The Dragon Knight and the Light Read online

  The Dragon Knight and the Light

  By D.C. Clemens

  Chapter One

  A large pebble rattling inside a glass vase. That’s what the darkness sounded like. It refused to fucking stop in the hours or fortnights I dwelled within my insensible mind. No prolonged thought or external din could break through the clatter. Since no multi-syllable word could formulate, I randomly shouted a horde of single syllable ones until two in the right order inspired the desired effect—Wake up!

  “Ahh!” yelped Clarissa when I sat up.

  I breathed hard while a layer of warm sweat under my armor dribbled down my chest.

  “Mercer! Are you all right? How do you feel?”

  The hooded Clarissa sat by the wide bed I lied on, a thin red blanket covering my legs. A lack of drapes allowed the bright sunshine to infiltrate the large bedroom by way of a triangular window behind the vampire. Thick shards of glass lined the internal edge of the window frame. A deep wooden tub in the corner of the chamber told me we must have occupied a well-to-do home.

  As to Clarissa’s fretful question, I needed a moment to slow my stiff breathing and settle the sloshing of my lopsided insides to gain an answer. My hand and eyes impulsively searched for my sword’s hilt, but that’s when I recalled its recent martyrdom. More than that, I remembered why my top-heavy torso now felt so vacant, so small. Deprived of my link to Aranath, my corrupted prana, and the holy power that had formed its cage, I got the sense that my body was as desolate as a dungeon without any prisoners. Not since leaving the fighting pit had I felt so unlike my true self.

  “Mercer?”

  Looking down at my hands, I asked, “Where’s everyone else? Are they all right?”

  “Yes, everyone is fine. Now answer me. How are you? Do you want me to get a healer? Or Ghevont?”

  “No, he can’t help me. What happened after I passed out?”

  “We finished off the nismerdon, though your terrifying attack seemed to do the trick on its own. I might have even felt sorry for the giant if it wasn’t so wrathful in its last moments. What was that attack, Mercer?”

  “My corruption. All of it. Aranath told me to pour it into the sword, so I did.”

  “Your corruption? So you, uh, you’re not corrupted anymore?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Oh, that must be why…”

  “Why what?”

  “Nothing. It’s just you smell better than you used to. No more corruption must mean you’re ripe for a vampire to infect you. This is great news! Oh, uh, not the vampire thing. I meant about everything else. A nismerdon is dead and you don’t have to worry about your corruption spreading!” She noted my unenthused reaction. “What’s wrong? Isn’t it great news?”

  “I’m not so sure. The corruption was still a part of me, a part of my soul, which means I have less of me now. Less prana to work with.” How many years did I shave off my life? Despite Clarissa not mentioning any physical change, I had a sneaking suspicion that looking into a mirror would reveal a battered, wrinkled visage gazing back at me. I sighed. “Not to mention my sword needed to be sacrificed.”

  “But you can still summon Aranath, can’t you?”

  “I’m not sure I have enough prana left…” I reached under the armor’s neck hole to pull out the two crystals. As I suspected, their prana had been completely drained in the battle. The trauma of it all even appeared to erode them by a fourth of their former size. All vlimphite crystals wore away over regular use, but forcing prana out too quickly resulted in bigger chunks crumbling off at once. Regardless, now that I owned a smaller soul, I doubted I could use a filled dragon crystal of any size without shaking my nerves out of my pores as a consequence. “Shit. Well, we’ll see how bad it is later. How long have I been out?”

  “Half a day. Oh!” She bent over to pick up a metal pitcher. She poured its clear contents in a large mug and dipped a finger below the cup’s rim. A gentle spell of frost cooled the water before she handed it to me. As I drank the invigorating liquid, she said, “After putting you in Furubiro’s comfiest bed, Ghevont went over to study the dead giant. While he’s doing that, Odet and Eu-Sook have done their best to get General Teng to see our side of things, though the general is apparently kinda stubborn.”

