by P D Ceanneir
Havoc and Bleudwed regarded him with glum faces. Gunach’s smile faltered and his amused countenance darkened when he frowned. Havoc explained as much as he could, whilst at the same time being very conscious of Darus behind him who was listening in obvious confusion.
‘Aprilia! Aprilia was here?’ he cried as he looked up at the hole in the roof. Everyone was conscious of the fact he used the original name for the dragon.
The king nodded as he finished. Gunach, an old friend of the dragon, was looking very upset.
‘One life goes and another takes its place,’ he mumbled.
Everyone in the room looked at the dwarf questionably. Gunach sighed, ‘Kervunder, I think you had better come and see this,’ he said with lump in his throat and left without waiting for them to follow.
Gunach and his small band of dwarves had been the first to see Ciriana above the Havant Temple. He recognised her movements in the air as she carried out a recurring search pattern and his curiosity piqued. He watched her break in through the roof of the temple and decided to find out what she was in such a rush to find.
He now took Havoc and Bleudwed through the corridors of the earthquake-damaged rooms on the third floor and found Cinnibar’s private quarters. There, at the back of the shattered room, was the anti-chamber with its fire-blackened walls of blistered plaster.
‘Ciriana was looking for something and I think this is it!’ explained Gunach excitedly as he pointed to a lump of melted brass with a large whitish egg shaped thing poking out of it.
Bright blistered bubbles covered its surface, all of the same size and appearance, silver white and smooth.
‘This must be the Cloud Orrinn that we have heard so much about,’ said Havoc. ‘Tia told me of this room many times, yet the Orrinn is not like her description of it.’
‘That is because it has been burnt by a dragon,’ said Gunach, ‘and there is only one reason for Ciriana to do that.’
Havoc and Bleudwed looked at the dwarf and frowned.
‘It’s not an Orrinn,’ said Gunach finally.
They all jumped as a creaking noise came from the blistered orb. The top of it moved up then down and something squawked from inside it. They all stood back quickly as the top half burst open and the white blisters separated to fall to the floor as individual pieces of familiar stones that shone with bright white light.
‘Lobe Stones,’ gasped Bleudwed, ‘they’re all Lobe Stones, then this must be…’
Something poked its head out over the rim of the shell. A white head with a long snout full of sharp little teeth and a row of bristling spines down its back, popped over the rim of the shell. It mewled as it’s reptilian eyes opened and looked directly at the king as he moved closer for a better look. It stretched out one wrinkled white wing, which had a mottled light blue colour at the edges.
Havoc rubbed its snout and, in response, it purred like a cat.
‘A dragon egg, the Cloud Orrinn was the missing dragon egg, Ciriana has been looking for all her life,’ explained Gunach, ‘this is her son.’
Epilogue
I
Happy Ever After
The Rings of Carras on the last days of summer.
‘S
o, the Blacksword gave his life to save yours?’ Bleudwed asked Havoc as they stood, hand in hand, in the stone circle on the Isle of Carras. The sun beat down clear and bright, with a light west wind blowing in from the Banding Sea. Birds called and swooped over the long green grass. On the far side of the ring of stones sat a shrine, which comprised of a table of marble, elaborately decorated bluestone pillars flanking each side and the Gredligg Orrinn, with SinDex still embedded from top to foot inside the famous orb. The king had it removed from Sonora and placed inside the circle of it’s creation for safety. Dozens of Carras Knights stood outside the stone ring facing outwards, each knight tasked with guarding the shrine with their lives.
‘Yes, I think he knew what would happen. He obviously figured out that his sacrifice was needed in the end and knew that his death would not be mine.’ The fleeting memories of the smashed city and the strange alien girl they had both shared were now just a distant fuzzy image and he wondered what it all meant. For some reason, it had provoked a response in the Blacksword that made his decision clearer. ‘The same could be said for Sernac and Darus,’ he added.
Darus had no memory of the years after his beloved wife’s death in the last battle with the Sept of Red. He had lain dormant inside the mind of Lord Sernac all of that time. Now the king allowed him to keep his old position as the Curator of the Tower of Sooth where he could keep an eye on him.
