Dragon Tears Page 13

  “I could have never gotten the seawater off my back,” Redwing agreed. “Thank you.”

  “You saved our lives,” Patrik said. “Helping you is only the right thing to do.”

  “And it’s nothing in comparison for what you have done for us,” agreed the wizard.

  Patrik turned his gaze to Rat who was stretched out on a rock, sunning herself. “Do you think we should wash the seawater off of Rat?” he asked Allard.

  The older man pursed his lips. “Probably, but have you ever tried to give a cat a bath? Let alone one the size of that monster?”

  “You have a point, but if we don’t, it might make her wounds worse. Maybe we can get the dragons to help.”

  “It’s going to take a dragon to give that animal a bath,” Allard replied.

  “Larkin,” Patrik called, “we need a favor.”

  The dragon approached the cat with caution, moving with slow deliberate steps. When he was directly above her sunning place, he bent his head down, and gently clamped his teeth down on the scruff of her neck. Rat didn’t waste any time in letting her fury be known. She yowled as if she was in a fight with another mountain prowler, and pawed the air with furious angry swipes of her claws.

  Fortunately, for Larkin, his head and nose, positioned behind her head, were well out of range as he carried the angry cat to the stream and dunked her beneath the water. He kept his mouth clamped onto her neck as Patrik and Allard washed the seawater from her body. They bypassed her head as neither one of them dared come close to fangs. She made a beeline toward the jungle when Larkin finally released her, yowling and hissing all the way.

  The sun was high in the sky by the time they finished, and all four of them were totally exhausted. The dragons found warm patches of sand to spread out their wings and were soon asleep as the sun dried and warmed their bodies. Patrik and Allard curled up on their sleeping rolls and joined their friends in an exhausted slumber.

  A chill evening breeze blew across their campsite, waking them well after moonrise. Patrik groaned, closed his eyes, and tried to ignore his rumbling stomach. He turned over, lifted his head, and noticed the two dragons on the beach were also stirring. Rat had finally returned but made her anger known by staying well out of arm’s length.

  “Are you awake?” he asked.

  “Yes, Patrik. And so is Redwing. We’re both hungry.”

  “So am I.”

  “As am I,” said the wizard who had just awakened.

  “I will hunt for you,” Redwing said, rising from the beach and spreading her wings for take-off .

  “Larkin, do you think you can flame our fire?” Allard asked.

  The sound of the dragon’s sigh sounded like wind blowing through a willow patch. “I can try,” he said hesitantly.

  The dragon trudged through the sand, his claws leaving deep groves in the sand behind him, to where the firewood lay stacked. He took a deep breath and flexed his chest muscles in and out with all the strength he could muster. A small puff of smoke rewarded his effort. He tried it again, several more times, before giving up. “I guess you’ll just have to wait for Redwing,” he said, his head hanging low in shame.

  “It’s okay, Larkin,” Patrik said, scratching the dragon’s head ridges. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll learn how to do it. Some things just take time. Look at me, I still can’t do magic. At the rate I’m going, I’ll probably never learn.”

  Larkin rubbed his nose affectionately against Patrik’s chest. “We’re kind of alike, aren’t we?”

  “Yes, we are.”

  Larkin’s stomach rumbled, sounding like a small thunderstorm.

  Patrik laughed, “You better get something to eat before your stomach eats itself. “He gave the dragon a gentle shove.

  “I’ll bring you back some fruit and salad greens,” the dragon said, plunging into the darkened jungle.

  The humans waited in silence for the dragons’ return, still too tired to do much of anything. Redwing arrived first, a large doe in her jaws. She ripped off one of its hindquarters for the humans, flamed the fire to life, and returned to the jungle to eat her meal. This demonstration was a potent reminder to Patrik and Allard of her power, and they were both once again humbled by her willingness to be their friend and partner.

