by AJ Martin
Matthias nodded. “I hope so. They may be checking nearby towns to see if she is alive, and if so, to make sure that she isn’t for long. Which also means the sorcerers are worried she is still a threat.”
“They think she can kill the dragon?” Luccius asked.
“Perhaps. Or that she can stop whatever it is they are really up to besides releasing Sikaris. We need to find her before they do.”
“You are sure that she survived this attack you described?” Emary asked. “From what you told me, you are lucky to be alive yourselves. If she was in the building that exploded…”
“She’s alive,” Matthias nodded. “I know she is. Don’t ask me how, but I just know it.”
“You have a great deal of faith in this girl, wielder,” Emary said. She patted him on the back. “We will find her.”
Matthias nodded. “We will. Emary, please go with Luccius and ask around town again if anyone has seen someone bearing Josephine’s description in the last few days. I’m going to see if I can get us some horses to ride!”
The Depths of Sorrow
152nd Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
Rain lashed the windows of King Arwell’s chambers. The dark clouds blotted out the sun and cast a shadow on his solemn face as he stared into the fire. Behind him, Captain Tiberius stood to attention with what was blatantly apparent difficulty. He had arrived back in the city less than an hour earlier and his chest heaved beneath his brown, leather tunic with the effort of traversing the hotch – potch scaffolds with haste. His face was red and his clothes and hair sodden.
“How can you be certain this report is accurate?” the king asked him, his voice wavering, reviewing a clearly hastily scribbled parchment in his hands. He held the paper up, his fingers crinkling the delicate vellum. “This man abandoned his post in Crystal Ember. How trustworthy can the man be if he will run from his duty?”
Tiberius cleared his hoarse throat. “Your Grace, were I confronted with the horrors that the guard described, I would run just as fast as he did. The man was in the fortress only a few minutes before the dragon destroyed it. He left to help put out the fires in the city and then, in an instant…” the man stopped and swallowed. “He said the building was engulfed in a maelstrom of flame. The rocks melted with the heat of it.” He shook his head. “If he stayed he would have been burnt to ashes. He confirmed that Princess Josephine was with the protector on the battlements when the creature struck the building.” The king turned away from him to the window. The mid - morning sunshine peaked through the clouds. “I rode back as fast as I could. The devastation I have seen, even so far from the ruined capital, is extreme. Entire towns have been burnt from the map. I cannot see how anyone could have survived an attack like that.” He kneeled. “I am so sorry, my old friend.”
The king shook his head. “I want to see this destruction for myself,” he advised heatedly. “I can’t believe what you tell me is true!”
“Your Grace, it would be too dangerous for you to go anywhere near Olindia. No - one knows where the creature will strike next. You are safest here.”
“I won’t rest until I know for certain that Josephine…” he trailed off.
Tiberius nodded. “I understand Your Grace. But do you not trust me to have been your eyes in this? Would I have exaggerated the situation? No good can come from travelling into the eye of the storm.” He licked his lips. “My king, your daughter… your daughter is dead.”
Arwell took a deep breath. “A son can bear the loss of his father, when it comes from old age. But for a father to lose his daughter…” he began to sob. “And I let her go! I threw her into death’s path!” He wailed in sorrow, and fell back against the hearth of the fire, striking the mantelpiece heavily with his back.
Tiberius stood and grasped his friend by the shoulders as he hunched over in front of his eyes. “You did what you thought to be right for everyone!” he said.
“But not what was good for her! I let her be used as a tool!” he dribbled. “I have lost everything!”
The man cried until the tears would not come any longer. The captain remained by his side as the hours passed in a blur of sorrow. The day had almost ended, the twilight setting in, when the king spoke more calmly.
