The Dragon Gem (Korin's Journal)

by Brian Beam

  The woman’s indistinct face turned to look into my eyes and gave me a sad smile and I broke into a smile of my own. The world went white…

  ****

  My eyes burst open to see a blinding white light that obscured my sight. As quickly as the light had appeared, it dimmed to a softer silver sphere that floated above Sal’s head, or what I thought was Sal’s head behind the large white circle temporarily burned into my vision. She was sitting on the opposite side of the tunnel with her legs crossed.

  “Sorry about that.” Sal’ was fiddling with something that I couldn’t see with my altered vision.

  “I think I might be blind,” I blurted, forgetting who I was talking to.

  “I’d like to see you try something like this. Oh yeah, you can’t do magic,” Sal’ ranted. I guess the damage had already been done. “How about a ‘thanks for saving my ass from the dragon back there’?” Cutting off her last word sharply, I felt a smack across my cheek as if she had been right in front me though I could tell she hadn’t moved. It seemed like her magic worked best when she was both angry and using it against me. It made me heavily consider the benefits of being nice to her even when she did things such as trying to blind me.

  I painfully rotated my neck in a circle. Sleeping against a rock wall is not the most comfortable way to get rest. Then, where I was and what I had just done hit me. I had completely let down my guard.

  My hand shot down to my coin purse which was unbuckled with the flap hanging open. My pulse sped as I realized that only my coin pouch and Contract lay nestled in the purse. The dragon egg was gone.

  I jerked my head up—thankfully without the dizzying effects of the hangover I had just slept off—and twisted it back and forth as if I could catch Til’ running off with the egg at that moment.

  “That thieving little— When I get my hands on— Tricky Kolarin son of a—.” I couldn’t finish a complete sentence in my sputtering anger.

  “Looking for this?” Sal’ asked serenely, much at odds with the anger that had induced the cheek-burning slap a moment before. At the edge of the white circle’s halo, I saw the dragon egg held between her thumb and first finger, glittering in her soft, silver light.

  “Hey, I thought we were friends now,” complained Til’ from somewhere to my left. I guiltily turned towards his high-pitched voice. Through the fading whiteness that had been impeding my vision, I could see Til’ resting on his side with his head propped on his hand as he played some sort of game on a checkered wooden board with Max. His lantern lay burned out beside him. Judging by the small tendril of smoke coming up from it, it must have just recently burned out. That would make sense of why Sal’ had just brought up her own light to replace it.

  Max, his eyes narrowed in concentration, didn’t even look my way. There was something weird about seeing a cat move small black game pieces with human-like precision across a board made up of alternating black and natural oak squares. There was a pile of red game pieces in front of him that dwarfed the black pile in front of Til’. I could only assume Max was winning.

  The tunnel stretched off into darkness beyond them. It must have been at least late evening. Lightning still occasionally flashed at the entrance meaning the sky could have just been overcast enough to make it seem that late.

  “Sorry,” I replied, giving Til’ an apologetic nod and smile. I may have made an ass of myself, but at least I knew Til’ was telling the truth about not wanting to take the egg. With all of us asleep, he had had as perfect a chance to take it as he was ever going to get.

  “Make him promise you some fresh baked honeybread and garlic potatoes for penance,” Max insisted, his eyes still focused on the game. “It would go great with the salmon he owes me.”

  Til’ just stared at Max, confused. I broke into a small grin. My nap had made me feel a little better to where I could smile. I still didn’t feel too good about myself, but better.

  “Okay, so Max is alright. You okay, Sal?” I turned back to Sal’ who I could finally make out in my clearing vision. Sal’ was rotating the egg in one hand with her other hand in the case at her side.

  “Aside from my thankless saving of you guys, sure,” she muttered. There was the anger again.

  I stood up and took a step towards her, crouching back down to look her in the eyes. Her face was dirty, her hair was a tangled mess, and she looked sweaty despite the damp coolness of the tunnel. However, looking into those ice-blue eyes, I could only think of how beautiful she was. And crazy. I forced myself to remember that part before I got myself in trouble.

