Scourge of the Dragons (8 page)

“I have a question,” he said.

“You weren’t afraid to ask before, why the
hesitation now?” She asked.

“It sounds silly.”

“Let me be the judge of that.”

“Are dragons real?”

“Why are you asking?” Mariah asked as she
stopped walking.

“I think I saw one,” Kade said as he
stopped.

“Fairy tales, Kade,” Julian said.

“Who is to say that fairies aren’t real?”
Amber asked.

“Where did you see it? What did it look
like?” Mariah asked, ignoring the other two.

“When they were torturing me, I went
somewhere else. It seemed impossible, but it felt so real. There
were elves and a massive creature. They called me Wrotan,” Kade
answered.

“They are real, I thought it was common
knowledge. Have you not heard the tales?”

“I had heard them on numerous occasions, but
the storyweavers often exaggerate.”

“True, but they rarely lie. Take dragons,
for example, they are nothing like the stories. They are rarely
larger than a horse.”

“I must not have seen a dragon then.”

“Describe it. I may not be too much of a
world traveler, but I’ve seen my fair share of beasts.”

“Well, it looked like a lizard with wings.
Not exactly though, lizards do not have the same fangs or
claws.”

“A dragon then,” Mariah said.

“No, this thing could have eaten a horse
without taking a bite.”

“That sounds rather dreadful. Perhaps the
tales are true.”

Hadrin looked down at the note in his hands.
It seemed to call to him. He looked up at the others. Wrotan
nodded. The Prince took a deep breath before breaking the seal. He
started to open the envelope, but stopped and motioned for Alandra
to open hers. She dug through her pack and produced an identical
envelope. He waited for her to break the seal and then they both
pulled out their letters. There was a small note at the top of his
that said to wait for her to read hers first. She was already
looking at him when he looked over and nodded.

“It says that I am to become the night
dragon champion,” she said.

“We already have a night dragon champion,”
Erlkan said as he motioned toward Wrotan.

“Is that all it says?” Wrotan asked.

“It also says not to wear the cloak or armor
until we complete the ritual,” Alandra replied.

“I think this will help,” Hadrin said as he
held his letter up. “It says here that something went wrong with
the last ceremony. The scourge somehow changed Wrotan’s role.
Ungaroth was unsure of how to deal with it at first. There is no
question that our hunter is a champion, but not the night dragon
champion.”

“How do we find out what he is the champion
of?”

“It says to give him the letter after we
complete the ritual.”

Wrotan nodded as he stood up. The hunter
approached Alandra and held out a small bowl. Erlkan quickly stood
up as well. Each of them knew something about the ritual that
needed to be performed. The sun King had been there when his cousin
was joined with the night dragons. He pulled out his knife and
asked Hadrin to hold out his hand. The pain wasn’t much, but
seriousness of the moment weighed heavily on the young Prince.
Erlkan took out a vial of the dragon’s blood and mixed it with the
blood he had taken from Hadrin. He sprinkled several other
substances over the bowl and then placed it on the floor. Hadrin
stared down at the bowl, wondering what purpose it served. The sun
King grabbed his waterskin and filled the rest of the bowl with
water before handing it to the Prince.

“I have to drink this?” Hadrin asked.

“No, it is not that type of ritual. I needed
your blood and the other ingredients so that Ungaroth would know
the time to transfer some of the link from Obrin to you,” Erlkan
replied.

Hadrin let out a sigh as he stared down at
the bowl. The sun King took it from him and poured it out on the
ground. He then stepped forward and grabbed the Prince by the
shoulders. Hadrin attempted to ask him why he had done so, but
before he could speak his body went limp. His vision faded as
Erlkan lowered him to the floor. He felt as though he was floating
through the clouds. The feeling slowly dissipated as his vision
returned. His mind was flooded with images of dragons, elves, wars,
and all manner of things. He began to feel dizzy as the imaged
flashed by faster and faster. A hand pulled him up to a sitting
position as he gasped for breath. Erlkan looked at him
expectantly.

