The Dragon Seed Box Set

by Resa Nelson

  “There is no need for you to remember,” Mistress Po said. “When I have a portent, my mortal body stays here while my mind goes to another realm. Think of it as climbing to the top of a mountain. Once there, you can see so much land spread all around you. When I had my portent, it was like being on a mountaintop and seeing you below. You were still in your world, but my mind was in a different place where I could see you.”

  Skallagrim felt even more uncomfortable, wondering exactly how much Mistress Po could see when she had a portent.

  Bruni took no notice of his discomfort. Still excited, she said, “Was it only his arrival here that you saw? Or is there something he needs to know? Something you can tell him about his future?”

  Mistress Po glanced at Bruni and then looked back at Skallagrim. “Should I speak to you in private?”

  “No!” Skallagrim blurted. He reached out with his free hand to grip Bruni’s arm. “She’s my friend. I trust her.”

  Bruni’s eyes misted. “His secrets are safe with me.”

  Mistress Po smiled. “So, they are.”

  “Is it about dragon quelling?” Bruni said. “Skallagrim asked me if you were going to teach us how to quell dragons.”

  Mistress Po nodded. “Master Benzel asked me to do exactly that.”

  Bruni trembled and worked hard to keep her voice to a whisper. “Dragon quelling! We get to learn about dragon quelling!”

  Skallagrim found Bruni’s excitement had a calming effect.

  I’m not in this alone. Whatever Mistress Po brings, good or bad, I won’t have to face it alone. And if it’s bad, Bruni can help me figure it out.

  Finding his normal voice, Skallagrim said, “That’s not all, is it? If you can see the future, did you see mine? Is there something you need to tell me about it? Is that why you’re going to teach us how to quell dragons? Because someday I’ll need to do it?”

  “Someday you will,” Mistress Po said.

  Skallagrim gathered his courage to asked the question he needed her to answer. “Will the dragon kill me? Or will I succeed in quelling it?”

  Mistress Po laughed. “The dragon will not kill you. But neither will you be able to quell it, although it’s imperative that you learn how to do so.”

  Skallagrim released his grip on Bruni and held onto his waster with both hands. “Why?”

  “You must learn the process of quelling to understand that it involves love and kindness,” Mistress Po said. “That way, you will have no fear when the dragon you meet succeeds in quelling you.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Skallagrim remained in dragonslayer training for many years. Although his parents came to visit a few times, he did not return to Tower Island. With Bruni, he spent his days learning how to slay a dragon from Master Benzel and his evenings learning how to quell a dragon from Mistress Po. Along with their fellow dragonslayers in training, Skallagrim and Bruni were assigned to work with a different established dragonslayer before gaining their own independent routes.

  Several years after gaining that independence, Skallagrim finished an uneventful circuit of his route in the eastern region of the Northlands. Even though this circuit would prove to be the last of the season, he’d encountered no dragons at all nor had the villages on his route reported any sightings.

  Now, he traveled by foot toward the port city of Gott, his last destination before heading toward the Southlands for the winter route.

  When Skallagrim arrived in Gott, its familiar sights and sounds made him smile. He’d grown to love the smell of salt in the air, the constant squawks of gulls, and the constant chatter on the boardwalk in all languages. Now well versed in Midlander and Southlander, Skallagrim easily understood every conversation he heard. As a matter of habit, he always looked for Uncle Claude and Auntie Thurid, even though they’d given up traveling for the quiet life of farming in Bellesguard.

  Feeling at home as he walked through the bustling port city, Skallagrim headed into his favorite tavern for a hearty meal and to find a room for the night. He grinned when he saw the back of a woman with the long blond hair of a Northlander and the traditional green-and-brown patchwork garb of a dragonslayer.

  Can it be her?

  Skallagrim rushed up to the bar and grinned at the sight of a familiar face. “Bruni?”

  Looking no older than the last time he’d seen her, Bruni lit up with a smile and embraced him. “Skallagrim!”

  Separating, Skallagrim held her at arm’s length for a good look. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

  A tavern man placed a mug full of mead and a bread trencher full of stew on the bar in front of Bruni. “The same for my friend,” she told him. “We’ll be at that table by the window.”

