Mor n, the carrot-haired Forester, said to the other boys. “Tomorrow we’ll pass by Demon's Lake. That’s where Crix Crux used to hole up before the pilgrims and the Kingsmen ran him up into the hills.”
“How do you know?” Rikky asked in disbelief. “If that’s true, then Crix Crux has to be older than water.”
Jenka and S ck both chuckled at the young hunter’s sound reasoning.
“It’s called Demon's Lake because the wind makes a deep groaning sound where it passes over the gro os, not because of the Crix Crux fable,”
Zah informed them. “When our ancestors first le the Islands and started se ling here on the mainland they feared the place because of the sound and called it Demon's Lake.”
“That’s true, lass, about them howlin’ caverns, but that en’t why it’s called Demon's Lake,” Herald heeled his horse over and added to the history. “Way back when they was building the Great Wall, a 'fore any pilgrims ever dared to venture farther inland than the coastal strongholds, they came a 'hollering that a lake monster had slunked up out of the caves during the night and snatched a man and the ca le he was watering. A er that, it went and killed and ate a dozen caravan men who had just filled the king’s water wagons at the lake.” He paused and spit a wad of phlegm off to the side. “A group of Kingsmen went down into them gro oes and found
some ca le carcasses, and half a man’s body too. Then, a er about half of them got roasted to ash they realized that they had holed in on an old fire wyrm. They went back to the construc on se lements, where the wall was going up, and got reinforcements with lances and crossbows. They came back to kill the savage red bastard, but by the me they returned it had killed most of the troop and fled for the peaks.”
“If that tale is true, then those men got what they deserved,” Zah said with a touch of defiant anger in her voice. “How would you feel if some strange creatures came and violated your home and tried to kill you?”
“How would you feel if you was one of them innocent farm folks that fire breathin’ bastard was a' ea n’, miss?” Herald’s expression was a study in indignant righteousness. He spat another wad of dark phlegm. Then he spat his words. “I lost a fist full of friends and a few kin to them scaly fargin wyrms over the years. If you ever knew the truth of things, about how them dragons nearly killed off our first ancestors and ended us, then you’d have a different bit of reasonin’ in your pre y skull.” He huffed away some of his ire and glanced around at the group. “When the survivors of the Dogma first washed up on Gull's Reach, they had to fight the dragons just to get from the sea shore into the thickets. Learned druid or not, you haven’t read all the books there is, miss. There’s a bundle of journals wrote by them survivors. I read some of them back when I was sta oned on King’s Island.” Herald’s grizzly expression so ened a bit as a fond memory intruded on his anger. “My betrothed was a scribe there. She’d been markin’ copies of old manuscri s to preserve them.”
“They are called manuscripts,” Zah snorted. “And I am sure it was hard those first years out on Gull's Reach, but we washed up in their land.
We are the ones who … who … um … ” She faltered and mumbled something else but no one heard what it was.
Everyone was suddenly si ng s ll in the saddle and holding their breath. Even the horses had seemingly frozen in place. All eyes, including Zahrellion’s, were now staring at the dark, sinuous thing in the sky that had just completely eclipsed the sun as it passed over them.
It was a dragon, a big old red, and it was looking back and down at them. Curls of dark smoke streaked out of its snout with its slow exhala on, and its scales gli ered scarlet and ruby in the a ernoon sun. It was an in mida ng beast, and it was banking around for a closer look.
Jenka scanned around in a panic. There wasn’t a tree or a sizable bush in sight. Besides the swi ly churning river, there was absolutely no place for them to run for cover. Solman and Mor n panicked and charged their willing horses away from the group. Master Kember just managed to catch Rikky by the saddle and stopped him from joining them.
“Stay together!” Linux and Herald both commanded at the same me. Herald added, “Mind your horses now! Don’t let them get away from ya!”
Jenka pulled on his reigns and his horse backed up close to Master Kember and Rikky. He looked around for his fleeing friends, and his heart dropped to the grassy turf. Solman and Mor n had almost made it over to the river, but Zahrellion was by herself, about halfway between them. A glance at the sky told Jenka that if the dragon wanted to kill her then she didn’t have a chance. Then, to make ma ers even worse, Zah’s horse reared up and tossed her from the saddle. It instantly rolled itself back to
its hooves and tore off in a mad dash, away from the flying death that was now streaking down from the sky.
Before he could stop himself, Jenka found himself spurring his steed forward in a valiant gallop out to save her.
Behind him, Master Kember let out a long desperate, “Nooo!” But it was already too late.
Chapter Five
Jenka charged his horse towards Zah, which put him directly in the dragon’s path. Over his thundering heart, he heard Master Kember screaming his name and the loud, low hissing the dragon made as it drew in the breath that would probably roast him to ashes.
In front of him, Zah rolled herself to her feet. She managed to give Jenka an irritated but apprecia ve snarl, then raised her chin defiantly at the closing wyrm.
Jenka was almost to her now. Her eyes were sparkling like chips of maroon-colored glass as she waved her hands around in quick, fran c gestures. Pink light seemed to trail from her finger ps, and it began to look as if she were wri ng in the sky. Jenka chanced a glance back, and his heart nearly stopped cold in his chest. The dragon’s wagon-cart-sized, horned head was right there on them, and those slavering jaws were showing him a mouthful of terrible-looking teeth.
Jenka actually clenched his eyes shut and scrunched himself down into the saddle in an cipa on of the crunching inferno that was about to end him.
“Jenka! Nooooo!” Master Kember yelled again, but it was too late.
As the dragon's jaws came snapping down at Jenka, Zah raised her hand and held her palm out, as if that might stop the streaking beast from
having her next. With fierce determina on, she called out a sharp, commanding word. A thundering blast of sparkling, yellow power pulsed forth from her open palm in an expanding wave that rippled outward through the fabric of the world.
Jenka felt the heat of the dragon’s foul breath and could hear the horrifying roar that came along with it, but only un l his guts were jolted.
A er that, everything was absolute silence, even as his horse stumbled and fell, throwing him headlong into the rough ground just beside Zah.
To
find
out
what
happens
next
visit
h p://www.mrmathias.com/Dragoneers.html and treat yourself to a copy of The Royal Dragoneers. A map of the realm can be found there as well.
Document Outline
Part I
Chapter One
