Roland Ironheart's Arc

Chapter 6 of 5

The bear cub slept by the fire, but Roland could not rest. The pink dragon knew his guards now. It knew their smell, their number, and the ground they held. When it came for the castle, it would come ready. Roland needed to blind it before that. He climbed to the wall and looked at the hills where the dragon nested. Timothy sat on the parapet, watching the sky as always. Roland knew him now as the boy who saw what others missed, the third guard who worked for food instead of coin. "The dragon learned us in the open," Roland said. "How do we hide from something that hunts by scent?" Timothy did not turn his head. "You don't hide the scent," he said. "You give it a bigger one." Roland stared at him. Timothy pointed past the hills, toward the far ridge. A dark shape moved there. Then Roland saw it. A massive green dragon stood on the rocks, sweeping horns curved back, red wings folded high. It dwarfed the pink dragon. It had come to hunt this valley too. "Two dragons can't share one range," Timothy said. "They never do." Roland understood the plan in a breath. He did not need to hide his guards. He needed the pink dragon to fear something worse. He ran for the storeroom and grabbed the bear cub. The cub's mother would follow its cry. Down in the courtyard a black panther paced the pen where Roland kept beasts for the kitchen, restless and loud. "Wake the others," Roland told Timothy. "We drive the noise toward the ridge." The woman took command at once. The bearded man carried torches. They led the cub, the panther, and the caged beasts out past the gate and toward the green dragon's rocks. The cub mewled. The panther snarled. The sound rolled across the snow. The pink dragon lifted from its nest, drawn by the cries. Its butterfly wings flashed in the gray light. It dove toward the noise. Then the green dragon rose from the ridge, huge and slow. It roared. The sound shook snow from the pines. The pink dragon pulled up hard. It saw the bigger dragon in its hunting ground. For a long moment the two circled. Then the pink dragon banked away. It climbed fast, left its nest behind, and flew north until it was a pink speck, then nothing. Roland stood in the snow, breathing hard. "It's gone," he said. "For now," Timothy said. "But that one stayed." Roland looked up. The green dragon settled onto the pink dragon's empty nest. It folded its red wings and turned its horned head toward the castle below. It watched them lead the cub and the panther back through the gate. Roland had driven off one dragon. In its place he had drawn a larger one to his own door. The castle was no longer marked by a hunter of lone cubs. It was watched by something far bigger, and it had seen everything.