Wind Rider

by Teddy Jacobs

  I was amazed how for the second time more than a thousand minds could come together to think as one.

  King Thorald took the floor again. Time lost is lives, perhaps even battles lost. We must begin. Let us look outward, guardedly, and probe our enemy. With a thousand minds melded, the dark lord cannot hurt us, and if we are clever, our probe may go undetected.

  There was a great focusing of the minds around me, and I tried to help, clearing my mind and letting it become one with those around me. An eye formed above us, and suddenly I could see over the treetops. The eye began to move, at first slowly, then flying over the hilltops as fast as a bird, as fast as a dragon, as fast as wizard fire, as fast as shooting star… it sped over the mountain now, and over the forest.

  We slowed for a moment, and stopped over one tree in the forest, made contact with a consciousness.

  Tree mother?

  My children prepare to fight the dark lords forces, which threaten the forgotten city… They will leave me tomorrow.

  Have you news of the battle?

  They say the dark lord will attack in four days time. We are sorely outnumbered.

  And then the eye was moving again, and we were over a great encampment. It was hard to tell for certain, but I felt sure that there must be well over two thousand orcs, kobolds, trolls and humans in the camp, not to mention the keiler running about. They had chopped and burned trees, and built crude shelters. In the middle of the camp was a great fire, and within it, something strange. A presence. An intelligence. There were others too, nearby. I felt them and the others felt them too, and then suddenly the eye was dissolved, gone — I saw only the green and blue lines of thought around me, and felt my own body again.

  That was close. That was a major demon, there, in the fire, and there were others… demons and wizards. But the dark lord himself, we didn’t see.

  The dark lord will reserve himself for the final battle, as stated in the prophecy; he is careful, and will not risk himself until he has everything to gain … or lose.

  Just as well; the boy is not ready…

  Neither are we…

  Thorald took the floor again. I will now dissolve this circle; I give you twelve hours to prepare to march; we will march at daybreak, taking half of our warriors, and our warrior-mages. If need be we will teleport more in; but danger looms with the teleporting, as long as the dark lord has his eye on us.

  Then, the magic was broken. Suddenly I felt very alone, among a great group of people. Then Kara grabbed my hand, and led me through the throng. You need to rest now, Anders.

  I stopped her for a moment, as we moved away from the others. And our dragons?

  They will rest as well. We have a long day ahead of us. I want you to meet my aunt, and be our guest. Come…

  And so I walked, in a daze, and realized how hungry, and tired, and cold I was; and that I was still dirty from the battle that we had fought, splattered still with troll and kobold blood. Most of all I was weary, so weary that my bones ached.

  The forest was growing cold now, as afternoon turned into evening. I reached out my mind and felt the energy all around me: the plants, the trees, and also, the people. My people. My kin. Part of me, for the first time in many weeks, felt at home.

  We stopped and I saw a small brick house, nestled among the trees. This is where I live.

  The door opened and a woman walked out. She was dressed simply; her blonde hair was pulled back in a bun, but I could feel the royal blood in her, in the way she walked with assurance and looked at me.

  So you are Anders Tomason. I, Helga, am honored by your presence. You have already saved the life of my niece, and if the prophecy speaks true, you may save the life of all our people. But for now, you probably wish more than anything for clean clothes and to wash, and to eat.

  I nodded.

  She beckoned us in.

  Inside the house seemed bigger than the outside. There were small rooms for sleeping, with beds, and a small washing room, with tile on the ground, and water in basins for washing, under a stove. A neatly stacked pile of clothes were there, as well.

  We have heated the water, and there is a cloth there, with which you can scrub and wash yourself. The clean clothes are for you as well. Wash yourself now. Then you will eat, and we will talk.

  I nodded, and moved into the washing room. I shut the door behind me. For the second time I realized how dirty I was.

  I stripped down and scrubbed myself, poured hot water over my head and back, and felt the disgust of battle wash away. I felt at home here, and could not restrain a groan of pleasure. It felt so good to wash… How long had it been? I grabbed a towel and dried myself, then dressed quickly.

  The smell of hot food hit me as I opened the door. Spice, and hot baked bread, and frying griddle cakes… Had my own mother ever cooked for me anything so enticing? I thought suddenly of my parents, lying in wait in the forgotten city. What was I doing to free them? I felt useless, then. I should be by their side, or battling the dark lord. Well, I was battling the dark lord, wasn’t I? And had I asked to get into this? Had my parents asked to be put into an enchanted sleep?

  All I knew, is if we lost, my parents would be enslaved forever. Or maybe they would die.

  I pushed the thought of my parents out of my head. I felt alive again in my clean clothes, and my stomach grumbled. Kara and her aunt were beaming at me, and I felt embarrassed suddenly.

  Why are you looking at me like that?

  Kara grinned. You just look a lot better than before the shower.

  I blushed, and stopped.

  Don’t be silly, Anders. Come, eat with us.

  Then we were sitting, all three, at a roughly-hewn wood table. It was clean and polished and made me feel grounded as I sat. Kara served me cakes and there was juice as well.

  Kara smiled at me. My uncle will be coming as soon as he can. He sends his greetings.

