Rise Of The Dragon King (Book 5) (5 page)

“Shhh,” Rikky hissed at the boys. He was having a hard time controlling his mirth, too, but was too determined not to let it loose.

“We’re ready,” Linux whispered. He was standing out of sword’s reach of
Brawn, holding a long stick near the sleeping ranger’s neck.

“You?” Rikky asked the boys, who both stifled giggles while nodding that they were.

Pascal was poised just like Linux, only he was over the green forester. Prince Jericho was sitting on a rock over Olly with what looked like a fishing pole. The line was a spider’s web the boy had tried to sling off of the limb. It was perfect for tapping and sliding across Olly’s wide open mouth.

The sun was starting to lighten the sky, so Rikky counted down: “Three, two, one, NOW!”

“SNAAAAAKE!” Rikky yelled as loud as he could.

Linux and both boys screamed and hollered, too, all while trying to simulate snake movements against their sleeping victims. Linux’s distance probably saved him a good bruising, for Brawn came out of his bedroll like a lion. Olly was now screaming and coughing out the bit of web the prince had dipped in his face. Pascal was laughing shrilly and rolling around, his victim having come up batting at his blanket like he was on fire.

It was a comical sight, but Rikky’s victim’s reaction was the best, for Rikky wasn’t simulating a snake at all. Silva’s tail quickly wrapped around the captain’s leg and started pulling him across the ground toward her. She looked more like a
pewter-colored boulder than anything else, and no one but Rikky, Linux and the boys knew she was among them.

“ENOUGH!” Rikky yelled.

When Silva let go of Captain Willian, the man did a fifty-yard face-up crab-crawl backward. He managed this in such a speedy fashion that the boys and Rikky were howling. Even Olly and Brawn were laughing now.

The captain looked at them with confusion and fear showing plainly on his bright red, vein-lined face, then he grabbed at his chest and began convulsing in the dirt.

Rikky’s mirth evaporated, and he charged over to him. His guts felt hollow. Fear that they had sent the man into a stupor or popped his heart poured over him.

Rikky rolled Captain Willian over and saw that he’d gone still. His heart sank into his bowels. Had they really frightened him that badly? He began sifting through his mind, searching for a healing spell to save him.

“Baaaah!” The captain suddenly jolted and lurched up, causing Rikky’s heart to skip a beat and his foot to fail him as he stumbled backward.

Everyone was laughing then, at least until Silva leapt into flight, but even the dragon was chuckling as she went.

It turned out Captain Willian was a prankster, too.

CHAPTER SEVEN

T
hey saw the lake later that second day, but wouldn’t reach its shore until the afternoon of the next. Linux explained that most of his fishing gear was designed for river krill and pan-sized lake fish, not mudsuckers or big whiskerfish, but he did have one rig to catch something sizable. To use the rig, they had to catch some sunfish or minnows to bait the hooks.

Once they started down into the next valley, they lost sight of the water, but saw it again when they topped the ridge. Like a shimmering mirror reflecting the world and the rose-colored evening sky, the surface lay across a lush, green valley surrounded by snow-topped mountains. Even on the top of the ridge, though, the air was warm and only slightly crisp.

“Can we make it down before dark?” Brawn asked from the rear.

Rikky started to say yes, but the captain spoke before him. “There is a shelf the men used as a camp last year. It’s about two-thirds of the way down. We’ll camp there and not risk unpacking our gear in poor light while everything in the area is trying to get a sip.”

“Aye,” Rikky added, glad to have picked Captain Willian. Rikky’s arse was as sore as it ever had been, anyway. He would rather be off the horse sooner than later, and since the cat was out of the sack about his dragon being near, he decided he might just ride Silva in the morning to scout the area.

“How far is Crimzon’s cave?” Prince Jericho asked.

“On the far western side of the lake,” Rikky replied, pointing ahead of them and to the left.

“It looks like we will have to take the eastern shore and go all the way around to the north.” The prince’s voice was a thin squeak, but the boy possessed a certain quality of confidence that Rikky knew had been passed down from Jenka. He was impressed by both of the lads and the way they were coming along.

Truth be told, he’d expected a lot more whining, and hadn’t expected the boys to keep as much company with Linux as they did. It wasn’t surprising, though. Zahrellion had moved the royal family to Clover’s castle for the first few years of Jericho’s life. Linux had assumed the role of castellan there, after he escaped Richard, and had helped with him since he was born.

“Just so.” The captain nodded back at the prince, and Rikky was starkly reminded of Herald.

The sun was almost gone from the sky, but there would be dusky light for a
while yet. They were winding down a fairly steep switchback grade, and the captain seemed as if he were trying to hurry and beat full dark. This put the experienced men slightly on edge, leaving the boys to speculate about what they might find in the caves and what sort of lake creatures might eat the baits they put out on Linux’s lines.

The boys were laughing shrilly at something Linux had just said, when the captain suddenly stopped his horse and hushed them.

“What is it?” Brawn called. Apparently the man wasn’t close enough to hear the urgency in Captain Will’s voice, for had he been, he might have held his tongue.

Rikky was reaching for Silva with his mind, but his eyes were on the two boys. They were right in front of him. Pascal’s normally brown skin was pale, and Prince Jericho was as white as snow. Both had seen the captain’s expression when he turned back, and now they were seeing what Rikky was seeing.

Brawn’s bow thrummed as he loosed an arrow that went right past Rikky’s ear. The shaft went over the first of the two silhouetted forms lumbering toward them. A howl that sounded more angry than hurt came out of the second troll as it struck.

