Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  Raimi trusted the dragon's instincts on this matter, as well as her nose. The dreadful smell of rotten flesh guided Imzuli up into the mountains and they pursued it easily enough until the snow began to fall. The demon seemed to leap from peak to mountain peak, hopping vast distances, but always landing on a different mountain's height, as if it could not fly exclusively. And the stench grew stronger as Imzuli flew after it.

  “What should I do when we finally catch up? I don't think I can blow fire like a dragon and I should learn how to do this for myself when the dragons are asleep,” Raimi called to her friend as they streaked across the mountain range.

  “Let me manage that,” Imzuli insisted. “The demon is mine to burn.”

  Raimi did not argue that, but held her tongue and waited to understand. For weeks Imzuli had been depressed and now, with a demon to hunt she had shifted to driven. What about this demon would ignite such passion in the gentle dragon? Why would she suddenly insist on doing this for herself when she should have been allowing Raimi to use this as a learning experience?

  “Then let me help,” suggested Raimi. “Use me as bait. The demon won't stop bouncing about unless you give it a reason to stop. Put me on a mountain peak somewhere and I will call to it. That's what a demon wants, isn't it? A body to inhabit? I'll shield myself and then when it comes to get me, then you can roast it.”

  This ploy at least got Imzuli to focus on something instead of fixating on chasing the demon all across the Great Chain. She finally stopped and hovered long enough to consider the benefits and then wordlessly transitioned to one particular peak.

  “This is my mountain,” Imzuli explained as she alighted delicately on the topmost ridge. “You must use your strongest shields. Do not let him push you over the sides. I will lurk below, invisible. A demon does not die but he cannot escape when he is in my flames so he will agree to leave the Land and go back to where he came from in order to make it stop. Do not let your shields down no matter how hot it becomes or how much he howls.”

  Raimi agreed heartily to this plan and then slid down the dragon's side, but standing there on the snowy ridge, balanced carefully on a slope worn down by a few dragons alighting here was not safe in itself. And something was strange here. Raimi did not mention it, but something here was giving her that familiar itch she associated with a site for a Wise One palace. How could a Wise One palace be created here at the top of Imzuli's mountain? It made no sense. But now was not the time to puzzle out that riddle.

  Instead Raimi strengthened her shields and broadened them out until she was using magic so strongly she put herself into her royal clothing; blue and gray with a waterfall of silver down the sides in a trail that draped off the ridge. This costume was not fit for the bitter wind passing up the mountainside and she added a warm, richly decorated coat, gloves and a hat rather than the bothersome veil. Once she was ready, Imzuli launched herself back into the air.

  “I will be right here, below you on the slope, invisible.” Then Raimi watched as the dragon shimmered into nothing, blending in with the whitened mountainside.

  Raimi looked out over the vistas, wondering where to direct her call to the demon. There was no way of knowing where the creature had bounced to, so in her strongest voice, both physical and mental, she drew back and shouted.

  “Demon! Come and get me!”

  Of course the first blow came from behind her, nearly bowling her off the ridge, but that was probably for the best, for if she had seen the attack coming she might have been frightened. When she managed to turn and see all the tentacles thudding against her shields, only inches from her face, and the rotting gourd of a face, the horror hit just as hard.

  “What? Don't like what you see?” asked the demon in a perfect voice. Then the misshapen creature changed into something angelic, with gossamer wings and a lovely, golden face. “Perhaps you find this more appealing when I am you.”

  Then Imzuli's fire erupted. All Raimi could see of the angel was its writhing body, burning and yet not being consumed. The creature shrieked in horrified pain and morphed back into the goat/squid and then even into a mist under the rain of fire. Within her shields Raimi too felt the heat and pain, but she gritted her teeth and spoke firmly to the demon.

  “You will go back to where you came from and not return.”

  The enraged demon could only screech at her, piercing her shields only with sound. It thrashed and beat against her defenses, rotating wildly between its three forms, seeking one of them that would allow its escape.

