by Terry Spear
“Our dragons are joining them too?” the queen said, sounding as astounded as Viator felt.
“Should we leave well enough alone, or do you want us to see what’s going on?” Viator asked, planning to whether his mother agreed or not.
“You will keep me informed.”
“Aye, my lady mother.” Viator felt a great victory and didn’t wait for his mother to change her mind, but spread his wings and flew off for the castle. Balen went with him.
Viator remembered his mission was to investigate the memorial in the river, but when one mission had to do with his quest and one had to do with Eloria, he was off to find her first. Besides, she might be needed to help them find the other quests.
They passed over the memorial and he agreed with Eloria. It looked just like the symbol. They ended up flying with a group of dragons and for the first time, he felt intimidated by them because there were so many of them. And he wasn’t sure if they were in for a battle. Which meant the dragons were battling against the high elves, and the darkland elves needed to mind their own business. But he didn’t worry one bit about any flying predator coming after them this time either.
He was determined to ensure that Eloria was okay and take her away from all this if she was in trouble.
When they reached the courtyard, they saw Prince Zorak, his arms folded across his chest and he was talking to one of the dragons. “She’s human.” His face was red and he was extremely agitated. His guards were standing by his side, but no one dared to unsheathe their weapons.
Zorak glanced up to see Viator and Balen and raised his brows.
They waited for a couple of dragons to move aside to give them room to settle on the stone pavement.
“Zorak,” Viator said. “Eloria is one of you. Or half one of you. She came to see you about her heritage.” He glanced around, surprised Eloria wasn’t there. “Where is she?”
The dragon Zorak had been talking to growled at Zorak.
“In the dungeon. Bring her here,” Zorak ordered one of his guards.
The guard looked relieved to be leaving the courtyard.
“No way is she one of us. She’s human,” Zorak said.
“And she has magic.”
Zorak’s eyes widened.
Viator’s eyes narrowed. “Why did you lock her in the dungeon?” He couldn’t imagine she had given him any trouble, not when he didn’t even know she knew magic. It appeared she hadn’t even been able to tell him that she was probably one of them.
Then Zorak frowned. “I’ve seen her use magic. But…not because she’s a high elf. I don’t know what it was. No high elf can do what she can do. She wants to return Persephonice home. I won’t allow it.”
“She only wants to talk to her about what Persephonice’s father wants. She said she wouldn’t try to make her return with her.” Viator was totally exasperated with the high elf prince.
“I’ve destroyed the bracelets she had with her. So, no, she won’t be returning Persephonice to her father.”
“We think she was raised among dragons.”
Zorak’s mouth dropped open. Then he clamped his lips shut and looked around at all the dragons facing him, waiting for resolution.
“I suggest you don’t lock her in the dungeon any further.” Not that Viator believed he had to tell Zorak that, but he was irritated with the high elf prince for doing that to Eloria.
Then it seemed the hundred or so dragons looked up at the sky, making Viator and the other elves look that way. Viator squinted, trying to make out the dragon flying toward the castle. It. Couldn’t. Be. The rogue dragon who would not be tamed. Talom.
Zorak cursed under his breath. The dragon he’d been talking to called out to Talom in greeting. Several other dragons did as well. “Go, get the girl, now!” Zorak told his other guard, when the first one didn’t bring her up there quickly enough.
The second guard hurried inside the castle, looking relieved to be leaving the tension-filled courtyard.
“We think she has ties to the green wizard,” Viator said. “At least, he seems to speak to her in dreams.”
Zorak’s jaw dropped again. “No.”
“Aye. Do you know of her now?”
Zorak let out his breath. “One of our elves was a granddaughter of the green wizard. She’d found an injured human, a griffin about to make short work of him. She used her magic to kill the griffin and then called on a dragon to carry him to her lair. She was a protector of dragonlings, a dragon keeper, when they were hatched and their parents were off hunting for food. She used her magic to ward off predators. It’s a way for us to continue the bond between our kind and the dragons. She came from a long line of dragon keepers. No one is allowed in the dragons’ caves but the dragons and the dragon keepers. But this time, they made an allowance for Nesta’s human. She had lost her own mate two years earlier when he was trying to protect the dragonlings and was killed by a griffin. She fell in love with the human, George Cresthaven.”
Viator shook his head. “She told me her last name was Cresthaven.” Then he saw Eloria enter the courtyard with the guards, the one carrying her pack.
When she saw Viator and she rushed forward, Zorak quickly stepped out of her way as if he was afraid the dragons would take offense to his blocking her path to see the darkland prince.
Viator hurried to join her, belatedly hoping the dragon circling above them didn’t incinerate him for trying to reach Eloria. She threw her arms around Viator with enthusiasm and kissed him.
Balen had quickly joined them, as if he didn’t want to be associated with the elf who had put Eloria in the dungeon, but with the one who was hugging her. “Can I have a hug too?”
She looked at him, her expression troubled.
“So the dragons know I’m on your side.”
Then she smiled, released Viator, and gave Balen a hug too. “Does this mean I don’t need to call you by your title any longer?”
Viator laughed.
