Spark of War

by J. A. Culican

  "Jaekob! I would never be embarrassed of you, even if you were just someone's house servant. It's not about pride, son. You have to take over from me someday because it's your duty, your obligation. Our family has led well for many centuries."

  "Okay... But that's something we can talk about as we go, later on. This is just a business proposal." Jaekob tried to keep his voice steady, but felt his throat tightening up.

  "And it has nothing to do with being interested in this Jewel girl as something more than a business partner, would it? Because egg-partnering with a common blacksmith's daughter is out of the question for the son of the First Councilor. We have certain expectations to meet, at our level. We'll find you some girl you'll like, someone worth your interest, if that's why--"

  "Father!" Jaekob felt his face flush hot and red at the mention of egg-partnering with Jewel. That was not a conversation he wanted to have with his father.

  "What?"

  "First of all, I'm talking about a business arrangement, not... you know. Not about Jewel. Second, why would anyone be embarrassed, even if I was? She works hard, she's beautiful, she's smart. She'd make any dragon proud to be her other half. You don't really believe all that 'social status' garbage, do you?"

  Mikah did frown, then, and openly. "Do not talk to me like that. You're young, and you have no idea what you're talking about. We've worked for thousands of years to get where we're at, and I won't undo all that simply because you're young and impulsive. You'll understand when you’re older."

  "I doubt it, and I can't believe you think like that."

  Mikah glared at him and a low, growling rumble came from deep in his chest. His eyes flared red for a second, and Jaekob thought he saw the faintest whiff of smoke come from his father's nostrils.

  "I'm sorry, dad. I don't mean to be disrespectful, not ever. You're a good man, and a good fa. I just don't like the way we divide ourselves. We're dragons, and we ought to be better than humans." Jaekob looked at Mika's desk, unable to meet his steely gaze.

  "Someday, you'll understand, but I’m not going to let you throw your life away over some crush on a beautiful, intelligent young woman who is far beneath your station, nor by pursuing some idealized version of the nobility of blacksmithing. Noble it may be, but nobility doesn't feed your children."

  Jaekob's mind raced. Why was his father being such a snob? Everyone had value. Maybe being the dragons' version of a king for too long had spoiled him. Jaekob was about to say as much, blurting it out, but Mikah thankfully cut him off. "Besides, I'm going to need every trained warrior, soon. That includes you. And who will buy your blacksmith toys, then?"

  Jaekob stared, mouth open and eyes wide. That could mean only one thing. "No... You're going to war?" he cried.

  Mikah looked away for the first time Jaekob could remember. "I have not yet decided, but if we do, then I'll need my son by my side. It may come to that, no matter what you wish the situation to be. You need to be prepared for that chance. I know what a talent you have for the Warrior's Path. Bruindy talks to me, you know. You're a natural, you have good instincts in battle, and you care about dragons’ welfare. Your people need leaders like that."

  Yeah, right. If the First Councilor wasn't already pretty sure he'd be going to war, he'd never have looked away. The room felt too warm, suddenly. Jaekob leapt to his feet and began to pace, unable to contain himself. After a long, awkward silence, he said, "Fa, it's not that I don't appreciate everything you've given me. I just have friends and a life outside of this. I want those people in my life more than I want to rule the dragons. I don't need to be in charge of anything but myself and a smithy. Can't you understand how I feel?"

  Mikah pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "Son, I get it. I had dreams outside of all this, too, when I was a young man. But the dragons need a leader, and we're the ones to do it. Eventually, you'll be the one."

  Jaekob frowned. He did understand what his father was saying, if he were honest with himself, but it wasn't the life he wanted. Surely, someone else would step up and rule the dragons well. Better, even.

  Mikah continued, "I heard about how you handled the near-riot at the egg crèche. You didn't have to do that, but you did. You stepped in and fixed the problem, and you took charge of the Guardians who came to break it up. Leadership is in your blood. Don't you think your people deserve a leader like that? Especially in these times. War is coming, I feel it in my bones."

