Chapter Eleven - Time to Run
School was relatively quiet. Maybe it was the Imperial Escorts all over town, maybe it was just a quiet… Whatever day of the week it was. I had to figure out how calendars worked at some point, if for no other reason than because reading the same word four times a month may help me read other words.
I sat at my desk in… Art? Yeah, art. I was drawing, after all. Drawing the girl across the table from me, in fact. It didn't look anything like her, and instead looked like a pig wearing a bonnet. Clearly, I must have been having a crappy day. She didn’t look happy with how my picture came out, either.
When the bell rang, I grabbed the drawing and tore it up in front of her. “You're much too pretty for me to turn that in,” I said, sounding nervous as all hell. “I just can’t draw.”
“Riley!” the teacher shouted, then smacked a ruler against the chalkboard. “You just destroyed priceless art! Explain yourself!”
I blushed. “It was… Uh… Well, just not good, sir.”
He smacked the chalkboard again. “No more! Art is art! It is beautiful no matter how terrible!”
I sighed. I was fairly certain the girl I turned into a pig nose didn’t feel that way. She probably would have puked on me of I’d turned that in. I gathered everything into my backpack and followed everybody else out of the room.
The hallway was crowded but quiet. Nobody was talking. It was creepy as hell, but I kept up with it, to avoid looking out of place. If this was what the school was like whenever Imperial Escorts were around, I’d almost consider skipping the next few days. Though, Sharena probably wouldn’t let me.
My next class was something involving reading that Kenny wasn’t enrolled in, probably because he could read and I couldn’t. I imagined it would be something like me and a bunch of other kids who couldn’t read sitting around trying to help each other read. Maybe it would be fun, or maybe it would go way in the opposite direction. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
I found the classroom and saw a grand total of four other kids. The room itself didn’t look any different from any other, there were about two dozen desks, a chalkboard at one end and a big teacher desk at the other, windows along one wall with a view of the forest outside.
The one surprise was a soldier standing by the chalkboard.
The soldier was watching me the entire time I walked into the room and took a seat close to the other four kids already seated. The teacher didn’t look all that pleased that the soldier was in the room, but she walked from her desk to the chalkboard. I tried to put the soldier out of my mind, but that was difficult.
“Alright, students,” the teacher started, obvious unease in her voice. Something was wrong. “You’re all here because you have difficulty with reading. At the end of the day, you should all be one step closer to reading just as anyone else does.”
The soldier was still focused on me, for whatever reason. I hadn’t done anything to arouse suspicion, so what was his deal? Maybe I needed to ask. Maybe I just needed to focus on my work.
Whatever I needed to do, it took all I had to ignore the soldier. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t move any part of him that wasn’t his eyes. He’d be creepy to me even if I wasn’t paranoid as hell. Maybe it was the paranoia that made me think that. Aaaand now I was second-guessing my own paranoia. I was clearly messed up in the head in more ways than I was comfortable to admit.
The teacher droned on and on about the difficulties of being taught to read as a young adult when you were never taught as a child. I paid a little less attention than I should have, because I was still worried about that soldier. I couldn’t just ignore him, like I wanted to, because he never took his eyes off of me. It was getting to the point where I needed to ask what he was doing there. I raised my hand --
-- and then the soldier sprung into action!
He jumped from where he’d been standing, his sword drawn. In seconds, he had knocked my desk over, pushed me to the floor and pressed his sword against my neck. Everybody else backed away from me, though whether they were scared of me or the soldier was a question all its own that had no clear answer yet.
“Good work, Declan,” a voice said. Despite the sword to my throat, I managed to look and see Captain Bertrand standing there, his helmet under his arm and that weird smile on his scarred face. He was staring down at me, and the way his eyes shined, I assumed he wanted to kill me. “This class is now indefinitely dismissed.”
The teacher asked, “Good sir, what are you doing?!”
“This creature is not human.”
Not human? Funny, I kinda looked and felt like one. Granted, I wasn’t always, but that wasn’t the point. Well, it sorta was. This, however, was not the time to think about this sort of thing.
“But Riley is - “
Bertrand cut her off. “This creature is not human. It is a dragon in disguise. Now, take your students and leave this place. We shall deal with the creature.”
“Look,” I said, “I’m not a dragon, so lemme go!”
Sword Soldier pulled his sword away and socked me in the jaw. “Quiet, beast!”