“It has been less than a month since news of the dragon reached us. It has already killed thousands of people. It has rent from me my only child.” His teeth gritted and his eyes, still flooded with tears, burned with a lustrous resolve. “It will not kill any more of our own, captain. I will have its head mounted above this mantel and its fleshy body torn to shreds and fed to the pigs! Raise every able - bodied man and put a weapon in his hand. Tell every outpost to ready trebuchet, cannon- anything they can muster. We will end that beast if it sets one claw on to my soil. I will torture it the way it now tortures me until it can bear no more!”
Tiberius nodded. It will be done, my king.” He turned for the door. “If I can do anything else my friend-”
“Just see to it that when the creature comes here, which it will when it desires us, we will have it destroyed. The last dragon will die by my hand as the last of my line has died by his.”
Past Times
154th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
Emperor Chalize of Aslemer stood admiring the painting that now hung opposite his bed, his naked body covered only by a woollen bisht that lay casually open at its front. He rubbed his shaved head as his dark brown eyes picked over every stroke of the brush on the canvas.
“Do you know what this painting portrays?” he asked the woman who lay naked atop the silken bed - sheets behind him. She was of middling years, her tanned shape slender, but with wide hips and short legs. She stirred from her position and shifted until she lay on her front, legs sticking up behind her, and propped her head on her hands.
“It looks like a coronation to me,” she said, and then pointed with a hand. “That man is signing in a new emperor.” She smiled. “Tell me, am I right?”
Chalize smiled, and shook his head. “I am afraid not, my dear.” He gestured to the man pictured holding a quill, scratching words into a scroll. “That is my father, signing the treaty which ratified Ishlamarian independence from Aslemer, some fifty years ago. The man standing over him is the Ajaw of Ishlamar, gloating over his success.”
The woman scowled. “Why would you have a picture showing your father’s defeat hanging in your chambers?” she asked him.
“It is a reminder to me of how easily defeat can be thrust on to one so complacent,” he advised, scrutinising the painting. “It was seized by my armies eight months ago, when we reclaimed the Ishlamarian territories. They brought it to me last night. The artist is rather good, don’t you think?” He cast his hand over the canvas. “He captures the bitterness in my father’s eyes quite perfectly. And the weakness with which his rule was characterised is depicted in the limpness with which he holds the quill that signed away half of our rightful land.”
“You don’t think much of your father?” she asked him.
“The greatest achievement my father accomplished was when he let out his last breath and passed the rule of Aslemer into my hands,” Chalize snorted, and turned to make his way back to the bed. The woman shifted again until she was on her knees and slid her hands into his robe, caressing his hips and staring up to his clean-shaven face.
“I have seen what fine work those hands can accomplish,” she smiled and kissed his navel.
The man laughed. “Talia, had I known quite how eloquent you could be I would have taken you from your place as a serving woman years ago,” he commented, stroking her hair. “But you kept yourself so quiet and timid in my presence.”
“Is that not how everyone should be in your company, My Lord?” she asked him. “I was content to wait until you noticed me.”
“Well I am glad I have,” he responded. “For many reasons.”
She smiled coyly. “Does your wife not tend to those needs, My Lord?” she asked.
“That
need not concern you,” he said dismissively. “My wife is the mother of my children and that is all. She has not graced my bed -sheets for many cycles.”
The door to the chamber suddenly rattled heavily with a fervent knocking. Chalize pulled the bisht closed and tutted irritably, beckoning entrance. A short man in a cream robe skittered into the room clumsily like a cat on a polished floor towards them, his fearful brown eyes darting to the naked form of Talia who did little to cover her modesty.
“Emperor! Please beg my pardon!” he chattered, cheeks flushing beneath a thick, black beard that covered most of his face aside from his bulbous nose that stuck out like a doorknob beneath his eyes.
“Sobril, you are like a constant shadow to me. What could possibly be so important that you interrupt my morning and come stumbling in here like a drunken pleb?” the emperor growled.
The man shook with nervous energy. “I bring news from your spies in Olindia. Incredible news,” the man said, and stopped.
Chalize waited a moment, before shrugging. “Well? Are you going to tell me? Or must I guess?”
