Chapter 74: Safe Travels (4)

Chapter 74: Safe Travels (4)

It went for Adelaide first, which was a thing she probably wouldnt like him feeling grateful for, but there it was. She jerked her horses reins towards the forest. Almost made it, too. But the dragon got there ahead of her, her path predicted, talons broad enough to crush boulders outstretched. They hunted with their hindlegs, a part of Aarons mind noted, in a glance over his shoulder before he went back to minding where his own paws were racing. Its forelegs were tucked to its chest, its wings stretched above it. It was a brilliant copper, now that it wasnt trying to camouflage itself against the sky.

It was bigger than the dragons that had attacked Salts Mane, but nowhere near so big as the stories said they grew. A second year? Older?

Adelaides horse was screaming behind him. Another look back, and he saw the horse on its side, legs kicking, his sister already rolling back to her feet. The mare had balked under the dragons shadow, maybe. Had saved both their lives, definitely. The dragon, its mark missed, had apparently opted to take this fight to the ground rather than risking its prey disappearing into the trees before it could dive again.

It wasnt out to doppel them. Not with the force it hit the ground, the dirt and rocks thrown aside in its wake, the lines rent in the road from its passing. It dug its talons into the road, all four paws now, and bled its momentum through claws and wings, going faster and farther than they could have run. As demonstrated by it passing Aaron. Well. That had been the wrong direction to bolt, then. He veered.

There was a bend in the road ahead of it. Just a slight one, but enough to put the line of carefully roped stones in its skidding path. It leaned back, like a Twokins kid whod started sliding down a rock face, and only now realized the bottom wasnt so soft a landing as expected. It stopped itself just before the stones. And sat there, a moment, panting.

One of its toes had nicked an old rope. Already frayed with weather and age, it slid to the ground.

That was the first Aaron saw the leshy. The first the dragon saw it, too. It was just there. Standing among the old trees, directly in front of where the dragon had almost crashed into the Lord of Seasons forest. The forest guardian was twice as tall as a human. Half as tall as a second-year dragon. It stood on two legs, in the rough shape of a human, since humans always thought human-shaped things were after their own image. Draping lichen hung like fur over the old gray wood of its bones, strung together by the thick corded vines that moved the rest. There was a place atop its shoulders that could be called a head, but there were no eyes that Aaron could see in that leafy mound. Nor ears, nor mouth. It stood there, just behind the stone and right under the dragons nose, as if it had grown in the place years ago.

The dragon removed its offending claw from the stone, slowly. Scooted backwards on its rear a good few feet before, equally slowly, getting its feet back under it. Whether it had personal experience with this forest, or only its dams memories as warning, it knew enough to be cautious.

The leshy continued to stand there. The dragon might have kept standing awhile too, except that Adelaide drove her sword into its wing as high up as she could reach and justdragged it down, a long and final line, like a seamstress cutting cloth.

Right. Because grounding the dragon with them was exactly what they needed.

Actually, that would make it significantly easier to evade the thing. It would still be fast, but not dive-from-the-sky fast. And there would be no more spotting them from above. Now if Aaron could just get his sister running. But Adelaides horse had found its feet, then promptly found the road away from all this, which did make it rather hard for her to outpace even a grounded dragon. She was retreating into the forestthe human side of the forestbut it was to hamper the dragons movements between the closely spaced trees, to fight on more even terms. Not to run. There was a village near, and she was a blood noble.Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

He wasnt responsible for Adelaide Sung. He barely even knew her, even if she was putting a rather absurd amount of effort into getting to know him. Which was not a thing people generally bothered with. And if she survivedas she had on the balcony, and at least one time before that, given the Michael situation, so really this was a pattern with herif she survived, and hed run off on this fight, well. It wasnt best to let powerful people hed betrayed also remain alive. More prudent to keep such things to one or the other: the betrayal, or the still-breathing.

And Aaron did not actually want his sister dead. Also, he had an idea, which was the stupider of those statements.

His claws left furrows in the dirt as he pivoted. The dragon was forcing its way through the trees behind him, trying to get to his sister. Its head was held awkwardly low under the branches of trees maintained by and for humans, its wings pinned to its sides by their trunks, its lunges and strikes hampered enough for Adelaide to avoid, so long as she stayed on her guard. Perhaps the foresters villages werent so ill-defended afterall. Or perhaps the dragon didnt feel free to break trees or start fires, not with a leshy so near.

