Lost City by Jeffrey M. Poole

The treetops were passing swiftly by him far below. Faster and faster he beat his wings, as though one of the dreaded mechanical devices that had attacked his brethren years ago was somehow on his tail again.

  He dipped his wings and banked to the right, inhaling deeply as he did so. He could detect the fragrant scent of pine trees intermingled with the aromatic scents of blooming pontal, mixed in with the unmistakable trace of water. Without looking about, he knew that the lake lay directly behind him.

  He dipped his left wing this time and brought himself completely around so that he was now flying north. There, just as he expected, was the huge freshwater lake he had flown over countless other times. Gliding low over the lake, he lazily dropped a foreleg down so that his claw gently broke the surface of the water.

  Several hundred feet away from the northern shore a strong breeze kicked up, threatening to send the strongest of fliers off course and possibly down into the water. Not him. He was a dragon. He was simply too massive to be bothered by a breeze that could barely be felt under his wings. Nevertheless he shifted his wings up and then angled the tips so that he was now using this new wind to gain altitude. Higher and higher he rose until the large body of water looked like the smallest of ponds.

  A strange feeling of uneasiness came over him. He was worried about something, but he didn’t know what. What did he have to be worried about? Nothing in the air, or on the ground for that matter, could threaten him, so what did he have to fear? He was at the top of the food chain. Nothing preyed on a dragon. However, the more he dwelled on the foreign sensations the more worried he became.

  Something wasn’t right.

  He turned his heavily armored neck to look to his left, then his right. Bending his neck back until he was looking directly behind him, he looked for signs of danger. Nothing presented itself. Huffing irritably, he returned his gaze to the north and again scanned the environment for potential hazards.

  Nothing.

  The air turned thin. His wings began to lose purchase and he fell from the sky. What was going on? Why couldn’t he remain airborne? No matter how hard he flapped his wings he couldn’t seem to slow his rapid descent. He was plummeting dangerously fast and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

  He roared in frustration, but then his mouth snapped closed. His flames hadn’t appeared. Had he lost the ability to spit fire, too? He inhaled, pumping much needed oxygen into his internal furnace to fuel his flames. He had intended to let out a blast of fire that would have alerted any other wyverians in the vicinity that he was in trouble. The blast would have melted the strongest suit of armor in less than a second; however, nothing happened when he finally let his breath whoosh out. No smoke, no searing hot flames, just his breath.

  Alarmed, he looked down at the rapidly approaching lake. He was going to strike the lake almost dead center. As he watched the water loom closer and closer, his befuddled mind kept asking why this was happening to him. What had he done to deserve this treatment? He was no water dragon. He didn’t even know how to swim.

  Resigned to his fate, he closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

  Cold water splashed his face, going promptly up his nose. He leapt out of bed with a curse and struggled to come to his senses. Directly across from him, laughing hysterically, was his wife. She was twirling the empty bucket around on her finger.

  “Why you… you…”

  “What?” Sarah asked playfully, even innocently. “Didn’t I warn you I was going to get you back when you threw that water on me in the shower yesterday?”

  Steve slid a hand down his face to push the excess water onto the floor. He stood, dripping wet, as he glared at his wife.

  “I said it before, and I’ll say it again: it was an accident. I don’t know why there was a cup in the shower. It filled up on its own accord. You’re the one that tipped that thing over on yourself. I had nothing to do with it!”

  “So you’re saying that I dumped that glass of cold water on myself? Is that the story you’re sticking with?”

  “Revenge will be mine, lady,” Steve vowed with a grin. “You have to fall asleep sometime.”

  “I’d rephrase that if I were you,” Sarah warned with a laugh. “You’re a heavier sleeper than I am.”

  Steve’s smug smile disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  “There’s never a dull moment around here, that’s for sure,” Steve chuckled as he pulled the sopping wet sheets from the bed.

  “It’d be too boring otherwise,” Sarah agreed, lending a hand in changing the bedding.

  An hour and a half later they were both inside Sarah’s store, Cookbook Nook. Since he didn’t have any computer repair calls to attend to today, Steve decided to hang around the store and help Sarah out. He was given a stack of internet orders and tasked with collecting all the necessary books so that they could be ready to be shipped when the shipping service came at 11 o’clock.

  “I don’t suppose there’s a map of this place, is there? I don’t know how you can find anything in here.”

  Sarah looked down at him from the second story balcony.

  “Look at the size of this place. It’s not that big, dear. We don’t need a map. What are you looking for?”

