Dragon Talker (33 page)

Stone, who was listening to the conversation, asked, “Are you sure the dragon will come?”

“No, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, and if Samora doesn’t, I’m sure we can come up with a way to handle our following stranger.” Yuri held the medallion and concentrated on Samora.

The link, when it happened, was brief and shocking. One second Yuri was sitting on the wagon, and the next he found himself underwater, unable to breathe and standing on the bottom of a lake. Even as he started to panic, his legs jumped up and began to kick. Without thinking, he had begun swimming towards the surface, which looked to be a few hundred feet above him. His lungs burned from lack of oxygen, but the water was getting lighter as he continued to swim upward. He kicked harder.

Just as he thought he was going to make it, his lungs rebelled, and he inhaled lake water through his nose. His arms flailed out as his body tried to breathe, expel the water, and throw up at the same time. Yuri was almost overcome with terror. Instead, he closed his mouth and started to kick again. His entire body felt like it was disconnecting from his brain, but he willed his legs to keep kicking and his arms to claw towards the surface.

On the wagon, Samantha had stopped the horses when she saw Yuri’s face start to turn blue. “Yuri, are you okay?”

When he didn’t answer, she screamed, “Yuri!” but still no response. She grabbed at the medallion clenched in his hand, trying to force his fingers open. It was like trying to pull a rock apart with her bare hands.

Bernard and Stone moved up from their position in the back of the wagon to help out, but they ended up getting in the way. “Back, boys,” she shouted. “Get me something to pry his fingers open.”

The boys started going through everything in the back of the wagon, looking for something they could use. Samantha stopped pulling and thought of the spells she knew that might help. Yuri was connected to a dragon. That had to be powerful magic. Could she break the connection?

“Will this work?” Stone yelled, holding up a hairbrush.

“Too thick. It needs to be thinner,” she replied.

“Come on, Yuri,” Samantha cried as she pried at his fingers.

***

At the bottom of the lake, Samora felt Yuri’s distress. She could stay underwater for days if she wanted to, but Yuri was panicking after only a minute of being connected to her through the medallion. His terror was a minor buzz in her consciousness. She raised herself off the lake floor and began swimming slowly to the surface.

***

Samantha didn’t know if it would work, or what the dangers were, but Yuri was turning blue. She thought he would die if she did nothing, and she had no intention of watching him do so. There were many breaking spells, designed to sever different magical connections. She chose the most basic one to start. Placing her hands over Yuri’s, she said, “Adflicto affliglion.”

Samantha had never been kicked by a horse before, but she imagined that this is what it would feel like as a loud crack sounded and a force pounded her in the chest, sending her flying off the wagon. Both boys’ eyes went wide as she flew off the wagon. They froze, stunned.

Stone recovered first, saying, “Go to her, I’ll stay with Yuri.”

Bernard paused for a moment, then jumped off the wagon, running to Samantha, who was sprawled on the side of the road. Bernard climbed over the wagon wall and joined Yuri on the seat. He pulled at his fingers, trying to get to the shimmering blue scale in the medallion.

***

Yuri felt like he was only feet away from the surface, but his body wouldn’t move anymore. The burning had stopped in his lungs. Now, he only felt heavy, as if his body had turned to stone. He slowly started sinking to the bottom of the lake. He wanted to be angry, but he didn’t have the energy for anything but resignation. As he floated down, he thought of Hental’s dragon rites in the spring and his little sister, who hadn’t even really started in life, and he wished he would be able to watch them grow.

Something bumped him from below. He turned his head, but couldn’t see anything in the dark water. He felt water flow against him, though, as he slowly started to rise to the surface. Yuri realized he wasn’t going to die, but instead of being excited about it, he wondered how he could start breathing again.

The water became lighter as he got closer to the surface, and he saw the outline of dark giant wings below him. He knew it was Samora. He felt an extra shove as Samora pushed him off her head and brought a wing around to carry him the rest of the way to the surface. Her head breached the water’s surface first, followed by Yuri, held up by her right wing.

