Dragon Horse War

by D. Jackson Leigh

  “Is one of them the ability to see in the dark?”

  Jael chuckled, despite her serious intent. “No, I don’t need night vision.” She brushed her index finger against her thumb as one would strike a match, and a small flame shot from the end of her finger. She held Alyssa’s gaze as they stood together in the pool of illumination. “I’m telepathic and a pyro.” She cupped her hand, and the flame rolled into a small fiery sphere.

  “Are you telling me that this valley is filled with pyros? Wouldn’t we be safer meeting in a desert with no forest to burn?”

  She smiled at Alyssa’s response. Sarcasm was apparently her fallback when she was surprised or nervous. “You’re probably right, but the third thing I can’t reveal to you yet decided our location.”

  “Why are you showing this to me now?”

  “You don’t seem surprised. People are usually shocked when flames shoot from my fingers.”

  “I went with Advocate Han to treat a man who was in a mental hospital because he tried to cut off his hands after accidentally starting a fire that killed his child.”

  “Then you know how dangerous the ability can be.”

  “Yes. Back to my question: Why are you showing me now?”

  “Three reasons.”

  “You like to make lists, don’t you?”

  Jael laughed. This woman challenged her, got under her serious façade like no one had before. She extinguished the flame and switched on the lights. “I guess I do make lists in my head. Lists are organized and succinct.”

  “Like your life.”

  Surprised at the insight, Jael faltered in her train of thought. Had she become too rigid and thus forgotten to relax and enjoy life? She refilled their glasses and swigged hers like a sailor to cool the heat that began building low in her belly as she watched Alyssa sip and swipe her tongue along her lips to savor the essence of the wine. “I’ve lived many lives as a wa—uh, in military and emergency work settings, so it’s a hard habit to break. Not that I’d want to.” She forced her gaze from Alyssa’s enticing mouth and took another gulp of wine. “What was I saying?”

  “Three reasons you revealed your pyro ability to me now.”

  “Right.” She frowned at her muddled thoughts. “Many of the recruits have undeveloped pyro talents, and, as a healer, I want you to be prepared for some burn injuries. Second, if you detect someone whose emotions seem unstable, we need to cull them from the training groups. Pyros can be very dangerous if they aren’t emotionally and mentally stable.”

  Alyssa sipped her wine, never taking her eyes from Jael’s. “That’s only two reasons.”

  Jael set her glass down and held her hands out, palms up, in an open gesture. “I need you to trust me, and I thought revealing as much as I can now would help.” She dropped her hands. “I wish I could tell you the rest, too, but it has to wait.”

  Alyssa turned and stared out the darkened window. Silence stretched out between them, while Jael patiently waited for her to work through her thoughts. “Thank you.” She turned back to Jael. “For trusting me with what you can.” She reached for Jael’s hand and squeezed it gently. “When do we start?”

  “Tomorrow morning. Come here for breakfast at six. Bring your assistants, too, so they don’t get stuck in the lines at the chow hall. We open the clinic doors at seven.”

  Alyssa smiled but shook her head. “I have to warn you that I’m not much of a morning person.”

  “Second’s coffee is strong enough to wake the dead. But it wouldn’t hurt to turn in early. It will be a long day with few breaks.”

  Alyssa finished the wine and set her glass on the table. “It’ll need to be strong to get me going that early.” She went to the door but turned back when she opened it. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow,” Jael said softly as she watched her go.

  *

  Specter glided like a swirling white mist in a wide circle before alighting so adeptly his hooves could have been eggshells and not suffered a crack. Jael grinned at the gleeful picture forming in her mind of buoyant wind streams between the peaks. Specter was enjoying the high air currents crisscrossing the mountain range from the not-too-distant Pacific and Gulf coasts. She pressed her forehead to his and sent a picture of the two of them sailing toward a nest of dragon horses. He stomped a front hoof restlessly. “Soon enough,” she told him.

  “How’d it go with the Advocate?” Furcho landed next to them, Azar’s silver dappled hide glinting in the moonlight.

  “She stands with us still.”

