Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) (14 page)

The companions rode for about ten minutes until the Edgeway rounded a bend which obscured them from the town. Cyerant quickly led them off of the
Edgeway and into the tree line headed toward the Wall. Just after entering the trees Cyerant stopped the party and started to watch the road behind to see if they had been followed. A few minutes later they saw the tall woman ride quickly around the bend and continue to the north past where the companions had left the road.

The woman rode to the north and just after rounding the first bend she could feel the eyes in the trees watching her. As she passed the place where the companions had left the road she acted as if she had not noticed the tracks. She planned to ride some distance ahead leaving them to think that she had missed them and then she would herself wait in the trees until they came by continuing their journey.
And if they didn’t come by on the road she knew that would mean that they were actually heading into the hills of the Wall. Stupid kids, this is going too be easy. She thought to herself.

“Oh, good she went right past us
,” said Shira. “We won’t have to worry about her.”

“Shira, think
,” said Cyerant. “You’re a tracker, if you were her what would you do?”

Veer
answered before Shira could. “Ride ahead and if I don’t find anyone I would hide for a while and if nobody comes by I would know that we doubled back.”

Shira added
, “so we will only have the rest of today to get as much distance as we can ahead of her.”

“Yep” responded
Veer. “So we have to move now and go as far as we can before night.”

They both turned their horses to follow Cyerant who had already headed deeper into the trees bearing south west to carry them
all deeper into the Wall and to the south away from their pursuers. A short time later they both heard the boy panic as the shock of being attacked and cut and seeing dragons had worn off. They could not make out what was being said but they could hear Cyerant speaking to the boy in low calming tones. The boy seemed to stop panicking as Cyerant explained things to him.

After a short time they were
well among the hills of the Wall and so Cyerant turned south and set a demanding pace throughout the rest of the day. As evening approached the horses would occasionally stumble in their tiredness. When the sun sank below the horizon the companions were still in the saddle and Veer finally spoke. “Cyerant, we have to stop it is getting too dark to see a safe path and the horses are exhausted. They have to rest.” As Veer said this, Cyerant, still in the lead broke through a brush-line into a small beaver meadow. There was a clear mountain fed stream flowing through the middle of the meadow right past where the old beaver dam once stood at the bottom of the clearing and there was enough grass to feed the horses well.

“
Veer, Shira, this is Jolss,” said Cyerant as he climbed down and then helped the small child get down from his seat in front of the saddle. The boy was unsteady on his feet and he started to have a fit of coughing which also made him grab his shoulder from the pain that the coughing was causing to the wound. Immediately one of the smaller still greyish looking dragonets scrambled toward the boy who started to back away. The poor child overbalanced and fell hard on his injured shoulder crying out.

“He won’t hurt you,
” said Veer as he climbed down from his saddle and hurried over to the boy. “He wants to help you.” Veer sat on the ground beside the boy. “Jolss is it? Let me see your shoulder. Put your head here in my lap and let me see the wound.” The boy turned so that his shoulder was exposed and Veer gingerly pulled back the ragged cloth from around the wound.

“You’re good with kids
,” Shira said as she grabbed a satchel of medicines and salves from the back of the pack horse.

“I had a little brother
,” Veer responded as he took the satchel. “He was about the same age he would be coming up on his eleventh birthday soon.”

“Thirteen. I’m thirteen not eleven
,” Said the boy as he started to squirm around to look up at Veer.

Pl
acing a firm hand on the arm of the boy, Veer said. “Hold still until I get this wound dressed.” The older boy began to slather the wound with a particularly odiferous salve and bandaged the wounded shoulder.

“Argh, does it have to stink so much?” Asked the boy.

“Yep, it has to stink if it is going to work. The root that makes it stink is the one that stops the pain,” answered Veer as he slowly sat the boy up.

Cyerant said,
“tonight we will have to cold camp so we eat from the packs.” He then started to distribute dried meat and some bread bought that day.