Bertrand grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet, then shoved me into a seat. I saw the rest of the class scurry out of the classroom. They looked scared for their lives, and I really, really felt scared for mine.
Bertrand set his helmet down on the desk in front of me. For the first time, I saw numerous marks on the helmet, numbering more than twenty. “Do you see this, dragon?”
I leaned forward. “I am not a dragon!” I said, sternly.
He ignored me. “There are twenty-nine tallies on this helmet, each representing a dragon I personally killed. These do not include those my men killed in my presence.”
I growled, which likely didn’t help my case. “I’m not a dragon!”
“I’ve known you were a dragon since I visited Irvine’s home this morning. A concerned citizen named Torkel sent word out a day or so ago. A girl with a suspiciously similar wound to a dragon he’d injured not long before.”
I knew I shoulda been more distrusting about that guy…
Bertrand continued: “Irvine doesn’t know I’ve been aware of his scheme to save your disgusting species since the beginning. Several of these marks,” he tapped his helmet, “came from those he’s helped. And you, dear monster, will be the next.”
I scowled at him. “No, I won’t.”
His disgusting smile came back. “Is that right, little monster?”
From out of nowhere, Mithra’s voice said, “It is.”
A sword came down close to Bertrand’s helmet, prompting the asshole to pick it up. Standing behind him was Mithra, or at least a being I assumed was Mithra. Its head was very cat-like, but it was about as heavily muscled as Bertrand, completely covered in feathers and wearing a pair of leather trousers and boots. In its hands was a large broadsword, almost comically so.
Bertrand pulled his helmet on and drew his sword. It was about that moment I realized the other soldiers were dead, lying in pools of blood so thick you’d think the blood was poured on them. Damn, Mithra was quiet when he killed people. Now I was more than a little concerned about him being my conduit. But, honestly, I just wanted to be the hell away from Bertrand, as well.
“And what exactly are you, creature?” Bertrand asked, just before he swung his sword high.
Mithra just barely managed to block the attack. “What I am is unimportant, who I’m protecting is the matter at hand, and you are trying to kill my mage.”
“A mage? This monster is one of the magic-born? Impossible! Dragons cannot be mages!”
Mithra lunged, and Bertrand dodged. “No, human, you’re wrong. There have been others.”
Bertrand’s eyes burned white hot. “Lies!”
Mithra blocked every strike Bertrand attempted, though I could tell it was winding him. After another protracted swing/block exchange, they finally locked swords, neither ready to break.
“Riley! Run!” he shouted, through a strained voice.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I burst from the seat and bolted as fast as I could. Lucky me, those races Kenny and I took were starting to turn me into a pretty good runner. I took quick turns through halls of the school - the eerily quiet halls. The entire building had been emptied somehow, as if this entire school day had been some sort of act. Had Bertrand set this trap up for me before he ever set foot in the house this morning?
Oh, crap, what happened to Kenny?
I hurried outside, into what was now a torrential downpour. I didn’t think it had been raining before school, or even during class. Come to think of it, I didn’t remember a single cloud in the sky before, and nobody mentioned rain in the forecast during breakfast. Either Bertrand had a magic user, Sharena was doing this or I was somehow the cause. Honestly, none of the answers sounded appealing.
“Riley!” Kenny’s voice called out to me. I looked around, but couldn’t quite see him.
“Kenny!” I shouted back.
“Okay, I’m right behind you, stop yelling.” I spun around and saw him standing there, completely drenched. So was I, actually. “What happened in there?”
“That Bertrand guy knows,” I didn’t say what, but I assumed that Kenny would know what I was talking about, “he tried to gut me with his sword. Mithra saved me.”
“How did your cat save you?”
I should have known that would be his next question. “Look, it doesn’t matter, we need to be home right now.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” He grabbed me by the shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry this didn’t work out.”
“It will, if I have anything to say about it. I’m not losing another family.”
“That sonuvabitch!!” Irvine shouted as soon as I told him the whole story. I swear, I thought he was going to tear the dinner table apart. He turned to Sharena. “You’re sure you’ve got a good spell on the house?”
She nodded. “Of course. The only way they’ll find us is if Bertrand has a magic user as powerful as I am.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “Are you really so surprised by this?”
I raised my hand like an idiot. “Um, I am.”
Sharena patted me on the shoulder. “It’s okay, sweetie.”
Irvine shouted. “It’s not okay! He’s murdered dragons we’ve helped, Sharena!”
