Warlock Apprentice, Black Lake Novel 4

Chapter Thirty-One

~

The forty-five minutes it took Selene to ride his mare up the mountain to the goblins and return on foot stretched Iza’s patience. She obviously considered it beneath her to wait for any human, much less a wizard from the North. Prolly a reasonable opinion. Maybe.

Selene approached, his face already ashen with the thought of mountin’ any dragon—which had my funny bone alive and well. Iza loomed toward him, jaws slack, hissin’. Like that was gonna hurry the poor man. I grabbed his shoulder and leaned close.

“Take care with the launch. Get a good grip fast and expect to feel yar stomach pulled out yar arse. Okay?”

The wizard’s eyes glazed, so I walked him to Tir, slapped his knee to make him step up on the bull’s extended foreleg, and pushed him to climb. The Northerner acted like a prissy girl approachin’ a pig sty. There’s no way I could grin though. My stomach still shrinks thumb-sized durin’ every leap into the sky.

Iza took that moment to launch and the blast of air from her down-thrustin’ wings nearly took Selene over the other side of Tir. That was funny. Thankfully the tumult probably covered my snicker, or Selene would prolly be my enemy for life.

As it was, when the man righted himself, he appeared he might lose, one way or another, what remained of his last meal. I turned and hurried to climb behind Morgan on Taiz’lin, and the two dragons leapt at the same time, so I didn’t get the benefit of watchin’ Selene’s face, but heard his squelched scream.

I counted to twenty slowly to calm my own heart. Ridin’ upon a dragon’s back isn’t the everyday occurrence for me either. I leaned to get out of the wind, enjoyed the warmth waftin’ off the dragon’s hide. To pass the time I studied the ground below. The rhythmic strummin’ of wings disoriented, but the view filled with awe.

The Earth flattened as we rose and the hardwood forests in the valleys, the pine covered slopes, blended the hues of green. Twenty minutes later I caught the hint of the Lake far to the southwest. Minutes later the snow-capped peak of Mother due west meant Taiz’lin would momentarily cease his work and soar downward, toward the northern plains—what Northerners call the South Plain.

I leaned closer to Morgan and shouted. “What are we in for?”

The ogre didn’t respond, so I prepared to shout louder, but the twinge in my back indicated Bacchus drew from the ethereal. Did Morgan use the power to keep his fears at bay?

“We’ll know in a few minutes,” Morgan shouted back. “No reason to conjecture.”

Conjecture? I need to start rememberin’ all the words I hear and don’t understand, and get a what-it-is from Morgan or Selene when the time is right. But would we all live long enough for that education?

I worked to flick that worry out of mind as I searched for ogre Ike’s lair. The terrain below seemed familiar. I searched for the ridge I climbed down to—I considered it escaping at the time. In truth, maybe it was a little like throwin’ myself upon the waste heap, considerin’ the way the humans in the North treated me.

I looked that way. Rains had evidently flowed over the broad valley lately, for the cover of green. The swirl of the swollen watershed snaked northwest. The flicks of white, antelope, gray and red of sheep and elk, flowed together as though the Earth itself is alive, its flesh crawlin’ from a chill. Ha. I should work with Ike’s brother, the poet.

Iza in the lead, dropped, and I stiffened every muscle in anticipation, gripped Taiz’lin’s neck ridge and pressed in with my knees. I peered over my left shoulder and evidently Selene recognized I prepared for somethin’, as he hunkered down as well.

At that moment my stomach slammed into my lungs as Taiz’lin subtly tilted his wings dashin’ us pell mell for the crags below. I swallowed at the vomit that snuck into the back of my throat and silently cursed—sorry Mama. Even knowin’ it was comin’ didn’t stop the panic.

Helped that Morgan groaned. Not exactly a scream. But it wasn’t as gravel-like as a typical ogre-ish growl.

The three dragons clumped near as we dove inward like the grooves of a screw. I really hate that part. Slowly, the dragons separated and Iza landed first on the broad roof of the lair. I closed my eyes and pressed my face into Taiz’lin’s back just before he violently thrust his wings downward to settle. I relaxed and an unexpected movement nearly drove me over the dragon’s shoulder, as Taiz’lin maneuvered to give Tir room to land.

Selene’s scream clipped short, with the man hurlin’ off the front of Tir’s shoulder. He bounced off the granite and rolled directly for the edge of the platform, which hung hundreds of feet over the cliff face.

