The Last Dragon: Book Four

CHAPTER FIVE

Kendra’s admonition to us sat between us like a stone wall on a cold day. For me, I considered that most of the people who had provided help for us in the last ten years had probably withheld information of one sort or another. The fact that Anna could confirm my guess should make no difference.

However, it did. There is an impassible gap between suspecting and knowing. I tried to justify both positions and, in the end, couldn’t satisfy myself with either.

Anna burst into my head with a bright red flash of pure emotion followed by shouting. *Enemies! Attacking!*

“Enemies,” I said, turning to Kendra. “Anna says they are being attacked.”

“We have to go help,” she answered while searching the sky for Wyverns that might be trying to attack us. There were none. She scanned the surface of the lake for a boat. Again, there were none. We were stranded on the far side of the lake and couldn’t return in time to help.

I touched minds with Anna. *Tell me.*

*Soldiers. Ten of them.*

If I could get back across, even if they were taken a prisoner, I could use my magic skills to help, scant as they were. I said, “Kendra, send your dragon to help them.”

“How will it know who to kill?” she asked. “What if it makes a mistake?”

That gave me a bit of a pause but realized it could still help. Our people would know it was coming, but the soldiers did not. Maybe just the sight of it nearby would scare the men. “Have it fly low, right at them. The soldiers might run away. Can you make it scream as it flies over?”

Instead of answering, she closed her eyes, and I assumed she was trying. The old man rightfully looked confused. I said to him, “Soldiers from Dagger have attacked them.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

He didn’t follow up with the rest of the questions sure to come before Anna’s excited mental stab, *We beat them back. They lost three, two at the hand of Will and his sword. We have one boy with a small cut on his arm.*

*Great,* I responded in my mind then out loud continued to the old man, “In my mind, I can talk to the girl at a distance. The soldiers lost three in their attack. One of your sons is slightly wounded with a cut on his arm, nothing serious.”

“You are a mage?” the old man asked as he took a couple of steps away from me. His fingers made a complicated twist that was supposed to ward off magic, an old and entirely untrue belief.

For the first time, I had to answer that question out loud. It gave me a pause, despite the ongoing attack, the soldiers locating us, and our group being separated by a lake. Me, a mage? I searched for a definition, but each way I considered it, the result was the same. I was a mage.

A great one? No. A normal one? No, again. On the scale where mages are measured, if there is such a thing, I was at the very bottom. But I was on the scale. No matter how I tried to avoid associating or being identified with them, I was a mage. Just not a very good one.

“I am a mage,” I said aloud for the first time in my life, drawing reactions from both. The old man pulled away another step and held an arm up as if to ward me off. My sister gave me the smallest of smirks and a slight nod of her head as if satisfied I’d finally admitted the truth to myself.

Anna burst into my mind again, *They are going to attack again. They have bows they should have used the first time, but the fisherman boys had three bows in the hut. We’re outside now. It’s a standoff.*

If I had the numbers correct, there were now only seven soldiers against Anna, Will, Elizabeth, and the boys. Seven to five. I said to Kendra, “How long before your dragon gets there?”

“Count to twenty slowly.”

To Anna, I said, *The dragon will get there soon, flying low and screaming like it’s a devil from the depths of Turban. Tell everyone to get behind cover in case it attacks and does not know who is who.*

There was another pause, then she said, *We’re down and behind a little hill for protection. Here it comes. Just in time because they are starting another attack again with swords.*

I didn’t like the remark at the end. Why attack with swords when they had bows and could use them from a distance? The answer seemed obvious. They wanted some of us alive and overrunning us was the best way. Arrows are indiscriminate and kill. I said to Kendra, “Our people are under protective cover. If you can instruct the dragon only attack those out in the open, do it.”

She didn’t bother arguing that she had little, or no, control over the dragon’s actions beyond broad communication. She concentrated with a look in her eyes as far away as the other side of the lake. Sweat broke out on her forehead. Her jaw was so tight the muscles shown clearly as she breathed shallowly.

