Dragon Tamer

Chapter 21

I was yanked awake all too soon. Zellar had the end of my sleeping bag between his teeth as he pulled me towards him. I rolled out of the sleeping bag, catching the concern in his eyes. My gaze instantly snapped to Camden, but he was sleeping as soundlessly as he could, all things considered.

Zellar grunted softly, grabbing my attention and swung his head purposefully outside of the cave. I stepped around his legs and peered outside. The sun had risen over the mountains, casting shadows over the desert plains; it lit up our side of the mountain quite clearly, giving me a full view of the group of men and horses riding up the mountainside. They were so close I could hear them from our perch.

"Are ye sure ye saw a dragin, Keith? We'd been lookin' all night and got nothin' to show fer it." It was impossible to tell which man it came from as they were all muttering to themselves. It didn't really matter, they all looked the same: bulky, mean, and fugly. They bore weapons made of dragon bone and armour made of their scales. One man even had a very young dragonling skull attached to the top of his helmet.

"I know what I ser," Keith snapped. "T'was a biggin. He came from de East."

"Why would a dragin be flyin' from de East?"

The "dragin" they referred to must be Zellar. It left an unsettling knot in my stomach that we'd been followed by at least forty dragon scavengers. Goblins, I could fight. One big beast by myself was stretching it. A platoon of dragon scavengers? No one was that good unless they had a bunch of dragons and Dragon Vain to back them up. I had one and a bag with only so much Dragon Vain.

"Fuck if I know. I know is dat he'd make us a lot erf money."

I didn't like the cart they had in tow behind them; a ballista sat on top of it, several steel arrows longer than I was tall laying beside it in the cart. A weapon that powerful with arrows that big. . . one shot was all they needed to take down Zellar and then Camden and I would be thoroughly fucked.

And we were in firing range.

Swearing under my breath--because I didn't dare make a noise any louder--I whirled around for the cave and threw everything onto the saddle as fast as I could. I woke Camden up last, praying I wouldn't have to lift an unconscious prince into the saddle.

"Cam?" I hissed, shaking him. "I need you to wake up and do your best to get into the saddle--and do it quietly."

He moaned, and I had to cover his mouth. I waited two beats, listening out for any signs the scavengers heard him, then when Zellar gave me the all clear, I pulled my hand away and rolled Camden onto his side.

"Please, please, wake up. I can't do this by myself." I should have let my brothers come and risk the dragons' wrath. Dragon scavengers were not people to mess with.

His eyes flitted open; they were his normal green eyes, though they were more dazed than usual. "Kali?" he rasped. "What's happening? Why are you so scared?"

"Dragon scavengers followed us and if you can't help me get you into the saddle, we're going to die."

He let a tremor pass through him before rolling onto his hands and knees. Grabbing his arm, I helped him straighten up and guided him to the saddle. I climbed on first then reached down to pull him up. With much effort on both of our behalves, he was on, leaning forward in the saddle. It was all I needed from him.

"Thank you. You can go back to sleep if you need to."

"What. . . about. . . the scaven. . .gers?"

Gods, like he could do anything if he was going to struggle that much with that sentence.