The Confliction (Book Three of the Dragoneers Saga) (Dragoneer Saga) (15 page)

“We’ll fly east and scout Indale for the witches and the council.” Rikky made up the excuse they would use if they had to explain their absence to anyone. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt as if Mysterian and King Blanchard were his superiors again. He knew Jenka would disagree. Jenka would even be defiant about it, but he wasn’t Jenka.

“I can feel it, Rikky.” Aikira sobbed out loud for the first time. “He’s dead, my Weldon. My parents, too. You and me both are shrouded in the Taker’s gloom.”

Rikky didn’t like hearing that, but he had no one in Indale to lose, so it didn’t hit him deep. “Let’s stay close,” he called as Silva carried him into the sky. Aikira and Golden were right behind him.

They didn’t have to fly long before they saw the pillars of dark smoke that marked the burning city. There were hundreds of Sarax, and twice as many trellkin, including orcs, goblins, and ivory-antlered alien pupae. There were so many that the Dragoneers both veered away and put a distance between themselves and the feeding swarm. The city looked like a carcass being devoured by carrion. Only after they felt they were safe did they land and gather themselves.

Aikira was weeping loudly, and Rikky was feeling sick to his stomach. They’d just left a trove of death and destruction behind, and the fear that had taken hold of him didn’t sit well in his guts. He wished Jenka were there. He wished he hadn’t just seen what he had. There were hundreds of people just waiting to die, with no way to get to them. “Do we go back and search, or not?” he finally asked.

“We make a pass high above so that we can report to Mysterian, but they are dead, Rikky.” Aikira’s voice broke again. This time she sobbed and let the tears flow. “They are all dead. We couldn’t have helped them had we been here.”

“I’m sorry, Aikira,” Rikky mumbled. “I really am.”

After flying over the ruined city of Indale, Rikky and Aikira went directly back to Delton and told the witches of the Hazeltine and the Outland councils that remained exactly what they had seen. There may have been knotted groups of survivors down amid the carnage, but there were too many Sarax to attempt anything. Rikky’s deep feelings of helplessness showed through as he described the creatures and the way they were roiling over Indale.

“We’ve got barrels full of seawater rolling in from Avlron and Pvurn as we speak,” a kaffee-skinned council man said in a baritone voice after Rikky was finished.

“We’re building a catapult to launch ‘em,” added another.

They were crowded in the common room of what was now called the Witch Queen’s Inn. Out in the slushy streets, hundreds and hundreds of Outlanders all huddled and waited. Most of the women and children had already been loaded into wagons and sent west toward the ocean, but some were stubborn. Many were arming themselves to fight. It saddened Rikky to know this, because they stood no chance against the hungry alien beasts that were coming. The only effective weapon they had was seawater.

Seawater!

“I need to go back to Clover’s castle,” Rikky blurted out to Aikira right in the middle of a particular silence. The whole crowded room heard him.

“Is there time for that?” Mysterian asked him sharply. “What do you need, Rikky Camille? I see a glint in them eyes.”

“There is a bladder design that has a hollow line attached to it. You squeeze it and it forces the liquid through the line and out.” Rikky knew he was making little sense, but he didn’t have the words to say what the contraption was. “The thing is made to spray seawater a good distance. Tkux’s ogres were building several of them for trial.” He reached back and squeezed Aikira’s slumped shoulder. “We have saddles waiting, too. There is a chance that Jenka, or even Marcherion will return with us.”

“We need to see about Zahrellion too,” Aikira said as she traced a triangle on her forehead to convey her concern to the witches. She is probably scared and confused.

Mysterian and Queen Alvazina shared a look.

“So be it.” Mysterian glared at Rikky for a long moment. “Don’t be dallying boy, or I’ll go get your mama from the keep and have her switch yer arse. We need you Dragoneers here to guard the evacuation.”

“Evacuation?” one of the council members said. “We’re not evacuating. We’re going to fight.”

“You’re a fool, then,” Mysterian cackled. “You’ll end up no more than scat in the cobbles.”

“We are not leaving,” another said defiantly.