“Oh. I’m so hungry
,” the small boy said as he took his portion clumsily with one hand.

             
Shira said, “that’s the dragons, when they get hungry we feel it. It makes your hunger even worse. When they get angry we feel I too.”

“Where are the dragons?” The boy asked as he looked quickly around.

“Out hunting,” said Veer. “They’ll be back after they eat too.”

“Corth is already finished and on his way back
,” said Cyerant

“How do you know?” Asked Jolss

“Cyool too,” Shira said to Cyerant and then she turned to the small boy and continued. “When they eat we stop feeling their hunger and only feel our own.”

“Drace will take a while
,” Said Veer. “I think he just missed a kill and has to start over. He is still hungry and now he is pretty angry – or no – more frustrated than angry.”

The boy asked questions into the night and the companions answered them all one by one until the boy knew everything that they did about dragons. Yes, he should name his dragon. Yes all of the dragons were the same age even thou
gh the bonded ones looked older. Stay away from Green Eyes.

The boy also answered his share of questions until the companions knew more about him. He had always been an orphan and had been in an orphanage until spring when the orphanage
decided to sell him to a trader who he didn’t trust. Yes the orphans were sold into apprenticeships around age 12 or so. He was so small because he was sickly and seemed to always have something or another wrong with him. He had been travelling south to try to get to the cities in the south to make his own way. His little sack had everything that he owned in it and he had been discovered by that woman when he was pulling it out of the hiding place. Jolss was the only name that he ever knew. He had learned to read at the little orphanage farm before he ran away, and he always loved to read because it was the only thing that he could do when he was sick all of the time. The Three older companions also noticed that Jolss coughed a lot and looked generally to be pale and sickly.

Finally the exhausted little boy drifted off to sleep rolled in a blanket from the packs. The companions discussed the situation and decided to head southward as quickly as they could in the morning and that since Jolss had bonded a dragon he would have to come with them. The companions then planned their watches and each took one watch and two turns of sleep.

“Ouch,” yelled Jolss as he woke up with dawn. “My shoulder hurts.”

Shira had been sitting the last watch
until Veer and Cyerant had both awakened to the birdsong just before dawn. The three companions had already saddled and packed the horses and prepared to move. Shira offered the boy some bread and a cup of water and said. “It will be sore and stiff for a while. But I think that it will heal quickly everything seems to heal quickly for us.”

As the boy ate,
Veer pulled the three books out of the packs and showed them to the boy and asked. “Do you remember these?”

“Yes Jolss answered with an excited look. “You bought the dragon book. Can I read it?”

“As we ride,” Shira said. “I guess that you will share my horse for a while since we are the lightest. You can sit in front of my saddle and read while we ride.”

The boy got a hesitant look on his face. “Ride, again? So soon? Can’t we take a break for a couple of days?”

“Your backside will get used to it in a few days,” Cyerant said with a rare hint of a smile. “We could get Veer to put some of that stinky salve on it if you want.”

“No!” The boy snapped as the other three smirked at him. One of the small dragons had come to stand beside the boy. The dragon was so small that it sat barely reaching the knee of the child. The dragon stretched herself to her full height and in her small voice roared an indignant challenge toward Cyerant.

Shira was already mounted on her horse and she had subtly folded up one of the softer blankets and laid it across the horse just in front of her saddle. She held her hand out toward the boy and said, “up you get.”

Veer
lifted the boy careful to not jostle the injured shoulder of the child. Jolss clumsily kicked his leg over the back of the horse almost hitting Shira in the face as she ducked aside to avoid the foot. Cyool, standing nearby, gave a scolding hiss toward the boy.

“Sorry” Said Jolss with a smile as he also tried to steady himself.

Shira reached around and steadied the boy in front of her settling him back against her chest. “You don’t dance much do you?” She added sarcastically.

“No, I fall a lot when I try.” Said the boy under his breath where
he thought only Shira could hear it.