Aaron raced past them both. He wanted nothing to do with claws or teeth or the potential for it to change its mind about that fire. He ran out into the road, and latched onto a far less deadly target: the dragons tail. Which he bit, right near the end, where wolf jaws could wrap all the way around and clamp tight. He jumped clear again, just as quick.

The dragons tail whipped out. Aaron hadnt drawn blood through its tooth-jarring scales, but slamming ones finger in a door didnt typically draw blood, either. He imagined wolf bites felt about like that, under all its armor. It didnt actually turn towards him for more than a murderous glancethank you, sister, for the continued distractionwhich made the tails lashing easy enough to dodge. It thumped down just outside the line of rocks.

The leshy kept standing there, dust from the hit drifting over it. A bit closer, then.

Which would be difficult, with the dragon so focused on Adelaide.

Less so, when he remembered that Adelaide was a person who was, nominally, on his side. He could just work with her.

He stood in the road where she could see him, and woofed his most annoying woof. She looked. He jumped a step back towards the rocks, and the leshy. Wagged his tail, for good measure.

She looked away, with no change in expression. His tail stopped wagging.

But when next the dragon swiped a claw at herit wasnt trying to bite, and Aaron wondered if the dragons passed around their own stories about herhis sister ducked it, and used the opportunity to run. Back into the road, to the line of stones, where she cast Aaron another glance before firming up her stance and raising her sword.

Your first instinct is always to run, isnt it? she said, because apparently they were still talking about this. Thank you for coming back.

How about you stop making a habit of this, and Ill stop needing to decide, he said.

Seems we both have something to work on, then, she said, with a smile.

That wasnt a joke, he said, for claritys sake, and she laughed.

A little further down the road, she worked free her wooden arm. It had been as useless in battle as shed said: flopping around, hitting trees as she dodged, hitting her side just as often. She was lucky it hadnt gotten tangled up in anything.

Still. He raised an eyebrow, at the one-armed woman holding an arm.

Dont you have to carry that now? he asked.

The look she gave him was withering enough to wilt a leshy on the spot. She pointed at him, with the half-curled fist of the prosthetic.

Im not sure Im going to like you, brother, she said.

I dont have much experience with sisters, said Aaron, but doesnt that mean Im doing it right?

This was a joke, but she didnt laugh. That was fine: he could smirk enough for the both of them.

They made it to the next village just after sundown. There were no walls to keep them out, no matter how disreputable they looked. The villagers let them stay in one of those empty longhouses the forester villages had. Made, he realized, for travelers not actually welcome in their homes. They stayed in the same room, and neither said anything on the topic. They stayed in the room farthest from the line of roped stones outside, which required even fewer words.

He wondered if a leshy could regrow a tree from the wood of their walls, and went to sleep with those thoughts.

The next day brought them to a messenger waypoint. Adelaides horse had arrived ahead of them, and had spent the night surrounded by the luxury of new hay. The sweat of her fear and flight had been meticulously curry-combed away by a stablehand who scolded them for leaving the poor creature in such a state, and all alone besides. But also could they tell him every detail of what happened, because the stablehand gossip network was very real and very hungry, and this was the most exciting thing that had happened since that time a stablehand on the coast had missed a kelpie in her stalls.

Adelaide glared at the man, already leading her new horse away, her old saddlebags on its back. The man did not repent.

Aaron thought a moment. Saw a bear eat a dragon, he said. A few trees helped.

And then he led his own horse away, past the desperate pleas of gossip-monger whod glimpsed a feast, and would soon starve on these crumbs.

The last forester village they stayed at was the first hed ever seen. The twin babes Orin and Rose had blessed were doing well. Not a scream out of them in days, not even when their tired mother was slow at getting them to her milk. Apparently theyd been quite colicky before that.

Theyve been sleeping well, her little cubs, someone commented. Winter must be feeling full.

They left the forest behind them. Entered the mountains, and started the winding way up, until they crossed through a pass and found a familiar plateau in the distance, tucked between the sheltering teeth of greater peaks. A day more brought them to the gates of Onekin, and the castle itself, where Aaron was recognized and greeted and generally welcomed home, in a way that made him think that home was a thing that he had. The guards and staff certainly seemed to think so. Adelaide entered with him, upon his introduction; it had been too long since shed last come here for her to be recognized on her own merits.

And so the future duchess of the south was inside the palace, among all the southern lords whod not been trusted on parole anywhere near their troops. And her father, too, who was locked up in the OSheas basement.

It occurred to him, then, that perhaps this trip hadnt just been about brother-sister bonding. And also, that he was exactly as poor an advisor to the king as hed thought.