by Booth, John
Well that was entirely as clear as mud. I thought of Farolan and looked between the nearest pillars.
His image appeared before me and then all sorts of knowledge about the man flowed into my head. He was incredibly old, at least ten thousand years. He had spoken for the Elf Worlds since the first ever Conferences and been elected by the representatives to Chair the proceedings many times. There were hints of great battles in his youth, though who he was fighting with or for was not clear.
[Have you seen enough?]
“Yes, but I’ve been thinking about this. As we are going to confront him, we have to assume he will be prepared.”
[That is a certainty. I would not be surprised if he was watching us closely.]
“I’m going to put a shield around us before we hop. The shield is going to allow dragonfire out so you can defend yourself.”
My dragon nodded. [And your magic?]
“If it lets my magic out it may let their magic in. Dragonfire is different, it’s unique to dragons. I can adjust it to allow me to attack once we get there, but it gives you an instinctive defense.”
[Do it Jake, now, before I change my mind.]
So I did.
27. Time
One second we were in a house formed from living trees and bushes, the next we were in a grass-lined hollow. Mown grass at that, turf so well-tended that it felt like a mattress under my feet. The hollow was like a bowl, perfectly round. On its lip four large trees grew perfectly spaced like the points of a compass.
Wind howled around the barrier, above us clouds whipped from horizon to horizon at speeds that defied belief. When I looked closer the trees were shaking and moving, more like animals than plants. Even the daisies beyond my shield were turning to follow a sun that rapidly traversed the sky.
“Where’s Farolan?” I asked looking around. The hollow appeared to be empty, except there were sudden bursts of movement, too blurry to see. If ghosts moved at high speed, that might be what I saw.
[We appear to have fallen into an Elven trap.] Fluffy nudged me with his nose. [Can you hop, because I have already tried to glim and cannot?]
I put my hand on his flank and attempted to hop us back to the BatCave.
“Obviously not.” Stepping away, I looked around.
The sun sank below the horizon and three moons rolled across the sky, looking for all the world like billiard balls on black baize.
I switched on my magical sight and closed my eyes. It was getting chilly in the dark and I shivered as I cast my gaze beyond the shield. There was nothing much to see. There were a few fast moving faint flashes of green light; they went so fast I wasn’t sure they were there at first. When I looked at a tree, green glows flashed on and off, as though someone with a torch was spinning around its trunk. But then it would have been a feeble torch by anybody’s standards.
There was an irritating buzz, which I only noticed now it was relatively quiet. The wind has died. I traced the noise to the shield. Someone was attacking it. The attacks were strange because they lasted for a fraction of a second, but there were many of them. The shield vibrated under them and that’s what was causing the hum. Even though the attacks were frequent and powerful the shield remained at full strength as did my reserves of magic.
Checking closer, that wasn’t quite true. It was as if the reserves had two levels and were flicking between them so fast that it created the illusion it was stationary.
A bright light shone in my eyes and I opened them to find the sun was up again and moving higher in the sky.
“This world must be spinning like a top,” I informed Fluffy. “I’m surprised we aren’t flung off it into space.”
[I doubt that is what is happening. I have an idea, but it will take a few more days to confirm it. That should be no more than ten minutes.]
It should? Right? So my dragon was off his head. I’d expected it to take longer. As he was going to be no help, I went back to considering the problem my shield presented. If I opened it the slightest amount, whatever was attacking it would get through and kill us. So I couldn’t open it enough to use magic. However, I might be able to extend it outward. That might cause a problem for whoever was attacking us.
By the time I’d concluded that I couldn’t move the shield because a powerful magic was holding it in place, the sun had appeared and reappeared several times. I gathered up magic outside the shield, something which turned out to be surprisingly easy. There seemed to be an amazing amount of it out there. However, though I could gather it, it ignored my commands to turn into anything real. There was something very like a magic dampening field around us, preventing me from using it.
[We are in a time field. Time for us is moving much slower than outside. At least a hundred times slower, perhaps more. Several days have past on the outside since we were imprisoned in here.]
I thought Fluffy must be pulling my leg. Magic couldn’t affect time.
“How can you possibly know that?”
My dragon put his head close to mine as if to whisper, which was silly because he was telepathic and the best you could get out of him sound-wise was either a roar or a meep.
[I have been trying to contact the Dragons. While I can sense they are still there, I cannot talk with them. I have received several squeals, which I believe are messages sent too fast for me to understand.]
I absentmindedly scratched the scales on his head in the place he loves. “I don’t buy it. Time can’t be changed by magic.”
[There is another piece of evidence, which is why I waited before telling you.]
He stopped, for some reason hesitant to continue.
“Go on then.”
[The grass beyond the shield is growing at a prodigious rate, to us at least.]
A quick glance confirmed the grass was the same length as the grass within the shield, possibly even a little shorter. “I don’t see it?”
[They have cut it three times while we have been in here. They move very fast compared to us. However, I believe they are also using magic to prevent us seeing them.]
