Heir of the Dragon

by Anna Logan

  Unfortunately the decision was made for him when the messenger spoke tentatively. “Sorry, but um, did you want to write a reply? For me to take back to them?”

  “Yes,” he turned to his saddlebags to find a quill and paper, “just a few minutes, please.” With Jay beside him he walked a short distance from the group, to a log that would serve well enough as a seat, where they could both write their replies. The speech impediment had increased his appreciation for written communication—on paper, he never stuttered or said the wrong word without even knowing it. At least the stuttering had faded in the past three years.

  Still, written or not, he didn’t know what to say. It sounded like she needed some encouragement...some sort of motivational speech...but he wasn’t good at that in face-to-face interaction, let alone in a letter. In the end his answer was brief, and a little vague, but hopefully he’d demonstrated some understanding, even if he didn’t think he did understand.

  Jaylee was still working on her note to Terindi. Wylan, he noticed, wasn’t writing one at all. “Wylan,” he held up his letter, “did you want to add something to mine?”

  Apparently Jaylee didn’t approve of his offer, judging by the chiding look she instantly turned on him. “Uh…” He pursed his lips, trying to grasp her meaning. “Or ah, write one of your own?”

  Wylan approached with his characteristic demeanor of indifference. “I’ll just write on yours.”

  Jaylee scowled. “That’s hardly…” She didn’t finish, and instead rolled her eyes and returned to her writing.

  Wylan either didn’t notice her reaction, or didn’t care—most likely the latter—as he sat down on the log and accepted the note from Yhkon. He stared at it, contemplating, for all of five seconds before he started writing at the bottom. Thirty more seconds and he was handing it back. Yhkon folded it without reading what had been added, though it didn’t look like more than a few lines. Jaylee had finished hers too, and he gave both notes to the messenger.

  No sooner had the messenger left than Tarol appeared with a smirk that said he was feeling mischievous. “Alright, alright,” he raised both hands, “explain this to me. You aren’t even vaguely related to the Tavker line, yet that’s the name you choose to—”

  “Oh drop it.” He made a move to escape by mounting Eclipse.

  Instead, Grrake ruined it. “You could change it, if you wanted to. There’s no more danger of people knowing who you really are.”

  Ha. Was that who he really was? Because it didn’t feel like it. “I’ve been Yhkon Tavker for t-two decades and it’s easier to stay that way.” That was true...partly. It was better than saying the other part of the truth—that he didn’t want to be a Ken’d’Valsem, or a Sjanteven. He had grown up thinking his mother was Mayra Tavker, the mother of his siblings. Now he knew she wasn’t, and traditionally, in a monarchical family the children took the surname of the mother if she had the royal blood, not the father. Which meant that technically, his last name was Ken’d’Valsem, and he was part of the royal family. Or, if he decided not to take that name since he wasn’t really part of that family, naturally he should take his father’s surname—which was Sjanteven.

  Tavker, on the other hand, was the maiden name of a stepmother that had died before he was even born. Yet he felt more connected to it than to Ken’d’Valsem, or Sjanteven.

  Despite his leaving that half of the truth out, Grrake still tilted his head with concern. “It’s not because, well…”

  Yhkon cursed inwardly. “No.” He mounted Eclipse before anyone could make further objections. “Let’s go. I want to get to the next city before dark.”

  ~♦~

  Talea bit her tongue on a profanity. The Kaydorians learned quickly. Over the last seven attacks, they’d adapted their reaction better each time—learning to spread out, making it harder for the wards to get more than a couple at a time; to not attack them straight on, but to try and surround them; to always have archers around for long-distance combat.

  Right now, they had boxed the four of them in, and would soon crush them with sheer numbers. There was no way out, unless she made one.

  Weariness was already weighting her limbs—they had been fighting desperately for ten minutes, a constant expenditure of electricity. And if she didn’t muster up more, they wouldn’t be getting away, not alive. She raised her hands, pulled from the sapping energy within, and sent it out in a wave in all directions.

  “Talea, wake up!”

  Noise, drawing her from the peaceful void of sleep.

  “Lea, come on, Lea.”

  That was Rikky’s voice. Only he called her Lea. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes.