  “Some cookbook called ‘Duckberry Patch’ something or other.”

  “That’s a very popular line of cookbooks. It’s over there, on that spinning display rack. See that metal thing next to the tray of cookies?”

  Steve’s head jerked up. “Cookies? You have cookies here? What kind are they? Better yet, where are they?”

  Sarah sighed and shook her head.

  “Fill the orders and you can have as many cookies as you’d like.”

  “Hunk oo berry ucchh.”

  “You already ate one, didn’t you?”

  Steve spun away from his wife and hastily swallowed.

  “Did not.”

  “Yeah, right. Sure you didn’t. Just fill those orders, please. Lia isn’t in until 10.”

  “You got it.”

  Sarah’s manager, Lia, arrived just in time to start a cake decorating class, held upstairs in the small commercial kitchen. While Lia showed another batch of hopefuls the intricacies of creating delicate gum paste flowers, Steve sidled up to Sarah and tapped the small shoebox she had sitting on the counter.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s the box of recipes I borrowed from your mother. I was planning on returning them this afternoon after I have lunch with my mom.”

  Steve nodded. “I thought that box looked familiar. I didn’t even know you had it. When did she give it to you?”

  “Last month.”

  Steve nodded again. There weren’t many people, he thought with amusement, who could carry out an afternoon like the one his wife had planned out. Lunch in Sacramento, California, with a stopover in Phoenix, Arizona. Unless you had your own private jet, that sort of thing wasn’t typically possible. Not unless you happened to be one of two humans on the face of the planet who could actually perform magic. Not the fake magic which involved sleight of hand, or mirrors, but actual science-cannot-explain-it magic. Sarah could teleport. Distance was irrelevant as long as she could picture where she was going.

  Therefore an out-of-state journey to see her family in northern California was literally accomplished in the blink of an eye. Steve wondered again how many people would love to have that ability. Then again, he was the other person that could perform magic, so he really didn’t have any grounds for complaint. His magical ability allowed him to summon and control fire.

  His magic wasn’t very useful in his everyday life, especially in a store full of books, but in the magical kingdom of Lentari, where both of them had received their gifts, they were a force to be reckoned with. No one wanted to cross a fire thrower, especially of his caliber, nor would they want to anger the teleporter who could not only protect herself but was married to the aforementio
ned fire thrower.

  However, their fighting days were over. Steve hadn’t had to use his flames to do anything besides lighting their barbecue or their fire pit in well over a year. And if he were to be asked, he’d say that’s how he preferred it.

  “Sure you don’t want to come with me?” Sarah asked, looking up from her stack of unfiled books.

  Steve shook his head. “Hmm, as appealing as that is, I have to take the truck in to get the brakes checked. Damn things have started squealing on me.”

  “Want to meet at the Hacienda for dinner tonight?” Sarah asked hopefully.

  “Absolutely. It’s Friday, which means its date night. You’re not getting out of date night.”

  Sarah giggled. “You’re on. See you at 5.”

  A few hours later Steve strolled in to Hacienda, their favorite restaurant. He presented Sarah a bouquet of flowers and settled into the booth. Sarah’s eyes opened wide with excitement, as they always did, whenever he brought her flowers.

  “Awww! Carnations! How pretty! Thank you!”

  “Yeah, that was a real hoot, standing in the checkout line holding a bunch of pink carnations. I think the cashier was laughing at me.”

  Sarah grinned. “She’s just jealous.”

  While eating their dinner and chatting amicably back and forth over the day’s events, Steve’s nostrils flared as he picked up the scent from Sarah’s flowers. He gently picked them up and lightly sniffed.

  “Smell great, don’t they?” Sarah beamed.

  “They sure do,” Steve agreed. “Reminds me of the dream I had last night.”

  “You dreamt about pink flowers?”

  “Hardy ha ha. Of course not. Well, no, that’s not true. There were flowers there, although I didn’t see any. But I could smell them.”

  “What were you dreaming about that involved flowers?” Sarah wanted to know.

  “It was a very vivid dream. Very realistic. I can usually tell when I’m dreaming, only this time I couldn’t. It felt so real.”

  Intrigued, Sarah leaned closer. She rested her elbows on the table and gazed at her husband.

  “Well, tell me about it. What can you remember?”

  “Everything,” Steve told her. “I remember it like it just happened to me. I was flying through the air. I remember flying out over a sea of treetops as clearly I was high up in the air.”

