The Sword and The Mountain (Kathardra book 1)
Hunters

Thank the gods, the stars, and whatever else, Storm wasn’t far. She had been swooping low to come to camp when she had been attacked.

The pain in Lessa’s back was searing, but it was fading now. More of a memory of pain. Until Storm hit the trees, and then the ground. The cracking was thunderous as treetops broke under Storm’s bulk. When her body hit the ground Lessa could feel the reverberations in her feet.

Something had pulled Storm to the ground, what had the strength to ground a dragon?

Storm finally came into view between the skeletal trees, she was a mass of green scales. Through their bond Lessa could feel Storm struggling, there were chains, so many chains. She was pinned down. Storm screamed, summoning fire from her gullet, the tree in front of her erupted into flames but another chain came from the trees, it wrapped around her nose and pulled her mouth shut, cutting off the stream of fire.

An enormous man came forward, out of the trees, Lessa could see his broad war axe rise above his head through Storm’s eyes as well as her own.

“No!” Lessa shrieked, her sword was in her hand, she didn’t remember drawing it.

The axe fell, and Lessa slid between him and Storm, her black sword intercepted and skewed aside the war axe. The man towered over Lessa, his black hair was in a braid down his back, and his skin was a deep olive brown. He was certainly not Kathardrean.

He grunted when Lessa knocked aside his axe, but he was raising it again right away.

Lessa skipped back from him, his axe came in a wide arch, just inches from her. Lessa shot her hand forward, a blast of magic took the man in the chest, he flew backward and rolled to a stop.

Lessa turned to Storm, but the primal instincts deep inside of her had her turn back right away. Another man had emerged from the surrounding forest. This man had a staff in his hands.

He sent a thin stream of fire directly at Lessa. Internally a dark laugh coursed through her. Was that all he had?

Lessa slammed him with magic. Probably more than necessary. A lot more than necessary. The attack on Storm had her dangerously close to losing control.

The mage went flying backward, he crashed through a bush and finally came to a stop against a tree, crunching unnaturally.

The man with the axe was getting back up, he was on a knee and assessing Lessa. Another man came out of the trees, this man was cowled and had a sword in each hand.

There was another, this man had a single sword. By the second Lessa was feeling more and more outnumbered.

She raised her sword and reached for her magic.

An arrow sprouted from the chest of the duel-wielding man he looked down in surprise and fell to his knees, clutching at the arrow.

All eyes snapped to the side as Zar burst into the clearing, his sword drawn, he launched himself at the remaining swordsman.

Motion burst out all at once, the man with the axe rose and he moved back toward Storm’s neck.

A growl ripped from Lessa’s throat and she dashed to intercept him, once again her sword blocked the battle axe.

Arrows fell toward Lessa from over Storm’s body. Lessa drew up a shield behind her back, still engaged with the axe-wielding man. He swung his axe across his body, just as he had before. Lessa stepped back, he swung it backhand, stepping toward her as he moved. Reaching forward with her magic Lessa grabbed hold of the axe, then she twisted into the man, her sword came up and around and she liberated the man’s hands from his arms.

Now she could free Storm. A calculated energy blast broke the chain around Storm’s snout.

Scared fury boiled forth from Storm’s mouth and fire blasted into the forest around her. Lessa knew there must be more attackers in that direction whom Storm had seen, and Lessa had not. Another three blasts snapped the chains crossing Storm’s back, freeing her wings.

Storm stood and roared so loud that Lessa nearly covered her ears. She looked around the clearing, Zar was breathing heavily, his silvery sword was streaked with blood. Cinder dropped his hands, having just released his magic. Worran’s bow was drawn taught, an arrow to his cheek, pointed down at the ground. A man under him cowering.

Lessa’s eyes fell on the man who had once held the axe. He was pale white, bleeding out.

She limped over to him, emotions as cold as ice she looked down at him and muttered a spell that would effectively cauterize his wounds. He would live. Probably.

It’s what he deserved for trying to kill her dragon.

Lessa walked over to Storm, one of her wings was limp, laying on the ground. A harpoon attached to a thick chain was lodged along the bone right where her wing met her back.

It hurt so bad.

“I have to take it out,” Lessa told Storm.

The dragon did not respond. She was too blinded by rage to say anything. She closed her eyes, accepting.

