Dragon Tears Page 3

  Patrik thought quickly. He needed to come up with a good excuse and he needed it now. “Well, for one thing, who would take care of Rat?” he asked.

  Now it was the wizard’s turn to groan. “By my beard, I forgot about that flame-cursed animal.”

  “The last time we left her alone, she broke through the windows and nearly destroyed everything in the house.”

  “I know, I know.” The wizard paused, thinking. “Wish we had never found her. Life was so much simpler without that mangy animal.”

  Patrik fought to hide his grin. He knew how much the wizard really cared about Rat. Ever since he had brought home the abandoned kitten, his master had doted on her as if she were a child. Part highland prowler and part village cat, the hybrid animal came and went as she pleased. As large as a dog, but with the instincts of a hunter, Rat returned every night for a bowl of milk and a plate of scraps. The one time they hadn’t been home to let her in, she had jumped through the closed window, shattering it. They’d returned home to find every kitchen shelf ransacked, and all the feather pillows ripped to shreds.

  Allard stroked his beard while he thought. “I suppose,” he said at last, “I could transport myself there and back.”

  This time Patrik didn’t even try to repress his smile. “That’s a wonderful idea.”

  The wizard pursed his lips as if he had swallowed something sour. “Yes, but using that much magical power is going to leave me exhausted. I would have to rest most of the day to even work up enough energy to talk to the king.”

  Patrik nodded. He understood the principles behind working magic, even if he couldn’t do it himself. Using magic required power, once that power was gone, it took time to restore it.

  His master scratched his head, the firelight making his bald dome shine like a copper-bottomed pot. “I suppose I could transport myself to my sister Lianna’s place, rest there until my power returns, talk to the king, and then transport back. That way I’d only be gone a day at the most.” His voice held a puzzled tone. It wasn’t like Allard to be unsure of himself. He turned to stare at his apprentice. “Do you think you can keep yourself out of trouble for one day?”

  Patrik nodded in solemn silence.

  “Hmph!” snorted the wizard. “We’ll see.”

  Chapter Three

  Redwing approached Larkin as soon as he had finished singing in the sun. “I have an idea,” she said.

  “Oh?”

  “You seem to get in a lot of trouble because you haven’t learned to soar yet, and I thought maybe I could help.”

  “You think you can?”

  “Well, I’ve been watching you, and I think I know what you’re doing wrong.”

  Larkin turned his muzzle to face her, his great yellow eyes blazing green with excitement. “Tell me.”

  “I can’t tell you, I’ll have to show you. But first we have to get you up in the air.”

  He dropped his head in disappointment. “I don’t know how to take off either,” he said.

  “I know, I thought we could work on that too.”

  “You’ll help me?”

  “Sure, that’s what friends are for.”

  He curled his snout back, in the dragon equivalent of a smile and his eyes whirled brightly. “That’s great!”

  Larkin followed Redwing to the edge of the council area. A sharp cliff fell one hundred feet below them. They were surrounded by other dragonets that were practicing their take-offs and landings.

  “Now watch me,” Redwing said.

  She spread her wings, each scale on her body glowing like a finely cut ruby in the early morning sun. The young dragon then crouched into a squat, bunching up her body like a tightly coiled spring. “See how low to the ground I am?” she asked, turning her head toward Larkin.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s so you can use your legs to help you push off.”

  “I see.”

  “When you are as low as you can go, you then push your legs as hard as you can against the ground and jump up as high as you can.”

  “Okay.”

  “At the same time you jump, you push your wings down and then up very quickly.” She demonstrated the technique and was instantly airborne. Redwing circled once around the council area, and then performed a neat landing next to Larkin.

  “Okay, now you try.”

  Larkin’s forked tongue snaked out between his jaws. He licked his upper snout as he considered her challenge. Gathering up his courage, he finally said, “Okay.”

  “Remember to scrunch down as low as you can.”

  He did.

  “Good, now spread your wings.”