  Then we were all eating. The food was warm and subtly spicy, and sweet. They were the best griddle cakes I had ever eaten. Warmth moved out from my stomach to the rest of my body. How long had it been since I’d had a hot meal? Just a day or so? Why did it seem so long?

  It was good to eat; it reminds you how alive you are. The battle and the long flight on dragonback had cooled and numbed me; at last sensation and warmth returned to my limbs.

  I took a deep draught of my juice, and looked up from my plate. Kara and her mother were beaming at me again. It is good to see you eat.

  It’s wonderful.

  You must be very hungry.

  I nodded. And cold and numb, until now.

  Dragons! I always wanted to believe the tales were true, but I never thought I would see one! And you rode on one’s back! And my Kara did too! Truly this is an age of wonders.

  Just a few months ago I was locked in my room, with my schoolwork. Now… everything is different, and never will anything be for me like it was…

  Never again like it was. I was afraid that was true. I thought of my parents. Would I ever see them again? Did I deserve to?

  We ate for awhile in silence then, keeping thoughts to ourselves.

  I felt warmer and warmer as I ate. It felt like my cheeks must be glowing. There was heat in the room from the oven, from which more bewitching aromas emanated.

  There was a knock at the door. I looked up to see Thorald, king of the Kriek, at the door.

  Thorald smiled at me. The preparations are almost ready. My people have allowed me to come to talk to you. And to eat.

  I stood up.

  Stay seated, please. You need to eat, and then rest. We have war ahead of us. I need to ask you some questions, but I promised my wife and niece that I would not pry your head until your stomach was full.

  It’s getting full fast. But I can put a little more in.

  Thorald chuckled. You will be able to sleep it off tonight, in any case.

  Helga came in from the kitchen with more food. The smell of vegetables and spices filled the room. I hope you have room f
or one of my pies. They are very fortifying. We Kriek do not eat meat, but they are filled with root vegetables and mushrooms, that will give you strength for the battle ahead.

  The battle. Everything always came back to that. And would I be able to release my parents from the spell that enchained them? Probably not, I thought. If the dark lord would not engage himself, as the others thought, he could not be defeated. We can defeat his army, but we cannot defeat the dark lord. Not yet.

  I had not meant to think aloud. After all the shielding I had practiced with Elias, it was embarrassing to have let my worries slip out.

  Thorald looked me straight in the eyes. Even a small defeat for the dark lord would be a great victory for you and the Kriek, Anders. For too long now he has terrorized the country, and thought himself invulnerable. But you worry about your parents. Woltan’s family will take care of them, of that I am sure. And if we are victorious, this victory will not be our last.

  I thought I was supposed to be trained here; how can I fight wizards when I know little more than how to swing a sword?

  Thorald paused for a moment, and looked first at his wife, then at his niece before answering. Your blood knows what your mind knows not.

  Kara nodded. It is time for you to read from the book of Id, Anders. Here, now, in this room. It is not a long book, but reading it will fill your mind, and what is in your blood will then be in all of you… So speaks the prophecy — as your sword was made whole in the reforging, so shall your body and mind, your blood and brain be made whole in the reading.

  But... how will I read it?

  We will read the first few lines together. You should be able to read the rest on your own. The script is similar to what you read on the pillars. Today you will read it, and Kara will share your reading, and tomorrow you will fly into battle. Together.

  Thorald put an old leather and gold bound book in front of me. And then Kara spoke out loud, in an old tongue: “We will begin on the first page, Anders, and read without stopping. Drink one last draught, for this is no ordinary, casual reading. We will realign your body — your blood and brain will be separated no more.”

  Helga filled my cup, and I drank. My stomach was full of food; my mouth and throat were wet; my skin was clean; I felt warm, and I felt ready.

  I nodded to Kara, and spoke: “I am ready.”

  She opened the book, and we began to read; she held my finger under the characters that swam before me. Slowly I pronounced syllable after syllable with Kara. Gradually we went faster and faster, and in my mind I heard a tale that was in my blood already, and now filled my entire body and mind: the tale of the three races, of the dragons, of the demons of the many levels, of battles, of the trolls, and the kobolds, and the goblins. And the fairies, and the djinn, and the demons once again. There were instructions for the raising of fairies, incantations to control the djinn, and spells to bring forth all but the highest level demons. But all that seemed little more than an introduction for what came after. The fall, the lost ages, and the new age to come.

  The prophecy.

  The old tongue now seemed almost as clear as the language I had learned at my mother’s feet years ago. We must have been reading already for hours, but my throat and tongue remained wet and the words flowed fluidly from my lips. The words of the fall and the future flowed from my lips:

  “As all of the knowledge falls now into darkness, as the connections between the nations that were our strength are now lost, so then all of our past and our future is in this book that you hold in your hands. The wars between what the grey lord stirred up from the deep and the rest of humanity will end with a dark age that will last a millennium. With my ancient art of seersight I see a thousand years of darkness and confusion; the great city of Duln will be forgotten; the merpeople’s underwater homeland will be lost to dark sea creatures of the deep, and fall into ruin; and when the creatures die the merpeople will return, but their city will never be the same; its written art and culture, along with most of its magic, its machines all will be destroyed.”

