One Cannot Deny a Blood Oath with a Dragon

by T P Sheehan

  Sarah placed a bowl of food in front of him. “Pumpkin soup,” she explained. “I know you love my pumpkin soup. Oh, some bread as well. I baked it today.” She placed a large shred of grainy bread next the soup that Magnus had nearly finished. He ate keenly.

  “Thank you, Sarah,” Magnus muffled through a full mouth.

  “Eat with your mouth full, speak with it empty.”

  Magnus gave a nod, watching her as he ate. She darted from one end of the house to another, gathering things into a woven basket. Once the basket was full, she placed it on a chair adjacent to him. “Here, I’ve put together some clothes for you, some food, coin and so forth. That should see you fed and warm on your trip to Guame.”

  “Thank you.” Magnus smiled. Lucas came into the house through the rear door, closing it behind him.

  “Keep the door open Lucas, so I can see the horses. They will warn us of unwelcome visitors.” Sarah waved a hand at the door then returned to arranging the belongings for Magnus. Lucas did as told then seated himself at the table opposite Magnus.

  “You need sturdy clothes for travelling. These fit Lucas until recently, so they should fit you well enough.” Sarah handed the clothing to Magnus.

  “Thank you Lucas. I appreciate it,” Magnus said to his friend, who smiled and nodded in return. Lucas appeared a little distant to him.

  Magnus removed his dirty, scorched tunic and put on a more fitted cream-coloured shirt of thicker fabric. Then he took a dark red leather jacket that Sarah helped him fit by tightening three buckles across his chest. It was firm around his body but comfortable. Its tall collars brushed his ear lobes. Together with the cloak Ganister had given him, he would be warm enough at night. Finally, Sarah had given him a pair of brown leather trousers with gold buckles running down the outer sides of the legs. Before changing into them, Magnus took the crumpled letter from the Authoritarium out of his back pocket. He folder it over and stashed it in the new trousers. Now is not the time, he decided.

  Sarah looked Magnus up and down, nodding in approval. She made some alterations to his trouser buckles, pulled at the shirt beneath his jacket and peered closely at his face, before licking her thumb and rubbing a dirty mark off his cheek. Satisfied with his appearance, Sarah nodded once again.

  “It suits you,” Lucas said. Magnus looked at him. “Almost as much as it did me… when it fit.” Magnus gave Lucas a shove.

  Sarah lay out a green, tightly woven blanket across the table and started arranging the other items she had collected upon it. There was a spare shirt and food items including a full loaf of bread, a block of cheese, dried beef strips and dried fruit. Beside the food she placed a flask of water. “Just in case water is scarce, although you should do fine in Froughton Forest,” Sarah explained. Finally, Sarah took out a small sack of gold coins that she put in the middle of the package. She folded the green blanket over itself until it presented as a tightly bound package, tying the corners off together.

  “This can double as a blanket for you to wear if the nights grow cold.” Sarah looked at Magnus. “The blanket has enchantments on it. If you sleep under it, it will hide you. Not visibly, mind you, but if you are hidden to the eye, prying minds won’t pick up on any of your other senses, nor be able to read your thoughts. Handy—that is.”

  Sarah smiled deliberately and Magnus could see she was masking her concern. She scurried over to the living room and lifted the chairs away from the large stitched rug on the ground. She knelt down and began to roll the rug up over itself until the bare stone floor beneath was exposed. Lucas turned on his stool and looked at his mother with a curious expression on his face. She scampered back and started to feel the stones in the floor with the palms of her hands, her numerous brass bracelets clinking and clanging across the stone ground as she did.

  “Four days,” Sarah said, still feeling the ground beneath her.

  “Sorry?” Magnus asked.

  “It is four days journey to Guame. It will cost you a gold coin to enter the city gates. They will give it back when you leave. It’s to keep the riff-raff out.” Sarah thumbed a hand over her head. “And a sign of good will as you leave.” She gave a thumbs-up in approval. “That were your father’s idea, Magnus. A wise man he is and a brave knight he was.” She mumbled as she continued across the ground, almost hidden under her long curly hair that fell to the floor. Soon, her hands settled on one of the stones and she paused.

