Realm of Shadows Trilogy

by Linda McNabb

  Marrik raised an eyebrow and looked thoughtful. Eagan knew exactly what the head guard was thinking. He had the same hopes for himself. Would a dragon choose him?

  ‘They can’t choose you, Eagan,’ Darius said with a sigh. ‘They cannot choose an apprentice, especially one as old as you.’

  Eagan glared at his wizard then sighed. He knew Darius was right. His path lay in a different direction.

  ‘Let’s get on with it.’

  ‘Are you sure this is the right time?’ Eagan asked quietly, intending his question only for Darius. ‘If we do this there won’t be enough magic left to reseal the pass.’

  ‘And the seal on the pass is useless anyway, so why would we bother?’ Darius pointed out. He already had his ledger open and his quill scratched quickly across the page. Eagan was sure he heard the wizard mutter something about it being hard to find a good apprentice.

  ‘Are we ready?’ Eagan asked, holding the staff out and extending his other arm.

  ‘There’s no need for theatrics. Only the old guard is watching and he knows you’re not really doing anything,’ Darius said, snapping the book shut and putting on the table by the fire.

  Eagan had often wondered if it was cold inside the staff as there was always a fire visible in the background of Darius’ image when the wizard was writing in his book. Was it an entire room or even several?

  He sighed deeply then spoke the words after Darius. Again, it wasn’t strictly necessary, but he had to practice sometime before he went into the staff and it was as good a time as any!

  ‘Our need is great, seek your soul mate, awake and heed our call.’

  Marrik was watching in awe as the large grey mottled eggs in the nest began to glow. Eagan realised he was holding his breath and forced himself to relax. He had no control over how many dragon eggs would stir.

  Slowly the golden glow faded and Eagan stepped forward to inspect the eggs. Two of the eggs near the edge of the nest glowed from within. The rest were back to mottled-grey.

  ‘Only two,’ Eagan said, trying to hide his disappointment. Last time a dozen had hatched and even then they had struggled to drive back the night-shadows.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Marrik asked, looking delighted at the silhouetted form of the dragons that could be seen through the shell.

  ‘There are only two people nearby who are acceptable to the dragons within. They will not hatch without a soul mate to bond with,’ Eagan explained. ‘Or, they do not see much of a danger from the night-shadows.’

  ‘Who are the soul mates?’ Marrik asked, looking hopeful.

  ‘We won’t know until they place their hand on the egg,’ Eagan said.

  ‘May I try?’ Marrik asked, barely able to contain his eagerness.

  ‘Sure,’ Eagan said. He doubted the dragon would have picked someone as old as Marrik, but it was possible.

  Marrik suddenly seemed reluctant to touch the egg. He stopped a step away and just stared at the egg, keeping his hands tucked behind his back.

  ‘How will I know if I am the one?’ he asked.

  ‘The egg will glow brighter and the bond will be sealed,’ Eagan told him.

  Marrik slowly reached out one hand and placed it on the closest one. He looked over at Eagan in surprise.

  ‘It’s cold!’

  ‘It will warm as the creature within awakens ready to hatch,’ Eagan replied. The egg still glowed but no brighter than before. Marrik stared at it, and lifted his hand as he realised it had not accepted him. He moved his hand to the other egg and the result was the same.

  ‘Ah well, I guess I’ve already got an important job to do,’ Marrik said, trying to cover his disappointment with a forced smile. ‘So, do we bring everyone down here to try as well?’

  Eagan nodded and looked longingly at the egg, wishing he too could try his luck.

  **

  The guards and residents of High Gate had been called to the tower in small groups all day. Seth watched them enter the door to the basement looking excited but every single one returned with a shrug or a sad expression. Finally, as the sun was about to set Eagan came up the stairs and stood at the door to beckon the final group of people inside. It was a mixed group of several guards, a cook and three kitchen hands.

  ‘What about us, Eagan?’ Rem asked from where she and Seth sat on the fence by the kitchen gardens. ‘We’d like to see the eggs.’

