A Cruel Tale

by Alex Sapegin

  A foreboding smile spread across the blue-eyed were-dragon’s lips. Such a crazy life. Irina, at seventeen years old, would go to the meadow and dance about like a goat in an “elvish” dress, thinking only about cavaliers, and he was being dragged into politics against his will. Remembering his original home did not especially upset him. Time heals all wounds. Where is my home? Hm? What would I be THERE, if I get back to my home world? A human, a dragon, or some sort of chimera? The object of study, a juicy titbit for some secret laboratory? This is my home world, now! But I can’t forget about the promises I made to myself—to send news. Maybe I should work on that while no one’s bothering me? I’m ashamed to say it, but in four weeks I haven’t gotten around to dealing with the papers I obtained in Ortag. It’s a disgrace. If my memory serves me, there was something in there about building portals. Andy activated the “beacons” and got the worn-out pages out of his “pocket.”

  “… Building any portal means having an exact knowledge of the exit coordinates. In order to enact the ‘puncture,’ its position in three-dimensional space must be defined. For this purpose, a ‘cube model’ is used….”

  After that, nothing. Half the text on the page disappeared without a trace. What now? Andy turned the old tattered page over.

  “… There are ways to construct passageways without coordinates. In this case, a ‘beacon’ is used. Special artifacts act as beacons, through which the operator mages can set up the output coordinates.

  “Besides the methods described above, there are also so-called ‘hard’ or ‘fiducial’ points on the surface of a planet, hereinafter ‘F.P.’ The F.P. are tied to a certain spot and can be described by a simple Tagar-Liarra equation. The nature and pattern of the formation of the F.P. on the planet surface are still unknown, which does not prevent us from actively using empirically derived formulas. When building stationary portals, the second method is used: the placement of arches at the fiducial points. This combination allows us to guarantee the exact settings and eliminate malfunctioning.

  See an example of the calculations below….”

  Where are the formulas? What a crock—missing pages, and no formulas. What did I pay you for? A total scam, like showing a kid some candy and then hiding it again. And what’s this? On the last page of the outtake, there was a model of some sort of interweave.

  “… This is the Tagar-Liarra equation with settings for a hard point exit in the mountains of Lidar, reduced to the rune scheme of the magical interweaves and the determination of the coordinates. As you can see from the schemes, seventy percent of the interweave is a repeat of the previously proposed ‘beacon’ puncture scheme. The main differences are the addition of the coordinates and the introduction of the direction vector into the scheme. The runes are activated from left to right, in the order of the rows….”

  Interesting. Andy repeated the scheme on the ancient outtake in his head. The runes arranged in strict order looked like the facets of a crystal changed from raw crystallized carbon into a stunning diamond. For the sake of an experiment, he activated the first rune. The power nodules lit up with a blue flash, and the facets began to twinkle….

  In the center of his chest, just like a volcano erupting, the medallion with the red stone tore its way to the surface, breaking his skin. The runes engraved on the yellow circle started to move around the surface in a strange circle dance. It seemed to Andy that he was being pricked with thousands of hot needles, drinking up mana from his internal stores. He wanted to cry out, but instead of a cry, a muffled wheeze came from his throat. His body went numb. The stone in the center of the medallion let off a red ray of light. The runes that appeared on his creation glowed brighter than the sun.

  “Nooo!” A dragoness with beautiful golden scales landed on the edge of the beach. From the direction of the Bowing slope, a few more dots were approaching as well, emerged from the eye of the portal, surrounded by an iridescent glow.

  The last thing Andy saw before an inexplicable force took hold of him and cast him into oblivion was Karegar and Gray flying out from behind the tops of the pine trees.

  Orten. The governor’s residence…

  “How are you enjoying your new position? Up to your eyeballs in worries?”

  “You can’t imagine how right you are, Your Highness!” Etran smiled, bowing politely to Miduel.