  Anyway, I reached a hand out to one of her shoulders and clasped it. “Thank you, Sal’.” Her anger receded a little and her lips curved up into a half-smile, but she didn’t reply. She just started examining the dragon egg again. I released her shoulder and sat beside her.

  I knew we should have started moving—especially for my sake—but I enjoyed a moment of silence where I could simply relax. Besides, Sal’ seemed perfectly content studying the egg’s magic while Til’ and Max played their game as if they were in a tavern with no cares in the world. After all we had been through, they deserved that moment.

  I found myself studying Sal’ again. She had failed in killing the dragon. As much as I wanted to leave her to her study the egg, my inquisitiveness took over. “Sal’, what are you going to do from here?” I asked.

  Sal’ looked up sharply, annoyed by my interruption, but then let out a resigned sigh, the annoyance melting from her face. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a backup plan to tell you the truth.”

  It hurt to see the sadness in her eyes. “So, when I leave here to take that gem to Galius, where are you going to go?” As I asked her, I briefly wondered if I could even truly force myself to give the gem to Galius.

  Sal’ shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, staring down at her hands.

  I’m not sure what prompted me to say what I said next. It may have been that I hadn’t been with a girl for a while. It could have been the sad look in her eyes. It may have just been that I’m a sucker for trying to cheer people up. Or maybe I really did feel a little something for the sorceress. “Why don’t you come with Max and I? Well, I guess it’s Til’, Max, and I now.” I rolled my eyes at the thought. “I’m sure Max can teach you at least a little. Maybe we can even figure out something else that will help you become a Ranked wizard.”

  I guess I had said just the right thing, because Sal’s hand left the wicker case and she threw her arms around me in a rib-crushing hug. She was crying softly into my shoulder.

  “Is that a yes?” I asked, awkwardly patting a hand on her back.

  She pushed back, hands on my shoulders, and gave me a kiss on my cheek. Thankfully it was the cheek that didn’t burn from her magic slap. She leaned back and gave me a teary-eyed smile and nodded. No words came from her trembling lips.

  It hurt me to think that she had been treated so badly by her family and fellow wizards back at the Wizard Academy, my simple act of kindness had such an effect on her. I gave her a big, comforting smile right back. She sniffled once and went back to studying the egg in silence. I leaned against the wall, leaving myself to my thoughts as I let everyone enjoy the break while it lasted.

  As I sat there, my nap-induced dream filled my thoughts. Had it been a memory, or just a dream? After so many years of the same dream, why was it suddenly changing? Who was Jonasir? I had never heard that name, so why would I simply dream it? Who was the man convincing my parents of something they didn’t want to do? I assumed that what the red-robed man had suggested was to have me sent away as a baby and maybe even to have me abondoned at the Karell farm. Was Menar the third man in the room? Finally, I could no longer stand the unanswered questions filling my head and pushed myself to my feet to join Max and Til’.

  Judging by Max’s gloating smile as Til’ stuck out his lower lip with his arms crossed, I had picked the perfect time to interrupt them. I looked down at Til’. “Don’t take it so hard. I’m sure Max che
ated. He tends to do that.” Til’ looked at Max disbelievingly.

  “I never—” Max started in a huff, but I cut him off.

  “Til’, why don’t you go keep Sal’ company for a minute?” Til’ looked up at me with genuine concern in his eyes. I had been pretty torn up when we talked before my nap, but I gave him a reassuring smile and nodded my head towards where Sal’ sat studying the dragon egg. Til’ broke into a big smile and leapt at the chance to have some time alone with Sal’.

  Max glowered at me. “Cheat, do I? You are just mad because I always win.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Max, I have some more questions.”

  Max twitched his ears, looking into my eyes apologetically. “I really cannot tell you more that I have already.”

  “The whole prophecy thing, huh?” I guessed.

