Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (39 page)

“
And what do you require of me?”

The deep voice answered one word. “Conversation.”

“
I’m sorry?”

“
Converse with me, Sarah, and I will uphold my end of the pact.”

“
Why?”

“
Ye do not understand. My brethren are solitary,” the dragon explained. “They do not seek the company of others, whereas I, myself, am naturally inquisitive about other cultures.”

“
You’re curious about us! You want to learn about our world, don’t you?”

The dragon nodded. “Aye, I do. How often will the chance arise to study a completely foreign culture?”

“
Interesting.”

“
Excuse me, don’t I have a say in this?”

She turned to her husband and made those distinctive shushing motions that every man was familiar with.

“
That is the nature of our pact, Sarah,” the dragon continued. “Do we have an accord?”

She beamed her smile at the dragon, all traces of nervousness vanishing. “We have an accord, Kahvel.”

Satisfied, the dragon moved off in search of some unlucky prey for lunch. Steve caught his wife’s arm, spinning her around.

“
Okay, what was that all about? I don’t need a babysitter.”

Not wanting to create a scene there in the glade where everyone had stopped for their midday meal, she decided to invoke her secret weapon: Bambi eyes.

“
Sweetie, this will make me feel better. Isn’t that worth it?”

Steve sighed, rolling his eyes inward. She just had to hit him with that argument, to which he wasn’t allowed, as a married man, to refute. So be it. Now he had a dragon looking out for him. As he thought about it, though, he couldn’t stop the smile spreading from one ear to the other. He had a dragon for a guardian! An actual flesh and blood dragon was watching out for him!

Selecting a patch of grass that was partly shaded from the sun, Sarah sat down, pulling her husband down with her. Steve shrugged off his pack, stretching his back. Seems just like yesterday that he was wearing this thing, on the run from their kidnapper and hoping to make it to R’Tal as soon as possible. How long had they been here now, anyway? Steve was pondering the answer to that when Sarah gently prodded his shoulder.

“
Hon, you’re zoning. You okay?”

“
Yeah, I was just wondering how long we’ve been here. I mean, what about home? My parents are going to wonder why I haven’t called. Your parents, too. Aren’t you concerned?”

“
Can we do anything about it right this second?”

“
Well, no.”

“
The way I see it,” Sarah continued, “is that we are doing everything we can possibly be doing to get home. So why worry about something we have no control over?”

“
What about our jobs?”

“
What about them? Can we call in sick from here? Besides, aren’t you the one who wanted to relocate to Coeur d’Alene? Start your own business? As for my bosses,” Sarah said slowly, “they will be more concerned with my safety than anything. We’re going to have some explaining to do when we get home, that’s for sure. So until we do, I refuse to worry about it.”

With that, she leaned up against the large shade tree and steadied her breathing. Moments later she closed her eyes, holding out her hands as though offering some type of prayer.

“
What are you doing?”

“
Quiet. Don’t interrupt.”

Intrigued, Steve watched as Sarah took another breath. Suddenly she was holding a large, heavy burlap pack.

“
Oooof! Hon, help!”

Steve rushed forward to snatch the pack out of her hands. Whatever was in it weighed a ton. What was in this thing anyway? Curious, he made to untie the opening flap to peer inside but Sarah smacked his hands away.

“
What are you doing? This is my surprise!”

“
But, but- what is it? Is this the experiment of yours you were talking about with the queen?”

Smiling, Sarah nodded, rising to her feet. She took the bag from her husband and walked over to where Rhenyon sat, ready to pull out some of his travel rations: dried strips of meat and a small flask of water. He looked up as Sarah approached.

“
Good day, Lady Sarah. What have ye got there?”

“
Lady Sarah,” she repeated, smiling. “I like the sounds of that. Anyway, this is for you.” She handed the heavy pack over to the puzzled captain.

Rising to his feet, Rhenyon opened the pack and gave an exclamation of surprise.

“
Wizards be damned! Where did this come from? I did not see ye or Steve carrying this!”

Rhenyon opened the flap and started pulling out tightly wrapped packages of food and three flasks of wine. The rest of his men were instantly on their feet, their bland provisions long forgotten. They each took a package and carefully unwrapped it, revealing two phedras each, still warm, some type of steamed vegetable, and, as Steve unwrapped his, one of those fat purple pears. Cups were produced, and the flasks were passed around, everyone filling their cups.

“
You teleported that from the castle, did ye not?” Rhenyon took a big bite of one of his phedras. “I had not taken into consideration your remarkable jhorun.”

“
It’s actually something the queen thought of,” Sarah explained. “I had asked her what I might be able to do that could be considered useful, and she wanted to know how much I could teleport at a time. I told her I truthfully didn’t know, so she said that she’d have a pack of food all ready to go on the bed in our quarters. All I had to do was conjure the bag here. When we’re finished, I’ll send it back, where it will be filled and ready for the next time.”

All the soldiers stopped eating and stared at her with awe, including her husband.