  “Oh, cut it out, just call me Master. I’m more used to that. Since this is an unofficial visit, let’s not make a big hullabaloo over a V.I.P. throughout the whole residence.” The Rauu made a subtle gesture with his hand to the “star” of the bodyguards. The well-trained fighters, no less strong than combat mages, checked the hallway. Two elves glanced into the office, after which they let the High Prince in. The bodyguards wanted to follow him, but, obeying their boss’ stern glance, remained outside. “I’m so sick of those guys!” Miduel said contritely, lowering himself into the embrace of the soft armchair. “I can’t even go to the latrine without three oafs surrounding me.”

  Governess Etran lifted her hands understandingly.

  “One of the cons of being in a position of power. You, Master, better than anyone, ought to know that those in power are not their own.”

  “Listen to yourself! But actually, you’re right,” Miduel folded his hands on the head of his carved cane and stared at the former rector of the School of Magic. It seemed unfounded, but she suddenly began to feel uncomfortable. “You’re surely wondering why I left His Majesty Gil in Ortag and am sticking to you?”

  “It had crossed my mind.”

  “I need your help.”

  “What kind?”

  “I need a portal to the Marble Mountains. It would be great if the order came from you. Gil’s already given his approval in this matter. The exit point will have to be in the air, which can’t be done without “veil” accumulators. I’m afraid it won’t be possible to get to the valley on foot without stepping on cutting stones or other fatal surprises.”

  “In the Marble Mountains?”

  The Rauu nodded. Etran squinted.

  “Your agents have found our boy’s nest?” she guessed.

  “Don’t go blabbing. We found it. We received the intelligence an hour ago.”

  “The portal’s not a problem. It’ll be done, but on one small condition….” Miduel smiled.

  “Consider it agreed. I’ve already ordered a griffon to be prepared for you.” Etran knocked on the tabletop. She wasn’t used to having people predict her behavior before she herself could.

  The Marble Mountains. The Valley of a Thousand Streams…

  No one was minding the approaching griffons. So much for traps at every step….

  Miduel looked around. Not a bad place. Karegar had found himself a nice little nook! Just then, a bright flash on the shore of the lake below caught the Snow Elf’s attention. Dragons’ forms appeared as dark shadows, rushing towards the unknown magical event.

  “Straight to the lake,” the High Prince ordered to his first-in-saddle, who nodded in response and pulled on the reigns. The golden griffon made a sharp turn. Copying the leader’s move, three half-birds steered after him in his wake.

  ***

  “Nooo!” But it was too late. Kerr was pulled into the portal’s open jaws. Jagirra threw herself after him, but was too late. With a loud clap, the spatial window slapped shut. A gust of wind ripped the yellowed papers from her son’s hands.

  Jaga changed hypostasis and made a “snaring net.” In a few seconds, the wandering pages were in her hands.

  “What was that?” Karegar rumbled, landing next to Jagirra. She didn’t say anything. The answer came in the form of a quiet rustle as she frantically leafed through the selected pages.

  The ground quaked. Gray came down with a thud next to Karegar; Lanirra folded her wings behind the ancient dragon. Riding griffons appeared from some unknown source, bearing the High Prince’s standards. Lanirra and Gray prepared attack spells.

  “Are you deaf?” Karegar roared at the elf. “Wha
t was that?”

  “A portal…,” Jaga fell to her knees. A tattered page fell from the elf’s hands and, caught up by wind, flew to the High Prince, who had dismounted. The dragons, it seemed, weren’t paying the uninvited guests any attention.

  “A portal? To where?” Karegar kept interrogating her.

  “To Nelita,” she whispered.

  “What?” several people exclaimed at once.

  “He can’t go to Nelita, Karegar! He can’t.” Jaga covered her face with her hands. “How did he get the Key? Karegar, he has the Key!”

  “Why can’t he go to Nelita?” the dragon persisted, ignoring her lamentations.

  Jagirra tore her dress off:

  “Look!” The elf’s shoulder was decorated with a tattoo in the form of a little golden dragon surrounded by a complex garland of runes. “Kerr has the same tattoo. I put my family coat of arms totem on him. My uncle will kill him!”

