In Which We Reach the Castle
Hero and I might have been the only ones who could read the sign welcoming us into Rona, but everyone seemed to understand what it meant. We were less than a day’s ride from the castle. Albert began to shake.
I reached down to pat his neck. “It’s just a road. L-like any other.”
Any road that leads to a dragon’s lair.
Hero was clenching and unclenching her reins. Tate had started to whistle, a very high-pitched tune that grated against my ears. I didn’t say anything to him about it. He had come all this way with me and would most likely be the one to take my body back to my family, if there was anything left.
The road dipped and turned and then passed through an archway of trees, the limbs reaching up to tangle with each other over our heads. It felt like we were riding through a rib cage. I couldn’t see the sky, and that bothered me for some reason.
“Tate, why don’t you tell us a s-story?” I said. Tate frowned a little. “What kind of story?”
“Any k-kind,” I said. Anything was better than the shrill whistling.
“All right.”
Tate told us about a man who was sure that there was someone at the bottom of his well staring back at him. It was the kind of story that probably would have been funny under other circumstances, but on that morning, even Tate didn’t enjoy it.
We found some berries and tried to eat at noon, but no one was really hungry. So we climbed back into our saddles and continued down the road. Less than an hour later, we came upon a man driving a flock of sheep.
“Excuse me, s-sir,” I said. My voice seemed to tremble even more than usual. “W-we are looking for the dr-dragon who lives near h-here.”
“He lives in the castle at the top of the mountain,” the man said, pointing to the north.
I had kind of hoped that he would try to convince us to leave the creature alone, to run away and save ourselves, but he said nothing else. So we started down the road the stranger had pointed out.
The path wound around the mountain like a snake. There were no shrubs or trees. The entire mountainside was bare. As the castle grew closer, we could see that all of the outside walls had been blackened with fire.
I couldn’t help but wonder how long it had taken the dragon to sear the building. Had it been a dozen breaths or just one? Had he burned the castle after he had conquered it or during the siege? What had happened to the people who had lived here? I wasn’t certain that I wanted an answer to that last question.
No one spoke as we climbed, and I was thankful for the silence. What could any of us really say? Silence was better. Even Albert had stopped moaning. The wind that howled around us seemed to have taken over that duty.
Far too soon, we reached the end of the road and found ourselves facing two enormous gates. I slid off Albert’s back and just stared. Tate and Hero came to stand with me.
“What do you suppose he has in there?” Tate whispered.
“Horses’ bones,” Albert moaned. “Hundreds and thousands of them.”
“Maidens,” Hero said quietly. “Girls he has stored away to eat later.”
“I heard that dragons keep a token from each knight who comes to try and kill them. You know, something to remember each one,” Tate said.
I wanted to tell them how unhelpful their comments were, but there wasn’t any point in stammering out the words. I had thought every single thing they said.
Standing in front of that gate, I couldn’t quite remember why I was there in the first place. It wasn’t like I had a sister in there or something. I had just been looking for a noble deed, something to prove that I was worthy. There must be some other way to do that.
And even if there weren’t, would it be so terrible to not earn a chance to go to the King’s School for the Education of Future Knights? I could just go home and be pegged with rotting fruit for the rest of my life. There were worse things. At least I would be alive. And maybe I would have some enormous growth surge and suddenly become so tall and burly that no one would dare bother me. I knew it wasn’t likely, but it was possible.
My friends wouldn’t really mind if we turned back. Hero had at least had a break from her family. Tate had plenty of stories to share. And the way Albert would tell the tale, he would most likely come out as the bravest horse who ever lived.
Just when I had decided that the only sane thing to do was turn around and go home, I heard a scream—a long, anguished scream that made all of the hairs on my arms stand on end.
What kind of knight could hear that sound and walk away?
The scream faded, but it still echoed in my ears. I was fairly certain that it would haunt me for whatever was left of my brief life. I had to go.
“I’m going inside,” I told them. Both Tate and Hero started to talk at once, but I interrupted, “I have to at least try to help her.”
“I’m coming with you,” Tate said, standing up a little taller as all of the color drained out of his face.
“No, you are going to make sure that everyone gets home,” I said.
Hero opened her mouth, but I added, “And someone is going to need to finish teaching Tate how to use a sword.”
They both looked like they were trying to come up with a new argument, but then another sound came from the castle. Not a scream this time, more a cry of despair.
“How will you get in?” Tate said. “Through the gate.”
Hero’s eyes widened. “But then he’ll know that you’re here!”
“He already knows we’re here,” I said. “That’s why the road winds around like that, so that the people in the castle can see who’s coming. There’s no break in the walls. We don’t have any siege engines. If I’m going to get inside, it’s going to be through that gate.
“Go a little way down the path,” I told them. “If I’m not back in an hour, run.”
“We are not going to leave you,” Hero said, her chin rising up.
“If I’m not back in an hour, it means that I’m dead,” I told her.
She still looked like she wanted to argue the point, but she eventually nodded. I guess she had to finally accept the truth of the situation.
I embraced Tate. “Give your family my thanks for everything.’”
He nodded, his blue eyes shining with tears.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with Hero, but she threw her arms around me. “Be careful,” she said.
I nodded as I drew back.
“We’re real proud of you,” Tate told me. The tears broke free now, streaming down his cheeks.
I waited while Tate and Hero got back into their saddles and then started down the road, Tate leading Albert behind him. And then I turned and walked toward the gate. My heart pounded out a warning, as if I didn’t know that I was about to do something really stupid. Nausea threatened to empty my stomach at any moment. My legs had turned so wobbly that I couldn’t seem to walk straight. But I still found myself at the gate long before I was ready to be there.
I lifted up one shaking fist and pounded on the wood.
One. Two. Three times.
I stepped back, hoping that nothing would happen. But I never have been lucky. Slowly, the castle gate began to creak its way open.