by Linda McNabb
“She has the crown!” A weak voice freed Zaine from his terror, and he turned to see Aldren struggling to reach them in the fierce winds. He was pointing over at the small group of weavers where Trianna stood. She was holding the mangled crown and grinning triumphantly as she held it up to show them all.
“I think she will try to bind them back to the crown!” Davyn shouted as Aldren collapsed on the ground next to them. The old weaver had used all his strength to come to warn them, and he lay motionless on the ground. Zaine checked that the old weaver was still breathing, and then turned his attention to his mother.
“Do you think she can?” Maata called out loudly, looking concerned.
“It’s possible. I don’t know who wove it when I was born, but the runes are simple ones,” Guyan told them. “If she does bind them, they will have to obey her every command.”
“Don’t do it!” Zaine yelled though the wind. Trianna turned and looked coldly at her son.
“I will crown Maata. Isn’t that what you want?” she bellowed angrily.
“It is Guyan’s crown,” Maata answered.
The red-robed runeweaver turned her back on them and returned her attention to the mangled gold crown. She was looking at the runes carved on the inside of the circlet and her intention was clear. Three shafts of lightning struck the ground in quick succession and they all jumped back again.
“We have to stop the dragons.” Maata spoke right into Zaine’s ear so that he could hear her above the howl of the wind.
“We have to stop Trianna first,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. She had just raised the crown to eye-level and was opening her mouth to speak the first rune. A bolt of lightning struck just in front of her feet and she almost dropped the crown. She stepped back several paces and raised the crown to begin again.
Without even thinking about what he was doing, Zaine focused his whole mind on the small group of weavers and began to recite runes. He knew he was breaking an unspoken rule even as he did it. Weavers were not permitted to turn their runes on each other – ever.
That he was even doing it shocked him, but the spell he was weaving surprised him even more. Without thinking about it, he had begun to recite the runes from a circle he had seen only a short time ago, up in the wooden tree-top castle.
The runes were as clear in his mind as if he were standing in front of the small blonde child where she played with her blocks for eternity.
As he spoke the last rune of the time-loop, a blue haze formed around the three weavers.
“How did you do that?” Guyan asked, staring at the weavers, who were locked in a repeating moment, over and over.
“It will not last.” Zaine was not surprised that it had worked – he had known as soon as he started that it would. “I don’t know how long it will last, but it would be permanent only if I had drawn the runes.”
“I know,” Guyan said with a quiet sigh. “Why did you do it?”
“It was the only way to stop my mother from trying to bind the storm dragons to your crown,” Zaine replied. “Nobody should be forced to serve another, even the storm dragons.”
It was then that he realised that the storm wasn’t as loud as it had been. They all looked up at the swirling black clouds and Zaine saw that they were not as angry-looking as they had been. The winds had slowed to a gusting breeze, as if the storm dragons couldn’t quite decide whether to stay angry or not.
Several of the black dragon shapes spiralled down and paused just in front of Zaine and Guyan. They hovered for a full minute, just staring at them, and then one of them spoke.
Why did you try to protect us? The storm dragon’s voice was wispy and drifted off on the wind.
“I did not want you bound to a spell you did not consent to,” Zaine said, trying hard to keep his voice from showing his nervousness. The dragons, although they were just mist and air, were terrifying so close up.
Yet you tried to do the same thing a short time ago, the dragon hissed, covering Zaine’s face in a damp mist that caused him to squint to stop the stinging in his eyes. He wiped his face with his hand, but resisted the temptation to step back from the misty dragons.
“I didn’t know what it would do,” Zaine replied apologetically. “I should not have done it.”
We cannot be bound to the crown again if we do not wish to be. The weaver would not have succeeded, the second misty dragon told them. But we thank you for your actions.
The storm dragons fell silent, and stared for a long time before turning briefly to each other and then shooting straight up into the sky to re-join the rest of their misty clan.
The clouds swirled and the air rumbled for a few minutes as the dragons argued amongst themselves. Zaine and the others stood waiting, wondering if they would soon be running for their lives again. Realising it was probably not going to be a short time before the dragons had finished their discussion, Zaine turned his attention to Aldren, who was sitting up but looking very tired.
“Will you be okay?” Zaine asked.
“Just give me a few minutes to rest,” Aldren reassured him. He looked up at the clouds and nodded in satisfaction. “They seem far less angry.”
“Let’s hope so,” Zaine agreed. “I doubt I could weave any spell that would have any effect on them at all.”
Davyn, Maata and Guyan had walked over to the blue haze that surrounded the other weavers.
“What’s going on over there?” Aldren asked, obviously having missed most of the last few minutes.