*We are all fine. The dragon swooped in and grabbed one solder in its mouth and shook it like a dog with a rat. It also snatched another in a rear talon and carried both high into the air—then dropped them to the ground right in the middle of the other soldiers. The falling body missed hitting the others, but not by much.*

*Then what?* I asked.

*They are running away. Not all in the same direction.* Her mental voice conveyed relief and laughter.

I said to Kendra, “Your dragon killed two and drove the others off. Everyone is safe.”

“For now,” she snapped, her anger belying the fact she was helpless to reach them.

*The barge is almost here. We don’t know what to do. If some of us leave, the ones here can’t hold off the attackers when they come again.*

I understood the problem instantly. Who to send across the lake next? Keep our best fighters on the far shore, but fewer of them? Send Anna here because she is a child and then we would lose our only communication? Send the princess? That seemed our best option. *Princess Elizabeth is next. We’ll figure out who will be after her.*

I told the old man and Kendra what was happening.

Kendra agreed with me.

The old man didn’t. He said, “Bring one horse, and all your people. Have your best men row, and the boat will carry two more. I’ll row back by myself, and we’ll ferry your horses one at a time, but you’ll all be safe over here and we’ll be in the boat where they can’t get to us.”

That was a better plan. I started to give instructions to Anna when Kendra took my arm in an iron grip. I followed her gaze. To the east, or on our side of the lake, in the direction of Dagger, a plume of dust rose.

The fisherman looked too. He said, “Horses, coming fast. At least ten, maybe more. Got to be an army.”

Kendra said, “What now?”

“Ride,” the old man said as he pointed south. “Lose yourselves out there, then head directly east. Find the fishing village called Ander and ask for Thom. He’s my brother.”

“What about the others?” I asked. “Our friends?”

“Use your witchcraft to tell the others to take to the water. Leave the horses. There are no other boats near here. They will be safe there.”

Kendra said as she strode to the horses and leaped for the saddle. She snapped at me, “Come on. Tell Anna we’ll meet up in a few days. Right now, we either ride or are captured.”

I turned to the old man. He stood calmly, showing neither fear nor excitement. With a slight shrug, he said, “Go.”

“What about you?”

“I will be fine. This is not the first time my enemies have tried to find and capture me.”

The barren ground offered no hiding places for him, he had no horse or boat, but from the slight twitch at the corners of his mouth, he had a plan. My horse was nervous and ready to run. I gave it my heels and turned it to follow Kendra, who was keeping to the vegetation to avoid raising a dust cloud of our own. Smart. As usual, she was a full step ahead of me. No, make that two.

Looking back over my shoulder, I watched the old man wade out into the water and slowly begin swimming with long, easy strokes. By the time the army arrived, he would probably be so far from shore they wouldn’t see his bobbing head. If they did, most of them probably couldn’t swim, and he could just swim away from the shore where they couldn’t reach him. But the easy thing was that he didn’t have to swim all the way across the lake, only far enough from shore where they wouldn’t spot him. After they left the area, he’d probably swim back ashore and wait for his sons to rescue him.

Not for the first time, I felt the least intelligent of the three of us on this side of the lake. I reached out to Anna. *Riders are coming our way. A lot of them.*

*Get out of there.*

*We are. On the coast, a little south of Dagger is a fishing village called Ander. The man there named Thom is the old fisherman’s brother. He will help you and us. We’ll meet you there.*

*The father fisherman? The boys want to know where he is.*

*Tell his sons he went into the water to hide. He’s swimming where they won’t see him. They will need to row there to get him when it is safe.*

I looked over my shoulder again. The old man was already so far from shore I barely saw his splashes. If he were to stop and tread water, I might not see him at all, but what I did see was Kendra’s dragon flying low and fast. It flew on an angle, heading directly for the dust cloud growing closer to him. She had detected it, of course. It seemed that when there was fighting, the dragon protected us.

That idea was not new, but the implication was almost negative. Was that all a dragon was good for? It seemed a waste of a magnificent creature. I searched the sky for Wyvern and saw none.

