“Dol Agur!” one woman shouted, standing up from her bench. She was short and young enough still to have flaming red hair that spilled over her simple clothes. In her arms she held a babe in swaddling. “I am Fel Haden, and I represent the Haden family. I have here my granddaughter, not one-year-old yet. I know well the Stone Tooth people have already lost far too many babes and fighters to the dark king of Torvald. How can you ask us to risk any more, and for what, this boy? The Three-Rivers clan who have always been our traditional rivals? I say we stay here, in our own mountain fortress, far away from any foreign wars and battles!”
There was a considerable cheer from around the room, and I swallowed nervously.
“Lord Bower?” Dol Agur turned to consider me, and I knew there would be no hiding in this council. Everyone had brought their families, and it was to them I had to speak, and to convince of my quest.
Still… I’ve never even known a proper family of my own. My dad died when I was young, and I had no brothers or sisters. What do I know of how to speak to them?
My mind was reeling as I stood and stepped forward so everyone could see me. I had managed to defend Home Island, when Great Zenema had turned to me for guidance. I had negotiated with the Three-River’s clan chief Ryland, Admittedly, it was by putting my very life on the line, but that was how they did things there. I had done it. I had managed it somehow. Surely Zenema and Saffron and all of the others couldn’t be so mistaken about my abilities.
It was the thought that my friends, Saffron and Jaydra and the dragons, believed in me and were relying on me which gave me the final push I needed. If they could see something to put their faith in, then so could I.
“People of Stone Tooth,” I called out, “thank you for your welcome. We have traveled a long way to find you, and suffered much harassment from our shared enemy, King Enric Maddox.” I raised a hand to indicate Fel Haden. “Chief Haden here is right. The dark king is dangerous, and he has caused terror across the land and to me and those I care about, not the least of which is my home citadel of Torvald.”
“What do we care about Torvald?” a rowdy voice jeered from the back of the cavern, and snarls and shouts erupted once more. I waited for them to die down before continuing.
“Yes, I agree. What should you care about Torvald? Why, indeed? It is far from here, and the people of Torvald have never even spared you a thought or crumb of care, have they?” I said even-handedly.
“See! Even the little lord agrees!” another angry voice laughed.
This time I cut through the jeers with my own shout. “But are you not better than that?”
Silence spread across the crowd like a wave, as the Stone Tooth people looked at me with narrowed eyes, trying to work out if I had just insulted or praised them.
“Do the Stone Tooth people hide and cower behind their walls as the rest of the world burns? Is that what you would prefer?” I remonstrated with them. I heard a hiss, as even Dol Agur beside me pulled back in shock. They had all been expecting me to beg for their aid and their help, but, as anger flared through me, I knew it wasn’t what the Stone Tooth people would respond to. They were a harsh, fierce people who lived in life or death conditions. The only thing keeping them together was the fact that they looked after each other.
“But it is more than a question of honor,” I carried on, turning to address the other half of the cavern as the room stilled. “It is also one of foresight. Fel Haden,” I addressed her directly. “I understand your concerns for your granddaughter, and it is for that very granddaughter and the others like her I am choosing to fight. You want to keep her safe. I want to see her free, and wild, and happy. What sort of life will she lead, forever worried about the dark king drawing closer and closer? What if she ever wishes to explore the world? Or travel? And when it comes time for that child to have children of her own, what life would she want for them?”
To her credit, Fel Haden stood firm against my questions, regarding me very seriously.
“Of course, people of Stone Tooth,” I turned back, “there is more immediate danger. Dol Agur herself and her family village were attacked by the king’s floating balloon just a little way from here.” I turned to check with Dol Agur, who nodded her agreement.
“If we do not counter the king, then how long will it be before he has more balloons or more Iron Guard or something even more terrible still which can reach even out here, even to the middle of your mountains?” I asked them.
This time, the mumbled voices took on a more positive tone, as some of the attendees started to see the sense of my words.
