Dragonbound: Blue Dragon (9 page)

"You need not fear me," the old man said, seeing Kanvar's alarm. "Come," he said to the younger man, taking his arm and leading him out of the hut. "Our young friend needs his rest, and I believe Tana has brought him some food."

The two men ducked out of the hut, but before Kanvar could get up, dress, and try to slip away unnoticed, the girl he'd met in the jungle came in with a wooden bowl and spoon. She knelt on the mat next to Kanvar. "Father said you are awake and should eat something. Try this, you'll like it. It's cool and may help with the fever."

She used the spoon to scoop a small amount of pinkish paste from the bowl and held it out to Kanvar's lips.

Shaking with the effort, Kanvar forced himself to sit and take the spoon from her hand. "I may be a cripple, but I can feed myself." He gulped the paste and felt it slide smooth and cool across his tongue and down his throat. It was an odd mixture of sweet and sour. He choked when he remembered the sour scent of the snakelily in the cup his mother had given him so long ago.

He dropped the spoon into the bowl and pushed it away. They knew he was a Naga. Of course they would try to poison him. He rolled over and grabbed his sword, drawing it from the sheath, hoping he hadn't already taken enough poison to finish him.

"What's wrong?" the girl cried, jumping to her feet and backing away. "Did I put too much orchid nectar in? Honestly, you'd think I was trying to poison you." She took a spoonful of paste herself, letting it linger on her tongue for a moment before swallowing. "No. It tastes perfect. Everyone in the village loves my poi. What's the matter with you?"

Kanvar lowered the sword. "Sorry. I thought you were trying to kill me. You wouldn't be the first." Kanvar stared down at the glowing gold runes on the sword blade. "My own mother. Why should I expect anything different from strangers?" And yet Indumauli had said he should trust the villagers.

"Oh." The girl huffed, flipped her long braid over her shoulder, and returned to the mat. "My name is Tana, and I'm not trying to kill you. You did save my life. I'm sorry about our disagreement over the dragonstone." She held the bowl back out to Kanvar.

Kanvar's stomach grumbled, and he took it, not sure exactly how long it had been since he'd eaten last. The cool paste eased his burning throat, but did nothing to lessen his heated skin.

Indumauli had said Kanvar didn't have long to live. He would need to bond soon. But to whom? He thought perhaps if he reached out with his mind he might sense his father like he'd done when trying to calm the camdor.

But if he called his father here, he would have to face the Dragon King. And if Rajahansa did miraculously forgive him for killing the Great Green and offer to let him bond, it would be to a Gold dragon of Rajahansa's choosing. That felt wrong to Kanvar. If only Indumauli had agreed to bond with Kanvar. Or if Kanvar had spared the Great Green and convinced it to bond with him, than Kanvar might have had a chance to survive and choose his own companion.

Tana watched him with big green eyes as he finished the last of the poi. "I could bring you something more filling if you think you could stomach it."

Kanvar shook his head. The fever had weakened him too much.

Tana set the bowl aside and settled onto the mat next to Kanvar. She ran a silky hand down Kanvar's stubby left arm.

He pulled away in shock. No one touched his arm like that. Everyone kept their distance from him, as if their own arm might shrivel up like his if they got too close.

"Oh stop," Tana scolded. "That didn't hurt and I know it." She wrapped her cool fingers around Kanvar's deformed left hand. "There, you see, I'm not attacking you, just holding your hand. Has it always been like this?"

Kanvar swallowed. He felt uncomfortable having her so close, having her touch him, and at the same time so good. He could hardly believe anyone would dare hold his left hand and look him in the eye as if he were an equal, as if he were . . . normal.

"Yes or no?" Tana said with a touch of impatience. "It was an easy question."

Kanvar cleared his throat, unsure if he trusted himself to speak. "Yes," he croaked. "I was born this way. But why do you care?"

Tana laughed and pressed her other hand against Kanvar's cheek. "You saved my life. You stood down a Great Green dragon. You're braver than any boy I've ever met. Can't we be friends?"

