Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga)

by M. R. Mathias

  “It seems that the librarium has been cleared,” Unis told them. “Let us see if we can find that journal for which Linux sent you.”

  Chapter 12

  The eager libriar led them right to the text Linux was after. It was a journal written by a woman named Clover. She’d lived a century ago. She either had a vivid imagination or she was the first known rider of dragons. The latter was the case. The truth was confirmed in several accounts written in the early days of the druids’ settlement. Her wyrm, who she called Crimzon because he had scales the color of blood, was a fire drake. According to the passages Jenka read over Lemmy’s shoulder, they had an eventful time of it. Among the diary-like entries were several sketches of dragon saddles. Those were what Linux said he wanted. They were about to ask for an inkpot and quill, but then Lemmy found a page that was stuck to the next. It was the page that Linux’s message secretly told him to seek out.

  Unis was standing about, talking softly with one of the libriars, and not paying much attention. Lemmy gave Jenka the hunters’ hand signal for silence. Then he carefully peeled the pages apart to find a map. To Jenka’s amazement, the tri-coiled Dragoneer emblem was sketched in the bottom corner of the page. He’d thought it a sketch of an upside down clover at first.

  Linux, Jenka remembered, was the one who helped the tanners make the Dragoneers’ emblazoned vests. He must have remembered the design from Clover’s sketch.

  Jenka was dying to know what the map led to.

  Neither of them bothered to study the drawing. Lemmy shut the journal and began tactfully trying to get Unisyus to let them take it. The old druid balked at first, but after Lemmy promised that he would return the volume when they were done copying the saddle designs, Unis finally relented. Now Jenka and Lemmy were hurrying to Lemmy’s room so they could use the ink and vellum they’d obtained to copy the saddle drawings and the map.

  Where does it lead? Jenka asked as soon as they were away from Unisyus.

  To a castle, I think, Lem answered excitedly.

  Jenka couldn’t help but notice how Lemmy acted more the age he looked, instead of the age he was. It was amazing to think that the half-elvish hunter was over ninety years old.

  Is it close? Jenka asked.

  I’ll have to search for landmarks on the map. It was most likely made before we began earnestly settling the mainland.

  We need to copy the whole journal, Lem, at least the significant passages. How long will that take?

  Lemmy thought about it for a moment. I can have it done by the time Jade is rested and ready to fly again, he promised.

  There was an unspoken agreement then. They were going to find the castle, if it wasn’t too far away.

  Lemmy went right to work, and began copying first the saddle sketches, then the map. When he started copying text, Jenka read and studied the pages after Lem finished them. It was all general womanly stuff, about Clover’s garden and a recently deceased wizard who had schooled her in the arcane. After a while, Lemmy’s hand grew cramped. Jenka took the journal and skipped to the later entries. On the second random passage he looked at he went as pale as a sheet. There on the page was something about the Confliction.

  To avoid the impending Saraxian Confliction, Crimzon and I exhausted the power of one of the teardrops his mother shed. The spell will hold the strange creatures for decades, maybe centuries, but it will not hold them forever. The call the creatures emit seeps through the coating. They crave human flesh, and are suited to hunt. Twice the size of a man, and two-legged, with thick, greasy skin, they fly fleetly on powerful wings. They swarmed Crimzon that first time, and would have brought us down. Only my uncanny luck saved us, when a storm broke, and filled the sky with lightning that seemed to be drawn to them, but did not harm them.

  Vax will watch over what I have done and spend his days trying to fortify the spell, but I fear even his strong natural ability will not be enough. He is a good son, a good man. He has devoted his entire life to sustaining the encasement. Eventually it will fail, though, and the Confliction will begin again. The Sarax will not stop feeding until they have devoured all. They are not of this world. They have no respect for the life here. The steel star ship that carried them here buried itself in the earth. They cannot leave. Sooner or later we will have to kill each and every one of them, or they will surely eat us all.

  We hope that the Great Seer of Corm told us true when she predicted the coming of the Dragoneers. Five dragons, with five riders, she said, will stand and face the savage Sarax to determine the fate of men. It is for these five that I will spend my last few years preparing things they may need.

