by A. J. Medina
“You finally did something right,” Aednat barked.
Aednat climbed out of bed, got dressed and pulled Davina behind her.
When they arrived at Silas’ chambers, Aednat was about to burst in, but figured that might not be the best thing to do at such a late hour, so she knocked loudly.
While she waited for an answer, Thomas turned the corner chomping on an apple.
“Keep eating all the apples and there won’t be any left.”
Thomas responded by taking another big bite.
“What are you doing walking around at this hour anyway?” Aednat asked him.
He mumbled through his chewing. “Just getting a snack. What are you doing?”
Aednat was about to tell him, when Silas opened the door, wiping his eyes. Aednat didn’t wait. She blurted it all out, telling him what Davina had done.
“I had to help Alora. I just had to,” Davina told him.
Aednat nudged her and said, “Show him.”
Davina handed him the parchment.
Silas silently read the recipe and when he arrived at the final ingredient, he dropped his arm and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Thomas asked.
Silas held the parchment up.
After Thomas snatched it and read it himself, he knew why Silas had sighed. “Dragon tears? How are we going to find dragon tears?”
“I don’t know,” Silas said, “but wake everyone. Wake Lucah. Wake General Ugo. We must find out if anyone can help us. Time is of the essence. Alora may die any day now. Her fever isn’t breaking. She may not recover if we don’t give her this soon. Go. Wake everyone. Gather them in the square. Hurry. I’m going to get dressed.”
“Me and Davina will go wake Lucah. Thomas, spread the word. Wake everyone,” Aednat told him.
“Aye,” Thomas said, and went off to do as he was told.
Davina was tired, wet, and still hadn’t fully warmed up when they arrived at Lucah’s chambers.
Aednat had decided to avoid knocking on his door and pushed it open. It slammed into the wall and Lucah jumped out of bed half asleep and reached for his sword. When he saw who it was, he lay it down.
Aednat laughed and pointed.
“Aednat, one of these days—”
“One of these days what?” Aednat said moving towards him.
Lucah stood tall, obviously not embarrassed that he wasn’t wearing anything.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
Aednat huffed. “Silas is waking everyone. Davina has found an antidote for Alora. He wants everyone in the square.”
“An antidote?”
“Aye. Get dressed.”
Lucah hurried to get dressed and they ran to meet up with everyone else in the square, knocking on doors as they went.
Everyone waited outside. The falling snow had lightened since Davina had been outside, at least she thought it had. It had been so long it seemed since she was in a hot bath, that it was all she could think about. Well, that and needing to save Alora otherwise the queen would have her head, and she liked it right where it was.
Silas stood in front of everyone and made his announcement. “Good citizens of Castle Ky’lima. We have an antidote.”
He held up the parchment and the crowd cheered.
“I come to have this through the assistance of Davina, one of Alora’s most loyal friends. But alas there is one item that will be difficult to find. Dragon tears.”
Sighs and whispers emerged from the crowd.
Davina didn’t notice, but she had said something under her breath.
“What was that?” Lucah asked.
“Huh?” Davina replied.
“Turn into a dragon?”
Silas yelled to them. “What are you saying over there?”
“Davina said if only we could turn into a dragon,” Lucah answered.
Silas sprinted over to them. “How can we turn into a dragon? We would need a hair, but dragons don’t have hair, do they?”
Davina mumbled under her breath again. “With a dragon scale.”
“What was that?” Silas asked.
The crowd was completely silent, hanging on every word.
Davina took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Dragons have scales. That’s what we would need to use in the potion of deceit.”
Thomas slapped Davina on the back so hard she almost fell forward. “Alora has a dragon scale.”
Davina, shocked by the slap and his statement, turned to him. “What?”
“Aye,” Neala interrupted. “She didn’t leave it behind. She brought it with her. It must be in her chambers.”
The entire crowd mumbled amongst themselves on this new revelation.
“You know how to make the potion of deceit?” Silas asked her.
“Aye,” Davina answered. “Alora showed me.”
Silas studied her for a moment and then turned to Neala. “Neala, please go to our chambers and see if it’s there. Do you remember what it looks like?”
“Aye, I remember. I’ll return as fast as I can.”
“I’ll go with her,” Thomas said, and then they both took off running.
Silas began pacing and talking to himself while Lucah, Davina and Aednat, along with everyone else listened in on his one way conversation.
“This could actually work,” Silas said. “We’ll see if we have all of the other ingredients and if we don’t, we’ll send others out to find them. We can save her.”
When he realized he was talking to himself, Silas thanked all the citizens and sent them all back to bed. Some didn’t go, instead deciding to wait around and see what was going to happen. Alora’s chamber maiden, Clara, was one of the ones that stayed.
When Neala and Thomas returned, they had with them the dragon scale. Davina tried to remain calm.
Neala handed it to Silas and he handed it to Davina. “Davina, you are charged with making the potion. Please see to it immediately. Lucah show her the way.”
Davina took the dragon scale, nodded, and fighting back the tears, followed Lucah to Silas’ workshop.