  Seth snorted and made no attempt to lower his voice. ‘They won’t let me near them. I don’t want to see their dumb eggs.’

  ‘I haven’t seen any young people go down,’ Rem added.

  ‘The dragons only choose adults, for they need minds that are well-developed and not prone to the whims of children,’ Marrik said, but not unkindly. The head guard was leaning on the wall, marking off a list of people who were going down the steps.

  Eagan looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded at Rem. Seth was too far away to hear if the invisible wizard was talking to Eagan but it seemed likely they were discussing it. ‘Come on down you two.’

  Rem leapt up immediately and Seth followed almost as quickly despite his assertion that he wasn’t interested. He had not expected to be allowed down to see them and he felt his heart quicken with excitement which he carefully kept from showing.

  Cree and Dari flew up from the fence and attempted to follow them, but Rem waved them away and the huge mountain birds settled back onto the fence.

  There were a dozen steps down to the lower room of the tower and it was dimly lit. The rest of the people were already waiting in a circle around the room. A lot of them seemed to be talking and Seth tried to see who it was but it was too dark. He wondered why Eagan hadn’t told them to be quiet as he and Rem found a space from which to watch. They were slightly back from the others and Seth could see two glowing eggs in a nest of gold.

  ‘Looks like they’re in this group,’ one man said, and Seth turned his head to work out who was talking.

  ‘Yes, the eggs look brighter already,’ another replied.

  ‘I bet it’s the tall guard and the red-haired kitchen hand. Any takers?’ another man said in what sounded like a challenge.

  ‘I guess we’ll soon see,’ a girl chipped in.

  ‘Do you lot mind!’

  The other voices fell silent. Seth frowned as he recognised the last speaker as Darius. How could the others hear Darius?

  ‘Each of you step forward and place one hand on each egg,’ Eagan said as he went to stand beside the eggs. ‘If it glows you are the one it has chosen.’

  Seth forgot about the chatter as soon as the first guard went up and placed a hand on each egg but they did not glow any brighter.

  ‘Doesn’t the dragon inside look beautiful!’ Rem whispered to Seth. ‘I guess the guard isn’t who the dragon wants.’

  Seth stared at the silhouetted dragon and had to agree that it was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. ‘I wonder if they breathe fire like in the stories.’

  Two more people went up to try their luck and left the room looking sad. After several minutes there was only one guard and the cook left.

  ‘What are the odds that it’s the last two we try?’ Darius said and Seth flinched a little. He hadn’t realised the wizard was standing so close to him. He glanced in the direction of the voice and could just make out a shaky silhouette. He narrowed his eyes and stared harder but it stayed blurred.

  ‘Maybe it’s your apprentice, Darius,’ a man’s voice suggested.

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ Darius snapped back.

  ‘Well, one of my guesses is still here. I reckon one is the tall guard.’

  Seth frowned and looked around the room. Were other people hiding in the shadows? He could see vague shapes in the depths of the shadows. Perhaps they were there to guard the eggs?

  Seth turned his attention back to the eggs and saw that both the guard and the cook were approaching. Both laid their hands on the eggs and Eagan looked crestfallen when nothing happened.

  ‘We m
ust have missed someone. I thought we’d seen all the adults here,’ Eagan said as the final two trudged up the steps. ‘Perhaps there are there some guards in the pass that haven’t been down yet. I’ll get Marrik to check.’

  Seth and Rem were left standing by the wall as Eagan hurried to the top of the stairs to talk with Marrik.

  ‘Let’s take a closer look while he’s gone,’ Rem suggested and dragged Seth forward by the arm. ‘Aren’t they amazing?’

  Seth just nodded. He felt drawn to the eggs and ignored the voices that he could hear chattering away in the background. He leaned closer to the eggs and then reached out and touched one lightly with a finger.

  ‘It’s cold,’ he said to Rem and she reached out a finger as well.

  As her finger touched the egg, the room burst into light as the egg glowed so brightly that Seth had to hold a hand up to his face. He stumbled sideways and reached out for something to steady himself on. His hand connected with a cold stone-like surface and the room grew even brighter. He felt himself thrown backwards to the ground and heard a squeal as Rem landed next to him.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Rem asked, sounding terrified. ‘Did we break them?’

