Dragon Talker

by Anderson, Steve

  Stone wasn’t ready to give up responsibility just yet. “It’s my fault.”

  Yuri couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but the merchant only nodded his head. “Son, tell me what you mean, and don’t leave out any details.”

  Bernard started crying. Samantha put her arm around him and held him close. Stone climbed back to the rear of the wagon. Yuri wasn’t sure if it was to hide or for privacy, but both Yuri and the merchant climbed into the back of the wagon and sat down in the hay next to him.

  “It’s okay, Stone. I’m sure you didn’t cause…”

  The merchant interrupted him, “Let the boy talk. After he does, we can sort it out and see what’s what.”

  Stone’s voice was soft, almost too quiet to hear. “We finished our chores, so we went out looking for a fox that was raiding our coops.”

  Yuri and the merchant leaned in to hear him better, while at the same time trying to give him physical space for the words to come out. They could hear Bernard quietly sobbing next to Samantha.

  Stone continued, “We went out to Winter Pond. We get most of our water there, but that’s a good watering spot for all kinds of animals, too.” Stone remembered the feeling of coming up to the lake. He felt cold as he continued, “But there weren’t no animals there. It was spooky. All empty, but then we saw this man standing on the shore. He wasn’t from the village.”

  The merchant looked at Yuri and shook his head. They both knew this story was about to get much worse.

  Chapter 50

  Winderall waited east of Vrotsim, as he had been ordered. He left magical markers where he left the trail. Whoever Perante sent would be capable of seeing them and meeting him in his present location. He had chosen to wait behind a small hillock that kept him from view of the village but gave him the opportunity to spy on the village if need be.

  He wasn’t sure what he was doing, besides following orders. The last bird’s message was simple and direct: Wait east of Vrotsim. As far as he could tell, Vrotsim was a typical dragon village. The population was maybe 700 people and, by the markings, they were claimed by a green dragon. Even the type of dragon was unimpressive. No dragon should be laughed at, he thought, but green dragons did seem to be on the low end of the dragon hierarchy. Their comparatively small size and laid back temperament made them easier to ignore by most.

  “As long as they’re not breathing fire,” Winderall said out loud. He would have enjoyed a fire in the cold air, but he had to do with using magic to make his coat more effective. He almost made it too comfortable, for he found himself starting to fall asleep. That would not do.

  After two days of waiting, though, the boredom was starting to get to him. He was getting ready to take out the board he had found earlier again when he heard the quiet sound of chimes. It was a warning letting him know that someone had left the path at his marker. The loudness of the sound let him know about the size of whatever passed it.

  This quiet, Winderall immediately thought that it was a dog, which confused him. Dogs were not usually sent with messages. He wondered if something could have happened to its mage? He heard the chimes again as the dog reached the midway point and marker between Winderall and the trail.

  At least there will be something to do, he thought. A large dog did walk out into Winderall’s little spot behind the hill. “Well, well,” he said in greeting.

  Behind him, he heard, “Well, well, indeed.”

  He jumped at the sound of Perante’s voice, turning around to see the mage entering the depression behind him. “How,” he asked, “did you do that?”

  Perante didn’t answer him, though Winderall could tell he was pleased to sneak up on him like he did. “We have things to discuss, Winderall. Important things.”

  Perante looked around, taking in where Winderall had, judging by his looks, spent the last couple of days. He shook his head, “You really like this outdoor rubbish, don’t you, Winderall?”

  “I think best in fresh air, Mage Perante,” he nodded his head in deference to his power. He didn’t like doing it, but he knew it sped things along. Even as he did it, he reminded himself that he would be off again, away from other mages and their power games. It was a trade-off he was semi-comfortable making. By occasionally helping the most powerful, he was able to do whatever he wanted with the rest of his time, which was always searching for and cataloging all the dragon information he could find.

  “I think best anywhere,” he replied drolly. “And I do not enjoy this outdoor peasant life, so I plan on making this quick. This village needs to be destroyed, and I am going to do it.”

  Winderall didn’t say anything, though he wondered why. He knew better than to ask because Perante would either tell him if he wanted to or he would not. Asking would only annoy him. Winderall caught himself starting to smile when he thought how much Perante acted like a baby. This baby was about to destroy a village full of people, he reminded himself.

  “This is a rather large part of my grand plan, which is why I’m here to do it myself. You, though, have a role to play. I think you will rather enjoy it, actually. You are going to get to see a dragon in battle.”

  Winderall said, “I am here to serve,” as his heart rate and interest picked up considerably.

  “I’m going to burn down this village in such a manner that its dragon will be compelled to come. I’ve made sure of that.”

  Winderall had suspected some sort of Perante connection to the destruction the smaller villages in the area, but now he knew that it was true and he was about to find out why.

  Perante bent down and picked up a fist sized stone, tossing it from hand to hand before freezing the stone in mid-air between his hands. He smiled, “Do you know this was one of the first magics I tried?” He didn’t wait for an answer before he continued. “Magic always spoke to me.”

