Dela thought of something, and her fingers went to the ring at her throat. “You say you know everything, so do you know what happened to my brother? He wore this ring all the time, and it didn’t burn him. So does that mean he was a Dragonsayer, too? He vanished during a Passover, and I’ve no idea what became of him.”
A shadow passed over the Seer’s young face, and her blind, white gaze flicked to Warsgra. “That is not my place to say.”
Confusion swept over her. “What does that mean?” It was frustrating not to get a straight answer from the Seer.
“Some things are better left in the past. I’m not here to fill in all your questions about what has been and gone. It is the future we must focus on.”
She wanted to press the Seer further, but she worried the girl might not help them. As desperately as she wanted to learn about her brother, she couldn’t be selfish. They’d all put their lives at risk to get here, and they’d done so to find out how to work with the dragon and put an end to the war.
“We need your help,” she said. “The dragon is the way to bring this world back together again, but I don’t understand how I’m supposed to use him, or even how I can be strong enough. When we saw him at Drusga, he must have felt me in his head or something, and he wasn’t happy.”
“Dragons are the most powerful beings in Xantearos, but they’re hundreds of years old. They’ve seen what the different races do to each other, and this is why they remain hidden all this time. They’re not just going to allow a human—Dragonsayer or not—to try to control them. You have to earn their loyalty and trust.”
Dela frowned. “But how? He wouldn’t even let me go near him. I mean, he didn’t hurt us or anything, but he definitely warned us away.”
“If you took him something of importance, perhaps that would be enough for him to understand you are friends. You want something from him, after all. Is it not fair that you offer him something in return?”
“I want to offer him something,” Dela insisted. “I want to offer him peace, and a Xantearos he would have remembered from since before the Treaty.”
The girl smiled sadly, and it was a strange expression to see in her blind white eyes. “The Treaty was not the start of the troubles in Xantearos. The races were at war with each other long before then.”
She shook her head. “So how am I supposed to bring that to an end?”
“You’ll do what comes naturally to you. Each of you will. But first you must make the rest of Xantearos aware of your existence, and to do that you need the will of the dragon.”
Dela held back a huff of frustration. They were going around in circles. “That’s the problem. I don’t have the will of the dragon. That’s what we came here to speak to you about. I need to know how to get it.”
“It’s not something that can simply be acquired. As I already said, it must be earned.”
“But how?”
“By finding what the dragon has wanted all this time.”
Dela gritted her teeth. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Your king and queen don’t only have jewels and gold in their vault. There is something else of huge value as well. Something the dragon would want.”
She’d never heard of a dragon being interested in wealth before, but she wasn’t exactly well versed on dragon lore. “Tell me.”
“They have an egg. One that was stolen many years ago. Retrieve the egg, and the dragon will know he can trust you.”
Her mouth fell open. “A dragon egg? In Anthoinia?”
“The king and queen believe it to be fossilized, but that’s not true. The dragon egg is the offspring of your dragon, and another like it. They will appreciate having their baby back.”
Dela shot Warsgra, who was standing beside her, a wild look. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to do that.”
“That’s something you must figure out for yourself. You have three of the strongest warriors at your side.”
“That’s still no match for King Crowmere’s army.”
“Show yourself to be as brave and fierce and loyal as the dragon, and then perhaps he will accept you as his own.”
Dela lifted her eyebrows. “And if we’re killed trying?”
“Then you will die.”
Vehel stepped in. “We’re hundreds of miles from Anthoinia. The war might be over before we’ve even made it back to the city, never mind after we’ve stolen a dragon’s egg and then made it back to Drusga to present it to the dragon.”
“I never said the dragon would remain in Drusga. The Dragonsayer knows what great distances it travels, and in no time at all.”
Dela nodded her agreement. “Yes. It can fly the entire length of Xantearos in one night.” She knew that because she’d been able to see through his eyes. He wouldn’t be able to see what was happening back in Anthoinia and be back in Drusga the following day unless he was able to travel such distances at speed. That he was able to do so didn’t surprise her. The dragon was massive, his wingspan larger than anything she’d ever seen on a living creature. She couldn’t even imagine the speeds he could reach while flying unhindered far above Xantearos.
“So, how are we supposed to get back to Anthoinia?” Vehel asked.
The Seer turned her focus on him, though it was never actually clear if she was seeing him, her eyes blind, but her abilities not limited to the mere workings of the mortal world. “That is where you come in. Your magic brought you all here.”
“To the north,” he said, “but we’ve traveled many miles to reach you.”
“I understand, but to get back, you must learn how to control what you do. Your magic drains you, but the weakness is in you, not in the magic.”
Chapter 16
Vehel
Vehel experienced a flash of anger. It was as though his father’s words had come out of the Seer’s mouth. He’d always been told he wasn’t good enough, one side of his brain always believing it, while the other side raged against it.
“I’ve spent my whole life being told I wasn’t allowed to do magic. Now I’m supposed to suddenly be able to transport the four of us into Anthoinia?”