“Still, you want us to join with those lowlanders, the Three Rivers?” the heckling voice shouted, and though heads turned, no one could find the one who shouted.
“Yes,” I answered simply. “You and they may have your ancient quarrels, and I do not wish to tell you the right or wrong of them. For now, I ask you to stand with me and the dragons as Three Rivers chose to do as well. Together, we are strong,” I said. “Together, we can defeat the dark king.”
Finally, I turned back to Fel Haden who still stood, gently rocking her granddaughter. “Fel Haden, in answer to your question: how can I ask you to risk your lives? It is because I want those lives to mean something. I want that granddaughter of yours to have the same opportunity which I now have; to see free and noble dragons in the skies, and perhaps even to be allowed to make friends with one!”
At that, I stepped back from the council to stand beside Dol Agur.
“Well said,” Dol Agur nodded as the voices rose once again around me. “Now, I suggest you go and get some food while the Stone Tooth people talk about everything that you have said.”
I was only too happy to agree, and escape the two hundred eyes assessing me, asking themselves the same question the dragons, and then the Three Rivers had: can this young lord truly be the rightful heir to the throne? Is he strong enough to defeat King Enric? They were the same questions I asked myself. Could I do it?
I sat in the central cavern, finishing my breakfast and looking up at the rock carvings. How on earth had people managed to get all the way up there with their bags of hammers and chisels and whatever else they might have needed?
They might as well have used magic, I thought and felt a stab of annoyance. So much of the past had been lost to us, to all of us, not just the people of the citadel of Torvald, but also the people out here, the Stone Tooth who had fled the citadel. How would we ever recover all the sciences and skills enough to make something as grand and great as this ever again?
“Lord Bower?” Dol Agur called as she strode confidently across the cavern, marching through my thoughts and sending them scattering. I could tell what the answer was just from the set of her jaw.
“The people have agreed. The Stone Tooth clan will ride, and fight for the rightful King of Torvald.”
11
Saffron, Anger Management
It was time to move even though I didn’t really want to, and it wasn’t just the cold, I thought.
Saffron is scared? Jaydra murmured beside me. We stood on the edge of the Stone Tooth Mountain, watching Ysix and some of her brood swooping over the frozen terrain and between peaks. Everywhere we looked, the world was white, black, or grey—beautiful, but austere. Bower, Lord Bower, I corrected myself, was somewhere inside the mountain itself with the Stone Tooth clan, helping to arrange the transport to the Three-Rivers clan. They were more than happy to fight against Enric, and honored to be asked to join the dragons, but they still seemed hesitant about joining with the Three Rivers.
Pfftt. Human talk, Jaydra snorted a puff of smoke, turning to regard Ysix once more as she flew across the top of the world. If anything, I could only agree, but I also knew that human life wasn’t as simple as that of a dragons’. If only it were.
“Come on then you.” I nodded up to the path. “I’ve got to begin my training, and you have to stretch those wings,” I said affectionately.
Sister. Jaydra leaned down to ge
ntly bump her snout against the top of my head. I am glad that you were not lost, last night.
I shuddered as I remembered. When will I ever be free of these terrible Enric-dreams? I thought, though I knew the answer even before my dragon-sister supplied it.
When the false king is dead, she said, turning and leaping off the frozen cliff to call out defiantly, joining her sisters in the skies.
I knew she was right, but I was still beset by worries: what if I wasn’t strong enough to match him in combat? What if he managed to take over my mind just as before? The pressure riding on my shoulders was like a thick cloak I could only shrug off when I was flying with Jaydra. Why did Bower think I was the one who could defeat the king? Was there no one else?
My thoughts were heavy as I trudged up the wind-blown path to the small rocky tower near the top of Stone Tooth Mountain. Although frosted with icicles, the tower had a warm glow coming from its thick rock-crystal windows.
I banged my fist on the wooden door, to have it yanked open, its wood creaking and scraping against the stones.
