Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) (13 page)

Cyerant stood there for a moment feeling just like he was back home and several years younger with his tutors. He began to speak but was cut off by Shira. “I am Shira, Shiradane Koraston of a fallen home.” The woman nodded to the girl.

“I am Veer, Veerdrayer Amicious of a fallen home.” The woman nodded to Veer and turned her eyes toward Cyerant.

“I am Cyerant Dal Reez.” Cyerant paused and then added “Of a fallen home.” The woman nodded to him.

“Mother, we would like to trade before we travel on,” Veer said to the woman using a respectful honorific.

“Batty, Batrice Vranyell and trade is welcomed here
,” the woman answered.

At this point things changed and the other women approached and began to speak to the three companions. In a short time the trades were made and items purchased. Cyerant found that there was a family in town which had lost a son some time back and he was the same size so Cyerant was able to purchase two sets of good clothes. The smith had died some months back and his family needed money so
Veer was able to purchase some clothes that would fit his rapidly broadening shoulders. Medicine and herbs from the healer and grain from various households, each of which had a little that they could sell and after a short time the companions had everything which they had come for.

The villagers found it odd that the gangly colt would just follow the young nobleman around with no lead. The puppies wandered around but caused no trouble while a noisy crow flew about
landing on houses and scolding anyone who would listen.

While
Veer was at the cabin of the smith family getting clothing that would fit him he heard the hammering start back up in the smithy. Veer looked at the woman and asked. “Did your husband have an apprentice?”

“No that’s our son Cal, he is only twelve summers and he is trying to make things to sell at the harvest gather but he had not learned much before his father passed over so all that he can seem to make is nails.”

“I can hear why,” said Veer. As he left the house and thanked the woman he followed the sound of the hammer to the smithy and he stood and watched the boy who was almost frantically beating on the metal laying on the anvil in front of him. “Stop,” Veer said. The boy looked up with frustration in his eyes.

“Why?” Asked the boy.

“Let me show you something,” Veer said as he approached the boy. “Cal right?” Veer asked and the boy nodded. “My father was a smith too, and I learned a lot from him.” Veer took the tongs from the boy and put the piece of metal from the anvil back in the forge to heat and then he started to pump the bellows a bit to heat the metal. “Your work is not hot enough; watch.” Veer kept pulling the working metal out and showing the boy the different colours that tell you how hot the iron had become and what kind of things you do to it while it is that colour. The boy just watched and nodded.

After showing the boy all the different colours for working iron
Veer picked up a hammer and motioned for the boy to also pick one up. Veer brought a piece of hot iron to the anvil and the boy did the same. “Now, I bet you know dances from the gathers.” The boy nodded again. “There is one called the Noble Promenade. Do you know it?” Again the boy nodded. “Good, now that dance is kind of slow and it is a walking dance with a big step and a little step and you count ONE, two when you dance with a girl. Hammer just like those steps only the bigger step is on the piece you are working then let the hammer tap the anvil for the smaller step. That keeps you working evenly and steady and the second bounce recoils the hammer up for your next blow. Try it.”

Once everything had been purchased and was ready to be packed Cyerant and Shira found
Veer at the smithy showing the boy how to gently draw out the desired form from the metal instead of trying to beat it into shape. Several hours had passed and it was late afternoon. Veer noticed his friends watching him and he looked at the boy and said. “Very good, you learn really quickly just remember, hammer like you are dancing, keep the metal hot enough and draw the metal don’t try to push it and you’ll make a great smith.”

As
Veer turned to walk away the boy finally spoke again. “Thank you.”

“It is what my Da would’ve done and I bet what your Da would have done too.” 
Veer answered the boy as he waved to him and turned away.

“That was nice of you,
’ Shira said to Veer.

“I just wanted to hold a hammer for a while, kinda reminds me if those days at the forge with my da.”

As they approached the pile of things which they had purchased or traded for the four children with the four horses were just bringing the horses back from the different barns. Each horse had been groomed and the saddles cleaned and oiled. Veer gave each child a small coin to pay for the care of each horse. Soon the companions had loaded their horses and had said thank you and were leaving after the short formal parting exchange with Batty.

“These horses look like they were well groomed
,” said Cyerant.

“They were
,” said Veer.

