Dragon Talker (34 page)

“Do you have to have the plant?”

“No,” he said, “but it does speed up the process. This may take a while.”

Melanie sat down. Tail Biter sat down next to her. “We aren’t going anywhere. You go ahead and I’ll start figuring out how I’m going to get to my mother without being caught.”

“Fine.” Xeron began probing the archer’s mind in the same way he searched the ground for silver. He couldn’t do this before he tapped into the deeper magic. Now, it was almost easy. Xeron realized he no longer knew his limits.

The archer didn’t even know Xeron was in his mind until the mage was almost finished. He tried to close his mind, but Xeron waved away the attempt like waving away a gnat. Xeron was moving backward in time, blocking the memories of the archer’s life. He saw his life in reverse: Perante giving them their orders, the archer joining the mages, hunting in the woods alone, wandering through town looking for help, being shunned by the townsfolk, losing his parents to a sickness that also made the townsfolk afraid of him.

Xeron stopped. He didn’t like the idea of blocking the memory of the archer’s parents’ death. Living through it once seemed hard enough, but he had no intention of putting himself or Melanie at risk. He decided to release the memory of his parent’s death and being shunned by the villagers. A new plan in mind, he put the archer to sleep.

“Something came to me while I was going through his mind.”

Melanie had fallen asleep, waking up at the sound of his voice. “Mind what?”

Tail Biter, who had been sleeping at her side, sat up to listen. Xeron repeated, “Something came to me, a new plan for the archer.”

“Pancakes, no-pancakes, or something in-between?”

“In-between. He lost his parents to some illness. I’m stopping the memory block right before that. He was off on his own. He can come with us for a while. He might be useful and we will be able to watch over him.”

“That’s just great,” Melanie replied, suddenly angry. “You just take over someone’s life on a whim and…”

Xeron interrupted, “Save your mother.”

That stopped Melanie, but she still felt angry. She tried to understand why she even cared about an archer who was trying to kill them. She couldn’t explain it, but the anger was there.

Xeron put his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t blame you for being angry. I’m doing what Perante did to you.”

“That’s not it,” she said forcibly, even though she realized it was even as she denied it. “It’s not right,” she said quietly.

“No, nor is it fair, but that’s not the way the world works. Where you are born, who you are born to, all that matters, and even more so, who you join. He…” Xeron pointed at the archer, “joined a band of killers. You do that, you forfeit any mercy in my book, and he’s getting off lucky compared to the others.”

Melanie didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Every thought of the archer led her back to her own hijacking by Perante. “Let’s just take the baby and go.”

“That is fine by me. When I wake him, he will be confused. Let me do the talking and just play along. I’ll keep it as close to the truth as possible so we don’t have to waste time trying to remember lies.”

Xeron walked over to the archer and knelt down. He slapped him lightly on the cheek, causing the archer to stir.

“What? Who?”

Xeron smiled, pulling out his knife. The boys eyes widened in fear. Xeron ignored his fear, “So what, pray tell, is a young man doing tied to a tree out in the forest?”

The boy leaned forward into the roots, but they didn’t budge. “Let me help you with that.” Xeron started cutting at a root with his knife. He asked, “What’s your name?”

“Niri,” the boy replied.

“Well, Niri, before I cut you totally free, do you mind telling me why you are tied to this tree? You’re not going to hurt me when you are loose, will you?”

“No, sir. I don’t know what’s going on, or how I got here.”

“Well, we…” he turned his head, indicating to Melanie, “came across some bad men a little ways back. Maybe they got to you before they tried attacking us.”

“Bad men?”

“Mage killers,” Xeron spit on the ground after saying it.

“But I’m no mage.” The boy watched Xeron cut at the root.

“But I am,” Xeron said sternly.

“Oh.” The boy wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“And I don’t like being attacked. I don’t like that at all.” Xeron finished cutting through the root. With the one root broken, he was able to loosen the others enough that the boy was able to stand up and step out of the tangle of roots now at his feet.

