Death Comes To All (Book 1) (57 page)

“
I
can’t stay any longer Loretta,” he answered. “We
don’t know when Croakas was supposed to contact Bloodheart's
men again, or who he was giving his information to at all for that
matter. When he doesn’t show up they’ll realize something
is wrong, and it won’t be long after that before they realize
that it wasn’t me they killed in that alley. In another day,
maybe two, I’ll have to be gone from here. Otherwise I’ll
be putting everyone in danger again.”

“
As
I said before, they wouldn’t dare attack us here,” she
reminded him.

“
You
may be right about that, but I would still have to leave eventually.
If I’m not gone by the time they figure out I’m still
here, they’ll be watching for me when I try to leave. My best
chance is to be long gone by the time the figure it out.”

She took several seconds to digest that information
before answering.

“
You’re
probably right,” she said at last, her face returning to the
stoic mask she sometimes wore when she was trying to hide her true
emotions. “You have what you came for after all, and you’ve
even ferreted out my father’s murderer. It wouldn’t be
right for me to try to hold you here any longer.”

“
I’ll
try not to be gone for so long this time,” he said, trying to
reassure her. As strong as Loretta was, it was sometimes hard to
forget that, in some instances, she was just like any other woman.
She could still feel the pain of rejection like anyone else. He was
not trying to reject her, but that didn’t change how she felt.
She couldn’t hide her feelings from him. At least not for very
long.

“
You
better not be. If you take too long, I might have to come find you
myself. If I have to do that, I don’t think you’ll be too
happy when I do.” For a brief second she stared at him, a dark
look of warning on her face. Then she broke into a wicked smile, no
longer able to hold back her amusement any longer.

He laughed heartily, the tension draining from him like
water in an unplugged basin.

“
Come
on,” she laughed with him. “I’ve waited a decade
and a half for you already. Do you really think I’d get all
choked up just because you have to leave for a little while again?
I’d like to think that I’m no longer the same person as
the girl I was all those years ago. I know you’ll be back, when
you can.”

He closed the distance between them, kissing her
soundly. She returned the kiss with undisguised passion; passion she
had learned to temper when needed, he knew.

“
So
how soon do you think you’ll be leaving?” she asked.

“
It
would probably be best if I leave around mid-morning,” he
replied. “There will be more people out and about then. It
should be easier for me to pass unnoticed.”

“
Alright
then. Just to be on the safe side, you should probably avoid the main
gates. We have ways of getting in and out of the city that the guards
know nothing about. You can leave through one of those.”

“
That’s
a good idea,” he agreed. “Also I think I should probably
take some supplies with me, and a boat if we can. Do you think you
can have someone waiting at the edge of the swamp with one?”

“
You’re
going through the swamp?” she asked in alarm. It wasn’t
as dangerous in the winter, when the larger and more dangerous
reptiles were likely to be hibernating, but it was a dangerous route
at the best of times. The paths that led through changed from year to
year, as the thick vegetation grew or pulled back. A person traveling
by boat wouldn’t know the route they would be taking with any
certainty until they were there. People found themselves lost there
all the time, never to be seen again.

“
There’s
no guards along that route,” he reminded her. “I can take
follow the swamps north for miles and swing in to meet up with the
north road further away. The guards there will have heard that I died
here, and even if the city guards have figured out that I’m not
dead, they wouldn’t have had time to send word yet. I stand a
better chance that way.”

He didn’t want to tell her about the Hut, not yet
at any rate. The Hut was his private place, his place to go to when
everything else had failed. Only Raine, and now Drom, knew of it. One
day, perhaps, he would take Loretta there, but not yet. He would tell
her all about it then. For now, the best option was to keep his own
council.

Besides,
he thought, eying the open doorway,
who
knows who might be listening.

Chapter Nineteen

Raiste pulled hard on the paddles. The ten foot long
boat edged several feet further along, heading north. Always north.

Trick led the way from the air, for which Raiste was
thankful. His friend could see paths from his elevated position that
Raiste couldn’t hope to. If it hadn’t been for Trick, he
would surely have been lost a dozen times over.

Raiste sensed something behind him, like eyes boring
into his back. Turning quickly, his eyes darted this way and that,
peering into the gloomy swamp. After a moment he turned back,
breathing a deep sigh of relief. As before, he had seen nothing.

But yet it was there. He knew it as surely as he had
ever known anything in his life. Something was following them through
the swamp.

Trick could sense it too. He had been edgy and agitated
all day, since they had first left the city. Like Raiste, however, he
could not find the source of his discomfort.

Perhaps it’s just the creatures that live here,
watching us pass by,
he hoped, but somehow he knew better.
Whatever it was had no intention of just letting them pass by. It was
waiting, watching for the moment to strike. Every instinct, every
moment of his extensive training, told him this.

But
what could hide itself from Trick’s watchful eyes?

He tried his best to purge the thought from his mind. He
couldn’t see any point in fearing phantoms. Many men had lost
their minds in these swamps to the specters of their imaginations. He
had no intention of being one of them.

Up ahead, Trick began flying in slow circles, and Raiste
immediately turned the boat to the spot that his sapphire friend
indicated. A narrow channel began there, and he guided his boat down
it smoothly. On his own he would never have chosen this as his path,
but Trick had not guided him wrong yet, and he didn’t expect
him to now.