This was something I could test. I hunkered down and kept a close eye on the grass just beyond the shield. As Fluffy said, I could see it growing. The blades soon reached an inch in length and then were suddenly all a quarter inch tall. Case proved; I have a clever dragon, but then I’ve always known that.
Okay, he wasn’t insane. A quick debrief on what I’d found out followed. Several days passed outside during the process even though I was being as quick as I could about it.
[Your magic is unaffected by the time bubble around us. Though they are trying to wear you down, your magic capacity is immense and is replenishing as fast as they attack us.]
“How do we get out?”
Fluffy shook his head. [There is no way I can see that would work. If you drop your shield, they will kill us long before we can do anything offensive. Even if I use my dragonfire through the shield, it will provide at most a moment’s distraction. They will have time to counter it before we have the time to capitalize on it.]
“What about the green glow around the tree?”
[If I didn’t know better, I would say you are seeing elf auras. I don’t have that capability and you’ve never shown any talent for it.]
“Your aura is a lovely shade of red that compliments your scales.”
Fluffy grinned and little drops of flame fell from his mouth.
[You have been holding out on me, again.]
“I’ll tell you about it later.”
I thought quickly. A couple of weeks must have passed since we entered the elves world and I knew Esmeralda and Jenny would be furious with me. We had to move fast or my kids would be born without me. “The trees must be where they are directing the magic from. I can do something about that, but I need one of those momentary distractions you were talking about to kill their dampening field for long enough to make it work.”
Fluffy looked dubious. [The elves are powerful magic users. It is unlikely you can ge
t do anything against them in so short a time.]
“I’ve figured out who made the Knights of Justice’s amour and swords. It must have been a wizard like me. I think I can make anti-magic.”
Fluffy shook his head again. [It does not matter. They are too far away. Perhaps that is why they made this hollow so large, to be able to take on and defeat the Knights?]
“I don’t intend to send it at them from here. When I say ‘now’ I want you to squirt dragonfire at one of the trees. It doesn’t matter which one. Try to make the burst as short and powerful as you can.”
[We certainly don’t have anything to lose.]
I ignored his pessimism. What I intended to do would not be easy and I needed to concentrate. On the other hand, with time travelling so fast relative to us, it would be no trouble at all to gather the necessary magic from the ether. I’d already proved that. In point of fact, this plan wouldn’t work at all if we were living in normal time.
Sitting lotus fashion on the grass, I began to gather magic at the trees. Four large bundles of magic to use against them. I’d observed anti-magic in action. I knew what it looked like when it touched the real thing. It is impossible to describe what I planned to do to the magic when the time came, because there aren’t the words. ‘Turn it inside out and coat the tree with it,’ is about the closest I can get.
I started willing the magic to change. If there was a break in the field, by the time I saw it, it would be too late. I had to issue the command continuously and hope the break happened.
“Now.”
Fluffy spurted an incredibly concentrated burst of flame. The leading edge of it passed through the shield and time juddered. I saw three elves at the tree I was looking at, each pressing their hands against the trunk as if to gain strength from it. My command became reality. There was another time judder like a few missing frames in a movie and then the world flickered back to normal time.
At first it looked as though the elves were falling into the tree. Then I saw they were dissolving against it. The parts of their bodies touching the tree were turning to dust. They screamed piteously as they fell. I spun around and saw it was the same at all the trees, dying elves in the process of being annihilated by the anti-magic I’d created.
This was not what I’d intended. Elves must become pure magic as the centuries go by, what I’d done was restore their bodies to what they’d be without it. I felt sick and tried to puke on the grass, but nothing came out.
[It is done, Jake. They were trying to kill us and have paid the price.]
Dragons don’t think like humans. Sometimes I forget that.
“Farolan.”
[Climb on my back. I will glim us to his home.]
His house was as beautiful as it was empty. Elf houses are grown from plants and trees and they are living. I’d seen one of these before, built by Wenna on one of the elves’ hidden worlds. They must have helped her, because this one looked familiar. Tightly woven branches formed door and window frames, while bushes provided a densely packed door that would split down the middle if you pushed through. The walls of the house were tree trunks distorted as if they were putty to rectangular shapes, but still with bark and still alive. Even the furniture was living.
“Farolan you bastard. Show yourself.”
[We must go to where he is. Can you remember his image well enough?]
“Burnt into my brain.”
I created his form in my mind and bounced it down the hopscotch court; then we followed it as he disappeared.
We found ourselves hovering a few feet above a vast platform that looked as though hollowed from the trunk of a tree the width of a football stadium. The platform curved downwards to form the bowl of an amphitheater lined with thousands of chairs.
The chairs were like thrones as each was a living tree, grown into a chair shape. A small circle of green turf surrounded each of the chairs. They pointed down to a central circle where fifteen people sat at a round table. The table, and the chairs that surrounded it, appeared to be the only things made from hewn wood. They were brightly polished and the table surface shone with reflected sunlight. There was no roof to the amphitheater. Above us a few white clouds broke up an otherwise blue sky.
