The Dragon Knight's Curse (The Dragon Knight Series Book 2) (18 page)

“I knew this was coming,” she said unhappily.

“Then you should also know that I want for you go with us, but a desert is no place for a vampire. Something goes wrong and you’ll be the first to suffer. I don’t want to see that and you don’t want to become a burden.”

“No, I guess I don’t.” She stared at the window, not caring there was nothing to see beyond the heavy drape. She sighed and looked back at me. “You promise to come back?”

“It’d be a shame if a dragon knight died in the heat.”

“I was thinking more about pointy things and hungry barbarians.”

“I’m still more concerned about the heat, but yes, I promise to come back.”

“Good. At least Gerard’s skills should make up for my absence.”

“No it won’t.”

Odet and Gerard did finally show themselves eleven days after the meeting. Gerard was predictably pleasant when he was introduced to everyone. Along with the knight, Odet brought over news that contact had been made with Beatrice’s academic over at Prusal. He was a scholar for the Behar-Dural’s College of the Arcane named Fardin Bhoju. According to the response, Fardin would be ecstatic to revive his dead venture, a revival that would “only” take as long as getting into contact with everyone previously involved.

As the pirates gave the new guy a bit of grief to get to know him better, I asked Odet, “How are your sisters?”

She sat down on the chair beside mine and answered, “Elisa is a little better, but Beatrice only started crying a couple of nights ago.”

“I’m guessing her coronation won’t be for a while.”

“No date is set yet, and with everyone trusting Dad to keep the ship going, I doubt a date will be set anytime soon.”

“Between Owen and your sisters, I can’t imagine you’re getting much time to be with your own thoughts.”

“Trying to help others helps me, so I’m doing exactly what I need to do.”

“No, what you really need to do is join me in my Advent hunt.”

“Right, I’m sure you’d love the added pressure of keeping a princess safe.”

“Forgetting what I would like or what’s practical, I’m only saying you’re the type who works best being out in the world, whether that be as a traveling minstrel or leading an army. Your abilities are wasted stuck in Ecrin. Frankly, without Clarissa joining me in Niatrios, I wouldn’t mind if you came along, princess or not.”

“Well, you’re right, I wouldn’t mind using my training in a more proactive manner, and while I can’t use it how I want, it’s nice to hear it acknowledged. My father helps me train, but doesn’t exactly encourage me to become a real soldier, and no one else dares imply that I be anything but a lady. I envy your freedom, though perhaps not in the way you’ve attained it.”

“If you wish, as a thank you for saving me, I’ll someday have Aranath come to your window and he’ll fly you away to wherever you want.”

In what was probably one of the few times since her mother’s death, she chuckled. “That will be quite a sight, actually. Everyone will think a dragon is taking me to his lair until a hero comes to slay the great beast.”

“Then I hope you believe Gerard is good enough to accomplish the feat.”

“Hmm, I suppose I’ll have to rethink who would win in a match between you and him if you can summon a dragon.”

“I’m serious, you know, about repaying you for saving me. I haven’t had a chance to properly thank you for that.”

“No thanks is necessary. Anyway, it was Aranath who really saved you.”

Sighing, I looked at my hands. I was thinking about telling her how I remembered slashing away at her, how I could see my corrupted self in her petrified eyes as I lowered my blade. I even remembered every muscle twitch my body took to pierce her flesh.

There was a good chance I would have told her my guilt if we had been alone, but as we weren’t, I only hinted at it when I said, “I’m guessing you didn’t tell your father about the wound I gave you.”

“He has enough on his plate, besides, it isn’t too bad. I honestly haven’t been bothered by it too much after my healers tended to it.”

“However you feel about it, I feel like I owe you one, so if there’s anything I can do for you, just name it.”

“I’ll ke-” In one of the few times Clarissa drew anger from me, the vampire came over to join us. “Mercer tells me you won’t be able to join him in the Hadarii.”

“That’s right,” replied Clarissa. “Constant sunlight isn’t exactly good for my kind. I’ll being staying here and helping the guild siblings and Marcela however I can.”