‘So I have a twin inside me then?’ said Bleudwed.
‘All humans do, although they remain asleep all their lives and only surface as subconscious thought. The Blacksword was nurtured to life by the My’thos, Sernac evolved from the touch of the Earth Daemon.’
The days after the end of the Dragon Wars were long and busy for Havoc. The citadel took several days to secure after the earthquake. Most of the Sonoran Guard held the palace, and it was proving difficult for Mad-gellan’s Nithi to take, until Powyss offered to talk to the guard’s commander. Powyss’s reputation as the guard’s former captain still held sway with the many senior officers of the regiment and they eventually surrendered to the king on the third day. Baron Jericho had an easier time in securing the large expanse of the docklands. Many foreign ships, still in the harbour, surrendered to the Paladin-knight and the Brethac war galleys that escaped found a barricade of Rogun ships commanded by Admiral Uriah. With nowhere else to run, these too quickly surrendered.
Havoc sent Sir Cort and the Princes Legion to Aquen after the Brethac commander there sent a message of surrender to the king several days after Sonora capitulated. Havoc had also summoned all of the island’s nobility to Sonora so they could ask for their lands and titles back by swearing fealty to him. They signed their names on a long roll of parchment called an Oath Taker with the Paladin-knights present to witness their acceptance of his monarchy and rule. However, this act revealed to him that either many of the Brethac Nobility had died in the war, or had left into self-imposed exile. Therefore, their lands were forfeit, his to control.
After the outright surrender of the Brethac nobles marking an end of the conflict, Countess Bleudwed felt it safe to journey home with the embalmed body of the Regent Morden. Sir Linth and Sir Whyteman accompanied her with a large entourage of Raiders and Falesti infantry sent by the Atyd Barnum. The whole of Caphun shared the grief of Morden’s widowed wife in a long state funeral, which stretched from the gates of the town to the lands of Triel inside the Eternal Forest. Havoc was present at the funeral, yet did not stay for long due to the obvious hate that Barnum radiated towards him. Barnum would never forgive the king for the part he played in Queen Bronwyn’s death.
After three months, the Rogun Army left Sonora and travelled to the Sky Mountains where everyone came to pay their respects to the late Lord Rett and the new Red Duke. Prince Magnus gave an affectionate speech about his uncle and was not ashamed to shed a tear as he told the story of the great warrior’s life.
Havoc’s mother was there to honour the late duke; Shanks accompanied her on the journey. Molna was still grieving for the loss of her husband but obviously relieved to find her son safe and well. She explained to him that Andric had plotted to overthrow him as soon as he returned to Aln-Tiss. Although, this was not entirely true, Molna had spread the rumour herself to weaken her cousin’s power within the citadel and have him placed under house arrest. Sometimes, Havoc thought to himself, his mother was just as politically ruthless as his father had been.
The triumphant return of the king and his victorious army to Aln-Tiss was a riotous occasion. The citizens lined the streets, flew flags and banners and the celebrations congested the streets throughout the city. Havoc and his Paladins rode through the towns of the citadel for a whole day soaking up the praises and accolades from the Rogun people.
Three days af
ter his return, a long solemn procession took the bodies of King Vanduke, Lord Ness, Sirs Foxe, Felcon and Velnour to the burial mounds on Carras Isle. Several of the Paladins recited heartfelt poems of friendship and there were eulogies given by the many minstrels singing of their bravery in battle. It was a sad day for all that came to that cold and windy isle.
A week later, Havoc was crowned King Havoc the First of the Roguns and the celebrations of that coronation went on for many days. The new king gave a speech, outlining his vision of a unified people, not Rogun, Vallkyte, Nithi, nor Hoath, but a nation of one people ruled by one king.
‘So the Dark Force of the Earth has finally been diminished, sent back to the Earth Mother?’ Bleudwed asked as a breeze ruffled her blonde hair.