  Following her, Skallagrim peppered her with questions. “I hardly see anyone I know from our days at Bellesguard. No one knew anything about you. Someone even said you’d been killed by a dragon, but I didn’t believe him. Where have you been?”

  Bruni took a swig of mead. “Brace yourself.”

  Her tone worried Skallagrim. He took her advice and prepared to hear the worst.

  Bruni smiled. “I got married and had a baby.”

  “Married?” Skallagrim’s mouth gaped open.

  Bruni’s smile widened. “My husband is Seph.”

  Skallagrim laughed until he cried, while Bruni dug into her meal. When the tavern man placed mead and food in front of Skallagrim, he couldn’t eat for laughing.

  “I know,” Bruni said. “Some days I can’t believe it either. When we first left Bellesguard, we ended up on routes where our paths often crossed. Seph and I ended up here in Gott and other ports at the same time, and one thing led to another. When I had the baby, we found a home in Bellesguard and I stayed there with him until he could eat solid food.”

  Skallagrim composed himself. “You have a son? Who’s at home with him now?”

  “Seph.” Bruni gave a wistful smile. “Taking care of a baby is hard work, and it’s not something I thought I’d be doing so soon. I wanted to go back to being a dragonslayer.”

  “Seph agreed?”

  Her tone turned serious. “Last year he heard about a local dragon and looked for it. But he came to a village too late. The dragon had slaughtered everyone in it. Seph never found the dragon, and it changed him. Almost broke him in half.”

  Skallagrim understood. “I don’t know what I’d do if that ever happened to me. We’re here to save people’s lives, not find their bodies.”

  “That’s why staying at home with a baby sounded good to him.”

  “And you?” Skallagrim hesitated, not sure if he wanted to ask the question. “Do you ever wonder if you’ll walk into a village where everyone is dead?”

  “Sometimes.” The corners of Bruni’s mouth twitched as if she tried to keep from smiling. “But anything is better than being stuck at home with a screaming toddler who has just learned how to say no.” Bruni rolled her eyes. “I can quell a dragon, but I can’t quell a two-year-old. Somehow, Seph is the one with the magic touch.”

  Skallagrim laughed.

  “It’s a good thing,” Bruni said. Her voice softened. “Taking care of our son makes his heart stronger. Every time I go home, Seph’s eyes have more life in them. Even when our son is difficult, Seph makes the boy laugh.”

  Two young Northlander women approached their table. Ignoring Bruni, one of the women spoke to Skallagrim. “You must be a dragonslayer.”

  Although Skallagrim didn’t like being interrupted from the rare opportunity to catch up with an old friend, he reminded himself that a dragonslayer had a round-the-clock responsibility to others. If anyone needed help, his duty was to provide it. He put down the trencher of stew he’d been eating and wiped his hands clean on the tablecloth underneath it. “I am.”

  The other young woman giggled and looked away.

  They look like sisters.

  When the Northlander woman continued, her voice trembled as if she struggled to hold back laughter. “We’re in great need of
a dragonslayer to stay with us through winter.”

  Skallagrim couldn’t help but exchange a knowing look with Bruni. To the young women he said, “And why is that?”

  The Northlander woman who dared to speak collected herself. “We heard word there’s a dragon hiding in a cave close to home.”

  “And where is home?”

  The other Northlander woman drummed up the courage to speak. “On the south side of Gott.”

  Skallagrim gave a stern look. “There are no caves on the south side of Gott.”

  “Even so,” the first Northlander woman said, “the winters get mighty cold and we could use someone to help keep us warm.”

  Both Northlander women burst into a fit of giggles and scurried out of the tavern before Skallagrim could reprimand them.

  “By the gods,” he said with a shake of his head. “Does that ever happen to you?”

  Bruni smirked. “All the time. I’m just surprised they didn’t proposition both of us.”

  Skallagrim raised an eyebrow. “Women talk to you like that?”

