El liked this solution. She could do her thing, and Zamian could do his. When she needed him, she could call him. They didn’t need to mate for there was no way she was going to do such an act of intimacy, with anyone she didn’t love with all her heart, it must be unique. She wasn’t jumping into bed with anyone; she didn’t care if it was her destiny.
Zamian could see the light shine in El’s eyes after he read the part of the book to her and Lazeen. He knew Lazeen would be preferred they had mated, and be done with it, but he wasn’t jumping into anything where she was concerned. She’s been through so much already, plus he felt it should be something they decide together; not the people around them. After all, it was their lives. They had to live with the reality of any decision they made. He liked her, but he wasn’t ready to get in deep like that with her.
The more El thought about it, the better she felt, “Do you have a piece of paper?”
“Yes,” he walked over, grabbed one then handed it to her with a pen and ink. She wrote down the Dragon Call that way should she need it to call Zamian; she could do so by memorizing it. Folding up the paper, she stuck it inside her dress via the neckline. She sat back, drank some of her drink, then ate some of the snacks that were on the tray. She saw him do the same. She took that as they were on the same page, which she felt was an excellent thing.
Well, at least there is a Dragon Call, but Lazeen didn’t like them separated; he knew Zamian wanted his solitude. He was going to have to figure out how to get these two, to stay with each other so a relationship could form if he were ever to have a chance of them bonding as one. Love was not his field of expertise. He was going to need some help with this matter for romance wasn’t a word in his vocabulary. He picked up his drink, started to sip the hot liquid while he ate some of the snack cakes since there weren’t many left on the tray.
Not sure what El should do since she was still tired, but there was no way she wanted to attempt to sleep again. Not after everything that had just happened, she didn’t want to take another chance at ending up back linked with Mr. Dreamwalker. She had enough of that the first time. “Tell me more about Dreamwalkers?”
Lazeen looked at El; he’d almost forgotten about the reason he was in the room to start with, “A Dreamwalker, is someone who can link either you or themselves into a dream. It is genuine because you can feel within the dream.” He went on to explain, “I think the man going through the torture had somehow slipped into a semi-conscious state, the fact that he’d been after you, as well as being questioned about you, linked you while you were asleep to his reality. I am not sure how it came about. You ended up feeling everything he was going through. That part is new. I am going to have to do some research when I find out more. I will let you know.”
She didn’t like the idea someone could invade her dreams, turning them into their nightmares, which weren’t even hers. How was she going to sleep with this Dreamwalker here, without going through what he was enduring? She sure hoped he would talk soon so she’d be able to get some sleep without having to worry about him linking himself to her. El yawned.
“Maybe, we should let you get some sleep!”
El just looked at Lazeen like he had lost his mind. “How do you expect me to sleep? Can you guarantee, Mr. Dreamwalker won’t link himself to me again? I don’t want to go through that pain again.”
“No, unfortunately, I can’t guarantee that won’t happen. However, you can't go without sleep your body requires you to sleep, maybe we can talk with Vigdis get her to take some time off the torture so you can get some sleep.”
“Ok, that takes care of the additional pain, but the pain from all his wounds will still be there. How am I supposed to sleep with all the pain?”
“Hmmm, I have no answer to that question.” He sat there thinking, then he got up, “Stay here!” With that, he walked out of the room.
It was so quiet you could hear a sewing needle drop sitting there, wondering what Lazeen had thought of for him to get up and walk out of the room. She looked over at Zamian who was still on the windowsill looking out the window, as he drank his drink. She wondered what was going through his mind. “Hey, thanks again for helping me out with the Dreamwalker.”
“You’re welcome, I was glad I could help, you were in such agony.” He smiled at her.
That smile made her heart flutter; she smiled back at him as she took a drink from her cup. Ok, admitting to herself, there was some development of some feelings for him. She just didn’t know how deep though feelings went.
Lazeen walked back into Zamian’s room; he had something in his hand. He walked over to her. “Drink this. It will put you into a deep sleep; you won’t dream at all. That way, you don’t have to worry about Mr. Dreamwalker linking to you.”
El took the glass from Lazeen. She sniffed the contents, man this stuff stinks. “Eeew, you want me to drink this?”
“Do you want to get some sleep, or not?”
“Yes, I want to be able to sleep!”
“Then, drink up.” Lazeen walked over sat back down in the chair; he picked up his cup, taking a drink.
She sat there looking at the green contents within the cup that Lazeen handed to her. She was building up strength to drink down this horrible smelling stuff. She pinched her nose while she drank the entire contents of the glass. She was doing her best not to throw-up everywhere. She placed the empty glass down. She went for the delicious stuff drinking it, praying it would wash the nasty taste out of her mouth. She took several more drinks to be sure the awful flavor was gone. She could now feel the effects starting to work; she was falling over in her chair. Someone caught her, barely opening her eyes; she could see it was Zamian as her eyes slid shut.
He picked her up in his arms. Zamian carried her to the bed. He laid her down on top of his bed, covered her with a throw. She looked at peace; hopefully, she would stay that way.