The man’s face seemed startled, as if he had just remembered what he had come into the room for. He nodded. “Yes. I mean no, no My Lord! It is Crystal Ember, Emperor Chalize. It has been reduced to ashes. Near destroyed, they say!”
Chalize was so surprised he took a step back. “What are you talking about?" he challenged the man. "How?”
"They say it is the work of the dragon! That he has been released!”
Chalize’s eyes would have widened yet more, were it not physically impossible. “The Great Dragon Sikaris? That's not possible.”
“Yet the accounts are quite specific. It can be no other creature alive today,” Sobril sputtered.
Chalize shook his head in disbelief. “When did this happen?”
“Two weeks prior or thereabouts, emperor.”
Chalize sniffed. “Good to see my spies are keeping me so well informed about current events,” he mocked. “Two weeks is old news.”
“They say civilians are fleeing from as far as Tren Dryska. Many are heading to Aslemer’s borders. The creature has been burning a path from Crystal Ember since it escaped all across Olindia. Or so I am led to believe."
Chalize turned away from him, and seemed to recall Talia's presence on the bed. "It would be best if you left me now, Talia," he advised her. Her face shifted to one of frustration and she pouted at him.
"But we were having so much fun, My Lord," she argued.
Chalize walked over to where her gown sat in a pile on the floor and picked it up, passing it to her.
"A hazard of being the emperor, my dear, is that sometimes you have to ignore what you want to do and focus on what must be done." He smiled. "I will send for you again soon."
“You had better,” Talia said silkily. Then she dressed quickly and slipped out of the room, flashing a provocative smile back at the emperor as she did. When she had closed the door, Chalize turned his attention back to Sobril.
“Lovely woman,” he commented. “Don’t you think?”
Sobril flushed. “I - I suppose, My Lord.”
“Anyone would thing you had been castrated with a lack of interest like that,” the emperor sniffed.
“I live only to serve you, My Lord,” the man advised. Chalize pursed his lips. “Hmmm. Of course you do.” He walked over to a small, wrought - iron table with a tray sitting atop it and poured himself a drink. “I need you to send for the wizard, Sobril," he instructed, his face becoming grave as he thought. "I have a feeling that he may have had a part to play in this. If that is so, I want to find out why.”
It was an hour later - when Chalize had migrated to his study- that the doors to the room swung inwardly and Sobril shuffled back into the room, followed by the tall, sinewy form of the sorcerer Silar. The man’s robes swept across the marble floor as he approached the monstrously large desk that the emperor sat behind. He bowed heavily.
“Good afternoon, my Lord Emperor,” he gestured. Chalize eyed the man silently, his hands laid flat on the desk. “Is there something wrong, My Lord?”
"Is there truth to the rumours?" Chalize asked gravely without elaborating.
“Rumours, my Lord?" Silar ventured.
"The dragon!” Chalize growled. “Do not pretend to be ignorant of the hearsay! The grapevine is heavy with fruitful gossip that he has been freed!"
"Ah yes, that rumour,” Silar nodded casually.
"Well? Is it true?”
"The creature has been released from its prison," Silar confirmed.
"My gods!" Chalize jumped up from the desk and strode around its length to confront the man. "Is this your doing?" He asked, looking the man in the eye. “Do not lie to me, for I will know!”
"I had a hand in it," Silar advised.
"Why?" The emperor growled. "What possible advantage would letting that beast free achieve for a wizard like you? It will destroy everything in its path!”
“There are many advantages to be seen, emperor. Not all of them are visible with the eyes.”
Chalize looked puzzled and frustrated. “Do you think riddles are a good way of stilling my anger towards you right now? I took you in, gave you a place to call your home! You owe it to me to keep me informed of your actions! To tell me what I need to know.”
"The dragon is content with laying waste to Olindia," Silar advised. “There is no need for concern, I can assure you.”
"And when its tastes change? When there is nothing left of Olindia still to burn? What then?"