  "Father, if you go, you should know that I can't go with you. I don't support this. The people don't want it, either, just as... Just as I don't want to follow you as the First Councilor."

  There it was. The words couldn't be unsaid, and they hung in the air between them like a haze. Jaekob could almost feel Mikah recoiling, though he said nothing. The silence was deafening.

  A few seconds later, Mikah stood, turned his back on Jaekob, and walked away.

  Jaekob stared after him. He'd hurt his father, and the feeling made his stomach churn and his chest hurt. He didn't want to hurt Mikah. He loved his father. Maybe he should have taken more time to think about it before saying it. The thought hit him that, even if he did follow Mikah as the First Councilor, things might never be the same between them after this conversation.

  #

  Scene 07-B

  "Come on," Jewel said, and Jaekob followed her with a grin and a picnic basket. She carried the blanket. "I'm so glad you invited me. I have some good news to tell you."

  That got his curiosity up. He wanted to ask right then what the news was, but they had all afternoon to talk about that. It was his one day off from training that week, and Jewel had made sure it was hers, too. Instead, he quickly became mesmerized by the way she walked, hips swaying with each step, her lithe figure lit by the glowshrooms brightening the corridor. He almost missed what she was saying, so lost in watching her sway like a cat does with string.

  "... and I put an extra one in the basket," she said.

  "What? Sorry, I didn't catch that," he replied, his face flushing bright red when she turned to glare at him. He was busted.

  "I said, stupid, I put an extra glowshroom in the basket so we don't have to eat in black-and-white."

  Wow. That meant she was taking him somewhere without lights. And that meant some abandoned section of the warrens. They'd be alone, without the possibility of interruption. He felt his pulse quicken. "Fantastic. Good thinking," he said brightly.

  When they got to the T-intersection at the tunnel end, she turned right, and they left the lights of populated tunnels behind. She seemed to know her way, though, so he followed her as they navigated through one tunnel after another. Soon, he began seeing dust everywhere.

  A few minutes later, they emerged into another vast chamber, wider across than his dragonsight could see in the pitch blackness. The cavern had many stone and mud houses, long abandoned, like the one he'd been in with Kalvin the other day. Whole villages tended to move when a major ore vein ran out, leaving much of the warrens riddled with such abandoned settlements.

  Once the blanket was spread out to protect them from the dusty, rocky ground, he plopped to the ground, smiling up at her, until she took a seat on the blanket beside him. He was pleased when the spot she picked turned out to be close enough to him to brush arms, her closeness sending warmth flooding to his cheeks. It was odd how much of an effect she had on him when they were close like that, he mused, keenly aware how fast his heart had started to beat.

  What she said next knocked those thoughts right out of him. "Jaekob, this place sort of reminds me of when we were little, scavenging to get by during the second German war."

  She was right, he noted, but that wasn't what he'd hoped to be talking about. "I guess."

  She leaned against him for a moment, bumping him playfully. "You guess. Yeah, right. Do you remember when our moms--"

  "Yes," he hissed, suddenly angry, "I remember." As she looked at him with eyes wide, he caught himself before snapping at her any more. "I'm sorry, Jew
el. I just don't like to think about her, not in a place like this. I didn't mean to snap at you, though. It's not your fault."

  They were quiet for long seconds, but then she set her hand on his arm for a moment, before opening the fungus-fiber basket and pulling out its contents.

  Jaekob suddenly wasn't that hungry for the meat, sulfur-cheese, crackers, and bottled esper-wine. It was very low in alcohol, being a cheap style she could afford, but esperberries were so commonly harvested that the wine it made was even within the price range of a blacksmith's daughter. He’d brought the cheese, of course.

  She handed the bottle to him to open, smiling faintly, but didn't meet his eyes. He felt even worse about snapping at her earlier, as he let out a sigh and got busy working the cork out. He'd heard they used wood for wine bottle stoppers up above, but down there in the warrens, they used a particularly fibrous kind of mushroom stem.