  “How much did you tell her?”

  Jael shifted, watching the rest of The Guard descend from the sky one by one to join them. “I told her about the DNA testing and asked for her help in evaluating the emotional state of each recruit.”

  “She was satisfied with that?”

  Jael chuckled. “Of course not. So I demonstrated my pyro ability and warned her that, as a healer, she should expect to treat burns in the near future.”

  “She didn’t freak out when your finger ignited?”

  “She’s met a pyro before. One who was at his worst after he accidentally injured his own child. So, no, she didn’t freak out.”

  “Her life hasn’t been all meditation and temples. She has seen a little of the uglier side of life.”

  “Yes. But I’m not sure it’s enough to prepare her for the task ahead. She has the soul of a healer, not a warrior.”

  “She may be stronger than you think.”

  “I’m hoping she is.”

  Specter pawed at the ground impatiently, and she shook the image of a determined Alyssa from her thoughts. She was a distracting mix of forest and fire and sunset-colored cheeks, and Jael needed to concentrate on their mission. “Tell me about the nest,” she said to Furcho.

  “It’s on a remote peak that the locals avoid, especially since the last team of curious scientists who ventured there never returned. They’re an aggressive bunch. The surrounding peaks are scarred with burned clearings. The locals take it as a warning, but it’s probably just them clearing forest to form new pastures as the herd grows.”

  “What do the locals say about them?”

  “They call them fire demons and describe them as great bats, so I don’t think anyone has actually seen one. They only see the fires at night on the mountainside or in the sky.”

  Jael nodded. When her dragon-horse army surfaced to quell the uprising, they would need to strike fear in the hearts of the enemy, but not in the minds of people they were sworn to protect. The dragon horses were a stunning breed, actual ancestors of the Akhal-Teke. Tall and lean like racing Thoroughbreds, the Akhal-Teke were valued for the unusual glittering, metallic quality of their coats. “What else?”

  “A black, very formidable stallion guards the herd. You should be careful because Specter will want to challenge him.”

  “That’s exactly what we need. Specter will challenge him to draw his attention while Second and the others recon the herd. I don’t want to damage him unless we have to, so I want you and Azar at my flank to distract him before the challenge grows too serious.”

  Furcho’s dark eyes gleamed in the moonlight at the prospect of battle. “As you command,” he said, touching his fist to his shoulder in salute.

  “Aloft!” Jael called out to the group as she leapt onto Specter’s long back and slid up to tuck her thighs securely behind his wings. Seasoned dragon-horse warriors, The Guard wore no safety harnesses, but Jael made a mental note to have some designed for the new warriors. Staying aboard a dipping, plunging, twirling dragon horse required reflexive balance, very strong legs, and lots of practice.

  Once they were in the air, the list of tasks forming in her head vanished. Nothing but the night, the stars, and the swoosh of Specter’s great wings slicing through the chill air existed. The exhilaration and freedom was unmatched in all of Jael’s experiences, all of her lifetimes.

  Furcho signaled toward the dark peak ahead, where Jael could see the occasional fl
ash of light, probably the younger animals testing their flame. She telepathed instructions to the group, and Second broke their formation to lead all but Jael and Furcho in a wide arc around the plateau of the nest.

  Specter screamed into the night before spewing a spectacular stream of flame to draw the other stallion from his herd. Immediately a large shadow, darker than the night sky, rose from the hillside overlooking the plateau where the herd gathered. An answering scream bounced off the mountains around them, and Specter quivered as his bond to Jael kept him from plunging downward to engage his opponent. “Easy,” Jael crooned, telepathing her intent to draw the stallion from the herd rather than attack. Specter’s wings fluttered in irritation as they hovered in the airstream, but he obeyed and waited for the Black to come to him.

  The stallion was the biggest she’d seen, his wingspan several feet longer than Specter’s. His red-orange flame had an impressive reach, but it was no match for the superior heat of Specter’s blue-white flame—the difference in the Black’s mountain diet of phosphorus-rich rocks and the pure phosphorus fire rocks The Guard provided for their dragon horses to gnaw.