“Come in! Come in, girl!” Dol Agur, my guide and teacher said, wearing home-spun robes of a delicate blue instead of heavy hides. The tower was surprisingly cozy from the roaring fire in the hearth. Dol Agur slammed the door, piling thick hides against it to stop any drafts while I turned to examine the strange room that I had climbed up to.
Dol Agur cleared her throat as she moved piles of paper and blankets from a stool next to the hearth. “This was the Record Keeper’s study, and the Salamander preserved his lore on those scrolls there.” The old woman pointed to a stack of shelves that occupied an entire wall, each one filled with rounded cylinders. “Here, too, he waited for the spark of fire from the next beacon or watchtower to signal to him it was time to return home to Torvald,” Dol Agur pointed out in the opposite direction, through the rock-crystal windows to the whiteness of the world outside. It was almost impossible to make out any landmark, but I imagined a sudden burst of fire would be obvious against the snow. Below the window were wide wooden benches, still littered with an unusual collection of items: a tiny bird’s skull, a collection of glittering gemstones, vials of mysterious looking liquids.
The old woman sighed. “The signal never came.” She looked sad for a moment, then brushed a hand across her forehead, as if to wipe away the emotion. “But enough of such things. You are here now, and we can begin to teach you a little of what he left behind.”
Today was to be my first real lesson in magic.
“The scroll says you must first concentrate your mind on the task, Saffron,” Dol Agur said from where she hovered at my elbow. “Concentrate your mind.”
I sat on a stool facing the table, the room uncomfortably warm. We had been trying to perform the simplest of tricks recorded by the Record Keeper, and so far, I had completely failed at anything other than staring so hard at a stub of candle that I’d given myself a headache.
“I still have no idea why you have me training to light a candle flame?” I said, exasperated. “It’s not like Enric is going to attack me with a chandelier!”
Dol Agur clenched her jaw but said nothing. I could tell even she was getting tired and annoyed, though all she’d been doing was reading the instructions in the old scroll.
“It’s not about the candle, or the flame, or how big or small the magic is. It’s about your mind, Saffron,” Dol Agur said.
“It’s no good, Dol Agur. I can’t control it. It is just who I am. I can’t do it.” I said, feeling tired, irritable, and depressed.
“Shush!” Dol Agur slapped her palms down onto the table, real anger in her voice. “How dare you say that about yourself? How would you feel if I told you that Bower or Jaydra just couldn’t do something because of who they thought they were?”
“Magic is entirely different—”
“Huh! And how would you know?” Dol Agur leaned forward and snapped at me. “How does a girl like you, Saffron, know what magic is and what it isn’t when you’re clearly such a failure at it?”
I’m not a failure! I thought with a flash of anger. How dare this woman I’ve only just met try to tell me who and what I am? It was I who had brought Jaydra and the dragons here, to them! I turned back to the candle, feeling hot and angry inside, and I reached out towards it with my mind in the same way that I reached out to Jaydra. I didn’t think at all about what I was doing, I just used my anger to send towards it, thinking, burn, little candle flame, burn!
In response, the candle sputtered once, and then whooshed into a strong blaze, far stronger than what its small wick would normally allow. The flame shot up a foot into the room and burned a deeper crimson red. I turned with a triumphant grin towards Dol Agur beside me.
“Who’s a failure now?” I said.
“Interesting. Very interesting,” she said, clapping her hands together and smiling proudly at me.
That was when I realized I had been tricked, and the candle sputtered out into a puff of faintly waxy-smelling smoke. “You made me angry on purpose!” I cried, all traces of my previous irritation disappearing, to be replaced by the unpleasant feeling of having been duped. Dol Agur had proved her point. I could do magic, but only, it seemed, when I had something to prove.
“You used your anger to connect with the magic, didn’t you?” Dol Agur nodded, turning quickly to rifle through the scrolls behind.
“I guess?” I said, not really sure what she meant.
“And tell me, Saffron,” the woman said over her shoulder. “All of the other times you have called on your magic successfully, were you also angry, or frightened, or stressed?”
