Wind Rider (10 page)

Some are dragon riders born, others are dragon
riders made. Do not worry. He will adjust, and learn what he needs.

X

Suddenly, Ulrike and
Arboris
, the twins and me — we cried out at the same
moment.

THE TREE, THEY ARE ATTACKING THE TREE MOTHER!

Kara’s dragon leapt into the air.
I must go to
warn my people, and prepare them. I will give them the book of Id, so they can
use it to prepare for the fight as well. On this dragon it will take but a
moment. The rest of you go, and make haste. I will meet you once I have talked
to my father, and set my people marching towards the forgotten city.

Woltan
nodded.
Take the smith with you.

Two dragons sailed off towards the land of the
Kriek
.

There are other dragons who would love to
fight.

Let them come too, then.

Then we were all flying, and after a moment the
stone mountain was behind us, and below us was the green forest. From the air I
could not see the road we had followed, but I could feel the tree mother, and
her agony, and the agony of the forest. There was fire, but most of all there
were axes, steel cutting into
woodflesh
. Ulrike and I
took the lead, our dragons dwarfing the others.

I sent a mental image to my dragon.
Can you see
where we are going?

Yes, Anders. What took you all the night should
take us but a few moments longer. But I hope we will be there in time. We will
roast and split the enemy, rend them asunder. We have not battled with
keiler
or humans for a long time, but we have kept
ourselves fit battling among ourselves.

Images of dragon battle flashed through my mind.

Elias was just behind me; I could feel him.
Can
you see anything, Elias?

I think your friend Gerard is there. And a lot
of
keiler
. And some minor wizards, and a lot of
soldiers. Just a few humans, mostly wizards. The soldiers are goblins, and a
few trolls. A couple of dozen kobolds. All chemical lovers, nature-haters. If
you reach out you can use your dragon’s mind as well to help you speak words of
power. Ask if it’s alright, first.

I addressed myself to
Yesenia
.
Can we do magic together, like Elias said he can?

Think of a simple spell, and we’ll try.

I thought for a moment, and then I opened my
mouth, and opened my mind to
Yesenia
. Together we
spoke:
Fernsehen
.

My eyes were telescopes, suddenly — I could see
all the way to the mother tree, to the aura of the tree mother itself, red with
rage, and my mind connected with her.
We are coming, mother.

I saw the kobolds that Elias had described, with
little torches, blistering the wood; and the trolls with giant axes, hacking
away at the resistant magical hardwood. Other trees were burning, but the
mother tree was not. Arrows fell down upon the kobolds, but they were covered
in armor, like the trolls, and even the
keiler
.

You could see all that?

Yesenia
spat fire.
If
only I had not. That was a powerful spell. I felt like we were there; I wanted
to bite and spit and breathe fire and feel the crunch of troll spine under my
teeth.

Will it be much longer?

We dragons are not very good with time. But
your mind has taught me many things already. I think we have to wait only
minutes, not hours. Try to rest a little.

I closed my eyes and tried to relax as I held on
with my arms to
Yesenia’s
neck. How was I supposed to
relax when I was hundreds, if not thousands of paces up in the air, on dragon
back, holding on with all my might, my hands and legs already numb from the
lack of movement and the cold air?

In the days of old there were harnesses. When
we get to this place where Kara went, perhaps they can make some. Then you can
really rest. For now, though, I will sing in my mind a song for you: a song of
my hatching, and of my childhood, when the world was very different from how it
is now.

In my mind I heard song, that moved from my mind
down to my chest and out to my limbs, and brought warmth back to them. The song
was music; it was like a flute and a tuba and horn combined, and all of it made
for dragon throat; but it was also color, and sensation: heat, and darkness,
and bright green light. Every so often I caught images as well as more
sensations: an enormous egg in a giant nest on top of a mountain; cracks in the
egg; a hatchling knocking its way out of the egg beak-first. The knock of the
beak against the eggshell, hard as rock. First flight underneath the mother
dragon; the taste of dragon milk. First flight by moonlight, and the opening of
the third eye, while in flight; and seeing life underneath rush by in all its
glowing splendor. First sparring in mid-air, with a cousin. First battle with
an air-demon, a thousand paces up in the sky.

And then the golden age of the dragons and the
golden age of her childhood was over. I could feel it. A period of darkness and
cold filled the world. There were terrible battles, and terrible defeats, and
the sun did not shine again for a long time, even in dragon years.

I opened my eyes and found them wet with tears.
Yesenia
had experienced the golden years of the dragon and
humankind, the years of which I should have no memory but of which my blood
sang. Those years were over before she had ever found a rider. And now she had
one, centuries later.

