Enchanted Realms

Chapter 9-1

Josh stood on the lip of the cavern, a strip of stone wider than most streets in Alsace, and looked across the lake toward the falls at the other end, where Corntassel slept his tortured sleep, awaiting his awakening by some hapless traveler equipped with wit enough to escape the sand trap, but too trusting to avoid the sleeping stew.

Into the yawning cavern mouth flew a squadron of wyvern, their claws full of wyrm, the raiding party surfeit with their kill and bringing the spoils back to the cavern for the others. The squadron a hundred strong, their raid had without doubt sent the wyrm ranchers panicking.

Josh knew instantly that they"d not all returned.

Beneath their joy was sadness, beside their satiation a grief. And one or two were injured.

How many nights had he awakened with a start to the sounds of screeching wyrms, signaling a wyvern attack? How many times had he launched himself from his bed to grab the nearest weapon and rush out to the barn or pasture to defend the wyrm herd? How many times had he counted the herd to find one, five, eight wyrms missing, and one or two others so mortally wounded that finishing the job was the only recourse?

Oddly, neither he nor his father had ever been hurt, despite neighboring rancher stories of mutilation and mayhem to themselves or their families, Josh sometimes having seen the vicious wounds and ugly scars.

Neither had they sought to kill the wyverns, as some neighbors had. Sometimes, when they had an aging or sickly wyrm, they"d take it to the mountain base and chain it to a rock, and in the morn the chain remained, but the wyrm was gone, a practice none of the other ranchers followed.

Josh watched the squadron fly in, saw Alyson moving among them where they"d landed, directing their catch to one side, healing the minor injuries, and clearing the landing patch for the next wyvern. The squadron had raided Alsace at night and had returned to the crèche just after dawn.

Nearby, Threnody watched, his eyes following Alyson, as though to insure she didn"t get stepped on.

A charcoal and chocolate female hovered, squawking, then she dropped her catch and flew out of the cavern mouth.

Threnody walked awkwardly toward him and stopped below where he stood. “Josh, one of our pregnant females, Adularia, was ambushed, able to lift off, but not without a human jumping on. She couldn"t shake off her unwanted rider, doesn"t have the maneuverability. She fell behind the squadron, should be coming in any minute.”

Josh climbed down from the cavern lip and ran over to the landing pad, where a sizable stack of wyrm lay, and told Alyson.

With gestures, she waved off some incoming wyverns and cleared the patch, surrounding it with beefy male wyverns, among the largest in the nest.

The charcoal and chocolate wyvern reappeared, just below her Adularia, lumbering dangerously. Aboard a wyvern, most humans were safe, the neck not flexible enough to allow the wyvern to bite a person sitting at the shoulder. On the ground, wyverns were too awkward to fight effectively, and most humans had the advantage of speed. A wyvern in the air easily outmatched a human on the ground, and a fully-fit wyvern adult could easily dislodge an unharnessed human, a loop or two, a dive, or a roll usually sufficient. But each maneuver took strength, agility, and height. A wyvern gravitas with a full-term wight couldn"t execute these maneuvers fast enough nor recover from them quickly enough.

Josh leaped onto Threnody and they joined the ring of wyvern surrounding the landing pad.

The pinto female, heavily pregnant, bore a hump near its neck, the human clinging tightly for fear of its being dumped. The female cleared the mouth with feet to spare and parachuted, wings wide and full with air, into the ring of waiting males, Josh on Threnody among them.

Eight male mouths descended on the form.

“Wait!” Josh said, glimpsing the dirty blond hair.

The silence was remarkable, the wyvern frozen.

A quiet whimper was the only sound.

“It"s Tony,” he told Alyson.

“Let"s feed him to the wyrms!” she snarled.

“Noooo!” Tony howled.

Josh dismounted and stepped to Adularia"s side. “Bring him down,” he said in wyvern.

She knelt and Josh pulled him off, having to peel Tony"s arms away from the wyvern"s neck. Josh fingered his amethyst, and Tony froze, his face a frightened rictus.

“Help me,” Josh said, and the two of them carried the inert form over to the wyrm pile. Even though he was holding Tony immobile, Josh knew he could hear. “Listen, Anthony, cooperate, and they"ll let you live. Fight us, and they"ll cook with you with the wyrms and have you for breakfast. Which is it?” Josh freed Tony"s mouth.

“I knew it!” Tony looked back and forth between Josh and Alyson. “The traitor and the slut.”

Alyson leaped upon him and began to pummel him, and stopped only when Josh pulled her away. “Let them cook him, and I"ll have a taste!” She pushed Josh away but didn"t try to strike Tony again.

Josh looked at Tony. “Well, what is it? Cooperate or die?”

Behind Josh, Threnody lifted a human-size wyrm and roasted it in one fiery breath, then began to feed, methodically pulling the carcass apart.

Tony"s eyes went wide.

“Doesn"t matter to me,” Josh said. And he tossed Tony onto the wyrm pile using his amethyst.

Tony began to whimper again, this time his words audible. “Don"t let them eat me, oh, please don"t let them eat me, oh, please don"t …”

“What are you doing here?”

Tony took a few deep breaths, looking apprehensively at Alyson. “Quite unintentional, coming here. That fat b***h wyvern wouldn"t land and let me off.”

“Her name is Adularia,” Alyson said.

“She"s still a fat bitch.”

