Chapter 26

Tythos, Bird and Regina all stood around the still form of the dragon. The morning had dawned clear and the sky was a bright, crisp blue. The wind had picked up further and was whipping a warm wind over the trio. The snow was already beginning to melt, falling in wet clumps from the trees with the wind and the warmth. The dragon looked the same in death as it did in life, and Tythos felt a wary unease, looking at it. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was sleeping, or only feigning death, and was waiting for him to step closer before it struck. He gave the head of the creature a wide berth. It still wore its toothy grin, even in death.

Farmer Sagget had lent him a spare set of clothes, and Tythos promised he’d pay him back. He didn’t know how. Bird and Regina were both lost in private thoughts, staring at the beast. The nightmare had wandered off somewhere, and Tythos was grateful for the break from it. There was so much to do. He had to go back and tell farmer Sagget how he’d doomed the valley. He needed to go to Ginnung Gap— he was still bound by his word to Sigrun. At least he had a bargaining chip to use that would let him strike a deal. He knew how to slay dragons. Tythos grinned. This was the most valuable knowledge in the world. There were other things to do as well. He needed to get to Pallbrook and see if he could backtrack the orders to wipe out the valley. There was something else going on, and he coudln’t let it lie.

“I woudn’t have believed it,” Bird said. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

Regina walked up and put a hand on the dragon. She looked back at Bird and Tythos.

“This is the first dragon men have killed?” She asked.

“Far as I know,” Bird said. “This is the first dragon to ever die.”

“It’s not the first,” Tythos said. They looked at him. “When man first set foot on the world, he commanded magic.”

Bird made a face, “I didn’t peg you as a discoverist.”

“I know what I read,” said Tythos. “And the scrolls were right about how to kill a dragon. Why should I doubt the rest of what they say?”

“What is, discoverist?” Regina asked.

“It’s some fool notion that men came from another world some four or five-hundred years ago,” Bird said.

“I’ve set foot on another world,” Tythos said.

“Are you talking about Ginnung Gap? Because I’ve been there and that isn’t another world—“

“Did you step through?” Tythos got in his face. “Didn’t think so. Don’t tell me what it is and isn’t if you didn’t go through.”

“It’s a hole in the ground, is what it is—“

“It’s a hell of lot more than that, and it doesn’t lead underground. It leads to another world, with another sky. The land is different, the people are different, and the things that live there are different… twisted and wrong.”

“Boys!” Regina stepped between them. “You’re sweet, but don’t fight over me. You miss point. If this is only dead dragon in world— right now— how valuable do you think it is?”

They all three looked at the dragon again. Each thinking private thoughts.

“Soon,” Regina said. “We all become rich.”

***

Sigrun, Lance and Peony were all awake and eating when the trio returned from viewing the dragon. They all three gaped at Tythos. Sigrun and Peony started asking questions on top of each other about his youthful appearance. Tythos had to repeat himself several times that he didn’t know, it was magic, before he was able to turn the topic to the dragon. He would have to discuss what he did know in private with Sigrun later. Bird pulled farmer Sagget aside and asked him what specifically he had used to treat Sigrun and Peony. Lance sat quietly through it all, a dark expression on his face, then he announced he had to see the dragon for himself. Regina offered to show him, but he got up and left. She shrugged and went to get another helping of food.

Sigrun was staring at Tythos with an odd expression on her face. He kept expecting her to ask a question, but when he met her eye, she would focus on her food. Regina sat by Peony and they started talking about what they’d do with the money from the dragon. Tythos walked over and sat down by Sigrun.

They sat quietly for a while, watching the others talk. Sigrun finished her food, then spoke without looking at him.

“I still intend to carry out my orders,” she said.

Tythos nodded, “I expected nothing less.”

She looked at him, studying his face, “You look…”

“Like a kid?”

“I was going to say, good.”

Tythos shook his head, “It’s still sinking in. When the snow melts I’ll actually get a good look at myself.”