“What?” Hadrin asked.

“I asked if you were all right,” the sun
King replied.

“Yes, but please don’t ever do that
again.”

Erlkan let out a chuckle as he helped the
Prince to his feet. The meld was complete. Hadrin could feel the
dragon, his father, and even Alandra in the back of his mind. It
was impossible to tell what they were thinking, but he felt as
though Ungaroth were telling him that the voice would become
clearer in time. He looked around to see that Wrotan and Alandra
were watching him. They waved and motioned for him to join them at
the fire. Wrotan held out the cape that the dragons had packed for
the Prince and took the note in exchange. The hunter sat down and
stared at the blank side of the letter. Hadrin looked to Erlkan and
Alandra, but they both shrugged.

“What are you doing?” The sun King
asked.

“I am reading Ungaroth’s message,” Wrotan
replied.

“The paper is blank on that side,” Alandra
said.

“No, it clearly is not.” The hunter held up
the note to show the others.

“Of course,” the sun King said.

“Care to enlighten us?” Hadrin asked.

“The dragons had always told rumors of their
lost brethren. They were known as the shadow dragons. I have no
real concrete information about them, but they are said to have the
ability to see that which others cannot. Ungaroth speculated that
the scourge originated with a different strain of dragon when they
attempted to contact their kin. He also speculated that it is the
scourge that changed Wrotan’s ritual. To be certain, the dragon
temporarily cut himself off from his fellow scourged dragons when
he made a connection to the two of you. As it turns out, he had
only connected a part of himself to Wrotan. That part connection
has been severed, but the connection through the scourge is still
there.”

“So, these dragons wanted to kill their kin
with a scourge of some kind and it interfered with Wrotan becoming
champion?” Alandra asked.

“Not exactly, we weren’t going to reveal
this part to the three of you quite yet. I suppose it is time
though. There are two parts to the scourge. One part is a poison
that appears to have been added after the initial contact was made.
You have, no doubt, noticed that Ungaroth alone had red wings. That
was not always true. Many of the others were crimson and gray. None
of them were black, not until the scourge appeared,” Erlkan
replied.

“You mean to say that the scourge is some
sort of darkness?” Wrotan asked.

“Shadow to be exact. The shadow dragons are
the missing dragons. They’ve been gone for so long that we assumed
they were dead. More than a hundred years ago they began to reach
out to the closest of their kin, the night dragons. You see,
Ungaroth is not truly a night dragon. He is the product of one
shadow dragon and one night dragon. That is why the scourge has no
effect on him. It is not truly a scourge, but a shadow. If our
assumption is correct, Wrotan is the new shadow dragon
champion.”

*

“You are certain this is the case?” Obrin
asked as he turned to Ungaroth.

“It is impossible to be certain, but I’ve
always had a feeling that the shadow dragons survived. Have you
heard the tale of the exodus?” The dragon asked.

“I have not.”

“There was a time, long, long ago, when all
the dragons were as one. We accepted each other’s differences.
Though small, the forest dragons were still a part of our number.
The mammoth sized mountain dragons were very much a part of our
society. Even the undersea dragons would be accepted as brethren
when they visited. The sun dragons and the shadow dragons were the
first to begin fighting. Not wanting to cause turmoil amongst
dragonkind, the shadow dragons embarked upon a journey to find
another homeland. It was, ultimately, too late. The dragon wars
erupted and sides were formed. We fought for hundreds of years,
until your people arrived. The fighting had been so fierce and
lasted so long that we had no idea how many kinds of dragons had
been lost. Shadow dragons, like star dragons and fairy dragons,
become something of a myth. Yet here I am, half shadow half
night.”

“You are proof that the shadow dragons
existed as many as two hundred years ago.”

“That I am. I sent the others to the spirit
monks because I believe they have found the shadow realm. They are
adamant that it is a spirit realm and that there is no physical
connection to our world, but I am not so sure. Do the elves have
any information on whether that is possible?” Ungaroth asked.

