Silver Dragon Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The sound of approaching hoofbeats woke Kaine out of a fitful doze. He'd always been a light sleeper; now, with the nightmares he'd been having, he was lucky to get two hours of uninterrupted sleep. And having a gnarled tree root digging into his back didn't help, either.

That had been why he'd taken to drink, in the end, now he thought about it. Drinking helped dull the pain, and when he drank hard, he slept hard. When he slept hard, he didn't get the culmination of dreams and memories that was somehow worse than a real nightmare.

Silently, Kaine got to his feet, one hand on his sword hilt. He didn't draw it yet - he refused to use the damn thing any more than he absolutely had to - but there was no harm in being prepared.

The hoofbeats slowed down considerably as they drew nearer and Kaine grimaced, knowing he'd been seen. The rider either wanted to talk to him or fight him, and Kaine wasn't sure which idea held less appeal.

"Who rides?" he shouted into the darkness.

There was no answer, although the hoofbeats slowed down even further. With a feeling that was more irritation at having his nap interrupted than any real fear, Kaine drew his sword and slid behind a tree, making less noise than the wind that stirred its leaves.

The hoofbeats slowed and stopped completely. There was a slight creak of saddle leathers as the rider dismounted, followed by the sound of running footsteps.

Kaine didn't even bother to step out. He just held the sword out to the side, roughly about where he judged the person's neck to be, and waited. The blade was invisible in darkness. His would-be assailant would never even know what had happened.

There was a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a scream, followed by a kind of sliding scrape and a couple of grunts and a young girl who looked to be about fourteen rolled into Kaine's line of vision.

For a few minutes, Kaine was literally dumbfounded. Out of all the possibilities he'd foreseen and anticipated, the thought that his opponent might be short enough to run underneath his weapon without seeing it had quite simply never crossed his mind.

"Who are you?" he demanded, his tone not exactly hostile but not particularly friendly either.

The girl rolled over and pushed herself to her feet.

"Did Mother send you to spy on me?" she demanded, the belligerence in her voice daring him to comment on her little tumble.

"What? No! I don't even know your..." Kaine stopped. There was something vaguely familiar about the girl's voice.

"Kaine?"

"Nelly?"

Even in the darkness, he could tell the girl was scowling at him just from her voice.

"You know I hate that name!"

"Oh, my deepest apologies," Kaine said with as much sarcasm as he could manage, sliding the sword back into its sheath. "Neliryl Aruldorn, might I be permitted to ask exactly what you're doing here? On my horse, no less," the swordsman couldn't resist adding as he glanced past Nelly to see his mare grazing placidly.

"I'm fed up working on the farm. I want adventure. I want to be a swordmaiden, not a...a...shoveller!"

Kaine sighed. Nelly was Alenda's eldest daughter and never missed an opportunity to tell everyone how dull farming was. On Kaine's first visit (and every one after that) she kept begging him to take her with him, or at least to teach her how to fight.

"You're starting to annoy me," he said flatly.

"I can't help that. It's not my fault I was born the daughter of a farmer's wife. Do you have any matches? I'd like to start a fire."

Kaine blinked, trying to take in this rapid change of subject, then realised that Nelly was babbling, talking just for the sake of hearing a voice.

Something must have frightened her pretty badly back there, he thought. Well, a fire couldn't hurt, for either of them.

"Sure," he said, pulling a box out. He struck one, caught sight of Nelly properly and struggled not to laugh. Nelly had attired herself in the fashion of female warriors everywhere, according to legend and song. Unfortunately, Kaine had long since held the opinion that anyone who claimed battling hordes of monsters and sleeping under the stars in what amounted to a leather bikini or loincloth was wonderful and glorious had obviously never tried it. And that they should, at the earliest possible opportunity.

Seeing his reaction, Nelly stiffened. "What? What's wrong with it?"

Kaine took a couple of breaths to try and get himself under control.

"Starting from the top?" he said, as soon as he trusted himself to speak without laughing.

Nelly looked away sullenly. "If you must."

"Right. Hair like that?" Kaine reached out and fingered a strand of Nelly's waist length ginger hair. "I don't think so. First thing you need to do is get a haircut. An opponent can grab hold of long hair without too much trouble, should the need arise. Secondly, what's that around your head?"

"A ferroniere," Nelly said, still refusing to look at him.

"A ferroniere," Kaine repeated hollowly. "Look, I may not be up in the latest styles and fashions, but even I know that if you have hair like a carrot, rubies are not a good idea. Same goes for the necklace. And the bangles. And the rings. And the-bloody hell, Nelly, just how much jewellery are you wearing? And is that lipstick?"

