Broadswords - 19. The Dreams

Broadswords

Chapter Nineteen
The Dreams

Kep dreamt. He dreamt of Birten, shirtless, sitting cross-legged with him on the floor before the fire. They each had a glass of wine and were staring into each other's eyes. Kep was scared to make the first move so he was delighted when Birten leaned in. He slowly met him halfway until they made contact.

Kep dreamt. He dreamt that Birten vanished as soon as their lips met. He turned into Jeno, his old friend. Jeno held a key in one hand and a treasure chest in the other. He held them out to Kep. Kep hesitantly lifted the key from Jeno's palm and inserted it into the keyhole on the chest. The lid began lifting on its own, emitting a soft bronze glow.

Kep dreamt. He dreamt that the lid of the treasure chest was all the way open. When he leaned in to take a look at its contents, he fell forward into the chest and tumbled down a dark chasm where unseen dragons chomped and clawed at him. He kept falling until he landed on a patch of mushrooms.

Kep dreamt. He dreamt that his childhood friend Alanna was picking the hollowshrooms with a dagger that pierced her palm, using the sharp blade to dig the shafts out of the dirt. He grabbed the handle, tried to tug it from her grip, but was unable. She turned to face him.

Kep dreamt. He dreamt that Alanna's face became the face of his mother. His mother, who had disappeared years ago. She opened her mouth. An eruption of fire burst forth, and he could feel the heat as the flames licked his face.

Kep sat up in a sweaty panic. He gasped, trying to catch his breath. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a detailed, graphic dream.

His breathing calmed as he found his way back into reality. His eyes adjusted to the dark, and he could just see the lump that was Sal's body in his bed from across the attic. A barely audible snore played through the darkness, and he knew that he hadn't woken his brother.

Quietly, he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. There was no way he could fall back asleep after the nightmare that had just woken him. He was wide awake. Even if he was still tired, he was sure he wouldn't want to close his eyes again just quite yet.

Padding toward the staircase, he was careful to avoid the beams he knew creaked. Considering this was now the second traumatizing experience Sal had been involved with in that cave, the last thing he wanted to do was disturb his sleep. If his brother had a similar experience as him, it had taken him quite a while to fall asleep too.

Once he'd reached the bottom of the stairs, he made his way through the kitchen and into the dining room. He reached under the bar and found himself a bottle of strong mead. He wasn't an exceptionally big drinker, but he found the occasion appropriate. He needed to take a little of the edge off. He poured a small amount into a goblet and recorked the bottle.

He made his way to one of the tables and sat in silence, in the darkness. Crickets chirruped just outside of the walls and he heard the scurry of what he assumed were rats. He looked up at the chandeliers. They were in desperate need of a wax-scraping. He was trying to distract himself, but it wasn't working.

Downing the contents of the goblet, he pushed it away from him on the surface of the table. One was enough.

After the events of the day, he was hardly surprised that he was having issues sleeping. After Elan had made the revelation that he believed there were a dozen dragons within the cave, he almost fainted. And when Elan had advised him that there was nothing yet that could be done about the dragons, he once again felt dizzy.

"What do you mean?" Kep had asked.

Elan barely winced as he had pulled the dagger from his palm with an unsettling squelch. He tucked it back into its holster and wrapped his hand in a fresh bit of gauze. "Until we know what kind of dragons they are, we can't take further action."

"Why not?" By that point, Elan had vaguely explained the abilities of the dagger to Kep. He'd been tentative in explaining it, Kep noticed, as if he didn't want to reveal its secrets. He wasn't sure he fully believed him, but the roundabout way he explained it made him think that there was definitely something to the powers it held. "Can't that dagger tell you the breed, too?"

"It wouldn't appear so, no," Elan said, biting off the end of the gauze with ease and sealing it with a dot of resin. He tucked the remaining roll of gauze into his pocket. "And if we don't know the breed, we can't formulate a plan of attack. While one breed might be susceptible to a rockslide for example, several other breeds would just be angered by being pelted with rocks and would be all the more dangerous when they emerged from the depths."

Kep just stared. He hadn't read anything like this in any of the texts he'd found at the library.

Elan continued. "Or sorcery. If we brought a wizard out here, or a sorcerer – which is hard to do, let me add – but if we convinced anyone with magical abilities to come out here, depending on the type of dragon, some of the creatures would be killed immediately by any number of spells, while others would actually absorb the magic and intensify their strength."

"Can't you just throw a torch down there and get a glimpse of what kind they are?"

Elan had eyed Kep warily at that part, and did as suggested without looking. Kep watched as the torch fell, fell, fell, until it was so far down that the flame could no longer be seen. Clearly the chasm was far deeper than he'd expected.