  “Lentari,” Sarah guessed correctly. “You were dreaming about Lentari. That isn’t surprising. You’ve told me that you do that all the time.”

  “Yeah, I know, but this was different,” Steve insisted. “This dream had me convinced I was there. Sights. Sounds. Smells. Everything was perfectly done.”

  “You’ve been to Lentari before,” Sarah pointed out. “Several times. Of course your dream is going to get it right. In fact, I dreamt about Lentari last night, too.”

  Surprised, Steve lowered his glass of soda and stared at his wife.

  “Don’t look so shocked,” Sarah scolded. “I can have the crazy fantasy dreams like you have every once in a while.”

  “What was yours about?”

  “I was looking through the eyes of a dragon,” Sarah recalled. She sat back in her chair and smiled. “We were up high in the sky, flying back and forth as if we were looking for something.”

  “Next you’ll tell me that you started smelling water.”

  Sarah tilted her head and was silent as she regarded her husband.

  “Well?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “And once you were over the water,” Steve continued, “you started feeling uneasy. A wind appeared over the water and it pushed you up.”

  “Way up,” Sarah whispered quietly, properly spooked.

  “Once you were up there, your wings lost the ability to hold the air and you plummeted straight down.”

  “How are you doing this?” Sarah asked, shock evident on her face and in her voice.

  “I had the same damn dream, babe.”

  “You did? How’s that possible? What does it mean?”

  Steve shrugged. “I’m not sure. Think something is wrong in Lentari?”

  “It couldn’t hurt to check, could it?”

  “Meaning you’d like me to check the sword or do you want to use the portal?”

  Their waitress, pausing only long enough to drop the check on their table, regarded them with a suspicious look.

  “It’s this new video game we’re playing,” Steve explained with a smile. “It’s easy to get caught up in it.”

  The waitress gave the two of them a patronizing smile and moved to the next table.

  “Okay, it’s time to go.”

  Upon returning home Sarah headed straight to her husband’s office on the main floor of the manor. Steve was right on her heels. He took down a two handed broadsword that was hanging from a solid oak display on the west wall. Also on the wall were several other swords. One had a golden dragon on the hilt. Next to it were several axes. Sliding the scabbard off his broadsword revealed a dark green blade. He gripped the broadsword in both hands and waited. Quieting his mind so that he wasn’t thinking of anything else, Steve strained his senses to see if he could hear any voices in his head.

  Nothing.

  He waited a few moments longer before he hung the Lentarian sword back on the wall.

  “There’s nothing there,” Steve reported to his wife. “I couldn’t hear anything. If someone from Lentari was trying to contact me, then you’d think that’d be the way they’d do it.”

  “They could have used the portal,” Sarah reminded him. “It’d be much easier to do.”

  “What do you want to do?” Steve asked. He was starting to get concerned. Something just didn’t feel right.

  Sarah turned to look at a statue of a griffin standing majestically on a large pedestal in the far corner of the office.

  “I think we should go take a look. Just to see for ourselves that everything is okay. Besides, we have a house there now. We have permission to come and go as we please. What do you think?”

  Steve had already made up his mind and was thankful he wouldn’t have to convince Sarah to go.

  “I think we should go pack a bag.”

  Less than an hour later husband and wife were standing before the griffin safe. A soft musical chiming started up as Steve approached the statue of the griffin. As soon as he was standing directly in front of the mythological creature the griffin raised a foreleg, revealing a button that had been hidden from sight. Steve pushed the button and waited for the safe’s door to open.

  There was a loud click as the front of the pedestal swung outward a few inches. Steve pulled open the door and reached inside, extracting a small pewter box. He handed the box to Sarah, who opened it to find a green crystal key nestled within. She took the green key and hesitated. She looked up at her husband.

  “I could just teleport us all the way there. We don’t really need to use the key.”

  Steve nodded. “I know, but if there is something going on, don’t you think you’re going to want to save your jhorun for any emergency jumps?”

  Sarah thought back to the last time she teleported from one world to the other. Ordinarily, it should be unheard of for a human to teleport that great a distance. However, her jhorun, her magic, was stronger than most as it was bestowed on her by a powerful sorceress that had lived hundreds of years ago. As powerful as her jhorun was, a single jump from their world to Lentari would more than likely deplete it. While her natural reserves of jhorun would recharge by the following day, Steve was right. It was an unnecessary risk. It would be better to use their portal and save her jhorun.

  “You’re right. Let’s use the portal. Better safe than sorry.”