  Furcho and Azar circled as the stallions flew darting runs at each other, meeting flame with flame in their aerial dance. It was an impressive show that Jael hoped would be mistaken for flashes of lightning by anyone who might be watching from the ground. The Black’s aggressive charges were escalating, and Jael was relieved when Second and the others pulled back from the herd, their headcount finished. She signaled Furcho, and each of them flung spinning fireballs that met and exploded near the Black’s flank. The distraction gave Specter the chance to withdraw, and with a final defiant scream, the Black returned to his herd.

  Jael would have liked to stay aloft where the air was cold and clear and the weight of her responsibilities rode light on her shoulders. But it was already after midnight, and she needed at least a few hours’ sleep if she was going to probe minds all day. They returned to the hillside clearing near camp, all alighting except Michael, aboard his glittering palomino Apollo, and Raven, astride her palomino pinto Potawatomi. They circled until the others dismounted, then escorted the released steeds back to their temporary nest where the horses would sleep and graze in their wingless form the next day.

  Second jogged over to Jael, breathless and eyes dancing with excitement. “Furcho was right. We could cull a hundred mounts from that herd and reduce it by less than half. I’ve never seen a nest so large.”

  “Few places in the world are isolated enough for them to thrive like they do here,” Furcho said. “But they threaten to outgrow this area. It’s good that we’re here to thin their numbers.”

  “I agree,” Jael said. “We have the horses. Now we need riders.” She turned down the trail that led back to the camp. “We’ll have three extra for breakfast, Second.”

  “Three?”

  “Alyssa and her two assistants.”

  “Need some help with the preparations?” Furcho asked.

  “If you plan to actually help and not just stare at Nicole,” Second said, giving Furcho a playful shove.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he said, his grin contradicting his words.

  “Minds on the mission,” Jael said sternly, even though her own thoughts were already filled with forest and fire and sunset-colored cheeks.

  Chapter Ten

  Encroaching twilight was at last pushing back the day’s heat when Alyssa climbed the stairs to the headquarters. It had become her habit over the past couple of weeks, along with Uri and Nicole, to take her meals with The Guard. Their work was too important for them to waste time standing in the long chow lines at the dining facility.

  She and Jael had worked side by side every day, with Alyssa discreetly evaluating each person’s emotional state while she swabbed his or her cheek for DNA testing, then standing by while Jael explored the applicant’s thoughts.

  They’d spent more time together than apart during the past three weeks. Still, she automatically scanned the open layout of the headquarters for Jael.

  “Where is she?”

  Second gestured with her chin toward the closed door of the adjacent office. “In there again, claiming she’s too tired to eat.”

  “She can’t keep up this pace if she doesn’t take care of herself.”

  The work was taking its toll on Jael as she delved into the thoughts of at least thirty each day.

  “I’ve made the same argument with her, but she isn’t listening. She just shuts herself in that office until the camp is quiet. Then she wanders from one end of the valley to the other. I don’t think she sleeps at all some nights.” She handed a tray that held a thick stew and a mug of steaming tea to Alyssa. “Maybe you can get her to eat.”

  “She’ll eat if I have to stuff it in her mouth.” She rapped on the door, then pushed her way in without waiting for an invitation. Jael sat at her desk, her eyes closed and her head resting against the tall back of her chair. “I’m not hungry,” she said without opening her eyes. Tension furrowed her brow and tensed her jaw into a frown.

  “I don’t care. You need to eat.”

  Jael’s eyes snapped open and she straightened in her chair. “I thought you were Second.” She stared at the tray. “But my answer’s the same.”

  Alyssa set the tray in front of Jael, pulled a small pouch from her pocket, and poured a measure of the powder it held into Jael’s tea. “Let me guess. The thoughts you’ve had to sift through all day are still voices in your head that even a master like you can’t quiet.”

  Jael put her hand out to stop her. “And you’re just adding to the noise.”

