Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  Listen to her thoughts.

  Obediently Owailion plunged deeper into Raimi's unguarded mind. And what he heard stabbed him through the heart.

  “I can't, I can't. It is wrong. If I get involved it will all go wrong. Everything I touch will be ruined. He will be so hurt by me. How can I want this…want him? I want magic and it is wrong. How can God change me so much? I am not worthy of this world, of Owailion, of magic. And…”

  Owailion cut off his listening and looked at Raimi's face, so placid, like the river behind her in the dark. To look at her refined and gentle expression in the firelight you would never think she had any fears, pain or such pitiful self-esteem. No wonder she had rejected interaction with anyone and become a pioneer. Her thoughts and fears lead to leaving the world behind because 'everything I touch will be ruined'. Why? Did she remember more than she was sharing? Instinctively Owailion waited for the inspiration to open the door through which he could walk to understand Raimi. He now realized why she had retained her name. She needed to know who she was so that she would acknowledge how much she could change.

  “Raimi,” he whispered reassuringly, “you will not ruin everything you touch. You cannot harm me; I'm immortal, as are you. If you learn magic, it will only be good magic. You can trust that.”

  Carefully, slowly he reached out and touched her gentle hands, cool as the water. The touch felt right; not hurried so as to frighten her. He said it again, this time only in her mind. “You cannot hurt me.”

  Raimi's face looked like stone, expressionless but the placid water flowing beyond them in the night began to roil in response to her hidden fear. Deep waters seemed calm, but the undertow could pull him down and the dark murky bottom remained unexplored. Deliberately Owailion sent calming thoughts and slowly the river settled back down, still swift and deep, but her emotions did not express themselves in the water.

  “Do you see what you did there? You are the Queen of Rivers. Every one of the Wise Ones will have an affinity. Yours will be to the rivers and any flowing water, deep, but always moving on. You are that pioneer. You will find you feel most at ease on the river. Perhaps it is a little like your old life. You always wanted to move on because that is what rivers do. They are always moving on.”

  Slowly Raimi smiled again, deeper, with relief. Could she believe that?

  “Come,” he abruptly announced. “I want to show you someplace.” Owailion helped her to her feet and then pulled his bag back into existence. “I found a way to travel magically.” He lifted his hand and his collection of globes appeared in the real world, looking like stars brought to earth to hover over the sand. Then, aloud so she could hear how he did it, he summoned the orb that he wanted. “Paleone,” he commanded.

  The corresponding globe floated toward them and he pulled it out of the air. “Every place I visit, I make a memory orb so that I can return. It constantly updates so that I know where I will be going, even if events change its appearance. I told you about the palaces I have to build? Well, you helped show it to me. I dreamed about this place, Paleone. You showed it to me in my dreams.”

  Raimi's eyes grew huge with wonder and the light of the memory orb caught the green of her eyes, reflecting it in the night. “You want me to see it?” she whispered in awe tinged with fear. “Where is it on a map?”

  Helpfully he pulled out the map. “We are here,” and he showed her where the Lara met the sea. Well, there is meant to be a palace here on this island in the middle of the river, but I was not given the inspiration yet on how to build there. I think….I know it is supposed to be where your home will be.”

  Then Owailion held up the memory orb again so she could see what image had been set into the crystal. “And Paleone is already started, here.” He pointed to the diamond on the coastline. “If you take my hand, I can show you in person,” he promised, delighting in the excited flutter of anticipation in her thoughts. She might be afraid that she would ruin anything she touched, but she had an adventuring spirit that also drove her as well. This, she could not resist.

  Her hands grasped his and he deliberately looked at the orb so he would not be distracted by her excited eyes. He concentrated a bit and then pulled her with him toward the bluff above the ocean, five hundred miles from the sheltered river valley. Her gasp of wonder told him they had arrived, and he opened his eyes again, luxuriating in the majesty of the wind above the ocean. High flying birds sailed in the brightening sky. Just beyond them, the excavation and conjured ring of foundation stones for the palace stood out perfectly.

  “Let me show you how it will look,” Owailion offered and then pressed into her open mind the dream of Paleone. The dream Raimi escorted him once again through the luxurious grounds, the finished rooms, the exquisite art. Owailion watched her while she attended to the vision, smiling at all he saw in just observing her delight.

  “It's…it's heaven,” Raimi whispered in reverence. “And you say that you are going to build a palace like that, for me?”

  Owailion hoped he had not been too forward in showing her that. Too late now, he thought. “Yes, when I get the inspiration. I will build there on the delta when the dreams tell me what to build. I have started one other, but I…I was told to wait. Maybe it needs your input. Raimi, this will be your home, safe from the world,”

  Her green eyes drew back toward him like a lodestone. “I am the Queen of Rivers? And what are you the king of, Owailion?” The way she whispered his name stirred him. He loved the sound of her voice; soft like rushes in a light wind mixed with the distant song of water over rocks.

  Owailion reluctantly shook off her voice to break her spell over him. He breathed deeply the scent of the sea in the morning and then spoke. “I have an affinity for creating things. I love to study how things work and make them function to help people. That's why God chose me to be the builder. It is my duty to make the Land a place fit for humans. Your duty will be to seek some things I created for you; Talismans of your powers.”

