Complete In the Service of Dragons

by William Robert Stanek

  The darkly robed figures swept off their cloaks to reveal raven-hued armor as they withdrew their blades. Adrina closed her eyes, expecting dispute, but none came. Her mind exploded. A white searing light swam through her mind, but she clung to the darkness. She rebuked with words of her own. “Would you kill your own flesh and blood?” she begged.

  The other stammered through the next words. Adrina continued her verbal assault, sensing the dilemma. “That’s right. I knew it when I first gazed upon your face against the light. You hold a likeness that I know well, though I can see you try to hide it, even now.”

  “I am He, and I shall have Silence! Speak not a word, or I’ll separate you from your tongue!”

  Even as Adrina attempted to stand, hands strong and true held her to her knees. “You cannot hide your past. You cannot deny your heritage. I heard the words Keeper Martin spoke the night you were birthed, and he cursed your name!”

  “You lie! Foul treachery spews from your lips. Cut out this creature’s tongue and bring it to me upon a plate so that I may relish it.”

  Many hands held Adrina’s head firm. She bit at the hand that probed her mouth. Tnavres clawed and raked all who came near. “Did not your mother have my eyes? Do you not have your father’s hair? Your eyes and your hair? What of the softness of your voice?”

  “Lies, lies! Silence her! Kill them all and rid them from my sight! You have no right to speak to me in such a way. I order you to silence and if you do not listen, I will deliver your life by my own hand.” He grabbed a dagger from another’s belt and lunged at Adrina as she cried out and begged him to remember.

  The point of the blade never found its mark although it did meet flesh. Amir’s face was not lit by sorrow or fear as he fell, but disbelief. The wielder of the blade backed away; a tiny voice cried out in his thoughts. It knew the truth. He had not always been.

  Shchander and Shalimar jumped over Amir as he went down. They struggled to reach Adrina but Xith moved between them and the girl. “This is not your fight,” Xith told them.

  “Come back to us,” Adrina repeated as she fought off her attackers. “What of the boy I once knew?”

  “A man, no longer a boy,” the other said as he set upon her brutally, swatting away her tiny dragon as it sought to defend her. A savage kick to her stomach brought her to her knees. She would have collapsed to the floor if his followers had not held her. Instead, she doubled over, coughing up blood.

  Tnavres returned, clawing at the man’s face. He angrily snatched the dragon from the air, squeezing with all his might and then thrusting out, sending the tiny flailing beast flying into the stone chair upon the raised dais. Grinning savagely, he returned his attention to Adrina who was now on her hands and knees, kicking her again and again.

  Tears such as she had never known welled up in Adrina’s eyes. She cried out, “Please no more, please no more.” Her eyes wide and pleading turned to Xith who was no more than a handful of steps away.

  The other brought the heel of his boot to her left forearm, crushing bone as he twisted and smashed down with all his might. The vision flowed strongly. He felt the surge of strength within him peak and the power came unbidden to his hands. As he spread his hands, brilliant bolts of blue and white spread between them, arcing wildly.

  “Why, oh why?” Adrina cried out. “What have I ever done? Please no more. Please, please no more.”

  For an instant her pleas touched him, he reached down to her, but as he did so pain swept over him. “No, no, not again,” he cried out. He watched as the three circled the other in his mind. “Go away!” he told them but the thoughts would not go.

  Seeing the inner turmoil reflected in his eyes, Adrina reached out to him with her good arm, her hand finding his leg. He clasped his ears, pounded the sides of his head until the pain within was replaced by the pain from without, but the voices would not fade.

  He pulled her to her feet, grabbed her broken arm, twisted. Adrina’s screams of agony intensified. “Stop, Stop!” she yelled.

  His eyes wild, he laughed madly. “You are a great fool. The boy is gone.”

  “Fool?” Adrina screamed back at him, finding sudden anger. “Never underestimate the fool. The fool on the board can capture the king just as easily as any.”

  She stood firmly, defiantly, despite pain, staring into his wild eyes. She did a thing no one looking on expected of her, he least of all. She raised her broken arm into the air and called Tnavres to her. “Tnavres return,” she said as she lunged, wrapping her good arm and both legs around the other, causing both to fall to the stark, gray granite of the dais.

  The granite that should have met them cold and full, pulled them in, allowing them to pass by as if they instead met the waters of some gray dark lake. Soon after, they were falling through the air, landing on firm ground in a shadowed land. It was a place Adrina knew though she wished she did not; it was a place the other apparently knew as well for he howled his displeasure in a long stream of angry words. “Not this place, not this place. It is not fair to return. The master promised more. The master promised all. This must be a lie! This is a lie!”

  Adrina crab-crawled backward away from him. It never occurred to her as she looked up to him that in this place she had full use of both her arms. As she looked on, one became three and then suddenly there was a fourth in the space between them.

  The Dragon King and his queens came winging in. Their great speed surprised Adrina for it seemed that one minute she saw them distant in the gray sky overhead and the next they were landing beside her.

  “Dalphan, it is time,” the Dragon King said in his firm deep voice.

