by Sigrid Kraft
“Thanks, my Prince.”
The mage replied grumpily: “It is only so that you are able to keep learning. Otherwise you would not be on your feet again for a week! Commit the pattern of the Unhaer to memory, so that you will never again walk into it knowingly. And now we shall continue as before – practicing spells at elementary level.”
On their way back they again passed the glade containing the bodies of the dead robbers. Some birds had already found them and flew away, crowing angrily.
Beyond the glade Prince Raiden chose a new direction. They went on for a while until they came to a place where a giant tree had fallen and created a natural glade in the wood. They set up camp for the night there, sharing the work as usual.
Their supplies were already running low and the remainder had seen better days. So Eryn suggested that they go hunting as the forest was full of animals. Besides needing to increase their supplies, he had the ulterior motive of wanting to escape from the Prince for a few hours and enjoying some peace. Eryn’s heart jumped for joy when the Prince assented to his suggestion and he went to fetch his bow. But as he reached for the weapon, a spell whacked his fingers.
What are you doing? You will hunt with magic. You have already killed a tree today, so it cannot be too difficult to catch a rabbit.
Eryn wondered: Why carry all these weapons if we aren’t going to use them?
This was the explanation: “Prestige, my lad. Polished steel always impresses simple folk.”
So Eryn went into the woods empty-handed and experimented with the fire-blast, which he had used with such loss of control just a few hours before. The trick was to use the right amount.
Too much and the animal will burn to ashes. Then nothing would remain for us to eat. Here, my Prince, a bowl of ash stew. I added some herbs to hide the burnt meat flavor. That certainly wouldn’t please His Highness at all.
Soon Eryn spotted some prey and sneaked closer. When he was close enough, he cast the spell and shot his magic towards the young deer. The shot was well aimed but too weak so it did not reach its target, and the animal ran off in fear. The second prey was a fat hen. Unfortunately Eryn missed this time and the hen flew away, cackling loudly, until it was safely out of reach.
If I had the bow, I would have already made a kill. All the same, that did not change the fact that Eryn was still without success.
If I go back with nothing, I will no doubt have to listen to the Prince going on and on again in that mean, spiteful way of his. I’ve already had enough of that for today. He may well be right about my abilities and that they aren’t outstanding yet. And he is a genius of a mage. But just for once couldn’t he say: “Eryn, well done!”?
He noticed a group of rabbits playing on the grass in a small glade.
This time I won’t take a single shot but just let the beam enlarge and follow the rabbits for as long as it takes to catch one of them. So far so good.
Eryn approached carefully and prepared for the spell. The beam narrowly missed one of the long-ears and the rabbits scattered in fear followed by Eryn’s magical fire. In the heat of the battle he gave more power to the beam and painted exuberantly flowing marks in the air. Or rather: through the wood.
He cut down brushwood, branches and even whole trees in a haphazard manner, until finally one of the green giants crashed right into the glade and Eryn realized what he had done. He stopped casting at once and gulped. That tree could easily have fallen in my direction and killed me.
Now he realized the full extent of his destruction. Severed, smoldering branches lay everywhere. It was lucky that the wood was damp or the whole forest might have gone up in smoke. Eryn extinguished the burning pieces of wood, stepping on them or pulling them apart. In so doing, he discovered a dead rabbit, slaughtered by the big fallen tree. Happy with his kill and knowing he had avoided burning down the forest, Eryn walked back at a leisurely pace. Along the path he ate some sweet berries and collected a bag full of them too. All the collecting was done using magic.
Eryn approached the camp and made a game out of guessing which sharp words the Prince would greet him with. Perhaps the classic: Why did it take you such a long time? Or the usual complaint: Do you want me to starve to death?
The greeting was certainly a surprise. The Prince laughed heartily. “Very impressive! You could make a lot of money as a comedian. You do not like trees, do you? Another one fell victim to your magic. We should be grateful that you did not burn down the whole forest.”
