Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) (10 page)

“Is that a flatlander noble duty?” Asked
Veer.

“As a matter of fact it is a noble duty. A noble may be called on to defend his people at any time so he must be ready and able. Training in the arts of battle is a duty of every noble male or female
,” Answered Cyerant.

“Well, we don’t have nobles in the hills and I don’t have a noble duty
,” responded Veer.

“But it would be a really good ide
a for you to know how into use swords since you do now have one Veer.” Interjected Shira with a hope to put an end to whatever disagreement was brewing.

“Then tomorrow you can show me what you know
,” stated Veer as he rose in order to head into the forest to relieve himself.

The next day as they travelled Cyerant selected two saplings which he cut during a rest break and as he rode he smoothed them into fencing practice sticks. That night
Veer had his first lesson at sword – learning grip, basic footwork and the most rudimentary blocks and cuts.

For several days the small group moved south through the hills in
a steady pace with cold camps and a daily fencing practice. As they rode along and as they sat in the dark of the camps they talked and shared their backgrounds and got to know one another. They all became accustomed to the presence of the dragons.

One evening while sitting in camp after practicing
, Cyerant asked. “Have you noticed that the three dragons with human looking eyes are changing? The one that follows you around Veer is starting to get strong looking and see the armour plate that his scales are growing into. What about the horns that he is growing?”

Veer
responded. “Yes and he is as big as a wolf now. The one which follows you around is getting taller though and his wings are getting bigger he is almost as big as a pony. But yours Shira isn’t getting any bigger. She grew knee high and seems to have stopped. No armour either.”

“I’m going to call her Cyool
, I think,” said Shira. “And Veer already named his Drace. So what are you going to name yours Cyerant?”

“I’ll call him Corth,” a
nswered Cyerant. “Corth was the horse upon which I learned to ride when I was younger.

That evening Shira and
Veer told Cyerant what they had learned from Slance. And Shira shared her suspicions about the idea of bonding and that they had been bonded by the dragons. This left Cyerant deep in thought for the rest of the evening.

It was nine days that the three had been travelling together when they noticed a sign of pursuit. The three had awakened and as usual quickly prepared to travel. Their camp had been in a hollow between hills and when they reached the top of the first hill as their day of travel began Shira glanced behind them and noticed a glint of morning sunlight on metal. “I think that there is someone behind us.” Both young men turned to look and they all watched as there were occasional flickers of light coming from a party of riders topping a hill in the distance and clearly moving quickly.

“I think the foreigners are onto our trail
,” said Veer

Cyerant had been trained since childhood to lead and to read a field of battle and knew this was not the case. “Not unless your bandits are wearing armour and helmets. Those flashes are from metal and that means guards.”

Veer watched as Cyerant pulled out a short flat piece of bent wood only a little longer than his arm. Cyerant put the loop end of a string around one end of the stick and placed it against his saddle and pulled the double bends in the wood hard as he attached the another loop end of the string to the other end of the stick. “That is the strangest looking bow I’ve ever seen. Too short to get any power.” Veer said.

Cyerant gave the other young man a quick scowl and said. “Horse bow for using mounted and it has a layer of horn inside of it w
hich means that it will send an arrow a greater distance than that long barge pole you carry.”

“Ride!” Shira yelled at the two young men as she coaxed her horse into a run. “They saw us and they are riding hard for us.”

Both other riders started after Shira and the young dragons easily kept pace some running and some flying. “There is no way you could see that they are riding hard they are too far away,” shouted Veer.

“I don’t know how but I saw it
,” Shira shouted back to him.

As the fleeing party of dragons and riders topped the next hill they came to an abrupt halt as it opened onto a fire meadow. There at the bottom of the hollow between the hills was a search party of foreigners. There were, at least, two dozen men who were there at the bottom of the meadow, obviously just getting mounted after having broken camp. The troop of foreigners had heard the sound of the fleeing party approaching and had prepared themselves. The foreigners charged immediately at the young people and dragons. Strangely only a few of the foreigners had weapons drawn while most of the men were carrying ropes.

Veer heard a twang of string beside him and saw the arrow darting out toward the approaching men. The man for whom it had been meant saw it coming toward him and he leaned as he swerved his horse and the arrow found the chest of the rider behind him. The familiar sound had wakened Veer from his stunned state and he jumped to the ground winding his foot around his longbow as he landed. A moment later he had his bow strung and had sent an arrow into the approaching men. Shira joined him on the ground with her bow. A man in the front of the approaching troop raised a hand and the foreigners split with one group spreading out along the front of the small party while two groups of riders stretched their horse legs to quickly ride out and then around the three young people.

