Dragon Master (13 page)

Bayrd drew a sack up off the ground and held up his hand. He called for silence and it came in an instant. Boe took a step back, aware, as I was, that the dragon’s blood would still have its toxic paralyzing properties for days, and the stuff would be oozing all over the blackened heart. But I could also see that he was dying to see it. Boe didn’t have to fake his enthusiasm. Warley was suddenly practically drooling all over Bayrd in admiration, but Boe tugged on him and got him to take a step back as well. Warley was acting worse than Gable.

The anticipation in the tavern felt like it had a spirit of its own, building in strength and preparing to unleash a great and powerful spell upon the crowd. And perhaps that was exactly what was happening. Bayrd checked that his sleeve was securely tucked into his glove, and then reached into the bag. His movements were slow and deliberate. He began to lift his hand out again, with great reverence. He was looking right into my eyes.

And then he dropped the bag and threw the heart right at my chest.

I cried out in surprise and fell backward onto the floor, shielding my eyes with crossed arms. As I skidded on my rear, I heard the deafening roar of everyone in the tavern laughing. I saw them pointing down at me, tears coming down their cheeks. I looked up to see Bayrd and Gable huddled together in great racking laughs, throwing their heads back in delight. Warley was staring down at me in horror, and Boe was right there above me. He held out his hand to help me up.

“Really funny guys,” Boe said, loudly, but I was probably the only one who could hear him. As I stood, I looked down and saw the heart on the ground, not black, but brown. It was smallish, and not at all what I’d expected. “It’s a human heart,” Boe explained. He reached down and picked it up, holding it out to Bayrd until he calmed down enough to notice.

“I’m sorry,” Bayrd said, and started laughing again.

Gable raised a tankard of something and took a huge drink from it, then handed it to Bayrd who did the same. Bayrd was still laughing when he offered it to me, and when I refused it, to Boe. He didn’t accept the offered drink either, so Bayrd offered it to Warley who was trying to get into the spirit of things. He, like us, didn’t really understand what that spirit was. Warley accepted the tankard and took a sip, then a larger drink of the stuff before handing it back to Gable.

“Hey, Caedan,” Bayrd tried again, “look, I really am sorry. I had to do it. Have a drink, let me explain.” He wiped at the guts and blood that were clinging to my chest plate.

Reluctantly, I took a seat at the bar, and Boe pulled up a chair from an empty table in the back of the tavern and joined us. Bayrd and Gable burst into another round of laughter, which set the whole tavern into laughing, hollering delight. Some of them picked up pieces of meat off their plates and hurled them at each other, and then the other would fall over dramatically, mimicking me. I was fuming mad, despite Bayrd’s attempt at apology.

This had better be one really good story.

Once they got started, Bayrd and Gable were falling over each other to tell the next part, or to point out a detail they felt the other hadn’t properly built up enough. Neither Boe nor I said a word as they began to relate it, though Warley interjected with many questions, which they gleefully answered. I wasn’t sure if everyone around us even spoke Lævenish fluently, and I knew that some or most of them had already heard the story at least once, but they were cheering and jeering and getting quiet at all the right parts, all the time drinking ales and buying drinks for the rest of us, except Boe who continued to refuse them. By the end, even Boe and I were laughing along, and I’d mostly forgotten about the terrible trick he’d played on me. Though that may have had more to do with the strong drinks.

***

Bayrd was prepared for the dragon to return to finish what he’d started in the small, remote village. He stood in the open, sword in hand, ready to challenge the dragon to battle, but when the dragon approached, he could sense his coming doom and so turned and fled. Bayrd and Gable took off through the swamplands in pursuit, slicing through the greenery, cutting down any trees that stood between them and their prey. (I was pretty sure we would have seen trees that had been lopped in half by a sword strike, but I didn’t voice my protest over this detail.) Through the canopy, they could see the flap of a dragon’s wing here and there, and then they came to a small valley that was entirely on fire. The dragon was trying to hinder their pursuit, but they refused to be slowed. They charged into the flames, letting out war cries so that the dragon knew that they were still close behind. As if in a sign from the Stonespirits (since when was Bayrd remotely religious? But everyone in the tavern nodded knowingly at this part of the story), the skies opened overhead and rain poured from the heavens, allowing them to run through the flames unharmed. They lost sight of the dragon, and came to a split between two paths, north or south. Gable suggested that they split, but Bayrd wisely said they should stay together, for if but one of them was a Dragon Master, better that they double their odds. As if in response, they heard the dragon’s roar to the north and so they began to sprint after the dragon again.