Balen didn’t answer. His title was all too important to him, and Viator was certain he was afraid if people heard a non-royal human calling him by his name and not his title, others would do so too.
Talom seemed to think everything was okay, circling, just waiting to see what would happen though.
Zorak quickly asked, “Will you dine with me?”
One of the guards handed Eloria’s bag to her.
“We have other business to attend to,” Viator said, not trying to give the prince the brush-off after what he’d pulled with Eloria, but he truly did want to accomplish his next quest. With Eloria.
“What are you going to tell your parents, if they learn you have disobeyed them again?” Balen asked Viator.
“That we settled the controversy with the dragons.” Viator smiled, then wrapped his arms around Eloria. “See you later, Zorak.”
Zorak didn’t look happy in the least. He was a crown prince too and someday would rule his own people, but he really messed up this time.
The two winged elves flew off and the dragons began to disperse. Talom followed the winged elves, and Viator hoped that wasn’t a bad sign.
“Thank you for coming to my aid,” Eloria called out to the dragon.
He dipped his head, acknowledging her statement, but he continued to follow them.
They flew to the green wizard’s memorial and Eloria said to Viator, “I’m glad I could go with you.”
“I’m glad you could too, but you and Balen need to let me do this on my own, whatever it is I must do.”
She agreed. “Of course. Balen can stay with me and watch over me and protect me while you’re doing your duty.”
Talom flew off as if he didn’t need to be there any longer, as if he knew the two winged elves were her protection. Viator still didn’t know what to think about that part of his quests. He was supposed to tame the dragon. It wasn’t Eloria’s duty to do so. The fact that the dragon wouldn’t land in the courtyard proved he was still wary of people. He’d never offered to allow Elor
ia to ride on him either, which would have shown how much he wanted to be her companion. Still, Viator believed he would have to find another dragon to tame to become his companion. Talom and Eloria had some kind of bond that he wasn’t about to try and break.
When he went to the door of the memorial, Balen took a seat on a bench there.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t go inside with you? We won’t do anything. But if this is a memorial to the green wizard, maybe he’ll appear to me here,” Eloria said.
Viator agreed. He really wanted to do whatever task needed to be done on his own, but he did want to keep her with him. He just felt that whenever she was out of his sight, she ended up in trouble. He glanced at Balen who was looking hopeful he wouldn’t be left outside, contemplating how he’d turn his wings completely invisible.
“Come on, Balen. Keep Eloria company while I do whatever needs to be done.”
He’d never been inside the memorial, and he had the thought that it might be sacrilegious to come in here, which had also made him believe that taking Eloria with them could be a good idea. Especially if she was related to the green wizard and he was continually keeping in touch with her. Viator again wondered what the gift was that the wizard had told Eloria about. He was thinking too about how Zorak had taken her bracelets from her that would be the only way she could communicate with her ship and return to her world. He hoped that Persephonice’s father wouldn’t send more people to try and locate his daughter and take her away from Dracolin.
Viator got the impression that her commander didn’t care what happened to Eloria. But Viator did. What would it be like to be married to a powerful, half-high elf who had the greatest dragon connections, and who seemed to care for him as much as he cared for her? His parents would have a fit. But they weren’t marrying her. He was. If she’d agree.
But then he thought, as he lit the lanterns inside the memorial and peered at the symbols on the green marble walls, if they had a baby, would he or she nest with the dragonlings? Would Eloria herself be called upon or feel the calling to become a dragon keeper? Would he be relegated to the role of joining her in the dragon’s caves? An honor, to be sure, but also a step down from his life in a castle.
“The symbols Eloria saw in her dreams, sire,” Balen practically whispered.
Eloria was walking around looking at each of them—the ten that she had seen in her dreams, the last one not pictured here.
When she reached the symbol of the coiled rope, her amulet glowed and the symbol on the wall responded with the same kind of green glow.
“There’s a button there. Maybe you have to push it in,” Balen said, pointing at the round button that matched the wall but had a slight gold ring around it.
“Or it could be a disaster.” Viator didn’t want to cause them any trouble, but he suspected Balen was right. He glanced at Eloria to get her agreement and she nodded. He depressed the button and nothing happened.
She continued to walk around the circle until her amulet flickered as she drew close to the symbol on the wall. Viator hurried around to where she was standing to push the button. She continued to circle around the room, locating the glowing symbols, and each time, Viator would push the corresponding button until he had pushed all ten. Nothing happened.
“The eleventh symbol must be here somewhere,” Eloria said.
“Why wouldn’t you have seen it? That’s what I don’t get,” Viator said. “If they were important to you for some reason, like coming here and setting all this in motion, then why not show you all the key symbols? Wait, you said you have nightmares of falling. Could you have been blocking recalling the last symbol? Terrified of where it is?”
“Mist. Hidden in the mist? I fall into a pit. That’s the night terror I have.” She peered over the brass railing down into the dark below. “What is down there? The ladder curls down into the depths.” She looked up at Viator and Balen. “Do you want to go see? Maybe the last button is down there.”
Viator and Balen looked down below. They were both brave warriors and had fought many battles, so why was the lady more willing to go down there than they were?
