The Dragon Knight's Curse (The Dragon Knight Series Book 2) (19 page)

“And how did you learn of this adjacent ruin?”

“By asking, of course! Most of the old men here don’t dare step outside this town, but I have a more adventurous spirit! A spirit that has earned me some respect from some local tribesmen, and which has thus led me to learn a few of their dialects. You’ll find that the majority of people here speak of the Hadarii as being filled with violent savages, and no doubt many are, but even a savage can be tamed when one shows attentiveness to their peculiar culture. You should see as young and old gather to see me write! It’s as though I’m casting a mighty spell!”

“They are illiterate?”

“By and large. At any rate, once I established that I was merely a curious intellectual with no interest in their demise, I gained a few contacts who brought back word to me about various points of intrigue. After a decade’s worth of substantiating these words with other contacts and trying to crosscheck their locations on maps, I’ve long concluded that it’s time for my work be validated in reality.”

“It seems like a lot of effort to find some artifacts,” said Leo.

“Ha! You think all my sleepless nights and sweat have been in the hopes that I strike it rich by selling some old trinkets? A sell sword might think that way, but not a respected scholar. What I want is to confirm my theory, which will in turn have fledging academics learn of my work and thus develop historical thinking for generations to come! That is far more precious than any rusty relics that might be buried far too deeply to reach.”

“What is this theory of yours, exactly?” asked Ghevont.

“Ahh, yes, you should know what you are truly defending. Through the use of language, I will prove that the people of Old Voreen came not from a first wave of Iazali settlers, as everyone assumes, but from Efios hundreds if not thousands of years earlier!”

“Efios?” said Leo. “You believe they had ships strong enough to make a journey of over five thousand miles at that time?”

“Obviously, I do. It’s difficult to prove that aspect, however, so all I can focus on is the language the Efios people would have brought over with them. But do you understand what I imply with my theory? Everyone’s perception is that Old Voreen was formed by the Iazali people trying to graciously bring civilization to this wild land, but I believe the barbarian hordes and Old Voreen are one and the same. I believe Old Voreen collapsed not from an onslaught of savages, but from civil war and a growing desert. This would make the Hadarii tribes of today descendants of that once proud nation.”

“But did not the leadership of Old Voreen move eastward and begin today’s Voreen?” stated Ghevont. “The Iazali people inhabiting the area would not have allowed themselves to be ruled by foreigners.”

“I hypothesize that no leadership of Old Voreen survived the downfall, which just leaves some Iazali men lying about their origins. If I can find the oldest version of the Old Voreen language intact on murals or stone tablets, I can compare it to the old Efios languages and prove the connection. Currently, every enduring document we have on Old Voreen can be traced back to the early new Voreen, so they are considered by me to be little more than hearsay. Or perhaps they were repurposed as propaganda for the new government.”

“Yes, yes, that makes sense. Saying you’re the last of a royal bloodline has often proved advantageous in the attainment of power. There are several families still living that claim to be descended from the ancient Voreen kings, so showing their bloodlines to be nothing special will certainly anger a few powerful people.”

Fardin raised his eyebrows, having clearly not thought the consequences of his theory through. “Well, I’m willing to put my life on the line in this expedition, so a few more perils won’t hurt.”

“You don’t know how danger works, do you?” I said. “How public is your theory?”

“Not very, which I believed unfortunate, but I’m currently reevaluating that conclusion. My own colleagues think I am erroneous and so only scoff at my ideas if they speak of me at all. They are quite jealous of me now! How many of them have gotten support from the richest nation on this side of the world?! Ha!”

We left after telling him that I would continue to check up on him every morning. He in turn informed me that the wait to get everything in order would be no more than a fortnight.

I saw other individuals involved in the expedition meeting with Fardin over these next two weeks. Among them were three traders experienced in desert transactions and two female assistants of the enchanter. I was sure that each woman must have paid a “heavy” price to join the career-enhancing mission. The younger of them, Janna, was in her mid-twenties and had her sienna hair cut quite short. The other, Clio, was a dark-skinned woman in her late thirties. While the younger had the firmer body that youth provided, I thought Clio’s soft face and fuller lips more pleasing to the eye. I felt sorry for both of them.