“Get some sleep while you can.” as Lazeen walked out of the door, closing it behind him.
Exhausted, Zamian laid down on the floor, he covered himself up as he closed his eyes.
Chapter Ten
IT HAD BEEN A LITTLE over a week since the Dreamwalker had invaded El’s sleep. She could see Lazeen talking with Vigdis; they were planning as to how to go about today’s training. She could hardly believe today was the first day they were to go against the guards. She said a silent prayer, please don’t let anyone die today. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she killed one of her own people, nor would they ever accept her as one of their own.
Vigdis blew a horn three short blasts, several men in guard uniforms entered the training area. She checked out each of the guards before she looked at Zamian, he too was surveying the men. “Do you think they are prepared for a full-fledged battle?” as the men surrounded them, ready to charge.
“Yes, I do.”
She didn’t have her weapons; they were off for sharpening, she was going to have to rely on her magic to defend herself at least for today. She wondered if they had done that on purpose, so she would have to rely on her magic, making her focus, so she didn’t end up seriously hurting anyone.
“Here they come,” Zamian warned.
“It begins,” She raised her hands she used her energy blast against them. As she released her magic, she saw the men fly backward. She looked over to see Zamian get stabbed, “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I had one flank me while one charged, he got me good, but I am self-healing, I will be fine.”
“Seriously, you have self-healing powers, how awesome is that.” She wondered if she had that power, but she wasn’t willing to get stabbed to find out the answer to that question. Just then, she felt intense pain; it started at her back went through to her chest. She looked down to see an arrow sticking out of her. “Seriously!” She grabbed the shaft with both hands pulled it out of her chest. That relieved some of the pain; it wasn’t nearly as intense as it had been. “There is an archer! She yelled at Zamian.” Not having time to focus on
her wound for guards were charging at her from everywhere, she was firing her magic in every direction. At the same time, she tried to keep an eye out for the bowman with the bloody arrows so she wouldn’t get shot again.
Looking over at El, he saw an arrow on the ground at her feet. There was blood dripping from her hand. “Are you ok?”
“I am now since I got that bloody thing out of me.”
Zamian shifted into his dragon form; he was getting hammered bad. She knew that it was taking everything out of him; because it was her as well. She couldn’t change into dragon form; she had to suffer through it. She worked her way over to the weapons rack to grab the old double axes that she’d used when practicing with Vigdis before she got her new ones on her birthday. She swung the axes, she went to town taking on the guards, she was now glad Vigdis had been so vigorous with her training, it helped against these men. She fought with all her might, it helped to save some of her magic, but the double edge axes weren’t working fast enough. Abandoning the axes, she switched back to her magic. Hands in the air flying everywhere, she was using her Energy Blast, she was sending men in all directions trying hard to remember not to use too much power, so she didn’t kill any of them. It seemed like, forever, before the last man finally fell to the ground.
El now spent, she wasn’t sure if they had to fight a massive battle if she would be able to maintain. She went and sat down under the tree, Zamian had changed back into a human, he too walked over sat under the tree next to her. She could tell he was as worn out as she was, “How are we going to survive a real battle when this small training exercise kicked our ass?”
“First of all, in a real battle, you won’t have to focus so much on maintaining the amount of magic you use; in turn, it will take less to take down your enemy. Second, that in itself will make the battle go faster.” He looked at her. “You did great today.”
“Thanks, you didn’t do too bad yourself.” She knew he was right. It did take a lot to focus on how much magic to use. They hadn’t killed any of the guards, which was a good thing. However, they need to work on this exercise more. Even the guards had taken a beating. If the prophecy is accurate, then dark times are coming, we need to be ready. If the prediction isn’t accurate well then, we will have a bad-ass army no one will mess with in the future.
Getting off the ground, she walked inside to inform Ivoka how the training went.
Soaking in the tub, El was working the soreness out of her body, not to mention all the dirt off her from the training battle that took place earlier today. She closed her eyes relaxed against the back of the tub. The warmth of the water was doing its job; her muscles were relaxing. She could move now without being so sore.
Water now cold she was fixing to get out when she remembered about the arrow. Checking out her wound, she could see it was, in fact, healing. She, too, had healing powers. Excited, she was glad she had this ability.
Zamian had arrived at his room he walked over sat down on the windowsill looking out at the mountain ridge he would wait until dusk before he would leave the encampment. He needed to hunt; he was starving. He didn’t want to eat up the Elven food storage. He always flew far off to hunt for food. The sun was starting its descent. He couldn’t wait any longer; he headed out the door.
He was almost to the training area exit when Lazeen spotted him.
“Zamian, where are you off to?”
“I’m heading out to hunt. I am starving and in need of food.”
“There is plenty of food here, you know?”
“What you would have me eat up all their food storage, I won’t do that to them.”
“You’ve come to care for these people. Not so much the loner anymore.”
“Yes, I care; they have been nice to me. As for the loner part, I still wouldn’t rule that out yet.”
“Ok, well, you go on your hunt; just be careful. How long do you think you’ll be?”
