Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga) (11 page)

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 stiff 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.”