  “Go back,” Raimi reiterated calmly. “You cannot escape unless you leave this Land.”

  It might have taken hours or even days, but the demon finally capitulated. It did not say so, but one moment the purple mist swirled into the goat/squid and then with a crack, it disappeared entirely. Imzuli's fire continued blasting against Raimi's shields with withering heat, and the human shouted above the roar. “He's gone I think.”

  “Do you smell it still?” Imzuli asked.

  “Your sense of smell is far stronger than mine but, no, I cannot see or smell it any longer.”

  With that reassurance, Imzuli cut off her fire. Raimi looked around at the ground that glowed and the stones that had now become glass that flowed down the slopes. All down the sides any snow had long since melted and Raimi felt a surge of energy just sensing the waters that now would go flowing off this mountain and into her rivers.

  “I've ruined my mountain,” Imzuli groused, but came to light on her somewhat shrunken peak.

  “You've done beautifully. You fought a full grown demon and driven him back. We've learned where they come from and can better watch Zema to keep an eye on that and perhaps even prevent others from coming. It's wonderful.”

  “It was a good plan,” Imzuli agreed. “I think I will go and feed now. That was the longest I have ever blown fire and we were chasing him for a long time before.”

  “And I will go to my place on the delta to rest as well,” Raimi smiled as she patted the dragon on the neck. “Yes, you did well, my friend, and I will have quite a story to share with Owailion tonight.”

  Chapter 14 – Together

  Owailion returned to the island on the Lara delta with hope and relief. Mohan brought him, settling on the far shore to enjoy the weak sunlight. Now that mid-winter was approaching, neither one could wait to shift to a new phase of their life. Mohan could not abide hunting in Malornia, not with the demon possessed prey, nor the slime coated minds of all the people they encountered. For his part, Owailion had learned more than he cared to about blood magic and the toxic government in Malornia. They both came away convinced that the rune stones had come to Malornia. And together they decided to not return any time soon. Being away from the Land had taken too much out of them.

  “Aren't you worried about falling asleep?” Owailion asked the dragon as he wallowed on the beach, seeking a comfortable bed. “It's only two days before the conclave but you'll fall asleep if you don't keep going.”

  “No,” the dragon replied carefully. “I've got enough questions to keep me awake a while longer. Like, why aren't you worried about coming back a little early? Aren't you concerned that Raimi will know you are here and you'll be tempted to do something you shouldn't?”

  “You just want to watch us,” Owailion replied, hoping it was a tease, but deep inside he might have resented the dragon's fascination with human intimacy. Certainly Owailion felt torn; wanting to be alone with Raimi, but distrusting his ability to resist her charms. And how could you tell a dragon that his presence was both an inhibitor as well as a protective relief? Mohan would simply not understand.

  “I do find you two very interesting. Dragons do not form pairings as you have. Your thoughts are full of Raimi constantly.”

  “As they should be,” Owailion replied. “I've come back here because I still do not know what kind of palace to start here. I was hoping to dream the design or find a place to hide her pipes. It just seems strange that I still cannot do anyth
ing magically to prepare her for becoming a Wise One.”

  “And if she sees you here and wants to join you?”

  “Then I'll welcome her. We won't give into temptation at this late date.” At least Owailion hoped that was the case.

  As if by design, Imzuli, with Raimi on board appeared in the sky above and began spiraling down toward the island. Owailion swallowed in nervous anticipation as his fiancé slid off the dragon's back and fairly danced over to him. She reached for him and gave him a long, sumptuous kiss that drove all other thoughts from his mind. Finally, with Imzuli's rumbling in appreciation echoing in the background, Owailion came up for air.

  “Hello,” he whispered shakily.

