Blademage Dragontamer Page 8

  “Can you fix it?”

  “The dragons took out my shield, and as you can see, the ship itself looks more like bonfire kindling.”

  “So, what do you need to get it running?”

  “We can scavenge for parts, see what’s around. I can get pretty inventive when I have to. Course, the easiest way would be if Larynk can use his sphere.”

  Layrnk tapped his black god sphere. “I’m all out. Take all the credit for the landing all you want, but I used the last dregs of the sphere softening the crash, too.”

  Charlie ran his fingers through his blood-crusted beard. “So, we can’t get off the planet without fixing the ship, and we don’t have the sphere power or the parts to do that. Wait, every planet is created by a god, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And you always put portals on planets in case gods get stuck. So, let’s find the portal. There must be one around here.”

  “It depends where ‘here’ is, Charlie. First up, how big is this planet? Think about it. Let’s say it’s as big as the Earth. If you were in New York, and the portal was in the equivalent of say, Sydney, Australia, how long would it take you to get there? And that’s even if you knew where it was. We’re blind here.”

  Longtooth stood up. He’d pulled the thorns out of his fur, and the healing potion had stopped them bleeding. “I saw a settlement on the way down. Buildings and stuff.”

  “Where?”

  “Somewhere that way,” said Longtooth, pointing to his right. “But I don’t know how far. It happened too fast.”

  “So maybe we wander into whatever passes for a town,” said Charlie. “What then? Ask them where the nearest god portal is, and then be on our way?”

  Crosseyes crossed his metal arms. “Not so fast. You made an oath to me, remember? I got you away from Mia, and you promised to help get her off my back.”

  “We’ve got more important things to think about right now.”

  “And I’m not leaving this planet without my ship. If you think you can give me an oath and then dance off into the portal, into the celestial tunnels, and leave my ship here, you’re gonna get a bullet in your eyes and my twin swords up your ass.”

  Charlie felt his cheeks heat up. “Fine. I don’t care as long as we can leave this place and get somewhere safe. We’ll go to the settlement and see if they have something you can use to fix the ship.”

  “I don’t know,” said Flink. “We can’t just wander into a strange place, Newchie.”

  He knew what she meant. When Charlie had first arrived on Flink’s planet and she’d introduced him to the rest of her village, he’d found out that they were locked into a centuries-old blood feud with a rival tribe. Distrust and suspicious were bred into Flink and her people, so he could see why she’d be wary of strangers. She was right, too. They didn’t know anything about this planet, or whatever race or people lived on it.

  “Flink is right, but we need to do something,” he said. “We’re gonna get hungry before long, and we’re screwed if the dragons come back. They’ll burn us alive.”

  “I don’t think that will be a problem,” said Papa Gully.

  He was standing beside one of the trees. This was a sapling, smaller than the rest and yet still twice as wide as the old man. He pointed at the glowing blue square that was in the centre of it. Blue lines of light spread from the sphere, and they seemed to link all the trees together.

  “What’s your point, old man?” said Larynk. “I see that your back has miraculously healed, by the way.”

  Gully slowly bent his back. He did it centimetre by centimetre as though he would fool them. “Think about this,” he said. “A dragon tried to destroy your vessel, and then…what? Just left us? Why would it do that?”

  “Might be a territorial thing. The sky is theirs, and they don’t want anything else flying in it,” said Larynk.

  “Possibly, but it goes further than that. You see, when we crashed, you might not have seen this since you were all screaming for your lives, but the dragons changed course when they saw us plummet toward the trees. It was as though the treeline turned them away.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “These squares…they aren’t natural. Look at them, do they remind you of anything?”

  Charlie shrugged his shoulders. None of the others seemed to grasp where Gully was going with this, except Larynk.

  “Mana,” he said, nodding eagerly. “Some kind of crystallised mana. It’s a defence against the dragons. Gully, you wheezebag, you’re onto something here.”

  Charlie couldn’t pretend to follow their train of thought; he was newer to all of this than the rest of them. Dragons, mana…it would have been incomprehensible to him just a few months ago.

  Yet, there was something to it. The dragons had tried to shoot them out of the sky without so much as a ‘hey, how are you doing?’ But…they hadn’t returned to finish the job, not even with their ship ruined and all of them wounded.

  He didn’t want to sound stupid, but he thought he had the answer. He took a risk and said, “Are we guessing this his settlement put the defences here to ward away the dragons?”

  “Yep,” said Larynk. “And the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

  “And yet, the enemy of my enemy may also be my enemy,” said Gully.

  “Well, I want to see the settlement,” said Longtooth.

  Charlie nodded. “I know, bud. You want to see everything. But it’s not that simple. Just ask Flink how friendly some tribes are to strangers.”

  “We were friendly to you, weren’t we?” she said.