  “Lif letta,” Sarah chanted. She waited for something to happen. Nothing did. “Hmmm,” she mumbled again, moving her hands across each of the stones set in the floor, pausing to push her bracelets up her forearms to stop the clanging. “Ahah!” She settled on one of the smaller stones in the floor and repeated her chant—“Lif letta.” Immediately the stone slid upward from the floor. It was only about an inch, but enough for her to get a grip on it and pull it out of the ground. Magnus and Lucas looked at one another. Lucas shrugged. It seemed he knew no more than Magnus did about Sarah’s enchanted stone.

  Sarah plunged one of her short arms shoulder-deep into the hole where the stone had been. She rummaged around for a few moments with her tongue out the side of her mouth, frowning as she concentrated. “Ahah!” Out of the hole she pulled a thin, three foot-long object wrapped in suede and tied off with a white ribbon. Placing the object beside her, Sarah reached back into the hole and pulled out a second object. It was the same as the first, only bound with a red ribbon. She stood, panting from the effort and brought the two objects over to the kitchen table and lay the one with the white ribbon in front of Magnus and the other with a red ribbon in front of Lucas.

  “These are for you two. They were always meant for you. Your fathers were waiting for the right time to give them to you. Under the circumstances I think now is as good a time as any, don’t you think?” Sarah loosened the ribbons on both objects and nodded in turn to Magnus and Lucas. “Go on then, open them.” She rubbed her hands together anxiously.

  Magnus could see Lucas was as curious and he was. They carefully unwrapped the cloths revealing a pair of swords. Magnus looked his over. Never had he seen a sword so beautiful. The pommel and cross guard were white-steel—the same steel as his father’s sword—and finished with intricate engravings. The grip was wrapped in dark red leather. Lucas’s sword was crafted the same, but for the pommel and cross-guard which were bronze rather than steel. The two swords were held in identical scabbards finished in engraved dark red leather.

  Magnus and Lucas unsheathed their swords. The steel of each appeared as bright as diamond from guard to point. They looked to Sarah for an explanation.

  “Your fathers were so proud of you both and so one evening, after they had toasted themselves silly with dewberry wine for the eleventieth time, Alavia and I suggested they celebrate in a more productive manner.” Sarah took a seat beside Lucas. “Alavia’s people gifted her some years earlier a measure of fleu-steel—or Icerealmish steel, as it is often known. It is the strongest steel in Allumbreve, mined by the Rhydermere of the North, beyond the Ice Breach. There was enough of it to make a large knight’s longsword. She and Bonstaph insisted it was used to produce two lighter swords. One for each for you.”

  Tears formed in Sarah’s eyes. “And so Ganister, son of a gifted swordsmith, used his learned skills to shape these two swords. They are different, yet the same. The differences between the two represent your maternal origins. The similarities show your link to the Fire Realm—the realm of your fathers. These swords tell of a brotherhood between you. A gift of the finest of steel from one family, and the finest of craftsmanship from another.”

  Magnus was at a loss for words. He felt honoured to be blessed with Lucas in such a way. Lucas was staring at Magnus but then he stood, sheathed his sword and placed it back on the table. “I shan’t be needing this.” Lucas folded his arms. “It’s been shaped by a knight for a knight.”

  “Lucas… don’t!” Sarah warned. “Whatever fate brings to the two of you this evening or for ever after, remember you
are as brothers.” Sarah wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands then lifted her chin up, sniffing. “Right then Magnus, we should pack your sword with the rest of your belongings and we shall have you on your way.”

  Magnus sheathed his sword, eyeballing Lucas. His friend was clearly having a hard time coming to terms with his ‘reserve’ candidacy news. Magnus just could not find the strength to talk to him about it—there seemed far more pressing issues at hand. He finished the last piece of bread. The nervousness in his stomach rose and he choked for a moment on his bread.

  “Are you okay?” Lucas asked. Magnus nodded, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath.

  “The horses!” Sarah whispered and quickly extinguished the numerous candles in the house. The three of them peered out into the dark of night. Breona and the other two horses were skittish and pacing about anxiously.