“My Prince, you were watching me?” asked Eryn, and the Lord of Naganor gave him another pitiful glance. “If I did not keep watching over you, you would have been killed by accident several times by now. And I do not wish to explain such misfortune to Master Elderon. Anyway, you had better start cooking or I will never see a meal today.”
The rabbit was quickly disemboweled and roasted on a spit above the flames. Meanwhile Eryn put the berries into a pot and made a sweet semolina pudding for dessert. This was a great success and Eryn ate nearly half of it whilst it was cooking.
The Prince certainly wouldn’t leave me any because it’s so delicious. Eryn’s prediction turned out to be correct, but at least he was given a few leftovers of the rabbit and beets. He wolfed it down hungrily and threw the bones into the fire. Suddenly Eryn’s vision blurred and he was reminded of the Unhaer. Everything became distorted and fuzzy, and his head felt dazzled.
Dizzy, languorous, warm and comforting. He grinned without reason in stupefied amazement. This feels nice. But something is wrong. I know this feeling. You feel fine at first and then you get horribly ill. He remembered he had had this experience before: lolleberries!
Damn! I picked them along with the good berries and put all of them in the pudding. I ate that, and what’s even worse is - the Prince did too! Oh, he will kill me. But everything is so beautiful now. If I don’t tell him, he won’t be any the wiser. I’m such a fool. Of course he will find out, and then everything will be worse. I’d better tell him at once. Perhaps he won’t be so angry. There’s no reason to be anyway.
Eryn tottered towards the Prince. “My Prince... I don’t know how to say this...”
The Prince was sitting cross-legged on his blanket, meditating. “I hope you have a very good reason to interrupting me. You have a habit of talking when you haven’t been spoken to. This is behavior I rather dislike.”
He is already angry and I haven’t even told him yet. Should I still tell him? I’m not so sure any more.
The Prince’s voice hammered into Eryn’s head. ”Tell me what?! And why is your mind so confused? Are you drunk?”
Eryn could no longer tell if the Prince were talking to him out loud or telepathically.
“I haven’t touched a drop since the episode in the wine cellar, Sir Haerkin. Oh, apologies. I meant to say “my Prince”. It’s the berries. They’re making me dizzy. I collected them magically – as you ordered. Red and round and sweet and delicious. There were good ones and bad ones too. And now you are angry with me. You are always angry with me, even for the slightest thing. And yet... “
Prince Raiden cut him off sharply: “What’s that about the berries? Were some poisonous?”
Eryn grinned a broad, foolish grin. “Lolleberries. They make you happy at first, but afterwards you get really ill. Just awful.”
“I know what lolleberries are, you stupid idiot! Nurin was a genius compared to you. If you collect fruits by magic, you have to specify exactly which ones, and not being poisonous is a very important part of that!”
Eryn covered his ears. “Don’t shout or scold! I’m sensitive. And please don’t hit me!”
The Prince knitted his eyebrows in fury. “No, I will not beat you. My two helpers will do that for me.”
While he was talking, he brought two fallen branches to life, and they wobbled towards Eryn, threatening to attack him.
“I hope that you can get your muddled brain in order. Destroy the branches with fire magic, and do try not to burn down the who
le forest. And if you fail at that too, I’ll give you a severe beating. Now you enjoy yourself, while I go and puke up the berries, because magic can do nothing to fight the poison.”
Miraculously, these forceful words brought Eryn to his senses and he shot a small fire-blast towards one of the branches, which withdrew smartly. The other one meanwhile had gone behind Eryn’s back and beat him soundly. Eryn spun around and a stronger burst of magical fire turned the hostile wood to ashes. The other branch had sneaked closer but retreated as soon as Eryn shot at it. Eryn was still having problems with strengths and distances, but it was not long until he managed to destroy the second branch as well.
Finished! That was easy. But now two new branches rose up to encircle Eryn.
Blast, that was only the beginning. Where will it end? Never, I fear! I wanted to be free as a bird and now the trees are wreaking their revenge on me. I have felled two giants today – how stupid is that in a forest?
