Born of Blood (The Valdir Chronicles Book 3) Page 18

  “Do you think they will hurt the dragons?” she asked, hoping no one would answer. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “I doubt it. They took them captive for one of two reasons: to control you, or to control them. Perhaps they want a flying force so that they can contend with your Valdiran forces.” Lord Illeron kept them moving through the dark. Kalina’s feet were freezing but sweat dripped from her forehead and her back was beginning to protest being hunched over in the passageway. She couldn’t imagine how the other three felt since they each stood at least a head taller than her.

  Finally, faint light peeked through at the end of the tunnel, and Kalina’s heart lifted slightly. They might just get out of this alive. But the end of the tunnel was blocked by an iron gate. Lord Illeron pulled and then pushed at it, but it was rusted shut and refused to move. Leif and Kari pushed past Kalina, Leif handing her his torch and together, he and Kari shoved and kicked at the gate.

  Kalina turned back to the black passage, fear and worry gnawing at her. That’s when she heard the echoed shouts and the dot of torch-light at the far end of the tunnel. She quickly dumped her torch into the river of filth beneath her, extinguishing the light.

  “Everyone, you might want to hurry up. We are being pursued.”

  Lord Illeron cursed under his breath and put his own torch out. Hopefully, they hadn’t been seen, but there was no guarantee. Leif and Kari pushed harder and there was a groan of metal as the gate finally pushed outwards. The gap was small but they all squeezed through it out into the night and onto a small stone ledge. Below them, a river rushed, and farther along the ledge, there was a dock. Torches flickered around the dock, and a large barge was moored there.

  “Make for the barge,” Lord Illeron said, ushering them before him. Kalina followed Leif and Kari along the tight ledge. One slip on the moss-covered rock and they would tumble into the freezing river below. She would bet that they wouldn’t survive long in the water. It rushed swiftly over the rocks below, white water undulating and swirling. Kalina was a strong swimmer, but there was no way she could keep her head above water while fighting the extreme cold. She shivered at the thought and focused on her footing.

  The barge was wide and shallow and filled with garbage. They could see a crew of dockworkers loading bags and bins full of refuse. All four of them crouched beside a pile of crates on the dock. Kalina kept looking behind them at the iron gate that stood open. Any moment Askorian soldiers would pour from the underground tunnel and they would be caught. Lord Illeron crouched beside them, his thin face grim.

  “You’ll need to sneak aboard. It’s due to leave any minute. Once it’s on the water, wait until the river is calm and smooth enough for you to swim to shore. Swim to the northern bank. I will have someone meet you there but it may not be tonight.”

  “You aren’t coming with us?” Leif asked, his eyes narrowing. Lord Illeron shook his head.

  “I need to stay in the city, see what else I can learn from my agents, see what can be done to free the dragons. I will report to you as soon as I know anything useful.” He turned to look at Kalina then. “You are the bravest person I know, Kalina.” Her eyes went wide at his informal address. He had never said her name, except when pairing it with her title. This somehow felt more intimate, personal. “I held you as a baby, delivered you to the abbey and Father Martin. I remember those days. I always got reports from Father Martin about your well-being, your antics.” He smiled at the memories. She had always gotten into trouble as a kid. “Reading those letters aloud to your grandfather was a highlight for both of us.” He placed a gentle, fatherly hand on her scarred cheek. “Be safe, my Queen.” He pulled her into a brief hug, startling her.

  Then he was standing and striding along the pier to engage the sailors and workers loading the barge. Kalina’s heart tightened in her chest. She worried this would be the last time she’d see the Spymaster.

  “We have to move,” Leif said, and together the three of them slunk out from behind the crate and down the short dock to the side of the ship. They quickly went up the gangplank and onto the deserted barge. Just as they disappeared over the lip there was a shout.

  “We need to hide!” she said desperately. They looked around but the only viable hiding place was in the thick of the garbage where two tall crates sat. As they crouched behind it, their backs to the far side of the barge and the river, Kalina tried not to think about what they stood upon. Her feet sunk into the muck and the smell was so strong it was a struggle to breathe.