Kanvar opened his mouth to say yes, but his answer was drowned out by the rush of feet running up to the hut. The village leader pushed his way in, along with four men whose bare chests rippled with muscles. The leader grabbed Tana and jerked her away from Kanvar. "Get the Naga dressed, and bring him quickly," he ordered the men, than dragged Tana out of the hut.

Kanvar dove for his sword, but he was too slow. Two of the men grabbed him. A third snatched up his weapons, and the fourth lifted his clothes from the ground.

Outside the hut, Tana's voice raised into an angry yell. "Let me go. What do you think you're doing with him? I told you, he saved my life."

"Indumauli cast the sacred stones out of the river. His orders are clear. We must take the boy to the cliff now."

"No," Tana screamed. "He only killed the Great Green to save my life. It wasn't his fault. Please."

Kanvar made no effort to fight the men who held and dressed him. If he had to face death again, he didn't want to do it half-naked. He felt sorry for Tana. She'd offered to be his friend without knowing what he was. But he couldn't understand why Indumauli had betrayed him. Was it because he'd killed the Great Green? Or because he questioned Rajahansa's power to choose Kanvar's fate?

The men replaced Kanvar's sword at his side and tightened the crossbow in its harness on his back, but held his arms tight so he couldn't reach the weapons. When they dragged him out of the hut, both Tana and her father were gone.

He found himself standing on a platform high up in the trees. Other huts crowded around the one he'd been in, circling the trunk of a forest giant. The tree's branches spread out and intertwined with neighboring trees, creating thick walkways over to other platforms and huts. An upper canopy blocked view of the village from above, and an under canopy blocked the sight of the village from the jungle floor. Indumauli was right. The Maranies had never seen or suspected the village existed in the jungle so close to the colony.

The men lifted Kanvar between them and hurried him across a network of branches to reach a black volcanic rock cliff, which rose into the air above them and disappeared above the upper canopy. Steps had been carved into the stone just wide enough for a single person to ascend at a time. They'd have to set Kanvar down if they intended to take him up there. Some of them going in front of Kanvar and the others prodding him up from behind.

Kanvar searched the cliff face for hanging vines he might seize when he made a jump for it. He hadn't died yet, and he didn't intend to do so now, at least without a fight.

The men set Kanvar down at the base of the stairs and motioned for him to go up.

Kanvar backed away. "Never." He bolted back across the branches toward Tana's hut, searching for some way down from the village. He had to get away. Couldn't let the men drag him up to some cliff to kill him.

His right leg gave out, and he fell. The men caught him and tried to tie his hands behind his back. His crippled hand only reached halfway down to his good one and slipped easily out of the ropes.

The men cursed and settled for binding both arms down tight against Kanvar's sides. He fought that. Squirming and kicking, but the four of them muscled him into submission, securing his arms and binding his feet as well. The biggest of them heaved Kanvar over his shoulder and started up the stairs. The others followed.

Kanvar thrashed, trying to free himself.

Indumauli's silky voice wormed its way into his mind.
Stop fighting them, little Naga. Trust me. This is necessary to save you. Relax. Trust. Wait.

Why did you betray me!
Kanvar screamed back into the Black serpent's mind. Indumauli's thoughts spun away from Kanvar's without answering.

The man carrying Kanvar came out on a ledge high above the trees. Billowing gray clouds obscured most of the jungle below and left the mountain peaks floating like islands in the mist.

The other three men came up beside the first, and they set Kanvar on the ground.

Kanvar rolled to his knees and looked out across the clouds. "What are you going to do with me?" he demanded. He was too high up. If they cast him down, there would be no vines and vegetation to save him.

Three of the men retreated back down the stairs without answering. The fourth moved to the far side of the ledge where the sunlight glinted off a round copper plate suspended from the rock above by heavy chains. He lifted a hammer from the ground below the plate and thumped it into the center. A loud gong sounded, almost deafening Kanvar. It boomed out across the mountains.

The man struck it again and again.

Kanvar struggled against the ropes that bound him. He had to get free.

