Dragon Talker (16 page)

Xeron pushed on the sides of the sphere, but it was as if his force went straight through, damaging the walls but doing nothing to release him from the sphere’s hold. The sphere rotated again, this time facing him upward. He could see Perante looking down at him through four floors. Dust and small pieces of wood rained down on the sphere.

Perante shouted down to Xeron, “Are we?”

Xeron was at a loss. He could bring the whole castle down if he wanted, but he would still be trapped in the sphere. After a pause, he answered, “That depends. Are we done?”

“I think so.” Perante’s voice sounded as if he was standing right next to him. “Earlier, you mentioned killing me. Still interested in my immediate demise? Or, by chance, do you have other things, say a new found understanding of magic, that you would rather explore?”

Xeron didn’t know if Perante’s magic allowed him to hear, so he answered in a loud voice, “That depends. We both know I could bring this entire castle down.”

Perante interrupted him, “If you had time. I could have pushed you down so far all your ‘pushing’ wouldn’t rattle a tea cup.”

It was disconcerting to hear his voice so clearly. Xeron answered in a quieter tone, “I hadn’t thought of that. What do you expect from me…wait. He shook his head, as if shaking off Perante’s influence. “What I need to know is what I can expect from you. I’m done with this in the dark business and I sure as Thanala don’t plan on being your guinea pig ever again. That’s not negotiable.”

“Says the man trapped in a bubble.”

Both men stood in the silence at that. Xeron was stronger than he had realized, but he did not know as much as Perante and could not get out of this trap unless Perante let him. Xeron realized Perante was not going to say anything else. He didn’t have to. As long as Xeron was in the sphere, he didn’t have anything to bargain with. This far underground, he would only trap himself if he continued to bring the walls down.

He wasn’t ready to give Perante the satisfaction of him talking just yet, even as he felt his connection to the power he tapped slowly ebb away. As it did, he felt the toll channeling that much energy took on him. He was exhausted. He sat down crossed legged and closed his eyes to take a break. When he opened them, he was back up in the main room. He had fallen asleep.

“Tiring, isn’t it?” Perante asked. “Imagine my surprise when, after hearing nothing from you for a while, I bring you up and find you sleeping like a baby. Ah, when we first tap into real power. Exhilarating and exhausting. Would you like a glass of water?”

Xeron was incredibly thirsty, now that he thought of it. “Yes, I would.”

A servant brought in a cobalt blue glass of water. For a moment, Xeron thought this may be another trick, but he realized the glass was cobalt blue, not the water. Perante would go out of the way to show off his power in every way imaginable, even to having his glasses crafted by the best and with the finest materials.

If he wasn’t still waking up, he would have wondered how Perante was able to send the glass through the sphere. Instead, he gladly took the glass and drank half of it with his first gulps, after casting a spell to see if it was altered in any way. “Thank you. I will not kill you if you end this.”

“You mean, you will not try to kill me…oh, never mind. I have repairs to make and things to consider. You have done your job well and will be rewarded, after you get some sleep.” The sphere pulsed once and disappeared. Before Xeron could do anything, Preante cast one last spell, “Sleep.”

Chapter 25

Yuri didn’t sleep the first night out with the boys, but when they stopped three hours after leaving their village, they were asleep before Yuri got a fire started. Yuri was exhausted, but he was also too wired with worry to sleep. As if he didn’t have enough on his mind, now he had two boys in his charge.

Instead of sleep, Yuri spent the night shifting his attention from watching the fire to watching the boys. They seemed so small to him and he felt so old. He laughed, chiding himself,
18 and old, what would Lindale say if he heard me say that? Still,
, he thought
I have seen more than most.
Looking at the boys again, he wondered if this protective feeling was what his father felt for him.

At the thought of his father, tears started rolling down his checks. Everything he had been holding back or shut off to get through the day let loose. He sobbed quietly, not wanting to wake the boys. He couldn’t put words to it. It was as if a dark sadness welled up inside him and was washing out of him. When he finally stopped, he found himself hunched over his knees. His hands were full of chunks of dried grass and dirt.

