26
The Burned Man
The dead man's lips began to move. He gave a soft sigh. The dragon-knights shifted away, shuffling uncomfortably. Sollos heard them muttering under their breath.
'He's all, um, yours,' said the alchemist. 'I don't know, um, how long he'll last. He hasn't been dead for long, so you've probably got at least, um, half an hour.'
Rider Semian was looking at the dead man with a mixture of horror and disgust. 'Ask him what happened here.'
'You can ask him yourself, if you wish, rider.'
Semian's lips curled in distaste. 'No, Master Huros. You made this abomination. It's yours now. The sell- swords will guard you. We will return to the river.'
The alchemist shrugged and turned his attention to the dead man.
'He kept on about the dragon speaking to him,' said Sollos, when the knights had gone. 'It was the white. He said there wasn't a rider. And something about someone called Maryk. I don't know what that was.'
'Leave me with him, Sword-Master Sollos. This isn't for your ears.'
Sollos snorted. 'You heard Rider Semian. We're to watch over you.'
'Thank you, but that's not necessary.'
'Master Huros, there probably aren't any snappers or wolves lurking around after a dragon's been here, but you never know. I don't overly mind if you get yourself eaten, but I'm quite sure that Rider Semian would delight in holding us to account for it.'
The alchemist shrugged. 'Stay if you must.' He settled himself and turned to the dead man. 'Um. What's your name, corpse?'
'Biyr,' said the dead man. Sollos shivered. The dead man spoke perfectly normally. He sounded much better than when he'd actually been alive and racked with the agony of his burns.
'Well, Biyr, what happened here?'
'A dragon came out of nowhere. We had no warning. It burned us. I was walking away from our tree shelters when the fire came.'
'Did you see the dragon?'
'Yes.'
'And, er, what colour was it?'
'White.'
The alchemist nodded, pleased. 'Did you see who was riding it?'
'No one was riding it.'
Huros frowned and shook his head. 'Ah. There must have been a, um, rider. Perhaps you missed it? Um… When did you see the dragon? When it was in the air? Did it land?'
'It came down in the river after it burned us. I saw it then, between the trees.'
'Did you see it in the air?'
'No.'
The alchemist nodded. 'There, you see. Um… whoever was riding her had probably already dismounted. Besides, it's not a good view from here through the trees to the river. I'm sure you could see something the size of a, ah, dragon clearly enough, but it would be very easy to miss a man.'
'I didn't see anyone get on its back before it went,' said Sollos quietly.
'That's because it didn't have a harness on,' grumbled Kemir. 'I kept telling-'
'It spoke,' murmured the dead man.
Huros shook his head. 'Dragons don't speak.'
'It spoke in my head. I heard it. It came for Maryk.'
'Um, no. You must be mistaken. That cannot be. Dragons do not speak.'
The alchemist's knuckles had gone very white.
Sollos asked, 'Who's Maryk?'
'One of us,' said the dead man. 'The dragon came after him.'
'How do you know?'
'That's what it said. It had come for Maryk. I heard its voice inside me, full of hate and fury.'
The alchemist shifted uncomfortably and frowned.
'Was this Maryk here?' asked Kemir.
'Yes. He was in the shelters,' said the dead man.
The alchemist raised a hand. 'Enough. Um… sell-sword, go and bring Rider Semian to me.'
'So he's probably dead then.' Sollos made a face. 'Pity.'
'You should leave now,' said the alchemist.
Kemir grunted. 'I want to know about this Maryk. Where did he come from? Why did the dragon want him?'
'I want you to, um, leave us now, sell-sword. Bring Rider Semian. Um, right now.' The alchemist was chewing his lip in agitation.
'Do dead men lie?'
The alchemist turned and looked at Kemir. For a timid man, there was something very fierce in his eyes. And frightened too. 'About as much as living ones do, sell-sword. I said go!'
Kemir rolled his eyes. 'I'm only asking. Maybe when Rider Rod comes back, you could ask Crispy here whether we stabbed him. Just to make sure, you know.'
'There are no, er, wounds,' said Huros, between gritted teeth. 'It is patently obvious that you did not kill him. Now go!'
Sollos turned and left, pulling Kemir away with him.
Kemir chuckled to himself.
'Well he didn't seem very happy.'
'Do you have to annoy them so much?'
'Do I annoy them?'
'Does the sun rise in the morning? One day, one of those dragon-knights is going to lose his temper with you.'
'Let him. I'll put an arrow through him before he can remember which side he buckled his sword.'
'Yes. And what will you do about the other five?'
'Run like buggery, I expect.' Kemir laughed again and slapped Sollos on the back.
'I'm not finding this funny.' Sollos wrinkled his nose and loosened his shoulders. 'Something isn't right about this.'
'You keep saying that. As far as I'm concerned, what's not right is that we're helping dragon-knights.'
'We've been helping dragon-knights for months, remember?'
'Then let's just say I liked this work much better when we were helping dragon-knights by killing other dragon-knights. They're so stupid. They deserve to die.'
Sollos shook his head and pulled away, walking briskly towards the river.
'Well they are,' Kemir shouted after him. 'No obvious wounds? That's easy. Force open a man's mouth, drive a skewer up into the soft bit in the roof of his mouth and wiggle it about a bit. Or in through his nose, if he's totally out of it. Or up his arse, like Rider Rod. Need a bigger skewer for that, of course.'
'Will you shut up!' Sollos shook himself in exasperation. Whatever they both thought of dragon-knights, a fight wasn't going to help anyone, and Kemir was going to have to understand that sooner or later. Preferably sooner.
'Sell-sword!' Sollos emerged from the trees. Rider Semian was there, waiting for him. Sollos sighed. He couldn't bring himself to bow, so he settled for a slight nod.
'Rider. Master Huros has requested your presence. I suppose he has information he thinks you should hear.'
Semian looked at him askance and Sollos braced himself for the inevitable scornful tirade, but it didn't come.