Anna’s mind touched mine, another feat that was becoming routine. *We are all safe but abandoned our horses on the shore. More soldiers arrived as the princess was boarding the barge. She made her horse get off and ordered all of us on so we could escape. The two boys rowing are taking us way out into deep water where arrows can’t reach.*

*Then what?*

*I’m a little girl. Nobody tells me anything or asks for my opinion.*

Kendra’s lead had extended, and I couldn’t shout the new information to her, but it would wait. The slope of the land rose slightly, and I could still see the lake behind, but there was no sign of the old man, the barge filled with our people, or the army that had been riding to intercept us. Even the dust plume was gone, and I assumed the dragon had attacked or scared them into hiding or dispersing.

There seemed nothing to do but follow my sister and try to keep up with her. I pooled a fist-full of magic and reached ahead. It shook a low branch on a scrubby juniper to make sure my increased magic was working. The branch was farther away than I’d ever attempted, so lacking anything else to occupy my mind, I spotted a low, rocky ridge running parallel a hundred steps away and decided to attempt another use of magic.

I swirled dirt up there on the ridge into a twisting funnel and made it keep pace with us for a while. Then I levitated a rock and made it float alongside me. My small-magic at Crestfallen had been limited to slightly directing an arrow in flight perhaps the space of a hand or deflecting it by the same. I condensed water to wet material, shifted a foot enough to trip, tipped tankards of wine enough to spill, and little more. The limits were such that I was an infant in my skills when around true mages.

We had called it small-magic since children, an accurate name in practice. I’d once managed to raise a single sheet of paper above a tabletop and hold it there for a few moments but to lift a stone the size of my fist was impossible. To make it float alongside a running horse impossible. A few grains of sand to cast into the eyes of an enemy, or puff of breeze to put out a candle in a corridor I wished to travel without being seen, were the maximum uses of my powers. The stone I held in the air still rode beside us, keeping up. It seemed to take very little effort and I felt I could do the same with one much larger.

In frustration, elation, or perhaps terror, I gave the stone a mental shove away from me as if offended. It streaked away, flying twice the distance I could have thrown it by hand. That stunned me.

The pounding of the horse’s hooves, the beating my butt was enduring, and the fact that my sister was still outpacing me, caused me more physical and mental pain. Behind us, the lake was no longer in view. Not that we’d traveled so far, but the upward rise had ceased long ago, and we now rode on level ground. The lake was below the dip of the horizon.

Any soldiers back there couldn’t see us any more than we could see them. My horse was laboring now, breathing in gasps, and its gait was uneven with exhaustion. I pulled back on the reins and came to a stop before dismounting. I walked ahead as the horse recovered and easily kept pace with me as it rested. If needed, it could run twice as fast and far as a few minutes ago.

*Did you escape?* Anna asked.

*We did. We are heading south before turning east to the sea because any searching for us will follow the shore. How about you?*

*Will says three more groups of soldiers have arrived. He said that they probably sent messages to their headquarters that we’ve gone out onto the lake in a boat and they will capture boats and come after us.*

*Listen to Will. He was a soldier and knows how to fight like one.*

*He says we need to get to shore before the other boats come. They will be loaded with archers.*

*Did you bring your bows?*

*Of course.*

I thought about that. Going ashore before dark wouldn’t happen or be productive. The men waiting there would capture or kill them. They would be spotted immediately. Right after dark gave them all night to reach a lonely part of the shore and escape. That was what Will would have them do. I just didn’t know where that would be. He’d talk to the boys, rescue the father, and then make his decision.

My thinking sounded good until I reversed it, like taking the other side in a game of blocks. I suspected what Will would order. What would the enemy anticipate? The same thing? Certainly, my plan was also what the soldiers would expect, and as a result, they would spread out and guard the shoreline all night long. I was about to mention that when I realized what an insult it would be to mention it to Will. He knew that better than me and had another plan. I swallowed hard and kept my thoughts to myself.