In the meantime the Prince had emptied his stomach and was drinking a lot of water to lessen the berries’ effect. His mind had also been affected. Lolleberries were a strong intoxicant and even mages were not immune. It was impossible to simply neutralize them. You could only condense the effect or stretch it out. Stretching it out meant you felt groggy for days, so Prince Raiden decided to rid himself of the effect the other way: by condensation.
That way would cause him an hour of real suffering, however. As a rule, poisoning by the berries caused euphoria for a couple of hours and then turned into sickness with vomiting, headache and generally lousiness.
Eryn will have to endure the full horror of the poisoning, and the branches will teach him not to make such a foolish mistake again. The lad is such a Nurin. Prince Raiden was still shaking his head in disbelief.
The night was complete hell, Eryn did not sleep a wink, and the Prince was in a foul mood the next morning too. Luckily for Eryn though, he did not give any more lessons. They rode in silence through the forest and it started to rain, which did not improve their spirits either. The path took them higher and higher into the mountains. Both were sunk deep in their own thoughts for a while. As they passed the edge of the forest, an open field lay before them and an old ruin came into view. It must once have been a proud stronghold, but now there was not much left of its former glory. A part of the outside wall still stood, as well as some other fragments which might have been a hall or a tower. When they were a hundred meters away, Prince Raiden reined in Braeven’s Brood and dismounted. Eryn did likewise, and the Prince gave strict orders:
“Stay right here and watch the horses. No casting or other nonsense. Understood?”
Eryn clicked his heels, which only made his headache worse: “Yes, my Prince.”
The Lord of Naganor turned towards the ruin, and Eryn watched his back until His Highness vanished behind the ruin’s collapsed gateway.
Today he is about as bearable as a rattlesnake and I just feel... thoroughly miserable. What a pair!
Eryn gave a deep sigh of relief once the Prince was gone. He tended to the horses and then sat down with his back against a tree. The roof of leaves had held off most of the rain and so the ground beneath was still dry.
The horses grazed and Eryn gazed over at the ruin. His limbs were as heavy as lead and his head still felt numb.
Lolleberries - this happened to me before, when I was a child. But this time it was all because of the casting. We must do everything magically. He doesn’t give me enough time to internalize the spells. He demands everything at once, and if I fail I still get a beating. Fine, so he is a damned genius, but a good teacher? Not at all! A freakish tyrant. Curses, I’m so tired. But if I fall asleep, and the Prince comes back and finds me like that... I’ll be for it again.
Eryn struggled to keep his eyes open. He was thinking about getting up and walking around a bit, when something in the sky suddenly caught his attention. There was an enormous flying creature approaching, and Eryn almost jumped out of his skin. A dragon!
The beast flew with breathtaking speed towards the ruin, but the ruin wasn’t a crumbling pile of rubble any more. It was a proud stronghold with towers, high walls and a heavy iron gate: something which the former piles of stone had only hinted at. The whole scene had a gray tint, except around the dragon which gleamed in green and blue. The dragon turned sharply, and now Eryn could see there was a man on its back.
A mage riding a dragon. This is a picture from the past. It’s not real. At least not here and now.
Then a second dragon appeared: black as the darkest night, large and elegant.
With his shining scales he reminds me of Braeven’s Brood.
The black dragon hunted the other one, and a beam of colorful magic shot out of his snout. This beam sliced right through the mage’s defensive shield and tore off one of the other dragon’s wings.
All this happened in ghostly silence. Eryn could see how the dying dragon opened his jaws to cry out in pain, but there was no sound. Then the beast tumbled downwards, whilst the mage saved himself by leaping on to the castle wall. He ran along the top of the wall to reach the shelter of the nearest tower. The black beast swooped closer and smashed the tower with a blow of his tail. This dragon was completely covered in magic.
Shields. Those flickering colors are shields.
Pieces of the tower rained down like an avalanche of debris. Eryn saw the mage reappear, now running like a rabbit in zigzags along the battlements. Multicolored flashes sparked between him and the dragon.
They are fighting magically with all that they have.
