Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

  “You found it. I only found the food.”

  I had to laugh at his truth.

  “Up and out,” I said to get everyone moving. “Jo, keep your ears open. And keep Banger out there, too.”

  She stood up with the cat in her arms.

  “He’s been listening this whole time and hasn’t heard a peep. I’m going to get him roving once we move out.”

  “And Raven and I will take the lead again,” Anton added. “His nose will warn us of danger.”

  Instead of putting it back on his axe, he tied the toaster’s cord to his belt so it hung at his hip at the four o’ clock position. Even though it was going to be super useful, I was glad he carried the big shiny object.

  “Tex, you’ll walk behind Anton. Hide us if we make contact with someone.”

  “Easy peasy,” she said. My clever country chick had secured the staff to her back by using some stringy vine, so she was free to whip out her pistol if she needed it. That weapon hung halfway out of her tiny front pocket.

  The gray general waddled off into the forest with his wolf. The substitute foot I’d made for Raven seemed to work well; he barely limped now.

  Tex followed several paces behind them.

  Echo and I started to walk side-by-side, but we didn’t get far before she suddenly halted and spun around.

  “I’m scared, Matt. I’ve never left the sight of water.” Her stream was almost hidden by all the trees and undergrowth.

  “Do you want to go back. Rest a little?” I really didn’t want to do that but shoving her along and telling her to suck it up didn’t seem like a good plan, either.

  “I don’t know,” she said with a quiver in her voice.

  Tex came back. “I know what it’s like to leave home, girl. I left mine when I was bombed out of my town. Never saw my family again. Pretty shitty, huh?” She smiled despite the serious nature of her words.

  “But having a friend always helps. Will you walk with me?” Tex reached out and took one of Echo’s hands.

  “And with me,” Jo said as she took hold of the other hand.

  “You promise it will be OK?” Echo asked like a frightened child alone at the bus station.

  “It will,” Tex said without hesitation. “You’re with us, now.”

  The three women held each other for a moment, then my two veterans pulled Echo’s hands to get her moving.

  I fell in behind, happy I had one more ally to trust.

  ***

  We walked for an hour through the dense vegetation. The late-summer heat made the forest swelter with humidity, and I sweated out all the water I’d sucked down earlier. Not a trace of breeze made it to the floor of the forest.

  We’d all switched positions as we’d gone up and down the hilly terrain, and I’d taken up the slot behind Anton, just far enough back that his smell didn’t knock me out. I kept him at the front because he was by far the slowest. Better to match his speed than spend my day waiting for him to catch up.

  I walked upon him as he leaned against a tree. Raven wasn’t with him.

  “You OK, sir?” I asked.

  “Ahead,” he whispered. “He descended before I could stop him.”

  I looked through the trees down a small gully to where he pointed. Raven was a hundred feet away standing at the bottom, but he’d stopped at the edge of a road. The leaves blocked our view, so I could only see a small patch of blacktop with a pair of yellow stripes splitting it down the middle.

  “Something’s coming,” Anton added.

  I didn’t hear shit.

  “How do you know?” I probed.

  “Raven knows.”

  The wolf was far away and hadn’t made a sound. “Then how do you know?”

  Anton turned to me. “Years of traveling with my companion, young sir. I know what he does.”

  “He has to get out of there,” I said with concern.

  The girls came up behind us.

  “Something’s coming,” I said to them on our shared link.

  “I can hear you!” Echo shouted back on the connection. A second or two later, she added: “Sorry.”

  “Hide us, Tex,” I said to her. We were on top of a little rise in the thick forest, but we had a great view of that section of road below, so anyone down there would see us if they stopped. We could stand behind tree trunks and bushes, but she would ensure total security.

  I finally heard the machine. It was a deep whining noise, like a truck going too fast in first gear.

  “Anton, get Raven out of there.” If we were in danger of being spotted, Raven was ten times more likely to be found.

