Dragon's Child (The Mindbender's Rise Book 4) Read online

  Periwinkle snorted and lowered his head back to the grass.

  Lorel laughed and finished hauling wood. She grabbed the shovel out of the wagon’s lowest trunk and started digging a fire pit.

  Frantic galloping echoed through the valley. But both of her horses stood near the wagon, heads up, ears alert.

  Weaver’s cold toes. Tsai must be in trouble.

  She dropped the shovel and drew her long sword.

  A pack of serdil swarmed over the hill. Most were grey, like normal, but three were black and white.

  Who ever heard of a piebald serdil? She gotta get one of those pelts! She dashed toward them.

  Hunched low on the saddle, Tsai galloped down the hill and into the meadow. Sumach’s knees were bloody, like she’d fallen, but the rest of the mare looked unhurt.

  And that was a blood-woven miracle, considering the monsters snapping at her heels.

  Tsai swung the scimitar and nicked a grey hide. The serdil yelped and tumbled into the grass, but picked itself up and loped back into the chase.

  Sumach paused and kicked backwards with both feet.

  One serdil flew across the meadow and didn’t get up again. The others ran past the horse, but quickly turned to confront her.

  Lorel sprinted toward them, but thunder roared up behind her. Passed her. Weaver’s blood, them roans could run when they wanted. The fights she could win, if only one of them would let her ride it.

  Tsai swept the scimitar high and slashed a serdil’s back. Blood flew off her hand.

  Weaver’s cold toes, one of the monsters must have bitten the girl. A white-and-black one leapt up and snapped at Tsai’s wrist, but she yanked her arm out of reach.

  Poppy thundered forward, spun, and kicked with her hind legs. The serdil tumbled across the grass and collapsed in a bloody heap.

  Periwinkle galloped around Sumach and protected the mare’s hind­quarters. His teeth grabbed a serdil by the scruff. With a flip of the head, Periwinkle tossed the gray beast aside.

  The serdil landed flat, limper than wilted weeds. Its head was twisted at a weird angle. Likely its neck was snapped.

  Weaver’s cold toes! If she didn’t engage soon, all the fighting would be over before she ever got there! She lowered her head and ran faster.

  A white-and-black-spotted serdil saw her coming. It turned and charged at her.

  Sing to the Weaver. She’d get a little action, after all.

  The fraying thing had an extra head growing out of its back. A tiny floppy head. Too weird. Two-headed critters never lived long. She’d just help this one on its way.

  The serdil sprang at her.

  Lorel skidded to her knees, aimed her sword, and stabbed the serdil right in the neck.

  Blood splattered everywhere. She must’ve hit its heart, too. Good, another one down. Too quick, but there gotta be a few critters left for her.

  She yanked her sword free, jumped to her feet, and ran toward Tsai.

  Poppy kicked a gray serdil right at her. It was still wiggling, trying to get up, so Lorel paused to chop off its head.

  Sumach galloped past her.

  Bitter blood in the Warp and the Weave. Now she was behind the action. Lorel spun and raced after the serdil.

  Loom bust a Thread! There were only three left, one gray and two black-and-white ones. She’d missed out on almost all the fun. She sprinted to catch up.

  The gray serdil turned and charged at her. Finally, a real fight! Now she’d have some fun.

  The two piebald critters leapt on Sumach’s butt.

  The mare squealed and bucked. Tsai flew over Sumach’s head and rolled across the grass.

  Bitter blood drowned the Weaver! Lorel chopped off the fraying gray’s head and sprinted toward her friend.

  Both piebald serdil lunged at Tsai’s bloody sword arm, whacking her weapon free. They knocked heads, and the bigger one pushed its way in front.

  Tsai grabbed her sword with her off hand and pointed it right at them. “Bog swallow you!”

  “Loom lint, that ain’t a straight blade! You gotta swing it!” Weaver speed the Shuttle, she’d never get there in time to help. But she’d snipping well try.

  The lead serdil lunged.

  A sheet of fire roared out of the scimitar’s blade. Both serdil exploded into flame.

  Tsai yelped, dropped the sword, and rolled out of range of burning fur and flesh.

  Coward crap. Just when things were getting interesting. Fraying magic stuff just had to ruin her fun.