Back in the workshop, Lucah bolted into action. He picked each bottle holding the ingredients on the list one by one and placed them on the table. When he had all seven, he placed an empty vial on the table as well.
Davina turned her attention to the dragon scale in her hands. She hadn’t been able to get a good look yet. She was afraid to. Afraid she would cry, afraid she would be consumed with sadness, and afraid she would kill everyone in the castle.
Lucah didn’t wait to get started. When Davina didn’t immediately snap into action, he began mixing the ingredients. In a flash he was done and ready for the last one.
“What do I do with the scale?” he asked.
Davina swallowed her sadness and anger and summoned her dagger. Carefully and gently she scrapped the scale. When enough had been scrapped, she answered him. “Add that to the potion and it will be ready.”
Lucah quickly gathered the shavings on paper and used the paper as a funnel to feed them into the vial.
Davina sighed.
Lucah corked the vial and then shook it up good, mixing all the ingredients. The color of liquid in the vial turned to a dull green.
“Is it ready?” he asked.
“I believe so.”
Lucah said, “Then let’s go back to the square,” and ran out of the workshop.
Davina didn’t want to. Her quest for revenge was beginning to take its toll. She wanted to get warm. She wanted to go to sleep. She wondered if it was worth it. Then she gazed upon the dragon scale and the dagger she was still holding.
It was worth it.
She turned and sprinted out of the workshop and easily caught up to Lucah.
When they arrived at the square, Silas took the vial full of green liquid from Lucah and studied it. “Is it ready?” he asked Davina.
“I believe so,” she answered.
The crowd formed a circle around them.
Silas reached for the
cork, but before he could uncork it, Lucah grabbed his forearm.
“Are you sure you want to drink that?” Lucah asked.
“Of course.”
“But you’re too important.”
Lucah released him when Silas lowered his arm.
“He’s right. You shouldn’t be the one to do it,” Neala said. “What if something goes wrong? The people need their king.”
“I’ll do it,” Lucah said, and then snatched the vial away from Silas.
Lucah uncorked the vial and lifted it to his lips. Just before he drank it he paused. “If this works, you might want to back up a little.”
They all stepped back creating a bigger circle around him.
Lucah drank down the vial and waited. When nothing happened he turned to Davina. “It’s not work—”
His body began to shake. He cried out in pain. He fell to his knees and his body began to emit a greenish glow. Next, his body expanded, his clothing ripping to shreds. He grew and changed right before Davina’s eyes until standing before her was a large green dragon.
“How do you feel?” Silas asked him.
Lucah stretched his arms and legs. “Feels weird.”
He stretched his wings one at a time. He flapped each one individually creating such a gust of wind that Davina almost got pushed to the ground.
“Weird, but good,” he added. “Move away, I’m going to try and fly.”
“Lucah!” Silas shouted, but Lucah was already flapping his wings.
His first attempt to lift off the ground failed. Understandable since he’d never flown before. He was having trouble lifting off and it took him a few tries before he was finally able to get off the ground.
High above, he circled the castle and then exhaled a stream of fire through the air. Everyone cheered, along with some oohs and aahs mixed in amongst the crowd of citizens that hadn’t gone back to bed.
— — —
Lucah was enjoying his new body. The cool air tingled his dragon scales. The way his wings caught the air and swooped it back was a new sensation. He could also see far out into the distance. He could even see what appeared to be lights way out there. He flew even higher, high above the clouds where the snow didn’t fall anymore. Below him a sea of white mist separated him from the rest of the world.
When he heard Silas calling him way down below, he aimed his head back in that direction and soared back down.
As Lucah cut through the clouds, he twisted his body this way and that, feeling how each tiny adjustment affected his flight. He exhaled fire again as he passed the castle and more oohs and aahs came from the crowd below. Lucah felt powerful as he enjoyed his new body. Maybe he enjoyed it too much.
Hearing Silas shout his name once again, Lucah decided to land.
He tried his best to land slowly and quietly, but he wasn’t able to. Instead, his heavy dragon’s body collided with the square’s stone floor.
He tried to tuck and roll, but while that might’ve worked in his human form, it ended up making it worse.
His wing got stuck under his arm and he bounced up into the air, did a flip, and came back crashing down again. Lying flat on his stomach with his chin on the ground, smoke escaped from his nostrils as he huffed. A huff that soon turned into a moan as he lifted himself up onto his arms and sat back on his hind legs.
Once the hurling ball of mass had finally come to rest, and everyone saw it was safe, they ran to him.
“Are you alright,” Silas asked?
“Aye.”
Lucah adjusted himself and pulled his wing into view. No damage.
He checked his other one. No damage either.
“How was it?” Aednat asked.
She seemed excited for once in her miserable life.
“It was fun.”
“Just fun?”
“It was fantastic. I’ve never felt so alive.”
“You need to cry,” Davina interrupted, holding up an empty vial.
“Oh right,” Lucah said, but he wasn’t sure he could cry after that amazing flight. He was much too excited.