  Anton appeared to strain. He even put his fingers to his temple as if he was in pain.

  Banger shot by our legs and ran down a fallen tree. I thought it was odd behavior until he paused and then jumped into the gully. Then it was clear where he was going, though the why of it was still a mystery.

  “Anton,” I said. “Can you control your wolf?”

  “Of course I can, Sir Matt. But…I can’t right now.”

  The wolf seemed confused, like it wanted to go forward but wasn’t sure if he should.

  “Shit, why aren’t we blending, Tex?” If we could blend in, maybe we could get down there and help the wolf.

  “I don’t know. My ability seems like it isn’t working right now.”

  My heart had been hovering at the starting line, but now it took off without waiting for the gun.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  My magic swirled in uneven patterns as if it was also confused.

  Echo came close to me. “Is this normal?”

  “No, something’s not right. Everyone is acting weird.” I glanced down to Banger. He’d almost run all the way to Raven.

  The vehicle on the road was very close. I expected it to pass in seconds, if the rising sound was any indication of speed.

  Tex stood there in her new dragon skin outfit, and I waited for her to fade into the background, but something prevented it.

  “I can’t, Matt. I feel the magic inside me like before, but it isn’t showing on the outside.”

  “Fuck,” I whispered. “Hide.”

  We all dropped to the ground and tried to put something between us and the roadway. At almost the same time, Raven and Banger seemed to tumble as if they were fighting down by the road.

  “Well, that’s just fucking great,” I said to myself.

  A giant tracked machine lumbered slowly from our left. The engine whine was obnoxious, and I felt the deep resonance in my chest as it came more into view.

  “What the fuck is that?” I said on our link.

  I’d seen tanks a billion times in my computer games. Then I saw my share when real war came to America. But this wasn’t like any tank I’d ever seen.

  The tracks and hull were similar to any modern tank I could imagine. The sides were flat up and down, while the front was angled like the edge of an axe. The whole thing was painted to match the forest, so it sort of blended into the environment, despite taking up most of both lanes of the road.

  It had no turret on top. Instead, it carried a device which appeared like several angular pieces of steel, with one long piece extended backward, rather than forward. It looked like a metal catapult.

  Banger and Raven rolled into the weedy water next to a drain pipe that ran underneath the road. As they disappeared, the tank passed them by. It seemed like a miracle the big tank didn’t crush the road and the pipe below it.

  I immediately lost sight of the mobile catapult as it continued down the road, but two smaller trucks followed behind it, like two pooper scoopers behind a giant horse.

  My breath caught in my throat as I imagined the trucks slowing down to take a look at our two odd-behaving animals, but they continued after their large friend without so much as a brake tap.

  I exhaled as the whining noise moved away from us.

  Anton seemed impressed, rather than concerned. “Did you see that? They stuck a Mark-Eight Firebrea
ther onto a T-72 chassis. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that thing.”

  “You’ve seen one of these before?” I asked with concern.

  “Not affixed to a tank from your world. We always had to break them down and set them back up when we wanted to move them. Very nasty in battle if they survive long enough to sling their payloads.”

  He went on.

  “Of course, that was back home. I’ve not seen them in your world until this moment.”

  ***

  “Banger, what the fuck?” It wasn’t the politest question, but it was concise.

  The cat ran out of the weedy area with Raven almost on his tail, but when the cat started up the little gully, the wolf seemed to run out of steam.

  “Raven is a little hard of hearing,” Anton said with sadness. “I guess he didn’t realize I’d slowed down so much and he got confused when I wasn’t with him.”

  Banger hopped out of the dry gully and darted toward me for a second, but then diverted and went over to Jo.

  “I think this little pussy cat has a mind of his own,” Jo spoke to him in near-baby talk. “Yes, I do.” She held Banger above her breast plate and bumped noses until she noticed us all looking at her.

  “What?” she said defensively. “My little guy could have been killed.”

  “The cat saved Raven.” Anton seemed dumbfounded.

