Ricko Daggerheart's Arc

Chapter 1 of 18

Ricko Daggerheart pressed flat against the tower wall and swore he would steal the sultan's crown jewel, even if it cost him what little life he had left. Three days ago the sultan's guards had ridden down his pack and left the sand red. Ricko lived because he ran. Now he crouched in the shadow of a crumbling watchtower, its cracked stone crumbling under his claws, and watched the desert for the men who wanted him dead. The patrol came at dusk. Six riders spread across the dunes below him. Sunlight flashed on their spears. They were sweeping for survivors, and Ricko was the last one left. He counted their mounts and knew he could not fight six. He could only hide or run, and the tower gave him nowhere to run. A voice spoke behind him. "You breathe too loud for a dead man." Ricko spun, dagger out. An elephant stood in the tower's broken doorway, huge and calm in a merchant's vest of red and gold. Small jars clinked at his belt. He raised both hands, palms open, and did not flinch at the blade. "Torin Corvara," the elephant said. "Spice trader. I saw the riders too. You have the look of someone they want." He nodded toward the patrol. "I don't ask why. I only ask if you'd rather live." Ricko kept the dagger up. "Why help me?" "Because I have a beast that runs faster than their horses, and because guards who kill the hunted rarely stop at one." Torin stepped back into the tower. "Come. Quietly." Ricko followed. Behind a fallen section of wall waited a lizard taller than both of them, its sand-colored hide baked hard, its long tail curled in the dust. It watched Ricko with one flat eye. Torin patted its flank. "Climb on," he said. "When they see us, we don't stop." They mounted together. Below, a rider pointed and shouted. Two guards broke toward the tower. Torin dug his heels in and the lizard exploded from the doorway, kicking up a wall of sand. Ricko gripped the ridged spine and held on. The beast tore across the dunes. Spears hissed past. One struck the sand where they had stood. The guards spurred their horses, but the horses sank in the loose sand and the lizard did not. The gap widened. Ricko looked back and watched the riders shrink, then rein up, then turn away. They rode until the tower vanished and the stars came out. Torin slowed the beast to a walk. Ricko's heart still pounded, but the patrol was gone. He was alive. "You saved me," Ricko said. "I did." Torin glanced back, and his calm cooled. "But those riders will report a lizard fleeing north. The sultan will know a survivor lives. And now he'll know someone helped him."