“Well…” I tried to remember the times my magic had worked. I had been panicked at the rock fall when I had almost killed one of the Three Rivers’ scouts, but I had also managed to stop the rock crushing us all. Before that, I had been scared and angry when I was trying to save Ysix from the snowstorm and the king’s harpoons. Before that, there had been the king’s Iron Guard all talking to me at the same time, which had made me terrified.
“Oh,” I said. “Yes, I suppose. I’ve only managed to use my magic when I’ve had to, because someone was about to die…”
“Yes, as I thought.” The woman returned with a scroll that was once again written in the Record Keeper’s spidery black handwriting. “This is one of the early accounts, written by the Salamanders in the early days of the Maddox rule. The Salamanders had written that the king had seemed much more powerful when he was angry or upset, as if he used his emotions to power his magic. I think until you learn how to access and control your magic when calm, the emotions are the key,” Dol Agur said.
It didn’t sound so much of a winning tactic to me, however, as it meant that I would have to stay angry or terrified all of the time I was fighting the king, and if I was too furious or terrified, then how could I concentrate on the magic itself?
Despite my protestations, Dol Agur carried on. “No, all you have to do is to remember that feeling you had and use it, as you did now, to power the candle.” She gestured to the now unlit candle. “Let’s see if you can light it again.”
I turned back to the desk to glare at the candle, trying to be really angry with the stubborn stub of wax… Nothing happened.
“Why you… Silly little candle thing… How dare you not light!” I growled at it, but it remained stubbornly dark. “It’s not working,” I said to Dol Agur, who I noticed was shaking with laughter.
“I didn’t mean be angry AT the candle, I meant use your normal emotions to connect with your magic, as a sort of bridge…” Dol Agur held her sides as she giggled.
Great. Well, at least someone is finding this funny. I scowled and threw a thought towards the candle. It exploded into flame. “Easy,” I said, looking back up to Dol Agur, just as the door shook with heavy fists.
“Saffron! Dol Agur!” It was Bower, and he sounded panicked. The older woman seized the door and pulled at it, spilling Bower and a Stone Tooth clansmen into the tower room.
“Bower? What is it?” I jumped up from the stool. Bower looked flustered and shocked, as if he had run all of the way up the mountain to find me.
“Is it the council of families?” Dol Agur said with a touch of winter to her voice. “Have they refused you aid after all that was said earlier?”
“No, no, the council are making plans to move all of their warriors south, to rendezvous with the Three-Rivers clan, they’re fine,” Bower said quickly, wiping snow and frost from his brow. “It’s not them; it’s the Three-Rivers clan. They’ve been attacked!”
“What happened? How bad is it?” I said, reaching out to steady Bower. He looked pale enough to faint.
Bower dropped onto the stool I’d been sitting on. “We got a dragon. One of the wild ones, with a Three River’s rider.”
“They’re riding dragons again?” Dol Agur said, amazed.
“A little,” Bower said.
“Not really,” I added, giving Bower a chance to breathe. “We have them barely clinging onto dragons. And none of them are bonded. Go on, Bower.”
“He was wounded,” Bower said, eyes round. “And he had asked his dragon to find us—Saffron and me. They saw a mountain village burning, and when they went to investigate, they were attacked by some more of those flying platforms.
“Coward!” Dol Agur spat. “He comes at us from the air, throwing bombs down so we can never get a chance to fight back.”
“Okay,” I nodded, speaking only to Bower. From his wild and staring eyes, there was clearly something more that was upsetting him. “But we have the Stone Tooth clan on our side as well, and it won’t be long before we’re trained better on the dragons.”
“It wasn’t just that,” Bower whispered. “He said the Three-Rivers clan was arguing about who should lead them, Lord Vere, Mother Gorlas, or me.” Bower looked up at me with worried eyes, “I’ve failed them, the people I was supposed to help, and now they’re splitting the Three Rivers into those who will follow the stranger—that’s what they’re calling me—and those who will follow Vere!”
Dragons of Dark (Upon Dragons Breath Trilogy Book 3) Page 8