Dragon Riders of Etrea—Chapter 22

His walk back to their makeshift campsite took a quarter the time as walking to the dragon’s cave. Henrik made no effort to stay quiet, although the last bits of Rasud’s spell still clung to his boots. When he came near, he picked up a small rock and threw it at a tree to announce his presence.

Rasud’s head peered from behind the tree, and his eyes widened when he saw Henrik.

“You’re back! But no egg. What happened, Henrik? Tobias, wake up. He’s back.”

Tobias jerked awake at the sound of the witchman’s voice. He blinked several times and looked around, then his bleary eyes focused on Henrik. He, too, noticed the lack of a dragon egg.

“Give this to the horses,” Henrik said, tossing the water skin to Rasud. “Make sure not to drink it yourself. We need to leave immediately.”

“So, are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Rasud said, walking to his horse.

“I’ll fill you in when we’re riding out of here, but the most important thing is that the orcs beat us to it.”

Tobias cursed under his breath. “It was those fucking orcs I saw yesterday, wasn’t it? The ones riding so quickly away?”

“When I made that comment yesterday about them beating us to it, I didn’t expect to be correct,” Rasud said. “Well, no use complaining. Let’s go.”

Henrik nodded and went to his horse. His sword was there, so he took a moment to fasten his scabbard to his sword belt while Rasud finished watering the horses. Whatever dragon magic was in the water, it seemed to take effect almost immediately. The horses danced in place, eager to be off. It took Henrik a moment to calm his horse enough to pull himself into the saddle.

“Alright, out with it,” Rasud said a few minutes later as their horses picked their way down the stony ground. They had to move slowly so the animals didn’t break an ankle, but a mile ahead the ground leveled out more and they could ride faster.

“I’m not sure where to even start,” Henrik said, shifting in his saddle as his horse moved around a large rock. 

“How about from the beginning?” Rasud said. Next to him, Tobias laughed.

Henrik took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his short black hair. “Well, your spell worked but somehow she caught me.”

Rasud shook his head. “Caught breaking into Duke Ardun’s palace, caught by a dragon woman. Henrik, you’re slipping, my friend. Do you need to attend a thieving school when we return?”

“No, not like that,” Henrik said. “I couldn’t even hear my own steps. And yet somehow, she was suddenly behind me with a sword to my neck.”

Tobias whistled between his teeth. “Impressive. From what I can tell, though, your head is still on your shoulders, so she let you go.”

“Yeah,” Henrik said.

“More importantly, what did she look like?” Rasud asked.

“Well, she was beautiful,” Henrik said. “And not in the tavern wench sort of way. She was, I don’t know, majestic. Regal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman as beautiful as her before.”

“So like that farmer said?” Tobias asked. “Remember, the innkeeper told us that story of the dragon taking the farmer’s sheep, and the farmer saw a beautiful woman riding the dragon?”

Henrik nodded. “Exactly like that. Well, she had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. And I don’t mean pale blue, but bright blue. They almost seemed to glow. What I found interesting was that her eyes were the same color as the dragon’s.”

“So, you saw the dragon?” Rasud asked excitedly.

“You could say that,” Henrik said with a chuckle. He avoided telling the men that he had broken his hand punching the dragon in the face. “I’m guessing the eye color is due to their link, their connection. She spoke with the dragon, although I could only hear her words.”

“Fascinating,” Rasud said.

“So, about the orcs,” Tobias began.

“Yes, the orcs,” Henrik said. “Those orcs we saw the day before beat us to the dragon. They managed to steal the egg, although I’m not sure how. Considering how easily she snuck up on me, I find it hard to believe that orcs could have stolen it. But, they did. Our job is to retrieve it.”

“Shit,” Tobias said. “So we have to fight orcs again? Well, hopefully it goes more smoothly than the last time.”

“I have an idea,” Henrik said. “If things go as planned, I would be the only one fighting. At least, initially. Can’t rely on an orc’s honor too much.”

