The Dragon's Apprentice

by Ben Marble

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The apprentices all looked at each other not sure what to make of the exchange Xander had let them hear. Brianne was not sure what the biggest surprise was. That there was a whole group of dragons that were opposed to Ember or her kind, or the facts about Xander's parents. They knew he was an orphan and he had been blinded in the accident, but they had never been told that he was stuck in the car with his dead parents for days. They had known it was attached to the chaos around the dragon’s emergence, but it had never been so apparent why Xander had such a deep distrust of the dragons.

  Brianne had been healing Ember, so she was pretty sure that she was the only one who realized the dragon had woken up for the exchange. Their master had kept her eyes shut, but her energy shifted, and her body stiffened slightly while Dell and Xander talked. Brianne kept working the whole time, keeping her head down. Both Sierra and Michael had been on their feet trading glances during the exchange. There was a moment when Brianne was pretty sure that Sierra was about to jump out and ruin their hiding place, but Michael had grabbed her and shook his head. Now more than ever it was important that they found a way out of here. The dragons, Brianne supposed she should start thinking of them as order dragons as that was what Dell had referred to them as, needed to know what was going on down here. The sooner they escaped the better off they would be.

  The order dragons had apparently beat these other dragons before. Even though Nightfire and Dell had overpowered them quickly there had to be some tricks that could keep it from happening again. Xander had to keep running until Ember had the energy to join the dream and tell the other dragons what had happened or could help them escape.

  "What do we do now?" Sierra looked askance to the other two.

  "Nothing we weren't doing before," Michael sat calmly down by Brianne and put his arm around her. She leaned into him and closed her eyes for a moment finding comfort in the feel of him. "Our situation hasn't changed, though we now know more of what is going on. On that note, I need to fill you in on something. Ember and the rest of the dragons might be angry with me for doing it, but you need to know what we are up against."

  She listened as Michael filled the other apprentices in on what he knew about chaos magic. He explained how it had affected him and what he understood about the way it worked. All through the explanation things snapped into place for Brianne. She understood why he was so emotionally shattered. Not only had he tried to kill his friends, but he had lost complete control of his emotions and his mind had essentially been hijacked. It also explained why they were having issues fighting Dell, and why Chandler had passed out.

  “I suppose that Xander already knows about this?” Sierra's voice was level and her eyes were narrowed.

  “I believe so. Fuego told me he had filled Xander in since he had seen firsthand how I had… What I did.” Michael twitched uncomfortably

  “And the rest of us weren’t important enough to inform,” Sierra growled. “Is there anything else we need to know Michael?

  “I think that is pretty much it.” Michael looked upward as if he could see Xander. “For now, I guess we sit until Xander finds a way out, or Ember wakes up.”

  With a nod, Sierra sat down. "Then this is how we work it. We will sleep in shifts. Brianne is Ember stable now?" Brianne nodded, and Sierra closed her eyes and leaned back in relief. "Then you will sleep the first shift with Michael, and I will stand watch. When I sleep you will go back to healing and Michael will keep watch." Sierra's eyes opened again, and her forehead creased in worry. "I don't want to ask this, but Michael can you give some of your energy to Brianne while she heals?"

  It was a hard thing to ask. When you shared energy with someone you gave them the ability to essentially pull on your resources until you were out. When a person had no energy at best they would drop into a coma. Even exerting yourself until you passed out you could not burn all your energy away. Sharing meant a great deal of trust, and on top of leaving yourself vulnerable to the person who was using your energy.

  "I can,” Michael looked at Brianne and gave a weak smile. "We need it so of course, I can."

  "Great, well then good night I'll wake you in a few hours." Sierra started to throw some sweaters at Michael and Brianne to use as blankets.

  "Twelve hours Sierra, eight if we can't sleep longer but twelve if we can manage it." Brianne kept from meeting Sierra's look of irritation. "We aren't going anywhere soon, and we all need the rest. So at least for the first shifts we need to get all the sleep we can."

  With a sigh, Sierra nodded her assent and Brianne felt a small victory had been won on her part. Michael was already huddled in a makeshift pile of clothing and was starting to snore. Brianne made a quick pile and joined him. Now all they had to do was wait.

  It did not take long for sleep to find her.

  Dwarves

  Xander came to and pushed the pile of sweaters off of himself. Sierra had taken guard duty outside of the marble while he slept, but now it was time for him to get moving again. None of the other apprentices dared to wander outside in the caves like he did, but he had refused to sleep inside the marble without someone staying outside to keep an eye on things. The others could not see much of anything out there, but the very fact he could confirm voice to voice that Dell and Nightfire hadn't caught up yet was enough comfort to keep him going.

  As he snuck across the room to the makeshift bathroom to freshen up he glanced at Ember. She was stable, but not getting better. Two days of travel since he had left Torch's cave and the best Brianne could do was keep her alive. He was not ready to say anything yet, but he was pretty sure one of the side effects of chaos magic was the slowed ability to heal. Even Ember's gut wound seemed to be doing little more than holding together. Xander surmised it was because of the nature of the chaos dragon. Some of his essences had to be poisoning the wound.