  Lorel shook most of the blood off her sword, trotted closer, and offered Tsai a hand up. “I ain’t had so much fun since sword school.”

  Ignoring her bloody hand, Tsai just sat there and glared at her.

  That wasn’t like the girl. “How bad’re you hurt?”

  Tsai looked at her blankly before checking herself over. “Could be worse. My arm’s chewed up some, otherwise just bruises. It was almost as if they wanted the scimitar, but didn’t want to hurt me.”

  “That ain’t likely. Serdil ain’t that smart.” Lorel pulled her shirt free from her belt and cleaned her own sword with the tail. “Besides, why would critters with no hands want a blade?”

  “How should I know?” Tsai slowly climbed to her feet. “Maybe because it makes fire? We can ask Viper after we get him back.”

  However long that took. They’d need to travel together, now that serdil were hunting them.

  But the girl must be shocky or something. “You gonna leave your sword on the ground?” First rule at the sword school was never drop your weapon. She’d never seen Tsai fail at that rule before.

  Poppy wandered over and checked her people out, apparently deciding the danger was over. Periwinkle herded Sumach toward the wagon. The poor little mare had bloody claw marks all down her butt.

  Tsai frowned after the horses. “I need to ask Kyri for a poultice. I bet the monsters’ claws are poisoned.”

  Lorel agreed, but wasn’t about to let her change the subject. “You really gonna leave your sword on the ground?”

  “I definitely don’t want a magicked sword.” Tsai curled her nose, but limped closer to the burned bodies. “Look what it did.”

  “Yeah, it ruined two gorgeous pelts.” Lorel shrugged. “The kid magicked the fraying thing. And it protected you.” Even if it was way too slow. Maybe it thought Tsai needed more fun in her life.

  Tsai snarled at her, but bent down and scooped up the scimitar. She stared at it, but it didn’t do nothing interesting. “There’s no blood.”

  Hmm. That was interesting, after all. “Maybe it drank it.”

  Tsai shuddered and nearly dropped the sword again. “Yuck.”

  “Don’t get all prissy on me. Come on.” Lorel led the way back to the wagon. “You need help getting cleaned up?”

  Tsai laid the scimitar next to the half-dug fire pit. “Maybe after Kyri’s helped me make a poultice for Sumach.” She shrugged out of her torn, bloody jacket and limped toward the creek.

  The legless lizard would nag until Tsai put the poultice on herself, first.

  “Call when you need me.” Lorel paced beside her friend, just to make sure she didn’t fall over.

  But Tsai walked straight enough. “You’re bleeding, yourself.”

  She was? How? Nothing got near her. Wasn’t it all serdil blood? “Coward crap. I ain’t got a real wound, my fraying icky hand broke open again. Miswoven catfish. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could’ve eaten it.”

  Tsai blinked at her a couple of times. “Is it you or me who isn’t making sense?”

  “You, for sure. Go get cleaned up. Serdils are likely more poisonous than catfish slime.” All the pus had bled out of her hand after her squabble with the bear. It’d heal up fine now. Maybe she’d let the slithering toad smear green crap over it later, just to make sure.

  First she better make sure all the combatants were dead. Lorel drew her short sword and strolled back to the battleground.

  Four gray serdil were stomped into
rags, not even worth skinning. Bitter blood, those roans had big hooves. Five others were bashed dead, with mostly whole pelts. Two more had death wounds from a sword blade, and two’s heads were chopped off. The miswoven nags’d had all the fun. She’d barely gotten to fight at all.

  But the white-and-black one she’d stabbed in the heart was still wiggling a little. That was bad. She never meant to leave the beastie to suffer.

  She strolled over to finish the job.

  Too weird. The tiny, floppy second head was twitching, but the rest of the serdil was clearly dead. How long did an extra head need to die?

  A few more seconds, if it was left up to her. She grabbed the spare head by the scruff and lifted it so she could slit its throat.

  The whole head – along with a little black, white-spotted body – came free from the dead carcass.

  What on the Loom? A baby serdil? How had it stayed on its mom’s back? Serdil didn’t have fingers.

  This one did. Short, furry fingers, but they curled around her thumb when she tried to spread them wide.

