Chasing the Dragon (28 page)

"
Aye, but on a rare clear night the stars shine back in the lake as if they’re calling out to a lost brother. Some have claimed they even seen the fallen star shining back from the deep."

"
A rare night?" Garrick asked. "These saints still making it rain?"

"
So the legend says," Mordrim confirmed.

"
We just spent the day in a rain forest; the rain had to come from somewhere," Kar pointed out.

Alto cleared his throat to stop the pointless conversation.
"Does this help us get Caitlyn back?"

The dwarf chuckled.
"No, but either we go around the lake to the north and take the road or we go around it to the south and lose half a week of travel."

"
Even running as fast as we are?"

Mordrim frowned.
"A day?"

"
Look at yourself," Kar cautioned. "Feel how your clothes and armor fits."

Alto glanced down at himself and shrugged. He turned and looked at Patrina and saw that she looked much the same. Sweat glistened on her skin but she looked healthy and beautiful, like always. He turned to glance at the others and then looked back at Patrina. He asked,
"Skinnier?"

"
I see it," Carson agreed.

Garrick grunted.
"Patrina’s armor’s not falling off but it should be."

Patrina looked down at her chest and then looked back up, her cheeks flaming red. Her armor was magical and had resized itself without her realizing it. Garrick was right
; she had lost some weight off her top.

Alto looked at Garrick sternly
. "You noticed her cheekbones were standing out more, did you?"

"
What?" Garrick asked. Mordrim smacked him in the thigh, causing him to grunt. "Oh, yeah, cheekbones. Yeah, I mean her cheeks lost some weight. That means the rest of her did too, right?"

Patrina sighed and shook her head. Alto scowled at the barbarian and then turned back to Kar.
"How long will this potion last?"

"
Nobody asked the troll that, did they?" the wizard grumbled and looked around. "We don’t dare eat even though my belly is playing peek-a-boo with my backbone."

"
You’re always hungry," Karthor dismissed his father’s claim.

"
It’s my brain!" Kar protested. "All this thinking and all the things I know take a lot of food to keep working in top shape."

Karthor wasn’t the only man to snort at the wizard’s boast.

"Thork wouldn’t give it to us if it was going to kill us," Alto reasoned. "It must run out soon. Let’s go around to the north and get as far as we can. Unless anybody’s tired? We’ve already made up more time than we lost."

"
Tired, yes, but still full of energy," Patrina said. "It’s an odd feeling."

Alto nodded. He could feel it too. His body was being worked beyond anything he’d done before, but the magic of the potion gave it energy to keep working. He wondered what would happen when the potion wore off.
"Then let’s go."

Without another word
, they started off again. Mordrim took the lead, his shorter legs moving so fast they were a blur as he set the pace. They paused once more to fill their skins at a watering hole just off the road, and then Mordrim led them away from the road and into the hills that began to rise up ahead of them. By the time the sun had set and clouds obscured the sky to the south, a cool breeze blew against them. Raindrops began to blow over onto them, followed by lightning striking across the sky and leaving thunder trailing behind.

"
It’s going to be too dark to run safely," Mordrim shouted to the others over the increasing noise of the storm.

"
How much farther?" Alto asked.

"
We’re in the hills already," Mordrim said. "Dwarves patrol them, but the storm has driven them to their homes. Even running full-out, we’d be most of another day to the mountains, two days by horse or wagon."

"
Let’s go as far as we can," Alto said.

"
We’ve damn near done that!" Mordrim insisted. "That storm’s headed this way before the hot air from the desert turns it back south and east. There’s tornadoes and worse likely to come. Garrick, you should draw your sword and point it to the sky, but run a good thirty or forty feet behind us, all the same."

Garrick reached for his blade and then stopped when he realized the dwarf meant to use him as a lightning rod. He sneered at Mordrim and was about to respond when Alto interrupted him.

"Where would you have us go? I don’t see a place to shelter," the young leader said. He’d heard of tornadoes but they were rare in the northern reaches where he’d grown up.

"
Come on," Mordrim turned away and said. "I know a man who might help us."

"
Might?" Alto repeated. It was too late; Mordrim had already started to run again. A fresh crack of lightning spurred Alto and the others into action. The rain was falling harder and promised to be a downpour in no time.

They ran on, their feet soon splashing through puddles and slipping on mud until Mordrim could find the right hillside to guide them to before the full fury of the tropical storm struck.

Chapter 27

"You must be chilled to the bone," the dwarven woman clucked over Patrina after she let her and the rest of the companions in. She shut the door behind them and hurried over to a chest on the floor.

"
I’m fine, but I thank you," Patrina said, speaking carefully so the dwarf could understand her.

"
Aye, a little water’s done us no harm. Even washed the stink off the northlander," Mordrim said. Garrick scowled at the dwarf as he continued. "Is Taroak due back soon?"

Gemma tutted again and fetched a blanket from
the trunk. She insisted on wrapping it around the scantily clad princess, ignoring the dwarf until she had no other choice. "He’s checking the tunnels to be sure there’s no leaks. Does it every time and not a one yet. Waste of time."

"
It is until the one time he finds one," Mordrim said.

She harrumphed.
"That’s what he says."

"
Then he’s a smart man."

"
Smarter than his brother, at least," Gemma said.

Mordrim sighed.
"I always said he got the wits in the family."

