The Last Dragon: Book Four

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The campsite was beside a small stream that flowed down from the side of the mountain. A tarp held up by three poles provided shade. Their few things were underneath. We exchanged hugs and upon seeing her, much of the pent-up anxiety dissipated. Seeing Kendra would help even more.

We sat our things on the ground. Before unpacking, Elizabeth said to me, “Let’s go find that sister of yours.”

*Who is the beautiful man with you?* Anna asked.

Anna was growing up faster than I liked. Her choice of words took me by surprise, although it shouldn’t have. She was at the age where she was beginning to notice men. Out loud, I said, “Anna, I want you to meet Honest Bran. He is a hero of his king and our friend. He knows all about us.”

She stepped in front of him and reached out to shake his hand in a more than a friendly greeting. He flashed an irritating smile and too many white teeth. She lost the ability to speak. If I had to guess, her knees were weak, and her face flushed.

I said, “Anna, can you take us to Kendra?”

She leaped to obey and told Bran that he might want to walk next to her, so he didn’t trip or get lost. She didn’t repeat the offer for Elizabeth or me.

With a wink in my direction, Bran fawned, “Would it be okay if you held my hand so you can steady me?”

Just like that, Anna had her first crush on a man. I couldn’t help myself from teasing her. *Anna, would you like me to give you another alphabet letter or two? We can work on them together as we walk.*

*Do you want me to come back there and punch you on your arm?*

She couldn’t have said anything nicer. The only other people to do that to me were Elizabeth and my sister. We struggled behind, glad to use our legs again after a day confined on the ship. Although we climbed the side of a mountain, there was no doubt we were in the Brownlands. A stunted shrub or two clung to waterless life. The rocks were dark gray, porous, and had sharp edges.

We didn’t climb directly up the side of the mountain, but a circuitous route that wound around the base, always climbing, but not so fast that our legs revolted. There was little talking. We stopped several times to rest and drink. Anna remained at Bran’s side, giggling and laughing at the least little comment. He didn’t seem to mind, and while twice her age, he may have liked the attention.

As we climbed, the view became endless. As we rounded a quarter of the way around the base, there was a switchback that turned us the other way. We climbed a steeper grade before reaching another switchback and walked in our original direction again. The walls of the mountain rose steeper, at times becoming cliffs.

Anna took us to a rocky break in a cliff where we had to climb using all fours. We went over and around boulders until reaching a shelf of solid rock about two-thirds of the way to the top. On that shelf, looking off to the Brownlands far below sat the dragon. Beside it sat my sister.

She leaped to her feet and ran to us. We ran to meet her—all but Bran. He remained behind, near the slot on the cliffs, his eyes as wide as those on anyone I’d ever seen. I remembered we had never mentioned the dragon to him. Only that we were going to find my sister.

I didn’t blame him for the reaction or being scared. When sitting, Kendra was no taller than the dragon’s foot. Besides that, the dragon had turned and stared at us, and who can tell what a dragon is going to do? Especially when sitting on an egg.

It squatted and never rose, but its attention never flinched away from us. After we settled down, I sat on the ledge and looked out at nothing. There were no houses, roads, rivers, lakes, or anything else that was not flat, dry, and brown.

The parched air smelled dusty—but it usually did. Now it was overridden by several distinct scents of rot and worse. Below us, on a lower shelf, were the remains of a dozen or more animals that had been eaten by the dragon and the bones, some skin, and other offal contributed to the smell.

That was not all. Behind the dragon stood a pile of dragon manure taller than me. I’m not one to judge, but if ever asked I will swear it is the foulest smelling thing in creation. The breeze came from the desert directly into our faces and carried away much of the smell, but that only helped a little.

We finally coaxed Bran to join us.

“She’s sitting on an egg?” I asked.

Kendra grinned. “Four. Maybe five.”

I felt my mouth open in surprise. Kendra reached under my chin and pushed my mouth closed. I said, “Will they hatch?”

“I think so.”

That would make as many as six dragons in the world. If half were female, the number of eggs in the future would be three times as many. And all might be female.

Kendra said, “That’s not all.”

She placed a hand on my knee to make sure I paid total attention as if that wasn’t always the case. “What else?”

“Baby dragons learn to fly quickly.”

“That’s nice,” I told her, not understanding the implied meaning of what she meant at all. There was more to whatever she was trying to tell me, I felt sure.

Instead of addressing me, she stood and looked at the others, an almost sad smile on her face. She spoke softer than usual, “Anna, will you take Bran down to our camp and make food and prepare places for us to sleep tonight?”

Anna stood and looked at Bran and said, “I think she’s trying to get rid of us.”

That only left Kendra, Elizabeth, and I. The original three of us.

*I’m right, aren’t I? You want to be alone?* Anna protested in my mind as she started down the trail.

