by AJ Martin
Matthias rested against the wall. He nodded.
Josephine placed a hand on his shoulder. “Matthias, are you alright?” she asked gently.
“I am fine Josephine,” he said quietly.
Balzan looked sombre at him. “I am sorry if that was not what you wanted to hear,” he said.
“No,” Matthias said with a great weight to his words. “But it was what I needed to hear. I…” he shook his head. “I apologise, protector. After everything I know about the council, I still brought their bigotry towards you with me.” He shook his head. “I should have known… what a fool I am!”
Balzan shook his head. “You are no fool. Passionate, yes. Passionate in believing in a better world.” The elderly wizard smiled. “You are the first wizard I have told the truth to in so many years. At first I attempted to make others see what was happening. But no - one would listen. So I stopped trying after a while. But after everything I have heard today, you are the closest I have found to someone who can see events for what they really are.” He smiled. “It is good to know there are some wizards remaining who are willing to take such risks for what is right.” He turned to the princess as Matthias absorbed the words. “I think, perhaps, we have done enough wallowing in the past for one day. Perhaps we had best try to work to save the future, hmm?”
Josephine nodded, still squeezing Matthias on the shoulder. “Lead on please, protector,” she replied.
“I’m sorry Josephine,” Matthias whispered. “I should have listened to you. Your instincts were much better than mine.”
“Your apologising to me is becoming rather a habit,” she said. “Come on,” she said to Matthias with a warm smile. “We have a dragon to tame.”
Layer Upon Layer
142nd Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
A black stone shimmered in the middle of a small, round table as Ambassador Elstace paced around its circumference anxiously, rubbing his hands.
“Come on. Come on!” he hissed. The gem was carved into an irregular shape, not dissimilar to a peanut, if an oversized one as large as his head, standing in a bronze - banded stand, its edges shining purple as they caught the afternoon light outside.
Gingerly Elstace reached out and stroked the largest edge of the gem with a finger. It luminesced as he touched it, pulsing purple, and as he took his hand away it dimmed again.
“I know you are out there! There is precious little time!”
After another few minutes of waiting, the gem began to shift in shape, growing more fat and angular, emitting a noise like two stones being rubbed together, until it formed a crude face. Glowing gemstone eyes regarded him.
“Lord Rajinal,” Elstace breathed with relief.
“What do you want?” the face said, through his gemstone mouth. “I am busy.”
“My apologies,” Elstace said, rubbing his bald head nervously. “But I have terrible news to bring you! The princess of Aralia is here, in Crystal Ember!”
The gem contorted where the brow should have been. “You are certain?” Rajinal asked.
Elstace nodded. “I met her personally. She was travelling with three others- three men, just as you said! I thought it important to let you know, as you requested, as soon as they arrived!”
The face of Rajinal sighed and his eyes dimmed.
“What should I do?” Elstace asked. “Should I try and get to her? She is in the fortress now, with the regent. It may be difficult now for me to get her alone.”
“No, Elstace. You have done all we have asked of you. There will be no need to do anything further today.” The head shifted. “You should leave Crystal Ember now, if you want to live to see the day of the Asternabai. It will not be safe to be anywhere near the city shortly.”
Elstace nodded. “As you command, my lord! And… thank you!” he cried, as the stone began to hiss and smoke. It broke apart and dissolved, leaving a pile of ash on the top of the table.
Quickly, the ambassador packed up his things and left.
“Grimm failed us! Again!” Rajinal roared. The room they stood in was enormous, open-spaced with large, white marble columns at regular intervals. Silar sat on a large, comfortable-looking divan and the other two stood, watching the fuming bear of a man in front of them. “I thought you had given him the abilities he needed to end this threat?”
“I made him a necromancer. He told me himself that he poisoned her, using the curse of assan! What more could I do?”
“If the curse was used, how can the princess still be alive?” Maevik grumbled. “The antidote is so complex as to be almost impossible to achieve without the proper ingredients and knowledge. The wizard might be clever, but he doesn’t know that much of potions, I am certain!”
“It doesn’t matter how it is possible,” Silar intervened. “The fact is she is alive and well, and the one place we do not want her to be, save one other. The important thing is to figure out how to ensure she does not derail the next step.” He leaned over to a bejewelled object sitting on a table next to his chair and tapped one of seven shiny, marble - like orbs that were suspended from thin, golden rods, attached to a mahogany base. Affixed to the centre of the base stood a round ball of yellow-tinted glass, in which a candle burned, its light illuminating the receptacle. A ticking noise came from within.
“We have run out of time to plan!” Maevik exclaimed. “The princess is in Crystal Ember. She will find a way to stop us from freeing Sikaris and a massive part of our plan will be compromised!”
“I have not waited four hundred years for nothing!” Kala spat back.
“Calm down all of you,” Silar preened. “There is still time. How many more of the seals are there on the dragon?” he asked them.
“Two,” Maevik advised. “They are the most complex of them all. The threads are tightly woven.”
