Daybreak (36 page)

“Nothing goes wrong in the forest that the Countess hasn’t had a hand in. She probably couldn’t stand to have all of her merchants setting up shop over here,” a villager added.

The rumbling grew to a heated growl among the men. Elena had begun to wonder if they were about to take off when Foster stepped in.

“I know what you’re all thinking,” he said, casting a severe look around them, “and it’ll never work. The Countess won’t listen to reason.”

A mercenary towards the back of the crowd raised his sword. “We’re not going to
reason
with her — we’re going to get our tavern back!”

Cheers filled the air. Weapons rose high.

Horatio thumped a meaty fist against his chest and thundered: “Recompense! We’ll be paid back one way or another.”

“To Lakeshore!” a villager cried.

“No — wait!” The crowd fell silent and all eyes turned to Aerilyn. “Ah, it’s just … I have it on very good authority that Countess D’Mere is heading for the seas.” 

There was a moment’s pause. Then:

“To the seas!”

The crowd made its way towards the village, Foster calling gleefully in its wake: “Don’t forget to refill your quivers on your way out, lads. Foster’s has the finest quality arrows in the realm!”

The two brothers darted into the crowd. They brandished wooden swords and bellowed
recompense
at every step.

Horatio took off after them. “Oh no, you don’t! This is mercenary work. The only place you boys are going is straight home to your pap!”

While everybody else trailed away, Aerilyn stayed behind. “Elena,” she said after a moment, “how did a burning pine tree wind up half inside my house?”

“The wind caught it.”

“Elena …”

“All right, I missed.” She pulled the bow off from around her shoulders and handed the quiver back — relieved not to have the itch of magic on her anymore. “I’m sorry I crushed your home.”

Aerilyn held the quiver thoughtfully. “Don’t be. I suspect the noise woke the villagers. It certainly woke the mercenaries.” She smiled slightly. “And now, against all odds, we’re bringing an army to the seas.”

“Is this how all wars start?” Elena wondered, glaring down the hill.

Aerilyn smiled wryly. “Over baked chicken? I doubt it. But at least they’re on
our
side of things — and they’re fighting for free, I might add. Do you have any idea how much it would cost to hire them all?”

Elena shook her head, glad her mask could hide her smirk. “I suppose you have a point, lady merchant.”

Kael fell asleep thinking it’d all been a dream — that he’d only
imagined
they’d been captured and led into a strange land. The dragons’ shadows muddled the things he saw; their hums were the ebb and flow of his dreams.

When the sun rose that morning, a thin mist covered the land. They’d slept at the world’s edge: on a bed of stringy grass and with the northern seas crashing behind them. Kyleigh slept soundly, no doubt still exhausted from the day before …

Something flitted behind Kael’s eyes. It was the shadow of a distant memory, a mere brush of noise and heat. The things inside the darkness swirled all around his mind. When he reached for them, they shoved him back.

Fine. The shadows could keep their secrets. He was certain nothing they might tell him would be worth getting upset over. In fact, he didn’t think he
could
be upset.

He held Kyleigh for a moment longer, grinning as each heavy breath pressed her against him. There was very little that could’ve drawn him from her side … but the strange land behind the mist was calling, and soon he could hold his curiosity back no longer.

A crest of hills sheltered them from the land beyond. Their sides were so steep that Kael had to pull himself along by fistfuls of grass just to make it to the top. Trees crowned the hills. Their trunks were thick enough that he felt ridiculous standing beside them. A half-dozen giants would’ve likely had a difficult time linking hands around the nearest one.
 

Though their tops were squat, the reach of their branches was great — so great that several of the trees had grown into their neighbors. Had it not been for their trunks, he didn’t think he would’ve been able to tell one from the next. The ground beneath their shadows was bald from a lack of sun, and damp from a heavy morning dew.

By the time Kael had reached the forest’s edge, the sun had begun to climb.

The mist shrank beneath its warmth. Each tendril weakened under the sun’s gaze and melted into the earth. A jagged outcrop of stone appeared on his left, heavily shadowed by an arch of trees. There was a field of grass just beyond the shadows’ reach: each blade grew tall enough to brush his knees. At his boots, the hill ended just as steeply as it’d begun.

