Chapter 28

            “Get some rope, quickly!” Mordon shouted to anyone who would listen.

            Even though Cody wanted to do anything but obey the guard’s orders, he knew that it was pretty important that he get the rope. The bandit that Inferno had almost killed to save his rider was coming to, and they hoped that he would be able to give them some answers or perhaps even some leverage against the bandits.

            Without hesitation, Cody raced over to Inferno and began to dig in the saddlebags in search of rope. It annoyed him how much meat he had leftover from the time when he and Inferno had had a good meal by the campfire when they were basically all alone. With a sigh of relief he felt his hands latch onto a coil of rope. It was the same rope he had used to keep Autumn from falling out of the saddle when they flew, back when he knew she was at least alive….

            “Cody,” Inferno scolded as he pulled him from his thoughts. “Go give the rope to Mordon, quickly, so he can tie up our prisoner!”

            Before Cody could respond, Inferno had leapt into the air and flown away, back towards his own special clearing before the bandit could catch sight of him. If he did, they would have to kill him after they were done questioning him so he wouldn’t send word to his leader that they were facing a dragon, a dragon that could possibly be defeated.

            The rider didn’t hesitate to throw the rope to Mordon, who skillfully caught it and raced over to their new prisoner, tying his hands behind his back before he could fully awaken. After that was over, Mordon picked him up and propped him against a tree so that he was sitting upright, and his ever-roaming eyes began to actually register what he was seeing. Cody stepped closer so that he could observe the man who had tried to kill him, but Mordon reacted and tore himself from his seated position on the ground.

            “Just what did you think you were doing!?” Mordon screeched angrily at the rider.

            “What are you talking about?” Cody asked, feeling ashamed that he was cowering in front of a human when he was a dragon rider, even though the guard had a pretty rough and authoritative voice.

            Mordon glared at him for what must have been the millionth time before replying, “You fell asleep when you knew that something like this could happen! Thank the heavens none of us got hurt or even killed because of that stupid move!”

            “Mora fell asleep!” Cody defended himself, ignoring the warning glance he got from Mora and the growl from Inferno.

            “Then it was your duty to wake her up!” the guard countered, seeming to have the perfect defense for everything he could come up with. “I was expecting her to fall, asleep, because she’s been exhausted for days after seeing you! This whole mess is all the way around, completely your fault!”

            Cody realized that Mora hadn’t been warning him not to bring her up because she might feel bad, but because she knew that her brother would find away to use it against him. And, since the rider had only thought that far ahead because it seemed like such a foolproof plan ahead of time, he had nothing to say in response. But that only seemed to worsen matters, after seeing the guard fuming afterwards.

            “It turned out alright, didn’t it?” Cody hated how weak the words came out, but it was too late.

            Mordon quickly said, “Only because I was here to save your sorry carcass! If it hadn’t been for me, your head probably would have been carried away on a spike by now!”

            A chuckle made everyone in the clearing turn their heads to see who was there. Cody’s eyes narrowed when he saw the bound bandit gazing at the two men with obvious humor in his eyes, not seeming to care that his hands were tied. Luckily, however, the attention seemed to be averted from Cody for possibly the rest of the day, and by then Mordon may have calmed down a bit. But, they still had the threat to tend to, and the rider had made himself look weak in front of the enemy. While he didn’t know much about power and didn’t have much of it in the first place, it still stung to know that he had let the guard yell at him like that in front of the bandit.

            Cody just realized that he had fallen in the dirt under Mordon’s harsh gaze and words, so he immediately pulled himself to his feet again and brushed himself off. When he looked up, he saw that Mordon had approached the bandit until they were only a few feet away from each other. Mora was staying back a couple yards, and the rider decided to do the same. He walked a bit closer and went a little to the left side of the other two men until he could see them both clearly. But the man who had fought him earlier only had his eyes focused on the guard as he seemed to distinguish him as the leader of their group.

            “You’re going to answer some questions for me,” Mordon hissed, lacing as much venom into his tone as he could.

            The harsh sound didn’t seem to disturb the bandit in the slightest as he simply asked in response, “What would I get out of telling you whatever you want to know?”

            “Just answer me!” Mordon screeched, obviously growing even angrier than he had been before, if that was even possible.

            “Or what?” The looter asked in an innocently.