  “Yeah,” Max acknowledged with a tone of regret. “Look, Korin, I really am trying to look out for you. If I tell you more than I already have, I would be interfering with things that should not be interferred with. I do know that if you knew the answers to all the questions you have asked me, nothing good would come from it.”

  The thing is, I really did believe him. At the time, I really wanted to know everything he had held back from me that could help me figure out the connections among the prophecy, my birth parents giving me up, Menar, and Raijom. However, I started to realize that he probably wasn’t enjoying keeping those things from me. I had spent so much time thinking only about how his surreptitious nature was so hard on me. For once, I thought about how hard it must have been on him to keep me in the dark.

  My eyes unfocused as I finally started considering Max’s clandestine tendencies. Without Max in my life, I wouldn’t have even been on the journey to find my parents. For all I knew, I wouldn’t have lived to have even dreamt of them in the first place if not for him. Although I knew that I had been wrong in my theory of what had happened when I was born, I had a feeling that Max had done something to keep Raijom from killing me. The spell that Sal’ had recognized around me had probably been Max’s way of keeping me safe from being found by Raijom’s magic. I assumed that running into Menar and being found by the eldrhims had just been bad luck.

  I couldn’t let myself be angry at Max for not sharing more with me any longer. Maybe I didn’t want to know about the prophecy anyway. In the possibility that prophecies were valid, I was sure that if the specifics of one were known, it would probably be harder to bring about and the prophecy could simply be avoided it if it was undesirable. In this case, I had a feeling that Max wanted me to fulfill the prophecy. If fate was real, the less I knew about the prophecy the better if it was going to play out.

  I may not believe in fate, but only because I don’t like the idea of it, not because I think it’s impossible.

  “I know,” I admitted as I snapped from my thoughts. “I do have one question, though, concerning a dream I had earlier. Does the name Jonasir mean anything to you?”

  I didn’t think I had ever seen Max look as surprised as he looked at that moment. His eyes widened to show the whites—not an easy thing for a cat to do with such large irises. For a split-second, his mouth dropped and his tail stiffened.

  I can count the number of times I have seen Max speechless over thirteen years of hearing him talk on one hand and still have fingers left. This was one of those times.

  Max schooled his face back to the typical bored-looking expression that all cats must be born with the predisposition to display. “I have not heard that name in a long time. He is a wizard. Was a wizard, that is. He has been dead for a while now. I cannot really tell you any more than that.” There had been a very noticeable, hasty correction between the “is a wizard” and the “was a wizard” as if Max had almost given something away that he didn’t want known.

  I ignored the correction as part of trusting Max to tell me what he could. “My parents knew him,” I said, staring blankly ahead as the dream replayed in my mind’s eye. “I’ve never heard talking in my dream before. I don’t know how I could remember a conversation spoken when I was a baby. My mother spoke as if Jonasir had tried to talk my parents out of letting me go, but someone else there had convinced them it was necessary.”

  That was when it really hit me. I had heard my parents speak. I silently wished I had spent more time trying to memorize the sounds of their voices instead of what the dream could have meant. As it was, I couldn’t quite recall exactly how they sounded aside from the softness of my mother’s voice.

  Max must have seen the sadness in my eyes. He had stepped over to me and had a paw on my leg as if to comfort me. “Korin, we will find your parents,” he assured me in that raspy voice of his. His eyes looked sad, though.

  I nodded and scratched his head. “Thanks.”

  Max dropped the sad look for a grin. “No problem, as always. Now let us get some food and get this literal Chralex-blooded dragon egg, back to that pig-loving lout of a man, Galius.”

  The genuine belly laugh that I burst into felt really good. I had been doing a good job of letting negative feelings bring me down. It was time I took control. I couldn’t change the past, so I might as well on focus on a more pleasant future. At that second, I figured that Menar, the eldrhims, and whoever else wanted to hold me back from that pleasant future could go to Rizear’s doorstep.