  “You,” the black dragon sputtered in a rage, looking at the tattoo. “You! It’s all your fault! YOOOOU! I’ll kill you!” A fireball burst forth from Karegar’s front paws. The magical discharge did not hit the kneeling elf, who did not make a move to defend herself. The ball flew apart with fiery splashes in all directions upon striking Lanirra’s shield. The dragon stared at his right paw in shock. What was going on? When had his magic returned? He didn’t have long to sit there in surprise—a powerful blow from a tail knocked him to the ground. The red dragoness threw herself on his chest.

  “Don’t you dare. DON’T YOU DARE!”

  Casting Lanirra off of him, Karegar quickly dashed to his feet, rocketed into the sky, and flew towards the mountains.

  “I remember you,” Gray’s enormous snout hovered over Miduel. “You’ve aged, Reemiko’s husband.”

  The Rauu crumpled the ill-gotten page in his fist. The past had stepped out of the shadows and dealt him a cruel blow.

  “But how could he have opened a portal?” Lani asked Jaga, who had gone into a trance, shaking the sand off herself.

  “Kerr had the Key to the portals.”

  “The second Key’s been found,” Miduel uttered in sheer amazement.

  “Lani, fly to the caves. Tell Vitgar and Romugar to find Karegar. It would be best if everyone joined in the search for him, and if you find him, hold him until I get there.”

  The red dragoness lowered her head to the ground, took a few steps away from the elves and humans, and flew away.

  “Don’t even think of flying away. We need to talk a lot of things over,” Gray turned to Miduel, grabbed Jagirra with his front paws, and flew after the dragoness. “I’ll be right back,” they heard him call from the sky.

  “Did you know about the tattoo?” the High Prince asked Etran.

  “Yes, what about it? Oh!” The former rector took a step back from the Rauu’s obvious desire to slap her. He maintained his self-control.

  “You are a youngster,” the Rauu hissed, “and a presumptuous turkey.”

  “But what does it mean?” Etran asked, wary.

  “It means that we’re up Targ’s backside! We mustn’t let the Arians have access to the portals! Whoever arranged that carnage three thousand years ago will come back to finish off his victims!”

  The foothill principality of the Rauu. Rovinthal. One week later…

  “How did you find the Arians’ secret agents?” Beriem, lying on a sofa, asked the head of the department of external operations of the Rauu intelligence service.

  “We had to arrange a leak,” the “shadow-dweller” coughed in his fist.

  “And you, it turns out, are a very reckless elf.” Beriem peered at the elf very closely. “So just a leak?”

  “Not only that. I risked adding an extra person to the party and manipulating things through him from behind the scenes.”

  “And did they fall for it?”

  “As you can see.”

  “And how did the Arian agent influence the vampires?”

  “Oh!” the intelligence officer put his pointer finger up. “I’ve never seen that method before. The mental effect was enacted through a weapon.” He rang a bell to call for someone.

  Two elves entered the room. An entire pile of blades and weapons (besides firing weapons) lay on the table in front of Beriem.

  The “shadow-dweller” grabbed a sword.

