Dragon Dodgers (Wounds in the Sky Prequels Book 1) (7 page)

Then, as if
on cue, several Runners jumped into the circle, surrounding Serak
and aiming their knives out at the rest of the Company. Targon
counted them – Yarek, Marek, Shayllah, Thaeus, Daviel and Liora.
Adding Thamet and Serak, that was almost half of the
Dodgers.

Targon’s
mouth dropped and he froze. Were they all that angry with him? The
rest of his men, however, didn’t seem to enjoy being threatened
like that. They drew their own knives, challengingly. Nyssa
immediately disarmed Thaeus, releasing Nasur. Serak didn’t like
it.

“
Stop it, Nyssa!” He
barked, showing her his hostage.

“
Nyssa, let the kid go.” Targon
said.

She obeyed,
pushing Thaeus with enough thrust to make him fall over the
ground.

“
What the surface do you think you’re doing?!” Targon yelled
at the mutineers. “Are we going to fight each other,
now?”

“
Maybe we should just cut
them loose.” Nyssa said.

“
We’re not cutting anyone loose. I’m not splitting this
Company.” Targon said. “Serak, let Carn go and let’s talk about
this.”

Serak’s eyes
locked
on Targon’s, streams of red filling them.

“
No more talking, Captain.
We’ve had enough. We’re not going to be used like Dragon bait, just
so you can get rich.”

Targon exhaled loudly and searched his
pocket.

“
I thought we had discussed this already!” He said in
disbelief. “I told you about the secret message. I showed it to
you.” He waved the letter. “You know that Kanuur has found
something. We have to find out what it is.”

“
What are you talking about?” Anweh said.

Targon
swallowed in a dry throat. He looked around, at the Runners that
had remained loyal to him, and saw a series of questioning
looks.

“
I’m sorry. I couldn’t
tell you.” He said. “The people who had this before me died because
of it. I had to keep it a secret.”

“
Not from Serak.” Anweh
said, lowering her knife.

Nyssa did
the same while shaking her head in disappointment. The others
followed, leaving Targon desperately alone.

“
Maybe we should do as the Counsellor says.” Nyssa
suggested. Her stare sent a chill
down Targon’s spine. “Take you back to the king and collect those
ten thousand. What do you say, Serak?”

A smile twisted Serak’s
expression.

“
This is too good to be true. Your own people giving you up,
Captain.”

“
You’re all my people!”
Targon said. He circled himself, stumbling slightly,
looking for some support. He glanced at Anweh and the look she gave
him felt like a knife going through his gut.

“
Wait a moment.” Balcazar
said. “Let me see that.” He swept Thamet aside carelessly, took the
letter from Targon’s hand and aimed it at the fireplace.

The secret message became clearly
visible and several gasps came from the crowd of
Runners.

“
I wrote this.” Balcazar smiled. “Took me a week…” He shook
his head as if he had just found an old friend. “No wonder Stane
never replied. He never got this letter, did he?”

Targon shook his head.

“
I don’t think so. I
found it on the corpse of a Runner, on the surface, near
Niveh.”

“
And you thought this
meant a poison?” Balcazar was greatly amused.

Targon shrugged.

“
It was possible… the
letter suggested Kanuur was an Alchemist, which you have
confirmed.”

“
Ah! That does make sense,
but no, it’s not a poison.”

“
So you
have
found a way to kill them.” Targon
said.

“
No.” Balcazar replied. “Master Kanuur did. I just
helped.”

“
Well, blurt it out, man. What is it?” Anweh
said.

The alchemy apprentice drew his own
knife, showing them its blade. It was translucent and had a ghostly
blueish hue.

“
It’s a crystal.” He said smiling. “Glowstone is its name.
Goes through Dragon scales faster than wine through my Master’s
throat.” He laughed at his own joke.

Serak took his knife from Carn’s
throat.

“
Well, shit.” He pushed the whimpering Counsellor aside.
“You could have said that sooner.”

* * *

“
So…” Thamet mumbled. “You
used that… blade to kill a Dragon?”

“
Well,” Balcazar said. “I
certainly didn’t use it to befriend one.”

“
Alone?” Nyssa
asked.

“
Oh, goddess, no. There
were ten of us. Mostly Harvest Watchers and soldiers from the king
of Sandahar’s retinue. Even a couple of retired Runners. Long story
short – it still seemed like we were the outnumbered
ones.”

“
So why aren’t you filthy
rich?” Yarek asked.

“
Yeah.” His brother
agreed. “You could have collected the reward.”

“
That’s actually a very
good question.” Targon said. “In Samehria, nobody had heard of
Taggesh’s proclamation, but here in Akham… Surely the news
travelled to your city.”

“
Oh yes…” Balcazar sighed.
“That’s all everyone talks about in Sandahar. Has been for almost a
year.” He shook his head. “But I killed my Dragon two years ago, so
you can imagine how I felt like an idiot when I heard of the
reward…”

“
Why didn’t you go after
another Dragon?” Thaeus asked. “You still had your magic
dagger.”

“
I’m not sure the dagger
is magic.” Balcazar smiled. “But that is easier said than done. Me
and Master Kanuur spent a fortune hiring the first team, and the
expedition wasn’t exactly lucrative, even if we did learn a lot.
We’ve been surviving on love potions and youth elixir’s ever since.
None of those work, in case you’re wondering. The problem was, we
couldn’t just tell everyone about our discovery.” He held the
letter with the secret message up. “As your Captain has
learned.”

“
Why?” Anweh asked. “The Captain says that, whoever had it
before him, died for it. Why?”

Thamet stole the letter from Balcazar
and studied it.