  We all enjoyed a meal from Sal’s backpack inside the glowing light cast from above her, and—to Max’s delight—Til’ even had some of Undula’s home-cooked food left in his bag. Til’ and Sal’ had apparently gotten to know each other a bit and according to Til’, she had forgiven him for stealing and breaking the magic orb. Sal’ explained that she had forgiven him because it was something else she had “acquired” from the laboratory at the Wizard Academy and so it wasn’t really hers anyway.

  We all spent time telling lighthearted stories from our past, like the time Max and I had nearly been stampeded by a herd of cows on the Karell farm when Max had a less than pleasant reaction to me trying to scare him. I had learned two things that day: never scare a wizard, and cows don’t like sudden loud noises when wizards throw spontaneous counterattack spells against someone who scared them. We all shared some laughs and all my negative thoughts drifted away.

  I went from dreading travelling with a chatty Kolarin and tiptoeing around a labile sorceress to looking forward to it. It would be nice to have some friends around that weren’t covered in fur. Although I had made sure they both understood the risks of travelling with me, they were both eager to go. Til’ made it clear that he “dared any eldrhims to try and attack” him. It seemed like things were finally getting better.

  I’m sure you have realized by now that when I say things like that, irony decides to rear its intrusive, ugly head and give me a good kick in the rear.

  Sal’ gave me an askance look and asked, “Did you know that spell on you has weakened quite a bit?”

  I didn’t immediately think anything of her comment, but Max shouted, “What? That cannot be possible.”

  My eyes shot to my freaked out cat. “Calm down there, furball. What’s the problem?”

  Max looked at me like I was as dense as a cow. “That stone around Menar’s neck was made to track you. It did not do him much good before because of the spell. That is why he had to be so close to you to cause it to react. If your spell is weakened—”

  “Then Menar and the eldrhims will be able to find me more easily,” I finished, my stomach feeling like a lead weight as I thought about how that stone had lit up once it had gotten so close to me in Old Geeron. “Sal’, you were right. The spell you saw on me was to prevent me from being found by magic.”

  “Stupid dragon egg,” Max muttered as he started gnawing at his shoulder, echoing my own sentiment.

  “Can you just fix it up?” I asked him, my voice cracking a little. The fact that the fading spell worried Max so much worried me.

  Max shook his head. “I do not have the power necessary to fix it now. I think getting rid of the
dragon egg will be the only way to fix it and that is only a guess. The weakening of the spell by the egg could be permanent.”

  “What about Sal’?” She may have been bad at magic, but maybe I could just get her angry at me first and everything would be okay.

  “Sorry, Korin. I told you that spell was complex—way more complex than I’m capable of,” Sal’ interjected ruefully.

  “Okay, we better get moving quickly and get this egg off our hands then. Maybe we can still keep up enough distance from Menar to keep his stone thingy from detecting me.” I had pushed myself to my feet before I finished my sentence and started the process of helping pack Sal’ and Til’s things. The plan in my mind was to travel through the night since we had slept through the day and we would have to be on guard for eldrhims throughout the night anyway. With the dragon egg’s effects, we couldn’t rely on the temple’s magic to protect us from eldrhims anymore.

  After Sal’ had returned the dragon egg to me and I was putting it into my coin purse, I had a thought out of the blue. Pulling out my Contract with its two fading blood spots facing upwards, I asked, “Sal’ has the magic of the Contract faded too?” Sal’ squinted at the cloth in my hand and looked up to me, shaking her head negatively before returning to closing up her backpack.

  I let out a resigned sigh. I knew it had been too much to hope for. However, the spell that had protected me from being found by magic had faded, and magic had been possible in a temple where it shouldn’t have been. The dragon egg had affected those things, so I had thought that maybe it could have weakened the Contract as well. If it had, I may have been able to find a way out of Galius getting the egg. Maybe I could have just stolen the egg back after I gave it to him if the magic binding me to the Terms were weakened and allowed it. However, with the magic still as strong as it had ever been, even after the Terms were completed, the magic would still bind me to Galius in that I could never hurt him, take the egg from him, or have anyone else do so.