We are almost there now, Anders. You would do
well to prepare yourself. I will send warmth to your limbs; I have sent word to
the others as well.

Will I fight from
dragonback
?

Without a harness I think it is impossible. You
may want to drop down and fight on the ground.

I reached out my mind to the others.
I will
fall to the ground and fight there.
I could feel the screams of the forest,
the pain of the plants and trees being trampled. And burned. And cut down.

Woltan
nodded slightly
from atop his dragon.
We will do the same. The dragons will fight from the
air and the ground. Beware of Gerard. You know his power. Can you see the
smoke? There is the mother tree, who does not yet burn.

Ulrike cried out then, and I felt it too.
They
are attacking the tree mother with magic. My father is fighting, but they have
hurt him…

I could see the smoke now, and the flames from the
surrounding trees. It hurt to feel the trees being knocked down, but I knew
this strategy would backfire; they were creating room for the dragons to come
in and attack.

We will burn and blast them, and into the confusion
you and your friends will drop. Be ready to draw your sword and shield, Anders
Tomason
.

We swooped down into flames and smoke, into cries
of rage and evil laughter. Three
keiler
had cornered
a
treeman
against one of the trees; his transparent
skin was covered with red blood.
Yesenia
swooped down
and bit one in half, raked the other with her paw, and blew fire on a group of
approaching trolls.

Now, Anders!

I rolled off the dragon and tumbled onto the
ground, coming up to a crouch with my hand on my sword. I pulled the sword
free, and before I could pull out my shield, the sword swung me around and
clanged against the pike of a troll.

The troll must have been as tall as
Arboris
, several feet taller than me. His weapon was long
and huge. The shock of the weight of it ran though my hand and up my arm to my
shoulder. I would not be able to take much of this kind of pounding. All around
me the battle raged. I could smell
woodsmoke
and
dragonsmoke
; my ears were bombarded with the sound of
dragons making screams that blew enemies off the ground, or blasted them apart
where they stood.

I feinted to the left, and then my sword moved
almost faster than my arm could wield it, and the troll’s arm lay on the
ground, the pike beside it.

The troll roared in pain, and blood spurted from
its shoulder.

It started to run, and I looked around, trying to
make sense of the chaos around me. Something huge swooped down out of the sky,
and the troll was gone, leaving only its arm and pike behind.

XI

To me, Kinsmen!

It was Eric, king of the
treefolk
,
fighting off a hoard of almost ten
keiler
.

Yesenia
! Give
me an opening to help the king!

But
Adalbjorn
was
faster; suddenly above them the light went out, and there was a great piercing
cry; it shot out of the dragon’s mouth like a great spear; and blasted four of
the
keiler
straight into the underworld.

With me now Anders!

It was Ulrike. Her sword glowing, she was swinging
her way through a mass of kobolds to make it to her father. They seemed to be
everywhere now, more and more kobolds, with tiny swords and no armor to speak
of. I moved through them, slicing off heads and limbs all around me. The smell
of blood was sickening. My shield was low to protect me, as I moved as fast as
I could to protect my back. Then I was with Ulrike, and we were fighting back
to back. Her father fought his way to us then. I could see his was wounded,
bleeding profusely from his chest. Soon all three of us were fighting in a
triangle, with
keiler
and kobolds on all sides.

Anders, we can’t attack; you’re too spread out
among the enemy. Bring your friends to you, and let us attack the enemy from
behind.

I reached out my mind to my companions and the
folk of the tree, broadcasting only to them as I parried and cut and shielded
myself.

To me, and to the king. Clear the field so that
the dragons can attack.

And they came:
Arboris
,
with a great cry of rage, swinging his great staff left and right and cleaving
a path through his enemies, the others behind him. A great troll came in front
of
Arboris
, almost as tall as him, blocking his way.
He swung a great sword.
Arboris
ducked, parried
with his staff, and then the troll was gone, picked up by a dragon.

I was busy with the
keiler
around me. They shied off from attacking me directly, and I heard little currents
of thought from them with their squeals.

Herr.

I am not my uncle!

I swung my blade and killed two of them with one
stroke.

So much blood.
Arboris
and the others were approaching in a V-shaped formation,
Arboris
in the lead. The dragons were already attacking in full force, now that my
friends were out of the way. They were blasting with sound that shot kobolds
and trolls and
keiler
flying up into the air to crash
back into the ground, where they remained, motionless. And the fire-breathers
shot out their flames, burning the enemy into submission.