“I thought my mother was going to make things worse,” Zaine replied. “I had to stop her.”
Aldren pushed himself to his feet and started to shuffle over to take a closer look, with Zaine supporting him. Aldren walked slowly around the blue haze and then looked at Zaine and nodded briefly but firmly.
“Well done, it is a perfect weave. I did not realise you were a timeweaver, although I should have known when you learnt the runes so quickly.”
“Neither did I,” Zaine replied with complete honesty. He looked at the concentrating expression of his mother as she opened her mouth to speak the first rune on the crown and then stopped, repeating over and over. She was going to be very angry when the time-loop wore off.
CHAPTER TEN - A BROKEN CIRCLE
Zaine sighed with relief as he turned to look at the storm. It was still hovering over the valley, but now the clouds were turning fluffy and white, and the wind had died back to a gentle breeze.
“I don’t think they are going to attack us anymore,” Davyn said, coming over and placing a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Now we need to make sure your mother leaves this valley. I think she’ll try to bind the dragons again as soon as your runes wear off.”
“Then there’s the deciding of the crown still to be done,” Maata said, staring at the group of weavers locked in the time-loop. “How do we choose now?”
Nobody had an answer. Zaine looked over at the fluffy white dragons as they dived and raced around the valley. “Do you think they would go back and free all the people back at Willow Castle?” he asked nobody in particular.
“I’d leave it a while before you ask them,” Davyn suggested. “What are Guyan and Aldren doing?”
Zaine looked over to where the young girl and the old weaver stood, right next to the Circle of Dreams. They weren’t looking into the circle, though. They seemed to be examining the ground next to it.
“Let’s go and see,” Zaine said. “I need to ask Guyan how to reverse the spell on the weavers as well. I don’t think I should wait for the spell to fade. It could take days and Trianna would be even angrier then.”
As they reached the circle, Zaine could see that Guyan was looking worried. The look she exchanged with Aldren said that something was very wrong. She straightened up as Zaine, Davyn and Maata came closer.
“The storm dragons seem to be happier now,” Zaine said, not wanting to ask what was wrong. They had just solved one problem, but he had a feeling that this one was worse.
“They won’t bother you again,” Guyan said as she looked briefly at the storm dragons, and then her eyes hooded over with concern. “But I think you should all leave the valley anyway.”
“Is there something we can help with?” Maata asked, stepping forward and peering around the rune-covered girl.
“Nobody can help.” Guyan’s voice was so full of sadness and despair that Zaine wondered what could be so bad. “Please go. I would like to be alone for as long as the circle lasts.”
“The stone and the runes of the circle are damaged,” Aldren explained when the visitors continued to look puzzled. “The spell will fail soon and the link to Guyan’s homeland will be gone forever.”
Zaine stepped to the side and saw familiar burn marks scarring the runes which formed the circle. They were the same as the ones caused by the lightning back at Willow Castle, and this was exactly where he had hidden from the storm dragons.
“Can’t it be fixed?” Zaine asked, feeling awful that he had been the reason the circle was damaged.
“Only by the storm dragons, and considering what happened to them last time I asked them to help I doubt they would even consider it,” Aldren said with a weary shake of his head.
“How long before it’s gone?” Maata asked, looking as if she were trying to come up with a solution.
“About an hour, maybe less.” Guyan’s voice was flat and emotionless as she stared into the circle at the still form of her mother. “Then Jelena will never be able to return home.”
Zaine wasn’t surprised that Guyan was thinking of someone else even when it also meant that she, too, would be trapped here forever.
“Surely we have to try,” Davyn said, “It was created once; it must be able to be mended.”
Guyan did not reply, and a glance from Aldren told them all it was pointless to continue the conversation. The old weaver put one arm comfortingly around the girl’s shoulders as the others backed away to talk.
“We have to find some way to help,” Maata insisted.
“Yes, but first we need to release Trianna. The longer she’s in that time-loop, the angrier she’ll be.”
Zaine looked at the blue haze that surrounded the group of weavers, wondering briefly if he could put it off a little longer. Then he walked over and stood in front of his mother. “How do you think I should remove the weave? I’ve never tried to take one off that wasn’t written down, and then all I did was rub it out with my foot.”
“It’s a lot harder than weaving it,” Davyn explained. “The runes have to be spoken in reverse and that’s not as easy as it sounds.”
“What happens if you get it wrong?” Maata asked.
“The spell will remain,” Davyn paused and looked at the blue haze, “and it will be harder to remove a second time – sometimes it cannot be removed if you fail the first time.”
