The Malicarn #3
She stood up and looked out the window at the fire, a large conflagration which was already spreading down a street.
Bells tolled as the city fire brigade leapt into action.
They would probably have to raze several blocks to stop the fire’s spread.
How many homes would that be? How many more people forced to live outside the castle gate, yelling at those inside?
Hannah imagined their rage, imagined someone bringing forth a dragon rider, demanding to treat with the queen.
She couldn’t imagine what they would do after that.
Her imagination didn’t stretch that far.
But for the first time, Hannah was afraid.
3.
Buck and Wallace rode off on two of the older horses. They didn’t have time to choose differently, what with Otto yelling after them and the sun quickly lowering toward dusk.
“You lousy, goodfornothing sonsuvbitches!” Otto was screaming, covered in mud and shaking a pickax. “You ruin my farm then take my horses! I see how it is! I see!”
“We’ll bring the horses back, straightaway,” Buck shouted back at him. “Just need to take care of some Guild business, all right?”
Buck and Wallace didn’t send anyone to tell Kreek about the rider getting away.
Frankly, everyone tacitly agreed it would be best not to raise Kreek’s ire.
If the rider was still missing by daybreak, then sure.
They would tell him. But Buck and Wallace were going to ride after him first. It wouldn’t take long to find him. Where was he planning to go anyway?
They followed a recently blazed path through the wheat field of down and damaged stalks, which ended at the tree line. The lack of rain had made the ground hard and stiff, and this was where their tracking plan immediately ran into problems.
“Well, you’ve really done it this time, Buck.
” Wallace got off his horse and walked in a circle around a large oak, hoping to see something on the ground.
“Yes, you have really gone and done it. Kreek’s certainly going to have some words with you.
Oh yes, he’s going to kick you out of the Guild for sure. ”
“He can’t have gone far. We’ll find him.” Buck liked to say things that he knew weren’t true.
They rode a little way into the woods, hoping to find some sign of something or someone.
After about an hour Wallace saw a column of smoke over the treetops.
They approached and found a small cottage with a chimney, and two young children playing in the garden outside.
Behind the home sat a blacksmith’s forge.
The mother emerged from the door as the men approached.
“I’m not paying no more soldier tolls. I got two little ones out of that already, I can’t afford to do it again. I can’t—”
“Ah, no,” Wallace said. “That’s not what we’re here for. We’re looking for a runaway. A man on foot. Dressed sorta funny. Speaks a foreign tongue. Perhaps you’ve seen him?”
“You king’s men?”
“No.”
“How do I know that?”
“I mean, look at us.”
“You’re on horseback. You have a sword.”
“What? This?” Buck held up the small sword he had taken from the granary.
“That’s hardly a sword at all,” Wallace said. “Look at it, it’s so small.”
“Yes,” said Buck. “Sir Kreek’s is much bigger, much better made.”
“Sir Kreek?” the woman asked. “The royal swordmaster? So you are king’s men?”
Wallace sighed, but Buck began babbling, words falling out of his mouth at random. If he babbled enough he might say something smart.
“No, no! We’ve never even been inside the castle at Kingstown.
I mean, I helped build part of it, being I’m a mason, you know.
So if I’ve been inside that was only the parts I helped build, as I was building them.
Wallace, though, he’s a carpenter. Didn’t work on the castle at all, did you?
We know Kreek a bit, but not from court or nothing.
Not the friendliest chap I admit. We’re guildmembers, see, members of the Wizarding Reenactors Guild.
So is Kreek. We like history and magic and learning about magical history, but we don’t ever really do much with the queen or anybody like that.
No one at court, no Council of Heroes. Just regular folk, you know, like you.
These horses are from old Otto’s farm, you know Otto I expect?
Lives just beyond the woods? Bit of a hermit, most of the time.
Probably not very friendly. I’m sure you told your kids not to go near him or nothing.
Maybe made up stories about how frightful he is to scare them to stay away?