  Raimi almost giggled at him. “I love that I can do that to you. But we have an audience.” She looked over at Mohan and Imzuli who both watched the couple intently. So it made her nervous too. Instead she reached for Owailion's hand and they began walking around the shoreline of the island as if on a stroll. As they walked, she gave him the huge scroll of the map she had added to. It included her more detailed markings. Owailion noted how Raimi had sensed the itch of three locations for palaces; one at the mouth of the Don River, one at the southern tip of the Great Chain and a final one, much to her worry, at the top of Imzuli's birth mountain.

  It had taken some self-control to not tell Imzuli about that; perhaps the dragon's continuing depression encouraged her silence. She had even waited until they were physically together to tell Owailion of this.

  “I do not have the mandate to build these palaces,” she told him in a tightly shielded thought since the dragons were still intent on them as they walked. “You will have to confirm all I have discovered. I must be wrong. A palace cannot possibly occupy Imzuli's mountain.”

  Owailion agreed with her uneasily. “We will check this out after…after the conclave.” He did not dare share his conviction that the dragons would go to sleep immediately after the gathering and they would be alone from that point on. Was he excited or worried about that aspect?

  Abruptly he dropped that difficult topic and instead eagerly gave her something he had withheld from their nightly chats. “I found a priest,” he revealed. “And he knew I was coming. You see, each Wise One will also have a door steward, someone who holds the key to getting into our palace.” He then brought out the pendent that Enok had given him.

  Raimi listened eagerly to his tale and then took the jewel from him to examine it more closely. “Deep magic,” she whispered in awe.

  “What do you mean, deep magic?” Owailion asked, watching the sunlight on the river catch in her eyes.

  “Imzuli taught me about it. She says certain spells – God based spells, are deep magic that bind to the earth, not to the magician. God gives these door stewards a long life in order for them to be part of the Wise Ones' life. Like the language spell over us, the Seal, the Sleep and even bringing the Wise Ones into being. Even after the magician is gone, the spell continues because it is bound to the earth itself. Deep magic.”

  “Is that why I had so much trouble with making seals when Tamaar was trying to teach me? I wasn't tying it to the earth, but to myself?”

  “Probably,” Raimi confirmed. “Most of it is done by God, but we can do it too, if we put careful parameters on it. That's how I found out I can see anything within the reflection of the rivers. I was going deep, following water as it seeped into the ground and could see…I could see anything. I've seen the inside of the earth and the whole world from the highest clouds because they are water too. Where water goes, so do I.”

  “Have you looked for the rune stones?” Owailion asked in excitement at this insight.

  Raimi blinked in surprise. “I've not tried.” She sat down abruptly on the ground and pulled out the Talisman bowl and filled it with water. Then she verbally commanded the bowl. “Show me where the rune stones are right now.”

  Owailion squatted down beside her to look at the reflection, but all he felt was disappointment. The reflection grew dark and they could see nothing. “It's blank,” he muttered.

  “No,” Raimi corrected him. “It shows where the stones are – in a dark, waterless place. It would not be a cave, but maybe a room away from everything that might provide light. It cannot show what cannot be seen. We have learned that much.”

  “Well,” he sighed, “it's something. My mandate is not to find them, but to find the thief. I was corrected in that. I have plenty of other things to do without fighting a war to get the stones back here in the Land.”

  Raimi agreed with him and then handed back his pendent. “If there is a key, then there must be a door and you haven't built either of us a door. You still haven't felt any inspiration for what to build here, just that this is the place for my palace?” She looked up longingly through the trees to the cascades that plunged down into this wondrous valley.

  “No, and that worries me. Why would your home be forgotten? Maybe you don't need a home, except in my arms. Now that we are back together I can concentrate on that again.” Owailion wrapped his arms around her and she felt enveloped in his warmth. “I've missed you,” he whispered as he buried his lips into her hair.

  “And I you,”

  Somewhere on the other side of the river, Imzuli shifted so she could see them cuddling and without saying anything, they began walking again.