“Hold your arrows
,” said Cyerant to the others.” They are around us and at this range with them watching we will just waste arrows.”

One rider raised his hand and started to slowly approach the three friends. When the rider cam
e into shouting range he stopped and called with a strange accent. “We know that you have dragons. Give us the dragons and you will go free. If you do not we will take the dragons and you will die here today.” The rider then turned his horse and rode back to join his compatriots in the perimeter which they had established. As he did so another rider came barrelling around the perimeter and rode up to the man who had spoken. The rider seemed to be saying something frantically and waved his hands about a lot and then pointed in the direction from with the young people had come.  The rider who had spoken stood in his stirrups and shaded his eyes looking toward the north but he was too low to see over the ridge so he settled back into his saddle, raised his hand and made a large odd gesture. At his signal, the circle of foreigners charged inward and closed toward the centre.

“Get mounted.” Cyerant yelled at the others as he hooked his bow over his saddle pommel and drew his blade. As the other two got back on their horses he shouted again. “Follow me, if we stay here we fight ‘em all at once.” He then led
off to the right avoiding the leader of the foreigners and instead charging toward the edge of the circle. There were not that many foreigners and they were spread out so the circle was easily passed through. As Cyerant passed though the circle he veered slightly toward an approaching swordsman and cut the man from the saddle. After breaking them out of the circle Cyerant angled sharply south across the meadow toward the hollow. This pulled the foreigners into a clump of horses and men chasing the young people. Cyerant wheeled his horse into a tight turn which would bring his left side around toward the now tight group of men chasing them. As he did so he put his sword away and grabbed his bow nocking an arrow, all in one fluid movement, and releasing it into the riders who were well within range. As he made the turn across in front of the approaching foreigners he was able to release two more arrows. On one pass he had managed to take three men from their saddles. He also noticed that only some of the foreigners were following and that many of them had actually continued toward the centre where some of the baby dragons had remained in confusion.

As
Veer tried to figure out what the young noble was doing by turning he saw three arrows quickly fly out at the pursuers. Then he noticed that the foreigners with ropes had surrounded some of the baby dragons. Only the three named dragons had actually followed the young people as they charged away. The rest had been stuck in the centre. Green Eyes was high above the rest keeping her distance and shrieking.

Shira followed Cyerant into his turn and she saw that most of the foreigners were attacking some
of the dragons. She could see the ropes being tossed at them. In anger she continued on the turn but used it to change direction and looped out to bypass the pursuers and charged the men with ropes. Both young men seeing what she was doing followed her and made a charge on the foreigners who had now surrounded some of the baby dragons and were on foot tossing ropes onto the dragonets. One of the men roped a dragon and then just picked it up like a doll and handed it to another man who was on horseback and who then rode hard for the tree line carrying the dragonet draped across his saddle in front of him. There were still two small dragons surrounded by the men with ropes. Each time a rope would touch one of the dragons it would stumble as if the poor animal had been hit with a club. The men rapidly got the other two dragonets secured with the ropes when they realized that they were being charged.

Cyerant knew that as he charged at the men capturing the baby dragons there were pursuers right behind him but he couldn’t let them just take these little animals of which he had grown so fond. He also knew that Shira and
Veer were still with him but he and his horse had taken the lead in the charge. He also noticed an almost pony sized dragon running along keeping pace with him and he knew in his soul that the dragon would stay with him no matter what and fight beside him against anything. A moment later Cyerant, his horse and the dragon slammed into the men capturing the dragons, followed in another moment by Shira and a dragon the size of a medium sized dog and then Veer and a dragon the size of a wolf.

Cyerant knew that in a few moments there would be armed riders joining the fray so he quickly set about him with his sword felling the rope handlers as fast as he could.
Several of them died before they could get their own blades out and into play. Shira leaped from her horse and landed near two roped dragons that just lay there on the ground struggling against the ropes as if they were a great weight holding the dragons down and she began to cut the ropes loose.. Veer seeing what the girl was doing leaped from his horse to stand over her with his sword drawn. By this time some of the rope handlers had gotten their own blades out and were recovering from their initial shock of being charged. The foreigners began to step back as Veer realized that there was a loud roaring sound beside him: the sound of a young dragon roaring in anger. Drace was there with him and he knew that the young dragon would die before he would leave his side. Shira still was kneeling trying to free the dragonets, Cyool at her side hissing and snarling at the men.

