Dragon Tears (19 page)

They searched the forest floor for broken branches and quickly found two that would work. They ran back to the opening and began jabbing at the hole. Chunks of dirt fell away as they worked with feverish intensity.

The earth was different from that in the Valley of Death. The dry, crusty, almost sand-like dirt had given way to a rich loam. Grasses and tree roots hampered their efforts, making them work twice as hard. Their hands, arms, and backs began to ache, yet still they dug. Below them they could hear great slabs of hard-packed earth and rock falling away as Redwing and Larkin dug. They pried loose a particularly large boulder and winced when they heard Larkin yell, “Ouch!”

“Sorry,” Patrik yelled down the opening.

“It’s okay. It just hit my sore leg,” Larkin called back.

The moon rose and was high in the sky before they finally heard Redwing say, “I think it’s big enough. I’m going to give it a try.”

Patrik and Allard stepped back from the hole, holding their breath as Redwing’s head and neck appeared in the opening. She wiggled and squirmed and got her two front legs free. She used them as levers and pushed down in an effort to pull her massive stomach through the hole. A grunt of pain and exertion was all she got for her efforts. “Let me try it again,” she said as she tried to back down into the opening. But her large body didn’t move. It would go neither up nor down.

“I think I’m stuck,” she said, trying again to free herself.

“What if Larkin pushes you from beneath?” Patrik asked.

“That might help.”

Patrik hollered down the hole. “Can you hear me, Larkin?”

“Yes.”

“Redwing’s stuck. We need you to push her through the opening.”

“Okay, I will do my best.”

Larkin moved beneath his friend, and placed his shoulders underneath her rump. He braced his back legs against the floor, and began pushing. Nothing happened. He tried again with the same results.

“She’s not budging at all,” he hollered up to his friends.

“You know I could have her out in a heartbeat if I could use my magic,” Wizard Allard said.

“No magic!” Redwing replied. “We’ll just have to try harder. Larkin, on the count of three, I will pull while you push.”

Larkin waited for the count then shoved as hard as he could. Tension knotted his large muscles, and strain caused them to shake, yet he continued pushing. Redwing slowly began to move upward. He took a deep breath, and then gathering all the strength he could find, he shoved with one mighty thrust. A ripping sound filled the opening, and Redwing let out a growl that was part whimper and part groan as several of her scales were torn loose from her side by the overhanging rock that hid the opening. Once freed from the overhanging edge, Redwing slid the remaining way out. She landed in a heap at the edge of the hole. Larkin followed right behind her.

“You’re bleeding,” Patrik said, rushing to Redwing’s side.

“I lost some scales down there. It was a tight fit.”

“Will you be okay?”

“They’ll grow back eventually. But if you could put a mud pack on them that will help keep insects out of the wound.”

“I have some ointment in my pack that should help with the pain,” Allard said. “I’ll put that on first, and then the mud pack.”

“Thank you. Sometimes I wish we dragons had hands like you humans do. They sure come in handy sometimes.”

“That was a terrible pun,” Larkin said, nosing his friend’s side. “You must be in pain to make such a horrible joke.”

“It’s not that bad. Where do you think we are?” Redwing asked, changing the subject. “We sure aren’t in the Valley of Death anymore.”

“No, we’re not,” Allard said, as he slathered ointment on Redwing’s wound. “We traveled steadily north in the tunnels so I would think that we are well away from it.”

“What do we do now?” Patrik asked.

“We find a place to make camp for the night, and then in the morning we keep traveling north until we find the Singing Mountains,” the wizard replied, patting Redwing’s side to let her know that he was done.

The large dragon got up with deliberate slowness, testing her wound to determine how much pain it was going to give her. Her teeth curled back in a snarl with her first step, but she continued in spite of it. Larkin was also moving slowly, refusing to put any weight on his injured leg. He limped along on three.

Patrik watched the injured dragons as he scratched his head in thought. “Are you going to be able to fly?” he asked at last.

“If I can get off the ground,” Larkin answered. “On three legs that might be difficult.”

“I should be fine as long as you don’t put any packs on that side,” Redwing said.

“I could heal you both…” the wizard began.

“No magic!” they all said at once.

“I just thought I might offer,” the wizard said, jutting his head up with offended dignity.

