Chapter 20
1863 Words
20
We traveled down the path and back to the city. Spiros, who was in the lead, paused at the entrance to the path and stooped. He brushed his fingers against the hard-packed dirt before he glanced to our left. “The trail leads along the edges of the city, but we may lose her in the trees.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
He stood. “She is very adept at flitting through the trees.”
“So she’s part monkey?” I guessed. I received three blank starts for that one. “You know, the tree-swinging animal?” Cayden shook his head. My shoulders slumped. “Never mind.”
“Let us hurry or we will lose what little trail she will leave behind,” Xander insisted.
Our little group skirted the edge of the uppermost tier of the city until we reached a small, barely-noticeable path into the trees. Spiros guided us onto the path and into the quiet forest. The manicured woods fell away and before us was a wilderness of natural beauty. Bushes hugged the trunks of trees and thick vines climbed up to the branches and spread themselves across the wide, dense canopy. The trail became littered with rocks that tripped me at every turn, and the flat ground transformed into a bumpy path of potholes and small hills. It was like being home on a good stretch of road.
We walked for a mile before the path followed a short, steep hill and opened into a small clearing. A hut made of notched trees with a foundation of stones stood in the center of the clearing. To our right was a small, hoed plot with vegetables and a few fruit trees beside that. On our left the trees disappeared and presented us with a beautiful view of the rugged coastline and the wide, endless ocean.
Our presence didn’t go unnoticed. The heavy door of the hut swung open, and in the doorway stood a short, plump old woman. Her gray hair and wrinkled face denoted her seventy odd years of life. She wore a long gray dress over her round form, and an apron covered her front. Her gray hair was pulled back in a single braid that trailed behind her down to her hips. In her hand was a grenade.
I did a double-take on that assessment. The grenade was ovular like the man-made death machine, but the sides were smooth and the body squished in her hand. The unmistakable odor of Dragon’s Bane wafted over to us.
“What’s wanted?” she snarled.
Xander held up his hands in front of him and stepped to the front of our group. “We wish to speak with the girl who calls herself Roisin.”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
Xander gestured to me. “She assisted my Maiden a short while ago. We are in desperate need of her help once again.”
The old woman took a step toward us and drew back her hand that held the grenade. “All you dragon folk are liars. Why should I entrust you with my granddaughter?”
I raised my hand. “I’m not a dragon.”
Her eyes fell on me and she turned up her nose. “No, but you’re not human, either, your eyes tell me as much, and you’re still following him around. That counts against you.”
“We only wish to help those on this island,” Cayden insisted.
She raised an eyebrow. “Help how?”
Xander shook his head. “We do not know until we have learned more about the troubles on the island.”
Our erstwhile hostess frowned and tilted her head a little to her right. “Roisin!”
A shadow stepped out from the far corner of the house and slunk to the front. Roisin stepped out into the sunlight. Her head was bowed and her eyes were on the ground. “Y-yes, Grandmother?”
The old woman jerked her head towards us. “Did you help them?”
Roisin cringed, but nodded. “Yes, Grandmother.”
“Why?”
Roisin lifted her head an inch and glanced at me. Her tense face softened. “I thought I might help her.”
“But why?” her grandmother persisted.
Roisin flinched. “So we could be friends.”
Her grandmother pursed her lips. “You’ve caused a mess of-”
“Xander, the soldiers,” Spiros spoke up.
Xander and Spiros swung around, and Cayden and I followed suit. From the dense forest came a small contingency of skull-wearing men. They encircled our small group and pointed the sharp tops of their long halberds at us.
The last person to enter the clearing was the ram-headed king himself, Cathal. At his hip was his ram-skull, and in his own hand was a towering halberd made of polished steel-like metal. His lips were pressed so tightly together they were white. He marched up to us and stopped on the outskirts of our entrapment. “I have been made aware of your transgression in the Sacred Grove, and command that you leave my island at once.”
Cayden stepped up to the human wall of our prison. “But Your Highness, you must understand my people cannot continue to suffer. If you would only allow us to help you.”
The king frowned. “You know how you may assist us, and yet you refused.”
“Let us assist you here!” Cayden pleaded.
King Cathal shook his head. “No words of yours can convince me you are not here for other purposes. Not when you have purposefully traveled to this small clearing.” He stepped aside and nodded down the path to his right. “Men, escort them to the dock.” A great din arose from my companions and the metal halberds as they created a wall to shove us forward.
“Wait!” The soft, sharp voice cut through the protests and clanks of metal. Everyone turned to the source of the cry, Roisin. She clasped her hands together in front of her and wrung them in the direction of the king. “Please do not take them! Please!”
Cathal’s eyes flickered to the young woman’s grandmother. “What is the meaning of this, Mac Bradaigh?” I furrowed my brow. That name. . .
The old woman studied her granddaughter with pursed lips. “What’s come over you?”
