To the right and left of the passage two cells stood open but all three went into the cell on right. There were two beds and a cushioned chair, as well as a stand, chilled wine and water, and an assortment of fruit and food. “It could be worse,” Krieger said as he sat heavily on the bed, his back against the wall. The guard’s footsteps retreated down the hall and were lost behind the heavy rattle of the door closing in its stone frame.
“Well, if we are not going to escape with magic, there is little to do except wait for morning,” Krieger said, punching one of the many pillows he found for his bed. “I doubt they mean to harm us if they put us here. More than likely, I would guess that they want us out of the way for the time being – until they can sort out what’s happening down south. I’m quite happy for the soldiers of Dar’Ahlmon to go fight Wynter and his dragons.” Krieger was asleep minutes after he spoke.
Perryn, sensing Grettune’s tension, held her hand and smiled warmly. “Don’t worry dear, we will get you home, even if I have to carry you north with nothing but clouds for feet.”
Grettune smiled and lay her head against Perryn’s chest. Krieger was right, there was little to be done and as she reached up and stroked the hard, stone collar on her neck, she smiled, knowing they could leave whenever they wanted.
Codex of the Prime Wielder
Magical Items
Of the original 30 stones of power, only a few have been used outside the realm of living beings. The dragons and Kimi, obviously, are free-thinking beings as am I, Grettune, and Perryn, and as was Wynter.
It has been possible, however, to bond the stones to inanimate objects as was first done with the Amulet of Haustis. All these discoveries, Lydria points out, will be left to future generations to catalog and record here so that more in-depth magical study can take place.
The second object to be imbued with magical power – or at least, imbued with a Stone of Power, is the giant two-handed broadsword used by Keldon, King of Solwyn. As the stone attached to the sword was taken from Kelmenth, he has named the weapon, the Sword of Kel.
Upon killing the newly formed dragon Kelmenth, Keldon’s sword absorbed the stone that had formerly belonged to the dragon. This instance generates questions for wielders of the future, namely:
Will the same hold true for any weapon that slays a creature wearing a collar?
If this is true, wielders will need to consider carefully how to proceed as part of society. The ability to obtain one of a very few Stones of Power could result in a careless and ceaseless pursuit of those stones and the endangerment of all wielders. More troubling, is the possibility that such pursuit may result in wielders turning their backs on established societal norms of law and order and taking it upon themselves to institute measures for their own protection.
What happens to objects imbued with a Stone of Power?
This is perhaps the most important question. At this point we are aware of the power of the Amulet of Haustis, namely, healing.
Of the Sword of Kel, Lydria has a suspicion that the sword may allow those who wield it to be heard as speaking the truth.
In the hands of Keldon, Lydria is not concerned for he is a man of great integrity and character. However, the whereabouts of the sword should be noted and carefully watched. If this is indeed the power of the weapon, then the Sword of Kel could become one of the most powerful artifacts on Eigrae. An unscrupulous ruler could convince anyone of the truth of their words and cause great suffering.
However, it is possible the sword may make those who hear its wielder more susceptible to agreeing with what is said. In either respect, the sword presents a significant potential for misuse.
A Stone of Power resides within this book, the Codex of The Prime Wielder. This stone was placed as a guard so that only a wielder, and specifically, only the Prime Wielder or someone chosen by the Prime Wielder may open the Codex, add to it, or remove it from the Tower of Cargile. This limitation ensures that the location of all the Stones of Power is known by very few.
One other stone resides in Bayside. Lydria had a stone crafted to blend with the gems of the crown of King Edgar I. The crown is ceremonial in nature and not often worn. Only Lydria, Grettune, and the Codex know of the existence of this stone. When it was embedded into the crown, Lydria sought to channel within the stone the harmonious traits that would well suit a great king – Integrity, Mercy, Fairness, Order, Strength, Humility, Kindness, and Resourcefulness.