"And, the depth is also the reason I can't just go down there and slay them. I might be able to make it down there alive, but there's definitely no coming back. The dragons are barely hatchlings, though. No matter what breed, they still aren't going to have the wing strength to lift them up out of that pit. Even if they were breed that develops flight abilities the fastest, we have at least a month before we have anything to worry about."

Kep was aware that Elan undoubtedly knew much more about the subject, but he found him slightly arrogant and wanted to try to shut him down if at all possible. "What about arrows? A bow and arrow would allow a ranged attack. No rocks, no magic. Wouldn't that work?"

The slayer had likely been expecting a suggestion of that sort, as he answered it as nonchalantly as everything else up to that point. "Arrows aren't usually a very safe bet against dragons, even infants. They don't generally puncture deep enough to hit a vital organ. Plus, based on the depth of this hole, they'd lose the majority of their momentum by the time they made contact. We'd be lucky if they even pierced their scales."

At that point Kep had decided to give up. It was clear that Elan was number one for a reason. He knew his stuff. "So we're just going to wait until they're strong enough to fly themselves up here and what? Slay each one as it appears?"

"This is going to take all of the slayers," Elan said. "I'm not so arrogant to think that I could take on twelve dragons on my own. Even if they flew up one at a time, it wouldn't be possible. And especially if all of them were to appear simultaneously, we've only got nine of us to combat a dozen. We might need to bring in slayers from another kingdom." He stopped and scratched his chin at that point, seeming to be lost in his own thoughts. "Then again, the closest kingdom is Diir and they aren't heavy on slayers. Any of the other kingdoms on this side of the continent would be cutting it close to get here in time. Plus, this is all still dependent on the breed. If it's a complicated type, we might need more than one slayer per dragon. I'm going to have to call a meeting of the slayers immediately."

"Well, you'll be short Daegon until he and Birten return," Kep pointed out. But it was clear that Elan wasn't aware that they were gone, for he turned to face Kep with a rapid spin of his heel. One of his eyebrows was raised quizzically.

"What do you mean, return?"

"Well they're on that two-week slay. It'll probably be a few days before they get back," Kep said simply.

Elan continued staring. "What slay? There hasn't been an official slaying assignment since Daegon's trip to Baronne. Even if there was, it would be Feodoro's turn on assignment."

"Turn?" Kep asked. This was another thing he hadn't come across in any of the texts he'd read. Clearly there was a lot more to dragonslaying than he'd studied yet.

Elan sighed, but it seemed like a part of him enjoyed explaining it. "Yes, yes. When a neighboring city, village, or whatever other dwelling place calls upon Jhirdyr for assistance with vanquishing a dragon, the king has a rotation to keep things fair. For example, if he sent me on every single slay, nobody else could ever even fathom coming close to number one as they wouldn't garner any experience. So I get an assignment, then Tayrick gets the next one, Von gets the next, Daegon, Feodoro, and so on. There may be exceptions depending on if the town requests a specific slayer, or if the king determines that a certain slayer is better equipped to handle that specific task than the one whose turn it is. There are probably a lot of other exceptions to that, too, but that's all on the king's side. I just know that there haven't been any slayer requests since Baronne."

"I'm just going off what Birten told me," Kep said. He was starting to regret bringing it up, however, because it seemed like something was amiss. The last thing he wanted to do was get Birten in trouble in any capacity.

"How do you know this?" Elan asked, his eyes narrowing. His eyebrow somehow seemed to lift even further on his forehead. "How do you even know Daegon?"

"I know Birten," Kep said, though he was beginning to feel annoyed. He didn't think he needed to explain himself to Elan. "I haven't met Daegon, yet."

This seemed to change Elan's status from inquisitive to prideful. His eyebrow returned to its normal position and a smile began to spread across his face. "So am I the first slayer you've ever met?"

Kep confirmed the answer with a nod, and he could tell the response pleased Elan. He wasn't sure why, but he assumed it was probably the competitive nature he clearly possessed.

After that, Elan's ego had been boosted and he returned to narrating what would need to be done about the dragons, all the while with the smile plastered on his face. He didn't make reference to Daegon again, but Kep was sure he hadn't forgotten about it.

Now, in the Street Inn dining room, Kep recounted all of the events of the day though he hadn't particularly wanted to. He found himself intrigued by Elan, though he hated to admit it. It was probably the fact that he had finally seen a dragonslayer in action, even if it wasn't the actual action-packed part of the job. It would give him something to discuss with Birten anyway, something he could relate to.

Thinking of Birten made him rehash his dreams in his head. Especially all of the guest appearances. He hadn't seen Jeno, Alanna, or his mother in quite some time, so he found it unusual that they all appeared in his dreams that night. He couldn't shake the feeling that there were something more to the dreams than he realized.