The Second Prophecy (Part 1 of the Dragdani Prophecies)

by R. Alan Ferguson

  They could hear raised voices coming from within the chamber beyond; it was two of the leaders of the other races. “The chair disappeared,” said one.

  “Yes, it was there, but now it’s gone,” said another.

  They both sounded very agitated.

  Suddenly John felt a burning pain on his right wrist. When he inspected it, he saw two red marks. The mark on the right looked like a four-point star, which most likely came from the Elven side of him. The second mark was diagonally down to the left and looked like a half moon.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Helen.

  “My wrist,” replied John.

  “A four point star and a half moon,” said Delsani.

  “Yes,” said John, ‘I’ve got a feeling there’s something else you forgot to tell me old friend.”

  “This I did not forget,” said Delsani. “For Wizard-Elves bear those two signs. Other than the eyes and ears, that is probably the only way of telling Wizard-Elves from ordinary Wizards, as you’ve probably heard me say before.”

  “Yeah, I think you did say something about it. But why didn’t you tell me more?” asked John.

  “At the time I thought it best to tell you later, which I shall do now. Thoucil and Dragdani asked the Wizard Council to keep it secret. I don’t know why, but they both wore a leather armband to cover their right wrists,” said the old Wizard.

  There was a short silence.

  “We should go now, John; the council is waiting,” said Delsani.

  “I can get someone to show you to our room if you don’t want to wait,” John said to his wife.

  “No, I’m fine,” replied Helen quickly.

  “This could be a long wait Helen,” said the Wizard-Elf.

  “Or it could be a short wait,” said the woman.

  “It’s not too late to change your mind,” said John.

  “Yes, it is,” said Helen. “You’d better go.”

  John leaned forward and kissed his beautiful wife. Then he turned on his heel and he and Delsani walked into the Council Chamber. As soon as they were past the doors, they quickly and abruptly slammed shut.

  It was at least two hours before the Council and their guests finished their meeting.

  By this time Helen had fallen asleep. John gently woke her. “It’s time for lunch,” he said.

  “What time is it?” she asked sleepily.

  “Ten past one,” said John. “We better hurry; they’re all waiting.”

  “I must’ve fallen asleep,” said Helen.

  “Yeah, you did, and you were snoring.”

  Helen turned scarlet with this information.

  “It wasn’t my fault. The chair was far too comfortable. It made me doze off,” said Helen, not at all amused, “Where are we having lunch?” she asked, trying to change the subject. She succeeded.

  “They eat lunch in the Council Chamber, of course.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Helen. “I thought you said that I’m not allowed in there because I’m not invited.”

  “That was only because there was a meeting being held,” said John. “Now the Grand Wizard has invited us to lunch.”

  “Well, excuse me,” said Helen in a mock voice as she stuck her nose in the air. John gave out a small laugh. Then he and his wife walked arm in arm through the doors and into the room. Within, the ceiling was quite high. There were six tables but only four were occupied. The tables were long and curved. All together they made a circle and were each spaced a meter apart.

  The two tables in front of the doors were empty. The other four were all half full, with each holding eight people.

  To the right of John and Helen were the Wizards, and among them was the ambassador of the Council of Witchcraft, the Warlock, Lenfad. The Council of Witchcraft sent him so he could report everything that was discussed in the meeting and allow a decision to be made by the Supreme Witch in concern to the subject of that very meeting. The reason that the Warlock was seated among the Wizards was because Witches and Wizards are of the same race; the only difference is that some of their beliefs differ in certain areas of magic.

  John and Helen walked over to the Wizard table to sit between Delsani and the Grand Wizard, Jaucal. To the right of the Wizards were the Elves; next to them were the Dwarves, and then the Men of the Morden.

  Behind the Men appeared another door, which was not as big as the others they had just entered. Then the smaller door opened and some Wizards came out of the next room, which appeared to be a kitchen. They were carrying platters of food. The men were served food first, since they were the closest; the Dwarves were served second, then the Elves, and then the Wizard.

  Halfway through his meal, Delsani got up from his chair went to the Grand Wizard Jaucal and proceeded to whisper in his ear. Jaucal looked up at him and then over at John. It seemed that whatever Delsani said had caught his complete attention. Jaucal then whispered back to Delsani, who nodded. The Grand Wizard called to one of the Wizards serving the wine. He talked with him and the Wizard put the pitcher of wine he held down in front of Jaucal and quickly walked out of the room.

  After lunch, the guests were taken four floors up to a narrow corridor. The walls were blue (as was most of that tower), and there were pictures, some small, some large, and mostly of people, but there were pictures of many other things associated with both Dorminya and the Normal world. As they walked, they also saw doors that were only a meter apart. They were the doors of the guestrooms.

  The guests were shown to the doors of the rooms they had been assigned to, and then shown the rooms themselves. John and Helen were taken to John’s old room, which had been specially cleansed for their arrival. Helen saw little letters in the Wizard language on their room door. “What does it say John?” she asked.

