Vankara (Book 1) (23 page)

Chapter 14

Startled by the
unexpected presence of another human being, I dropped the chickweed in my hand,
quickly stood up and spun around to find the woman standing a few feet behind
me.  She was short in stature, possibly five feet tall, with a shock of short
white hair cut close to her scalp.  Her thin frame was draped by a dark colored
cloak contrasting dramatically with her pale white face.  The woman’s honey
colored eyes watched me closely.

“Sorry to have
frightened you, child,” she said in a soothing voice, taking a cautious step
closer to me. 

The woman looked
me up and down as if she were trying to make up her mind about something.

“Saw your friend
back on the road,” she said.  “There is only one type of herb which will draw
the dragon’s poison out of his system.”

“Do you know if
there is any close by?” I asked desperately, fully willing to admit how little
I knew about the poison ravaging Fallon’s body.

“I can show you
where it grows if you can trust an old fae woman vankaran child.”

“Are you a
healer?”

“Of a sort,” she
said.

As I studied the
elderly woman before me, something deep within my soul told me I could trust
her to help and not hurt Fallon.

“Where is it?” I
asked.

She showed me
where the weed we needed grew in the clearing, one I had never laid eyes on
before, and told me to pick as much of it as I could and bring it back to camp
as quickly as possible.

When I returned to
camp, the old woman was sitting beside Fallon in a squat which seemed
incredibly uncomfortable to me but perfectly comfortable to her.  Thankfully,
Fallon had fallen back to sleep.  I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be to
having a fae help heal his wounds.

“Bring that to me,
child,” the woman bade, waving me over with an age fragile arm.  “I’ll need you
to grind that up just like you did the chickweed and I’ll spread it over the
torn flesh.  It will draw out the dragon’s poison.”

I sat down and
began grinding.  While I ground the herb, the old woman packed the poultice
into Fallon’s wounds.  I watched in amazement as the green paste turned the
same pale yellow as the pus.

“It’s working,”
the woman said with a nod of satisfaction.  “We’ll need to change it out again
once it’s completely yellow.”

We sat there for
at least an hour me grinding, the old woman exchanging old poultice for new. 
Finally, the green of the herb stayed green, no longer turning yellow.

“That should be
all of it then,” the woman said satisfied with our work. 

The morning sun
was full upon us now, driving away the thick shadows from the forest surrounding
us.

The old woman sat
cross legged beside me, giving me her full attention.

“So, what is your
name, child?”

Such a simple
question for most people.  For me, it was confusing.

“I’m Emma,” I
finally said, setting the tin cup down beside me and giving the woman my full
attention.  “Can I ask your name?”

“Lanai.”

Lanai looked at me
and tilted her head slightly to the left like I was a curiosity.

“Would you like to
know what it is?” She asked.

Initially, her
question confused me.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  It finally
dawned on me she might have seen the egg still lying by the fire.  I quickly
stood up and retrieved the forgotten egg holding it gently in the palm of my
hand as I came back to sit beside Lanai.

“I took it out of
the dragon’s pouch,” I confessed.  “Will it still live?”

Lanai nodded.  “As
long as it stays warm, I see no reason why it won’t hatch.  I would suggest
keeping it close by you.  It’s bound to emerge from its shell soon since the
cord is no longer attached.  You could keep it stowed in your jacket quite
safely to help keep it warm.  The shell is as hard as marble.  You won’t break
it.”

“Thank you for the
advice.”  I unbuttoned a middle button on my jacket and stuffed the egg into a
small pocket in the jacket’s lining.

I walked over to
my horse, which was grazing on a patch of grass by the road, and retrieved the
block of cheese, dried beef and loaf of bread Gabriel had packed from the
saddle pouch.  I sat back down beside Lanai breaking the loaf into two pieces
and offering her one.

“Thank you, Emma,”
she bowed her head a small degree and smiled, nibbling at the sweet yeast
bread.

“So you called
that thing a dragon,” I pointed to the corpse still lying in the road.  “Are
they always so aggressive?”