  Steve noticed Sarah was still staring at the open safe. Steve glanced down at the open pedestal. Sitting in an open tray on the one and only shelf in the safe were two pieces of a broken amulet. Husband and wif
e eyed each other.

  “Absolutely not,” Sarah declared.

  Steve slammed the safe closed. “Couldn’t agree more.”

  He took the key from Sarah and led them to the top floor of their manor. He closed the large master bedroom doors and stared again at the fascinating carving that had been revealed once the doors were closed. It was a carved representation of Lentari, displaying the mountains to the north and southeast as well as the major rivers bisecting the country from the east coast to the west. Also visible, in the top right corner of the carving, was a multi-turreted castle. One of the castle’s windows was shaped like a key hole. Sarah inserted the key into this hole and twisted.

  Within moments the manor’s two master bedroom doors fused together and they were looking at a forest path.

  “Brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Steve remarked.

  “It sure does,” Sarah agreed. She nudged her husband in the ribs. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Steve felt mildly ridiculous as he picked up their suitcase and stepped through the portal. Both of them turned to look at the rectangular opening showing them an image of their house back in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Within moments the portal had vanished and they were alone in the middle of a forest. Sarah took his hand. The forest winked out and was immediately replaced by a quiet, dark living room in a small two bedroom house.

  Humming merrily, Sarah walked around the house and verified all was well. Steve wheeled the heavy suitcase into the larger of the two bedrooms and set their luggage up on the bed. He walked over to a large wardrobe and opened it to reveal a selection of tunics, trousers, gowns, footwear, and essentially anything else it would take for the two of them to blend in with the rest of the villagers.

  “Tell me again why you had to pack so much when all of our Lentarian clothes are still here?”

  Sarah smiled. She reached into the open suitcase and pulled out a small bag. She held it up so that Steve could see it.

  “See any electrical outlets around here? I’m not going anywhere without my curling iron. Do you know how difficult it was to find one that runs on batteries?”

  Steve chuckled and wisely decided to keep his comments to himself.

  Once they were properly attired, Steve strapped Mythrin, his special green-bladed broadsword, to his hip.

  “You’d think there’d be a better way to communicate than having to have this thing strapped to your belt,” Steve complained. “If Rhenyon or Breslin don’t have their weapons handy, then they wouldn’t even know if we encountered trouble.”

  “You love having that thing on your hip and you know it,” Sarah countered.

  Steve grinned. “True.”

  Steve? Is that you? Are you really back in Lentari?

  Steve jumped and dropped a bottle of water he had been about to open. Alarmed, Sarah rushed to his side.

  “What’s wrong? What’s the matter?”

  “It’s Pryllan. Hang on; let me see what she wants.”

  Hi, Pryllan. It’s me. Is everything okay?

  Is Sarah with you? Will you meet me at the valley?

  The valley south of Lake Raehón? Sure. When?

  Now.

  Okay, I’ll have Sarah take us there. Do you know where those large boulders are near the southern edge of the valley?

  I do.

  One of them is a dwarf door. We’ll meet you there.

  I have often wondered if that group of boulders concealed an entrance to their realm down below. Now I know.

  Whoops. Don’t tell them I told you that.

  Agreed.

  “We need to head north. I don’t know what the problem is, but Pryllan sounded worried. Remember that large boulder that was a dwarf door in disguise? That’s where she’s going to meet us.”

  Sarah nodded. “No problem. Ready?”

  Steve tossed his water bottle back on the bed.

  “Ready.”

  In the blink of an eye the stuffy air of their cottage in the Lentarian capital of R’Tal was replaced with a cool mountain breeze wafting gently from the north. They could smell the nearby pine trees; they could detect traces of moisture coming from the large freshwater lake sitting off in the distance as well as pick up the fragrant scent of numerous wildflowers all scattered about. They both inhaled deeply. Even though the two of them lived in the northern Idaho panhandle, and Coeur d’Alene sat in the middle of a forest bearing its name, the scents assailing them now were nothing like what they could smell from their property back home. Perhaps it was the lack of industrialization.

  “I’ll never grow tired of this,” Sarah observed as she shielded her eyes and looked around at the quiet, serene valley. “So where is she?”

  “I’m here,” a voice said from directly behind them.

  Steve and Sarah both jumped and whirled around. Pryllan was there. How dragons could move with such stealth Steve would never know. He was glad, though, to see his friend.

  “Pryllan! It’s good to see you again!”

  “And you.”

