The Last Dragon: Book One

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

We watched Stata in fear, wonder, confusion, and a hundred other descriptions. He had accused either Elizabeth or Kendra of being something called the Dragon Queen. His conviction and hate were complete. He had morphed from the appearance of people from Kondor to Dire, his voice lost the weakness it had held, and he now seemed in charge of us in some manner instead of the other way around.

“Who are you?” Elizabeth asked in a hushed tone.

He raised both arms, hands high above his head, fingers extended, a foul expression threatening us. Hints of blue twinkled at the end of each finger. His face of rage told us he was about to do something, but not what. I was slightly behind him, and to one side, still squatted on the ground and couldn’t rise in time to prevent his actions. Both women were sitting. None of us could possibly move before he did whatever was coming.

However, it didn’t happen, at least not what Stata intended. Instead, there was a sound similar to that when I gave Alexis a good-natured slap on her rump. We saw the butt of a knife protrude from Stata’s chest, and his face morphed again, to one of shock and pain, and it resembled neither Kondor or Dire, but something else.

His hands grasped at the hilt of the knife as his knees crumpled. His mouth opened to scream but no sound emerged before he fell forward on his face. Dead.

Nobody moved.

Tater said, “Lucky it wasn’t my throwing arm that was broke.”

Elizabeth looked at me. “Why didn’t you do something?”

I understood her question. What she was asking was why hadn’t I used magic to stop Stata? The simple truth was that it was so ingrained in me to only use magic at rare times, and always in subtle ways, I hadn’t thought of it. It might not even have worked.

We all moved to examine the husk of a body that had been Stata. He no longer resembled those from Dire, nor from anywhere else. His skin had shrunk as if he had lain in the desert sun in the brown lands for days. Upon further inspection of him, all accomplished without any of us touching him, his bones seemed to have dissolved. What lay on the ground was wrinkled skin and clothing.

“Magic,” Tater hissed.

Kendra turned her face away and gagged.

Elizabeth scowled. “A mage did this.”

“Killed him?” I asked, wondering if Tater intended to retrieve his knife.

“No,” she snapped. “I’ve heard some mages can present themselves as people using a high-level spell called reincarnation. They enter the body of someone long dead and use it from afar to look and act human.”

“Never heard of that,” I told her through a whisper of fear.

She continued speaking as if she’d never stopped, “The mage must be present in the body at all times but cannot cheat death. Tater’s knife caused the mage to withdraw or die with the body. I’m sure only the body died. The mage is still out there. Somewhere.”

Her explanation chilled me even more. “Do you mean a mage has been wearing the body of Stata like some old clothes?”

“Yes,” her answer allowed for no other account.

Tater stepped forward and knelt but didn’t touch. “Looks old. She might be right. Anybody got a knife they can lend me?”

That answered the question of the knife, and I’d see he received a better one. “Then, where is the mage?”

Elizabeth shrugged.

I persisted, “Did the mage have to stay with the body all the time? If so, what about sleep? And why was he with those men from Kondor on the mountain?”

She said, “I think, but do not know for sure because I’ve only heard of this spell in hints, it can be maintained while sleeping. But when awake, the mage must accompany the dead, or it fades to what we see before us.”

“That’s so much work!” I said.

Tater shook his head and spat near my foot. “Would you rather be up here on this mountain freezing and starving, or in some warm room sipping soup and watching here through Stata’s eyes?”

“He’s right,” Elizabeth said, “and there is more to learn here. In the end, he looked different than Dire and has an accent. A corpse remembers no language.”

“He’s from far away,” Tater said. “For me, I might kill the next person who talks in the funny way he did, just to be sure.”

“I cannot believe he’s been up here for months,” I said.

“Who says he has been?” Tater asked, ending that line of thought. “For all we know, he might have just got here.”

Kendra turned, took one more quick look, and said, “If we leave now we can be at the store by daybreak. Please.”

We could hear the animals tearing apart the dead at the road, a sure thing to keep me awake. Besides, I’d never be able to sleep with the flat mass at our feet of what had once been a man. And I was not going to attempt moving it. “That sounds good to me.”

Tater said, “I can ride.”

We all faced Elizabeth. She said, “Get the horses.”

Tater took the lead, again, to my surprise. However, I took the drag position in line, where it was easy to keep an eye on the women. A bow remained in my left hand, and arrow in my right for the entire night. Sleep could wait. My mind didn’t linger on the dead husk the mage had enchanted or reincarnated. No, it kept going back to his words before he attacked us.

He had been trying to gain admission or reaction from me that would convince him of who the Dragon Queen was, wishing it was Kendra. He used shock to draw her out. When that hadn’t worked, he had tried providing information to make her identify herself, or one of us to look her way. What the blue at his fingers was intended to do, I have no idea, but not kill. He didn’t seem to want to kill her, or he would have used his powers to drop a tree on all of us, cause a landslide, call the bears to attack, or freeze us in place and slit all our throats.

Stata also said there were six mages waiting for her at Mercia and more on the way. Three were from Dire so where had the others come from? How would they know their prey?