“Our people once knew how to make magical
portals. The knowledge was lost long ago and we are uncertain if
the portals are to another world or just to another place in our
world,” Obrin replied.

“Let us hope that the others can find
out.”

*

Mariah slowed down as they came to the edge
of the forest. She knew that the woods were home to both the elves
and nomadic tribes of the wilds, but she didn’t know how either
group would react to her and the others. The atmosphere changed as
they entered the forest. Amber’s cheery outlook took the hardest
hit, which noticeably bothered Kade. Julian seemed to be ignoring
both of them, allowing his already negative attitude to spiral even
further down. Mariah stopped at the next clearing and sat down. She
waited as Kade and Amber took a seat next to her. Julian paced back
and forth next to them, tapping his fingers together.

“We’ve been dodging the subject for far too
long. Why are the Knights of Ardevale after you?” Mariah asked.

“I don’t know what they want with me,
honestly,” Kade replied.

“They must have given you some idea with
their questions.”

“I didn’t understand most of it, but they
were focused on something called they called a scourge or disease.”
Kade pulled off his glove to show the small black dot.

“This is what they wanted to know about?”
Amber asked.

“Yes, it showed up a while ago. I don’t know
why, but nothing bad has happened to me.”

“Didn’t Timus say something about how his
merchant friend visited the elves and they had some sort of
disease?” Julian asked as he approached the three.

“That’s right. Both he and Goraine mentioned
the elves,” Amber replied.

“And here we are fleeing straight into their
territory. They’ll have us pegged as enemies for certain. This does
not bode well for us. I had hoped we could escape the Knights and
never need to hear from them again, but if they know the elves are
connected and they know we are heading into the elven lands,”
Mariah let the others come to their own conclusion about what the
Knights would do.

“They should be able to help him, shouldn’t
they?” Amber asked.

“It originated with the elves, they should
know more about it than anyone. I would say that they are our best
chance of figuring out what it even is.”

“Has it changed at all?” Julian asked as he
turned to his friend.

“Yes, but only slightly. It was smaller
before. Darker too,” Kade replied.

“No sense in worrying about it now. Even if
the remedy is in the forest, we would have no idea what to even
look for. Let’s go. I’ll let you know when we’ve reached the elven
lands. It is imperative that you let me do the talking when we get
there,” Mariah said.

The others nodded and slowly followed as she
got up. They were far from experienced soldiers, but the fact that
they were getting used to following her orders was comforting. She
had expected things to be much quicker when she agreed to assist
the youngsters and it was beginning to look like she still had a
long road ahead. So long that she may no longer have a place among
the Guardians upon her return. There was a slight chance of the
elves being able to cure Kade of the disease or scourge, but Mariah
wasn’t about to set all of her hopes on a group that might not even
let them enter their lands. She slowed down and waited for the
others to come alongside her before speaking.

“There is one last thing that we need to
discuss. The elves aren’t particularly friendly to humans and there
is always a chance of running into bandits whenever traveling off
the main roads. I need to know if the three of you are able to
defend yourselves,” Mariah said.

“I think we already proved that we can’t,”
Kade said.

“Everyone has at least one or two skills
that can be transferred to the battlefield. What are your areas of
expertise?”

“Kade can fire a bow better than most and
Julian is decent with a mace,” Amber replied.

“She is better than both of us with a
blade,” Julian said as he pointed toward Amber.

“That’s a start. We can begin training with
the equipment we have on hand, but that will exclude Kade as we
don’t have a bow. Anything else that you can bring to the table?”
The guardswoman asked as she turned to the young man.

“My mother taught me the basics of herbs and
potions,” he replied.

“We’ll get you started on that then.
Anything else?”

“I hadn’t thought of it before, but when
Kade mentioned his mother I remembered. None of our families know
where we are. They probably think something happened to us,” Amber
said.

“If the elves let us into their lands, we’ll
write up a letter for each of your parents. The elves may not
venture into humans lands often, but merchants travel anywhere they
can make a coin.”