  As he did, he tried to put on a beaming smile at Jewel, hoping she'd forget about him biting her head off. When she smiled back and looked into his eyes, his forced expression became genuine. Those eyes... he could swim in her eyes all day, if she'd let him.

  "What?" she said, a charming blush hitting her cheeks. "You're staring at me."

  "Oh. I was just--"

  The cork popped out with a bang and flew up, bouncing off his forehead. He smacked his head with his free hand where it hit, adding insult to injury. "Ouch!"

  Jewel laughed at him, her voice rising higher. She had the prettiest laugh in Safeholme, he'd have bet money on that. "You are such a goof, Jaekob. Do you think you can pour the wine without smashing the goblet on your face, or do you need help?"

  "Oh, shut up," he said back, grinning with embarrassment. "You forget, I was there when you smashed your thumb with a mallet and took off your fingernail."

  She laughed again and put her hand on his forearm. "Believe me, I remember, too. I had to walk around for two months with my claw out, until the fingernail grew back. They called me Clumsyclaw around the shop the whole time."

  Ah, the memories they shared. Flashes of other scenes together throughout his life flashed through his mind, a lot of them funny, some tender, and a few tragic. His smile faded.

  "You okay?" Jewel took the goblet he offered, but set it down next to her and shifted her seating to face him directly. “Sorry, I keep asking what’s up with you.”

  "Yeah, I’m okay. And it’s fine. I was just... well, thinking about mom. Mine and yours."

  She nodded, ever so slightly. "I know. I'm glad she didn't pass alone. My mom was there, and both of us. Our moms saved our lives, you know. Your mom was so brave that day."

  He forced a wan smile. She meant well, but it was a painful memory. "I never knew how they got to be friends. My fa doesn't ever talk about that, but I know he hates it that you and I are friends." Mikah had tried to forbid him from associating with her, when they were younger, but he couldn't watch his son every minute. Jaekob became a master escape artist, finding ways to get out of the manor to go to Jewel’s family blacksmithing shop, and eventually, his father had to just turn a blind eye to it.

  She said, "My mom told me how they’d met, once. They'd fought together when the Otto-humans found a passage into the warrens."

  Jaekob's eyebrows rose. They'd fought together? That didn't sound like his mother. "Safeholme is nowhere near Ottoman. Where were the warriors while that was happening?"

  She looked down at her hands in her lap, and fidgeted with her fingers. "She said that's what made most of us move to this place and creating Safeholme. Our warriors had Risen, at the time, and were fighting the Otto-humans. We burned most of Istanbul to the ground, too. We beat their army in our tunnels, and after they got the fire put out, they left us alone. That tunnel was collapsed so that they couldn't find us again."

  Jaekob was speechless. The idea of his mother in battle was almost comical. She had been a petite woman who was, for a dragon, very gentle. That was how he remembered her, at least. "So. If the humans hadn't attacked our home, our mothers would never have been friends, and you and I..."

  "Would never have met or been friends, yeah." Jewel picked up the cork, which had landed on the blanket between them, and tossed it at him. "I can't believe you didn't know that."

  "Thanks for telling me this. It means a lot to learn more about my mother. I only remember her as a small, graceful woman who smiled a lot and almost always got her way by being nice to everyone."

  "Well, your father is probably the busiest person in Safeholme. Too busy to talk about painful memories. My family may be poor, but I spend most of my time with my dad, either in the shop or after closing up for the night, at home. We get to talk a lot."

  He smiled, thinking how nice it must have been to grow up so close to her father. That was definitely not his experience. "I probably spend more time with Bruindy, my arms trainer, than I ever do with my dad. That's only going to get worse when I tell him my plans."

  Jewel put one hand on his arm and took a drink of wine. Wiping her mouth, she said, "I thought you already told him you didn't want to follow his footsteps."

  "True, but I didn't exactly put my foot down, either. Like most of our talks, it was sort of a one-sided conversation. Plus, we never finish anything. As soon as it gets uncomfortable, some business magically pops up that he has to take care of right away."

  "So what are you going to do?" she said, peering at him intently.

