Dragon! Book Two: "Revenge"

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Two days later they crossed the mountain pass again and found the main road where the small path over the mountains intersected. It was an exhausting trip, with the specter of Belcher hanging over all, and his repeated attempts to attack them. Finally, Gareth placed a protective shield over all three of them so intense that it exhausted him mentally. But it did prevent Belcher from any access, or him even making dire threats.

Ann and Tad agreed to travel on to the nearest seaport where they could find a ship to carry them to Vespa. While it was not all that far, a ship was much easier and faster. Ann assured Gareth she would stay with Tad and guard him as her own until they reached Gareth’s family. They had contacted Amy, Tad’s mother, and of course, Sara. The family was expecting them.

The Brotherhood was waiting there at the crossroads to meet him, twelve of them, in all, along with a hundred troops sent by the King. One Brother stood out in front of the crowd and advanced at a run. Instead of the normal featureless expression, he wore a smile that twisted his features into an almost human face. It was Gareth’s old mentor.

After hugs and greeting all around, the Brotherhood agreed to escort Ann and Tad to the docks. The general of the army requested orders as if Gareth was his commander. After consideration, Gareth said in private where no others could overhear, “I wish you to draw all of the troops you can command in this place. Do it quietly. I’ll give you several days. Then, I will provide a timetable for an attack that I hope will not take place.”

“Sir,” the general said, “I do not understand. What army will we attack?”

“I’m going to fight my own battle, first. If I’m successful, you will dismiss your troops.”

“If you’re not successful?”

“Then I want you to use every man you have and charge to the location I will provide. You will surround it and kill every man, woman, child, otter, squirrel, and deer. Then you will burn it. Every tree, bush, shrub, and stalk of grass.”

The general’s face had gone ashen, but Gareth continued, “You will confirm these orders with the King by your fastest messengers. Are we clear?”

He swallowed, “I’m not sure ‘clear’ is the precise word I’d use, but I understand your orders and will obey. The King has ordered me to follow your every command as if he said it with his own lips.”

A hundred times during the trek back over the mountains Ann had tried to squeeze information of his plan from him, but Gareth had remained stoic. He’d told her nothing. The plan was going to work, he felt certain, but Belcher had already surprised him when he killed Ramos, and Gareth insisted the details remain only in his head. One slip of his plan and Belcher might ‘hear’ it and escape. The one way to prevent that was to withhold the details of his plan from everyone.

“I’m depending on you,” Gareth told Ann and Tad as they stood together before departing with the Brotherhood. “While you take Tad to his mother, I’ll be near my father’s valley, watching, but I promise you that I will not enter it.”

“Do not even get too close. That boy is mad.”

Gareth shrugged off the tone in her voice, but seeing fear in Ann’s eyes, he gently tried calming her.

“Listen, Ramos gave me the idea when he told us they had killed Cinder by feeding him animals they poisoned. That was the information that I needed most of all. If Belcher had found another way to defeat dragons, I needed to know and protect my dragon.”

“You’re sure Belcher can’t hurt Blackie with his mind?”

“Nobody but me, and maybe Tad, can communicate with him.”

She turned and placed an arm around Tad’s shoulders as they walked down the road, in the company of twelve of the Brothers, half ahead and half following. Only the Brother who was his old friend remained. A squad of soldiers also accompanied them. Before the bend in the road, Tad turned and gave him another wave.

The general stood at his side. “Your orders, sir?”

Wiping away a tear, Gareth said, “You already have your orders. It’s time for me to try and end this.”

“Sir, I can have a company of my best men go with you.”

“This is something I can do better on my own.” He turned and walked away, in the direction of the mountains again, and the old road that would lead to his father’s valley. He glanced back to give a last smile to the single Brother, who would remain at the general’s side. Gareth would recognize the Brother’s mind instantly, like seeing one red bird in a flock of yellow ones. The Brother was ready to pass on the information to the general if Gareth failed.

He carried heavy blankets that were rolled around a few handfuls of dried food. It was all he would need. As he traveled the road, he paused and found no soldiers trying to sneak behind and protect him. It was still early afternoon, and he knew where he wanted to make camp; a place he had hunted once, years ago.

Long before dark Gareth reached the banks of a fast flowing stream with a wide clearing of lush green grass. Tall trees circled the clearing, and it lay between two ridges of hills. The road to his father’s valley was beyond the ridge to the south, the natural route if Belcher left the valley, which Gareth doubted he would do. But if he ordered the other boys from the valley they would travel the road and never see the campfire, smell the smoke, or suspect Gareth was there.

After gathering firewood and getting a long drink from the stream, he made himself comfortable, lying on a doubled folded blanket and covering himself with the other. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

Blackie responded right away. The dragon was close, right where he was supposed to be. Instead of his usual roost on a cliff, he’d perched high up on the side of a slope before sunrise. He’d found a place where the lack of trees allowed him the room to take flight quickly, but instead, the dragon had walked on the ground and hidden behind a stand of pine, going without food for the day.

Gareth didn’t believe Belcher would be an early riser. Gareth had watched down the slope to the valley floor so many times today that Ann had finally taken his arm and steadied him as he walked and watched his father’s valley through the eyes of the dragon.

The burned main house was a black scar on the land. But lower down the slope were the other buildings, including the gazebo beside the lake. Two were barns for the animals or had been while others lived there. For years, they had stood empty. Still they were solid and probably better than most people lived in. Food and water were plentiful.

