Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (8 page)

Closing her eyes, Cheleya buried her face against his shoulders and hoped for the best. Holding both packs in his hands, Kel’lor ran forward feeling the extra weight slowing him down slightly, but the gargoyle had no fear. Propelling the two of them into the air with his legs, his two wings shot towards the ground creating the lift he needed to rise more than fifteen feet in one thrust. The second quick beat of his wings lifted them twice as high and shortly the two were winging south high above the valley floor. The rise ahead of them continued to force them higher and higher above the main valley, but the gargoyle maintained a healthy distance between them and the stones of the upper valley rising with them.

“See? No problem,” the gargoyle stated loudly to be heard over the rushing wind.

For Cheleya, she hardly agreed at all. The first several seconds thrusting quickly into the air had made her lose her stomach making the girl feel strange. Luckily, she didn’t get to find out how throwing up worked as a human, but the girl did feel dizzy and nauseous. Her hold was strong and had virtually become a death grip, but the gargoyle was too powerful to notice her feeble strength. For him, she was just holding on as she must. Her weight was negligible to the powerful mar’goyn’lya, though between her and the two packs, Kel’lor knew that his maximum flight range was most likely reduced.

“Hold tight,” he informed her before banking to turn through the corridor of the upper neck of the valley. It was a good day for flying the gargoyle thought and oddly enough he enjoyed his passenger flying with him. Kel’lor had never tried carrying someone before and there was a sort of close bond that he felt with the girl as she clung to him. A mar’goyn’lya didn’t consider such emotions usually, but then again he knew of none that had tried such a thing either.

Whatever else could be argued about the risk of flying with the wingless girl, Kel’lor knew that they were making much better time than they had walking in the night. Movement below them caught the gargoyle’s eye. One of the crag dogs ran beneath him chasing his shadow. It was as fast as he was in flight, an impressive sight.

His attention returned to the shifting air currents and turns of the upper pass leading away from Mar’kal. He had never been more than a day’s flight beyond the city of his birth in all of his thirty five years of life. Like the young che’ther on his back, Kel’lor had lived near the academy learning all that he could. Dragon magic was his latest school of training, but he had tried several including alchemy which wasn’t considered true magic. Anyone with or without the power inside them could use alchemy with the right tools.

The morning passed and occasionally he noted the strange crag dog chasing his shadow again. He wondered what drove the beast to chase what was clearly beyond his reach. Ignoring the animal most of the time, Kel’lor flew following the pass from one side of the mountain to another.

Morning was lengthening towards noon when Cheleya finally cried out loud enough for him to hear, “Down, please, Kel’lor!”

Unsure what had made the girl suddenly need to land; the gargoyle evaluated his strength and decided that he also could use a break. The two descended and Kel’lor did his best to land gently to avoid dislodging his passenger. Hopping off of the gargoyle, the dragoness ran over to the side of the ten foot wide path through the mountains lifting her dress frantically.

At first, Kel’lor was confused by the strange action, until he realized that the human body needed to pee. Chuckling at the girl, he asked, “That is why you needed to land so badly? I just thought that you were getting tired.”

Looking at him with a frown, but no embarrassment at revealing her naked body as she relieved herself, the dragoness complained, “This body is tired from holding on as well, but its bladder can’t hold in its contents for long either.” Finished with her act, the girl replaced her dress smoothing it out with her hands as if she could regain her dignity.

“Did you see the crag dog following us?” he asked changing the topic from her physical acts.

Shaking her head, was Cheleya’s answer as she looked around the pass for the focus of his question. “I could only see the inside of my eyelids or the gray of your stony back,” the girl replied. She stopped to place her hands on her lower back and stretched bringing a near purr to her throat as her spine unwound from hours of holding onto the mar’goyn’lya. “I don’t see him,” she stated giving it a masculine description for some reason.

Kel’lor turned and looked behind them down the pass in the direction of Mar’kal. There was nothing to see but the winding path that quickly turned enough to block his vision a few hundred feet back along the path.

Shrugging, the giant asked, “Since we are on the ground, do you need to eat and drink? I’ve noticed Malaketh and the other humans seem to need to eat more often than we do.”

Listening to her body, Cheleya sighed noting what he meant. “Yes, my stomach is hungry again. You would think that I would need little after spending all morning just holding onto you. It isn’t like I had wings doing any work.”

“Maybe it is simply the difference of creatures native to this world as opposed to our ancestors’ home world. I’ve noticed that most of the animals here eat much more than any of our two races. We are much larger than most besides.”

The girl shrugged watching as Kel’lor cut a slice of the bread and found a thick spread made of vegetables. It was a favorite among the mar’goyn’lya, though she had witnessed some humans trying the food before and few seemed to like the taste. Perhaps the winged race didn’t have the taste in food that humans could take.

Cheleya took a bite and her nose wrinkled as she tasted the bitter spread. She understood now why most humans avoided eating with gargoyles. While it didn’t taste good, she knew that it held vitamins and energy that she needed. Not being a connoisseur in human food, the dragoness didn’t bother to complain. It was edible and fuel for her body. As long as it didn’t make her sick, it would do until they found something better, which was unlikely to be any time soon.

“There,” Kel’lor said with a slight incline of his head along the pass behind them. The snout of the crag dog, almost more a boar than a canine in appearance, peaked from behind a large stone. It had just one tusk and Cheleya recognized it as one of the two that had protected her from the black wolf.

Smiling at the idea that the dog was healthy enough to chase them so far, Cheleya considered her savior being so tentative watching them from afar. With his pack, the animal had been as brave as could be, but now it was alone and tentatively shy.

“Well, if you want some of our food, you will need to come over here,” the girl’s voice called sweetly. One of the few things she still loved about her new body was the nearly musical voice that came with it. It was much nicer to her ears than her che’ther voice or her mother’s deep growl. 

