Dragons of the Watch Read online

  Tak reluctantly came out. He spied a tasty bush and wasted no time indulging in an afternoon snack.

  “I’d almost eat that bush with you, Tak.” Ellie placed a hand on her hollow stomach and rubbed as if the pressure would ease away hunger.

  She looked over her left shoulder but could hardly see the mountain, let alone the line of their descent. Fog blanketed everything. “We came down from there, and we were heading that way.” She turned back toward the direction they’d come from and turned again toward the path she thought they should take.

  “The Hopperbattyholds’ should be easy to find. We’ll keep the mountain close and keep bearing to the west. I don’t want to spend the night up here, cold and wet and hungry. Let’s go, Tak.”

  She headed the direction she’d chosen. Tak nipped off a last mouthful of leaves and chewed as he followed.

  The thick fog hid every bush, rock, and landmark behind swirling gray mist. Noises echoed. The fragrances of soil, flowers, and grasses drifted past Ellie’s nose.

  “Do you smell mint?” she asked Tak. He came up beside her and gave her a friendly head butt on the side. “It’s you! You found a patch of mint growing. Oh, I hope it wasn’t too far behind us. Where is it, Tak?”

  He stood looking at her, and she groaned in frustration. “It wouldn’t have filled my belly, but chewing on it would have made me feel better.”

  Seeming to agree with her, Tak worked the vegetation in his mouth, then swallowed.

  “Come on.” Ellie sighed and continued their trek.

  The ground leveled out so that they did very little up-and-down climbing. Ellie felt they had walked for hours. She hiked a lot doing her chores. But now her muscles ached as if she’d trimmed hoofs all morning and bailed hay all afternoon.

  The cloud thickened, settling on the land. Ellie and Tak trudged up a rise, and Ellie laughed when her head popped out above the mist. A few more steps, and they stood on top of a knoll. As far as she could see, a haze like a gentle sea eddied over the land. Tops of hills poked out like islands.

  Ellie turned a full circle, looking at the murky world.

  “Tak,” she said.

  The goat came close and leaned against her leg.

  “I have no idea where we are.”

  Tak made a guttural noise, tossed his head, and moved out as if he knew exactly where he was going. With no better options at hand, Ellie followed.

  The land undulated in knolls and elongated hills. Ellie and Tak dipped into the mist and climbed out again at the next rise many times before Ellie saw something she recognized. A thin shaft of sun cut through a high cloud and pinpointed the same glint she had seen early in the day. With a sigh of relief, she figured the Hopperbattyholds’ house was just to the south of that landmark.

  Tak disappeared within the hovering cloud, and Ellie hurried to keep up. At the next hillock, she realized the shining object would be directly in their path if Tak didn’t veer off to one side or the other. The goat trotted on with determination, and she had no objection to letting him be her guide, as long as he headed for the glint on the hillside.

  Her only complaint bumped against her legs as she walked. She pictured the goat cart in the corner of the barn and wished Tak pulled her carpetbag. The abundance of new clothes didn’t seem quite such a boon, the valise seeming heavier as they crossed the foothills.

  A little breeze kicked up, and the mist swirled and eddied, clearing in some patches and stretching thin through others. Across the distance, the object that had attracted her attention took on a shape. Wide at the base with straight up-and-down sides, and narrowing to form a neck, the gleaming object looked like a large bottle. It would have to be an impossibly large bottle to be seen from such a distance.

  Tak jogged through the hollows now that the breeze had cleared the way. At the top of each knoll, Ellie spotted the glint she was using as a landmark. The large object grew larger. Ellie squinted. Of course, things appeared bigger as one drew nearer, but this bottle, in comparison to the boulders next to it, actually expanded in height and width.

  Tak barreled down another slope into one of the remaining pockets of mist. Ellie lost her footing and slid on wet grass. She held tight to the handle of her carpetbag with one hand while she hugged it to her chest with the other arm. Nothing hindered her slow roll down the hill, but the thought of grass stain smudges on her new dress made her moan. Tumbling to a stop against a rock, she took a minute to determine whether the fall had physically hurt her, checking the places that felt battered. Finding nothing serious amiss, she sat up and felt her carpetbag, making sure the latch had held.

