Fantastical Ramblings (13 page)

The longed for son must be the only reason he had waited
nearly fifteen years to eliminate the last two men who stood between him and
the throne. Fifteen years while he lulled Father and I with false words of
loyalty and honor and—
choke
—love.

I clasped my hands behind my back instead of pacing. If only
I dared move I might keep my blood from freezing.

A piercing screech sounded above. I looked up. Saw nothing
but a bright flash and dismissed it as the wind and storm.

Krej recoiled from the noise, shifting uneasily closer to the
upper slope of the mountain.

No one had seen a dragon in generations. They were extinct. Surely
the were. My sword was the only reality, the only rescue I trusted.

I shifted my hands to the grip of my weapon.

Krej swallowed deeply. Then seemed to shrug off whatever had
frightened him. He turned his piercing blue eyes on me.

I could not move. He seemed to drive a spear through my will
with those eyes.

“Only I know how to tap Coronnan’s greatness.” Krej’s voice
took on the rhythm of a chant. He began to draw arcane symbols in the air. Red
fire followed his gestures, leaving the sigils in plain sight.

I struggled to free myself from his thrall. Sweat broke out
on my back and brow despite the freezing wind.

“Your oath of loyalty...” I tried to stall while I fought
for control of my sword arm. If I could speak, his spell over me was not
complete.

“Loyalty to me is loyalty to Coronnan. Only I can bring our
land into its true greatness,” Krej replied in song.

His words chilled me more than the rising wind.

He blinked.

The thrall cracked. I reached for my sword. My cloak tangled
around the sheath.

In a flash and a whirl of spotted fur cloak, Krej was behind
me. Between me and the return path.

Uphill the faint trail narrowed sharply beneath an overhang
and disappeared. Legend claimed that only dragons could climb higher upon the
mountain.

No place to run.

I stepped forward. I needed to pressure Krej into keeping
his distance.

He laughed and held his ground. I still could not get the
sword free. He took up his chant again.

A flicker of movement caught my eye. A small brindled brown
cat stalked us. It could not help me and might hinder me in my escape.

The cat had to be Krej’s familiar. Why else would it be out
in this weather.

Even a dragon would not be caught out in the blizzard to
come.

The sharp smell that had haunted me since hunting the deer
wafted across my senses again. An instant of dizziness and blurred vision.

(
Tambootie
.) The
word came into my head without prompting.

Poison.

Dragon salad.

The tool of rogue magicians.

“The de Draconis line is weak, Prince Darville,” Krej
continued in song. “You waste your time with women and drink, your father
dreams away his days and nights with tales of past glories. I shall not allow
you to taint the throne when your father dies.” The wind grabbed his cloak.
Lifted it. It did not swirl as mine had to block his eyes or hands.

I flung off my cloak rather than fight it. My sword came
easily to my hand now. The wind picked up my garment and flung it in my face. I
ducked it and lunged toward Krej.

He wasn’t there.

I whirled. He faced me on the path above me. I plunged
toward him. The sharp rise of the mountain on my right became an overhang. The
path narrowed further.

Again Krej eluded me. Another giggle that bordered on
insanity.

My sword met only air.

He danced around me quickly. I barely saw him move.

The first flakes of snow rode the back of the wind. They
whipped past us to plaster themselves against the slope. They showed no
interest in melting.

I had to end this soon. I circled my blade seeking an
opening, a moment of distraction.

“Have you noticed, Prince Darville, how pale and ill your
father has become of late?”

I had.

“Have you also noticed how the Council of Provinces listens
to you less and less and your father not at all?” Again he giggled.

I’d heard a man giggle like that once before. A condemned
rogue magician who had eaten of the Tambootie tree to enhance his magic.

The poison in the tree sap had rotted his mind.

And I knew then, with desperate clarity, that Krej too had
eaten of the tree of magic to enhance his powers.

Logic and argument meant nothing to him. Only power.

“Your father is weak,” Krej cackled. “Growing weaker. At my
command. He does not rule Coronnan. I do!” Krej punctuated the air with another
sigil, larger and more intense than his previous gesture.