  It wasn’t long before the salivating smell of roasted meat filled the campsite. It was tempting enough that even Rat took a place beside the fire. Larkin returned and deposited a mouthful of fresh greens and ruby-red fruit at their feet. “I’ve had my fill,” he said, and sighed with contentment. “I’m going to sleep now,” he said with a yawn. “I will see you in the morning,” he said as he curled up as close as he could to their campfire and almost immediately began to snore.

  Redwing returned as Patrik and Allard were finishing their meal, and knowing that the smell of fresh meat could bring unwanted jungle animals into their campsite, they hung the leftovers high in the nearest tree. Nose to Larkin’s tail, Redwing also snuggled up to the campfire. Circled by their friends, the two humans and the cat also nestled down to sleep.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The large green dragon roared out her anger, spitting fire in huge sheets down upon the tiny human in front of her. The first order magician’s shield held as the fire engulfed him like a glove, leaving him unharmed. He raised his arms and lightning bolts blasted from his fingertips toward the towering dragon. She flinched as they penetrated her scales, but she held her ground, screeching in fury, she stretched out one giant leg and clawed the magician off his feet. Seeing her enemy helpless, she charged him, snatching him up, and dashing him to the earth.

  “That’s another one of our first order magicians down,” King Harrold said to Advisor Blackwell from the safety of his tent, far behind the front lines, but high on a hill where the battle could be viewed in safety. “I thought you said the dragons would be helpless against our magic.”

  Blackwell tapped one black fingernail against his teeth as he thought. The war was going exactly as he thought it would, but he needed to keep this fact from the king. “I may have underestimated their strength, Your Highness, but we will still win the day. They have had many casualties already. You have seen the numbers our magicians have brought down.”

  “Yes, but I’ve also seen the number of the first order magicians killed. If this doesn’t stop, we will be forced to use our second order ranks, and you and I both know they are not skilled enough. Also, the resulting drain of energy is taking its toll. We are losing almost as many basic magic users as we are first order magicians.”

  Blackwell felt his hold over the king slipping. He thought quickly and said, “Surely, Sire, you knew this would be the case. One cannot use magic without drawing energy from someplace.”

  King Harrold’s hands gripped the arms of his throne in frustration. “Yes, I knew it, but you assured me this would be an easy battle, quickly fought and quickly won. It has been twenty-five sunrises, and we are no closer to winning than when we started.”

  “Ah, but that is not true,” Blackwell insisted. “The number of dragons we’ve defeated has surely hurt them. Their numbers are limited. Sooner or later, they will give up in defeat,” he lied.

  “It had better be sooner rather than later,” King Harrold stated. “I am sick of this war and sick of seeing my people killed and injured.”

  Blackwell hid his pleased smile behind his hand. All was going exactly as planned. The humans were losing and their earth was being destroyed with magic. Soon dragons would rule the earth the way they should have from the beginning. He cleared his throat and said, “I will go to the front lines and see if I can find a new strategy that will help.” He bowed his way out of the tent, smiling all the way.

  ∞

  The weary travelers broke camp in a silence that was weighed down with worries and fears. The dawn of their thirty-sixth day shone bright and clear, and although they needed more rest, they all agreed to keep moving. They’d lost twenty-six days crossing the Sea of Lights and knew the
war they had hoped to prevent must have already started. Their only hope now was to try to stop it before it destroyed their entire world.

  They filled every gourd, flask, and bottle with water, and stored the leftover deer meat in a leather wrap. Larkin refused to carry it, but willingly let them strap on the extra water containers. “I can’t even stand the smell of it,” he complained. They were airborne within minutes, heading north, toward what they hoped were the Singing Mountains, the home of the dragon king.

  “How much longer?” Patrik asked the wizard.

  “I have no flaming idea. Remember that the maps I have with me ended at the Sea of Lights.”

  “Oh yeah. I guess we’re on our own then.”

  “According to our legends,” Larkin said, “the Singing Mountains are on the far side of the Valley of Death, where lost souls go when they can’t find their way to the Cloud Caverns.”

  “And how do we find this valley?” the wizard asked.

  Larkin shrugged, almost unseating Patrik and Rat, whose wounds were now mostly healed, and who had taken to riding the dragon behind Patrik instead of in a sling.