  One of the figures broke from the circle and climbed onto the Dragon King’s back. “Has my beloved been found?” he asked.

  “She has,” replied the Dragon King. “She waits for you.”

  “On the other side?”

  “As ever.”

  Before the Dragon King took wing, Dalphan called back to those in the circle. “Brother,” he spoke firmly.

  A dark figure, his face hidden in the cowl of his cloak, turned from the circle. As he climbed onto the back of one of the queens, the skulls and bones in his armor showed clearly. He did not speak as the other had, though he did clench a hand into a fist and wave it defiantly in the air as the queen dragon took to the air.

  Tnavres jumped onto Adrina’s lap and licked her cheek. To her it felt more like soft lips than the tongue of a dragon. Indeed as she looked on she saw a beautiful lady elf and not a tiny dragon.

  The lady elf said in as beautiful a voice as Adrina had ever heard, “I am Adrynne, Servant of the Dragon, as you will one day be again.”

  “What is happening?” Adrina asked.

  Adrynne said, “Take the boy’s hand and let us go from this place.”

  “But what of the other?”

  “The Fourth will remain as must be so. Quickly now, we must be away from this place.”

  As Adrina took the boy’s hand, Vilmos’ hand, Adrynne took hers. The shadowland faded.

  Adrina found herself lying supine on cold, gray granite, her arms and legs wrapped around Vilmos, who looked ever the boy and nothing like the man she had leapt upon.

  She squealed with delight when she found herself looking into his eyes. “Vilmos, by the Mother, I have never been so happy to see anyone in all my life.”

  Vilmos, somewhat dazed and confused, sought to untangle himself from Adrina. Adrina didn’t want to let go for fear that if she released him she might find that by some dark twist of fate the other was there and not the boy from Tabborrath Village.

  Taking a leap of faith, Adrina released Vilmos and rushed him to his feet. She turned him around and inspected him. “By the Mother, it is you!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him.

  “Is Xith here?” Vilmos asked.

  “I am,” Xith said, stepping to the dais.

  “I didn’t know what I was doing. I—I—”

  “You need say no more. You could
not have known what was to happen. You could have no more turned back the wind. It is done. It has run its course.”

  “Has it?”

  Having dispatched the last of the foes, Shchander, Shalimar and what remained of their band of free men from Solntse pressed suddenly close around Adrina, Vilmos, and Xith.

  Aven stepped between the men, moving onto the dais. “It has. It is the start of a new age, an age of hope.”

  Xith cleared his throat. Aven looked over to Xith and to Amir struggling to his feet. Amir bit back his grimace of pain, his eyes going to Adrina and Vilmos.

  “But there is work to be done before it is over,” Amir said knowingly.

  “True,” Aven said, reclaiming the guise of Noman, Keeper of the City of the Sky. Xith added a moment later, “Indeed.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Upon exiting the Great Door, as the Gates of Uver were known to Ærühn’s people, Geoffrey, Lord Serant, Captain Brodst and the others found themselves in the frozen wastes of the far north. With the snows all around him, Ærühn, Dragon Man of the Stone Shields, became a different man. He stood tall, eyeing the kingdomers as if he were just now seeing them for what they were. He hissed and spat at them and then raced off. Ayrian took to the air to follow him, but driving snows and loud angry winds made the task all but impossible.

  Before long Ayrian was settling to the ground in front of them, emerging from the blowing snows so quickly that he startled Calyin. Calyin slipped on the snow and ice, falling backwards into her lord husband and soon both were lying in the snow. Lord Serant tried to maintain his composure and find his feet, but Calyin would have nothing of it. She rolled on top of him and kissed him full in the lips, laughing like the girl she had once been.

  Captain Brodst took the impropriety in stride and a smile almost touched his lips. The hint of a smile, however fleeting, was replaced by his shielding scowl, but his displeasure wasn’t due to their actions. He envied them and their love, and this he would never deny. With the mother of his children, he had known a kind of love though the marriage was one of obligation to maintain Elzeth’s honor. His second love was a true love but a love that broke the heart of his first love. Elzeth had taken her own life in a moment of weakness, and it was clear to him now how much her death impacted his life and his family.

  At the thought of his family, the captain chuckled sardonically. He had no one, no family. His sons were gone. Pyetr betrayed the Kingdom. Emel quit the guard and was off in search of a thing he might never find. He knew Emel was running from a thing he could never outrun, even if Emel himself did not know this. To the captain, it seemed that for the whole of his life he himself had been running from the very same thing—a ghost of the past that he could never truly excise.

  He gritted his teeth, maintained his ground, still thinking of the past. Happy times, not sad times. He thought of Emel and the day Emel joined the guard. He thought of the day he first met Elzeth. It was in this way that he came to terms with his captivity and his freedom. A cage could hold a man’s body, but it could not keep his mind from soaring or his soul from crying out.

  Not two paces away, Midori watched Ansh Brodst. He seemed to be looking through her to Edwar and Calyin who were lying in the snow behind her. She didn’t know why there were tears in her eyes and blamed it on the icy winds and snows. Some day, she vowed. Someday, she would tell him. Not this day, likely not any day soon, but one day.

