The Confliction (Book Three of the Dragoneers Saga) (Dragoneer Saga) (16 page)

“I can’t believe he just went traipsing off like that.” Zahrellion sighed. “But that’s what Jenka does. Rikky is just like him.”

“Crimzon sent Jenka away, Zah,” Marcherion reminded her. “He didn’t go on a lark.” He paused for a moment and squeezed the bridge of his nose, as if concentrating. “Blaze is going with Silva and Rikky.”

“Going? What? I thought Lemmy went to talk Rikky out of it!” Zahrellion’s skin was angry, red and splotchy now. She was suddenly trembling.

“Lay it back down, lass,” a witch said. “Them boys been roaming them hills since they was pups.”

“Lemmy’s never been a pup,” Zah shot back. She relented, though, and let the old crone lay her back down and tend her. She felt like there was a giant stone inside her chest. Breath was hard to draw, but after a moment the tightness and pain eased away.

“Should I go after them?” Aikira asked as she started strapping her plated shin-guards back over her boots.

“Don’t waste your time,” Zah groaned. “When will you walk again?” she asked Marcherion. Then she turned to one of the witches. “Has Herald gotten any better? Any better at all?”

“I can stand now,” March said, and stood up in his splints.

“Herald is too stubborn to just die, Zahrellion,” the witch answered. “He hasn’t gotten any better, though. Barely clinging, that old cuss. This one won’t be walking till spring.” She pointed at March, who was gingerly easing back into Rikky’s wheeled chair. “Riding his dragon, though, with Tkux’s help, might be he could manage that soon enough.”

“If you are returning to Delton with me, Zahrellion, you should prepare your things,” Aikira said. “Mysterian and the king will be peeved at Rikky and me for staying away as long as we have, and now Rikky’s gone off.”

“We don’t serve Mysterian or King Blanchard, Aikira.” Zahrellion looked at the ebon-skinned girl sympathetically. With Indale in ruins, and Aikira’s family lost, she was probably searching for some sense of order. Zahrellion understood. “We need to get there, though, and tell them of the newest threat. The beast that destroyed the keep will find the Outlands soon enough. I hope the kingdom folk that remain are holed in good. The horde of antlered trolls Lemmy saw, and all the Sarax that escaped when that cold pitiless thing had a hold of my mind, are out there, too.”

“We need to make a plan,” Marcherion said. “I can’t believe Jenka just went off like that.”

“You just defended him for it.” Zahrellion rolled her eyes.

“I know he had to go.” March sighed in frustration. “I don’t have to like it.”

Suddenly, Aikira slid down the wall and collapsed into a heap on the floor. “Ohhh, mama,” she sobbed desperately. “And now Rikky’s mama, too. Oh no.”

Zahrellion went to her side and ended up hugging her close while fighting off a fit of coughing. March turned his chair away before the tear forming in his eye had a chance to spill. He didn’t bother to wipe his cheek as he rolled over to the far wall and touched the symbol that opened the upper portion of the barrier to the world.

The temperature in the room went from cozy to frigid in seconds. Aikira sobbed away her anguish, and Zahrellion fought to breathe, but both were thankful for the feeling of the wind. March had only felt this helpless once. It was back when he first touched Brendly Tuck’s cold dead skin that morning, before the elf came and took that world away from him. Many times he had wondered how that small impish creature and a human could have bred and birthed an offspring that looked like golden-haired Lemmy. It was a curiosity he pondered as he watched his own eager dragon following the half-elvish woodsman and Rikky, who were both riding Silva. He wanted to be with them. He wanted to exact some revenge for the two women he loved who were crying on the floor. Most of all, he wanted to be seated in the saddle Tkux had built for him. Even with broken legs, he could strap himself in.

He wanted to fly with Blaze.

Jenka urged Jade out and around the massive mountain man. Andoal was rising up from a hunch into a standing position. Huge castle-sized chunks of stone and earth fell away to come crashing down around crudely formed granite feet. The Mountonian was impossible to behold. Jenka and Jade both were trembling because of their proximity to the elemental creature. A fist with fingers as big around as ancient oaks clenched and unclenched; shoulders rolled and stretched away the ages. Smaller rock fragments broke off, leaving a fairly well-defined gargantuan man formed of stone.

“Ahh…” Andoal’s slow, booming voice sounded disappointed as he spotted Jade in the sky. The dragon was a sparrow to the huge Mountonian. “I thought it was Crimzon approaching. I am Andoal.” The giant suddenly narrowed its brows and loomed closer to the hovering dragon. “Who are you?”

“I am Jenka, rider of Jade.” Jenka’s voice sounded puny compared to the earth elemental’s. “I was sent by Crimzon, Andoal. He said you might aid us against… against… against the Confliction. He told me your name.”

“And what of Clover?” Andoal asked, his great brows opening in what looked like genuine curiosity.