It is unknown whether the crown holds any Power at all. Lydria has thought long on this and has said that she may have given a Stone of Power no more useful a life than as a pretty gem. If there is Power within the crown, however, Lydria believes it will work for the betterment of all Wesolk. At the very least, should anyone attempt to regain all the stones, they will need to add robbing the king’s treasury to a list that already includes hunting down dragons.
The Prime Wielder has given me three stones to carry to distribute if I find a candidate to wield its power. She retains the remaining six.
Grettune
26 - Sanprax Viridian
Pars stayed in Safarngal to continue his search of the archives and Hokra, the two Eifen and Lydria sped north to Port Ogdam, where they secured a small sailing boat to take them to the northern end of the lake.
“Do you think it will work, Hokra?” Lydria asked the question as the Chag fastened a large fin he had shaped with wood and sail to the back of the boat.
“I don’t know, but it won’t make us go any slower and it should take less magical energy than moving the boat without it. After all, they work for fish.” When the fin was attached, Hokra sat and looked at the meager wake the boat was making as it pulled slowly away from the shore. Lydria could feel the magic as it swelled up in him and was loosed into the fin, causing it to move quickly back and forth, and she watched as the wake behind the small boat became more pronounced, and felt a gentle tug at her feet as the craft leapt forward.
Lydria sat next to Hokra, not breaking his concentration, and trying to help him with his task, but still the magic would not come. She was embarrassed she couldn’t be of more use, and so walked the short distance to the boat’s bow and watched the water break cleanly down both sides of the hull. The trip south from Bayside had taken three days, but at the rate they were going, Lydria thought the trip north would take far less if Hokra could maintain their pace.
The Chag Ca’Grae was unrelenting, maintaining his position at the stern of the ship throughout the night and into the next morning. Lydria found Haustis standing over him and the Eifen woman looked up as her sister approached. “I can do nothing for the pain caused by his magic, but I can help his body as it strains against lack of sleep. Hokra is strong, and his will is fierce. Magic in the hands of one so capable is at once both beautiful and terrifying.” She said nothing else, but walked back toward the small cabin amidships, letting her fingers trail lightly on Lydria’s shoulder as she passed, indicating she was not trying to start an argument about whether magic should be spread or contained.
Lydria sat next to Hokra for a few moments and encouraged him, telling him how quickly they traveled up the lake. As the sun cleared the horizon, the island where Thrushton once stood was visible ahead of them, and to the east, somewhere in the dazzling sunlight, the bay for which the capital of Wesolk was named would just be visible on the eastern horizon. She commended Hokra on his strength and told him a bed was already prepared for him when his task was finished. She was almost home.
“Lydria!” The voice of Relin startled her from her thoughts, and she scrambled up and ran to the front of the boat where Relin and Haustis stood shoulder to shoulder staring forward. Without a word, Relin pointed to the sky, a hand’s length above the horizon, and Lydria saw what she thought was a bird. Her silence was interpreted correctly by Relin, who said simply, “keep looking. That’s no bird.”
Kimi, who did not like the boat or the speed it made across the water, had spent most of the trip in the cabin below decks,
and only now came out to join the others, pawing at Lydria. Having known the cat since it was cub, Lydria was very good at guessing what Kimi was feeling, but this was the first time since they had met where the cat could not simply tell her his thoughts. Through a tangle of motions, however, Lydria eventually understood what her friend was trying to say.
“Stop on the southern border of the island,” Lydria’s voice was calm and she spoke with a cool authority she didn’t feel. Turning to the boat’s pilot, Relin relayed the order, and Haustis went to the rear to inform Hokra his job was nearly finished.
As they neared the island, Lydria made out the shining green of the dragon’s skin as it spread its wings and landed slowly on the gravel shore of the island. The dragon walked along the shore for a time and shot a river of flame into the air before walking inland among the trees.
