by Eric Vall
“We don’t have much time!” I snarled. “What--”
“Got it!” Alyona chirped as she and Isabella breezed into the room.
“We aren’t done here,” I growled under my breath to the king’s advisor before I turned back to check on the women’s spell. “Do you have it all now?”
“Yes,” Miraya answered as she began to stir the ingredients in a large black pot from Alyona’s spatial storage. “It shouldn’t be long.”
“Ahhhhhh!” Vala wailed as another contraction rolled through her body.
“You must hurry if you want to do this before it’s too late,” Yazmin advised and put her hands on Vala’s round belly. “The baby will not be inclined to wait very long.”
“Yes, of course,” Alyona agreed, and she tucked her raven-black forelocks behind her ears as a determined expression settled across her features. “Let’s all do it.”
Laika and Isabella took a few steps back to stand by me, while Alyona, Naomi, and Miraya carried the steaming cauldron to Vala’s bed, joined hands around her, and began to chant.
“Seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, give time to us, share your power,” they intoned in echoing voices.
Vala gasped and gripped her belly, and for a brief moment, I was terrified we’d been too late. Then she took a deep breath and let it out with a soft whoosh.
“Oh, my gods,” she mumbled, and her body went slack against the bed as the creases in her face smoothed out. “It feels like… my body is in a lake. I can feel every movement he’s making.”
“It worked.” Alyona grinned and glanced at Naomi. “Good idea.”
“Thank you, milady,” the lizard mage replied as the color of her cheeks nearly matched her scales. “I’m just glad we have more time now.”
“I need to know how much time we have,” I said and shot a narrowed gaze at Castor. “It seems we’re missing an ingredient for the ceremony.”
“My lord, I swear, I had no idea!” Castor insisted. “Once the flower is plucked, special care must be given to keep it alive long enough!”
“What flower?” Alyona asked with a sharp frown. “I thought you had everything.”
“I did,” he murmured, and he cowered slightly under the princess’ sharp amethyst gaze. “But when the ceremony fell through yesterday, I wasn’t told for almost two hours. The blue panthemum had already wilted by the time I got back to the palace.”
“What did we miss?” Nike was breathless when he and Eskandar appeared in the doorway. “Elian isn’t here yet, right?”
“No, we slowed his birth,” Miraya answered. “But it seems we have a different issue at hand.”
“I can send my men now,” Castor said as he looked up at the window to see the first rays of morning creep through. “They should be back by this afternoon.”
“That’s hours away!” I argued. “Where is this flower?”
“Ah, near Pullis,” he answered with a frown. “My men are able to portal there, but they had a rather difficult time locating it before.”
“How are they going to get all the way there and back in a few hours?” I demanded. “Do you have another dragon I don’t know about?”
“I took them,” Eskandar chuckled. “To the cave, right?”
“Yes,” Castor confirmed with a curt nod.
“Then we’ll go get it ourselves,” I decided and looked to Eskandar for support. “We can fly faster alone, and since Eskandar has already been there, he knows where to look.”
“Indeed.” The white dragon nodded.
“My lord, let me send a few men with you,” the king’s advisor insisted. “Just in case you have any trouble finding the blue panthemum.”
“Fine,” I agreed. “Have them ready in five minutes. We’re leaving as soon as possible.”
“Of course, my lord,” Castor conceded before he hesitated and spoke again. “Also, it was not easy for my men to obtain the blue panthemum the first time. I pray you have an easier time.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I growled.
“I-I’m sure it won’t be a problem for you,” he stammered before he hastily scurried out of the room.
Well, that wasn’t mysterious.
It wasn’t unusual for something to be easier for me than it was for humans, but Castor’s lack of detail made me gnaw on my lip as I considered the possibilities. Surely, a flower wasn’t guarded by some beast, right? Maybe it was just on a high ground they couldn’t reach very easily, but either way, the mystery would be solved soon enough.
