by Cyn Bagley
Davi saw the sadness in her eyes. “No, you are hers and she is yours.”
“This sounds like a marriage,” he said. “Do you have any dragonlings of your own?”
He was so young to have to bear this burden. “Davi,” then she sighed. “The bond makes us sterile.”
Dragon Cave
Michael Ordson
In all the drama, Michael had been forgotten by the participants. He didn’t mind. This was a good time to explore the hallways, the kitchens, the rooms, libraries, and even the dungeons if there was one. He whistled a little as he walked down the passageways, rubbing his right hand against the wall. Someone had taken the time to smooth the walls. Little rocks embedded in the walls had that smooth polished feeling.
If the lights were off and he held a lantern to them, the rocks would sparkle. He looked at the lights at the ends of the hall. They were nothing like what he saw in the real world. In the world they used candles, fires, and torches for lights. Some of the candles were made with pork fat and other animal fat, which made dark scorch marks on the walls. Here the lanterns were enclosed, they didn’t smell like pork or even sulfur. He had no idea what magic made the lighting possible. He had heard of people using whale fat and even that noxious gas that game out of the ground for light. But here, under the mountain in the land of the dwarfs, they had some magic that wasn’t in the human world.
Off the passageway he found personal rooms and suites. When he walked into one, he found a young dwarf busy cleaning and polishing. He apologized for opening the door, but she just glanced down and continued her duties.
He turned left at one of the many forks. When he reached the end of the passageway, he found a wall. Something had been walled up here recently. Michael could feel the undine in small form holding on to his hair, her cold feet on his neck. He put his ear against the wall and listened. He didn’t understand why he wanted to explore further past the wall. There were no cries, just a heavy silence.
A dwarf touched his shoulder and Michael jumped. Michael expected a scolding or scowl for walking away from the others. When he had been left alone, it had been too good a chance to explore.
But the dwarf wasn’t scowling. He smiled. The smile on a dwarf is a terrible thing. There mouths are made for sternness. Still, Michael felt a little better that the dwarf had made an effort.
“You are Michael, beloved of dragons,” said the dwarf.
“Beloved?” Michael’s voice rose a little. He did not expect this from the dwarf.
“For the service you did Davi a few months ago.”
That time was hazy for Michael, but he didn’t want to press the issue. The dwarf was inclined to help him. He could tell by the smile and how the dwarf’s eyes sparkled.
Michael changed the subject, “So what is behind this wall?”
“That is where the dragonlings are kept. The ones changed by the grimoire and the black mage.”
Michael shuddered at the memory of the small inn with misshapen children that had been eating their parents for sustenance. It had been a gruesome scene and one he didn’t want to remember.
“Why is it walled up?” asked Michael.
“They are feral,” said the dwarf. “They have to be tamed and civilized. When they are not in the training pits, they are fed and then put in the cells. It will take years, maybe hundreds of years to help them. They are tainted.”
“Show me,” said Michael.
The dwarf took him back to the fork in the tunnel, then another turn then a right, right, left. They were in front of a big door that was made of metal. No one could take that door down. Michael admired the work that had gone into making such a monstrosity.
The dwarf pulled out a key and opened the door. Michael followed behind him until they reached the cells. The dragonlings were already in their cells. They were in half-dragon half-human form and were taking big chunks out of their food.
“Do they speak?” asked Michael. He looked at each one. They were branded on his heart…the shapes, the grunts, and how they tore into the raw meat. They were animals without souls.
“No,” said the dwarf. “The change affected their minds. We still don’t know if they will be more than just feral beings.” The dwarf sighed. “The dragons have so few children that they cannot destroy these little ones. It would hurt too much.”
None of these dragonlings were little to Michael. Most of them towered above him in their cells. One of them noticed Michael. It roared and shook its bars. It had enjoyed the taste of human flesh and wanted more.
“And this one?” Michael pointed to the dragonling who had noticed him.