The Seer shook her head. “I never said it was easy, and I didn’t say it was something you were going to be able to do immediately. I will help you, of course, but only the strongest of Mages will be able to do this magic. You’ve already shown yourself to be one of the great Mages by bringing the four of you to the north in the first place, but still you won’t believe in yourself, and it’s the lack of belief that is hindering you now.”
“I don’t know how to believe in myself,” he admitted. “My family has made me doubt myself my whole life, and I never grew up learning magic. You know it was banned, and I was punished repeatedly as a child if I ever let go of my ability.”
“That is the root of your problem. You think that if you truly believe in yourself and what you can do, you will be punished for it. Not like when you were as a child, but that the universe will bring down its wrath on you and make you pay.”
She was speaking the truth—he felt it in his heart.
“But I was right to believe that,” he said. “Look at what happened in the Southern Trough. I released my hold on my ability and we all ended up here, and with the rest of the Xantearos at war.”
A small smile touched her lips. “Do you believe these last few weeks have been a punishment?”
He faltered. “I guess so, yes.”
“Not a reward?”
“A reward? We’ve almost died, several times over. How could that possibly be a reward?”
“You’ve finally been given the opportunity to become who you are destined to be.” She stared around with her blind eyes at Dela, Warsgra, and Orergon, too. “Each of you. I do not see that as a punishment.”
“You don’t know what we’ve been through to get here.”
She nodded. “Yes, I do, and I know what you will have to go through still. This isn’t going to be easy, but you need to have faith in yourselves b
efore anything else.”
He shook his head, feeling helpless. “But I don’t know how to do it. Each time I try, my magic only gets weaker. What if I get it wrong and I send us somewhere miles from Anthoinia? What if I send us into the middle of the fire mountain, and we die the moment we get there?”
She stepped forward and placed her small hand on his arm. Her touch was cool, fingers slender and pale, with nails longer than he’d ever seen on a child. “Your faith in yourself needs much improvement, Elvish prince. But do not worry, we can work on that.”
He looked around at the barren, dark cave. “What? Here?”
“Yes, you can stay for the moment, and I will help you learn your magic.”
Vehel glanced at the others. Warsgra’s expression was sullen, Orergon’s unreadable, but Dela nodded, and her opinion mattered the most.
“I want to get back to Anthoinia,” Dela said. “I know it’s completely selfish, but my parents are there. They must assume I’m dead, and I don’t know how they’re coping after losing my brother during a Passover as well. I’d give anything to put my arms around my mother and father and tell them I’m alive.”
The Seer reached out her hand and caught Dela’s forearm. From Dela’s widened eyes, Vehel thought the Seer’s grip must have been impossibly strong. “You have a new family now. Don’t forget that, Dragonsayer. Not just these men with you now, but the dragon you are bonded with. Do not let some past feelings of loyalty divert you from your true goal.”
Sadness swam in Dela’s eyes. “What are you saying? That I shouldn’t go and visit my family?”
“Only that you shouldn’t let them distract you. Understand that they will not have been through what you have. They will only see you as their child, not the Dragonsayer you’ve become.”
“I still don’t feel like a Dragonsayer,” she admitted, and for the first time Vehel realized he wasn’t the only one who carried doubt in their heart.
The Seer’s tone softened. “You are young yet. You have time to grow.”
Dela dropped her gaze from the blind girl’s face and nodded. The Seer released her hold on Dela’s arm.
“We have much work to do if the Elvish prince is to return you to Anthoinia. You need food and rest. Then we will begin our training.”
Vehel knew she was talking to him, even though she wasn’t looking at him. “What will the training involve?”
“You, believing in yourself. Trusting in yourself. Then your magic will grow stronger.”
Vehel swallowed. It wasn’t so easy, and he wasn’t sure trusting in yourself was even something that could be taught.
“What of the others?” he asked. “What will they be doing while I’m training?”
“I’m sure they will find things to occupy their time.”
Vehel didn’t like the idea of the others going off together, while he was left with the Seer, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was doing this for all of them, not just himself, and he hoped he would bring them back together.
The Seer clasped her hands together in front of her body. “First, we will go and eat, and then you can rest. Nothing will be achieved while you are hungry and tired.”
Warsgra put his hands on his hips and looked around the dark cavern. “What is there to eat down here, anyway?”
Warsgra had a point. The cavern was dark and cold and empty. Even Vehel struggled to see how the Seer lived down here in any comfort. Perhaps it didn’t matter to her, but the idea of living in a dark hole for hundreds of years was no better than being stuck in the underworld. Maybe they were safe here, but there certainly wasn’t any comfort. He’d rather be lying on the beach, beneath the stars, than stuck in the middle of rock.
But the Seer didn’t appear concerned by Warsgra’s abruptness. “There is more here than you can see.”
Warsgra frowned. “Another riddle. Just what we needed.”
“Warsgra,” Dela shushed him, her tone warning. They needed the Seer.
