Gold Dragon Codex (23 page)

Acinyoshu looked down at the youth held delicately to his chest and murmured, “Invite me back into the barony. Quickly, before Lazuli reaches us.” His voice sounded desperately weary, worn out by the speed at which he had flown for so long to reach the other side of the mountains. If Lazuli caught up to them now, Acinyoshu would surely go down before the heavier and stronger Blue.

“But … I can’t! I don’t have the horn!”

“You don’t need the horn, Sandon. You just need to be of the baronial lineage.” The boy could swear the gold dragon was smiling. “So long as you are a member of the baronial family, you can invite me in anytime, just by saying so—just by asking me to come to you in dragon-form. I just made the horn so I could hear them calling from far away.” The metal scales on the dragon’s face and neck reflected the first silvery rays of moonlight from the moon Solinari. Sandon shivered in the rush of wind that blew back the long, silken whiskers on the
dragon’s face. “Therefore, I’m asking: will you invite me into your barony, Sandon, son of Lehna?”

“You’re invited!” Sandon breathed. He shouted it a second time in case there was some magical reason it had to be heard by the whole world.

The dragon smiled. “Thank you, Sandon.” Acinyoshu doubled back on himself, snaking his forepart over his tail to face the blue dragon. With a lizardlike grin, the Blue opened his claws and roared his eagerness, crossing the mountain range to reach his opponent at last. The two circled, snapping, Acinyoshu edging Lazuli farther and farther across the line of mountain peaks.

“I am Lazuli of the Iron Wing!” the blue dragon snarled, pulling up when the Gold was only a few feet from him. “You will die!”

“No, Lazuli,” the Gold said soberly. “Nor will you return to this valley. These people are safe from you.”

“Why? Because you will guard them?” Lazuli laughed. “You are a coward, Acinyoshu! You gave up the war when your knight died. I tore him from your back the way I will tear your valley apart!”

Acinyoshu stiffened. “It takes more courage to leave your enemy alive and hope they will change their evil ways than it does to kill them.” He began to speak words of magic, enunciating them from the
depths of his body much the way the construct had poured fire from the heart of its frame. Lazuli howled and charged him, but just before he reached the Gold, he slammed into an invisible wall of force at the edge of the barony.

“NO!” Lazuli roared. “You will not escape me!”

Acinyoshu’s voice rose, his chanting turning into yelling, yelling becoming a full-fledged roar. In response, Lazuli spat one more burst of lightning directly at them from across the sharp stones. The flash of light blinded Sandon, who tucked his head under his arms when he saw the lightning coming. He looked up again a second later when nothing happened.

The blue dragon’s electric breath coursed over an invisible barrier that spread between them, along the edge of the mountain peaks. Acinyoshu’s voice fell, and the barrier gleamed in a broad dome over the valley. Sandon gasped to see it—he’d almost stopped believing the spell existed. Now it shone with brilliant twinkles all across the valley as it took hold, strengthening the magical barrier that kept Hartfall safe. The magic twinkled like stars, shimmering in waves between the mountains on either side of Hartfall, glittering over the keep and the little village. “You will never enter here again, Lazuli, no matter how you harass and threaten these good folk.
My spell forbids you—even if you are invited. Now, be gone before I forget my pledge of peace.”

Lazuli roared in rage and frustration, beating his wings furiously. For a moment, he clawed against the barrier in rage, refusing to admit he’d been defeated. At last the blue dragon slowed and then stopped, eyes flashing. He snarled at them one last time, then turned and flew away. The last Sandon saw of Lazuli was moonlight reflecting on sapphire wings, long after the shadow of the dragon had faded into the night.

cinyoshu gently settled down on the lip of the keep’s highest tower, lowering his curled claws to set Sandon down. Baron Camiel lay still on the stone tiles, his face pale. Umar, the apprentice wizard, knelt over him and held his limp hand. Vilfrand was there too, but he’d been tied up with something that Sandon could have sworn was a torn length of the apprentice’s red robe. The captain shot a nasty look at the dragon when it landed, poison all but spitting from his eyes. In his other hand, Umar held Kine’s sword, keeping the end pointed roughly in Vilfrand’s direction.

Sandon pushed through the dragon’s claws toward his father. The baron’s hair was matted with sweat, pressed against his forehead in damp waves. His eyes were closed, but as Sandon fell beside him, he could tell that the baron was still breathing. “Dad?”

Fighting to open his eyes, Baron Camiel looked up at his son. “Village … in danger …?”

“It’s all right, Dad.” Tears filled Sandon’s eyes. Umar moved aside, surrendering the baron’s hand to the boy. The two youths exchanged a look of sorrow, and Sandon lay his other hand on his father’s chest. The breathing was so shallow. The baron squeezed his hand around his son’s fingers with feeble strength. “The village is going to be fine,” Sandon assured him. “Lazuli is gone. He won’t be coming back.” The boy had to choke back a sob. It wouldn’t do for his father’s last memories to be of his son crying.

Golden glitter filled the air around them, causing Sandon to look over his shoulder as he wiped away the tears. One minute, Acinyoshu was resting on the lip of the tower, his shining scales bright in the moonlight. His amber eyes, like those of the construct but far deeper and impossibly more alive, shone down on them in gentle compassion. The next, the glitter swirled around him like a thick cloud of bees, dancing and drifting on the evening wind, then fading away to reveal a man.

“Kine?” Sandon gasped.

“Yeah.” The soldier glanced down, abashed. He still wore the dirty clothing of a long-suffering traveler, sandy blond hair falling into his eyes in an unruly mass.

