Dragon Fate

by J. D. Hallowell

  “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity, and I envy you both. You, because here in the south nearly every boy dreams that he will be chosen to bond with a dragon, and this one,” he indicated Nat, “because he will have an opportunity to study such a rare and wonderful creature first hand.” Then he turned to Nat and exclaimed, “You are not to sneak off in the night and disappear and keep her all to yourself, you old scoundrel! I will not agree to any of this if I don’t at least get to meet her before you go.”

  Nat held up his hands in feigned innocence.

  Delno promised that he would take Pearce to meet Geneva the first chance they could get to do so. Then he told them about his experience with the magic in the streets of Orlean. They were both impressed and insisted on a demonstration. Soon they were happily throwing anything in the room that was small and unbreakable, which happened to be a chess set that was on a table nearby, at the invisible barrier that he had erected in front of himself.

  The housekeeper was disgusted at the pile of small items on the floor when she came to announce that dinner was ready. “You men are just boys with bigger bodies. Worse; at least I can bully boys into not throwing their toys around the room and leaving them for me to pick up,” she said.

  They apologized and picked up their own mess before going to dinner.

  Chapter 29

  The next morning Delno woke early, as he was used to doing, but was loath to leave the comfort of a real bed after sleeping rough for so many weeks. He lay in bed just listening to the sounds of the city coming awake for nearly half an hour before Geneva finally said, somewhat petulantly, “Are you going to come and see me today, or will I have to be alone until you tire of that comfortable bed?”

  “I will come see you, Dear Heart, as soon as I’ve had my breakfast.” Then he added, “Nat’s apprentice would like to meet you as well. If he isn’t too busy with patients, would you mind if I bring him along?”

  “Only if he does not mind if I hunt and eat first. We are too close to the city and game is scarce. I didn’t have nearly enough to eat yesterday,” she complained.

  “I am sorry. I will look into the possibility of purchasing some herd beasts here to supplement your diet.” Then he quickly added, “Don’t worry, Love, I won’t buy sheep.”

  She was satisfied with his responses to her concerns and her mood softened. She maintained contact while she soared happily away from Orlean in search of suitable game.

  After breakfast, since Geneva had just killed several wild boars and would be some time eating them, he wandered to the garrison to make inquiries about meeting with Robbie later. He had forgone wearing his Dragon Blade in town for now, leaving it secured in the cords supporting his mattress, but he did carry his main gauche.

  The garrison was housed inside a stockade near the main gate of the city. While the city walls were stone and mortar, the stockade walls were made of wood. The first thing he found when he entered was a number of men practicing with blunted swords, spears and other weapons. On one side of the large central yard was an archery range and some men were practicing there, also. One man waved for him to come over. It was the sergeant, Norman.

  He approached and asked, with a large smile on his face, “Aren’t you supposed to be staying off your leg?”

  Norman made a rude sound, then a worried look came over his face, and he said, “You won’t tell the healer, will you?”

  Delno held up both hands and said, “Don’t worry, man, I won’t sic Nat on you.” Then he chuckled and continued, “I’ve grown quite fond of the man, but he’s a regular wild boar when he puts his mind to something.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Norman sighed. “A spear broke during practice, and the broken haft got me in the leg. That man expects me, the senior sergeant here, to sit on my bum and let these lads get lazy for a whole fortnight.”

  Delno nodded seriously to Norman, but almost laughed at the two men who were smiling and rolling their eyes at his comments behind him.

  Just then, Sergeant Smith approached with some urgency. “The Captain wants to see you, Sarge,” he told Norman. Then, noticing who it was that Norman was speaking with, he hastily saluted and said, “Oh, Good morning, Lieutenant.”

  Delno returned the salute out of reflex, then said, “It isn’t lieutenant any more, but good morning to you, too, Sergeant.”

  The Senior Sergeant excused himself and left Delno with Sergeant Smith.

  They talked for a few minutes about garrison life, then a bit about the city in general, then the man asked Delno, “So, sir, are you going to take our lieutenant up on his offer and join the Ondarian army?”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. Delno was so sure that nearly every man in the garrison had bet one way or the other on the answer to that question he could almost hear the coins changing hands.

  “I’ve actually thought a bit about that,” he said, “and, as much as I’d like to belong to such a fine group of men as this, I have other business that prevents me from doing so. I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint your lieutenant.”

  Several of the men appeared quite pleased with the answer, while many looked equally disappointed. Then a voice spoke up from behind, “Oh, I don’t think I will be disappointed until you are so far out of the city that I can’t find you and continue trying to persuade you to join us.”

  As Delno turned to face the speaker, he found, of course, that the cheerful voice belonged to Robbie. “Lieutenant, good to see you this morning,” he said as he extended his hand.

  “Well,” the man replied, “providing that you haven’t come to tell me that your business is pushing you on before we can have our dinner, the pleasure is all mine.”

  “No, nothing like that. I’m just wandering around and getting to know the city. Also, I wasn’t sure what time I was supposed to be here this evening.”

  “Oh, yes, I never did give you a specific time,” Robbie responded. “Terribly sorry about that, six o’clock would be good, if it’s no inconvenience.”