“You lie!” I snarled. I flipped one of my wrist blades at
Krej’s eyes. He ducked it easily.

Fear began to knot in my gut. “My father rules with the aid
of the Council of Provinces.” I said it quietly, logically, to reassure myself
more than to convince Krej.

“And who leads the Council of Provinces, eh? Who makes
decisions when your father is too sick or weak to choose ought but which tunic
to wear?” Krej smiled showing his teeth in a feral expression. The cat that
watched us mimicked him.

I tried to run, just plow through Krej and get back to the
bottom of the hill and the guards who would witness my cousin’s treason.

My feet refused to move. They felt frozen to the ground.

“The Council listens to me. They respect me,” I asserted as
I struggled to free my feet. Doubt crept into me along with the cold wind. Did
the twelve lords of Coronnan truly listen to my advice or did they just smile
and nod and then go about their business as if I did not exist?

“But you are rarely in the capitol, Prince Darville,” Krej
said through his gloating smile. His teeth remained clenched and his eyes
glittered with malice, not mirth. “I see to that. I send you where you will
dissipate yourself with wild escapades with your band of street boys, your
women, and drink.”

I tried to lift my sword. It seemingly weighed more than I
did. My arms bunched and strained but still it would not move.

“Calm down, boy,” Krej laughed again. Insanity shone in his
deep-set eyes. “This won’t hurt a bit. And Coronnan will profit from my rule in
ways you cannot yet imagine.”

A sharp screech above the roiling clouds sounded again. Not
the wind. A dragon?

“You are supposed to help me. Protect me!” I called back to
the creature who patrolled the skies.

I thought I caught a glimpse of a translucent wing amidst
the snow. Could a creature as large as a dragon do ought on this narrow
mountain ledge?

Krej had chosen well the location for this confrontation.

My enemy began dancing in place while he drew more sigils in
the air. I could see them now. I had no defense against the pulsing red and
green magic. Soon they must lock tighter circles around me. I had to break free
before he closed the spell.

If only I could move.

The dragon screeched again.

Suddenly the cat leaped to Krej’s back. The creature’s claws
dug deep. Its teeth sought the great vein in his neck. Single-minded fury drove
it.

Something deep within me knew the creature attacked its
master at the prompting of the dragon.

The thrall that glued my arms to my side faded.

I lifted my sword and freed the remaining wrist blade.

Krej batted the cat away like some annoying insect.

It twisted, reached out, landed perfectly balanced. Like all
of its kind, it prepared for a new attack almost before its paws touched he
ground.

I lunged for my cousin. I hit an invisible wall. The shock
vibrated up my arm to my shoulder. Hot pain lanced through to my heart.

Krej laughed loud and long.

A fresh wave of snow rushed toward us. I could not see my
enemy through it. It must have met the same barrier as my sword and fell in a
circle around me. A small circle—barely a pace in circumference—remained clear
of the white stuff. The wind seemed not to penetrate the barrier either.

I was almost warm.

The cat leaped again to the back of the magician. It slammed
into a similar barrier and fell to the ground stunned. It lay motionless. Confusion
showed in its yellow eyes.

I lunged again. Once more I hit the invisible wall. This
time with more force. My sword blazed golden fire. Heat lashed my hand. I
dropped the weapon from nerveless fingers. My entire body trembled with the force
of the magic.

Hot tingles became jolts, anchoring me in place. No matter
how hard I tried, I could not move so much as to blink my eyes.

Panic threatened to choke the breath from me.

With one last singsong stream of words and a wave of Krej’s
hand, the magic shot from his fingers into my eyes. It penetrated every hidden
corner of my being.

I could do nothing to stop it.

The spell was complete.

My skin itched. I could not scratch it. Golden fur sprouted
from my arms and legs. The torment of raw skin beneath the new growth
increased. The hair bristled and stood on end. My ears stretched upward. I
think I screamed at the pain. My own howl sounded strange, more intense and
primitive than a human throat could utter. Tiny sounds pricked my hearing;
rocks shifting under Krej’s feet, the wind sighing on several levels beneath
the roar through the tops of the trees, the cat sobbing.

