by Vic Broquard
A bit later, the music stopped and one of the musicians raised his voice. “Okay, it is that time again. The Zoran Dance. All you ladies, this is your chance to dance with Baron Zoran himself! One, two, three, four.” The next lively dance began. Danika, still sipping her ale with Rafael, watch as everyone made an open space in the middle of the large room. The ladies moved closer and Zoran appeared. One by one, he danced with each woman who came up to him. So many wanted a dance that he could only do a few steps with each. Rafael explained, “He does this every year. The ladies really go for it. After all, nowhere else can you get the chance to dance with your very own baron! Go on, get out there and dance a few steps with him,” he encouraged her.
“I don’t know if I should,” she hesitated. Before long, Zoran began spotting the seventeen women and cleverly moved in each one’s directions. As he got close to one, he purposely pulled her in for a few steps, before moving on to the next woman. Suddenly, he was right before Danika and, before she could say anything, he’d swept her up and twirled her around for a few steps, then gently moved her back to Rafael before moving on to the next woman. The crowd clapped and cheered all the while.
“Why, you’re flushed!” Rafael noted as she came back beside him. “Here, you’d better have another sip,” he teased her.
Their ale done, the two headed back for more dancing. A bit later, Rafael whispered in her ear, “You are nervous about being out here among all of us, aren’t you?”
“Is it that obvious?” her voice trembled.
“No, but I rather picked that up from you. I know that I would be scared to death if I were in your shoes. But you needn’t be. Honestly, Danika, you are pretty, very smart, and a good dancer. You’ve nothing to be afraid of here.”
“I’m helpless,” she replied. “I can’t do anything.”
“Ha! Now that is a fib if I ever heard one! You can dance. You have just drunk a mug of the finest ale in Brn. You can talk and you are learning magic. I think that is quite a lot of doing.”
“You know what I mean,” she retorted, a bit miffed with Rafael.
“So you need help holding the mug, opening doors, probably getting dressed. So what? Everyone needs some help from someone for some things. It’s just that you need help with things that others usually do not, that’s all. I need help with magical things. Can’t cast even the dinkiest spell. Not a magic bone in my body. Come on, let’s dance instead.”
“Say, how come you aren’t married?” Danika asked, realizing that she still knew very little about this blacksmith.
A flash of grief flickered over his face, but he recovered quickly and answered. “I was, but she died in childbirth five years ago. Our boy somehow got stuck and her heart gave out. I lost everything that night.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. How awful,” Danika fumbled for comforting words.
Rafael sighed, “Life goes on. She was a fighter, you know, never gave up. Tonight, I see in you some of what I once saw in her and I just had to meet you. You never give up, neither do I.”
“I never thought of it that way. Come on, dance with me,” she whispered.
At midnight, the dance finally ended. The six hours had passed rapidly for everyone. As the music ended and the folks who remained began filing out, heading for home, Rafael said good night to Danika. “Say, can I see you on Sunday?” he asked.
“I’m always studying,” she blurted.
“Yes, but the Archmage always gives her students Sundays off to do whatever they want. Can I drop by Sunday afternoon, say around one? We can do something, maybe go for a sleigh ride or I can show you my shop.”
“Well, okay. I suppose that it will be okay with the Archmage. I’ll have to ask her,” she answered tentatively.
“Good. See you at one on Sunday then. Thanks for the dances.” He turned and left, while Danika waited for the other students and the Archmage to lead her back to the tower.
Neda came rushing up to her, face flushed. “Danika, I think that I have got a boyfriend! It’s the innkeeper’s youngest boy. Over there by his dad. He’s called Dragan. He’s kind of cute don’t you think? Do you think the Archmage will let me have a boyfriend? I am only eleven. Maybe you can talk to her about it for me.”
“Of course you can have a boyfriend, Neda. You don’t need her permission for that. He is cute, isn’t he?” The two chatted as the other students finally congregated together, the twins taking up their positions once more. The last people to leave, Zoran and Zdenka led them back the short distance to her tower. Although neither she nor Verushka said anything, both were highly pleased with how the evening had gone for their newest students. All had integrated with the locals very well, although some better than others. The ice had been broken for these women.
