Wild Rider (Dragon Castaway Book 1) [Complete] {2018 Wattys Longlist}

Chapter 25

Jake tensed as the mountains of the Gods' Henge gave way to foot hills, and then to flatland covered with forests. He had known what he would experience but that didn't temper that knowledge that he would be far more exposed until he reached the mountain spine that ran down most of the country.

He allowed himself a moment of relief as the twins came in low to brush the treetops. The group from yesterday was nowhere in sight and he hadn't seen any signs of major settlement so far. Still, he wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. There was no way that the too proud nobles of this world were just going to give up simply because he'd given them a thumping. And if they weren't behind him then they were probably going to try to cut him off somewhere up ahead. He was under no illusions, he was taking circuitous route to avoid people, so it wouldn't be hard to get in front of him.

"And they might bring some new friends next time" he thought wearily. He might have been able to take on a squad of young riders, but a squad of veterans? It was an unappealing thought to say the least.

"Why couldn't I have just killed all of them?" he'd asked himself that question several times and still hadn't come up with a satisfactory answer. He'd certainly killed one of them, but that was because that prick he'd been trying to kill had used him as a shield. He couldn't explain it, but his instincts seemed to call out to him that it would be unwise. On top of that he was hesitant to kill his "benefactor's" children, it wasn't really their fault after all.

"Then again" Jake thought warily. "It might just be that goddess pulling something."

He shrugged the situation off, he couldn't know for certain what lay ahead. But he was certain that if he altered course over more populated regions he would eventually bring the Balistrean army down on him. Right now, his best option was to stick to his plan and keep his eyes open for an ambush.

"And if all else fails, I still have their fire" he thought morbidly. His only exposure to men burning to death had been in movies and he was sure the reality would be far more horrid than the scene in the fishing village.

Movement on the ground caught his eye and he turned to look. A moose had bolted and was running flat out to get away from him.

"Maybe it's time to get back to some basics" he thought unslinging his bow and patting Valkyrie on the back of the neck.

The twins banked away from each other, Ragnarok gave chase, driving it towards a clearing as Jake circled around to head it off.

Drawing his bow Jake predicted where the moose would be and released his arrow. It impacted solidly into the animal's side but it was still moving. Drawing again he let loose another arrow only this time his arrow struck the moose in the neck and it limped along for a few more seconds before finally succumbing to its wounds.

"Now that's a snack for the road" he mused as Valkyrie touched down. Dismounting he reached for his knife but stopped abruptly.

He had been too focused on the moose to realize it, but what he had originally taken for a mossy clearing was actually the husk of an abandoned village.

"Could this have been part of that policy Blas was talking about?" he briefly wondered before dismissing the thought. This was well within old Balistrean territory prior to the war. Which meant that it had to have been a casualty of the last conflict.

"Seriously, why is this world such a shit sandwich?" he wondered as he took in the sight of the vine covered ruins. It might have been an unfair assessment he supposed. After all conflicts had been endemic and merciless to many even in Earth's recent past. Still, if what Blas has said bore any truth whatsoever, then this happened even more frequently on this world. Earth had had some large states, empires, and organizations that had imposed peace over large regions for a time. The Agrahan continent was easily the size of North and Central America, but he hadn't heard of anything approaching the empires of old Earth. Blas had said that Balistrea was a large state, but from Jake's point of view, to call it the size of Poland would have been generous.

"You two" he said gesturing to the carcass. "Have fun and eat, I'm gonna look through this place and see what I can find"

He sent reassuring emotions down the link, heading off their concern.

"You two are worse than a pair of nannies" he said with a snort. "I can take care of myself, after all, I took care of you two didn't I?"

The pair descended on the carcass as Jake made his way through the ruins. There wasn't much, the place had obviously been abandoned some time ago and most of the buildings were little more than piles of rubble, or mud for the less prosperous denizens.

Turning a corner, he looked to one of the larger homes, then stared as realized what he was looking at. The building was covered in vines but mostly intact. What drew his attention however, were the massive marks that had gored into the stone. They were unmistakable, a dragon had attacked this place.

Moving closer he saw that the roof had been ripped clean off the top of the structure.

"Ready to do something else you're gonna regret?" he though as he reached for the old wooden door. Not surprisingly, it had been locked up tight. Pulling out one of his tomahawks he battered on the door until the lock finally splintered off.

Taking a deep breath, he kicked in the door and found exactly what he expected. He couldn't be sure because of how mangled some of the bones were, but he counted over a dozen skeletons that had been completely brutalized by the dragon that had rampaged through.

"Poor bastards" he thought sifting through the remains. He had seen what his dragons could do against soldiers who deserved it. But these were civilians who were just trying to go about their lives. His mind reached back to conversations with both Blas and Tlacocualli. The ruthlessness of riders, the misuse of dragons, this was what they meant.

He stopped dead as his eyes took in a gruesome sight. A small skeleton lay off to one side. It had been completely crushed, almost to a powder. He felt rage rise within him as his thoughts turned to Freya, it was easy, too easy, to picture her lying there.

As he looked over the small bones, he spotted something glinting nearby and walked over to pick it up.

"Looks like a piece off a saddle" he thought remembering the rider's mounts, "and a fancy one at that." The piece was small, but elaborate. Made out of solid gold, the sigil displayed, of course, a full body dragon with a crown over it, it was very similar to the Vestarii medallion but the design was slightly different too. It was also obvious that it came from a rider, someone who should've been way too high up to be doing this kind of dirty work.

He cursed them all. Them and this demented puzzle he was now a part of.

"I need answers and I need them now" he said darkly. What was it that the goddess had called him? Archon, or something like that? He would need answers on that too. A thought occurred to him, he needed answers but maybe he didn't need to go on an epic quest to find all of them. Maybe some of those answers could come to him.

Ruthlessly forcing down the anger that burned in his chest he pocketed the piece and headed back to the twins. Unsurprisingly, the carcass was now nothing more than bones.

The twins looked up expectantly as he approached and Jake gave them a reassuring smile as he patted each of them side before swinging up onto Valkyrie's back.

"Breaks over and you both know we can't be late" he said as the pair launched themselves into the air.

"After all" he thought darkly "It would be very rude to keep our new friends waiting for long."