The old man eyed them for a moment, his body tense within his once-fine armour, only the plume on the very top of his helmet bobbing slightly. Unexpectedly, he gave a little sigh and his body relaxed. His voice low, the man said, “You young fools. I’m not talking about bandits or a pack of wolves. It’s a dragon.”
Marcus’s eyes widened in surprise. “Here? In the valley of the Coubin? In the Empire?”
“Aye. Well. I thought we had no such beasts in these parts either,“ the commander confirmed, “I thought that they lived at the ends of the earth, further even than the far side of the Estavacan lands, and in the twenty years I’ve been posted here, this is the only one I’ve ever seen. But she’s a right fierce beast. Cold as winter, and large enough to darken the whole sky. Even before the war broke out, the tribes would no longer come this way. Nor do I blame them, with what we’ve seen.”
The young man who had been guarding the gate blanched, clearly remembering something.
Petro’s voice arced with barely concealed horror as he asked, “What – what happened?”
The young soldier’s eyes flickered to his superior, but the old man nodded. The young man swallowed, and awkwardly stammered, “There was a caravan. A great mass of people, Estavacan, of course, one of the plains clans, bringing their herds from the upper valley,” he pointed to the vale nestled between the mountains on the Estavacan side of the wall, “through the pass to the lower.”
“Before the war began, the people in the valley were allowed to pass freely, if they paid the toll,” the old man explained.
Marcus nodded. He had known about the open borders, of course. Open borders in times of peace was one of the things that made the empire great, everyone knew that, and besides, they kept the trade lines moving.
The young soldier then took a deep breath and continued, “So they were approaching the gate. A whole – maybe a whole tribe. Flocks of sheep, and men on horseback, and women goading on the cattle, and . . . and children. And then she came.”
Petro and Marcus exchanged glances, while Mulberry clutched Aurelia even closer.
“She?”
“The dragon,” the young man said softly.
The tale he told made Mulberry gasp, and even Petro frowned. That day had been the first time anyone had seen a dragon in those parts, and the great red scaly beast had fallen from the sky onto the hapless caravan. The garrison, to its credit, had tried to defend the foreign civilians, but to no avail. Before the soldiers were ordered back into the solid stone fortress, they had lost half their number, including their then-commander.
“The cold-blooded beast killed them all. We saved two women, three children, and a baby for our troubles,” the current commander sighed, “But we have no power to tell you not to pass. Not when you’re on official business. Still, be careful.”
Marcus nodded, “Of course, we will be.”
Marcus then looked back at Mulberry and smiled. Halfheartedly, she smiled back, trying to hide the way her guts were starting to twist. She clutched Aurelia close to herself as the great gates swung open, and the little band of travellers stepped through to the other side.
~*~
The sun beat down on their heads as the garrison slowly began to disappear from view, obscured by rocks and the mountainsides themselves. The valley was surprisingly broad, and open. There were no trees, no shrubs, hardly any bushes. Just a field of grasses, high as a man's waist, extending from cliff-face to cliff-face on either side, and so far as the eye could see before them. The horses kept finding delicious morsels of soft young grasses, that lured them off the straight path Marcus and Petro wanted them to follow. Just as the garrison wall disappeared entirely behind the cliff, everything changed.
The horses looked up, ears pricked, and the grey whinnied softly. The chestnut nuzzled Petro's arm, as if to get his attention. The bay gelding skittered to the grey mare's side, nervous as a colt, and Mulberry turned to scan the skies.
“What is it?” Marcus asked, noticing that Mulberry had stopped walking.
She shook her head, “I don't know.”
Just then, Salix and Tsuga came screaming down from the sky, flipping back into human form just before hitting the ground.
“Move!” Salix barked, “We need to get out of this valley, now.”
Petro blinked in confusion, “But why? And how?”
Tsuga, her face pale as milk, yelped, “It's the dragon! She's coming!”
YOU ARE READING
The Baby and the Battlefield
FantasyA baby? On a battlefield? Marcus is a clerk in the Imperial army. When he finds an abandoned baby on a battlefield, he has no idea what to do with her. His best friend is no help; he thinks Marcus is a sucker for taking the kid in. The slave who end...