  “It’s my name,” replied John. ‘My real name.’ He then put his hand in his pocket and pulled a small brass key. There was no keyhole to be seen; John put his hand on the letters on the door. Light covered the letters and travelled down the door. When it stopped, the light dispersed and a keyhole appeared. John put the key in the lock and turned it. There was a click, and the whole door, like the name, was covered in light and then vanished.

  Helen could see lights and distorted colors in the room ahead.

  John walked straight into the room without hesitation. “Come on in, Helen,” he said. Helen thought his voice sounded muffled. She slowly started toward the doorway as if unsure of what might happen, for too many strange things had happened and were still happening, all too quickly for her liking.

  When she walked though the doorway, the blurry light began to come into focus and things were beginning to take shape. She saw that room that she was in was very large. “How can the room be so big? Wait let me guess it’s all an illusion,” she said trying to sound unimpressed by the place.

  “No,” said John, “The room’s real. The corridor’s the illusion.”

  “I’ll never get used to this,”’ said Helen.

  “Probably not,” said John with a smile. He thought the situation was great; he knew all of the tricks and secrets of the tower and the rest of the Wizard and Witch world.

  “Why are there so many illusions?” asked Helen.

  “Well, you see Wizards hate the thought of living Normal lives, or even to think that they might have Normal lives,” said John, “so they create up illusions to make their lives as abnormal as they like.”

  I guess that makes sense, thought Helen.

  John was standing at the left side of the bed, which was twice the size of their King-sized bed back home. At the head of the bed, at either side, were two long windows that looked out in the direction of Cayer-Huld. John stood peering out of the one on his side and he found himself wondering if the city he had loved and missed for so long had changed.

  While the Wizard-Elf continued to stare blankly out across the land, Helen was taking a look around. The walls of the room were a light red color, and on them were V-shaped torches that were evenly spaced thr
oughout the room, with blue flames dancing on the both stems of the V’s. The floor was made of stone and looked like ash, and there were two fireplaces, one to the left of the door, and the other at the opposite end of the room. And in them the fires were full and high with Normal yellow, red, and orange flames, which surprised Helen greatly. She half expected the flames to be blue, or purple, or some other color, maybe even multicolored.

  Helen realized that though there were two fireplaces. The room was not hot. In fact the temperature of the room was nice. Helen wandered about it. “Shouldn’t it be warmer in here? I mean, with two raging fires.”

  “Well, yeah, it should be warmer with two Normal raging fires, but those fires aren’t Normal. They don’t give off any heat,” replied John. “It’s the floor that does that.”

  “The floor? But I can’t feel any heat off of the floor,” said his wife as she looked down at her track shoes.

  “It’s not roasting hot. There’s just a little bit of heat. If you take off your shoes, you should be able to feel it.”

  “Are you sure that the ground won’t swallow me whole, or teleport me to an alternate dimension?” asked Helen jokily.

  John laughed. “No,” he said, “Just a little heat that’s all. Trust me.”

  “If only I could,” said Helen.

  John had a sly grin on his face.

  Helen took off her right track shoe and hesitated. Then slowly she set her bare foot on to the floor, and true enough, she could feel a smidgen of heat coming from the floor. She took her left shoe off and decided to walk around the room barefoot, for it felt very soothing. “Is there a bathroom nearby?” she asked.

  John was standing with his hands over his mouth and was breathing hard into them as if they were a gas mask. “Can’t you just put those monsters away so I can breathe again?” asked John funnily.

  “Very funny, smart arse. You know sometimes I wonder why I ever married you,” Helen teased, clearly not at all amused.

  “I thought it was for my fantastic good looks, brilliant personality, and great wit,” said John, holding his head back and chin up amusingly.

  “Whatever. Now tell me is there a bathroom? I need to pee,” said his wife.

  “Yes, over there,” replied John. He was pointing to the wall opposite him, but there was no doorway.

  “Where is it?”

  John walked over to the wall and put his arm though it. “Here. The reason you can’t see it is because I put spell on it.”

  “You put a spell on your bathroom?”

  “Just on the door, to hide it,” said John.

  “But why would you?”

  “I did it because once when I was out on a date, my friends, knowing we would be coming back here, thought that it would be funny to hide an Orslat in the bathroom and let it stink out the place.”

  “What’s an Orslat?” asked Helen.

  “It’s a very smelly creature,” said John. “It’s something like a skunk, although it doesn’t spray. The smell comes from its skin, and it’s about a hundred times worse. So after their little stunt, I moved the bathroom from that end of the room to this end and put a spell on the door.”

  At this point, Helen was laughing to herself.

  “Yeah, they thought it was funny too,” said John.

  “It’s not that. It’s the part where you said your friends used that Orslat thing to stink out your bathroom,” replied Helen.

  “Yeah, and?”

  “It’s just that you don’t normally need any help in that department.” She could no longer control her laughter as tears ran down her face.

  John grabbed one of the pillows off of the bed and threw it at her. She caught it and threw it straight back. She then ran to where John put his arm through the wall.

  “Where is it again?” she asked crossing her legs. Just then her hand went through the wall. “It’s okay, I’ve found it.” Helen put each of her hands at either side of the doorway.