  “What if someone comes around this side? We’ll be seen!” Kari said, her usually smirking face now full of fear. Kalina wished she knew what to say to make it better.

  “We’ll just have to hope we can make it far enough without being detected that they can’t turn back,” Kalina said. Kari nodded in understanding as they crouched, waiting. The sky overhead was a dark, cloud-covered void, the only light coming from the lamps aboard the ship and the torches on the dock. They would only be seen if the torchlight fell on them. Kalina sent up a quick prayer to Skaldir, the Valdir's god, that they wouldn’t be found. Then she followed it with a quick prayer to the Mother, the Ethean goddess, for good measure. Perhaps they would just get out of this alive.

  After what felt like an eternity crouching in the cold, they heard the sailors clamoring back aboard and the sounds of the gangplank being raised. Soon the barge was pushing away from its mooring and sliding out into the rushing river. Kalina stood to peer over the edge of the crate and watched as a small group of soldiers poured from the underground tunnel onshore, their torches barely reaching into the river. She could hear their shouts as they searched for her and her companions, but didn’t find them. She hoped Lord Illeron was safe.

  Soon the dock and the soldiers were out of sight around a bend, and the heavy darkness of night closed in around them. They had no idea how long it would be until they could slide over the side to safety but Kalina spent the entire time with her stomach in knots. Her feet were freezing and all she could think about was seeing Delisa being dragged away by her hair and the fear that Maska must be feeling, locked up, away from the freedom of the sky. She was already feeling his loss keenly, and the loss of the freedom he gave her. She felt trapped, bound to the land around her, a land that wasn’t even her home.

  It was hours before the river slowed and widened, but finally, it did and there was no doubt this was where Lord Illeron wanted them to disembark. Kalina’s feet were already so frozen from the trek through the underground passage and standing in muck that it was hard to get moving again. She followed Kari and Leif over the side of the ship, dropping into the freezing cold water with as little sound as possible. Together they swam hard towards shore, their breath catching in their chests, their teeth chattering loudly. When Kalina wearily pulled herself onto the northern bank there were no lights from the castle visible, only the dark trees on either bank and the small lanterns bobbing from the ship as it slipped away downstream. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep, but she forced herself to climb the small rocky outcropping and follow Leif and Kari as they led her into the woods.

  The trees here were wide apart, glimpses of the sky above them visible through the towering trees. She slumped against a trunk, her feet so numb she could no longer feel them, her body shivering so violently she thought she’d shake apart.

  “We ne-need a f-fire,” she chattered. Kari looked as exhausted as she felt but she nodded. Leif looked tired but determined.

  “Each of you gather three armloads of the driest wood you can find and meet back here. I’ll gather kindling and find a place to build a fire.” Leif stalked off deeper into the forest.

  Kalina nodded belatedly at his back and forced herself to stand upright, using the tree for balance. She began searching the ground and low hanging branches for dry wood. After about ten minutes she had gathered her first load of firewood. She went back to the tree she’d leaned against, but Leif was nowhere to be found.

  “Leif?�
�� she called hesitantly into the deep, dark woods. Every part of her was cold now, her wet clothing stiff with frost. If she didn’t get warm soon she was afraid she might keel over and die. “Leif? Wh-where are you?” Her teeth chattered so hard she almost didn’t get the words out. Finally, his familiar shape emerged from the trees.

  “Over here. I’ve found a rock to reflect the heat.”

  Kalina had no idea what he was talking about but she followed him to where he’d made a small pit and had a bundle of kindling waiting nearby. She dumped her armload beside it and turned to get more. By the time she’d returned with her third armload, Leif had a merry little fire glowing, and Kari was sitting beside it, feeding it larger and larger sticks.

  “Here, sit here.” Leif guided her to sit on the side of the fire with the rock face to her back. Then he went off into the night. Kalina held her hands out to the slowly growing fire, grateful for its warmth.

  “Where’d he go?” She was thankful her voice didn’t waver as much.