  “Sometimes. Mostly, it’s men.” Bruni rolled her eyes. “If one more man asks me to pretend he’s a dragon, try to slay him, and then be wooed by his charms, I’m going to punch him in the face.” She groaned. “But then I remember what they taught us at Bellesguard. People want to get their own stories about personal encounters with dragonslayers so they can feel important. So, we must be patient with them.”

  Skallagrim polished off the last few bites of his trencher. “Did you ever take anyone up on his offer?” He gave Bruni a steady gaze. “Or her offer?”

  She smacked his arm. “Stop it! Of course not. I love my husband and son. Why would I be stupid and do something to dishonor my love and loyalty to them?”

  Skallagrim laughed. “It was just a question. Calm down.”

  Now Bruni raised an eyebrow. “Why? Have you ever taken anyone up on her offer?” She paused and grinned. “Or his offer?”

  Surprised, Skallagrim giggled like the Northlander women. “First, no man has ever asked me to pretend he’s a dragon and try to slay him.”

  “And the women’s offers?”

  “Here and there,” Skallagrim said with a smile. “But I’m not married and give my loyalty to no one.”

  Bruni rolled her eyes again. “Typical dragonslayer. No wonder those girls came over like moths to a flame. It’s too bad Master Benzel’s lessons about how to treat a woman never stuck with you.”

  “They stuck. I just haven’t met a woman who wants to be with me for reasons other than telling her friends she’s been with a dragonslayer.” Skallagrim wrapped his hands around his mug of mead. “Do you know what happened to Master Benzel? I ask every winter when I visit Bellesguard, but no one knows where he is.”

  The look in Bruni’s eyes turned serious. “Everyone in Bellesguard knows where he is. They just don’t want to talk about it. Especially not with you.”

  Confounded, Skallagrim said, “What? Explain.”

  “It began with the War of Bellesguard.”

  “The what of what?” Even more confounded, Skallagrim said, “When did this happen?”

  Bruni counted on her fingers. “At least twenty-five years ago. Maybe more. We were alive when it happened, but we were children. Some merchants from the Far East had been peddling in the Southlands for years. But one day a small army of men from the Far East showed up, and they drove out the master of the manor on the estate where we trained. They drove everyone away and took over the manor. They took over all of Bellesguard for months until the Southlanders fought them.”

  “Why didn’t we know about this when we trained at Bellesguard?”

  “I think no one wanted to talk about it.” Bruni gave a little shrug. “I imagine getting kicked out of your own home is embarrassing. Especially if it takes a few years to kick the invaders out and get your home back.”

  Skallagrim tried to wrap his head around the idea that something so important had never been discussed with the dragonslayers while they were studying with Master Benzel. “But no one ever said anything. None of the people who lived on the estate. None of the servants. Not even any of the townspeople.”

  “Maybe they wanted to forget it had ever happened.” Bruni took a long sip of mead. “Although now that I think about it, everything was right in front of our noses the whole time.”

  Skallagrim scoffed. “Now you’re talking in riddles.”

  “Not at all. Remember all the times we were invited inside the manor for holiday feasts?”

  Skallagrim smiled at the thought. The master of the manor and his family would often welcome the young dragonslayers into their home for bone-warming food and drink. The meals would last for hours in the large dining room that brimmed with happy conversation and belly laughs. “That’s one of my best memories.”

  “Remember the tapestries on the walls?”

  “Sure. They were everywhere.”

  Bruni lowered her voice so only Skallagrim could hear her speak. “Remember the biggest one? It resembled a map, but it was filled with Southlanders and Far Easterners fighting each other.”

  “I know the one you mean. I remember seeing Tower Island on it.”

  Bruni nodded. “That’s the one. Once when I got hit the head with a waster, one of the maids in the manor tended to me. We struck up a friendship. She told me about that tapestry. It was made decades ago, and some of the women who created it were alchemists.”

  “Oh,” Skallagrim said happily. “Like Auntie Thurid.”

  “They wove magic into the tapestry. Someone knew Bellesguard would be attacked one day, and the maid said the magic helped to protect the manor once the Far Easterners took it over. She thinks that particular tapestry acted as a spy or somehow lulled the invaders into a sense of complacency. She wasn’t clear on the details. But she pointed something out that I hadn’t taken seriously.”

