Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  “Where am I?” she asked simply, relieving him of the pressure to generate something to say.

  “This is the Land. The Lara River. We have been waiting for you.”

  Curiously she looked back at the river, as if she didn't remember that either. Surprise rippled across her face. “I don't remember…falling in? I don't remember…” Her confusion stabbed at him and he had to release that distress before she grew upset.

  “It's a long tale. Here, sit down and I'll try to explain.” He almost conjured a set of chairs but thought better of it and he escorted Raimi to the blanket on the sand. She did not need to be more overwhelmed than she probably already felt.

  “Tell me what you do remember?” he began, hoping that he could learn how she retained her name before he filled her mind with all the wondrous things he had encountered in the last few months.

  Raimi looked around, only now realizing where she found herself. Her bright eye caught the emergence of the evening star and the setting sun. The night sounds along the river began before she found words. “I remember coming out of the river. And my name, but the rest…” Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “It's all gone. What happened to me?”

  Owailion struggled to not reach out to gather her into his arms and comfort her in that first realization, but no one had done that for him. He dare not impose his emotions onto hers. Right now one overwhelming emotion was enough. “It's okay. The same thing happened to me; amnesia…only I didn't even remember my name. This is the Land. We were brought here without a memory of our former lives because … because… because God needs us to protect this place. You see, we are magic. I don't remember having any magic from my former life. Other things like speaking, writing, and all the things about being human, those I remember enough to do them, but nothing specific from my past…and not the magic.”

  Raimi's face finally grew still, placid as the water beyond her, and Owailion could not interpret her gaze. She lowered her head to master her tears and then looked up again before she spoke. “Magic…as in poof, things move and fly and such?” Her voice dripped with fear and disbelief.

  “Here, let me show you,” he provided. Then without needing to actually use his hand, he reached out, touched the sand at the edge of the blanket and then lifted his hand away as he created a fire that merrily burned on conjured wood, lighting the growing twilight. “This is called conjuring. I just concentrate and wish it into being. If you want, you can conjure something as well. Are you hungry…cold?”

  Raimi looked at the fire with wonder in her eyes, and he heard her thoughts as she realized he had offered her a chance to do this for herself. “Warmer clothes?”

  Owailion's smile deepened. Her wish reflected his first magic as well. “Okay, simply imagine what you want to create,” he advised, “and then think of how the deep center of the earth will give it to you. Then wish the clothing to appear, right here in front of you.”

  Raimi nodded, as if she understood and then lowered her head in concentration. Her still damp hair clung to her face, and Owailion felt tempted to brush it aside or add a conjured comb but he resisted. Mohan had done none of that for him and suddenly he was grateful for the training the dragon had given him.

  “Oh!” she gasped, drawing Owailion back to the here and now. In her lap she had created a simple shift, a gray/green wool dress and a bodice to go over it. She couldn't resist and reached out to feel the fabric with her gentle hand. “It worked.”

  “You did very well. Can you try shoes and a comb perhaps?” Owailion suggested.

  Her startled smile winded Owailion. Sheer girlish delight at the thought of being able to add to something with so little effort made her almost giggly. Owailion listened into her mind as she recognized that she might be overwhelming herself. She suppressed a stab of fear and Raimi visibly calmed, forcing herself to concentrate and closed her brilliant eyes. Owailion shamelessly watched her mind work out carefully what she wanted and presently a simple bone comb materialized in her lap. Then she furrowed her brow before a sturdy pair of boots landed beside her.

  “Boots?” Owailion asked with a quizzical look.

  Raimi opened her eyes and then peered meaningfully into the night. “It seems wise. I don't see the lights of any town nearby. We might be walking for miles and …and I think I might be used to this kind of terrain. I've worn boots before.”

  Owailion chuckled. She had the same instincts he had, latent memories of what would be needed but no true recollection of how she knew. “Why don't you go up into the trees and get dressed,” he suggested. “I'll make something for supper. You are right; there are no towns nearby.”

  Raimi looked up the beach into the dense undergrowth and the dark there. Owailion could read her mind easily, for she had used no shields to protect her thoughts from him. In them he overheard Raimi's worries about bears and other large predators but also about him. Would he follow her into the trees to molest her? She must have had a past laced with danger and attacks if she worried about those things echoing from her past. No wonder she was shy and so wary. Without meaning to, Owailion reached out to magically ease her fear, erasing it and at the same time hoping he wouldn't make it worse by doing so.

  As she took her new clothes and crossed the sand to the nearby underbrush, he asked, “What would you like for supper?” He deliberately pitching his voice to carry so Raimi would know he wasn't following her as she picked her way deeper into the bushes.

  She must have gone far into the trees, for he could barely hear her reply. “Whatever you have is fine. You cook?”

  He did not answer. Instead, when she came back into the firelight he had conjured a table, complete with fine white china, a tablecloth and candlelight. He pulled a chair out for her but she stood stunned, on the verge of the beach, dressed in her new clothing, hesitating to come closer. With her mouth open in awe at the obvious display of magic, Raimi held out the robe to him.