*I’ll let you know what we discuss. You are being forced to entertain our new friend. Enjoy yourself.*

“Stop talking to Anna. Like we can’t see what’s happening between you two,” Kendra said as she motioned for Elizabeth to come closer. “Your eyes go blank and the next thing that happens is Anna laughs.”

We sat in a three-cornered circle if that is possible.

My sister had called the meeting between us, and Elizabeth and I sat and waited for her to begin. The dragon snorted and she ordered it to be quiet and not interrupt. I looked under the dragon for evidence of the eggs and saw none. Like many birds and reptiles, she hadn’t built a nest but sat on the eggs with the soft underside of her belly.

The dragon hadn’t moved since we arrived, and I wouldn’t want to be the one that made her. However, for what seemed the first time in a month, the three of us were alone—together. Sure, we were sitting on a mountain top with a dragon at our side, but it was again just the three of us.

Kendra appeared almost sad, in a wistful sort of way. Her eyes watered but she fought the tears back.

“What is it?” Elizabeth coaxed.

Kendra said, “It’s just me feeling melancholy. About the three of us, I guess.”

“About what?” I asked. “We have a war to plan and you’re thinking about the good old days?”

She looked at me in surprise, then shifted to Elizabeth. “You don’t know? Neither of you? You haven’t figured this out?”

Elizabeth and I exchanged stupefied looks.

Kendra sighed as she shrugged her shoulders slightly. “It’s over. It’s all over.”

Elizabeth said gently as if trying to soothe a small child, “Start at the beginning and tell us all about what you’re thinking.”

I wished we could move away from the pile of dragon excrement and then have the conversation. I tried scenting it and failed. Then, turned back to the others and tried to concentrate.

Kendra drew in one of those long, ragged sobs I’d heard other women use, but never her. She steeled herself, eyes streaming tears, and said, “You have an army arriving here to protect us and fight the Young Mage?”

“Three of them,” I said proudly.

“We only need a few days of safety, but better to have too many than not enough, huh?”

Elizabeth and I waited her out this time.

She said, “The little ones will fly away a few days after hatching. Dragons on the ground are helpless to anything hungry, even rats and such will rush in and snatch a bite or two. They are safe in the air and only nest at night in the same place rarely, so they don’t attract wolves, rats, dogs, and other predators.”

“Baby dragons can fly that soon?” My tone relayed my disbelief.

Kendra said, “Most songbirds fly after about fifteen days of emerging from the egg. Others take more time. Some less. And there are some that fly sooner. There’s a bird called a Maleo that flies right after hatching, the very same day. That does not mean baby dragons fly the same day but after a few. They are not ready to cross seas, but they can gain the air and every day after that grow stronger. So, three or four days to learn to fly is not so unusual.”

I said, “When those eggs hatch, there will be four of five dragons up here? All flying off this ledge and returning to it as they learn? I can see why a ledge is important.”

“Not for long,” she said. “A few days after that, they are ready to leave. We’ll be doing that together. We’ll go off, never staying on one mountain too long.”

“You can’t fly,” Elizabeth said.

“Momma will carry me cradled in her claws.”

That got my back up. It was just like her to make plans for us without asking us. Elizabeth was as upset as me, but I spoke first, “When were you going to tell us what we’re doing? We might have other plans.”

“I wasn’t inviting you.” Her chin rested on her chest and more tears flowed.

Her words were like a punch in the stomach. At first, I didn’t comprehend what they meant, then realized she intended to leave without us. My temper was building. I fought to hold it in check.

Kendra said earnestly, “You two really haven’t figured it out yet, have you?”

We shook our heads in unison.

“We won. Everything. Don’t you see?”

I didn’t.

Kendra threw her head back and laughed. Then she faced us again. “It’s all about the eggs. It always was. The Waystones were only tools, but the eggs powered them. The Waystone in Malawi is already dead, another at the pass between Vin and Trager was dying. There are more losing power every day, not all of it, not yet. But there was a cycle that coincided with my dragon. No more Waystones could be erected because the only dragon in existence could only supply the eggs for the Waystones they already had.”

“There is still the Young Mage to consider,” Elizabeth said sharply.

Kendra said, “You mean the Powerless Young Mage? He has no dragon to lay more eggs, no source of essence, so his magic is fading quickly. If he had drawn us into Kaon days ago, he could have killed us and captured the dragon again. But we ran and he couldn’t catch us. Now it’s too late as long as we hold this ridge for a few more days and the babies fly. The eggs will hatch tomorrow, I think.”

A time of quiet descended as all of them considered what they’d learned. Elizabeth finally asked, “How do you know all this?”

“I’ve been sitting up here alone for nearly four days thinking by myself while you two have been dancing at balls, saving palaces from outlaw mages, sailing the seas, and generally having a great time.”

“The Young Mage is not dead,” Elizabeth said.

