Tears of War (51 page)

V
addoc and Namir soared over the small village of Welan that lay north of Marden and not far from the Blood River. They had a promise to keep. Below them, two newly constructed towers on either end of town rose at least six stories high. Scorched ground circled each tower.

As the massive gold landed just beyond the houses, several children ran to meet them with the adults not far behind. Before Vaddoc could even dismount, little Lenya had already snagged hold of the edge of Namir’s nostril. Vaddoc laughed as he jumped down. He removed the catcher strap and tossed it up on the saddle.

“Come wif me, Mir,” the little girl commanded, tugging on the dragon’s nose. With a rumble of happiness, Namir slowly followed the toddler. Cat trilled from the saddle and skated down the dragon’s side to run alongside the dragon and little girl.

Her mother approached slowly, the baby on her hip. Lenya beamed up at her. “Looky, Momma, my Mir came back! And he brought kitty wif him.”

The woman eyed the dragon uneasily. Vaddoc stepped forward. “Your daughter is beyond safe with him.” Fates, what was her name?

“I believe it is Anly, if my memory serves me correctly, and it usually does,”
Namir sent. Vaddoc sensed the attention the dragon kept riveted on the little girl as she led him about like a prized pony.

“Anly? Is that your name?” he asked the worried mother.

She didn’t take her eyes off her youngest daughter. “Yes.”

Vaddoc studied her closely. Her voice was sad and her eyes held the red-rimmed, puffy look of one who had cried until there were no tears left. “Is everything alright?”

Anly turned her eyes on him for a brief moment before returning her attention to her daughter. “No, it is not. My husband was a Border Guard. He died in the battle at Marden. He was a good man and now I am left alone with three children and no idea what I will do.”

The battle at Marden, one designed to be nothing more than a distraction. “I am sorry Anly; even dragons cannot protect everyone when Kojen are over running things.”

She looked at him again. “I do not blame you, or your dragon. You are Shaderian, you know as well as I do that people die when there are Kojen.”

A failed shield and deep brown eyes, like bottomless pools filled with pain, flashed through his memory. Images of his father and older brother followed. Yes; he knew all too well the pain Kojen brought to families.

Medar came striding up the street. “Vaddoc, it is good to see you again.” He chuckled. “Never thought I would say that to a Dragon Rider. Where is Kirynn?”

Vaddoc smiled and clasped forearms with the heavyset man who doubled as the mayor as well as the innkeeper. “Medar, you certainly look better than the last time I saw you. Kirynn is patrolling another area. How are the horses doing?”

“They are doing great under my care; I would not have it any other way. Right now they are enjoying some time in the small pasture. I am unable to turn them out in the larger one.”

“Why is that?” Vaddoc sensed something under the man’s words.

Medar scratched the thinning hair atop his head. “Well, it would seem that those black dragons have decided that whatever they have been feeding on in the desert is no longer enough. They come through those black whirlpools of theirs and snatch up farm animals, people, and whatever they can catch easily.” He pointed to the towers. “We built those and keep them manned as lookouts. They sound a horn as soon as they see the signs. Did you know the air starts to ripple and swirl even before it turns black? Anyway, they sound a horn and people know to grab as many animals as they can and get them into barns; and women and children know to get inside.”

Vaddoc looked at the charred ground around the towers. “What burned?”

Medar frowned. “Those black demons have burned the towers twice. We built the first real sturdy, but soon learned to make it bare minimum. We put them up, the blacks burn them down. I suspect these will only last a few more days before we have to build them again.”

That the black dragons were breaching this far into Shadereen to hunt was disturbing enough, it was even more so to hear they were burning things down. Namir reached for him,
“Since Mckale and Maleena have been battling these same troubles in Calladar, do you want me to speak with Tellnox and Nydara and see if they would be willing to come here?”

“Yes. If they have a solution to the problem, I would like to see it implemented in Shadereen. Thank you, Namir.”

Vaddoc turned to Medar. “There might be a fix for that. Give Namir a few minutes to discuss it with some friends of ours.”

Medar nodded.

Though Namir kept an eye on the group of children that scampered around him and even scaled his side to climb on his back, Vaddoc sensed the gold’s conversation with Tellnox. He smiled as he watched several older children sitting on Namir’s back.

The gold stretched out one large wing and angled the trailing edge toward the ground. The children looked at the wing then back toward the dragon’s head. Namir bobbed his head in encouragement. One of the more intrepid children placed his foot carefully on the extended wing, drawing a chuckle from Vaddoc. He knew what was coming; those wings were slippery. Namir was bringing one of the favorite games of the children of Galdrilene to the children here.

The boy put his weight on his foot and it went out from under him. With a shriek he went skidding on his stomach down the widest part of the wing near the dragon’s body. With a light thump, he slid off the trailing edge of the wing and dropped the last few inches to the ground. The boy sat for a moment as if processing what had just happened before leaping to his feet with a whoop and running back toward the dragon’s front leg.

Another boy leaped onto Namir’s wing and slid to the ground. It wasn’t long before a steady stream of children were climbing up the dragon’s side, with the aid of the catcher strap, and walking carefully down his back before jumping onto the extended wing. Even the smaller children joined in with the older ones helping them up. Cat dashed in and out of them, meowing and enjoying the attention they gave him.

Vaddoc couldn’t help laughing as Lenya, squealing with delight, went careening down the golden wing of “her” dragon.