As I chopped away at the
keiler
,
I realized something was wrong. There were two missing from behind
Arboris
.
Woltan
and Elias.

Woltan
?

Gerard. We found him on the other side of the
tree. I’m with Elias. We need help. He has conjured a demon.

There was a great roar then, that knocked everyone
askance.

It wasn’t a dragon, either.

It’s a
djinn
and he’s
bigger than
Adalbjorn
.

I turned to Ulrike.
We need to get your father
back in the tree and help them.

The others had arrived.
Arboris
and Cullen and the twins put their backs to each other, and then we were
fighting on all sides, the king standing between us.

Ulrike nodded.
Now is the time. Connect with me
kinsmen, and I will speak a word of power.
She reached out and touched my
hand. Her sword hand moved her blade, and she spoke a word, mid-stroke, and the
word moved out of my mouth, and came from the twins and
Arboris
as well.

Zuruck
!

A blast of force hit all around us, and the enemy
fell ten paces back among themselves, in a shrieking jumble of
keiler
and kobold. Only one troll was left standing. My
blade spun, and the Troll fell.

To the tree! The tree mother will heal him.

We ran then,
Arboris
carrying Ulrike’s father, his twin nephews Lars and
Gustaf
on either side, Cullen behind, me ahead with Ulrike.

We stopped short right at the entrance of the
tree.

There were demons at the tree base, large and red
and amorphous. To my two eyes they looked like large red blobs, but when I
opened my third eye they were gigantic, and clearly focused. Almost as big as
the dragons, taller than the lower tree branches, they were covered with teeth
and claws. Their great arms reached up around the tree, keeping any energy from
going in or out, while their great teeth gnawed at the tree trunk, and their
clawed feet tore at the roots down in the ground. They smelled horribly strong
of sulfur, of death and of decay.

That is why more of my kinsmen have not joined
the fight. They are trapped in our tree, suffocating under this demon stench.

Lars and
Gustaf
uttered
a cry of rage.

To Our KIN! To the TREE MOTHER!

They ran forward and hacked at the demons, their
blades drawn.

But it was like blades running through smoke.
Their blades hit nothing, did no damage. Then a mouth reached out from the
demon, and bit one of the twins on the arm. He screamed, and his twin screamed,
and then they were both down on the ground.

I drew my sword. There was a word of power,
somewhere, that I needed. Carolina came into my mind. She was not smiling, and
she did not block my vision.

These are upper level demons. I cannot destroy
them, and neither can you. The best you can hope is to banish them to another
plane, and to do that you will need the combined will of all of your sorcerers
here and your dragons. There are the two you can see, and a third attacking
Woltan
and Elias on the other side of the tree. Your blood
knows the song that will send them out of this plane, but they will only go if
more voices sing it. You must bring everyone in with you, together.

Yesenia
,
Woltan
, Dragons, Friends, join your minds with me!

I felt the dragons tune in,
Woltan
and Elias came in last, fighting their demon with all their strength, and then
I opened my mouth, and I felt their mouths open too, and nothing came out…

The demon in front of me turned its eyes to me,
and laughed.
Your uncle sends his greetings, little one.

I felt rage, the rage of the wronged, as my blood
moved within me. The connection was breaking up, but I held on and pulled it
tight and opened my mouth a second time and this time song radiated out from my
whole body. The land shook with it, the great voices of the dragons thundered
my song so loud that the rock deep beneath the topsoil shook with it; the tree
rocked with the song but did not break, and everyone in the field was frozen,
friend and enemy, caught up in the music.

Then there was a great howl. One, then, two, then
three, and then I felt what could only be a great rift in the planes. There was
a tearing, and a pushing. The demons howled one last time, and then they were
on their way out of this plane. The song was healing the rift, pushing them all
the way through, and keeping anything else out. Then they were gone — somehow I
knew, or my blood knew, that there was no direct way back. The demons would
have to be conjured again, with pentagrams, and incantations, and all manner of
preparation, at a special time of day, particular for every place.

The moment was over then, and the tree folk were
pouring out of the injured tree. I could hear her voice — she was in pain, but
most of all she was in a rage. I felt her magic move out and fill all her
people with power and anger. Her tree folk and my people now surrounded the
tree, fighting the enemy on all sides. The dragons were burning the kobolds,
and tearing into the trolls with their teeth. They picked up trolls and dropped
them on the kobolds or on the few men who had not chosen to run already.

Anders! Gerard is still here; we need your
help!

It was Elias.

