Jalia At Bay (Book 4)

by John Booth

  “There are mirrors, cunningly shaped to catch the sun and divert its light to my cave,” Ygdrassal said in Daniel’s mind.

  Daniel turned around in a circle, having not seen the dragon when he awoke. There was a deep rumbling sound that shook the cave emanating from the place where the dragon sat. The sound made it feel as if his bones were shaking in his body, threatening to escape at any moment.

  “I’m sorry, Daniel al’Kebar,” Ygdrassal. “I know humans find dragons speech unnerving, but your startlement was so funny I had to laugh out loud. It is impossible to startle a dragon, you know.”

  “Because you see the future,” Daniel mused. “How then will you ever get into a position where I need to save you? Surely you would find a way to avoid it happening?”

  Ygdrassal laughed, but this time only in Daniel’s head. “We are still bound by our nature. Has it occurred to you that I might be in trouble then because that trouble leads me to something that I want?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Do you not go into battle even though you do not know the outcome? At least I know I will survive.”

  “I only go into battle when Jalia pushes me into it,” Daniel said laughing. “Well, it is usually Jalia’s fault,” he conceded after a moment further thought.

  The dragon was an ungainly creature on the ground. Ygdrassal waddled over to the fire and blew on it. The embers burst into feeble flames.

  “Enough fire remains to brew you a pot of tea, I think,” the dragon said with some satisfaction.

  After Daniel had drunk his tea, Ygdrassal curled in a circle and began to talk.

  “The second thing I have to tell you is about the Fairie. There are things you will need to know before you help the Empress Clea again.”

  “Wouldn’t it be safer for me to avoid her? Given that she and all the Fairie would kill me if they knew who I am?”

  “Sometimes, it is necessary to do the right thing, simply because it is the right thing. The Fairie were here at the start of the world. They were pure magic without form or substance, but possessing an awareness. They each possessed the knowledge inside themselves that says ‘I am’.”

  Daniel tried to imagine what it might be like to know you existed, but be unable to think. He failed.

  “When creatures first walked the earth and swam in the sea, some of the Fairie changed into copies of them. As the creatures grew intelligent over time so did the Fairie. The Fairie do not breed as we breed, each one of them has existed forever.”

  Daniel nodded as if he understood.

  “According to the Prophet, there was a time when nearly all the creatures in this world were kin to dragons. The dragons achieved intelligence and the Fairie chose to become like us. They could pick and choose their form, taking our intelligence, but another creature’s body and so on. The Fairie become vulnerable when they take on real forms. However, it has never been easy to kill a Fairie. Over eons, many had died, but they were still plentiful.”

  “We are cousins of a sort, you and I, Daniel al’Kebar,” Ygdrassal claimed and Daniel snorted in disbelief. “The Dragons were the first intelligent creatures. Long ago, in a time so far back it is beyond imagining, a single Fairie, took on dragon form so perfectly that he fertilized an egg. All the magical dragons descend from that one birth. It is possible that the Fairie do not know that this is how we gained magic.”

  “Are you are telling me that this is how human magicians came into the world? That at some point a human child had a Fairie father?” Daniel asked. Compared to the other things he had been told, that one did not seem too unlikely.

  “Yes, perhaps even more than once. The Fairie have had a special attachment to humans, far greater than they ever achieved with dragons.”

  “In the years before humans came to Jalon, the Fairie took on the form of animals. When humans arrived, they mixed those forms in the bodies they took. They became your gods, with heads of wolves or bulls or lions. Always with human brains and enlarged genitals though. You humans are creatures obsessed with mating and to gain the same pleasure as you, the Fairie found that they needed to become more like you.”

  “That’s why no one believes in gods, we know they were all just Fairie in disguise,” Daniel said. This statement was a truism, as every child knew of the old gods, and of how they had fought a war to the death with the Magician Kings.