“And if you think I don’t understand that, you’re wrong. Right now, we need to focus on our daughter, keeping her safe and getting her on a path that Bertrand can’t follow.”
It actually felt really good to be called somebody’s daughter. It made me feel like I was a part of a real family. I smiled, in spite of the situation. Kenny did, too.
“I know that,” Irvine said with a grunt. “It doesn't stop me from being a little angered that a man I served with tried to kill my daughter. I wouldn’t go around trying to kill his daughter!”
Kenny asked, “So, what happens now?”
Sharena answered, “We’ll have to send the two of you away.”
I looked up. “Kenny, too? Wouldn’t he be in danger around me?”
“We’re all leaving, separately,” Irvine answered. “Sharena and I together, and you two. We don’t have much choice and it gives them two trails to follow. They won’t know which is which, so we’ll have a degree of safety.”
I sighed. “I’m so, so sorry about this.”
Irvine shook his head. “We made the decision to help you, Riley. We took you in because it was right, and that doesn’t change just because some monster wants you dead.”
And now I was crying. Great. “Thank you…”
He smiled at me. “Now, pack yourself a bag, everybody. The Endawa family is leaving the village for an indefinite amount of time.”
I didn’t have much to pack. What few clothes I had, some books I was almost able to read, and a small bag that Sharena told me never to let out of my sight unless I had no choice. I pretty much decided to sleep with the damn thing cradled in my arms. It was the only way to be sure. All in all, my pack was small and I could sling it over my shoulder.
Kenny had a little more than I did, but his bag looked smaller. He must have packed things better, or maybe I just packed things worse, one or the other. Truthfully, it didn’t really matter, since neither bag was heavy.
Irvine opened up a hidden cabinet in the floor of the living room. He then flipped a light switch and illuminated a stairway that led to a cave. He motioned for Kenny to stay back, but for me to follow, so I did. The stairway went down a good long way, and finally ended what had to be a good three stories underground. Laid out before us was more cave, completely covered in shadow.
“Wow,” I said, in a tiny voice.
“No kidding,” Irvine responded with a laugh. “My dad first showed me this place just a few weeks before he died, told me all about the secret the Endawa family has kept since we founded the village.”
He walked to the edge of the shadow and reached for something. Almost instantly, a number of torches lit themselves, the fire coming from seemingly nowhere at all. I was more than a little amused by the over-actiness of it all, until I saw what the darkness had been hiding.
A giant mural on the cave wall, of a man and a dragon, each with a hand on a sword. In front of the mural was a pedestal, and on that pedestal was that same sword, pristinely shining in the firelight. More images lined the walls to the left and right of the mural, each telling the history that led to the moment depicted. Human history on the left, dragon history on the right.
“Wow…” I repeated, my voice even tinier.
“If you’d been raised by your birth parents, you’d have learned about the history the Endawa family has with dragons. Well, dragons don’t tell the truth about that history, and neither do humans.” He picked up the sword. “This sword was forged by the first dragon and the patriarch of the Endawa clan together, not long before their first child was born.”
I turned away from the mural and gave him what I assume was my most confused look. A dragon and a human had loved one another? A dragon and a human could reproduce? That was both surprising and a mental image I wasn’t sure I needed.
“Y’see, Riley, this sword has a magic bond with our family. It was forged by two mages at a time when mages weren’t yet scarce. There Endawas for generations who could use it to its full potential as both sword and magic rod. Once mages began to thin and Endawas with pure dragons’ blood in their veins began to diminish through years of just humans in our family, those who could wield it dropped to pretty much zero. My parents were the last ones, and my mother used it to defend me when I was young. My father died holding it, and then I picked it up to what I thought was avenge his death.
“But in my hands, it was nothing but a sword. In the hands of a normal man born to a dragon parent, it’s a tool of both attack and defense, as it was for my father. In the hands of a dragon-born mage, it’s the most powerful magic instrument this world has ever seen.” He held the sword out, with enough room for me to grab the hilt. “And it’s yours now.”
I didn’t take it. “But, I’m just a dragon you adopted.”
“You’re a mage and a member of the Endawa family. I told you, the bond between us and this sword is magic, it makes no exceptions as to howthe wielder comes to be a part of the family. Hell, if they were still alive and were mages, your real parents could use it because Sharena, Kenny and I inducted you into our family.”