“I think she passed on.” Jenka wasn’t sure. Crimzon never told them, and Clover obviously didn’t chronicle her own death in her journals.

“I have slept for centuries. What is this noise that has awakened me?” the Mountonian rumbled.

“It is the Confliction. Alien creatures who seek to eat us humans are the ones who generate the sound.”

“I will help you silence this,” Andoal boomed. “I would like to see Crimzon, too.”

“Follow me then, sir,” Jenka called from Jade’s back. He couldn’t believe he was talking to a living mountain, but here he was. “I think Crimzon would very much like to see you again, as well.”

Rikky saw the master alien and snarled at it. Without thinking twice, he had Silva dive at the creature. Lemmy was sitting snugly in the saddle behind him, and he went about casting forth a blast of blue druid magic at the thing. Strangely, Lemmy missed, but Rikky didn’t.

Rikky’s gray glassine glob of force scorched the big doggish creature’s flank, blistering its skin and exposing raw flesh. Lemmy was suddenly yanking on Rikky’s arms, forcing him to guide Silva down. “Mown!” Lemmy yelled out in a croaking groan. “Mame me mown!”

Silva understood and landed roughly, but she only stayed on the ground long enough for Lemmy to leap out of the saddle and take off running toward the charging creature. Rikky was startled to see Lem stop and begin waving and howling out at the alien as if he expected it to stop and listen.

The massive hairless creature didn’t pay Lemmy any attention. It leapt right over him, and when it skidded to a slush-spraying halt it shot its long sticky tongue out and caught hold of Silva’s wing just long enough to make her start falling from the sky.

Blaze swept past and with a blast of fiery breath roasted a section of the creature’s tongue. The missing tip of his tail hindered his ability to maneuver. The alien beast retracted the tongue and Silva kept from crashing into the earth, but at the cost of tearing several of her wing muscles. Rikky nearly lost his grip on his dragon tear.

The fast silver wyrm sped off and then banked around. When Rikky saw Lemmy again, he knew they needed to cut away.

Lemmy was standing in a wide stance, windmilling both his arms around crazily. A deep blue radiance was forming around him. Through the teardrop clenched in his hand, Rikky could feel the magic being sucked from the air. Then Lemmy let his casting loose and it caught the gargantuan alien heavily in its rump. The creature spun around, kicking mud and snow as it redirected its charge.

“Noooo,” Rikky screamed out. His mother was dead, and now he saw that Lemmy was about to be overrun. The wily half-elf might have rolled away at the last second, but Rikky couldn’t tell for certain. He and Silva suddenly had to duck and dart around to avoid a Sarax that just dropped out of the sky. Blaze was right beside Silva, and was somehow missed by the master alien’s bright yellow ray of crackling power. Rikky and Silva weren’t so lucky. The silver-scaled wyrm was seared to the meat by the raw energy. Rikky was forced to hold on to his teardrop, and his dragon, as he was nearly whipped out of the saddle. An explosion of radiant green force enveloped him and Silva then. From somewhere outside the field, Rikky heard Blaze roar out in frustration, or maybe pain.

The world came closing in over him like a drawstring sack. Then there was nothing.

Marcherion was determined and ready to fly. He called out to Blaze, but received no response. His wyrm had flown off with Lemmy, Rikky, and Silva. Now beyond the range of the castle’s magical field, he and the dragon could no longer communicate through their bond-link. It was maddening. If the others would have waited just a day longer he could have gone with them.

Zahrellion and Aikira had carried all but two of the witches with them to the Outlands. The remaining Hazeltine were the feeblest of the crones. They were left to watch over Herald, but one of them was eager to help March get down to the star ship crater where the ogres were reorganizing their leather works.

Tkux was happy to help fit Marcherion, in his splint-legged condition, to a saddle and strap him down. The only problem was there was no dragon to fly him around and test it. There was Crimzon, but March didn’t dare disturb the big red wyrm in his stable. Just the knowledge that he would be able to fly when Blaze returned was welcome. Over and again, he tried as hard as he could to call out to his dragon, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Once back in the castle, Marcherion made use of his time by sharpening long, thick-shafted arrows and practicing the words of some spells he had been learning. He struggled to try and walk a few times, but the pain was too much. He could stand still just fine, but the action of stepping sucked the strength out of him. He knew he could sit the saddle once it was mounted on Blaze’s back, though, so he didn’t get discouraged.

He read from a chronicle of nature to Herald’s still form every day, and once thought the old fart grunted. All in all Marcherion was feeling as hopeful as he had in weeks. That changed when his dragon was seen in the sky to the south by one of Tkux’s kin. Blaze was alone, and the grim silence the dragon held as he approached was intense. Silva wasn’t flying alongside the fire wyrm, and neither Rikky nor Lemmy were on Blaze’s shoulders.