  “That knowledge came directly from the Magician Kings and was one reason for the enmity between them and the Fairie. No one who has been a god likes it when their worshippers desert them.” Ygdrassal agreed. “I was hatched at the start of the Magician Kings reign. That was almost three thousand years ago.”

  “You knew them then,” Daniel said in awe. It was hard to believe that this creature was that old.

  “They reigned for over one and a half thousand years,” Ygdrassal said. “I can see them because I live in all the times of my life. They created cities and machines beyond all understanding. They tamed the lands of Jalon until forests became almost none existent. But always they were rivals with the Fairie.”

  “The Fairie were always arrogant creatures. As the humans created works beyond their imaginations, they became bitter and resentful. There were so many humans then that you could not move for them while the Fairie continued to shrink in numbers.”

  “Finally, Empress Clea issued an edict that from that point on, any town or city where a Fairie died would be destroyed. The Magician Kings did not believe her. Such wanton destruction was out of all proportion to the crime. An uneasy period followed where the odd village was destroyed, and then came the massacre at Caldorney.”

  Daniel frowned. He was sure he ought to know where Caldorney was. An image of a vast city destroyed, but still magnificent in ruins, flashed through his mind and then vanished. He shook his head trying to clear it and realized he had never heard of the place.

  “Caldorney was one of the great cities of Jalon. In terms of culture and civilization, it had no equal. When a Fairie was killed there after raping a human girl, Jalon held its breath. Empress Clea and her fellows chose to destroy Caldorney. Not a man, woman or child survived the holocaust they wrought. Over six million humans perished in a flash of light and fire the like of which no one had ever seen.”

  Ygdrassal paused and it seemed to Daniel that the dragon was reliving terrible sights. Or more correctly, living them afresh as they happened in his sight.

  “The Magician Kings must have reacted violently to that,” Daniel said as he thought about it. “Is that how the war started?”

  “The Magician Kings had a plan. They believed that if the Fairie only knew what it was like to be human, they would stop being as they were. They created a great magic that still works to this day and it was the Fairie vengeance for that magic that destroyed the Magician Kings.”

  “I don’t understand,” Daniel said yet again. He was beginning to feel like a child because he had said it so often.

  “They cast a spell and bound it into a number of special magic objects. The first part of the spell turned all the Fairie into miniature humans with tiny little wings. They can overcome the spell for a few hours to take on their old forms, but then the magic overwhelms them and they shrink back down.

  “I have seen Clea at both sizes. I thought her eight inch high form was her natural one. They must hate being reduced in size.”

  “The next part of the spell was worse,” Ygdrassal said with a sigh. “And difficult to understand. Each Fairie body now wears out within a hundred years and it must be replaced. To do that they must reproduce as humans do among themselves. Each Fairie child born is actually a part of one of their two parents and will become that Fairie when the parent dies. But each child also grows up as humans do, having none of its parents memories until the moment of the parent’s death.”

  “What happens if they don’t have a child?”

  “They die the true death. The number of Fairie has fallen considerably since the spell was cast. It was supposed
to make them think like humans, by giving them a childhood, and make them form a loving relationship with another Fairie. According to the Prophet, the Magician Kings planned to remove the spell after a single generation had been born, but a few years later they were all dead and no one was left to remove the curse.”

  “Was that the totality of the spell?” Daniel asked.

  “There was one further part. The most evil of the Fairie were drawn to the desert and lost their powers. They never were given the chance to breed.”

  “That was the Black Pyramid I gave to Clea. She and others destroyed it,” Daniel said as he remembered the event two years earlier. The Fairie had given him a magic that kept him alive as a reward, though that power had been long since used up.

  Ygdrassal looked at Daniel as if he was going to say something, but if he was, he changed his mind. The two of them sat quietly for together, both lost in thought.

  As evening approached, Ygdrassal invited Daniel into the far corner of the cave. There were ancient iron bound chests scattered around.