I still didn’t take it. This whole thing sounded like a burden I didn’t think I wanted to bear. “I don’t…” was all I got out.
“Trust me, kiddo, I know. When Sharena and I were kids, I nearly got us both killed because of this thing. Just know you don’t need to use the sword, just carry it, maybe pass it down to your children some day. You're not carrying a weapon, sweetheart, this is our family’s legacy.”
Yeaaaaaaah, no pressure there. Nervously, I took the sword from him and held it in my hands. It wasn’t as heavy as it looked, but it was still heavier than I expected.
He smiled down at me. “First steps, kiddo. They should always be suitably grand to inspire people, and yet small enough that you don’t scare the piss out of yourself.”
For no good reason, that made me smile. I wondered if my biological father would have been this kind to me. If not, at least I had the best foster father I could imagine.
The ground around us shook, the fires dimmed. I could tell Irvine and I had the same thought: Bertrand had found the house in spite of Sharena’s spell.
Irvine looked down at me. “Bonding moment over, kiddo, time to haul ass!”
We both ran up to the house, and Kenny shut the door to the cave after us. He took one look at the sword I was holding and I swore his eyes were gonna bulge out of his head. I wondered if he knew about the sword or not, but now wasn’t the time to ask.
The barrier that Sharena had cast hiding the house (through some complex process that actually moved it somehow while keeping it where it was, don’t ask) had left the inside covered in a dark blue glow that had completely vanished. Now, there was a bright orange glow, one that I knew all too well. Bertrand’s soldiers had set fire to the outside of the house.
“Well, that escalated quickly,” Irvine said. He turned to Sharena. “You give them their letters?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
It took me a second to remember what they were talking about, but it was the magic letters they gave Kenny and me. Letters to keep us in touch with one another regardless of distance. It’d help me read, at least.
“Good,” Irvine said. He then turned to Kenny. “You two need to meet us at Sandhog Ridge, a small town near the border with between the Empire and the Plains Tribe. Now, remember this part, both of you: If you read a letter that tells you to meet elsewhere, don’t. And never send us anything that could tell us where you are.”
Kenny looked surprised. “But… What if….”
Irvine shook his head. “No. If either you two or us get captured, neither of us can know.” He put his hand on Kenny’s shoulder. “You’re in charge, Ken. You protect your sister, protect yourself, don’t let those fuckers get you.”
Kenny audibly gulped. It was probably hard for him to leave his parents, having been with them his whole life. This would be a really difficult time for him.
He nodded furiously, then said, “I know, Dad. You can count on me.”
Irvine smirked. “Good. You remind me of when I was your age.” He walked over to the kitchen and retrieved something from a drawer, then handed it to Kenny. “Here’s your map, try not to get lost. Stick close to main roads, but don’t stay on the roads.”
“We won’t.”
Sharena then said, “Riley.”
I turned to her. “Yeah?”
“Keep practicing. Your magic will be the difference between life and death for you, sweetheart.”
I nodded. “I just wish you coulda taught me some spells before this happened.”
She smiled, a faint thing. “I do, too. But don’t worry, you’ll learn.”
Irvine said, “Use the boards between the shed and the house to sneak out that way, we’ll distract them.”
Kenny responded, “Yeah, we’ll head down the cave and sneak out on the water.”
“Just stay on our shore,” Sharena warned, “don’t go near the Vesperia side.”
“Why?” I asked.
“The place is supposedly haunted,” Irvine answered. “Don’t worry about it, though, you’ll have plenty of ways to escape that don’t include Vesperia.”
A haunted beach sounded like a nice little side adventure, though. Maybe later.
Kenny led me into his bedroom, where he pried open some boards and made a hole big enough for us to crawl through. I went in first, he slipped the bags through, then came in after. We were in the shed where the two of us had had our first real conversation not long before the townspeople found out there was a dragon in town. It felt like irony that this should be where we escaped this place.
We kept the cave dark as we made our way through, down to the small strip of beach that I wasn’t sure I noticed the day I came here. Granted, I was tired that day. It may have been there the whole time, I may have even landed there, I couldn’t remember. A lot had happened in a week.
Kenny stopped just outside the cave. He motioned for me to stop, then hurried back inside. I was about to ask what was going on when a torch fell onto the beach from above. I assumed whoever had dropped it thought they saw someone and wanted to confirm their suspicions. I heard muffled voices, from above the cave. The soldiers were right at the edge of the cliff behind the house.