“What I did…” Sigrun trailed off.

Tythos looked at her. She had tears in her eyes.

“I know it wasn’t for me,” he said. “You did it for honor, and the king. We don’t ever have to talk about it, if you don’t want. We will have to talk about some ground rules to keep the nightmare from consuming your soul.”

“Nightmare?”

“Yeah, it’s what I’ve taken to calling the tall black thing with teeth and an attitude. I think we might both be bound to it now, not just me.”

“Consuming my soul?”

“Yeah, never mind that for now. Tell me how it felt to slay a dragon.”

Sigrun and Tythos talked. She told him about slaying the dragon and fighting soldiers. Peony and Regina talked, making plans to spend the fortune they would soon have. Peony wanted to start a school that taught more people about magic. Regina wanted to start an orphanage that took in commons. Bird and Mr Sagget talked herbs and healing, both of them students of the art.

The door to the farmhouse burst open and Lance stood just inside it, panting.

“Get up!” Lance shouted. “Get dressed! The dragon’s gone! Tracks lead off into the woods.”

***

Tythos, Bird and Lance stood where the dragon had been. Regina stayed behind to help Sigrun and Peony. They were too injured to follow, but had tried to come anyway.

There was an indent in the ground where the creature had lay, all the snow there melted. Tracks led away into the woods, like Lance had said. The creature had left on foot. It wasn’t headed for the valley. It had gone in another direction.

“What’s in that direction?” Tythos asked, looking at the tracks in the melting snow.

“There’s plenty in that direction,” Bird said. “Best guess, it’s headed for Pallbrook.” He studied the tracks. “Looks like you took enough of its wing that it’s land locked. That’s something.”

“I should have taken its head,” Tythos growled.

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“I don’t understand,” Lance said. “How was the dragon hurt? Could it actually be killed?”

“Magic,” said Tythos. “A sword and a knife. Yes.”

The nightmare came sauntering up.

“Finally,” Tythos said. “I’m going after it.”

“Wait a minute,” Bird said. “Can you find your way to Pallbrook from here?”

“No, but he can.” Tythos pointed at the nightmare.

“Who can?” Lance asked.

“The thing that ate you,” Tythos said, and Lance blanched. Tythos took off running.

“Wait, goddamnit!” Bird shouted. “We need a plan!”

“This isn’t going to work,” the nightmare said, keeping pace beside him.

Tythos was tired after yesterday, but he felt great. He thought he could run all day. As long as the dragon didn’t run, he could probably catch it. With a sword in its chest, he suspected it would be walking.

“You’re not listening again,” said the nightmare.

“What? What damnit! Why do you think it won’t work this time?”

“Well, for one thing, you can’t channel magic anymore. So even if you got a sigil on it, you couldn’t activate it.”

“I activated the ward, are you trying to say it’s worse than that?”

“When you did that, you had a sprain. What you have now is more of a break. You may have burned the ability to channel out of yourself forever.”

“Okay, deal with that later. The sigil the kid put on it might still be in effect.”

“Maybe so, but there’s the issue of distance.”

“The what?”

“You’re going to want to stop running, you’re about to hit the limit.”

“What the hell are you talking a—“

Tythos’s world exploded with pain, like he’d caught on fire. There was an aching wrongness in his head, like a hand was pulling on him, from inside his skull. Tythos stumbled as his vision began to go black.

“I tooold you,” sang the nightmare. “This really doesn’t feel good to me either. Walk back the direction you came.”

Tythos couldn’t get up. So he crawled. It felt like he was being torn to pieces, every part of him ached. He lost the ability to breathe. Just when he was about to pass out, he crossed some sort of barrier and all of it left. Tythos gasped in a breath and looked around. None of the feeling lingered, not even the headache. Tythos looked around the forest. He didn’t see anything strange.

“What the hell?” He shouted. “Did I cross a ward?”