“I’ll be sure to visit with Bell and Elisa whenever I’m able. If your discovery wouldn’t cause a scandal, I’d bring you over to the palace as well.”

“Thank you for the imaginary invitation, your highness. Mercer, have you decided when you’ll leave yet?”

“I’ll tell either Lucetta or Lorcan to find passage as soon as I get the chance.”

“You want to leave for Behar-Dural already?” Odet asked.

“I realize the scholar’s plans might fall through, but I need to get to Niatrios at some point anyway. Besides, going on a seventeen hundred mile journey should give Fardin enough time to give me a solid answer about the state of his expedition. If it looks like he won’t be able to get everything done, we’ll go at it alone. If he needs a little more time to bring the whole thing together, then I’ll wait there.”

“That makes sense,” said the princess. She stared forlornly at Gerard, who was in the living room laughing at something Aristos said. “I really do wish I could go with you.”

“Aye, same here.”

Since Behar-Dural wasn’t a major trading partner of Alslana, it took two days to find a ship that would take us that far south. We then had to wait two days longer before the ship was ready to sail. A few hours before I boarded, I sent a letter to my rediscovered family, telling them I was still breathing but would be unavailable to send another message for a while.

When I first decided that Clarissa wouldn’t be accompanying us, I had to get others to act as Ghevont’s protector. The most natural pirate for the job was Leo. Battle-wise, his casting abilities complimented Ghevont’s spells well, and while they were still far from being actual friends, Leo was the only crewmember who could handle both Ghevont’s talkative and silent shifts in mood. For the benefit of us both, I pushed Ghevont and myself to train more with the others.

My favorite sparring partner turned out to be Thoris. His style fit mine the best and didn’t carry my father’s vexing habit of repeating his advice from earlier sessions, or that very same one. My least favorite sparring partner was Sophia. She treated everything too flippantly for my liking, not to mention that her hand-to-hand skills and non-bow weapon talents were below average. Nevertheless, I soon found her to be a better partner in another area.

We had finished our first sparring session on the top deck when she said, “Sorry your vampire girlfriend couldn’t come with us.”

“We’re not actually together in that sense.”

“What? Really? The way you two were always together, I just assumed… And Lucetta told me… Wait, so I could have tried, you know, messing around with you and she wouldn’t have sucked me dry?”

“As far as I know.”

She considered the situation a moment, then said, “You have to understand something, I’m not the kind of girl that just gets with whatever guy is around. You’re not even my type. I prefer older, more experienced men.”

“All right, so why the interest?”

“Uh, hello? You’re a dragon knight. How many girls will get to say they’ve been with one?”

“Hopefully plenty.”

“And they’ll have me to thank for your experience. So you want to?”

I looked up and down at her lanky frame. She was too skinny for my ideal body type, and her face, while not unattractive, wasn’t anything that would garner a second look from me if I passed her on the street. Of course, these minor quibbles weren’t enough to get me to say no. In truth, even major quibbles wouldn’t get me to say no at this point. People don’t simply come out of near-fatal situations and not take advantage of the more pleasant things in life when opportunity allowed. It helped me understand why Francine relieved her carnal tensions on me after the vampire problem was resolved. I had always been a little confused about that until now. At any rate, being with Sophia helped time move along quicker.

Slowing time back to a normal pace was anytime I saw Gerard. The man himself was genial enough, but the effervescent feelings of jealousy and envy could not help but boil up into my brain every time I saw his placid face or heard his mellow voice. I mindlessly cracked my knuckles every time I thought about his hands or lips planting themselves somewhere on Odet’s face or body. Lucky bastard. I only allowed these sentiments to expose themselves in the times we sparred one another.

As Odet had declared, Gerard was an elite swordsman. If I hadn’t learned anything from my bouts with my father, he would have soundly beaten me every time we crossed blades. As it was, he was only better after extended sessions allowed him to read my tired movements. He was the type of fighter who would wait for his enemy to make a mistake, so he used his prana to extend his endurance further than most in our generation. When he saw the mistake, he used a flurry of quick strikes to end the contest. The times I beat him came out of a mix of luck and hitting him hard early.