“We’ll stay with Vala and keep her relaxed,” Alyona said. “That should help until you get back.”
“Yeah, anything you can do to keep her calm,” I agreed. “Tea or whatever pregnant women can drink, books, music, whatever. She just can’t have that kid yet.”
“My lord, what do we do if the despasen spell doesn’t hold on that long?” Yazmin asked as she cocked her head to the side. “You don’t very well expect Miss Vala to hold her child inside, do you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “The last thing we want is to harm Elian. If he comes, we’ll just have to figure out something else.”
“But my lord, we don’t have something else,” Laika whispered, and her wolf ears flattened against her head in distress. “If the Child of Light is born before the ceremony, we may have to wait decades before another descendant is conceived.”
“Decades might be a bit much,” Nike chimed in with pursed lips.
“Decades,” the wolf Demi-Human repeated firmly. “You don’t even like your betrothed.”
“Margaret is perfectly respectable,” he argued. “I’m sure she’ll make a great mother someday.”
“Yeah, you know how babies are made, right?” Laika raised a skeptical gray eyebrow.
“Okay, so the situation is not ideal,” I interjected, despite the wolf Demi-human’s valid argument. “But we have to make it work. They still haven’t found the, ah, orgy women yet, so there’s still hope. We can’t give up.”
“Lord Evan is right,” Alyona agreed as she sat by Vala’s bedside and held the frightened woman’s hand. “If we have no hope for our mission, it is sure to fail. We must believe the gods supported this plan for a reason.”
“Exactly,” I murmured. “So, Eskandar and I will go get this flower, and the rest of you make sure nothing else is missing. We don’t need any more surprises.”
“If it’s alright, I’d like to stay with Vala,” Nike said with a sheepish expression. “For the child.”
“I understand.” I nodded at my fellow noble. “Please, let me know if anything changes before we get back.”
“I will,” he agreed.
Eskandar and I turned to leave the room when Vala called out to me.
“Lord Evan!” She held one hand out to reach toward me. “Be careful. We need you to finish this. My son… he needs to stand for more than I ever could have. This is his destiny.”
“It’s only one step of it,” I replied with a gentle smile. “Elian will do great things. I can already tell.”
Vala’s lips twitched upward in a half-smile, and she waved before the white dragon and I headed out into the hallway.
“Did you mean that?” Eskandar asked suddenly as we walked down the stairs to the great hall.
“About Elian?” I looked at him with curiosity. “Of course, I did. Her son is a Child of Light, which means one day, he’ll wield the Sword of Light. It’s a pretty big deal, so I want her to see how important he is.”
“I see,” Eskandar murmured, but his brow was creased in thought.
I felt like he had more questions, but we didn’t have time for the Q and A session. Four of King Rodion’s men were lined up by the front door, and Castor stood in front of them with his hair smoothed out and his expression grim.
“The men have been assembled, my lord,” he announced. “They are honored to join you in completing this task.”
“Great, let’s go,” I grunted as we continued past them and stalked outside
.
The sun was finally above the horizon, and it nearly blinded me as I looked to the east where we would be flying. Just what we needed.
Eskandar and I walked a few paces ahead of the guards before we shifted into our dragon forms, and the four of them looked at us in awe, which quickly changed to discomfort.
“Do you, ah, want us to get, um, on you, my lord?” one of them stammered.
“Yes, two with me, two with Eskandar,” I barked. “And hurry up. We have a flower to pick.”
As the white dragon and I lowered our bodies, our passengers climbed on with obvious anxiety. I wasn’t sure if it was about riding on our backs or about getting ready to fly, and I didn’t have time to care. We had to get the damn flower before Vala had that kid.
“Ready?” Eskandar called out.
The guards gave us a few thumbs up, and we kicked off into the morning sky. The sun radiated warmth on my back as we flew west toward Pullis, the underwater city where we’d spent a week chasing mermen mages and getting rid of miasma poisoning.