“No,” said the nightmare. “I tried to warn you. You’ve found the limit to how far from Sigrun you can get.”

“What?” Tythos roared.

“Now you know how I feel,” the nightmare blew a raspberry and stalked back the way they’d come.

***

Tythos burst into the farmhouse and rushed over to where Sigrun lay. She was unconscious, covered in a sheen of sweat.

“I thought you went after it!” Bird said.

“Long story,” Tythos said. “Magic is keeping me from getting more than two miles from her. Something we got tangled up in last night.”

Peony hobbled over, someone had fashioned him a crutch. He looked down at Sigrun. He spoke, looking at her,

“Just a little bit ago, she started screaming, writhing on the floor like she was in pain, then she stopped breathing and passed out.”

Tythos looked down at Sigrun. She didn’t look good. Her color was bad. He’d been hoping to find her up and on her feet. He began nodding as an idea occurred to him.

“I’ll pull her,” he said.

He began to move her, preparing to carry her out.

“Tythos,” farmer Sagget said, walking over. “What are you doing?”

Tythos turned on farmer Sagget, angry. He opened his mouth to shout, but the look the old man gave him stopped him short. He took a deep breath and answered the question,

“I’m trying to catch a wounded dragon before it can hurt anyone else.”

“What does that have to do with her?” Farmer Sagget looked down a Sigrun.

“I can’t… It’s… complicated.” Tythos glanced around the room. The whole party was watching and listening. “It has to do with that thing we talked about. I can’t get too far away from her, so I need her.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I’ll drag her along behind in a sledge.”

“That’ll kill her in the state she’s in.”

“If I don’t stop the dragon…” Tythos looked down at Sigrun. “She’ll die if I drag her in the sledge?”

“Almost certainly.”

Tythos pulled Sigrun’s dagger. The one he’d cut the dragon wing with. If he severed the bond there was still a chance he could catch it. A chance he could save people. To kill the dragon and save lives. How many people were in Pallbrook? This would serve the dual purpose of keeping her out of the clutches of the nightmare, and allow him to save lives. He raised the dagger, looking down at Sigrun.

“Doing evil now,” farmer Sagget said. “In the hope it will yield potential good in the future, is the path of fools. You reap what you sow.”

Tythos looked up at the old man. He felt steadied, as always. He lowered the dagger.

“What should I do then?” Tythos asked, feeling trapped.

“Work with the people around you,” farmer Sagget said. “You weren’t the one who nearly killed it to begin with. It’s wounded. You might catch it. Without a plan, you will probably fail. With a plan, you have a chance. This group of people has already done the impossible once. Move forward deliberately, and go do it again.”

Tythos took a deep breath. “Is there any way to get on the road, without killing her, now?”

“Well, I’m glad you asked. It just so happens, there is.” Mr Sagget smiled.

***

Tythos paced the floor as plans were discussed. He couldn’t hold still. He was only half paying attention. There was a shipment being held in the local fort, officially known as the ‘Endelmyer Estate’ waiting for the services of a hunter to get moved to Pallbrook. Somehow Mr Sagget had already let them know there was a hunter available if they could accommodate the transport of two wounded.

Tythos realized that he needed to stop thinking of Mr Sagget as a farmer. The man was clearly something more than that, but he was too antsy to try and puzzle it out. When he told Mr Sagget about the counter ward, and the effects it would have drawing hungry things out of the wilds, the old man only nodded. He said not to worry about it.

Tythos left the house as more discussion was made about what to do if they caught sign of the dragon. Tythos went to the barn and began to move hay for the oxen. The day had warmed up further, turning the fresh snow to mush and mud. Tythos found chores around the barn to do, and had worked up a sweat when a wagon and a team pulled into the yard. He stood in the door to the barn and watched as Bird spoke with the soldiers and Sigrun was loaded into the wagon.