To the west, the sun was just beginning to dip low on
the horizon, shining through as the weak rays broke through the thick
mangroves. He carefully brushed aside a thick tangle of vines that
draped off of a nearby tree, partially blocking his path. On the
other side of the mossy vines he beheld a welcoming sight.

The narrow path he was on opened up wide, and there, in
the very back of the open expanse of water, was a large, open
clearing. A clearing of dry land! He looked back to the sky, and
understood Trick’s reasoning. This would be a good place to
camp for the night.

He paddled the boat to the edge of the clearing, stepped
on, and pulled the boat out of the water after him. Trick flew down
to land on the ground beside him. The small dragonling shook
slightly, his eyes scanning the swamp around them. He seemed just as
frightened as he had been when they stopped at mid-day.

What
is making him so nervous?

He suspected that his friend wasn’t certain
himself. If he knew than he would surely have given some indication
of what was bothering him, but he didn’t. Raiste could usually
understand him, and Trick knew it.

“
It’s
alright Trick,” he said, trying his best to sound calming. “I’m
sure it’s nothing more than our imaginations playing tricks on
us.”

Trick didn’t seem any more convinced than he was
himself. At that moment Raiste decided that he wasn’t going to
have a fire that night after all. They were far enough from the road
that he didn’t need to worry about guards seeing the light from
the flames, but that didn’t mean it was safe either. He didn’t
see any point in broadcasting their location to anything that might
see it.

Trick seemed to agree. A light in the darkness was not
something they wanted. The two friends, man and dragonling, settled
down for a cold meal of dried, salted beef before falling asleep,
side by side in the chill of the night.

In all that time, however, they never saw anything to
cause them to believe that the phantoms they feared were real. They
saw nothing, heard nothing. At last Raiste began to finally believe
that perhaps they were truly safe.

Raiste was traveling down another narrow channel, quite
similar to the one Trick had led him down the very first night in the
swamps. Without warning, Trick flew down, directly at him! The little
dragonling attacked him like a wild animal, clawing at him. The force
of his little friend’s assault knocked him backwards into the
water....

And saved his life! For just as he fell unceremoniously
into the murky swamp water, a massive red form flew at him from
somewhere above. Red flames, like the fires of the underworld, shot
from the great beast’s gaping maw, bathing the small boat in
smoke and heat. Instantly, the small boat was completely engulfed,
and only a moment later, consumed by the dragonfire.

Raiste saw it all from underneath the water. Even while
the water surrounded him, threatening to drown him, he could still
feel the heat from the blast. The magical, liquid stream of the
dragonfire didn’t dissipate right away, but instead the liquid
floated on the surface, leaving it ignited.

Seeing a clear patch of open water from underneath,
Raiste struggled to the surface, the need to breath overcoming his
fear of the flames. He broke the surface with a splash, taking in a
large lungful, gasping. The heat that surrounded him threatened to
cook him where he swam. The air he breathed in was hot and smokey,
but with effort he managed to keep from coughing. Coughing now could
mean death.

He looked around him. All around liquid dragonfire
burned across the top of the water. The boat was gone, in all
likelihood it had been destroyed completely, he knew. Along with it
were all the supplies he had brought with him. Like the boat, Trick
was nowhere to be seen. Raiste could only hope that the small
dragonling somehow managed to avoid the attack.

He heard a roar from above and dived underneath the
water, just as a second blast of dragonfire streaked across the open
surface where he had been. He felt a searing pain on his back as he
sunk. He had been too late to avoid it completely, he realized, but
believed he had managed to escape the worst of it.

If
I hadn’t, I’d already be dead.

He had only seconds before he would need another lungful
of air, he knew. He had to find some way out of this, some way to get
to safety, at least long enough to take care of his wound and breath
cleaner air. The smoke in his lungs now could be just as dangerous as
the heat of the flames.

He dived down to the bottom, using the murky darkness
there to help conceal himself, and the grips and handholds to propel
himself along at a faster pace than he could swim on his own. After
perhaps a hundred yards his screaming lungs could no longer take the
strain. He had to come up for air.

Just as important as the need for air, however, was the
need for silence. This was a dragon that was hunting him, and
anything that gave him away could prove his downfall. Slowly,
carefully, he raised his head above the water, without a sound or a
splash to betray his location.

Peering back to where he had been only minutes ago, his
eyes widened in fear. A wide area of the swamp itself was on fire,
liquid flames floating on the surface. Several of the surrounding
trees crackled and snapped, caught up in the blaze. As he watched,
one large mangrove, its gnarled, twisted trunk thick with age,
toppled into the water with a loud splash, hissing as the water
kissed the flames along its length.

There!

Through the smoke and the steam from the falling tree he
saw it. Now there was no question in his mind. This was the shadow
dragon that they had seen on the road between Port Tam and Miani. It
must have been hunting him then, just as he had suspected, and it
still was now.

The beast had nestled itself in a clump of trees. It
scanned the water, looking for him. At the moment it was still
looking in the area of the attack, but it wouldn’t take long
before it started expanding its search. If he stayed where he was it
would surely find him.

He scanned the sky, searching. After a short time he
gave up. He couldn’t find Trick anywhere. He hoped that his
sapphire friend had not been harmed in the dragon’s attack.
Unfortunately, there was little he could do to save him, or himself
for that matter, at the moment.