Dragons Lost (4 page)

"Find him!" Mercy
roared.

Firedrakes
swooped above, claws reaching through the dispersing smoke. Paladins moved
through the forest, boots thumping.

I have to move.

Cade tried to rise to
his feet, but pain flared through him. He bit down on a scream and fell. He
rolled.

He found himself
tumbling down a mountainside, his body slamming against rocks and roots. He crashed
into the trunk of a pine, and needles rained down onto him. The firedrakes
streamed above, rising and falling from the forest. Trees shattered.

Up, Cade,
he
told himself.
On your feet. Up!

He didn't want to rise.
He wanted to lie still, to wait for death to take him, to sink into warm
forgetfulness, an end to pain.

Stand up!

He balled his hands
into fists. He could not die here. Not while his family needed him. Little
Eliana—he had to help her. He had to move.

He rose to his feet.
His legs swayed, and he began to run.

The pines shook at his
sides, and the shrieks of the firedrakes rose from every direction. He was high
in the Dair Ranin mountains, and the air was thin. The slopes were steep,
strewn with rocks and thick with pines. The trees thrust out from the
mountainsides like green stubble on a giant's stony face. Cade stumbled down
the slope toward a fold in the land; the trees were thicker down there, a green
cloister, a place of shadows and burrows.

A white firedrake
streamed above, and Cade cursed and leaped under a pine tree, hiding beneath
its lower boughs. He peered between needles. The beast swept down the slope,
flying only several feet above the treetops. A saddle still rose upon its back,
but no rider; perhaps the man had died in the battle, and perhaps he was
searching the mountains afoot. Cade shuddered to think that this firedrake
itself had once been human, the soul burnt away, the reverse of purification.
Now the mindless beast screeched madly. It passed over Cade, the air from its
wings rattling the pine he hid under, and dipped toward the gorge. The reptile
soared again, crying out, flying off to seek Cade upon another peak.

When the beast was
gone, Cade emerged from under the pine, began walking back down the slope
toward the cover of the lower trees, and saw a paladin climbing toward him.

For an instant, they
both froze.

The paladin stared up
at him—a tall, gaunt man, half his head shaven, the other half sporting a mane
of long white hair. His heavy plate armor was just as white, the breastplate
engraved with a tillvine blossom.

The paladin
reached for his sword.

Cade grabbed a
heavy stone the size of a loaf of bread. He hurled it.

The paladin
opened his mouth to cry out. An instant later, the stone slammed into his
chest, knocking him down.

Cade ran. He
leaped down the slope, charging toward the paladin. The man rolled a few feet
down, hit a boulder, and began to rise. Cade reached him. He stepped down on
the man's blade, pinning the sword to the ground, lifted the same stone he had
tossed, and brought it down hard.

The stone
slammed into the paladin's face. Teeth broke loose. Blood spurted.

Cade did not
allow the horror to overcome him. He slammed the stone down again and again,
grimacing at the blood, at the crumbling face, the shattering skull, the
leaking brain.

When the man
moved no more, Cade dropped the bloodied rock. His body trembled, but he refused
to let the fear overcome him.

I killed a
man. I—

He gritted his
teeth.

Move!

He ran down the
mountainside and finally reached the snaking gully between the slopes. He
crashed between the pines, stumbled a hundred yards farther down, and found himself
standing in a dried riverbed. To his left and right, mountainsides rose like
walls, thick with trees. The forest canopy hid the sky. The riverbed spread
ahead, mottled with patches of light; the water was gone now, possibly only
flowing in spring when the snow melted. Smooth, mossy stones and a carpet of
fallen pine needles covered the riverbed.

Cade spared a moment
to examine his wounds. He winced. When falling through the sky, his own
dragonfire had burned holes into his burlap tunic. The skin below was red and
raw, and welts covered his arm. Already bruises were spreading across his legs,
and cuts and scrapes covered him. Mercy's lance had left an ugly cut on his
side, tearing through the skin. His head wouldn't stop spinning, and again the
overwhelming urge to lie down filled him.

