The Woodsman: Chapter Nine

 “Dragon? What the hell?”

He pulled the horse to a stop, and they hid from the sky under the branches of a tree. The sun continued to fall, the shadows growing longer, and he held no wish to fight a dragon at night.

Or, for that matter, to fight a dragon at all.

Even with magic, they would die.

He peered through the lattice of branches at the circling beast in the sky. “Do you know about this?”

“Vaishali is her name,” Ophelia said as she clung to his arm, “she has been known to roost on that hill when she senses trouble, in times she can take advantage of for her gain. They call her the Black Vulture.”

“You are serious, right?”

“Do I look like I am joking?”

“Fair point.”

She nodded. “There were once battles between dark elves and mercenaries to control this road. She would swoop in and finish off the survivors of battles, loot them for anything of value for her horde. Or food for her children. She takes, scavenges, and preys upon the weak.”

“We are not the best pickings for her,” he said. “Would she pick on a small game such as ourselves?”

“We are not enough for her to make the trip from the rocky crags. But my people fleeing are carrying artifacts from the Church of Magic.”

“Let me guess,” he said as he looked at her, “gold as well? You took the church coffers with you?”

She nodded. “Millions of gold coins.”

“Why does it always have to be about money?” He stared at the circling dragon above. “Here is a suggestion: leave the gold behind the next time you decide to flee oppression. The gold can be replaced; your people cannot.”

“The Church of Darkness does not deserve to become wealthy off our backs. Every coin denied to them curtails their growth and influence. Let them beg from the shadows, is what I say. And gold can smooth things over with neighbors, should our new home be a little less welcoming.”

“Milady,” he said, “I would tell you to present your case to my Queen. She would give you a home. There are lands, entire islands, even several counties long, uninhabited, and that would welcome your kind.”

She watched the dragon with interest, her eyes narrowing.

“Are you sure your queen would be as understanding? It would be a huge risk to put so many lives at the mercy of charity. And once this land is given, there are always those out there who thought they had claimed and these resentments last generations. Often planting the seed for later wars.”

“I don’t speak for her, nor can I,” he said. “I could speak to the Admiral. If we survive, that is.”

“Does this Admiral have room for my people?”

“Three ships,” he said, “of a dozen fleet. Even on the three decks, your people would fit until we reached the other ships.”

“With no trust of us and no guarantee of freedom,” she said. “It is a lot to ask those who have so little.”

“You have gold,” he said, and she gave him a dirty look.

The dragon began to fall, swooping down onto a rocky perch overlooking the forest bend atop the hill.

“She got tired,” she said. “And she will be able to see the road. And, of course, smell a horse. I suggest we send the beast on his way.”

He sighed. “Walk the rest of the way? We still have two more days, and you are speaking of making it six. And you are in no shape to walk that far, Milady and my future wife. And we need to make it to the coast before the boats depart. Where are your people coming from, and will they need the road?”

“Yes, this is where several major trails converge before heading to the coast,” she said. “My people are likely a day off and heading towards us. We were heading to the coast, but the way-stone we sought lies in the hills between the forest and the coast. We would head off into the hills before we ever saw water.”

“And your brother and the death mage? And their soldiers? Where would they come from?”

“The trails along the river on the opposite side,” she said. “And I suspect they may be here already or very close. Honestly, it depends on how many soldiers they brought with them.”

“What ambushed us was fifty dark elves,” he said, “ten of them fell from what I saw. We can assume he has the balance. Would that be enough to take care of your people, or do you all know magic?”

“We have families and others in our group, some two hundred,” she said. “It would be a slaughter. My brother likely brought mage-killers with him, even though we have about six battle-hardened casters, ten novices, against 40 dark elves with poisoned weapons and crossbows would be deadly without soldiers of our own to make a front flank or shield wall.”

“Any chance we can reach them first and fortify somewhere defensible?”

She shook her head. “To delay the inevitable. They tie us down, and more shall come. Once local dark elf lords hear of that gold, their mercenary companies shall crawl out of every cave in the woods to reinforce them. We will be facing ten times that number in a week. Moving is the best option.”

The sun began to set, and he collapsed against the side of the tree opposite the dragon. She sat next to him and sighed.

“There are few good answers here,” he sighed. “I can’t ask you to abandon them, nor should you, as choices like that haunt the rest of your life and make it not worth living. As much as I would love to take you away and be with you for the rest of our years, some things are more important than ourselves.”

She nodded.

“I would never abandon them, no. And there is no reasoning with my brother or the others as well. As you say, greed is likely the god they follow, not darkness.”

“And the dragon watches us all,” he said, “waiting for a moment to strike. When enough chaos is sewn, and enough bodies fall, the black wings of death shall descend upon us all and finish what is left.”

They sat together, considering the impossible, and he listened to a strange rasping noise cut through the air. He checked the horse, but it stood to the side, breathing normally.

“That noise?” He narrowed his eyes. “Do you hear?”

“The dragon,” she said, “Vaishali has a sword stuck in her left lung, and it never came out. The blade is said to be magic, and she lives with the wound. She is a dragon, so it cannot cause her death, but it does make her very angry.”

“All we need is an angry, wounded dragon,” he said. “Left, you say? Good to know.”

“As if you could fight her,” she said.

“If I had to. No wonder she circles to the right.”

She shook her head and closed her eyes.

“Don’t even think about it, woodsman.”

He tried to laugh.

“I am no dragon slayer, miss. You can be sure of that. I fell trees, not beasts of myth.”

“Dragons are very unpredictable,” she said. “They do not do what you expect them to do.”

“Could be used for our advantage,” he said.

She shook her head. “May I remind you how many stories with dragons end? …and the dragon killed them all anyway.”

“I have not heard any of those, Milady; mine usually end with the prince marrying the princess.”

“You did not grow up a dark elf.”

He smiled and laughed, kissing her hair.

“If you could get to your people, could you take them to the way-stone? And avoid this area entirely?”

She nodded. “There are paths, they may take a little longer, but they would lead us there without needing the road for a little longer.”

“Can you ride at night?”

She looked down and then into his eyes and nodded. “But you are coming with-“

He shook his head.

“Go.”

She started to cry.

He blinked and nodded. “Please, go.”

“But why?”

“A distraction is needed, and a distraction is what I shall cause. Lead your people to deliverance and safety, Ophelia Kya Leigh. The dark elves and the dragon?”

Still, she cried. “What are you going to do?”

“Leave them to me.”

She kissed him deeply, pressed her forehead to his, and said a few words he did not understand in the dark elven. She kissed him again, looked deeply into his eyes, and cried a tear he wiped away.

He smiled. “I love you. Don’t die.”

“Woodsman, you are my past and future life. My every moment leads to you.”

“Our lips shall meet again, my love,” he said as he rubbed her hands, “and I promise a ring of gold on that hand of yours.”

Her teary eyes dropped to her ring of green. “I like this one well enough.”

“A princess deserves more.”

She leveled her eyes at him. “A princess needs her prince. And he must be alive.”

He kissed her softly. “Trust a man who knows the ways of the woods. I shall find the path which leads me to back your heart.”

She nodded, turned, mounted the horse, and was gone before the darkness of the night surrounded him.

He sat alone until sleep caught up with him, hunched alone against that tree by the side of the road.

When the morning came, he would prove his love to her. He lowered his head and prayed to a god he never knew and a goddess he had just met. Shortly after, he fell asleep, a piece of his heart missing inside her.