by N. Saraven
Thanks to his perfect memory, he would never forget, nor could make the memories faint. In every other species, after a while, even if they remembered something often, the memories changed. Sometimes significantly, in other cases only the details. But a memory could almost never stay the same as time passed by.
Which would never, ever happen to a kinwa. Mostly, this proved to be a good thing—they became the most wanted map-drawers. Or storytellers, if one could listen to their endless jabbering.
However, now the friends exchanged worried looks. Nobody could know what the recalling of the exact happenings would do to the kinwa.
In the end, Cameron stepped to Silumar, then turned his head at him. The dragon also lowered his head, so he could really get the other’s attention.
“Answer the question, Silumar: how did you get here?” rumbled the reptile, staring into the kinwa’s brown eyes. The whole scene looked as if a carnivore tried to get his prey hypnotised.
“Well … it started like the usual. You know, after the Dragonwars, I didn’t exactly know what I should do, so I just wandered around for a while. I thought, I’ll draw a nice and precise map, because the humans don’t have anything useful.”
After a few moments the kinwa’s tongue got its strength again.
“So I did just that. I met some really nice fellows on the way, so I asked them to join me. You know, many eyes see more, and every kinwa has a good hand for drawing, if I may say so. And they did, wanted to join me, I mean, and they all knew somebody else nearby, so we started to look for them. Even more eyes see more, you know …”
Silumar obviously felt well enough now to get himself thrown off his original point.
“Get to the point, Sil!” snapped Halgor.
“Oh, I am at the point. You haven’t changed much, Halgor, if I may say so. Those stern eyes, and the rest. But I must say, black suits you better, and … alright, alright, you don’t have to look at me like that! Anyhu, after a while, we grew tired of the wandering around, and it happened to be near to his castle. So we decided to rest here a little, you know, to get our strength back and such. Although this happened a while ago now, but …”
“Now look here, kinwa!” cut in Enargit. He was obviously annoyed—his eyes smouldered, his voice held contained anger. “You MUST leave this place at once!”
“Well now … that wasn’t very nice, if I may say so,” replied Silumar, skipping to the shadow dragon, who backed away from him as if he were looking at something terrifying. “I don’t even know your name. I am Silumar, and you?”
“He is Enargit, and you really have to listen to us now.” Neila held back the kinwa before he could reach the Leader. She grabbed his arm. “You need to go now, you all do. How many of you are there?”
“Well … it is not very nice to say such things, Neila, you should know that by now. Anyhu, we could not really go, even if we wanted to, I think. I don’t know how many we are, exactly … I assume … around a hundred?” mused Sil as he chewed on his hair.
The kinwa’s words made everybody turn pale. Enargit murmured something about a kinwa-stew, Talek covered his face with one hand, while Cameron looked around as if he were being tortured to death.
Before the little fellow could continue, Neila interrupted.
“Look, soon there will be a lot of shadow dragons here …” she started, but the Leader cut in angrily.
“You do not think for one moment that I will bring my subjects here after this?”
“Shadow drakes? Really?” asked Silumar, whose eyes shone with excitement. He almost shivered as he spoke. “That would be wonderful, if I may say so. Just as in the old days! I really miss those, you know. Althooough … we fought against shadows back then … But it’s okay, I guess. It’ll be fun. And while we’re on the subject, Cameron, aren’t shadows your enemies …?”
The kinwa wandered off to the bright, so the others took advantage of it and discussed the matter. Although Enargit stared at the bouncing kinwa and rumbled as if he had become an erupting volcano. Neila glanced at him questioningly, so the reptile contained himself. But obviously he did not like the fact that his shadow companions were killed, then turned into undead.
“We will deal with them,” said Neila quietly as she watched Cameron, who really tried to avoid Silumar, but could not. “Just need a reason for them to leave.”
The mage looked like she would have more success in trying to convince Indrek to surrender with a basket of flowers in her hands.
The others seemed to agree.
“Yeah, like what? We ask them to swim across that lake?” growled Talek, as he cooled himself with his wings. It was unusually warm for the season during the day. The slightly transparent things glimmered in the rays of sunlight.
Neila widened her eyes at the scene. The soldier used his wings so rarely that she completely forgot the fact—kobolds did have wings. Not for flying, they were not suited for anything like that. But they had a pair.
She got rid of her useless thoughts and paid attention to the speaking Enargit.
“On the bright side, kinwas are edible …” he mumbled under his breath, with which he earned such a firm look from Neila, it made even him drop his gaze. Nobody dared to ask after that glance, how would he know …
The companions fell silent for a moment, trying to think a little. It seemed that nothing would ever happen as they planned. They had to get used to it, however, if they wanted to prevail.
Abruptly, a new voice broke through the silence, which made everybody turn to the newcomer.
“When those pesky little chatterboxes said you were here, I didn’t want to believe it. But they were actually right … Now there’s a first for everything …”
From behind a tree, a man stepped forwards with a bent bow in his hands, pointing at Enargit.
21. Meetings and partings
“Agony …” gasped Neila.