It took another half hour for the boat to grind its shallow bottom onto the shore where the dragon had gone inland. Hokra was half-carried, half-dragged to his bed by Relin and Haustis while Lydria and Kimi jumped into the shallow surf and followed the unmistakable trail the dragon had left through the forest.
The trail marched far inland, past the ruined stumps of corn fields and through meadows where the white bones of cattle lay pale against the dark landscape, and finally into a small town, deserted except for the grim corpses that lay still in the street, the wind catching the remnants of their clothing, trying to pull the last items of their humanity from bones picked clean by scavengers, wind and time.
“Welcome, wielder. Do you know this place?”
The voice in Lydria’s head made her jump. It had been days since she had felt such an intrusion and she welcomed the voice while at the same time, it’s sound made the loss of her friend Kimi keener still, and she reached out to scratch the big cat’s ears and feel his head next to her thigh.
“Synca, is that you?” Lydria was surprised she was able to even say the words but remembered the magic of the dragon allowed the beasts to speak with all Eigrae’s creatures. Near a wooden house toward the end of the town’s main street, Synca walked around the back corner of a building, her head low as if she were trying not to be seen.
“Do you know whose house this is?” Synca didn’t wait for a response but used one of her talons to open the wooden door that crashed to the floor from the force. Lydria and Kimi peered into the house and saw the bones of several people scattered on the floor and on the furniture of the house. “This is the home of Wynter, and the bodies you see are those of his wife and daughter and a maid meant to watch them. Wynter still talks about them in his sleep, or when he is alone. He speaks to another also, a boy called Sol for whom he named his city in the north, and for whose namesake we were imprisoned and turned into the beasts you see now.”
“Why did you come here, and why are we here?” Lydria moved back from the doorway when she heard Wynter’s name as if the memory of him and his wife, whom Lydria had fought in Wynter’s mind, were physically pushing her into the street.
“You need to see this, wielder. You have buried your abilities and in so doing, you are burying your friends,” Synca moved her massive head to show she was looking at Kimi. “Your other friends also need you and Eigrae needs you. You are the Prime Wielder, you must lead those not of dragon-borne who wear the collar.”
Lydria gasped, and started to cry, thinking of what she had done with the spiders in the forest. “I know what you have done, wielder. I can see it in you and I can see how it pains you to have acted from hate and spite. But know this, from hate and spite often come great things. Follow me.”
Synca walked at Lydria and Kimi’s side as they made their way up the main avenue of Thrushton, the dragon’s body, crushing buildings and wagons that stood in her way as if they were mere nuisances. At the end of the street the path narrowed and wandered to the northern shore of the island where a small line of hills to the east of the shore rose above the ceaseless lapping of waves. Synca laid flat on the ground, indicating Lydria and Kimi should climb onto her back.
“The reds do not believe we are to be ridden – they think it beneath our dignity,” Synca said as the two scrambled up the scales that covered her flesh. “We were humans and now we are magnificent – we are dragons!” she said. “Our dignity is what we say it is, and for me, I am happy to have the Prime Wielder ride between my wings.” With a gentle push of her legs, Synca shot into the air, as her wings produced great gusts of wind that carried the three forward and over the edge of the small cliff. Another wing beat and another, and Synca slowly turned so that as they faced the cliff, Lydria could make out a dark opening, which the dragon flew toward, tilting its wings forward and then back slightly until her massive clawed feet touched down on dry stone. Synca folded her wings as they entered a narrow chasm. Inside, the cave opened wide, but it was not deep, and at the back, on a pile of glowing rock, lay a very much smaller green dragon, Synca’s child that Lydria had seen during their trip south.
“Wielder, Kimi, this is Sanprax Viridian, the first true dragon.”
“He is beautiful, Synca. He has grown much since we last met.”
“It is unlikely he will come to full growth as fast as the thirteen,” Synca explained. “As we were formed from adult humans, our growth came quickly. It is more likely that Sanprax will spend several years gaining his full stature. And he will not be alone – there are several among the red and blue who will give birth soon as well.”