            Mordon drew his hand back, ready to slap him before replying, “Or I’ll gut you like a fish!”

            The bandit debated his answer for a time before saying, “Tell you what, I answer some questions, then you answer some questions of mine. Does that sound fine?”

            Something about the man disturbed Cody. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the completely calm air he held at completely serious threat or the fact that he ignored the pain he must have been in from Inferno’s tail smacking him right in the forehead. Perhaps that blow had knocked something loose in that skull of his, or perhaps he was actually just being friendly against all odds.

            Cody took a step forward and whispered into Mordon’s ear, “Perhaps we can learn more about him from the question he asks, if we let him. Who knows what we could learn. Besides, we could just refuse to answer his questions, since we do actually have the upper hand. Try to avoid violence and maybe he could return the favor.”

            Mordon turned all of his anger on Cody once more, making him shrink back to his original spot away from the main action. He completely didn’t expect what happened next,  but the guard actually turned back to their prisoner, and agreed with a simple nod of his head.

            “Ask away,” the bandit said, not appearing relieved but happy that his request had been granted.

            Mordon took the time to clear his throat before beginning his first question, “What relationship exactly do you hold with the bandits?”

            Cody was confused by the question, but the prisoner smoothly replied, “I’m sort of a rogue mercenary. I come from a little town north of here where I honed my fighting skills and went on the road to find work, when I…encountered the bandits. They offered to give me a hefty sum if I could manage to bring the three of you down. They also threatened to keep me locked up if I didn’t so I planned to accept and just skip their request. It didn’t help to be accompanied by the bandits themselves.”

            “Then why did you still come? Surely you could’ve slipped away unseen?” Mordon asked.

            “I believe it’s my turn,” the mercenary said as he shook his head somewhat shamefully. “But, I suppose I can tell you that they wouldn’t allow it. So, I did the best I could to bring you down and failed miserably. Which brings me to my question, why?”

            “What do you mean?” Mordon asked confusedly.

            “I mean,” The mercenary turned to Cody for once before continuing, “I had the little weakling over there held down easily while my temporary companions had what I understood to be the rest of your party under control. Just when I thought I had him beat, he warned me that I was in over my head. Now I find myself waking up after apparently being knocked unconscious, but by what?”

            “Not what, but who,” Cody corrected, realizing too late what he had done.

            “Ah, so there is a fourth member? And who exactly might that be, and where are they?”

            Mordon shot Cody another venom-filled glare before he said, “I guess we should just kill him anyways, then, since he knows?”

            The mercenary didn’t seem surprised or even concerned, but interested as he asked; “Now who could possibly be enough of a secret to need hiding, I wonder?”

            “We might as well reveal everything to him. Perhaps when we settle his curiosity he might be more eager to settle ours,” Cody suggested, mostly eager at the opportunity to show Inferno off to yet another person.

            Mordon sighed and backed up a bit before saying, “Then you should do it. You might be able to do a better job than me at getting the information out of him.”

            Cody nodded enthusiastically before running up to the mercenary and replacing the guard by sitting in the place where he had just occupied moments before. He briefly thought about what he would do to reveal the dragon, and decided to take a friendly approach.

            “Let’s get a little more acquainted with each other first,” Cody said. “What’s your name?”

            The mercenary smiled and sat a little straighter before saying, “I’m glad someone here cares to go about things an easier way. The few who know me refer to me as Lars, but I guess I have been called Larson before, but both can be considered my correct name.”

            Cody nodded when his brain began to unravel some things. The mercenary had been less friendly and possibly less cooperative before because of his mistrust in the group, but something told Cody that there was more to this man. This…Lars, seemed like a pretty decent human being underneath the warrior outer cover, but he couldn’t understand why.

            “Well, I’m sorry that Inferno hurt you,” Cody said somewhat regretfully.

            Larson didn’t respond, but simply raised an eyebrow in question. The rider was about to call for his dragon, but he had already picked the conversation out of his mind as well as his rider’s thoughts, and began to make his way to the small clearing. The sound of him approaching was surprisingly too quiet for the others to hear, possibly because of the already flattened trees that he simply stepped over.

