Age of Valor: Dragon Song

by D. E. Morris

  “My, this is old. This looks to be all seven sister nations before they drifted so far from one another.” He looked at the sweeping script that named the painting on its bottom margin with only a trace amount of interest. “I've never seen anything quite like it. No wonder you worried you had lost it.”

  “It is called 'Circle of the Ancients,'” Misuzu explained, taking the map back from him and spreading it across her lap. “Have you ever heard of it?”

  “I can't say that I have.” His head tilted. “I don't see any circles on there.”

  “Neither do we,” Jaryn supplied, dryly.

  “The cartographer said it has to be held up to the night sky on the right date and one must be in the right place in order for its secrets to be revealed.”

  Cailin lifted a brow. “I assume that also means it has to be a clear night if it's relying on the light of the stars or the moon.”

  Jaryn bobbed his head. “In other words, not only do you need to be in a specific place at a certain time of year, but you also need perfect weather conditions in order to make it work.” He gave Misuzu a look of sympathy. “I hope you didn't pay much for that. Pretty as it may be, something tells me you were swindled.”

  Connor's perplexed gaze traveled from one person to the next before he spoke. “What is it supposed to do?”

  Before answering, Misuzu looked to Cailin and Jaryn, awaiting their approval before sharing. Instead of a simple nod, Jaryn sighed and settled himself into a chair of his own. “Supposedly, it tells the secrets of the twelve Elementals.”

  The boy's expression didn't change. “Twelve? I thought there were only six.”

  “No one knows for certain,” Misuzu explained, “not even those of us who are Elementals.”

  Eyes widening, a grin lit his face. “You're an Elemental? Which one?”

  “Air.”

  “What can you do that's different from all the others? Or don't you know? Is that why you need the map to work? Will it tell all the other Elementals what they can do?”

  “We don't know,” Cailin put in, cutting Connor off before he could throw out any more questions. “We probably never will, either. Something tells me it was just a well thought-out story to go with an old map in hopes of selling it.” She saw Misuzu's expression fall and offered her a smile of sympathy. “Don't feel too badly, Misuzu. I'm sure you helped that man and his family eat for a day or two a least. That's something.”

  “I suppose.”

  Connor slid his legs around in his chair, turning himself upright and planting his feet on the floor. His green eyes lifted as his head turned to the side, a line of thought forming between his brows. “When my mother was alive, she had an apothecary here. He often claimed to read fortunes from stars. I never believed in it, but I know he kept star charts in his quarters below. They may still be here since he left in such a hurry after my false father died. I'll have one of the guards send them up.”

  “That's awful kind of you, but I don't think holding the map over another bit of parchment is going to do much good.”

  A smug smirk tugged up the corners of Connor's lips. “Humor me.”

  Jaryn waved a hand in agreement, prompting Connor to rise and give the order to one of the men out in the hallway. By the time the requested items were brought into the library, the group had discussed the disembodied sound that had been heard both in Caedia and Siness and discovered it had been heard a time or two in Ibays as well, despite what the miller had told Cailin. As hard as they may guess, none of them could understand its source or why, all of the sudden, it was being heard in at least three of the seven nations. It made Jaryn even more anxious to get home so that he could share everything he'd learned with Ashlynn.

  “Help me push the chairs back,” Connor instructed, taking a small brazier that had been brought in from one of his men. As they moved the furniture around to make the room more open, Connor pulled back the woven rug and rolled it to the side of the room. He waved his men out, then placed the brazier on the stone floor, as close to the middle of the room as possible. “Cai, would you mind?” Confused but compliant, Cailin helped stack coal into the brazier, then took one of the torches from the wall to light the smaller fire. “Not too high. That's perfect. Jaryn, could you open all the windows? While that's heating up,” said Connor, taking the torch from Cailin and extinguishing it once the windows were opened wide, “we can put out all the others.”

