Dragon Stones (Book One in the Dragon Stone Saga) (16 page)

She grabbed Elias by his tunic and he
screamed. Her hands were as cold as ice. Elias tried to cast a
spell to free himself, but his mind went blank. He’d never felt so
terrified in his entire life.

Just then, Thorin raised his head and
snorted, “Humph! Not so fast, dark lady.”

The necromancer spun around, “What?
Impossible! You cannot have broken my spell!”

“You spellcasters always underestimate us
dwarves. I always have some tricks up my sleeve,” said Thorin,
smiling. “How much did the emperor tell you about this boy?”

The necromancer’s eyes narrowed. “Enough.
That he needs to be returned to the capital alive. I follow my
emperor’s orders—nothing else is important.”

“I beg to differ, dark one… this boy is
Carina Dorgumir’s grandson.”

The necromancer inhaled sharply, and
released Elias’ tunic. “No! It cannot be!”

“Yes, it is. Look into his eyes. You know it
to be true.”

The necromancer was stunned. Her mouth moved
silently, her breath hissing past sharpened teeth, but she did not
speak.

“Now is my chance!”
Elias thought. “Hringr-Incêndio!” he cried, and a
ball of flame appeared in his hand. He threw it at the startled
necromancer, and it hit her square in the chest. She shrieked. Her
clothing burst into flames. She retreated back into the forest,
screaming continuously.

The horses, startled by the noise, woke up.
Elias ran over to Thorin and offered his hand, “Get up, Thorin.
Let’s get out of here!”

“I can’t,” he said. “I’m paralyzed from the
neck down. Remember my pendant? It’s also a protective amulet. It
blocked part of the spell, but I have to wait until the necromancer
releases me, or the spell wears off. You’ll have to pick me up, and
sling me over Duster’s saddle. If you tie me into place, I can ride
that way. It’s almost dawn, so we’ll be able to see well enough to
ride.”

“Okay, just as long as we get out of here. I
got lucky with that fireball spell, but I doubt I will be able to
surprise her again.” Elias grunted as he picked up Thorin. “Ugh!
What a weight! You’re shorter than me, but you weigh twice as
much!”

“Aye, sorry,” nodded Thorin. “We dwarves are
a solid folk.” Thorin seemed unperturbed by his current situation,
and in fact, was taking all of it in stride.

Elias quickly tied Thorin to Duster’s
saddle, and by the time he was finished, pink light was visible on
the horizon. Then he mounted Buttercup and dug his heels into her
side, “Heyah, let’s go!” They were off. Elias went as fast as they
could with Thorin in his condition. Thorin never complained, even
though his position was surely uncomfortable.

The sky cleared, and in the distance, Elias
could see the pale outline of Hwīt Rock.

His heart pounding, Elias
thought,
“Thorin was right. We’ve got to
get out of this forest, or we’re both going to die. I’m not
stopping until we reach the river.”

***

Chapter 15:
The Elder Willow

It had been five days since Tallin and
Duskeye left the safety of the Death Sands, and three days since
the battle near Rignus. They travelled cautiously over the
Elburgian Mountains, and now they were entering Darkmouth
Forest.

They’d slept in a cave at the forest’s edge
the previous evening, and now were only travelling at night. The
sun had set an hour ago, and Duskeye took flight with his rider.
They both felt refreshed from their sleep. “We should reach the
Elder Willow by midnight,” said Tallin. “Be prepared for
anything.”

Duskeye nodded.
“I am ready, my friend.”
They both knew that this was the most dangerous part of the
journey. They had to be prepared for a trap. Everything—the note,
the spy, the stone—could be a trick. The emperor may have conceived
this elaborate ruse, only to lure them away from the Death Sands
and into the arms of death.

A yellow crescent moon hung in the sky,
lighting their way. The moonlight cast spidery shadows across
Duskeye’s scarred wings. Tallin’s hands were also covered in scars,
a testament to his time under the emperor’s torture.