They
were
trolls Rikky saw, and there were more than just the two. Worse,
they were coming out of the cave in which the group was supposed to camp. The sunlight was gone, and Silva had gone scouting the lake. The silver dragon was so far away that this situation could become really messy before she could get there to help them.

Rikky started to cast a protective spell, but the fresh burst of dour into his being sent his mind reeling for a heartbeat or two, then a head-sized rock slammed into Pascal’s horse. The animal went bucking and kicking. As Pascal went falling from his saddle, the horse slipped and tumbled down the mountainside. Rikky couldn’t see Pascal and was so intent on grabbing the prince that he fumbled his spell.

Another rock came flying in, this one twice as large as the first. It hit Olly and his animal both. The young man screamed until the rock smashed him into the ground. An orb of magical light flared forth above them then, revealing that the situation was far worse than they could have imagined. Olly was a gruesome sight as two trolls dove for him and then dragged his body into the dark in separate directions. Another troll leapt in and sank its teeth into the flank of Olly’s twitching horse. There were more than a dozen of the healthy-looking bastards, and they were closing in from seemingly everywhere.

“I’m after him,” Brawn said, as he leapt from his horse, pushed his way past
Rikky, and started down the slope into the dark, looking for Pascal.

The green forester in the rear screamed as he was grabbed by one of the trolls. Rikky and the prince both saw it happen, and even though Rikky had killed a hundred or more of the crazed vermin, the sight of something twice as big as a grown man, and as wild as a rabid wolf, never ceased to scare him witless. He had the reins of the prince’s horse in one hand and was going through his spell again in his head, when the next rock came in. It was the size of a man’s fist, and when it hit him, it felt like getting walloped by a club.

Rikky went flailing, only to feel another mind-jarring thump when his head hit the ground. Jericho grabbed a hold of him, and he heard Captain Willian scream out in agony, but everything after that was black.

“What do you mean he is gone?” Zahrellion answered the question Clover had just asked Jenka.

Clover wanted to hear what Jenka had to say, but even now he still hadn’t acknowledged that she was standing before him in the new Three Forks Palace.

Clover looked at him for a time and then shook her head and turned to Zah. Apparently, he was getting worse. Clover wondered if the fountain that had restored Crimzon and her to their finest form could restore his mind. “I heard a
rumor that a king from the New World is to marry a Vikarian, so I went to Serpent’s Isle. Richard is not there. He has not been there for some time.”

“Where is this Vikaria?” Zahrellion asked.

Clover hadn’t told her the worst of it yet. She was waiting, hoping that Jenka might come around and hear her, too.

“It is one of the many kingdoms that make up the greater land of Kar.” Clover looked at Jenka again. “Is he like this often?”

“He will focus when he needs to,” Zahrellion sighed.

Clover noticed that Zahrellion’s once frail-looking body had both thickened and rounded slightly. She was beautiful, there was no doubt. She didn’t dislike Zah, but she didn’t really like her, either. Crimzon was the supreme fire drake and hers was a frost dragon. A bit of natural revulsion seemed to taint all their past conversations. Though the feeling wasn’t as potent now, it was still there.

“What would you have us do, Lady Clover?” Zahrellion asked, reminding Clover that the girl was smart, probably far smarter than she. “I’m certain Rikky would love the task of hunting him down and extinguishing him.”

“He…saved…us…thrice…Zah.” This came from Jenka and was spoken slowly, in clear, emotionless words. Jenka then shook his head and sat forward. His coral-green eyes sputtered and flickered in a fluttering pattern that was confusing to
the senses, and his gaze, when it turned on them, was more than a little hypnotic. “My brother might have done bad things, but none of us would be here without him. None of us.” His eyes bored into Clover then, filling her mind with a bit of masculine force that caused her to quiver but made her understand. Clover wouldn’t be here if Richard hadn’t saved Jenka.

It didn’t change the part of all this she hadn’t told them yet.

“Jenka, a flotilla is sailing here as we speak.” Clover made sure that her tone didn’t convey too much worry, for she wasn’t that concerned yet. She and Crimzon could probably destroy the whole lot of ships on their own with minimal effort, but only before they landed. “They do not represent the Greater Kingdom of Kar, but the Karian royalty is aware of them.”

“What do they want?” Zahrellion asked. “To make war? Who do they represent, then?”

“They say in the Ports of Kar that the ships sailed to negotiate trade, but I fear they may have something else in mind. I fear an order of nasty sorcerers, who are most likely in disguise among them, are involved, but may be here on the mainland or the islands already.”

“What does Richard have to do with any of it?” Jenka asked.

Clover drew in a deep breath and looked at Zahrellion, who had a better
understanding about Richard’s state of mind, or lack thereof. “I’m not sure, but King Chad has been an avid supporter of these so-called trade negotiations.” Clover braved Jenka’s eyes again and found whatever spell had held her before had been broken by the dour magic of her own huge dragon tear. “He is dangerous, Jenka. There is no telling what sort of information he could give them.”

“There are ways to question him that he could not resist, love.” Zahrellion nodded. “He knows far too much to leave loose. She is right.”

“And what if he bears children? Won’t they have a claim to your throne?” Clover asked.

“Well, then, what would the two of you have me do?” Jenka asked, the glow of his eyes flashing a deeper shade of emerald for a beat or two, the edges of his lips curling into the slightest of smiles.