Synca said nothing more but moved gently backwards to the mouth of the cave where she lowered her head again so Kimi and Lydria could climb on her broad back. In seconds they were over the water and then gently settling down on the land above the cave. “Will you stay here, Synca?”
“I believe so. The people of Wesolk will not come here again for a long time for fear of plague, so we will build here, using our magic as you have, in raising the ground to provide a place suitable to our kind. It will never be like Dragaven, but it will be our home.”
Lydria had so many questions she wanted to ask about Synca’s mate, about what the two greens were doing in the south with Wynter and the Qorghal, and what Burvig would make of her inability to use magic.
“I showed you Sanprax, wielder, so that you can see for yourself, that sometimes beauty springs from things done from malice and spite. I am sure it was never Wynter’s intention that the fourteen be anything but weapons of destruction for him to control. You have given us another path. Never forget this, wielder, it is because of you, that new life exists on this island. The spiders you have made may be the only two ever to achieve their size, or perhaps not. But it is not so bad the Qorghal have something to fear – you have provided balance that has long been missing.”
“It’s the Grey again, isn’t it?” Lydria’s question fell out loud from her lips and she raised her head to stare into Synca’s eyes.
“It always is. Now, look inside you and bring forth your magic. Eigrae needs you.”
Lydria walked into the remains of Thrushton, to the end of the street where Wynter’s house stood open, and she thought of Ellaster, Wynter’s wife, the woman who was prepared to leave her trapped in the Cobalt Tower, to be used as a source of power for her madness. As the heat rose within her, she looked closer and saw the small bones of a baby mixed with those of its mother, and then she thought of Sanprax in the cave below and wondered what lengths Synca would go to protect her child.
“What I’ve done cannot be undone,” Lydria said. She backed out of the house and put her left hand on Kimi, her half index finger flicking the tuft of his ear while she scratched the base of his ear with the rest of her fingers. In a moment, Lydria’s neck blazed with a hot blue light and Wynter’s house collapsed upon itself. When the dust cleared the ground where the house had stood was smooth, the rubble gone, and a square of rich, green grass surrounded a waist-high stone, shaded by a fully-grown tree, its leaves still green in the late summer. Lydria moved to the stone and placed her hands on either side, and when she stood, she s
aw the words, ‘Here lie a Loved Family’ inscribed on the stone.
“Welcome back Lydria, I’ve missed you.” Kimi raised his paws to her shoulders and licked her face. She hugged the big cat and composed herself, moving his paws, and turning toward the dragon who stood silently nearby nodding in approval.
“Synca, we come with news.”
Lydria told the dragon what they had found south of the lake, the Chag Ca’Grae, the cities of Safarngal and Nethyngal, the destruction of the latter, and the movement of the Qorghal south with Wynter and the two greens. She also told the dragon of the archives of Safarngal, and of the Sword of Wilmamen, which she believed was now in the possession of Wynter.
“Some of these things are known to me, for many beasts move across the land, water, and air, and many now seek the guidance of Dragaven,” Synca told them. “The news of the archives will be of interest to the blues. Greatly do they desire to study and learn, and I think they will wish to see this place. Sanprax is safe here. I will go to Dragaven. Stay on the southern shore and send word to your king that dragons will take up residence on this island. He is a wise ruler and will do what needs to be done. If people wish to reside here again, we will welcome those who are true and who would live in peace.” Synca said goodbye and launched herself into the air, buffeting Lydria and Kimi with the wind of her wings. When she was gone, they turned to the south, prepared to send Haustis to Edgar with news, and wait for Synca’s return.
Later that day, when Synca returned she came as one of three to include Burvig the red, and Sturmgrae, one of the blue dragons Lydria had met in Dragaven with Grettune.
Magic's Genesis- Sword of Wilmamen Page 20