‘Yes, now that the earth is strong enough to receive him, I think that’s how it works. As far as The My’thos god Hagan explained it to me, the Earth Shepherds tore him into smaller component parts and so his power as a single entity is dispersed and no longer a threat. All the planning of many millennia over in that one moment.’
Bleudwed nodded in understanding and then smiled at the dog-sized white dragon as he desperately tried to fly around them, flapping about in failure. His wings were far too small to take his weight, but they would grow. Havoc and Bleudwed spent many hours at night poring over old tomes and manuscripts about dragons, some dating back over two thousand years to the days of the Dragor-rix. They need not have worried about looking after the small creature, dragons were stubbornly independent and the hatchling seemed able to find food in the most inconspicuous places and even managed to break into the locked larders of the palace kitchens. He was so adept at hunting that Sir Cort had to double the rota for the palace groundsmen to keep the creature away from the kitchens.
The other interesting fact was the dragon’s constant disobedience. No matter what anyone said, he would totally ignore him or her, and do the complete opposite. The only one he would listen to was Havoc. They discovered, in one of the manuscripts written by the Elder Styx, that there was a link between dragon’s visual acuity and brain development, so a hatchling bonded with their parents through “visual imprinting”, which explained why the hatchling followed Havoc and obeyed his commands. He looked upon him as his Bonding-Father. This answered the question of how the three Brethac dragon hatchlings allowed riders on their backs.
This did not help with looking after a creature that was growing quickly and marking his territory in every room he visited by urinating and defecating. The king had a substantive paddock built to accommodate him, but he mewled and roared so loudly at night that it kept half the citadel awake. In the end, Gunach suggested taking him to the home of his mother when he was old enough to fly.
They both smiled as the dragon playfully wove around the legs of the Carras Knights as they stood absolutely still, holding their shields and spears steady as the hatchling chewed on their bases.
He was still too young and clumsy, and never left Havoc’s side for long.
‘Have you thought of a name for him yet?’ she said, indicating the dragon who they called Hatchling or Baby affectionately, but he needed a real name.
Havoc shrugged, ‘I was going to call him Cloud, how does that sound?’
‘Very apt,’ she nodded in agreement, as she watched the white and slightly blue dragon jump through the tall grass at the edge of the ring of stones.
‘Now let’s go,’ said the king, ‘as soon as I make you my queen the better.’
‘The wedding is next month Havoc,’ she scolded him.
‘I’m king now; I can bring it forward if I want.’
She giggled and kissed him. He kissed back, and for the briefest moment he thought he heard the faint whispered laugh of the Blacksword, not in his mind, for that was blessedly devoid of his twin now, but from the Muse Orrinn.
Haaaavvooooc... it sounded like the wind passing over the shrine, and yet…
‘What is it?’ Bleudwed asked when he broke the kiss and looked towards the Sword that Rules.
Havoc knew his twin was not dead. If the Muse Orrinn could keep his soul safe, then I could do the same for the Blacksword. The king smiled at the irony of the Champion of the My’thos quite literarily watched over the Book of Lost Souls.
‘Nothing,’ he shrugged, keeping his thoughts to himself and not wishing to worry his future wife. He looked into her eyes and grinned knowingly, ‘just my imagination, I think.’
They turned and left the circle, hand in hand, with the promise of a bright future ahead of them.
II
The Land of the Divine Children
K
ing Havoc’s dream came true a few years after his coronation. With the help of his mother, Queen Bleudwed and Sir Linth, the ratification of the new nation was finally passed through parliament with a majority vote. Havoc did away with the dual name of Tattoium-Tarridun and renamed the island Assassi-Al or the Land of the Divine Children. This met with much approval amongst the island natives, who had taken up the worship of the Old Gods many years ago and now learnt of the My’thos’s creation of man from the chroniclers that the king hired to tell the story of his adventures.
Assassi-Al was the largest, and most northerly, island of a string of fifty smaller atolls that circled out from west and east. These islands formed the chain known as the South Sea Horn. They were all part of a larger landmass that sat on the South Pole and mainly covered in a thick sheet of ice. This continent was Erndall, the Cold Land.