And I’d fucked a couple mermaids, so that was a nice break from all the chaos.
Eskandar and I had an unspoken agreement to move quickly, and we cut through the air like knives as we soared closer to the ocean. At our high speeds, it only took about thirty minutes until I could see the guard’s tower that I knew watched over the city.
I wondered for a moment about the young mermaid who was set to give birth soon when we’d left, but I didn’t have time to stop in and check on her. We had to make our way to the flowers and get back to the temple before another kid was born.
“Where are we going?” I yelled over the wind to the guards on my back.
“Over there to the right!” one of them answered and pointed. “Down the shoreline!”
I narrowed my eyes when I realized I’d been in that area before just a few weeks ago. We’d had to retrieve a unique plant for the spell that allowed us to breathe underwater while we were in Pullis. I followed the guard’s directions, and sure enough, he motioned for us to land just outside a familiar cave.
“Are you sure this is it?” I watched the cave entrance carefully as Eskandar and I lowered ourselves to the ground. “Does the flower grow in water or something?”
“Yes, my lord, this is it,” Eskandar answered. “The men went into the cave to retrieve the blue panthemum, though I’m not sure where it grows. Why do you have that expression?”
“Because I know why it was hard for them last time,” I sighed as the men slid from our backs. “And I know I probably need to do this on my own.”
“My lord, the flower does grow in water, but you cannot simply walk into the cave and grab it,” one of the guards insisted. “If you’ve been here before, you know it will not be so simple.”
“I know,” I agreed. “But it will be simpler for me by myself. Trust me.”
“Are you certain?” The white dragon looked at me with a mixture of doubt and confusion. “Castor said it was difficult before, and the men were in there for a few hours last time.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I chuckled. “Just wait here for me.”
Eskandar opened his mouth and then closed it with a nod. He seemed to have figured out I knew what I was doing, even if I was the younger dragon.
I shifted into my human form and stalked toward the edge of the water. The mouth of the cave opened toward the sea, and when I’d been here before, we had a ship that we sailed inside. This time, I just walked as close to the wall of the cave as I could, though the water still reached my knees. I trudged through it and made my way inside the large cavern until my boots hit the sand of the interior beach.
Then I lit a fireball in my palm and continued toward the tunnel at the back of the cave. This time, there was no green light to meet me in the tunnel, though I could feel the increasing energy as I got closer to the place I needed to go.
I stepped over the large rock that had tripped me last time, and in the middle of the cavern was the stone bird bath with its neon green water. I knew better than to touch it, but I started to wonder where the cave’s resident had disappeared to.
“I’m here, dragon lord,” the Oracle’s voice echoed around me.
I whirled around and finally saw her slender body emerge from one of the neon-green pools of water. Her nearly translucent skin still looked dry, though the water dripped from her black robes as she stepped onto the solid rock floor.
“I knew you had to be around here somewhere, Oracle,” I said with a smile as I knelt on the floor in front of her. “I only came for a blue panthemum. I don’t want to bother you.”
“You are in favor with the gods,” she declared as she cocked her head to the side, and her black ringlets fell in front of her face. “Why would that bother me?”
“I-I don’t know,” I murmured. “You’re important.”
“As are you,” the Oracle replied with a mysterious smile. “And your favor with the gods has earned you an answer from me.”
“For what question?” I wondered. “I haven’t asked anything.”
“But you want to,” she said, and her smile widened to reveal her white teeth. “Don’t you?”
“I mean…” I trailed off as I ran my fingers through my hair. “I would like to know several things.”
“You have one question,” the Oracle replied. “Ensure you are asking exactly what you want to know.”
Ahh, I’d seen this movie. If I asked my question the wrong way, I could get a totally useless answer. I had to think specific, not just general, even though the Oracles were known for their wide-open predictions.
“Okay, I need to think about it,” I finally said. “I’m going to find what I came for first. Then I’ll ask.”