  Seth’s eyes were still hurting from the intense light even though it was now dark again and he squinted around the room. He could make out almost a dozen people hurrying forward, and they all looked delighted. He shut his eyes again and tucked his head into his lap to wait for his eyesight to return to normal. He could still see the silhouette of the eggs burned into his vision.

  ‘So young!’ a voice said, close by.

  ‘And a girl too.’

  ‘I don’t see anything special about them.’

  ‘Well, this will cause trouble.’

  ‘I heard about the boy from Darius.’

  ‘Did he break the egg?’

  ‘He’ll kill it for sure!’

  Whoever it was, Seth was getting annoyed with their comments. Seth looked up, and his vision had returned a little. He glanced around the room and bellowed. ‘Will you all be quiet? All I did was touch it. I didn’t break it and I didn’t kill it!’

  The room fell silent and Seth frowned as he saw only vague shapes in the shadows. Eagan was hurrying down the steps and his mouth had dropped open in shock.

  ‘Who are you yelling at?’ Rem asked, rubbing her eyes and shuffling away from the eggs. ‘I think we’re in trouble now.’

  ‘You two?’ Eagan said, slowing down as he made the connection between the glowing eggs and the two children. ‘But you’re too young.’

  ‘I’m about fourteen summers,’ Rem said defensively. ‘At least the healer thinks I am.’

  Seth didn’t comment. He was too busy watching the egg he had touched. The dragon inside the egg was wriggling and turning as if looking for something.

  ‘Darius, the boy can hear us!’ a voice bellowed.

  ‘I want him as my apprentice!’ another shouted.

  ‘No, he’s mine. I saw him first.’

  The room erupted into a chaos of voices and Seth held his hands over his ears and rocked slowly back and forward. This was all too much. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing his mind to go blank, and felt the stress and tension ebb away.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Eagan crouched down in front of him.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Eagan asked.

  Seth nodded, not really sure that he was, and took another deep breath to calm himself.

  ‘Darius,’ Eagan said, standing up and looking across the room. ‘I take it the other wizards are talking. What are they saying?’

  ‘Seth can hear the wizards. They all want him for an apprentice. They think it might work.’

  ‘Well.’ Eagan looked from Seth to the glowing egg. ‘That’s not possible now.’

  Seth looked around the room and saw the outlines of people slumped down against the walls. He knew instantly that these were wizards and he glanced around and his gaze settled on the many staffs set into recesses in the wall.

  ‘And can you imagine what sort of magic would come from a combination of Seth and a wizard?’ Darius asked dryly.

  Seth looked sharply towards the voice and his eyebrows rose a little as he realised he could see the wizard’s shadowy outline. Darius walked closer to the eggs, where it was brighter, and the image faded.

  Rem sat slightly apart from the others and stared at Seth with a puzzled expression. ‘You can hear voices that I can’t?’

  Seth nodded, unsure how to even begin to explain it.

  ‘Your dragon will hear them when it hatches and can tell you anything you wish to know,’ Eagan told her.

  ‘What are the chances of someone else coming here that can hear us?’ a wizard asked sadly in the shadows. ‘We’ll be stuck here for eternity.’

  Seth looked into the shadows and saw the speaker. This wizard was younger than the others and not much older than himself. He sat slumped against the wall beneath a staff. It was shorter than the other staffs and it looked as if it had been broken.

  ‘I wish I’d never see that lump of wood,’ the wizard said and looked up at the staff with undisguised disgust.

  Seth had never felt pity for anyone before. He had never met anyone whose fate was worse than his until now. People may despise him, but at least he wasn’t tied to a staff and banished to a dark room for eternity.

  Rem looked at Seth and frowned at his confused and unhappy face. ‘I don’t think I want to hear the voices.’

  ‘What’s on your face?’ Seth asked Rem as he dragged his attention away from the wizards. He moved a little closer in the dim light to look at a smudge on her face. Three short dark lines rose up from her left eyebrow and curled towards her ear. Above them was what looked like a small black flame.

