“Oh.” I frowned. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
Beyer ignored me and waved his hand at the man, who then headed back out the doors I’d just entered from.
“It’s quite alright, Rath,” Preyna said with a smile. “We know you wouldn’t come to speak with us out of nowhere if it weren’t important.”
“You are correct,” I agreed.
“So, what is it, then?” Rinbar asked, and he leaned forward in his chair.
“Yes, how can we help?” Preyna questioned, and her eyebrows pinched together with concern as she absentmindedly stroked the dragons’ backs.
Blar and Inger seemed oblivious to the seriousness of our conversation, and they were nearly asleep in the council member’s lap.
“I have some questions for you,” I explained. “But first I think you need to understand what happened while we were away.”
“Of course,” Preyna said, and her light-brown eyes narrowed on me. “Please, however we can assist.”
“I met Nidhug yesterday,” I said.
“You went to the realm of fog and mist?” Preyna gasped.
“Don’t be so shocked, Preyna,” Beyer said with a playful smirk. “Rath has a tendency to go wherever he likes, doesn’t he?”
“I found a portal that led there,” I said. “But I didn’t realize what we would find when we were there.”
“You didn’t know about Nidhug?” Rinbar asked, but then he tugged on his beard. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t. Everything about him was taken away, though I thought you might have come across something when you were looking through the library.”
“No.” I shook my head. “It was quite a surprise for all of us.”
“Nidhug must have called you to him,” Preyna said. “People don’t typically find him by accident.”
“He said it was my destiny to find him,” I replied, but then my eyebrows pinched together as I thought about what Preyna said. “Do you know him?”
“I met Nidhug once.” Preyna nodded. “Many years ago.”
“What did he say to you?” Asta asked as she cocked her head curiously.
“He said nothing,” Preyna answered, and she looked at me inquisitively. “Did he speak to you?”
“You couldn’t hear him?” Kas asked. “Rath heard him inside his mind.”
“You did?” Rinbar countered, and his dark eyes widened with surprise.
“Curious,” Beyer muttered as he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together absentmindedly.
“He did,” I confirmed. “What do you know about him? Is he trustworthy?”
Even as I asked the question, I knew it didn’t matter if Preyna found him trustworthy or not. There had been some sort of connection between Nidhug and I, and I trusted him, but I also wanted to know what Preyna knew about the great dragon.
“Nidhug is considered to be the father of all dragons,” Preyna explained. “He was seen as evil for a very long time, but that is not the case.”
“Evil?” Kas echoed, and she glanced over at me. “What do you mean evil?”
“What did he do to be considered so bad?” Asta asked.
“He gnawed at the roots of the tree of life,” Preyna answered in a solemn tone.
“Yggdrasil?” Kas gasped, and her jaw dropped. “Surely he didn’t try to disconnect the worlds?”
“He did.” Preyna nodded. “But not for malicious purposes.”
“Why would he do that?” Asta frowned.
“He knew something evil was coming,” Preyna said. “He knew the dragons were in danger, and he was trying to save them. I wish I could have spoken to him to ask him about this, but this is simply what I read in one of the scrolls after I met him.”
“The little dragons seemed to like him a lot,” Asta said. “I believe them to be good judges of character.”
“I’m sure they are,” Preyna said with a smile. “Nidhug could have easily hurt me the day I came across him, but he did not.”
“In your research of him, did you ever come across a prophecy?” I asked.
“I’ve seen many prophecies.” Preyna shrugged. “What is the one you speak of?”
“Nidhug told me I was destined to save all dragons,” I said. “He told me I needed to fulfill the prophecy. Do you have any idea what he was referring to?”
The council members were quiet for a moment, but then Preyna exchanged a look with Beyer and Rinbar.
“What is it?” Kas asked.
“The prophecy,” Beyer said in a low voice. “We had always assumed it to be about Vinrar, but…”
“What does it say?” I pushed. “What does the prophecy say?”