Alyson socked him. “She"s pregnant. And use her name, for wyrm"s sake!” She pulled her fist back.

“All right, all right! Look, if you want my cooperation, you have to stop punching me.”

“Fine by me,” Josh said. “Treat us all with respect, and maybe you"ll earn ours.”

“Huh? Earn it? Why don"t you grant it?”

“To a liar? No, thanks.” Josh shook his head. “So how did you plan to get off the wyvern?”

Tony looked away, his face sullen. “I didn"t think that far ahead. I just wanted to show everyone I could ride one, like you did.”

Alyson was chuckling, Josh saw. He touched his amethyst again, releasing Tony.

The Guardian"s son picked himself up, brushed himself off, and looked around. “Must be thousands of them. How come they didn"t eat you?”

Josh and Alyson exchanged a glance. The diamond at her breast sparked. The sooner he"s gone the better, he heard her think.

“Your father"ll be concerned,” Josh said. “Let"s get you home.”

Tony doubled over. “Owww! It hurts. I can"t ride in this much pain!”

“Liar,” Alyson said calmly.

Josh scanned the boy with his tiny emerald, which Threnody had recharged. “Fully healthy. You"re in no pain.”

“I"ll tell "em you beat me up.”

“Tell them anything you like, Liar,” Alyson replied. “Nobody will believe you.”

“I"ll tell "em you have a stash of gold, silver, diamonds, and rubies!”

Josh gestured to Threnody.

The large wyvern, thrice as tall as they, bent down, bit the back of Tony"s collar and lifted. Tony screamed and kicked his legs. Threnody then lowered one shoulder, and Josh mounted. Threnody launched himself, Tony screaming.

Josh glanced over his shoulder, saw Alyson heading for Euphony. The day was young, the sun bright, the sky blue. Josh guessed that they would arrive at Alsace Castle right about noon.

Tony"s screaming had subsided to a whimper, but Josh wasn"t about to let him ride on the back of a wyvern. “You got him all right, Threnody?” Josh asked in wyvern above the whistling wind.

Threnody nodded, shaking Tony and eliciting more screams.

Alyson caught up with them, Euphony looking more spirited than Josh had remembered when they first met, as though something about Alyson had rejuvenated the wyvern"s love of life.

Their flight was uneventful, except that Tony"s terror subsided enough for him to start making his vacuous threats. Josh focused on his amethyst, but he couldn"t quite silence Tony as he had in the cavern, despite the distance being similar. How odd, Josh thought.

The edge of a thought brushed his mind, and he looked down.

Below was the sandy ravine that had almost trapped them. Josh looked again. The terrain was oddly dimensional, as though shaped differently, their passage over it making the upper surface look insubstantial.

The illusion! Josh realized. He was seeing through the illusion but not able to make it disappear entirely. He suspected their distance above the canyon diminished the magician"s influence, making evident the illusory nature of his projection.

Beyond the canyon, the road twisted between taller foothills toward a guard outpost, the arch spanning the roadway.

Josh scanned the surrounding hillsides, saw a likely meadow out of sight from the outpost, and he said so to Threnody.

The wyvern banked sharply, eliciting a shriek from the boy hanging from his mouth, and dropped like a stone toward the meadow. The wyvern"s approach took them near the outpost, and Josh saw the guard in the tower start and run.

The wyvern braked and landed, Tony struggling to get out of his tunic and out of the wyvern"s grasp. He fell heavily, rolled, and got to his feet.

“To the wyrms with you, Josh!” Tony shouted.

“The wyvern be with you, Tony,” Josh replied, and Threnody launched herself over his head, causing Tony to throw himself to the ground. Josh brought Threnody around, flew back over Tony once more, and then pointed her toward the guard tower.

The squad of warriors marching out of the tower toward the meadow looked up as Josh flew over, Threnody banking to give the squad a full view of the wyvern rider.

Josh and Threnody were close enough that Josh heard one of them shout, “It"s the wyrm herder boy!”

Josh felt rather than saw the flash of the weapon, and he pushed with the crystal at his neck.

The spear glanced harmlessly off the neck scales, and Threnody"s next flap of powerful wings took them beyond reach of a second spear throw.

Threnody gained elevation, spiraling upward above the squad, and when Alyson and Euphony joined them, they flew off to the west until they were out of sight. Doubling back toward the northeast, the quartet flew gracefully in the direction of the cavern.

“They saw you clearly?” Alyson asked later.

Josh nodded and repeated what he"d heard.

“You sure have a talent for making Tony look bad.”

Josh shrugged, relieved they were rid of the pest.

* * *

“The raw diamond,” Queen Aria said, “is the largest I"ve seen anywhere.”

Josh and Aria stood in the crater of a volcano off the southeast coast, the shore of Alsace just visible to the northwest, the small peninsula pointing toward them marking the border with Aquitaine. Between them, resting on a rock, was the raw diamond.

The wound to her flank looked nearly healed, Josh"s stitching having been removed just this morning. Despite Josh"s admonition, Queen Aria had insisted on flying him to this distant volcano, saying to him, “We"ve no time to waste. You must claim your destiny sooner rather than later.” She"d refused to tell him more, and then had f*******n anyone to accompany or follow them, telling Alyson through Josh, “This task is Josh"s and mine alone. If we"re not back by this time tomorrow, come find us.”