“The blue panthemum,” the Oracle mused. “It is a rare flower indeed, though if properly cared for, it can last for months outside its usual habitat.”
I hadn’t asked that question, but she sure had hinted at something that would help me. I could pick a few of the flowers to keep at the temple for later ceremonies, but we needed to make sure they were properly preserved, so they didn’t go to waste like the ones Castor and the guards had retrieved.
“You’re much nicer than the other Oracle I met,” I commented as I strolled around the cavern to find the flower in one of the pools of green water. “She didn’t seem to like visitors.”
“Ah, you must be referring to the Oracle in Lumin territory,” she chuckled. “I do not share her distaste for mankind, though I am a bit surprised she wasn’t more interested in you. She generally enjoys the company of magical creatures.”
“I had several magical creatures with me,” I murmured as I recalled our first encounter with the other Oracle. “She wasn’t having it. She booted us out of her whole cave.”
“Someone must have offended her.” The Oracle smirked and was clearly amused. “I have never been one to be consumed by the words of others, especially a newcomer to our world like yourself.”
“I’m hardly a newcomer anymore,” I replied with pursed lips. “I’ve been here about a year now and made Inati my home.”
“It was always meant to be your home,” she murmured as she turned toward the stone pedestal and gently traced the lip of the bowl on top.
“What do you mean?” My attention was focused on her as I momentarily forgot about the flower.
“Is that your one question?” the Oracle asked as she arched a jet-black eyebrow and stared at me.
While it was tempting to get clarification on her statement, I knew I had to focus on our mission for my question. I wanted to know more about how Inati was meant to be my home, but I would have to save that for another time. Apparently, I just had to stay in good graces with the gods, and I figured closing the Breach would definitely do that for me.
“No,” I muttered and looked down at my feet. “I haven’t decided on my question yet.”
“Very well,” she conceded as she dipped her finger into the water of the bowl.
A green glow emanated from the bowl and reflected on her thin skin. It made her look like she’d swallowed a firefly that lit her from the inside out, and I was momentarily stunned at how beautiful the Oracle was. I wondered how they became Oracles, if they started out as humans, and what led to them becoming the guides to our world.
“Found it,” I muttered as I shook my head and squatted next to one of the pools. “I mean, this looks like a rare blue flower, I guess.”
I started to reach into the pool to pluck it when I realized I didn’t have the preservation thing the Oracle had mentioned. I reached into my spatial storage and pulled out a narrow gold box from my treasure horde. I wasn’t sure if it would be exactly what she intended, but I figured it would keep the flowers safe enough until Alyona could pull some magical mumbo jumbo to make it work.
“Clever,” the Oracle mused as I gently tore the flowers free from their hold underwater. “You are much smarter than the men who came before.”
“I’m more than just a pretty face, you know.” I smirked, and the Oracle laughed a sound that reminded me of a flute. “Now, I think I’m ready for my question.”
“Go ahead,” she replied as she cleared her face and gazed at me with her jade-colored eyes.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath while I tucked the gold box with the blue panthemum into my spatial storage. “Are my family and I going to be able to get past the shadow figure and close the Breach?”
The Oracle smiled as she pulled her finger from the water and tapped her closed lips for a moment.
“You are certainly on the right path,” she confirmed. “This path will lead to the destruction of your enemy and closure of the Breach, but be warned. It is not an easy task you have undertaken, and you cannot stray from this path or become distracted. If you stray, you will alter your outcome, though there are many ways to change the future.”
“Distracted,” I murmured and stroked the stubble that had sprouted on my jaw. “Would you consider helping the Mahigans a distraction?”
“I have already answered your question, dragon lord,” the Oracle replied with laughter in her eyes. “You ask more?”
“Simply wondering your opinion.” I smirked before I lowered into a bow. “I thank you for the answer you gave. It certainly gives me confidence as we move forward. I have to get this Breach closed before it kills everyone.”
