The Knight and the Acolyte
Book Ten: The Flaming Woman
Chapter Five: Rain
By mypenname3000
Copyright 2017

Faoril – Asunow Princedom, The Princedoms of Zeutch

The rain hammered my rain cloak, beating the oiled canvas. Water dripped off the peak, falling onto my saddle. It didn’t help. The rain was too heavy. The road drank it in like the driest earth after a monsoon, becoming sodden, thick.

I didn’t care.

It was hard to care about anything after what happened an hour ago. I could still smell the reek of burning flesh, like it clung to us. The roar of the dragon’s flames crackled through my mind. The single gout of breath that incinerated a hundred soldiers, Prince Gruber of Kivnar, and his master mage. The mage hadn’t had a chance. He was dueling me when the dragon attacked. One moment, I was fending off his elemental attacks, the next he blazed with the others.

Dominari…

She was huge. I had studied dragons. They were rare. Most had been exterminated centuries ago. They lurked in the far corners of the world, eking out their existence. Only Dominari was bold enough to seize the Despeir mountains, the border between the civilized world and the dark Empire of Shizhuth to the east. She had claimed the mountains, established her desolation by burning down cities, towns, and villages. Until today, she had been academic on our quest. The monster we were working so hard to kill, but a distant threat that lay at the end of the long road we walked on.

And now, suddenly, she was so real to me. To all of us.

We all rode or walked subdued down the highway, leaving behind the dragon to feast on her carnage. I shuddered just remembering the sound of her eating the burning men, their half-molten armor crunching in her jaws. This was the beast we had to kill. How? No wonder every knight who Quested against her never returned. A single breath, and she would melt their armor to a puddle of molten steal, roasting them alive. Even with the High King’s sword, a weapon of great power, how would Angela survive?

How would the rest of us?

I had to start thinking. Wallowing in the shock of Dominari’s appearance wouldn’t stop us from facing her. Angela’s resolve was too great to waiver. I saw it. If Sophia hadn’t talked the knight out of it, she would have charged down the hill and fought the dragon right here, right now. But Sophia’s words, begging her to wait had worked.

Next time we faced the dragon, we had to be ready.

First problem, I thought, is warding against fire. Then speed. Thrak and Angela and Minx will need to move faster to be able to get in a fight. Or they need some sort of predictive magic. Faith magic. Like what the knights and the priestess of Slata had. Sophia will need to delve into her Goddess’s powers. What could I do? I could ward off the fire, but that would burn through my energy, and I wouldn’t be on offensive. Could Aurora’s elementals provide warding for us?

“Could my elementals do what?” Aurora asked, her voice subdued.

I blinked. I hadn’t realized I was talking aloud. “Warding. Against fire. Could your elementals protect us?”

Aurora, riding her horse ahead of me and beside her husband, turned around. Her sky-blue hair plastered about her innocent face, her sapphire eyes wide. She bit her lip. “Maybe. Wardings are…different.”

“You blocked off the tunnel back at the castle,” Chaun said. “You didn’t have to concentrate on it.”

“That’s what makes warding different,” she said. “I put the elemental on a simple task. To block something.”

“Could they block heat? Like a water elemental. So we could survive the dragon’s fire?” I asked.

Angela, riding at the front, turned her head around, her red hair plastered to her head, taking away its normally full volume. Her shoulders lifted, no longer sagging like they had been, a twinkle in her blue eyes. “Yes, can they?”

“Maybe,” Aurora admitted. “I don’t know. And enough to stop that fire…”

“Her flames were hot enough to partially melt steal,” Angela said. “That’s the heat of a coke furnace. That’s a lot of temperature.”

“I can produce that heat,” I said. “We can test it on something inanimate. Like a rock.”

“Why would you need…?” Princess Adelaide, looking even more bedraggled than the rest of us, asked. Her strawberry-blonde hair peeked out of the horse blanket she wore as a cloak, wrapped about her body and the fine dress beneath. “You’re not planning on fighting the dragon?”

“It’s why we need the sword,” Angela said. “It’s my Quest.”

“Quest? I thought you were stripped from your order.” The princess’s eyes were wide. “Chaun, are you really…?”

“Really,” the changeling nodded.

“What songs would be good against a dragon?” I asked, ignoring the princess. She didn’t matter.

“I have no idea,” Chaun said. “I think it’ll help us out. Keep up our courage and stamina. Keep us from losing hope.” His back shifted and his voice rose. He had a beautiful voice, the perfect control over it. His song was stirring, uplifting. Minx, riding behind Sophia, straightened in her saddle. The acolyte lifted her head as Aurora added her trilling voice to Chaun’s song, harmonizing with him, a smile touching her lips as she gazed at her husband.

“Sophia, we’ll need faith magic to enhance us. Give us preternatural reflexes. Something like what the priestesses of Slata gave the knights.”

Sophia writhed her shoulders. “I… I don’t know those spells. I’m sure my order has them, but… They don’t teach acolytes more than the basics. Advanced spells for when we’re full priestesses and have access to Saphique’s magic normally.”

I sighed.

“Healing potions,” Thrak growled. “She should make more. Hand them out to all of us. Just in case.”

“I die?” Sophia asked, her voice tight.