“It talks about a man who must save the dragons from extinction,” Rinbar said. “The prophecy states: dragons will one day become slaves to man, and they must be freed at all costs, lest the nine realms suffer for their crimes.”
“So they shall be free, or so shall Ragnarok be,” Beyer finished grimly.
“If Rath doesn’t save the dragons, then it will bring about the end of the world?” Asta’s yellow eyes widened with disbelief.
“Perhaps,” Preyna said. “We always believed the prophecy had already been fulfilled.”
“How so?” Kas asked.
“Vinrar,” Preyna explained. “We believed he was the cause of the enslavement of the dragons and that he was the one who needed to be defeated in order for Ragnarok to be stopped. Perhaps we were wrong.”
“How long do we have?” Kas asked quickly.
“We cannot be sure,” Rinbar said with a shake of his head that caused his long black hair to shake, too. “But we must do whatever we can to stop this.”
“What exactly did Nidhug say to you?” Beyer asked, and he leaned forward in his seat. The blue-eyed council member was typically not the most involved with things, but today he seemed quite concerned, which put me even more on edge.
“He said I was early,” I told him.
“Early?” Rinbar repeated as he petted Uffe, who had somehow made his way onto the council member’s lap unnoticed.
“Yes,” I agreed. “He said I found the well early, but it was of no matter, and I must go forth with my quest.”
“Quest?” Beyer asked, and he leaned forward further in his chair as his voice rose with excitement. “He sent you on a quest?”
“I asked him a similar question,” I said with a shake of my head. “He said it wasn’t his quest, it was the world, the universe, all of dragon kind that had the quest for me.”
“What must you do?” Preyna inquired.
“He said I must travel to Helheim,” I explained, and I watched as the faces of all the council members grew pale. “And I must find the man who was there when Odin banished the dragons. Nidhug said this man will tell me how to fulfill the prophecy.”
“Oh, Odin,” Preyna breathed.
“What is it?” Asta asked.
“We already know traveling to Helheim is dangerous,” Kas said.
“More than you could possibly understand,” Beyer said quietly.
“Did he say anything else?” Rinbar asked as his eyes focused on me.
“Not really.” I shook my head.
“He must be talking about Vinrar,” Beyer whispered as he rubbed at his chin.
“I’m supposed to find Vinrar in Helheim?” I asked. That was what I’d suspected, but I didn’t want it to be true. I couldn’t see how finding him would help in any way. I’d hoped the council knew of someone else I could be looking for, but it appeared they did not.
“It sounds like this is the case, yes,” Rinbar sighed.
“Vinrar was a menace to the dragons,” Kas said as her brow furrowed. “Why is he the one who knows how Rath needs to fulfill the prophecy?”
“I cannot answer that,” Preyna said, and she looked down sadly. “Only the universe may answer that.”
Inger saw Preyna was in distress, so she climbed up onto the woman’s shoulder to nuzzle her neck and coo at her. Preyna smiled at the small dragon and stroked do
wn her long neck.
I thought about what the council had just said. They seemed to believe the same thing I did, that it was Vinrar I needed to find, and I thought about the image of him I’d seen when we’d been looking for materials relating to dragons in the castle.
He’d looked tall and muscular, with deep blue eyes, long, straight black hair, and a scar that curved down his chin to his neck. I recalled something about the image had been unsettling, and as I thought back to that night in the castle, I remembered what it was.
The dragon behind Vinrar in the photo had looked scared and sad. He was huge, nearly as large as Nidhug judging from the photo, but I could practically feel his terror coming through the canvas as I’d studied the painting.
“Vinrar’s dragon,” I spoke up as I refocused on the council members. “Where is he?”
I wanted nothing to do with Vinrar, but I knew I would have to find him. Still, if I could see his dragon, perhaps there was something I could find out from him. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to communicate with the black dragon the way I could with Nidhug, but at the very least I knew he would understand me. This strange power I possessed seemed to apply to most dragons, so even if I couldn’t control him, I could let him know nobody would ever hurt him again, not so long as I could help it.