  “Your mother would have killed me if I hadn’t been with you when I wandered into your village. It wasn’t the greatest welcome.”

  Flink shrugged. “We had a good reason.”

  “Here’s the sum of it all,” said Larynk. “We’re stuck. Without the ship, we can’t leave unless we find a portal. And the portal could be anywhere. So…I don’t see we have a choice. Let’s go meet the natives.”

  Crosseyes touched the hole in his shoulder, wiggling his metal fingers inside it. It had grown smaller already. “We’ve got dragons in the air, and space pirates roaming the galaxy for us. I’ll take my chances on land. Let’s go.”

  Charlie wished he could feel as confident as Crosseyes and Larynk, but the truth was, he felt a little helpless. His only powers were his spells and his taming skills, and he remembered that when he’d tried to cast heal, it hadn’t worked. He didn’t like the idea of heading toward an unknown settlement without his powers.

  “Larynk. I need to ask you something,” he said. “When we landed, I tried to heal myself, but nothing happened. And when I try and see my spell list, nothing’s there. It’s like my mind is blank.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “I’m serious, Larynk.”

  “Okay, listen. The powers you had, all your fancy spells, all your animal whispering…it was tied to Chummilk’s world. It was the magic system he created. And now we’re not on his planet anymore…”

  “My powers are gone.”

  “Yes.”

  Charlie looked at his blade switcher, at his trio of daggers sitting in the metal and leather contraption. At least he could rely on them, even if he’d lost his magic. Then again…he wasn’t trained in using them. Before he’d been taken to Chummilk’s planet, the only knife he’d used was the one to cut his steak. His blade powers, his agility, they were tied into the powers he’d earned on Chummilk’s land too. He was defenceless.

  “There must be something you can do.”

  Larynk nodded. “Everything you killed, all the experience you gained, the legacy points you earned, they all fed into my sphere. My sphere holds the memory of your powers, and I can give you them back. It’s not the best solution, but it’ll work.”

  He thought about it. He didn’t want wander around a dragon-filled alien planet without a way to defend himself. Not only that, but losing his powers relegated him to the weakest in the gro
up. Yet, if his powers were tied to Larynk’s sphere, that put him firmly in Larynk’s control. It meant he’d be relying on him, he’d be anchored to him…and maybe it meant Larynk could revoke them whenever he chose.

  The idea of being under Larynk’s control made him grit his teeth. And yet, was it really a different state of affairs? Larynk had plucked him from Earth without Charlie’s say so. He’d been under Larynk’s rule all this time.

  There was no choice to make. If it came to having powers or being defenceless, he could only make one choice.

  “Let’s do it,” he said.

  Larynk nodded. “You understand that any legacy you earn will come to my sphere, right? Any experience you earn can’t be used to level up your powers; I need it to restore the sphere. After all, I’m not much use as a god without it.”

  “No matter what I kill, what I do, you’ll keep all of the legacy and experience?”

  “I have to, Charlie. This isn’t Chummilk’s planet, I can’t be sure of anything here. I need all the sphere power I can get.”

  “Looks like I don’t have a choice. Okay, let’s do it.”

  It pained him to think that he couldn’t be able to learn new skills. It was only through killing things and levelling up that he’d grown stronger back on Chummilk’s world, but from now on, anything he killed, the rewards would go to Larynk.

  He’d accept it for now. Better to have powers than have nothing, but he needed to find a way to become independent of Larynk. Maybe he could learn to use his blades for real, to develop skills that didn’t rely on the sphere. He could ask Flink to show him how to make the weird alchemical potions she used to make her spears stronger. Maybe Papa Gully could even teach him magic; after all, the old mage didn’t rely on Larynk for his powers.

  Larynk ran his hands over his sphere. The galaxies of light swirled within it, crackling and sparking. The sounds that came from it were strange and changing. One second they’ sound like buzzing, like the hum you heard under an electricity pylon, and at other times it was as though dozens of voices whispered from the sphere, loud enough to know they were speaking words to too quiet to full understand.

  “Put your hands on it,” Larynk said.

  Charlie placed his hands on the sphere. It glowed hot on his palms, getting warmer and warmer. A shock of energy hit him, almost knocking him backwards, but he held firm. The energy rushed through him, and he heard a whispering in his mind as if hundreds of voices were uttering secrets to him, ones he couldn’t quite hear because they spoke too quickly. The sphere sparked, sending him crashing to the ground.

  He felt different now. He focussed and realised he could picture his spells in his mind again. He ran through them, checking they were all present.