After a time, they found three men pouring some kind of alcohol onto an incredibly long fallen tree trunk. At first they thought that they were trying to set a trap for the dragon, but then they noticed that the dragon’s wings were lying on the ground, folded in half, and the rest of the dragon was nowhere to be found. Bayrd was prepared to ask them what had happened and who had cut off the wings, but when he was spotted the men panicked, setting fire to the giant tree trunk and running. Though wet, the huge log burst into flame instantly, glowing unnaturally blue at first and then consuming the whole of the tree in fire. Gable came to the truth first—there was no dragon! There were just these thieving arsonists, using the fold-up dragon wings to scare away people from small villages and towns and then ransacking them, and using this alcohol to burn everything to the ground as they ran off. They would grab anyone who saw them, and tie them up and leave them in buildings to be burned to the ground.

There was no dragon, but these murderers had to be stopped! Bayrd and Gable found long sticks and used them to vault over the fallen tree (I could guess that between the rain and the wetness of the log it probably wasn’t burning too impressively after the initial flare up). The villainous dragon impersonators were running, but they were weighed down by sacks and pouches that hung from their bodies. Bayrd caught up with the slowest and ran him through with his blade, then the remaining two dropped their ill-gotten treasures and drew their own swords to defend themselves. (Bayrd and Gable each went into great detail here about how they each began to fight a man, and how each of their battles went—obviously they both eventually won.) Bayrd used his sword to cut out the heart of the leader (I didn’t remember hearing how they figured out which one was the leader) and put it in his trophy bag. Then Bayrd and Gable gathered the bodies and the fake dragon wings and all the stolen treasures and used the impersonator’s own alchemic mixtures to cause them to all burn in the false Dragonsfire.

With that, the dragon quest was over.

We stayed up late into the night, nursing drinks and bonding over the experiences of the dragon quest that wasn’t. The drinks served to help dull the aches and pains and burns we were all feeling, as well as to calm our minds as we wound down from all the tensions and stress of everything. Boe still refused to drink, and I joined in with the others in trying to persuade him to change his mind, to try one strange brew or another. I knew he wouldn’t give in, he never did, not even when they served spiced ginger wine at special feasts. “I don’t want to have anything less than full control over what I do and say,” he’d explained to me one of those times when I was being especially persistent. But he still joined in the conversation and the reminiscing and the teasing me about the trick they’d pulled on me with the heart. I felt like we were really starting to grow into a solid team and knew that this experience was far more valuable than any training we would have been getting back at the academy.

“I’ve never told anyone this,” Gable said, taking a large swig of his current drink, “but I have a big crush on Kamelia.” Warley let loose with a whooping laugh, and Bayrd chuckled uneasily. I was pretty surprised to find out that Gable felt that way, considering I’d never seen him talk to Kamelia. Of course, aside from the short conversation during my Watch duty, I’d never talked with her either.

Warley said, “You and the whole Stone Soul class, you mean.” Gable looked genuinely surprised by this. Warley added, “She’s always hanging around and watching us, you know?”

“Yeah, well, she told me it was because she thought the curls in my hair were cute,” Boe put in, timidly. We all laughed at this.

“She said you didn’t even say a word to her the whole time you were on Watch with her!” I couldn’t much control the words that were coming out of my mouth, and I definitely wasn’t thinking about what I was saying, “She said she was bored out of her mind and couldn’t wait for me to get in the room so she’d have some intelligent life to talk to.” Bayrd slapped the table in amusement at this line and ordered another drink.

“She thinks it’s cute that a little boy like you is allowed to play at swords with the grownups,” Gable told Boe defensively, “but she’s really waiting for me to become a Dragon Master so she can leave her chump husband and come be my number one wife.”

“Hey,” Bayrd cut in, abruptly, “that’s our commander you’re talking about!” We all got serious for a moment, but then he burst out laughing and all of us except Boe joined in.

“You better watch who you dream about at night,” Boe said this to me, then turned to the others, “Caedan is in love with my twin sister!” There was a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs” at this, and one “ooh la la”. I blushed deeply.