Many years had passed, but Tallin never
forgot what he suffered at the emperor’s hands. During the Dragon
Wars, Tallin and Duskeye were captured as prisoners of war. They
suffered unimaginable cruelties. Tallin never broke his silence,
but in the end, Tallin suffered for nothing. All the other dragon
riders bowed under torture. As soon as they revealed their secrets,
the emperor slaughtered them, and their dragons as well. If the
emperor was lucky enough to capture a dragon and a rider together,
he killed the dragon first, and then the rider. If the emperor only
captured one, he would shatter the dragon stone using necromancy
and kill them both. The emperor tried to avoid using the second
method, because shattering the dragon stone usually cost him the
life of one of his necromancers, as well.

In the end, the emperor spared Tallin
because he viewed him as a challenge. Vosper enjoyed torturing
Tallin personally, and his torments grew more elaborate as time
went on. But Vosper also became lazier at guarding Tallin.

Every day Tallin remained alive was another
opportunity for escape. Eventually, one of Tallin’s regular guards
was replaced by a new guardsman for the afternoon. It was only for
a short while, but it was enough. Tallin used the last of his
strength to cast a concealment spell. The inexperienced guard
thought that Tallin had escaped. The guard panicked, unlocked the
cell door, and Tallin snapped his neck. Tallin switched the dead
guard’s clothing with his own and positioned the guard in the cell
as a decoy.

Next, he went searching for his dragon
stone. He knew that he would never be able to find Duskeye without
it. Tallin’s dragon stone had been stolen from him when he was
captured. It was an implant, so Vosper ripped out of Tallin’s
chest.

Tallin could sense the stone’s presence, and
he tracked it down in the castle. He eventually found the dragon
stone in the armory, set into a cheap dagger and tossed in a pile
with hundreds of other weapons. He approached the armory guard, and
said, “I need a new knife. I lost mine two days ago, when I was
sparring.”

The guard nodded, and picked out a nice
dagger from the collection. “Here you go. This is a sturdy
one.”

Tallin pretended to examine it for cracks.
“Nah, I don’t like the grip on this one. How about that one over
there, the one with the green stone in the hilt?” Tallin cleared
his throat and pointed at the dagger with the dragon stone.

“You don’t want that one—it’s a piece of
garbage. It’s bronze and tin.”

“Let me see it,” insisted Tallin.

“Alright, but I promise you, it’s rubbish.”
The guard handed Tallin the knife, handle first. As soon as Tallin
touched the stone, he felt power rushing back into his body. He
closed his eyes, and the armory guard asked, “Hey, are you alright,
mate?”

“Yes, yes,” answered Tallin, recovering his
composure. “This one will do fine, thank you.”

The armory guard shook his head and waved
him off. “Take it then, but don’t come back complaining after the
blade breaks.”

“Thanks,” said Tallin, walking away. He was
already prying the dragon stone from the hilt. He had no idea why
or how the dragon stone ended up in the armory, but he was
thankful. Tallin had always used his dragon stone to store energy.
Each time he touched it, waves of energy flooded back into his
weakened body. With the stone in his possession, he also was able
to feel Duskeye—badly injured, but alive, deep below the castle in
Vosper’s cavernous dungeons.

Still in disguise, Tallin ran down to the
caverns below the castle. There were two guards at the entrance,
and Tallin walked by them quietly.

“I’m down here checking on a prisoner for
the captain,” he said. The guards allowed him to pass without
incident. His anger built up inside, but fighting these men would
take energy that he couldn’t spare. In order to heal Duskeye, he
knew he would have to save his strength.

The conditions in the dungeons were
deplorable. The smell of rotting flesh was overwhelming, and he
vomited. Tallin sensed Duskeye at the edge of his consciousness—his
friend was at the brink of death. “Hold on, my friend!” Tallin
said, trying to communicate with Duskeye. There was no response.
The dragon was too weak.

Tallin continued to walk deeper into the
caves, and the stench increased. Partially decomposed corpses,
still chained to the walls, softened and putrefied next to
prisoners who were still alive. The smell of mold, straw, and
something much worse… as Tallin walked farther, he came upon an
open fire pit. A man, wrapped in chains, was hanging above it. He
had been cooked. Tallin shuddered, but continued to walk. Finally,
he found Duskeye, chained by the neck to a brick wall. His feet
were also immobilized with chains. The chains were so short that
they prevented him from turning his body. He couldn’t even lie
down. Duskeye’s bones poked through the skin, and many of his
scales were missing. A shattered right leg hung limply to the side.
Worst of all, his wings had been flayed, and hung in limp strips.
They were unusable. It was worse than Tallin imagined. Would he
ever fly again?