"You must trust me," Silar replied.
"Trust you?" Chalize snorted. "When you do this without consulting me?"
"Have I not helped you so far? Has my influence not extended your reach into lands you could only dream of acquiring before? I have your interests at heart. This is my homeland now. Would I really let it come to harm, after all you have given me?”
Chalize looked at him askance. "Perhaps if it meets your needs.” He grimaced. “You have crossed a line in doing this without asking me first. You are here at my pleasure, which I will tell you, is starting to wane.”
Silar, taller of the two of them, looked down his hawk - like nose at the emperor with his impassive stare. After a pause, he nodded and smiled. "Very well, My Lord,” he said, and knelt on one knee before him. “I offer you my sincere apologies. I overstepped the mark.”
“Yes. You did,” the emperor replied. “But fortunately for you, I am a man of compassion.” He smiled. “I might forgive your sleight, but in order to do so, you must tell me the truth of why you have done this.”
Silar rose again and nodded. “I will tell you why I released the dragon." He paced across the floor as he spoke. "I released the creature to facilitate the conditions needed for Olindia's downfall.” Chalize looked confused. “It's final defeat. The country will be crippled beyond repair in a few short weeks." He raised his hands. "I have done this so that your armies can invade Olindia and take their land."
Chalize looked surprised. "You did this to expand my empire?" he asked. Silar nodded.
“I did. Though I would be lying if I were to tell you I did so for purely selfless reasons. As you know, there is another wizard in Olindia who has abandoned Mahalia.”
“Balzan,” Chalize nodded.
“He has been a threat to me ever since I fled Mahalia. He has been the key to their successes against you. His power needed to be broken. By releasing the creature, Olindia’s government will crumble and Balzan with it. With you in control of Olindian territory, my position away from Mahalia is strengthened.”
“But… the dragon does not discriminate between soldier or civilian. What of the women and children? The innocents?"
"Those innocent women give birth to the soldiers of tomorrow. They teach them to hate Aslemer. There are no innocents, My Lord."
"And what of stopping the dragon, when he has finished laying waste to Olindia?” Chalize asked. "When it has finished with them, it will come for us!
”
“If it comes to that, I will call the beast off."
Chalize’s eyes widened yet further. “But all the legends say the beast was untameable. If that is not the case, then why has it not been freed sooner, or destroyed, or used as a pawn in some other wizard’s plans? How strong must you be to do this, which all others have failed to do for four centuries?”
Silar nodded. “I understand this is confusing to you. I have kept my methods a secret for good reason, but to claim I have the ability alone to free the beast…” he shook his head. “I could only wish for such power! I have been working with other wizards who have fled: men in hiding who hate Mahalia and the current state of affairs just as much as I do. But believe me when I say the dragon can be stopped. He is a tool. A difficult one to tame, but one we can call off when necessary,” he lied.
Chalize weighed his words. “These other wizards. How can you be sure they share your endgame? And your reasoning for the release of the dragon is flawed Silar. With Balzan gone, the only barrier to their influence in Olindia removed, then Mahalia will surely be strengthened in the west! He was a bastion of defence against their intrusions.” The emperor shook his head. “How can this possibly all work to my interests?”
“Because you have me at your side, emperor. You have resisted Mahalia’s interference alone, admirably, for years. But with me by your side, we can control both Aslemer and Olindia, and cut off the wizards’ strength yet further! We can move on across Triska, conquering other lands, driving them back, until their influence will dwindle! Half of the strength of my people lies in their influence in the world! Without that control of Triska, they will be impotent.”
“It is the other half that can wield the earth power that is of greater concern to me,” Chalize mused.
“You have an army of mages!” Silar balled his hand into a fist. “Creatures just as skilled in using the energies of this world as them! The wizard’s are afraid of them. That is why they do not challenge Aslemer further than they have done so far. It is why I fled here, instead of Olindia. You are superior to them, in so many ways!”
