“Aeron,” he replied. “And,” he said, with his hand on her shoulder, “this is Anaya.”
Anaya tilted her head to the side as she looked at the sergeant.
“I see.” The sergeant stared at Anaya a moment, and then he jotted something down and continued with the others.
“Wait here,” he said after getting everyone’s names. He motioned to one of the guards, and the two of them left. The rest of the guards stayed behind, a pair of them at the door.
Aeron looked around the room. It was very small, compared to the hall, but had plenty of room for them. There were chairs and couches, and two small tables. Aeron walked over and sat on a couch. Anaya padded along and lay down on the floor in front of him. Willem and Sharrah sat with him on the couch, while Cheddar sat on a chair to his right. Jessip sat off to his left on another chair next to the couch.
They waited. And waited. Aeron yawned and closed his eyes. I’ll just rest a bit while we wait, he thought.
Aeron was shaken awake. He couldn’t believe he had fallen asleep! The evening had been more exhausting than he had realized. “Wake up,” Willem whispered to him.
He sat up. “How long was I asleep?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“Maybe half an hour,” Willem said.
The sergeant had returned and was talking to the guards by the door. The guards shook their heads and all of them looked over.
“Lord Baronel is ready for you now,” the sergeant said. “All of you follow me.”
He lead them to the back of the main hall and then through a door into another room. There was a large table at the other end of the room at which several men were seated.
Aeron was surprised to see that not only was Lord Baronel seated behind the table, but so was Master Canneth and, to Aeron’s great embarrassment, so was Master Doronal. He heard Sharrah’s sharp intake of breath. They stopped and stood in a line six feet in front of the table.
Lord Baronel sat at the center of the table, with the masters at his sides. Master Doronal sat to his left and Master Canneth to his right. A man Aeron didn’t know was seated to the side of the three, a notebook opened in front of him and a pen in his hand. The man had no expression, though his eyes kept returning to Anaya.
Lord Baronel looked alert and interested. His hazel eyes were sharp and clear, though his black hair showed more gray than Master Doronal’s. It draped down and over his shoulders not quite reaching his chest.
At least he didn’t seem angry, Aeron thought with some small measure of relief.
Lord Baronel leaned toward Master Doronal and asked a whispered question. Master Doronal replied and Lord Baronel looked at Aeron.
“Apprentice Sorcerer Aeron.” Lord Baronel spoke quietly, but firmly. His voice was the same rich baritone Aeron remembered from the few speeches he’d heard.
“My lord,” Aeron said and took a step forward. Anaya stepped forward with him and sat on her haunches to his left.
Lord Baronel glanced at Anaya and then back at Aeron. “I have been told that Anaya is your dragon. It appears to be so.”
“She’s not exactly my dragon, my lord,” Aeron said. “That is, she doesn’t belong to me like a piece of property.” Aeron looked at Anaya and smiled. “If anything, we own each other.” Anaya leaned into Aeron’s body and he stroked her neck.
“Own each other?” Lord Baronel asked as he watched the exchange between the two.
“It might be best if I explain how I found her,” Aeron said. “If my lord will allow?”
Lord Baronel stared at Anaya a moment before looking at Aeron and nodding.
Aeron took a deep breath and let it out, thinking about how to tell of the amazing events that lead to his being linked with Anaya. After a moment, he began.
“My craft chores recently have been to help the moss harvesters.” Aeron glanced momentarily at Master Doronal who was watching him, intent on the story. “The first day, after we were done, a few of them showed me one of the more amazing caverns, what I like to call Live Caverns. Caverns where life has taken hold in very spectacular ways. I explored two others the next day, including Falls Cavern.”
“I know of them,” Lord Baronel remarked, nodding. “I like to visit them at least once a year. They’re incredible. But I have interrupted you. Do go on.”
Aeron cleared his throat. “Well, very impressed with those caverns, I decided to continue scouting about in my free time. And once I had visited all the explored areas of the caverns, I ventured into one of the out-of-the-way branches. A passage where there isn’t even a walkway.”
Lord Baronel raised his brows. “I thought those had been made inaccessible?” He turned to Master Doronal.