Now Nelly did meet his gaze, defiantly. "So what if it is?"

"It looks bloody awful," Kaine said, in no mood to be tactful. "Bright red isn't your colour. And what happened to your eyes?"

"I borrowed some of Mother's eyeshadow."

"Purple," Kaine muttered. "And unless I'm much mistaken, a hell of a lot of it."

"The women of Gilan Mulch wear eyeshadow all around their eyes," Nelly said, in the tone of one who is determined not to concede an argument.

"They're barbarians. They're allowed."

"It works for me. It makes me look like I'm older and like I know where I'm going."

"It makes you look like someone smacked you in the eye and that's the truth of it," Kaine said bluntly.

"It makes me look like I have experience."

"Yes, but not with a sword," Kaine couldn't resist saying. He shook his head, grinning for the first time in what seemed like years. "I don't know what your mother's going to say when she sees you like that."

Nelly's face became mulish. "I'm not going back."

"Yes you are," Kaine told her flatly, no longer grinning.

"I'm not!"

"You are because I'm taking the horse and this isn't the kind of road you want to walk along at night when you're on your own."

"You were," Nelly pointed out in the tones of one delivering an unshakeable argument.

"I happen to have a sword, extensive knowledge of how to use it and unlike some people I could name, I don't look like I just stepped out of a brothel in Tan'ggel." Kaine shook his head. "Whatever you say, you're coming back with me."

Nelly stuck out her chin. "You can't make me!"

"If you mean I'm not able to pick you up, tie you on the horse and send you back to the farm, you're wrong," Kaine informed her. "If you mean I can't physically carry you for thirty four miles, you're wrong about that as well."

"I'll just run away again."

"That's your choice. But if you must, don't do so looking like you're on the pull."

Nelly sighed, looking away. "Do we have to go tonight?"

A slight smile tugged at the corner of the young man's mouth. Well, if Nelly wanted to sample the wonderful, romantic experience of freezing her ass off by sleeping rough in the forest, that was fine by him.

"No...I think we can spend tonight here." He stretched out lazily. "You can go find some water for the mare."

"What? But I'm tired!"

"And she's thirsty." Kaine shook his head. "You want to go on the road, you need to learn one or two things first." He headed off in search of firewood.

"Wait—where are you going?"

"To get some wood. Where do you think? I heard a stream down there; see if you can find it. I'll be back shortly."

Nelly glanced around nervously. The road seemed a lot more dangerous when you were on your own, and on foot. Still, maybe if she could prove she was competent, Kaine might finally let her go with him. And at least hunting for the stream would give her something to do. Even the greatest of heroines had to start somewhere.

Absorbed as she was in her dreams of glory and battles (which, in her dreams, she always won, despite being heavily outnumbered) Nelly didn't see the hunter's pit until it was too late.

* * *

Kaine moved through the trees, snapping branches off seemingly at random. There was plenty of firewood lying on the ground, but the simple act of ripping it off trees made him feel slightly better.

"Bloody fool," he muttered savagely, thinking of Nelly. "A practice sword and head full of songs and she reckons she's ready to take on the world alone." A pine branch joined the collection in his arms just as a reptilian trill caused him to stop and look up.

"I thought you were with Alenda," he snapped, only too glad to have someone to vent his frustrations on.

I was, Yilmav said petulantly. And if it hadn't been for that baby who thinks she's a brawler, I'd probably be lying in Alenda's hearth right now, enjoying a nice firebath.

"I thought you only liked dust baths."

Not when it's raining outside! Dust turns to mud and mud gets stuck in my claws. Have a little sense, would you? Anyway, I saw her riding along and decided to keep an eye on her. The bronze dragonling hesitated. Um.

"Spit it out," Kaine said, reaching up to snap a branch off a fallen oak. A spider ran onto his hand and he shook it off with a grimace. "Be blunt, for once."

What are you planning on doing with your life?

Kaine blinked; this was being a little too blunt.

"What kind of question's that?" he said incredulously.

You can't keep drifting like this.

"Oh really? Is there some law against it?" Kaine's voice rose in pitch and timbre. "I mean, unlike certain winged lizards I could name, I happen to have been dead for the last fifteen years so forgive me if I appear to be a little behind the times!"

But you're not dead now, Yilmav informed him, thanks to your friends at Castle Bluesilver.