“That one will die soon,” the dwarf said sorrowfully. “It will not learn any of the commands and has tried to kill most of its trainers. He just sits in this cell. We have to force him back with fire sticks so that we can leave him food. It is only a matter of days.”
Michael felt pity well up in him. It was not this little one’s fault that he had been changed and tainted. “Is there a way to cleanse them?” The dwarf looked surprised, but when he tried to answer, Michael said, “No, the undine.”
“Undine,” the dwarf repeated Michael’s words. He looked confused.
The undine crawled out of her hiding place and looked into Michael’s eyes. She tapped into his deepest emotions and he let her in as far as she wanted. He had felt pity for these children, but with the emotions amplified by the undine’s touch, tears streamed down his cheeks.
Michael walked closer to the dragonling whose long arms forced through the bars of the cell and tried to grab and rip him to pieces.
The tears continued, fell on the ground, and became a living stream that flowed toward the dragonling. The tears touched his toes. The dragonling stomped in the water and screamed. Michael could hear the scream of human and dragon mixed.
The tears flowed upward from its toes to its head. The screams became more terrified and the dragonling fell on the ground of the cell. Michael’s sorrow increased. He could see that the taint was so buried into the dragonling that the tears might kill him.
Behind him the dwarf chanted. When the tears reached the dragonlings heart, it stopped.
“Is he dead?” Michael could see the tears clean the taint from his head.
There was silence as the dragonlings in other cells quit eating and watched the spectacle. There was a huge gasp from the downed being and it began to breathe. The dwarf pulled out a key and rushed into the cell. He wrapped the dragonling in a blanket, held and crooned to him. Michael backed away and left them alone.
The undine pulled out a small glass bottle and captured a few of the tears. Then she leaped into Michael’s hair again. “What just happened?” he asked the undine.
“You cleansed me,” she said, “with the help of the clear stream. I thought that you could help the boy.”
“But isn’t it woman’s magic?” He sounded surprised. The undine laughed, clear, bright and joyful.
“No, it is your magic,” she said. Soon they were in the passageways where most of the dwarfs were walking. He could smell food cooking so went in that direction. His stomach grumbled.
Chapter Twenty-two
Dragon Cave
Michael Ordson
The smells of bacon, eggs, and baking bread lured Michael to the kitchen. It was a large room carved out of the mountain. He had never seen an enclosed fireplace before. One of the cooks opened a steel door in the fireplace and pulled out a loaf of bread from it. On the top one of the cooks was stirring something in a pot. Heat generated from the fireplace filled the room. Here was a useful invention that he could use in the Inn. There was a steel tube leading from the fireplace to the ceiling to draw out the smoke and fumes.
He had visions of trading with the dwarfs. Of having the first enclosed fireplace in a human area. His thoughts screeched to a halt. It would be a long time before trading between dwarfs and humans would be legal. Then he grinned. Smuggling. Before he could finish that thought, his stomach growled agai
n.
The room was bustling with dwarf-girls in aprons, setting tables. The food was placed on a huge table so that the dwarfs could serve themselves.
When the servers were ready, a bell sounded. It rang throughout the passageways, summoning the hungry. One of the servers showed him a place to sit and filled his plate for him. The server was polite and when Michael asked how they were able to feed the entire colony, the server said one word, “shifts.
Michael grabbed a spoon and ate the oatmeal in front of him. The server handed him a plate filled with bacon and eggs. He crunched the bacon and wanted to moan just a little from the taste. Then Hilda sat beside him. She wore an apron and was covered in flour.
The wrinkles around her mouth and eyes had relaxed as she smiled at him. The server handed her a plate too. So they ate in silence as they watched the dwarfs around them eat and talk. The noise of people talking bounced around the room so it was hard to concentrate on any one conversation.
He sopped up some of the juices of mingled bacon and eggs with the bread. He sat back and sighed. Hilda was also patting her stomach. It was good, really good. He began to talk, “I’ve been looking around.”