Rasud gave him a look.

“I said orc, not half-orc,” Henrik insisted.

“So, we go fetch the egg from the orcs, then head back to Duke Ardun,” Tobias said.

Henrik shook his head. “No. We return the egg to the dragon. Anslie—that’s the dragon woman, by the way—was very insistent that if we try to return to Selfoss with the egg, we’ll end up in the belly of her dragon.”

Tobias frowned. “Well, that puts you in a hard place. Me as well. All of us. We’ll have to figure something out.”

“You can tell your boss that we stole it and then beat you,” Rasud said.

Tobias shook his head. “The duke doesn’t care about excuses. He only cares about results.”

“We’ll worry about that when I have the egg,” Henrik said. He only wanted to focus on one thing at a time.

The ground began to level out after a mile, and they let the horses move into a canter. The animals seemed eager to run, but Henrik didn’t want to risk wearing them out. The most important thing was that they spent a few minutes finding the tracks from the orc party. Twenty horses left an easy trail to follow.

“If I don’t let this horse run, I have a feeling she’s going to buck me off,” Rasud said. “What was in that water you gave me?”

“Something the dragon did,” Henrik said. “Something magical. Anslie said it would allow us to travel faster.”

“Well, then why are we holding them back?” Rasud asked. He slapped his reins and his horse bolted forward. Tobias was only a second behind.

“Don’t run yourself to death, okay boy?” Henrik said to his horse. He let the horse choose his own pace, which turned out to be a dead run.

Henrik had ridden plenty of horses in his years, but never one as fast as this. It was exhilarating, sitting atop a massive animal capable of running so damn fast. At that pace he expected the horse to slow down after only a few minutes—even well-conditioned horses couldn’t maintain a sprint like that. 

But the horses kept running.

They ran on with endless stamina, never slowing, never faltering. For more than an hour they maintained that pace, and Henrik finally reined their group in and slowed them to a canter.

“Hey, the horses still want to run,” Rasud said.

“My horse seems as fresh as if he had a full night’s sleep,” Tobias said.

Henrik frowned. “I know, but I just don’t want to take any chances of the horses dropping dead from exhaustion that they never felt. We’re still moving quickly like this.”

“Yeah, but the orcs got a full day’s head start on us,” Tobias said.

“We just covered a day’s journey in little more than an hour,” Henrik said. He reached down and patted his horse’s neck. The animal wasn’t even sweating. “Huh. That dragon magic really is something, isn’t it?”

“I’m telling you, the horses are fine,” Tobias said. 

“For a man that has killed so much, you’re oddly gentle with horses,” Rasud said with a grin.

“I just know if any of these horses become injured or die, our trip is over,” Henrik said. “But, I suppose it’s time to see what this dragon magic is capable of.”

Their horses leaped forward into a full gallop again, tails streaming in the wind behind them as they ran. Henrik was amazed at the strength of the dragon’s magic; for these horses to run so quickly for so long was no small feat.

Another hour passed and the horses finally began to slow. If they finally felt some measure of tiredness, then Henrik wanted to be careful. Their group slowed to a fast walk and each man kept a close eye on the horses. The animals breathed heavily and had a sheen of sweat on them, as if they had run hard for a few minutes. 

“Amazing,” Rasud said. “I wonder what other type of magic the dragon has.”

“I suppose we’ll find out when we return,” Henrik muttered. Rasud looked a question at him so he continued. “Anslie said she had things to talk to me about upon our return.”

“Oh, Henrik is going to cuddle up to a dragon lady,” Rasud said, drawing another chuckle from Tobias.

Henrik barked a laugh. “I think she’d rather carve my kidneys out than share my bed.”

“Sounds like your kind of woman,” Rasud said. “It appears I’m getting my second chance with the orc witch-woman. Things are looking up for the both of us.” He turned to Tobias. “Sorry, Tobias. No women for you.”