Blackie’s eyes had spotted a plume of smoke rising near one of the barns at mid-day. Later he’d seen two figures depart the barn and run out onto the dock and jump into the water. The distance was too great to identify the boys, but the smoke and boys told Gareth that Belcher was still there in the valley. He didn’t dare use his mental touch to confirm it.

What he didn’t know was which boy was which. Belcher still had two boys with him, perhaps three. Gareth needed to know the one called Belcher. That was his next task. His first had been to make sure of where in the valley Belcher lived. He gently reached out and found the mind he was learning to recognize. Gareth didn’t attempt to make contact. He simply made himself aware of Belcher, setting the tone for the following day.

Gareth used Blackie’s eyes to examine the hills closer to the barns and lake for a place that would provide a closer vantage. He couldn’t move Blackie today, but again early in the morning, he felt safe. Besides, he was stuck in keeping Blackie on the ground until dark. They might see him, and that would take away the element of surprise.

The dragon kept trying to close his eyes and nap, but Gareth was far from done for the day. He scouted every possible approach from the air. He found what he wanted at the upper end of the valley. Two small mountains stood beside each other; the gap between would allow the dragon to fly undetected. Blackie could fold his wings then dive between the mountains, skim the treetops and arrive near the burned house low enough to almost drag the ground with his rear talons.

Satisfied, he allowed Blackie to sleep until dark. Gareth used the time to sit on his blanket and plan. He felt satisfied with the day’s progress but looked forward to the following day. So far the plan was working. Before crossing the mountains, he’d repeated the scare about Belcher returning to the Sisters and Brother of the village of glowing water a dozen times. He wanted them scared.

He’d started small, just making them mildly nervous, and gradually increasing the scare until he unloaded the whole image. Belcher was returning. And he was mad at them. Belcher was going to torture and kill them all.

That may have been enough, but he needed to make sure they abandoned that place. Gareth used some of Belcher’s own tactics to help convince them. At night, he told them of Belcher’s ordering the boys to collect arsenic, including the illnesses they’d suffered. All true. He let his mind describe it in the details that Ramos used.

He had allowed them to wake in the morning and discuss their horrible dreams about their sons gathering the poison and getting ill, but then Gareth started asking them to consider why he needed all that arsenic? What would he do with it? They discussed it the entire second day before Gareth hinted the answer, making sure the Brother and none of the Sisters became aware it was he who was putting the thoughts into their minds. He hinted that he was Belcher. Worse, Belcher was going to poison the glowing water. Anyone drinking it for the next hundred years would die a horrible death from the arsenic.

The final straw was to convince them Belcher was close. He convinced two of the Sisters that they had spotted him in the village. One said he was seen slipping through the orchard; another saw him sneaking up on them from the desert to the west. Then Gareth was at the summit of the pass and the ability to send them images faded with each step.

While Gareth couldn’t tell if all of them fled the village, he suspected they had. If they hadn’t left the village, he could do no more. The mental block over Tad prevented the boy from overhearing him.

Pulling back to the clearing and present, he napped until dusk and woke long enough to build a small fire and then to help guide Blackie back into the air. Blackie flew to the designated place they had agreed upon and landed safely.

Dragons don’t enjoy flying in the dark but will when necessary. Blackie also wanted to eat, but would miss meals for a couple of days. He wouldn’t like it, but would do as asked. Gareth settled himself beside the small fire and review his plans, trying to find any mistake. He couldn’t.

At daybreak, Blackie flew into the valley to the new location, which was much closer to the lake and barns. The clearing Gareth had chosen was small, but Blackie landed without incident and crept forward behind the evergreen trees where he was less likely to be seen from below.

The new vantage point and Blackie’s eyes that were intended for hunting from far above provided an excellent view. From the new location, the front of the barn was visible. A fire pit still held coals. Gareth looked beyond to the space between the two mountains. It was a straight shot from there to the front of the barn.

Three boys emerged near noon. Two were smaller in height and skinny. The third was a head taller and bulky, if not fat. The smaller boys deferred to the larger one at every turn, almost as if he was royalty being attended by his manservants.

Gareth was not surprised that the image was almost exactly what he’d imagined. Belcher was older, bigger, and never missed a meal. The three of them went to the dock, and one jumped gleefully into the water, splashing the largest that Gareth had decided was Belcher. The boy in the water suddenly stiffened and sank. Belcher threw his head back and laughed before turned to the other boy on the dock and saying something. The smaller boy also laughed, but it looked forced. Then, the one who had sunk into the water reappeared, head bobbing above the surface sputtering and coughing.

Gareth could not hear the words exchanged, but imagined Belcher saying, “That’s what you get when you splash me.”

But Gareth now had a good look at each of the boys and reached out for the Brother waiting at the crossroads. “Can you talk?”

*My only task is waiting to hear whatever you have to say.*

“I’m going to send you the images of three boys. The larger is to die if my attack fails. The smaller boys are to be taken by the Brotherhood and raised. For your information, they have the same powers as I.”

The response was so delayed that Gareth was about to confirm the Brother had heard him, when the Brother answered, “Gareth, are you sure that is what you wish? That they be raised as you were?”

Gareth said, “Other than killing two innocents, I see no other solution, but I’m open to your suggestions.”

Another pause. *Gareth, you are correct. Forgive my surprise.*

Gareth cut the connection. He’d spoken the raw truth. What other alternatives did he have? He watched the boys swim. At one time, Belcher was the only one standing on the dock. A perfect opportunity if it had been a day later. Gareth could only hope for the same thing the next day