The dragon’s keen sense of smell quickly led them to a small stream where they made camp for the night. Exhausted by their escape, they lapsed into a deep sleep that only sunrise broke.

“I never thought I’d be so glad to see the sun again,” Patrik said, yawning and stretching his arms above his head. “I don’t know how the earth dragons stand it, cooped up like that without real light.”

“They’re born there. It’s all they know and what they’re used to,” Larkin said. “It’s like the water dragons and the sea. They wouldn’t know any other way.”

“I guess,” Patrik said, “but it’s sure not for me.”

“Me either, youngling,” the wizard said, climbing out of his bedroll and joining Patrik and Larkin.

Redwing was slower to awaken. The days of starvation and her wound made her sluggish and grouchy. “I’ve got to eat again,” she said. “I’ve got to get my strength back.” She left them without saying another word.

“Hmph,” the wizard said. “I guess we won’t be going anywhere for a while. Fish anyone?”

Larkin snorted.

Patrik groaned, sure Larkin was laughing at him. “Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked the dragon. “May I come with you?”

Together they searched the forest for edible fruits, berries, and nuts. When Patrik had gathered enough for the wizard and himself, he left his friend grazing and returned to camp. He was pleased to see that Redwing had returned, and that the wizard had broken camp. The boy stored his bounty in one of the packs and hollered for Larkin, who limped back a short time later.

“Still can’t use that leg?” Allard asked.

“Hurts too much,” Larkin replied.

“If you were human, I’d put a splint on it.”

“Why can’t you do it anyway?” Patrik asked.

The wizard scratched his beard. “No reason, I guess,” he said. “It couldn’t hurt, and it just might help. Find me two long, straight poles at least six feet long while I tear up one of my robes to use as bandages.”

Patrik left to find the poles.

“Okay, Larkin, this might hurt a bit, but you have to straighten out that leg,” the wizard said when Patrik returned.

Larkin obeyed, but his lips curled back in a snarl at the pain it caused. The wizard laid the poles beside the dragon’s outstretched leg and began wrapping it tightly with the strips of cloth he had torn from his robe. When he finished, he looked up at the dragon and said, “Okay, Larkin, now try to get up.”

It took some doing, and more than a little help from Redwing, but Larkin finally made it to his feet. He stumped around the campsite, testing out his splint. “It does feel better,” he said and turned to the wizard. “Thank you. I’d never heard of such a thing, but it does seem to help.”

“Do you think you can take off and land now?” Patrik asked.

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out though.”

They loaded Redwing with their packs, being careful to keep them away from her wounded side. Patrik climbed aboard Larkin while the wizard mounted Redwing. Rat, watching the proceedings, jumped behind Patrik. They plodded through the forest until they found a clearing large enough for the dragons’ take-off. Redwing took to the skies with one try. Larkin, however, appeared to be in trouble.

“I can’t seem to get up enough speed with this bad leg,” he said, sitting back on his haunches.

Redwing circled the clearing, and called down to her friend, “You can’t give up, Larkin. You’ve got to try it again.”

Patrik reached down and patted Larkin’s side. “Does it hurt?”

“Not too bad. It’s just awkward and gets in my way.”

“Do you want to try again?”

“I have to,” the dragon said, squaring his shoulders and knotting up his muscles. “I’m going to push harder with my hind legs and flap my wings as fast as I can. If I get airborne it’s going to be bumpy, so hang on tight.”

Patrik thrust his hands underneath the harness and clenched them with white-knuckle fierceness as Larkin once again began to run down the length of the meadow. The dragon’s wings flapped with furious strength, and just as the trees began to draw close, he hunched down and pushed off with his back legs. He caught an updraft and was airborne, but the tree line came rushing up to meet them. He needed to get higher, quickly, to avoid crashing. He flapped his wings with all the strength he had. Patrik held his breath and wished there was something he could do to help the dragon gain altitude. The boy clenched the harness even tighter as the tops of the trees grew closer and closer.

“You can make it,” he shouted to Larkin. “Just a little higher.”

Overhead, Redwing and Allard watched the dragon struggle to clear the treetops.

With one powerful downward thrust of his wings, Larkin finally pulled them above the trees just as one of the taller ones brushed against his stomach.

Patrik blew out a relieved breath from between his lips. “That was close,” he said, reaching up to scratch Larkin’s head ridges, “but you did it. How does your leg feel?”