  After gulping down every drop that willingly fell, I said, “Or perhaps ‘distressed’ is a better word. Trusting us means admitting he was being manipulated by the Advent. That goes for his kingdom’s leadership as well. Can’t be easy to think that your masters are readily sacrificing their people to beings that absorb life to recover their own power.”

  “Something I’m certain Odet has tacitly mentioned to him. Anyway, I think he wants to speak with the dragon knight before deciding his next move.”

  I laid back down. “Let’s hope that title still applies. Give me a few minutes longer to just lie here.”

  “Lie here for the whole day if you want.”

  “That’s far too long a time to be alone with my own thoughts right now.”

  “Are you really okay?”

  “I don’t know yet. Is there any food nearby?”

  “Oh, sure.” She picked up a small pouch from the floor. “Here’s your food sack. Or do you want more than seeds and nuts?”

  “This will do for now, thanks… By the way, do you mind looking for an extra sword I can use? I don’t want to go outside with only an empty scabbard by my hip.”

  “No problem.” She bolted up. “I shall return!”

  I regretted not going with the vampire the second she shut the bedroom door behind her. Now I really experienced the sense of rejection and abandonment intensifying within me. I would probably let myself shed a tear or two if I didn’t expect Clarissa to come back soon. Gods, I needed a pipe.

  Clarissa returned a few minutes later carrying a long scimitar encased in a bronzed scabbard, though the curve on this single-edged weapon wasn’t as pronounced as others of its ilk. Including the small, rounded crossguard, the plain hilt was an ash gray color. A princess followed the vampire into the room. She carried a tired, tense expression as she examined the state of my own aspect. I didn’t like that the strain around her eyes did not diminish when she concluded her evaluation.

  “Will this do?” asked Clarissa, handing me the sword.

  Trying to liven up the girls’ dour concern for me, I asked, “Does it at least link with a magic toad or something?”

  “Oh, yes, a very powerful toad. Its croaking can deafen men a mile away.”

  I dragged myself off the bed and thumped my boots on the creaky wooden floor to stop my legs from feeling like hollow threads of yarn. Then, with a sigh, I detached my familiar scabbard and attached the new foreign one. Along with Clarissa, who glanced between me and Odet, I waited for the princess to say one of the statements or questions whirling in her mind, but she remained tight-lipped. I presumed she didn’t know how to phrase what she wished to say, an incident I also presumed only occurred a handful of times throughout her well-versed life.

  Odet must have forwent saying her jumbled thoughts and instead said, “In case you were wondering, the nismerdon is quite dead this time. Most of it became nothing more than a shriveled black husk by daybreak. Our scholar friend is finding much amusement dissecting every piece he severs.”

  “And how amused is the general?”

  “I’m certain he’s never simpered in his life.”

  “What does he say about the nismerdon? The Advent?”

  “Not much. Several of his men have been more forthcoming, however. Their orders were to protect and restore the power of a newly discovered eidolon using the prana of traitors. Many seem to truly believe these villagers were traitors, though I still f
ind it troubling they carried out their orders on children and the elderly. Seeing a dragon knight kill a monster that had been indiscriminately slaughtering everyone in its way has them glad they failed in their mission.”

  “Then they won’t cause trouble if we find their general aligned with the Advent?”

  “That’s tough to say. One reason I can’t press the general now is due to the throng of staunch soldiers always surrounding him. I didn’t want to accuse anyone and incite another battle with you still unconscious, so I’ve been busy helping the villagers and keeping everyone from exasperating anyone’s tempers. Captain Shao has been the hardest to rein in, but so far so good. Still, I don’t want the general’s men in town anymore. The more the villagers recover, the angrier they become that no one is doing anything about them. Do you have any idea how you want to approach the issue?”

  “I want to speak with the general alone, if possible.”

  “Uh, it won’t be. He doesn’t speak or understand the shared tongue. You’ll need Eu-Sook to translate, which means he’ll demand that some of his own men accompany him.”