Lanai shrugged. 
“Depends on how they are raised.  The dragons which live by the wall are
feral.  The ones which live with the others of my kind have been domesticated
and don’t normally attack people unless they are provoked.”

“So the Fae keep
them as pets?”

“In a way, they
are considered highly prized companions.”

I felt the egg
vibrate against my side and heard the unmistakable pop as it opened.  There was
a wiggling sensation against my chest as it dislodged itself from the remnants
of the shell.  I quickly reached inside my jacket intending to help the
struggling baby dragon out.  Just as I wrapped my fingers around it, I felt the
animal clamp its tiny razor sharp teeth on the tender flesh between my thumb
and forefinger.  I yanked the creature from my jacket and used my other hand to
pry its tiny mouth from my skin, unceremoniously dropping it onto the ground.  It
looked incredibly like a miniature version of its mother even though it wasn’t
much bigger than my thumb.  Its light blue eyes with tiny black pupils looked
from me to Lanai and back at me.  It quickly scurried up my crossed legs and
arm to perch itself on my shoulder.

“Well now,” Lanai said looking at the baby dragon sitting on my shoulder.  “I didn’t expect that would
happen.”

“What?  That it
would bite me?” I asked, rubbing the soreness away from where the baby dragon
had sunk its teeth into my flesh.

“Yes.  Usually a
dragonling will only project onto a fae.  Or at least that’s what I always
thought.  Perhaps it has only been that way because they had no other choice.”

“What do you mean
by
project
?”

“The dragonling is
connected to you now.”

“Connected to me
how?” I asked, leery of Lanai’s true meaning.

“It has chosen you
to be its life companion.”

“What?” I
exclaimed.  I felt the smooth head of the dragonling rub the side of my neck as
if to confirm what Lanai had just said.  “Well, how do I break this connection?”

Lanai seemed taken
aback by my suggestion.  “You can’t.  Once a dragonling chooses you, the bond
can only be broken by your death.”

“But I can’t take
it back over the wall with me,” I argued.  “It needs to stay here on this side
of the wall.”

“I would suggest
you find a way to take it with you or you will never feel whole again.  The
bond goes both ways.  It can not survive without you.  If you try to abandon
the dragonling, you will feel its emptiness within you for the rest of your
life.  The dragon is yours Emma whether you want it or not.”

I looked to my
shoulder as the dragonling curled itself there to lie down and promptly go to
sleep.  I felt sure Lanai was over exaggerating the connection between me and
it.  I certainly didn’t feel anything for the small creature except pity: pity
that it would have to grow up without its mother. But I knew that circumstance
was beyond my control.  Fallon had to kill her in order to save his own life. 
Perhaps the female dragon was simply following some basic motherly instinct to
protect her unborn child.  It was an instinct I could well understand.

But a dragonling
was the least of my worries.  I had to decide what to do with Fallon and if I
could accomplish the mission I had set for myself on this side of the Iron Wall
without him.

“How far is your
capital city from here?”  I asked Lanai.  “I came here to discuss something
with your leader.”

“You want to see Queen
Nuala?  Why?”

“I assume you know
about the plagues.  I’ve heard they’ve taken lives on this side of the wall
just as they have the vankaran side.”

“Yes, I have heard
of them,” Lanai confirmed with great hesitation.

“I’ve been given
information I hope your Queen can help me confirm.  I need to speak with her as
soon as possible.  I’m hoping she and I can figure out a way to stop the
plagues from happening again.”

“Are you some sort
of leader of your people?”

It was the first
time someone had asked me that question outright.  Everyone assumed I was the Queen
in Vankara because I looked like her.  I had never been required to verbalize
who I was or what my station was in Vankaran society.  But now I needed to
answer.  I had to take responsibility for the role I had accepted to play.

“I am their Queen.”

Lanai didn’t seem
the least bit surprised by my revelation.  It was almost as if she expected me
to be nothing less.

“Then you carry
the heir to your country in your belly.  Someone in your condition should not
be making such a hard trip alone.  Riding a horse for so long could damage the
little one growing inside you.”  Her chastisement was like a cog thrown into
the gears of my mind slowing my thoughts to almost a standstill. 