He wasn’t worried that someone would hear their conversation. Even someone with super hearing would have a hard time hearing in this noise. Hilda didn’t seem worried about speaking here either because she asked, “What did you see?”
“Living quarters, library, and in the very back are cells.”
Hilda crossed her legs and gave him a look to get on with it. “The cells are filled with the children who were turned into dragons—or at least partial dragons. They can’t complete the change because they are tainted.”
“They might be too young to change.” Hilda gave him a piece of information that he hadn’t considered. “I’ve been told that Davi is one of the few that will change early because he has a blacksmith.”
“What?” Michael’s head whipped around. “Is it Kayla?”
“What do you think?” said Hilda. “It was all her doing.” Hilda sighed. “I would have helped the girl escape, but she ran away on her own, right into Davi’s nest. She save him, of course… but at what cost.”
“Nothing is free,” Michael intoned. It was one of the laws they were taught in magic university. It kept many of the students from experimenting with magic too advanced for them. It kept them from experimenting with demonology, he corrected his thoughts.
“I guess I should go back to the Inn,” he said. “Kayla won’t need me now.”
“May I make another suggestion?” said Hilda. “I still need to go to the main city and find a way to get an audience with the king. At the very least maybe find a way to talk to his spy network. The king needs to be warned about Lord Barton.”
Michael considered Hilda’s words. He could go with Hilda or he could go back to Delhaven. He missed Jo. Still, Hilda needed him more. He made his decision.
“Yes,” he touched Hilda’s hand. “But the king is guarded and we don’t have access to him. I do know someone who is trusted by the king. We would have to go back to the university.”
“So we leave tomorrow,” Hilda said. “I’ll make arrangements. Maybe you should go back to the room and get some sleep.”
Michael smiled at her. Yes, he was tired. He would take her advice. Tomorrow they would be back on the road. After eating, he was ready to sleep. He yawned.
Dragon Cave
Hilda Brant
Hilda pulled the apron off, left it on a chair, loosened her hair, and strode from the kitchen. Michael was still sitting on the chair. His face was white and lined with fatigue and he was developing a white streak in his hair. Sleep would take away those lines and put a little rose in his cheeks.
She strode to the main cavern. Davi and Kayla were gone. Varia was back in her dragon form and sitting on her nest of gold. Hilda bowed to her. “We need to take leave of you tomorrow. Can you keep Davi and Kayla with you?”
Varia nodded and Hilda could hear her voice in her head. “They are independent beings. I can’t keep them here if they decide to follow you.”
“You can convince them that they need training, can’t you?”
Varia’s large head nodded and then she snorted, “I can try.” A little smoke curled around one nostril and then headed to the ceiling of the cavern.
Suddenly the blacksmith stood next to Hilda’s elbow. He must have been hidden in the shadows because she hadn’t seen him slip behind her. It made her uncomfortable. She looked at him silently.
He shuffled a little, aware of her dislike. He spoke. “Is there anything I can help you with for your travels?”
Hilda shrugged her shoulders and then spoke softly about what she would need for a journey to the main city. With Michael tiring easily, he couldn’t carry much.
“The horses were doing well,” the blacksmith told her. “They can carry most of the supplies.”
Hilda felt relief. The blacksmith put his hand on her elbow and he escorted her out of the main cavern. She let him.
Davi Dracson
Davi had been unconscious for too long. He could feel his bones and muscles cramp. One of his smaller toes wrenched away from the other toes and he wanted to scream with the pain. He stomped on his foot and didn’t acknowledge the hurt. He was a dragonling. The muscles relaxed as he walked through twisting passageways with Kayla. She held his hand and hurried him toward the smell of breakfast.
His last time in the warrens with Michael, he hadn’t seen this part of the cavern system. This time he wanted to see the dwarf’s colony, explore the passageways, and see the blacksmith’s forge. He didn’t have the skills, but he wouldn’t be averse to pumping the bellows as Kayla worked.