  She brushed the frozen tears from her cheeks, and turned away to find Keeper Martin regarding her in almost the same way as she had regarded the captain.

  “You must tell him, you know,” Keeper Martin said knowingly.

  Finding the priestess in her, Midori brushed back her long black hair and pulled her robes around her. She eyed the keeper for a moment, then in a tone harsher than intended, she said, “Do you read minds now, keeper?”

  “You wear the truth of it. I do not need to read your mind.”

  Midori’s reply was drowned out by Ayrian’s shrill call to alarm. The bird man heard and saw things the others couldn’t. Those around him heeded his call, drawing their blades, forming a defensive line. Midori and Calyin stood defiantly in the middle of the line, wielding short blades even as the others sought to push them to the rear.

  Ærühn emerged from the snowy veil, riding on the back of an enormous black bear. Others of his kind followed, each riding one of the great bears—black, white or brown. Behind them came still more, riding great wolves, either gray or white. Captain Brodst was quick to discern that those riding wolves were an offensive force of outriders, for those on the wolves carried long spears, pikes and bows, and were lightly armored. Those on the bears were heavily armored and wielded clubs and swords.

  Ærühn dismounted, hissing and spitting. Keeper Martin stepped forward, explaining that this was a greeting—a greeting of friendship. Smiling, Ærühn nodded and said, “The Great Door is watched. You must come.”

  Ærühn mounted his bear. Turning back to Martin, he said, “Mount, we shall ride.” Martin climbed on the back of Ærühn’s black bear. Serant, Brodst, Calyin, Midori, and Geoffrey climbed onto the backs of other bears, each taking up a position behind one of Ærühn’s men.

  Ayrian looked on. He wanted desperately to take to the skies, to feel the air beneath his wings despite the snow and wind. One of Ærühn’s men dismounted and approached the Eagle Lord, hissing and spitting in a gesture of friendship. Ayrian cast a glum stare to the skies, and then mounted the dragon man’s white bear. The dragon man said something then that Ayrian didn’t understand. The others’ words must have been in a different dialect than Ærühn’s.

  “He says,” said Ærühn moving his bear alongside, “that it is the greatest honor. That he will tell his sons about the day he gave ride to the one of the Lords of the Heavens.”

  Ayrian was about to explain that he wasn’t a lord of anything, but Ærühn called the group to movement and the great white bear loped forward. Ayrian was surprised by the relaxed long strides and swift speed of the bear.

  Ærühn led his men north and east. Within an hour, they were passing a most amazing sight and Keeper Martin found that he had to swallow more than a few gasps. From the texts of old, he recognized the giants of the six clans—fire and ice, storm and mountain, stone and hill—but he did not recognize the long-haired peoples that rode atop mammoths whose long curved tusks were covered in polished steel. The steel, inlaid with many intricate designs, glistened as it reflected the bright white of the ice and snow. The giants and the men on mammoths went by six abreast. The thrump, thrump of their boots and hooves and the roar of their trumpets, echoed long in the ear and across the land.

  Keeper Martin did not doubt that the giants and men were going to the Great Door. For just as Ærühn’s bear troop carried them north and east, the giants and the men upon mammoths went south and west. What they would do when they reached the door, Martin could only guess, but Ærühn had named them watchers. He did not dwell on this thought much longer for the spires of a city grew in the distance. Try as he might, Martin could not recall a telling of such a city this far north.

  Soon he could see the majestic, serpentine spires of some enormous building or palace that was within the city. Before he knew it, they were racing down the city’s ancient streets. The great bears continued to move in long, easy strides.

  At the foot of the palace was a large open square that might have served once as a market for those that dwelt in the city. For now, though, the square was being used as a meeting place and was filled from end to end with the peoples of the north: the many tribes of the dragon men, the wild men who stood their mammoths, some few representatives of the giant clans, and the clansmen of Oshywon.

  Much to Martin’s surprise, in the center of the assembled mass stood one he thought he might never see again. “Master Keeper,” he called out in greeting, surprise evident in his voice. He dismounted somewhat roughly but Ærühn’s firm hand kept him steady on his feet.

  The
crowd around Noman parted. Martin caught sight of the young woman standing behind him, her long black hair flowing freely and her clear, green eyes shining like jewels in the bright sun of the full day. He gripped Noman’s forearm as he passed, moving to greet the princess. Another behind him was faster though and he could only look on and smile as Calyin embraced her sister. In a moment, Midori joined in and the three sisters hugged each other while they cried.

  He did not know whether they cried tears of joy or sadness, only that he himself was near tears. He had to look away to maintain his composure. Nearby he saw Lord Geoffrey Solntse greet his son Nijal Solntse, at first formally, and then with unabashed enthusiasm. It was then that he saw the boy, Vilmos, standing alone in the crowd, looking lost and unsure of himself. Martin did then what he knew he must. He took Vilmos’ hand, led him toward the great brown bear the captain was still mounted upon.