But he’s quite nice actually. Been helping us.
See, truth of the matter is, there’s this dragon rider.
Real dragon rider. You heard about the dragon, that fell up at the Morlon Kastaun?
Well, he had a rider, that’s true. And we captured, or rather we rescued him, and now he’s escaped and all alone in the great wide world and if we do not find him soon I fear something terrible will happen to him and—”
“Shut up.” The woman stepped forward and looked at the clearing around her home, searching for any other men. “My father is out, on an errand to Kingstown. I expect him back tonight. If you can wait, you might find what you seek.”
Buck and Wallace got off their horses and sat on a stump. The woman brought them some tea but then went back into her house.
“Think she’s seen him?” Buck asked Wallace.
“I think you’re a damned fool, blabbing to anyone who will listen about the dragon rider. Get us all thrown into the stocks, you will.”
They waited a long time. Buck nodded off at some point after dusk, woken finally by a man shouting from the front of the house. It was very dark out.
“You kept him here? Gina, this was unwise. I just spoke to the queen myself, trying to get her to take these rumors seriously. Now it’ll look like I was plotting against her all along, which is what she was figuring, anyway.”
An old man, fresh from travel on the road and holding a lantern, was talking to the woman, pointing at Buck and Wallace and trying not to shout too loud.
“Father, I was only trying to help. He was in such a state, I—”
“Gina, please, keep your voice down.”
Buck and Wallace stood and approached them. “Hello, sir,” Buck said. “We’re guildsmen, looking for—”
“What guild?” The man stood in front of the doorway, blocking his daughter and the inside of the house itself. He did not want them to come in.
“The Wizarding Reenactors Guild. We—”
“That’s no guild. That’s not a trade. Did the queen send you after me? Tell her old Jasper never meant to harm her, never meant anyone harm. Just trying to help the people. You know what people have been saying about this dragon?”
“It’s a sign of the end.”
“You know why they say that?”
“No.”
“Because a dragon’s a god,” said Jasper, “and when gods fall, kings and queens are sure to follow.”
There was a long silence. “Ah,” said Buck.
“I’ve seen this day coming,” Jasper said.
“I’ve dreamed of dragons. Dreamed of a lot of things I can’t figure.
Ever had dreams of vast stone canyons, void and empty like the end of time?
Plague and disease, ending the world, and the soldiers of the dead descending upon you?
No, I figure not. You’re young. Young ones don’t dream like that. ”
“Sure, I dream,” Buck said, though he didn’t rightly remember if he did.
Suddenly Jasper took out a knife. “Stop!” he shouted, and Buck was ready to protest but then noticed Jasper pointing to something in the trees. Buck turned and saw two men emerge from the darkness, dressed in dark clothes, each holding a short black wand. Wizards.
“All right now, you did a good job hiding him, but it’s all over.”
“Who are you?” Wallace asked.
“Move aside, please.”
“They’re wizards,” Buck said. “They wield dark magic, I’m sure.”
One of the men, the taller one, snorted. “Yeah sure, that’s right. We’re wizards. Now get out of the way.”
“No!” Wallace shouted. The wizard held up his black stick. A bolt of lightning emerged from the end, hitting Wallace in the chest. He fell to the ground, convulsing.
“You killed him!” Buck shouted.
“Calm down, he’s fine,” the other wizard said, then held up his wand toward Buck. “You want some, too?”
“You’re in league with Gregorian, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, sure kid. He’s our best friend. Now if you can just move out of the way, give us the pilot.”
Jasper continued to block the door. “The Malicarn will never again be ruled by the evil magic of wizards! I tried to reason with the queen, but a storm is coming, one which will wash your kind away, and cleanse this realm of—”
The wizard shot a bolt at Jasper, who yelped and fell out of the doorway.
He dropped the lantern, which smashed and began burning a small bush by the doorway.
Gina shouted and ran inside. The men followed her.
Buck heard a scuffle, and a minute later they reemerged, dragging the dragon rider out by his collar.