Shira knew that
Veer wasn’t gong to explain anything so she explained. “Small villages along the Wall do not have professional stables, so when visitors come through the oldest kids from different families each take one horse to their barn and feed and groom it and they will oil the saddles and fix any tack that needs it. And you pay them just like you would a stable. That way several families get a bit of the profit and no one barn gets overburdened trying to feed several horses and each horse gets its own groom.”

“You
Hillfolk are a lot smarter than I had heard,” said Cyerant. “What did I do wrong when we met them? You looked mad at me.”

“Just customs is all. You just don’t know them yet
,” said Shira. Since you are the oldest if you speak first in the greeting it would tell them that you are in charge and if you introduced us it would tell them that we are your family. I am the youngest and I introduce myself first and they know that I am not sister or wife to either of you. Then Veer is the next oldest so he speaks and they know that he is not your brother or anything else to you like a partner. Then you introduce yourself and they now know who we are, that we are not related and that nobody is in charge.”

“So why did the oldest one of them speak first? Asked Cyerant.

“Because we are the visitors,” asked Veer. “Look there are a lot of customs around here about giving and getting news and it is very subtle. You should just listen. Introduce yourself after us but before your host. Always unstring your bow and raise your open hand as a sign of peace. That’s a good place to start so that you don’t catch feathers”

“Catch feathers?” Cyerant asked
as Veer chuckled.

“Hit with an arrow,
” Shira snapped but clearly meaning the attitude to be aimed at Veer and the answer at Cyerant. “Have you two forgotten the important part? Think! We went into a village with dragons – Dragons! And no one realized what they were.”

“Alright, so we can go into villages to re
-supply when we need it,” said Veer. At least we won’t have trouble getting food.

“Someone tried to buy my colt
,” said Cyerant. “He said that it would grow into a fine big farm horse. And what does dyerai mean?”

“It means outsider, like a stranger but it is a stranger who also is not
Hillfolk. A woman wanted to keep one of the puppies too.” Shira said. “Wanted it to grow up and help with her hunting and tracking.”

“Batty asked me if I had seen a young woman back up
-trail,” said Veer. “She said that there was an apprentice who went up-trail to harvest some herbs that don’t grow this far south and only grow in the hills north of here. So this girl is up in the hills looking for herbs and when she left they had no idea about the foreigners. It was supposed to be a pretty safe easy journey a couple of weeks north to get the herbs and a couple of weeks back. Now Batty is very worried about her, even more so after I told her what happened to my village.”

“Was she alone when she left?” Asked Shira.

“No, Batty said that she had two orphans with her one was a boy who is big and slow and the other is a Gypsy girl. I guess that Batty takes care of orphans.”

“Oh, I wish that she had asked me. I saw them a couple a days before I found you in the cave
,” said Shira. “We camped together for one night.”

“Well, I hope that they make it back safe.” Said Cyerant. “It will be evening in a couple of hours and we should get deeper into the hills.” Cyerant urged his horse to a faster pace and moved out ahead of the others.

Anyone looking at the small party passing would see three young adults, each on a horse with a packhorse being led and a colt that occasionally danced around and which seemed to follow along of his own accord. The party also had a young guard dog, and a young hunting dog and a few smaller mongrel puppies. And there always seemed to be a crow around somewhere usually scolding or cawing angrily.

The small party was able to move through the hills fairly quickly as they travelled south and for a couple of weeks they passed without any trouble or seeing any sign of guardsmen or soldiers while occasionally visiting small villages for supplies and news.  Each time the small band came out to the Edgeway they found that the pathway was getting larger and more worn due to the increased traffic the
farther that they moved south. Villages were also becoming larger and larger with more houses and barns. There were also more people in the villages who were not actually farmers. So occasionally a village would have a wheelwright or cooper and there were more smiths and farriers.

Veer
awoke to the sounds of morning birds and noticed that there was a newer smell to the air; it was the smell of a forest getting ready for autumn. As the young man sat up and looked around he noticed that Cyerant was standing up from his place in the brush near the camp where he had sat the last watch of the night. Cyerant nodded to Veer quietly as he entered the camp, sat down and glanced over to where Shira was starting to wake. It was still dark but the eastern sky was lightening in the promise of a new day. As Shira sat up she looked at the other two with her hand on her growling stomach. There were no dragons to be seen anywhere but that was normal since the dragons tended to go out just before morning and hunt so that they would be well fed and ready for the day. All three young people could feel hunger pangs which they knew were really the feelings coming from their dragons. Shira suddenly felt the ache in her belly subside which she knew was the result of her dragon feeding. And she said, “she’s made a kill.”