  “I don’t know what just happened, actually. Everything seemed to go wrong at the same time. Tex, what’s up with you?”

  She slid over in the leaves. “I don’t know. Something blocked my magic.”

  “You think it was the whining?” Jo asked.

  “Like a jammer, or something?” I suggested. It was hard enough knowing what my magic was capable of doing, much less what military applications it would have. The large tank did seem to blend in with the leaves in an unnatural way.

  I pulled out my phone and looked at the mission map. We weren’t far from the red push pin. It was maybe a mile beyond the roadway.

  “Did you hear that?” Jo asked as she cocked her head.

  “Is it another one?” I wondered. I listened for a few seconds, before I finally heard it. The rumble wasn’t the same as the tank but could have been a distant thunderstorm. “Or rain?”

  “It sounds like a storm,” Jo answered.

  Anton grunted like he was going to speak, but decided against it. I waited a moment to see if he’d add to the conversation, but he never did.

  “OK. Let’s move out,” I suggested. “Before we get soaked.”

  “I wouldn’t mind,” Echo replied. “I always wanted to walk the shore during a big downpour, but my sisters weren’t fans of what I wanted.”

  “You’re with us, now,” I said. “You have permission to do whatever the hell makes you happy.”

  Echo brightened. “Thank you, Sir Matt. I will.”

  “Go on, then,” I said as I pointed down the wash.

  Anton slid down first, anxious to get to his friend. Echo stayed at his heels, like she was excited to be part of the action. The rest of us followed them down, but I stopped frequently to listen for more tanks.

  Jo caught me at one of my stops. “Banger is still on alert, Matt. You know that, right?”

  I nodded. “He heard the tank before we did, but I wish he would have reported it before he went down the hill. I mean, I’m glad he saved Raven, but if he would have…”

  She replied quietly. “It’s going to take us both some time to get used to his new programming. The old Banger worked on commands I fed into his system. Scout a hundred yards west, then return. Go up that tree, then return. Sit inside a certain tent to watch a boy I liked as he looked at Korean girl-gamer porn. Then return.”

  She and I locked eyes because I’d suspected Banger had been in my tent at least once.

  “Stuff like that,” she went on like it was no big deal. “The magic you put inside him is not all-powerful. You have to train him. But you should know, you are dealing with a cat: he’ll never do exactly what you want, all the time.”

  I had to laugh a little because my problems in the tent seemed so far away. “Eh, I like to know what’s going on. He took me by surprise.”

  “You and me, both. I figured you’d fed him some guidance while I was at the witch re-education camp.” She giggled, then slid down the hill a little. “See you at the bottom, girl-gamer lover.”

  I followed her, totally fine that she’d discovered one of my tastes in women. I also listened for more vehicles, but for the moment I heard nothing out of the ordinary.

  When I got next to the road I looked in both directions, but the forest-lined route had no action, at least up to the nearby bends in each direction. The asphalt was covered in long strips of mud, like other tanks with muddy treads had recently passed.

  Tex came down the gully last. She used her staff to steady herself, then jumped off a big rock toward the bottom. We smiled at each other, then I felt the need to push everyone across the road.

  “We’ve got to keep moving,” I said.

  Jo and I reached the bottom a few seconds after the slower-moving Anton and Echo. He went right over to his wolf. “I’m sorry, old friend. My eyes are almost as bad as yours. I didn’t notice you’d gone so far ahead.”

  The grizzly old man gently rubbed the wolf’s head for a moment, then he pointed to Banger. “But you are never going to live it down that a cat came and saved you.”

  Raven’s growl was barely loud enough to be heard, like he was pissed anyone noticed his mistake, and his head hung low as if aware he’d let down his master.

  Tex caught up to us.

  It was my chance to do some leading. “Trust in allies. I think this is what my magic meant. We can’t all be at peak performance all the time. Sometimes we have to trust the other members of our team.”

  “But I’m not on your team,” Anton replied before being visited by a coughing fit.