  “And why me next?” Raimi asked, looking around at the building “Why bring someone who just wants to wander?”

  Owailion struggled with that question himself. He had to wait a bit for the wisdom he had come to expect from his gifts to enlighten him. And when he knew what to say, he recognized that this would alarm her.

  “Raimi, I will be a hundred years in my work, moving around the Land, building and creating. But there was one thing I asked God for when I accepted this task. I asked him for you.”

  The blank look Raimi gave him stabbed Owailion in the heart. “You asked…”

  “…For someone who would be willing to tramp through the Land with me. This country is wild and empty. There are no cities, roads or other people. I am doing all this because there literally is no one else to do so. If…if you are used to moving on, sleeping in a tent for years, willing to master magic and using it to defend this new country, that is what we are committed to do. In fact, you would not have come here, not have risen out of the water like you did if God did not know that is what you were capable of doing.”

  Raimi's eyes pierced like a pike, glittering in the morning light, till he lost her in the silhouette again, before she could say a word. Owailion listened to her thoughts for the longest time as she watched him. Did she have the faith he did, to trust that God's plan in dropping her into this world? Did she dare trust herself with magic? Somehow she recalled her old life enough, the bad decisions and fears. She must have volunteered for this adventure because she needed an escape.

  But Owailion's implicit faith in her melted the frosty fear that lined her life, threatening to close her off in a winter of her own creation. God and Owailion together had enough faith in her. She only hesitated over a fear of some past mistake. She dreaded hurting him and she knew magic could not prevent all pain. Was Owailion strong enough to take her on and meet the demands of her past? Could he keep up with her? She would move on, she knew. Something would go wrong and…

  “And we will face it togeth
er,” he interrupted her string of thoughts. “If you will just share with me whatever the problem might be.”

  Finally Raimi's emotions, the thick, dark thoughts, like the trees and hills of some forgotten past fell away, not blocking her path. She could see possibilities. That fierce independence led her way. She took one step closer, so close that Owailion could feel her cool breath on his skin and he stood in the shadow now, able to see her alabaster face. He almost drowned in those eyes and he again wondered at the magic that could make him love her so profoundly in just that moment. He felt the still, deep waters of her soul and knew somehow that Raimi would dive in and meet him here.

  “I will.”

  Like magnets, they seemed drawn to each other. Owailion loved the fresh water scent of her hair, and could easily drown in the green of her eyes. He didn't feel to ask to kiss her, he just knew he could. He lowered his head. Just then Mohan appeared like a storm above them, massive and back winging enough to bowl them off their feet.

  They broke apart, the moment gone.

  Raimi's hands clenched in Owailion's at the sudden interruption, but she mastered her instinctive fear and stepped away from his protective arm.

  “Welcome,” Mohan called cheerfully.

  Owailion carefully clamped down on all the muttered thoughts going through his head and made the introductions. “Mohan, this is Raimi, Queen of Rivers. Raimi, this is Mohan, my guide and teacher.”

  To Owailion's relief, Raimi displayed no fear of the huge dragon, as if she had encountered them in her previous life. She talked with him without reserve and freely shared her experience in the Land thus far, little as it was. When she began to explain coming out of the river Mohan found this fascinating as a complete departure from anything a dragon birth entailed. In her first experimental magic, she even shared a vision with the dragon so he could witness for himself her 'birth'. Owailion just stood back and watched her delight in the dragon and these magical exploits. She was an adventurer alright. Her self-esteem aside, she would never back away from anything it seemed.

  But what were they to do now? Owailion had a few ideas of what he wanted to do for his own Seeking, but he did not feel right taking Raimi along with him on a dangerous trip, especially if he hoped to also train her in magic along the way. There was just too much to do.

  “Raimi, Mohan, we need to decide what our next step is. We need to find Raimi's Heart Stone and get her training on magical travel, more conjuring, shields, everything. And I need to follow up on the rune stones. I want to go investigate that King that is sending all the sorcerers to invade the Land, which will require your help, Mohan. Maybe the king is the one who took the rune stones, but it's not safe for Raimi to go there until she has a better understanding of magic. And I don't dare stay here long to teach her while you wait because you will grow sleepy, Mohan.”

  “And I want to explore. That's what I came here to do,” Raimi assured him. “But I also want…” She didn't verbally finish the sentence but Owailion could hear her remaining thoughts. She wanted to be with him.

  Gratified, Owailion smiled, for he felt the same way. “And yet that won't be all that safe either.”

  “Why?” Mohan asked. Although he had heard the entire conversation, he did not seem to understand the temptation being with each other held for Raimi and Owailion already.

  “Because a lady and a man should not be together without a chaperone until they are married,” Owailion sighed, locking eyes with Raimi.

  Mohan at least had the sense to not ask for further clarification.

  “Would another teacher be helpful?” Mohan suggested.

  “What did you have in mind?” asked Owailion eagerly.

  “There is another dragon who might be persuaded to take Raimi, guide her as I have done for you.”