Master Doronal, whose brows were knit together in thought, looked at Lord Baronel. “Some of the passages were so narrow, it wasn’t thought that they needed additional work.” He looked at Aeron and said, “It never entered anyone’s mind that youngsters might go exploring. And in light of the information from our meeting this afternoon,” he paused, turning back to Lord Baronel, “we will want to review all of those passages. Immediately.”
Lord Baronel nodded and returned his gaze to Aeron. “Do continue,” he said.
Aeron glanced at the other man sitting to the side. He seemed to be writing what everyone said in the notebook. At the moment, he was staring at Aeron. After nervously clearing his throat again, Aeron took up the story where he had left off.
“I began exploring the passage last week. It has, as Master Doronal mentioned, a very narrow section. The three of us,” and Aeron glanced at Willem and Sharrah, “can barely squeeze through.”
Lord Baronel’s gaze rested briefly on Willem and Sharrah before returning to Aeron. “The three of you found her?”
“Ah, no, my lord. I did. I was exploring by myself at the beginning.” Aeron looked at his friends a moment. “It wasn’t until later that they went with me.”
Lord Baronel nodded.
“Once I got through the narrow section, I continued down the passage. It was a long walk, and to be honest, very boring. The most exciting part to that point was when I found a sinkhole.”
“A sinkhole?” Master Canneth asked, sitting forward.
“Yes, sir,” Aeron said. “It was about twenty-five feet long and maybe fifteen feet wide.”
Master Canneth glanced at Lord Baronel and Master Doronal before returning his gaze to Aeron. Aeron waited a moment for more questions, but the men merely stared at him, so he took up his tale again.
“I was actually about to give up on the passage when I discovered an enormous cavern.” Aeron smiled briefly at the memory. “So I shielded my lantern and closed my eyes.”
“Why would you do that?” Lord Baronel asked. To his left, Master Doronal smiled.
“So that, when his eyes adjusted to the darkness, my lord,” Master Doronal began, still smiling, “and when he reopened them, he might be dazzled. You were hoping for another, what did you call them? Live Cavern?”
Aeron smiled. “Yes. Exactly, Master Doronal. When I opened my eyes, however, it wasn’t a Live Cavern. To be sure, there was light moss here and there and also other plants and animals that gave off light, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped for. It was just a pretty normal cavern.” Aeron paused and looked at Anaya. “At least I thought so at the time.
“After my initial disappointment, I moved farther in. The ground ended at a ledge overlooking the cavern. I walked up to it and looked down. Very far below, I could just make out the floor of the cavern due to patches of moss or fungi giving off light down there. But I could see no way to get to the floor. There was another ledge, though, perhaps thirty feet below me, and on it I could barely see . . . something, just to the left. I moved along the top ledge toward whatever it was, hoping to get a better look. But it was just too dark. I was going to have to go down to the lower ledge, if I wanted to see what it was.
“Across the top ledge from me, on the right side of it, there was a kind of ramp made of rocks an
d dirt that seemed to lead down to the lower ledge. I suppose if I had thought about it, that might have been a warning. But I didn’t. I started walking to the ramp.” Aeron paused and glanced at his friends before looking back to the table. “That’s when the part of the ledge I was standing on collapsed.”
“Collapsed?” Master Doronal asked, almost standing. There was concern in his eyes.
“Yes. And the ramp I had been trying to reach was probably formed by another collapse at some time in the past.” Aeron sighed and looked at the ground. “I now know how utterly stupid I was to go exploring in the wild parts of the caverns, how dangerous it is. At the time it seemed like an exciting adventure.” Aeron sighed and looked at Master Doronal. “I tried slowing my fall, but everything was going down with me. I landed on my back. My head hit something very hard, and the pain was bright and white. I was knocked out.”
Aeron looked back at his friends. Willem and Sharrah were giving him encouraging looks. Jessip was staring at him, eyes wide. Aeron turned back to Lord Baronel who was watching him closely. “I had an odd dream while I was knocked out. In it I kept hearing tapping and banging. There were woodpeckers, worktables, and hammers, all in my dream, trying, I guess, to explain the sounds I was actually hearing. Eventually, I woke up.”