“Lessa, your leg,” Zar said, grabbing Lessa’s shoulder and pointing down.

“Storm first.” She ignored him and studied the harpoon in Storm’s wing.

It was as thick as Lessa’s wrist, and hook-like spikes extended in three directions from the tip of it. One of them was caught around the bone of Storm’s wing.

“Perhaps you should let me,” Cinder said, stepping forward.

A growl ripped out of Storm, and he stepped back.

Lessa ignored him, she ignored the pain in her leg.

Zar and Cinder were whispering behind her back.

“I’m going to try to numb it. I don’t know any spells to heal dragons. So we have to do this the tricky way.”

Storm didn’t respond.

As she reached for her magic Lessa focused on Storm’s wing, willing it to be numb between her hands.

The pain faded from Storm’s mind. That step was done. She would have to cut through the harpoon, as close to Storm’s wing as possible, and then pull it away in two places.

Lessa dropped to a knee, her left calf screamed out.

Now that the adrenaline was fading she was starting to feel her injury. She just had to take care of Storm first.

Now that she could see the portion of the harpoon under Storm’s wing Lessa got to work. In both hands she held the harpoon and focused her magic, the bottom portion of the harpoon fell away, it was massively heavy, and it was a wonder it was able to get high enough to catch Storm.

Carefully, Lessa stood again. A single spike of the harpoon was lodged in the muscle around Storm’s wing bone. She pulled it free with magic and dropped it to the ground.

Now was the tricky part. Despite Cinder telling her that wounds shouldn’t be healed by force of will, Lessa didn’t have much else.

Luckily it wasn’t a complicated injury. Lessa poured magic into the wound. The muscles in the wing limb knit themselves together. The hole in the leathery wing membrane shrank as the edges wound back to where they should be. And suddenly the injury was gone. Lessa released the magic holding back the nerves and then dropped her to her butt.

She gritted her teeth and looked down at the arrow piercing her left calf at an angle.

“What do we do with him?” Worran asked, bobbing his arrow in the direction of the man on the ground.

“Kill him,” Zar said, at once, kneeling by Lessa.

“No.” Lessa snapped.

Zar glared at her.

She glared back. “We aren’t in danger anymore. That would be murder.”

Zar turned his focus down at the arrow in her leg.

“Cinder, we have to pull this out, can you numb it?”

“I can. But you could just as well.”

Zar ground his teeth, “Do you really think it’s an appropriate time for a magic lesson?”

“Experience is the best teacher. I don’t even need to give you a spell. You can do it.”

“Whoever is going to do it, can we please just get it over with?” Lessa laid back on the ground, pain was coursing up and down her leg. Storm’s silent nose hovered just over Lessa’s head. Lessa grabbed the nose and squeezed it hard, trying to ride out the pain.

Zar’s hands grabbed her calf through her boot, just above the arrow, hesitant at first.

Lessa squirmed under his touch, flaring the pain. But moving made it worse so she grit her teeth and tried to be still.

And then suddenly the pain was gone, and so was all sensation of her leg under her knee.

Lessa relaxed and sat up, and then immediately laid back down. Seeing an arrow shaft sticking out of her leg made her head swim. She clamped her teeth to hold back the vomit.

“Really,” Worran said. “What do we do with him?”

Zar didn’t say anything.

“Hey,” Lessa barked at him.

The man cowering under Worran’s arrow hesitantly looked away from the arrow tip and across the ground at Lessa, they were only about eight feet apart.

“You’re a bounty hunter, right?”

He nodded.

Zar’s eyes flicked to Lessa’s for just a moment. The vindication in his expression couldn’t be more clear. He yanked on the arrow shaft, having already cut off the tip. It squelched as it came free and he immediately started reciting the healing spell. Apparently, he had learned them as well.

“Did you see what we did to your friends?” Lessa demanded turning back to the man.

“They aren’t my friends.”

Lessa was surprised to see how young this man was. He was maybe in his early twenties.

“Did. You. See.”

He nodded.

“I’m going to let you live. He might live to. She pointed to the axe man she had cut the hands from. And in exchange, you are going to go spread the word. You’ll tell everyone far and wide what happened here today. And you’ll tell them they will die too if they come after us.”

Zar finished the spell and Lessa got to her feet and took Worran's place standing over the man.

“You see this?” She held her black blade right next to his neck.

He nodded.