  “Do you want to see what's growing at Zema?” Raimi asked and before he could agree, Raimi magically refilled the bowl to provide the reflection. “Every evening I've watched what you have been doing, your trek across the sea, spying on Malornia. I've even gone back to see when you arrived in the Land. It has been…”

  “How disturbing, you've been watching me?” Owailion teased, and then shifted toward what he could not discover on his trek to the outland. “I wonder if I can ask your bowl to show us how the rune stones even came to the Land?” he asked. “God would not have actually set up a portal to bring demons to the Land, would He?”

  Raimi stopped their walk, refilled the bowl and then waited until the water stilled. Then she closed her eyes in concentration. “Show us how the Zema rune stones came to be in the Land.”

  The light in the white sky, threatening the first snowstorm this far south now reflected flatly on the water's surface and for a moment Raimi wondered if the bowl would show anything. Then she saw a ripple that had nothing to do with movement in the water. She saw what looked like a cyclone racing across the sky and then it touched down on the golden plains, snaking and weaving eastward wildly. When the view wheeled around to a more parallel angle she could see the approach toward the mountains. She recognized the particular peaks. The forest at the range's base loomed out like a wall standing against the cyclone and when the storm collided with the trees they swayed violently. The shafts of the trees shattered. The tornado dissipated there, bashing against the strong branches and when it faded the stones, markings and all, stood there full grown, placed by the hand of God. No sorcerer had left them with a storm. Was the Seal even there at the time? There was simply no way to tell.

  Again Owailion wished the image to pull closer to the stones so maybe he could read them but the surface of the water in the bowl was simply too small to make out the markings and so he pulled away from the dish, satisfied with what he had seen in Raimi's bowl. “They came from God then,” he whispered. “I doubt they were set there as a portal, but God set them up with a message for humans.”

  Raimi nodded and then added, “You don't want to see how they disappeared?”

  Owailion looked over toward the dragons who were no longer physically in view and then on a private line answered her. “No, I've seen it before and this is a dragon matter. I've learned to not get involved in it. I'm fairly certain Mohan has gone back in time to see for himself and he will confront the dragon involved; probably privately at the conclave if he learns the identity of the thief before then.”

  Raimi shuddered. “I cannot imagine such a confrontation. The dragons seemed so civilized and even-te
mpered. It's hard to conceive of a thief among them, let alone accusing one of them of a crime.” Then she shifted the subject toward a more pleasant future.

  “Tell me about what to expect at the conclave,” Raimi suggested aloud. “I asked Imzuli about it and all I got was 'a meeting of dragons'.”

  Rather than explain with words, Owailion magically shared with her the memory of his one attendance at a conclave. He showed her the island of diamonds, the clouds and having them burned away with Mohan's fire breathing. Owailion displayed for her the overwhelming beauty of the attending dragons, with their hides glittering like jewels. Then for good measure he pictured something from the dream he had enjoyed – Raimi in her royal garb, white and shimmering with her copper hair and alabaster hands the only bit visible. Finally he added from his imagination an image of them both standing ankle deep on a shoreline made up of uncut gems. They both wore their royal costumes, facing each other, holding hands as his Priest Enok stood before them, speaking the words of a promise.

  Raimi smiled shyly in anticipation. “When?”

  “Mohan is calling the conclave for tomorrow. This will be more complicated than just a wedding. Apparently the dragons have memories they want to share with me. I also expect that Mohan will want to address the issue of who stole the stones. And they will talk about the Sleep. I think that other than Imzuli and Mohan, all the dragons are barely holding on at this point, ready to go into their mountains and never come out again. Our marriage vows will probably be a minor part of the conclave, at least to the dragons and we are only guests there.”

  “Do you think the Sleep will be quick? Will they all go off to their mountain and suddenly the skies are clear?” Raimi asked, thinking of Imzuli and how vibrant she was at the beginning, always asking questions and finding something new and beautiful to show to her friend, and then how she faded. Raimi would miss Imzuli terribly. Would the dragons ever wake again? It seemed wrong for them to go to sleep not be seen again.