“I shouldn’t be longer than a couple of hours.”
“Good, I will see you then. In the future, though, would you please inform me when you're going out to hunt. I wouldn’t want something to happen and not know you were gone already, leaving me to think the worst.”
“Fair enough, I will inform you of my outings.” He walked out the door shifted took flight. He flew high into the sky, looking down at the Elven encampment he could see the guards moving about doing the change of watch. He soars through the air. He loved flying; it was refreshing to him. He remembered the first time he took flight in Lazeen’s backyard. He didn’t get very high but fell several times before he’s wings got strong enough for him to fly without falling. He had been free to the skies ever since. He had a longing for another dragon to be alive, one he could fly within the air. It would have been fun to have someone to play chase with, maybe one day it will happen as for now he is alone. Flying closer to the treetops so he could see he was coming into a meadow. To his surprise, there was a Liafant herd. He snagged himself, two of them. Which he ate greedily, now he was full. He headed back to the Elven encampment. It didn’t take long to get back since he didn’t have to go very far out to hunt this time.
Landing in the training area, he shifted back into human form before walking through the door. He walked down the hallway; he figured Lazeen would be in his room by this time. He stood in front of the door and knocked.
“Come in.”
Hearing the Lazeen, he walked into the room. “I wanted to let you know I am back.”
“Oh, good come sit and talk with me a little.”
Zamian walked over, sat in the chair opposite of Lazeen. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to know how you felt about today’s training with the guards?”
“Truthfully, I think it was good. We need to do the training more. It took a lot out of me, and I know it took a lot out of El, not to mention the guards. If there is a darkness coming, we need to be ready.”
“I agree with doing the training more. I will get with Vigdis in the morning to see how the guards are faring. Then we can see about setting up another practice with them.”
“Sounds good,” he smiled at the man.
“Well I think it’s time for some shut-eye, we’ll talk more in the morning.”
“Good night, old man,” as he stood to leave.
“Good night, young one.”
Zamian walked out the door he headed for his room next door.
The next morning Lazeen walked over to the barracks, “Where can I find Vigdis?”
The guard pointed as he replied, “In the second building.”
“Thank you,” he walked off. Arriving at the second building, Lazeen knocked on the door. A young woman opened the door. “I am looking for Vigdis?”
“Wait one minute, please,” she closed the door.
Left standing there, Lazeen looked around. There were several guards headed out. It must be time for the change of watch; when the door opened. Turning, he saw Vigdis.
“I want to inquire how your men are faring from yesterday’s training?”
“They’re fine; they can take a licking,” she smiled.
“Good, when do you think they’ll be up for another lesson?”
“Today. What about our two magic users, are they up for the task?”
“Good question, I’ll check into that and let you know at morning meal.”
“See you then,” she reclosed the door.
Lazeen walked off to check on Zamian and El. To see if they were up to the task of another training so soon. As he walked into the door, he saw Zamian as he headed down the hall. “Zamian!”
Turning around to see the Lazeen, he walked over to him, “Yes, sir.”
“Are you up for more training with the guards today?”
“Yes, I can do that. Are the guards are ready for it as well?”
“Vigdis says they are. Now we just need to check in with El to make sure she is ready.
“Ready for what?”
Neither of them had heard her come up
behind them.
“Ready for more training with the guards today?”
Smiling, “Sure, why wouldn’t I be.
Trying to stifle his laughter, Zamian turned to look at Lazeen to see a shocked look upon his face. He couldn’t hold it any longer. He busted out laughing.
Lazeen eyed Zamian, “Let’s go eat.”
In the training area, Lazeen walked over to where Vigdis was standing, leaving El with Zamian. He had already shifted into his dragon form. “You think today will go better?” She asked.
“I hoped so, yesterday was tough; I used a lot of energy.”
“Yeah, I did as well. How are we going to pull this off?”
“Our magic will get stronger as we grow. I know mine has.”
“Ok, but will it get strong enough before we have to be in a battle?”
“I don’t know, all we can do is our best.”
“What if our best isn’t good enough?”
“We’ll have help; it won’t be just the two of us; however, you’re going to have to realize if the prophecy is true, a lot of these people are going to die. We can do our part, but we won’t be able to save them all.”
“I have never seen someone die before, what’s it like?”
“The first time you kill will be really hard on you. As you see the life leave their body, leaving only an empty shell. There is no movement at all; it's creepy. It will take some getting used to.”
“How do you know so much about death?”
“It’s the same way with animals. I am a natural-born hunter.”
“Have you killed anyone?”
“No, but I have seen people killed. Outside these walls, it can be dangerous.”
El thought once again she’d been sheltered. Maybe it’s time for her to get out and experience life beyond these walls. Just then, she heard a horn blow three short blasts. She knew what that meant. She readies herself for the attack. Looking around, she saw guards head toward her when out of the corner of her eye, she saw ice flying at her. “Great, Lazeen has joined in the battle now as well.” She sent fire toward the ice magic, then resumed sending her energy blast in every direction the guards were advancing on her.
Dragon Fusion Page 18
