The Dragon's Lair (15 page)

"Blimey," Char whispered. "Does that mean you're gonna die?"

"I asked the same thing. I don't know. But it doesn't look good."

"Sorry to hear that, mate," Char said. "But I guess at least we'll go down together."

"I hope not," said Ven. "Sharra gave me this stone, but she didn't explain anything about it. When I looked at it with the jack-rule, I could see it was a sleeve, like a wallet or a sheath for a sword—and there's a dragon scale inside it."

"A
dragon scale
?"

"Shhhh—stop repeating what I say," Ven said crossly. He put the stone in his pocket next to the merrow cap and the jack-rule, and buttoned it carefully. "Yes, a dragon scale, like the cards she uses to tell the future. It has that strange writing that we saw in her tent, and a picture of a lot of mountains. I have no idea why she gave it to me. She only told me that she saw the path of my future disappearing soon, and to live as much as I can in the time I have left."

"Oh, man."

"So that's what all the secrecy and hurry is about. We're trying to get away from Westland and Felonia's spies as quickly as possible. And in the meantime, there's a few things the king would like to us to do if we can."

"Uh oh," said Char. "Like what?"

"There's a dragon running amok and burning Nain settlements somewhere in the fields north of where the Gwadd live," Ven replied. "The king doesn't want us to get in the dragon's way, but he says if we can find out why the dragon is so angry at the Nain, we can trade that information to the Nain for something the Lirin want. And if we get what the Lirin want, we can trade that to them for something the king wants."

"An' what does the king want?"

"I'm not sure," Ven said. "But he gave me a message to deliver to the king of the Lirin, a fairly grumpy man known as Alvarran the Intolerant."

"Great name," Char muttered. "I can tell already
he's
gonna be fun ta deal with."

"Probably," Ven said, smiling slightly. "But he's the least of our worries. In addition to getting over the river, away from Felonia's thugs and spies, the message King Vandemere asked me to deliver to the Lirin king makes me pretty nervous all by itself."

"What was the message?"

"The king made me memorize it exactly as he said it," Ven said. "It went like this: 'King Vandemere states that if you will send him the greatest treasure in your kingdom, he will swear fealty to you and ever after will call you 'sire'."

"Man, oh man," Char whispered. "What the heck does that mean?"

"I don't know," Ven said. "But 'sire' is what someone calls a king when he is that king's
subject
. It sounds almost as if King Vandemere wants whatever the Lirin king has so badly that he is willing to give up
everything
, even his throne, to get it. And if the human king gives up his throne to the Lirin king, imagine the problems that will come about. The Nain and the Lirin don't like each other much in Serendair. King Vandemere is high king over many people that call themselves kings and queens on this island. If he gives up and walks away from that job, I bet there'll be all-out war."

"
Wonderful
," said Char. "So why do you want to help the king do anything? If you're gonna die soon and all?"

"I think that's what Madame Sharra meant when she said I should live as much as I can in the time remaining," Ven said. "And I want to help him in any way I can. The thought of undertaking those missions is like a big puzzle to me, and it makes my curiosity burn like crazy. I want to find out all I can about this place we're living in—and if I can help the king in the meantime, all the better.

"So now I think I've told you about all I can tell you," he finished. "Sorry I didn't have time to do it before we left. But I had the suspicion you would've come anyway."

"O' course."

"Then trust me when I say I don't know exactly where we're heading, or what we'll meet, but it should be an interesting adventure. And it's the only chance the king and I know of for us to escape Felonia and be safe. In the meantime, while we're gone the king is going to have someone he trusts spread the rumor in the Gated City that we've left on a ship. If we can stay away long enough, things should die down there and we can go home to the Inn."

"Hope you're right," Char said.

"Hey, Polywog, can you come and give your friend a poke?" Ida called from near the back of the wagon. "She's snoring like a drunken sailor, and she's keeping me awake."

Clemency groaned. "That's funny, Ida," she retorted sleepily. "You keep all of Mouse Lodge awake sawing wood every night. You're a fine one to complain about someone else snoring. And what do you know about drunken sailors, anyway?"

"More than you think," said Ida. "When they're asleep, it's the best time to take their money off'a them."

"Sorry I asked," Clemency said. "I'll say an extra prayer for you tonight, Ida." She rolled over and went back to sleep.

"Everybody just be quiet," Ven said. He stood up and climbed back through the wagon to where Amariel lay and crouched down beside her. He shook her gently, then, realizing the sound she was making was due to the loss of her gills, he positioned himself between her and the other children to mask the noise and settled down to sleep.

When he woke the sky was dark. The moon was glowing brightly now, casting a silver sheen over the fields, and flooding the wagon with pale light. Char was beside him, shaking him gently.

"Oh, man," he muttered. "You gotta see this, Ven. Now I know why this Regis can call himself the King of the River."

When the king asked me to make note in my journals, it was because he wants someday to have a book of all human knowledge, and a book of all the world's magic. He was hoping I'd be the one to find those things out in the world and make notes and pictures of them, so that one day he could use them in those books
.

When I saw what Char was talking about, I decided to start signing every drawing I do in my journals with my initials from now on
.

Because I have a really bad feeling I'm not going to be the one who finishes them
.

10
The King of the River

V
EN SAT UP
.

They were at the edge of the river.

The hazy light of the silver moon made it seem almost as if it were morning. The moonlight glittered off the river, making shining pools that spun in the current, then broke apart like silver coins and floated on.

