AutumnQuest (12 page)

“Oh,” I said. “I’m Donavah.”

Traz licked his lips and whispered his name.

Yallick let out an exasperated snort. “I know that. Xyla has already told me.”

“Xyla?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes, Xyla. You know, the dragon.”

“I know.” His tone was beginning to annoy me. “I was just . . .” My voice trailed off. Yallick was a mage, and would, of course, be able to speak to Xyla. I hadn’t realized I’d only be able to hear her when she spoke directly to me.

“Well, at least you know how to eat properly. I will make tea, and we will go outside to take in the last of the sunlight.” Yallick moved to the fireplace and hung a kettle on the hook that had held the pot of stew. I watched him in amazement, not sure what to make of him. “Go on outside with you both, and take the lizard with you.” Despite his choice of words, there was affection in his voice when he spoke of Xyla.

“He likes me,” she said, and if she could have laughed, I felt sure she would have done.

I shook my head and followed Traz back outside. The sight that met my eyes, though, brought me to a sudden halt.

Along the edge of the clearing was an ancient stone wall, bulging in places and covered with layers of moss, lichens, and vines. That hadn’t been there when Traz and I arrived. How could it have been? But there wasn’t a break in the wall anywhere. And besides, I was sure that we’d approached the house from just
there
where a tangle of vines and yellow flowers along the top of the wall fluttered gently in the slight breeze.

“Whoa,” said Traz, and I saw an astonished look on his face. “Where’d
that
come from?”

I walked over and reached out a tentative hand, pulling it back abruptly when I felt the cool stones. “Don’t know,” I said, stepping away but still looking at it suspiciously. Traz investigated, while I walked back towards the cottage. Being near the wall sent shivers down my spine.

Xyla came out the door, followed by Yallick holding three steaming mugs. I took two, handing one to Traz as he walked up. I blew on my tea and breathed in the calming scent of camomile.

“So,” Traz asked Yallick in a much bolder tone than I could’ve summoned, “where did that wall come from?”

Yallick raised an eyebrow. “What wall?”

Traz turned and pointed. “That . . .” The expression on his face froze. Turning to look, I found that the wall had disappeared again, replaced by the hedge we’d pushed through. Then, without warning or sound, the wall reappeared.

“Don’t think much of that school if you can’t perceive a magic wall of protection.”

I bristled, but Traz just shrugged. “Well, I’m not a student there.” He walked over to stroke Xyla.

“Which brings me to the next question,” Yallick said, looking pointedly at me. “Where did the lad come from?”

“I picked him up along the way,” I said, feeling more and more irritated with Yallick’s disapproving attitude.

“Was that wise?”

I bit back a sarcastic reply. “His help has been invaluable. If it weren’t for Traz, the Royal Guard would probably have captured me by now. Xyla, too.”

That shut the mage up for awhile. I sipped my tea, watching him over the rim of my mug. Traz and Xyla wandered off.

“Is he maej—?”

“No,” I interrupted. “He doesn’t know about any of that.”

“Does he not?” Doubt dripped from his voice.

“I certainly had no reason to say anything about it.”

Yallick stared at me wordlessly, as if trying to read my mind. I broke the eye contact. “So what do we do, now?” I asked.

“That, indeed, is the question.”

My patience finally snapped. “Look, I don’t want to be here. I have important business in Hucklow and Penwick, but here I am, miles out of my way and no hope of saving my brother’s life, but I still have to try. So, if you think you can help, or even if you can’t, I’ll be on my way tomorrow. I certainly don’t need the aggravation of a cranky old man like you.” Then I felt my face grow hot as I realized I’d spoken my thoughts aloud.

Well, and what if I had? Yallick hadn’t been exactly warm. A breeze rattled the leaves overhead in the silence that fell between us. The hard look in his eye softened, but he turned away from me and went back into the cottage. I didn’t apologize.

I gulped down the rest of the tea, placed the cup on the ground next to the door, and set off in search of Traz.

I found him sitting next to a stream with his legs stretched out in front of him and his feet splashing in the babbling water. Xyla lay next to him, her head in his lap as he stroked her almost absentmindedly.

I plopped down next to him, not bothering about the damp earth, and dangled my hand in the water. For about a second.

“Ow! The water is freezing!” I exclaimed. “How can you sit there with your feet in it?”

Traz looked at me with that grin. “Freezing, eh? My feet are numb so I didn’t notice.”

“Ha!” I pretended to slap his head.

Xyla looked up at me and flicked her tongue a few times. “What is wrong?” she asked.

I looked at her in silence for a moment. Traz must have assumed we were speaking, because he just sat staring into the stream.