“Well then, have enough sense to make your stand near the sea.” Rikky hadn’t intended his voice to be so harsh and final, but there it was. Even though he was just a boy, he held his chest puffed out and met the man’s gaze with enough conviction that the message was conveyed.

A heated argument ensued, but Rikky paid it no mind. He took Aikira’s hand and led her through the streets to the outskirts of town where their dragons were waiting. They stayed well south of Indale, avoiding the swarm as they flew home to Clover’s castle.

Jade was winging north against a steady wind of substantial force. It was a laborious flight. It was damp and cold. Jenka was sure his teeth were frozen. He had already forgotten about his ears and fingers, save for when he tried to move them. Then he felt the wrath of the bite clenching his bones. He was worried about the state of things. Marcherion and Zah were still recovering at the castle when he’d left, and he had no doubt that Crimzon could keep them safe. The big red wyrm had helped build the place and knew all its secrets, but he couldn’t help but feel like the Dragoneers weren’t trying hard enough.

What was bothering Jenka was the fact that they weren’t standing against the alien creatures. They were not standing against the Confliction either. They were reacting to events, letting what happened control them. Sure, they had defeated the druids and gotten Zahrellion back, but the Sarax were all free now. They were terrorizing the populated areas. They would feed on the innocents as if they were berries to be plucked. He grew angry at himself for letting it all get so far out of hand. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he knew he could do much better as a leader. He decided that when he returned he would gather the Dragoneers and together they would make a plan and try to follow it.

When he looked ahead, across the vast mountain range he was flying over, he saw one of the distant behemoths that stood apart from the rest. It was midafternoon and the day was bright, if a bit cloudy. The mountain wasn’t as big as the mountains around it, but it was still huge and distinct.

Jenka was marveling at the way it sat prouder than the rest, as if it were the rightful master of the world. Then Jenka saw the mountain shift.

He blinked his eyes and wiped at them, but there it was again. It was still a good distance away, but Jenka was overcome with excitement and some fear, too. He had no idea what he was going to say to an ancient Mountonian.

The Confliction

When Zahrellion told Rikky what happened at Kingman’s Keep, Rikky was devastated. It was all secondhand information, but it came from one who had witnessed the terrible event. A single ogre, one who was resting in a snow burrow after his long watch, had escaped the master alien’s attack on the stronghold. Rikky knew his mother hadn’t gotten away. Aikira’s grim feeling was spot on. No one, save for the ogre, had survived.

Lemmy seemed beside himself with grief and guilt. He had just left the keep a week earlier and said he couldn’t imagine it happening like the ogre reported. The ogre described the creature as gargantuan and ferocious. It was as big as a dragon, and as hungry and devastating as a whole horde of Sarax. He said it had dug up the entire keep like a rabid dog searching for a bone. Lemmy said he wanted to see it for himself.

“I’m going.” Rikky seethed through his tears. “I’m going after that fargin’ thing. It killed my ma. I don’t care what it is.”

“You’re not,” Zahrellion argued, but he was already clop-clop-clopping to the landing stair.

“Arghh,” Marcherion groaned from his stiff-legged seat in one of Rikky’s rolling chairs. “I want to go with him!”

Zahrellion rose from her bed and started after Rikky, but Lemmy stopped her.
I’ll go,
he said knowingly.
I’ve known him all his years.

“When you return to Delton, Aikira, I am going with you.” Zahrellion’s tone was firm as she walked back to her bed. “My wounds have healed both inside and out.”

“You’ll be thinking that until you get a lungful of that icy stuff out yonder,” one of the Hazeltine witches cackled. “Even now you’ve lost all your color.”

“You’d all just leave me here?” Marcherion’s voice was intense.

“Don’t follow me, Lem
,”
Rikky said harshly as he started across the rotunda.
You’ll not sway my thinking,
he finished in the ethereal.

You sound just like ol’ Kember, Rik.
Lemmy stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. They were just at the base of the stair that circled up to the landings.

Are you coming?

I relish the opportunity.
Lemmy’s eyes conveyed the conviction that would have been in his voice, if he had one.

That’s what I hoped. Let’s bundle up and go hunt that thing down.

I’ll get the heavy bow,
was Lemmy’s response.