  She checked its mother. That one had fingers, too. The kid would fall off the Shuttle if he knew about it. Too bad he wasn’t here to see it.

  The baby whimpered. Its pea-sized eyes were still sealed shut.

  Poor helpless, harmless little thing. Too bad it had to die.

  Why couldn’t she take the baby along to show the kid? She couldn’t just murder it. If she left it here, it would starve. Or something would eat it. She had to take it along.

  She sheathed her sword and shifted the baby until it laid along her forearm, with its head resting in her palm.

  Its tiny tongue licked blood off her hand. Poor little thing must already be starving. How was she gonna feed it?

  Tsai would know. Lorel headed back to camp to ask her.

  By the time she got there, Kyri was curled up on the ground beside the wagon’s trunk, nattering on at Tsai about what green crap to put in the bowl.

  Tsai was sitting in the grass, a big, green-splotched, wooden bowl in her lap, and surrounded by little bags out of the kid’s medicine box. She poured little bits of stuff into the bowl real carefully.

  They must be running low on healing supplies. Not a problem. They’d just stop coddling each and every little cut. She’d never had so many poultices stuck on her in her whole life as she’d had since they started traveling with the toad.

  The legless lizard paused its chatter once Lorel got in easy hearing range. “This one requests that the anchor initiate a fire. The poultice will be more effective in a thermogenesic configuration.”

  “Little words, toad.” They sounded dirty, but she’d bet them big words meant ‘hot.’

  A hot little tongue licked fresh blood from her catfish-wounded hand.

  Tsai’s eyes got big. “Where’d you get a serdil cub? What’re you going to feed it? It can’t go on drinking your blood.”

  Lorel sat in the grass next to her friend. “We can catch a deer and milk it.”

  “You fell into the bog and never climbed out.” Tsai reached out and stroked the white-spotted black fur. “It is a cutie. Maybe we can catch a goat. I saw a few just before the serdil started chasing me.” Her voice shook. Bitter blood, Tsai’s whole body shook. That wasn’t like the girl, at all.

  Lorel patted her friend’s shoulder. She’d be shaking, she reckoned, if she’d been ambushed. Serdil might even be worse than being waylaid by a stinky old drunk. Harder to fight off, too.

  “This one suspects that mountain goat feminie will become obdurate concerning involuntary lactation. This one would offer an alternate solution.”

  “No, you can’t eat my baby.” Weaver’s cold toes, the longwinded worm was always hungry. Or too lazy to go hunting. “Tsai, you up to catching a nanny goat?”

  “Neither the fire’s heart nor the equine conveyance are in a state salubrious to an excursion.”

  Tsai rolled her eyes.

  “Little words, toad.” The legless lizard would never learn to talk right, at this rate.

  Kyri dipped its head and paused for a while. “The fire’s heart and its horse are injured. A poultice and repose are required.”

  Tsai jumped to her feet.

  Lorel grabbed the bowl before the leafy stuff fell out. No water in it? No, of course not. She hadn’t gotten around to fetching any before the attack.

  “Sumach’s hurt?” Tsai must’ve been walking around in a daze. Or she’d forgotten already. Not a good sign. Likely she hit her head too hard when Sumach bucked her off.

  Lorel waved her down. “Didn’t look too bad to me. Finish making the toad’s green crap, and we’ll doctor her up.” Well, Tsai could smear stuff on the wounds. She wasn’t about to leave the baby nowhere where the slithering toad might get at it.

  She needed to feed the poor thing soon, though. Its little tongue kept working at her cuts like it was getting desperate.

  Kyri gave orders. Lorel saluted and dug the fire pit one-handed, with the baby cradled in her off hand. Tsai limped to the trunks for a kettle, and off to the creek for water. Lorel grabbed the fire pot, started a fire, and put the kettle over it. They’d need more wood soon, but her stack lasted long enough to boil water.

  “I’m such a toad brain.” Tsai’s face was as white as a toad’s belly. “I forgot to get a spoon.”

  “I’ll get it.” As bad as the girl looked, she was likely to pass out before she got inside the wagon.

  With the baby still cradled against her chest, Lorel climbed up to the driver’s seat and lifted the door.

