Dragon Scepter

by Angelique Anderson

  Svana could see they were young, and she wondered if the taller soldier was perhaps their father.

  “Why are you so angry? Why come after me? Your king is evil, can you not see that?”

  “Our king is not evil, he demands riches to further ensure the survival of the Aequorans. As any good king would do, if their means of survival were threatened!” The one on the left swung his blade, she jumped out of the way of the swinging weapon, her body turned around in time to defend herself from attack from the other one.

  “How will riches feed you when you have run out of resources? How will riches care for your people when they are sick, and have exhausted all their medicines? How will riches…”

  “Shut-up, witch!” The tall soldier was back, pale green skin more luminescent in the slowly rising sunlight. “You know nothing of our king, or our kingdom!” He lunged at her, the other two coming in at both sides and all she could do was swing her sword for her life, allowing her blade to protect where it could. Then there was a flash of dark hair, and another blade clanging nearby her, fighting off the shorter two.

  Jakobe. He must have awoken up and discovered her gone.

  With them distracted, Svana could fight the soldier without fear of attack on the outside. He was injured, and his fighting style was only as strong as his most fierce swing. She could tell the amount of blood loss was affecting him.

  “I don’t want to kill you, please! Retreat, and allow me to meet with my sister. I promise we want only for our kingdoms to be reunited. For peace to be restored, and for all people to never have to live without. Are we not worthy of such things?”

  His blade dropped to his side, point down in the sand, blood trailing down his waist from the gash near his ribs where her sword had inflicted its wound.

  “Come men, leave her to her tasks. I don’t want to see anymore death,” the soldier responded, not even answering her plea.

  “I thought you said death to the colored haired sisters?” one responded, weapon dropping to his side as well. The fighting had stopped, and Jakobe watched the three of them with wary eyes.

  “I did, but it’s enough. There has been enough life lost,” and with no further explanation, the three of them retreated into the water, disappearing below the depths before Svana could offer for Hekla to help heal the soldier.

  “Well, that was a close one. Perhaps next time, you could wake me up before you decide to go willy-nilly and almost get yourself killed,” Jakobe scolded her.

  Svana didn’t respond, only looked out toward the water as the sun rose in the sky. The moon disappeared in the distance. Across the sky, every color of vibrant orange and red expanded across the horizon.

  “What?” he asked of her paralyzed figure.

  “I’ve never once watched the sunrise,” she answered. For one simple moment in their chaos, he stood next to her and they watched the sun come up in the horizon. All worries of fear and war put aside.

  Jakobe grabbed her hand, calloused fingers running against her smooth palm. “It’s almost as lovely as you.”

  His words brought a smile to her lips, and for a brief moment everything was peaceful.

  25

  Hekla

  Darkness comes in all shapes and sizes. It isn’t only the difference between light and no light. It is also the difference between a soul and no soul. The difference between a flame of hope, and a cavern of despair. And the difference between faith and hopelessness. Sometimes all you need to face the darkness is a little hope in your life.

  King Cedric the Just, Third King of Telluris, 472 A.V.

  Something brushed against Hekla’s shoulder, startling her. She clenched her scepter tight as she turned her head. The breath she held came out in a gasp of relief as she saw a medium-sized otter. The darn creature had nearly scared her to death.

  The otter pointed its nose to the east, then circled around Hekla once, before looking back to the east once more.

  “What is it?” Hekla asked.

  The otter repeated its movement, but Hekla still didn’t understand.

  Hekla laid on the ground of a cliff, overlooking the great capital of Aequoris. And she was supposed to be alone. The others were supposed to be keeping an eye out on the ground level, while she observed from up high, so unless it was an emergency, she knew it wouldn’t be them. A part of her thought she’d been caught.

  I would have let you know if we were in danger, Speltus said in her mind.

  Hekla wrinkled her nose. Where have you been? Sleeping?

  Speltus huffed. I don’t need sleep. Well, at least I don’t need sleep like you.

