Silver Dragon (28 page)

"Yes, what about it?" Kar asked. "What makes it a better weapon than what you have or have had?"

"Thork said I'd need it to kill Sarya. Something that was bonded to me, a part of my spirit."

Kar rolled his eyes. "Thork said," he muttered.

"He did," Alto seethed. "And he told me what I'd need to do in order to get it."

"And is he going to help?"

"Yes, he is. But I'll need your help as well
, he said."

"He said
that, did he?" Kar scowled.

"Why do you distrust him?"

"Because he's a troll!" Kar raised his hands for emphasis.

"Well
, if you won't do it, I'll need to find another wizard who will. Makes no difference to me."

"I never said that
. I just worry for you since you're not smart enough to worry about yourself!"

Alto shrugged the wizard's concern away. "What will happen will happen. I can't do much about it. Worrying about it will just make it worse."

"So let's go and talk about it," Mordrim encouraged.

Kar nodded, agreeing with the dwarf. They turned back to the gate but Winter whinnied again and stomped the ground next to the symbol. "Don't worry," the wizard said, "I'll check into it."

"Check into what?" Alto asked.

Kar grinned. "Into magic being used on Patrina."

Alto felt his forehead crease with confusion. What difference did it make if magic killed her or if she was strangled? Dead was dead. He shook his head, dismissing the wizard and the unicorn. He had a new topic to focus on until they found the baron. He had to forge a sword that could kill a dragon.

* * * *

"So Thork told me I need the finest steel in the mountains and a smith who can forge it," Alto explained to the gathered Blades around the same conference table they'd met with Sir Amos at. "With the mines lost, I'm not sure how to get my hands on any of the finest steel."

"You're wearing it," Kar said. "As is Mordrim and Patrina
."

Alto glanced down at the chain hauberk he wore. Was it really that simple?

"That's steel that's been forged and tempered! You can't just melt it down," Mordrim howled. "Do you know nothing of smithing? Bah, no wonder human steel's not worth a damn!"

Kar blinked at the irate dwarf. "I admit I've never worked a forge but I do know that with magic
, we can melt the steel down and start it fresh."

Alto stared at the wizard. "You can?"

Kar nodded.

Alto turned to Mordrim. "Will it work?"

Mordrim stroked his beard for a long moment and then admitted, "If it's as baby-beard says and it makes it like new, then yes."

Kar reached up to touch his short beard. He sneered at the dwarf and received a smug grin in return.

"I don't know that it matters," Garrick offered his opinion. "I've seen broken blades and armor mended and those had a temper. I suspect Mordrim's just being short with you."

Kar snickered while Mordrim groaned. Alto stood up and pulled his hauberk over his head. "Use it."

Mordrim stretched across the table but couldn't reach it. Alto slid it over to him, drawing a fresh chuckle from Garrick. The dwarf picked it up and studied it, and then shook his head. "It's not enough."

"Your plate should be more than enough," Kar suggested.

Mordrim stiffened and turned on him. He opened his mouth but Alto spoke first. "Patrina's mail. We'll use that; she doesn't need it anymore."

The dwarf frowned and then nodded. "That should be enough," he agreed.

"What else is there to the forging of this sword?" Kar asked.

"Thork said he'd need to be involved in the forging and that your magic would be involved as well. Finally
, at the end, to slake the blade, it would need my help."

Garrick frowned. "Cooling a blade is the hardest part."

"It is," Mordrim agreed. "Do it wrong and you've got soft steel and a dull edge. Too much and it's brittle. Not something someone unskilled should do."

"No, that's not why I'm needed," Alto said.

"What else is there to it?" Mordrim asked.

"Blood," Alto explained. "It needs to be cooled with my blood."

Garrick laughed while Mordrim cursed. "It can't be done!" the dwarf cried. "You're talking about a broadsword! That much blood would leave you dry as a bone twice over! I wouldn't even take enough needed to cool a dagger proper."

"That's where Karthor comes in," Alto said. "He needs to keep me alive."

"I can't," Karthor said from where he stood in the doorway. "It took everything I had to keep your hip from tearing apart. Leander's not convinced you're worth saving anymore."

"Are you?" Alto asked him.

Karthor hesitated and then nodded. "I trust you," he said. "And I will help you find your way back to your path."

"My path is broken," Alto muttered. He stood up and looked at the others. "Let's get this started."

"What about the troll?" Kar asked. "You said he was needed, too. How's he going to help if he's not here?"

"He'll be here when we need him."

Kar snorted. "I suppose we've all got to have faith in something."

Alto ignored the wizard's taunt and walked out of the room. Karthor fell in beside him as he walked. "How's Tristam?"

Karthor nodded. "He'll live. He may never walk without a limp. He had a sword jammed into his back under his mail just beside his backbone. This might be the one that makes him retire."

"He's tough, he'll pull through," Alto said.

"Perhaps," was all the priest would offer.

They continued walking until they went down some stairs and entered into rooms scented heavily with spices. The reasoning for the scents became apparent when they opened a door and found Patrina's body
lying on a table. Alto stopped and stared at her. He couldn't get over how unnatural she looked in death.

He took a deep breath past the cloying spices and forced himself to reach out and touch her. She was cool and stiff to the touch. He pulled his hand back and looked to Karthor.

"Rigor has set in. This won't be easy," the priest admitted.

Between the two of them
, they managed to maneuver her body until the chain shirt could be pulled free. They laid her back on the table and tried to compose her. It was a futile effort; she looked worse than before.