  Consciousness came slowly. He was right above her, watching her anxiously...actually he was holding her up. She’d fallen? Movement...his arm was around her, pulling her somewhere. The knights. Her mind cleared, as she looked around. Her wave had taken down most of the five hundred that had been surrounding them. Nausea twisted her gut.

  “Come on.” Rikky adjusted his grip, dragging her with him as he started at a brisk walk. “Are you okay?

  Was she okay? Her whole body quivered. There was hollowness where there should have been energy, leaving her muscles slack. And she felt an unnerving awareness of the bodies that surrounded them. Still, she put her feet to the ground and forced them to bear at least some of her weight, thankful for Rikky supporting the rest.

  Skyve took the lead, Terindi the rear, as they fled the castle and barracks. Escape from the city, she suspected, wasn’t going to be easy—with each attack, Kaydor clearly became more and more determined to ensnare them. This time, five hundred men had waited as bait, while another eight hundred were hiding, waiting to rush out and surround them once they were engaged. Most likely, the city was teeming with patrols.

  They had entered the middle-class area of the city. Round a bend, and...patrol. Skyve threw a couple lightning bolts, taking down a few and startling the rest, while they veered the other direction. Only to run into another, with the first closing in on them from behind.

  Terindi engaged those behind, Skyve the ones in front. Talea wanted to help...except she didn’t know if she could even stand on her own, let alone fight. Rikky adjusted his grip on her to free one hand to lend to the fight. The three of them managed it, but the noise of the conflict had drawn the attention of more patrols. She could hear them coming despite the pulsing in her ears. Dizziness made the ground blur as Rikky started moving again, towing her along.

  Every few blocks, there was another patrol to contend with. Skyve and Terindi could usually handle them, at least enough that they could keep moving, and Rikky dealt with any they missed. Talea could tell that her three companions were tiring, however. Maybe not Rikky, but once Skyve and Terindi were out of energy, he couldn’t get them all out on his own. You have to step up. Her body ached at the mere thought. At first, trying to shift more of her weight to her own feet only seemed to inconvenience Rikky, as he stumbled a little. She got herself balanced, though, and despite the weakness in her limbs, she shook her head at him. “I’m okay. You help Skyve and Terindi.”

  He didn’t look convinced, still maintaining a grip on her arm. “But—”

  “Help them!” She indicated Terindi’s position behind them. “Terindi, with me!”

  Terindi swapped places with him, taking Talea’s hand as they ran after Skyve. He was the best suited to lead, here—unlike the rest of them, he’d actually found it interesting to pore over various maps of Aydimor, and could navigate the streets like he’d grown up on them.

  What he couldn’t know from his maps was where the soldiers lurked.

  Talea and Terindi passed the corner of a building just behind him. She didn’t see the Kaydorians waiting against the wall until it was too late, as one of them body slammed her. A glint of sunlight on moving iron snatched her focus even as she recoiled from the impact. Sword. She created a cocoon of electricity around herself just as he thrust a sword at her chest. On contact, the energy tr
aveled through the weapon and shocked him. The blade still poked into her shoulder, bringing a searing flash of pain. Another of the men made the mistake of trying to pull his comrade away from her, only to receive the same shock, immobilizing them both as the electricity wracked their bodies. Seeing that Terindi and Skyve had dispatched the others that had ambushed them, Talea released the barrier. The two knights slumped to the ground, weapons clattering on the cobblestone.

  Skyve, one arm bleeding, took the lead again. Rikky had fallen behind slightly as he’d engaged a lance but caught up as they neared the entrance to their drainage tunnel.

  “Wait!” Talea forced rubbery legs into a burst of speed that allowed her to catch up and grab Skyve’s wrist. There was a patrol in sight, running toward them from the right. “Wait. If we use the tunnel again, they’ll see and we won’t be able—”

  “I know, but how else—”

  “Come on!” Rikky swept by them, headed toward the wall, not the drain. “I can get us over.”

  If anyone could get them over the guard infested wall, it was Rikky.