  For wizards, food and water weren't an issue. They could essentially gather and shape energy as needed. It was not nearly as nutritious as real grown food, but it would sustain them for a while.

  Xander took a quick inventory of his other students. Michael sat with his hand on Brianne's shoulder as she worked on Ember. Ember herself look pale and small. If one didn't know her true nature, there would be no way to tell she was a dragon.

  "Sierra," he did his best to focus his voice outside the pocket dimension. He stood at the doorway as it were, but there was no guarantee that he would be heard. He waited a few moments then called again. "Sierra!"

  "What!" Sierra appeared next to him looking annoyed.

  "It's time to switch back. Get some rest." Xander prepared to jump outside the marble, and Sierra grabbed him to stop him.

  "It's not the time to switch, you've only been in here for six hours. You have two more and out of all of us you need your rest the most." Sierra was trying to stare him down.

  "Every moment you are out there it's a pair of eyes that aren't used to working in the dark. I know you can see with the help of magic, but it's not the same." Xander started to fade as he jumped back out. "Besides you're supposed to confirm everything is all right before you jump back inside the marble."

  He was pretty sure Sierra had an irritated retort, but he was outside before he could hear it. He carefully lifted the marble and stuck it back in his pocket and started to move deeper into the caves. Xander hoped today would be different than the last two. There was no telling how far into the earth these tunnels went before they ended. By now he was far enough in that it was time to search for a way out. Not magically, though that would be preferable. Any magic that stretched far enough to find an egress to leave by might trigger unwanted attention. They were far enough from Torch's cave now that there was a larger chance of running into other things in the earth that he did not want to meet. He was pretty sure he could handle many of the creatures that dwelt in the darkness, but it would be better if he could avoid them outright.

  One of the downsides of the dragons coming back is that the magical creat
ures of the world had awoken as well. Most of them were harmless enough or kept to themselves. Every now and then though you would run into a troll or ogre that would jump at the opportunity to eat a lone person when they could avoid any repercussions.

  To balance this, the wizards who had served the dragons when they slept, awoke as well. Unlike those being trained up now, these figures were dark and distant. They didn't talk to anyone but the dragons, and upon examination, Xander was sure they resembled less evolved human beings. Not quite Neanderthals, but their features were rougher and bodies seemed thicker than the people you generally run into nowadays. These figures would appear at the behest of the dragons to help when gremlins bugged up machinery, or goblins threatened towns. For all intents and purposes, they were the police of the magical world. Of course, enforcement went both ways. If you tried to catch or kill a unicorn or torture a leprechaun for his treasure the wizards would come after you just as quickly. The new generations of wizards had yet to have anyone graduate to join the ranks of the ancients, and no one knew how things would work when that happened.

  Before he joined those ranks, Xander had to survive this excursion.

  He had seen Dell’s shade twice after the first time. In both instances he hadn't bothered to talk to the other apprentice, he simply expelled him again with a flash of light and moved on. Xander also had sent out several shadows and shades of himself to help confuse any attempts to track them. These shadows he had used a bit more energy than he had during battle practice and if someone found them magically it would seem to be him until they were right upon it. He had debated setting traps behind him as well but didn't want to leave any definite signs that he had been through any area.

  So far so good as far as things went. Despite Ember’s health issues Xander was starting to feel positive about their progress. The fact that Dell and Nightfire had not caught up with them yet was a good sign. As far as he could figure Nightfire was not worried enough to chase them down himself, and Dell was only human.

  Xander was rattled out of those thoughts by a flash of light. His shield was up immediately, and he jumped to his right in case someone had cast against him. Xander crouched and waited for his vision to return to normal as he worked on blending into the shadows and stone. With any luck, no one had seen exactly where he was, and anyone in the cave might be as blinded as he was. His best course of action was to blend in and prepare to defend himself.

  The light faded, but it was still letting off a dull orange light. Slowly, after the initial flash, it started to brighten again. This time it was slow enough to keep from being immediately blinding and Xander's eyes could adjust to the light. He made a point of not looking directly at the lightened area because he did not want to be night blind if he had to make a quick escape.

  To his surprise, he could make out two figures in the dark. They were both about four feet tall and stocky. Long unkempt beards hid the lower parts of their faces and trailed down to cover their chests in long strands of hair. They both wore overalls with over dingy brown shirts that had been white a long time ago. One of them had hair that had almost gone gray completely, and he had the back of his hair pulled tight into a clubbed tail, while the younger one who had coal black hair left his hanging wild around his neck and down his back. Both were staring at Xander in surprise with dark eyes.

  With a mental shrug, Xander stood and dropped his camouflage. He had stumbled across a couple of dwarves, and they would have no problem seeing through any illusion he might pull up. Dwarves were not fans of magic at all. From what Xander had read he guessed it was because for being magical creatures, they could not cast any more spells than a clump of dirt. Despite this, they seemed to have a natural immunity to several types of magic, like anything that was designed to fool the senses. They would be surprised to find a human down below the earth this deep. It was their domain they guarded it fiercely. His only chance was to be open as possible. Dwarves like any type of magical creature attached to the world of Fairy were not evil or good. They just were. Depending on the mood of these dwarves he could be fighting for his life or finding potential allies.