She could not imagine what would turn up in the next moment. She became pale, as she did not know what the warrior would make of her returning. In theory, her old friend did not know that she was alive. On the other hand, the man gave little more than a quick glance at her, so he must have known. Although the mage could not think about it more at the moment. Maybe Elnor had mentioned something …
“Great, just what we needed,” snapped Halgor, who seemingly accepted the unexpected better than Neila. His eyes smouldered, showing that he was thinking hard about his next move.
But when Talek turned to the newcomer, the warrior dropped his bow and fell to the ground, unconscious. Neila ran to him, then knelt down. She softly slapped his face a few times. As the kobold complained in the background about the reactions he got, Agony slowly came around. He sat up, massaging his temple with one hand, then looked around, trying to make any sense of what he saw.
“So … I assume you have an explanation for all of this …?” he asked Neila, but sounded really unsure.
Then he scrambled to his feet, glanced questioningly at Enargit, then shrugged and put his bow away. It would be useless anyway against the shadow dragon. As he dusted off his clothes, he waited for Neila’s explanation.
Agony glanced at her, whom he regarded as his leader. Something always happened around the mage, usually things that could be very harmful to every participant. But she always found a way to manage them, saving everybody around her. She did things that were impossible to others; she survived incidents, through which many would have perished.
But not Neila, with whom Agony lived through many unbelievable things. Even though he despised mages altogether, Neila proved that she would be an excellent leader even without her powers. And that was enough for him.
So now he waited patiently for an answer.
Probably Neila had somewhat the same thoughts because she faintly blushed, then cleared her throat. She sipped from her water, although before she could make any sound, somebody interrupted her.
“Agony! I was so worried about yo—” A deep-black shadow-figure appeare
d from behind a tree, but then it halted. It gasped a surprised ‘oh’, then gained a solid form.
A girl of around seventeen circles stood before the companions, in black trousers and shoes, with a deep-blue padded tunic and waistcoat. She looked like a normal human; only her waist-long, shadowy, darker-than-night hair showed that she was not.
Kira stepped to Neila and gave her a big hug.
“It’s been such a long time, Neila!” whimpered the girl, almost bursting in to tears.
The mage took this uncomfortably, obviously not knowing what she should do. The Master embraced the girl with an unsure smile. It really seemed that Elnor’s blabber to Agony was transferred to Kira as well.
But there was nothing to be done about that now. What happened, happened.
Neila could not answer anything, however, because the shade discovered Talek in the back. She released the mage and stepped to the kobold, who sat on the ground, pouting. He looked up when she knelt down beside him, then his eyes widened in surprise when Kira just gave him a warm hug.
“It’s so good that you’re back,” Kira whispered. Tears of joy washed her face as she held the stiff paragon. Then she released him, wiped her tears off as she stood up, and joined the others again.
Talek became so stunned he could hardly make any move, let alone a sound. Then he scrambled to his feet and stepped closer to his friends. Not that he could not hear everything clearly if he stayed put.
After everybody gathered around Neila, waiting for her to explain things, she took a huge breath. Even Enargit glanced at her.
“Well …” she started, clearing her throat.
The companions listened silently, only sometimes somebody exhaled sharply in surprise. But nobody interrupted, nor asked questions. So the mage could leave out facts to her heart’s content …
Halgor gave a wry smile when he heard that some details were blurry, or a bit bent. For example, she did not mention what happened to Cameron. At all. The elven saw the dragon stiffen out of the corner of his eyes. He glanced at him several times because something felt wrong about the bright. The reptile stared at a tree so sternly, as if it had become the only solid thing in his life.
Something seemed definitely off with Cameron, which made the dark mage wary. He sensed that everything was connected to the soultaker spell, but he could not be sure. He decided to get to the bottom of it as soon as he could get back to the Tower. He also tried to talk about it with Enargit, but the Leader denied all the information. It was really irritating, but Halgor could do nothing about it.
It felt truly wrong that he became more worried around Cameron than a ‘dreaded shadow drake’ …
Neila’s touch on his arm broke his train of thoughts. The elven blinked at her.
“Don’t worry, we will figure it out,” whispered Neila solemnly, which made the dark mage snort in disbelief. Then he started after Agony to the castle.
Neila swayed her head slowly, then asked Cameron to follow. The reptile glanced at her furiously, took his human form, then stormed ahead without a word. This made the mage very angry. She was about to run after him and give him a piece of her mind, but Enargit held her back by grabbing her arm.
“Do not put all the blame on him. He went through a lot. It will take time for him to accept everything and move on. You should not make it harder,” murmured the reptile almost tenderly, then he took his dragonman form and followed the others.
Neila just stood in her place, struck by the dragon’s words. However, she could not let her feelings get in the way. Not now. So she inhaled deeply and took a step. Then another, and another, until she caught up with the others.
She strolled, truly astonished, in the ruins, which made her almost forget about Cameron for a few moments. From what she could see, the castle lay on a huge area on the hilltop, although most of it was already taken back by the forest. Neila could not hold herself back to imagine what the place could have looked like in its golden age.