  “To get something to help reflect the heat I’d guess.” Kari was hunched over her knees, trying to keep her body heat inside while the fire grew. Her face was all hard lines in the firelight and Kalina could only imagine what she was feeling, but she’d bet it was similar to her own fear and grief.

  Leif came back a few minutes later with a few dead logs, and Kalina watched as he and Kari began erecting a sort of lean-to, it’s inside facing the rock wall but not touching it. Kalina felt a bit useless but she knew she’d only be a hindrance as they used more sticks to create a roof and then cut pine boughs to weave between them, creating a thick roof. Kalina noticed that as they worked, it became steadily warmer around her. She peeled off her soaked wolf fur cloak and slung it up over the rock so that it hung down to dry. Kari and Leif did the same, peeling off their outer layers and hanging them to dry out.

  “How do you guys know what to do?” Kalina asked, rubbing her now throbbing toes. The warmth flooding them was lovely but painful. She supposed that the pain meant she wasn’t going to lose a toe to frostbite after all.

  “We grew up learning how to survive. Even in the high desert of the Wastes, you can still freeze to death at night. We were taught how to build a fire, how to build a shelter, how to stay warm.” Kari explained. “Now I just wish we had some food.”

  Her cousin was right. They wouldn’t be able to survive out here for long. She could only hope that whoever Lord Illeron was sending would arrive soon.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Kari said after a small silence. Kalina’s eyes met Leif’s for a brief moment before he looked away.

  “We wait for Lord Illeron’s contact. Then we make a plan,” Kalina said, shrugging.

  “But Delisa is in there. Yurok is in there. They are suffering. Skaldir only knows what that bastard is doing to them. We need to go back as soon as we can.” Kari’s voice held such bitterness, such vehemence, that it wrenched at Kalina’s already aching heart. How much more pain could they all endure? How much more could she endure? If she lost Maska- no, she couldn’t think about that. She had watched Nash go crazy after his dragon’s death. She couldn’t bear to think of what she might do if she lost hers.

  “We will make a plan, Kari. I promise we will get them all back safe and sound.”

  Leif looked at her again, and for the first time in months, she saw a spark of his old self, their old friendship there. He gave her a small smile of approval, of appreciation. She only hoped she could live up to her own words.

  Part 3

  Chapter 31

  As dawn light finally broke through the heavy cloud cover to reach the forest floor, Kalina woke. She was swaddled in her freshly dried cloak, the heat of the fire having dried it quicker than she’d thought, the hood pulled up tight. Both Leif and Kari looked like dark brown lumps beneath a soft layer of freshly fallen snow that had come down in the night. She sat up and shook herself off, stretching and then feeding a few small twigs to the dying embers before her, stirring them to life. Soon she had a merry little fire glowing.

  Just as she was about to wake the others up and suggest they try to find some food, a great roar filled the clearing, followed by the unmistakable concussion of giant wing beats. All three of them were on their feet in an instant, weapons drawn. It couldn’t be a dragon, it would take at least another day for someone to fly there from the Great Grey Mountains, and from what little Kalina remembered of the geography of Askor, they were far to the north, not far from the base of the Snowcap Glacier.

  A huge bulk landed with a mighty thud between the trees a few paces away, and Kalina let out a small gasp. The dragon was unlike any she’d seen so far. The face was craggier, more monstrous and stone-like than her cat-like Maska. He even had a beard of small whiskers that hung down around his chin. But the strangest thing was his scales: he was ice blue in color, and if he had stood still against a snow-covered background, Kalina would be hard-pressed to pick him out. She barely had time to glance at his rider before a second huge dragon settled onto the ground, effectively cutting Kalina and her companions off from escape unless they scaled the rock behind them. This dragon was pure white, except for brown and black splotches all across his scales, giving him the look of a piebald horse. He blended in well with the mottled tree and snow-covered landscape they currently occupied.

  Both riders were female as far as Kalina could see, and although they were dragon riders, she didn’t release the tight grip she had on her twin axes as the two women dismounted and approached. The one that dismounted the ice blue dragon unwrapped a thick piece of white cloth from her head and face that had been protecting her from the wind and freezing temperatures and Kalina let out a little gasp at the woman beneath.