I caught my breath until the man came to a stop. I slid down Taiz’lin’s shoulder and hurried to Selene, Morgan right behind me. The man didn’t budge except to open his eyes.

“Tell me we don’t have to ride a dragon ever again.”

I sensed Morgan hide behind me, as well as an ogre can hide behind a not-so generously-built sixteen-year-old—no doubt to stifle his bubblin’ ridicule. Perhaps he decided the time wasn’t right to pay the wizard back for all of his teasin’. But that only urged me on.

“No more rides, if ya intend to live the rest of yar life on this crag.”

Selene grunted.

“Ya bounce a lot like a toy ball. Where’d you learn to do that?”

Selene’s lips tightened, before he smiled. “I deserve that. Appeared quite the fool I’ll bet.”

“Quite,” Morgan said, before grabbin’ the man at the shoulders and rippin’ him to his feet.

Selene gawked, ashen faced, clearly searchin’ for the dragon he expected to rip him to pieces.

The three dragons, without a word or glance back, had already scuttled one-at-a-time under the arch leading to the dragons’ lair.

“We’re not at Ash’et’s,” Morgan explained.

Selene’s brows dipped.

“Kyn says she sleeps, to come this evenin’.”

“Who’s Kyn?” Selene asked.

“One of Iza’s bull siblings, who still nests with his dam and sire.”

“How many dragons are there?” Selene asked.

But Morgan ignored him. He already headed for the steps that led below. I studied his back, tryin’ to understand the bull’s emotions, which darted in multiple directions. As he disappeared below the ledge, the majic faded, and I sighed.

“This is a magnificent view,” Selene said.

That pulled me from my mental meanderin’. Selene had stepped to the edge of the dragons’ sunnin’ platform. The gusts of wind already made me a little light headed, so I stayed where I was. Missed nothin’ of the view other than the absence of Earth below our feet, past the granite ledge mere inches in front of Selene. I lived that drop off durin’ my—escape.

“Ya okay?” I asked.

Selene shifted his shoulders and hips. “Nothin’ broken but my pride.”

“If it helps, we all go through that the first time.”

“There really must be a second time?”

I smiled. “I guess no one will drag ya to face Ash’et with us. But then ya still have to get off this mountain somehow.”

“There’s that. Refresh my memory. Why did I make this trek with you?”

That struck me irritatin’, though I didn’t expect the man meant it that way. I turned for the apartments below so Selene wouldn’t see the disappointment in my face. The wizard’s footsteps on the cleaved granite slab proved he followed.

We made our way down the steep stairs. I pressed against the solid, twelve-foot-tall granite door and it swung in gently. It would never slam into me like the original oak door, which had tended to get caught by the gusts that swarmed up the mountain face.

“Never seen anything like this,” Selene mumbled, crossin’ the threshold.

Ya haven’t seen nothin’ yet. “Trolls can chisel anythin’ out of granite. They’re geniuses that way, though those droopy lids would never imply any skill at all. Ya’ll see other examples of their inventiveness here.”

The man’s mouth hung open, probably preparin’ to respond, but a new sight must have frozen him in place. I looked across the broad workroom we had to cross to reach the apartments. Ten dwarves, head down, focused on their tasks.

“What—”

“Ike creates those beautiful bows ya’ve noticed,” I said. “Like the one Morgan carries. They get them ready for Ike’s artistry that can’t be duplicated, and finish them off with the oilin’ and such. Quite the factory line, I heard Lucas call it.”

“No.” Selene leaned down and whispered. “What are they?”

I puckered my face for a moment. Hadn’t I already explained that? Oh. Selene meant the dwarves. Havin’ lived in the Range the last three years, I was gettin’ used to the breadth of races.

“Dwarves,” I whispered back.

Ten irritated faces turned up to peer at us. Dwarves could scowl as well as ogres. They might even be better at it, I wasn’t decided. I grabbed Selene’s shoulder and dragged him to the entrance of the main room. The woodworkin’ noises closed behind us. Selene turned to the glass facin’ the prairie miles below. Then his eyes scanned the elegant stone encasin’ the hundred-foot-wide chamber.

His jaw dropped again. I remembered my own response. Set aside my mournin’ for Mama for a moment that day, weeks ago.

Eyes wide, Selene said, “We’re raised believin’ ogres live in hollowed out stumps, or under bridges.”

The man jerked, as Morgan walked in from the far hallway.

“Hollowed out stumps!” Morgan harrumphed. “Never seen a tree that big before.”

I grinned, as the man’s emotions streamed into me.

~