“
Ye can keep providing provisions such as these?” one soldier asked, incredulously. He glanced at his captain. “I can get used to that.”

“
Would ye prefer if Lady Sarah accompanied us on all of our missions, Jalen?”

“
Do ye want me to answer that, sir?”

Laughing, Rhenyon slapped the soldier on the back. “Ye will get soft eating like this all the time. Still, as long as it is readily available.” He took another healthy bite of his phedra. Chewing thoughtfully, he glanced westward, to the edge of the forest.

Following his gaze, Steve looked at the forest’s edge as well. “We should be able to make that in a couple of hours, don’t you think?”

“
Aye. Easily.”

Finishing their meal, the soldiers looked uneasily at each other as they held their meticulously clean dishes.

“
Uh, sir, what are we to do with these?”

“
I know what I am going to do,” Rhenyon answered, passing his dishes to Kern, who grudgingly accepted them.

Sarah came to their rescue, collecting dishes from everyone and returning everything into the pack. Smiling, she walked up to Rhenyon, holding the pack away from her. Interpreting the gesture as a request to take the bag from her, Rhenyon moved to grab the dangling strap when his hand passed through empty air, the pack vanishing right before his eyes.

“
Lady Sarah, we are in yer debt. Ye have made six new friends this day. Keep up that type of service, and ye will have those six friends for life.”

Sarah gave the soldiers one of her winning smiles. “It’s the least I can do.”

“
Lady Sarah.”

“
Many thanks, milady.”

“
I thank ye, Lady Sarah.”

By the time she returned to Steve’s side, she was all but glowing.

“
You’re going to come in handy,” Steve assured her.

The men finished breaking their small camp and made for the trees in the distance. The terrain remained smooth and level with no one really showing any signs of fatigue. They were making considerable progress towards the edge of Anakash Forest when Steve noticed the absence of the dragon.

“
Where’s Kahvel? Isn’t he supposed to be our guide?”

“
Since he’s our guide, he’ll know how to find us,” Rhenyon called from the front of the line. “I do not think we need to worry about him. He will catch up when he can.”

“
What if he can’t find us?” Steve wanted to know.

“
It is easy, human,” the familiar deep voice answered. “Ye follow the noise.”

Steve whirled around. Sure enough, the golden dragon had approached silently yet again. How did he keep doing that? They weren’t making that much noise, were they?

“
How long were you there this time, dragon?” Rhenyon wanted to know.

“
Perhaps a quarter hour.”

“
You certainly know how to move about with stealth, Kahvel,” Sarah remarked. “For someone your size, that’s impressive.”

Kahvel unfolded his wings to momentarily stretch them out, temporarily casting a huge shadow over the amazed soldiers. Folding them back across his back, the enormous dragon gave a small, curt nod of his head.

“
If I do not wish to be heard when I move about,” Kahvel explained, “then I do not. How else could I be following the likes of ye without my presence being known?”

“
We’re about to enter the forest there,” Steve pointed out. “Anything we need to know?”

Kahvel blinked, staring at the small human. “Need to know, human? Hmmm.” The dragon was silent for a moment as it considered. “Ye will be walking amongst trees. Ye might find a leaf or two strewn about the ground.”

Several soldiers snickered.

“
Anything of relevance,” Steve said impatiently.

The dragon chuckled, tendrils of smoke dancing in the air above him.

“
Nothing that I am aware of,” the dragon said, still chuckling.

****

Anakash Forest encompassed the entire northern region of Lentari, stretching from the western ocean all the way to the Great Sea of Koralis. At times the forest was many hundreds of leagues wide. Fortunately, though, the smaller southeastern section of the forest that they were about to traverse was only about twenty-five leagues wide before it jutted up against the base of the Bohani Mountains. The path they were aiming for, which would lead them to the northern lake, Raehón, should be somewhere close to the mountains.

The first thing Steve noticed, as they passed into the forest, was how quiet it was inside. Was it supposed to be this way? Where were the animals? Where were the chirps of the birds? The rustling of insects and such?

“
Is it supposed to be this quiet?” Steve asked in a hushed tone.

“
This forest is ancient,” Kahvel rumbled, breaking the silence. “These trees were around long before dragons and men walked the earth. They are just as alive as any of us. They have their own means to protect themselves.” Kahvel angled his long neck up to scrutinize the towering tree closest to them. “Respect them.”

All eight humans were staring at the trees with the same thought in mind: just what would happen if one of them did fell a tree? In response to their unspoken thought, a tree directly ahead of them groaned a little, as if a strong wind were blowing. Several branches swayed in the non-existent breeze.

“
No felling any trees,” Rhenyon ordered. “Use fallen branches only as long as we are in this forest. Understood?”

There were choruses of ‘ayes’ as the soldiers hastily agreed.

Progress was slow through the thick trees as the ground started to slope gently upwards. Gathering wood for the fire tonight shouldn’t be difficult, Steve mused, as there were fallen branches and trees everywhere. He was helping Sarah over a huge fallen log when the dragon moved up behind them.