Cody could very faintly make out the shape of his dark black body in the dreary autumn day, despite the increasingly bright sun, as he neared the edge of their little camp. Without hesitating, Inferno stepped into the clearing for all to see, with a predator-like stalking motion towards the mercenary specifically. He suddenly slowed down a few yards from everyone and stared at Lars, hazel and blue eyes making contact and keeping it that way.

Cody instantly recognized what was happening and asked his dragon, “Are you going through the same thing that happened with Mora?”

“Yes. Something about the two of them just…makes me feel confident that they are trustworthy.”

“But Inferno, he tried to kill me!” Cody suddenly said with displeasure.

The dragon tore his icy eyes from Lars and looked at Mordon pleadingly before saying, “We can’t let him get injured in any way. Something about him…seems familiar almost. I felt the same way with Mora. I don’t know what it is, but they both are completely trustworthy.”

“It explains so much!”

Cody turned his attention back to Lars only to see him staring at Mordon as well.

“I should have guessed you had a dragon,” Larson said with a somewhat hostile smile towards Mordon.

Cody winced, feeling as though the mercenary was simply trying to mock him, but he seemed dead serious. Noticing the same thing, Inferno growled and peeled his gaze away from Mordon. Good thing too, because the guard gave him an equally distasteful grimace.

“Actually, I’m his rider,” Cody said, noticing the slight surprise cross Larson’s features, but it quickly passed.

“I suppose it fits you equally well. While that other man seems like more of a leader, you do look more like…Inferno is his name?”

Cody nodded, feeling overjoyed that someone had gotten it right for once, and Inferno quickly said, “I like this boy.”

“Now that your curiosity is out of the way, would you mind answering the rest of our questions?” Cody asked as nicely as he could.

Lars agreed and bowed his head slightly in respect, and when everyone realized that it wasn’t a joke, they were a little surprised. Even the mercenary seemed a little startled by his own actions, but ignored it as Cody began his own questioning.

“Where is the bandit hideout exactly? We have a friend that we think is being held prisoner there and we need to get her out.”

“I assume you’re talking about that elf with blond hair and purple streaks? I can assure you that the last time I was there she was alive and perfectly fine, but she’s being kept prisoner there. If I told you where the bandits were, you would easily get yourself killed by the sheer number of their forces,” Lars explained.

Cody felt a sly smile tug at his lips as he answered, “It might be a bit easier with a trained mercenary on our side.”

Inferno seemed proud that Cody was willing to trust his judgment, but Mordon’s angry growls could be heard. Luckily, he wasn’t the only one in the clearing fierce enough to silence everyone, and Inferno quickly made the guard silent with a hostile stare.

“I guess you already know me too well, Rider. I will gladly help you fight the men who imprisoned me, but I want something more for my troubles,” Larson said, and Cody felt bad at the sincerely sad voice of the man.

Cody smiled and said, “If you will accompany us on our travels, as long as you stay with us we will provide you with food, drink, and shelter. And possibly a few silver coins to make it a little more worth your while.”

“If you treat me with the trust and respect I deserve, and let me lead the assaults for the time being, I will gladly help you and accept your offer, but I won’t be needing the money if I’m with you.”

Cody grinned from ear to ear and instantly untied Larson’s bonds, against a certain man’s angry protests. The mercenary pulled his arms forward slowly since they probably ached from being in their previous position, and he rubbed his slightly sore-looking wrists before standing and facing the rider with an outstretched hand.

“Do we have a deal?” Lars asked Cody skeptically.

“Indeed we do!” Cody said before he put his own hand into Larson’s and they shook on it.

Mordon seemed to be about to burst with rage at not even being consulted in this decision, but Mora put a firm hand on his shoulder and slowly pulled him back, away from the others who he looked at with blind fury. His sister’s comforting touch as well as the dragon’s triumphant but pleading eyes somehow got him to calm down a bit, but it was obvious that Inferno and the guard were going to be at odds for a long time, if not forever. If only they could talk to each other, then maybe they could work things out more easily.

The guard pulled Cody out of his thoughts as begrudgingly asked the man who used to be their prisoner, “What exactly is your plan if you have one, if you don’t mind me asking? I assume you don’t intend to have all of us barge in the enemy’s hideout like crazed lunatics against their army of possibly hundreds.”

“If we are all willing to work together and cooperate despite our differences,” Lars paused to show Inferno and Mordon that he guessed their rivalry, “I just might have an idea on how we can get in there and save your friend.”