Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor)

by Robert Barton

  “It is Daralce,” answered Cyerant. “But he also has another name, Jolss. It is a long story.”

  “I’m sure that it is,” answered Partonius. “And I am tired and now I will lose my home. Thank you for bringing me news of my dear Dratarion. At least now I know. But now you must go and I must rest.”

  “What is the natural apprentice?” Jolss asked.

  “Something that has not existed in years; many years,” answered the old mage. “Generations ago when magic still flowed there were some who had a natural gift for magic and they usually found a teacher who would train them. There were blank books into which they would write their lessons and spells. But there were some who never had a teacher for whatever reason and so never apprenticed with a master mage. There were blank books that would find their way to the natural apprentice and while the pages were blank to all other eyes the apprentice would be able to see the lessons and spells there. They were said to be spell books from master mages who had died long ago. We have several of these blank books here in the tower but they will do no good with no magic flowing around us.

  “I have one and I can read it,” said Jolss.

  “Impossible,” responded Partonius

  “And I can do this.” Jolss said as he waived his hand toward a candle across the room and a small puff of wind blew it out. “And this.” Just as quickly the boy pointed at the candle and the flame once again blossomed on it to give a bit of light to a dark corner.

  “Oh my, no mage has even been able to do those cantrips in a generation,” said Partonius. “It is all that I can do to even feel the last vestiges of the web of the magic that once was. But I must rest. Please help me back to my chambers. And you must stay here for the rest of the day until we can speak more. There are stables around back for your horses.”

  Veer walked over and gently lifted the man and carried him to a room where the man had his bed and personal things. He laid the man down on the bed and the man was already asleep in his exhaustion. Jolss who had followed Veer into the room sat near a window with an opened book and began to study while keeping watch, with Prin, over the sleeping old mage. The dragon actually sat on the bed beside the old man while he slept and Prin seemed to be lending the old man strength.

  While the old mage slept and Jolss studied, Shira put the horses into the stables. Meanwhile Cyerant and Veer went of in search of a place to purchase hay for the horses and meat for the dogs. After a short time Cyerant had made arrangements to have enough meat and hay to feed the animals that afternoon delivered to the tower. Within the hour they were back at the tower.

  As the young men returned to the tower they found that Shira had curled up on a couch and was fast asleep with a hunting dog and two puppies curled up with her. Both young men found couches of their own and dropped off to sleep also. The last few weeks had been very hard on them all.

  *****

  Garisa watched as the stranger in the distance sat on an inn porch with a mug of ale, which he was slowly sipping as he watched a building. That must be where the brats had gone. Garisa stopped at an ale house where she could sit and have some ale while keeping an eye on the stranger. She spent the afternoon sitting and watching the stranger who spent his afternoon sitting and watching the building.

  *****

  The foreigner had seen the two young men come out and return. He had not followed because his job was to keep an eye on the dragons and they were staying at this tower. He watched as the girl came out and guided the horses around to the back, probably to put them in stables. He also saw a wagon arrive with a few bales of hay obviously for the horses and then a wagon from a butcher delivered some meat which he assumed was for the dragons.

  *****

  Jolss sat near the window and continued to study his magic books for several hours. While he was engrossed in reading he did not notice the old man quietly wake up and start watching him. Finally he heard the voice of the old man.

  “He found them didn’t he?”

  Jolss was startled and looked up at the old man.

  “The dragons. Dratarion found them didn’t he?”

  “I don’t know,” the boy answered a bit nervously.

  “Funny that book that you are reading there. It is written in an ancient script that nobody has been able to read in a thousand years. We call it dragon script and we have several like it in the library here. Can’t read them; nobody can. Except you, you seem to be able to read them. And you can do cantrips that nobody has been able to do for years. And there is a little green eyed raven sitting outside that window glaring at you. But ravens don’t have green eyes. Dratarion was dedicated to researching dragon mages and he was always telling me everything that he found out. He was convinced that if someone found a magic dragon and bonded to it, the way the legends say, magic would start to reweave and magic would start to work again for all mages. I can feel the left over strands of magic floating around. That is all that is left for us mages now. We are able to feel what we cannot use. They always felt like little pieces of a broken spider web floating around. But I feel it right now and it doesn’t feel like floating strands anymore. It feels like a web, a strong web and I can touch it. And right now I feel stronger than a few hours sleep should have made me feel; I feel stronger that I have in years. The legends say that the non-bonded can look at a dragon and see a horse or a dog or a bird.” The old mage looked right at Prin who stood up and shook her feathers and spread her wings and let her charm drop and the old mage was looking right at a little tiny dragon. “So you do have a dragon.”

  “Dragons,” responded Jolss.

  “You are a natural apprentice like the books speak of and you are dragon bonded,” the old man said as he took a long look at Jolss. “And everywhere you go the magic is being restored and rewoven. So dragons did not just help their bonded mages they actually helped make magic work for all mages. Dratarion was right; right about everything.”