Tallin walked over to his companion, tears
streaming down his face. One of the dragon’s eyes fluttered open.
The other was sealed shut, swollen and caked with blood.

“My old friend,”
said Duskeye, weakly.
“I
knew you were still alive. It was the only thing that gave me the
strength to keep going.”

“I swear upon my life, I will never leave
your side again. We’re going to get out of here,” said Tallin.

“I cannot fly, my friend. I cannot walk. My
body is broken. Take my dragon stone. I will surrender it to you so
that you may live. Join both halves, and save yourself.”

“We are leaving here together. A life
without you is no life at all.” Tallin reached his hand out and
touched Duskeye’s crushed limb. “Curatio!” Tallin’s hands began to
glow, and underneath his palm, he felt Duskeye’s bones knit back
together. Duskeye groaned in pain.

Tallin fell to one knee, exhausted by the
simple effort. He touched the dragon stone again, leeching more of
its precious energy. His reserves were depleted, but the stone
might hold enough energy to save them both. “There. Can you
walk?”

Duskeye moved his leg
gingerly, and then touched the ground with his foot.
“
I can put weight on it.”
It was weak, but he could walk with a limp. His
skin still looked terrible, but at least the bones were
healed.
“Let us go. I can walk.”
Tallin’s humble spell was a triumph, and it would
allow them to escape.

“We must hurry!”

“Do not worry, my friend. The guards come
down here only rarely. I have not been fed for a long time.”

“That’s actually good news for us. We may
have more time to plan our escape from this abyss. I left a decoy
in my cell. If we’re fortunate, we’ll have a day to escape.”

“It has been two days
since I’ve seen the emperor’s torturer. The last time he paid a
visit, he ignored me, and strung that poor wretch above the fire
pit.”
Duskeye pointed at the
corpse.
“Vosper came down here himself. He
smiled, and watched the man scream for about an hour. Then he left
him here to roast over the fire. The prisoner screamed for hours
before he died.”

“This place is the very heart of evil, and
Vosper is its master,” said Tallin. After unlocking Duskeye’s
shackles, they hobbled into the caves underneath the castle, and
hid. Tallin spent the night healing Duskeye’s tattered wings.
Tallin worked all night, drawing energy from the dragon stone, and
from his meager reserves. By the next morning, Duskeye’s wings were
healed enough to fly short distances. Tallin was an accomplished
mage before he was captured, but escaping the castle tested his
abilities to their limit. It was two days before the emperor
noticed that Tallin was missing, but by then, they were gone.
Duskeye flew small distances as he could, and Tallin cast a spell
to camouflage them whenever there was a chance they could be
seen.

The emperor sent necromancers out to search
for them, but Tallin used elaborate spells to conceal them. They
also zigzagged across the land, choosing a less obvious route.
Afraid to trust anyone, they traveled only at night, slowly making
their way across Durn to the Death Sands. They knew it was the only
place where they could be safe. They survived by scavenging through
the countryside. They ate rats, grubs and, when they were lucky,
stolen livestock. A month later, they finally reached the Death
Sands, where they hid. They told no one about their escape or their
location, even other dragon riders.

It took them a year to physically recover
from their ordeal. Their wounds healed, but the emotional scars
would last forever.

“Tallin—Tallin, are you
woolgathering again?”
Duskeye
asked.

“Just thinking about old times, my
friend.”

“As always. We are nearly there.”

“Right. I am ready.” Tallin raised his
hands, and the air shimmered around them. The Elder Willow came
into view. In the moonlight, the tree was clearly visible. It was
magnificent.

The Elder Willow was massive, knotted, with
branches reaching out hundreds of feet. As they approached, an
angry tree sprite buzzed forward. It was ugly, small, and greenish,
with a long nose. Its white hair was tangled in countless knots.
The sprite had clear wings, which were shaped like a butterfly’s,
but larger. It flew up to Tallin and Duskeye, but it did not
attempt to harm them. If Tallin had been human, the sprite could
have attacked him with thorns, bees, or some minor spell.