“This doesn’t make any sense,” Talia said. “Are you sure you fed him lamb and not beef?”
“If there is one thing I know more about than you, it’s food,” Holt said. “Give it a minute,” Brode said. “We’ve tried the pork already, so it has
to be lamb. He must be a mystic.”
After days of hard marching southeast with the garrison, the party sat in the glow of a new campfire. They watched Ash eagerly as though he were a toddler attempting to take his first steps. Even Pyra drew in closer, her great eyes wide with anticipation.
Ash pressed all four claws into the earth, and visibly tensed his body. Even the dragon bond changed, growing taut under Ash’s efforts to summon his magic.
“Anything boy?” Holt asked.
“No,” Ash said miserably.
Holt shook his head for the benefit of the others.
Brode scratched his chin. Talia folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow. “What does this mean?” Holt asked.
“It means he’s strange,” Talia said.
“Maybe we didn’t feed him enough?” Holt said.
Ash groaned at that. “I don’t want anymore. Tasted of grass.”
“Now he’s saying he didn’t like it.”
Talia blew hair out of her face in frustration. “Okay, now he’s just defying all known dragon lore. Mystics love lamb.”
Pyra snorted and let loose another rumble from deep in her throat.
“I don’t think his blindness has anything to do with it,” Talia said. Pyra snorted louder. “Why? Because nothing like that has ever been recorded…. yes, I know there will have been too few like him to know for sure… no, I’m sure he’s not defective… because he does have magic, Pyra. And it must be strong if it cured a blight infection.”
“If I may,” Brode interjected. “Perhaps he’s not a mystic, at all.” “Impossible,” Talia hastened to say. “No other dragon type could
develop healing powers.”
“I agree. And yet we’re in a unique position where he isn’t responding to the food of that power type while also displaying an otherwise undefined magic. So, either Ash himself is defying everything or, more likely, there is something about dragons we do not know. Ash and Holt are the most unique pairing I’ve ever seen.”
Holt cleared his throat. Once again, he felt like he was getting left behind in the conversation.
“But what does all this mean for us? What should Ash and I do?”
“For now, we’ll keep an eye on you, watch for more manifestations of his powers and be patient,” said Brode. “It’s all we can do, even if it gives Talia nightmares not knowing the answer to a question.”
Talia rolled her eyes. “Hysterical. Master Brode,” she added apologetically.
He dismissed her with a wave of his hand and laughed. He’d softened somewhat since telling them of his past, as though a mist surrounding him had parted. And for that glorious moment, Holt forgot that they were about to enter battle tomorrow.
Then it came back, and a gloom settled over the party.
“We should find the Knight Captain,” Talia said. “He’ll be awaiting your expertise, Master Brode.”
Brode got to his feet. “I’ll do all I can, but I no longer have a dragon.
The troops will look to you on the battlefield.”
Talia put on a brave face, but Holt swore he saw her gulp.
“I’m ready to fight,” she said. There was a hard edge in her voice. “Pyra too.”
“This will be far worse than the skirmishes you fought over the last year alongside experienced members of the Order.”
“We know,” she said, wrapping an arm around Pyra’s neck. Pyra growled in acknowledgment.
Holt’s thoughts turned to his one and only encounter with the scourge. The horrors he’d witnessed during the attack on the Crag; the monstrous stingers, the ghoulish risen bodies of men and women with bug-like carapaces instead of skin. Fear gripped him just thinking about it, but he was a dragon rider now. Brode had even given him a sword.
Plucking up his courage, Holt jumped to his feet and stood to attention like a soldier.
“What about me and Ash? What should we do?”
Talia looked sheepish and turned to Brode for the answer. “You’ll stay as far away from trouble as you can,” Brode said. “But—”
“But nothing. Stay back with the baggage train. Talia and I can’t look after you in a full battle.”
Holt hung his head, although he was secretly relieved. “I just wanted to help.”
To his great shock, Talia gave him a smile.
“That’s cute, pot boy. Don’t worry, you can risk your life too the moment you and Ash are ready.”
Holt bristled but her attention shifted to Ash. She moved to his side and crouched to his level. As Ash struggled to look directly at her, she gently cupped his head.
“You might be a weirdo, Ash, but I’m grateful you could cure that little girl. Maybe your powers can help more people in time but, even now, it’s good to know that Mr. Smith doesn’t hate riders anymore. The more people who see the value in our Order, the better we’ll be.”
Ash licked Talia’s face by way of saying ‘you’re welcome.’
“Ugh,” Talia said, wiping her face with her sleeve. “Thanks for that.”
Brode cleared his throat again in a manner to signal they ought to be going. Talia got up and she and Pyra moved off.
“Get some rest, Holt,” Brode said. “I’ll come find you again in the morning.”
Holt tried to calm himself but even by the time he’d laid out his bed roll, warmed his feet by the fire, and taken off his mail coat, his head was still spinning.
A battle. A real battle with soldiers and dragons and the scourge. It was every legend he’d heard of growing up coming to life. And it didn’t feel glorious. It just felt terrifying.
Ash came back out of the darkness quietly. Holt’s mind was so preoccupied with the next day he hadn’t noticed the dragon had gone on a wander.
The dragon stopped just out of reach. “What’s the matter?” Holt asked.
“I’m sorry I’m not yet strong enough to help. I worry for the elder one and the troubled one. Even the grumpy one.”
“You know they have names, right?”
“I do but their names do not reflect who they truly are.”
“And you think Pyra is only grumpy?”
“Well, she is. And she can be mean.”
“She can, but I think she’ll warm up in time.”
“Yes, she will grow warmer, for she commands fire.”
Their own bond flared, and Ash started a high oscillating growl that Holt took to be laughter. Holt laughed too although more to be kind. The pun wasn’t that funny.
Ash really was an odd creature. At times he seemed so wise and yet his speech and behavior – like licking Talia’s face – spoke of a much younger soul. Were all dragons like this? He’d ask Pyra but he might receive a burn for irritating her.
“And… the ‘troubled one’ – that’s Talia, right?”
“Yes.”
“So even you can feel it. It’s not just me.”
“It is clear in her voice, and in her heartbeat. Both are rarely calm.”
So, Ash was not only able to hear heartbeats but he could determine someone’s emotions by it. Holt might have pondered on its uses, were he not so afraid about tomorrow.
His worry must have crossed the dragon bond, for Ash padded closer, although he had his nose close to the ground for some reason. A moment later, Holt saw he had sniffed out the leather cover of his father’s recipe book and was pushing it over to him. He’d been using it to check on simple recipes for pork and lamb.
“Thanks, boy,” Holt said.
He picked up the recipe book, laid down on his side and put the book under one arm. Foolish as it may be, he found comfort in holding it.
He had to believe his father was still alive. Perhaps he was already halfway to Sidastra and would soon be behind its walls. Thinking of any
other outcome was too much to bear on top of everything else.
Ash came to curl up at his back. Holt could feel his coarse hide through his shirt, but he didn’t mind. The pulse of the bond washed away such small discomforts.
As the pair lay side by side, Holt swore that Ash’s breathing picked up a rhythm as though an echo of the song from his core rose to send them both into a dreamless sleep.