Some of the men slowly put their swords away and started to pick up discarded ropes and toss the loops toward the two angry young dragons.
Veer cut one rope severing the loop as it flew toward the head of Drace. But the loose ends of the rope fell on the shoulders of the dragon which staggered as though hit by a charging warhorse. Veer felt as if a heavy club had struck him across the shoulders and was driven to his knees for a moment. Then he noticed that Cyool had been looped and was struggling on the ground and that Shira was on her hands and knees shaking as though she had been struck. Recovering from the weakness of the rope striking his bonded dragon Veer started using his sword with all of the skill that he had gained in these few lessons. His goal was to cut the flying ropes from the air before they could capture his dragon.

After his charge Cyerant wheeled around and saw Shira leap to free the dragons and
Veer jump to the ground to stand over and protect her back. Cyerant then charged his horse right back at the pursuers and he and Corth slammed into the oncoming half dozen men. Corth leaped onto one rider and bore rider, horse and all into the ground ripping both apart with tooth and claw. Cyerant managed to fell one rider with a sword blow while another rider was thrown from his horse. Cyerant rode a fully trained war horse which he had taken from the burning stables. With a pressure from his knee the horse under him wheeled and kicked out with his back hooves staggering another horse in the melee, another signal and the horse kicked out to the front crushing the skull of a man who had been tossed from his saddle. Then Cyerant realized that he was being closed in upon.  As he saw that he was surrounded he also saw that the situation for Veer and Shira had become dire.

*****

Sergeant
Baris of the Ducal Guard and his men heard the sounds of battle from just over that hill top. They had seen movement and followed as quickly as they could. Now he and his five men were about to see who it was they were following. He slowed down to see what was beyond the tree line and hilltop before he rode into something that might not concern him at all.  His orders were simple; find that boy and bring him or his body back to the ashes of their manor house so that he can die in the fire that the rest of his family died in. As he reached the tree line he could see everything. There really were bandits, but they hadn’t rescued the boy they must have taken him prisoner. But he had gotten a sword and a horse and was fighting. And fighting well, that old general had done well teaching this boy. There were two other kids also surrounded by the bandits who looked to be trying to tie the kids and their dogs up. These bandits must take kids and sell them or hold them for ransom. Well they are only bandits so they will run when they see armour; or they will die. And the other two kids – well orders were no witnesses. Baris saw that his men already had their swords out so he gave the signal and he and his five men charged a dozen and a half bandits, because bandits always run anyway.

*****

Cyerant saw the armoured guards break from the tree line and he knew why they were there. He took the moment of surprise among his immediate opponents to kick and cut a path toward Veer and Shira. The men surrounding his friends parted in surprise and then moved back in. The foreigners who were on horses quickly joined their companions on foot and now the three young people with five dragons were surrounded by foreigners and there was a small company of guards charging at the whole group.

*****

Baris saw the boy force his way through the bandits to get to his friends which grouped all of the bandits together conveniently. Strange that the bandits didn’t flee at the sight of armed soldiers. Oh well, fully armed and armoured soldiers verses lightly armed and non-armoured bandits will be easy enough. Then his charge carried him into the group of bandits and he was surprised to find that they fought with discipline more like soldiers. Still without armour the bandits would be no match for soldiers.

*****

Cyerant watched as the battle became a mess. The guardsmen had charged right into a greater number of foreigners. But the guardsmen having on chain and with battlefield weapons and riding trained warhorses had an advantage. The foreigners were managing to take out the guardsmen but they were sustaining uneven losses. The foreigners had all dropped their ropes and were now using swords but most of them were on foot and so they were giving that advantage to the guardsmen as well. Cyerant paused there for a few moments to let his horse rest and gather strength for what was coming. The guardsmen were steadily cutting through the foreigners. The leader of the foreigners fell. And some of the foreigners broke and fled. Cyerant noticed that Veer had somehow kept his bow and was quietly standing in the centre of the circle feathering the fleeing men. As the guardsmen broke into the centre of the circle Cyerant wished that a dragon would roar or something to startle the horses. Just then Corth raised up, spread his wings and roared. The horses and guardsmen were stunned and the horses all reared and the armoured men were thrown to the ground Corth immediately leaped upon an armoured man. Cyerant cut down the leader of the guardsmen. Shira and Cyool laid about themselves, she with her fighting knife and Cyool with tooth and claw. Drace tore into a group of foreigners who discovered that his scales were tougher than armour and died with the realization. A few foreigners tried to flee but far fewer made it to the tree line before sprouting feathers from the long bow which Veer held.