Spanning the river from the near bank to the far shore was a tall arched bridge under which many wide gates could be seen. Water flowed freely through the metal bars, swirling around the stanchions as it passed beneath the bridge. Ven caught his breath. The bridge was easily four times the size of the enormous one to the north where he had crossed the river several times before, the bridge where the ravens had been waiting.

Amazing as the bridge was, it was no match for the marvelous structure atop it.

Rising above the vast bridge was a palace, or at least something that looked like one. It was a huge building made of many interesting angles and towers, all of them filled with glass windows

that looked in every direction. The roofs of each section of the building appeared as if they were shingled with pieces of gleaming metal. Those shingles caught the moonlight and made them shine like the stars reflected in the water of the river.

A passageway that spanned the river crossed west to east through the middle of the building. Ven imagined that the passageway was several times wider than the bridge to the north. At least four wagons could cross the river at the same time side by side. The passageway had a metal grate in front of it, the same as the arches in the water flowing north to south.

The castle was built on massive stilts that would allow even the tallest of barges to pass beneath it easily. On the far bank Ven could see a horse path like the one on the far bank of the river near the northern bridge. Only this path was much wider, with great planks attached to pulleys that seemed as if they were there for the offloading of huge bales of goods.

All along the sides of the castle near where the roofs met the walls was a walkway with stations where guards were walking back and forth, crossbows in their hands, patrolling.

Beyond the walls Ven could hear the sounds of merriment and laughter. Music was playing in the open-air courtyard, and occasionally a firework would shoot off, brightening the sky with colorful sparkles, to thunderous applause and a chorus of
oooos
and
ahhhs
from inside the palace walls.

Char was standing beside him.

"Wouldn't the Spice Folk
love
that," he said. "It makes me almost wish they were here, so they would stop stuffin' their glitter up my nose while I'm sleepin'."

"They only do it because they like you," Ven said absently. "Didn't you hear Clem?"

"Yeah, right. So what now?"

Ven stood and walked toward the front of the wagon, trying to keep from stepping on his friends in the dark. He climbed over the seat board and sat down next to Tuck.

"What do we do now?" he asked the Lirin forester.

"If you want to cross the river at night, you will have to be brought before the River King," Tuck replied. "If you can wait until morning, you can just pay a hefty toll and they will probably leave you alone."

"What time is it?" Ven asked.

"Just barely past nightfall," Tuck said. "We'll be out here without cover for almost nine hours if we wait."

"Sounds like a bad idea to me," Ven said. "I guess we may as well take our chances with Regis."

"As you wish," said Tuck. "Better wake the others." He gave the reins a gentle tap as Ven turned and climbed back into the wagon bed.

Char was already shaking Clemency, who stretched and yawned next to the water barrel. In turn, Clem woke Saeli, who sat up, rubbing her eyes, the keekee yawning and rubbing its eyes from atop her head as well. Ven made his way over to the sacks of grain and carefully poked Ida, who snorted in her sleep and rolled back over. He jabbed her with his finger again.

"Come on, Ida, shake a leg," he said, moving to the back of the wagon. He bent down beside the sleeping merrow and gently touched her shoulder. "Amariel," he whispered. "Wake up."

The merrow stretched and sat up, her long dark hair gleaming silver in the moonlight.

"I was having the most wonderful dream," she murmured. "I was dreaming about a palace—"

"Like that one, maybe?" Ven said, pointing to the bridge.

The merrow's mouth dropped open, and her eyes grew wide.

"Almost exactly," she said. "I wonder if it has a strange twisty-looking thing like it did in my dream."

"What kind of a twisty-looking thing?"

Amariel yawned.

"I don't remember," she said. "It was something you looked through, I think. But it's fading already. You wrecked my dream."

"Sorry about that," Ven said. He started back to the front of the wagon, nudging Ida with his toe as he passed her.

Tuck had maneuvered the wagon to the entrance of the passageway that spanned the river. He stopped at a respectful distance and waited for the guards to come around the corner of the elevated walkway.

"Hail!" he called to them. "Good evening. We seek passage through to the other side."

Two of the guards atop the wall pointed their crossbows at the wagon, while a third one laughed.

"You hardly look as if you can afford the expense of our opening the gates this late," he said cheerfully. "Are you sure you don't want to wait until morning?"

"Alas, we cannot," Tuck answered. "We need to keep to our schedule."

"So be it," said the guard. "You'll have to plead your case to the River King. Be warned, however, he's in the midst of merriment, and he does not take interruption well."

"Thanks for the warning," said Tuck. "Please let us in all the same."

While the two crossbowmen kept their weapons trained on the wagon, the third disappeared around the corner of the wall. A moment later, two massive signal fires sprang to life on either side of the passageway, flooding the riverbank with light.

It looked for a moment as if the sun had come out in the middle of the night. Everyone in the wagon fell back, crying out in pain and shielding their eyes, except for Ida, who was still snoring away
.

In the bright light I could see that the palace of the River King was far more beautiful than I had imagined. It was built of many different kinds of wood and stone of all different colors that
had been fashioned into a great mural of pictures, some showing scenes of sailing ships, others representing great forests, still others depicting people I did not recognize, probably historical figures. I also saw that to the south where up until now we had seen fields stood a great forest on both sides of the river. From the maps I had seen in the king's castle, I wondered if this was the beginning of the Enchanted Forest that both the king and Tuck had mentioned
.

I had heard no tales of the Enchanted Forest, but the name was enough to set my curiosity flaming as brightly as the signal fires
.