“You are unable to get to us,” my husband said. Even he marched with his back straight now as he walked beside my horse, the rain running down his bare, scarred chest. His kilt clung sodden to his massive thighs. “This fight will be hectic.”

“And enchant weapons,” Angela added. “I imagine dragons have tough hide. You can enchant Thrak’s ax, Minx’s daggers, and Xera’s arrows.”

“I can do that at least,” Sophia said.

“You are all crazy,” the princess gasped.

“We are,” Minx laughed. “I doubt my alchemical bombs will be much use.”

“You’ll probably put us to sleep instead of the dragon,” Thrak grunted.

“And given her size, I imagine that the dosage of any of your alchemical bombs will not be enough,” I added.

“So no making her so horny she just fucks her cave wall while we slit her throat?” Minx asked. “That would make it easy.”

“No, I doubt that will work.”

Xera, walking naked and unconcerned in the cold rain, said, “Your damiana bomb would just make us all horny.”

Minx grinned at the elf. “That’s fun, too. It helped us beat the knights. Fucking is more fun than fighting.”

“Definitely,” the elf nodded, her ears twitching.

The mood had changed. We had hope again. Purpose. We would defeat the dragon. It would be hard. Difficult. Some of us may even perish. But we had agreed to walk this road with Angela. We could not abandon her now. Not after all we had been through together. I rode with my back straight despite the rain, Chaun’s song stirring my soul.

We had more of a chance than any would-be hero before us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aurora Xandra

The rain drummed on the roof of our tent. It was a new tent, bought in Unmik before our arrest. Prince Gruber’s kept all our gear together, so when we fled, we still had our saddlebags and camping gear, along with our food and items of comfort. Gods be praised. Weather of eastern Zeutch was miserable. So cold and wet and rainy.

It did not get cold on Mount Peritito. Every day was warm. Even a cold day was moderated by the volcano’s heat bleeding out into the world. But this was miserable. So I was glad to get out of my wet clothes and crawl into bed with Chaun. He already lay stretched out on the bed, naked, his body dark and lithe, a shadow in the tent. I crawled to him and—

The tent flap opened. Princess Adelaide fell to her knees inside, her bedraggled skirts whisking against each other. The rain and travel had ruined her expensive gown, the silks stained and tattered. I blinked at the sight of her, silhouetting our sputtering camp fire.

“You’re sleeping with Angela and Sophia,” I said, anger swelling through me. She was the reason we had to flee a chasing army. Because she thought she owned my husband. The gall of the hussy. “There tent is…”

A sob escaped her, ragged and full of pain. Her shoulders shook. Her wet hair curtained around her face, hiding her expression as she sobbed again. Then a keening wail rose from her throat, so full of pain and loss.

I bit my lip. Her husband had died today.

“Adelaide,” Chaun said, his voice gentle. He sat up, glancing at me.

I sighed, nodding my head.

Chaun moved to the Princess, grabbing her shoulders and lifting her upright. She sat at the entrance of our tent, sniffling, as Chaun brushed back her wet hair. I could just make out her face in the darkness, tears falling down her cheeks.

Then she threw herself at my husband, her wet silks rustling. She buried her face into his neck, her body shaking worse. More sobs came as Chaun rocked her. I wanted to hate her, I did, but it was so hard when she sounded so broken and lost.

“I’m sorry,” Chaun said as he rocked her.

“I th-thought he loved me,” she said through hiccuping sobs. “H-he always t-told me he did. And…and…”

Chaun didn’t say anything. His eyes caught mine over her shoulder, wet with emotion. Her husband had died today. The poor thing. Among my people, losing a nestmate was a tragic day. But she kept saying she loved Chaun. It seemed to me she didn’t care about her marriage.

“And then… You heard him.” Adelaide pulled back, her hands cupping Chaun’s face. “He d-didn’t care if I d-died. He j-just wanted Angela and th-the sword. He…”

She melted into incoherent tears again, collapsing into Chaun’s chest this time. He stroked her wet hair as she cried, her face rubbing against him. I wanted to say something, but what? I didn’t know Adelaide as anything more than the woman who wanted to steal my husband away. And now she was in so much pain and…”

I felt bad for hating her.

“I truly thought he loved me,” she whispered after a few minutes.

“You never loved him,” Chaun said.

Adelaide flinched. “But…” She looked up at him. “Did you ever love me, Chaun? Or…or were you like him…? Pretending?”

“Like you were pretending you loved him?”

She ignored it. “You did love me, right? You always told me you did.”

“I was…fond of you,” Chaun admitted, glancing at me. “I thought I loved you. I did. But… I hadn’t really discovered what it meant to love someone.”

“I loved you,” she said fiercely, squeezing tight. “And I know you loved me Chaun.” She sounded so desperate as she looked up at him, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
Tears fell down my cheeks. The poor woman. Her entire world was thrown upside down today. It must have been horrible hearing her husband say such callous words about her. To think that he didn’t love her after all these years of her thinking he did. Even if she didn’t love him back, she had valued his feelings.

“Tell her,” I whispered, moving closer to them.

Chaun stared me in the eyes. I nodded my head.

“I loved you, Adelaide. Back then. And for years later, I thought about you so much, dreamed of the day we could be together.”

She shivered.