  I shrugged. “It’ll have to do.”

  “You should also have me or Clarissa with you. It doesn’t sound like you’ve fully recovered your strength.”

  “As long as the general believes I can summon a dragon, I should be fine.”

  One of her disapproving little frowns spread on her lips, the lowest of which she bit. However, understanding that our only other option would be me yelling everything over a large group of soldiers compelled her to agree with me. The three of us stepped out of the house to see Eu-Sook’s unit mingling with their griffins nearby. Odet waved over Eu-Sook, who did not have her whiptail in our realm.

  The dainty griffin rider, who had yet to lower her mouth mask in front of me, jogged up to us and bowed. “I hope you are well, sir,” she said in her overly formal manner.

  “Well enough. I’m glad to see you made it out all right.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where’s the general now?” She looked behind her and pointed at a large barn of tanned brick sitting on a low hill. “Please go tell him the dragon knight is ready to speak with him. You’ll be my translator. I also request that he only bring two of his men and to order everyone else to stay out of earshot. He also needs to agree to let me say my piece first. He’ll want to hear it. I’ll be waiting by the giant’s corpse.”

  She nodded and sprinted toward the barn. After getting a direction from Odet, I made my way to the dead nismerdon a hundred yards behind the house.

  Captain Shao’s division encircled the area the nismerdon’s carcass degraded in. For sixty steps my trio followed the five foot deep ditch my attack created until it led us to Gerard watching over a hunched Ghevont. The once rugged, all-consuming nismerdon looked like a scorched pile of twigs a precocious tyke made to resemble the shape of an anemic human. Appearing more solid than the bark-skin were the hunks of iron-colored bone exposed underneath the parts of outer crust that had crumbled off its legs and lower torso.

  “You look like shit,” said Gerard.

  “At least I have an excuse, knight,” I countered.

  “Men greet each other in the oddest ways,” said Clarissa.

  Louder, I said, “Learn of a weakness yet, Ghevont?”

  With aid from his staff, the scholar stood up and answered, “Ah, Mercer. It should please you to know that the membrane of this specimen becomes more malleable after being soaked in water, giving piercing weapons a higher chance at penetration. The saturation should also give electric based attacks a stronger grip, so to speak. A hot flame does an admirable job as well, though it takes a moment to cling on.”

  “So the brute itself isn’t as invulnerable as its wards.”

  “It makes sense that a being still vulnerable to damage concentrates its formidable power on prana recovery and a defensive strategy. That said, a small group should never attempt earthen attacks in a nismerdon’s vicinity. It also strikes me that this nismerdon might be a younger, unhealthy specimen.”

  “What makes you say that?” asked Clarissa.

  “The end casings of the largest bones are surprisingly pliable, signifying that its form of cartilage had yet to harden wholly into unbendable bone. It could be that an adult nismerdon might be more resistant to harm than my experiments have shown.”

  “And the unhealthy part?”

  “Also manifested in the bone. Despite the skeleton’s great durability, portions of its lower legs and upper shoulders exhibit signs of abrasion not found in hardier areas. I’ve concluded your unique attack could not account for this incongruity. It more likely came about due to a disease or a much older bout of violence. This sickness or old injury could explain why this nismerdon was left behind. Perhaps it’s even a symptom of being sedentary for so long. My hope is that other nismerdons are also somewhat weakened by this effect.”

  “One can always hope,” I said.

  “Incidentally, if you can attack every nismerdon in the same way as this one, I don’t believe we should fear them so much.”

  “Guess whether or not I can.”

  “Oh, uhh, not?”

  “Aye.”

  “I see… What was that attack, exactly?”

  “I’ll explain later. The general should arrive soon. Finish what you’re doing and leave with the others when he gets here. We may have to fight our way out of here, so keep your guard up.”

  “I’ll make a mental note to do so.”

  “How’s the nismerdon crystal, anyway? Did the runes absorb any of its prana?”