  But Alyssa could see the fine tremor in her hand, and, instead of falling silent as bidden, she took that hand and clasped it in her smaller ones. The skin of Jael’s fingertips and palm was thick, and she wondered if that was protection against the flame she produced. “I can help if you let me.” She projected a feeling of complete calm. “Close your eyes again and feel my thoughts.”

  Jael hesitated, then relaxed back into her chair and closed her eyes.

  Alyssa closed her eyes, too, and pictured the field of wildflowers blooming in the meadow outside Jael’s home. The flowers were warmed by the sun and swayed gently by the breeze, and she imagined the wind carrying away the myriad of voices sounding around them until all was quiet. She felt Jael’s hand relax and slowly opened her eyes. Jael was staring at her. Her eyes were still weary, but the lines of tension in her face had softened and she smiled. “Thank you.”

  They both had skipped lunch and the stew smelled delicious. She projected the hunger that was gnawing at her own stomach, and Jael’s gaze flicked to the tray.

  “I’m hungry, but I’m not going to eat until I see you empty that bowl,” Alyssa said. “So, you eat while I talk.”

  “I didn’t know an Advocate could be so bossy,” Jael grumbled, but she picked up the bowl and began to eat.

  “We should change our process. This is too taxing on you.”

  Jael, her mouth full of stew, shook her head.

  “Hear me out. We have a high number that are proving to have more than 25 percent of the DNA profile you’re testing for. If we screen their DNA first, then that should weed out the ones that match less than 25 percent of the profile you’re seeking. That should reduce the number you have to probe by several hundred.”

  Jael appeared to consider this suggestion as she chewed.

  “You could take a day off and rest while we screen for DNA. You’ll be no good to us worn out from digging around in the thoughts of every person in this camp. And this process will go a lot quicker. We have a lab full of technicians to handle multiple tests at once. A single person probing each and every person is slowing us down.”

  “I do have some other things I need to do.” Jael offered a spoonful of stew to Alyssa, and she held Jael’s gaze as she took it in her mouth. The spicy broth filled her senses and she moaned with pleasure. “If your cousin wasn’t already bonded, I’d have
to marry her for her cooking.”

  Jael scowled and went back to eating. Was she jealous? Alyssa warmed at the thought and then immediately dismissed it as fanciful wishing. She’d finally admitted to herself that she was incredibly attracted to their tall, stoic leader. But she figured half the women and a number of the men in camp felt the same way.

  She watched Jael scrape the last of the stew into her spoon, avoiding Alyssa’s gaze.

  “Drink your tea, too, please.”

  “What did you put in it?”

  “Just some nutrients you need because you aren’t eating regularly.”

  Jael sniffed the tea that had cooled, then downed it in a few swallows.

  “And something mild to help you sleep.”

  Blue lasers bored into her. “You drugged me?”

  “Yes. I did.” Alyssa straightened to take advantage of the fact that Jael was sitting and she was standing over her. She put her hands on her hips and met Jael’s glare. “If you won’t take care of yourself, then, as your healer, I’ll do it for you. You need to rest.”

  Jael angrily pushed her chair back and stood. Her extra six inches of height might have been intimidating if she hadn’t immediately swayed from the effects of the tea and grabbed Alyssa’s shoulders to steady herself. Alyssa slid next to Jael and wrapped an arm round her waist as Jael sagged against her.

  “I thought you said it was mild.” She slurred her words.

  “I might have overestimated your weight.” Alyssa didn’t pretend remorse. She guided Jael to the leather lounger on the other side of the office where a pillow and blanket were evidence someone had slept there at least once.

  “I’m sensitive to medicines…try to avoid them.”

  She gently pushed Jael’s shoulders to make her lie down, but Jael struggled to sit up again. “Don’t fight it,” Alyssa said softly. “You’ll only give yourself a headache.”

  Jael acquiesced and relaxed against the pillow. When she closed her eyes, Alyssa perched on the edge of the wide lounger and clasped Jael’s unnaturally warm hands, her thumbs moving against the roughened knuckles in an automatic caress. She closed her eyes and projected a soothing calm as she filled her thoughts again with Jael’s meadow. Unbidden, images of Jael and herself appeared among the wildflowers.