I sort of enjoyed being in Will’s mind, at least figuratively. He would probably put them ashore on the south side of the lake not too far from where Kendra and I landed because most of the troops chasing them were on the other side and expect him there. He could pick up Coffin along the way. They were maintaining their position in sight of the enemy for now, and he wouldn’t tip his hand by departing for our side of the lake until after dark—and then they would do it silently. He might even have the barge and rowboat returned to the north shore before dawn to confuse the army.

“Couldn’t keep up with me?” Kendra asked. She was also walking her horse but now allowed it to graze on a few stunted clumps of grass while she waited for me.

“Thinking,” I responded shortly.

I moved to her side and shared the little I knew and what I suspected. She flashed the first smile I’d seen in a while. I said, “What?”

“It seems that despite the traps set by the Young Mage, we’ve all managed to escape, for now. I was thinking of how frustrated he must be. Maybe, at this very moment, he is throwing a childish tantrum.”

She was right. He had set several perfect traps that we’d avoided. According to him, we should have entered his city and been easily captured. Once fleeing in the desert, there had been no place to hide when we departed, but again we had been lucky and fast. I said, “My magic has grown stronger.”

She said, “How so?”

Kendra had tested me at the Waystone but knew little of the changes occurring within me. We hadn’t had time to discuss them privately, and besides, I was still learning. “Your dragon is not in sight, and neither are any Wyvern or Waystones to draw essence from. A while ago, I levitated a rock the size of my fist while riding at full gallop, so I couldn’t fully concentrate, then threw it twice as far as I could with my arm.”

We walked slowly, side by side, allowing the horses to pause for the few choice clumps of grass we passed. She said, “Show me.”

I pointed. A skinny tree stood alone at least three hundred paces away. First, I shook it, and we watched the leaves rattle, a feat impossible for me only a few days earlier. I might have managed to move a single leaf. Then I swirled enough sand and dust around it to almost hide it.

“More,” she hissed.

I bore down and pushed with my mind, like pushing water with my palms and expecting it to clear a path behind them. The tree trunk slowly bent away from us. I mentally pushed harder. The trunk objected and seemed to spring back at me, but I directed more concentrated mental power at it, focusing that power into a sharp point.

Sweat broke out on my forehead. My veins bulged with flowing blood. The tree bent away from us a little more, then the sand gave way and the tree uprooted and flew a dozen steps into the air before falling almost gracefully to the ground.

“Damn,” Kendra said.

That was the most I’d ever heard her say in the way of swearing. Somehow the word fit. She walked on with her horse following without additional comment.

“Aren’t you going to say anything else?” I asked.

“Never make an emerging mage angry, or he will uproot all the plants in your garden?”

“I’m not a mage, and you are not funny.”

She didn’t argue. We walked on. Later, she said, “Training. I don’t know about having more magical powers, but it might be related to proper training or the need to defend us. You simply learned to use your magic better. You probably always had the same abilities.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“This might not be an increase in your powers, but a lack of training until now.”

“No. Before this, I could barely levitate a few grains of sand.”

“I know, but what if you’re wrong. What if it is not the power within you, but training? Wherever or whatever is the reason, you have become more of a mage, and that is what’s important.”

“Why is it so important?” I asked, not understanding why she felt that way.

“Okay. Suppose a man wielding a sword comes at you, a big man. A blacksmith, by trade. He’s twice your size. By his movements, you know he never had training in using a weapon, probably never been in a sword fight, and he is clumsy but very powerful. You pull your sword out. Are you scared?”

“A little. People do get lucky in a fight, and he’s bigger. But, to answer your question directly, I’d win all but one in a thousand of those fights with him. The fear comes in the idea that today might be that one in a thousand. I might trip, misread his thrust, or his large size allows him to push through my block.”

“That is the exception. Now for training. You threw that rock after levitating it. Then you knocked down that tree. If there were ten soldiers on that ridge, could you remove their blades from their hands and fling them away as you did with the rock?”

“All at once? I doubt it. Only a true mage could do such a thing and maybe not even then.”