A woman elf stood up and spoke to us. She was slender like all the elves and agelessly beautiful. She smiled warmly as though we might be honored guests rather than enemies. Some trick of acoustics made it possible for us to hear her without her shouting, though we were at least a hundred yards away.
“Welcome Dragon Retnor and Wizard Morrissey. Since you have shown a capacity to kill our nobility it appears we must now make peace, not war. Will you not join us at the negotiation table?”
28. Uncovered
[Be careful, Jake. Remember what I told you about the Elves.]
I nodded, though since I was still riding Fluffy he probably didn’t see me. We glided down above the chairs until he made a perfect two point landing in front of the table. In some way the table had grown, because there was room for the two of us and a new chair had appeared for me. Fluffy would sit on his haunches beside me
The table’s shape had changed. It was now U shaped with Fluffy and I at the straight end. I affected not to notice the changes as I didn’t want them thinking I was unsophisticated. Fluffy, however, seemed to find it highly amusing. He laughed, with inevitable consequences.
Flames bounced across the table, except that most of them fell straight through it as though it wasn’t there. The table was largely an illusion. None of the elves made any attempt to dodge the flames, which went out when they got too close. I assumed they were probably used to sitting at tables with dragons.
Sitting on the chair I pulled it up to the table. The elves, who had stood up when we landed, sat down again and looked grave. This was my first chance to weigh them up and I ran my eyes over them somewhat self-consciously, as they all stared back at me
They looked very like each other. Tall, thin to the point of looking stretched, especially in the face and most especially ageless. I noticed there were no fat or short people among them.
“My name is Elissia of the Gall Clan,” the woman who had spoken earlier said in a serious tone. “Rather than give you the names of the members of the council, they will introduce themselves as they speak. I hold the Chair at this time. The Chair is rotated among us, changing every fifty years or so. Our calendar is not the same as yours so time scales are only approximate.”
One of the men leaned forward. Though he spoke softly it was as though each word was carved from a solid block of ice.
“Garolan of the Sunna Clan, at your service. You have killed a dozen elders this day. People who have earned the respect we gave them. What gives you the right to murder them?”
[They were trying to kill us. Feel lucky I am not a Dragon Elder or I would be demanding a cull of their clans in reparation.]
Wow, when did my dragon grow a pair that size? I decided to stay out of it as he seemed to have everything under control.
“The decision to terminate you was Farolan’s,” Elissia said sweetly. “Perhaps he should explain his actions to the council.”
She looking over to the fourth man on her right and I realized with a start that it was Farolan. The elves looked so much alike that I hadn’t spotted him. He smiled at Elissia in a friendly way.
“Farolan, Representative of the Elves. Though, of course, we have already met.” He waved in our direction. “The human wizard is a threat to all. He has convinced the Dragons through base deception that he is the Wizard of the Prophesy, though even they sought his death when he betrayed us to the Valhallans.”
[THE DRAGONS ARE NOT DECEIVED. HE IS THE ONE.]
It seems the Dragon Leader had tapped into Fluffy and the conversation. The elves identified the new presence and some of them gave small bows.
“You grace us with your presence, Galator. But can you really be sure that this child is the one?” Elissia asked.
[WE CAN AND WE ARE.]
> Farolan smiled thinly. “The Dragons are mistaken, but it is of no matter. I promised not to attack the wizard. Yet he and his tame dragon assault us within our own worlds and seek our destruction.”
[Who are you calling a TAME dragon?]
I stood up, mainly to stop Fluffy from leaping over the table and eating Farolan. I’d never heard him sound so angry. My hand on his flank seemed to calm him. Time to stick my oar in.
“You sent the Knights of Justice against me and I was forced to kill most of them. You sent the Braton Stars against me and millions died. You sent the Fedre against me and millions could have died, too many people did that day, including a good friend. You sent your own people against me and a dozen elders have died so far. Their deaths are on your hands, not mine.”
I was trembling with rage by the time I finished. The elves looked unexpectedly cowed, as if a kitten had roared like a tiger and shown his teeth.
“The Braton Stars are a great loss. Many of our worlds are no longer protected by their husbandry of our suns.” Elissia spoke with such sadness that I felt my anger slide away. It’s difficult to maintain a rage against those equally hurt by what had been done.
“Jaston of the Trell Clan. Farolan has acted within the authority delegated to him by this Council. Are his actions that dissimilar from those that any one of us would have done?”
There were murmurings and nods from most of the Council. It appeared that killing wizards was all in a day’s work for a good elf councilor.
[Let us slit Farolan’s throat and we shall say no more on this matter.]
I looked at my dragon in astonishment. That tame jibe must have really got to him.
“Impossible,” Elissia said sharply. “Whether we agree with him or not, he acted on the Elves behalf and is therefore under the Council’s protection.”
[Then we will accept the deaths of the members of the Council in reparation. Since as you have pointed out, you take full responsibility for his actions.]
Maybe I should eat more roast lamb? I didn’t think for a minute that Fluffy actually meant it, but he was one hell of a strong negotiator.