Roisin hurried over to her grandmother and clasped the old woman’s hands before she looked into her eyes. “Please let them stay. I have waited so long for one who was like me, and. . .and now that I have found her-” she hung her head and fought back tears, “-please, Grandmother. Please let them stay.”
Her grandmother shook her head. “They can’t stay, and they shouldn’t.”
Cathal took that as his signal. “Men!”
The men shoved their metal spears against us and herded us toward the forest. The protests were deafening.
“Let us help you!” cried Cayden.
“Please, Grandmother!” Roisin pleaded.
“Dragons can’t be trusted,” Mac Bradaigh insisted.
Dragon. Mac Bradaigh. That’s when the memory hit me. I twisted my head around to face the old woman. “Dreail!”
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “What was that?”
I couldn’t answer. One of our escort gave me a particularly hard nudge down the path. I glared at him. “Watch it!”
Mac Bradaigh stumbled toward us. “Stop!”
Our march stopped and the king turned to her with a frown. “What is the matter?”
Mac Bradaigh ignored him and hurried up to me. She searched my face. “Where’d you hear that name?”
“An old sea dragon has it, and he has yours, too,” I told her.
She scoffed. “He’s probably forgotten about me by now.”
I shook my head. “Nope. He remembers you as a pretty feisty girl, and he wants to see you and your family.”
“Then why doesn’t he get out his wings and come see me?” she snapped. I opened my mouth, but the words caught in my throat. She sniffed at me. “I thought so. He doesn’t want to see me or any of my family.”
“Age has found him, and his wings will no longer hold him,” Xander spoke up.
She arched an eyebrow. The corners of her lips twitched up. “So he’s as shriveled as I am, is he?”
Xander smiled and bowed his head. “He is.”
“I’d say a little more shrively,” I chimed in.
King Cathal stepped up to her side and caught her gaze. “These trespassers cannot remain. They know too much.”
I nodded at Mac Bradaigh. “If you’re trying to keep us from knowing she’s the one building your Dragon Bane balls, you’re a little late. Dreail told us that already.”
The king started back before he narrowed his eyes. “Then you have spoken too much about what you know. We cannot allow you to leave here alive.”
Mac Bradaigh spun around to face him and put her hands on her wide hips. “You’re not going to touch a hair on any of their heads.”
Cathal shook his head. “We cannot allow-”
“I heard you before, but if you had half your mind working you’d know they weren’t asking me about that,” she scolded him.
The king frowned. “It must be some trick of theirs-”
“It is no trick, Your Highness,” Xander spoke up among our cramped group. “We only wish to help you so no people will suffer.”
Cathal pursed his lips. Mac Bradaigh rolled her eyes. “Just let them go, Colin. No one’s believing you.” The men around us shifted from one foot to another, glanced at each other with wide grins, and some of them even snickered.
The king’s face reddened and he glared at the soldiers. “At attention!” The men stiffened and faced straight ahead. Cathal’s narrowed eyes flickered to Mac Bradaigh and he pursed his lips so tightly we barely heard the next command. “Release them.”
The men raised their halberds against their sides and stepped backward. Cayden stepped to the front of our group between Cathal and us, and bowed to the king. “Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness.”
He sneered at Cayden. “It is only by the grace of Mac Bradaigh that you are allowed to live.”
“And don’t be forgetting about it too soon,” she spoke up.
Cayden smiled at her and bowed his head. “I see now why you have held Dreail’s attention for so long. You are an admirable woman.”
Mac Bradaigh frowned, but her back straightened and she puffed out her chest a little. “I don’t know about that, and I don’t care a lick about that old fool, but if you can help with this sheep problem then you’re worth having around for a little while longer.”
“What is the problem?” Xander spoke up.
Cathal pursed his lips. Mac Bradaigh glared at him. “Go on! Tell them!”
He half-turned away from us and toward the path. “It would be easier to show you. Follow me.” He and his men marched down the path. Cayden, Spiros and Xander followed.
I hesitated and glanced over my shoulder. Mac Bradaigh turned to Roisin and jerked her head toward our group. “Go on. Go with them.”
Roisin’s eyes widened. “Me? But why?”
Mac Bradaigh grinned. “Because there’s no man on the island as strong as you, and this is as good a time as ever to be showing all them what you’re made of.”
Her granddaughter’s face was brightened with a smile. Roisin threw herself onto Mac Bradaigh and gave her a big hug before she pulled them arm’s length apart. “Thank you.”
Mac Bradaigh wrinkled her nose, but her eyes twinkled. “Bah. Now off you go, and don’t be afraid to show yourself off.”
Roisin nodded and rushed over to me. She grabbed my hand and smiled at me. “I am ready, friend.”
I returned the smile. “Good. I’d hate to leave a friend behind. Now let’s get going before we’re left behind.”
- Writer
