The Blue Dragon: A Claire-Agon Dragon Book (Dragon Series 2) Read online

  “Understood, Master Kaylor. I’ll inform Overseer Jaxon, and we will begin when you’re ready,” Seth said, turning around and walking back to his group.

  When he arrived, Krom nodded and Seth looked back in time to see the barbarian Graz leaving and running into one of the many draws and gullies that lined this section of the beach. “Where’s he off to?”

  Seth watched the tall man disappear and then addressed the cleric and group. “I don’t know, but keep a sharp eye. The Kesh wizards are ready.”

  Before he could say more, the wizard and apprentice walked over to their group and Kaylor nodded. Jaxon nodded in return but didn’t move, so Kaylor and his apprentice took out the two orbs that had been set on top of the ridgeline earlier and said a few words, and they illuminated slightly. It was hard to see the faint illumination in the noonday sun. Both Kesh started to walk along the beach, separating by at least a good twenty feet.

  “Captain Eiry, keep your men between the Kesh and tell them to be quiet,” Seth said.

  The captain nodded and moved off to command the men as the entire group walked quickly to catch up to the Kesh who had opened a small distance between the two groups. Once they caught up, they marched quietly in unison with Jaxon and Alyssa bringing up the rear. Krom walked next to Seth just in front of the captain and his men.

  “Do you think this is going to work?” Krom whispered to Seth as they trudged in the hot, heavy sand.

  Kaylor turned from a good fifteen feet away and nodded. “Yes, Master Krom, this will work if your men do not make much noise.”

  Krom gave Seth a look, and Seth just shrugged his shoulders and carried on, pulling his short sword when they rounded a small promontory that was another third of a league farther down the beach.

  Krom gasped and covered his mouth. There, not more than forty feet in front of them, was the entrance to a small tidal cave, and sitting like a stone statue was the small, dragon-looking wyvern they had spotted from nearly a league distance. The wyvern had appeared to be quite small when they viewed it from a great distance, but Seth saw instantly that the creature was easily the size of two or more horses. It had a dull grey skin, allowing it to blend in perfectly with the grey rock of the outcropping, and its wings were folded in like a bat hanging from a cave’s ceiling. Its head, however, was held in an alert pose about ten feet above its claws, and the tail ended in what looked like a scorpion’s stinger.

  Kaylor never stopped walking and indeed practically marched up to the creature, stopping within ten feet of it, as did his apprentice. Holding the orb in his left hand, he used his right to swing his staff around in a tight circle.

  The wyvern finally moved, cocking its head toward the group and the beach, but Seth had the distinct impression that it didn’t see them. Then it did something that really worried Seth; it started to sniff, as if smelling something.

  “Oh hell,” he heard Krom state as the cleric pulled his wooden shield over his left side and readied his wooden club.

  “Now!” Captain Eiry commanded, and the Balarian soldiers sprang from the middle of the formation, branching out as each squad moved from the center to the left and the right.

  “Pohozha na vodi!” Kaylor said, pointing his gem-adorned metallic staff at the large tidal pool in front of him. Instantly a huge ball of water levitated and then attached itself to the wyvern’s head.

  The creature roared in defiance, but the sound was muted as the large ball of sea water centered on the creature’s face. The wyvern lunged sideways at one group of Balarian soldiers, and its tail flung two of them to the ground. It swung its head violently from side to side and tried to dislodge the water ball from its face.

  Seth noticed that the ball of water encompassed the creature’s eyes as well, and while he wasn’t sure how well the creature saw in normal light, he felt confident at the wild thrashings of the beast that the water warped its vision.

  Krom rushed toward the front, giving a long, swinging arc to his wooden club and impacting one of the front claws of the creature. Several other soldiers, now in flanking positions, stabbed and jutted their pikes and spears into the creature. Most of the blows were deflected by its scaly armor, but the wings were not armored and they were injured by the long weapons.