How? What?

My nose found new smells in the snow, the soil, Krej’s
sweat.

Confusion muddled my thoughts.

Above us the dragon cried in anguish to mimic my own. The
sound threatened to shatter my hearing.

Krej reeled away, hands clapped to his head, nearly doubled
over in pain.

I wriggled and swayed trying to break free.

Neither the dragon nor I could stop the transformation. I
had only Krej and the little cat as witness to who I had been.

I think I sobbed.

My face ached sharply. I sensed my nose elongating into a
muzzle. My jaw receded. I smelled my own fear, the pain in the cat, and triumph
in my enemy.

Then my joints began to crack and bend at odd angles. I
cried out at the pain. I collapsed. My clothing fell away, including the
useless good luck charm in my pocket. Not even magic could hold me upright any
more. Fire seemed to engulf me. The sounds erupting from my throat sounded more
like the howl of a wounded animal than a man.

Horror choked off the sounds. My heart beat wildly and I
despaired that I would ever see my father again. I wanted to cry and could not.

As I lay there, rolling about on the ground like Krej’s
wounded deer, my limbs contracted and bent. My bones grew heavy and dense.

Language deserted me.

My hands became paws without the useful thumb to grasp a
weapon.

I had only instincts and anger left.

I panicked. I growled and leaped again. And bounced against
the wall.

I opened my mouth, baring my fangs. I could not allow this
man to corner me. I ran forward, lunged...

Krej shoved me backward with another wave of his hand.

I scrabbled for purchase. The unaccustomed shortness of my
legs skewed my balance.

I slipped on loose rocks. Clothing tangled around my feet. I
rolled sideways.

Krej reached a grasping fist for me.

I shied away from his touch.

The wind caught me.

Suddenly I flew. Only air stood between me and the bottom of
the cliff.

Stargods help me!

I cringed and flailed for purchase before the collision with
rocks and ground that would crush my bones and rip my flesh.

My hands/paws scrabbled against the rocks. After too many
rapid heartbeats my claws found purchase on a protruding boulder.

The dragon above cried her mournful anguish.

Krej roared with laughter in answer. “No need to explain
your transformation by a rogue magician now,” he chortled. “I’ll discredit the
University of Magicians another way. But I shall have to forgo the pleasure of
leashing you and keeping you subservient at my side.”

The cat roused enough to scramble to the cliff edge and look
over at me. It extended a paw as if offering me a hand up.

I had nothing to grip with. No help. Nothing between me and
a very painful death at the bottom of a long fall.

“I think I will tell the court that you chased the spotted
saber cat too vigorously and fell to your death. Wild and drunk as always. But
they will find no body. If they bother to search when the storm passes. Who
will give the body of a dead wolf a second look?” He flicked his fingers in
dismissal. “You will rot in this forgotten valley, as you justly deserve. And
your father will crumble in his grief. I’ll rule all of Coronnan uncontested
before Spring! I won’t even have to kill the king. He’ll just wither away to
dust of his own volition.”

He stomped about in his mad glee.

I lost my fragile hold. Fell. The ground rushed upward. No
exultation. Only heart stopping fear.

Then I crumpled on the stony valley several dragon lengths
below.

A moment of shock. No breath. No thought.

“And now, just for fun, you shall join the princely wolf,
cat. You deserve punishment for my wounds,” Krej sneered above me. How did his
words come to me so clearly?

, I heard the whoosh of air as he kicked out at the
tiny creature that had tried to help me.

No sound of a heavy boot connecting with a furred body. Only
the thump as Krej lost his balance and fell on his butt. Another time I might
have laughed.

He picked himself up, cursing. “You shall pay for this, cat.
I shall find you again and make certain you pay!”

The faint sound of tiny paws scampering over the edge of the
cliff drifted toward me.

Krej’s shouts followed the cat all the way down the cliff. Eventually
his noise faded. He must have retreated from the storm.