Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  Owailion sighed with regret. “I do not know…and it's going to be sad no matter what. I've come to love Mohan in the time I've been with him. Every Wise One should have a dragon friend, but it is not to be. God has a purpose for the Sleep and we might never know. I wish…”

  “Wish what?” Raimi asked when he petered out and put shields up around his thoughts.

  “I wish that your Talisman bowl could show the future as well,” Owailion whispered. “Somehow it sounds a little greedy to hope for something no one should know.”

  Raimi blinked with surprise. “I thought it was a miracle to see the past. It never occurred to me to ask the bowl for the future. How do we know it cannot show us until we try?”

  Owailion did not speak aloud his misgivings but neither did he hesitate to at least think about them and let her read his mind. She listened in about his instincts. “The future is too open to so many choices. It was one thing to learn from the past and quite another to manipulate things in the future.”

  Without listening to his nonverbal protest, Raimi tossed out the water from the previous vision and then refilled it magically. Then she closed her eyes in concentration as the water settled. For his benefit she let Owailion hear the thoughts she used as she carefully directed the image bowl to exactly what she wanted to witness. “Show us our future wedding.”

  The water went white with fog and they could barely make out individual shapes of dragons perched on the volcano above the lake. The two of them stood hand in hand, just as in Owailion's manufactured vision, looking in each other's eyes but something was missing.

  “Where is Enok?” Owailion asked of no one.

  But the Talisman bowl took his question as an order and their wedding image faded to reveal something new. Raimi recognized the church from Owailion's memories of his visit to Malornia. She saw how Owailion had just left and the door closed behind him. Then a dark robed figure crept out of the alcove at the back of the chapel. He snuck forward toward the altar and called out for the priest. Enok came out to meet this newcomer but looked startled when he saw who had entered, like he recognized this visitor and knew the danger he posed. Raimi had a difficult time holding the image steady as the imposter caught Enok by the collar and dragged him kicking and fighting up to his own altar. The far more powerful enemy threw the old man onto the stone and proceeded to plunge his knife into the heart of the priest. Enok was dead not minutes after Owailion had left him.

  The water sloshed and Raimi dropped the bowl.

  “No,” Owailion gasped. “I only just found him. How…they must have known I was coming and followed me there. They dare not attack me, so instead they hoped to stop me by killing him.”

  Raimi cast her mind out, seeking some way to comfort Owailion in this horrid moment. She again thought of how everything she touched must go awry, but this was not her. It had only been her Talisman that showed this evil. She enfolded Owailion in her arms and rocked with him in his grief, holding onto him as his only solace.

  Owailion stirred again morosely. “I wanted to see something wonderful. Is there ever going to be something beautiful in our lives?”

  Raimi had no words for him. The past that they had just witnessed had been horrid. Could the future be better? She lifted the bowl, filled it with water and then closed her eyes to make her wish. “How will the Land be after the dragons fall asleep?”

  Then she opened her eyes to witness the results. Owailion's dark sorrowful eyes turned with her to look avidly, desperately for hope. Despite his misgivings of witnessing the future, he wanted that hope. Again the surface reflected the flat white winter sky. Then the image shifted to the snow of mountains. The scene followed along the Great Chain, showing the peaks one after the other in a now familiar succession. It briefly flashed by a few of Owailion's grand palaces located where he had not yet found them. Now completed the palaces stood with luxurious gardens that defied the climate and altitude at which they were set. Then the vision raced around the Elbow where the mountain chain bent southward.

  Beside him, Raimi gasped. “That's where Imzuli's peak is…was.” They both saw the entire mountain was gone and in its place a stunning garden had taken root in the crater left behind. Before they could register a building there the image moved farther south. Were there other mountains missing now? Were they gone or crushed or…it moved too fast to be sure of the changes.