  He was keenly aware of her hand, still on his arm, and felt little tingles like electricity running up and down, raising the little hairs on his arm. "Um. Well, I just have to have another talk with him. Did you talk to your fa about our idea?"

  "Buying into his shop as a partner and working together? Yes."

  Jaekob looked at her expectantly, one eyebrow raised. "And?"

  "And he laughed and said he'd believe that when he saw it, but he thinks you're a good man. Stupid and young, but learning the art quickly, and determined. He says that's the most important quality."

  "And do you think that's the most important quality?" He fidgeted with the cup in his other hand and it was a place to look at that wasn't her. Actually, he wasn't sure what he hoped she'd say in response. Or did he? He lost his train of thought when she began to stroke his arm lightly with two fingertips.

  "I think those are important qualities. But if we're going to be together like that... I mean, working together... then liking who you work with is more important than how fast they pick up the trade. With how long dragons live, there's plenty of time to pick up the skills, and you're already decent enough to be an apprentice smith."

  Jaekob felt his heart beat faster. Did she have a double meaning in there, somewhere? Did he want her to have?

  After a comfortable silence while they finished their wine, she said, "I feel like we're closer now than ever before. Am I an idiot? I mean, I like our time together and who you're becoming. All that 'growing up' stuff, you know."

  He smiled and put his hand on hers, still on his arm. "We're already adults, fool. No, you're no fool. I feel... well, I hope you feel like I do. I think being with you all day is going to be my favorite part of buying into your fa's shop."

  They spent the next hour chatting about nothing, as being together was the best part of the conversation. When the leisurely lunch was done, she helped him pack the basket up and fold the blanket. They were both smiling again when they finally left the abandoned chamber.

  #

  Scene 07-C

  "I still can't believe you told your dad what you really want to do, even if you didn’t put your foot down, as you put it," Jewel said as they left the old, dusty chamber and headed into the tunnel system toward home. "Weren't you nervous? I can't imagine telling my fa if I wanted to leave the shop and become a trash hauler."

  Jaekob bumped into her, grinning, knocking her almost into the wall. She laughed as she shoved him even harder, and he did hit the other wall. He rubbed his shoulder where it had hit. "Ouch."

  "Don't start
it if you can't finish it," she said, grinning. Of course, it was all just horsing around. "But seriously, who knows what your future holds now? I mean, you could do anything. Everything is possible for you. You wouldn't even be pressed into pair-bonding with some Councilor's snotty, over-privileged daughter. Unless you're into that kind of girl..."

  Ha, she was always great at fishing for compliments. But was it more than that? Jaekob reeled from the possibilities. Had that been a different, more hopeful tone than her usual snubbing of women in his social class?

  Watching her carefully from the corner of his eye, he said, "You have a point. If I wanted to pair-bond with a trash hauler, I suppose I could."

  The wall jumped out and hit his arm. Or rather, she shoved him into it, again. "If that's what you want, go ahead. You don’t have any women you've known your whole life who'd have eggs with you, jerkface."

  "None who haul trash."

  They shared a laugh at that. Up ahead, though, a noise crept into hearing and then grew louder. There were bells and chimes mixed into a background noise of a low, non-stop hum that reverberated through the hallways.

  Jewel stopped suddenly. "Jaek... Is that for the missing egg?"

  Jaekob cocked his head, extending his senses, summoning a bit of his dragon to better hear the growing racket. "I think it must be. I didn't know they had Dirges for lost eggs, but I've never been awake when one was lost, before. There must be dozens of people down there. That's the Mourning an Infant chant, if I'm not mistaken. We should take some side tunnels."

  "That'll add half an hour to getting back, and I have work to do," she replied, but she didn't sound very certain.

  Jaekob took it as a sign she'd like him to convince her. "Yeah, but it could take an hour to get through that crowd, and besides, it's disrespectful to interrupt a Dirge. I'm the future First Councilor, too, so they'll expect me to make a eulogy. I've never done one for an egg, I'll say something stupid without meaning to be disrespectful. Let's just go around, okay? Please."