  Magnus’s heart pounded in his chest and he looked to Sarah who closed her eyes, joined her hands together and whispered a gypsy chant. After a moment’s silence her eyes opened wide and she spoke in a low tone. “They approach from the Crescent Woods—Quagmen and mountain wyverns. There are many of them.” Sarah blinked twice and shook her head as though waking from a trance and said in her normal voice, “Lucas… Magnus… you must go now.”

  Grabbing their swords, Magnus and Lucas followed Sarah out the rear door and over to the horses. With Magnus’s belongings tied firmly to Breona’s saddle, they all mounted. Sarah gave instructions.

  “You both remember what Ganister said. You know what you are to do. I will provide a distraction until you reach the woods to the east. That is half a mile. Ride that half a mile faster than you have ever ridden.”

  Magnus looked at Lucas. “I will be by your side, Lucas.” He had no intention of riding ahead of his friend even though he had the faster horse.

  “I appreciate that,” Lucas stammered.

  Sarah approached Magnus, leant across and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Thank you for everything, Sarah,” Magnus said, wishing he could show greater appreciation. Sarah smiled fondly. She rode over to her son, leaning toward him and embracing him before holding his face and kissing both cheeks. She spoke to him, but Magnus could not hear. Lucas nodded several times in response.

  “I will. I love you too, Mother.”

  Sarah looked to both of them one last time. “Go now and don’t look back for anything.” She rummaged through the red velvet bag she held over her shoulder and pulled out a crystal ball that filled the palm of her hand. Raising it in front of her, she whispered a chant and a blue light began to swirl within the ball, building gradually in intensity. Sarah then rode off around the side of the house and out of Magnus’s sight to face whatever was approaching from the south.

  CHASE

  Magnus and Lucas charged eastward. The moon was cloaked by an isolated clump of cloud and Magnus wondered if it was due to one of Sarah’s gypsy spells. Can she do that? He shook the thought from his mind and focussed on remaining by Lucas’s side. The meadow had a gradual rise making the ride even harder for Lucas’s steed. The darkness of the looming woods seemed forever away. With barely a hundred feet remaining, Magnus dared to glance over his shoulder.

  Sarah had stopped her horse midway between the Woodlands and the homestead and held the crystal ball high in front of her. An explosion of blue light pulsed out from the ball in a horizontal arc in all directions. The ghastly shriek of the wyverns pierced the night sky as the light reached them. Magnus gasped at the sight. “Go, go, go Lucas!” Magnus was terrified. It was just for a moment, but he saw the shadows of a great host of ironclad horsemen and lurking black beasts at the border of the woods.

  The boys pushed their horses fast up the meadow into the first line of trees. Hidden in the shadows they dismounted their horses and doubled back, crouching behind the tall grasses of the woodland’s verge. A long way from its source, they were still able to distinguish the brilliant blue disc of light pulsing from Sarah’s crystal ball. All of a sudden it was gone and in its place was pure darkness.

  “Do you see anything?” Lucas whispered, barely an inch from Magnus.

  Magnus shook his head. “No.” He strained his eyes and ears, looking for any sign of movement across the meadow, but in the light’s absence, the darkness left him blind. A moment later the moon shifted out from behind the clouds and the grassy fields were illuminated by a dull, purplish glow. An advancing line of Quagmen divided the field. Twenty or more rode on great, black warhorses whose frightening eyes glowed red in the night.

  “What are those beasts?” Magnus thought aloud.

  “Delvion’s sorcery.”

  “Delvion the dragon slayer? He’s a sorcerer? Surely he’d be dead by now?”

  “He’ll not stop until he rules all of Allumbreve. He calls himself King of Allumbreve.”

  “Where’d you hear that?”

  “People talk. Gypsies in Nuyan talk of it. They travel through there all the time.”

  Magnus sighed, “I don’t trust a word those travelling gypsies say.”

  “Well, we can’t all be bred of the Ice Realm, Magnus.” Lucas’s tone was condescending.

  “Hey, I’m of the Fire Realm just as you are. There’s no difference between you and me. There never has been.” Magnus shook his head. Well at least he’s getting it off his chest.