  ‘You’ve got something on yours,’ Rem said, looking at him intently. ‘A flame and some funny lines.’

  Seth lifted his hand to his face and rubbed at it then looked at his fingers but they were clean.

  ‘It is the mark of the dragon,’ Eagan told them. ‘It shows that the bond has been formed and will never be broken.’

  Seth looked over at the glowing dragon egg. The creature inside wasn’t moving and for a brief second Seth was terrified that his outburst of anger a few minutes ago had killed it. Then it moved and he breathed a sigh of relief. The dragon stared straight at him as if it could see him through the shell then curled up and tucked its nose under its tail. Seth didn’t know how he knew, but he knew the dragon was sleeping.

  Chapter Seven - Dari

  Eagan walked along the edge of the marshes for almost an hour before turning back. He was worried and needed time to think things through. Darius had stayed in his staff for a while, but now trailed along kicking at stones every now and then and whistling off-key.

  Eagan wasn’t worried about a sudden attack by night-shadows. They had never been known to show themselves during daylight. Some of the old timers, back when he was a young man, had said the sun burned the skin of the creatures but Eagan had no idea if it was true.

  ‘The dragons have never picked the wrong person before,’ Darius said finally and Eagan stopped to stare out at the marshes.

  ‘How can a child, barely into their teenage years, possibly hope to control a dragon?’ Eagan said, rounding on the watery image of his long-time companion. ‘I’ve seen fully-grown men struggle with the strong will of their dragons and sometimes the dragon won!’

  ‘Seth may be a problem though,’ Darius agreed. ‘He can barely control himself, let alone a wilful, headstrong creature that is the size of a small house.’

  ‘I will have to stay here and help them,’ Eagan said, beginning to walk back towards High Gate. He was so far along the mountains that only the tower was visible from here. When he got back to the tower he found the two newly-bonded children sitting waiting for him at the top of the steps.

  ‘Are we allowed to go down there again?’ Rem asked, casually picking up a dead mouse by the tail an
d throwing it in the air. Cree took off after it, caught it without even slowing down and arced back to land next to Rem. The huge bird dropped the mouse and creeled sharply as if telling Rem off for tricking him.

  Eagan hesitated. Normally a bonded human spent every waking hour with their unhatched dragon so that the bond was as strong as possible when it hatched. This time it was different. Having Seth so close to an unhatched dragon could be fatal, and his unusual gift could even affect all the eggs yet to stir. The extinction of a species was at risk and Eagan had no idea what to do.

  ‘Move the eggs,’ Darius whispered in his ear. ‘Then the boy won’t harm the others.’

  Eagan raised one eyebrow in surprise. Why hadn’t he thought of that? There was no need to keep the eggs in the cellar now as they weren’t covered by the holding spell.

  Rem picked up the mouse again and threw it in the air a second time. This time Cree just watched it and stayed on the fencepost. Dari was perched just along the fence and seemed happy to be near Seth. Eagan shrugged. Now was as good a time as any to move the eggs.

  ‘Yes, we’ll move them into my quarters so they’re easier to care for,’ Eagan replied to Rem and saw the girl’s face light up. Seth was trying to look uninterested and was flicking stones across the road with his slingshot. Eagan opened the plain wooden door and led the way down to the nest. A brisk wind swirled down the steps after them and brought a much needed freshness to the windowless room. Seth paused as he reached the bottom and looked around at the staffs on the wall. He seemed bothered by them and his deepening frown had Eagan worried. He didn’t want Seth getting upset or angry.

  ‘You’ll have to carry them,’ Eagan told them. ‘Nobody else can touch them now that you are bonded.’

  Rem hurried towards her egg and went to lift it. She wrapped her arms around it, barely touching fingertips but she couldn’t raise it enough to let the breeze flow under it. The egg glowed brighter as if it welcomed her touch. Seth’s lips twitched in what could have been a stifled laugh and he went to pick up his own egg. A second later his smile turned to a frown as he too failed to lift the egg.