  “In the forgotten city the once proud race of Duln, those who survive the goblin wars and the attacks of the 6th plane demons, will forget most of their history and allow many lines of magic to be forgotten. And in the Black forest, where once at Freiburg the princes of the Kriek sat in their royal halls, there will be flames and destruction and nothing will remain except the royal family and those who serve them; and they will become people of the forest. They will retain their magic, and this book, but their days of finery will be over, forever. They will become one with the forest and be forgotten or feared by the rest of the world. The dragons, the proud race that once worked in harmony with men to rid the world of evil and make it safe for all, will withdraw to the mountains of Yslien, to guard the great mountain passage and wait for the world to turn again. Even for the longest lived of races, the wait will be long, painful and tiresome.”

  “Instead of battles, they will have only rogue demons to break the long tedium. Their symbiotic relation with humans will be over, until the new era. The great dragon magic, that flourished in the thousand years that they worked freely with humans to protect the world, will be all but forgotten, left only in their blood memory. The magic of faerie, that flourished for a thousand years, since the princes of humankind and faerie made their alliances, will be lost to humankind. Only a few swords will remain, and the art of their use will be all but forgotten. The pixies will grow bored and sullen, and forget their ties to humankind. But their memories are stronger, and their lives much longer.

  “Then there will come into being a new era, in which a dark lord attempts to turn the chaos of the old world into the order of his new evil. And he will bring terror onto the land, but one prince, a blood relation, will rise up against him. And this prince will be of three bloodlines, and he will reunite them: the Kriek and the city that was forgotten and the merpeople will one by one accept him as one of their own, and he shall wield a sword, reforged from those of the great blood lines, and the sword shall sing in his hand. He shall reestablish contact with the dragons, and fight with them against the dark lord. And the dark lord shall not engage himself until the final battle… And the end will be definitive.”

  I closed the book.

  “And the end will be definitive? What is that supposed to mean?”

  Thorald smiled a faint thin smile. Prophecies cannot be complete, the future cannot be completely written until it is lived. We have studied this last line with all our art. We believe it means that only you or the dark lord will survive, that either the dark lord will perish along with his evil forces, or… he will survive.

  And we will perish.

  Thorald shook his head. We won’t perish. This is an era of change, after all. And we feel it is change for the good. We all feel it, even you, Anders, if you examine your heart. There is hope in the air, for the first time in our memory.

  Outside the window it was dark. I stifled a yawn. Thorald patted me on the back. “Your mind and body are tied together now, Anders Tomason, and the two of them are tired. You would do well to sleep now, and rest for tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be no rest; no rest for the good, and no rest for the wicked. Rest now, while you still can. Drink some of this sleeping draught, that my wife has prepared using herbs of the forest, and you will sleep, no matter how full your mind is.”

  I nodded. I brought my hand down to my sword, and Carolina was before me. She smiled at me. You have done well, Anders. Drink the sleeping draught. Tomorrow we both have a lot of work to do.

  I brought the cup to my lips. Then I followed Kara to the guest room they had set up for me, and before I knew it, I was asleep.

  I did not dream.

  XIV

  I awoke to a gentle prodding of my mind. Wake, little one. We fly into battle after you have filled your stomach.

  My eyes stayed closed. Yesenia, where are you?

  Yesenia sent a mental image to me, of a series of caves where she and her brethren had slep
t. We are hungry, little one, and we will have to hunt along the way. Your human friends are all awake, and await you.

  I opened my eyes.

  Kara was smiling at me. “The sleeping draught was more powerful than I thought.”

  I sat up. “It felt like I hadn’t slept in days.”

  “So deep was your slumber that your dragon was the only way to wake you. But come now, and eat, and the hot food and drink will melt away the remains of the draught.”

  I yawned and nodded. “I can barely believe I’m hungry again, but the smells from your mother’s kitchen would tempt the stomach of anyone.”

  I found Elias and Woltan waiting for me in the kitchen. Soon, Ulrike and Cullen joined us. The smith smiled at me. “The sword has been reforged, Anders. Now we have four swords with pixies. They will serve us well in the battle that awaits us.”

  I grabbed a fritter, and ate quickly. “Are your people ready to march?”

  Thorald nodded. “I’ll lead them myself in half an hour’s time.”

  “And we’ll ride, Woltan? That’s the plan?”

  Woltan shook his head. “I’m still not sure what the plan is. I’m torn between flying straight to my sister, or trying to go around from behind, so the dark lord or his minions can’t see us.”

  “I thought the dark lord wouldn’t be there.”

  “He’s not there now… But remember he’s powerful, and surely has magical means of transportation that we know nothing about. We know he won’t be there for the battle, but maybe he will use his eye to watch over the preparations.”

  Kara nodded. “We must be wary. Remember what happened when we tried to form a gateway from the forgotten city.”

  Woltan looked away. “I am worried. I think my sister needs me now.”

  I felt my face grow hot. I had left my parents in Woltan’s sister’s care. And Woltan was the one worried, while I stuffed my face.

  I looked up from my food. “Why don’t you call Jona through your sword?”