The Confliction (Book Three of the Dragoneers Saga) (Dragoneer Saga) (12 page)

After a time, he ran and let his exertions warm him. When he topped a ridge, he found a big belled-out fir tree. After inspecting its branches for spiders, he made himself comfortable and cast forth a hissing blue druid’s fire underneath. He was three days from Clover’s castle. He didn’t want to make the journey alone, but going back to the keep to get help after coming this far would take too long.

When dawn came, Lemmy set out through the heart of the Orich Mountains to warn the Dragoneers.

Mysterian and the witch that had arrived as a wolf went into one of the halls the witches had laid claim to. They stayed there long enough that the fire needed wood twice before they emerged. Now they wanted to be flown, at first light, to the Outlands. Aikira volunteered to carry one of them, and Rikky the other. The witch brought news from the queen that had Mysterian all stirred up, but she remained tight-lipped. Jenka wanted to go just to find out what it was all about, but he was needed. Someone had to watch over Herald, Zahrellion, and Marcherion, and someone had to keep testing Tkux’s saddle modifications while guarding the encasement from the freed Sarax that remained.

Mysterian did tell them some news that was strange and disturbing. Linux was alive. He’d soul-stepped a guard and escaped King Richard’s wrath back in Mainsted. He was in the service of Queen Alvazina in the Outlands, where they’d landed.

The next morning, as Jenka watched Golden and Silva flying away to the west, he wondered what the poor man who’d filled Linux’s place had felt. Then Jenka decided that he sort of understood how Linux could do such a thing. It was man’s nature to survive, no matter the cost. The druid was only doing what came naturally.

“Are you feeling any better?” Jenka asked Zahrellion as he poked his head through the cracked door. One of the witches was there spoon-feeding her. By the sour look on Zah’s face, Jenka guessed the stuff didn’t taste any better than it smelled. She nodded, though, and forced a smile.

“This’ll put her back under soon enough.” The elderly woman set the bowl on the table by the bed and made for the door. “Say what needs sayin’ now, lad. She’ll be out a while.”

Jenka hated that they were keeping Zah in bed, but he agreed that if they didn’t, she would do too much and slow her healing. The witch-brew was potent, for Zah was already yawning and rubbing her eyes.

“Linux is alive,” Jenka said when he sat on the bed beside her.

“They told me,” she answered softly. “He’s insane.”

Jenka wasn’t so sure he was a raver. Alive is what he was. When Zah yawned, Jenka had to fight one of his own.

“Love you.” She squeezed his hand and drifted into slumber just like that.

Jenka ran his fingers through her hair for a while. He blinked, and when he did, he thought he saw the tattooed shapes on Zahrellion’s cheeks and forehead flare blue. After rubbing his eyes, he decided it was a trick of the wavering lamplight.

He looked in on Marcherion and found another witch feeding him from a similar bowl. March seemed to like the stuff, and only after he drained the bowl with a dramatic slurp did Jenka knock politely on the open door.

“You going to walk again?” Jenka asked.

“When these blasted witches say I can, I will.” March gave the woman a look, but she pulled down his blanket and rolled him onto his side so she could wash his arse with a rag. Marcherion looked flustered, but he had enough manners to do as he was directed.

“You’ll love the saddles,” Jenka said. “Is Blaze ready?”

“I think he is.” March nodded his appreciation. “If he goes out with you, take it easy on him. He will try and hide the pain. Plus he tells me he has no balance with the tip of his tail gone.”

“He lost more than the tip.” Jenka chuckled as he nodded that he would. It was hard keeping a positive look on his face, but he did it for the others. He was heartbroken over Herald’s grim condition, and he felt as if he were failing as the leader of the Dragoneers. He made his way up to the landing. By the time he was at the top of the stairs, the scar up his abdomen was burning, but he ground his teeth and ignored the pain.

Winter was turning. The sun was out and Jade wanted to fly as much as Jenka did. Crystal was still recovering. The frost wyrm’s flesh was healing, but she had several bite patches where her scales hadn’t grown back yet. It was clear that Blaze wanted to fly. When Jade leapt into the sky, the fire drake followed, if gingerly.

Tkux’s saddle adjustments were perfect. Now, not only could Jade fly without concern, he could do it comfortably. Jenka was marveling at how easy it was to handle his sword now that he didn’t have to worry so much about falling. It was amazing. He knew that when his shoulder and stomach were fully healed he would be far more formidable in a sky battle. They sped on Jade’s ever-strengthening wings over a ridge and down across the snowy treetops. They flew for a while, gaining speed as they went. Then they curved sharply back around. Jenka had to fight a dizzying blackness due to the force of the turn.

For a short time, all the trouble in the world around him was forgotten. Worries were replaced by frigid wind, fears by thrilling bursts of exhilaration. Alone in the sky, just he and his dragon, was one of the most peaceful and fulfilling places for him to be.

