~Michelangelo
Danger
Dax found Borl sitting in front of the hearth gazing at the fire burning brightly within. He cleared his throat politely to alert Borl to the fact he was there. Borl slowly turned his head and met Dax’s gaze briefly before returning his gaze to the fire. “Did you learn anything while you were down there, boy?” he asked softly.
“I’m not sure,” Dax answered honestly. “I think I left with more questions than answers if the truth were to be known. First and foremost, I suppose, what is the Myste?” Borl whipped his head around and looked hard at Dax. “The Myste? Was there something in the journals about that?”
“Uh, yeah,” Dax stammered, quickly deciding against telling Borl about Riiele. He wasn’t sure why he was reluctant to tell the older man about the strange dragon, but for now he decided he would keep the dragon’s presence a secret. “I was skimming over some of the passages so I could read as much as possible before the spark ran out and saw something about it. It was pretty vague though, and it was around that passage the spark started wearing off and it reverted back to gibberish.”
“The Myste,” Borl said, barely above a whisper. “It’s always been here.”
“It’s always been here? On Daegonlot? Why have I never seen it?” Dax asked.
“No, no,” Borl said, “Not on Daegonlot, but below. It surrounds the entire land of Darkenfel, all along the borders. Once, when I was younger, I decided to see what lay to the far north of the lands I knew. I had never been off of Daegonlot at the time, and Bruul and I were still in training, but off we went anyway right after sunrise.
As you know, Daegonlot actually floats off of the mainland, not very far though, not really. On dragon back you can fly from here straight down to the mainland in a quarter of an hour, so I would say it’s not more than a couple leagues separated. It seems further. I’m sure like most of us you have gone to the edge of the island and looked down. All you can see is cloud cover most of the time, but occasionally you will see the land below. What you can’t see is the huge lake that resides directly below the island, and I’ll tell you true, it’s the exact same shape as the island. Almost like it’s a missing piece in a huge puzzle.
That was the first thing I noticed, in fact, that day as we left Daegonlot behind to see what else there was to see. We flew until late in the afternoon when we reached a dense forest. We flew over it for what seemed like hours when Bruul noticed the fog rolling in. At first it was just that, a light fog that seemed a little strange, but the forest was dense and I figured it was probably just rolling off a river hidden within all those trees. As more time passed it grew denser and I had pretty much dismissed the idea of a river fog. A little further and you couldn’t even see the forest anymore. It was the eeriest feeling I’ve ever had in my life, and I will never forget it. One minute we were flying over a dense forest, and the next it was like we were the only creatures in the world flying over a bottomless gray abyss.”
Borl shivered at the memory. “Anyway, we decided it would be best to turn around and go back to Daegonlot, we had been gone a long time and we knew we were going to be in trouble. At least, that’s what we told ourselves. The truth is that we were afraid, or at least I was. I don’t know about Bruul. That was the other weird thing about the fog, the further in it we flew the more disconnected from Bruul I felt. I did get him to turn around and start heading back towards Daegonlot before the fog became so complete I couldn’t see the sun anymore. As we turned and started back, I took one last glimpse over my shoulder and saw…”
Dax sat there on the edge of his seat waiting for Borl to tell what he had seen. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity had passed, he whispered, “Saw what?”
He shook his head. “I don’t even know Dax, to this day; I don’t even know what it was I saw that day. It was partially obscured by what I now know was the Myste, but it seemed massive, possibly even larger than that hatchling’s mother, and she’s by far the largest dragon, the largest being I’ve ever seen in my life. But for just an instant I saw a clawed limb and a glowing green eye before I blinked and there was nothing more than Myste.”
“So what is it then? Fog?” he asked.
“That I don’t know. I’ve heard tales, but if you really want to know more about it you should probably ask the elves. I don’t think it’s ‘just fog’ as you say, and from my one glimpse of it I would say whatever it is there are definitely things that live within it, but I don’t know what it is or what it does.” Borl rose to his feet and placed his hands on Dax’s shoulders and looked intently into his eyes. “Did you find out any information on the orb down there?”
“No, not really,” Dax said, “there wasn’t anything in the journal about it. I had to skim over parts of it, but the journal mostly tells of a journey through a mountain, at least that’s as far as I was able to get before the spark ran out. Why do you ask?”
Borl dropped his hands from Dax’s shoulders and sighed loudly. “I have suspicions about the orb, Dax. It’s wondrous to behold, but something about it feels wrong. I spoke about it to Sikir, but…” he trailed off and left the sentenced unfinished. “The truth I spoke of, Dax, before you went down there, the orb reveals certain truths about whoever is in the cavern if you can decipher it. Many years ago, Sikir took me down to that cavern and showed me the journal. I was able to read some of it, but it wasn’t the same part you have read. One day I may tell you the story I read, but the point I’m trying to make is it seems the journal will only reveal parts of itself at a time or to a certain person. I have gone down to that cavern many times since and it will let me re-read the passages I read before, but if I try to read anything else the spark never comes.”
“You mean if I went back down there it would only let me read the passages I’ve already read? I’ll never be able to read the rest?” Dax asked, remembering the way the words rearranged themselves into nothing more than unreadable symbols.
“I’m saying that’s how it has been for me. I don’t know if it would be that way for you. Or if it was that way for Sikir.”
“Sikir? You think she has read more of it?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never actually seen Sikir read the journal, but she has told me many things she says she has read within it over the years.”
Dax looked warily at Borl. “You don’t believe her.” He stated this as fact, not a question.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore, Dax. One night, maybe just six months or so into our marriage, Sikir and I were lying before the hearth talking and…stuff. Anyway, I remember we were talking about the day our dragons chose us, and I told her it still amazed me that something so magnificent and powerful would choose to bond itself with a human or elf. Sikir was half asleep I think, but she said something like ‘They probably wouldn’t if not for Jessa and the Dragon Orb’. I wasn’t sure I had heard her correctly, so I asked her to repeat it, but she was already asleep. I forgot about it by the next morning, but the day she came and took me into the hidden cavern I remembered what she had said, and to this day I don’t think she remembers telling me.”
“And you think that’s what that orb is, the Dragon Orb she spoke of while half asleep,” Dax said, making the connections in his mind.
“Yes, son, I do,” he said, “and I’ll tell you something else I think. I think Sikir sees our bond-mates bonding to something else and if she’s feeling the same thing I am, she knows this new bond has a very real chance of becoming stronger than anything we have with our dragons.”
“Drakthira,” Dax whispered. “Yes,” Borl said, “Whatever that Orb does, I don’t think Drakthira is under its effects, or any wild dragon for that matter. However, the longer she stays here, the more chance she has of succumbing to it. I also think that is why she feels no compulsion to bond with a human, elf, or dwarf and has instead bonded with her own kind.”
Dax pondered that briefly then stated, “I need to get Drakthira off Daegonlot, and quickly.”
&nbs
p; Chapter 6
Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves.
Dragon Orb (Dragons of Daegonlot, Book One) Page 5