  Then the scene shifted out over the forest along the Don River, but they witnessed something strange happening. The trees began dying, turning brown and withering as the image flew by at dragon speeds down to the sea. Villages popped up along the river, cutting back the sparse trees that had survived whatever killed the forest. “People are coming inside the Seal?” Owailion observed. “I wondered…”

  “Why would the forest die off? How will people get inside the Seal?” asked Raimi even as she saw the land around the Don River rippling from earthquakes and other forces. “This is hundreds of years of change,” she added as the forest had given in to the influence of the plains and then was lost, and the image shifted west toward the Southern Mountains. Mines and more towns emerged throughout them. A volcano erupted off the coast to the south in a black flash and they missed seeing more. Their next little vision shifted to the Lara River and they both gasped.

  The island on the delta where they stood at this very moment, their favorite place, had dissolved into a swampland. The hills surrounding the river were gone, along with the waterfall and the trees. Instead marshes and mist filled in the place. A palace, presumably Raimi's, stood in the middle of the swamp and they saw it only briefly before it crumbled, becoming marble chunks in the marshlands. Raimi's hand trembled at the sight and the image rippled, and she dropped the bowl into the sand.

  Raimi found herself crying uncontrollably and Owailion tried to comfort her when he felt like weeping himself. Neither one of them could stand the thought of their Land changing so much, but seeing it in first person, watching it crumble before their eyes, they felt it as if the blows were physically assaulting them. It was worse than seeing Enok's demise. That at least hopelessly fell in the past.

  “It's like a storm hit the Land,” Raimi whispered mentally, recalling the former vision the bowl had shown them, of how the stones arrived by cyclone.

  “No, this was slow. We have watched hundreds of years of alterations. Any place can change in a thousand years. God would not destroy all that we have built. I can see the forest dying off and maybe some of the mountains eroding, but not…”

  “Imzuli's mountain? Where will she go to sleep?” Raimi asked in her pain. “A palace, that can be rebuilt anytime, but you cannot rebuild a mountain with her inside. She'll be crushed!”

  Raimi felt Owailion trying to comfort her, shushing her while the grief and unknown nearly overwhelmed them both. “We'll ask at the conclave. Mohan will have some ideas. We cannot let them go to Sleep if that is what happens when they are not watching. They trust us as stewards. We will share this at the conclave. They will have to…”

  Raimi shook her head, rejecting his notion. “Owailion, their instincts are already set. They can hardly stay awake right now. How will we do this on our own?” She barely could get the words out in a whisper. Fearfully she knew this vision was true. She had been born to the Land knowing something she did would go wrong. “We will have to get through this on our own.”

  Owailion sighed in regret. “Not again. We will never use the bowl to see the future.”

  “Don't swear that,” warned Raimi. “A Wise One must keep their oaths. Someday we may regret everything we have ever done. It is a storm we will have to pass and somehow we will.”

  “But Mohan's right here. He'll know…How can we not tell?”

  “How? Close your mind off,” Raimi warned. “How do you think I've been able to keep it secret that Imzuli's mountain is gone? It's been hard, but I had to. We have to. They cannot know…know…how we fail.”

  “We will not fail,” Owailion swore, and he wanted
this oath to be binding.

  Chapter 15 – Midwinter

  It was a much muted pair of humans that arrived at the shore of Lake Ameloni the next day and stood on the diamond shore at dawn awaiting the call to conclave. The winter settled overhead, frosty and cold but at least the stormy winter did not threaten to make the gathering buried in a blizzard. Raimi reached down to the stones on the shoreline and as Owailion recalled from his dream, she easily cut perfectly faceted gems of the rough stones with just a brush of her hand or by blowing away the stone dust. She picked up a dozen, breathed on them and then let them fall like snowflakes back onto the shore.

  The dragons arrived one at a time and made themselves known by taking their place on the island's side with a roar and a mental greeting. Imzuli came and wanted immediately to ask for more examples of kissing, the most energetic thing she found interesting of late. Some things needed to remain private, so Raimi put her off. Neither human had fully processed the visions from the bowl. How did you speak with a dragon about what would happen in the future to Imzuli's mountain. Instead they put on a brave face and spoke only privately with each other.

