Page 54 of Consorting with Dragons

“No, you don’t. It’s out of the question.”

“But don’t you see? My family is already involved in this and that horrible man tried to get my father involved in his schemes. I think he wanted my grandfather to get angry about it, so my father would have little choice but to join his dumb rebellion. I mean, he must be stupid. The entire Alliance of planets couldn’t stop my grandfather years ago, and he’s only stronger now. I think he wanted to take me with him so he could threaten me and keep me hostage to control my grandfather’s response.”

“Maybe there’s truth in that, but you’re crazy if you think I’ll let you go alone. It’s out of the question. If I agree to this, then we go together.”

“No. You’ll only slow us down. You’re too hurt.”

“I can make it. I can ride Sulamon, because he responds better to me than to anyone.”

“You may be right. Sulamon does listen more to you than anyone, but he listened to me too, didn’t he? I’m the one who told him to set fire to all those tents while I saved you. He’s smart. And Talon said he was furious about them hurting you. Talon can go with us and help. The Dragon Riders may not make it in time to help us.”

“You called them? How did you get a signal out so quickly?”

“When we left you here, Talon flew me up out of the trees and straight up above the mountains. I got through to them on your communicator. I told them you needed help and to get here as fast as they could. They’re using the signal to track us.”

“But what about Talon? He should stay here since he can’t fight.”

“Yeah, but I was thinking…what if I armed him in some way too?”

“How would you do that?”

“Why couldn’t he drop things on the soldiers shooting up at us? Explosives if we had them, but big boulders for sure.”

“I never thought of that. Bomb the soldiers from above? By dragon? Do you think we could do that? Would Talon be up for it?”

“I think Talon can do anything. Besides, we have them on the run now. Let’s press our advantage and keep them busy so they can’t leave. There are rocks everywhere up here,” Rylan went on eagerly. “We could put some of them in the net and then tie it in front of him, and he could throw them down. We’dhave the element of surprise too. I just wish we had explosives he could drop on them.”

“The boulders would be enough if they don’t shoot him. You need to provide cover for him with my disruptor. And if you think I’m letting you go without me, then you can think again. I’m doing this!”

Rylan threw his arms around my neck and kissed me, trying to shut me up, and I tried to slow him down a little. “We wait for the Riders, though. I think we’ll have until morning before the Thalians can regroup enough to try to leave Horvath. You’re giving them too much credit. Besides, Travon won’t leave until he can get inside the remains of his tent to clear out his gold. He was keeping that close, for sure. He’ll think he has some time while we gather more men.”

“You think he had gold with him?”

“Of course. And he won’t leave without it. You’re right, Rylan. We have to finish what we started. But we need to wait until the others get here and not push our luck.”

To my shock, he smiled and nodded. “Okay, then. I know you’ll just be an ass about it if I don’t.”

Things went exactly as we’d planned for once. The Riders arrived only a few hours later, full of concern about the shape I was in. By this time, the pain medicine Rylan had given me had worn off and I wasn’t doing particularly well. We all agreed I needed to stay back. One of the medics stayed to work on me, while the rest of them—with Talon, Rylan and Sulamon leading the pack, took off to finish what we’d started. I was nervous and worried. and I knew I would be until they returned, but Rylan had done everything right so far. How could I keep standing in his way?

From the stories I heard later, the Thalian soldiers had been trying to regroup and were even setting up a new camp with the few remaining tents when the Riders and their dragons swoopeddown on them. Sulamon and the other Reds had laid down their fire streams along the rows of tents and then turned to come back to lay down more fire on the row behind that. Talon occupied himself by dropping down small boulders on top of the fleeing soldiers as they tried to shoot up at the Riders and their dragons, while Rylan provided even more cover by shooting down at them. The screams and shouts of these men added to the general chaos of the fires.

“It all went like clockwork,” Rylan had claimed, whatever that meant. He said it was a human saying for when things went the way we wanted them to. We did manage to get a call out to contact King Davos on his private line and give him the good news.

The Reds had been fierce in their attack on what was left of the Thalian camp, and they managed to destroy it pretty effectively. They swept down on the mercenaries and showed them no mercy, sparing only the Goldens still in their pen. The camp was left empty of any living souls and in complete ruin.

Talon and Rylan went to speak to the Goldens and calmed them down as much as he could. We soon found out that they understood and communicated very much like Talon, though none of them were quite as chatty as he was. After we released them from the pen, they were able to follow us back to base. They didn’t seem to have human attachments, like our dragons did, so they were all a bit feral and frightened. In this case, it was a blessing, as they had no attachments to grieve over and no allegiance to the Thalians, who had all been wiped out to the last man.

Epilogue

Rylan

It was a few days after we got back home that Quinn got ready to leave for camp again, now that things were more or less back to normal. Quinn was doing much better and recovering from his injuries. Over the next few days, the Riders were able to confirm that King Travon’s lifeless body had been found in the woods, near the edge of camp, struck down by some of the big rocks that Talon had dropped on him and his entourage. All the Horvathian traitors had been rounded up too, though most of them had been killed in the fight. Colonel Bentine wasn’t found, though it was suspected he was among the bodies that were burned beyond recognition inside the tents. It would take some investigation to discover which members of the Conservative Party had been backing King Travon, and if my theory about them wanting to substitute him for the new king had been true. So far nobody was talking, but the queen has suspended Parliament until she could investigate any traitorous activity. Quinn was confident he would be able to ferret out the truth in time.

He was anxious to get back to the Riders Training Camp, and after I watched him packing up his things, I wandered out into the main living area and sat on the sofa to start reading. I was trying to be calm about it and hide my resentment. No mention had been made about me coming with him. He came in the living area and stood near the bedroom door, watching me carefully.

“I’m leaving in a few minutes,” he said, watching me closely. “But I’ll be home in a week and conducting interviews in the capitol. You should go with me when I return. The queen would love to see you and thank you in person for all you’ve done.”

“I’ll miss you,” I said. “Be safe, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go with you to see the queen. I can try to be here, but it depends.”

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