  “This is R’ron’s sword. At first glance, it seems no different from any other, but that’s where looks can be deceiving. A small passive artifact is hidden under this decorative knob. Same for all of these knives, swords, and shields. You know very well how much vampires suffer from a maniacal desire to have the biggest collection of sharp objects. Thanks to the bogus information we arranged to be consistently dished out regarding the were-dragon, data about him reached the interested parties. Naturally, my agents kept all approaches to the girl under a tight lid; they tracked her friends and acquaintances. R’ron came under our surveillance purely by chance. If he hadn’t shown an interest in the dragon and his girlfriend, we wouldn’t have noticed him. Then—more. The dad took it upon himself to help his son Rur, who was suffering from unrequited love, with a certain problem. What’s interesting is that during the preparation to kidnap the girl, they became friends, not as father and son, but as two bosom buddies of the same age would. That’s when our surveillance officers made their first conclusion: that the vampire isn’t working for the Woodies, but for some other structure. His style is much different from the Woody exploits. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he was under some sort of mental influence; the son came under it too. We decided to continue the operation and find out who the puppet master was. I should tell you that the operation almost went belly-up when our observation of the abducted girl was temporarily lost due to some annoying mishaps. Presumably, at that moment, when she was under the effects of black lily powder, they processed her a little. They tinkered with her brains, because at all other times the agents didn’t let her out of their sight, and they didn’t observe any direct effect. At the same time, we discovered that they were affecting their targets through the weapons. The scheme is stunning for its simplicity and the sheer genius with which it was carried out. Each individual amulet cannot create much effect by itself, but the Arians used an accord scheme, wherein the independent amulets start working as a united whole. You just have to give the command to the lead artifact. The human, elf, or vampire will have no idea whatsoever that they’re under the mental influence. They’ll feel like they’re giving themselves advice, very good advice, which allows them to benefit from any scenario. So, here too ‘light’ thoughts came into the vampires’ heads.”

  “How did the vampire get her hands on the weapons containing the artifacts?”

  “Her betrothed shared with her.”

  “Well yes, how could I have not guessed. When did you discover the Arian?”

  “Hm, we almost lost him entirely. The were-dragon was so upset he almost suffocated the scoundrel. Then he decided to get even rougher, and we were able to establish for certain the fact that the caravan boss wasn’t who he was pretending to be, and caught him red-handed. The brain-busters uncovered his memories. The Arian did not have time to hide them. Once we got all those footholds, and after relaying the information to Tantre’s Secret Chancellery, it wasn’t difficult to put the pieces together.”

  “Praiseworthy, but you know what?”

  “What?”

  “Cut any mention of the vampire girl out of the report you’re preparing for the High Prince. It’s not worth teasing a rabid sul. Admit it: in the circumstances we’re dealing with, that wouldn’t bring you anything good.”

  “What should we do with the girl?”

  “Are you having some problems?”

  “Not yet, but the mental influence on the vampires has disappeared, and what will happen when the dragon comes back?” Beriem chuckled sadly.

  “If he comes back. Leave everything as it is and forget you had anything to do with it.”

  The end


  The Dragon Inside:

  Becoming the Dragon

  Wings on My Back

  A Cruel Tale

  Crown of Horns

  Home at Last

  GLOSSARY

  Geography

  Alatar—the largest continent on the planet of Ilanta.

  Aria—a continent located north of Alatar.

  Empire of Alatar—a state existing two thousand years ago that pursued an aggressive policy of conquest. Approximately sixty percent of the total area of the continent of Alatar was subject to the Empire. The continent itself was named in honor of the Empire. Northern kingdoms such as Tantre, Mesaniya, Meriya, and Rimm were at one time secluded barbarian provinces of the Empire. As a result of civil war, the Empire of Alatar was broken into separate states and ceased to exist.

  Ilanta—a planet.

  Kingdom of Mestair—a legendary human kingdom located on the territory of modern-day Taiir and the Great Principality of Mesaniya, which existed three thousand years ago during the age of the dragons. As an independent state, it was destroyed by the dragons and their allies during the war with the Forest Elves and few human states that had joined them.

  The Light Forest—the state of the Forest Elves, limited to the growth area of the Mellornys.

  The Marble Mountains—a large mountain range crossing the northern part of Alatar from north to south. From the north, the range is bordered by the North Sea, and from the south, by the Southern Rocky Ridge and the Long sea.

  Mesaniya—A Great Principality located north of the kingdom of Tantre.

  Nelita—The second planet in a triple solar system: Ilanta, Nelita, and Helita. Nelita is considered the dragons’ native land; it was named in honor of the goddess of life, Nel. The literal translation is “eye of the goddess of life.”

  Ort—the largest river in the north of Alatar, flows across the territory of the kingdom of Tantre.