  He did that too.

  “Excellent. Now push down, jump and flap all at the same time.”

  A thrill of amazement turned his yellow eyes gold in the morning sun as Larkin found himself in the air.

  “Wow,” he hollered down to Redwing. “That was terrific.”

  “Come back down here, and we’ll try it again,” she yelled back at him.

  His landing was his usual bump and scrape, but Redwing ignored it. They practiced take-offs until the ruby dragon finally said, “Okay, now I’ll teach you to soar.”

  ∞

  Wizard Allard stood in the center of the cabin’s front room. Patrik waited well out of the way behind a chair piled high with scrolls and parchments. Outside, the sun was just beginning to rise. Inside, Rat looked up from her bowl of milk and growled at the magician showing her displeasure at his leaving.

  Allard raised his arms and began his incantation. He moved in rhythm to his words, his robes waving back and forth like laundry drying in a stiff breeze. When his voice went up, so did his arms, and when his voice dropped to a whisper, his arms fell to his sides. He moved round and around in a circle that only he could see. Slowly going around the outside of the invisible circle, he gathered the magic energies he needed to transport himself to the royal city.

  The gathered magical energies raised the hair on the back of Patrik’s neck. It felt like the air before a lightning storm, full of power waiting to be released. Knowing what was going to happen next, he grabbed hold of the chair, his hands turning white as he clung to it with all his strength. An invisible wind sucked at him, pulling him and the chair toward the wizard. The scrolls and parchments whirled around the wizard’s feet like leaves in a whirlwind. Patrik reached for the doorframe and clung to it as the chair began skittering toward the magician.

  A ball of light grew, shimmering and lighting up the whole room. Patrik raised a hand to cover his eyes as the brightness grew stronger and stronger. Even though he had been through this before, he feared getting pulled into the wizard’s spell. His fingers began to slip and his clothes felt as if they were being ripped off his body. The light flared more brilliant than the noonday sun and disappeared, taking the wizard with it.

  ∞

  Larkin flapped like a duck trying to land, only the little dragon wasn’t trying to land, he was trying to stay afloat. Redwing flew at his side, her wings spread wide, gliding with ease on the morning breeze.

  “Turn your head into the wind,” she called, “and feel which way it’s coming from.”

  He lifted his snout up and down, trying to follow her instructions.

  “Do you feel it?” she asked.

  “I think so. It’s coming from my left, from the west and the mountains.”

  “That’s right. So turn your wings to the left, into it.”

  He did as she directed, and found the air lifting him up and pushing him toward her. He spread his wings wide, like hers, and let the wind carry him. “I’m doing it!” he shouted.

  “Yes, you are. That’s all there is to it. Just find the wind and let it fill your wings. It’s easy once you know how.”

  It was easy. None of his previous flapping had gotten him anywhere. Now he soared over the valley below him as easily as a bird in the wind. He curled his snout back in a huge grin, enjoying flying for the first time in his life. He looked around
for Redwing but couldn’t find her. He tasted the wind with his tongue and felt it pushing him upward. He rose with the current, the thrill of flying filling him with excitement.

  He searched around for Redwing again, and still didn’t see her. He gazed down at the valley below him, and was startled to see that it had changed. Long expanses of flat land stretched out before him. In the distance, he could make out the furrows of plowed fields. He had flown out of the valley and the borderlands, and was now over the lands of the humans.

  In a panic, he folded his wings and began to drop from the air like an unfledged dragonet. He snapped his wings back open, only to find the current pushing him farther away from his home. He cranked his head around as far as it would go, hoping for some sign of Redwing, he still didn’t see her. Panic rose within him, lodging in his throat. Hot and sour like when he’d eaten something bad, he gagged on it. He struggled to swallow the bitter bile and his fears all the while searching the skies for some sign of his friend.

