Dragon Talker

by Anderson, Steve

  Melanie just stared at him.

  “Or not.” He knew her trust wasn’t something she was going to give him easily. “Water, then. There are a lot of ways to get water, sending Tail Biter out is just the easiest and safest.”

  Xeron looked around their immediate vicinity, looking for a suitable tree. He spotted it up the trail, a tall pine a buck must have rubbed its antlers across. He called, “Let’s go,” as he headed over. Melanie and Tail Biter followed, Melanie climbing over the fallen tree they had been sitting on and Tail Biter ducking under.

  At the tree, Xeron explained, “You’ve seen people tap sap. Well, you can also tap water, with a little magical help.”

  “It’s right here and you wanted to send Tail Biter out? I knew that was crap.”

  Xeron sighed, “No, it wasn’t. What I’m about to do is going to turn this non-descript tree into the equivalent of a Maple tree in fall. By doing that, any mage looking will see this tree as if it were on fire. That makes one good reason not to. I have no particular animosity for trees. Destroying one for a drink of water seems overkill to me.”

  Melanie put her hands up in supplication, “Okay, you have your reasons. Let’s just drink and move on.”

  As Melanie watched, Xeron went to the fresh scars on the tree, bending the loose bark to form a sort of primitive v-shaped funnel. With both hands on the tree, he started to say the spell that would bring water from the roots up and out of the gash in the tree, creating a nice, drinkable flow of water. The water started to trickle out and down the bark funnel, but Xeron couldn’t remove his hands from the tree. He felt himself, or his energy, pulled into the tree and down through its roots. Fear gripped his heart as he wondered if he was going to lose himself, leaving a husk of a body standing next to a tree.

  Melanie saw his body go tense, “What’s wrong?” Seeing the water start to trickle out of the tree, she added, “It’s working.”

  Xeron could barely hear her, as if he was hearing her voice from underground. He willed himself to fight the pull, even as he felt himself become the roots of the tree. The roots seemed to grow with his energy, digging down deeper into the soil, searching out more water until he could barely remember what it felt like to be human. The roots hit the water table. It was as if he had dived into a cool river. And then he was returning, bringing the underground lake with him.

  At first, Melanie was impressed. The water increased in volume, as if it was being pumped out of a well, but Xeron suddenly looked like he was becoming the tree. His hands turned the color of bark and she would have sworn they were taking on the texture of bark, too. Tail Biter started growling, but she couldn’t tell if he was growling at Xeron or the tree. The water was now rushing out of the tree in such force pieces of bark started snapping off the tree. Both she and Tail Biter backed away from Xeron and the tree.

  The ground trembled slightly under her feet, causing her to lose her balance as she was turning to run from the tree. She was barely keeping her balance, one hand on the ground, as she kept moving away from the tree when she heard loud snapping followed by sound of the large tree cracking opening, exploding in a deluge of water, bark, branches, and large chunks of the trunk. Tail Biter appeared, running into her side, knocking her down as large pieces of the tree flew through the air where she had been.

  She ended up lying on her back with Tail Biter on top of her chest. Water geysered out of what was left of the trunk of the tree, raining water down in a circle around the trunk. Melanie asked Tail Biter, “What are you doing?” and pushing him off saying, “You’re crushing me. How much do you weigh?”

  Sitting up, she saw Xeron, still standing in front of the stump. He was completely soaked, but appeared unharmed. “Magic,” she muttered, as she looked around in the rain. The tree had exploded. Pieces of the trunk, big and small, were scattered all around the tree out to one hundred yards. The majority of the tree fell in the opposite direction of Xeron, and was caught at an angle, shattered trunk on the ground and the rest of the tree held up at a forty-five degree angle by the branches of the trees next to it. The weight of the tree, though, was slowly pulling it down through the branches. She could hear those branches snapping and groaning as it happened.