  Owailion smiled welcomingly, as if she had not frozen in shock. He didn't want to embarrass her, but instead let her master her feelings. So he continued, “No, I don't cook really. I conjure whatever I feel inclined to eat. If you need some time, dinner isn't going to get cold. Are you okay?”

  Raimi took one tentative step onto the sand. “What did you say your name was?” She looked abashed, sorry to have forgotten something as simple as his name.

  “I'm Owailion…and it's easy to forget things when there's so much that is new.”

  She held the robe out to him again, taking another step toward the table. Owailion shook his head. “No, you can also unconjure something. Can you make it disappear back to the earth I made it from?”

  Raimi stopped and stared doubtfully at the satin in her hands and then tried not to gasp when it disappeared.

  “See, you're good at this,” he noted proudly. “Are you willing to try something more complex?” and he again motioned to the chair.

  “You're better at the magic,” commented Raimi but she took another step and sat down at the table. “This is beautiful,” she added with her eyes drinking in the fine table settings. “Where did you think of this?”

  Owailion shrugged and sat down in the other chair. “I must have seen a fancy supper like this in my old life. I don't remember it either. I have only been here in the Land since mid-summer and it's just coming on to fall now.”

  Raimi's lively eyes flashed back to the trees, across the river and into the sky, as if verifying his estimation of the season. “And was your first memory walking on water?” she asked.

  “No, I woke up inside a mountain, completely sealed in it, like an egg. I had to break my way out. Mohan knew I was there and encouraged me, but I had to use magic to get out and when I did, I came face to face with Mohan. He's an absolutely enormous dragon.”

  To prepare her for eventually meeting Mohan, he pressed the memory of that first encounter into her mind, so she would get an idea of his sheer size. The vision of the dragon did not seem to frighten Raimi any more than sh
e already seemed, as if she had been familiar with the creatures in her former life, not like it had surprised Owailion.

  More frightening for her was the unknown situation. “Will you please explain to me what is going on? You said I can use magic? But I don't remember being magical…though I seem to know other things, like how to dress or speak…is this my language?”

  “I thought the same thing too when I came…awoke here in the Land,” Owailion assured her. “It seems like certain words are foreign and others are not. I often have to explain certain terms to Mohan because he doesn't have the concept, being a dragon. For example, writing. It was alien to him and when I say that word, it's like from my original language, not the one I woke up speaking.”

  “Strange,” Raimi agreed. “And is conjuring all you…I can do?”

  “Oh, no,” and Owailion almost laughed, “But it is the most basic. If you'll do the conjuring for something to eat, I will tell you. There is so much to share.”

  Raimi looked at the empty plates and then closed her eyes. She carefully concentrated on a small hunk of crusty brown bread, and then added a pad of butter. Owailion was just hoping for something of meat when she added a haunch of roasted rabbit and then for good measure, a vegetable Owailion had never before seen. When she opened her eyes and saw her plate, her eyes grew huge, as if she had never seen such a grand meal.

  “That's perfect,” he complimented her, though he realized she must have had a simple upbringing if this rustic fare were the best she could imagine. Had she experienced a rough, hardscrabble life? He wanted to know, but she herself could not provide that information. She seemed so elegant and regal in his eyes; gentle and soft-spoken in her mannerisms. He found it hard to imagine her tromping about in boots and eating peasant food. “What do you call this vegetable?” he asked to refocus himself.

  “It's kol,” she replied in surprise. “You don't know it?”

  Owailion shook his head. “Well, we've established that you and I do not come from the same place. I've never heard of nor eaten kol, but it looks tasty,” and he picked up his knife and fork. Then as promised, he began to open up to her about all potential abilities.

  The first thing he introduced, mind reading, immediately alarmed her. “I don't want that, sir,” she protested. “It is…what about…I couldn't …I don't want to know what others are thinking. It would be too…”

  He was beginning to understand a little of Raimi's distress when she finally conceptualized it in her mind though she did not speak aloud. Instead he overheard it all. How can I endure all the other thoughts? I can barely stand my own. I don't want to know another's insecurities and doubts and I don't want them to know mine. It's an invasion of privacy. I don't like being near people just for that reason. I will leave so they cannot learn how bad I am. I move on and they won't realize all I've done that went wrong. I'm like the river; no one notices and I'm content.

  Owailion let her mind go on until she acknowledged all her fear but it surprised him. She had been brave enough to accept God's invitation to come here and to explore the Land with him but she could not face others who might be critical of her? She was afraid of what they would think of her, not what she might hear of them? Well, Owailion could at least reassure her a little. Some latent Wise One instinct guided him to reply to her gently, not really addressing her fears, but almost ignoring them.

  “You need not hear their thoughts if you do not wish to. A magician can shield others out, but you will want to be open to some thoughts if you want to speak with Mohan, or any of the other dragons. You can talk aloud and they will understand you, but they only share words mentally. You can even speak with them thousands of miles away.”

  “Shield?” she asked, and he heard her dropping her fear like a pebble lost at the bottom of a stream. “Can you teach me?”

  Owailion nodded reassuringly. “Of course. And also, consider this; you cannot misunderstand me, nor I you, if we listen to each other's thoughts.”

