Taniel (The Taverner's Daughter I)

26: Jarryd - Trapped

Jarryd woke for the umpteenth time: groggy, thirsty, stinking of sweat and piss. His fear had long ago morphed into anger. He had given up trying to believe whoever forced him and his dragon across Corrangorach meant them no harm.

The clouds evaporated as morning became afternoon. He sighted many landmarks he knew from his brief apprenticeship in the map room at Eighalh. The salt lagoons, the Gillormes, lay behind them as they were shepherded north. On their left, the sea sparkled in a thin strip.

Suddenly, Rufus dropped downward. Grunting, the dragon turned his head, eyes full of warning.

Jarryd pulled on his jacket, doing up the fasteners as quick as he could. He checked the bindings on the bedroll and backpack. They still held firm to the neck spike. Running his fingers back through his hair several times, he tried to breathe normally.

Rufus dropped ten house heights.

Jarryd's gut clenched. He gripped the handhold. His fear was back.

The lower slopes of the Morrdake Mountains closed in around them. Goats studied them, curious, but stood firm: dragons did not hunt here. A narrow valley opened up in front of them. The dragon drew closer and closer to the ground.

Suddenly, Rufus screamed a warning. In control of his body, at last, the dragon flicked out his wings and pulled at the air, frantic, trying to slow their descent.

A waterhole loomed ahead.

Jarryd tied a knot in his harness with fumbling fingers. The shortened tether would keep him close to the safety of the dragon's bulk during their uncontrolled landing.

Rufus hit the water.

The dragon slid across the surface, his feet splashing. A heartbeat later, he sank to his shoulders, his wings floating uselessly each side.

Air whooshed out of Jarryd as he lifted his feet out of the water.

Rufus dragged himself up the bank, his wings trailing.

"Hold on," he said. "It is not over yet."

What is happening? Jarryd found it hard to make his thought carry.

Rufus struggled to his feet, staggering a few more steps before smacking the ground again.

Jarryd, hold on t-. He screamed.

Jarryd snapped his mindpath shut against the piercing cries. He jerked away from Rufus's thrashing head. Regretting the short tether, he crouched on the dragon's back, not daring to untie himself. His breath rasped unevenly in his throat.

Rufus's hide began to glow with a purple light.

Jarryd shut his eyes against the glare, but opened them when he felt his body lifted up. He hovered at the end of the taut tether.

Shafts of purplish light streaked from every scale on the screaming dragon. The force shoved against Jarryd. His head snapped backwards and his back arched until he feared his spine would crack. His insides felt crushed by the harness circling his waist.

With a desperate heave, he twisted forward and grabbed his ankles. When the agony in his back had lessened a little, he dared to let go of one ankle and inched his hand up to the knife he kept in the top of his boot. The light pushed against his arm, sending him into a spiralling mass hanging on the end of the harness.

Jarryd wailed his frustration and pain.

The air about the dragon stilled.

Jarryd hung down the dragon's side, his limbs limp. His heart thudded, his middle hurt, and his ears echoed. He tried to look at Rufus but looked, instead, at a glittering, translucent bubble hovering between them.

Rufus was encased in the stuff.

The bubble nudged Jarryd. It pushed him, tossing him up into the air for a brief moment while it seemed to flow through him. With his mouth agape, he watched the bubble-thing expanding, shaping itself into a dome around them.

When it had grown tenfold, the bubble-thing flared with iridescence before shattering into a million sparks. It vanished.

Get off me. Rufus sounded weak.

Jarryd pulled his knife and cut the harness. He thudded to the ground on hands and knees. He stumbled upright, his legs shaking. He stepped back out of Rufus's way.

His dragon waddled forward, snorting, his mud-caked wings dragging at his sides. "We are trapped," he said, as he sprawled on the ground.

"Who did this?" Jarryd asked.

Rufus stared at him.

"What are we going to do? Did you send for help?"

"Mindtalk was not able to penetrate the shield. I must rest." Rufus sprawled on the bank of the waterhole. "You slept most of the way." Rufus shut his eyes. "I missed both nights."

It was much later, after he had eaten and lay in his damp bedroll, that Jarryd interpreted the dragon's last words.

Both nights, the dragon had said.

Two days.

Jarryd grimaced. No doubt, Taniel hated him by now. So much for becoming her husband, he thought, turning his back to the lowering sun.

Despite his despair, sleep came fast.

***

11 March 2017 - replaced with revised version

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