  “I have a gift for you, Daniel,” Ygdrassal stated. “Then I will return you to the valley where your mate awaits you. Open that chest and remove the small black bag you find inside.”

  Daniel had to struggle to get the chest open. It was full of books except for a tiny bag on top of them. The bag was small enough to fit into the palm of Daniel’s hand.

  “Open it,” Ygdrassal commanded.

  Daniel obeyed and found a large ring. The ring was made of gold and was heavy. Inset in the top of the ring was a large circular coin-like clear crystal. It was etched with patterns in the same way that a coin might be stamped.

  “That is the Great Seal of Slarn,” Ygdrassal told Daniel. “The diamond set in it is a work of art now beyond the skills of human, dragon or Fairie. The ring is impervious to harm. By ancient law the holder of that ring is the King of Slarn.”

  Daniel almost dropped the ring. “I have no wish to be king of anywhere.”

  “Then you must give it to whoever is. I have now fulfilled my promise to the Prophet and I will return you to your mate. Perhaps you would prefer to ride me rather than be carried. It will certainly make getting out of my cave easier.”

  Daniel nodded and with Ygdrassal’s help got on top of the dragon as if he were riding a horse.

  “You might want to duck your head,” Ygdrassal said as they took to the air. When Daniel saw the size of the tunnel they were about to fly through, he was quick to heed the advice.

  14. Reunion

  Daniel dismounted from Ygdrassal on the far side of the valley. He looked into the valley and saw the trail leading around it. However, Jalia did not seem to be anywhere on that trail, as far as he could tell.

  “You are certain that Jalia is all right? She doesn’t appear to be on her way here,” Daniel asked. The dragon’s cave had been so far away from what Daniel considered the real world, that he had been lulled by it. Now he was worried again; worried about what might have happened to Jalia.

  “She is your mate,” Ygdrassal pointed out. “Does she ever take the easy route? Look to the southern rim.”

  Daniel turned his head and stared at the uninviting rim to the south. It was dense scrubland, packed with bushes and thorns. It looked impassable, but Ygdrassal was right, such a conclusion would never stop Jalia from trying. Daniel caught a glimpse of movement in the distance and saw at least one horse’s head rise above the thorns and bushes.

  “It would appear you are correct, Lord Ygdrassal,” Daniel said. “I thank you for your rescue and your kind hospitality, not to mention our interesting conversations.”

  The dragon gave an awkward bow in response. “I salute you too, Daniel, last of the line of Magician Kings. Remember me well enough not to kill me when we meet again.”

  “I will do my best,” Daniel replied dryly. He wondered if Ygdrassal was trying to tell him something with that comment. The dragon seemed happy with Daniel’s answer, for he spun into the air in a manner that defies description. He flew upwards and vanished as though he had never been. There was no flash of light or puff of smoke, just one moment he was there and the next he was gone.

  Daniel looked over the valley. Jalia was relatively close, but at the rate she was going, it would be nearly nightfall by the time she reached him. A few yards over the rim Daniel spotted a boulder where a man might sit and ponder the strange things he had been told. It would be a good place to wait for his traveling companion.

  It was a long wait. Daniel was feeling more than a little impatient by the time Jalia cleared the top of the valley and began to descend towards him. He was surprised to see three horses come over the lip. It would appear that Jalia had found herself a friend. Of all the people Daniel did not expect to see with Jalia, Hala was right at the top of that list.

  The horses and girls were covered in bits of bush, brambles and twigs. Daniel looked at Jet and was horrified at the state of his poor horse. Why hadn’t Jalia taken the easy way around the valley? Sometimes the woman was perverse just for the sake of it.

  “I thought you’d never get here.” Daniel was feeling more and more irritated as he looked at the state of their horses. “What kept you and what have you done to Jet? He looks like he’s been pulled through a hedge backwards.”

  Jalia launched herself through the air at Daniel, much as she launched herself against the wolves. Her sword was in her hand and it swung towards Daniel with all the pent up emotion of believing him dead and finding him infuriatingly alive could generate. Hala screamed in fright as the death stroke fell.