  Her hair was silver and hung in twisted locks that would have reached her waist had they not currently been tied back with a white piece of cloth. Blue, silver and white beads glimmered in the morning light throughout the dreads. Her skin was heavily tanned from sun exposure and her eyes were piercingly blue, like Kalina’s, like Kari’s.

  The other woman had similar hair, and Kalina realized it was a style they wore, much like her, Kari, and Leif’s battle-braided hair. Her skin was also deeply tanned but her eyes were a more muted blue. She had kinder features than the ice blue dragon rider. Kalina stepped in front of Leif and Kari who began to protest but she held up her hands and put her axes on the ground before her.

  “We wish you no harm, dragon rider,” she said, her hands held out before her, empty. The ice blue dragon rider gave her a tight smile.

  “We know, Kalina, Queen of the Valdir and Ethea.”

  Kalina took a step back.

  “Did Lord Illeron send you?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Yes. I am Sunniva, leader of the Vanir. We have come to take you and your people to our camp.” She gestured to her companion. “This is Astrid, my second-in-command. Two of you may ride with her, the Queen with me.” She turned to walk back to her dragon. Kalina looked around at Kari and Leif, feeling confused and astonished.

  “How did you find us?” she asked.

  “Takoda smelled your campfire from a mile away and led us here,” the Vanir woman said, adjusting her dragon’s saddle. Kari shrugged at Kalina and grabbed her small bag of belongings off the ground. Leif eyed the women before doing the same.

  “I will follow wherever you go,” he said, his voice low and quiet. She nodded back in acceptance.

  “Let’s go then.” She grabbed her own bag and followed Sunniva to her ice-blue dragon.

  “This is Takoda.” Sunniva introduced. He snaked his huge head down to get a good look at Kalina.

  “Well met, Queen Kalina of the Valdir.” His voice was as deep as the ice floes that dominated northern Askor and it resonated through Kalina. She shivered slightly before responding.

  “Well met, Takoda. May I ride on your back?” She thought it might be polite to ask since he hadn’t offered.

  “Yes.”

  Kalina gave him a small bow and th
en followed Sunniva up into a double leather saddle. She strapped herself in and then pulled her cloak tightly around herself. That’s when she inspected Sunniva’s clothing. She wore leather like Kalina’s but hers were bleached white, to blend in with their ice-covered surroundings. But over top, she wore a strange woolen cloak with a white fur-trimmed neckline that wrapped around her shoulders and upper torso, clearly keeping in the heat and not flapping away in the wind like Kalina’s cloak did. Perhaps she could ask Sunniva to get her one once they arrived wherever they were going.

  “Where are we going?” she asked over the roaring of the wind as Takoda beat his enormous wings to gain altitude.

  “To my village. There you will be safe.”

  “Where is your village?” Simen had mentioned the Vanir, but not their name. He had said they hadn’t been seen for hundreds of years. Suddenly, a dozen unanswered questions occurred to Kalina but she bit them back. There would be time, she hoped, to have them answered.

  “North,” Sunniva said, and then they were winging their way north, deep into the snow-covered wilderness.

  The Vanir village was nestled between two ice-capped peaks, a dense forest filling the valley between and hiding the village from view. One end of the valley was blocked by the huge ice floes of the Snowcap Glacier, the other by high mountain peaks beyond. These mountains were much taller than her beloved Great Grey Mountains, the tallest peaks she’d ever seen, their sides covered in a thick layer of snow and ice. There was no way in or out except by dragon. The only indication of a village there were the occasional spirals of smoke that drifted up through the thick canopy below. It was no wonder they’d gone undetected for centuries. No one could get up here to bother them.

  Sunniva and Astrid landed with their dragons in a clearing a mile or so south of the village and together their little group walked the rest of the way. Underneath the tall trees, the branches had been stripped away for the first twenty or so feet so that the dragons could walk comfortably beneath their spreading branches.