by LeRoy Clary
“There is still the Young Mage to consider,” Elizabeth said sharply.
Kendra said, “You mean the Powerless Young Mage? He has no dragon to lay more eggs, no source of essence, so his magic is fading quickly. If he had drawn us into Kaon days ago, he could have killed us and captured the dragon again. But we ran and he couldn’t catch us. Now it’s too late as long as we hold this ridge for a few more days and the babies fly. The eggs will hatch tomorrow, I think.”
A time of quiet descended as all of them considered what they’d learned. Elizabeth finally asked, “How do you know all this?”
“I’ve been sitting up here alone for nearly four days thinking by myself while you two have been dancing at balls, saving palaces from outlaw mages, sailing the seas, and generally having a great time.”
“The Young Mage is not dead,” Elizabeth said.
“Not yet, but soon. Think about it. His source of power is failing daily, then he will have to face the Slave-Master and his Kaon Warriors when it is gone, and they return to Kaon. This is the very outcome the Slave-Master pushed us to achieve. He either suspected, or he knew, how to defeat the Young Mage from the beginning.”
“He used us?” I asked.
She laughed again. “He probably even let you win that game of Blocks when you won your freedom. Yes, he used us. By the time any of us could reach Kaon, the Young Mage will be dead, if he isn’t already.”
“You’re going off with the dragons and leaving us here?” I protested. “You’re leaving me?”
“Just for a while. The two of you have so much to do, for instance, you,” she pointed at Elizabeth, “as the ambassador for Dire, needs to contact the royalty in every kingdom we’ve been to and either explain all that has happened or place the proper people on the thrones and get the peasants fed and restore order.”
She turned to me. “And you have another little sister to raise. Anna can’t even read, and she has discovered men, so you will have your hands full until I get back.”
I gathered a little of my wits about me. “Now there will be five or six dragons, and I assume they will eventually breed, and we’ll have more. There will be essence available everywhere. What happens then?”
She said, “That is the story you will have to write down and distribute. Another generation of dragons will probably take twenty years or more to grow to maturity, and by then you will have put all this on paper so those who follow is in future generations will know what to do and how to prevent another instance one person controlling the rest using the magic created by a single dragon. Magic should be used for the good of all.”
“I can’t believe it’s over and we didn’t even know it,” Elizabeth said. “We have two armies to the north, maybe three. Three more arriving here. And we have nothing and nobody to fight. I feel let down in a way.”
I turned and looked out over the desert again, thinking I might see a great army marching on us from Kaon, but it was as empty as ever. If it didn’t arrive within a few days, it would be too late to stop the dragons from migrating—and taking my sister with them. What Kendra told us needed time to digest. She might be right. She might not.
Could it really all be over? Again, I wished for the company of Will to help me plan the future. I had anticipated giving him the sword and fighting at his side, and still would give it to him, but his insights were valuable. Now I was left to my own devices as Will would escort Elizabeth to each kingdom and then home.
Returning to Dire and Crestfallen was possible, but was that what I wanted? The palace intrigue that had been my life seemed distant and unimportant. Without Kendra, I’d be alone. Well, there would be Elizabeth, but living in her quarters without Kendra wouldn’t be proper, and besides, she would soon find a husband and I wouldn’t be welcome in her apartment.
Prince Angle, soon to be King Angle, would welcome me, I felt sure. There was a comforting feeling of living where others looked like me—or at least, didn’t stare each time we passed in a hallway. The Brownlands felt like home more than the mountains and trees of Dire ever had.
Much of Trager had burned and didn’t appeal to me at all. Vin was small like Dire but again held little appeal. Kaon might be beautiful, but in my mind would never be home with the specter of the Young Mage hanging there. I’d never been to Dagger, the largest city in Kondor, but the stories I’d heard told me it was the jewel of the Brownlands. And not too far away there was a family of failed mages who lived in a small valley that had given me more information about my past than any others. I could visit them.
My mind was like a cat that had its tail pinched in a closing door. It leaped, twisted, snarled, spun, and never settled in one place long enough to calm down. The blood pumped into my head and pounded. My vision fogged. The world closed in on me and went dark.
I woke with both Kendra and Elizabeth tending to me. The dragon’s long neck extended so the head of the beast almost touched me. Its hot breath gagged me when it snorted. I sat up with their help.
“It’s just too much,” I muttered.
Elizabeth wiped my forehead with a damp rag torn from her shirttail. Her water jar was near my lips. It seemed counterproductive that she would give me water and I would refill her jar with water I gathered with my magic.
I said, “I had my powers in Malawi while there were no Wyverns, dragons, or Waystones. The six mages there could barely create an orange fog that I blasted away. I even had magic while crossing the sea.”
Elizabeth said, “I thought all magic was fading as the eggs lost their power.”
“Mine has grown stronger,” I said while sitting on my own. It was a discrepancy in what Kendra had been telling us. We looked at her for an explanation.
Kendra said with a wide smile that nearly prevented the words from forming, “Remember the kernel of essence you found in the neck of the king of Malawi a couple of days ago? Mages placed it there to use the magic stored inside to make him ill and control him.”
She waited for us to nod our agreement. “Now think back to when the three of us were on that mountain in Mercia, you, me and the dragon. We fought the Wyvern together. The dragon sensed me as her protector, and that you are my brother and performed much the same thing within you as was in the king, only beneficial. Over time it grew. She did it because she loves you. It placed a seed of essence inside you, where it will continue to grow and prosper, just as it will do inside the dragon chicks. Only you can draw magic from it.”
I thought about that. As the power in the Waystones died, and the dragons fled south, only I would have any essence, and I while Kendra traveled with the last dragons, I would be the last mage.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LeRoy Clary
LeRoy currently lives in Washington State with his wife, youngest son, and a dog named Molly. He spends his time doing what he loves the most: writing about an action-packed fantasy world of dragons, and magic. LeRoy spends his leisure time traveling and exploring the beautiful countryside in the Pacific Northwest from high desert to forests to coastal terrain.
Writing has always been one of LeRoy’s favorite past times and passion; mostly fantasy and science fiction. He’s been the member of several author critique groups both in Texas and in Washington State. He collaborated on a project in Texas that produced the book Quills and Crossroads which includes two of his short stories.
In recent years, LeRoy has published over a dozen fantasy books including a book called DRAGON! Stealing the Egg which began the idea of how to live and survive in a world where dragons are part of the landscape. The Dragon Clan Series is unique in that it introduces a new main character in each of the seven books of the series. The book entitled Blade of Lies: Mica Silverthorne Story was a finalist in an Amazon national novel writer’s contest in 2013.
Learn more about LeRoy at
Facebook: www.facebook.com/leroyclary
Website: www.leroyclary.com (join his email list)
Email: [email protected]
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