Jade eventually carried them back over the star ship’s crater. He passed over Tkux and his helper and saw that they were waving their bare green arms at him wildly. He figured they were just excited about their last maneuver, and went arcing into a nearly straight up climb.

Jenka could feel the newfound strength in Jade’s wings. His dragon was growing, and the long weeks of rest and heavy feeding had him bursting with energy. They paused fleetingly at the apex of their flight, and Jenka took in the crisp beauty of the world. His heart ached for Herald, but the thought didn’t detract from the moment. Herald would be getting busy, not dwelling on the way things were.

Then they were diving. Jenka’s stomach went wild with fluttering tingles as they dropped in a headfirst fall. He had to fight to keep his head from being forced back by the wind. He saw the ogres below, growing larger as he and Jade sped toward the ground. Tkux’s persistent waving made Jenka realize they were trying to get his attention.

Jade sensed Jenka’s thought before it was fully formed. He corkscrewed them into a slow spiraling descent. Then the powerful green dragon’s wings were churning them into a sharp hover just above the snow. Jenka found himself looking eye to eye with Tkux. The ogre was huge, as tall as the trees at the valley’s edge.

Jenka started to ask them what was the matter, but couldn’t find his breath. After a few deep sucking gasps, he gathered himself. “What is it? Uh … Grem Hrux?”

His ogrish was terrible. Without Lemmy or one of the girls there to translate, he barely understood a word of what they were desperately trying to convey.

“Gome,” Tkux finally managed. “Gome frollow.”

The big green-skinned creature went stomping away toward the star ship crater. Jade carried Jenka, and soon they overtook Tkux. They went deep into the cavern before they passed the old witch who had been attending Zahrellion. Seeing her in the cavern alarmed Jenka greatly. Jade picked up on Jenka’s concern and hurried them right up to the milky encasement before landing right behind were Zahrellion was now standing.

Jenka couldn’t fathom what was happening. He’d just left Zahrellion sedated in the castle.

Zah had her arms raised and was in the process of casting a spell. A wavering field of energy was forming as she traced her finger through the sky frantically. Jenka slid off of his dragon and ran to her.

“Nooss,” Jade hissed and then opened his wing and swung it around to pull Jenka into him.

Jenka managed to stay upright and was only mildly angry at being swept away from Zah by his dragon.

Zahrellion’s spell released then, and the world was but a bright gut-thundering whoosh for a few heartbeats. A moment of silence, so complete that it was painful, followed, and then the encasement started crumbling away around the breach that Jenka had recently sealed.

“What are you doing?” Jenka screamed at Zahrellion as she crumpled to the rocky floor like a limp sack of bones.

He rushed to her side as even more of the encasement flaked and fractured apart. The tattoos on her head were fading, but they’d been glowing a bright shade of blue only moments ago. He didn’t know what to do, so he scooped her up and went running for Jade. Already the deeper thrumming hum of the Sarax trapped inside the star ship could be felt. The hive was stirred, and very little was holding them back.

Jade lowered his body, and Jenka sat Zah in the saddle in front of him. First one set of black dagger-claws came bursting through the breach, then another.

Jade had little room to get airborne. Gliding into a cave was far easier than taking off in one. He hop-stepped, flapping his wings as they ran away from the emerging threat. Zah’s head lolled to the side, and Jenka saw that her facial tattoos were still glowing, if faintly.

Jenka was angry at her, and confused. He had no idea why his lover had just freed the Sarax, but he was determined to save her so that he could find out.

King Blanchard, in Linux’s body, was sitting at a table alone in the Ornery Ogre Tavern in the Outland city of Delton. The urge to get violent suddenly came over him. He attacked the worst possible person he could have when he punched the local road warden in the face. If he had been in his own body, he would have laid the man out cold, but as it was, he wasn’t strong enough to even break the man’s nose. He ended up in a tangled knot formed of his own limbs, but just as soon as his boot heel touched his mouth, he was released and left looking at a circle of startled Outlanders.

One of the Hazeltine stormed in then, and the king felt his forehead throbbing.

“Why’s his head glowing?” the bar-wench screamed.

“He’s a devil,” said a man.

“Back away fools!” the witch snarled and did a whirling circle, sending sparks and sizzling embers around her and the king. Needless to say, all of them moved back—all of them save for the road warden.

“What is he?” the huge tanned-skinned man asked. “Why’d he hit me?”

Even though the witches of the Hazeltine seldom visited the Outlands, they had a reputation that was substantial enough to keep the warden from getting too cocky. The rumors about Dragoneers, and the recent Sarax attacks, had all the wardens, and the city councils that commanded them, seeking to forge tight alliances so that they could defend themselves well. Queen Alvazina and the witches were there doing the same.

“It’s a conniption, I’d guess,” the witch said. In truth she had no idea why King Blanchard was on the floor seemingly fighting himself for control of the body he was in. Nor did she know why the triangle tattooed on his forehead was glowing in pulses. Either way, she had to get him out of there to where the others were gathered. He was a king, after all.