Veer
nodded and added,”Drace too.”

Cyerant looked thoughtful and said, “Yes, Corth is eating too. I wonder if they feel it when we
’re hungry.” 

Shira answered,
“I believe so since Cyool gets snappish when I’m hungry.”

“That makes two of you
,” Veer quipped under his breath forgetting how sensitive the hearing of the girl had become since bonding. Her sniff and glare reminded Veer that she was quite capable of hearing him even when whispering.

“We should go out to the Edgeway and find a village to buy some supplies today. It shouldn’t be far since we have been riding so close to the edge of the
Wall anyway.” Cyerant said.

The three of them continued with their morning routine as the dragons returned from their predawn hunt. Soon they were mounted and moving generally to the southwest knowing that they would break out of the tree line by late morning and be on the Edgeway. Though the companions had been avoiding trails and trackways and had been moving mostly across country the little band was making good travel time and had come a considerable distance in the time that they had been travelling. They would have covered much more ground had they stayed on the Furway or the Edgeway but it just wasn’t safe for them to be on the trackways with two different kinds if search parties out looking for them. The trees and plants were starting to change as they moved into the southern Dragon Hills. There were different plants and trees which were completely new to the three young people. All three companions, being from several weeks travel north, found it odd that
because though they knew it was getting close to the end of summer, it was still very warm compared to what things would have been like at home. By this late in the summer the nights in the northern hills would be quite chilly and the days would be slow to warm.

As the party rounded a low hill they broke through the brush to find a trail crossing from east to west.
Veer spoke. “This trail will be one of the ones running from the Furway across to the Edgeway.”

Shira looked at the trail and said. “It has been used a lot lately but the horses have regular shoes so no foreigners.”

Cyerant said. “Well we know that we are close to the Edgeway and if this trail is like the others there will be a village right where they meet. I think that we should follow it out to the village, it will be nice to ride on even ground.

After only half an hour the companions rounded a bend in the trail and found the tree line and just as expected there was a village right ahead of them. Except that this was not really a village. This was bigger than a village – it was a small town. There was a lot of activity around what had to be thirty buildings gathered together along a main street which was just the Edgeway as it passed through the town. There were also a number of outlying buildings and farmsteads in the area. As the small band approached the town they could see that there was a smithy and a long barn which was most likely a stables. Right where the trail met the central street the companions found a building on the corner with a sign announcing it to be a trade post.

Cyerant said
, “finally a market of some kind.” As he rode up and dismounted hitching his horse to the pole in front of the building. Shira and Veer joined him. Cyerant wished to himself that Corth would not try to follow him inside. The dragon, now definitely larger than a pony and starting to look like a yearling colt walked over to the hitching post and stood near the horses. As Cyerant led the way inside of the trading post followed by Veer and Shira they could see a boy of about 10 years in pretty ragged clothes arguing with a man in a storekeeper’s apron.

“But I have money
,” pleaded the boy.

“Probably stole it
,” yelled the man who turned toward the newcomers and pointed toward their knees. “No dogs please; not even puppies.”

“I worked for it; I helped
out on a farm,” answered the boy.

The man yelled
as he turned back to the boy. “What work could you do for a farmer? You stole that money and you know it. I know your kind you come in with a pittance to buy some little thing and then you fill your pockets when I’m not looking.”

As quickly as Shira and
Veer though it the smaller dragons turned away and seated themselves around the entrance to the building.

“I just want to buy the book
,” wailed the boy as the man grabbed him and started to march him to the door.

“Where does a thieving little ragamuffin learn to read?” Asked the man, as he physically threw the boy into the dirt of the street
in front of the building.

The boy was left sitting in the street and he yelled at the back of the man who was turning back into the shop. “I wasn’t always an orphan you know, I had a ma and a da and I’m not a thief and I can read and I did work for this money.”

“Good day to you young travellers,” said the man with a big smile spreading his hands motioning toward the room around him he continued. “I have the finest quality supplies and equipment. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for?”

Cyerant replied, “n
o one thing in particular but several things that we need for the road as we travel. First, a bit of salt please.”

