FireDrake (14 page)

Drake scowled. “We don’t have time to waste if we want to catch them before they reach the coast.” Mace’s attention focused back on Drake, for which he was glad.

“We’ll catch them, Drake. Don’t doubt it. We’ll flame the gryphons themselves if we have to, but we’ll get Wil back. No matter what.”

Drake was pleased to hear the same determination that flared in his own heart in Mace’s words. Drake clasped hands with the knight before turning to Jenet.

“Let’s be off.”

With little fanfare, the humans found their way to their respective mounts, climbing nimbly onto the dragons’ backs and then taking to the sky. It had been years since Drake had last ridden on Jenet’s back, and even back then, he hadn’t done it often. Jenet had been a petite dragonet and Drake had grown quickly. He’d never flown with Jenet for longer than an hour or so, not wanting to overburden her, though she was always game for more. Still, he loved her and looked out for her back then, just as much as he wanted to now.

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But Jenet was nearly fully grown, with a juvenile dragon’s seemingly unending supply of energy. She could fly for longer than even most adult dragons with the added metabolism of the adolescent. She could support his big frame easily now, and Drake was glad he wouldn’t be too much for her to carry over the long distance that awaited them.

Drake had second thoughts about the wisdom of their headlong flight, but something within him refused to give up the chase to others. He’d made a promise to Roland, Nico and his own father. He’d find Wil. It was his task. His quest.

No other would fulfill it.

Drake didn’t dare examine why his thinking was so adamant on that score. It was not his nature to interfere where others with more skill would be better suited to a task, but this was one mission on which his normal routines did not seem to apply. No, in this duty, Drake was charting new territory for himself both as a man and as a citizen of Draconia—the land he’d left behind fifteen years before.

Perhaps this was the beginning of his true homecoming. Perhaps this was the act that would redeem him—if only in his own eyes—and allow him to return to his land and family with his head held high. Only time would tell. And such thoughts were mere idle speculation. The real task was retrieving Prince Wil safe and sound. Nothing else truly mattered. Only Wil’s safety.

Jenet took to the air with three strong wingbeats and all other thoughts dropped from Drake’s mind as the ground dropped away beneath them. He’d often enjoyed flights with Jenet’s parents when he was small, but to be on Jenet’s back again was something that defied description. The sense of rightness, the feeling of belonging was nearly overwhelming. As was the beauty of seeing the city—new and old—spread out before him. It was breathtaking.

On one side the new Jinn settlement was growing. Rough planked buildings vied with colorful tents, flapping pennants in every color of the rainbow marking various clans or establishments. It was organized chaos of the most lovely design.

On the other side of the river, over newly constructed footbridges, was the old city of Castleton. Sleeping at the foot of the castle mountain, Castleton was a study in lovely www.samhainpublishing.com 97

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stone and wood architecture, combining the best designs of nature with the most attractive creations of man.

And out beyond the city, the pasturelands and farmlands spread as far as the eye could see. Within moments they were away from the city and up higher than he’d ever flown before. He could just make out the mountains in the distance and the endless terrain over which they would fly to reach their goal. He was struck momentarily speechless, taking it all in.

“You’ve gained weight since last we flew together, Drake.”

Jenet’s voice in his mind pulled Drake from his reverie.
“So have you, sweetheart,
but in all the right places. Did I tell you yet how gorgeous you are?”
Drake knew dragons—and women—well enough to know that females of all kinds loved compliments. And in Jenet’s case, he meant every single word.
“I missed you so much.”

He hadn’t meant to add that last bit, but the words slipped past his guard as he admired the view from just under the low-hanging clouds.

“I missed this, Drake. I missed flying with you all those years. Think how much we
could have shared.”
Jenet sighed a stream of thin smoke out behind them.
“But they tell
me not to dwell on the past. What’s done is done. What matters is that you’re with me
now and we’re together.”

Drake didn’t like the possessive tone in her words, but he was powerless to fight it.

He knew Jenet was right, even if he did have to leave her again once this adventure was over. Perhaps she’d come to understand his reasons on this quest. Perhaps she’d learn first-hand how bad he’d be as a knight—how bad he’d be as
her
knight. And then, when it came time to leave, she wouldn’t be hurt. Only
his
heart would break this time.

It was time to focus on the matter at hand.
“Can you do a low pass over the place
Wil was kidnapped? I want to see if we can follow their trail. If so, perhaps we can
overtake them on the road.”

“Good idea.”
Jenet was silent a moment as she conferred with Nellin.
“I’ve never
been to the spot, but Nellin has and he’ll lead us there.”

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As it turned out, Prince Wil had been kidnapped several hours from the capital city, well south and east from where they started. The dragons pushed ahead, stopping only once to drink from a small lake and hunt from among the small herd kept nearby and clearly marked for dragon consumption. They would need their strength on this long journey.

The sun was still strong in the sky when the dragons dropped down to do a quick skim over the site. Mace took the lead now, with Nellin in front. They’d been trained in aerial reconnaissance and Drake knew when to let an expert do their work. They made several low sweeps over the site, where it was obvious a serious scuffle had taken place.

There was blood, and lots of it, dried now, into the pale dirt. Dragons and knights alike had bled here—Drake’s family.

Fire burned in his veins as he took in the evidence of what had happened here. He recognized the deep red of dragon blood, mixed with the sandy soil. Lilla and Arlis’s blood. And Ren and Declan’s blood.

Drake worried for Ren and Lil. As he’d left that morning, word still hadn’t come from the Border Lair of their arrival or condition. For all he knew, they were still gravely injured and in danger. He didn’t actually think they were dead. Drake felt he would know if either Ren or Lilla left this realm. Undoubtedly Jenet would know too, in that magical way of dragons, if her mother passed on.

So there was hope. But worry as well.