Yuri rolled over on the wing and threw up lake water, three times. Samora lowered her wing back under the water. Still bent over, Yuri waved his hand in the water, sheepishly clearing away the tainted water.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

Water dripped off Samora’s head as she stared at Yuri.

Yuri stood up on her wing. “I just wanted to contact you. There is a man following us, and I thought we might be in danger.” Yuri waited for any kind of response from Samora. She continued to stare for what seemed an eternity before she shook her head back and forth.

“No, we aren’t in danger, or no, don’t contact you?”

An image of the dragon field in Mandan popped into Yuri’s mind. “Go home. Yes, I get it and I am, but it’s a dangerous world out there.”

Samora’s eyes narrowed as her left wing came slowly out of the water. She brought the last knuckle of her wing up to Yuri’s chest. It was covered in a hard scale, like the ones on Yuri’s chest. She clacked one wing knuckle into Yuri’s chest, knocking him back down.

Yuri remembered the howl Samora let out as she pried the scales from her body. “Yes, this protects me and I appreciate it, but I don’t understand. Is there magic? Is it…” Yuri stopped as he felt himself sinking in the water.

Samora’s head moved forward as she slowly dived back under the water. Yuri could feel as much as see her massive body swim under him.

“Dammit, this is not helping!” he shouted. The image of the field in Mandan appeared in his mind, again. “Yeah, I got it,” he angrily replied.

He floated in the cold water, which quickly reinvigorated him from his ordeal. He began to sink down as if pulled in Samora’s wake, and he wondered how he would return to the wagon. Then he realized he wasn’t even here. He was on the wagon, holding the amulet.

***

Stone yelled to Bernard, “His face is turning normal again. I think he’s gonna be okay. How’s Samantha?”

Bernard had propped Samantha up against a tree and was giving her some water he had retrieved from the wagon. He opened and closed his hand, palm out in a gesture that meant everything was all right.

“Well,” Samantha said quietly as she took the water from Bernard, “that is not something I would want to do every day.”

Bernard asked, “Can you move everything?”

Samantha twisted from side to side. “I think so, but I’m going to be sore for a while. How are you doing?”

Bernard shrugged.

“Thank you for looking out for me.” She took another sip of water, even though she wasn’t thirsty. Bernard smiled.

She looked up to Stone and Yuri on the wagon, asking, “How’s Yuri?”

“He’s not blue anymore.”

“That’s good.” Before she could say anymore, she saw Yuri’s body move.

Yuri looked around, seeing Stone next to him and Samantha and Bernard on the ground. Focusing on Samantha, he asked, “What are you doing down there?”

“Plotting my revenge.”

Bernard smiled and Stone added, “She was trying to break the connection when she went flyin’.”

“Sorry. New at this, remember?”

Samantha stood up, then bent down and touched her toes, stretching her back. “Yes, and I remember we’re being followed, so let’s get this wagon back on the road and you can explain what the dragon’s tail just happened.”

Chapter 48

Tail Biter tore off into the woods, looking more like a wolf than Melanie thought possible. There was a hunter in Tail Biter she hadn’t seen before. Within moments, he was out of sight, chasing the archer. Xeron started following him, the magical connection guiding him along Tail Biter’s path. Melanie stood still for a moment, looking around at the dead bodies lying on the ground. If she was going to be on a side, she thought, it was definitely better to be on the strongest.

It didn’t take long for Tail Biter to catch up to the archer. The archer was running so hard he didn’t hear Tail Biter coming up behind him until it was too late. He tried to raise his bow to shoot him, but Tail Biter was in the air before he could fully turn around to face him. The dog’s front paws hit him in the chest and shoulder as he bit at the man’s neck. The archer had dropped the arrow in his left hand and got his hand up in time to protect his neck. Tail Biter bit into his hand as the archer fell back to the ground.

The archer wasn’t defenseless, though. Dropping his bow, he reached for his silver-coated knife he kept in his boot. The pain in his hand was lessened by magic, but that didn’t make the sounds of Tail Biter crushing his forearm sound any better as the dog worked his way up his arm. Once he retrieved the knife, he stabbed Tail Biter in the side. Magic slowed the attack, making it feel like he was moving through sound, but eventually the knife pierced Tail Biter’s side.