Silar nodded. “We have taken our time so far because we had the luxury. The seals may be complex, but we know how they can be broken. If we all work together, today, we can recover from this setback. If we push ourselves as we never have before, we can free Sikaris within hours!”
Rajinal stopped pacing, his chest heaving. “It would mean coming out into the open, risking ourselves. We can’t do this remotely as we have done so far, not if we are work so quickly. Each of us should take a different thread. There can be no more doing this quietly. No more masking what we do. We will have to be messy about it and our work will be detectable. It is a risk, granted, but now, I fear we need to take it. Agreed?”
Maevik nodded, followed in short order by Kala. Silar stood and bowed his head.
“Well said, Rajinal. Agreed. Now as time is short, shall we get started now?”
“I see no other option, if we want to stay ahead of the princess,” Maevik said. He sighed. “I hate travelling in this way. It always leaves me feeling sick to my stomach.” His body began to glow green, before it dissolved into a thousand pieces and dispersed into the ground beneath them.
“For once I agree with the old miser,” Kala smiled, crossing his arms before he too dissolved in a sickly aura.
“Thank you Silar,” Rajinal said, patting the sinewy man on the back. “You always bring calm to the proceedings.”
“It is what I do best, isn’t it?” the man smiled. Rajinal nodded. Then, closing his eyes, the gigantic man dissolved beneath Silar’s feet. “Sometimes I feel like a parent trying to calm a bunch of unruly children,” Silar sighed. Then he took a breath as energy funnelled through his body, and tumbled through the earth and across the land, through roots, streams, cracks and dirt, up and up the column and into the dragon’s prison, where he could feel the presence of the others in the energy field. The crumbling work of four hundred year - old wizards stood before them and their weapon: weaves of energy that covered the creature’s body like a million threads of cotton, tied into loops, knotted, fused together so that the dragon remained trapped in his prison. Together they wove themselves around the threads, breaking the last two layers that held the threads i
n place. Before this they had masked their work, unravelled the web carefully, as if picking out a loose thread from a pair of fine breeches, but now there was no time for caution. They tore at the shield, ripped at it, and slowly but surely, the tangled ball of knotted power began to sag even further.
A Shield of Air
142nd Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
Josephine stood atop the fortifications of the fortress, the wind blowing her hair about erratically. Matthias stood with her. They had been there a half hour now.
“Do you have the power yet?” Matthias asked.
Josephine grimaced. “It’s more difficult holding on to it. I think it’s because I am nervous. I can’t tune into it properly. Every time I reach out and touch the prison, I lose my link to the energy.” She shook her head, and closed her eyes. “Come on,” she whispered. “You can do this!”
Matthias placed a hand on her arm. “You’re doing fine. Relax. Don’t panic. The dragon’s still standing there like the horrid great paperweight he is.”
Josephine smiled. “Don’t make me laugh. It’ll only take me longer.”
“Sorry” Matthias apologised. Then he smiled. “You do realise just how relaxed your language is becoming?” Matthias asked her.
“I do not know what you mean,” the princess retorted, enunciating heavily.
“You seem to slip between your king’s Aralian and a more common tongue.”
“You did want me to blend in,” she commented. “Though perhaps I have blended too far,” she added. “You are clearly a bad influence.”
The wind whistled around the stone crenulations. Matthias looked behind them. Two guards stood by the doors, standing to attention and by them, Balzan stood watching, his arms folded. He caught Matthias’s eye a moment and nodded.
“How is it going?” he called over? “I cannot sense any change.”
“Oh, just fine. The princess is doing well.”
“Liar,” Josephine whispered. “I feel like I’m trying to bob for apples with my mouth sewn shut!”
Thadius stood by their side, arms folded, smoking his pipe as he looked down at the scene below.
“All those people,” he mused through his gritted teeth.
“You aren’t helping!” Josephine hissed at him.
“Sorry princess,” Thadius blushed, chastened. “I will give you some room.” He moved away to stand at the other side of the battlements.
“I think I have it again,” Josephine said and opened her eyes. She nodded. “Yes. There it is.”
“Good,” Matthias replied. “You know what you need to do now?”
“I am going to try and recreate the shell I placed around Thadius like we practiced,” she replied. “Actually, I’ve been thinking up ways to strengthen it based on our other lessons. But I wasn’t sure if I should deviate from what we discussed?”
“If you feel like your instincts are pointing you in the right direction then I would trust them. They certainly helped persuade that man back in Tanavern,” Matthias replied. He stroked the coarse brick of the crenulations idly with his fingers.
She nodded. “Sikaris looks much bigger from up here.” Her eyes narrowed. Swirling spheres and ripples of her energy were everywhere, holding everything together. She could see in a way what she had to do, like an architect with the plan of a building in his mind’s eye before he started to sketch. Focussing, she grasped hold of the energy and extended it outwards, further than she had ever attempted before. They swirled and tried to resist her, but in the end they bowed to her. She moulded them, warped them into an egg - shaped barrier around the petrified form of Sikaris. The shell flickered in front of her.
“You’ve made a shell?” he asked Josephine.