  She watched, amazed, as the rain closed in on itself in an ever shrinking circle, until there was only a light mist in the air. The edge of the rain receded as the force of water dropped from a geyser to a steady flow out of the trunk, as if an underground stream decided to exit through the trunk. The rest of the world started to return to Melanie’s attention. She felt that her clothes were soaked, making her suddenly feel cold in the chill fall air. She smelled Tail Biter, the unmistakable smell of wet dog. Little rainbows appeared in the mist wherever sunlight penetrated the canopy of pine. She heard the snap of wood and as the fallen tree settled against the branches that continued to hold it up at a slowly decreasing angle from the ground.

  She shook her legs, moved her arms, and smoothed the hair away from the front of her eyes. “Wet, but alive.” She patted Tail Biter, who was no longer on top of her but hadn’t moved from her side. “You stink.”

  Tail Biter, soaked, shook his body, sending water all over Melanie. She wanted to scream but didn’t want to open her mouth. Instead, she raised her hands to protect her face. When he stopped, she growled, “I’m going to kill you.” Tail Biter rolled over in submission. After the anger receded, she laughed at herself, sitting there completely soaked and getting angry over a little more water. “You’re all right.” Tail Biter rolled himself upright.

  Xeron called, “Are you okay?”

  “Wet and cold,” she replied, “but I think water is taken care of.”

  “I’ll start a fire.” Xeron began collecting wood without saying another word.

  Out loud, Melanie said, “Sure, you do that.” Quieter and to herself, she said, “What else would you do after exploding a tree with water! That happens every day.” She wondered if he was a stupid mage or a genius. At this point, she decided, the evidence was not clear. Looking at some of the large, jagged pieces of tree around her, she understood that either answer could have gotten her killed just now. That combined with the reason she thought she might be the cause of her freedom from Perante’s spell meant that the sooner she was away from this man, the better.

  As Xeron collected wood, part of him felt like he was still rooted into the earth. It was an odd sensation, causing a split-second of doubt every time he raises his foot, as if he would be breaking roots. This was definitely the same type of magic he had felt at Perante’s castle. If he could control it, he would outclass Perante, and as far as he knew, that meant he would outclass everyone.

  The enormity of these changes was almost more than he could grasp. He tried the idea out, out loud, “The most powerful mage of the land.” It didn’t ring false. “Fancy that.” He continued collecting firewood in a slight daze.

  Melanie and Tail Biter watched. They both could sense, if not see, the incredible power running through Xeron. “What have you gotten me into, dog? If I get killed in this insanity, tear his throat out.”

  Tail Biter just stared at her, tail wagging, in response.

  Melanie shook her head, “Dumb dog.”

  Chapter 40

  “Back to business, Blue Scales.” Yuri blushed some more at her friendly tone. “You’re okay, Dragon Talker, but I need to trust you. How can I do that? My life is at stake.”

  Yuri’s father’s words came to him. “My father always said, ‘before you trust someone, you have to spend time with him’ or her, or him/her.” He smiled as he said the last. “Okay, my dad didn’t say the him/her part, but I think he would approve.”

  “Of me, or your addition?”

  “Probably both - you have eyes like my mother’s. And he’d like Bogdan, too. He stays close to home, but he has that wandering spirit and respects it in others.”

  Samantha didn’t miss the comment about her eyes and was feeling confident about her judgment of Yuri; still, sh
e was gambling her life, not his. “Are you inviting me home?”

  Yuri blushed some more. “I guess so…why not? I’m bringing home these boys, why not add to the set?”

  The chance to learn more about Yuri and the dragon that gave him scales outweighed the risk to her own life in Samantha’s mind. She had never heard of anyone wearing dragon scales. “Picking yourself up a little family, are you?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that…”

  “You know, that might not be a bad idea. Men your age often go out in search of brides, don’t they?”

  “Skinny, wrinkly, old, and male isn’t the type of bride I ever considered. And the boys already know you as a man, so…”

  “Yuri, they already know me. What I look like isn’t that big of a deal. I can adjust their memory so I was always a woman in their minds.”

  “I don’t think I like you casting any spells on them.”