  “So magic is going to be restored everywhere and start working for all mages again?” Jolss asked.

  “Not exactly,” answered the old man. “It doesn’t seem to be magic that has been weakening but just our ability to touch it. Magic is part of the natural world so it isn’t that it went away so much as we just were unable to use it anymore. I can feel it coming back now or more precisely my ability to touch is becoming clearer to me. It isn’t going to happen everywhere at once it is just that anywhere you and that dragon go is going to see that ability restored and so any mages near you will also become able to touch magic again. I suspect that if you restore magic in an area and then a mage enters it and becomes able to touch magic he will always be able to. It is like you are setting the whole thing to rights.”

  “So just because Prin and I are nearby you will be able to use magic?”

  “If I am correct yes and not only that, magic will continue to function in the tower now and also around me for the rest of my life. Let me try something.” The old man pointed at a fireplace which was not lit but which had wood lying in it and the wood smouldered and then started to burn. “Ah ha! I have always known that spell but it just wouldn’t work. Walk with me.” The old wizard got up from the bed and motioned for the boy to follow him.

  “Where are we going?” Jolss asked.

  “We are going to walk through the tower room by room, and then the forecourt and back gardens and the stables. We will walk all of the grounds and even outside of the compound. We are going to restore magic in this tower and on these grounds. Then we will walk through the whole city until every street has had magic rewoven.”

  For the next hour the old mage showed the boy every room in the tower careful to move quietly and let the others continue to sleep. And after the tower they walked the entire grounds of the tower.

  It was starting to get late in the afternoon and heading toward sundown when the others awoke to find that Jolss and the mage were in a kitchen sharing tea and talking about magic.

  “Ah young Cyerant,” said Partonius as he
saw the young man enter. “You brother here has been telling me bout the dragons and all that you have been through; a terrible business.”

  Cyerant turned to Jolss and said, “Daralce, you should not have told him about the dragons!”

  “Nonsense, my boy; simply nonsense,” interjected the old man. “I told him that the only way that everything added up was if he was himself dragon bonded and an apprentice. Anyway, I am told that you do not have lodgings. Well this tower was built to house dozens of mages and servants and I have been living here alone for some months with a lady who comes in every sevenday to clean. Before that there were only two of us for twenty five years. There is plenty of room and you will stay here. My meals are sent to me from the inn across the way and I will have the inn-keeper send five meals while you stay. And when you are ready to leave Deelt your young brother here will stay at the tower as an apprentice and train as a mage.”

  “I thank you for offering to let us stay and we can pay for our lodging. Though I don’t know about my brother staying here as an apprentice,” answered Cyerant.

  “More nonsense,” the old man said while waving Cyerant aside. “The mages of old actually left quite a treasury here so you do not need to pay for lodgings you will be my guests. You brother is a mage apprentice and so he has a right to be here and as for his staying put to train… we will talk about that later.”

  Just then there was a knock on the door from the kitchen into the back gardens. Then the door opened and boy of about nine came in carrying a tray with a meal. He seemed shocked to find the old man had company.

  “Well don’t just stand there boy,” said the old man. “Run back and tell your mistress four more meals and the same every meal until I tell you different. Look alive boy!” The old mage yelled and sent the boy running back out into the garden. “He will be back directly and we will have our supper. Sit… sit… all of you.” The old man spoke with such authority that everyone obeyed.

  Jolss was looking at the door through which the younger boy had fled on his errand. “That boy,” Jolss said as he turned toward the old man.

  “Yes, him. That one brings my meals three times a day. He is an orphan and he works at the inn across the way where he sleeps in the kitchen at night. So you noticed it too; there is something about him so that you just know that he is meant to be a mage. I have been teaching him to read for some time now.”

  “Why don’t you take him as an apprentice?” Veer asked.

  “I will, now that magic is starting to work again. Before now, there was nothing to offer but old books and knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But now there is a great deal to offer to new apprentices.”

  *****

  Garisa watched through the day and into the evening until she was certain that the young impostor and his friends were going to be spending the night in the tower. Then she returned to the inn and packed her few things and moved to an inn close to the tower where she could keep watch on the comings and goings of the building. The woman settled in to start watching and making a plan to catch that young impostor and turn him in for the reward.

  The gossip the next morning going through the neighbourhood around the tower was that the watch had found the body of a stranger in an alleyway just across form the tower. Later that day another stranger was found dead in his bed at an inn near the north gate of the city. Sometime during the night someone must have slipped into his room and quietly cut his throat. But an occasional body of a stranger was to be expected in a city like Deelt, but not so often that it wasn’t news for the gossips.