“What does a blacksmith do besides,” he pointed at his head, “this?” She glared at him, but he smiled back. He saw the beginnings of a smile which she suppressed. He could feel a giggle escape into his thoughts. She was so solemn, as if she had to suppress every joyful thought because life wanted to hurt her. He wanted to make her laugh and see the joy. He wanted to give her jewels.
“Flowers,” was the thought that bobbed into his head from her. “I want flowers. I want to live topside instead of in the dark.”
Davi looked down the passageway. It wasn’t dark here. There were lights that sparkled and glowed all through the passageway. Even with the light, Kayla shivered with revulsion. “No, those are dwarf-made. Have you ever been in the deepest, darkest mine shaft with the lights off?”
“No,” he said. He was curious about what would upset her so much.
“Some day I will take you there. You can’t know the oppression or the feeling of isolation in that dark until you’ve been there. Something is in there. Something so dark… that wants you so badly…that it will go through your companions to get you.” She sighed.
“Plus there is so much that can happen in the deep mines. Cave-ins. Flooding. Poisonious gases. The earth doesn’t like us tunneling into her guts.
Still there is such beauty hidden in the earth. The ice patterns and the raw jewels. But blacksmiths or those intended for that purpose are not used as miners. They are more valuable.”
Davi looked into her dark brown eyes. “I don’t believe in slavery,” he looked away from her. “If I could, I would cut this bond and set you free.”
A tear slipped from her eye. She wiped it away harshly. Davi turned from her to look at the walls, giving her some privacy to get her emotions under control. He could tell by the turmoil in her mind that she didn’t want to share this much with him. It was too soon.
“I was given power that I am too young to have,” he said. He put his finger on the wall and traced the pattern of stones in the wall. They were smooth to the touch. He told her of the White Road and the Old One.
“Do you remember his name?” she asked. He could hear the tremble in her voice. Still he didn’t turn.
“Yes.” Then he told her.
He could hear her gasp. Then silence. The silence became
uncomfortable as Davi wanted to turn, but didn’t. Then she said in a low voice, “He was the one…we ran away from.”
She didn’t say anymore. Maybe someday she would trust Davi and tell him what that Old One had done. He could feel his imagination run away with visions of torture and pain. She touched his arm. He turned away from the wall and looked down.
“It wasn’t like that—or not quite like that.”
Davi could feel his anger rise. “Stop it,” she said sharply. “You weren’t there and you can do nothing about it now.”
It was like she had thrown cold water on his anger. He calmed down just before he began blowing fire out of his human mouth. Fire was too dangerous in this form. He needed to change first. Then he remembered. He hadn’t changed yet. He was too young.
“I’m not a proper dragon,” he said to her. “I can’t change yet. I might never change… there have been a few of us born as humans who never change to dragon,” he warned her.
She smiled. The thought that he might not ever change made her more comfortable. “We are a pair,” she said.
“Yep. Let’s look for the others,” and then he said, “I’m hungry.” He gave her wide brown eyes.
She laughed at him.
Davi felt that his emotions had been stripped and examined. He would give all the gold in the world to see her smile.
Chapter Twenty-three
Dragon Cave
Kayla Hellswarth
Kayla kept stealing glances at the boy beside her. She couldn’t wrap her heart around the thought that this boy was her bonded dragon. He was a dragonling. In his human form, he was taller than she was, even taller than Hilda. But when he told her that he didn’t know if he could change, she wanted to smile. He was too young yet. Most dragons born as humans didn’t change for a century. It was the same for dragons born as dragons. They didn’t change to human form for a long time.
He had tried to comfort her, and yet he was so young. Most dragons who could bond, bonded in middle age after they had had a few clutches. The reproductive cycle of dragons hadn’t interested her when she was younger. Now she didn’t know.