“You’re the dragon?” He couldn’t keep his voice from breaking in surprise. “But how … when … hang on …” As it all fell into place, Sandon started to get angry. “How could you lie to me again?”

“I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t tell you—but I did tell you, when you found out about the sword, that there were things I couldn’t say!”

“Why not? Hang on, how did you get into the valley in the first place, if the spell was there?”

“You invited me. Well, you and your father, when you offered me succor on the road outside the valley. I told you, the horn was just to get my attention when I was in my cave on the cliff. All it really took was an invitation from a member of the baronial family.” Kine strode toward him, the soles of his marching boots thumping against the mosaic.

The soldier knelt beside Baron Camiel and laid one hand on the man’s shoulder. Camiel opened his eyes and Kine whispered softly, “It was a brave thing you did, telling me to save your son first.”

“My son … and my barony,” managed the baron. “And you saved them both, I see.”

“I did. I will save you, as well … if you wish it.”

The baron’s eyes widened, and he nodded. Kine bent over the baron’s form, laying one hand gently
on the fallen man’s forehead. “When I came back to Hartfall, I was prepared to hate you. My dear friend, the Baroness Lehna, was dead. Murdered. You were giving tribute to an evil blue dragon, and everything I loved about this beautiful valley had changed. But the more I got to know Sandon, the more I realized you could not be an evil man. He has your virtue—and your stubbornness. I came here to test your honor, Camiel. I found that by believing in you when I could not, your son has tested mine.”

Kine lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Holy Paladine, father of all dragons, hear me now in our time of need. This man has suffered much in your service, and has fought the enemies of the light with all his power. Do not let him fall now, when his people—and his son, who has taught me so much—need him most.”

As Sandon watched, the color began to come back into his father’s face. Camiel’s breathing evened, and his hand gripped Sandon’s with more strength. A faint smile touched his features, and the baron’s eyes closed, his body falling into a deep, restful sleep.

“He’ll be fine.” Kine lifted his head. His gaze fell across the tower plaza to where Umar stood with sword in hand, keeping shaky watch over Vilfrand. Kine’s eyes, gentle and golden, turned hard and cold. Two
guards had come running up the stairs to the tower, alerted by the gold dragon’s landing. They stared around them, approaching cautiously to help Umar guard the prisoner—their own captain—though it was clear they didn’t understand. Two more knelt beside the baron, wrapping their cloaks around him. They lifted Baron Camiel into their arms so that they could carry him down to his chambers. Sandon wanted to go after them, but he knew that his father would be fine. Besides, his work wasn’t done here, and he knew it.

“Sandon,” Kine—Acinyoshu—said. “While your father is sick, you’re acting baron. It’s up to you to decide what to do with Vilfrand. He’s betrayed your father and the barony, and threatened to kill you too when his plan was about to fail.” The gold dragon sighed and looked down at Sandon. “What would you have done with him?”

Releasing his father’s hand, Sandon rose and faced Vilfrand. “You killed my mother.”

“It was an accident,” Vilfrand said in a small voice. “I never meant to hurt her.”

Sandon clenched his fists. “I should kill you like you killed her, but I won’t because I’m better than you are. You said you did all this for money. A sword and shield, and a steed. Well, you can have all of those things, Uncle. But you can’t have anything else—including a
home here in Hartfall.” Sandon glanced at Kine. “We’ll give him enough supplies for a week’s travel, weaponry, and a horse. I’ll give him the same sentence you gave to Lazuli. Exile. Under pain of death, Uncle Vilfrand, never show your face in Hartfall again.”

Kine placed his hand on Sandon’s shoulder with a little smile. “Your father will be very proud.”

The evening breeze floated across the tower as the soldiers lifted Vilfrand to his feet. They escorted the unprotesting guard captain down the stairs of the tower, taking him to spend the night in the prison before they fulfilled Sandon’s command. Umar approached cautiously, sword in his hand. “Here, sir.” He handed it, hilt first, to the soldier. “Thank you.”

“Thank you, young Umar. You’ll make a brave wizard one day, and if I’m any judge of character, Hartfall will be lucky to have you at the baron’s side.” Kine took the sword soberly and gazed at the sword, crown, rose, and kingfisher etched into the hilt of the blade.

Sandon thought of what the blue dragon had said just before he was shut out of the valley. “Kine? What happened to your knight?”

Taken aback, Kine blinked. With a long sigh, he sheathed the sword at his waist, patting the hilt like an old friend. “I left the valley of Hartfall to fight in
the war against the evil dragons. Your mother begged to go with me, Sandon. She offered to be my knight, but I wouldn’t let her. She was too young, and besides, she was an only child and the heir to the barony. I should have known she’d do something crazy like create that construct.” He chuckled softly. “My knight was Sir Vik, a noble and brave man from a small village north of Palanthas. He was a good man. I’d hoped to bring him to Hartfall, perhaps introduce the two of them … I didn’t know your mother had gotten married.”

Kine sighed and paused. “In one of the last battles of the war, Lazuli tore him from my back. I combed the battlefields for three days before I found him, and brought Vik’s body home to his village so that he could be buried by his family. After that, I didn’t want to be a dragon anymore—I didn’t want to fly. I needed to walk the land that my rider knew, that he loved. The land that he fought and bled to save. So I walked here. That’s why it took me so long to come home to Hartfall.” His hand stayed on the hilt of the Solamnic sword.

“I’m glad you came home, Kine. We missed you.”

A broad smile spread across the soldier’s plain features, brightening his amber eyes to flame. “I missed it here too.” After a moment, he put his hand on Sandon’s shoulder and started walking toward the tower stairs. “You
know, you did pretty well up there before the construct was destroyed. That was some pretty smart flying.