The next day, it was back to studies once more, though Danika did ask about Sundays. “Yes, that is your day to do whatever you desire. Some locals take the time to go visit their families. Some sit back and relax. A few use the time to get in extra studies. Okay, now let’s get cracking. Your check sheet for the Beginning Mage spells is vastly longer than that of the Adept List.”
With things back under control and running smoothly once more, Zoran decided to continue his researches into ancient history. He now had several clues to follow. However, he did make planet-wide security changes as the new year began. He doubled the pay for the Gold Dragons and had them flying routine security patrols near the larger outlying towns. He established a Lookout Stipend for any mage who pledged to spend three hours each day checking on other larger towns. If anyone spotted a flock of dragons coming, they were to personally Message Zoran immediately. He estimated that he now had coverage of a third of all the likely targets on Adapazan, at least partially. Somehow another Petr Falls had to be avoided.
In January, Barons Leo and Stefan came by to discuss all that they had found in their lengthy researches into the ancient history of their worlds. His sisters came with them, Lida and Reyna, but they spent time with Zdenka and Verushka. Besides, they wanted to meet the eighteen survivors about whom they had heard so much. Before long, the three men invited Miroslav and Jarmila to join them, since Bandar Zar’s records proved to be far more extensive than theirs.
“Well, we know that all of our ancestors were once together on a single world,” Leo pointed out. “They apparently left that place because of the worms, which may well have been the dragons, but as yet we can’t prove that, can we?”
“Not really,” Stefan concurred. “Still, from all we can find, apparently Bandar Zar was the key man who led all of the original barons to these sixteen planets.”
“Yes, that seems to be supported by what we have found in Bandar’s writings. What we don’t understand yet is just how is it that Bandar learned to create the Circles of Ascension or how it is that he knew of the location of the sixteen planets,” Miroslav agreed.
Zoran’s youngest daughter, Jarmila, added, “We’ve also discovered that there is a missing batch of Bandar’s journals. He was the most meticulous person we’ve ever encountered. He kept very precise records, though Brother Jiri rather made a mess of them. He got them all out of order. I put them back in the right order, but that took me three weeks! There is a journal whose number is six. That’s the oldest one. Then, there is a gap. The next one is number ten and they continue on up from there through the last one, twenty-four. So we are missing volumes seven through nine and one through five.”
“Say, one through five might contain the key data that we need to know now,” Zoran theorized.
Both Zars grinned. “Yes, dad, that is precisely what Miroslav and I think. So how do we find those missing journals? We have no ideas at all.”
“Well, we went over Castle Matous with every possible spell looking for other secret chambers or hiding places,” Leo broke in. “Found a few secret stashes of gems, but no other books or records unfortunately. Lida and I have concluded that those journals are not on our world, because they would most likely have been stored
in Castle Matous if Bandar had left them on Gladno.”
“Same with us on Valtr,” Stefan added. We found some interesting secret chambers that we did not know existed. Found some cool magical armor and weapons and gems, but no journals or books. Bandar Zar must not have left them on Valtr either.”
“Well, Warlord Miklos discovered them in a secret chamber in the basement of his old fortress in Sholov Province,” Zoran replied, although everyone knew this story already. We’ve been all over the main Castle Dorumova here. Nothing there. However, as you know, we found the Valentýn’s journals hidden in a secret location on a nearby island, which the Yellers now occupy. I’m sure that we found everything that he had hidden there. Yet, Bandar chose to hide his precious journals in Sholov Province. Maybe there is more to be found there. I don’t know what else to suggest. I wish our predecessors had kept better records of such things.”
“Say, I think that is an excellent idea,” Miroslav spoke up. “It stands to reason that Bandar would have kept all his journals together. I bet that they were just not found by my dad and the warlord. Any chance that we can conduct an extensive search there at the ruins in Sholov Province?”
Complaining, Jarmila taunted, “In the middle of the winter with all this snow?”