  “Six would work well for me,” Delno said.

  He was about to leave when Delno, on impulse, asked, “Robbie, could I ask a favor?”

  “Certainly, if it within my power to grant it.”

  “Could I train with your men while I’m staying in Orlean? That bit of unpleasantness on the road the other day reminded me that I should keep my skills honed.”

  “Well,” the lieutenant responded, “I suppose that I should tell you that you would have plenty of opportunity to train if you joined us, but instead, I’ll just hope that getting to know the men on the training field will persuade you to become one of us. Now, while I’d like to chat more, duty calls, if you’ll excuse me.” They saluted, and he walked off to attend to his tasks.

  Delno was offered his choice of any of the practice swords on the nearby racks, from which he chose a saber. He was offered a small shield, but declined in favor of a blunted short sword that wasn’t that much larger than his own main gauche.

  At first, even though he had told them that he wanted to train seriously, the men tried to take it easy on him. However, as he dispatched his first three opponents in short order, and without breaking a sweat, the men began to make more realistic attacks. While his dragon-enhanced strength and reflexes did give him a bit of an edge, he soon found out that Robbie’s boast from the day before about these men being the best wasn’t just brag. Soon he was not only sweating, but also hard pressed to defend himself against the young men. When they stopped two hours later, he was completely worn out, and he had a few bruises from the blunted blades that he would be feeling later.

  He further impressed the men when he simply joined them at the communal water trough and dipped his head right in like everyone else. He suspected that Robbie, though likable enough, was one of those officers who considered himself too good to wash the sweat off his body in the same water that the men used. He was so comfortable that he almost removed his shirt to wash his chest and underarms b
efore he remembered the mark he bore. Instead, he quickly thanked the men for practicing with him and left the compound, promising to be back the next morning.

  He reached out for Geneva.“Are you ready for company, Dear Heart?”

  “I have eaten and I am awake. I would like to spend some time together,” she responded.

  “I told Pearce that I would bring him if he is able to come. I will stop and see; either way, I will join you shortly.”

  He quickly made his way to Nat’s home and found Nat and Pearce both there and unoccupied: they agreed to accompany him. Geneva was hiding less than a mile from the main gate in a very thick section of woods. The men decided to walk, which was Delno’s preference anyway, since the walk would loosen muscles stiffened by the hard workout he had just completed.

  Pearce’s reaction to his first look at Geneva was very much similar to the reaction she had gotten from Nat. The words marvelous and magnificent were used repeatedly. Geneva was positively aglow with pride as the two men continued to praise her beauty and stature. Delno was rather amused and chuckled to himself at her reaction to the flattery. Although he did have to agree with one of Nat’s observations: she had certainly grown again overnight. While she still had some ways to go to reach her full adult size, she was visibly larger than she had been when they had last seen her yesterday before meeting the patrol from the garrison.

  “From what your mother told me of dragon growth,” he said, “I would estimate your age at more than four months, rather than under two. I am pleased that you are growing so fast, but I’m afraid that such a growth rate may be harmful to you.”

  “I spoke with that old female I told you about again last night,” she responded. “She believes that I am growing so fast because we are so strongly bonded. The magic is flowing so powerfully between us that it is greatly accelerating my growth. She feels that I should be able to bear your weight soon.”

  Nat spoke up, “I don’t believe, from what I’ve read, that she is growing at the normal rate of a newly hatched dragon. I can only hypothesize that the magic that flows so well between the two of you is causing her growth to be accelerated.

  Both Geneva and Delno laughed out loud. At the puzzled looks from the men, they quickly explained about their private conversation.

  “Remove your shirt, please,” Pearce said to him, sounding rather clinical.

  “What?” Delno responded.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, I tend to forget that we aren’t in some laboratory studying inanimate objects,” he replied. “I would like to see your Dragon Mark. So, if you would please remove your shirt. . . .”

  Delno shrugged and, crossing his hands, grabbed the hem of his tunic and pulled it up over his head. The Mark was even more perfect than the last time it had been shown to others. The lines were crisp and clean and it looked like a fine tattoo in the perfect likeness of Geneva about to take flight. It was a little larger than before.

  “Absolutely amazing,” both Pearce and Nat said together as they examined the mark.

  Delno stood so long under their combined scrutiny that he began to feel uncomfortable, so he asked, “What is amazing? It’s a Dragon Mark. You had to know what it would look like.”

  “That’s just it,” Pearce said, “We thought we did know what it would look like until you removed your shirt.”

  Noticing Delno’s puzzled expression, Nat spoke up, “Forgive us, my friend, we tend to forget that you haven’t read the same books we have. According to all the literature on the subject, that mark, this early in the bonding, shouldn’t look like much more than a wine-colored birth mark, perhaps in the vague shape of a dragon.”

  “According to one book,” Pearce added, “if the bond is strong, it could even be starting to take on some of the dragon’s color.”

  “Your mark, Delno,” Nat added, “you can not only recognize that it is a dragon, you can specifically recognize that it is Geneva, as if it were portrait drawn by a fine artist.”