Aeron shifted on his feet. “There was a knot on the back of my head that hurt really bad. And whatever I was lying on was wobbly, so I carefully rolled off, stepped down to the ground and turned to see what I had landed on. They were four enormous eggs.”
“How large were the eggs?” Master Canneth asked.
“Sharrah has since taken exact measurements,” Aeron said, “but most of them were about five feet tall and about three feet or so wide.”
“And you said there were four of them?” Lord Baronel was staring intently at Aeron.
“Yes, my lord. But three of them hadn’t developed, they didn’t make it, Sharrah discovered later.”
The two masters and Lord Baronel glanced at Sharrah, then looked back at Aeron. “Please continue,” Lord Baronel said.
“I was a little shocked by the eggs. I had never seen anything like them before. I was trying to figure out what could have possibly laid them, and how large such a creature would be when I heard tapping and saw one of the eggs move. Something was alive inside. Something was hatching. Or trying to. That was what I had been hearing, the tapping and banging.
“As I mentioned before, it was somewhat dark on the ledge by the eggs and even though I was now down there and my eyes had completely adjusted, I still could not see them as clearly as I wanted. And I was also a little nervous about what might be in the egg. So I quickly went up the ramp I had noticed earlier and grabbed my satchel and lantern. I placed the lantern on the ground a few feet back from the eggs and opened the shield.”
Aeron looked at Anaya and smiled. “I was a little scared at first,” he said, looking back to the table. “I mean, I had no idea what would be in the egg. Would it want to eat me? I wasn’t sure what to do. I did want a closer look, though, so I gathered up my courage and walked over to the egg. And it was amazing. The color splotches on it, the texture of it. Even so, I wasn’t yet sure how I felt about what was inside.”
Aeron placed his hand on Anaya’s shoulder and looked at her, smiling. “Then I heard her. Now, I still had no idea what was in the egg or that it was even a ‘her,’ but I heard the muffled whimpers. I heard the desperation, the fear. Whatever was in the egg could not get out.” He looked at Lord Baronel. “That’s when I realized that there are no such things as second chances in nature. It doesn’t care one way or the other. It is neither fair nor unfair. We,” and Aeron placed his hand on his chest, “we have to make fairness. We have to give second chances.
“I kept thinking about how people have helped me, given me chances to better myself, like my father. He gave me the chance to learn Magic Craft by sending me here to your Caer. And I also thought about being bullied, about bullies. How unfair they are. And how even someone like Jessip,” and Aeron glanced apologetically at Jessip, “how even he got another chance; being able to work with the General Staff.”
Aeron looked at the ground in front of him, the memory of it still very fresh in his mind. “All of those thoughts were spinning around in my head as I heard the desperate whimpers, the weaker and weaker tapping and scrabbling.” He looked up at Lord Baronel. “Whatever was in the egg was running out of time, was not going to make it without help. And I just couldn’t . . .” Aeron sighed. “I couldn’t let whatever it was die. That wouldn’t be fair.”
Aeron looked at Anaya. “I knew what I had to do.” He lifted his right hand and looked at it. “I had a rock that I had grabbed in case I needed to defend myself. I gripped it tightly and slammed it into the egg as hard as I could. Again and again I bashed the egg. ‘I’ll help you get out!’ I yelled. ‘Everyone deserves another chance!’”
Aeron lowered his hand. “And from the egg I could hear the creature inside also banging, trying desperately to get out. We worked together on the egg, and eventually, I was able to pry a large piece of it open. It gave way suddenly, causing me to fall back onto the ground near the lantern.”
Anaya leaned into Aeron and he smiled at her, stroking her neck in acknowledgment. “She was so shy. She ran behind the eggs as soon as she got out. My eyes had been blinded for a few seconds by the lantern, so I didn’t get a chance to see her before she hid. All I saw was a glimpse of her tail as it disappeared behind the egg. It took some doing, but I was eventually able to coax her out a little with some beef jerky.”
Jerky is good.
Yes, dear heart, it is. He smiled at her.
“That’s when she said something that at first I didn’t understand.”