Mace signaled with an upraised fist and both dragons descended to the ground. There were a lot of hand signals used between knights that Drake remembered seeing in his youth, that came back to him as they flew. The dragons relayed messages between themselves and their knights, but the complex system of hand signals was faster in many cases than waiting for the dragons to speak back and forth and then pass on information.

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Unfortunately, while Mace and Nellin had been training for the past ten or fifteen years, Drake and Jenet had not. Drake knew only the things he’d seen his fathers do in his youth, but he hadn’t studied the ways of knights and dragons with any real seriousness.

As a result, he had to rely on Jenet’s communications with Nellin more than he thought most knights would, but then, he wasn’t a knight, and that fact was driven home at every turn.

Drake slid down from Jenet’s back, careful not to disturb the ground a few feet distant where clear marks had been left by men, horses and injured dragons. Those marks held a story and Drake would read it well, now that he was on the ground, where he was more used to tracking.

Mace walked over to him, stretching the kinks in his muscles as he moved. “They went off in a straight line to the south, but Krysta wanted a look around before we press on and I thought we could all probably use a little break.”

Krysta moved up beside Mace and headed straight for the outskirts of the tracks, moving carefully, Drake was interested to note. She knew something of tracking.

“Five men waited here, under the soil,” Krysta said, walking with short, sure steps as she studied the ground. Drake moved up beside her.

“And another four right over there, past the scrubweed line.”

Krysta looked up at him with agreement in her expression. Agreement and respect.

“Small pockets lay in wait all over this area. It was an ambush, but one of the most elaborate I’ve ever seen.”

“I agree.” Drake studied one of the larger bloodstains. He looked over his shoulder, knowing Jenet would crane her neck to him if he beckoned.
“Are you up to this, little
one?”

“Anything to find William.”
Jenet lifted her head clear over Drake’s tall form and sniffed at the ground near the soaked-in blood.
“This is where they hurt Papa.”

Drake padded around the site, skirting the perimeter as he walked with Jenet to the next large stain. His hand continually caressed her neck as she shivered with emotion. He 100

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hated to subject her to this trauma, but she knew her parents better than any other dragon and could help them decipher what had happened here on the ground better than anyone.

They reached the next stain and she stopped, using her long, sinuous neck to sniff at the spot.
“This is Mama’s blood.”

“I’m sorry, baby.”
Drake consoled her as best he could, feeling her pain as if it were his own.
“Just one more thing. We need to know if you scent Prince Wil’s blood
anywhere here. We need to know if they hurt him.”

Jenet walked the perimeter of the site, craning her neck over to the various bloodstains. Krysta stood next to Drake as they watched the brave young dragoness do her work.

“This is where they took Lilla down, and that first area is where Arlis was attacked.”

Drake clarified the scene for Krysta as they watched Jenet go about her scent study of the area. “So far, Jenet hasn’t detected any of Wil’s blood, though she definitely scents his presence.”

“That’s good news,” Krysta agreed.

“How so? They could still have hurt him after they took him.” Mace had come up to join them while Nellin cooled off in the nearby lake.

Drake raised one eyebrow at Krysta, suspecting she understood his thinking better, it appeared, than Mace did. She turned to the knight and explained. “If they weren’t willing to hurt him during the capture, it means they want him as close to unharmed as possible.

It’s a good indicator that they won’t kill him or seriously injure him elsewhere on the journey.”

“And when he tries to escape, they probably won’t hurt him too badly if he doesn’t manage to get free,” Drake added. If Wil was anything like his older brothers, he’d attempt escape at the earliest opportunity.

“Wil was in human form when he left,”
Jenet reported as she finished her circuit of the site,
“and not bleeding. They left on horseback.”

Drake patted her neck and sent her off to drink and cool off with Nellin.

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“They were on horseback,” Drake said shortly, turning to Krysta and Mace to confer.

“We should be able to catch them, even with the head-start.”

“We’re already making good time.” Mace scanned the sky, probably noting the position of the sun. “We could reach the southern mountains by nightfall at least.”

“But we’ll need to fly lower now. We should follow the trail as closely as possible,”

Krysta said, while Drake nodded in agreement.

“Shouldn’t be too hard with their horses kicking up the ground.”

“We’ll follow your lead in the air, Mace.” Drake felt he needed to be clear on that point. Mace had always been a very deliberate young man and it looked like he’d become a steady, if a bit sedate, knight. “You and Nellin can recognize and follow the trail better than either me or Jenet.”

“We’ve trained for aerial recognition, but it’s easy to see you and Krysta have the advantage on the ground. If the trail forks at any point we’ll land and you two can use your tracking skills. I remember how good you were at tracking game, even when we were children, Drake.”

Mace’s smile was complimentary⎯even friendly⎯and Drake suddenly recalled all those adventures the young boys of the Lair had gone on when out of their parents’ sight.

Mace and Drake had always been part of a larger group, but often the two of them were paired off on one escapade or another. For one thing, Mace and he were of a size when they were younger, and very close in age. The other boys had been either older or younger and most didn’t care to follow fanciful Drake on one or another of his imaginary quests. But Mace had been a good sport. He’d played sidekick to Drake on many a boyhood adventure.

It was nice to see that camaraderie translate into adulthood. Even over the many years, that early knowledge and respect for each other remained, and it pleased Drake to know he had the good opinion of this knight who had once been his childhood friend.

They set out not long after. The dragons had found wild game and taken a moment to cool down and drink from the nearby lake. Nellin even shared a few fish he’d caught with 102

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Jenet in a kind gesture that Mace found somewhat telling. If he weren’t much mistaken, his dragon partner was attracted to the spectacularly colored female. Too bad Jenet didn’t have a knight yet. Nellin couldn’t mate her until she had a knight of her own and the two knights had found their mate.