  “Don’t do that,” Patrik said, grabbing the harness tighter.

  “Oops, sorry, Patrik,” Larkin said.

  “All we know for sure is that they lie in the north,” Redwing said. “And since we are flying north, we should end up there eventually.”

  “That is just flaming wonderful,” Allard said, whose mood was deteriorating as rapidly as the forest beneath them.

  They’d left the lush green jungle behind them several sunmarks ago, and as they flew toward the top of the mountains that guarded it, the vegetation became scraggly, small, and brown. The farther inland they flew, the less hospitable the surroundings. They reached the pinnacle of the mountain and both dragons slowed down and began to circle.

  “I think we’ve found it,” Larkin said. “I’m going to land. I need a rest.”

  Redwing followed Larkin’s lead, and landed on the mountain summit next to him. Patrik and Allard dismounted, and all four of them stared in stunned silence at the valley that lay before them. Rust-colored dirt stretched out, unbroken by any living thing. No trees, no grasses, no bushes, nothing but dried earth. Not a breath of wind, not a trickle of water. The valley was as dead as its name.

  Patrik idly scratched Larkin’s head ridges while he stared at the land. The wizard cursed under his breath, and both dragons’ eyes whirled and turned dark brown with anxiousness.

  Larkin finally broke the silence. “If we can cross the Sea of Lights, we can cross this.”

  “We had the Guides and the water dragons,” the wizard said, unable to keep the gloom from his voice. “I don’t suppose either of you know how far this stretches?”

  Both of the dragons shook their heads.

  “I figured as much.” The wizard turned away and rummaged in his packs for his water flask.

  “We can’t turn back now,” Patrik said. “We have to get across. We have to keep going.” He stood with his arms crossed, stubbornness etched into every line on his face.

  “I figured you’d say that as well,” the wizard replied, taking a big gulp of water from his flask. “But you’re right. We certainly can’t go back the way we came. I guess we best get on with it then.” He put away his water flask and mounted Redwing, who launched herself into the air.

  Patrik and Larkin were right behind them, but the small group’s mood was as bleak as their surroundings. No one spoke and no one felt like speaking. They flew in silence until sunset when Patrik asked, “Where should we land?”

  The wizard, whose mood had not improved, said, “Since you won’t let me use my magic to help us out, it’s all the same to me. Any place is just as good as another.”

  After finding a spot to set down, they ate a cold supper as there was no firewood to gather. Patrik couldn’t help but notice how nervous the dragons appeared. Their eyes were constantly whirring, changing color from orange to brown to red and back again, like living flames. Their heads rotated as if they were searching for something. They kept clutching and stretching their claws as if readying for battle. Neither one of them had said a word since they’d landed.

  “What is the matter with you two?” the wizard snapped. “You’re acting as if you expect to see ghosts or something.”

  “Exactly,” Larkin said. “This is the Valley of Death where lost souls live.”

  “Oh.” Allard’s head suddenly swung back and forth, surveying the night around him.

  “Do you really believe that?” Patrik asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Redwing answered, “but all of the other legends have proven true so far.”

  “There is that,” the wizard said.

  They spent a fretful but uneventful night, with no one getting much sleep. All four of them were grateful to see the sunrise. They rose, groggy and grumpy, and broke camp with their usual efficiency. Day followed night, and their routine never varied. On their third day, they resorted to eating the dried fish the wizard had saved. Larkin ate nothing. On their fourth day, their water ran out, and Larkin had now been four days without food. He was getting weaker and weaker, and all four of them knew he couldn’t last much longer.

  “I think we’d better stop early,” Patrik said, caressing Larkin’s side with his hand. “Larkin’s not doing very well.”