Gable started to say something and then sputtered in laughter before controlling himself. He pointed at me and said, “So basically what he’s saying is that you’ve always wanted to marry Boe, and it’s lucky for you that there’s a female clone of him out there!”

I raised my hands defensively, careful not to spill my drink. “I’m saying that when the spirits were handing out their gifts and blessings, they worked double time on Daija to make up for the short, weakling failure of Boe!” Take that, Gable. I saw Bayrd wincing in mock pain and then realized how that must have sounded to Boe. But he understood, right? And anyway, he was the one who brought Daija into this.

“Yeah, sure, just wait until I have to save all of you when we finally face down a real dragon.” Boe’s bravado didn’t sound too convincing.

There was a brief lull in the music, and we all took a moment to take more sips from our tankards. I was trying to think of the right comeback, but nothing was coming to mind.

“Well, I never told anyone this,” Bayrd said as the music started back up again in full, “but I hate horses.”

“You hate horses because Master Walker hates horses,” Boe said, “That’s not a secret. You want to grow up to be just like Master Walker. You probably wish you were Kamelia so that you were married to him!” Even Bayrd joined in when we started laughing in response to that.

“I have a secret,” Warley said, “a good one.” We all got on him to tell us more, but he just smiled and kept his lips shut tight. Gable went to the bartender and came back with a small mug full of something steaming, and gave it to Warley.

“Tell us,” he goaded, “or else drink this.”

“What is it?” Warley asked, mistrusting. The stuff smelled like dragon urine and I plugged my nose and scooted my chair back away from our table in mock disgust.

“It’s the sailor’s ultimate remedy,” Gable said, “they call it Frank’s Stew.”

“Is that because it’s made from drippings of Frank’s especially pungent sweat?” Boe asked. He was holding his nose, too.

“You’ll never pry my secret from me,” Warley told Gable, and then downed the contents of the mug in one gulp. His eyes bulged in his head for a moment and his skin turned flame red. He began to cough and Bayrd grabbed another patron’s glass of murky water off the bar, thrusting it in front of Warley’s contorted face. Gable stared in frozen shock as Warley drank it down greedily and then began to breathe in hurried gasps. We all watched him, concerned. He started taking longer, heavier breaths and gestured for more water, which Bayrd quickly brought him. After he drank that down and was leaning on the table breathing deeply, he finally looked up and smiled. “Yeah, that hit the spot.”

These guys were crazy.

It seemed that the tavern never closed because we were still gathered around our table talking and taking shots at each other like this when the first hint of blue began to appear in the sky. I was very tired, and very woozy, but the sight of this incredible deep blue stretching forever over the ocean felt so soothing to me, I just wanted to dive in to the water and swim around in the blueness. I stood up uneasily and began to run toward the ocean, but I stumbled and Boe caught me before I could fall forward.

“So pretty,” I said.

“Yeah, I miss Kamelia.” Gable said.

“The ocean, stupid,” I said.

“Yeah,” Gable replied, in a daze.

“Pay the man,” I told Bayrd, flinging my arm toward the bartender, and then I pointed out to the ocean. “Let’s go there.”

Sunrises over the ocean were something from my childhood memories, though those had all been on the southeast coast. The light here felt different somehow, more magical and more relaxing. Boe helped me to the wet sand beach and sat me down so that I could see the ocean in front of me, then he sat down beside me.

“You can be a real jerk,” he said to me, yawning.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I meant it.

“You should be,” Boe replied, smiling warmly.

“Yeah,” I said, laughing.

The rest of our party came over with new drinks and variously collapsed and plopped down around us, and we all watched as the clouds changed colors and the sun rose over the ocean, its light stretching out over miles of water to reflect up at us. It was actually really, really bright. I was not feeling well from the very short journey from the tavern to the beach. I got up on my hands and knees, but the burns there flared in pain as I did so. I managed to rise to my feet and, waving off Boe’s offer of help, walked forward until I was standing waist deep in the ocean. The salt water was incredibly cold and made my wounds sting in pain, but I didn’t care. I was with the blueness now. I relieved myself of much of what I’d been drinking in the previous hours and I let out a loud “ahh” of satisfaction. I could hear everyone laughing loudly behind me, and then everyone else waded into the water, giving me a wide birth. For the next hour, we splashed around in the tides, our under armor sparkling from dripping water and the early morning light.