“Tellnox says they know what to do and are coming,”
came Namir’s sending.

Two horns blared in frantic blasts over the town as three whirlpools filled the sky. People screamed and started to run until Namir’s welcoming bugle froze them in their tracks. Three dragons Slid through into the sky above Welan.

The answering bugles of the red, green, and silver dragons filled the air. Lenya jumped up and down while clapping and laughing in delight.

Tellnox, Syrakynn, and Nydara landed not far from Namir and his crowd of young admirers. “Sykynn!” Lenya’s shout carried across the open grasslands at the edge of town as she dashed toward the red.

Syrakynn lowered her head as the little girl neared and huffed a gentle breath at her. Lenya giggled and did her best to hug the red’s large snout. “You broughts me more dragons, Sykynn?”

The red rumbled in acknowledgement. Lenya turned to Kirynn as she leaped down from the saddle and propped her foot on the dragon’s leg to remove the catcher strap. The redhead barely had time to toss the strap up on the saddle before the little girl wrapped her arms around Kirynn’s legs. “Thank yous for bringing me more dragons.”

Kirynn gently pried her arms away and knelt on one knee so she would be more level with the child. “How could I not bring a little one as cute as you more dragons?”

Lenya beamed at her and looked at the green and the silver. “What their names?”

Kirynn pointed. “That big green one is Tellnox and the nearly as big silver is Nydara.”

“Will they play with us like Mir?”

“I’m sure they will.” Kirynn smiled. “Why don’t you go ask them while we see if we can help the grown-ups with their towers?”

Lenya ran up to the new dragons. Vaddoc found himself laughing yet again. Apparently her way of asking was to take hold of the edge of Tellnox’s nostril with her tiny hand and proceed to pull him toward the group of children. The green obliged her without protest. Before long the four dragons basked in the sun rumbling happily while the town’s children climbed all over them and slid down their wings.

Mckale walked up and clasped forearms with Vaddoc. “I hear you have an issue with lookout towers down here. We had the same problem in Calladar for a little bit. Towns would build them and the Shadow Dragons would burn them down.”

Medar nodded. “That is exactly what is happening here.”

“I can help with that.” Mckale smiled at the innkeeper.

Anly, who had watched the children play in silence, turned to Vaddoc. “I would really like to see this, but Annoc will start to fuss if he has to be held much longer.” She paused and glanced back at the dragons. “Do you think they would mind if he crawled around them? He is too little to Slide on wings.” Her expression said she would never have believed such a thing if she hadn’t seen it. “He would really enjoy seeing them closer. My oldest daughter, Tenyi, will help watch after him.”

Vaddoc smiled at her. Who would have thought this nervous mother would ask if the dragons would be willing to babysit her youngest. “Of course they will not mind.”

“Will they…will they step on him? Maybe it is not a good idea. He is so little.”

Maleena stepped forward. “They won’t step on him. Dragons love children; there is no safer place in the world than with them.”

Anly stared at the small, violet-eyed woman for a long moment. “If you are sure…”

“I’m very sure.”

Anly walked slowly over to Namir and gazed up into his amber eyes. “Please be careful with him.”

Namir lowered his head until his eyes were level with hers.
“Vaddoc, please tell her that I will protect her little one with my life.”

“Namir says he will protect Annoc with his life. Your little one is more than safe.”

Anly slowly set the baby down. Annoc blew a few spit bubbles and then crawled toward the dragon’s front foot. He sat next to a talon far bigger than him and immediately leaned over, put his mouth on it, and began teething on the hard rounded surface at the front as drool ran down it. Namir rumbled the dragon equivalent of a chuckle and cocked his head so he could better keep an eye on the youngster trying to gum his way through the dragon’s claw.

Anly sighed. “I would pull him away from teething on a big, dirty claw but he would just go right back to it.”

Kirynn laughed. “As if we didn’t all eat dirt as small children.”

“Very true,” Mckale said as he turned to Medar. “Let’s see what we can do about your towers.”

Medar led the way to the nearest structure. Mckale eyed it up and down. “It could be taller. Can you have your man come down? I’m afraid I’m going to have to remove this one in order to erect another.”

“Remove it? How?” Medar looked a little nervous.

“I’ll have Kirynn burn it down. Don’t worry, it won’t take long and she hasn’t lost control of a fire for a long time.” Mckale glanced at the redhead with a smile. “In fact, the last time I saw her loose complete control of her magic we were camped next to a lake and she burned every stitch of her clothing off.”

Kirynn laughed. “Yes, I did.” She winked at Medar. “I promise not to burn my clothes off or your town down.”

Medar swallowed. “Do what you need to do.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled up at the man in the tower, “Come down from there, Haddoc.”

A young man climbed down the ladder on the side of the tower and walked up to them. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” Medar shook his head and clasped his hands behind his back. “These friends of ours are going to take down this tower and put a better one in its place.”

Haddoc looked at them. “How long will it take?”

Mckale shrugged. “A few hours for both towers.” He motioned to Kirynn. “Take it down.”

Vaddoc couldn’t see her magic weaves but he saw the product of them. The tower burst into flame all at once, burning so hot they all had to step back from it. Within minutes it was reduced to a pile of ash.

Mckale looked at Maleena, concern flickering in his eyes. “Are you ready for this?”