  Jenka was dumbfounded, but not so much that he didn’t tell Lemmy what he’d just read.

  The journal is yours then, Lemmy told him. His demeanor had shifted from that of an excited boy to deathly serious. Linux sent us here for more than just a saddle design. His missive suggested as much, but not directly. We need not copy all of this. We must follow the map and see what is there. I will have Unisyus fly a bird to Mainsted bearing the saddle drawings Linux requested.

  I had a wakeful dream of a deep mountain castle once, Jenka said. Zahrellion’s dragon, Crystal, showed me the vision.

  Use the power of the sword Mysterian gave you to try and reach the Dragoneers through the ethereal, Lemmy suggested. Let the teardrop amplify your sending.

  Jenka tried and tried but couldn’t get his mental voice to reach Zahrellion, Mysterian, or even Rikky. He ended up writing a message telling them that, after he and Lemmy finished at the temple, they were going to explore the castle. He hoped Crystal would remember the vivid scene she’d shown him. He gave the message to Lem, who gave it to Unisyus, with his copied drawings of Clover’s dragon saddle designs. Soon, the swifter hawk was on its way to Linux, leaving Jenka and Lemmy with little to do save wait for Jade to wake from the deep slumber into which he’d fallen.

  Let’s read the rest and see if there is anything we may need once we get there, Jenka suggested. We definitely need some cold weather gear and some good rations.

  We may need crossbows, torches, and maybe even a coil of rope. Lemmy was inking a list before Jenka could suggest it. How long will Jade sleep?

  He’s young and exhausted; probably the rest of this day and tonight. We can leave midday of the morrow. Jenka was pleased that he had something exciting to focus on. He hadn’t thought about Zahrellion all day. Even as he thought about her now he didn’t dwell on his feelings for her.

  It took most of the daylight for Jenka to round up everything they needed. He stumbled on a troubling scene at one point, when he stepped out onto a balcony. Below, in an enclosed yard, two ogres were being lashed with a whip. A druid with eyes as black as onyx looked up at him and grinned. Jenka hurried away and spent the rest of the day trying to put it out of his mind.

  ***

  Lemmy used the time to study Clover’s writing. He found that she was more carefree in the early entries; the volume was three fingers thick, and all but the last few pages were written in a crisp, simple script. She’d started the journal after she’d sought tutelage in the arts of the arcane from a wizard named Master Zarvin who lived on a distant continent. She wrote of the fae folk who lived around the old mage’s tower, and how he showed her the way of things. After he died, she moved on. She flew across a great sea and found a new land to build her own tower. She and Crimzon befriended the ogres there, and with their help, she built a castle instead of a tower. She avoided the kingdom folk. The kings of men there all hated dragons. By the last half of the journal she was mentioning an Outlander named Denner Noffa quite often, then she was with child. Her son was born Vax Noffa. This gave Lemmy pause, for he knew exactly who Vax Noffa was. Vax Noffa was a powerful and secretive Outland wizard. Now, he was the only person Lemmy knew of who had a parent not descended from the Dogma’s survivors.

  ***

  After learning all that Lemmy had read, Jenka grew curious. He went on to read about how Clover and her fierce red
wyrm encased the steel star ship in molten crystal, with the bulk of the Sarax creatures trapped inside. She described how Crimzon’s fiery breath consumed the dragon teardrop as she cast a certain shielding spell in reverse. When the fire drake took the heat away, the thick magical field quickly formed into a diamond-hard shell. Clover exhausted the power of a sizable dragon’s tear fortifying the bonding of the encasement, but the magic could only do so much.

  In the later entries, Clover described with a shaky hand the crystal shell flaking in places. She said that even with her son constantly working to fortify the confining crystal, it was only a matter of time before it all crumbled away.

  Those last entries were decades old, Lemmy explained. Jenka could only imagine what the state of the protective shell was now. He figured Vax Noffa wasn’t so much a strange recluse as he was probably constantly working to sustain the spell his mother had cast. The one time Jenka had seen the mysterious Outlander he only got a glimpse under the dark hood the man wore. Intense blue eyes set in a weary, vacant face, was what he saw. Knowing what Vax Noffa was about explained the empty expression. Jenka hoped he knew what his mother did of the Confliction.