"They were no friends of mine!"

For a moment there was silence, then,

I know, Yilmav said sympathetically. I miss the others too.

"I don't," Kaine said. "I don't miss Gehne, or P'lei, or Meiya, or...or D'ai-yan, or Rei or...or any of them."

And how about Iscareya? Yilmav said wickedly.

Kaine hesitated. Somehow, he didn't want to just forget about Iscareya.

Word is she was deified after defeating the Shadowlord, Yilmav added, in the tones of one confiding a juicy piece of gossip. Unfortunately, Kaine had heard it all too often before.

"I know she vanished! I also know that there are one or two people who say she never really existed and if she did then she was a he and I don't believe that one either!" Kaine paused for breath. Deification happened, but it was exceedingly rare and was seldom given for what the gods saw as taking an active hand in mortal affairs. "She's probably living somewhere away from people," he said in a more normal tone of voice.

Are you going to try and find her?

"No. Well. Maybe." A slight arrogance edged Kaine's words. "I know where she'd most likely go, anyway. There's no rush. I can find her, just like I can find any of the others—"

—so long as they're hiding in the bottom of a wine cask, Yilmav retorted, then zipped out of reach as Kaine tried to swat him.

The sound of someone calling for help brought them both back to the present and Kaine smirked slightly, his anger temporarily forgotten.

"Well," he informed the dragonling, "it's happened." He headed over to where the cries were coming from. "It took a little longer than I expected, I'll admit, but she's stuck somewhere."

Yilmav headed off ahead, returning a few seconds later.

She's stuck somewhere, alright! he informed the swordsman gleefully. Like all dragonlings, the little bronze had something of a mischievous sense of humour. In a pit. Or rather, in a cage in a pit. One of yours?

"Mine? I haven't built any pits lately. And even if I had, I wouldn't use cages." Kaine reached the edge of the pit and crouched down, unable to contain the mocking smile on his face, not even bothering to try.

"Well, well," he greeted, "look who it is."

Nelly shot him a sullen look.

"Shut up and get me out of here."

"Oh, that's nice," Kaine said lightly. "How about a please?"

Nelly's mouth worked frantically for a few seconds but no sound came out. Finally she managed, "I can get out of here without your help."

"I doubt that," Kaine shot back, no longer smiling. "Else you'd already have done so." He shook his head. "It was a bloody obvious trap, anyway, whoever set it. A load of fir branches strewn on the ground..."

"What's so obvious about that?" Nelly demanded, struggling to prise the cage open.

"You see any other fir branches lying around? Or any firs, for that matter."

"Can you get me out of here or not? Please," Nelly added when Kaine raised an eyebrow.

Privately, Kaine wasn't sure that he could. It was, he had to admit, an ingenious device; a mechanical base that caused the sides of the cage to spring up and latch whenever it was triggered, trapping the prey inside. He didn't think he could find the mechanism to release it, at least, not without several hours' examination.

You're getting slow in your old age, Yilmav informed him. Either that or just plain forgetting about me.

"You? What can you—" Kaine understood. "Oh. Alright then. Just try not to burn her." At least, not too badly, he added in the privacy of his own mind.

Yilmav shot down, flying round the cage in odd, jerky movements that made him look like a draconic hummingbird.

"What's he going to do?" Nelly said, eyeing the dragonling nervously.

"Spit acid at you. It's alright," Kaine added as the girl backed as far away from the cage edges as she could, "he's not that bad a shot. Just don't touch it, that's all."

Yilmav arrived at the top of the cage, took a deep breath and fired. A jet of acid shot out of his mouth, hitting the metal squarely at its thickest point. Smoke appeared in the air as the corrosive liquid ate through the metal like hot water through snow. Inside, Nelly yelped and pressed back even further.

"Smart move," Kaine told her. He'd just about had enough of this girl.

Leave her, then, a voice in his head whispered. Whoever laid this trap probably won't touch her.

That much was true, Kaine thought, but there was quite a big difference between probably and certainly and besides, he didn't know what it had been set to ensnare. The blatancy of the trap suggested that the hunter wasn't aiming for anything more intelligent than a horse or a deer, but there was none of the winching equipment and chains normally associated with such large game.

It was only when the arm was wrapped around his chest, pinning his arms, and he felt the dagger at his throat that the notion of a trap within a trap became clear.

ID: 729771   (Rated: 13+) Silver Dragon Chapter Three  The next chapter in my novel-in-progress. Kaine runs into an old friend by JudasFm