  Mage Spells

  Detect Evil – Level 3

  Heal – Level 1

  Mend – Level 1

  Blade Break – Level 1

  Ice Shield – Level 1

  Fire Arrows – Level 1

  Dagger skills

  Fury Leap – Level 4

  Dodge – Level 6

  Flow – Level 3

  He was glad to have them back. It made him feel less defenceless, less naked, less the runt of the litter. Even so, something was missing. Where were his tame skills?

  There was no time to ask. Larynk and Crosseyes set off through the forest, following Longtooth’s lead. Charlie had no choice but to go along, and Apollo stuck close to him, with Papa Gully on his back.

  Charlie walked alongside Flink. She’d been quiet since they landed. “Flink,” he said. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

  “What is it, Newchie?”

  “Back on the ship, when Larynk gave you the choice to go home. You didn’t get a chance to answer.”

  She took a deep breath, then looked at the ground. “I was going to choose to go home,” she said. “Back to my village, back to mother.”

  Chapter Seven

  The settlement was an hour’s march through the darkening forest, and they hadn’t seen a single dragon by the time they left the treeline. A month ago, Charlie hadn’t envisaged ever feeling thankful for a lack of dragons, but that was the situation he was in.

  “This is it,” said Longtooth, running ahead, awe in his voice and his steps springy.

  “Slow down a little, rat,” said Larynk. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  “Let him,” said Crosseyes.

  Charlie sped up and caught Longtooth, patting his shoulder to stop him walking even further ahead. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with before we charge in,” he said.

  The settlement was nothing like Charlie expected. Rather than simple-stone buildings and livestock like he’d seen in Flink’s village, this looked like a hellish place. It gave off a gothic feel, with houses made from a jagged, dark rock that looked like the tough scales of a dragon. There were dozens of them, some with various tools like rakes and spades outside.

  There was an overwhelming scent of crap in the air. Or manure, maybe, but to a town guy like Charlie, crap was crap. He couldn’t even begin to guess what passed for entertainment here. There were no cinemas, no shops, no bars, not a TV to be seen. If he had to get wrapped up in all of this, why couldn’t the gods schemes and plots have led him to a better planet? One full of bars and swimming pools, and women who had a thing for awkward looking guys with a heart of gold?

  The settlement was spread out in a rough semi-circle. Over in the east of it there were giant open buildings made from the same brown rock, with humongous leather harnesses strapped to the walls. He couldn’t help but think that, lined up in a row, they looked like kennels of some sort. And the giant harnesses, well, they sure as hell weren’t designed for dogs. They almost looked like they were fit for dragons.

  Suddenly, the plan to meet the locals didn’t seem so clever.

  Larynk had already strode ahead of them and into the centre of the settlement. The place was deserted, but it looked like it had been a sudden thing; something bubbled inside a cooking pot set atop a fire in front of one house, while scythes and rakes were left abandoned by the side of a crop field.

  The quiet of the village helped drain the adrenaline from him now, and with it, Charlie’s hunger hit him full force. The shock of the pirates and dragons had chased it away, but it was back now, and it was angry. He eyed the cooking pit jealously, and he watched the steam rising off it and swirling into the air, and he could smell the aroma of vegetables.

  Longtooth was a step ahead of him. He stood over the cooking pot and grabbed a wooden spoon resting in it. He scoped some liquid into it and brought it to his face, his rat nose twitching. He took a sip.

  “Gods, that’s good. What are you waiting for? Come and have some.”

  Charlie didn’t like the idea of eating from a strange cooking pot, especially without permission. Yet, there was no sign of whoever lived here, and his stomach turned over so badly he began to feel woozy.

  “Are we sure this is safe?”

  “It’s a stew, not deadly poison.”

  “And I’m assuming somebody made this. Wherever they are, they can’t have gone far.”

  “Are you going to be principled and starve until we have to carry you and you wind up getting us killed,” said Flink, “Or are you going to make me feel better about doing this by joining and sharing the guilt, and filling your belly at the same time?”

  His hunger broke through his manners, and he joined Longtooth over the pot. Soon, Flink joined them, and the three slurped the pot until it was empty.

  Larynk and Crosseyes looked on, shaking their heads. “Mortals and their constant need for food,” Larynk said.

  “I don’t know. I miss it sometimes,” said Crosseyes.

  Charlie’s belly thanked him for the stew by stopping cramping up. Maybe it had been too long since he last ate, and he’d slurped too much too quickly. Sitting beside the cramps though was a warm glow that spread through him. His head began to clear, and it might have been a psychological t
hing, but he already felt reenergised.

  “Are you quite finished?” said Larynk.

  “For the god of corn, you don’t have much sympathy for hunger.”

  “I used my sphere to grow corn when we were stuck on the island, didn’t I?”

  “Once. The whole time we were on the island. For the rest of the month, you refused,” said Flink.

  “And they tasted horrible,” added Charlie.

  “I’m the god of corn, not buffets,” said Larynk.