the river.
“Quickly! Into the jungle!” Darius hissed, leading the way farther into the foliage. “We don’t want her to see us.”
“Who’s she?” Adam asked as he followed the captain away from the riverbank.
“Khalivibra herself,” Darius said, his voice low and awed. “I didn’t think she flew out this far.”
“How would you know how far she flies?” Xavier hissed. “You know she raids as far south as the Caverns of Aergon.”
“True,” Darius muttered. “I was just hoping we wouldn’t see her.”
“Or rather that she wouldn’t see us?�
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“Yes.”
“She must guard the sword,” Duin said. “I know if there was one weapon that could kill me, I’d want to make sure it was well defended.”
“Well, that’s a twist,” Xavier said. “To get the sword to kill the dragon, we have to get past the dragon.”
Adam meanwhile had been staring upward, trying to catch a glimpse of the mythical creature. He was vaguely aware of Esmeralda chanting something in the background, but he was mesmerized by the downbeat of the massive wings. Through a gap in the trees, he caught a flash of a golden hide, gleaming reddish gold in the light of the sun.
“It’ll see the raft,” Adam whispered. “She’ll see the raft.”
The earth shook as the dragon landed, splashes and the sound of waves indicating she’d found an open spot in the river. Peering back the way they came, Adam finally caught more than a glimpse. The dragon was not what he had expected, with a much shorter neck and a more densely muscled body than the fantasy depictions of Earth. Its massive bat-like wings were more familiar, but sprouted at a point equidistant between her fore and hind limbs, rather than up above the fore-shoulders. Its face was wide and stout, looking almost heart shaped, with two short horns protruding from its skull, but its teeth were as long and sharp as any Adam could have imagined.
A wave of nausea washed over him, and he doubled over in his saddle, trying not to heave up his last meal. The only way he could describe it was like the comedown after a night of vodka Red Bulls—but more so. Then the feeling was gone, and Duin was grabbing at Zoul’s reins.
“Run!” he said, his voice shrill with terror.
And run they did, fleeing deeper into the forest just as a blast of flame shot out toward them, turning the green rainforest to clouds of choking smoke. It might have been worse, but the rain-sodden vegetation was too wet to catch fire. Surprisingly soon, the companions were beyond the smoke and flames, Darius riding close to the princess and guiding her mount over the uneven terrain of the forest floor. Only then did Adam realize she was still chanting, one outstretched hand holding a glowing shard of rock that looked a bit like a milky quartz.