  Why have you been so quiet? Usually you’re loud and annoying, telling me what I should do and whatnot.

  You’ve been a little preoccupied—besides, you’ve been surrounded by people for a while now. And you haven’t been idle, you’ve been consistently making strides toward our goal. I saw no reason to disturb you.

  Hekla raised an eyebrow. I didn’t hear anything critical in that statement. Who are you, and what have you done with the real Speltus?

  I’m not that bad, Hekla.

  You’re quite critical when you think I’m being immature.

  Perhaps you’ve grown up a little, Speltus said.

  Hekla smiled. She was the youngest sister, and at times, she was brasher than the others, but Hekla liked to think she’d calmed down a little bit. She had gotten better at thinking her problems through, rather than running into a problem headfirst.

  Running into a problem headfirst is a trait your sister Svana holds true to. It’s good to see you maturing a little more like your eldest sister, Astrid. Using a bit of intelligence over brute strength.

  Hekla frowned at the mention of her sister’s name. She missed her sister, and she wondered if she was all right. Did she live? Had Jakobe saved her? Svana was about to open her mouth when Speltus’s smooth voice entered her head once more.

  Your sister is well. She has awoken. At least, I believe she has. I can no longer communicate with Lingaria for some reason. Though, his last words to me were of positive encouragement.

  Wait, Hekla thought, you can communicate with Lingaria? Have you been able to do this the entire time?

  Um—

  You three can communicate with each other all the way across the land. You mean to say, that all three of us could have stayed in contact with each other, instead of being worried sick?

  This is precisely why we haven’t told you, Speltus said. We are dragons—not messengers. You three are wise—and strong, but if you don’t let each other go, and learn to discover things for yourselves—you’ll never grow into the wonderful women each one of you is destined to be.

  Hekla wanted to retort, but when she chewed on the words Speltus had said, she found them to be true. She would have continuously called upon Astrid through Speltus, and that wouldn’t have helped anyone. It would have prevented Hekla from growing and becoming her own woman, and it would have caused Astrid to worry that she couldn’t be with Hekla every step of the way.

  “You’re right,” Hekla said aloud.

  “Who’s right?” a voice asked from behind her.

  This time, Hekla did jump. Her scepter was in both of her hands in a flash and pointed directly at the woman standing behind her.

  Isabella seemed unphased. She simply glanced from the scepter, to Hekla’s eyes.

  Hekla moved the scepter to her right hand, and relaxed. “Sorry.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Isabella said.

  Hekla smiled. “No, I did not.”

  Isabella’s lips pressed tightly together as she looked down her nose at Hekla with suspicion.

  “What brings you here?” Hekla asked.

  “We have found the caravan.”

  “Caravan?” Hekla asked, intrigued.

  “It left the city an hour ago,” Isabella said.

  “Are we too late?” Hekla asked.

  “Depends on how far away the caravan is traveling. If we hurr
y, we can catch it by tonight,” the woman answered, eyes peering into the distance, as Hekla gauged the woman’s reaction.

  “Which direction?” Hekla asked.

  “East.”

  Hekla turned to look at the otter, who floated nearby. “Is that what you were trying to tell me?”

  The otter nodded its head vigorously.

  “Do you know the way?” Hekla asked.

  Again, the otter nodded its head.

  “Amazing,” Isabella whispered.

  Hekla turned to look at her, an eyebrow rising. “What is amazing?”

  “That otter. She has befriended you.”

  “Why is that amazing?” Hekla asked.

  “I have never seen the animals of the sea befriend anyone—not even an Aequoran.”

  Hekla’s eyes widened in surprise. “She has saved my life on numerous occasions.”

  She reached out to give the friendly creature a little scratch on its coarse head.

  “Incredible.” The elegant woman gasped, awestruck by the friendly exchange between the two.

  “Come, let’s go find the others, and all of us can find this caravan,” Hekla said.