As the storekeeper showed Cyerant where the salt was he began to converse in that way that storekeepers have of prying information out of strangers. “You came in on the cross
-trail, are you coming from the Furway?”

Cyerant responded. “No we were
travelling the Edgeway and then went out to ride in the hills and hunt a bit. Then we found the crosstrail and it brought us here. But now it is time that we start moving north again.”

“North eh?” The shopkeeper replied. “This is the last proper town and then it’s all farms and little villages. Hope you aren’t going far. Going to start getting cold soon. Trappers will be heading back up before long
, a few of them have already come through. Some of them come up the Edgeway and supply here and then over to the Furway to get back into the mountains.”

While this conversation was going on
, the three were slowly building a small pile of goods to purchase. Veer turned to the man and asked. “Do you have some heavy cloaks?”

After choosing heavy winter c
loaks for themselves everything was gathered up to be paid for and as Veer settled the account he added. “And that book there, the one that the little fellow wanted what is it?”

“Just a book of tales is all, old dragon tales. Crazy old man came through here a few month
s back right after first-melt when the snow was still clearing. Said that he was a wizard and he was going to find dragons. Then he died over at the inn one night in his sleep. The inn keeper sold his things to me to pay his bill. This book was in his packs with two others. One is blank pages for making a journal and the third one is all written in some kind of scribbled language that nobody around here can read.”

“We’ll take the books too. I like tales and something to read would be nice to have around
,” said Veer.

As the three carried their supplies out to be distributed among their packs the man continued to speak. “There is an inn there across the way. And a stable just up the street here. Make sure to tell them Torel sent you.
”

After adding the new supplies mostly to the pack horse and distributing the rest among the other horses the three companions began to lead the horses up the street toward the direction of the stables. Following along with them were t
hree puppies, a hunting dog and a big tough looking young guard dog. Overhead, from rooftop to rooftop moved a noisy crow.

“North?
” Asked Shira. “And heavy coats when we are headed south and it won’t be that cold for a while?

“That man sells information, we came in from the direction of the Furway and we should leave to the north on the Edgeway then that is all that he can tell. And
that we bought heavier cloaks for the northern winter,” said Cyerant.

“Then we double back around through the hills
,” added Veer.

“Well, if he sells information why didn’t you ask
….” Shira got that far before Cyerant cut her off.             

“Because when a guardsman asks about somebody like me or a foreigner asks about people with dogs then he will remember that we asked about guards and foreigners. All he knows now is that we go north.”

Shira shook her head and said. “People – especially people in towns. I just don’t understand them. I would rather be out in the hills, those I understand. Now, why the books?”

Veer
answered. “Tales about dragons might have something in it that we don’t know that can help us. Did you see it? It looks really old.”

“Ok so why the other two books?” Continued Shira.

“They were all the same size and the same leather covers like they were made together so if they are a set then we should keep them together. Maybe we’ll find someone who can read that language and I might start keeping a journal.”

“A journal?” Asked Cyerant. “You didn’t buy any ink.”

“Alright, then I’ll buy ink next time,” said Veer.

“No! Please, it’s all that I have
,” came a child’s voice from a small alley between two buildings.

“It’s all you had boy, now I have it. Feel lucky I don’t sell you to a slave tr
ader. Get gone,” answered a rough female voice.

As Cyerant stepped toward the entrance to the alley he heard the sound of a loud slap and a cry. Looking down the alley Cyerant saw a tall middle aged woman standing over the child that the companions had seen earlier that day. The woman was dressed in some light leather armour and was wearing a sword and in her hand she held a cloth sack. The woman gave the child a kick which caused him to cry out again. Then with a laugh she turned to walk away toward the back of the alley. The child scrambled to his hands and knees and lunged toward the cloth sack and managed to get a good grip on the cloth. The woman tuned back toward the child while drawing her knife. She jabbed the knife downward at the child who managed to squirm just enough that the blade did not plunge into his throat as had been intended. Instead the blade struck his shoulder and bit deeply into what little flesh the
skinny boy had. The woman swore and drew the blade back to prepare another stab at the child.

“Stop!” Cyerant shouted as he drew his sword and approached the woman with long quick strides of his lean legs.