  Tak came to her side and butted her arm.

  “Okay, I’m coming.” She set the valise aside and got to her feet, vexed at the clinging leaves and long pieces of brown grass on her skirt. The wet debris stuck, and she impatiently tried to brush it off. Tak head-butted her on the backside as she leaned over.

  “Stop it! You nearly knocked me off my feet, and then I’d have to start cleaning up again.” She lifted her arms and let them drop. “What’s the point? There’s no one out here to see what a mess I am.”

  “Maa,” said Tak.

  “You don’t count.” She grabbed her carpetbag, skimming her shoulder along the tall rock that had stopped her tumble.

  A current in the mist cleared the air around her head. The sharp features of a dragon appeared at her side—shiny, pointed teeth, blazing eyes, hot breath, and scaly skin.

  Ellie jumped back and looked again. Stone. The frightening visage was not real, but a lifeless statue. A standing stone. She’d heard of them but thought these ancient relics existed in faraway places, not in the hills near her home.

  Breathing deeply, she tried to steady her heart and force the lump of fear in her throat to dissolve. The dragon teeth were gray like the rest of the head perched at the top of the rock. Not sharp, but somewhat rounded, as if over hundreds of years the weather had filed away some of their fierceness. On second examination, the blazing eyes appeared glazed over, cold and unfeeling. And the hot breath turned chill as the mist swished past her face.

  Imagination. She had a wonderful gift of imagination, fed by the books Gramps had given her to read. Ellie turned away from the object that had scared her witless and resolutely marched after Tak.

  She found a second standing stone as she came out of a hollow. What had appeared from the last rise to be a tree and two tall stumps turned out to be a tree, a tall stump, and another vertical rock, deliberately placed by some intelligent beings. The head carved out of the top fifth of the stone depicted another malevolent dragon.

  Ellie had heard few tales of dragons. Chiril didn’t regard the beasts as intelligent, and their numbers had been hunted down by ugly beasts from the north long before Ellie’s gramps had been born. No one she knew had ever seen a dragon except for pictures in books.

  She averted her eyes as she passed the standing stone. When she looked directly at it, it was obviously a skillful sculpture. As her eyes slid closer or moved away, the features seemed animated. Just her imagination, of course, but very unsettling. She preferred not to look at the beast at all. Better to be on her way and escape the creature’s gaze.

  The next part of their journey would bring a ridge to their right. This would block the view of the glinting bottle-shaped thing. The outcropping jutted straight up and looked like a long, spiked tail planted among the green hills. They’d follow along the base, and the bottle should be to the east as they came to the end. Now would be the appropriate time to angle off to the south to reach the Hopperbattyholds’ farm.

  Surely the farmer and his family would know about the odd sights so close to their property. Two standing stones stood three or four miles from her own home, and that gave her shivers. She wished she’d read more about them and the theories surrounding their formation. She’d ask Mr. Hopperbattyhold.

  Calling Tak, she moved away from the ridge and headed toward the small farm, the nearest safe place to leave her w
ayward goat. The silly goat had taken her out of an exciting ride in a real coach with four horses pulling it. What did she get in exchange? A most uncomfortable hike. Unpleasant weather. Scary standing stones. A dirty dress. Arms that ached from carrying her carpetbag. And only a slim chance of catching up to her aunt and uncle in Bellsawyer.

  Ellie wanted to go to Ragar, to a wedding reception and a coronation. She didn’t want to explore the highland hills or discover ancient standing stones. She had a plan. Take Tak to the Hopperbattyholds’, spend the night with a warm dinner and friendly chatting this evening, leave early in the morning, and hurry to catch up to her aunt.

  The goat stood his ground and made no attempt to come with her.

  “Tak, this way.”

  “Maa.” Tak shook his head and turned away, then trotted toward the end of the ridge.

  “I should just leave you,” she shouted.