  Seth looked for an opening in which to strike, but the entire area around the wyvern was crowded with Balarian soldiers and his comrades, making the fight a crowded one. Kaylor must have felt the same as he stood, staff in hand, allowing them to do the fighting. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the administrator Jaxon practically clinging to Alyssa as she held her short sword in front of her, both of them well to the rear of the group.

  Finally getting some traction, the wyvern managed to hit two soldiers to the right of the group with its tail, the stinger missing one of them by mere inches. Krom got a claw stuck in his wooden shield for his efforts, and one of the sergeants was nearly bitten despite the globe of water that pushed him away as the creature tried to bite.

  “Do something, Seth,” Krom yelled, pulling back on his shield and almost stumbling backward into the wizard’s apprentice.

  “You seem to be doing just fine,” Seth answered, stepping up next to Krom, grabbing him by his club arm and helping to stabilize him.

  Kaylor seemed to have seen enough. Moving his staff, he stepped into Seth’s field of vision and pointed his staff at the creature, saying, “Umerai!”

  His gemstone atop the metallic staff had started to glow as it took in the charged particles from the atmosphere. A bolt of lightning shot from the staff at the creature, passing into the water ball and disbanding the hydrogen molecules so that the water sprayed everywhere. The bolt hit the wyvern squarely between the eyes and smote a gaping hole in its skull. The beast thrashed a second more and then tottered and fell, its head landing heavily with a dull thud right in front of Seth and Krom.

  The soldiers stepped back, dripping with water, and then, seeing the wyvern dead, started to cheer. One even stepped forward and poked the creature’s neck to see if it was breathing.

  Seth felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Alyssa at his side. The government administrator also stepped closer, getting a better look at the beast before speaking. “Well done, Master Wizard. I’d say the foul creature has seen his last day.”

  Kaylor turned and looked at Jaxon for a moment as if distracted by a child, and then finally answered. “Too easy I would say, but yes, no more troublemaking for this one.”

  “Everyone is accounted for,” Captain Eiry said, approaching the group. “Two with broken bones, a couple more banged up, but no deaths. It was a good fight.”

  “For us, yes, but not so much for the dragon,” Jaxon said, trying to shake off the fear that had gripped the man not more than a minute earlier.

  “Wyvern,” Kaylor said.

  “Nonsense,” Administrator Jaxon said, walking over to the nearest soldier and grabbing the man’s spear. He took a few steps forward to the side of the beast’s head and placed his sandaled foot on top of its skull, thrusting the spear point first into the hole on its forehead. The squishing sound was too familiar for Seth.

  “What are you doing?” Alyssa asked, taking a step toward Jaxon, her charge.

  “The dragon is dead,” Jaxon said, twisting the spear slightly as a black ichor came from the hole. “Look for yourselves. It has wings, claws, scales, and nasty fangs. This is what the Kesh were so worried about, enough to upset our governor and roust us from our revelry to come all the way out here and kill it. There is nothing to worry about.”

  Alyssa opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Sand from on top of the cave’s entrance slowly started to stream down in very small slides, making a unique yet soothing sound. The cackle of something sparking sounded faintly, and the smell of ozone was in the air.

  The very ground vibrated, gently at first, and then the sounds were unmistakable, louder and clearer. Something of a purplish hue was approaching from the cave. The soldiers backed
away, and Krom raised his club, taking a few steps to the rear. Seth grabbed Alyssa and pulled her back toward him, noticing that the only person not backing away from the cave’s entrance was Jaxon, in his ridiculous victory pose, and the Kesh wizard, who narrowed his eyes.

  Jaxon turned, looking at the cave entrance since noticing the reaction of his troops and colleagues. His mouth hung down, his fat jowl bouncing up and down in rhythm with his mouth as he, too, tried to speak but could not. The dragon stepped from the cave’s shadow into the sunlight.

  The shade had made the mass look diffused and hard to see, purplish in color. In the sunlight, the effect was very much the opposite. The detailed lines of the beast were now clearly visible. Claws scraped on the rock, thick scales moved in unison with the massive muscles beneath them, and wings unfurled once they cleared the cave’s entrance, looking very much like thick, stretched leather. The entire creature shimmered a bright blue in color, and its reptilian eyes were also of the same hue.