  Perante was feeling nostalgic so close to the culmination of his plan. “It didn’t take me long to realize I would be, no, that I was called to be the greatest mage of my time. It was actually daunting at first, but the more mages I met, the more I knew the truth of it.”

  Winderall kept nodding his head in agreement, the safest response whenever Perante was talking.

  “But what is greatness for? Have you ever thought about that, Winderall? What do you do with your greatness? That was my biggest challenge, figuring out what I was meant to do.” Perante gave a subtle flick of his hand and the stone fell to the ground.

  “Great power, like great magic, I realized, is all about control and transformation. And why be great if you are not going to use that greatness to control and transform the world around you? Think about it, the insult to power if, when one had it, he didn’t do anything with it?” He shook his head in disbelief that a powerful person would do nothing with that power.

  Winderall continued to nod in agreement. Whatever the plan, he realized, it was going to be a lot bigger than he had imagined. And, once again, by helping out, he would be one of the few that actually had an idea about what was really happening to shape the world.

  “I am going to destroy this village, slowly, and when I do, its pathetic green dragon will try to do something about it.” He paused, letting the audacity of his plan sink in.

  Winderall waited, knowing something else was coming.

  “I,” Perante proclaimed, “am going to take that dragon home as a pet.”

  For a moment, Winderall wondered if he was joking. It did not last. Perante was serious, and there was something in the way that he said it that convinced Winderall that Perante believed it was possible. And if he did, Winderall had to admit, it just might be.

  “Your task will be to keep everyone in the village. When they try to leave, make sure they are turned back.”

  Winderall barely heard the words. His head was still spinning at the thought of anyone subduing a dragon. Could it really be done?

  Perante stared at him, waiting for acknowledgment.

  “Ah, yes. I will turn them back.” He was still numb at the
realization he was about to get a front row seat in Perante’s attempt to do just such a thing.

  Chapter 51

  Perante walked across the field to the village. No one knew who he was, but it was clear he was trouble. Several men of the village gathered together and went out to meet him. The three men, two with axes and one with a pitch fork, met Perante a hundred yards from the first hut of the village.

  “You’re not welcome here,” the leader of the three men said.

  Perante ignored the statement, asking, “Where is your dragon talker?”

  “I said, ‘you’re not welcome here.’” The man held an ax across his chest and took one step closer to Perante.

  Perante raised his right hand and flicked his fingers. The man, caught in the spell, was hurled through the air, back all the way to the first hut. He crashed through the hut’s roof, dead.

  Perante pointed his raised hand at one of the two men still standing in front of him. “Where is he?”

  The taller of the two stood still, frozen in fear. The other said, “We don’t know. Will you leave this village if we tell you?”

  Perante extended his fingers, hand palm down and flat. He swung it over to the taller man and quickly moved it down towards the ground. The tall man collapsed to the ground. Even the man’s pitchfork snapped in half, as if a giant stone had landed on the man as he held it. The remaining villager tried to block out the other sounds as the man was crushed under the force of Perante’s magic.

  He realized he was not going to live and there was nothing he could do about it. He stood a little taller. If he was to die, he decided, it would be standing tall. All he could think to say was, “Please don’t.”

  Perante’s answer, “Let it be consolation that you make way for a better world,” did not console that man. His death was quick and Perante moved on towards the village.

  ***

  Across the village, people were starting to panic. They didn’t know what, exactly, was happening, but they knew something was, and with news of a nearby village destroyed, it was an easy leap to assume they were in danger. People were running and shouting, trying to find their loved ones. Those who had were looking for places to run or hide.

  Yuri couldn’t help but think he led the mage following them right to the village. He couldn’t leave the village to the mage without trying to protect them, and he had no intention of the boys living through another attack.

  He shouted above the noise of the villagers at Samantha, who was putting the harness back on the horse, “Take the boys to Mandan. I’ll meet you there.”

  She nodded her head and kept working. Yuri could tell she was almost done, so he went to the wagon to talk to the boys. “Samantha will take you out of here to my village.”

  “You should come, too,” Stone said.

  “I want to, believe me, but I have to try and help.”

  Stone started climbing out of the wagon. “Then I’m helping, too.”

  Yuri saw Bernard start to get up to follow his brother, even though he was obviously scared. “No, Stone.” He put out his hand, stopping him with one leg outside of the wagon. “You stay with Bernard and Samantha. That’s your job. Make sure the three of you get to my parents.” Yuri pulled open his shirt, and poked his fingers against the scales on his chest. “I’m protected. I’ll be okay.” He touched Stone’s chest. “Not so hard. Keep ‘em safe and I will catch up with you, promise.”

  Bernard swung his leg back into the wagon. Samantha had finished harnessing the horse and was climbing up to the driver’s seat. She called to the boys as she sat down, “I want you up front lying down behind this board.” She thumped the board by her seat. She smiled at the boys, “I want you near me so I can keep an eye on you. We’re going to be okay, but we have to move fast and keep our heads down. Yuri will join us later, right Yuri?”

  “You boys can count on it. Now git!”