  “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Jenka spoke out loud. “Finding Vax Noffa has to be our goal. We need to see the star ship, as well as the castle. Maybe we’ll find him there.”

  No, Lemmy replied with his mind. But I remember hearing Outlander tales of Crimzon and Clover told by the fires in my youth. Her dragon carried her here from the Motherland, or some other place where men bear beautiful daughters.

  Later, Jenka thought about it all as he drifted in and out of a fitful sleep. The morning was on him quicker than he would have liked, but Jade was awake and ready to fly them north into the deep of the Orich Mountains.

  After loading their packs with fresh bread and cheese, and smokeberry wine for any ogres they came across, they hiked away from the temple and waited as Jade cautiously approached from afar. After Jade landed, they climbed onto the young green dragon’s back and were lifted into the sky.

  Chapter 13

  “What have you done, witch?” Herald yelled over the chaos.

  “Gravelbone ruined him, just like Linux told me,” Mysterian moaned out a sorrowful wail. She was looking at the blood-drenched stab wounds in the king’s true body as a terrified guard rolled him over. The young soldier held his king for a moment, and then scrambled away with eyes full of tears. The king’s heart had been punctured several times. No healing could bring him back. It was pointless to even try.

  Rikky noticed that Prince Richard wasn’t mortally injured. The dagger tip had found a rib and only wounded him. The Crown Prince rolled to his feet, grabbed his mother and held her limp form between him and the confused room. The dagger sticking out of him fell, thumping loudly to the floor. Guards were trying to crowd into the chamber now, only making it that much more cramped.

  “The druid,” Prince Richard pointed an accusing finger at King Blanchard, who was still in Linux’s body. “He spelled me to attack my father. Then he stabbed me.” When no one moved, Prince Richard began screaming. “I am the king now, damn you! Do as I say. Shackle the traitorous druid!”

  “We will not,” Zahrellion snapped with a challenging glare at them all. It was obvious to her that Prince Richard wasn’t fully recovered. His skin was jaundiced and his eyes were shot with blood. “Get the king to the dragon bailey,” she directed Rikky and Marcherion while pointing at Linux’s sobbing form.

  “Do as she says, boys” Herald added. “Before there’s no chance left.” The old ranger looked Zah directly in the eyes. “Kingsmen’s Keep, Zahrellion. No arguing.”

  “You’ll not take him anywhere.” Prince Richard shoved his mother at a guard and started at Zah. She spoke a spell swiftly and with a sling of her witchy staff pummeled his chest with an invisible blast of wind. He fell back hard, gasping desperately for air.

  “I’m right behind you, lass,” Herald told Zah as she followed Marcherion, Rikky, and King Blanchard out of the Dragoneers’ Lair. “Watch for us. Watch the road for us.”

  “I will,” she nodded. Then she followed King Blanchard to the bailey and helped him climb onto Crystal’s weary back. The dragons flew them away from Mainsted to a clearing in the forest between Mainsted and Midwal. There the dragons rested while Rikky and Marcherion hunted a meal. They killed an early fall gobbler, of all things, but made short work of plucking it and getting it cooking. They were confused, but kept their heads. The king had to be taken to safety, but the implications of what had just happened started sinking in when Rikky pointed out what they hadn’t considered.

  “Prince Richard will take the throne and use its power to hunt down the druid.”

  “Linux is dead,” Zahrellion snapped. A stray tear streamed down her cheek, but she ignored it.

  “Those guards didn’t know,” Rikky explained. He was nervous and talking fast. “Queen Alvazina and King Blanchard kept the secret well. Everyone in the kingdom will think King Blanchard is dead. Richard thought... he thought... He thought he was murdering his own father. There are witnesses. We Dragoneers may not even be welcome now. Not after Richard establishes himself.”

  “I thought Prince Richard was one of us?” Marcherion asked. He looked baffled by the events taking place around him. “If this is the king, ask him what he would have us do.” He gestured toward Linux’s body, which was hunched over and still.