  “But privacy…” It seemed to be something Raimi prized highly.

  “I will teach you how to block me from listening in on your thoughts at the same time as I teach you how to hear them. It is a skill that goes hand in hand. What if you want to share a thought with me only and not with Mohan? That will require a little more deliberate use of magic. I've not had to try that yet…seeing as I have only really worked with him.”

  “You have not used magic around other people?” asked Raimi in surprise.

  Owailion recognized, much to his chagrin, that he had resisted telling her that they were indeed the only humans in the Land. Had that been on purpose or was he instinctively avoiding that fact because he knew it would alarm her. Well, he had best reveal it immediately.

  “Raimi, there is only us. The Land has been Sealed to humans for over a thousand years. The dragons are the ones who first settled it and sealed it off from mankind. I was the first human allowed past the Seal and now you have come as well. We were brought here and given magic to become the stewards of the Land, the sixteen Wise Ones that God promised to the dragons so they could sleep.”

  As he spoke, the flurry of questions rippling through Raimi's mind allowed him to keep going, helping her understand before she could even voice her concerns or observations. Oddly enough she felt almost relieved that the Land was empty, as if the crowds of her old life must have intimidated her. Carefully Owailion avoided the implication that they were meant to be mates and instead concentrated on the fact that there would eventually be others with whom to share her magic. She might have known just on intuition that they would inevitably be drawn together. But when he stopped speaking, allowing her to absorb all Owailion had explained, Raimi's only reply caught him completely off guard.

  “Is that why I like you?”

  Chapter 9 – Outland Searches

  Mohan had not actually misled his friend. He would go hunting, but the dragon had prey he did not intend to eat. Instead the great gold creature conjured a dozen dead buffalo to himself as he settled for the night in the forest of Zema to watch the lost rune stones. He simply intended to eat and do some deep magic at the same time. Owailion was right; there would only be discord if the human went back in time to see who had taken the writings on stone. And it would never have occurred to the timeless dragons to go back to witness the theft, but Mohan had learned much from his human.

  Carefully Mohan used his innate understanding of the Land, knowing how every place looked despite changes, to imagine the clearing with the stones in the winter past. It would be icy and miserably rainy, unfit to fly. He could work his way forward and see the various times and seasons at this place. For good measure, Mohan also cast invisibility over himself so that the dragon or human who did come for the stones would not know of his observation. As he suspected, the stones stood there undisturbed at midwinter, just two seasons before.

  Mohan ate juicy buffalo while considering the next passage he could move toward. He had started to build Jonjonel about the beginning of spring and the ash from its growth would have made for spectacular sunsets throughout the Land. He drew on the spring equinox at high spring in the evening and shifted time. This new scene, with the ash high in the air visible in the west and a red sunset over the trees provided the anchor for drawing the dragon forward slightly toward when the thief would arrive. Still Zema's stones stared back at him.

  The next shift would take the dragon to the day at the height of summer when Owailion had hatched. The forest around the dragon swayed gracefully in the warm air, brilliantly green and verdant. The ash in the atmosphere had faded, leaving the horizon golden again, but the sky still slightly hazy with the eruptions from earlier in the year. Mohan would be a fool to not think that the coming of man had not initiated this thievery. With all the dragons excited and watchful for the impending arrival of the promised human on the other side of the continent, someone had taken advantage of the distraction. It had to be then that the thief struck.

  And still, the rune sto
nes remained undisturbed. Mohan grumbled at his lack of success. These shifts through time took a lot of energy and he couldn't eat enough sitting here waiting to make up for his loss. Better to sit in one place and watch than to shift again. He would wait a few hours and then try a different path.

  Eventually the lure of falling asleep descended on Mohan with a heavy claw. He could not stay here much longer and just watch the stones without turning into one himself. However, just as he was about to give up, a booming noise shook the air and rattled the trees around where the dragon rested. He almost roared with shock.

  Then he saw that the stones were gone.

  The loud sound and their instant disappearance happened simultaneously. Frantically Mohan stretched out his mind, seeking for someone's magic nearby, but all he sensed was a solid and decidedly draconic shield around someone's thoughts. Was the echo that still rippled through the air meant to distract or was it the result of the removal? Mohan had no way to know.

  Perplexed, Mohan remained, now fully awake and alert, with his tails flicking in irritation. He could not smell humans nearby, and usually he recognized that scent from miles away. The scent of dragon, phosphorus and sulfur, pervaded, but that was because he'd been sitting here for hours. He had lost his chance. Mohan elected to return to Owailion, disappointed and thwarted, but still on the hunt.

  Instead Mohan decided to try another investigation possibility. He briefly called Owailion and got the reassurance that his friend would be occupied with the new Queen of Rivers for several days. Mohan determined to use that time to its fullest. This would be the most dangerous and daring of his enormously long life. Only he could perform this service before he went to Sleep.

  Mohan was leaving the Land.

  Mohan flew swiftly above the cloud cover, with the blue sky above and autumn clouds all across the sea. If Owailion was right, and they left by sea, then they had gone across the Western Sea. Most invasion attempts came from there and carrying the stones overland to the south or east seemed cumbersome.