  Neither the wizard nor Redwing tried to argue with him, and Patrik figured they were as tired and discouraged as he was even if they were not as hungry as Larkin. The long days of flying over the endless expanses of barren earth without a single thing to break the monotony were taking its toll in more ways than one. Patrik had begun to feel it would never end, and that they would all die from hunger and thirst in the Valley of Death. Worse than that was the belief that they had failed, that they would never be able to stop the war and that the entire world would end up being as empty and dead as the valley over which they flew. And, from the moody actions of the others, Patrik was pretty sure they felt the same way.

  Larkin and Patrik landed first. Redwing came down in a slow glide that lacked her usual high-spirited landings. She touched one hind foot down, and then the other. As she set down her first foreleg, the dirt beneath her cracked and crumbled. She set her last leg down, and the earth beneath her opened up as the thin crust crumbled beneath her weight. She tumbled through the opening with the wizard still in his saddle. The crack continued to widen and before either Patrik or Larkin could react, they too fell in.

  As they fell, both dragons instinctively pulled in their wings to protect them from injury. Patrik and Allard gripped their harnesses with white-knuckle strength, hoping the dragons landed feet first, so that they wouldn’t be crushed beneath them. They fell straight down for fifty foot-lengths, before finally coming to a stop. Larkin’s right foreleg was crumpled beneath his body, and Redwing’s tail was bent at a ninety-degree angle. Rat jumped off Larkin’s back before the dragon landed and escaped injury. Both humans suffered little more than a few bumps and scratches.

  Patrik scrambled off Larkin’s back, stood up, and gazed around in amazed silence. The dragon slowly lifted himself up, tested his leg, and then joined Patrik in staring at the world where they found themselves. Wizard Allard helped Redwing straighten out her tail, and then looked around. “By my beard!” he whispered.

  They’d landed in a huge cavern, one whose walls were completely lined with jewels. Rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and all manner of lesser gems sparkled with rainbow-like colors in the dim light. Tunnels spiked away from its center like spokes on a wagon wheel. A small stream coursed through its middle, alongside its banks grew trees, bushes, and grass whose leaves, stems, and branches were of varying shades of white. Small birdlike creatures sang and flitted among the branches, their songs echoing back and forth in the large cavern. A deer, whose hide was so pale as to be almost white, grazed at the back of the cavern, unafraid of their sudden appearance.

  A hush filled the cavern giving it an almost sacre
d quality. Even the deer’s light footfalls sounded mystical and unearthly. It was as if this place had been set aside for some greater purpose, and they had wandered into it unknowingly, and without the right to be there. Even Rat, who usually was the first to explore any new surroundings, sat back on her haunches in hushed admiration.

  “Where are we?” Patrik whispered, as if afraid that his voice might break the magic spell that seemed to surround them.

  “I don’t know,” Larkin said softly. “I’ve never heard of anything like this. Do you think the water’s safe?”

  “I would think so, since the other animals are drinking it,” the wizard answered.

  “I’ll try it first,” Redwing volunteered.

  She made her way slowly toward the center of the cavern, her tail trailing on the grass behind her. She dipped her nose toward the water, sniffing. “Smells like water,” she said over her shoulder. She flicked out her tongue and tasted it. “Seems all right to me,” she said, taking a big gulp.

  “Well, if we don’t have water we’re going to die,” Patrik said, “so I’m going to try it too.”

  “There is that,” the wizard said, following Patrik and Larkin to the stream.

  The water was cool, clear, and wonderful, and exactly what their parched bodies needed. Larkin was soon nibbling at the grasses and bushes, while Allard, Patrik, and Redwing contented themselves with dried fish. “For some reason, it just doesn’t seem right to hunt in this place. Look at the animals,” Redwing said. “They aren’t even afraid of us.”

  The peaceful serenity of the cavern soon lulled the tired travelers to sleep. Time lost its meaning in the perpetual twilight of the underground world for they couldn’t tell daytime from night time. Exhausted, they slept, for the first time in several sunrises, without worry or fear.

  A slithering. whispering noise like dry leaves tumbling across barren soil woke Patrik from his dreams. He propped himself up on one elbow, shook his head to clear away his sleepy fogginess, and bolted upright. “Larkin,” he hissed, “wake up!”