Fardin had hired thirteen other mercenaries by the end of the fortnight, several of whom seemed to be former barbarians. The sell swords rounded out the thirty-four person assembly. It felt a little dreamlike as everything came together one predawn morning. We all met at the outskirts of town, finally forming the caravan of camels, mule-drawn carts, academics, and warriors who had agreed to head into a scorching wilderness that held a greater promise of death than treasure.

The goal of the excursion’s first week was to gather a pair of tribal guides, both of whom were waiting at a village fifty miles from Behar-Dural. Their skin was of a dark brown and had tattoo markings imprinted over parts of their bodies. The younger man—whose name may have been Yallie’cor, but he corrected me and others too often for anyone to be certain—only had tattoos on his arms. Conversely, his older partner, Banering, had them on his arms, upper chest, and back. Whether to compensate or a personal preference, Yallie’cor had a red rune-like design painted over his chest, though Ghevont doubted it was an actual spell rune.

The general plan was to go in a northwesterly direction for about thirteen hundred miles, stopping by tribal villages and oases to trade the sariff we carried for safety and more food. There were twenty-two camels and mules in our convoy, and though the methodical speed of the expedition allowed me to walk under my own power, I spent more time than I thought I would riding these animals. I found them each to be less jumpy than horses and thus better suited to absorb my amateurish riding skills with greater civility.

As common sense expected us to do, we traveled as much as possible during the morning and evening hours to avoid the hottest part of the day. Giving us shade in the high afternoons were two canvas sheets we raised on tall wooden poles. Putting them side by side created enough of a shadow that most of the human explorers could fit under it. I felt hotter when I was with everyone else, so I often avoided the artificially made shade and tried to find a natural source to have for myself. That was becoming harder to find with every passing day.

The lack of privacy and the imperious heat prevented Sophia and I from finding any more physical relief. I think we were both glad to have an outward reason to break off our ‘relationship,’ a relationship we would have kept up simply for the sake of amatory benefits. We had gotten what we wanted from one another and were able to separate without having to delve on the parts of our personalities that were never going to be compatible for a long-term match. Still, it was frustrating to know that she was
right there
for the taking and I couldn’t do anything about it.

Due to the equatorial scope we traversed, going deeper into the fall season did nothing to quell the Hadarii’s midday fervor, but it did make the nights colder than it would have been earlier in the year. The acute temperature differences experienced within a single day bothered the others more than it did me. According to Aranath, this enhanced toleration to the environment meant my prana was linking better with dragon flame.

“A Veknu Milaris who masters dragon fire is never troubled by the light of Tahlous,” continued the dragon. “And as you already experienced, even the dying embers of my flame can keep your blood warm during the harshest winters. Relish how your skin blisters under this sun, boy, for I suspect this will be the last year you experience such a thing.”

Helping to keep everyone quenched were the casters who had the ability to pull a few cups of moisture hanging about in the twilight hours. Consequently, most of us were more concerned about our food supply than our drinking water. To save as much of our more endurable food as possible, the tribal guides often pointed out edible plants and little animal dens we took advantage of. This life of simplicity suited me and the pirates well enough, but the academics were little used to the punishing conditions. To their credit, they didn’t gripe much. I was sure that would change the longer the Old Voreen ruins remained veiled.

There wasn’t much sand at first, just dry dirt that gave way to cracked topsoil. It was three days into the second week of travel that we felt the chafing sand coming in the breeze. Then it seemingly just dropped out of the sky one morning, proclaiming the true beginning of the untamed Hadarii and its rugged people.

Our first encounter with a tribe large enough to give us trouble if they chose to came two days after traversing the sands. Our traders met their own just outside of a lush oasis as the sun dropped below the horizon.