  Seth held his short sword out in front of him. Small, static electrical sparks were coming off the wings where they came too close to the rock cliff. The beast lowered its head and looked at Jaxon still standing with his foot on the wyvern’s skull, hand still gripping the spear. Jaxon soiled himself, and Seth instantly recognized the man’s state of fear. He was paralyzed and couldn’t move, much less control his bodily functions. Seth had seen this state of fear many times with many of his victims, and now he was seeing it again.

  The blue dragon took a second to look around and assess the group. It was several times larger than the wyvern, and a strange fear-inducing aura emanated from it. It hesitated for only a second, and then in three quick steps, it lunged forward from the cave’s entrance and struck out with its head, opening its gaping maw and biting down on Jaxon’s legs, taking the entire man into its mouth.

  It raised its head and started to chew, shaking its wings and beating them fiercely for several seconds. The sound of bone crunching was mingled with the howl of the wind as sand blew every which way and partially blinded the group in the mini sandstorm. Red blood poured from the side of the blue dragon’s mouth, falling from the corner of its lips, a single fang protruding, barely visible as the blood fell on the sandy outcropping of rock. Administrator Jaxon was no more.

  The wind died down, and the dragon reared back, its stance one of a lion ready to pounce. Silence returned to the group and was only broken by Kaylor, who turned to Seth, saying, “I think you are going to need a bigger sword.”

  Chapter 2

  Balaria

  “Is that what I think it is, Jayrel?” the tall, gaunt-looking man said, leaning on the large patio railing, looking into the large Bay of Balaria.

  “Hard to say, Governor Richtor. Do you have that eyeglass handy the Kesh ambassador gave you last year?” Jayrel, the leader of the thieves’ guild, said.

  Richtor motioned for one of his servants. “Thomas, run up to my study and retrieve the Kesh eyeglass, and do it now.”

  The servant ran to a set of steps and toward the nearby palatial towers that composed the governor’s quarters as another man, cloaked in a black cape and hood, walked over to the railing to join Jayrel and Richtor.

  “You know, the ship will be docked by the time your man returns,” the black-hooded man said, his voice low and his tone even.

  Richtor looked over at the man and frowned. “Really, Azex, you should throw away that dirty rag and wear something more suitable for this time of year.”

  Jayrel looked at Azex and raised a brow but said nothing. It was not wise to anger the grandmaster assassin, even if one was the governor of Balaria.

  “My cloak is cooler than it looks. Besides, I’m not overly fond of this much sunlight, and I only tolerate this oppressive heat,” Azex said, looking out over the bay at the many ships there. Some were departing, others, like the one being discussed, were arriving, and a few were either docked or anchored in the deep, wide bay.

  “Still, I’d recommend something cooler, say, a blend of Ulathan and Tynirian fabrics and a lighter color to reflect the sunlight,” Richtor said, his hand waving about rather pompously.

  “I take it you called Master Jayrel and myself here for a reason, Richtor?” Azex said, now taking the time to look at the governor.

  Jayrel stepped back, allowing a clear line of vision between the two men, and his other brow arched as well. Only Azex, and perhaps Seth the Sword Slayer, could get away with addressing the governor without using his title. The sign of disrespect was obvious.

  “No need to get defensive or rude,” Richtor said, returning the assassin’s gaze. “I did have news from the North and thought the triumvirate should know.”

  “Don’t use that term, Richtor.” Azex lowered his head, disdain in his voice. “The term is reserved for the Kesh. We’ll maintain the current façade for now.”

  Governor Richtor did seem to pale a bit at the mention of the Kesh and decided to quickly change the subject. “Well, I think that ship is Tynirian by the look of it. The wide beam gives it away.”

  Jayrel never took his eyes off of Azex. If something was to happen, it would start with that man, despite the many armed guards standing at attention nearby. He decided to comment and watch Azex’s reaction. “One of the Ulathan caravels would appear much the same, wide of berth and just as tall in the masts.”