  Giving a formal bow Xander addressed them. "I am Alexander, apprentice to the dragon Ember and I'm pleased to meet you."

  "Why does it sound so damn formal?" The young one looked questioningly at the older one. "You think being caught intruding in our caves it would be more to the point."

  "Patience Delver," The older one took a step forward past the one he had identified as Delver as he spoke. "This isn't a dragon's cave apprentice, what are you doing down here."

  Here was the hard part. The dwarves would know if he lied, the fey had that way about them. Dwarves were straightforward but some of their cousins would twist the mind up in half-truths and riddles. But they might go as far as physically trying to remove him if they thought he was bringing danger with him. It was a roll of the dice, but he had to go for truth, at least most of it.

  "I'm running from some enemies. I was visiting the dragon Torch's cave when I was attacked. My enemies forced me further underground and I've been running since." Xander tried to look as innocent as possible.

  "I know Torch; you aren't running from him, are you? Because if you are, I will march you straight up back up to his home quick as blinking." The old dwarf narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

  "No, I'm not sure what happened to Torch, but he wasn't in his cave when we arrived."

  "You aren't running from any of my cousins?"

  "Not that I'm aware of."

  "Well then, we will let you be on your way,” The old dwarf nodded and hefted a wicked looking pick ax while he motioned for Xander to move past. The pick ax was as much a tool as a weapon. It was wickedly sharp and pointed on one end, the other side bled into a traditional half-moon blade. It looked awkward to wield to Xander's eyes, but he had no doubt the dwarves had plenty of practice.

  "Thank you," Xander started to move past, and then stopped. "You wouldn't happen to know a safe passage to the surface would you good dwarf?"

  "I do, and it's straight through Torches cave," The dwarf lightly flipped his pickaxe in his hand. "The other passage out of these caves is problematic at best."

  "I would consider them both problematic now. Be careful if you approach Torch's cave." Xander started to move on in the tunnel.

  "You’re assuming that whatever considers you an enemy would want to trouble me." The dwarf regarded him evenly. "Are you alone down here?"

  How to answer that one? "My Master and other apprentices are close by."

  The dwarf blinked at that and looked around warily. Delver crouched and held his pick ax as if preparing to defend himself. "Look young one, you're better off not wandering along down here no matter how close the others may be. Not just because it's dangerous, but I'd rather not have you tripping over any of our mines. That would be unpleasant for everyone." Xander nodded. Dwarves protected their secret places aggressively. "I will offer you and your fellow’s hospitality for a night, and maybe we will see if I can help you find a way to the surface."

  "In return?" He knew that there would probably be a deal involved. There always was.

  "In return, you will tell me what you are running from. I won't lie, I was traveling to Torch's myself to go surface side and do some trading." The dwarf gave a small grin. "Since fortune seems to have saved me a trip that could have been disastrous, I figure that should be a small enough price. There might be a deal to make after you and yours have been rested, but we can wait until then."

  "Seems fair enough," Xander squinted and looked at the dwarves carefully. "Must be a light trip for it to be just the two of you."

  The older dwarf laughed and then whistled. Xander about jumped out of his skin as another thirty dwarves or more seemed to pop out of the cave walls. The rest of the dwarves were carrying large packs and were dressed in clothing that simply seemed to blend into the stone. It was a good thing he had decided to be polite because the dwarves could have overwhelmed him bef
ore he managed a single spell.

  "One more thing," The old dwarf was obviously pleased with himself. "Whatever trouble is following you is not our trouble. If your enemies show up and want to fight, you will take it outside our walls. If they give us reason to offer hospitality, you will respect that and won't cause any trouble while you are under our care."

  "I won't break any laws of hospitality." Xander immediately regretted saying those words. They were true strictly speaking, but now he had no wiggle room since he admitted to knowing the rules. The dwarf nodded solemnly and started signaling the other dwarves who silently started going down a side tunnel that Xander had not noticed.

  "I expect you won't. I'll wait here with you until you consult your friends on our deal."

  It was Xander's turn to smile wickedly as the old dwarf jumped out of his skin when Sierra simply appeared. She had been listening the whole time along with anyone else who was awake in the marble.

  "I'm Sierra apprentice to Ember," She bowed to the old dwarf, and unlike Xander, she was able to keep a straight face at the stunned dwarf’s expression. "We would be happy to take you up on your hospitality."

  "How many more of you are likely to just pop out of thin air?" The dwarf pursed his lips. "Well, doesn't matter I suppose. I gave the offer to you and your friends, let's just hope you don't have a whole army squirreled away somewhere."

  "Don't worry, there's only five of us including my master Ember," Sierra did give a smile this time. "And she is in no condition to pop out, and I promise to give you more warning before anyone else appears."

  "The enemy that you are running from injured a dragon? I am offering you shelter while you are running from something that can hurt a dragon?" The dwarf started washing his hands back and forth nervously.

  "If you want us to be on our way I understand." Xander felt Sierra give him a hot look as the words left his mouth. "I won't hold you to a deal that might cause you or your kin trouble."