“I’m sad and anxious,” I told Xyla finally.

“Why?”

“I need to get away from here, to Hucklow, far away. I have to find information to save Breyard and then get to Penwick. And there’s no way to do it.”

“I can help.”

“You can? How?” Sudden hope made my heart beat a little faster.

“I will take you there.”

“Oh, Xyla, you can’t. I’m too big to ride you. You’re still just a baby.”

“You will see.”

She closed her eyes again and for all I could tell, fell fast asleep. Traz and I sat until well after dark, each seeming to sense the other’s reluctance to rejoin the mage’s company.

Yallick didn’t come looking for us, but somehow, that didn’t surprise me. Eventually, we went back to the cottage. Inside, near the hearth, Yallick had set out some thick pads, bolsters, and blankets. He himself sat at the table poring over a scroll in the light of a brightly burning oil lamp hanging from the ceiling.

When we walked in, Yallick looked up. His eyes bored into mine, making me feel uncomfortable.

“Come, girl,” he said, rising to his feet. “I wish to speak to you alone.”

Traz’s eyes narrowed, but at a motion from me, he turned his attention to the bedding. I went outside, following Yallick to a spot far enough from the cottage that Traz wouldn’t be able to overhear us even if he tried. And I felt sure he’d try.

“What did Oleeda tell you?” Yallick asked.

“Tell me about what? She told me many things.”

“About your place, girl.”

I wanted very badly to tell him to stop called me that. Instead, I tried to remember. There was that prophecy, but that was about Xyla. I couldn’t even remember the words, just something about a strong dragon bringing the rest home. But what had she said about me?

“I think she just wanted me to bring Xyla to you. That you’d be able to bring her up or something. She didn’t say I have a place.”

“Hm.” The old man picked up a small branch from the ground and began picking at its bark. “I wonder. Perhaps I am not reading the signs aright. I was sure—disappointed, but sure . . .” His voice trailed off.

“Sure about what?” I asked, then decided that perhaps I didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

He shook his head. “I will not say just now. I will wait and watch.”

There was a long pause, and I began to feel cold. “Then can I go back inside?”

He looked at me sharply. “Yes. Go to your night’s rest. We shall see what tomorrow brings.”

I went back, glad for the moonlight that helped me keep to the unfamiliar path. Inside, I made ready for bed and lay down. If Traz had tried to listen, he must’ve given up, because he now lay fast asleep. No sooner had I closed my eyes than Yallick came in. As I drifted off to sleep, I fancied I felt him watching me again, and I heard him mutter, “She must be the one.” My last conscious thought was that we already knew that Xyla was the one.

Xyla flew through my dreams. First just her, then more and more red dragons, until I could hardly distinguish one from another—as if I were viewing them through a kaleidoscope. A wave of vertigo tipped me over, and Papa’s voice assured me that he was watching out for me, that he would always watch over me. Then Yallick’s gravelly voice took over Papa’s words. I woke up, and my head felt as if it were stuffed with wool. I wondered if it was morning yet, but when I opened my eyes the room was still dark, only dimly lit by the coals of the fire, and Yallick was still sitting there watching me. I rolled over.

I slept soundly after that, not waking again during the night, only to be jerked out of sleep by a door slamming and Yallick shouting, “What have you done, girl?”

My father~

Stay your hand yet awhile. An unforeseen development might alter the play of the game. I will write to you again when I have had a chance to analyse our adversary’s latest move to determine what our own next move should be.

~Your dutiful son

I sat up, my heart pounding so fast that it left me light-headed for a moment. Traz rolled over and rubbed his eyes. Yallick stood over me, his eyes icier than ever in his rage.

“I asked you a question, girl,” he shouted.

I shook my head, trying to orient myself. But the mage leaned over and shook me by the shoulders. The vibrations of his anger flowed through me powerfully, and my heart seemed to be skipping beats. I tried to squirm out of his grip, but he held me too tightly.

“Answer me now! Why have you come to visit us with disaster?”

“I don’t know!” I finally managed to blurt out. “What are you talking about?”

Yallick dragged me to my feet, gripped my wrist, and pulled me outside. “That,” he cried, pointing a finger.

I looked, and my heart skipped another beat. A huge red dragon stood in the clearing next to the cottage, calmly cleaning between its toes.

“Xyla?” I whispered, confused.

“Yes, Donavah. It is I.”

“Xyla,” I said again, aloud. I let a tentative smile come to my lips. “I get it. This is a trick, like before. You’re not really this big, are you?” Yallick looked at me as if I were crazy.