The council grew quiet, and my question hung in the air. Preyna looked down at the ground and frowned, Rinbar’s eyes glazed over as he stared above my head and took a deep breath, and Beyer covered his mouth with his hand and looked away.
“What is it?” I asked. “Where is his dragon?”
“It was not our choice,” Preyna said quietly, and then she looked me in the eye. “But he is in Helheim with Vinrar.”
My heart sank when she told me this. How could Odin do that to him? That dragon had done nothing wrong, he’d only defended himself after years and years of abuse at the hands of Vinrar. I shook my head at the idea of him having to spend eternity with the man who’d tortured him. Had he not suffered enough?
Blar hopped down from Preyna’s lap then and ran over to put his front legs on my knees. He looked up at me with sad blue eyes, and I knew what he was thinking. He wasn’t only worried about me, he was worried about the other dragon, and he knew we needed to save him.
“We will,” I told Blar quietly, and I reached down to scratch under his chin.
“Why would Odin sentence him to such a fate?” Asta asked, and her lower lip quivered in sadness over the black dragon’s fate.
“I cannot say for certain,” Preyna sighed. “But I believe the people wanted justice. They wanted the dragon slain and would not tolerate it going anywhere other than Helheim.”
“But it did nothing wrong,” Kas whispered.
“Sweet child,” Preyna said with a soft smile. “I know. I wish there was something we could have done, but the decision was not ours to make, and to go against Odin would have landed us in the same dungeon, then. It was a tense time in our history.”
“What was the dragon’s name?” I asked. “He had to have a name.”
“I’m not sure what his name was,” Preyna answered.
“I bet we can find it somewhere,” Kas suggested.
“You may try,” Rinbar agreed. “We will do whatever we can to assist you on your quest.”
“Yes.” Preyna nodded. “You are lucky to have two sorceresses accompanying you. I can teach them a protection spell to guard against the enchantments in Helheim.”
“That would be very helpful,” Kas said, and her eyes brightened at the thought.
“Where are Vinrar and the dragon in Helheim?” I asked.
The realm was monstrous in size, and if I was going to find them I would need some help. Nidhug may have said I was early for my quest, but I knew I didn’t have time to waste looking for Vinrar all over the realm. I needed to find him quickly.
“He is in the lowest level dungeon,” Beyer answered in a low voice. “It was created specifically for him and his dragon to live out eternity.”
“I see.” I looked down at the ground in an attempt to hide my anger and sadness.
I still couldn’t believe Odin had put Vinrar’s dragon in the dungeon with him. I knew the dragons rebelled against Vinrar and unleashed hell on Asgard, but it wasn’t something they’d planned or wanted to do. All the dragons I’d known and seen so far had been sweet, intelligent creatures, and there was nothing in the literature or history that indicated anything otherwise, aside from that one incident.
Granted, dragons were monstrous creatures, they were huge and could cause a lot of destruction, so I understood the drastic measures Odin took when he kicked them out of Asgard. I didn’t like how he’d handled things, but I understood his reasoning.
However, trapping a dragon inside a dungeon in Helheim with the Aesir who caused him so much pain, that was something I didn’t think I could ever understand.
I had to rescue this dragon, no matter the cost. If the fate of all dragons was in my hands, then surely that meant this one as well? I didn’t care if the giant beast was already dead, he didn’t deserve to be in Helheim, and I would make it my mission to get him out of there.
“Rath,” Preyna whispered, and then she let out a deep sigh and made eye contact with me. “I know this must be difficult for you. This has all been so incredibly sudden.”
“I will do what is needed of me,” I said sincerely, and I bowed to the beautiful woman on the throne. It didn’t matter that everything in my life had changed within the course of a month, or that I might die in my quest to save the dragons and allow the world to escape Ragnarok.