Garrick looked back and forth between them and then grinned.
"Your brother?" he asked, speaking too quickly for Gemma to understand.

Mordrim nodded.

Garrick chuckled. He slowed his speech and asked, "If he got the wits, what did you get? Not the good looks!"

Gemma’s eyes widened. Mordrim glared at Garrick and opened his mouth, but was spared a retort by the sound of a door opening deeper in the underground home. A moment later
, a dwarf humming a tune stepped into a doorway and stopped abruptly. A jagged scar ran down the left side of his face from his brow to his jaw. The wound was broken only by the patch the dwarf wore over his eye.

"
Oh," Garrick muttered. Mordrim had gotten the looks, it seemed.

"
Mordrim!" Taroak started forward and then stopped and glanced at his wife. She turned away and stepped to some shelves where she could busy herself with some plates.

"
Brother, it’s good to see you," Mordrim said.

Gemma c
leared her throat and asked, "You’ll all be staying for supper then?"

Mordrim turned to look at Patrina and Alto. She shook her head and grimaced while Alto answered.
"I fear not, good woman. Another time, perhaps."

"
And who might you be?" Taroak asked, peering up at Alto with his good eye.

Mordrim chuckled,
"This here’s Lord Alto, thane of Rockwood and hero of the north!"

"
It’s true, then?" Taroak asked after a quick glance at his wife.

"
It is. I was there," Mordrim said. "Seen it with my own eyes."

"
I heard Rockwood wasn’t going well," Taroak said.

Mordrim shrugged.
"Some greedy councilmen can’t see what’s best for all over their own love of gold."

Taroak sighed and glanced at his wife.
"It’s a hard thing to give up."

"
Why are you here?" Gemma asked. "Or have you come to show off the fancy people you know?"

"
Gemma!" Taroak scolded his wife.

"
No," Mordrim said. "We are in a hurry. Are the passages still open to Havara?"

Gemma hissed and rushed forward to jab her finger against Mordrim’s breastplate.
"You’ve done enough! You’re not to go there, not ever! Get out of my halls. You’re not welcome here!"

"
Gemma, that’s enough," Taroak said in a calm but firm voice. He laid a hand on her forearm and lowered her hand away from Mordrim’s chest. "Mordrim knows how things stand between us, but what’s past is past. That was over forty years past now. Least we can do is hear what he’s got to say."

Alto stepped forward so he was at Mordrim’s side.
"I don’t know what problems there may be here, but I must ask you to put them aside for now. There are people’s lives at stake here. That, and maybe more."

"
That never stopped this fool man in the past!" Gemma muttered.

Mordrim took a deep breath and let it out.
"Maybe I shouldn’t have come here, but we got nowhere else to go. We believe there’s a woman and a man—friends and family—held prisoner in them mountains. The Order of the Dragon’s got them and if we don’t get them back, bad things will happen."

"
To them, sure," Gemma spat.

"
No," Alto shook his head. "The man I got my answers from told me they have plans, plans that are far reaching. The woman is my sister, a peasant girl by birth. Would so much be risked for a simple farmer’s daughter?"

Gemma’s eyes creased with confusion.
"I don’t understand."

"
A noble from Shazamir courted my sister and married her, then he took her on a retreat so that he could reveal that he was a member of the Order of the Dragon. The same order that butchered our family and hurt her."

"
Hurt her? Why not kill her?" Gemma interrupted.

Alto
clenched his jaw and forced a neutral tone as he said, "They had their sport with her and would have killed her when they were done, save that I returned in time. I killed them."

Gemma’s eyes widened in understanding.
"Well, I’m sorry for your sister. And you, to be fair. But I don’t see how this is any of our responsibility. Last time Mordrim came storming through with one of his schemes, things went poorly."

"
Is that how you remember it?" Mordrim asked.

"
That’s how it was!" Gemma snapped. She opened her mouth to say more but Patrina stopped her.

"
Lady Gemma, Alto brought Caitlyn to my people. I am Lady Patrina, daughter of the Jarl of Holgasford. My father took her in and made her one of us."

"
So?"

"
So Alto has been made a kelgryn noble and that makes her one by relation," Patrina said. "But that doesn’t even matter. If my father will go to war for any kelgryn held without cause, imagine what he’ll do for someone he considers family?"

"
I don’t know," Gemma challenged. "What will he do?"

"
When I was captured, he followed after with every warrior he could spare and some he could not," Patrina said.

"
And no matter how mighty the kelgryn are, the Shazamir have numbers far greater and wizards at their disposal. We have Kar."

The wizard stiffened.
"I’m no kelgryn," he protested. "In fact, I—"

"
Or if we can get in there, we can put a stop to this before it starts. It’s true what is said of me. I killed a dragon to rescue the woman I love. I love Caitlyn and Namitus no less and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save them."

Taroak studied Alto while Gemma twisted her beard in her fingers. Mordrim’s brother nodded.
"Answer this question, was coming here Mordrim’s idea?"

"
Only at the last," Alto said without looking at the dwarf. "He’s pledged his service to Lady Patrina, and she and I are pledged to each other. I needed a way to get through these hills and only when we had no other choices did Mordrim bring us here."

Taroak turned to his wife. She pulled at the twists in her beard and frowned.

"By Preth's spear, we're wasting time!" Garrick blurted out. "Are you the man of this, uh, home or not?"