  “Really?” Raimi and Owailion said in tandem, and then smiled at the coincidence.

  “Imzuli, the white dragon who guards the northeast mountains above Zema is more than anxious to meet humans. She will be willing to escort Raimi if you are willing to answer her questions about being human. Imzuli loves everything about humans.”

  “But…” Raimi looked at Owailion with an abrupt flash of panic in her eyes. “I only just…” and she could not finish the thought.

  Owailion understood immediately. “Imzuli will need to feed and we as humans still need to sleep. How about every evening we speak with each other about our adventures and share what we have learned?” He too felt something profoundly wrong with leaving Raimi's side when she had only just arrived in the Land. Was this compulsion part of being a Wise One, or was he already able to say he loved her and could not bear to be apart? Yet he also harbored the fear that if he remained with her, he would give into the temptations he felt when near her. It would be wrong to follow such desires, at least before they were married.

  “And how do we marry here?” Raimi asked.

  Owailion's stomach did a flip and he felt more frightened than he had when he first awoke with rock raining down on him at Jonjonel. Had she said what he thought he heard? Was she already committing to marry him? Yes, they had been drawn together immediately, physically, emotionally and most of all, magically, but he never thought she would expect that. He had never implied…

  But even Mohan could sense it.

  “Mohan, can Raimi and I speak privately for a moment?” Owailion said after taking a steadying breath.

  “Of course,” the dragon complied. “I need to feed again, and I will speak with Imzuli and see if she is available.”

  As they watched the dragon depart again after just arriving, Owailion felt ashamed at his fear. “I don't know how to speak with you about this with him here. Are you…”

  Wordlessly Raimi cut off his words with their interrupted kiss. Her sweet lips washed away his fear and Owailion sank into the lovely light in his heart at her bold freshness. Raimi never questioned her fate here in the Land or that God was arranging their emotions to help them fall in love. Again, she would just jump in and make it work.

  When he could breathe again, he pulled away and looked into her gold rimmed eyes in wonder. “How can you be so brave? You don't know me. You have no idea what kind of world you have fallen into. What if I'm not who I say I am, and this is all an illusion? What if…”

  Again she interrupted him, this time with a finger to his lips and then ran her fingers through his thick, alarmingly white hair. “You are like an angel. Don't you feel at peace? Peace and strength. That is all I feel and I've never felt this way before.”

  “You don't know what you have felt before,” Owailion pointed out logically.

  Raimi shook her head, “But I know what I have not felt before; peace. It will work. I have hope and faith that somehow this will work. I promise you that…”

  Raimi stopped as her simple clothes changed into the regalia of a queen. She was looking at him through a veil of silver and white, trimmed with gold and wearing a moiré blue and green damask silk gown that flowed over the grass at their feet like water. The green of her eyes shifted in wonder and Raimi trembled, almost like she might faint.

  “Be careful what you promise,” Owailion put his arm around her, holding her securely. He was finally able to see her face through the watery veil now that he looked without dream eyes. “Here in the Land, when a Wise One makes an oath, wondrous things like this happen. It also happens when you use high magic.” To demonstrate, he surged magically and put himself into his own finery,

  “And…and…this…”

  “Every time you make an oath like promising me that my faith in magic and God's plan for us will work out,” he finished for her.

  Raimi steadied herself and Owailion reluctantly removed his hand. “Well, I meant what I said. If all this is God's plan, then it's best to jump in with both feet. I will do whatever this Wise One life asks of me.”

  “Even if it means marrying me?” Owailion asked carefully.

  Raimi froze, her face as placid and featureless as a wi
nter pond. Then, in a fit of irritation, she lifted the bothersome veil over her head so she could look at him without its interference. Then she let the emotion fade before she cracked a smile. “Especially that.”

  And she kissed him again, enthusiastically.

  “What are they doing?” asked an unfamiliar dragon voice, feminine and far higher in tone than Mohan's. Imzuli, no doubt, but Owailion did not let go of Raimi as he was enjoying this luxurious kiss and draconic curiosity could wait.

  “I do not know,” Mohan's mind voice interrupted again. “But they wear those strange coverings when they do magic.”

  Owailion could hear the two dragons settle on the cliff edge before he let go of Raimi. Then with a satisfied sigh, he explained. “That is called kissing. It's what humans do when they are going to get married.”

  Only Raimi gasped when the humans returned to their normal clothing at that comment, but she recovered quickly and smiled at the new arrival. Imzuli was a much smaller dragon, perhaps three times the height of a human and brilliantly white. Her silver and diamond accents flashed in the late summer sun till the humans almost had to squint.

  “May I present Imzuli, of the northeastern mountains and my daughter,” Mohan introduced.

  “I'm very glad to help one of the Wise Ones,” Imzuli added sweetly. “And what is this word, 'married'?”

  “She promised to bind herself to me and we do that with a ceremony called marriage,” Owailion supplied, though his eyes kept drifting toward Raimi. “And a kiss shows that promise,” he added for good measure. “When is the next conclave so we can get married with dragons as our witnesses? We'll find a priest and bring him there, if that's possible.”

  “At midwinter, in about three months,” Mohan replied.