  “That can be done easily enough,” Misuzu promised. She raised one brow, a half smile on her face and in and instant, the room was drenched in darkness as a single thought from her extinguished all the other fires in the room. Candles and lanterns let go of wisps of smoke that rose around them, but it was easy to see the grin on Connor's face as he stood over the brazier. Misuzu grinned back at him.

  “Are we going to tell ghost stories?” asked Jaryn.

  “No.” The things the guards had brought in were placed upon the desk at the far end of the room. Connor disappeared into the darkness to retrieve them, coming back into the growing circle of light with a wooden frame and a pile of old parchment. “One of my sisters was interested in the constellations. When I was younger, I remember being allowed to go into her lessons with her on the day she and my mother's seer were going over these charts. I was so entertained.” He was gentle as he set the pile of parchment on the floor. Taking the topmost sheet, he slid it between the slats of the wooden frame and held it by two pegs coming out of the bottom. “Cailin, there's a piece of glass on the desk; would you place it atop the brazier?” She did as asked, then stepped back to watch as Connor lowered the frame over the glass. Most of the light went out, but in the darkness, Connor said, “Look up.”

  All of them lifted their gazes and drew in a collective breath. Pinpricks of golden light dotted the high ceiling above them through the smoky haze, some larger than others, making it look as though there were hundreds of little suns glowing over them.

  “It's so beautiful,” Jaryn breathed. He rose and lifted his hand as though he could touch one of them, pausing only when he blocked the light and found the small orb reflected on his own skin. “What a brilliant idea.”

  “There are sheets for all the possible alignments in a year,” said Connor, looking up as well. “This is Beltane, the first day of the new year. I figured it would be a good place to start.”

  Misuzu hardly needed prompting; she rose from her chair and held her old map taut in her grip, lifting it high to the light above them. When nothing happened, she tried lowering it to the star chart itself, but still her map was unchanged. “Nothing.”

  Cailin shrugged, undeterred. “Alright, let's start going through important Celtique dates one by one, then. Is anyone familiar with elvish holidays? Those might be important, too, since it was given an elvish title.”

  Connor glanced at the shelves and pulled the map away from the fire. “There should be a book in here somewhere that covers them.” He frowned. “We're going to need more tea.”

  “I'll load another chart while someone else looks for the book,” Jaryn volunteered. “The next major holiday would be...Mabon, right?”

  “Mabon isn't until later,” Cailin corrected. “It would be Litha.”

  Jaryn frowned, shuffling through the charts. “I haven't celebrated these days since I was young. I'm surprised I even remembered Mabon.”

  “Many have turned to Giver and given up the old pagan ways,” Connor supplied, coming back into the circle of light around the brazier. “Though there are still those who celebrate and remember these days, their numbers were far greater the further you go back in history.”

  “I need air,” Cailin muttered, fanning some of the smoke toward the window.

  “I'll look for the book!” Misuzu exclaimed from somewhere in the surrounding darkness.

  “And I'm having more tea sent up.” Connor's eyes were lit with excitement. “We have a long night ahead of us!”

  ~*~*~*~

  “This is pointless,” yawned Caili
n, holding the map up to the ceiling. It was getting late and she was tired again after having a stomach full of rich meat. A look at Jaryn said he understood there would be no returning to Altaine tonight, either, for his eyes were already half closed as well.

  “Didn't you sleep the day away?” Connor asked, half muttering as he changed out yet another star chart. They'd already gone through all the major days of importance, both old and new, elvish and not. Now they were back at the beginning and trying each and every chart.

  She scowled at him. “None of us has been able to get much sleep the past few days.”

  “If you want to go to bed, I'll keep looking.” He wasn't being glib or dismissive, but there was a single-mindedness with which he worked that said he wouldn't rest until he was satisfied there was no clear answer or he actually found one.