  “You didn’t have a problem when I was saving their lives,” Samantha said, getting angry, “so I think you can live with it when I’m doing it to save mine.”

  Yuri didn’t have a response for that. “Give me a moment to think this through.”

  “Yuri, how far is your village from here?”

  He thought for a moment, “Four weeks on foot, about two and a half with your cart.”

  “Is two and a half weeks’ time enough to think about it?”

  Yuri looked sheepish, “Yes, I think so.”

  “Settled. We get going once the boys are up to it and we have a couple weeks to figure out if we want to go through with it or come up with another plan.”

  “Are you going to be Bogdan or… I don’t even know your real name.”

  “Hmmm. Well, we would be a complete set if I was…” She decided a little teasing was in order. “Hold on, is this your village way to get to see me out of these clothes?” She thought Yuri’s face looked like a tomato, it turned so red. “Take it easy, Yuri, I was only kidding you.”

  She continued when Yuri continued to blush. “Doesn’t your village have any women your age?”

  “Not like you. Definitely not like you.” Yuri wanted to change the topic. “How long do the boys need to rest?”

  “If we absolutely had to, we could leave in a few hours, but I think we should wait overnight. Bernard might not even wake up ‘til then. Come to think of it, Stone might not, either. And if he does, he will definitely be achy, especially his leg. The connection works both ways, trading strength for pain.”

  “I can’t imagine what these two are going through. Their village, everyone dead. It was terrible, and I didn’t know anyone. If that happened to my village, I think I would go mad.”

  Samantha looked at the two boys. “Alone, they might have. I have seen my share of tragedy. It helps to have someone to share the pain with.” She looked from the boys to Yuri. “There is going to be a cost to them, Yuri, one you can’t imagine. I could try to erase their memory of…”

  “No!” Yuri said quickly. “You can’t take their family from them. Not a second time. Do not do that.”

  Samantha noticed Yuri’s increased breathing and knew there was more to this than just the boys. “I won’t, Yuri. Just know that it’s possible. Now, as far as adjusting their memory, so I was always a woman. This would be a good time. They’re sleeping. I could do it and they’d just wake up always thinking I was a woman.”

  Yuri rubbed his face. He wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing, but it seemed to make sense. And he didn’t like lying to the boys. He thought it would be easier. “Go ahead.” The boys were a constant set of decisions Yuri had to make. It was tiring. He wondered how his parents did it so easily. “If you don’t need me, I’m going to take a little nap.”

  “Go ahead. It will take me a while to set things up and cast the spell. I’ll wake you when I’m done.”

  Yuri moved his pack so it was resting against a tree and leaned up against it. His body felt like it weighed a ton, and he didn’t so much drift as drop off into a deep sleep. He began to dream. In his dream, he was falling through a cloudy sky, without fear. His arms were outstretched as the air rushed past him. He knew he should be afraid, but the only sensation he felt were the scales on his chest spreading out to his arms and legs.

  He felt and saw his chest expand. He brought in a deep breath that seemed to go on forever. His entire body was expanding. Wings sprouted from his back. He was becoming Samora. Even in the wide open sky, he felt huge, powerful. He pulled his wings in and dived even faster towards the ground, opening them at the last minute, tearing across the tree tops of a massive forest before flapping his wings and climbing back into the air.

  Yuri could barely contain the joy he felt. As his wings pounded harder and harder against the air, climbing faster than Yuri thought possible, he heard a roar. It took a moment to realize it was coming from him. In the distance to the north, he saw his village. The forest he was over was his own. Seeing the village helped him recognize it. Soon, he was gliding in circles, high above his village. He could see people down below, but the feeling he got was that of looking down at a game of Trixle. In Trixle, each player started with seven stones and used them on the crosshatched pattern drawn on the ground to take over three corners of the playing space as the other players did the same. Yuri quickly realized people were little more than stones to Samora, and maybe all dragons.