He wiped the back of his hand across his cheeks, smearing dirt across them in the process. Looking over at the boys, he saw Bernard staring at him. He smiled weakly and said, “Go back to sleep, Bernard. I’m okay.” As he said it, he knew it was true. There was a weight off of him. He still felt pressure all around, but it was lighter than any time in the last day. “You ever need to cry like that, “ he tried to give Bernard the same look his father gave him when he was being serious, “you just go right ahead. It’s good for the heart.”

Bernard nodded, but didn’t say a word.

***

When the sun came up, Yuri coaxed the embers into a morning fire. He was incredibly hungry and was sure the boys felt the same. He heated what was left of his water and pulled tea leaves. After the boys got up and relieved themselves - Yuri noticed that they didn’t go far and they stayed close together - the boys joined Yuri at the fire.

Originally, Yuri was going to look for game nearby, but he had helped bury a village, temporarily adopted two boys, and hadn’t slept in 24 hours. He didn’t have the energy. The boys didn’t seem to care, either, as they grabbed the last of the apples in his pack. They ate quietly.

By the time they finished eating, the pot of water was boiling. Yuri took it out of the fire and set it on the ground, adding a few of his tea leaves. “Well boys,” he said, “We’ll have some tea to warm us up and then we’ll hit the road. Sound good to you boys?” He didn’t say it, but he hoped the drink would help ward off hunger until he could hunt some game. He was kicking himself for not setting snares the night before.

The boys nodded their heads in agreement. “I’m going to rest my eyes for just a minute while the tea brews.” Yuri closed his eyes. Before he realized it was happening, he fell sound asleep.

He didn’t stir until 3 hours later, when he felt a cold, wet nudging of his hand. He moved his hand onto his chest, but the nudging followed his hand. When he opened his eyes, he saw a raccoon standing on its hind legs and resting its front paws on his chest. The raccoon took a step back as Yuri flinched at the sight of a raccoon climbing onto his chest.

“You just stay over there,” he said to the raccoon. Yuri looked around for something that he could give or use to hit the raccoon. That’s when he noticed the boys were gone. He jumped up, forgetting about the raccoon that wandered off at his sudden moves.

“Stone! Bernard!”
What have I done
, he thought.
Lost them after only one day. Come on, boys, you better be around here.
“Stone! Bernard!”

Yuri ran in a wide circle around the fire, hoping to see the boys. As he did, he noticed the boys’ gear was gone.
Oh man, I have done it now
, he thought.
Okay, they are kids and I am a man. I can find them. But if I was a boy, where would I go?
Yuri figured they wouldn’t go just anywhere.
Would they try to head back home? Why did I fall asleep? They’re going back home.

He quickly packed up his gear.
And if I’m wrong?
The question ran through his mind more than once. He smoothed out a patch of dirt on the ground. He drew a crude fire, two small figures, and one tall figure. He then drew a line from the tall figure heading out and then returning. He hoped that if the boys came back, they would know that it meant he was coming back.

Before putting on his pack, he walked in another circle for any sign of where the boys went. The only recent tracks were all leading to or from the village. Yuri put on his pack and headed back to the village, wondering what kind of lead the boys had on him.
Well,
he told himself,
if I can’t catch up to two boys lugging a cooking pot and a burnt up stool, I’m not much of a dragon talker.

While mad at himself for falling asleep, he had to admit that it really restored a lot of his energy. The strength he first experienced in the lake hadn’t left him, either. He found that, even with his pack, he could run quite comfortably. The full pack felt like little more than a day bag loaded with a lunch and water.

After he had been running for an hour, he saw their cooking pot on the trail. He was relieved at first, until he saw the torn pack next to the pot. A shirt that looked like Stone’s size was also on the ground. Yuri checked it for blood.

“Thank goodness for small favors.” Examining the pack, he saw that the stitching had torn completely down one side. He figured Stone must have packed the pot poorly and it torn out his pack as he walked. He didn’t want to think of any other scenario, like wolves. No blood, no wolves, but Yuri couldn’t shake the feeling that he had let the boys down.