Those questions took me to others. Who offered the reward they hoped to claim? Why were they so concerned with a woman called the Dragon Queen? They seemed to know what she could do, and they feared her, so had there been another of her kind in times past?

Near daybreak, one set of facts were self-evident. Those waiting in Mercia knew her. They probably that she was my sister, and when she was arriving. They were waiting, the mages and others to do her harm. Some of the spirits might know when she arrived by the depletion of the essence. However, it was clear those enemies were massed and working together.

Therefore, she could not go there.

And I couldn’t yet explain to Elizabeth why.

The bow was still in my hand when the trail dipped onto level ground and turned into a dirt road. Ahead, and to either side, were farms, plowed fields, even at the early hour, lights glowed in the windows. A herd of goats crowded a fence to watch us ride past. Dogs barked. Farmers looked up from their dawn-work, and a few waved before continuing with their tasks. It all seemed so normal.

A cluster of faded wooden buildings stood ahead, perhaps twenty in all. They gave the town a grayish appearance in the morning sun. There were only a few people in sight, two women hoeing a garden and a man chopping firewood. The sounds of his ax rang in the still, foggy air.

Kendra and Elizabeth now rode side by side, with the pack horse trailing behind Kendra. Tater was in front, but if the advanced swaying of his body was any indication, he needed to stop and rest soon.

We assumed the store was in the village ahead, but it might be in the next. We attracted no undue attention as we entered the edge of the village. A faded and paint-worn sign of a fat cow gently swayed over a door. A plaque said simply, Inn. A narrow alley beside the inn went to a stable where a boy of ten greeted us.

He agreed to feed and water our horses but to keep them saddled while we went inside. The rear door took us into the main room where long tables and mismatched chairs held no patrons. A small fire burned. We sat and waited. Finally, Tater called out, “Hey, you got customers out here.”

A short chubby man with hair to his shoulders but a clean face appeared. His cheeks were red, his smile quick. “Help you?”

Elizabeth spoke for all of us. “We’ll see. If an inn has no customers, I wonder why? Is the fare so poor people go elsewhere?”

He shrugged. “If the town has no travelers passing through, the best inn in the kingdom goes empty. That is what you have found.”

Rebuked, in a friendly manner, Elizabeth said, “Have you food enough for the four of us?”

The innkeeper maintained his smile and replied, “Well, since nobody else has eaten it, there is more than enough.”

She said, “What do you have, is it any good, and how long must we wait?”

As for me, who had not eaten a full meal in two days, I’d have gnawed on an old corncob if he slathered a little butter on it. Turning to the kitchen door, he said, “Let me see what I can do.”

He returned with a platter of small bread rolls, each with a hard crust and soft inside. On the tray were butter and honey. He spun again and returned instantly with four mugs and a pitcher of milk that was still warm. He said, “Eggs and slices of ham will be here quick enough, but I sensed you might like the bread and milk while waiting.”

“I like this place,” I said between mouthfuls.

Tater’s eyes were drooping despite the bread he shoveled into his mouth. When the innkeeper returned with the eggs and ham, Elizabeth motioned for him to sit with us. He tentatively did, obviously thinking something was wrong. It was a position I’d found myself in many times with her.

“Where is the nearest store?”

His cheerful look faltered. “It didn’t come from me if you please but pass on the nearest and go to another.”

“Where is it?” she persisted.

“Dayton. Down the road. Not far.”

“And why should we shop at another?”

“The owner will cheat you. There are stories of people traveling who shop there and are soon attacked by highwaymen. They might be connected, I wouldn’t know or say.”

Elizabeth said, “How much do you charge for a night’s lodging?”

“Quarter copper per person. Includes one meal, morning or evening, your choice.”

She held up a single silver coin, a hundred times as much. The color faded from his face as he shook his head, refusing to deal with a coin of such great value. She said, “We will sleep after eating, but only until midday. We will not be disturbed. Our horses will be well cared for, and you will have the noon meal ready for us when you wake us. There will be no other customers until we depart.”

She placed the coin on the table and used a single finger to push it to him. He used his whole hand to push it back as if it was hot. He muttered, “Too much.”

She didn’t touch the coin. I calculated quickly. At a quarter copper per person to stay at the inn, the silver coin paid for about two-hundred-fifty nights. She said, “No other patron until we depart, and keep it quiet down here. No banging of pans and such. Now, please show us to the rooms.”

They were tiny, wide enough to touch either wall and barely long enough to lie down. But there was fresh straw and the bedding clean. I was asleep instantly, but not before hearing snores from another room. I hoped it was Tater and not one of the women.

The innkeeper touched my foot with his toe. I climbed to my feet, still tired, but also smelling food more wonderful than in the king’s own kitchens. We gathered at the same table where a pot of stew bubbled, fresh loaves of bread waited, and more warm milk. He offered ale or wine, and we all refused. Milk was what we wanted.

The innkeeper came to our table and asked if there was any other need. After we assured him we were content, he said, “Yer going to that store in Dayton?”

“We are,” Elizabeth told him.

“You will naturally want to be wary of the big one, but it’s the little one that really runs the place. Be careful of him and don’t turn your back. He’s a killer.”