  He looked again across the field. More Quagmen had appeared riding wyverns. Some took to the skies. One of the unaccompanied wyverns flew to the ground just before the house and landed on the old horse-cart. It kept its large, bat-like wings spread wide and arched its head up, screeching into the night sky. It made Magnus and Lucas jump. They both scuttled backward into the Crescent Woods.

  “I can’t see my mother, Magnus,” Lucas said.

  Magnus scanned the field one last time but couldn’t see Sarah. Was she captured? Was she killed? “I cannot see her either. But she said to keep moving and not look back. She wouldn’t want us caught, Lucas.”

  Lucas squinted, looking desperately for his mother. Magnus knew the Quagmen would advance across the field to the house and most likely burn it as they had his own. From here, he assumed the wyverns would track him, as they no doubt had to Lucas’s house. They had to keep moving. Magnus stood up and grabbed Lucas by the shoulder.

  “Come Lucas, we’d best be off.”

  Lucas looked at Magnus. Fear was in his eyes. “What if they have her? What if they have Father as well?”

  Magnus was lost for words. He had the same concerns for his own parents. It appeared now the imminent danger of their situation had finally dawned on Lucas. “Then all we have is each other. And we need to get help!”

  Magnus pulled Lucas to his feet and they scurried back to the horses. He could feel Breona breathing hard. Her emotions raced through his mind as though they were his own. He was surprised at the ease with which she communicated with him now. She was eager to get moving.

  “Let’s go.” Lucas snapped out of his daze. He led the way through the woods. “We’ll be clear of the trees in a few hundred feet.”

  They charged through the trees as fast as they dared in the darkness. Not a word was spoken as they reached the clearing at the eastern borders of the woodlands. Magnus peered out across the divide that would take them on to the Nuyan River. There was nothing ahead but the flat plains that formed the eastern part of Ganister’s lands. They were several miles north of where Magnus crossed with Catanya earlier that day. It was an hour’s journey at a casual trot, so he figured it would take half that at a sustainable gallop. A long time to be exposed in the open, Magnus considered. Once they had been seen, there would be no option but to run. If they could make it to the river they would have the cover of the hanging willows that ran along its banks this far north.

  “The longer we hesitate, the greater the chance of them finding us,” Lucas said. Magnus agreed. They charged out of the woods and across the moonlit field. The ground here was hard and uneven. They skittered across patche
s of flint that echoed the strikes of the horses’ hooves across the field. Magnus cringed and begged for the anonymity of silence.

  They progressed across the plain, their easterly direction becoming more northerly to distance them from trouble. They would cross the Nuyan River to the north, near the quarry. Magnus knew they could find refuge in the quarry’s carved out tunnels and deep fissures. He hated to bring trouble to Catanya’s people, the thought of which led to another dreadful thought—What if the Uydfer folk are also under attack? Magnus was consoled by the thought that Catanya would be half way to the Romghold by now. As for her family and the folk of Nuyan, they were strong in number and would soon band together to mount a defence more effectively than his or Lucas’s family could, or any of the other sparsely populated areas at the margins.

  Magnus was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of a shrieking wyvern. He turned and saw its dark shadow circling overhead to the south. Magnus turned to Lucas, who reached for his sword, fastening its leather belt around his waist. Magnus turned back to watch the wyvern. It was no longer circling, but was motionless in mid air. He could hear the beating sound of its wings, keeping it suspended above the ground. Its head was focussed in one direction. There was no question—it had spotted them.

  Magnus and Lucas picked up their pace, veering apart from one another to distract the wyvern. After a long pause, the black serpent-like creature’s hover turned into a dive. It had chosen to follow Lucas. Magnus turned sharply back toward him, drawing his own sword out of the scabbard strapped to Breona’s saddle. The black beast came down on Lucas with an open jaw like a snake about to strike its prey. Magnus held his sword out in front of him. A white light shimmered its way from the blade collar to the tip of the sword without the need for a prompting spell. It distracted the creature for just a moment and Lucas, still charging his horse, swung his blade back, scoring the wyvern across the neck. It tucked its head in, letting out another shriek as it struck the ground and slammed into Lucas’s horse, sending the two animals and Lucas tumbling across the ground.