It was after one of my wins that Gerard stood back up on his feet and said, “Good thing the first dragon knight in half a millennia is on our side.” He adjusted his green gauntlets, which were green due to a thin layer of combat-glass magically infused over the steel. The rest of his outfit was currently an informal tunic and breeches, but he was never without those gauntlets.

“I’d rather say my enemies and your own are the same.”

“And once those enemies are no more? What then?”

“Good question. I suspect I’ll become a potato farmer up north. Where will you be in ten years?”

“All right, all right, your point is taken, but then I recommend you see Alslana’s royal seer. He hasn’t been at it long, but he’s supposed to be good.”

“So he saw the attack in Ecrin coming? He foresaw the Advent taking and corrupting valkrean?”

“Everyone expects seers to predict everything, a power reserved for the gods, but Odet tells me it’s more about trying to reveal the reality in a sea of dreams. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that I was as skeptical as everyone else, but the king recently told me something that convinced me there’s something to their gift.”

“And what was that?”

“It was actually just before I joined up with you. He said the last royal seer heard a great roar when she looked at a newborn Odet’s future, a roar he’s now sure came from a dragon. He told me this because he also said that this dragon had been attacking Odet and everything around her. Sound familiar? Do you know what the queen did to help protect her daughter from this future danger? She gave her a holy crystal, a crystal Odet told me she used to make you sane again. Without the seer’s warning, Leandra could have very well kept that crystal with her and, well, I don’t like contemplating what would have happened to Odet. Do you?”

“Of course not… But if you’re right, then you’re saying the queen didn’t have an item that could have helped save her own life.”

“Maybe. Maybe the gods needed to trade one life for another, but if we have to make sacrifices to stop chaos from spreading, then we can’t shirk away from that responsibility. You probably weren’t planning on being a dragon knight, but you are now, so I would like to see someone with this power do all they can to make certain they’re guided in the best way possible.”

My throat grumbled out an imperceptible sigh. “You make some sense, knight, but perhaps I’ll see a seer with a bit more experience than Alslana’s.”

“I’ll leave that to you.”

Between the bruising sparring sessions and the allaying lovemaking, I’d objectively say the eleven day voyage was productive.

With the early stages of sunlight behind us, Behar-Dural’s tannish coastline revealed a sprawling city assembled largely of mudbricks, though a few of the more important looking structures had hardier materials either reinforcing them or adorning their exterior. Unlike what I expected to see deeper in the continent, there were clusters of tropical trees dotting the landscape.

While most of the city worshiped the six gods of balance, no towers of day and night could be seen. The holy places of Niatrios followed more modest techniques in their construction, as the religious leadership believed that the gods favored humbler temples compared to what Iazali usually erected. I figured they were either too cheap to build them or didn’t have the resources to match Iazali’s grander examples. Probably some of both.

We docked an hour after dawn, so we had plenty of time to search for the academic institution with the aid of light. I didn’t think it necessary, but after the assemblage chose an inn to stay in, Lorcan had Leo back up me and Ghevont in our walk to the college. The college was among the most respected institutions in Niatrios, so the residents of the tidy, if dusty, city had no trouble giving us directions.

Despite its cultural and educational significance to the nation, most of the college’s buildings didn’t stand out all that much from the others around it, except they were broader, taller, and had painted floral designs wrapped around their roofs. Only the center building carried the distinguishing features of a clock tower and a small dome at its top. This central building was the one we chose to inquire about Fardin.

The first floor was lit with plenty of sunlight by way of several long pane windows lining sections of the six-story high ceiling. Stairs in every corner led up to the upper floors, which only extended its walkway a few yards away from the walls. A plethora of books and scrolls filled the shelves lining the walls. In front of us was the largest grouping of gray haired people I had ever seen. Like much of the city’s inhabitants and the population of Niatrios’ eastern coastline, the robed elders were a mix of dark and light-skinned people. They were, however, dissimilar to the other half of the populace, in that I did not spot a single woman in the group. Many sat by lengthy tables and were either talking amongst themselves or reading to themselves.