“But with training, maybe you could? How about selecting one of the men and snatching his sword with your magic and hurling it away? Could you do that?”

We continued walking as I considered and made my decision. “I think so. It would be like grabbing a stone and throwing it, I suppose. But the other nine others are more than enough to fight me and win.”

“Couldn’t you do it again? I mean, throw away another single sword? And again?”

My mind fought an imaginary battle. Ten men stood on the ridge beside us. One lost his sword to my powers. Then another. Eight charged. Another sword spins through the air, followed by three more, one at a time. They are getting closer, four of them still with swords. Two more swords fly away. The remaining two run me through and kill me.

No, I could stand my own and defend us against the remaining two, but if such an encounter ever happened, when one or two swords were ripped from their hands, the others would probably stop their advance. Soldiers do not fight mages.

“I can do it with eight attackers,” I muttered as I kept my eyes closed in concentration.

“Eight? What the hell does that mean?” she demanded. “Who put limits on how many? Maybe there were only eight, to begin with. Are you telling me you can defeat eight soldiers charging at us?”

I explained. Or tried too. She laughed at my reasoning and calmed down. Finally, she said, “If we move away from the ridge a little more, you can remove the swords from number nine and defend us against the remaining one. The real questions remain. Can you remove the swords from them two at a time? Three? Can you train yourself to do it with all nine at once? Can you make the swords so hot they let go of them because their hands are getting burned?”

She was right. Not in what she suggested, but in another way. I didn’t have to flip the swords out of the hands of all ten. I could also make a few of them trip over their feet, cause sand to fly into the eyes of three more, force more to drop their swords while I used my skills to fight them as a last resort. I didn’t have to fight the last one. Or any. With all those things happening, most men would retreat and think things over before facing me again.

But her idea was sound. Instead of simply using my fighting skills, I could supplement them with a little trickery. A slip of the foot here, the sting of an imaginary bee there, a splash of water thrown in the face somewhere else provided me with ample superiority to face ten men.

It was not about the magic, at least, not directly. It was about how to use it. Forcing ten swords from the hands of ten warriors one at a time with my increased powers was silly. Uprooting an entire tree and throwing it at them was far more effective. There were probably a hundred better solutions if I took the time to think of them. It was all about training.

My problem was that like most people I didn’t know much about magic. My experience with magic was performing a few parlor tricks. I never had a teacher because we had chosen to keep my magic abilities secret. I didn’t know a vast ocean of information and had only recently discovered a small puddle. With each discovery came more ideas, more opportunities. All untested. I needed to learn.

Worse, I had no idea of how or who could teach me, let alone if I had the latent abilities to learn.

As if reading my mind, Kendra said, “As we travel, with your permission and cooperation, we can devise tests to find the limits of your skills and teach you new ones. We can maybe teach you to improve your abilities, to use them more effectively.”

I liked the concept, but there were things about it that bothered me. The first was that magic was not free. It always has a cost. That cost was supplied by Dragons, Wyverns, and Waystones, in the form of Essence. Yet, none of those three providers were near me. That made me question how I was able to use my magic.

No, the dragon was on our side of the lake. I’d forgotten about it and our pursuers. It might be nearer than I thought. “Did your dragon attack the men coming after us?”

She nodded.

“And?” I prompted.

“I can’t tell you. I asked it to attack them. I gave it a mental image that they were trying to harm us. We can’t talk. Not like you and Anna. So, I gave her the feelings of anger directed at them.”

“I think I understand. Hopefully, that was not a caravan of trade goods or innocents.”

“Don’t do that, Damon. It was the army, and you know it, so don’t even suggest I may have killed innocent people.”

Instead of responding, my mind went back to the basics of my magic. I had to draw my power from one of the three. How far away was the dragon right now? Again, my knowledge failed me. I stood in utter confusion, knowing there were things to do, to learn, and knowing I was failing in nearly all of them.

“There is a lot we don’t know or understand,” I said with barely a tremble in my voice.

Kenda drew an exasperated breath and said, “I know. We, meaning you and me, have to do better.”