The man was screaming and shouting, thrashing about.
Gina ran out with a pail of water and doused the fire.
“Calm down, you’re going home,” the wizard said to the rider. “It’s uh, how do you say it, Gene?”
The taller wizard pulled out a small book, emanating a blue light, and read something slowly. “Uh, nǐ yào huí jiāle.” It was some sort of spell, for the rider suddenly stopped screaming and stood up.
“Stop right there,” a voice bellowed from the darkness.
The wizards turned. “Is that you, Brian?”
But Buck recognized the voice, and the figure who emerged through the smoke of the smoldering bush was, at that moment, a sorely needed sight.
Kreek sat upon his horse, dressed in full mail.
His sword was still sheathed, but he held in his hand a staff.
Not a walking staff, but some staff of great magic.
“Your little band of rebels really kept this one quiet,” the tall wizard said. “Would have been real trouble if we couldn’t find him soon.”
“You cannot leave with him,” Kreek said.
Wallace and Jasper were both rising to their feet, out of breath but watching Kreek with the same awe and terror as Buck. Buck was wondering how Kreek had found them, of course, but also where he had gotten that staff. There was only one conclusion. Kreek, it seemed, had become a wizard too.
“Come on,” the short wizard said. “It’s getting late. We gotta—”
With the sound of a great thunderclap, fire burst forth from Kreek’s staff. It hit the short wizard, who fell backward on the ground, instantly dead. The dragon rider leapt back.
“Jesus!” shouted the other wizard. “Why the hell did—”
But before he could finish, another thunderclap flew from Kreek’s wand, and the second wizard was dead as well.
Jasper ran to the rider, grabbed him, and looked him over for injuries.
“I am so sorry, Sir Kreek,” Buck said. “I did not mean for him to get away.”
“Silence,” Kreek said. “What’s done is done.
The time of revelation draws near. Jasper, spread word throughout the underground: The dragon lords live.
Soon they will descend upon us. You must be ready.
Tell the leaders to gather their banners and meet us on the Morlon Kastaun. I will raise the people.”
“I can’t believe it,” Jasper said. “I told the queen. I told her but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Of course not. The queen is one of the damned, a goblin come to destroy us. We cannot trust her. Or any of her supporters.”
Wallace and Buck rode back to Otto’s farm in silence.
The dragon rider, arms and legs tied, rode with Kreek.
When they arrived it was dawn, and they took the rider to the granary to put him back into chains.
Kreek forced Buck to unload a new batch of supplies from a cart.
They were boxes filled with magic staffs like the one Kreek now wielded.
Once he had carried them all into the barn, he approached Kreek, who was speaking to Otto from his horse.
“I know I failed,” Buck said. “I know I made a huge mistake. But please, please do not kick me out of the Guild. This is all I have in the world, these men and this Guild. What would I do without them? These new magic staffs, I think—”
“Silence,” said Kreek. “There will be no staff for you.”
“But I can help, I—”
“Enough! You have failed me. In fact, we were so much closer to utter destruction than you can possibly know. This dragon rider is the key to what happens next. Without him, I dare not even imagine what would occur.”
“If there’s a plan, you can tell me. I can—”
“You cannot be trusted. I know that now. It is not your fault. It is simply your nature. You are not malicious, merely stupid. When the revolution comes, Buck Douglas, you may still be a part of it. Every man, woman, and child in the Malicarn may be a part of it, in their own way. But when it comes, and I assure you it comes quickly, you will not be a member of the Guild. Now finish your work for Otto. I have promised him your labor for the rest of the day. And then tomorrow you will be off.”
“But where should I go?”
“Elsewhere. Anywhere. I do not care. I assume you can find work as a mason, which is what you are. And Buck, if you speak of the Guild or our activities to anyone, be warned. I will know. I will find you. And you will meet the same fate as those Dark Mages in the forest.”
Kreek left, and Buck returned to work on the wall, which once again had completely collapsed.