  He realized he’d flown too far to get back on his own. His little wings weren’t strong enough to carry him back. He had heard the others talk about catching crosscurrents and soaring home on them, but he didn’t know how. He needed Redwing, and he needed her now.

  Not knowing what to do, he decided to land before he drifted any farther. Folding his wings, he let himself drop from the sky as he had seen the other dragons do. He fell amid a quick flurry of wings and scales, until he was just above the ground. Then he flapped with all his might, breaking his fall. He stretched out all four legs, but he was still going too fast. His chin hit first, then his tail. He bumped along the ground for several seconds, and finally came to a stop.

  He snorted out his relief but inhaled it almost immediately. There standing in front of him was the funniest looking creature he had ever seen, and it smelled exactly like that strange scent he had found on his ledge.

  “Hello,” was all it said.

  ∞

  Rat rubbed up against Patrik, nearly knocking him over. She emitted a deep-throated purr which sounded more like a growl. The boy put down the dish he had been washing and scratched the animal’s pointed ears. He flipped one of her black ear tufts with a finger, making her shake her head in disgust. The sun streamed in through the window, highlighting her orange-striped fur and causing its black tips to look even darker. She switched her orange and black ringed tail in impatience.

  Patrik grinned. “You know,” he said, “you don’t have to go with me. The door’s open, cat.”

  He called her a cat, even though she barely resembled a feline. Her face was too boxy, her body too large, and her coloring too odd. She looked like a highland prowler, but her temperament was pure cat.

  She sat back on her haunches, her tail pounding an impatient beat on the kitchen floor.

  “Okay, okay, I’m hurrying,” he said, convinced that she understood every word.

  The wizard had left him a long list of chores, household tasks that would have been easily accomplished had they been done by magic. Since he had no magic, they had to be taken care of by hand. The list was written on a chalkboard. However, it was no ordinary chalkboard. It kept itself updated, automatically erasing a chore the minute Patrik completed it. It was the wizard’s way of keeping track of his apprentice while he was gone.

  So far this morning, all the chores had disappeared except for two. The dishes he was currently washing and the task written beneath it. He scrubbed the last plate, dried it, and put it away, and the task immediately vanished off the list. Only one chore left, a trip to town to purchase bread from the baker. Normally, the wizard did all the cooking, but baking was something the older man didn’t want to be bothered with. Twice a week, he sent Patrik into town to purchase fresh bread.

  The boy frowned at the chalkboard. The walk would take him most of the morning and part of the afternoon. All his free time would be gone, taking with it his plans to go scouting for dragons.

  If I had magic, I could be there and back in fifteen minutes.

  It wasn’t the first time he had mourned his lack of magic. He shrugged away the memories of being teased by the other children in his village, grabbed a water flask, and headed out the door. Rat accompanied the boy, running ahead at times, falling behind on occasion, but for the most part staying close by.

  The boy paid little attention to his companion as his thoughts flitted like the spring butterflies, darting from one subject to another. But one topic kept returning: the dragon. He couldn’t help but wonder about the beautiful creature and why humans were so afraid of them. He acknowledged that they were large, could breathe fire, and were said to eat people. But that didn’t seem enough reason to want to go to war with them.

  He had lived on the edge of the borderlands for two seasons, and had never seen one until yesterday, and then only because he had crossed over into their territory. He’d never heard a rumor in town of the dragons causing humans any problems. It seemed to Patrik that the dragons minded their own business, so why couldn’t people do the same thing? He hoped that Wizard Allard would have some answers when he returned.

  Thinking about his master caused Patrik’s brow to furrow in confusion. That was another thing he didn’t understand. If dragons were so evil, why did the wizard go to the royal city to try to stop the war? In Patrik’s opinion, the wizard was the smartest man he’d ever met, and if his master was against the war, then it must be wrong. Yet the king seemed bent on proceeding with the conflict. Patrik wanted to know why.