  With the three of them simply trying to keep up with his massive strides, he took the lead. When the wall was in sight, he charged full speed, outdistancing all of them instantly. The sentries at the base of the wall alerted those atop as they raced to meet them. Not one of the soldiers lasted more than three seconds. The men on the wall cut down the ladders giving access to the top...theoretically. Perhaps they’d forgotten that the wards didn’t need access to take them down. Rikky and Skyve dispatched the thirty nearest with a series of lightning bolts. The farther guards were already running to close the gap as Rikky cupped his hands as a foothold for Skyve, and didn’t just boost him—he threw him a few feet up, enough that Skyve got a hold on the top edge and pulled himself the rest of the way. Rikky boosted Terindi and Talea up the same way, Skyve helping them at the top. With the three of them up and the gap rapidly closing, Rikky ran a short distance from the wall, turned back, sprinted forward, and jumped. Skyve barely caught his hand and pulled him up.

  They jumped down on the other side, rolling to spread the impact. It still jarred Talea’s head into a fiercer headache. Rikky put his arm around her again, helping her across the mote. She could hear Kaydorians pursuing as the four of them delved into the woods. Her pace was slowing despite her efforts. Each heartbeat throbbed through her whole body, and each throb seemed to remind her brain how exhausted she was. Hoping the celiths were in hearing range, she whistled, and her friends did likewise. She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard hooves vibrating the ground. Just as the patrol came into sight, so did the celiths. The four of them mounted and galloped away with mere seconds to spare. Since their celiths were significantly faster than the soldiers’ coliyes, getting away would be no difficulty.

  When tears stung Talea’s eyes and wet her cheeks, she hoped the others either wouldn’t notice, or would think it was because of the speed they rode at.

  No such luck, since they stopped twenty minutes later and her eyes weren’t dry. Skyve was already dismounting. “We should patch up, before going farther.” He started toward her, only to notice her moist cheeks, and balk. “How uh, how deep is that?” Refusing to make eye contact, he gestured to the blood stain on her shoulder.

  She swiftly swiped at the tears. Get it together. “Not very.” She sluggishly dismounted, Rikky at her side in an instant to steady her. “Your arm? Either of you injured?”

  Terindi and Rikky shook their heads. Terindi was giving her an empathetic frown.

  “Not bad,” was all Skyve said about his crimson sleeve. “Let me…” He made another vague gesture to Talea’s shoulder, while pulling his medical kit from his saddlebags.

  Rikky eyed the bag with a smirk. “Got anything to drink in there?”

  “What do you take me for, a Stitch?” Skyve sat her down and began sorting through his supplies. He certainly could have passed for a Stitch, as everyone called the San Quawr medics. He had as much knowledge and was always prepared with supplies. Stitches were known for carrying liquor in their bags, supposedly for medicinal purposes...more often, it was just to pacify the patient, or dull the pain.

  Talea started to reach back to untie the straps that held her leather pauldron in place, but stopped at a flare of pain. Rikky did it for her and helped get the piece over her head. With it out of the way, Skyve pulled the collar of her shirt down enough to expose the wound, dabbing it with a cloth dipped in disinfectant. He brought out a needle and thread next. Unlike Ami or the twins, or even Grrake, she could watch the procedure...feeling it was worse. It was done quickly, however, and the wound bandaged.

  Skyve addressed his arm the same way, letting Terindi do the stitching part.

  “Alright.” Talea rubbed her eyes, standing back up with Rikky’s help. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep. To never fight another battle. To never take another life. “Let’s...let’s keep going. At least five miles, today. Actually, ten.” She shook her head. “I think we’ll take a couple days off.”

  No one objected, not even Rikky. Probably only because he knew that she needed the break, even if he didn’t.

  The ride was quiet. While it might have been nice to have a distraction from her own thoughts and feelings, she was grateful. If she let her mind wander, she could still hear the screams of the Kaydorians, the sizzle of electricity burning armor and flesh, the deafening clatter of hundreds of boots and swords and plates of armor. The stillness of nature and three silent companions was welcome.

  At some point, she started drifting. She would be aware and alert, only to snap awake after almost dozing off in the saddle. Her eyelids refused to stay open, her head was desperate to lull to the side...her body to slump...she woke to Rikky catching her as she fell, propping her upright with one arm, his celith beside hers. “You’re going to fall off and hit your head on a rock. Maybe we should stop and go the extra distance tomorrow.”