After the transaction finished without incident, we began to head for a small knot of palm trees to set up camp. It was here when Fardin walked up beside Ghevont and said, “It’s said all of Niatrios was once an oasis. Oases were also known to be more common as recently as a few hundred years ago. As a fellow scholar, I’d be interested to know your theory on the matter.”

“I’m afraid I have too little information to form anything that would satisfy someone who’s been living and studying this land all his life.”

The pleased enchanter waved off the accolade. “Perhaps not, but different perspectives are always welcomed in our line of work, no?”

“Ideally. I for one have never bought into the notion that the gods are disciplining these savages. In fact, I’ve read that many deities in the Hadarii are not too dissimilar from the gods of day and night. It’s only their worship of them that differs.”

“Yes! Precisely! I believe them to be the very same myself, only with different names and different customs. In any case, even if the gods were fussy enough to care about the particulars of worship, I doubt they’d make it even harder for civilization to spread by creating a destitute land.”

“Yet it’s difficult to imagine a continent losing much of its biota in a relatively short span without some magical influence coming into play.”

“Ah, one would think. I theorize that physical forces are stronger than many realize. Perhaps spells helped nudged the change, but what we see now is primarily a result of a great climate shift caused by natural forces. If I’m also correct about how early the first peoples arrived here, then we might also include agricultural negligence to the list of suspects. The only question now is wondering whether if it will continue to shift or eventually rebound to a rainier environment. The answer will determine how much future trouble the barbarians will bring upon the coasts.”

“Do your assistants agree with your climate shift theory?”

Fardin yowled with wheezing laughter. “Oh, Master Ghevont! They might be able to hold a decent intellectual conversation with the amateur scholar, but commenting on continent altering matters is quite beyond them.”

Fardin’s aides were not far behind us, and I was sure at least one of them had heard the enchanter’s assertion. The pity had built up to the point where I later asked Aristos if he could humor them.

“My standards are usually aimed a bit higher,” said the pirate.

“I’m not telling you to marry them, or even touch them. Just make them forget for a while that they’re working for a fat ass in the middle of this damn desert.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Charm is no weapon of mine.”

“No better time to practice.”

“I have enough things to practice.”

Overhearing us, a pipe smoking Thoris said, “You’re going about this the wrong way, Cyrus. Aristos has no ability to minimize his philandering to mere humor. Set him upon those women and you’ll only succeed in breaking their fragile hearts. They want to be treated seriously as academics, do they not? Get your scholar friend to speak to them as such.”

“It might be too early in the expedition to take that extreme measure, but I suppose it’s better than having him talk my ear off.”

“In any event,” began Aristos, “I’ll keep an open mind and give them a few reasons to move on in this sandy world.” The heartbreaker right then moved to speak to Clio.

Watching his comrade begin talking to the woman, Thoris said, “I should tell you, your father has noticed your preference to keeping to the periphery of the caravan.”

“I prefer meeting opponents head on. I’m guessing Lorcan has asked you to keep an eye on me.”

“Yes, so it’s something to keep in mind if a battle were to occur, though I’m certain a father’s worry would have asked me the favor no matter your preference.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“I don’t know how eager you are to get in a fight, but I propose letting the mercenaries meet whatever enemy comes at us first. The rest of us will support them from a distance, of course, but your father would prefer not exposing us to any needless danger, particularly over a mere point on a map.”

“I understand, but you should know that I’ve been pretty much conditioned to attack the first thing that moves. So how are you and the others handling a sea of sand?”

“It reminds me of a time when we were shipwrecked on a deserted island for a few weeks. Lost a good young woman there.”

“Sorry.”

“A risk we take in our line of life. Our crew has seen some good people’s lives cut short, a few of which would have surely joined your father in the search for his sons.”

“How did that go, exactly? Did anyone think twice about joining Lorcan?”