  “A touch, but I was able to preserve most of it within the crystal after recognizing the spell’s effects.”

  “Well, good work.”

  “Yes, I agree.”

  With a few moments to spare, I decided to evaluate my prana reserve’s condition. I crouched and placed my right hand on the ground. Summoning the three dragon stones already brought home just how small my reserve felt. I heard that rattling pebble in the far back of my mind. The glass vase shook harder when I triggered a stone. Fortunately, my control of the flame did not feel faded. My stamina was apparently going to be the biggest problem.

  Pocketing the remaining two stones, I rose to my full height when I picked up the clomping of hooves. Riding a black horse and wearing his nearly white scaled armor and red mantle was General Teng, his heavy black beard looking smooth and trimmed at the fringes. Much of his salt-and-pepper hair hung by his cheeks, but part of it had been tied into a small bun on the top of his head. His bulky armor made the man appear as broad-shouldered as my father, but his true body couldn’t have been much bigger than mine. Two other horsemen trailed him.

  The general’s native tongue barked some orders that had Captain Shao and his wary underlings retreat thirty yards farther back. Odet’s orders moved Gerard, Ghevont, and Clarissa toward the captain’s line. As the horsemen stopped their trot to line up ten feet in front of me, a whiptail carrying Eu-Sook dropped from the air to join my side.

  Giving the tiniest bow possible, I said, “General Teng, forgive me, but I’m in a sour mood today. I sacrificed much to kill this big bastard here, a bastard that would have sucked us all dry if I didn’t do so. That should leave you feeling somewhat indebted to me, but I can’t count on that to sway your next move, or mine. What will sway your next move, as it does for most mortals, is your own sense of self-preservation.”

  In the background, Eu-Sook’s tongue flapped more freely and harmonically in her principal language. In the foreground, the general, his men, and horses did nothing more than blink and breathe with stern inflexibility.

  “I could have commanded the griffin units to apprehend you, but it seems that order might start a second battle here. My side would win, but I don’t think either of us want to fill this village with the smell of burning flesh. For all I know, maybe you honestly believed sacrificing the villagers would help Jegeru in the long term. It was a good decision to not speak in depth
with the princess, for she would have pressed you on the matter of the villagers’ innocence.

  “I, on the other hand, don’t care enough to start a fight over it. Just like I don’t care about the mercenaries, spies, and political pawns the Advent have used on this continent and others for however long they’ve been active. Dragons don’t hunt rabbits, general, so what I do care about are the puppet masters behind this mess. I don’t know how much you know about the Advent, and anything you say can’t be trusted, but I can take a few good guesses.

  “For starters, the fact that no Advent have shown themselves means they did not think it worthwhile to defend this giant with their best cultists. My scholar theorizes that this giant was young, meaning there are more mature examples out there, doubtlessly absorbing the lives of people, whether here or in another kingdom. I predict there’s more in Jegeru. If this giant was the only one, then your entire army would be here. This tells me your leadership wanted the bulk of your men somewhere else.

  “If I recall my maps correctly, there’s not much of a threat to Jegeru’s northern border, so a northern army could be moved south without alarming Wregor. Do you see where I’m going with this? My next move is south. Your next move should be to march northeast, to wait out your fate in whatever town or fort you came from. You can’t stay here, not with the villagers you’ve wronged seething nearby, and I can’t trust you to help my cause.

  “I want you and your men beyond the horizon by sunset. Some griffin riders will trail you for a day or two. I’ll allow you to keep your weapons, supplies, and a few horses, but any hint that you’re ignoring my wishes and I will use force. I wonder how many of your men would support you with dragon fire raining down on them? You’re also welcome to try your luck now, of course. I guarantee you’ll never find me at a weaker state. So what say you, general?”

  I was going all in on my bluff, predicting that the near future would be full of them. Eu-Sook finished translating for me a few seconds after I stopped talking. Five seconds after that and the general’s trimmed eyebrows dropped a few hairs as they relaxed. His jaw dropped next.