The gray clouds parted below him, and Dharanidhar rose into the sunlight. He'd reset the bone in his wing and splinted it allowing him to fly. And fly he did, straight for Kanvar.

The village man let out a surprised yelp, dropped the hammer and raced away down the stairs.

Chapter Seven

Kanvar got his arms
free of the ropes, but there wasn't time to ready the crossbow.

Dharanidhar's wings blasted air into Kanvar's face. Kanvar dropped his right hand to the sword and pulled it out. Dharanidhar reared back when he heard the sound of the blade leaving the sheath. He knew what sword Kanvar carried, knew it could cut through his scales. He'd been hurt enough from it already.

"Come back so I can finish you off, have you?" Kanvar shouted, trying to sound a lot braver than he felt. His feet were still bound, he couldn't wield the sword against the dragon very well on his knees, and he doubted his armor would protect him from Dharanidhar's fire at this close of range.

Dharanidhar roared, but his thoughts echoed with dark laughter at Kanvar's bravado.
You won't survive this time, wyrmling. Indumauli can't save you now.

Kanvar noticed Dharanidhar's right claw had grown swollen and ugly. A patch of scales was missing from the back where Indumauli had bitten him.

Dharanidhar sucked in a breath, readying his fire.

"But it was Indumauli who sent me up here," Kanvar shouted. "He must have had a reason."

Dharanidhar recoiled and backbeat his wings to put more space between himself and Kanvar.
You heard my voice?

Kanvar's hand shook on the sword. He didn't have the strength to hold it up in defensive position for long even with its magic. "Yes, of course. I've heard your thoughts since you carried me off yesterday."

Dharanidhar wiggled his claw where the sword had cut through his palm while he carried Kanvar.
By the fountain,
he swore
. The sword . . . it cut you too? I thought I smelled your blood.

Kanvar lowered the tip of the sword to the ground. "Split my leg open."

Dharanidhar let out an ear-shattering roar.

Pain stabbed Kanvar's left arm, and he realized it hurt where Dharanidhar had broken his wing. The blue dragon would not be able to stay aloft much longer. Maybe if Kanvar kept talking to it, he might be able to put off Dharanidhar's attack until the dragon plummeted back down into the jungle.

Dharanidhar let loose an angry fire of breath that seared the rocks over Kanvar's head.

Missed me
, Kanvar though, then realized Dharanidhar could hear him. That wasn't a good way to try to keep the dragon from killing him.

I wont miss again, you blood-sucking monster.
He pulled in another breath.

The air flashed gold behind Dharanidhar, and a spurt of sparkling gold light blew into Dharanidhar's face. Dharanidhar's head lowered. He let out a sigh, straightened his wings, and drifted down into the clouds.

"Monster?" Kanvar muttered, sheathing the sword. "Why's he calling me a monster? He's the huge giant with claws and fire breath."

A gold shimmer rippled toward the ledge, and a Great Gold dragon slipped into view in the cliff's shadow. It was gigantic, bigger than Dharanidhar, and older, though pristine and unscarred. Ancient wisdom shone from its eyes. The golden stone in its forehead burned with intense light, making Kanvar blink and look away. He heard a scuffing and looked back to see a man slide off of the dragon's neck onto the ledge. A man Kanvar had not seen in five years.

"Father," Kanvar whispered. His father's face was the same and had not aged at all, but he seemed bigger somehow, brighter, his wavy golden hair more brilliant and set with a thin gold crown, his movements graceful and dragon like. He pulled a hunting knife from his belt and went straight for the ropes that held Kanvar's legs.

The ropes fell away, and Amar enveloped Kanvar in a tight hug. "My boy, my boy. I thought you were dead."

An old anger filled Kanvar, and his pushed his father away. "You left me to die!"

Amar's face twisted in sorrow. "I was hurt, but I came back for you as soon as I could. It wasn't more than an hour later. I searched all over Daro for you and didn't give up until I heard word that Mani had killed you." Kanvar felt an intense sorrow burn through his father's breast.