Complete In the Service of Dragons
Page 71
“Captain,” he said firmly. “I’ve someone I’d like to introduce you to.” The captain eyed Vilmos, dismounted expertly, almost as if he had ridden the immense bear all his life. Vilmos looked on. “Captain, this is Vilmos. Vilmos, I would like you to meet King’s Knight Captain Ansh Brodst.”
“A knight?” Vilmos asked, his voice breaking.
“Indeed and more,” Xith said, stepping to Martin’s side. Xith looked to Martin before speaking. A silent approval passed between the two. “Do you recall the day we met?” Xith asked.
“I do,” Vilmos said, “but it seems many lifetimes ago.”
“Do you recall the story I told you of the girl, the one I spirited away to the southlands?”
“My mother,” Vilmos said quietly, “You said she was my mother.”
Before Xith replied and confirmed this, Captain Brodst realized for the first time who Vilmos was. Vilmos was the son he thought he would never know, the son whose identity was kept from him these many long years. He turned to look for Midori in the crowd only to find she was beside him.
“Vilmos,” she said, taking the captain’s hand in hers. “Do you remember me?”
“Of course,” Vilmos replied without a moment’s hesitation. “You are Midori. You were my tutor. You are the one who took me away from my village.”
“That is not the full of it, Vilmos—” And this is the part that sent Vilmos’ knees to buckling and his heart to soaring. “—The truth of it is that I am your mother and Ansh is your father. Shh… Before you say anything, you must know that I did what I had to do.”
“I know this,” Vilmos said, speaking truthfully and standing bravely still when all he wanted to do was run, perhaps to her, perhaps away and to the winds.
Seeing and understanding the conflicting emotions playing out on his face, Midori embraced him before he could make up his mind whether to run to her or away from her. Her aim was to calm and sooth him, but she was the one who was calmed and soothed. She was the one who was healed and made whole.
She reached out to Ansh and he to her. Tears rained down her cheeks. One minute she was angry to her core, gnashing her teeth, reeling on the inside from the pain of the past. The next, she was calm, at peace with herself and the past, smiling as she lived life in the moment.
Xith looked on, pleased. He was about to speak to Ayrian when he saw Adrina and Calyin. He moved to her before she could cross to Midori. “You know you want to ask, so ask,” Xith told her.
“My brother,” Adrina said, “if I am the one with the mark, is he safe?”
Xith removed a glowing sphere from a rough, leather pouch at his side. Adrina recognized it immediately as an orb of power, much like the one Emel had taken from her and gone over mountain with in search of answers.
“Hold the orb and think of him,” Xith told her.
Adrina did as told and within the glow of the orb she saw Valam. He was dressed in battle armor with his great sword strapped on his back. He stood on the balcony of a great tower in a city that was foreign to her. Father Jacob was to his left. The queen of the elves was to his right. Lines of soldiers stood at the base of the tower. She heard shouts and cheers. “To the High Prince!” went the call. In the distance, beyond the walls of the city, she saw a large fleet of ships. Across the dark waters behind the ships, she saw the great black wave of an army tens of thousands strong sweeping in from the plains.
“No, no,” Adrina found herself saying, then suddenly she was standing within the glow of the orb itself and Valam seemed so close to her, almost as if she could reach out and touch him.
She wanted to take a step back, away from the flashing world, but Xith’s voice beside her kept her still. “Don’t move,” he said. “Dangerous, often lethal, to do so.”
“Where am I?”
“Shh… Look,” Xith said, directing her gaze back to the island city of Leklorall.
From high above, she heard a tremendous roar and as she looked up she saw a glowing ball of fire, falling from the sky. She did not doubt, and Xith would later confirm, that this was the object the Dragon King had thrown into the fading image of the prince and his men just before he and his queens set upon Xith, Noman, and Amir.
The enormous ball of fire rushed, hissing, into the dark waters of the lake. Towering waves of water spread out from the impact point, washing over the ships, moving over the land, and nearly emptying the lake. Adrina could see ships lying broken upon the rocks at the bottom of the lake. The grave, gray wall of water rushed across the land. The army turned about in the field. Some found safety; many others did not.
“You are doubly indebted now,” Xith told Adrina.
Adrina said only, “I am a Servant of the Dragon, am I not?”
“You are indeed,” Xith said, as he took the orb from her and led her to Calyin and Midori whereupon Adrina told her sisters of Valam and the three rejoiced as one.
End Of Our Tale
He waits in the shadows for another day.
His story begins with…
Rise of the Fallen (Ruin Mist” Dawn of the Ages)