The solitary bold savage walked slowly to one of the remaining shelters. The dragon’s brilliant gaze tracked his every step. The great beast froze, motionless, as the man ducked inside. He reappeared almost immediately with a wooden chest. Still with that same measured pace, he approached the dragon and set the brass-bound box down just within striking distance of its long neck. Then his nerve broke and he scrambled backwards, tripping over one of his companions to go sprawling in the dust. He cowered, drawing up his legs like a terrified child, one arm impotently lifted to ward off the dragon’s murderous bite.
The creature ignored him, stretching out its head to sniff at the coffer. Dusty earth stirred around its forefeet as it dug its claws deeper into the ground. Its forked tongue flickered out, tasting the dark ironwood and the tarnished bindings. Then, with the same delicacy it had shown when extricating the hapless Chazen warriors from their armour, it extended one forepaw and drove a claw into the top of the chest. One powerful twist broke the coffer into kindling and the dragon sniffed at the contents. What is he giving it?’ Risala asked, baffled.
‘Is that the mage we must kill?’ demanded Kheda.
‘I don’t sense any hint of magic in the man,’ Dev said slowly. ‘It’s hard to be sure, though, with the dragon filling the whole island with its aura. Only . . .’ His voice trailed of
Kheda couldn’t recall when he had last seen uncertainty in the barbarian’s eyes. ‘What?’
‘To be a wizard, you must be mageborn and have an innate affinity with one or more of the essential elements of nature,’ Dev said slowly.
Born to twist and corrupt nature.
‘I know that.’ Kheda bit down on his distaste.
‘It’s like any skill—there are some with more aptitude than others. There are some with so little capacity that all the training in the world won’t make them useful.’ Dev nodded towards the dragon still intent on nosing at the fragments of the little chest, ignoring the wild men prone all around. ‘I think we did kill all the wizards. If that man is magebom, I don’t reckon he’s got anything more than negligible ability in the ordinary way of things. But he can draw enough strength to work plenty of mischief if he can keep the dragon close at hand—if he can keep it from eating him.’
‘How can we kill him?’ demanded Kheda.
‘With that thing playing watchdog?’ Dev chewed his lip. ‘I can’t see us doing that. Still, it should take him a few days to work out what to do with his new power. And just having the dragon around might promote a few other new wizards from the spear-carriers. Maybe they’ll start fighting each other. Maybe we’ll get lucky.’
‘What will the dragon do then?’ Kheda wondered with a hollow feeling of dread.
Not a lot, I would hope,’ said Dev. ‘As long as there are plenty of dead for it to eat.’
‘He knows what else to give it to keep it happy,’ added
Kheda thoughtfully. ‘What do you suppose that is?’
The dragon was lying down now, tail curled around its haunches, forefeet cradling whatever the wild man had given it. Stretching out its long neck, it plucked another lifeless body from the heap of dead and slowly ate it with an audible crunching. Sliding backwards on their bellies and elbows, the surviving savages retreated into the forest.
‘It’s gems. It has to be,’ Risala said suddenly. ‘The invaders were never interested in other loot. They’d barely take more food beyond what would fill their bellies after a fight.’
‘Why give gems to a dragon?’ Kheda looked at Dev.
‘I don’t know.’ Vindictively the wizard crushed a fly crawling on a scrap of melon rind. ‘Velindre might, but I’m not bespeaking her within fifty leagues of that thing, even if I had the means to do it.’
‘We need to get away from here.’ Kheda tried to see where the savages had gone but the all-concealing foliage made that impossible.
‘We’ll take some melons with us.’ Risala crawled backwards to j nut palm and, cutting a few fronds, began plaiting them rapidly. ‘And we need hats in this sun.’
‘You were quick off the mark back there,’ Dev said grudgingly as he glowered at the contented dragon. Nothing like the thought of being eaten alive to sharpen the ears.’ She shuddered.
Kheda waited impatiently until she had finished the basket. He shovelled melons into the lopsided container and gathered it up. Hot and sticky with juice and sweat, dust and grit coating his arms and chest, the weight of the basket ground painfully against his skin. The discomfort was nothing compared to the torment of this new threat to Chazen.
A dragon. Which looks quite happy to stay as long as these savages keep feeding it their can-ion. Whose very presence may be enough to give these wild men new mages. We barely survived their last assaults backed by their murderous sorceries.
‘There you go, my lord.’ Dev tossed a crudely woven hat to Kheda. ‘Sony if it’s not quite suitable for your dignity.’
‘I’ll let it pass, just this once,’ Kheda said dryly as he clapped the hat on his head.
They reached the shallow shelf in the rock where they had left their raft.
‘Would these new wizards lose their magic if we could drive the dragon off or lure it away?’ Kheda asked suddenly.
‘Probably,’ Dev said slowly.
‘Would the dragon kill them if they lost their magic?’ Kheda shot back. Would they lose their hold over it?’
‘If you managed to feed them some of Shek Kul’s cursed herbs?’ Dev was quick to see where Kheda’s thoughts were leading and scowled beneath his own palm-fringed hat. ‘Making them no more than zamorin as far as magic goes? Perhaps. I don’t know.’
Kheda set his jaw resolutely. ‘Then let’s think how we might do one or the other.’
‘I’d rather see. if Velindre’s got some lore to help us,’ objected Dev disagreeably.
Wouldn’t it be better if we could rid ourselves of this new danger without resorting to magic? Using Dev last year was the lesser of two evils but you are still cursed with that evil, if this dragons appearance is anything to go by.
‘We’ll have to see.’ Kheda glanced over his shoulder. There was neither sign nor sound of the dragon moving from its resting place and he breathed a little easier.
‘The trip won’t get any shorter for us hanging around.’ Risala gathered up the paddles as Dev shoved the raft into the sea.
‘We’ll each take a turn steering.’ Kheda passed the basket of melons to Dev as the wizard balanced gingerly on the raft. ‘You first, Risala.’ He handed her on to the raft and she took firm hold of the steering oar. ‘Then me.’ Dev was threading a spare length of cord through the spars holding the logs together, lashing the basket down. ‘I’m not paddling you two all the way home and I’m not risking magic that could draw some wild wizard after us.’
‘Ready?’ asked Risala, shoving her own hat backwards on her head.
‘Ready’ At Kheda’s nod, the two men began paddling.
No one wasted breath in talking as they worked their way along the coral-crusted shore and into more open water. Kheda spared half an eye for any sign of wild men among the trees as he pondered their predicament.
Could we find some means of killing the dragon or driving it away? Will this woman of Dev’s find some lore to help us? Will there be any sign presaging such good fortune when there’s a wizard involved? Will there be any sign showing me which is the better choice for Chazen?
First things first: we have to keep this dragon from laying waste to the domain while we wait for some salvation from these northern wizards or for inspiration as to how we might save ourselves.