  “Is everything alright?” Sarah asked, concerned. “Steve seemed to think you sounded worried.”

  “I am worried.”

  Steve shared a look with Sarah. What could possibly worry a dragon?

  “Can you tell us what’s going on?”

  Pryllan cast a nervous look around the valley.

  “Not here.” Pryllan opened one of her mighty claws. “If you will allow me.”

  Not showing the slightest bit of hesitation, Both Steve and his wife sat companionably down into the open palm.

  Pryllan gently cupped her two claws together. Both humans felt the huge dragon bunch her muscles and then they were launched straight up. Extending her wings as soon as she hit the peak of her jump, Pryllan banked to the right. Once the western Bohanis were before them she leveled off and started flapping her wings to gain altitude. Higher and higher she rose as they flew out over the western shores of Lake Raehón.

  The valley fell behind them, replaced by numerous mountains, some covered with nothing but rock and others having every square inch covered by trees. One barren peak, completely devoid of any type of greenery, appeared farther west. Pryllan dipped her wings and angled herself toward the mountain.

  As they neared the mountain they could see a black dot high up the southeastern side, facing the distant valley. Also visible was enough room just outside the cave entrance for a dragon to bask in the sun. This is what it looked like Kahvel, Pryllan’s mate, was doing. The gold dragon’s head jerked up and he watched them approach.

  Landing softly next to her mate, Pryllan waited for the two humans to reach the ground before straightening back up.

  “Hello, Kahvel.” Sarah smiled up at the imposing figure of the golden dragon. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  Kahvel nodded at her. “Sarah.” His golden eyes fixed on Steve. “Good day to you, Steve.”

  Steve was silent as he studied Kahvel. He was the first dragon he had ever met and as such, he was still the largest, provided he didn’t include the king of sourpusses, Rinbok Intherer, Dragon Lord. Granted it had been a while since he had spent any time amongst the wyverians, but he could still see that something was bothering the powerful dragon.

  “What’s gotten into you?” Steve inquired. He ignited his hand and generated a chaser, which he spun on his index finger. “Who’s ticked you off? Let’s go kick their butt together. What do you say?”

  The tiniest trace of a smile appeared on Kahvel’s reptilian face before the dragon was able to compose himself.

  “If only it were that simple,” Kahvel’s deep voice rumbled.

  “What’s going on? Why have you brought us here?”

  Kahvel shook his head.

  “I did not bring you here.” The golden dragon nodded his head toward his mate. “She did.”

  “How did you manage to give us both the same dream?” Sarah wanted to know. “That
was both creepy and impressive at the same time.”

  Pryllan smiled cryptically, but remained silent.

  “So what’s going on?” Steve asked again.

  Kahvel finally stirred. He lifted his neck up and swung his head to the left to look east.

  “I believe we are under an attack.”

  “Excuse me?” Steve stammered.

  He stared in shock at the gold dragon. Steve and Sarah eyed each other nervously. What creature in their right mind would dare to take on the dragons? Steve noticed that Pryllan had bared her fangs. Clearly this must be a sore subject for her.

  “You don’t know that for certain,” Pryllan all but growled.

  “How many have we lost now?”

  “Excuse me?” Steve repeated, raising a hand. “Lost? You lost some dragons? As in some dragons have lost their lives?”

  Sarah clapped her hands over her mouth in horror.

  “They have not succumbed,” Pryllan told Steve, glancing briefly down at the human. “Not yet.”

  “But they will,” Kahvel spat. “You have not seen what they’ve become. Listless. Lifeless. They wait to die.”

  “This is more serious than we thought,” Steve whispered to Sarah.

  “I will NOT allow Pravara to suffer the same fate!” Kahvel all but roared. Steve and Sarah inadvertently took several steps back. “This must be stopped and must be done so NOW! We need to act before it’s too late!”

  “Um, who’s Pravara?” Sarah asked in a quiet voice.

  Pryllan stared at Kahvel a few moments longer, as if daring him to lose his temper once more. When Kahvel finally looked away Pryllan’s demeanor softened. She nodded towards the cave.

  “She’s there. She was sleeping, but I’m sure she’s awake now.”

  Sure enough they could hear something stirring in the far recesses of the dark cave. The noises grew louder as whatever was in the cave headed towards them. They heard a soft rasping sound and then the creature moved into the sunlight.

  Sarah went all mushy.

  It was a baby dragon.

  To be continued in Something Wyverian This Way Comes (Tales of Lentari #2)! Now available!

  Author’s Note