He stood at the edge of a new world — one that not even the
Atlas
had spoken of. It was a region filled with deep valleys and crowned by sharp, rolling hills. The great mountain in the middle of the island wasn’t the only one: high peaks sprouted from the land as thickly as the trees, their gray flesh draped in curtains of leafy green. They stretched on until the distance blurred them and melded their tops to the sky.

The air was as cold here as it’d been in the Unforgivable Mountains: Kael’s breath came out in white puffs. But unlike the mountains, this land seemed to be at peace with the cold, content with the weather. The thick grass and enormous trees thrived — not in spite of the frost, but because of it.

A breeze swept over him as he thought this. It plummeted down the hill, scraping its wings across each blade and brook in a whistling song. And the fields sang back.

With the sun rising, he could see the rivers that wept from the mountains and the great lakes shining inside the valleys’ maws. Creatures dotted the fields below — too distant to see clearly, but odd enough to make him wonder.

He began to pace as more of the land’s shadows were melted away, as the light revealed more of its secrets. The moment Kyleigh woke, he wanted to go adventuring. He wanted to see every inch of this land, explore its every crevice …

A rumbling sound cut over his thoughts. The jagged hill on his left was beginning to shake. Rocks crumbled from its sides and its top swayed dangerously towards the valley.

Kael was too startled to run. He backed away slowly, watching as the hill wavered and squirmed.
 

All at once, a pair of lights flared up inside the shadow — two glowing sets of eyes with blackened slits in their middles. Kael realized with a jolt that this wasn’t a hill at all: it was a dragon. An absolute monster of a beast.
 

Kael’s hand went to his sword and he gripped it tightly, prepared to plunge it through the middle of those eyes if the dragon attacked.

But it didn’t.

A crackling hum filled the air between them. It wasn’t a voice he knew, but it was … familiar. The hum was broken up in short bursts; the yellow eyes creased in what could’ve only been amusement as they roved to his sword.

The dragon was laughing at him.

Before Kael could think to be insulted, its enormous head snaked from the darkness. The dragon’s scales were a deep crimson. Its horns were short and thick. Spines ran from the tip of its snout across the middle of its head and down the back of its neck, each one growing a bit larger than the next.

The dragon’s eyes were slightly rounded — which made its stare seem more curious than severe. Its serpentine neck twisted, carrying its head all around Kael’s body. Those yellow eyes dragged across him and as it sang, its hum rose in interest.

Kael didn’t know what the dragon wanted, but he was fairly certain it meant him no harm — and he was
completely
certain that he was tired of its hot breath blasting across his rump.

He supposed there was nothing for it. “Hello?”

The dragon stopped. Its ears twitched and its head cocked to the side.

When Kael tried to reach for its face, it pulled back — so sharply that its horns crashed into the branches above them and sent a mess of twigs and leaves raining down upon Kael’s head. “I’m not going to hurt you, you silly beast! Just hold still.”

The dragon would have none of it. When Kael tried to inch closer, one of its limbs scraped out of the darkness and shoved him back. Each of its claws came almost to Kael’s knees.
 

He managed to grab one before slid away and thought, as loudly as he dared:
Hello
?

The dragon stopped squirming; the hum died in its throat. It stared at him for a moment, the black slits widening upon his face. Then something rumbled deep inside the dragon’s chest. It rose up its throat, trembling louder as it climbed.

Kael had begun to concentrate on his dragonscale armor, fearing a blast of flame, when the dragon’s voice struck his ears:

Hello, human.
His voice was decidedly male. The way he rasped and hissed across his words reminded Kael of the crackling of flame.
I’ve not spoken to a human before … then again, I’ve never worked up the courage to touch one
.

Kael couldn’t help himself. The idea that a dragon might be afraid to touch him made him grin.

The dragon’s eyes narrowed upon his face.
Do not bare your teeth at me unless you mean it, human
.
I don’t wish to flatten your pale, fleshy body into the dust … but I will if you continue to threaten me
.