Cyerant mounted his horse
. And just before Veer also mounted he handed a book up to Jolss, with a smile.

As they rode along Jolss began to read the book and discovered that it was made up of tales about dragons but they were not like fairy stories or children’s tales. These stories were more like something that you would read in a history book for scholars. He started the day attempting to read out loud but Cyerant shushed him because as small as he was his high little voice could certainly carry a great distance. Jolss contented himself the rest of the morning to read in silence only occasionally telling the others when he discovered something new and exciting about dragons.

From time to time while riding along Veer would glance over at the boy and feel the pain of remembering his own little brother but somehow having Jolss there also helped to ease the pain a bit.

Veer
was concerned about Cyerant because the boy had the same dark hair and dark eyes as the young noblemen and Veer knew that Cyerant had also had a couple of younger brothers who had died in the attack on his family. Veer didn’t know if having Jolss there would make it worse or better for his friend. Veer smirked out loud at that thought, he and a lowland noble were now friends. An irritating noble, who always took charge as though he was meant to be in charge assuming that everyone would just follow. What was even more irritating to the young Hillfolk man was the fact that when Cyerant took charge and made decisions it felt natural to follow him and do as he decided. There was just something about Cyerant which made him a natural leader and Veer could feel it and it was irritating. And each time he had silently resolved that he would not follow the nobleman next time Cyerant ended up being right about whatever the next thing was.

Cyerant rode along all morning avoiding looking at the boy sitting on the horse with Shira. Jolss was quie
tly – well mostly quietly reading. Jolss just looked so much like his two little brothers had looked. Well, actually three little brothers had looked. Black Drakes the nanny had called them all. Black hair and very pale skin with red cheeks just like their father. It ran in the family and everyone called them Black Drakes, something to do with their blood line long ago. Old nanny, she had been so nice to him until she took his next youngest brother away as a baby. When they found her she said they would never find the baby and laughed as she died. The crazy old woman had most likely thrown the child in a river to drown. Cyerant could barely remember the toddler that had been stolen a dozen years ago. It just hurt too much to look at the boy sitting there happily reading and occasionally wincing from the jolting of the horse. But even though it hurt, Cyerant would also feel a bit of a smile when he caught sight if the boy.

Shira rode along keeping Jolss on the horse in front of her. She could feel the boy tighten and wince when the horse took an especially jarring step. But mostly he seemed to be happily in his own world reading about dragons. Shira also noticed that both
Veer and Cyerant were very quiet this morning which was a bit odd. Usually they would talk a little bit or even snap back and forth at one another from time to time. It was like earlier in the journey when they had first met and both young men were so quiet from their grief. But they had been getting better until today. She reckoned that it had something to do with Jolss, Cyerant and Veer had both said that they had had younger brothers so Jolss must be reminding them of their families.  Shira began to think about her own family, well her Da and Talenger who has visited all of the time and wintered with them in the cabin.

Around mid day Cyerant halted the group at the edge of a fire meadow where they could let the horses eat and rest while the, now four, companions rested in the shade of the forest edging the meadow. As they rested
, drinking water and eating a very light mid day meal the dragons rested also. Green Eyes was making her usual unpleasant noises in the trees as she scolded and threatened anything that moved near her. Corth was now the size of a big colt and curled up on the ground beside Cyerant with his head leaning against the leg of the young noble. Cyool was the size of a hunting dog and was lying across the lap of Shira. The dragonet had become a bit too big to be a lap dog but didn’t seem to know it. Drace was the size of a very large guard dog and was starting to really show thick armour plating and horns. The heavy dragon was curled up beside Veer but would occasionally try to sneak himself across the lap of the young man who would patiently push the leg or tail or wing back off of him and soothingly pet the young dragon. The newly bonded dragon was still very small and she was curled up near Jolss who was still a little too afraid to have even a baby dragon in his lap.