“I’ll put together an expedition once the snows have melted in April,” Zoran promised. “Right now, it is buried under the snow pack. Tomas has rebuilt the fortress a little east of the ruins. I think he is planning to restore it and make it a museum. Okay then, I guess that there isn’t much else we can do along this line until then.”
“True. Say, how is the subterranean construction coming along?” Stefan asked.
“As crazy as this is going to sound, it is paying for itself,” Zoran teased them. “Actually, slower than I wanted. We’ve had so many other more critical things to handle of late. We chose to extend out from our two under-the-fortress mines, since much tunnel work was already in progress there. I have to heap the praise on Archmage Marek Aceda, the old Door Warden of Zdenka’s Tower. It was he who took charge and developed the spell alteration. He took advantage of the fact that we were extending the gold and gem mine tunnels. He tweaked the mining spell — you know, the one that turns stone into mud or dust. He adjusted the spell so that any gold or any gemstones which may be lying in the current volume of stone to be removed by turning it into dust remains unaffected by the spell.”
“He alters the composition of a section of solid stone of the desired shape on the master drawings. After the spell detonates leaving behind a massive dust pile in place of the bedrock, workers then sift through the dust as they carry it outside and dump it. The gold nuggets and raw gems are trapped in the netting of their sifters. So far, the gold and gems recovered more than pays for the construction of the subterranean work. Pretty amazing.”
“Damn,” Stefan teased Zoran, “leave it to Baron Vladislov to make a tidy profit while digging an underground relief center for his people.” Everyone laughed.
“Yes, but we should have gotten far more work done. We would have if that dragon attack had not occurred up in Petr Falls,” Zoran admitted. “How goes yours?”
“Making headway,” Stefan answered first, since he’d just picked on Zoran. “We’ve concentrated on making subterranean corrals and granaries. If the dragons do attack us, we want all of our food reserves and stock to be beyond their reach as well as our horses. If things go bad, we want enough horses to both help the rebuilding efforts as well as to re-breed our herds without having to go off-world to get them. Already, we have that part mostly completed and our fall harvest is safely underground. Now my workers are tackling the city part. If you don’t mind, I’ll send Chesna back here so she can learn Archmage Marek’s spell variation. I’d like to make money digging my subterranean city too.” He grinned. So did Leo, who promised to send Zelenka back to pick up Marek’s spell variation as well.
After joining their wives for a social lunch, Archmage Karel and Dana had the two barons drop by the armory. Karel had a half dozen of his newly enchanted weapons ready for each baron. “This one is merely an enchanted blade. However, these two are Red Dragon Slayer blades, these two are Black Dragon Slayer blades, and the last one, a White Dragon Slayer bastard sword. May they serve you well,” the Archmage said proudly.
Both barons were very much impressed with the blades and with Karel’s work. He, on the other hand, was much impressed with the weight of the two bags of gemstones they gave him. Once the barons left with their prized new weapons, Karel handed one bag to Dana. “Okay son, I am turning this project over to you and the blacksmith Rafael. I’ve moved what you two will need into an unused room next to my lab on the top floor. What gets made out of what and for whom and their distribution I am officially turning over to you. When you two are ready for the next spell incantation on a blade, Message me and I’ll come and cast it. Meanwhile, I will be free to work on my next project, one which may well ensure us total victory over the vile, wicked dragons!” Karel snarled as he spoke the accursed noun.
“Thanks!” Dana replied enthusiastically. Now he would be playing a far more important role. So many barons wanted to buy or get some of the Dragon Slayer swords that just dealing with the many details had become almost a full time job. Already, they had gone through half of their stock of recently purchased weapons of sufficiently high quality to undergo the enchantment process. More had to be obtained. Quite a lot of prep work was needed on each blade even before the actual spells were to be cast. The metal had to be heated to just the right temperature, only then could the infusion of the appropriate dragon’s blood be made. Dealing with the heating process would be Rafael’s task. Archmage Karel only needed to be involved in the actual casting of the power spells that both enchanted the blades and infused them with their special properties, making the enchantments permanent. Thus, Karel now expected to have at least six hours each day freed up for his newest project.