“Answer me!” Lessa shouted.

“Yes,” he gasped.

“You understand who I am and why I’m here?”

“Yes,” his voice was just a whisper now.

Lessa let the tip of her sword dig into the ground just by the man’s neck as she knelt on his chest.

“I’m not going to let anyone get in my way,” she whispered. ”You are the last bounty hunter I let live. Am I clear?”

He looked like he was trying to press himself into the dirt, trying to get away from her. He nodded.

Lessa put her hand on his head and he instantly fell asleep.

Storm huffed behind Lessa’s head, then her clawed hands scooped Lessa under her armpits and her wings beat the clearing and they were suddenly airborne.

Flying tucked against Storm’s chest was disorienting. Her eyes connected with Zar’s worried ones and they rose higher and higher into the sky.

Lessa tried to reach out to Storm but she couldn’t. Storm’s mind was walled off.

She sighed and awkwardly tried to sheath her sword. It nearly slipped from her fingers, but a panicked clutching successfully caught it. She slid it home and waited.

She had to wait for hours. Storm didn’t land until dark. Her mind was blocked off so firmly Lessa might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Storm took them to a mountaintop. It was deeply covered in snow. Storm landed on her hind legs and set Lessa down, she sank up to her hips in the white fluffy ice and yelped. Storm dropped to the ground all the way Lessa climbed up her side.

Storm still wouldn’t open her mind.

“I’m not cold. Isn’t that odd?” Lessa spoke out loud to her. She had a hunch about what exactly was wrong. “I think it’s you Storm. I think I am stronger and faster than I should be. I can see at night, and apparently, I don’t get cold in freezing temperatures. Because of our bond…”

Storm still didn’t respond.

Lessa shimmied forward, along Storm’s neck, until she was hanging nearly eye-to-eye with her.

“I was scared today, Storm. I was scared I would lose you.”

Finally, Storm made eye contact.

“You were scared too.”

Storm looked away.

“You know you can admit it. I won’t think any less of you.”

Storm looked back. The wall between them started melting away.

“I was scared,” Storm finally admitted. “I shouldn’t… That shouldn’t have happened….”

“I know.” Lessa switched back to speaking mentally, the intimacy of it healing.

“It was my fault Storm. I made you reveal yourself. They knew they were hunting a dragon, they were prepared.”

“We should have killed all of them.” Storm was suddenly fiery again, the heat of her rage flaring back up.

“Maybe,” Lessa admitted. “At least this way they will think twice.”

“They will all know where we are now! We should go back and kill them all!”

“I don’t think that would help. They already knew where we were, how do you think they found us four days after we left the academy? I think the threat is better. The more the tale of what happens today is told, the bigger you will get. The scarier it will be. After a couple of weeks the story will be that we took on a dozen men, just the two of us."

Storm grumbled but accepted Lessa’s reasoning.

Lessa waited a moment longer, letting Storm cool back down.

“Can we go back?” she asked carefully.

“I suppose.” Storm relented.

Lessa slid back into the saddle, Storm spread her wings and they dropped off the mountain.

It didn’t take long to find where the men had decided to camp for the night.

It took longer to find a spot where Storm could land safely. She still had to fold her wings above the trees and drop into them. Lessa hated when they had to land like that, it was always jarring.

She slid from Storm’s back and they walked back to the camp side by side.

Cinder and Worran were already in their tents for the night but Zar was sitting up by a small fire.

“Is everything alright?” he asked and handed Lessa a bowl of mashed potatoes, topped with meat and vegetables.

“She’s fine.” Lessa dropped to the ground next to him, crossed her legs, and started eating. It was cold but better than nothing.

"Are you going to say 'I told you so?'"

He shook his head. "No. This was bound to happen no matter what. One way or another we would be hunted. Are you alright?"

“I’m fine.”

“Lessa….”

“What?” It came out a little harsher than she intended.

He frowned at her. But didn’t say anything else.

“Did you let him go?”

Zar nodded, eyes on the fire.

“Are you mad at me for sparing him?”

He shook his head. “No, you were right. We let him go.”

“Do you think it’ll work?”

His brows rose and dropped, debating. “It’s possible. You threatened the last one. That obviously didn’t work. But I am thinking this threat has a little more... Teeth.”

Lessa chuckled, “Yeah, I suppose it does.”

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