I heard another sound, this one much closer and louder. It didn’t take me long to realize the source, as another light appeared at the edge of the cage, growing brighter every second. I pushed Kenny out of the cave, surprising him, but I could tell he quickly saw exactly why I’d done it. He grabbed my hand and pulled me along as he led us due west.
I heard the sound of swords being drawn before we lost sight of any soldiers.
I looked in the direction of every noise I heard. Everything sounded like somebody snapping a twig with their feet, and I was certain I heard every twig being snapped. I clutched the sword that Irvine gave me, ready to draw it and…
And what? I had never used a sword in my life. Hell, I’d only ever used a knife to cut up the pork chops Sharena made for dinner the other night, I had exactly zero combat experience as a human. Hell, I barely had any as a dragon. Irvine gave the wrong one of us the sword.
Kenny was standing at the edge of the little clearing we’d turned into a camp, keeping a close eye on our surroundings. “Hey, Kenny,” I said, trying to draw his attention.
“Shh,” he whispered, “there’s something out there.”
I lowered my voice. “Yeah, that’s why I need to give you this sword.”
He turned to me. “But, Dad gave you that.”
“And I’m probably the worst person to hold it, so you take it.”
He walked over to me and reached out for the sword, then pulled away. “No. I can’t.”
“Why?”
He sat down on the ground in front of me. “Because I know why Dad gave it to you. He doesn’t know, but I’ve been in his secret cave, and I’ve seen the mural. I know that Grandpa’s sword is magic, and I’m like Dad, not great at anything but basic spells that anybody can use.”
“So…”
“Am I jealous you can use the sword and I can’t? Yeah. But, Dad gave it to you because you can use it. I can’t take it.”
“Not even until I’ve gotten sword training and won’t be stabbing myself with it?”
He glared at me, like I’d just said the stupidest thing ever. “Fine, if it makes you comfortable.” He took the sword and clipped it to his belt. “But, the second you can swing a sword in confidence, you get it back.”
I smiled. “I promise I’ll take it back right that very second, regardless of what we’re doing.”
He reached over and ruffled my hair a little. It was a silly thing, but I could tell it was done with love.
Kenny pulled a map out of his bag and spread it out on a log in front of us. He pointed to a dot that was circled. There were few words on the map, only rivers and country borders. I could actually read some of them, like Vesperia on the country to the north.
“That’s Sandhog Ridge,” he said, “we’re probably two weeks away at best unless we can find some transport that doesn’t use roads and knows ways around the Empire’s most prominent hotspots.”
I looked over the map. “Okay, that would help if I knew where we are on this map.”
He traced a line over the map from Sandhog Ridge to a spot just by the largest water source. “Here. We’re not too far from a city called Peresten. It’s not a great place, but it’s changed a lot since Dad and Sharena were kids.”
“Should we go there? Wouldn’t there be a lot of Imperial Escorts in a city?”
He nodded. “Luckily, we’ll be able to move around relatively easily. The place is packed, and the Escorts are paid off by the local crime families.”
“Crime families? Like, mobsters?”
“Exactly like mobsters.” He looked over his shoulder, as if he expected somebody to be watching him. “Don’t tell Dad or Sharena, but I kinda know a few.”
I was wide-eyed. “You know mobsters?”
“Hey, I’ve got a life outside home that Dad and Sharena would never believe.” He smirked, proud of himself. “We’ll head there and see if we can’t find some people to help us get some extra supplies.” After a second, he added, “And fake IDs.”
“I don’t exactly have a real ID.”
“Good point, but you can’t exactly go around as Riley Endawa anymore. Hopefully, these guys can get us stuff to get past the Escorts. We’ll also havta change our appearances.”
“Uh, what?”
He reached out and lightly pulled some of my hair. “This, for example. Cut your hair, and it’ll confuse the picture they’ve got of you.”
Ugh… I was just starting to get to like having long hair. “Fine, I’ll cut my hair. What are you gonna do?”
He shrugged. “I dunno, but I’ll think of something. We’ve got a little over a day before we get to Peresten, so there’s plenty of time.” He folded up the map and slid it back into his pack. “We’ll get through this, don’t worry.”
The half-smirk on his face told me he wasn’t really as sure of himself as he wanted me to believe, but I smirked back, if for nothing else, to give him some extra confidence.
Hopefully, though, he was right.