"Come, we've done enough harm," Alto said. His throat was constricted as he tried to talk and the spices were beginning to burn his eyes and make them water.

"Hold a moment, I want to try something," Kar said.

"Father, this is no time for a macabre joke," Karthor warned.

"Be silent," Kar scolded. "The unicorn got me to thinking. I want to see if there was magic involved in her death. A woman like Patrina wouldn't let herself be strangled. Not unless it was done by someone the size of Garrick here."

"I didn't do it!"
the barbarian blurted out.

"No, you'd be sporting a dozen wounds yourself if you tried," Kar agreed. He turned to the others and said, "Now give me a minute."

They waited while Kar studied her body and then chanted a spell. He waited a moment, studying her further and seeing things that only he could see. "The horse was right," he said. "There's magic used on her."

"What's that mean?"
Alto asked.

"I don't know," Kar snapped at him. "Well, not yet anyhow."

"How long until you do?" Garrick asked. "My nose can't take much more of this. Better the rot of a corpse than these flowers!"

Kar took a breath, wrinkling his nose as he did so, and tried another spell on her. He frowned and glanced up at them. "This could take some time
. I have to figure out what sort of spell or spells were used on her before I can counteract it."

"There's still magic on her?" Alto asked. "I thought you meant magic was used to kill her."

"At this point, all I can say is magic is involved. To what extent, I can't be certain. I think there's still a spell active on her, though." Kar frowned and then shrugged. "I'll know nothing if you don't stop pestering me with questions, though!"

Alto turned back to the others. "Go ahead and get the forge ready. You've got what you need to start."

"No, we'll need his magic to restore the steel to proper strength," Mordrim said.

"Fine, I'll be along. Get it heated up and ready at least!" Kar said.

Mordrim grumbled something and backhanded Garrick in the stomach. The barbarian grunted from the impact as the dwarf said, "Let's go, snowman."

Karthor follow
ed the arguing barbarian and dwarf up the stairs. Alto heard something from the dwarf about snowballs before the door to the stairs shut and they were left in silence.

"You're staying?" Kar asked.

Alto nodded. "I didn't do enough while she was alive. Maybe it won't matter now, but I can try."

"I think you're a fool, but you already know that," Kar offered. He looked at Alto and gave him a quick smile. "She went on and on after you left about how she was going after you and how she loved you. It nearly upset my breakfast to hear her pining away for you."

"Kar," Alto warned.

The wizard waved his protest off. "Life's for the living, son. You need to live it while you have it. Not a one of us has enough time to enjoy all of it properly."

"Sarya seems to have found a way."

Kar nodded. "Dragons are a greedy lot. If it's not gold and magic they're trying to collect
, it's time. No matter that it's an unlimited resource; we all want more of it. She's just fool enough to think she can get it!"

"What about you? Were you really adventuring when my father was a child?"

"Most likely," Kar admitted. "Magic has its good and its bad sides. It has sustained me longer than I would have otherwise, but it has also taken a lot from me."

"You're still here, that's worth something," Alto said as he gazed at Patrina.

"It is, isn't it? I wouldn't change a thing, you know. Even the part where I was fool enough to think I could settle down with a woman. That might have been the best part." The wizard smiled at his memories. "Come to think of it, that's a special kind of magic you don't need to be a wizard to experience."

Alto blinked against the burning in his eyes. Kar glanced at him and nodded. "Then you run into the problem with old age," he said in a rushed voice. "Babbling on and on about things that have nothing to do with the present. Stand over there and be quiet
. I've got work to do!"

Alto watched while the wizard studied Patrina's body and occasionally reached out to
touch her. The warrior nearly spoke a few times to stop the wizard but he would move on to study something new before his hands lingered. Kar incanted more spells between curses. Alto found his eyes growing tired as the wizard's droning went on and on.

"Ah ha!" Kar cried out at last. "Devious!"

"Devious?" Alto asked, rousing himself from where he'd slouched against the wall. His body protested as he straightened. His joints had grown stiff from lack of use.

"Yes, most devious. Summon the others, quickly," Kar said. "I hate having to repeat myself."

Alto snorted. "You love talking about yourself," he said before heading up the stairs and opening the door. He found the hallway empty and remembered that he'd sent them off to start the forge. Alto shook his head, frustrated at how foggy his thoughts seemed. "They've gone to the forge," Alto told him.

"Oh, that's right," Kar said. He shrugged. "You'll do then."

"I'll do what?"

"Watch," Kar said. "It was brilliant I suppose, or at least unexpected."

"Wizard, this had better be worth your rambling nonsense," Alto threatened.

"Oh
, it is," Kar said. He rubbed his hands together and grinned before he chanted a short spell that made Patrina's body shimmer. When the magic faded, Alto looked down and saw Patrina still lying there.

"What's the point of that?" Alto asked.

"A distraction," Kar said. "It muddled the magical fields on her. It was a simple glamour spell. An illusion to make her look different."

"Different how?"

"Take a look and see," Kar said as he stepped away from her body.

Alto moved closer and gasped. It still looked like Patrina, but it was different from the body he'd just seen. She looked worse, by far. Her skin was mottled and blue and her skin was sunken against her face and skull.

"This body's been dead for more than a few hours," Kar said.

"But Patrina was taken last night!" Alto said.

"Yes!" Kar said. "This isn't Patrina!"

Alto stared at the corpse and then looked at Alto. "But it looks like her."

Kar shrugged. "That's because there's more magic traces on her. Magic that I can't properly undo."