  Daniel saw how angry Jalia was. His hand flew to his sword and he managed to parry her sword strike at the last possible moment. Their swords rang like bells as they shuddered against each other. Jalia wasn’t thinking straight, so Daniel was able to push her back to create a breathing space.

  Jalia screamed in a primeval way and rushed at him again. In the last yard, she flung her sword to the ground and leapt forward to embrace Daniel in a tight hug. Daniel avoided slicing off Jalia’s left arm by inches as he thrust his sword out of the way.

  Jalia held Daniel so tightly he had trouble breathing. Her legs were off the ground and wrapped around his back, pulling them together. She found his mouth and kissed him. It was a long lingering kiss.

  When Jalia finally withdrew, she bit Daniel on the lower lip and he grunted in pain.

  “How could you do that to me,” she shouted. “I thought you were dead and rotting in that horrible swamp.”

  “I cubb nt tell you,” Daniel replied, his lip swelling from the bite. “I gob resbued by a bragon.”

  “You got what, by a what?”

  Jalia dropped her legs to the ground and let Daniel go.

  Daniel wiped his throbbing lip and tried again. “I got rescued by a dragon.”

  Jalia put her hands on her hips and stared. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”

  “It’s the troove,” Daniel said and spat blood onto the sandy trail. “Would I be daft enough to make up a story like that?”

  “You have a point,” Jalia said as she thought about it. She looked at the horses and to Hala. “I picked up a stray and we have had a bad day. You could make yourself useful by taking care of the horses. We can make camp down there.”

  She pointed towards a clump of trees a quarter of a mile further along the trail. From the lushness of the vegetation around the trees, there must be a spring nearby. It would make an ideal place to camp.

  When they arrived at the camp they found signs of recent use. A fire place had been constructed by a ring of stones and the ashes that remained within it were fresh. This must be the place that the traders had camped the previous night.

  Daniel gave Hala a speculative look as she dismounted. For her part, she ran into the trees to relieve herself and to escape from Daniel before he had time to speak to her. Daniel unsaddled the horses and carefully groomed them, removing all the burrs and thorn needles from their coats. Jet turned his
head and bit him on the arm.

  “I’m sorry, I always seem to be losing you at the moment,” Daniel apologized and Jet snorted in agreement.

  “If you have finished talking to your four legged lover you might want to water him and the rest of the horses,” Jalia said, startling him, as he had not heard her approach. “There’s a spring to the left and if you walk down from it, there’s a place the horses can drink.”

  “Do you think if I were to follow those donkey tracks I might find it?” Daniel asked sarcastically.

  “It all depends,” Jalia replied, “On whether you will be kidnapped by a griffin on the way. I am going to hunt up some game for supper. Do you promise to still be here when I get back?”

  “It all depends on whether the griffin is prettier than you,” Daniel replied, stepping back out of Jalia’s reach.

  “Ha!” was the only response he received.

  Hala was unable to avoid Daniel when he returned to the camp. She made herself useful by collecting firewood and lighting the fire. Now she sat beside it, hoping he would ignore her and go away.

  “Why are you here?” Hala dropped her gaze towards the ground before answering.

  “I followed you to get revenge for what you did to my father and to me. I saw you fall into the swamp from up on the valley’s edge and I saw a chance to kill one or both of you.”

  “Why are you still alive?” Daniel asked. He spoke in a neutral voice, which reflected his feelings. Daniel believed that children should be given a second chance when they go astray, but this was Hala’s third hanging offence.

  “I don’t know,” Hala answered and she shuffled her feet. “Jalia exhausted herself in the water trying to rescue you. I helped her so I could gloat before I killed her, but I found I couldn’t do it. Instead I made a fire and warmed her up.”

  Daniel sat beside the frightened little girl. “You must have said something to her,” he prompted.