In fact, both he and Archmage Jakob were working together on very secret projects, known only to the two of them. I say working together, but that is not entirely true. Yes, they originally got the idea together and they did share information and they did help each other out of the myriad problems each had been encountering, but the two men were also competing with each other, a friendly Archmage rival to see just who was the best. At the moment, Archmage Karel’s name was widely known among all of the barons as the producer of the best enchanted weapons money could buy. Archmage Jakob’s goal was to get his own name just as widely recognized as Karel’s. A friendly competition had evolved between them since early July. Each was following a different path, however.
Karel’s approach centered upon the acquisition of numerous body parts from various types of dragons. Jakob’s approach focused on the huge gemstones found in the mines of the northernmost province of Adapazan. Although the two approaches were vastly different from each other, they both had similar goals in mind: the control of attacking dragons.
Archmage Karel needed the services of a blacksmith and thus he made use of young Rafael, who was pleased to do more useful work than making another set of horse shoes. Of course, there were plenty of horses to shod, but it was boring work for Rafael. He leapt at the chance to help out the Archmage.
For both men, the problem was how to confront head on the attacking dragons and somehow control them, while not at the same time being destroyed by the blasts of the dragon’s breath. Chan was visible proof that this was not an easy problem. She’d lost her hand to the ever so slight mistake of catching a bit of rotting slime on it. Had she taken the full blast on her whole body, Chan would have been quite dead — a mere skeleton within minutes. Yet, the two Archmages knew that if humans were to have any chance in a battle with the dragons, they had to somehow become impervious to the dragon’s breath. Karel took the approach of constructing forged rods infused with body parts from the dragons, while Jakob took the approach of utilizing powerful spells infused within a hugely expensive gem to be wo
rn on one’s chest, protecting its wearer.
“But gold rods will be weak, Archmage,” Rafael had cautioned Karel when he’d come to him for advice and assistance in the forging of a test rod. “Gold is highly malleable. It will bend way too easily.”
“Hum, very true, and yet it conducts magical energies so very well. What kind of compromise can we make?” Karel asked the young blacksmith.
In time, Rafael had come up with an ideal alternative. Essentially he forged a steel casing to enclose the golden rod that was the heart of the magical item. That then gave Karel additional ideas. If he could infuse the dragon body parts between the steel outer casing and the golden rod core, he would have the best of both worlds: strength and magical power. Of course, the final product had to be altered. The steel was hard and cold to hold in one’s hand. Rafael then wrapped the rod in a fine leather sheath.
He commissioned Rafael to then make a dozen such rods, paying the lad handsomely. Rafael was extremely pleased with the arrangements, more so when he began helping Dana with the magical blades construction. True, his part was mundane; still it was more rewarding than making horse shoes.
Karel was methodical, if nothing else. As the rods were made, one by one, he tested their enchantment capabilities, logging each one carefully in his notes. Not until he had determined the exact quality each rod could hold would he actually begin their enchantments. He saved the most powerful one for last, hoping to gain valuable experience on the lesser rods.
Meanwhile, he began working out the needed enchantments that the rods would have to hold. Because the dragon’s breath weapons were so vastly different, each rod would have to be attuned to a specific type or perhaps types of dragons. Days stretched into weeks during the coldest part of the year. Karel hardly noticed though, but his wife, Chika, kept him apprised of the rest of the world.
To be effective and protect the wielder, each rod would have to hold one portion of one of the top-most power spells that only an Archmage could know and cast. Few Archmages ever mastered this massive protection spell. Essentially, he needed the rod to cast at will the Sphere of Breath Weapon Protection, a sphere twenty feet across, centered on the wielder of the rod. If he could somehow infuse that one part of the power protection spell into each rod, then the wielder would be able to stand before the oncoming dragons and make use of the rod with impunity. That was the first step. Once he’d gotten that accomplished, then he could move on to the much needed offensive capabilities to combat the dragons. All told, this was an enormous task that Archmage Karel had set for himself and he spent long hours into every night working on it.