He added the shirt to his own pack and put the pot upside down on the top of his own pack, tying it down with a spare deer tendon he kept for his bow. Before Samora, running with a pack wasn’t something Yuri would do for long, and running with two cooking pots didn’t seem in the realm of possibility, yet that was just what he was doing now, without raising a sweat.

A half an hour later, Yuri saw the boys up ahead on the trail. Stone was standing over Bernard, and it looked like he was shouting. Yuri picked up his speed, and he saw that Bernard was crying. “Hey boys, you two just about gave me a heart attack. What’s wrong Bernard?”

Stone answered, “Nothing.”

“Thank you, Stone, but I was asking Bernard. How are you doing, Bernard?”

Bernard looked up at Yuri. Yuri could tell that he had been crying, and he looked determined, “I want to go home.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Bernard, but…” Yuri scratched his head, not because it itched, but he was hoping something would come to him. “There’s nothing…that just isn’t possible, Bernard. I’m going to take you where you get to start over.”

“I don’t want to start over! It’s not fair.” Bernard stood up and ran at Yuri. Yuri didn’t know what to do, so he let Bernard crash into him. As Bernard did, he also started flailing his arms, hitting Yuri in the chest. Yuri could barely feel the hits physically because of the dragon scales, but his heart went out to Bernard.

The hits started to slow as Bernard started to exhaust himself. When Yuri thought that Bernard didn’t have much strength left, he put his arms around him and pulled him into his chest. Holding him tightly, he tried to comfort him, saying, “I’m sorry, Bernard, I’m really sorry.” Yuri felt Bernard sag into him. He was spent.

Stone spoke, “He quit walking, so I was trying to get him up.”

“Stone, there’s nothing to go back to. You two can’t live on your own for long.”

“I know, but who says we have to go with you?”

Yuri continued to hold onto Bernard. “You know, Stone, no one. But I come from a good village and I will take you there and make sure you are taken care of.”

“And then leave us?” Bernard leaned back and looked up at Yuri after Stone said that.

“Leave you - it’s my village. I will be living there, but I don’t think I’m the best person to raise you.”

Bernard said quietly, “You’re all we have.”

Yuri picked him up, holding him at his side like his mother used to hold him as a child. “Look, boys, I will watch out for you. Come with me to my village and we will sort out the little details when we get there, okay?”

“They are not little details,” replied Stone.

“You are right. But how about this, come back with me and we’ll figure all the details out, big and small, and I won’t leave you. Deal.”

Bernard reached around Yuri’s neck and hugged him, saying, “Deal.”

Stone answered with, “I want my cooking pot back. I only left it because my stupid pack broke and I couldn’t carry it.”

“I was only carrying it for you. We’ll get you a new pack along the way. What if I carry it for now since I’ve got it rigged up?”

“Okay.” Stone got back on the trail and started walking back the way they had come. “Let’s go.”

Yuri shook his head in wonder and followed, carrying Bernard.

***

That evening, Yuri made the boys promise they wouldn’t run off before he went to sleep. It had been a long day, carrying most of the boys belongings and Bernard. Yuri was more worn out emotionally than physically, but in any case, he was ready for some sleep. This time, though, he set out a few snares in the woods off the trail.

After Yuri had been asleep for a while, Bernard tapped Stone on the shoulder. As Stone started to mumble a response, Bernard put his hand over his mouth. Stone got the message and sat up quietly. He whispered, “What is it?”

“Yuri,” Bernard whispered back, “isn’t a person.”

Stone was confused, “What are you talking about?”

Bernard checked to see if Yuri was still asleep and then turned his head back to face his brother. “I think he’s made out of wood or stone.” It was dark, but Bernard knew what the silence meant. “Listen, I’m telling you the truth. He carried me all day, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, so? He’s strong. That doesn’t make him something besides a person.”

Bernard pushed on Stone’s chest. “You squish. He doesn’t squish. His arms are soft, but his chest is like a rock or brick.”

“I’ll give you squishing,” Stone warned. “He’s human, and if he has anything under his shirt it’s probably armor. Maybe he is a soldier.”

“Or a tree man.” Bernard wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

“I’m going back to sleep, and if you wake me with anything else crazy, I’ll squish you. Do you hear me?”