  “Wait!” Misuzu's exclamation made Jaryn and Cailin jump. Connor, however, froze right where he was. “What if this was the right idea, but the execution wasn't quite correct?” She sat up in the chair she'd been lounging in, and pointed to a page in the elvish book she'd been studying. “It says here that the first elves and several generations after them believed that starlight was the purest form of light that reached the earth, that it had magical properties, promoted healing, and was connected to the magic of the seas. It was also believed that the starlight was strongest in the winter months.” She looked at the others. “What if it isn't working because our lighting is wrong?”

  “What do you mean?” Jaryn asked. In answer, Misuzu looked to the fire in the brazier, fixing a concentrated gaze on the dancing flames that flickered from white hot and red, to the cooler blue and gold of her fyre. The stars shining on the ceiling dimmed considerably, leaving them all in a thicker darkness. Still, Misuzu got up and took the map from Cailin.

  “I know we've done this one already, but go back to Yenearsira, the elvish winter solstice.” She was patient as Cailin looked for the correct chart, then helped Connor slide it into place within the frame. With a nod from Misuzu, Connor slowly dropped the chart over the top of the brazier and looked up at the dim points of light above them. Misuzu took a breath, then stretched the map out once more and held it high.

  Nothing happened.

  Confused, she adjusted her grip on the map and tried again. Still, nothing changed. “I was so sure,” she whispered in defeat.

  Jaryn rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “It's all right, Misuzu. It certainly was a good idea.”

  “Let me try one more thing.” Without waiting for an invitation, Misuzu took the frame from Connor and gingerly slid the map down inside to rest atop the star chart. She brought it back over to the fyre and bit her lip as she gripped the wooden pegs and lowered the frame to rest directly above the only source of light in the room.

  Pale silver lines began drawing themselves across the map, scrolling in delicate, looping designs as it slithered in streams of light across the parchment. Misuzu's gasp brought the other three close as well, all of them transfixed as they watched new land masses appear where there had been none before, and a large ornate circle of elvish design burned itself onto the map. “Circle of Ancients,” Misuzu breathed. “It's beautiful.”

  As the lines met one another and completed their magical journey, the fyre blazed below them in the brazier, jumping high enough to get too close to the glass. It shattered from the heat, but Misuzu was quick enough to jerk the map away and avoid it being burned up.

  “You were right, Misuzu,” Cailin praised, quiet wonder in her voice, “it needed a magical light source.”

  Connor looked at the adults. “Will it go away if the fyre dies?”

  “Only one way to find out.” A thought extinguished the odd flames and flooded the room with darkness. Still the map glowed in Misuzu's hands. “Why do I feel like I could cry?”

  “It's been a long night.” Jaryn squeezed her shoulder and leaned in closer to trace his finger over the lines of silver light. “Look at the places the bigger stars fall on the map. All of them are on this circle.”

  “And there are twelve of them,” muttered Cailin. She looked up at Jaryn. “But what does that mean? Land masses have shifted so much since this was painted. Islands have fallen away while others still have formed.”

  “The major continents haven't changed all that much,” Jaryn argued amiably.

  Connor shook his head, still quite confused. “So what do these twelve spots signify? Elemental origins, places of power...?”

  “I don't know.” Jaryn lifted his eyes from the map to look around the dark room as if he could see anything beyond the soft illumination given off by the magical ink. “Let's light another fire and get the torches lit as well. Connor, do you have a current map of the seven nations?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let's do a little comparison to see what has changed.” As a team, all four of them hurried about the room to stoke the hearth fire once more and to bring light to as much of the room as possible. Connor smoothed a new map across the surface of his desk and Misuzu set hers beside it, each of them looking from one to the other.

  “Look here.” Connor touched a ring of mountains on his map while glancing at the other. “One of the points is still there, though the center has shifted westward.”

  Cailin nodded, finding another similarity. “This one here is what eventually broke off and became Dragonspire.”

  Misuzu shook her head. “I didn't realize how greatly the earth has changed. While there are a few similarities, certainly, most of these specific points now lie in the middle of the sea. What significance can they bring us now?”

  “Magroh Island...” murmured Jaryn, distracted as though Misuzu hadn't even spoken. “One of the points of light is on Magroh Island.”

