Chapter Twenty-One
~
When the orc and three ogres crawled out from the crooks of their dragons’ wings that mornin’, I eagerly introduced myself to the rider I hadn’t yet met. The rush to get situated before we lost the last of our light precluded conversation the previous evenin’.
The ogre hen was slight-built, with pleasant features. Her eyes were very unusual for an ogre, appeared green one moment, brown another. A gentle smile remained on her face as though it knew no other way of bein’. Though quiet, she moved with a calm assertiveness. I prodded her with questions about her and her dragon. She answered briefly, but politely.
As we all gnawed on what frozen tidbit we had carried with us, Janding, the orc artist, stepped near and motioned me to lean down, and whispered in my ear.
“Ya should know. Aedwin is Ike’s mate.”
I sucked in a quick breath and turned to find the hulkin’ ogre. He was walkin’ up and down Taiz’lin’s back, massagin’ the creature’s shoulders with his feet. I looked back at Janding who was mountin’ the beautiful yellow dragon. The orc gave me a nod and a wink.
Ike’s sibling, Asr, and Tir launched, as did Janding’s Syl. I stepped toward Iza, but she growled.
“I’m done with ya, ogre.”
She thrust her head into the air and launched. The blast of air almost knocked me to the ground. I stumbled in the gravel. A harsh laugh turned me around. Ike gave me the slightest motion of his head, an invitation. Though I never thought they’d abandon me here with the goblins, I was relieved to see Ike’s smile. But the irritation the queen had displayed toward me was unsettlin’. She blames me, along with Ike, for abandonin’ Lucas. Not good to have a queen dragon angry with ya.
“Ya comin’, or ya gonna stand there all day?”
I lurched forward, pulled from my thoughts.
“I might be able to help her reach Lucas. Why—”
“Don’t ask why queens think the way they do. They’re a special kind of special. Got stuff in their blood that makes ’em independent. Ornery for no reason, and for sport.”
Ike’s dragon partner whisked his head around and gave me a sniff, eyed me for a longer moment. A shiver nibbled at my neck from the unusual attention. I grasped the young ogre’s outstretched hand, and walked up Taiz’lin’s extended arm.
“He didn’t like ya showin’ Aedwin so much interest,” Ike said, as though he read my mind.
Too much understandin’ goin’ on around these dragons and their riders.
“I imagine Janding set ya straight.”
“I meant no offen—” My words were cut off as Taiz’lin launched. I gripped my staff and leaned into the neck ridge, clinchin’ my knees tightly against the dragon. Sore groin muscles from the previous day’s ride reminded me there’s payback for the honor of sittin’ atop a dragon. I groaned as the cramp lingered.
“Ya gotta relax, bull,” Ike said.
I could almost hear the smile in Ike’s voice. I sat up and tried to do what my friend said. Not as easy to do as said, hundreds of feet in the air.
It’s the launch. The launch. Just be ready for the launch. The rest of the ride is fine.
The staff thrummed. The name Bacchus stabbed into my mind, as though it named itself. Bacchus—Bacchus resonated in my hand. Urgency flowed up my arm and across my chest. I twisted Bacchus around, standin’ it, her, erect.
“No.”
“What’s wrong,” Ike shouted back at me.
“We’re goin’ the wrong direction. He isn’t east.” I pointed with Bacchus. “Lucas. There.”
Taiz’lin soared on the cold air for a full ten seconds as dragon and rider evidently argued. Ahead of us the other four dragons trumpeted.
“Iza’s not happy,” Ike said.
“Ya surprised by that?”
A laugh answered me. Taiz’lin dipped his right shoulder, but I was ready for the sharp turn. The dragon lowered his head studyin’ the terrain as we glided toward the broken valley below.
“Ya sure about this, ogre?”
I raised Bacchus and flicks of energy swirled about me.
Bacchus was sure. “I’m sure.”
The queen’s loud trumpets reached us though she soared far above.
“Iza can’t hear him.”
I didn’t answer Ike’s unvoiced concern. Minutes later Taiz’lin fell in an ever tightenin’ circle where I directed. The challenge was to find a place to land among the unbroken forest. Taiz’lin finally found a crag a mile from where I wished him to land.
Slidin’ down the dragon’s breast before he even finished settlin’, Bacchus pulled me west, down the steep embankment, in a skiddin’ run.
“Slow down or ya’re gonna kill me!” I hissed mentally at the aura precedin’ me over the boulders I struggled around and over, into a tight gully.
It was as vicious a terrain as I’d ever crossed, intentionally. It took us two hours to cover the short mile. I found myself standin’ upon an enormous outcroppin’ when Bacchus failed me. The energy faded like a lantern bein’ snuffed out.
“What?” Ike asked, climbin’ up beside me.
I looked about the rounded granite. There was no smilin’, blond-headed human to greet us. I felt enraged, deceived. A life is at stake. I had trusted Bacchus. I stamped it upon the surface of the stone, stood and listened.
Jays called out from the left and right. The giant pines whispered. Water flowin’ over rocks, murmured below. I followed the silver streaks slitherin’ between the stones.
Ike said, “Ya’ve wasted two hours of our time, ogre.”
I’ll never be trusted by any of them again.
Why had Bacchus lead us here? I sat at the edge of the boulder and slid down to the stream twenty feet below. Unseen from above, millennia of floodin’snow melt had eroded away the lower-side of the rock creatin’ an overhang that narrowed into a cleft. I stared into the darkness, bent over and walked within.
“Ike! Ike! He’s here!”
I crawled to reach the human lyin’ against the far stone wall, reached to feel the man’s forehead, fearin’ it would be ice cold. But it was hot. Too hot. I thought back how uncomfortable Lucas had been that last night. He had tossed and turned, looked awful the next mornin’, struggled to keep up with us. I thought it was just his human-ness.
My gods, he had been comin’ down with the ghoul that struck me and Delia. Musta caught it from me.
Ike reached us, though it was a tight fit, shoutin’ Lucas’ name. He grabbed him by the vest and pulled the human toward us.
“We must get him to my cabin,” I said.
“A few more minutes we can get him to the Hamlet, to the healer and the doctor.”
“No. Ya don’t understand. The fever. The chills. Ya don’t want to take this to the Hamlet. It could kill them all. Delia almost died from it. I caught it from her. Lucas must have caught it from us.”
“I thought—it was a fire—when—”
“I got us here. Please, trust me? Delia and I both came down with a similar fever. I had barely recovered when I trekked to the Hamlet for supplies.”
Ike swore a potent ogre oath, and another, likely a troll profanity by the sound of it, as he pulled the motionless human into his arms. All the dragons circlin’ above trumpeted loudly. The din reverberated against the granite around us. I followed Ike, who twisted the human upon his shoulder like he was carryin’ a year-old ogreling.
“I know the remedies as well as yar apothecary,” I pleaded. “I think Delia can assist me.”
“One, three, how many nurses does it take?” Ike’s voice was harsh, threatenin’.
“She’s a witch,” I called up to Ike, standin’ on the ledge I had just helped push him onto. “A healin’ witch.”
Ike narrowed his eyes at me for the briefest moments before turnin’ to continue up the boulder-strewn crevasse. We hiked thirty minutes without speakin’, listenin’ to the keenin’ of Iza, circlin’ above. Ike finally broke our silence.
“Ya best not mention to Iza ya may have exposed us all to a plague.”
~
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