  The goat trotted on, disappearing around the giant stone tail of the sculpture-like beast. Ellie fumed but stomped back the way she’d come with a mind to capture that pesky Tak. She’d known the goat longer than she’d known some of her youngest brothers. As much trouble as Tak could be, she counted him as not just a pet but a friend. And so she doggedly trudged after him.

  The gentle breeze that had blown away the last of the grounded cloud stiffened. Ellie squinted to protect her eyes and hurried to catch Tak. She planned to tell him what she thought of him when she had a firm hand on his collar. She skidded to a stop when she rounded the last ridge that would be the tippy-tip of the rock tail.

  In front of her, beyond what appeared to be a glass wall, the sun shone on a bright road winding through a meadow of tall grass and wildflowers. Tak sat beside the thick wall and licked it.

  Ellie approached cautiously. Pushing the handle of the carpetbag up her arm, she put her hand out to feel the solidity of such a thing. No one, ever, had said one word about a towering wall made out of glass. Everything on the other side looked huge, like things did when you looked through the bottom of a bottle. Ellie tilted her head back and gazed upward. Huge. Monstrous. Colossal.

  She pressed her nose against the glass, cupped her hands around her eyes to see better, and peered at the land on the other side. On this side of the wall, gray clouds and the late afternoon drained all light from her surroundings. But on the other side, the sun shone as bright as noonday. Her side was rocky hills with sparse vegetation. The other side teemed with flowering green bushes and long grass waving before a gentle breeze. The wind whipped at her cloak, and Ellie leaned closer, feeling the cold solid glass press against her cheeks.

  “Maa.”

  Tak shoved her from behind, and she fell. She fell through the glass wall, feeling its cold hardness touch her arms and legs just as she had felt it on her nose, forehead, and cheeks. It didn’t break, but it didn’t stop her fall. She sprawled on the lush, cushy grass and gasped for air.

  “Maa.” Tak folded his legs and settled beside her.

  She rolled over, sat up, and stared at where she had just stood. She saw no glass wall. The pleasant countryside stretched on to a band of trees, and the road passed through the woods and went on to the horizon. Not a prickly bush or a scrawny shrub of her world. Only the lovely, serene landscape that had appeared on the other side of the wall—the glass wall that was no longer there. Ellie felt her nose tingle, her eyes water, and a horrid sob waiting to escape her chest.

  Now she really did not know where they were.

  Ellie fought rising panic as she examined the unfamiliar terrain. Rocks from tiny pebbles to huge boulders spotted the fields around her home. But grass covered this place. Trees with full heads of soft green leaves lined one horizon. Even the shrubs dotting the landscape appeared to be less rugged than the rough and thorny bushes of home.

  Tak jumped to his feet and trotted off, following the impressive road going toward a line of trees.

  “Wait!” Ellie scrambled to gather her carpetbag and stood. “Tak!”

  She hoped they would pass through the glass wall, even if she couldn’t see it, and be back at the end of the ridge. Within a few steps, she knew that crossing over to the other side was not going to happen.

  She ran to catch up. Tak jogged along at a brisk pace. Ellie, huffing and puffing, finally got close enough to grab his collar.

  “Stop!” She jerked on the goat and fell to her knees beside him. Tak looked at her, the pupils of his yellow eyes mere slits. He thumped his hindquarters down. His disgusted look lingered on Ellie for a long moment before he turned to stare toward the trees.

  The wide road could accommodate three wagons side by side. Ellie had never seen anything but dirt tracks, or paths covered in shale. Compared to those country lanes, this highway represented something she might see in the grandest of cities. She sighed, thinking she should be on an old dirt road headed to Ragar, probably the grandest city in Chiril.

  She brushed her fingertips across the pavement. The satiny smooth surface surprised her. The odd creamy yellow looked like butter. She and her goat were the only dirty spots on the road.

  Still holding on to Tak’s collar, Ellie put her arm around his neck and leaned heavily against his side. “I’m so hungry.”

  Tak tilted his head back and rubbed his chin against her arm. Absent-mindedly, she scratched the spots around his head that gave him pleasure, behind his ears, around his ruff, and under his chin. The mist from the other side of the wall still clung to his coat. The odor wrinkled her nose, but she cuddled him anyway.