“You can see it?” she asked. “I didn’t think you could see my energy?”
“There are reflections in the air, that’s all. How strong is it?”
“Weaker than the one I placed around Thadius at the moment. I think it is because I am stretching the energy so far. It’s only holding together because my mind is concentrating on it so hard. If I let go of the energy I think the shield will fall away again. It’s like I’m holding on to a load of ropes and I’m the only thing keeping them from slacking and the knots from untying again.”
“Keep focussed,” Matthias urged her. “Your power is great enough that you could extend a barrier around this whole city if we had longer to train! Try and tie the threads together and wrap more layers around the shell, making them tighter and tighter if you can.”
“I am trying!” she muttered impatiently. “It’s difficult!“
Matthias nodded. “I know.” He settled himself down and waited patiently whilst Josephine continued.
Another half - hour passed. They spoke little as Josephine continued to weave her energy. Balzan approached them from where he had stood behind them.
“It has been quite a while,” he suggested.
Sweat beaded on Josephine’s forehead. “This is like trying to tie a knot in a blade of grass with a pair of gloves on my hands! I can’t do it with you pressuring me!”
“My apologies,” Balzan sniffed. He turned to Matthias. “Oh what the council would think of this situation right now,” he chuckled.
Matthias snorted. “Right now I couldn’t care two hoots what my people think on anything.”
“I am sorry for your pain,” Balzan said.
Matthias shook his head. “Someone has to know that you aren’t the traitor that everyone makes you out to be.”
“It wasn’t all of them, if it helps,” Balzan said. “There are some good people in the council, like your Augustus Pym. I remember him. A confident man, not afraid to voice his opinions. He had just been elevated to the council when I was forced to leave. It’s my hope that people like him will guide the rudder of Mahalia into a better direction.”
“It is growing stronger,” Josephine advised them. She looked down a moment. Glittering lights had begun to pop into existence, as the afternoon descended into early evening and candles and touches were lit in the city below. “Have we really been up here that long?”
Matthias nodded. “Time flies, to quote the old adage,” he chuckled to himself.
“Oh do be quiet,” she replied, her brow furrowed. “You’re not amusing.”
They stood in silence for several minutes until Matthias turned back to Balzan.
“You look deep in thought,” he commented.
The man shook his head. “I was just pondering,” the man said weightily.
“Well you don’t need to ponder alone. I’m practically at a loose end, after all.”
“You are rubbing it in!” the princess huffed.
Balzan nodded, ignoring the princess’s comment. “What worries me are these other plans that the council might be pursuing. If the dragon is not important enough for them to send anyone here, if these sorcerers are alive and Mahalia are chasing them, then what is the real reason for their attempts to free the beast?” He shook his head. “I know the council. Something bigger is happening. Even if they were pursuing the perpetrators of this, they would have sent some wizards here to keep an eye on the dragon as a precaution. They are not that lax unless they have a reason to be. If they aren’t here it means they aren’t as much worried about the dragon as they are of something infinitely more concerning.”
“They know how much Olindia dislikes them. Perhaps they were afraid to send anyone?” Josephine suggested.
“Perhaps. But they have sent ambassadors here before for far less!” He folded his arms. “No, I don’t like it one bit.”
“Aaagh!” Josephine hissed suddenly and tripped backwards. Matthias caught her before she hit the ground.
“What happened?” Matthias asked as Thadius came running over.
“The shield collapsed!” Josephine panted. “All that work!”
Matthias’s head fell. “Do you know why?” he asked her.
Josephine shook her head. “No. It was going so well and then
it just… popped!”
“Are you hurt?” Thadius asked her.
“No. I am quite well Thadius. I’m just frustrated!” She shook her head.
“Oh my,” Balzan exclaimed and leant over the battlements, his eyes narrowing.
“Protector? What’s wrong?” asked Matthias, as he and Thadius helped Josephine to her feet. She leant on the wizard as they joined Balzan, who was staring straight ahead with an open mouth.
“I just saw…” He stopped and raised a hand to his mouth. “I felt something. Something’s wrong with the prison.” His eyes flared blue and he reached out with his power. “But that’s impossible!” he gasped and stepped back, his eyes boggling. “It’s almost gone!”
Hanging by a Thread
142nd Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
Balzan swallowed as he looked on at the dragon.
“But it was all there! Even a minute ago, I could feel the wards were still in place, strong as the day they were created!”
“Someone has been tricking you,” Matthias said. “Making you see what you wanted to see. Now do you understand what we are up against?” he asked.
Balzan nodded, nonplussed. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the dragon. “I think I am beginning to see very well.” He shivered. “There’s something working on it right now. It’s deteriorating as we stand here!”
Matthias swallowed. “How much is left?” he asked.
Balzan shook his head “I’m not sure. Something is still masking the entirety of the work. Oh, they are clever,” he hissed. “There are very old tricks at work! Weaves of deception, the kind I would never have thought to see here! He held out a hand and grasped Matthias’s own. “Here. See what I see.” Matthias closed his eyes as a silent, invisible link passed between the two men.