Natives of the Assassi-Al already inhabited most of the islands and gladly accepted inclusion and incorporation into the nation of the kingdom realm. Over time all the islands grew rich as trade increased, making Assassi-Al one of the most prosperous continents on the planet.
Erndall was colonised by the hardy dwarves of the Vale and the seafaring natives of the Hinterland. They soon discovered that under the ice there was a rich source of rare minerals, gems, coal and even oil, which they transported in huge cargo ships back to Assassi-Al.
However, it would be remiss of me not to chronicle the people who made all of these things possible and the continuing lives of the king’s friends in the aftermath of the Dragon Wars.
Sir Powyss, the Viscount of Zent
King Havoc rewarded his close friend Powyss of the Hoath with the Governorship of Sonora. He wished to give him a lordly title from his homeland. Unfortunately, distantly related to the Lord of the Hoath as he was, he had no rights to any titles or land. So a new nobility was created through the king’s heraldic commissioners, that of the Viscount of Zent.
The new Viscount rebuilt Sonora and returned it to its former glory as a shipping and trading port that still sent the continent’s riches to Tenk of Mubea and beyond. The Isle of Zent became his home. He had a modest sized castle built on it with a long bridge spanning across the harbour mouth to the mainland, the same bridge, Powyss realised, he had seen in a vision during the early years of the quest. Many veterans of the Sonoran Guard formed his own private Regiment of Zent
He was to become a great ruler, a powerful magnate in the north, and very loyal to the king.
Lady Vara
Even though the house of Cromme Secondur was now extant, Havoc and Queen Bleudwed gave Vara back the title of the Countess of Sonora so she may stay within the patrimony of the new Assassi-al monarchy. She accepted it gladly, but never used it in public and never again set foot in the citadel. Instead, she continued to teach the children of the Rouge as the school’s headmistress; however, she missed her late husband and daughters every day. Fortune would have it that one day she fell in love with a handsome knight called Hylborn the White, the youngest son of Sir Cort, the High Steward. They met while Vara treated his wounds after in the Battle of Aln Plain years before, and they developed a close friendship. Sir Hylborn constantly visited her at the Rouge in the year that followed the Dragon Wars. They courted on and off for several months before marrying in secret at the Red Castle. Months later, Vara gave birth to their daug
hter, Erin, who was to inherit the title of the Countess of Sonora.
In the ruins of Dulan Castle, within the smashed walls of Dulan-Tiss, one of the Ternquin soldiers discovered King Hagan’s mummified head still inside its glass case, which was miraculously unbroken. Havoc and Magnus, along with Vara, took it to his crystal cairn on the hill overlooking the battlefield of the Dragersloth and had it interned with his body. Later that night Havoc had a dream about his Uncle Hagan and swore he saw him standing next to his bed with a grateful smile on his bearded face.
Molna, the Queen Mother, and Baron Telmar
Molna had found a true companion in Shanks after Vanduke’s death. The former baron had more good days than bad days of lucidness as he continued to meditate several hours a day using the techniques shown to him by the late Lord Ness to disperse any increase of Pyromantic Surges. The couple became inseparable in the years that followed as they stayed together in a large town house in Baronstown. Havoc never revealed the identity of Baron Telmar, even though many asked him who Shanks really was. The rumours of the Pyromancer’s whereabouts ventured into the realms of the fanciful and downright preposterous, and this amused Shanks no end. In later life he became an inspiring inventor, much like his father, Efron, and gave the citadel many technological advances and improvements.
Shanks died first, many years after the second civil war when he was incredibly old. It happened on a very cold and blustery day in winter after injuring himself badly from falling off his horse while racing Molna through the parklands that fringed Baronstown. Molna had him cremated and she kept the urn of his ashes safe until she passed away twenty years later. Havoc placed Molna, the Duchess of Carras’s earthly remains, beside her husbands, King Vanduke the First, inside the Royal Burial mounds.