He squared his
jaw and forced himself to keep walking, to move down the riverbed. He didn't
know where he was going, only that he had to keep moving, to put distance
between him and the pursuing firedrakes. He heard the beasts still flying
above, and their drool pattered down like rain.

Where do I
go?
Cade thought.

Where
could
he go? He couldn't hope to ever return to his village, not now. The paladins
knew about him. They had seen his magic. Soon the High Priestess herself would
know that a "weredragon"—a man who had not been purified, who could still
become a dragon—lived in the Commonwealth. The Cured Temple would stop at
nothing to find him, to break him, to show the people what happened to those
who defied purification.

I'll never
see my family again.
Cade's eyes stung, but he kept walking. For now he had
to survive, to—

A firedrake
crashed down through the trees above, its scales silver. Cade cursed and leaped
for cover, plunging down between a boulder and a leafy brush. The stone pressed
against his one side, the leaves against the other.

The firedrake
in the gully screeched, a sound like shattering glass. Its claws uprooted
trees. Soil and needles rained down. Crouched low, Cade covered his ears as the
firedrake's scream echoed inside the gorge, deafening. Dragonfire blasted out,
streaming over Cade's head, bathing him with heat.

It hasn't
seen me,
he thought, crouched low.
If it saw me, I'd be dead.

He wanted to
shift. By the spirit, he wanted to become a dragon, to charge against the
firedrake, to slay it. He dared not. Too many of the beasts flew above the
mountains; only by hiding could he hope to survive.

He pressed
himself lower to the ground, trapped between boulder and bush, hidden, daring
not even breathe. Wings thudded. Scales clanked. More firedrakes flew down to
land in the gorge, snorting and cackling.

For a moment, Cade
heard nothing but the beasts. Then a high, clear voice cried out.

"Do you hear
me, Cade?" It was Mercy's voice, crying out from a stony crest a few hundred
yards away. "I know you're here! I found the man you killed. I know you're in
these mountains, hiding like a rat."

Cade remained
still, fists tight. He wanted to burst out from hiding, to shift into a dragon,
to fly toward her and burn her. He dared not. He had to live. For his family.

"Come out,
Cade!" Mercy cried. "I only want to talk. I don't want to hurt you. I only want
to cure you. Come to me, and we'll sit down and talk, and nobody else needs to
die."

He wanted to
believe that. Spirit, he did. This day had become a nightmare of such terror he
scarcely believed it was happening. If only he could speak to them, work things
out . . .

But no. He knew
Mercy was lying. When chasing him in the sky, she had not wanted to talk; there
had been death in her eyes. She was here to slay him. Cade remained hidden and
silent.

"Very well!"
Mercy said. "If you will not talk here in the mountains, come talk to me in
your village. I fly back to Favilla, and I give you an hour to meet me there.
If you don't turn yourself in, your family will pay the price. I will see you
soon, Cade Baker!"

The forest
shook as firedrakes took flight, air from their wings blasting the trees,
sending down a hail of twigs and needles. Smoke filled the sky, and the
creatures' shrieks grew distant, finally fading.

For long
moments, Cade remained hidden in the brush. Finally he peeked into the gorge.
They were gone.

He leaned his head
against the boulder and closed his eyes.

What to do?

Cade sucked in
breath, struggling to calm himself.

Stay calm. Stay
calm, Cade. Think. Plan.

Mercy and the
firedrakes were heading back toward the village. If he did not return to
confront them, the paladins were likely to burn down his home. Yet if he did
return, they would capture him, imprison him, torture him, kill him.

Stay calm.
Think.

He left the cover
of the boulder and brush. Struggling for every breath, he climbed up the
mountainside, making his way higher. The slope was steep, forcing him to climb
on hands and knees, gripping at roots and stones. Pebbles cascaded from under
his knees and elbows, and the air thinned as he climbed. The pines tilted,
stretching out from the mountainside, trunks almost horizontal.

Crack.

The sound rose
behind him—a snapping twig perhaps. Cade spun his head around, staring down the
slope.

Nothing.

He narrowed his
eyes, scanning the landscape, but saw only the rocky slopes sliding down into
the forest. Probably an animal, he told himself, and certainly not a paladin;
if the paladins saw him here, they'd be charging toward him, not hiding in the
brush. He kept climbing.