On inquiring to a group of old men if they knew Fardin, the disgruntled response from one of them was, “Who wishes to know?”

“We have business from Ecrin to discuss,” I answered.

“Ecrin, you say? Is this about his expedition into the Hadarii?”

“It may. Is he here?”

“So it’s true?” asked another scholar. “Alslana has granted him funds? Impossible! How many of my requests have been rejected? And Enchanter Bhoju doesn’t even deserve that title! His theories on-”

“As much as I enjoy hearing the grievances of others,” I interrupted, “I would like an answer to his whereabouts.”

The first old man said, “He should be in his office now. It’s on the second floor. His door will be marked by a painting of the Hadarii hummingbird. It’s not to be confused with the large-breasted hummingbird, which has a shorter beak and blue plumage.”

Leo laughed. “Just how large-breasted is this bird?”

I pulled the pirate away before he caused the old men to indignantly mutter themselves to death.

Once we found the described door, I gave it a hearty knock.

“Come in!” said a good-humored voice. Opening the door showed an ivory colored, portly man sitting behind a desk. He didn’t appear as old as the others. Indeed, he would look younger if he shaved off the remaining gray hairs clinging to the sides of his head. He would also look more proportioned if his head were bigger, as it was too small for even a thinner man’s frame. The hefty gentleman blinked rapidly when he noted the unfamiliar faces staring back at him. He lost the jolliness in his tone when he asked, “C-can I help you, gentlemen?”

I stepped forward and handed him a little rolled up paper with the Ecrin Academy’s thunderbolt seal. “I and fourteen others have been sent to check how your expedition plans are going.”

He read the little document asserting my identity as a trusted sell sword and regained the color in his fat-filled cheeks. “Ah! Splendid! You’ve come earlier than expected, but I’m encouraged that Alslana shares my eagerness.”

“How far along are your plans?”

“Far indeed. There’s still some things to do, of course. For instance, I’m awaiting to hear from a few Hadarii guides who had previously agreed to aid me. Meanwhile, I’ve already purchased a good batch of sariff to see us through the first half of the journey.”

“Sariff?” said Leo as he scratched what little hair he had left on his own head. “You bought that with your new funds?”

“Why yes. That’s what the majority of the coin needs to go to in order for this expedition to survive.”

“Why does the expedition need sariff?”

“As a trade commodity,” replied Ghevont.

“Well done,” said Fardin. “Someone has done their due diligence. Sariff is essentially the only legal good we have that just about every Hadarii tribe will accept. They may take other items like spices or wine, but they don’t exactly value them as we do. Sariff, on the other hand, is now integrated into their society. I mean, it takes no great mind to imagine its value here. Wouldn’t you want a plant that helps prevent pregnancies in a land where having too many mouths to feed will endanger the livelihood of the clan? In darker times, tribes often cut the testicular organs off an entire generation of boys to hinder them from breeding.”

“So we’re trading sariff for safe passage,” I tried clarifying.

“Precisely. Most other kinds of caravans would simply be attacked, but most of the Hadarii people are sensible enough to allow the sariff trade to spread across the wastes.”

“And the less sensible ones?” Leo asked.

“Well, that’s why you and your men were hired, no? Speaking of which, I also need a little more time to find more mercenaries to help defend the convoy. I understand why Alslana forbade me from hiring the Blue Swords, but that has made finding another reputable source of men difficult. Still, you say there are fifteen of you in total? That’s a good start.”

“How confident are you that you can find Kitiri’mor?” I asked.

“Do you think I would waste time, resources, and possibly lives if I did not think the venture worth it?”

“I’m certain the leaders of a hundred expeditions before you thought much the same.”

“First of all, most of those ‘expeditions’ were severely underfunded at best, misguided at worst. With Alslana providing the funds and my mind providing the guidance, we are well prepared to make history.”

“So you already have a good idea as to where Kitiri’mor lies?” asked Ghevont.

“More accurately, I believe I know where a nearby settlement lies. If we find that, then the lost capital herself can’t be very far.”