I looked around. One of the twins was still on the
ground, the other was helping Ulrike get the king up in the tree; there dozens
of hands grabbed him and pulled him up. Then I was helping Ulrike with the
twin.

All around us the battle raged, but the tree folk
were pushing back the enemy into the dragon fire, and the tree was raining down
dead branches at them, knocking over trolls and kobolds.

I looked at Ulrike.
They need us, Gerard is
over there. Will he live?

If anyone can help him, the tree Mother will.

I felt the call again.

Anders heed our call!
Esmerelda
!
Renata
! Your riders are in peril! We need your
strength! Tree mother!

I was moving then. But was it already too late? As
I moved images flashed through my mind… Gerard conjuring the demons, in a
pentacle, Gerard bringing them to the tree mother, riding on the winds between
the planes….
Woltan
sending up spell after spell to
have them blocked by the demons, then bitten by one of the demons on a surprise
attack.
Woltan
lying on the ground inside a sphere of
protection, with Elias beside him, frantically trying to keep him alive, and
Gerard breaking the wall of his sphere, methodically, with a smile on his face.

Then Ulrike and I were there and there was a great
blast of sound — it was dragon sound and dragon magic, and it shook everyone,
knocked Gerard to the ground. Then I was upon him, and I swung my sword and
smote Gerard’s arm, and his arm came off, and Gerard fell to the ground. I was
sickened, and Gerard’s face turned white with pain and rage.

He opened his mouth to speak a spell but I was quicker:
Still.

Gerard’s mouth was sealed.

He was bleeding profusely but I knew he remained
dangerous, arm or no arm. A wizard like Gerard would not let a word of
silencing stop him for long. This man was responsible for killing all these
dead on the field, all these dead trees as well. I should have killed him, but
I hesitated, and later I would relive this moment in my dreams, every one
almost the same yet subtly different.

Gerard smiled.

You are weak and stupid. Your Uncle would have
trained you better. He calls me now. Farewell.

And he was gone.

Woltan
is
badly hurt, Anders! We must get him to the tree mother.

I nodded absently.

With Gerard gone the kobolds and trolls scattered,
running from the dragons and from
Arboris
and the
tree folk. I turned back and ran to where
Woltan
lay,
Elias standing beside him.
I am keeping him alive with my spell but there is
poison within him. That was a powerful demon. We never would have been able to
send it back to its abyss without the dragons. Such power!

Can’t the dragons help you heal him?

His dragon is suffering itself from the link
between them. The other dragons cannot help without feeling their pain. We must
get him to the tree mother as soon as possible. Only she can help him.

I reached out and felt her mind. A series of
images of what had happened to us flashed through me to her. And from her to me
flashed images of the attack, of the demons who had come with the sorcerer,
Gerard, and of the soldiers that had come after the demons had immobilized her.
Bring him to me at once. I will do what I can.

Elias and I picked
Woltan
up gently. His skin was burning hot, and I could feel his pain just touching
his skin. I was afraid to touch his mind.
Woltan’s
aura glowed red with pain, and he groaned feebly as we hurried to the tree.
There tree folk lay waiting, to help us up into the upper branches of the tree.

We brought him to the same landing where I had
entered the tree mother.
Bring him to me, quickly! I can do nothing until I
touch him! Hurry!

We hurried him to her, and her bark opened up and
pulled him in.

The tree groaned, and then shook.
Far worse
than
Gustaf
, which was bad enough! What a noble
creature, that watches my every move with its mind as it circles in the air
high above us, sharing in
Woltan’s
pain. Just as I
do, now! Cursed be all demons and their demon spit! I will suck out the poison
and spit it out at our enemies!

The tree groaned and shook, as the leaves around
us turned brown on the edges.

Elias touched my shoulder in alarm.
It’s
poisoning her, too.

The tree shuddered again, and the leaves turned
brown and fell.

For a moment I forgot the battle and felt only the
tree, dying next to me. I reached out and felt her strength, gave her mine and
felt all those around me, all the tree people, doing the same thing. We would
all live or die together now… Still I felt weaker, and the pain was
overwhelming, like my blood itself burned in my veins.

Dragons! The tree mother needs our help! Reach
her through me!

Tremendous energy from the dragons channeled through
and almost consumed me, but I let it through. I had no choice. I couldn’t let
Woltan
die, let all of us die now with him. I opened my
mind further to the tree mother and the dragons. I felt the poison inside her,
saw her concentrating it together, as she absorbed all the energy we sent her.

Then there was a retching sound, and a great mouth
opened from the trunk of the great tree, and the tree spat out the poison on
the enemy.