“
That actually makes
sense.” He said. “These crystals, if they work…”

“
Can make you the most
powerful man in all of Arkhemia.” Targon said. “Why do you think
Taggesh is offering so much money for a Dragon?”

Anweh shrugged.

“
I just thought he wanted an expensive trophy.” She said.
“Who knows how a king thinks?”

“
Kings are just like every
other man,” Balcazar told her. “They want more of what they already
have. Which in their case, is power.”

“
If he can defeat
Dragons, he can conquer the Surface.” Targon said. “And if
he has the Surface, he has everything else. Endless farms, safe
trade routes. He could expand beyond Saggad, rule over every
underground city in Arkhemia.”

“
Shit…” Nasur chuckled.
“He could build a city above the ground.”

There was a silence, as everyone took
in that last realization, but Targon interrupted everyone’s
thoughts with a loud clap of his hands.

“
Right, so is it settled,
then?” He asked. “Shall we continue to Sandahar?”

“
Actually, there is no
need for that.” Balcazar said. “I was the one who found the
crystals. I can take you there. All I ask is that you include me
when you share that reward.”

“
That’s only fair.” Targon
said. Then, he spoke to the Dodgers. “So, everyone
agrees?”

“
I say we take a vote.”
Thamet said.

“
Oh, come on, Tham.” Targon said. “Do you expect the man to
work for free?”

Thamet nodded solemnly.

“
No, Captain. I say we
vote on whether we keep going or not.”

Targon deflated like an empty
winebag.

“
Alright.” He swallowed in
a dry throat. “Let’s vote then. Who says we keep going and get
rich?”

“
Wait a moment.” Serak interrupted. “I don’t think the
Captain should be allowed to vote on this one.”

“
Why the surface not?”
Targon replied.

“
Because you are the one
that got us in this mess without asking our opinion.” Serak
spat.

“
Then you shouldn’t vote
either.” Anweh told Serak. “Cause we all know you would choose
anything just to piss him off.” She turned to Thamet. “Doc, either
we all vote or no one does.”

There was a chorus of
‘yeah’s’.

“
She’s right, Tham.” Nasur
said.

“
I agree.” Thamet said.
“Everyone votes.”

“
Alright, who says we tell the Captain to shove it, and go
back home?” Serak yelled, sticking his arm up.

Targon held
his breath as arms went up. He counted one, two, three, then a
couple more, then no one else. Targon almost sighed of
relief.

“
Is that it?” He asked. “No one else?” He waited for a
little while, holding his breath. “So, to be clear, does everyone
else agree that we keep going?”

The Runners exchanged looks and said
yes in an uncoordinated unison.

“
Yeah!” Nyssa yelled with
fierce conviction. “Let’s hunt a Dragon.”

The next morning, b
efore leaving, Balcazar gave Enrig a canteen filled with
Mist Flower tea to numb the pain in his arm. He felt like vomiting
with every single gulp and as soon as he was finished, Balcazar
gave him a small flask of Erandine seed oil – a gooey, brownish
liquid that stuck in his throat for hours.

“
That much Mist Flower tea would put a Dragon to sleep.” The
Alchemy apprentice chuckled. “Well… actually, not really, but… you
get what I mean. Anyway, the Erandine oil should keep you awake and
running throughout the day.”

During the second day after leaving the cave, the tall oak
trees that filled the landscape became scarcer and scarcer, and the
forest quickly transformed into a brownish shrubland where nothing
grew above their waist. The lack of cover made Targon
uneasy
. The skies had been
clear during the first hours of dawn, but soon, a Dragon was bound
to show up. He decided to order the Company to speed up.

The sun
arched across
the sky, becoming hotter with every step they Ran. Soon, they were
boiling inside their clothes, and by noon, Targon knew his men were
quickly becoming dehydrated. He cursed as he checked his map for
the third time. He had bought it in a city called Belleragar, back
in Samehria, from a merchant he trusted, and it had been quite
accurate so far, but the damned thing indicated a ridge of some
sort, somewhere in their vicinity, although all he could see was
pebbles and dying bushes. He showed the map to Balcazar, who
examined it with a squint of his eyes.

“
Whoever did this
did
a good job on this western section.” He said. “But here,” He
pointed at where they were and where they were going. “He got
sloppy with his measurements. Distances are all messed
up.”

“
So this ridge, does it exist or not?” Targon asked,
glancing at the second column, making sure it wasn’t his time to
move.

“
It does, but it’s much
farther than it seems.”

Targon cursed.

“
Then the Shamissai
Mountains…”

“
Oh, they’re way up to the north, Captain.”

“
How long? Four
days?”

Balcazar thought about it for a
moment.

“
Seven. Probably eight.”

“
Shit!”

* * *

They ran out of supplies by the third day, which meant the
Company had to hunt for food at night, sacrificing precious hours
of rest and sleep. On the fifth day, the landscape started to
become reddish and the soil became dry. There were a few cacti
scattered around, but no other signs of life.
Except, of course, Dragons.

Forced to hide under
their cloaks until the shrieking beasts glided away, their
advance became even slower. Fortunately, Anweh managed to hit a
coyote with an arrow, without even stopping to take aim. It was the
end of the afternoon and Targon only allowed them to stop by
sundown, so Thamet volunteered to carry the dead coyote, happy they
would at least have something to eat that night.

They risked lighting a fire so they could cook the animal,
but ended up eating it half raw anyway.
At least, they could already see the Shamissai peaks
rising on the horizon. It wasn’t the first time the Dodgers saw
them. The Shamissai were the eastern border of their home region –
Samehria. But from this side, the Mountains looked different, as if
they had been painted in a different shade of dark.

“
Hey, Captain.” Enrig
called.