  Talea shook her head vigorously, trying to clear it. All it did was make the ache in her skull worse. “No, no, I’m okay.”

  “That was a big wave.” Skyve pulled his celith alongside with theirs. “You do need rest. It might be a couple days before you recover.”

  “I know. I’ll rest when we’ve got ten miles between us and Kaydor.”

  “Fine.” Rikky shrugged. “Then I’ll say I told you so when you wake up with a concussion after falling out of the saddle.”

  She nodded, yawning. “Fair enough.”

  “Hey, guys,” Terindi called from ahead of them.

  Just before a new voice came from the left, “Narone qu ohal jerin.”

  Talea brushed her hair behind her ears and returned the call. “Oli Yeal des undeir shylem.” The words, “in Him we find peace,” made her flinch. She wasn’t finding peace in Narone. He had supposedly destined her for this war.

  The messenger appeared a moment later. It was the same one she’d sent letters with for Yhkon and Wylan, three weeks ago. Without dismounting, he bowed and handed her a letter, another for Terindi.

  Just one? She opened the envelope with hands that were still shaking from the attack two hours ago. It was from Yhkon, and accordingly brief, even a little awkward as he tried to offer encouragement, but sweet all the same. It made her miss him more. There wasn’t anyone she was quite so comfortable with, anyone that she trusted so much, or was as close to. At some point, Yhkon, along with the other Wardens and wards, had become her family. They had become home.

  But they were on the other side of the region.

  At the bottom of the page, an addition in Wylan’s handwriting:

  Talea,

  I understand. We have the same thing here—every fight is easy, and it does seem unfair. Try to remember why we’re fighting in the first place, but don’t let it change you. I hope we’ll be doing this together instead of apart, eventually. Be safe.

  Wylan

  She slowly folded the paper, tempted to read it again, as if she might have missed something.
Not that it should have been surprising that Wylan’s reply was so concise...if anything, it should have been surprising that he replied at all. It just...it didn’t fill the hollow feeling in her chest. She didn’t want to remember why they were fighting in the first place—she already knew why, and it wasn’t helping.

  “Any news?”

  Skyve’s question forced her to return to the present. “Ah,” she laughed a little dryly, thinking she sounded like Grrake, Yhkon, and Gustor—saying ah instead of uh, in typical Sanonyan fashion. “No. They’ve cleared several cities, and are starting to see more resistance, I guess the Kaydorians are catching on to their plan, but they’re all fine.”

  “Good.” Rikky stretched his arms behind his back, wiggling enough in the saddle that his stallion sidestepped. “Overall, I’d say that so far this whole thing is going well. About time we fought back.”

  Terindi finished her own letter and delicately stowed it in a pocket. She sat a moment, spinning one of her beaded bracelets around her wrist. The sky-blue one—Talea had picked up on some of the girl’s Canadise traditions, and knew that the blue represented peace and serenity. “Yes, but I wish there was a different way.”

  “Like what?” Rikky leaned back. “He came after us with his swords and shackles when we were peaceful, and we’ve lived under that for decades. How else do we strike back, if we don’t strike?” The only time Rikky spoke so eloquently was when it was something to do with defending the war.

  “I didn’t say there was a different way.” Terindi took a deep breath. “Just that I wish there was. You can’t accuse me for that.”

  He didn’t say anything. Talea wasn’t so sure it was because he agreed. She wanted to express her support for Terindi’s honest perspective, but she didn’t want to prolong the debate. Or, if Rikky didn’t argue with her as he often didn’t, seeming to hold the opinion that he shouldn’t since she was technically his leader—she didn’t want to see that disappointed or frustrated frown as he bit his tongue, refusing to speak against her. So she gave Terindi a sympathetic look and changed the subject, smiling apologetically at the messenger. “Sorry. Did any of you want to send letters?” She swallowed as she asked. After all, she should probably reply...but she didn’t have it in her. She wasn’t sure how to feel about Wylan’s note yet, and until she was, how could she answer it?