“It is not an illusion this time,” Xyla said.

I gulped. “But how . . . ?”

“Speak to me!” Yallick bellowed. His whole body was quivering by this time.

“Tell us both,” I suggested to Xyla, trying to keep my tone calm. Just then, I heard Traz gasp next to me. I put a finger to my mouth to shush him before he could say anything.

“I went to Stychs,” Xyla said matter-of-factly.

Yallick choked in surprise and stumbled to a nearby stump onto which he dropped heavily. He was having a hard time catching his breath.

My mind raced back to Roylinn Academy, to Master Tenna’s class where we’d debated what Stychs might be. “Xyla,” I said, “how could . . . ? What . . . ? No one knows . . .” I couldn’t frame my thoughts into a single idea, much less a coherent question.

From where he sat stooped over, Yallick whispered “I have always wondered whether the dragons went there.”

“But I thought . . . no one knows what it is, or where, or anything.”

“You obviously thought wrong.” Unlike before, his words lacked the sharpness to sting. “As have many, many others.” His voice was soft, as if all energy had been drained from his body and mind.

Knowing I wouldn’t get any more explanation out of the mage, I walked over to Xyla. She was even bigger than I’d imagined a dragon could be. When she stood on all fours, I’d almost be able to walk under her belly without having to stoop. And when she rose up on her hind legs, her head towered above the pine trees. Her body was bigger than Yallick’s whole house, and her wings seemed to stretch for miles. I felt like a small child as I looked up at her. I placed a hand on her leg, feeling firm, strong muscles beneath her smooth hide. She brought her head down to look at me, and I saw a glint of humor in her eye. “We will go now,” she said.

I looked over at Yallick and, from his lack of reaction, realized that she was speaking only to me. “What do you mean?”

“I will take you to Hucklow.”

I sucked in my breath. “You did this for me?”

“And for Breyard.”

“What about Yallick?”

“What about him? Do you want him to come, too?”

“No!” I almost said it aloud. “I mean, what will he say?”

“I think he will probably say we should not go. Shall I ask him?”

“No!” I said again. “No. Let’s just go.”

“Get your things, and we will be off.”

I motioned to Traz to follow me into the cottage. Yallick continued to sit motionless on the stump, and I wondered if he’d gone into a trance.

I started organizing my pack. “Xyla is taking me to Hucklow,” I told Traz.

“You mean us.”

“No, Traz. I think you should stay here.”

“Are you kidding me?” His voice squeaked with indignation. “You can’t possibly mean to leave me here with that freaky old coot.”

I could see his point. “But,” I felt compelled to argue, “this is going to be dangerous.”

“First, you don’t know that. And second, I don’t care. And third, if you’re right, you need me along.” He had that stubborn look again, the one just like Breyard’s. “Besides,” he said, pointing to his cheek, “I have a score to settle.”

As before, I couldn’t resist. I just shook my head and accepted the inevitable. He grinned at me, grabbed his pack, and dashed outside. I shouldered my own pack and followed him.

Traz stood near Xyla, looking up at her in awe, but with a hand placed casually on a wing tip. He continued to amaze me, the way he could so easily accept things, without getting upset or confused the way I did. Maybe I just thought about things too much. I sighed and walked over to them. Yallick still sat on the stump. I could see him breathing or else I would have been afraid he’d died or something.

I looked up at Xyla’s smooth shoulder. “So, how do we do this?” I asked aloud.

“Just climb,” Xyla said. She lowered herself towards the ground, but her back still looked a long way up.

To Traz, I said, “She says to just climb up.” He looked at me, then back to Xyla, an appraising look on his face. Then he nodded, clambered up to her knee, and used her thigh to launch himself. Xyla shifted her leg, and in doing so, helped him to shimmy up.

“Simple!” he called down after seating himself astride the dragon. “You can do it. It’s like climbing a tree.” I wondered what Xyla thought of that comparison. “I’ll give you a hand.”

I imitated him, and before I knew it, I, too, sat high above the ground, behind Traz with my chin practically resting on top of his pack.

Just then, Yallick seemed to wake up. He glanced around as if getting his bearings and saw us.

I felt Xyla’s muscles bunch up ready to spring into the air, when Yallick’s shriek, “Noooooo!” rent the air.

“Go! Go! Go!” I shouted. With a lurch, Xyla leapt up. My chin smacked against Traz’s pack. I grabbed at him as we became airborne, skimmed the tops of the trees, and then rose higher.

“Woo hoooo!” Traz called, and I could picture the ear-to-ear smile that must have been on his face. The wind blew my hair back, and I could feel Xyla’s muscles shift beneath my legs as she beat her wings.