The girl nodded. “Keep going down, and then you will see.”
Dela frowned and looked around, trying to spot if she’d missed something. “Down? Down where?”
The Seer nodded to the staircase they’d descended from. Where only moments before it had ended at the stone flooring they now stood upon, now the steps continued downward. From the bottom, a natural soft light shone up toward them.
“That wasn’t there a minute ago,” said Warsgra.
“It was,” the Seer said. “You just didn’t see it.”
“I’m not blind,” he grumbled, and then must have realized what he’d said as he glanced away.
“It’s magic,” said Vehel. “A cloaking spell of some kind.”
She gestured toward the newly revealed stairs. “Go down, please. This place we’re in now is only where I greet my visitors. They are few and far between, but it would not be wise of me to reveal my home to everyone who comes here.”
Vehel looked to Dela, who nodded. “We have no reason not to trust her,” she said.
“Okay,” Warsgra stepped forward, “but I’m going first.”
Vehel looked to Orergon, who’d remained quiet since they’d arrived. What had the Seer said about him having death inside him? Was that from when he’d brought Orergon back from the dead on the fire mountain? Orergon hadn’t seemed surprised about it, and neither, for that matter, had Dela. When had they already spoken about it? Warsgra said they’d been talking in the middle of the night, and then they’d gone off together into the jungle. Was that why? Vehel didn’t want to experience a stab of jealousy, but he did. He was the one who’d used his magic to bring Orergon back. Shouldn’t Orergon have spoken with him first before Dela? Or the two of them should at least have spoken to him together. What did it even mean? Vehel thought he’d pulled Orergon out of the darkness, but it seemed he’d brought some of it with him. But the Seer hadn’t said it was dangerous, or even that Orergon couldn’t be trusted anymore. It was just something … else.
Unaware of the turmoil inside Vehel’s head, Warsgra was already walking toward the newly revealed staircase, and Dela followed.
Vehel shot a glance at Orergon, but the Moerian didn’t meet his eye. Did Orergon know what Vehel was thinking? Did he feel badly that he’d not talked to Vehel already?
Warsgra descended the steps, his head vanishing from view. It was lighter down there, and that had to be a good thing. Vehel understood the Seer had no use for light, but it must be bad for the soul to be cooped up in the dark for too long.
Warsgra’s voice echoed up. “By the Gods!”
Vehel frowned in his direction and then followed, his feet navigating the rocky staircase that took them deeper into the middle of the island. A warm light bathed his skin as he descended. His mouth dropped open when he saw what lay beneath the cavern, and he widened his eyes with wonder.
Dela looked back over her shoulder at him. “Do you see this? Someone tell me I’m not imagining things.”
A tropical paradise lay before them. They were inside another cave, only this one was green with the foliage of trees and bushes. A waterfall cascaded down from a craggy part of rock on the far side, into a clear pool, the sound of running water peaceful. Brightly colored birds flitted between the trees and called to each other with tweets and twitters. There was a splash as a fish jumped out of the surface of the pool to catch a fly. It looked as though somehow the island had grown up inside the rock, though such a thing should have been impossible. When Vehel looked up, the rocky roof of the cave was still above them, yet somehow the sun seemed to be shining through from somewhere.
“This isn’t possible.” Orergon said from behind him.
Vehel shook his head. “It must be an illusion.”
They walked deeper into the cave, following a small path winding its way through the trees which hung with all kinds of fruit, ripe and heavy. Vehel reached out and fingered the leaves of a bush that was covered in red, succulent berries. Though his mind told him this couldn’t be real, i
t felt as real as anything else he’d touched before. Large insects with multicolored, diaphanous wings darted through the branches, alighting on the surface of the pool to take a drink.
“Shouldn’t it be dark outside by now?” Dela asked, looking around in wonder.
“Yes, it must be,” Orergon agreed. “It was almost dusk when we got here. But here it feels like the middle of the day.”
The Seer remained behind them as they made their way farther into the strange cave-like paradise.
Dela turned to her and asked the question on all their minds. “Is this real?”
“As real as anything else in this world,” the girl replied.
Vehel managed not to roll his eyes. Sometimes it was impossible to get a straight answer from her.
Warsgra had wandered away from the rest of the group, and he gave a shout. “Look over here!”
They rushed over to join him. Where he stood, a table was filled with bread and cakes, candied fruits, and jugs of lemonade.
“These are all the things I loved to eat when I was a girl,” the Seer said from behind them. Though she was blind, it seemed she knew what was on the table. Who had put the food there? Had it been her, or was there someone else here? “It’s been more years than I can count, but I still remember how they tasted.”
Vehel frowned. “Can’t you eat them now?”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I live on.”
“What do you live on?” he asked, but the Seer gave one of her serene smiles and didn’t answer the question. A thread of unease ran though him. She’d given them no reason to think she was going to do anything other than help them, but there was no getting away from the fact that she was a strange being to contend with.
Chapter 17
With a Dragon's Heart Page 11