  Azex’s eyes were hard to see as the man’s hood did an adequate job of shading his face. Too adequate, in fact. Still, Jayrel watched as those deadly eyes darted quickly, looking at Jayrel and then back to the governor. “Why are we here?”

  Richtor seemed resigned to the fact that Azex would not be polite today and sighed before speaking. “Well, the Kesh have called for a conclave in order to discuss the current situation, and the duke of Ulatha refused to send a representative to the Kesh capital of Keshtor.”

  “So?” Azex asked.

  “So, several other realms also refused, and a compromise was reached,” Richtor said, now shading his eyes and resuming his observation of the newly arriving ships.

  There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before Azex spoke again. This time the annoyance in his voice was unmistakable. “What is the nature of this compromise and how does it affect us?”

  Richtor put his hand down and looked at Azex, his face confused before suddenly his eyes opened widely and he stood straighter to address the man. “The Kesh agreed to hold the conclave here in Balax next week.”

  “Why are we only being notified of this right now?” Azex asked coolly.

  “Yes, when was this decided?” Jayrel asked, stepping forward and looking the governor in the eye.

  “Some time ago, I presume, but we only received word yesterday when the Kesh frigate arrived with a messenger,” Richtor said.

  “Nonsense,” Jayrel said, shaking his head. “The wizards would use those magic orbs of theirs to communicate this type of information. I don’t see how they would resort to sending a messenger on a ship.”

  “I believe they did send Kaylor the message, but he’s been inaccessible and out with your people searching for a bloody dragon of all things, way out there,” Richtor motioned with his arms, palms face up, a look of confusion on his face.

  “I know. I sent Alyssa to accompany your representative,” Jayrel said.

  “As did I,” Azex said, looking back and forth to either man. “Speaking of which, they’ve been gone a long time, haven’t they?”

  Jayrel nodded and looked to Richtor, expecting an answer. Richtor performed a few mental calculations before answering. “Over a month by my reckoning. I, too, would have expected them to either return by now or to have sent word of a delay this long.”

  “There’s no way to send word, short of a messenger,” Azex said, returning his gaze upon the broad ship carrying a shimmering banner that was glinting sunlight off of its colorful tassels, obscuring a detailed view that would have indicated from which realm the ship came.

  “I’m sure the Kesh ambassado
r could have used his magic to send word, no?” Richtor asked.

  “It doesn’t work that way,” Azex said. “The critir only contact each other. There would need to be another critir here in order for him to communicate with us.”

  “Are you sure?” Richtor asked as Jayrel began to have second thoughts about stepping between the two men.

  “I’m positive, and you’d be too if you spent any time at all studying Kesh culture,” Azex said, looking at Richtor who stood a full head taller than Jayrel, making it easy for them to see one another despite the thieves’ guildmaster standing between them.

  “I don’t see what their culture has to do with their magic,” Richtor said.

  “You’d understand that there needs to be two of them to communicate in this manner over long distances. That is why they always have an apprentice with them,” Azex shot back.

  Jayrel had heard enough and wasn’t eager to see an argument break out between the two men . . . again. “Never mind the Kesh. I want to know why the messenger is only now arriving.”

  It took a moment for the other men to break their gazes from one another as Richtor looked down at Jayrel, answering the man. “The first messenger and his entire party appeared to have been in a rather dreadful accident.”

  “Accident?” Jayrel asked, bringing his hand to his chin and rubbing the stubble there.

  “Yes, they found the caravan not far from the Kesh port of Aria in the arid region outside the road to Keshtor. It appears they were all burned alive,” Richtor said, his voice softening.

  “Sounds suspicious,” Jayrel said. “Did the messenger explain what happened to them?”

  “No, he didn’t. He seemed interested only in ensuring that the conclave would be held here and on time,” Richtor answered.

  The trio was silent as Thomas returned, panting for air. The servant must have run the entire way to fetch the leather case that held the Kesh eyeglass. He offered the pouch to his master, Richtor, and bent over at his waist, hands on his hips, trying to fill his lungs with air.