  “What should we do about the priest? We haven't discussed it,” he mentally whispered.

  “The dragons will expect something grand,” Raimi added, noting Imzuli's love of romance.

  “I don't know,” Owailion replied in like tones. “Perhaps we have a bonding like the dragons, without a priest but with them as witnesses. It is the only way we can do this. I don't dare return to Malornia and find another priest.”

  Raimi nodded her agreement and Owailion could hear her thoughts. Sometimes even when they did everything correctly it still did not work as expected. It had been her greatest fear from the beginning. All things she touched would go wrong.

  “No, my love, not this, this will not go wrong,” Owailion tried to reassure her, dispelling the gloom, wishing magic could make it true.

  Gradually the island filled with dragons and the sense of anticipation spread about the island felt thick enough to lift the malaise the humans felt. For the most part the dragons looked forward with anticipation and excitement for this next adventure; the Sleep. They speculated loudly about dreaming as humans did and how the Land would change while they were unaware. For their part Raimi and Owailion kept their thoughts on the subject tightly behind their personal shields and clung to each other for comfort. They knew some of the answers to the dragon questions but did not want to share. The truth would put too much of a damper on the draconic enthusiasm.

  As the dragon who had called for this conclave, Mohan took the top of the volcano's peak and opened the meeting formally. Owailion and Raimi remained far below on the shore, looking up into the winter sky to see him but that distance did not keep them from knowing precisely all that was discussed.

  “Thank you all for coming to this conclave. We have many things that must be accomplished at this time. First, we wish to introduce Raimi, the mate of Owailion. She is the second Wise One, the Queen of Rivers.”

  Raimi stepped forward and surged a little in her magic so that she put herself into her royal raiment, silver and a wintery gray that reflected the lake beyond her. In such finery she fit in perfectly with the dragon magnificence and Owailion smiled in appreciation.

  “Thank you for having me,” she whispered mentally so the dragons could all hear her, even on the far side of the mountain.

  “Another one? Really, Mohan, is this truly necessary?” Ruseval grumbled once again in typical fashion. “Humans breed like rabbits. They'll take over and then when we reawaken, they will be everywhere. One human should be enough.”

  Owailion pulled Raimi back into his arms.

  Mohan growled for quiet. “That is not to be our decision. God has brought her here, but He has assured me that the Wise Ones cannot breed. Their magic is very controlled.”

  This was news to both Owailion and Raimi. No children? After all the other disappointments of the day before, this blow hardly rocked them. It had not been something they had discussed, but if God had declared it so, then who were they to grumble over it. The Land would need their undivided attention apparently. Hopefully that limitation would be enough to assure Ruseval, if anything could do so.

  “That said,” Mohan continued*, “They have asked us to witness their union. They call a bonding a marriage. It is only for us to witness and welcome them as a couple. We have no say in their rights to bond. Now, Owailion where is your priest?*”

  With a private prayer for his Wise One instincts to guide him Owailion stepped forward and announced with regret his news. “The priest I approached to perform the marriage has been killed. Therefore I suggest that we not endanger anyone else on our account. Instead, I request that we have a bonding, just as the dragons do and that the conclave be our witnesses.”

  Owailion found himself under the intense gaze of all the dragons, even the ones on the far side who took to the air to watch this event. He felt no fear at this; he had endured it before at his hatching. Instead he funneled his calm toward Raimi. God was in charge and gave him exactly what they needed to say. Owailion surged magically and put himself into his royal clothing to match Raimi's. Then he turned to face her, holding her hands tightly in his. The words to speak came with inspiration.

  “Under the eyes of God, I will love you and cleave to you alone for eternity,” he swore, barely making himself heard, but the meaning rang through the skies. Then he pulled out his latest creation; the dream-crafted diamond she had given him months ago, before she had even arrived in the Land. He had set it into a ring and now placed it carefully onto her finger.