He felt a presence beside him and glanced over to see Mr Sagget standing nearby. Tythos looked at him, trying to really see him. He liked to think he looked at people and really saw them, not swayed by the caste bias under the king’s rule. Looking at the man next to him, he had to admit that he had seen a farmer first. The man was clearly much more, but after ten years as neighbors, Tythos had only a vague notion of who he really was.

“Speak your mind,” Mr Sagget said. “We probably won’t see each other again for a while.”

“It feels wrong to be taking the long way after the dragon,” Tythos said.

He looked down at his hands. Mr Sagget had given him a pair of gloves, to hide the black hand. He was going to keep his beard and play the role of common as they traveled. It would let him pass unnoticed. With the beard, combined with his regained youth, it was unlikely he’d be recognized.

“Do you see a shorter path that’s likely to succeed?”

Tythos sighed, thinking it through once more. He wanted to cut his ties and follow the dragon, just him and perhaps Bird, if the man could keep pace. However, what the nightmare said proved true. His ability to channel was completely out of reach. He couldn’t’ even mentally take hold of it to pull. That meant he needed Peony. The kid had a broken leg, broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and enough bruising to color him like a sunset. Mr Sagget and Bird agreed even though he was up and about, moving him was as much a risk as it was to Sigrun.

Tythos ran his hand over his head. Some of his hair was re-growing and he had a crop of white stubble across his scalp. His hair had always been white, even as a youth.

“No I don’t,” he admitted. “It doesn’t stop it from feeling wrong. It feels like I’m not doing enough right now. If people die, it’ll be my fault for not finishing the dragon when I had the chance!”

“Oh?” Mr Sagget said. “You knew that dragon was alive and at your mercy and let it live deliberately: knowing that people would suffer?”

“No, of course I didn’t! If I had, I would have cut its head off, and its heart out!”

“Ah, so you made the best decision you could with the information you had, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“Then it’s not your fault what that dragon does with its freedom. The fact is, you’re at the beginning of a long journey. You now have knowledge that was thought lost forever. Tell me this, is that the only dragon in the world?”

Tythos shook his head. It wasn’t the only, or the biggest, or the meanest dragon, that he’d seen personally. He knew there were more out there, and the one the party had nearly killed was not the biggest threat.

“Okay then. So tell me, what happens to the rest of the world if this information is lost to us, because of rash action now?”

“You’re right. I know you’re right damnit! It still feels like I’m not doing enough!”

“I know. You want to help people. It’s in your nature. Go hunt that dragon down the smart way, and kill it. Learn enough to go do it again, with a dragon that isn’t wounded. I know you can’t see it now, but you need that group of people you’re with. There’ll come a point where they’re the only thing you have to lean on, and your connection to them will need to contain trust if you’re going to succeed. Go win their trust, and maybe even let them win yours. You’ve been isolated with your nightmares for too long now.”

Tythos looked at him, trying to read his expression.

“Is that prophetic?” He asked.

Mr Sagget looked back at him, “Does it need to be for you to take the advice to connect with people again?”

***

The wagon train was on the road, and Tythos was walking behind the wagon that contained Sigrun and Peony. Bird was at the head of the column, preforming the duties of a hunter. Regina and Lance had been assigned to driving the wagon that contained the wounded. They were sitting together in the buckboard, having an argument over something. Sigrun had still not woken up. Peony was sitting beside her with a far away look on his face.

“Some group of dragon slayers we are,” Tythos muttered.

He was mulling over the advice Mr Sagget had given him. That he’d need this rag-tag group of misfits. The nightmare was ranging somewhere afield and Tythos was content to let it. It was easier to think without it nearby.

“Hey!”

Tythos looked up. Peony was trying to get his attention. Tythos stepped close to the wagon, and Peony looked around and spoke in a low tone.

“Do you want to learn new magic?”

Tythos looked into the shining eyes of the kid in the wagon. He smiled.

“You know what hot-shot? Yeah, I do.”

The end of book one.