“Niri, I don’t know if it’s safe here, so I and my traveling companions are going to leave. You can go on your way, or you can come with us. The choice is yours.”

Niri looked at Xeron, then Melanie, and stopped at Tail Biter, who was growling. Melanie flicked him on the head and he stopped. “Sorry, he’s a bit jittery from the attack. He won’t hurt you.”

Niri nodded and looked around the forest. He had no idea where he was or how he got here. All he knew was that he was alone. Fear and sadness seemed to fill his entire body. The man in front of him was strong and confident, two things he wanted to be right now but wasn’t. He made his decision and said, “I’ll go with you.”

Xeron clapped him on the shoulder, “Good choice, young Niri. Now let’s get moving before anything else untoward happens.”  

Chapter 49

The trail was well-worn and they made good time on it. Samantha and the boys were sleeping in back as Yuri led the horse through the night. The moon was bright, which helped the horse, but Yuri now had great vision, day or night. He marveled at all the nightlife he had heard in the past but could now see: bats, owls, mice, and foxes. He saw them all flying, fleeing, or hunting in the woods next to the trail.

What he didn’t see was the man following them. He wondered if maybe, just maybe, the man found something else to do or someone else to follow. He hoped that was the case, but he did not plan on letting down his guard until he got home. He could feel home in his bones, and it felt good. They would reach Vrotsim in the morning, the last major village before Mandan.

Yuri’s thoughts were about the crazy dragon talker he met there. For some reason, he had the feeling, possibly because of their contact in the lake, that Samora had visited that talker after his attack. He didn’t know exactly why, but he was not afraid. He wasn’t sure if that meant the dragon talker would leave him alone or if he knew he could handle him. Either way, it felt good to not be afraid.

He thought about the merchant he met there and smiled. Who says the women of his own village are “a mean and ugly lot”? The thought that maybe he was protecting the women flashed through his mind, but he shook it off. That couldn’t be it. The merchant liked him. That was obvious. The flute was still in his pack, but he had not had time to practice since meeting the boys. He wouldn’t now that Samantha was around. He’d have to be pretty good at it before he would play it in front of a woman.

He turned around and looked at Samantha sleeping. Bernard had curled up beside her and her arm was wrapped around him. Awake, Yuri thought she looked sharp, always on guard for something. Sleep changed her, softened her. Yuri knew she was attractive, but sleeping, she was beautiful. He wondered what his mother would think. He knew his father would like her - he liked women with a bit of an edge. He rarely saw that edge in his mother, but he knew it was there. If she ever thought the family was threatened, she would come out swinging.

Yuri blurted out, “What am I thinking?” He thought to himself,
I am really bringing a female mage home?
This was an entire realm he had never heard of. She had saved Bernard’s life and the way she handled the boys was compassionate, but he’d never heard of a kind mage. Was this a trap of some sort? What was she doing out in the world as a man? The questions started to build up in his mind. Maybe, he considered, splitting company in Vrotsim would be the safest course of action.

Doubts continued to run through his mind as they came closer and closer to Vrotsim. The sun began to rise as woods gave way to the oak savanna and farm land that surrounded Vrotsim. Samantha stirred as the sunlight washed over her face. Yuri looked behind him at the sound of her rustling and watched the transformation from peaceful to guarded take place as she sat up in the wagon and looked around, checking her surroundings.

Yuri greeted her with, “Good morning. You seem to have slept well.”

Samantha arched her back then stretched her arms out in front of her. She sounded a little surprised as she said, “I did.” She looked at the boys still sleeping. “I bet they stay asleep for a while.” She carefully worked her way to the front and climbed over the wall to sit next to Yuri.

“Do you want me to take over?”

“Not yet, I’m enjoying the sunrise.”

Samantha reached back and grabbed a blanket to wrap around her shoulders. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Since the scales,” Yuri answered, “cold has not been a problem. I actually like it. I feel like it charges me up.”

“What happens in the summer?”

Yuri tilted his head to the right and shrugged. “I have no idea.”

Samantha didn’t say anything else. Instead, she settled into a comfortable seating position and readjusted the blanket to cover her better. After getting situated, she asked, “Any more of our friend?”