At first, the flight was utterly terrifying. All I could think of was what would happen if I lost my balance and fell off.

“I will not let you fall,” Xyla assured me.

“It’s not a matter of your letting me or not,” I said, hoping my mental tone wasn’t as shaky as my voice would have been if I’d been speaking aloud. “So, um, where are we going now?” I asked.

“Where do you wish to go?”

“Hucklow, I guess. I want to talk to that cloth merchant, Dallon.”

“Where is this Hucklow?”

I didn’t have any idea so I asked Traz.

“West,” he replied. “And a little south.”

“That’s pretty vague for Xyla to get us there.”

“True enough. Oh! If she lands, I could sketch a map.”

There didn’t seem to be any choice. We’d flown far from Crowthorne by now; there weren’t even any farms below us now. So Xyla landed, and Traz slid down her shoulder. He cleared a patch of earth into which he scratched a map. Xyla examined it and assured me she understood.

“When we draw near,” she said, “I will be able to find it. We must fly high now to escape notice, so you must dress warmly.”

Not wanting to have to climb back up, I stayed on her back and carefully took off my pack, pulled out my cloak, and put it on, telling Traz that he’d better put his on, too. Then I reached a hand down to help him up, and a moment later, we were airborne. Xyla flew higher and higher, until we must’ve looked like a speck in the sky from the ground below.

“So this growing up you’ve done,” I said, after we’d traveled without speaking for awhile. “How?”

“Stychs.”

I groaned. “Back to that? What are you talking about?”

A long pause. “I cannot explain. Perhaps I will find a way later. I will ponder it.”

“All right then. But why did you do it?”

“For you,” Xyla said as if it should be obvious. “It was the only way for you to get to the faraway places before it is too late. So I went to Stychs and stayed there until I was fully grown.”

“But it was just overnight.”

“For you, perhaps, but not for me.”

I sensed that her frustration matched my own, so I stopped asking questions.

As the hours passed, I got more accustomed to flying. I learned to recognize the minute shifts in her muscles as she prepared to meet changing air currents and could therefore anticipate the bumps and dips of flight. I began to relax and enjoy the exhilaration of this unusual mode of travel.

Eventually, Traz pointed at something in the distance ahead of us. I leaned forward to look over his shoulder and saw a smudge on the horizon.

“Is that Hucklow?” I asked, and Traz nodded.

I couldn’t believe how quickly the town approached. Now that I had a point of reference, I realised just how fast we were flying. Gratitude for what Xyla had done surged up inside me. I still didn’t understand how or why she had done it, but suddenly that wasn’t important. All that mattered was that she had.

Xyla began to descend, and gentle as the angle was, I still couldn’t help but grab Traz around the waist. He laughed at me, but I didn’t care. The dragon touched down lightly next to a wood about two miles from the outer reaches of the town.

“I cannot go closer or someone will see me,” Xyla said. “We must hope even now that no one has.”

As soon as Traz and I slid down her shoulder to the ground, she slipped into the woods for cover. “I will wait here for you. Find what you need quickly and return.”

As he always did, Traz found a vague footpath. “So,” he said as we tramped along, “what do you expect to find, now that we’re here?”

“The truth,” I replied without thinking.

Traz snorted. “I
know
that. I mean, how exactly do you think you’re going to find it?” He gestured broadly to the town ahead, which seemed to be growing larger with every step we took. He waited patiently while I gathered my thoughts.

“Well,” I said slowly, “Dallon is the merchant who sent the egg to that trader back in Duckbrook. This is his home, so it shouldn’t be hard to find out where he lives. He should be well-known, don’t you think?”

Traz made a noncommittal noise.

“So I’ll ask after him, and—”

“Hey! What’s that noise?” Traz interrupted me.

I listened, but all I heard was the usual sounds of birds singing and the breeze blowing across the open grass. “What noise?”

“That buzzing sound. Kind of like bees or something.”

As he left the trail, head cocked as if listening intently, I tried to hear whatever it was he did, but I couldn’t. About ten feet from the path, he bent down and picked up a long, straight stick. He tapped the end of it on the ground. “Perfect for a walking stick.” He stuck out his tongue at me, reminding me that even though he often seemed more mature than I, he was really still a ten-year-old boy.

“Let me see,” I said as he rejoined me on the path, and he handed it to me. The dark wood appeared to have once been polished to a high sheen, but it must have been here, weathering, for a long time, and the area that had been exposed was now dry and a little rough. Nothing that a few thorough polishings couldn’t take care of, though. I gave it back to him.