  Hekla and Isabella swam to where the others were waiting. Jetevius and Ecthelion were glad to be on the swim once again. The five guards who traveled with them didn’t look as excited. Hekla imagined they were concerned with what they were to find on this journey. She didn’t blame them, really. Hekla was also a bit nervous at what they would find at the other end of the exchange. She knew it couldn’t be anything good.

  Once they were all gathered, they followed the otter into the east. After a little while, more sea life came, uniting themselves with the otter, and they allowed Hekla and the others to grab ahold of them, as they all swam as a unit to the east. By holding onto the sea animals, their journey went even faster. Hekla and the Aequorans were good at swimming, but they were nothing compared to the seals, otters, and vast other wildlife that surrounded them.

  More than an hour went by before the otter and other sea creatures came to a halt. At first, Hekla was aggravated and wanted to know why they’d stopped. There was no caravan in front of them, but before she could say anything, she spotted a cliff in the distance. It looked like that of a canyon, but underwater. Glancing around, making sure no one else was nearby, she swam ahead to the cliff.

  The cliff did a partial drop off, before it turned into a full underwater canyon. When she stepped down to the partial drop-off, she saw the caravan. It was a few hundred feet away, and there were a few large rocks in the way, which Hekla made sure to step behind.

  At least four guards stood with the caravan, and they unloaded crates with two guards at a time. Hekla stared at them with fascination as they unloaded one crate at a time, then stepped to the ledge, and two of them threw it into the canyon.

  What was in the crates? That was the big question. As far as Hekla could tell, it looked to be the same type and appearance of crates she’d seen in the storage room. Were they filled with gold and gems? Is this how the king paid homage to the dark spirit? And what kind of dark spirit, or any spirit for that matter, would care about gold and gems?

  “We need to get closer,” Isabella said.

  Hekla shook her head. “No, they’re almost done.”

  “Done doing what?” Jetevius asked.

  “Tossing gold and gems into the canyon,” Hekla answered.

  “Are you sure?” Jetevius asked.

  “Quite.”

  “You don’t want to confront them?” Isabella asked.

  “For what purpose?” Hekla responded. “Whatever they’re doing, it’s by the king’s order. It doesn’t matter who they are anyway. What matters is, where is the gold going? To whom? And why?”

  They waited in silence for several more minutes, watching as the men emptied the entire caravan over the cliff. It was quite curious. Not only them dumping a fortune, more gold than Hekla had ever seen in her entire life—well, besides when she’d seen all the crates in the room in the castle but was the most fascinating for her was watching it fall. To the others, it probably seemed normal, but to Hekla, who’d grown up on land and not under the sea, and accustomed to gravity, if she had watched this happening on dry land, she imagined the crates of gold would fall a lot faster. Instead, they seemed to float, gently, down and into the cavern.

  After another half an hour, the four Aequorans stopped unloading crates, and instead leaned against the caravan. They all appeared tired, making Hekla wonder if this was a normal shipment, or a larger one. One would assume that if these Aequorans were making regular trips to this place, they would be less exerted. Or, it could be that King Renault didn’t have the same guards making his drop offs every time. But—no, that didn’t seem right. He wouldn’t want that many people know about this.

  So, the question lingering in Hekla’s mind was, why? Why was this shipment larger than usual?

  “They’ve leaving,” Isabella whispered.

  Hekla nodded, but she waited for several more minutes, watching as the caravan departed, before swimming closer to see where the caravan and guards had been. On the ground, Hekla saw something glittering. She reached down, moving some of the sea slime below her feet to find a small gold coin. When she rubbed it, ridding the coin of slime and dirt, she noticed it wasn’t of Aequoran design. It appeared to be Caelestan. King Renault’s greed went far. She studied the image of King Nicklaus, the first king of Caelestis, stamped onto the gold coin.

  Cautiously, she stepped forward, to the edge of canyon. She glanced down and flinched. Hekla wasn’t the best with heights. Though, being under the sea, she didn’t imagine she would run into a lot of it, like say—Caelestis. But this was as close as she could get to it.