This was my destiny, and I would complete it, no matter the cost.
“We appreciate that,” Rinbar said. “And we will help however we can.”
“Yes,” Beyer added. “Whatever you need, please do not hesitate to ask us.”
“As my fellow council members have said,” Preyna started. “We will do whatever we can to assist you, but Rath, there is something you must understand about this prophecy and your destiny.”
“What is that?” I asked.
“That it is your destiny,” she emphasized, and her eyes locked with mine. “You must be the one to fulfill it. We can only help you so much, but this task is yours and yours alone to complete.”
“I understand.” I nodded.
And I did. It was up to me to save the dragons, and I refused to let them down.
Chapter 3
The girls and I headed back to the cottage, and once we arrived, an overwhelming feeling of relief washed over me. The familiarity of my home was comforting, and even though I had a lot to think about, I was glad for a moment of respite. It was like the weight of the world washed away from me once we stepped through the trees that led to our small home, and I was finally able to breathe once more.
My sorceress companions and I would have a huge journey to take on soon enough, and a night at home would be a nice break from the traveling we’d done recently.
“I forgot to ask while we were with the council.” Kas frowned as we all took seats around the fire. “But how are we going to get to Helheim?”
“It does seem like a bad idea to try and go through a random portal,” Asta agreed. “We don’t know where this dungeon is after all, only that it’s at the lowest level.”
“I thought of that earlier,” I said with a nod. “We can’t exactly use the Bifrost.”
“No,” Kas sighed. “That won’t be possible. But we don’t know how much time we have to fulfill this prophecy, either. I feel like we should go soon.”
“I agree,” I said, and I looked down at Blar, who had retrieved a pumpkin from the garden and was now waist deep in it. “I did have an idea, though.”
“What’s that?” Kas asked.
“We found out Blar can teleport,” I answered. “And he can see through the portals, so I wonder if he can make them.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” the strawberry-blonde breathed, and her eyes widened with surprise.
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“Neither had I,” Asta admitted. “But it would seem that might be possible.”
“Blar,” I said with a smile. “What do you say, buddy? You up for trying to make a portal?”
The small blue dragon popped his head out of the pumpkin, looked at me with big blue eyes, and smiled wide.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I chuckled.
“I’d say so,” Kas agreed. “Well, should we give it a try?”
“How do we do that?” Asta’s head tilted to the right as she thought. “He’s only recently discovered his teleportation powers. And none of us know how to make a portal, so how do we teach him?”
“I didn’t know how to fly, either,” I said with a shrug. “But we managed.”
“This is true,” Asta laughed.
“There isn’t exactly a place we can go for him to learn this, though,” Kas said with a frown. “Not like we did when we took the dragons to Asta’s homeworld.”
“The only thing we can do is try,” I said, and I looked at Blar. “Are you ready?”
The little dragon nodded his head and hopped out of the pumpkin. Then he shook himself off so pumpkin juice and pieces sprayed off him and stood in front of me.
“Okay,” I said. “I want you to concentrate. Focus on how it felt to travel.”
Blar closed his eyes, and the small area where his eyebrows would have been wrinkled up.
“Now, think about the world we went to last,” I said. “The world of the dwarves. You got it?”
Blar kept his eyes closed, but he nodded his agreement.
“Now, put those two feelings together,” I said.
Blar squeezed his closed even tighter, but nothing appeared. The little dragon opened his blue eyes and looked around eagerly, but then frowned when he realized no portal had appeared.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “Keep trying.”
Blar sighed, but he closed his eyes again and focused. I could feel the strain of his attempt. He was putting all of his effort into this task, and I had to admire his determination.
There still wasn’t a portal, but this time a small amount of wind began to swirl the dirt up into the air in front of him. Blar opened his eyes, though, and the wind dissipated so the little dragon looked disappointed once again.
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