“Not yet, but soon. Think about it. His source of power is failing daily, then he will have to face the Slave-Master and his Kaon Warriors when it is gone, and they return to Kaon. This is the very outcome the Slave-Master pushed us to achieve. He either suspected, or he knew, how to defeat the Young Mage from the beginning.”

“He used us?” I asked.

She laughed again. “He probably even let you win that game of Blocks when you won your freedom. Yes, he used us. By the time any of us could reach Kaon, the Young Mage will be dead, if he isn’t already.”

“You’re going off with the dragons and leaving us here?” I protested. “You’re leaving me?”

“Just for a while. The two of you have so much to do, for instance, you,” she pointed at Elizabeth, “as the ambassador for Dire, needs to contact the royalty in every kingdom we’ve been to and either explain all that has happened or place the proper people on the thrones and get the peasants fed and restore order.”

She turned to me. “And you have another little sister to raise. Anna can’t even read, and she has discovered men, so you will have your hands full until I get back.”

I gathered a little of my wits about me. “Now there will be five or six dragons, and I assume they will eventually breed, and we’ll have more. There will be essence available everywhere. What happens then?”

She said, “That is the story you will have to write down and distribute. Another generation of dragons will probably take twenty years or more to grow to maturity, and by then you will have put all this on paper so those who follow is in future generations will know what to do and how to prevent another instance one person controlling the rest using the magic created by a single dragon. Magic should be used for the good of all.”

“I can’t believe it’s over and we didn’t even know it,” Elizabeth said. “We have two armies to the north, maybe three. Three more arriving here. And we have nothing and nobody to fight. I feel let down in a way.”

I turned and looked out over the desert again, thinking I might see a great army marching on us from Kaon, but it was as empty as ever. If it didn’t arrive within a few days, it would be too late to stop the dragons from migrating—and taking my sister with them. What Kendra told us needed time to digest. She might be right. She might not.

Could it really all be over? Again, I wished for the company of Will to help me plan the future. I had anticipated giving him the sword and fighting at his side, and still would give it to him, but his insights were valuable. Now I was left to my own devices as Will would escort Elizabeth to each kingdom and then home.

Returning to Dire and Crestfallen was possible, but was that what I wanted? The palace intrigue that had been my life seemed distant and unimportant. Without Kendra, I’d be alone. Well, there would be Elizabeth, but living in her quarters without Kendra wouldn’t be proper, and besides, she would soon find a husband and I wouldn’t be welcome in her apartment.

Prince Angle, soon to be King Angle, would welcome me, I felt sure. There was a comforting feeling of living where others looked like me—or at least, didn’t stare each time we passed in a hallway. The Brownlands felt like home more than the mountains and trees of Dire ever had.

Much of Trager had burned and didn’t appeal to me at all. Vin was small like Dire but again held little appeal. Kaon might be beautiful, but in my mind would never be home with the specter of the Young Mage hanging there. I’d never been to Dagger, the largest city in Kondor, but the stories I’d heard told me it was the jewel of the Brownlands. And not too far away there was a family of failed mages who lived in a small valley that had given me more information about my past than any others. I could visit them.

My mind was like a cat that had its tail pinched in a closing door. It leaped, twisted, snarled, spun, and never settled in one place long enough to calm down. The blood pumped into my head and pounded. My vision fogged. The world closed in on me and went dark.

I woke with both Kendra and Elizabeth tending to me. The dragon’s long neck extended so the head of the beast almost touched me. Its hot breath gagged me when it snorted. I sat up with their help.

“It’s just too much,” I muttered.

Elizabeth wiped my forehead with a damp rag torn from her shirttail. Her water jar was near my lips. It seemed counterproductive that she would give me water and I would refill her jar with water I gathered with my magic.

I said, “I had my powers in Malawi while there were no Wyverns, dragons, or Waystones. The six mages there could barely create an orange fog that I blasted away. I even had magic while crossing the sea.”

Elizabeth said, “I thought all magic was fading as the eggs lost their power.”

“Mine has grown stronger,” I said while sitting on my own. It was a discrepancy in what Kendra had been telling us. We looked at her for an explanation.

Kendra said with a wide smile that nearly prevented the words from forming, “Remember the kernel of essence you found in the neck of the king of Malawi a couple of days ago? Mages placed it there to use the magic stored inside to make him ill and control him.”

She waited for us to nod our agreement. “Now think back to when the three of us were on that mountain in Mercia, you, me and the dragon. We fought the Wyvern together. The dragon sensed me as her protector, and that you are my brother and performed much the same thing within you as was in the king, only beneficial. Over time it grew. She did it because she loves you. It placed a seed of essence inside you, where it will continue to grow and prosper, just as it will do inside the dragon chicks. Only you can draw magic from it.”

I thought about that. As the power in the Waystones died, and the dragons fled south, only I would have any essence, and I while Kendra traveled with the last dragons, I would be the last mage.