“It’s throbbing like it has its own heartbeat,” Larkin said, “but we made it, and that’s all that’s important. Now on to find the dragon king.”

Redwing and Larkin wheeled around to head north, but almost immediately pulled back.

“By my flaming beard,” muttered the wizard, “what in all the flaming world is that?”

Patrik could only stare in silence, his mouth hanging open. Redwing and Larkin circled round and round as the travelers stared at the vision in front of them. What the tall trees of the forest had hidden, their dragons’ eye view now clearly revealed.

Jutting up in front of them, like giant teeth, were hundreds of crystal peaks, shining in the sunlight with all the colors of the rainbow. They glimmered and shimmered, constantly changing color as the sun moved in and out of the clouds that decorated them like icing on a cake. And from far away, they heard the soft tinkle of wind-blown debris hitting the crystal walls in a constant, chiming song.

“The Singing Mountains,” Patrik said.

“I would think so,” Larkin said.

“I agree,” Redwing said.

“How in the flaming world are we supposed to get across that?” Allard asked.

Chapter Eighteen

From the air, the crystal peaks of the Singing Mountains appeared closer than they actually were, and it took the dragons most of the day to reach the foothills. Only there were no foothills. In less than a heartbeat, the forest ended and the sheer rock walls of the mountains began. There was no gradual giving way of forest to mountain with gentle sloping hills to mark the beginning of a new terrain. Rather, there were only trees, and then a wall of crystal that rose straight up like soldiers armed with sparkling spikes against the sky.

The wind never stopped blowing. It blew through the crystal peaks, making them sing as if they were wind chimes. The closer they got, the louder their song. What at first had sounded charming and quaint now became a constant irritation, and they had to shout to make themselves heard.

They circled the mountains looking for a place to land. Finding nothing, they backtracked for half a sunmark until they found an open meadow. Redwing landed first, and Larkin bumped his hind quarters along the ground for half the field’s length as he tried to avoid using his injured leg. Rat, disgusted with the bumpiness of the ride, jumped off with a hiss of annoyance leaving Patrik to hang on as best he could.

The dragon came to a stop just as the tree line began, heaved a great sigh of relief, and turned to apologize to his rider.

“It’s okay, Larkin,” Patrik said. “We’re down and we’re safe. That’s all that matters,” he said, stroking the dragon’s head.

“I could have done better if my leg didn’t hurt so bad.”

“I know you could. Quit worrying about it. Let’s go talk to the others.”

Patrik waited as Larkin made his way across the clearing, his splint making him waddle back and forth like a woman carrying a heavy basket of wet laundry. The wizard was unloading their packs, and Patrik could tell by his sharp, angry movements that the older man was in a foul mood.

“Give me a hand here, boy,” he barked. “After all, you are my apprentice.”

“Yes, sir,” Patrik said, grabbing up their lean-to and stakes. He began pounding them into the ground as the wizard began ranting.

“I don’t know how I ever let you talk me into this fool venture. Here we are in the middle of flaming nowhere, and I’m not even allowed to use my magic to help us. We’ve been stormed on, almost drowned, trapped by giant earthworms, and now there’s a mountain of glass we’re supposed to cross. And that infernal noise is going to drive me flaming crazy.”

Patrik didn’t know what to say so he decided to keep quiet. Unfortunately, the wizard wasn’t done yet.

“Look at those peaks. They’re as sharp as knives. We can’t land on them, and if we can’t land, we can’t go any farther. We’re stuck here, without supplies. This whole trip has been a waste of time.”

He grabbed the mallet from Patrik’s hands and began hammering at the stakes. “Mark my words, boy,” he said giving one of the stakes a vicious blow, “we’ll be lucky to get back home let alone find this dragon king. Well, I’m not going one more step, and neither are you, boy! We’re going home in the morning.”

He struck the wooden stake again, causing it to split down the middle, making it useless. He kicked at it and handed the mallet back to Patrik. “You do it,” he said, turning his back on his apprentice and stalking off into the woods. Rat bounded after him, and the wizard turned his fury on her as well. “Get out of here, cat,” he snarled, flapping his arms and making his robes flail around him like the wings of an angry bird of prey. The giant cat switched directions in mid-stride and charged back toward Patrik. She stopped at his side and waited for the boy to pet her.