“I know,” Koradan replied. “But right now, we need to make some humans happy.”
He went back to watching Paul. He was too far away to hear what was being said, but as Paul approached the three men sitting outside the mine entrance, they stood up and rushed over to him, hugging him and slapping him on the back. Then there seemed to be a moment of confusion as the miners looked past Paul, as if expecting someone else, and finding no one.
Paul stood there for a few minutes, gesturing and waving his arm back in Koradan’s direction. There must have been a fair bit to explain, and likely more than a few questions from the men.
But then one of the men stepped back, his hands up in the air, his head shaking vehemently. He gestured in Koradan’s general direction, and as the minutes went on, his gestures became larger and more emphatic. Paul seemed to be trying to placate them, but the implications of the exchange were fairly obvious. They were not at all happy about hearing there were demons in the village. The other two men were looking more agitated now and seemed to be arguing both with Paul and with the first man.
Seeming to be at a loss, Paul held out the bag of food, perhaps hoping to simply fulfil their goal of bringing the men supplies before he left. The first man knocked the bag out of his hand, his posture growing more threatening.
Then suddenly, the second man grabbed Paul and spun him around, getting him in a headlock. “Hey!” the man yelled, looking towards the entrance to the gorge. “You want your little hellspawn back? Come over here and get him!”
Oh, shit, no. Koradan had imagined almost every outcome to this plan, including the miners attacking him and Ashd, and even his own death, in the more macabre versions. But he hadn’t once considered that they would attack Paul. And why would they? He was human. He was one of the villagers. He was little more than a child. How could he possibly be a threat to them?
“You hear me?” the man yelled. “I don’t know what kind of voodoo brainwashing you’ve done to this poor kid, but it ends here. You get your ass out here or we’re going to mess him up real good.”
Paul was struggling, but he couldn’t get the man’s arm away from his neck. Koradan heard him say something to the men, though he couldn’t make out the words from here.
“Well?” the man holding Paul yelled. “Show yourself, you fucker!”
It was a simple choice, really. Returning to the village with Paul injured – or worse, dead – would lead to Koradan and his men being forced to leave Varismont immediately, which would be a difficult task, with Bnaa still unable to fly. Bnaa’s wound still hadn’t been stitched, and there was no way they’d receive any more help from Lynette if Koradan managed to get her only son hurt – particularly after she’d already told him not to take Paul up the mountain.
Stay here, he said to Ashd, not really knowing if the vreki was going to obey him or not. Then he stepped out from behind the rock, holding his hands out to the sides to show that they were empty. He was still wearing his armour, but he hadn’t brought his sword with him. And these men had picks and shovels, which could do far more damage than a rake or a broom.
He walked slowly towards the men, making no sudden movements. “I mean you no harm,” he called loudly, not knowing whether it would do any good. The villagers last night hadn’t been keen on listening to him when he’d said the same thing to them.
“Gods above, you’re an ugly motherfucker,” one of the men snarled. “I don’t know what you did to Paul, but I’m pretty sure that if I cut your head off, whatever spell he’s under will be broken and he’ll stop spouting this bullshit about demons being all safe and fluffy and coming to rescue us.”
“I’m not under any spell,” Paul said, almost choking on the words as the man held him tightly.
“I haven’t done anything to Paul,” Koradan said. “And my men and I do intend to help rescue the workers from inside the mine. Paul is telling you the truth.”
“Shut up with your fucking lies,” the first man shouted at him. Then he nodded towards Paul. “The young lad here says you brought a dragon with you. Where is it?”
“I really don’t think you want to meet my dragon right now,” Koradan said. “He’s not very happy about you threatening me.” He could feel Ashd’s apprehension from here, and while the vreki understood that fighting the humans would cause them all immeasurable problems, he was also very much opposed to standing by while his rider was attacked.
But Koradan’s comment was a strategic one, a non-threatening threat that served to remind the miners just who was in control here. He needed to get them to listen, and just the right dose of fear might have that effect. “I’m going to explain why I’m here,” he said, slowly and clearly, “and I would be very grateful if you would listen to what I’m saying.” He’d learned from the behaviour of the villagers that humans were not good at listening to things they didn’t want to hear, so he waited for the men to acknowledge his request.
“Why? You going to brainwash us, too?”
“I haven’t brainwashed anyone,” Koradan said. “That’s not actually one of my evil talents.”
The third man in the group seemed to be getting impatient. “All right, all right, get on with it then,” he snapped. “Tell us why the fuck you’re here, and why you’re kidnapping young boys.”
Koradan ignored the ‘kidnapping young boys’ part and gave the men an abbreviated version of the night before. “Myself and four of my men came through the Gate of Chalandros last night. We were riding on dragons and managed to avoid the soldiers who guard the gate. We did not intend to land in your village. We only wanted to fly over the mountains and make a new life for ourselves far from any human settlements. But one of our dragons was injured and we were forced to make an emergency landing. We spoke to the women of your village and agreed to a deal; they would provide aid to help heal our dragon if we helped rescue the men from the mine. That’s the long and the short of it. So I’m simply here to bring you some supplies and to ask about the condition of the mine, so that we can start preparing to dig the men out.”
“And these women you spoke to,” the first man said. “Can you tell me what any of their names are?” It was a clever question. If Koradan had actually just killed the women and taken the supplies, he wouldn’t have bothered finding out their names.
“Lynette was the one doing most of the organising this morning,” he said. “She said she was a nurse, and she was kind enough to help treat the wound on our dragon. And Morgan and Hetti were helping her work out some of the details on how to access the mine. Hetti is Markon’s wife, I believe. And an elderly man named Best helped Hazel prepare some breakfast for my men and I.” There was enough detail in the story for the men to know that he hadn’t just grabbed a few random names from the villagers to prop up his story.
The man holding Paul loosened his grip on the boy. “So you’re… You’re not here to kill us, then?”
“Not at all. Quite the opposite. I came to ask you what you know about the state of the mine, and if you know where inside the men might be trapped. Two of my men and two dragons are clearing the rubble from the road as we speak. By mid-afternoon, we hope to have the road open so the rest of the village can come up here and start freeing whoever’s trapped.”
“Oi, here’s the thing then,” the first man said. “You got your dragon with you or what?”
“He’s waiting back on the road,” Koradan said. He wasn’t worried about Ashd’s safety. If the men tried to attack him, he could simply leap off the edge of the road and fly away.
“How big is he? See, the entrance of the mine collapsed in the earthquake. We’ve heard voices inside, but we can’t get to them, and we can’t hear them well enough to know how many are there. But it sounds like a few of them are right inside the entrance. But there are boulders there. Big ones. We can’t get past them to get the men out. So if you want to prove you’re not a right shit bent on killing us, then I say you get your dragon to come move some of the rocks and see if we can’t get at least a few of the men to safety.”