But Alora needed him to do it. She needed his tears for the antidote. And so he tried to think of things that made him sad.
Being away from home didn’t work. Neither did cold winter nights. In fact, cold winters made him angry. It only made sense to think of what he had given up.
Her lips felt so soft when they touched his. Her body was pressed against him and he pulled her even closer. He could picture it now. He could almost even smell her.
He thought further back to the day her parents had died. She had cried all night and there was nothing he could do to make her feel better. He felt so useless that night. He wished he could have taken her pain away. It hurt watching her suffer so much.
Lucah saddened himself with each thought, but it was the image of her running in her meadow that finally did it. That was a time when they were both happy. A time when anything seemed possible. And it was a time when he felt he might’ve had a chance. They might’ve actually ended up together. Getting married and then having a family.
Lucah asked for the vial.
Davina held the vial up, tip toeing pointlessly trying to reach his eye. Lucah lowered himself and let the tears collect in the vial. When it was full, Davina corked it and handed it to Silas.
“Must’ve been a really sad thought,” Aednat inquired.
“It was.”
And that was all Lucah would say about it.
Silas held out the second vial of the potion of deceit. It was made so that Lucah could change back to himself.
“I’m not ready to change back yet,” Lucah told him.
“Don’t you want to be there when Alora wakes up?”
He did want to be there, and so he let Silas hold the vial up to his dragon snout and drank.
In a few seconds the potion began to work and Lucah shrank back down to his human form. Since his clothes had ripped when he turned into a dragon, he now stood in the falling snow with nothing on.
Clara immediately removed her winter cloak and threw it over his shoulders. It was far too small for his arms to fit through the sleeves so he simply held the front closed.
“It’s time,” Davina said.
Silas agreed and they all ran back to his chambers where Alora still slept.
— — —
Silas pressed down on Alora’s chin with hope and love. With her lips parted ever so slightly, he placed the dropper and squeezed the antidote in. He did this for as many times as it took for the entire vial to be consumed.
When Alora didn’t wake up, he turned to Davina. “It’s not working.”
“Give it time,” she responded.
“How much time?”
“I’m not sure.”
Silas jumped up, causing his chair to tip over. He turned to walk away, but Neala forced him to stop.
“Look at her face. The color is returning to it.”
Silas sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand. He immediately noticed her skin wasn’t burning like it had been earlier. Placing the back of his hand on her forehead, he knew her fever had broken.
“Well?” Aednat huffed.
“Her fever’s gone,” Silas answered. “It’s working.”
Neala placed her hand on his shoulder. “All we can do is wait. She’ll wake up soon enough, you’ll see.”
Everyone stood around waiting for Alora to wake up, but she still hadn’t by the time the sun had risen.
“You should eat your morning meal and tend to your duties. I’ll be fine,” Silas told them.
After everyone left, Silas took hold of Alora’s hand and massaged it between both of his. “I love you, Alora. I know I shouldn’t have left the dungeon, and believe me, I didn’t want to, but I had to. I was starving and they were going to kill me. I had to leave, but I’m glad you came to find me. Please don’t leave me. Please wake up.”
Chapter 11
I was twirling around in a circle with my hands out t
o my sides for a moment before they lifted up overhead. Someone was singing. I stopped and looked around, but no one was there. The voice was so faded I couldn’t make it out, but the tune sounded familiar.
I left my room and passed the table.
No one was in the kitchen.
I went to Mother and Biron’s room and knocked.
No answer.
I knocked again.
This time when no one answered, I placed my ear against the door.
Nothing but silence.
I turned to the kitchen and then to the table. Realizing something wasn’t right, I ran back to my room and scanned it, searched for it—but it wasn’t in sight.
I pulled my closet door open and it was empty—completely empty.
Next, I checked under my bed. Kneeling down, I peered underneath it. It wasn’t there either.
As soon as I remembered what had happened to my training sword, the cottage disappeared. It didn’t just disappear. It was replaced by another room — my workshop in the palace — the one in King Remi’s palace.
I checked my body. I was barefoot and wearing a white sleep shirt.
Someone cleared their throat behind me.
I turned, startled.
“Are you going to remove it?” King Remi asked.
“Your Majesty?”
“The sleep shirt. Are you going to remove it?”
I didn’t even have to think about it. “Nay, Your Majesty.”
I glanced around my workshop. It wasn’t right either.
Remi stood. “Hmm... Are you disobeying your king?”
I didn’t answer.
A sword appeared in his hands. I summoned mine and our duel began. Our swords clanged as I deflected his assault. I sliced at his knee, but he lifted his leg out of the way just in time.
His response was a punch to my face.
My nose throbbed and I tasted blood. I reached up, touched my nose, and my fingers were smeared with blood.
I gasped when I felt his sword pierce my chest.
Staring at the ceiling, I wasn’t quite sure where I was. I felt my chest, not sure if what had happened was real or not. I remembered Lucah saying things to me. How he cared for me and wanted me to wake up. I had heard Silas and Neala and someone else... Aednat.