  “For the mark to be so pronounced,” Pearce interjected, “speaks of an extremely strong flow of magical energy between the two of you.”

  “That is the only thing that could account for Geneva’s extremely rapid growth,” Nat concluded.

  They measured her dimensions from nose to tail and wingtip to wingtip. They estimated her weight. They even measured her teeth and claws. Pearce helped Nat write up their findings as they did so.

  Although, by the estimation of the two scientists, her growth was that of a dragon of about four months, her wing-to-body ratio was still not right for mounted flight, and Delno would not even entertain the idea of rushing that. He was adamant, as always, on the subject: they would not risk flying until they were sure she was developmentally ready.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon with Geneva, and it was more than four hours past noon when they left. Delno hurried home. He was amazed that he actually felt like it was home to him, and he quickly bathed and donned his better pants and his best shirt. Then he walked to the garrison. He arrived shortly before six o’clock.

  Robbie met him in the practice/parade yard and led him to the officers’ quarters. The table was set for three and the lieutenant quickly explained that the captain of the garrison would be joining them. Delno fervently hoped the men wouldn’t try to gang up and brow beat him into joining the army.

  It was a quarter of an hour before the captain of the garrison arrived. He quickly apologized for his tardiness, explaining that something had come up that required his immediate attention, then he shrugged and said, “The problem with running an outpost such as this one is that it’s big enough to need a full staff but not funded enough to merit such, which means that I have to personally attend to problems that would normally be handled by junior personnel.”

  Delno nodded. The man appeared sincere and he could sympathize with him.

  The food and wine arrived and was served by two young enlisted boys. Delno was surprised by their age. The older of the two couldn’t be more than fourteen. When he mentioned this, the Captain laughed easily and said. “Oh, don’t worry, we don’t conscript young boys into our army. It’s been an extremely dry year, and the farms around here aren’t doing so well. The boys are the youngest sons from two of the farms. We need someone to do some of the minor chores here at the garrison; in return for their labor, they get food and clothing and are paid a stipend. The work is not nearly as hard as the work they would have to do on their families’ farms, they eat better, and we also teach them to read, write and do basic mathematics.”

  After toasting each other, they settled down to a rather good, if simple, meal of roasted wild boar and vegetables. There was even a nice gravy to go with the potatoes.

  The Captain said, “So, the men speak highly of your performance in the practice yard this morning. You’re good with a blade, and they are all interested in that two-bladed fighting style of yours. Does your participation mean that we will be seeing more of you here at the garrison?”

  Delno started to answer, but the lieutenant spoke up first. “Actually, sir, I was hoping to recruit Lieutenant Okonan into the Ondarian army. From his record in Corice, I think he’d make a first-rate officer here.”

  The Captain turned to Delno and raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

  Delno shook his head sadly and said, “If I didn’t have such pressing business in Palamore, I would certainly be tempted. There is a camaraderie here at the garrison that I must admit that I have missed since I retired from military service, but I’m afraid that I have to be about my original errand as soon as possible.”

  The senior officer asked, “So tell me Delno, why did you retire from military service? It certainly wasn’t old age, and you didn’t look the least bit infirm this morning.”

  He was about to answer when again Robbie spoke up, “It’s that old noble birth nonsense that the North clings to so strongly. The man had reached the top of his career as a lieutenant because he wasn’t born a nobleman, despite the fact that he’d proven
that he was better than any four of the noble-birthed put together. He chose to retire rather than be stuck for twenty years as a junior officer. I don’t blame him myself.”

  “Thank you, Robbie,” the Captain said, then turned to Delno and asked, “Is that the whole of it, then?” As Robbie opened his mouth to respond, the Captain held up his hand and the younger officer remained silent.

  “Yes, that’s pretty much it,” Delno said. “It wasn’t money or rank so much though, really, but the lack of companionship.” Robbie didn’t seem to understand, and the Captain appeared to be waiting patiently for him to continue, so he went on, “I could find female companionship if I wanted, it wasn’t that; it was more just being alone in a garrison full of men. Sometimes a man needs to be able to sit around and have a few drinks with friends, maybe throw the tiles. In my situation, I wasn’t accepted by the other officers because I wasn’t a Peer, and I wasn’t accepted as one of the men because I was an officer. With all those people around, I was still alone. So I gave it up when my term ended and went home.”

  The Captain nodded and said, “And then you got home and found that you were still alone because none of the people there knew anything about what you’d been through during the war. To them, you weren’t the same person they had known before you enlisted.”

  Delno nodded and smiled, “You’ve been through this yourself.”

  “Yes, I’ve been through it and seen other men do the same,” he said. “I am the son of a blacksmith. Never did take to it though, especially working over that hot forge in the summer. Joined the army when I was sixteen. Earned my stripes first, rose to the rank of sergeant. Then I earned my collar as a field promotion and it stuck. Went from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant during a border war over ten years ago. I tried to go home after the war, too; lasted about a year before I came back and earned Captain chasing bandits all over the back country.”

  “So you see, Delno,” the younger lieutenant spoke up, “a man of your prowess and reputation could do well as an officer in the Ondarian army. I’m sure that a quick letter to. . . .”