“No, and I’ve been looking. He’s either gotten good at following us and staying hidden, or he’s found something better to do with his time.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” she cautioned.

“I know, but there’s only so much a person can watch out for before they go crazy.”

Samantha nodded her head towards the horse, “How’s Mable?”

“We stopped a few hours ago for a rest and some hay.” Yuri didn’t tell her that he also walked off and washed himself and combed his hair. “She’s a strong horse, and we’re almost to Vrotsim. I think we will make it without putting her out too much. We should probably spend the day in town, though, or at least near it. Give her the day off and head off again at night.”  

“If we are going to spend any time around town, I should make a few changes before the boys wake up.” Samantha could tell from Yuri’s look that he didn’t understand. “I was in Vrotsim a few months ago.” She paused and checked to see if the boys were still sleeping. They were. “As Bogdan,” she added.

“Oh,” Yuri nodded as if he understood, but didn’t.

“Same horse, same wagon, different person. People notice these things,” she explained.

“Oh,” he said, stretching it out a little longer as he did understand this time.

“I’ll add some socks to Mable and lighten the color of the wagon a bit. Hopefully that will be subtle enough to be missed by the boys and enough to stop any identification with Bogdan.”

“Smart,” Yuri said, impressed at how a few simple changes would totally change the overall picture.

“I was always taught less is more.”

Yuri couldn’t help but ask, “By who?”

“Whom, and that’s none of your business.”

Yuri ignored the correction and smiled, “Can’t blame a man for wanting to know the lay of the land.”

“Can and will.” Samantha smiled back.

“I think it’s time for me to take a break. Are you awake enough to get us to Vrotsim?”

“Of course. Go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll wake you if you’re needed.”

Yuri started climbing into the back. “Sounds good.”

***

They had decided it would attract less attention if Yuri was the one in the driver’s seat as they entered Vrotsim, so Samantha had Bernard wake Yuri about a mile from the village to take over for the ride into town. Yuri was driving, Bernard was sandwiched in-between him and Samantha, and Stone stayed in back, but sitting up straight so he could clearly see everything that was going on.

When strangers ride through a village, it always takes time because they are expected to stop and share news as well as messages from other villages they might have passed through. It never hurt if the local offered a little food for the trip, either, to make sure the message made it to its intended audience. Some took advantage of this, making up incredible stories in hopes of getting some extra food or other thanks, but even that was expected. With the really good story tellers, most people didn’t care if the story was true or not, as long as the action and danger was far away and heading in the other direction.

Most villages, if they had a well, placed it in the center of the village, creating a public center where everyone could both get water and see how much everyone else was taking. While herders were discouraged from using the water, strangers were not. A trough was set up near the well for animals, and Yuri stopped the wagon near it and jumped off the wagon.

As he was unharnessing the horse from the wagon, a few of Vrotsim’s more curious villagers showed up first, greeting him and asking for news. Among them, Yuri saw the merchant who had sold him the flute. He waved to him as he approached, shouting, “I found a good one” as he pointed at Samantha. Samantha scowled at first, but quickly changed it to a smile and waved at the villagers from the wagon.

“It looks like you got the complete set, my friend,” the merchant said, indicating the two boys staring back from the wagon.

“That is another story entirely, and not a positive one, I’m afraid,” he said solemnly, nodding his head.

There were a few “ahs” from the crowd. Orphans were not foreign to village life, especially when disease went through a village. When the horse started drinking, the crowd made a semi-circle around Yuri, as if to say that it was time to share some news. Yuri hesitated, deciding on how much to say about the boy’s village. He didn’t want them to be asked a hundred questions, but he also felt responsible for telling the truth. If a village near his was burned down, he would want to know about it so he could watch for trouble in his own.

Thinking of his own village decided it for him. “There is a small village about a week’s ride from here that was burned to the ground by people.” Yuri made sure to add the people part. When it came to fire, people were quick to assume dragon. Two boys in the crowd ran out to get the village elders.