  Hekla could see at least a hundred feet below into the canyon, but she couldn’t see any farther than that. After the first hundred feet, it turned to darkness. She wondered how long the canyon stretched. How far did the gold and gems go?

  “What do you think is down there?” Jetevius asked.

  “Darkness,” Ecthelion said.

  Hekla looked at him with a raised brow.

  “Death,” Ecthelion clarified, his expression giving Hekla a knowing look.

  “What do we do now?” Isabella asked.

  “We climb,” Hekla said.

  “What’s down there?” Isabella asked.

  “I don’t know,” Hekla said.

  Though, a part of her did have its suspicions.

  “How deep does it go?” Jetevius asked.

  “I do not know,” Hekla answered.

  “Will we survive such a trek?” Ecthelion asked. “The pressure gets more intense the farther we travel down.”

  “I don’t know. But we must discover what’s down there. We will go slow, and I may be able to use a little bit of magic to help. I can give each of you a bubble of air, like I have myself, if needed.”

  Isabella nodded. “What are we waiting on?”

  Hekla smiled as she pushed herself down to grab the side of the cliff dropping into the abyss. With one last look up to everyone, she began pushing herself down and into the canyon.

  26

  Astrid

  Courage is to step forward in fear, even when paralyzed with doubt and insecurities. By never letting your actions be influenced by your emotions, you will conquer a great deal more than when ruled by feelings of doubt and hesitancy. Always stay the course and be true to what’s right. For even mistakes can be rectified in such cases.

  King Michiel the Trusted, Third King of Caelestis, 483 A.V.

  Xolderan stared at the girl quizzically for a moment, shifting slightly on his feet, before he let out a deep exasperated sigh.

  “Age has taught me a great many things, I suppose imprisonment will do that too. I know that I am here for my crimes in the past, but that is not who I am. Nor is it who I’ve been for a great many years, but I was never given a second chance.”

  “How about you let me figure out what you’re
guilty of? Just tell me what you did that got you imprisoned here,” Astrid asked, shaking her head.

  “Are you crazy, Astrid? That dragon could breathe one huff of fire and singe you from your head to your toes!” Cayden tugged at her shoulder, his actions urging her to scoot back, away from the tired beast, but she refused to move.

  “No, I don’t fear anything from him. Clearly, he’s too old and too tired to do anything to me,” she answered, confident that the beast meant her no harm.

  “As I was saying, there was a time, many, many years ago, when I was much younger. The world of man had just been created. I existed in the dragon realm with my brothers and sisters. Next in line to be a dragon elder, and oh, how I eagerly awaited the day when I could take my rightful seat amongst the council of leaders. It is our greatest honor in life. Now understand, the world of man was still new.

  We had set down many rules and ordinances to follow when it came to the two-legged creatures, but we never thought they would be capable of such destruction. I was younger and hot-headed back then, please keep that in mind before you determine me too be guilty.” His yellow eyes watched her meaningfully.

  “Go on,” she urged.

  “This was before we were forbidden contact with the humans, some of us still spent time among them, getting to know them, learning their ways, their traditions. It was fascinating and disturbing at the same time. I suppose this is where the human stories of dragon guarded castles came. We still ventured here and there on the planet, on occasion. Some of us liked shiny things, almost as much as we love a fresh goat, and stored up gold and other treasures. Not for the worth, but for the beauty. You probably already know how some of this plays out.”

  Astrid nodded her head. “Yes, but tell me from your own mouth.”

  “When humans realized what we did, they set out in search of our treasure troves. We had no idea the repercussions that would come from humans wanting our hoards. Many dragons died in that time, young dragons who had never been given a chance to join the council, or to even begin to climb the ranks allowed in the dragon realm. They were just having fun. When this was brought to the attention of the dragon elders, they simply shrugged it off. Life was precious, and valuable whether it be human, or dragon and they refused to take the lives of humans simply because they were a little greedy and perhaps didn’t know better.”