The woman looked up and snarled. “Mind your own business boy. Put that sword away, I was using swords before you were born.” Quickly she wiped her fighting knife on the cloth sack and returned it to the sheath and drew her sword with a single fluid motion.

Cyerant, seeing the woman replace her knife and draw her sword so smoothly recognized her experience with weapons and stopped his progress and postured himself in a guard position. “Leave the child and his things and we don’t have to do this
,” Cyerant said warily.

The woman laughed and said
,” maybe I want his things, and maybe I want to do this.” A look of recognition spread across the face of the woman. “I know who you are: the black hair and white skin. You’re the one what murdered that son of a lord. There’s a reward for you.” The woman was still holding the sack in her left hand and she dropped it while giving the child a sweeping kick to the ribs which drove the breath out of him and threw him clear of the feet of the woman.  The child was thrown against the wall and let out another cry. The woman came slowly on guard facing Cyerant and looking beyond the shoulder of the young man she noticed his companions. “Your friends can go they aren’t worth anything. Now you can drop your sword and come with me or I can kill you and bring you with me. I get paid be you dead or alive.”

Cyerant felt a cold anger begin to sweep over him as he approached the woman. He knew that it was the anger being felt by his dragon Corth and he could hear the dragon coming up beside him. Cyerant tried to will the dragon to stay behind him and he was met with a firm resolve and a low growl to his left. Then Cyerant heard a sword unsheathe to his right and saw
Veer move up to stand beside him and he heard another low growl off to his right which told him that Corth was not the only dragon preparing for battle. There was the sound of a bow being drawn just behind and to the left of Cyerant which told him that Shira would actually make the first strike in this fight.

The woman now seeing that she faced two swords and a girl with a bow began to slowly withdraw down the alley.
She had an unsettled feeling about her opponents. Something about the two dogs that were facing her was strange. The guard dog and the hunting dog just looked odd and that colt standing there. Colts don’t fight but this one looked intent on attacking her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that a puppy had gone over to the child with his sack and was licking the wound on the shoulder of the urchin. She hastened her retreat until she was able to duck around the building and disappear.

“What do we do now?” Asked Shira as she slowly let the pressure off of her bow
and returned the arrow to the quiver. “She is going to report this to the guardsmen who are hunting you. She wants money.”

“No, she knows that she will make more if she brings me in so she is going to follow us until she can take me alone or find where we are hiding and bring guards to us.”

“So what do we do now?” Asked Shira again.

“Cyerant sighed and said. “We do what we said and we head north and then double back around. If we go after her here in this town people will ask questions and it will draw attention. If we just leave she will follow us and that will mean less attention and then we can deal with her later in the hills if we have to. But first let’s see what we can do for.”

Veer cut Cyerant off mid sentence warningly, “guys.” As Shira and Cyerant turned toward the sound of his voice Veer just nodded toward the side of the alley to which the boy had been kicked. They followed his gaze to see the boy sitting with widely opened eyes with his mouth agape in a silent scream as he looked right into the eyes of a baby dragon which had just been licking his gashed shoulder. The boy was starting to shake in terror.

“He sees what it really is
,” said Veer. “But why?”

“That’s it!” Shouted Shira excitedly. “It’s the blood. Don’t you see? That must be how they bond. Every one of us got hurt and they licked the wounds and it saved our lives and then everything started to change.”

“Quiet,” Cyerant said. “We need to move now before we draw anymore attention.” Cyerant returned his sword to the sheath and walked over to the boy and picked him up. “Come with us, we’re all orphans too.” Lifting the boy in his arms Cyerant walked out of the alley and sat the boy on his horse and climbed up into the saddle behind the child. The child did not resist and seemed to be in shock.

Veer
grabbed the sack from the alley and quickly tied it to the pack horse before mounting his own horse and following after the young nobleman. Shira grabbed the lead of the packhorse and climbed on her own horse and she too followed.

“At least his bleeding stopped,
” said Veer quietly.

“Yes, I think that is what happens when that kind of puppy licks you
,” responded Shira.

The companions rode as quickly as they could without looking like they were in a hurry. They rode to the north up the main street until they passed from the town.

The tall woman had doubled quickly around to watch the companions in the street and she saw them heading north from the town. Resolving to follow them she went to the stables to check on her horse. After what seemed like forever the stable boy had to run around back and she was able to take her horse without settling her bill but the delay was going to cost her.