Holding the last third of her bread and feeling fed enough to offer the bitter tasting spread; Cheleya offered it to the cautious beast. It took little to encourage the animal, however, and the long legged dog soon loped over to sniff at the bread. A little whine apparently judged the smell of the spread similarly to everyone except a mar’goyn’lya, Cheleya thought in amusement. Despite its reservations, the crag dog decided to eat the piece probably with the same thought the girl had earlier.

“I have to tell you, Kel’lor, that you mar’goyn’lya like bitter things more than animals and humans,” she informed him looking at the strange animal eating the remainder of her meal.

Touching the side of the crag dog’s face, she slid her fingers until they could play with his left ear. The armor was both above and behind the delicate piece of flesh, but she guessed that nature could only provide so much protection on a single creature. Below the ear by a few inches was the remaining tusk.

Moving her head to look at the injured side of its head, a few tears came to her eyes. It was healed, but marred by the battle. Whether the pack had just defended their territory or to protect the girl that had wandered into their land in need, this crag dog had chosen to protect her with its deceased friend. She owed him her life, even if ultimately it had been Kel’lor’s power that had killed the black beast.

“May I?” Kel’lor asked as he fished out the flask holding a small amount of water which were her tears shed the previous night.

“You know that I am not some dragon of legend shedding my tears,” Cheleya said leaning closer to offer her face to him even so.

His large fingers gently wiped her tears forcing them into the flask as he noted her human face. Kel’lor noted the beauty of her human look, alien to his race for sure, but like he could admire the sunset, the mar’goyn’lya could appreciate the gentleness that Cheleya seemed to have even more in this human form. The dragoness had always seemed to have a gentle soul, even if she had become a better aerial fighter with her magic than those born with wings.

A little grunt as he nodded, led to capping the flask once more. Whether there was magic in the girl’s caring tears or she had simply found a new way to tap into her magic, Kel’lor didn’t know and would only find out when he had a chance to test them on someone injured.

“Well, Kerliss,” the dragoness said to the crag dog as she scratched him gently under his chin, “it is about time for us to fly again.”

“Kerliss?” Kel’lor asked wondering whether the term was for him or the dog.

“Che’ther for spike,” the girl giggled charmingly. “The common tongue makes the word too blunt and I think Kerliss is too nice to be so blunt.”

The crag dog wagged its short, spiked tail as the girl petted him. Once she stood, he stood and wagged more pronounced. They were a lot like the humans’ dogs after all, Kel’lor thought to himself seeing its reaction.

“If he insists on chasing after you, perhaps we should walk for a bit or I can do my best to follow the trails for him to follow.”

Cheleya looked at him as if the gargoyle had lost his mind. “He isn’t my pet, Kel’lor. If he chooses to follow, then he will have to decide if he wants to work hard enough to stay with us. Now if you need to rest your wings for awhile, then we can certainly walk,” the girl said laying out her options.

“I would think that you would enjoy a break from having to hold on to me. You seemed uncomfortable when we landed.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Cheleya answered, “This body is young and strong enough to handle such exercise, since there is little to do while holding onto you.”

The girl moved to a rock tall enough to help her remount the gargoyle’s back. Taking her place, Cheleya looked to the side seeing the crag dog’s anxious face. “Well, be good, Kerliss. If you want to stay with us, then you will have to run some more.”

Wondering if the animal could possibly understand her in the least, Kel’lor prepared to launch into the air again. Kerliss, as the girl had named the creature that wasn’t supposed to be her pet, moved to the side watching the two ready themselves once more for flight. Several steps and the sweep of the gargoyle’s wings had them in the air following the pass towards the south again. Not to be outdone, Kel’lor watched as the crag dog hurried to follow his shadow through the pass.

Night came to Mar’kal. Malaketh had faced a difficult day. The break in had been made known to the academy officials and other masters. Che’ther and mar’goyn’lya masters of the magical arts tried to break his story of the girl’s involvement with the break in, but he had little to show them to prove or disprove his words.

Artifacts were missing and Fa’Kelman’zer was unable to remember that it was he who had led them into the chamber. So they only had his word to go on and most seemed content to believe the human. There were other humans in the city and a few in the academy after all. The che’ther, and mar’goyn’lya to a lesser degree, tried to encourage tolerance for the other races; but tolerance didn’t mean they trusted them the same as their own. Of course, Malaketh thought to himself more than once during the day, trusting in him was the wrong course of action had they known the truth.

By the time night had come, the battle between the crag dogs and werewolves had been discovered. Blood and signs of the fighting remained, but the carcasses had been removed. Scraps of red cloth were found on the scene. Even Malaketh had not known that it belonged to Cheleya until after one of the wizards with tracking magic was able to decipher the clue.

Such a clue played into his hands and helped enforce his lie. Some glass and a piece of gold scrap from the pieces he had placed in her pack had been found further on before they had lost the trail entirely. It was nearly impossible to follow a creature in flight after all, but nearly impossible didn’t mean that they couldn’t figure out how to follow them.

When the hunters of Mar’kal gave up for the night, Malaketh and Toban continued to implement their own plan for chasing down the two exiles.

A portal was formed at the last point of evidence on the ground. Through a door slightly larger than most human homes would have, several winged creatures stooped to pass through the gate. Dark oily wings like crows had claws where the wings closed against their winged arms. Large taloned feet led to more black feathers on their legs. Like distorted ravens, the shrikes were birds of prey designed to kill for the emperor.

Malaketh watched the seven shrikes move into a ring around them stretching wings and preparing to take flight. They looked formidable indeed, but he had one worry, “Kel’lor can use magic. Perhaps you will need more to kill them.”