by Victor Poole
"How do you know they are the only ones?" she asked. "And how did you see me fighting with the black worm?" Ajalia was still struggling to think of the great black shapes as dragons; proper dragons, she thought, were beautiful and fierce, and were not anything like the awful, heavy, clumsy worm shapes that she had blown up with magic.
"The ancestors came from many lands to build Slavithe, and then Talbos," Leed told her. "Some of them even came from across many seas. When Slavithe was formed from the dregs of so many lands, the peoples who formed its population brought with them stories. All of the people from all of the different places believed in different things, but these two dragons were the same. Every people had traditions that said that there are two black dragons, that they wrap over the whole earth, and that one day in the future, a bright storm would wipe away the two dragons, and the fear and dread caused by evil would pass away from the earth. It was said that the earth would rest."
"And do you believe this?" Ajalia asked. Leed shrugged.
"It has been two days since you killed the last dragon," he said, "and you have laid traps for all of the priests. The witches are being hunted, and for the first time since the days of Jerome, there will be peace in Slavithe." This conversation between Ajalia and Leed happened on the second day, in the evening after the last meal. Ajalia had spent the day putting blue barricades of magic over the entrances to the temples; she had told Leed what she had done, and the following morning she would find piles of priestly bodies in the doors of the temples
"I think it is possible, since so many peoples spoke of two black dragons, and spoke of them being destroyed, that the other parts of what they say are true as well," Leed said. He looked at Ajalia. "You asked me how I saw you," Leed said. "I paid attention to what I read in that book you lent me, and I read much of the other one, before I gave it to Delmar. I have not told anyone of what I read, but I have learned to feel the magic when it moves in the earth. I am sure that there are no more dragons," Leed said.
THE EASTERN SLAVE SERIES
The Slave from the East
The White Brand
The Thief Lord's Son
The Dead Falcon
The Magic War
The King of Talbos
The Fall of Slavithe
Into the East
The Kingdom in the Sky
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor Poole has a little gray cat and a penchant for sketching. You can read more about him and get updates about more of his books at www.victorpoole.wordpress.com.