The castle most probably sprawled majestically with its tall, massive walls. Behind the parapet, proud, black-armoured soldiers would march up and down, watching the lands with keen eyes. From the huge lake to the woods, not much could hide from their attention.
Inside the solid walls, many could take refuge or make a life. A small village could fit in; maybe it happened so back in the days. In the middle, there stretched a huge central square, at which all the main buildings were looking. It suited landing dragons perfectly.
However, through the ages the castle had become more rubble than a beautiful collection of buildings. Its black pavement and stones now seemed full of cracks; some even moved out of their place. Walls crumbled, towers turned to piles of broken blocks and glass. Although it still had its graceful atmosphere, which immediately took over the companions as well.
Neila walked, truly mesmerised. Everything looked beautiful, even though she could not forget that all of this was offered to Lexénia. Still, she could feel anything but humbled. Albeit she could not discuss her thoughts with anybody, because around them were almost a hundred playing, singing, eating, speaking kinwas. A lot of them just bounced or wandered around seemingly without any real purpose. The question of how any of them could understand one another in the terrible noise remained a mystery.
Enargit took the lead because most of the companions just stared around and seemed lost in the maze of the castle. He guided them to a gigantic, oblong-shaped building, which opened at the main square. According to the reptile, it was the Meeting-hall.
At the end of it stood a gigantic, carved wooden table. It seemed indestructible with its massiveness, and it probably would serve its new masters just as well as the old ones. Some chairs lay around it, a few of them broken.
The companions leaned against or sat on the big table, which cracked, but stood strong. The two dragons could take back their original form as well and lie down comfortably on the pavement.
For a few moments, nobody said anything. The only light source was the great, two-doored entrance; however, it proved to be enough. The kinwas’ noise became somewhat muffled, so it would not disturb the discussion much.
“So, it’s time to answer some questions.” Agony broke the silence, as he drank from his flask which hung on his belt.
“Like, what are you doing here?” asked Halgor more sternly than he intended, earning a firm glance from Agony.
“That would be my question, thank you very much. After all, I am the host, if anybody …” rumbled the warrior, which made Kira touch his arm calmingly.
Abruptly, a thudding sound filtered in, followed by laughter. If that broke the seriousness of the air around the companions, they did not show it in any way.
The shade continued with a soft voice, which could hardly be heard.
“After the war’s chaotic ending, we did not really know what to do with ourselves.” Unusually from her, Kira talked very seriously, which caught Neila’s attention.
The Master and her friends had met the shade in a peculiar circumstance during the first Dragonwar. She was a young girl back then, with mischief shining in her eyes, and never looking at anything with any kind of seriousness. She also thought too naïvely, always believing the best in everybody in every situation. Kira became the second child in a way amidst the companions, alongside Silumar.
However, now she seemed more mature. Not much, but just enough to be noticed.
Neila’s gaze and thoughts then wandered to Agony, who stood beside the shade, cross-legged. He too seemed different, although his brown hair was still untouched by greyness and his motions seemed swift as ever. On the other hand, his eyes showed that he wanted calmness around him instead of young, heroic actions. Maybe he even thought about settling somewhere—he had just started his prime years, so he could still plan many things for the upcoming ones.
The mage became very curious: how and why the two friends came across this place, and how they had met. Maybe somewhat later the warrior would tell this story, as they shared a
bottle of wine near the fire. Just like in the old days.
Neila sighed and got rid of these useless thoughts, giving her full attention to the continuing Agony.
“I don’t know what you did at the end of the War, but for us, even with the disappearance of the Overlord, it was far from over.” He glanced at Neila, who reddened and her gaze fell. “In a way, we were lucky. With the death of the Wretched One, the enemy lines became unsure. The wolves retreated in the forest and disappeared. The problems lay among us. With almost all leaders gone, the sunlits, the humans, and the wraiths just looked at each other like a pack of imbeciles who didn’t know what to do. And Veilon …”
He stopped suddenly, as if he were not sure whether he wanted to continue or not. He gave Talek an anxious look and shuddered. Everybody knew he never liked ‘magical’ or unprovable things. He was a man who stood on the ground with two solid feet. He could not understand nor comprehend happenings like getting back from the land of Death. Nobody could ever explain how it was done, which made him really uneasy. Furthermore, he could not be sure the kobold really was who he was supposed to be—after all, if you blew out the candle then lit it again, was that the same flame …?
“Oh, come on, you are not that old to be this sentimental! Pull yourself together and tell us, what did that mage do?!” snapped Talek, who obviously had had enough from the looks he got. He normally lost his temper easily, and this situation just made it worse.
Agony and Kira exchanged worried looks. After a little nagging, the shade picked up from where they left off.
“Well … to speak the truth, at that moment, everything seemed so … foggy.” The girl looked everywhere but at her friends. “We could not even mourn our missing friends—”
“Like we could miss Halgor …” murmured Agony, interrupting his friend. He also stared at the dust on the pavement, but he could feel the elven’s angry look at him.
Neila put her hand on Halgor’s to calm him, but when she tried to move it, the elven grabbed it and did not let go. If she was surprised, she did not show it.