  When he recovered he wiped snot all over his shirt sleeve, which was already filthy. “I’m more of a visiting dignitary.”

  I looked at him like he’d shat on the living room carpet, but switched to a stony face to be a tiny bit more polite to him.

  “Maybe you’re not on my team,” I allowed, “but Banger thinks Raven is.” I laughed. “I didn’t tell him to do that, but I wish I did. I can’t micromanage everyone like this is a role-playing game. I have to trust we can all take care of each other. Banger is showing us how it’s done, whether you are formally on our team or not.”

  “Your generosity knows no limits, good sir. I am nothing without my Raven.” Anton seemed shaken. “The Wellspring may present new challenges for you, and I still have some time to kill, so perhaps I will stick with you a little longer.”

  “If we get to the wellspring, we’ll return the staff to complete our mission.” I pointed to the staff in Tex’s hand. “Then, we should get assigned a new mission in our campaign. You can decide to stay or continue at that point.”

  The general chuckled. “I feel like these old bones only have this mission left in them.”

  “You don’t have to decide now,” I replied.

  ***

  The trees made it difficult to read the terrain, but my mapping program helped a lot. The road ran along the edge of the hilly forest, but there were maybe one or two small ridges before it leveled out. The red dot was out in that flat area, so we were very close now.

  “Cross the road, guys. We have to clear out before something else drives by.”

  Anton was the slow poke, but I was pleased to see him grab Raven by the scruff and get him moving where he wanted. Banger ran in front of the wolf as if to taunt him, or maybe to get him moving, but then the little guy sprang into the undergrowth and was off to keep watch over us.

  “We’ll be fine, Sir Matt,” the general replied.

  He walked by and took his odor with him.

  I nudged Echo and spoke on my magical mind link with her. “You think you could do that thing with his clothes? Gi
ve him a scrub down?”

  “Oh, by Demeter’s frown, I would never do such a thing.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “I feel the water as it washes over your skin, Matt, like I am wrapping myself around your body. I know General Anton is a friend, but please never ask me to do that for someone like him.”

  It never crossed my mind her ability was something sexual, but saying it like that ensured I would never even suggest it for anyone but me.

  “Can you find a puddle and hose him down from afar?” I laughed. “I’d settle for anything that cleans him up, so we can sit within ten feet of him.”

  “They could both use a dunk,” she said in reply.

  We walked for five minutes before making it most of the way up the next hillside. Anton strode up like he was on a pleasant walk, and the rest of us fanned out behind him. Some added distance was necessary to stay out of his cloud. However, before we crested the top, Banger reported in.

  “Master, horses are approaching on the thoroughfare.”

  “How many?”

  “More than six, but less than twenty. So far.”

  I spoke so my friends could hear. “Everyone find a bush. We’re hiding again.”

  Anton fell behind a large tree, totally out of sight. The girls and I each found our own trees and bushes, and we were all well-hidden from the road by the time the horses clopped by.

  “They are beautiful!” Echo said in a loud voice on our link.

  “Echo, you don’t have to speak so loud on this. I can hear you fine.”

  “I’m sorry. This is more excitement than I’ve had my whole life. I’ll try to do better. For you.”

  I shook my head, not sure if I was being unreasonable. My magic was new and exciting only two days ago, though Clint provided the training wheels to get me started and keep me grounded.

  Before I could think up a response, the horses came into view through the leaves and branches of the woods. Echo was right: the white horses were quite attractive and high-stepped like they were part of a color guard of some sort.

  Each horse and rider could have been one of the knights of old. I was too far away to make out much detail, so I shifted over to Banger’s eyes to see if he had a better position.

  Banger wasn’t closer to the road. As best I could tell, he was up the hill near Anton and Raven, but his vision was robotically enhanced to be a lot better than mine. His eyes confirmed the large men carried long swords in scabbards next to their legs, and kept brightly-colored shields on the far side of their steeds.