“Heir?” I asked
completely confused by Lanai’s insinuation.  “I have no idea what you’re
talking about.  I’m not pregnant.”

Lanai’s head
tilted and again she looked at me like I was a curiosity.  “How can you not
know?  You’re at least two months along, child.  I can see it as plan as the
sun in the sky.”

“No, you have to
be mistaken.  I can’t be pregnant.  I haven’t even…”  I physically felt myself
choke on the air trapped inside my throat.

The meaning behind
Aleksander’s words of
‘where we left off’
suddenly became crystal
clear.  The Queen had been in Chromis exactly two months ago.

Aleksander and Queen
Emma had been lovers.

An important point
the Queen had neglected to share with either me or Gabriel.  But why keep it a
secret on her death bed?  And, more importantly, how on earth had the child
transferred over to me during the transformation?  But each of those questions
was based on the assumption Lanai was right.  Was the nausea I felt the night
before confirmation of my condition?  I needed to speak with Gabriel first
before I allowed myself to be drawn into madness over something which might not
even be true.

Out of the corner
of my eye, I could see Fallon’s head begin to move from side to side.

I knew he would be
waking up at any moment.

“Don’t tell him
what you just told me,” I begged Lanai.  “I’ll inform him of the situation when
the time is more appropriate.”

“Is he the father?”

I shook my head.  Lanai’s eyebrow popped up in a moment of surprise but she nodded her head confirming she
would not say anything to the man she probably assumed to be my husband.

“Would you like to
know what it is?”  She asked.

It had been the
same question she asked me earlier.  Only then I assumed she was talking about
the dragon’s egg not a supposed child in my womb.

But right or
wrong, it would do no harm to listen to her prediction on the baby’s sex.  So I
nodded my head.

“A male child,”
she said with a smile.  “Very strong, just like his mother.

Fallon’s eyes
slowly opened squinting against the filtered sunlight of the forest.  I willed
myself into a composed state and leaned my head over his to peer into his eyes.

“How are you
feeling?” I asked.

“Not as bad as I
was,” his words said but the tense expression on his face told a different
story.  “Doesn’t sting anymore, just feels like someone sliced me open pretty
good.”

“Can you move?”

“Yeah, just give
me a minute.  My head feels like a rock landed on it.”

Fallon laid there
for only a few seconds more before he tried to raise himself up.  I placed my
hands on his back and helped propel him into a sitting position. 

“Greetings,
Vankaran,” Lanai said brightly as Fallon came face to face with her.

He looked over at
me with an unasked question on his face.

“Lanai was the one
who showed me how to leech the dragon’s poison from your wounds,” I explained,
subtly implying the gratitude he owed the small, fragile woman sitting next to
him.

Fallon’s naturally
suspicious mind kept him from saying a cordial ‘thank you’ right away.  He
studied Lanai with undisguised curiosity, finally coming to a decision about
her character.

“Thank you for
your help,” he finally said.

Fallon looked
around the camp.  His eyes rested on the corpse of the dragon he had slain.

“I’d heard rumors
about dragons but I thought they were just made up stories to keep us from
coming on fae territory,” he admitted, letting his eyes roam the now cold
corpse of his foe.

“Maybe they’re the
reason none of the people who tried to come here ever made it back,” I
suggested.

“I can sure as
hell see why,” Fallon admitted.   “Damn thing almost had me.”

“Your survival is
a credit to your skill as a fighter,” Lanai complemented. 

“Well, I wouldn’t
be alive if the two of you hadn’t stitched me up,” Fallon held his hand out to Lanai.

Lanai seemed
confused at first but soon realized what was required of her.  She held her
hand out too and Fallon grasped it.

“John Fallon,” he
said as formal introduction.  “Thank you again for saving my life.”

“Your Queen did
most of the work,” Lanai replied.  “I simply showed her where to find the best
cure for your malady.  It’s her you owe most of your gratitude to.”

Fallon looked over
at me, a smile playing at a corner of his lips.