From his viewpoint, Eryn could only see the mage’s upper body above the balustrade. Suddenly the man went down under another volley of magic and only the shining aura of the black dragon remained.
The dragon got him, Eryn presumed.
Now the beast landed on top of the wall, exactly where the mage had disappeared seconds before. Gracefully bending its neck, the dragon lowered its head to examine something. As it did so, its magical shield vanished. Right at that moment a magical lance shot through the dragon’s neck. The black beast reared up and cried a silent deathly scream into the sky before twisting and dancing the dance of death. Then it collapsed, half hanging over the wall.
Eryn held his breath. So that happened here.
But the startling scene wasn’t over yet. A robed man stepped out of the tower’s shadow and walked over to the dead dragon. He stopped to look at the lifeless body, then bent down, disappearing from sight.
He must be the one who shot the dragon. Probably a mage too.
Then the man was visible again as he walked along the top of the wall. From there he levitated down the outside of the stronghold until he reached the bottom. As soon as his feet touched the ground, a golden light flickered and the man was gone.
Eryn was still staring at the scene, entranced by the sight of the black dragon lying there with its twisted neck. Jet black even in death, a dangerous graceful beauty, but now without the magical glow. Surrounded by only the surreal, gray-tinted landscape.
All of a sudden the sky turned bright gold, so that Eryn was once again taken aback. A large gap appeared in the golden light and a giant dragon came through. If the black dragon had radiated dangerous beauty, this enormous dragon was now radiating power and dignity.
Its magical brightness made all the earlier magical lights seem like feeble flames. Very carefully it took the dead dragon’s head in its arms and for a moment, held their heads together.
She is his mate and he is the Great Gray. The dragon of all dragons. Eryn interpreted the scene.
Now this dragon also roared his loss – silently – into the sky and everything began to glow with magic. The stronghold trembled as if shaken by an earthquake. Tongues of fire hovered above whilst the walls crumbled to dust. The Great Gray soared into the air, taking the lean black body of his mate with him. A golden gate spanned the whole sky and the dragon flew through it. Then he was gone. The fabulous scene still had Eryn enthralled a
nd he couldn’t take his eyes away as the stronghold slowly fell apart. Even when only the ruins were left, he still could not stop staring.
A fierce kick in the ribs snapped Eryn back into the real world.
“Is this what you understand by keeping watch? Sleeping under a tree while the horses wander off. Don’t push your luck...”
Black boots with shining spurs were inches from Eryn’s face, and he sprang up, despite his ribs protesting wildly. The Prince looked – if it were possible – to be in an even worse temper than he had been for the last few hours.
Was that all a dream? It seemed so real. Should I ask the Prince about it? Maybe not now. “I apologize, my Prince. It won’t happen again.” Eryn was trying out a new strategy: pacify your superior and concede to him in all things.
The Prince sneered. “Lord Boron should pay attention to maintaining discipline, and sleeping on duty should be punished severely.”
It really is. Don’t think, better not think.
“Some sense of responsibility and duty, that is what you young men lack...”
The Prince continued his scolding while he mounted. But at least he was only throwing words at Eryn, and these were followed by a brooding silence as the rain started drizzling again. They returned the same way they had ridden in the morning.
Into the mountains and out again. Zigzagging up and down – we’ll never get to Aleroth. And what happens then? The Prince has made it clear several times now: he won’t waste time with me anymore. I wonder what I have done to offend him. In fact it was him who did things to me. But he never lied to me. All he said turned out to be true. The magic, the tale about Baelan, the Unhaer... even if I wanted to, I can’t go back any more. It’s depressing.
Secretly Eryn had always hoped to go back to the mountains one day.
They were my home when I was a child. Now that possibility has been taken away from me forever. Not because Prince Raiden or Master Elderon have decreed it, but because my own magic prevents it. I can’t enter the Unhaer anymore. So I have to look forward. In Aleroth I behaved rather stubbornly and rudely. Everything could have turned out differently the first time I was there. But isn’t everything predestined? How else could there be such things as prophecies? I heard it myself. And again he heard the words spoken several years ago: