A Dragon In the Palace

by William King

  Or did it?

  I really did not know enough about the choices that I was being asked to make. I knew it then and I think that knowledge showed on my face. Mistress Iliana smiled sourly and said, “It’s not so simple, is it?”

  I shook my head.

  “Do not talk to anybody about what you saw in the dungeons. Master Lucas’s business is his own. He will be teaching you and you would do well to keep his trust.”

  I felt as if she was disappointed in me and my inability to make a choice but that might just have been me projecting my own feelings about the matter. Even after all these years, it’s hard to tell.

  “I want to learn what you both can teach me,” I said, trying to be honest.

  “That is wise,” she said. “We shall proceed as we are and at some point, when it becomes necessary, you can make your decision. What is it now, boy? Why are you giving me that look?”

  “I’m surprised that you are giving me a choice, mistress.” I was amazed by my own daring. She did not appear to be.

  “I am trying to give you what I was not,” she said. She rose from the seat and walked over to her book shelf and produced the wax slate. “Now, let us give our attention back to the glyph of light. At some point in the not too distant future you’re going to master it.”

  I thought about what Master Lucas had said about my inability to do that and I wondered whether I should tell her. She did not seem all that interested so I focused my attention on the glyph and began to try to cast the spell which eluded me once again.

  Chapter Twelve

  That evening, I lay on the bed and thought about Master Lucas. There was so much to ponder. His laboratory had quite frankly scared me. It had also disgusted me. I had no idea how my mistress could take it so well.

  All those things aside, he had given me a lot more to think about. He had told me that I was going to be a powerful mage, that I had the potential to follow many different paths. But the thing that was most on my mind was what he had told me about the link I shared with Red.

  The little fellow scuttled across my chest and moved up to my face. I smelled his sulphurous breath. I saw the tiny teeth, razor-sharp, emerging from his mouth. His long serpentine tongue flickered. He looked like a lizard in some ways and a frightening one with those wings and those fangs.

  His eyes were different from those of the dragonlings I used to see sunning themselves on the rocks in the Bleak Lands. They were wary and intelligent in the way that no lizard’s were. A creature at least as smart as a dog was looking back at me.

  Red’s eyes were strange. The pupils were huge and normally quite round. Sometimes they contracted sideways becoming vertical ovals that were completely alien looking. Sometimes they caught the light like those of a dog except that there was a faint reddish glow in them. His breath smelled of the meat he was always hunting down. Sometimes it smelled of brimstone.

  He paused for a moment. His stomach rumbled and a small fart emerged that did nothing for the atmosphere in my room.

  I reached up and chucked him under the chin. He nipped at my finger experimentally. He did not mean to hurt. He was just playing. I pulled my finger away and he followed it as if he was pursuing a small serpent. I lay back and relaxed. I took a deep breath. I could feel his little claws moving across my skin and when he flattened himself, about to pounce, his small heartbeat pitter-pattered rapidly.

  He sprang and I closed my fingers into a fist and he went over it. His wings spread and he was airborne, sweeping around the room.

  His flight did not have the panicked quality of a trapped bird. He was in control. He might not have much space to manoeuvre but he did not need it. He was capable of bringing himself to a halt and hovering with rapid beats of his wings.

  The sensation was pleasant. It stirred the warm still air like a fan. I smiled. I was glad that I had saved him. I was glad that I had adopted him. His simple presence made me happy. Part of that happiness was the fact that I knew that he felt the same way about me.

  Just for a moment I relaxed. And that’s when it happened. It felt as if I was falling and that was not possible because I was already lying on the bed.

  Just for a moment I stared out of other eyes, looking down on a boy of fifteen summers, skin dark brown, hair an oily black, his nose bent and broken. He was smiling dreamily up at me then a panicked look flickered across his face and his features went slack. In one vertiginous moment I realised that the boy was me.

  Panic filled me. I beat my wings faster and faster. I sensed resistance and something else, incomprehension. I became aware that the sensations were not mine but belonged to a small scared creature whose fear passed itself to me.

  A wave of stark terror made me want to scream. Once again there was sensation of vertigo and I lay flat on my back looking up at a small red lizard-like thing, beating its wings above me.

  The dragonling’s neck curved like a snake’s. Its head lashed from side to side as if it was trying to throw something off. It bared his jaws in fear then opened its mouth and let out a panicked screech.

  A cloud of gas belched forth. A flickering spark lit it. Red and yellow flame sprayed across the room. It was only the length of my arm which was just as well because of it had hit anything it would have set it alight.

  What have I done? The question raced through my mind. I reached up to try and touch Red but he flew away as if I had done him some terrible wrong. I extended my arm but he would not come back to me, instead he retreated to the furthest corner of the room and crouched there, whimpering.

  I rose from the bed and padded towards him but he bared his fangs and shrieked and lashed his tail. My own heart beat faster. Another wave of terror passed over me again and I threw myself on the bed.

  I had never known quite such fear. It was worse even than the nightmares that had tormented me on our way to Solsburg. I felt as if I was going to be sick. I clenched my fists and clutched the bedclothes.

  Red whimpered and it hurt me that I could do nothing to help him. My heart beat thundered in my ears. Sweat ran down my brow and back.

  I wondered what was happening, what mistake I made. Was I dying? Had I overdrawn my power? Was this some side effect of the process that Master Lucas had used on me earlier. I did not know and that was the scariest thing.

  I expected everything to go black but eventually my heartbeat slowed and my breathing deepened My stomach stopped churning.

  I felt extraordinarily weak. I managed to pull myself upright and I still felt dizzy. I looked over at Red. He lay curled up in a little ball on the floor, his reddish eyes caught the light as he glared at me.

  What had I done?

  The link. That must have been it. The thing Master Lucas had talked about. I had looked through the dragonling’s eyes. I had seen myself.

  Or had I?

  Perhaps I had imagined it. That could not be true. I was not imagining the fear I felt, nor the nausea. Something had happened. And it had not just happened to me. I could tell by the way Red was reacting that something was wrong for him as well.

  Of course, we shared a bond. If I felt this way, he probably would to, if what Master Lucas had said was correct.

  I stood up and the room swam. I took a deep breath and then put one foot in front of another, moving towards Red once again.

  He hissed at me, angry and scared. I spoke to him in a low crooning voice, I reached into the pocket of my robe and produced a small piece of sausage. I laid it down on the floor in front of me and I made a clicking noise with my tongue and tried to lure him towards it.

  For the first time in my recollection he did not immediately scamper for the food. He lay there, staring at me suspiciously.

  What had happened?

  I had looked through his eyes. I had sensed his emotions and fears and somehow they had become commingled with my own. It had been overwhelming for me and I, at least, understood what was happening. He did not. He could not reason things out. He could only feel the strangeness and react.


  I kept talking to him, trying to lure him forward. I spoke in a low voice, keeping my tone as calm as I could. He glowered at me and I wondered if this was it. Would he never trust me again? Had something happened that irreparably damaged the bond between us?

  I took a step closer and he growled and spat. Once again a cloud of something smelly emerged from his mouth. Once again it ignited. I felt the heat from where I was standing and backed away.

  I glanced around the room, checking to see if there was anything flammable. There was the wooden bed and the bedclothes. I went over to my table and picked up my water jug, just in case. As I put some distance between us Red’s whimpering grew softer and eventually ceased.

  I sat down on the table and stared at him. He stared back at me.

  What was I going to do? I realised then how important he was to me. He was possibly the only living thing in the Palace that I truly counted on. He was my friend. I knew that was ludicrous, for he was a simple animal, but that’s how I felt and there was no changing it. What would happen if I lost him?

  I drummed my fingers on the tabletop. My hand was shaky and I felt very weak. I thought about what Master Lucas had said about using the power. Had I drained myself yet again? Would this make me stronger? I had no idea and I did not really care. I put my head in my hands and started to whimper myself.

  I do not know how long I sat there, wrapped in misery, tears in my eyes but eventually I felt a small tongue licking at my face. When I looked down I saw the dragonling was on my shoulder. I reached out very slowly to touch him.

  He almost backed away but somehow managed to stay in the same spot and eventually my fingers reached the top of his head and I began to stroke the scales there. He lowered his eyes and stared at the table top.

  I pulled him closer and hugged him, as if I was never going to let him go. The dragon extended a wing and curled around himself and fell asleep. His breathing was shallow, his heartbeat slow. He seemed very tired. And it came to me that I was too. I picked him up gently and strolled over to the bed and laid down upon it and soon fell into a troubled sleep full of dark dreams.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I was in the Palace and I knew that it was empty. It was not empty because there were no people there. It was empty because everyone was dead. I knew this before I saw the first corpse. And I was aware that once again I was in one of those awful places I had visited before in my darkest dreams.

  I glanced warily around me, knowing that in the shadows something terrible lurked. It watched and waited, determined to find me. I looked around for Red. He was not there and I felt terribly abandoned. My loneliness was worse than knowing I was by myself in a palace full of bodies. I felt vulnerable and very afraid.

  I walked down the stairs quickly, determined to run out through the main gate and find my way down into the city there to lose myself among the crowds. My legs moved very slowly, as if I was walking through quicksand. It was enormous effort to put one foot in front of the other.

  I made it down the stairs. I desperately wanted to see Red and I called his name. My voice echoed out through the silence. In the distance something laughed. There was madness in that mirth, horror and terror too, and I knew the creature that was giving voice to it.

  I ran towards the gate, passing bodies sprawled everywhere. Their throats had been cut, their entrails removed and they had no eyes. I had a terrible suspicion I knew what had become of them.

  I raced through the gate, hoping to get to the city but, somehow, I was fleeing down a flight of stairs into the dungeons beneath the Palace. The ceiling seemed very high. It felt more like running through a cave than running through the passages I knew.

  Feet thumped on the stairs behind me. I did not want to meet the creature that pursued. I ran faster and faster. The corridor blurred by as if I was moving like the wind but no matter how quick I was, I could not escape my pursuer.

  I ducked down one long passageway and raced towards the familiar door of Master Lucas’s laboratory. On it were cracked elder signs, destroyed runes. No shelter here. I pushed the door open. All of the locks were broken.

  On every desk, in every corner, there were huge glass jars full of eyes. As I entered the room, they swivelled to look at me. I felt the focus of every gaze upon me as if a line of mucous joined me to them.

  I tried to back away but now the door behind me would not open. Worse than that, I heard footsteps again, now in the room with me. Something moved among the jars. I caught a flash of white and then red and then white and then red.

  I tried to hide, ducking behind one of the tables. The footsteps came closer as if their maker knew exactly where to find me.

  I caught sight of a very white robe. My gaze travelled up the length of my pursuer’s body. It looked like an awful hybrid of myself and Master Lucas and Mistress Iliana. It had the healer’s white robe and stooped body. It had my mistresses red hair and red fingernails and white painted face. Its features belonged to me.

  Its eyes glowed red with power. From one hand dangled a small corpse. The thing held Red’s body by its tail. Unreasoning anger filled me. I leapt to my feet and confronted my evil doppelgänger. It smiled at me and it lifted the little body and let it swing backwards and forwards like a pendulum.

  It seemed to be offering it to me with a grimace of friendship. I reached out with both my hands and its smile widened as my fingers closed on its neck and I tried to throttle it.

  I felt something on my own neck and looking down I saw hands that looked like my own. Every time I tightened my grip, those hands closed around my own neck.

  I was having difficulty breathing. My heart pounded. Panic rose. I tried to let go of my assailant’s throat but I could not. My efforts only seem to make my grip grow tighter.

  Something stabbed at my face. It was like being struck by needle, again and again. Blood ran down my face as if I was crying crimson tears. I thrashed around, tangled in something that held me tightly and would not let go.

  I woke feeling far too hot, entangled in soaked sheets. Sweat ran down my forehead and covered my chest. I was very weak. My throat was sore and my eyes gritty. I tried to get up but the room swung before my senses and I crashed sideways onto the bed.

  “Help,” I croaked. The words came out barely louder than a whisper. I wondered if something terrible had happened in my evil dream, if there was some demon inside me and it had reached out from the Shadow to touch me.

  My limbs barely responded. I could not even crawl. I looked over at Red. He glared back, misery in his eyes. He gave a small cough. I smelled brimstone but no fire emerged for which I was profoundly grateful. If he set alight to the bed I would not be able to get off it.

  I closed my eyes to try and gather my thoughts. Darkness swung over me. When I opened my eyes the quality of the light had changed. It was morning.

  Someone banged on the door. I tried to answer but no words came out. I remembered an old man back in Khorba who had suffered from apoplexy. Half of his face had been frozen and he had never been able to speak properly afterwards. Had the same thing happened to me? Had I had a stroke?

  It was a terrible thought. Perhaps the Holy Sun had smote me for my wickedness. Perhaps I was being punished for being a sorcerer. The thought was not terribly coherent. It came from guilt and fear.

  Somehow I twisted my head to look at the door. It was open now and the servant stood there, looking at me, appalled. He ran over to the bed, stretched out his hand to touch my brow and then withdrew it. He offered up a prayer to the Holy Sun and then raced for the door.

  I recollected the look of fear on his face. What had he seen? Was I changed? I thought about disease. I thought about plague. I thought about breakbone fever.

  I had suffered it as a boy. Perhaps it was recurring. Perhaps the servant was scared it would spread. I could not exactly blame him for that. In fact, part of me thought it was funny for some reason.

  A faint giggle emerged from my lips. It stopped as soon as I loo
ked at Red. He lay slumped on the bed, his legs and tail splayed, his eyes shut. He barely twitched. I could make out the small rapid movements of his chest. They seemed to be slowing.

  I offered up a prayer to the Holy Sun. I could not form the words but I tried to beg for his help in my thoughts. Perhaps he heard me, for footsteps down the corridor. I saw the white face and cropped red hair of Mistress Iliana as she entered the room.

  A look of concern flickered across her face as she strode towards me. She muttered a spell. Even in my feverish state I felt the flow of energy around me. Then she leaned forward and placed her hand on my brow.

  “You’re burning up,” she said. “You have a fever. And perhaps something worse.”

  She looked over at Red and then she reached out and touched him too. A frown flickered over her face.

  She spoke another word. I’d heard it before. My limbs relaxed as sleep once more overtook me.

  Once more I dreamed, if it could be called dreaming. I floated in a warm sea of heat, bodiless, weak, ghostly. My family gathered around me looking worried. I saw my brother Evan who had died. He looked pale and mournful and sad just as he had done before he finally slept and did not wake. My mother looked at me and shook her head. I knew she was thinking that I should never have left home. My father was coughing, doubled over, weak. He strained himself up and looked over at his dagger and gave me a rueful look as if he had somehow regretted making the gift of it to me.

  Red was there too. He lay, looking weak and yet somehow more solid than all the others. He was a palpable presence, small, angry, scared, hungry. He looked at me and glared resentfully. I wondered if he hated me, he looked so full of rage.