“Yeah, sure. I’ll go first.” Viator started the climb down. “Wait for me to get to the bottom and then you can join me once I know it’s safe.” He used his light while Eloria cast an even longer light to penetrate the darkness.
He saw nothing down here, to his relief. Nothing that would eat him. No bones. “It appears safe. There are ten doors in a circle, all with a symbol on them.”
“I’m coming down.” Eloria began to make her way down the ladder.
When she reached the bottom, Balen headed down.
As soon as she stood before a door, the symbol of the green wizard glowed, but there were no buttons to push. Just a doorknob to turn.
“Walk around and see if we have to go in the same order as we did up above or if it doesn’t make any difference.” Viator watched as she walked around the circle, but only the green wizard symbol on the one door lit up. “Okay, here goes.” He opened the door and stepped into a living area, furnished with seating for several people. “This looks like a hideaway, rather than just a memorial.”
They found a bedroom, a place to make food, and supplies.
“And the food is fresh.” Eloria rubbed her arms and shivered.
“Someone lives here.”
“The green wizard? He is supposed to be dead.” Eloria left the living quarters and went around the circle of doors to find the next one that would open. The symbol that glowed next was of the dragon’s lair.
Viator opened the door and stepped inside. A long, winding, dark tunnel snaked up and up like a winding river. They all used their lights in the tunnel that seemed to go on forever.
“Do we just keep following it?” Eloria asked.
“I think it leads up into the mountains. To a dragon’s lair, don’t you think?” Viator asked.
“Maybe.”
Balen wasn’t saying anything, just following them. Viator hadn’t ever known him to be that quiet. “What are you thinking, Balen?”
“That the green wizard is alive. That the memorial is his home, and that the doors lead to places he needs to go without being seen.”
“But why? He was revered by all the elf kind. Why would he have to go into hiding? Unless someone else lives here. Maybe a keeper of the memorial?” Viator said.
“No,” Eloria said to Viator. “The wizard visits me in my dreams. How could he if he’s dead? What…what is that sound up ahead?”
“Dragons. Dragonlings,” Viator whispered. “I think it’s a dragon’s lair.”
“We can’t go there then,” Balen said. “It’s forbidden.”
“So the green wizard would come up here?” Eloria asked.
Then they heard the awful screeching of an opinicus. Viator pulled out his sword and raced up the tunnel leading to what he believed was the dragon’s lair, Balen right behind him.
“But we can’t go in there,” Balen said.
“I’m going with you.” Eloria wasn’t about to be left behind.
“Just stay behind us,” Viator warned.
“Yeah,” Balen added.
But she was thinking she had somewhat of an “in” with the dragons and Viator and Balen might need her protection from them!
Still, Viator burst into the cave where little dragonlings were squealing and he began slicing at one of those horribly, frightening opinicus, claws clawing at Viator, his beaked head angling to bite him.
Balen swung his sword at the great beast, trying to cut his leg, but the creatures wing struck him and sent him sailing across the cave where he hit the wall and collapsed.
Eloria yanked out her stun gun and blasted the opinicus with a bolt of blue light. It slammed into the opinicus and he screamed out in pain, backing off. She surrounded the dragonlings with a golden light, a comforting spell and they calmed. But then she continued to fire off her stun gun, knowing that once it ran out of power, it would be useless. On the s
hip, it was easily recharged. On the primitive planet? It wouldn’t be worth a thing.
But Viator wasn’t making much headway with the opinicus, and Balen was injured and unconscious. Viator cut the opinicus’s leg and the creature screamed. She kept zapping him, the stun gun not knocking him out like it would lesser creatures. He was just too big. But he was slowing down, his head drooping a bit, his wings tilting down, the one lower still because of the cut to it. She wondered if he could even fly out of here.
She drew nearer to him, knowing the closer she was to him the more of an impact the stun gun would have. But it was more dangerous the closer she got to him too. He’d been concentrating more on Viator because he’d been closer to him, his sword’s reach not long enough to keep a lot of distance. He was fleet of foot, and he used his wings to help him maneuver too. Because of his smaller size, he could outmaneuver the beast.
When she moved closer to the opinicus, he ignored Viator and turned his wrath on Eloria. His head twisted around to grab her with his beak. Viator took advantage of his distraction and flying above the opinicus, brought his sword down on the beast’s neck, slicing his head from his body.
“Good!” she said, then raced to see to Balen. “Balen, are you okay?”
He had a bloodied head and a raised welt where he’d smacked the wall with his head. He looked up at her with glazed eyes and said, “Lord Balen.”
She smiled and helped him to sit. Then she removed his sash from his waist and tied it around the wound on his head.
“We have more trouble coming.” Viator sheathed his sword. “Dragons are headed this way in force.”
“Let’s go then. I’ll remove my calming spell from the dragonlings and we can take Balen down the mountain through the tunnel. The passage is too narrow for the dragons to manage.”
Viator hurried to take hold of Balen’s arms and pulled him to stand. “Come on, Balen, snap out of it.”
“Lord Balen,” Balen said.
Viator only cast him a sardonic smile, then helped his friend through the tunnel.