  “The prince was the best of us,” Rikky explained. “Gravelbone messed up his thinker while he was captivated, but even so, Prince Richard managed to thwart the bastard so we could end him.”

  “Take me to the Druidom of Dou,” King Blanchard said weakly. “They can illusionate me there.”

  “Illusionate?” Marcherion asked Rikky. “What the—?”

  “He’s not wrong,” Zahrellion nodded. “Linux’s twin brother is the acting High Druidon; he might be able to cast such an illusion, but he’ll not like the news we bear.” She went to the king’s side and gave him a canteen of water and a rag with which to clean his face. “We have to wait for Herald. I gave him my word,” she explained. “Then we will get you to Kingsmen’s Keep.”

  “You’ll stay and wait for Herald.” The king was regaining some of his composure. “The man with the fire wyrm can carry me.” He looked at Rikky for support. “Rikky Camille will watch over us.”

  “After the dragons are rested,” Rikky agreed.

  Zahrellion gave Rikky a look that said she didn’t want them to separate. Rikky sensed her displeasure and hoped that something might change before the wyrms woke from their deep slumber, but as nightfall came and went, nothing did. While Crystal showed the other dragons, Zah showed Rikky how to find the Temple of Dou. She drew a map in the dirt and made him repeat what she told him. She made certain that they knew she didn’t like the situation. The king made it clear that, at the moment, what she thought mattered little. The entire kingdom was in peril.

  Crystal was the first to wake, and Zahrellion reluctantly readied herself to go find Herald and learn what she could. She looked confused and angry, but when Marcherion smiled and wished her well, Rikky saw her light up.

  “We’re all Dragoneers, Zah,” Rikky said in a way that caused her to flush with embarrassment for showing her delight. But nevertheless, when she took to the air she was smiling despite the craziness of what was taking place. Rikky hoped she kept sharp. He knew she was a capable druida, but so was Linux, and he was full of knife holes now.

  Not long after Crystal disappeared in the sky, Silva and Blaze were ready to carry their riders north. King Blanchard wouldn’t let them take him to Kingsmen’s Keep. He said that it would be next to impossible to convince the rangers that he was really the king. The druids, especially Linux’s brother, would know how to deal with the situation. They would believe.

  His fear of dragons had the king quaking as he was helped onto Blaze’s warm, scaly back. Once the king was situated, Marcherion took his place between two st
iff spinal plates and urged his wyrm into the sky. Silva came right behind them and was soon streaking past in undulating bursts of speed.

  “That’s one fast dragon,” Marcherion observed aloud.

  “Looks like she is swimming through the sky,” King Blanchard agreed over the rush of the wind. A moment later he said, “You’ll have to kill my son. None of the other Dragoneers will be able to do it. Yet it must be done.”

  Marcherion didn’t respond to that. He wasn’t certain he could kill someone he didn’t know, but after seeing the pallid, bloody-eyed prince of the realm stab the body of his own father to death he knew that it most likely needed doing. After a time, he replied. “The Confliction is drawing nearer. I think that few of your kingdom’s affairs will be important before long.”

  “Jenka told me of this Confliction, but I learned little from our conversations.”

  “There is little to learn,” March replied over his shoulder. He could barely believe he was talking to a king trapped in a druid’s tattoo-faced body. Brendly would think him drunk if he told such a tale.

  It was after sunset when they passed high over Kingsmen’s Keep. The moon was a brilliant yellow crescent. The dragons didn’t need the moonlight, but without it, the riders would have seen nothing. With it, they saw treetops around the orange specks of firelight that burned in the kettles outside the keep’s doors, but little else.

  Rikky longed to land and see his mother. He hadn’t seen her since he, Jenka, and Zahrellion rode out of Crag with Master Kember.

  As dawn broke they found that they were right on course. There in the distance was the big valley Zahrellion had described to them. The dragons were humming with excitement and maybe even a little fear. The Dragoneers sensed it too. Like a distant voice on the wind, the anticipation of the coming Confliction was palpable.