“Oh, so you can giggle at me, but I’m not even allowed to
smile
at you? Is that how it works?”

You did a silly thing, reaching for so dull and frail a weapon. It doesn’t have the fire to best me — and you may smile, as long as your mouth stays closed. Dragons do not
giggle
,
he added, narrowing his eyes.
At most, we chortle
.

For a creature who’d never spoken to a human, he certainly knew a lot of their words. When Kael said as much, the dragon sighed — with such force and heat that he had to latch onto his claw just to keep from being swept backwards.
 

When I was young, my wings carried me across every sea, into the heart of each realm. Humans must be Fate’s favorite creatures — they live nearly everywhere. I’ve always found their words … amusing
.
They make such interesting sounds. I wished to learn them all
. His eyes drifted from Kael and he boomed:
I
wished
to learn them all …
them
all … them
all —

“All right, that’s enough,” Kael growled, his ears ringing from the dragon’s voice. “There’s no need to try them out every blasted way. The words mean the same no matter how you make them sound.”

Do they
?
Then why do they have so many
different
sounds
?

“I’m not sure. But it doesn’t matter. I’m Kael,” he said, hoping to change the subject. “What do you call yourself?”

Rua
, the dragon said. His eyes drifted away again and his scaly lips bent into what could’ve only been a smile.
My name is Rua …
Rua
… R
—

“I’ve got it,” Kael said evenly. He thought he might’ve preferred Rua’s breath to his voice — the stench of charred flesh and all. “What do you call this place?”

Ah, these are the Motherlands, the first realm Fate ever stitched together
.
She is beautiful, is she not
? Rua bent his head down to Kael’s, blasting him with another hot breath.
You can see her care in the mountains’ peaks, her smile in every river’s bend. She loves these lands the most, I think
.

“Does she?”

Yes
.
The Westlands are dangerous and the Wildlands are fierce. But these are the
—

“Wait a moment — you’ve been to the Westlands?” When Rua nodded, Kael forgot about being annoyed with him. “What were they like? What did you see?”

Rua’s eyes widened.
It is a dangerous realm, even for a dragon. There are creatures in the Westlands you could not imagine — beasts made of ice and flame. The very mountains rise to do the wizards’ bidding
.

“Wizards?” Kael breathed.

Oh yes,
great
wizards. Their spells are so powerful that they swell to cover the sea and sky around them in a poisonous smog. No man or beast can survive it
.

“How did you get through, then?”

Rua inclined his head.
Well, once every century, a strange wind blows through the Westlands
.

“A wind?” Kael said skeptically.

A
strange
wind,
Rua corrected him.
It blows for a time … not very long a time, but still — time enough. And while the wind blows, it keeps the smog away. I crossed the Westland’s shores with my chest full of thrill, but I left with a bit less
.

He stretched forward, revealing a blackened, shining scar upon the heavy plates of his chest. The scar was longer than Kael’s arm. It split the scales it crossed between, leaving a charred cleft in its wake.

Kael was about to ask him more about the wizards when Kyleigh strode up behind him. Her pace quickened at the sight of Rua. But if she thought it odd to find a dragon hidden inside the woods, she didn’t say it.

In fact, she hardly glanced at him before she grabbed Kael around the arm and pulled him away. “Come on. Let’s find some breakfast.”

Rua’s hum crackled after them. Kael couldn’t hear its meaning, but Kyleigh seemed to understand. She whirled around and said testily: “We’re going on a hunt — if hunting is
allowed
, that is.”

Rua sang again, his stare boring down.

Kyleigh’s fingers tightened around Kael’s arm for a moment, so quickly that he wasn’t sure he’d felt it. “Well, I don’t have your answer. So I can either starve to death while I wait for it to come to me, or I can stay alive long enough to find it. Your choice.” She glared at his hum and rather tersely replied: “Brilliant.”

“What does he want to know?” Kael asked as she dragged him away. He didn’t like to see Kyleigh upset, and it was clear by how she drove her heels into the ground that she was far from happy.

“Never mind it,” she growled.