  Her clothes were damp, flecked with mud, and smeared with grass stains. Cold, wet shoes trapped her feet and made her feel like she’d crammed them into a laundry bucket. She used one foot to push a shoe off her heel, then wiggled that foot out and used it to remove the other shoe. Blue dye from the leather stained her socks. She stretched her legs out in the sun, hoping to dry a little.

  So much for elegant clothing.

  Her stomach grumbled.

  So much for eating fancy meals with her aunt and uncle in roadside taverns.

  She could have gone to sleep in the warm sun, leaning against the goat. His coat was drier than her skirt. After a time, she forced herself to straighten.

  “Well, collapsed in the road is not going to get us any closer to food.” She tied the laces of her shoes through the handle of the carpetbag and walked in the ruined socks on the smoothly paved yellow road.

  With a firm grip on Tak, she let him pull her toward the horizon lined with trees. They walked for a long time before they entered the shade of the forest. The warm breeze dried Ellie’s clothes and hair and the outside of the carpetbag.

  She had to change to Tak’s other side occasionally and shift the heavy valise to the other hand. He walked along sedately, and she finally decided to let go of his collar and sighed her relief when he didn’t bolt.

  Tired and hungry, she trudged down the middle of the road.

  “The reason this road is so nice is that no one travels on it. How could it be worn with no use? I thought we might flag a carriage for a ride, or at least pass a traveler who could tell us where we are.”

  “Maa,” Tak answered.

  Between the towering trees, they passed in and out of shadows that fell across the wide highway. Tak gave a loud bleat, darted off to the side, and tore into a bush, ripping off tender green branches and chewing contentedly.

  “I wonder if I could eat those.” Ellie followed the goat and dropped her carpetbag with a delighted exclamation. Berries grew on several bushes. One bush hid blackberries under broad leaves. Another bent under the weight of berries that looked much like the black ones, but the fruit was smaller and yellow. Ellie sat in front of the bushes and picked the berries as fast as she could put them in her mouth and swallow.

  With her mouth full and juice running down her chin, she told Tak, “I would have walked right past these. Thank you, Tak.”

  Remembering the time Gustustharinback had eaten a bushelful of fruit from their parnot trees, Ellie mad
e herself stop as soon as she felt full. Gustus had had a stomachache for two days. She looked at her purple fingers with alarm. A glance down at her dress confirmed her fear. “I’m as messy as a pig.”

  “Maa.”

  “I am! Look at me. I belong in the country, not at a coronation or a royal wedding.”

  She looked around her at the lovely road, the towering trees, and her goat. “This is probably my punishment for leaving where I belong and chasing after a glittery life. Just because something sparkles, Tak, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.”

  The goat looked askance at her and then turned away, gazing down the road.

  “Maa!” He took off, leaving Ellie to jump to her feet, grab her bag, and follow at a run.

  Just before Ellie caught up to him, the carpetbag fell out of her hand. She didn’t stop but ran faster without its weight. Finally she latched on to Tak’s collar and pulled him to a stop.

  “Whatever is the matter with you?” She dragged him back to get her valise, then once more started the uncomfortable business of hauling the carpetbag and keeping a firm grip on Tak’s collar.

  In the distance, Ellie spotted the tops of many buildings.

  “A city!” She hurried for a bit but soon realized that miles separated her from the metropolis. She slowed to a plod and dragged the carpetbag beside her.

  She finally reached the first house on the outskirts of the giant city. The berries were just a pleasant memory, and the long afternoon walk an unpleasant reality. The enormity of the home matched the enormity of her dismay. Tak head-butted her off the road and toward the path leading up to the house.

  The bottom step to the porch came up to Ellie’s waist. From corner to corner, the house was longer than any block in Glenbrooken Village. And as for its height, Ellie could not even begin to estimate. Perhaps as tall as the tallest tree she had ever seen. And in the city beyond, buildings stood shoulder to shoulder, stretched to the sky.