Bear witness, that’s one of your duties as warlord. Find some way to save the rest of your men, that’s another. What are you going to do?
Kheda wracked his brain helplessly as the dragon finished its appetiser and looked towards the island’s scrub and meagre trees, interest brightening its eyes. It began slowly pacing the length of the beach, long tongue still tasting the air, teeth and lips gruesomely bloodstained. Warlord and wizard froze, hugging the ground, as the beast drew level with them, barely breathing until it had passed, watching its great claws tearing up the indistinct footprints, long tail dragging a line in the sand behind it.
‘I reckon we know what happened to those wild men now.’ Dev’s voice was improbably distant. ‘How do we stop it happening to us?’ whispered Kheda savagely.
‘Can you feel the power that thing carries with it?’ Dev breathed, husky now, almost lustful. ‘What?’ Kheda propped himself on one elbow and stared at the wizard.
‘The magic’ Dev looked at him unseeing, his eyes dark and wandering.
As if he’d been drinking deep of his barbarian liquor and filling his head with their tainted smokes for good measure.
‘What are you talking about?’ Anger seizing him, Kheda shoved at the mage, sending him rolling sideways, unresisting. ‘And keep your voice down.’ He twisted to look hastily in all directions, though there was no one to be seen among the glossy yellowy-green of the leaves.
That doesn’t mean there’s no one else hidden within earshot.
Is this where all your connivances with magic are to be finally unmasked?
Will there be anyone left alive to carry the tale to Itrac or anyone else?
Dev rolled back on to his belly, propping himself up on his elbows and hanging his head, breathing deeply like a man who’d just slaked his passions. ‘The magic, Kheda.’ His voice was a fervent whisper. ‘A dragon is a magical creature; it’s in its very nature. No one knows how or why. I’ve heard tell of their aura, of the wild magic that hangs all around them, but nothing I’ve ever read describes just how potent it is.’ He chuckled, a low, licentious sound.
‘What is it doing here?’ Kheda demanded.
‘There have been mages in Hadrumal who could summon dragons.’ Dev’s face sharpened unpleasantly. ‘Precious few of them and they always kept the mystery mighty close. But even a fool can stumble on a wise man’s secret. Maybe these wild men have managed to find themselves a wizard again.’
‘A wizard who called this monster here?’ Kheda stared at Dev, aghast.
‘Maybe,’ the barbarian mage said slowly. ‘And maybe it got out of hand and ate him along with the rest of his cronies. I don’t see it taking much heed of anyone, do you? Or maybe some bright spark on this scrap of an island has finally had his stones drop far enough for him to feel the magic in his blood.’ Dev scrambled on to his knees, helmet knocking against the twigs of the sard-ben-y bush, dislodging fruit to stain the ground around him. ‘And when he stuck his head above the parapet, there’s some bigger, badder wizard been hiding himself who decided to cut him down to size. Maybe he has the trick of this and sent his new pet out to rid himself of a rival. Or just to fill its belly with anyone who won’t get in line behind him.’
As the wizard talked, rapid words stumbling over each other, he was digging a hollow in the dry, sandy earth with the dagger from his belt, scooping out the loose soil with the other hand. Dropping the blade, he sat back on his heels and tugged up the bottom edge of his chain mail and the thick padded tunic beneath it. Holding back cloth and armour with his forearms, he fumbled with the drawstring of his trousers.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Kheda, revolted, as the wizard exposed himself.
‘Got a water bottle on you?’ snapped Dev. No, I didn’t think so. Me neither. Now listen. That beast’s a dragon born of fire, plain enough from the colour of it, never mind the way it snuffed out that pyre you made of the stockade. Well, I was born to see the elemental fire within things. If someone’s summoned it, I should be able to follow the trail of the spell that summoned it here through a scrying, even if it is in a puddle of my own piss.’ The wizard grimaced as he relieved himself.
Kheda concentrated on watching the dragon, which was now well past them, pausing to sniff at the dead embers of the burned stockade before continuing its measured progress along the curve of the beach. ‘Then we make a run for it through the woods, flag down the Green Turtle and the Lilla Bat, taking our chances in the rocks and surf Dev didn’t sound thrilled at that prospect. His voice strengthened as he continued. ‘Then we work out how to sneak up on this clever bastard without him calling his new playmate down on us.’
‘And gut him like a fish.’ Kheda finished the sentence for the wizard.
But why would any wizard capable of summoning a dragon use it against his own people? Wouldn’t he simply set the beast about finishing the destruction these foul invaders began last year?
Dev didn’t answer. Kheda looked around to see green magic filling the puddle of urine, darkening as the liquid slowly seeped away into the dry earth. He looked about hastily for any condemning eyes before returning his gaze to the wizard. Well?’
A sheet of emerald flame erupted from the damp hollow, sending Dev recoiling backwards, hands clapped to his face, muffling a guttural cry of pain. Flames crackled in the air around him, translucent green paling to a sickly yellow before strengthening to a vivid gold and then darkening to ferocious orange.
‘Dev!’ Kheda was on his hands and knees, ready to go to the barbarian’s aid, when he realised that the flames had no source, no fuel. The mage’s clothes weren’t burning beneath his chain mail, nor were the leaves and twigs of the tangled underbrush. It was as if the very air was ablaze, wrapping the wizard in fire.
Is it illusion? Dev told me of such things. No, his hands are blistering. It has to be fire—but magical fire. How can I quench it? What will its touch do to me?
All the same, Kheda scooped a double handful of the loose sand from Dev’s digging in his cupped palms, instinct driving him to quell the fire. Then movement on the beach held the warlord motionless. The dragon had whirled around and was running back along the sand in their direction. Before it had looked almost clumsy with its heavy plodding gait. Now it was racing like a hunting hound, long body at full stretch, head outthrust on its sinuous neck, tail straight as an arrow behind it.
It’s heading this way! What is it after? The magical fire? It must be!
Kheda threw himself on the wizard, knocking Dev awkwardly on to his back, his legs twisted beneath him. Straddling the barbarian, he tore Dev’s hands apart, seeing his face beneath scorched and burned as if the mage had stood too close to a fire when a resin-filled log ignited. The blisters on Dev’s hands burst beneath Kheda’s grip, the flesh slick and raw. Kheda felt the impossible flames fasten on to his own hands, crawling up his arms, the fine black hairs curling and disappearing, the skin reddening and growing sore.
‘Dev!’ Kheda yelled. ‘Stop it!’