  Skallagrim didn’t know whether to believe Bruni’s story or not. Any moment, he expected her to laugh and poke fun at him for believing such a wild tale. But until that happened, he decided to play along. “What did your maid point out on the tapestry?”

  “Dragons.” Bruni’s eyes gleamed in the soft candlelight that illuminated the tavern. “There were dragons everywhere, but neither the Southlanders nor the Far Easterners appeared to be fighting them.”

  Skallagrim gazed at Bruni, waiting for her to laugh and ridicule him.

  She didn’t. Instead, she continued. “Eventually, the Southlanders won and reclaimed the estate, the town of Bellesguard, and all the land surrounding it. By the time we got to Bellesguard, all the Far Easterners had gone back to their own country and never returned.”

  Skallagrim paused. “Except for Mistress Po.”

  “She wasn’t part of the war,” Bruni said. “The only reason people tolerated her was because Master Benzel stood up for her. It wasn’t until after we left Bellesguard that I found out that ours was the only group of trainees that he taught.”

  “Ever?”

  Bruni nodded. She drained the final drops of mead from her mug. “He’d trained at Bellesguard, so everyone knew him. That’s why they were happy to have him teach, but he arrived the day before you did. And after we finished and started our first year in the field, Master Benzel and Mistress Po vanished. Some people said they must have gone to the Far East, because no one has seen them in the Northlands, Midlands, or Southlands.”

  Skallagrim’s spirits sagged. “I’m sorry to hear that. I wish I could see them again.” He brightened with a new thought. “But I’m happy to see you and learn about Seph and your son.”

  “I’m heading for the Midlands in the morning with a fur trader. Once I gather up my family, we’ll go to the Southlands for the winter. If you need a ride, I can ask the fur trader if his ship can take one more.”

  “No need. I’ve made my own arrangements.”

  Bruni yawned. “My ship leaves early. I need to get some rest.” She stood and clapped a friendly hand on
Skallagrim’s shoulder before leaving the tavern. “See if you can get assigned to the route ending at Bellesguard this year. We could meet up again.”

  Although Skallagrim recognized some familiar faces in the tavern, the encounter with the giggling Northlander women left him wanting to spend time alone before bedding down for the night. He left the tavern and wandered along the boardwalk. Dozens of ships crowded the dock, filling the night air with sounds of their wooden sides and decks creaking and groaning while the harbor waves splashed against them. With their sails taken down, the ships’ masts looked like leafless trees in a winter forest.

  Skallagrim looked up at the clear but moonless sky, full of sparkling stars.

  A woman’s voice spoke up behind him. “Dragonslayer.”

  His heart sank. In his first year or so, Skallagrim had loved the attention. Now, he hated the way it interfered with his life. He drummed up the willingness to be polite but firm. Turning around, he said, “How can I help you?”

  A cloaked woman stood several paces behind him. A hood shrouded her face. A sudden breeze lifted wisps of her long hair up like curling smoke. She spoke with an accent he didn’t recognize. “My sister should have arrived by now. I worry about her.”

  Normally, Skallagrim would have approached the woman, but a peculiar feeling about her held him back. “Maybe something—or someone—caught her fancy.”

  Skallagrim thought he heard a hiss.

  “My sister is in trouble and needs help,” the mysterious woman said. “I can feel it in my bones.”

  “I see. Where is your sister?”

  The mysterious woman pointed southward. “Down the coast.”

  “There’s nothing down the coast. What is she doing there?”

  After a brief pause, the woman said, “She wanted to buy some of those purple carrots that have gained such fame in your Northlander country. None of the merchants had any.”

  He believed that. The few merchants who offered purple carrots throughout the growing season always sold out within a matter of hours. A few of the villages on Skallagrim’s route grew the delicacy, and they loved to offer him meals featuring them. For that reason, he knew the growing season for purple carrots had ended a few weeks ago. “There aren’t any to be had. You missed the last harvest.”