  *****

  The next morning the companions were awakened early by the old wizard and told to join him for breakfast which had been brought by the boy from the inn across the way. Shortly everyone was sitting at the table in the kitchen of the tower eating their meal. Partonius spoke. “Well, today should be quite the day around Deelt. When the boy brings my breakfast each day he also brings all of the news and rumours from around the inn. It seems that before dawn the night patrol found a dead stranger in an alley across the way and an inn keeper near the north-gate found that one of his guests had been murdered in the night. It turns out that the man dead in the alley way was staying at the same inn and that the two dead men shared a room. They kept to themselves and some say that they didn’t speak much but when they did they had a strange foreign accent.”

  The old wizard caught the quiet glances that his young guests exchanged and then he continued. “So that’s it then, these foreigners who were following you and trying to take these marvellous creatures know that you have come to Deelt. And someone else knows also and knows that these foreigners want the dragons. And that someone doesn’t want the foreigners to take the beasts. So whoever killed those men wants something too; I imagine that he wants the dragons. I sent the boy off with an order for the butcher to deliver meat for the animals and that should be along soon and you can tend to their breakfast.”

  Cyerant said, “Thank you for allowing us to stay here and for the food and for the meat for the dragons, we will pay you for your expenses.”

  “Nonsense,” responded the old wizard. The tower still has quite a large treasury and you are my guests. Besides you have done the tower a great favour. Your dragons have brought magic back to us. I wish that there was a way that I could repay you. Oh my!” The old wizard was startled by the two non-bonded dragons starting to wrestle and play on the floor of the kitchen.

  Jolss looked at the playing dragonets and said. “I think that one of them is a night dragon.” He continued as everyone turned toward him. “There was a type of dragon that disliked the sunlight and daytime and could see very well in the night, even in the total darkness of the mines. They also could read stone like a scout can read tracks and so they helped miners find rare metals. One of those metals was very, very rare and really deep and was called dragonite. There was once a famous miner who was blind but he could see through the eyes of his dragon and he could find dragonite easily.”

  One of the baby dragons seemed to pause in its play and glance over at the boy as he spoke. After a moment the dragonets returned to their play.

  The old mage spoke. “Yes, well you, young Jolss or Daralce, whichever you prefer, will come with me today to see that nasty magistrate. You will come as an apprentice to show that the tower continues to train mages. The rest of you should stay in the tower grounds until we know more about these foreigners. Now you should all go out to the well and get yourselves cleaned up before the meat arrives for the beasts. I apologize that there was no water in your rooms waiting for you when you awoke. We have not needed servants at the tower for some years now. I suppose that I shall need to employ a few servants soon for the new apprentices who will be coming, but perhaps we should wait long enough to make sure the servants do not run into dragons.”

  Shira asked. “How do you know that apprentices will come?”

  “Magic lives again and so those who wish to learn will come seeking it and some will be fitting students,” responded the mage. “While this young apprentice and I are away you are welcome to make yourselves to home in the tower. If anything is locked then leave it alone and you are welcome to use the library where you will find many books about many things.”

  Veer asked. “Is there anything which we should not read?”

  Partonius gave a little snort of laughter and waived dismissively. “Yes, but anything that you shouldn’t read you will not be able to read anyway. That is the nature of magic books.”

  A half an hour later Partonius and Jolss were leaving the tower gate. The dragons had been fed and the mage and apprentice were setting off for their visit to the Magistrate. Anyone watching would see an old wizard walking along with a boy who looked about eleven years old with a bird sitting on the shoulder of the boy. And someone was watching from the shadows of the inn across the way.

  Jolss asked. ‘Why do I feel like someone is watching us?” The bird sitting on his shoulder seemed to be a bit agitated.

&
nbsp; “Because someone is watching us boy,” answered Partonius. I imagine that it is whoever killed those strangers during the night. He is probably one of those people sitting over in front of that inn across the way and most likely has a room there. What remains to be seen is if he will follow us or if he will stay and watch the tower.”

  “Oh” Answered Jolss who then asked. “How long does it take to get to the Magistrate’s office?”

  “We will be near there about lunch time I should think.” The mage answered. “Then we will stop at a tavern nearby, have lunch and then go in to see this new magistrate.”

  “That long? I didn’t think this city was that big.”

  “It isn’t,” responded the old man. “A half an hour walk from the north gate to the south docks is all that it takes to cross it.”

  Jolss looked confused. “Then why does it take so long to get to the magistrate?”

  “It doesn’t.” Answered Partonius looking a bit irritated.

  “But you said.”

  “I know what I said. We simply will not be going directly to the office and court of the magistrate. My boy you have a lot to learn about people. Rumour boy rumour, it can be a wonderful tool.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Of course you don’t understand. You need to watch and learn. Sometimes you learn more from a person by watching than by asking questions. When you ask a question a person tells you what he wants you to know but when you just observe then you can often see to the heart of a matter. A mage must be a keen observer child. For instance. Do you still feel like someone is watching you?”

  “No I don’t.”.

  “And that means?” The wizard looked quizzically at the boy.

  “That whoever it was stayed to watch the tower and did not follow us.”

  “Precisely,” said the old man with a smile. “Now we know just that much more about him.”