  Patrik puzzled over these questions all the way across the empty flatlands that led to town which wasn’t much more than a few shops and an inn, but it was enough to keep the local farmers supplied with the basics they couldn’t grow themselves. Hammerskild didn’t hold much that would interest a boy of twelve although the wizard liked to visit regularly to get caught up on the latest gossip.

  Interested in neither gossip nor the town girls, Patrik found the village as boring as the journey to reach it. His thoughts continued to wander, but kept returning to the dragon he’d seen and the wizard. Unable to puzzle out the answers to his many questions, he didn’t notice the large shadow that kept blocking the sun. It wavered in and out of the sunlight like a cloud, and it wasn’t until Rat hissed at him, and swatted him with one large paw, that Patrik was forced back to the present.

  He held a hand up to shade his eyes, trying to make out what had caused Rat’s reaction. The boy thought he could make out something flying overhead, but it was too high up for him to be able to see it clearly. Rat, however, seemed to be able to identify it, and the fur on her tail bushed out like a bottlebrush.

  “What is it, Rat?” he asked. “What do you see?”

  The animal hissed again and followed with a low growl. Patrik still couldn’t figure out what had upset her, so he shrugged, and began walking again. He wasn’t particularly concerned. The land over which he traveled had been settled for years. Highland prowlers, serpent kings, nightwalkers, and various other threats to humanity had long been purged from the area. He was as safe here as he was back in his own bed.

  Rat, however, remained unconvinced, and she continued snarling until he stopped again. He crouched down beside her, stroking her ears, and talking soft and low. Head bent over her, he missed seeing the shadow grow larger and larger.

  Rat jumped straight up and shot into the bushes. Patrik straightened and turned to see what had frightened her. His jaw dropped, as did his water flask. His world turned green as the sunlight filtered through the dragon’s gossamer wings like sun on a stained-glass window. A green snout, followed by a long green neck, connected to a green body, and a long green tail surrounded him.

  He couldn’t believe he was this close to a dragon, but there it was not only in front of him, but all around him. Its huge bulk formed a semicircle of green from which there was no escape. He stared as the dragon lowered its head and turned its gaze toward him.

  “Hello,” he said, not knowing what else to say and not sure
if he could find the courage to come up with anything else.

  The dragon lowered its snout toward him in the traditional dragon greeting. Frightened, Patrik jumped backward a few feet bumping into the dragon’s ribs.

  His reaction must have startled the dragon for it also jerked back in surprise. They eyed each other in wary silence, each one taking the measure of the other. “Hello,” the dragon said at last.

  ∞

  Larkin didn’t know what the strange creature in front of him could be. It reminded him of the scent he had discovered on his ledge, but now that smell was tinged with fear. It stood upright on two legs, unlike the other creatures of the forest and plains, and it could speak. He knew of no other animal that could speak except one. His tail began to twitch in agitation. If this thing was what he thought it was, he could be in big trouble. He needed to get away fast, but knew he was too tired to fly very far, and by the time he managed to take off, it would probably be too late to save himself. His tail switched back and forth with his thoughts.

  “Are you going to eat me?” it asked.

  Larkin jerked upright, standing on his hind legs. “What! Whatever gave you that idea?”

  Patrik shrunk back as the dragon loomed over him. “Dragons eat people. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”

  Larkin snorted, ruffling Patrik’s light brown hair with his hot breath. “What utter nonsense. We don’t eat people, never have, and never will.” A thought occurred to the young dragon. “I guess that must make you a human. Does that mean you’re going to cast a spell on me?”

  It was Larkin’s turn to laugh. “Not me. I don’t have any magic.”

  “All humans have magic, at least that’s what I’ve been told.”

  “Not me, not even a feather’s weight of magic.”

  “Hmph!” snorted Larkin, not sure if he really believed the human or not.

  “What are you doing here, anyway?” asked Patrik.

  Larkin’s head dropped and his wings slumped to the ground. “I was learning how to soar, and my partner disappeared. Then I couldn’t figure out how to turn around and get back home.”