  Cailin's brows raised. “Isn't that where Ashlynn's father found her mother?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  They were all silent for a few minutes, each of them making quiet comparisons. After a time, Connor frowned and crossed his arms. “How did the continents fit together again? I know it was one of my lessons, but that was ages ago.”

  Jaryn touched a finger to Alybaen. “Before the split, Siness, Ibays, Mirasean, Caedia, and Braemar were all connected as one. See this indent at the top of Alybean, right on the line of the where the dwarf tribes and the Nagin tribes split? That was where all of our nations were attached to the greater land mass. Over a period of several months there were massive earthquakes that spread lines of weakness into the lands. One separated this part from Alybaen and from there, the rest of the land split apart and drifted to become what we are now.”

  Misuzu sighed and shook her head. “But that doesn't make sense. Some of the points on the old map are still there, some of the points are on the newer map, while some have no land mass to connect it to.”

  “Maybe it's a mixture of old and new,” Connor supplied. “There are those who have the gift of sight in the elvish community, aren't there? Maybe the elf who painted this had that gift.”

  Jaryn nodded, his hand on his chin. “Elves do have special abilities above those of mortal men. Connor may be right. Maybe it is a mixture. Maybe these places are where power once was and would someday be.”

  “Seamen have their tales of haunted islands and ghost ships sailing the stormy waters,” replied Connor. “It could be that they aren't all stories. Maybe some of them are real and connected to these lights.”

  Jaryn's eyes snapped to the boy. “Haunted islands...yes! I just heard the tale of one such place off of your own shores.”

  Excitement brightened Connor's face. “Really? Well there's only one way to find out if this theory holds any water, isn't there?”

  “We'll have to go look,” said Misuzu. She nodded, looking from Jaryn to Cailin. “If we leave first thing in the morning, provided what we find, we should be able to get back to Altaine before sunset tomorrow.”

  Jaryn draped his hand over the back of his neck and gave it a heavy rub. A sigh soon followed and he looked to the si
de, licking his lips. “Yeah. Alright. We're already out here. Doesn't make sense to go home only to come back or send someone else this way. But I swear, if I am not back in my own bed tomorrow night-”

  “You will be,” promised Misuzu swiftly. “No matter what we find, I'm sure it won't be anything that will keep us for very long, and no doubt we will need to confer with everyone on our findings and thoughts on the matter.”

  Connor clapped his hands together. “Great! I'll have some provisions packed and ready for us just in case. We leave at sunup!”

  “Wait a second.” Cailin laid a hand on his arm, something motherly in her stern expression. “You're not coming with us.”

  Horror made Connor's eyes bug and his jaw drop. “What? Why not? I want to go!”

  “Connor, you're not a little boy anymore. You're a high king. You can't just go running off on adventures when it suits your whim.”

  “Why not?” the boy asked again. He nodded his head toward Jaryn. “He does.”

  For a moment, no one said anything simply because they couldn't argue his point. It was Misuzu who eventually asked, “Who will watch your kingdom in your stead?”

  “The same people who've been watching it all along,” he snorted. “They barely let me butter my own toast without consulting me and eventually changing my mind. I'll make Fintan my temporary steward if that would make you happy!” He turned to Cailin, the desperation on his face reminding her just how young he was. “Please, Cai. Please let me go with you. I promise not to be any trouble. I can even show you that spot on the mainland that's still there before we head out to sea. If I do this, if I go off on my own, maybe it will help remind these vultures always around my head that I am not to be controlled and can think for myself. Please.”

  She looked at Jaryn for help, but he only threw up his hands and walked away. Misuzu offered little more than half a smile and a shrug as she rolled up her map, leaving Cailin weighing her decision. It would be like when he was younger, chasing her around, pretending he was on some grand adventure, but this time, it would be real. She couldn't see any danger coming from a simple flight and knew just that, riding on a dragon through the sky, would be such a thrill for him. That fact alone made her eventually sigh and smile at him. “Okay.”