  Raimi's smile caught the light of the diamond as she replied. “And under the eyes of God, I will love you and cleave to you alone for eternity.” She replied solemnly, trying and failing to keep the smile out of her water-laced voice.

  And knowing they would only be setting the dragons all into a twitter, Owailion leaned down and kissed Raimi long and luxuriously.

  The dragons could have watched them for hours as well, but thankfully they had other more important business to accomplish and once they got the hint that this kiss could last forever the dragons tuned out the humans as much as Owailion and Raimi had tuned them out.

  The next order of business seemed to be the intricacies of the Sleep. The dragons spoke at length about how their eating habits had changed and how they suddenly found hollowing out their mountain homes very interesting.

  “Now it is time to share the Memories,” Mohan's voice forced its way past the human's shields, deliberately interrupting in order to get his attention. “Each of us has Memories to give Owailion before we sleep. Will you please join us at the mountain's top?”

  Owailion sighed. He had suspected something like this would be necessary but he had not wanted to mention it to Raimi and now he must leave her. The dragons had no concept of a honeymoon and this certainly would take some time. “I'll be back as soon as they let me. You might want to set up a camp,” he advised Raimi, giving her a final kiss and then disappeared up into the presence of the dragons of the conclave.

  Once more atop Mohan's neck Owailion felt a strange sense of remorse. He would never witness this panorama again from this glorious height where it seemed he could see forever. He was already overwhelmed by the vista that spread out before him; the carpet of clouds, gleaming snow and blindingly bright dragons scattered below him. And that view gave him assurance that the Sleep was immediate. Then Mohan's mind impinged on his, advising him, breaking through his melancholy with a dragon's hope.

  “Owailion, we must now share with you the Memory of the Land for you are God's chosen steward. You will feel the pains of the earth, the flow of the magic and the strength of the Seal in your mind. Each of us holds a piece of the Land's Memories, but it is held also by one who holds it all. Until now that has been me. God has assured me that you are capable to take it instead. You must live with this Memory; keep it alive and sacred. The Land is God's land. He has
prepared it and protected it. You are to become its steward and defender. You must live with it as a joy, not a burden. Add to the Memory of the Land and it will grow more powerful. Share it with the other Wise Ones as they come but for now you must take it and learn from it. Are you ready?”

  How could anyone be ready to absorb the memory of an entire continent? There was nothing to do to prepare except saying you were ready. Owailion assumed God would make him capable of whatever burden this entailed so he nodded his preparation. “Yes,” he murmured.

  Imzuli, as the youngest, went first, hovering out over the clouds and mist to make eye contact with him. Owailion watched in wonder as he felt his mind invaded by the silver and white dragon. As the youngest of the dragons she held the least but what hit his brain made him gasp. He felt crushed by the weight of mountains and glaciers worth of snow and gemstones. She remembered for him the pressure of water springing out of the stones and drawn down into the cracks of the earth, into the Don. She drowned him in the great nameless lake in the northeast and its ice and mists blinded him. He felt the deep chambers and trails through the mountains weave their way through the passages of his mind and his blood filled with ice water runoff. Owailion felt like he had aged a thousand years in the flash of one dragon's silvery eye.

  Abruptly Imzuli finished with him and broke off the contact. Owailion groaned at the sudden severing of the connection. His eyes struggled to focus on a simpler panorama than an entire mountain range. The ponderous weight of it all settled like water in the hollow of his skull, dripping slowly. He tried to nod his head toward Imzuli but it hurt too much to move. Instead he closed his eyes and then gulped as a second dragon took Imzuli's place and a new set of Memories washed over him. How long did this take? It felt like days for just one set of these draconic records to pour into his skull but the sun did not seem to move across the sky. It warmed his back as he now absorbed the gentle wave of wind over prairie grasses, hidden cisterns encrusted with crystals and the frantic cracks of canyons. He lost track of even his name in the picturesque passage of ages. Had he ever been human? Would he be a human again after seeing and sensing this all? Would he survive?