  Izzy popped out and bounced – and froze. Its black-pearl eyes stared right at the baby serdil. It hopped closer, and even seemed to sniff. A good trick, seeing as an old boot never breathed.

  “You can check the baby over later.” Lorel gave the rat-dog a little push before she climbed inside the wagon.

  Izzy was still sitting on the driver’s seat when she crawled back out.

  She grinned at it, dropped to the ground, strolled over to the fire, and handed Tsai the old, green-stained wooden spoon.

  Izzy followed close at her heels the whole way. So close she nearly tripped over it three times.

  Tsai stirred the green crap like her life depended on it. Stirred and stirred and stirred.

  Finally Lorel took the bowl and the spoon away from the girl. “I think it’s done. Here, you hold the baby while I smear green crap on you.”

  The baby whimpered while she passed it over, but didn’t fuss too much.

  Tsai cradled it like it was her only link to the Shuttle, but she frowned when Lorel pushed up her bloody sleeve. “Doctor Sumach first.”

  “You don’t need as much as Sumach will.” Weaver’s cold toes, Tsai’s arm was all chewed up, though none of the cuts looked deep. She slopped green crap over the wounds, enough to fill up the deepest holes.

  Tsai winced. “Save enough for Sumach. And for you, too. You’re still bleeding.”

  Cold water would stop the blood for a while. She didn’t need none of the toad’s doctoring. “You can’t put green crap on me until I figure out a way to feed the baby. I gotta guard it until it can guard me.”

  Kyri snorted out a sigh.

  That was weird. In all the times she’d frayed the stupid snake’s thread, she’d never heard it make a noise like that.

  Tsai looked as surprised as she was.

  “The anchor has instigated a stratagem. The swordlings shall sojourn in the proximate vicinity.” It squiggled across the grass and raced into the forest.

  Even weirder. She’d never seen it move so fast. “But what did the stupid snake say?”

  Tsai choked on a giggle. “Stay here, probably.” She tried hard to make her face look serious. “You can’t go on calling it the baby. Is it a boy or a girl?”

  “What difference does it make?” After all them years she’d fought with her dad over things girls weren’t allowed to do, it seemed wrong to let that matter now.

  Tsai looked at her like she’d f
allen off the Shuttle. “If it’s a boy, you don’t want to name it Daisy.”

  Maybe not. Even if it was a girl she couldn’t call it that. Though its spots did sorta remind her of a daisy.

  Lorel shrugged, handed the bowl back to Tsai, and took the baby into her own arms. She tipped the baby over and inspected its rear end.

  The poor little thing let out a piercing, “Meeeoooo!”

  Tsai slapped her hands over her ears. “Aizen-myoo, that thing can make a lot of noise!”

  Lorel snorted. “You would, too, if somebody got that fresh with you. I think it’s a girl.” She turned the baby right side up.

  The earsplitting wail stopped, but a tiny “mau” followed.

  “I know, you’re hungry.” Too bad she didn’t know how to fix that problem yet. She shifted the baby until its mouth was over her bleeding hand.

  It licked at the blood hungrily. Gratefully, even.

  Tsai shook her head. “I hope Kyri’s idea works. What will you name her?”

  “She looks sorta like a little bear.” No need to mention they’d gotten here early because she’d gotten lost and a bear had chased them halfway across the Loom. “How about Baby Bear? No, that’s a stupid name.”

  “If you say it with a Toranan-Yiet accent, it comes out Baybid’ba’ir.” Tsai petted the tiny head.

  “And that means Stealthy Warrior in Duremen-Lor. I like it.”

  “But what’s a bear?”

  Lorel waved her hand. “Something the toad told me about. It gets really boring, driving the wagon all day.”

  Tsai held up her green-crap-coated arm. “I wish my day had been so boring.”

  No way could she show Tsai the bruises from her fall off the wagon now. With luck, the girl would be too stiff to notice they both were moving slow. Or she’d blame it on the battle with the serdil. Tsai likely never noticed how little fun Lorel’d had.

  Tsai squirmed around to look for the horses. “Where’s Sumach?”

  “Hiding from the toad’s medicine, I’ll bet.” She handed Baby Bear to Tsai, took back the bowl and spoon, and headed out to take care of the cuts the serdil made on the horse’s butt.