  He slapped the horse on the rear and Samantha snapped the reins. The horse started pulling the cart. Yuri took one last look at the boys, touching two fingers to his forehead in a salute. The boys waved back.

  “Time to get to work,” he told himself and he turned away from the boys and started surveying the village around him. People were running everywhere. It looked like chaos except for a cluster of men and a few women surrounding the merchant. It looked like the merchant was rallying a group of adults to defend the village. Yuri ran to join them.

  “Cory, Wendal, and Sarah, I want you staying back and keep those arrows flying. Don’t stop, but save the silver tips for when he’s close enough that you can’t miss.” He pointed at two young men that looked to be about fifteen, “Willy and Tom, you two are fast, so I need you feeding them arrows. That means finding them.”

  The boys nodded their heads. The merchant nodded his head back and told them, “Times wasting. Get going and meet these three on the east side of the village once you have some arrows for them. Go!”

  “What about me?” A thin, quiet boy named Cormack asked.

  “Cormack, I saved the most important run for you. Get those rabbit legs of yours and get to the dragon talker. Tell him we are under attack by a mage and we need that dragon. If that fool gives you any trouble, tell him there won’t be a village for him to talk for.”

  The boys took off, two to find arrows and one to get the talker, and the merchant saw Yuri fast approaching through the gap the boys left in the circle. “You picked a fine time to visit, but I’m glad you are standing with us. What can you do?”

  Yuri wasn’t ready to tell them everything, but he needed to tell them enough so they would use him wisely. “I’m strong, real strong, and I’m wearing armor.”

  “Then you’re up front with me.” The merchant was holding a staff in his right hand. It was perpendicular to the ground and the top end rested behind and against his shoulder. Yuri had seen the men in his own village who were good with a staff hold it in just the same way. He wondered what good a staff would be against a mage, until he saw the silver tips.

  “Do you think you can get close enough to use that?” he asked.

  “That will depend on you men,” he pointed at Yuri and two men with swords next to him, “and the archers. We’ll head to the edge of the village, but I want to get a look at this mage before we move. If we get the chance.”

  Everyone nodded or voiced agreement, and then they were running towards the edge of their village. Smoke was already rising from the huts on that side. Either panicked people turned over fires inside the huts or the mage was already starting to burn the village. Ashes were starting to fall on them like dark snow.

  As they ran, the merchant asked, “How strong is that armor you have?”

  Yuri knew he couldn’t hold back now, “Good enough to protect against a mage.”

  “You’re not blowing smoke, are you Yuri? I appreciate the backing, but I have to know the truth.”

  “Dragon given.”

  “Good enough.” The merchant didn’t say anything else as they approached one of the burning huts. They gathered around the merchant, who quickly started giving orders. “If you got a bow, half to the right a couple huts and half to the left. Willy and Tom will be around with arrows, but spread them out. Make them last. We are going to lead him in to the center of the village. Don’t waste the silver. Once we have him past you, I want you to fill his back with silver. Once he’s passed you by and is facing us, let fly and don’t stop when we move in, even if that means hitting a few of us.”

  The archers, three men and two women, ran off. Two men and a woman went to the right and the remaining man and woman, husband and wife, actually, went to the left. The merchant stood with the two men with swords and Yuri. “Our job is to get and keep his attention. If we can do that, they just might get an arrow past him. If they do, don’t hesitate. Get in there and cut him to one thousand pieces.”

  One of the archers asked, “What’s to stop him from killing us the moment he sees us?”

  “Nothing,” the mercha
nt answered, “so we better use the smoke and fire he’s started as our cover. That means we’re going to be hugging these flames.”

  The archers nodded. The merchant looked at Yuri and said, “I’ll trust you to know when to try out that armor of yours.”

  The hut they were standing behind exploded right in front of them. The blast killed one of the archers outright. The other was writhing on the ground, badly burned. Yuri had been between the merchant and the explosion, so while both men had been knocked down, neither suffered anything more serious than singed clothes.

  The merchant looked at his fallen villagers and then his own body and Yuri. “That is some remarkable armor you have there.”

  “Yeah, but I wish I knew what its limits were,” he answered.

  Yuri was about to get up. The merchant grabbed him and pulled them both down, whispering, “I think you’re going to get the chance to find out. Stay still and let’s see if he walks anywhere near us.”

  Yuri had been so focused on the merchant that he hadn’t really noticed the noise and the heat. He did now. He could hear villagers of all ages running, shouting, and screaming as they tried to get out of the village. He also felt the heat of the burning huts washing over him. He remained cool, though, even as parts of his clothes smoldered from the explosion.

  He knew he was supposed to stay still, but he couldn’t help but look around for the mage. Through the smoke to his right, he saw a tall man calmly walking into the center of the village. He was twenty feet from Yuri. Yuri knew it was time to test his new strength and speed, steeling himself for the attack. He thought of his own family in Mandan, Samantha and the boys, and all the people in this village who were only trying to go about their lives. Anger built inside of him, lifting him to his feet without even realizing it. It took him a moment to realize he was standing, but when he did, he started running.