Because of their connection, Melanie felt the blade hit and Xeron heard the dog’s wounded yelp. They both started running faster through the woods. When they found the two, they were circling each other, magic healing both their wounds as they looked for an opening.

“Stop!” yelled Xeron. He sent a bludgeoning spell against the archer, slamming him against a tree.

The archer hit the ground, landing on all fours. He looked up and looked for a way out. Tail Biter and Xeron were forming the other two corners of a triangle, with the trapped archer the third corner, with a tree behind him. “Don’t move,” Xeron commanded him.

“Or what,” the scared archer replied, “you’re going to kill me? You’re going to kill me anyway.”

Xeron shrugged, but before he could do anything else, Melanie interrupted. “Do you have to kill him” she asked.

“Your mother,” Xeron said pointedly.

“I know, and if it’s the only way, I choose my mother, but is there another way?”

The archer started to get up, but Xeron pointed at him, commanding, “Don’t. If you run, I’ll make it painful.”

The archer dropped back down. For the first time, Xeron noticed how young the archer looked. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen,” he answered.

“And what the dragon are you doing running around with mage killers at sixteen?”

“I’m really good with the bow, and they were my friends.” The archer held his wounded hand across his chest.

“You need to choose your friends more wisely.” To Melanie, he said, “He is young, which makes it easier to block his memories. I could wipe his mind from his rites to now.”

The wound was halfway healed, and Xeron could tell the archer was thinking of making a run for it. He didn’t blame him, but he wasn’t about to go chasing him again. As he concentrated, a few of the roots of the tree the archer was leaning against came up, first wrapping around his legs and then he chest, pinning his arms when he started pulling at the roots. “Stay still. Grown-ups are talking now.”

The archer spit at Xeron. The roots squeezed him tighter, causing him to yell, “Hey!”

“Boy, some might admire your pluck, but you spit at me again and you join that tree for the rest of its life. Understand?”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“That’s better. Now be quiet. I’m trying to come up with a way where I don’t have to kill you.” Tail Biter growled at the archer. Xeron added, “I know what he wants me to do.”

Now that the archer was subdued, Xeron went to Tail Biter and knelt down to examine his wound. It was not healing as well as it should. Blood still leaked from the wound. Xeron put his hand over the wound and closed his eyes, feeling for silver. He found it. A small bit of the blade must have broken off in the wound. It would never fully heal as long as the silver was there. He pulled the piece out of the wound as he had pulled the silver out of the ground, only this time he tried to keep the silver from rotating as he removed it.

Tail Biter whimpered as the silver came out, never breaking his gaze with the archer until it was out. He looked at Xeron for a moment and then stepped a little closer to Melanie. “He should heal fine now. Where the tail was I?”

“Wiping his mind from the rites,” Melanie helped.

“Oh yeah. He’s young enough that I can block the last couple years.”

Melanie wondered why so long, asking “Why not the last couple hours?”

“Because that kind of spell would never hold up against a mage like Perante. It’s too easy to break. But, a couple year block, that will take a few weeks to break at best. Any faster, and the mind would be wiped clean. That should give you plenty of time to get your mother out of Perantium.”

“Works for me.” Melanie looked at the archer, “Will his memory come back?”

“Most of it, and let’s hope he…” Xeron turned and looked directly at the archer, “let’s hope you remember that I did this instead of killing you. Do you understand? Mind wipe or death.”

The archer nodded, thinking about all the things, people, he would forget. There was one girl he found hard to believe he would forget, but it would be better than death. “Go ahead, and thank you. Maybe I’ll get to meet her again and do it all over again.” He smiled at the thought.

Melanie looked at Xeron, but Xeron just shrugged, saying, “Time to forget.” He reached for his pouch containing the necessary plant extracts he kept with him but realized that didn’t make it to the chateau with him. “Tails.”

He started looking around. He told Melanie, “It isn’t going to be easy to find the plant I need in the fall. Everything I had is still in Perante’s castle.”