  After circling the village a few times, Yuri felt pulled to the south. He began flying in that direction and saw a speck in the distance. Soon, it started to take shape. At a distance no human eye could match, he saw that it was a dragon, pitch-black in color, and huge. This dragon was at least the same size as Samora, possibly bigger. And it was powerful. Yuri felt as if the black dragon was pushing an avalanche of power before it.

  The black dragon stopped moving forward, changing to a circling pattern. As it circled, it kept its head towards Samora. The gaze was intense and Yuri felt he was intruding. He also began to feel more human. He realized he was slipping out of Samora’s body. He wasn’t sure, but he felt the black dragon pushing him out. He tried to stay, but there was nothing for him to grab on to. The next thing Yuri knew, he was falling through the sky, very human, out of control, and heading for the tops of pine trees that looked to tear him up on impact.

  Yuri flinched before impact, waking himself up. He was disoriented at first. Did he fall through the trees and land? His dragon strength protecting him? Or did he wake up? And who was the woman by the cart?

  She talked, “Not much of a napper, are you?”

  Not sure what to say, Yuri waved his hand in response. Seeing the two boys helped him put the pieces back together. The boys were recovering, the woman was Bogdan, and they would be heading home in the morning. He looked at “Bogdan” and couldn’t help but stare. She was in a white blouse with long sleeves and a long, brown leather skirt that went down to her ankles. He already knew she had a beautiful face, but the slight curves in her blouse and hips made him feel suddenly self-conscious about the blue scales on his chest.

  “What are you looking at, Blue, never seen a pretty woman before?” Her teasing tone and smile made Yuri blush, again.

  “Sorry. Just woke up. Still a little sleepy.”

  “Oh, is that what that look was, sleepy. As long as you’re up, and as soon as you wake up, why don’t you come over here and help me rearrange the wagon? I want to set it up so the boys can rest along the way if they want to.”

  Yuri was glad to have something to do. “I can do that.” He wanted to talk to someone about the dream, but he wasn’t sure sharing anything dragon related with her would be safe. By the position of the sun, Yuri decided he had not been asleep very long. The boys were still sleeping. He took turns carrying each from the wagon to a blanket on the ground.

  Samantha and Yuri emptied the wagon without talking. Along with a good supply of hay, the wagon was carrying two clothes trunks, another with a lot of drawers, and a few farming tools. When the wagon was empty, Samantha spo
ke, “I want the area right behind the seat loaded with hay, almost all of it, so the boys can hide under it if they need to. Then I want the trunks lined across the wagon, and put the rest of the hay and tools in the back half.”

  “Expecting trouble?” Yuri couldn’t help but notice the small redoubt inside the wagon.

  “I just like being near the boys, so I can check on them.”

  Yuri stared at her, letting her know he didn’t believe her.

  “So, you’re handsome and perceptive. I’m always expecting trouble, Yuri, it’s part and parcel with my life.”

  Yuri knew there was more in her past than he would probably ever know, but that was second to being called handsome by her. He rubbed his face, as if thinking, to cover up the fact that he just might be blushing again. This is gonna be a long trip, he thought.

  Chapter 41

  While the boys and baby slept, Agardia told Tadeus everything Hental had told her. The two sat in silence in front of the fire, holding hands. Tadeus squeezed Agardia’s hand before releasing in and turning to face her directly. “So, we tell Lindale next?”

  “I think so. Let him deal with the mayor. I don’t like him.”

  Tadeus shook his head in frustration. “I don’t like this. This is the kind of thing where people start acting foolish. Dangerous.”

  Agardia nodded in agreement, “I know. And where there is a mage…”

  Tadeus finished, “There are people ready to support him. We are a small village, hurting no one. Why bother us? What do we have a mage would value?”

  “I don’t know, but I wish Yuri was home.”

  “I don’t.” Tadeus rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. “He might be safer where he is. Are you sure Hental is telling the truth? I love the boy, but…”

  Agardia shook her head no. “I wish it was one of his tales, but he means it. It happened. We need to protect our family.”