I changed into my dragon form and winged my way to the city. I’d heard hushed whispers of the Lord of the Scourge, and I was intent on tracking him down. Sooner or later, the Olds would ask us to track down the Lord. It might be our ultimate final test before we were considered worthy to take the thrones from our fathers.
And I knew that, according to the priests, unworthy dragons—and rebellious sons—lost the protection and blessing of the magic. It was why Jaik worried me so much with his obsession with Honor. He seemed willing to go to war with Pend in order to keep Honor by his side. But once we were able to take the thrones, he’d be able to do anything he wanted. I just had to keep my friend from turning so love-stupid he’d cast aside a crown.
I planned to visit one of my informants, a man who had made the mistake of trying to steal from Arren. I wasn’t like my father, eager to imprison and kill if someone tried to steal from me. I was an optimist by nature; I found a way to turn any offense into an opportunity.
I found the man working in his uncle’s cobbling shop, as usual. He dropped the boot he was working on when he saw me, his eyes widening in horror. It fell to the ground between us with a heavy smack.
“Lord Branok, it’s so nice to see you again,” he stuttered.
“You don’t have to lie to me, it makes me worry what else you would lie to me about.” I smiled at him. “Is your uncle here?”
I moved past him to glance into the back. It was a cozy little cobbling shop. It was too bad that he’d never really had a passion for footwear. If he had been content to put on new soles and patch boots, he never would have come to my attention. But now we were friends for life.
“He’s not here right now, no,” the man said. He glanced up at me nervously. “So, when do you think my debt might be paid off?”
“I’ll let you know,” I promised.
“Because the assassins you have me spying on are almost as terrifying as you are.”
“There’s no reason for you to be scared of them, since they’ll never know that you’re eavesdropping on their conversations when you’re working in the castle. However, I am very aware of you. So if you’re trying to determine who you should worry about, well…” I offered him another big smile.
He did not return my smile. Some people are so unfriendly.
“I haven’t heard anything from them in a while.” His uncle provided the shoes and saddles to the castle’s guards and assassins, and he sent his nephew in to repair them monthly. He hesitated. “But I did hear something about the Scourge? But it was just from the potter down the street.”
“I don’t hold any kind of bias against potters. You are welcome to share interesting information from the potter.”
“I heard that the Scourge has been sighted several times in the city. That they’ve always been attended by a man wearing a crown. And some people even say they’ve seen him sitting in the pub at the edge of the river. The Fisherman’s Bounty. But that can’t be true, can it? The Scourge couldn’t be here in our city.”
“No of course not,” I lied, “but I’ll look into it.”
“And I heard…” He looked uncertain. “I heard the king’s men came along and told people to shut up about the Scourge.”
The Olds were always afraid of just how much fear the people might feel. Enough to appreciate us was great, but no need to overdo it. “Thank you for the information.”
“No problem,” he muttered. “Always glad to be of service.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said pleasantly, and then I made my way out again into the night.
Hours later, I sat drinking the Fisherman’s Bounty, having made many new drinking friends. I was dressed in brown leather work pants and a thick blue woolen sweater, clothes that any common worker might have worn. Tal said that it was embarrassing to be seen with me when I was dressed like this, but it allowed me to blend with the populace. Most of the kingdom didn’t know my face, and I liked it that way.
Usually, when Scourge were sighted, my father and Pend knew about it and they sent us in to do their dirty work in dealing with the Scourge. The older royals were very well-equipped to deal with dirty work themselves, of course. They just chose to make us deal with Scourge whenever possible. They said it was character building, because every loving parent sends their children to face down the zombie hordes. It hurts them more than it hurts us, of course.
I spent the evening there but saw no sign of the Scourge, and I knew I should really head back anyway to my friends. I wanted to return to the castle with Lynx so no one would see how upsetting I found the situation with my sister.
As I walked along the riverbank, moving away from the village toward the forest, I scouted one last time for any signs of unusual activity. I wondered if our fathers had created the hybrids in an attempt to combat the Scourge, and if so, how they had possibly thought they’d improve things by adding more monsters. We didn’t want to accuse them of anything, especially without evidence and a plan. Keeping the peace was more important than being right. For now. But I was really dying to ask them some questions about their logic.
My conversations in the pub had also confirmed for me that the Olds were ruthlessly squashing any discussion of the Scourge and hybrids when they were sighted. They had always said that terror was just as dangerous as the Scourge itself.
We couldn’t find a way to stamp out the Scourge once and for all. The Lord of the Scourge was supposed to be the key, but he was elusive. And dangerous. All through my childhood, our fathers had sent men to find the Lord, and all through my childhood, body bags had been carried home by grim-faced warriors… if they returned at all. I worried some of my friends wouldn’t survive the inevitable mission.
Movement in the woods startled me.
Three Scourge lurched in the shadows. Then I saw their targets.
Two children played on the rock strewn, abandoned beach. They were chasing each other with sticks for swords. Maybe they were at risk of putting an eye out before, but now they were at risk of being eaten.
I was moving toward them before I even realized what I was doing. While I ran across the beach toward the boys, I heard snarling behind me.
I grabbed the kids’ collars, and they looked up at me with terrified faces. “Scourge. Run!”
Together, the three of us ran and ran towards the shelter of the city, as behind me I heard all hell break loose.
Two hybrids had lurched out to attack the Scourge. They were all ripping each other apart. Well, that was unexpected.
“Get inside,” I told the boys as we neared the first building.
Maybe it was the case that the Olds had forged the hybrids to fight the Scourge.
I turned around to face the Scourge and hybrids.
The beach was empty.
There was no sign that anyone had ever been there.
On high alert, I tracked back down to the beach. My nostrils flared trying to find the scent, but all I breathed in was the scent of the fresh salt air.
The sense of someone’s presence, of someone watching me, was like nails scraping over my skin. My head snapped toward the woods.