“She can talk?” Surprised, Lord Baronel glanced at Anaya.
“Directly in my head, in people’s minds, yes,” Aeron replied. “Though not too often to others. She talks to whom she pleases and when.”
Master Canneth was also staring at Anaya as was Master Doronal, who had an intrigued look on his face.
Aeron waited, but no further questions were asked. “She had just finished with my last piece of jerky when she looked at me, and almost as if she was dreaming, she said, ‘We are one.’ She leaned forward then, and touched her nose to my hand.” A look of wonder spread over Aeron’s face and he smiled. “The most amazing thing happened. I felt powerful magic, and there was blinding white light from the point where we were touching. Suddenly, I just knew that we were meant to be together. It was supposed to be. I repeated her words. We are one. The magic I felt flowing over and through me, between us, the Bond, it created some kind of magical link.” Aeron looked at Lord Baronel. “I can now sense where she is, how she feels, and sometimes even her thoughts. And she can as well. She can sense me.”
Aeron looked down at Anaya, an expression of love and wonder on his face. “We are one.”
After several seconds of silence, Lord Baronel leaned over to Master Canneth. They spoke in whispers for a few moments before Lord Baronel turned and conferred with Master Doronal.
Eventually Lord Baronel looked back at Aeron. “What were you going to do with Anaya?”
“I didn’t want her hurt and so we were working on a plan to introduce her to the Caer, to you. A plan that hopefully would not have people scared of her.”
“And flying her over the crowds at the trade fair was your plan?” Lord Baronel’s eyes were hard. “If so, I can’t say I approve of your methods.”
“No, my lord, that most definitely was not our plan. You see, Anaya sensed I was in danger and came to me.”
“Why would she think you were in danger? The fair is not a dangerous place.”
“If you’ll pardon me, my lord, that was my fault.” Jessip had stepped forward. Aeron stared at him in surprise.
“You are Jessip?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Why was it your fault, Jessip?”
“I,” and Jessip looked at Aeron.
“I had approached Aeron. With a knife. I was very angry.” He turned back to Lord Baronel. “I haven’t exactly been very nice to Aeron ever since he arrived at the Caer. At first it was because he was the shortest in the dorms.” Jessip cleared his throat and shifted on his feet. Hearing it out loud made him aware of how utterly ridiculous it was. “But then, later, it was from jealousy. It seemed like everything he wanted, he got. And I never got anything.”
Jessip glanced at Aeron before looking back at the table. “After the dragon, Anaya, appeared, Aeron and I talked for a bit. I came to realize that he’s tried for everything he has gotten—he’s worked for it—and I’ve never tried for anything.” Jessip’s eyes were shadowed and his shoulders slumped.
“A knife.” Lord Baronel stared at Jessip. “What were your intentions toward Aeron?”
“I,” and again Jessip looked at Aeron, “I honestly do not know entirely, my lord.” He turned back to Lord Baronel. “I wanted to talk with him. I was angry, and I suppose I wanted to yell at him a bit. I might have thought briefly about breaking his nose to get back at him for breaking mine. But beyond that?” Jessip shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
Lord Baronel stared at Jessip a moment before turning his attention to Aeron. “So, your dragon, she sensed your fear?”
“Yes, my lord. Jessip was angrier than I’d ever seen him. At first, I was very frightened. Anaya must have sensed that. And when she appeared, believe me, I was as surprised as anyone.”
“I thought you said that you could sense her?”
“Begging your pardon, my lord, but I did have a knife in my face. I wasn’t really able to think about much else. I’ve never been in that kind of situation.”
Lord Baronel nodded then turned his gaze on Jessip. “You attacked one of my people.”
Jessip lowered his head and nodded.
“My lord,” Aeron broke in. Lord Baronel’s tone worried him. “Please. He did not hurt me.”
Jessip looked at Aeron as did Lord Baronel.
“Your empathy is commendable, Aeron. But this is a serious breach of Caer Rule and Law.” Lord Baronel stared at Aeron a moment before returning his gaze to the older boy. “Jessip, I cannot house you within my Caer for the actions you have committed.”
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