“I didn’t. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’m never surprised by Lorcan’s ability to draw people to him. It’s something he’s always been able to do naturally. Honestly, I don’t think he even realizes it. If he does, then he doesn’t use it to his advantage much.”

“Something I didn’t inherit.”

“Maybe not, but from what I’ve seen from the vampire and Ghevont, you can inspire your own form of loyalty well enough. Your status as a dragon knight alone will incite quite a reaction from people all over Orda. They’ll see you as something as a champion of justice or some nonsense like that. There’s much potential in being able to call upon support from across the world.”

“They’ll have to see a dragon first.”

My talk with Thoris motivated me to spend some travel time talking with his comrades. I was intrigued by my father’s capacity to get people to follow him, and it was an opportunity to learn more about the man himself. I already knew Sophia’s situation wasn’t so much about my father as it was about finding adventure. She was the type of girl who couldn’t sit still when she didn’t have to, which was why she left her well-to-do family when she turned sixteen. The others had gathered enough experience to be a little more thought-provoking.

The people that surprised me the most were Remwold and Athilda. They told me they had two children, a girl and a boy. Both youngsters lived on an island off the shore of Somesh, a country lining the northern coast of Kozuth.

When I asked why they left their children to help Lorcan, Athilda replied, “Well, if it weren’t for your father, we wouldn’t have met in the first place. I was planning on quitting the life, you see, but Lorcan had become a new captain and begged me to stay to assist in the transition. A year later and he recruited this cranky bastard fresh off the Somesh Navy.”

“It was fuck at first sight!” said Remwold. “It was difficult to leave the little tykes behind, but we see this as our last opportunity to give your father a proper thanks. What better way to thank him for our family than to help save his own?”

“Granted, the thought process might have been different if we knew beforehand that we’d be fighting an enemy who could manipulate valkrean.”

“Nevertheless, darling, we don’t go back on our word. Well, sometimes we do, but not when it comes to Lorcan… Except the time with the dog, but that couldn’t be helped.”

With a raised eyebrow, I said, “A dog?”

Athilda shook her head. “Sorry, we don’t speak of that unpleasant incident. Poor thing.”

Surprising me less was learning that Aristos had two children of his own, each with a different woman and both born within weeks of one another. He had sired them when he was young himself, younger than I, in fact, making them almost as old as I was at this point in the calendar. The pirate spoke facetiously about them, treating them nothing more than mistakes he had learned from.

As for why he was aiding my father, he said, “I’ve found no man yet who has helped me win over so many girls as he has. It’s somehow even better now that Lucetta is with him. I believe he enjoys living vicariously through me. Of course, they occasionally enjoy the girl themselves once I’m through. Have you ever been with more than one woman?”

“No.”

“It’s fun every now and then, but I actually don’t fully enjoy being in a group. I prefer putting all of my attention on one woman and thus pleasing her with every fiber of my being. I suppose I’m sort of a romantic in that sense.”

“So because he supports your womanizing you feel obligated to help him now?”

“You say that as though bedding a woman is a mere pastime! What greater goal is there in life but for a man to spread his love to all the tantalizing lovelies he can? The aspiration to impress a beauty has led to the birth of civilization itself! If a time spell allowed us to see the first kings and casters, I’m certain you’ll see they were persuaded by a woman’s splendor to conquer lands and fire alike.”

“Then becoming a pirate doesn’t seem to be the best way to meet as many women as possible.”

“There are stints when seeing a new woman becomes as scarce as a blue rhino, but that is a temporary disadvantage to being a pirate. If I were a dull baker or an obedient soldier, for instance, what stories could I bring that would stir a woman’s heart? In the pursuit of this, I long ago lied about my profession to ladies from all walks of life. When I said I was a pirate, every one of them reacted very well. That’s when I decided to become a seafaring brigand and collect as many stories as I could. Even now, wandering a sandy wilderness under an unforgiving sun hoping to find my friend’s child will garner much sympathy. I’m excited to try it out. It doesn’t hurt that the profession itself is quite liberating from more mundane work.”