Finally he reached
a granite peak. He didn't like the idea of rising into the open, free from the
cover of the pines, but he decided it was a risk he needed to take. He climbed
onto the stony crest and stared down south.

His breath died.
His insides trembled.

He could see Favilla
in the distance, barely visible from here. The firedrakes—he counted eleven of
them—were flying toward the village. The paladins rose atop them, their banners
streaming. As Cade watched, the firedrakes swooped toward the village . . . and
blew their fire.

"Eliana," Cade
whispered, eyes stinging. "Mother. Father."

Terror thudded
through him.

Mercy was killing
them.

Cade knew what to
do. He would fly there. He would fight the paladins and their firedrakes, even
if he died in their flames.

He leaped into the
air, shifted into a dragon, and began to fly.

A shadow leaped
from between the trees ahead, small and slender, and Cade caught a flash of red
hair. Suddenly a firedrake, its scales orange and red and yellow, was flying
toward him. The beast roared, darted forth, and slammed into Cade with a thud.

Cade bellowed and
blasted out dragonfire. Where had this beast come from? The creature—a wild,
untamed dragon—dodged his flaming jet. Its claws grabbed him. Its wings beat,
shoving him down. The two dragons slammed onto the mountainside, cracking the
stone.

"Stay down, you
fool!" the firedrake rumbled. "Do you want to die?"

Still in dragon
form, Cade blinked. Had . . . had this firedrake just spoken to him? Firedrakes
couldn't speak. They were just animals, not weredragons like him with the minds
of humans.

"Get off!" he
said, struggling and whipping his tail, his back to the mountainside.

The fiery beast
refused to release him. Its claws pinned him down. Its eyes blazed like
smelters, and smoke blasted out from its jaws.

"Shift back into a
human!" the firedrake demanded. Cade was surprised to hear it speak with the
voice of a young woman. "Now!"

Cade growled and
struggled to free himself. He recognized this firedrake. The other beasts were
black or white or metallic, their scales unicolor. But this firedrake had
scales in various shades of red, orange, and yellow, giving it the appearance
of living flame—Mercy's firedrake. A saddle still topped the beast, but no
rider. Had Mercy taken another firedrake down to the village?

"Get off me now!"
Cade growled and slammed his paws against the beast's head.

He sucked in air,
prepared to blow fire, when the firedrake grabbed his head with its claws and
slammed it back against the ground.

Cade felt a scale
crack at the back of his head. The pain bolted through him, so powerful it
knocked the magic out of him.

His body shrank.
His wings, scales, and claws vanished. He lay on the mountainside, a human
again, blinking feebly. He could barely see more than haze and stars.
Strangely, he thought he glimpsed a young woman staring down at him, her green
eyes peering between tangles of red hair, and then he saw nothing but
blackness.

When Cade finally awoke, the sun
was lower in the sky. He found himself lying on a patch of grass, the branches
of pines rustling above him. He blinked, groggy. Where was he? What had happened?
Why wasn't he home in bed or—

The memories pounded
into him with the might of fists.

The paladins. The
village. His family.

He made to leap up, to
fly back home, but he couldn't move. When he glanced down, he saw that his
limbs were bound to the trees with leather straps. Somebody had bandaged his
wounds, then left him tied here.

Fear flooded Cade. The
paladins had captured him. His family was in danger. He growled, tugging at the
bonds, unable to free himself. He let out a hoarse cry.

"Hush!" rose a voice. "Be
silent or they'll hear you. Listen to me!"

He turned his head
toward the voice. A young woman sat beside him on a fallen log. She looked to
be about his age, maybe a year or two older. He had never seen a stranger person.
She wore rags—a tattered burlap sack, a rope around her waist, and stockings
full of holes, revealing all her toes. Dirt and soot covered her skin. A mane
of wild, orange hair thrust out from her head in all directions. The fiery
strands fell across her face, hiding most of it. Cade could see little more
than a freckled nose, pale cheeks, and green eyes that peered between the
tangled strands like fox eyes from within a burrow.