  “Say ‘lock’ if you want the door to lock, and say ‘open’ when you what to come out again,” said John just before she stepped through. She was not in the toilet long when John saw her reappear.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “Well, now that you’ve most likely stunk out the toilet, we wait until Delsani comes to take me to start my training,” said John.

  “Ha ha, you’re so funny,” said Helen, and then stuck out her tongue at him.

  John, who was sitting on the bed merely said, “Revenge.”

  They waited at least three and a half hours before Delsani came. He gently knocked on the door. “It’s time John.”

  John and Helen got up together and followed the old Wizard. He did not lead them to the training room; instead they went back the way they came when they arrived, back to the entrance hall. When they got there, they saw that the Wizard Council and the Council of Witchcraft were there. All of the Witches and Wizards that worked in the towers were also there, as well as young Wizards and Witches from the Wizard Colleges, and the Witch Schools of both Cites, who had all come to see their new King and Queen.

  “Why are all these people here?” asked John.

  Delsani smiled “They’re here because the Grand Wizard wishes to present you with a couple of things that are yours through birthright.”

  Jaucal stepped forward, and to John’s surprise, around the fingers of the Wizard’s right hand was Dragdani’s Dragon. Once again it was hanging from a thin black rope.

  In Jaucal’s left hand was the Sword of Light, Yeluilat. The Elves had brought it with them so it could be given to the last living heir of Dragdani.

  John stepped toward the Grand Wizard.

  “Lord Jastark. The Wizards Council and the Council of Witchcraft have decided that as you are the rightful King, you shall be the new bearer of Dragdani’s Dragon and the sword Yeluilat, which once belonged to your ancestor, King Dragdani,” said Jaucal. “So with no further delay, in front of all of these witnesses I present you with the symbol of Dragdani himself.” John bowed his head to receive it, and Jaucal put the necklace around his neck. “May your life and rein be long, my friend,” said the old Wizard.

  “Thank you,” said John.

  “Now if you would all like to make your way to the dining hall for something to eat,” said Delsani, motioning his hand in the direction of the dining room.

  A feast was held in the dining hall, which was one of the largest rooms that Helen had ever seen. The walls were grey. Long rectangle tables ran along the left wall, around the wall at the far end of the hall, and back down the right wall again. Other smaller tables were placed in the heart of the massive room, and it seemed every chair at every table had an occupant. As Helen continued to look about, she saw that halfway up the four walls that made the room ran a border of gold. The border had depictions on it, but she couldn’t see what they were from where she sat.

  She continued to scan the room, and again her eyes fell on the large silver statues she had seen as she entered the room. There were ten in all that were sitting on ledges set just below the golden border. Four of the statues were on one side of the room, four opposite them, and the last two also facing each other, one above the entrance and the other at the far end of the room. These were the largest of all the ten, one a Witch and the other a Wizard. Helen found herself staring at the one of the old Wizard. He was dressed in long robes, and in his left hand he held what looked like a page of parchment. In his right was an old pointed hat.

  Just as Helen went to look back at her plate, the statue winked at her and then smiled. She looked at the others all around the room, and like the first, some winked, others smiled, a few waved and mouthed hello, and last but certainly not least. The male Witch above the entrance, after seeing the dazed look on the young woman’s face, let out a loud robust laugh that filled the hall and made some of the other people in room jump, so much so that it sent more than a few forks, food and all, flying through the air. Most of them landed on other tables and even othe
r plates.

  Delsani, John, and Helen left early. They were not really that hungry after the big lunch they eaten only hours before. Besides, Delsani wanted to start John’s training as soon as possible.

  There were only mats on the floor of the training room; there were no special devices or anything else that one might expect to find in such a room.

  “How are you going to train me?” John asked. “You said I’m the first Wizard- Elf you’ve ever seen.”

  “I will use this to train you,” said Delsani as he held up a folder. It was brown with a clip in the shape of Dragdani’s Dragon locking it down tight.

  “What is it?” asked Helen.

  “In this folder are the instructions that Thoiucil gave to Dragdani when she was training him. Dragdani’s father wrote it all down.”

  John nodded, clapped loudly, rubbed his hands together and said. “Fine, let’s get started.”

  Helen sat down at the end of one of the mats while Delsani and John got ready to start.

  By the end of the day, John had done very well and learned how to use a few of his abilities, even if it did mean redecorating most of the room and replacing some of the weapons that lined the walls, not to mention one of the four wooden chandlers that formerly hung from the ceiling.

  John and Helen said goodnight to the old Wizard before heading back to their room. John felt confident that he could remember the way. It was quite late; there was not a soul to be seen in any of the corridors. They could hear a rough wind bellowing outside as they walked, but nothing else was to be heard except their own footsteps on the stone floor. When they got to their room, they went straight to bed, as they had an early start the next morning.

  Chapter Three

  The Light of Yeluilat

  Two years and went flying by, and John being a very fast learner, had finished his training, or at least finished what was in the folder. Whatever else he would learn must come from experience, which he knew well enough.