Zaine pressed his lips together as he formed a picture in his mind of the runes around the little girl in the wooden castle. He could see them clearly if he shut his eyes and he tried to run through them silently, in reverse. After a few tries he knew it was going to take a lot of concentration. They seemed to flow so naturally in the correct order, but backwards were not so easy. He felt a wave of tiredness wash over him and he knew he would have to rest soon. It was only just mid-afternoon but it had been a hard day so far.
“Stand back a few paces,” Zaine said, knowing he would have to trust his concentration and just do the spell. “I’m going to reverse the time-loop.”
“Then I’ll grab the crown before she can try the runes again.” Maata moved to stand only a pace behind Zaine. “We don’t want the storm dragons to get angry again.”
Zaine shut his eyes again and pictured Jelena sitting playing with her blocks. With an effort he forced his mind to the rune circle around her and began to speak runes. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he concentrated as hard as he could, knowing that he might only get one chance to reverse the spell.
The last rune fell from his lips with a slight tremor of doubt, and he opened one eye a fraction to see if it had worked. The blue haze was gone and Trianna was turning to face him with eyes that flared with fury and a hint of doubt over what had just happened.
“I’ll take that!” Maata walked quickly over to the red-robed weaver and snatched the crown out of her hands. For a moment, Trianna looked as though she was about to snatch it back, then appeared to reconsider the wisdom of taking it from her chosen queen. Instead she turned her attention back to her son.
“What did you do? Why did you stop me? I would have trapped the dragons within the crown.” Trianna barely had her temper under control as she stormed over to Zaine.
Zaine did not answer, nor did he back away when his mother came right up and stood only a hand span away from his face. Her green eyes bore into him with a hatred that surprised him, even though he knew she would never love him as a mother should.
Calard and Tercel were only a step behind Trianna, and they looked as angry as she did.
“Zaine merely stopped you from angering the dragons even more. They should not be bound against their will,” Davyn answered. He stepped forward and drew Trianna’s attention to the sky.
The clouds were barely more than wispy white trails in the sky. They merged to form a shape, faded, then formed into a new shape. The dragons appeared in their own form as they raced to another part of the sky and began making shapes again. They were like little children let out to play after a long time cooped up inside.
“They don’t look angry.” Calard looked at Zaine and Davyn suspiciously. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Zaine assured him. “But I don’t recommend you try to bind them to anything again.”
“But we need them to create the royal crown,” Tercel pointed out.
“There will be no more royal crowns,” Maata said, slipping her arm through the golden circlet. “We will have to find another way to choose the ruler.”
“We need it to prevent the rune magic from failing,” Calard insisted.
“The runes will not fail,” Zaine told him. “It was just a story made up by one of the kings a long time ago.”
“Does it look like they are getting weaker?” Maata challenged Trianna with a questioning glare. “Zaine’s time-loop was quite strong. He could repeat it if you need proof that the runes will always work.”
“We still need a crown,” Trianna muttered, sounding far less defiant when addressing the princess. Then she strode off, with Tercel and Calard following close behind. The three of them were heading for Guyan and Aldren.
“We should stop them from bothering Guyan right now,” Zaine said. “I doubt she will want to talk to them while her home world fades away.”
They hurried over to the circle and arrived just as Trianna was trying to get Guyan’s attention. “Do those dragons up there belong to you?”
Guyan turned slowly to look at Trianna with disbelief in her eyes. “Nobody owns them.”
A flicker of annoyance darkened Trianna’s face for a second, and then she changed her approach. “I hear that crown is yours.”
Guyan looked at the crown that Maata was holding, and the dark-skinned princess stepped forward and offered it to Guyan. She looked at the tangled metal for a few seconds then took the crown and hugged it close as she nodded. A tear trickled from the corner of one eye as she turned back to look at the Circle of Dreams.
“Can you fix the crown?” Trianna asked, clearly not sensing that it was an inappropriate question. “Will it ever sing again?”
Guyan did not even turn from the circle, but her silence didn’t convince Trianna to give up. “Is there a crown in that Circle of Dreams too?”
“Her world is fading away,” Zaine told his mother in a voice low enough for Guyan not to hear. “Leave her alone.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Calard asked, almost pushing Guyan to the side to look into the Circle of Dreams. “If there’s a crown in there, can we get it out in time?”
“There is no crown,” Aldren said, barely keeping his anger under control. “The storm dragons damaged the runes.”
“Why would they do that?” Tercel asked. “Isn’t that their home world too?”
“It was an accident. They were angry with Zaine and tried to strike him down,” Aldren replied, looking like he had had enough of this conversation. “Luckily he moved in time, but their anger has destroyed the circle.”
“So it’s Zaine’s fault – again,” Trianna sneered. “His life-reading said he would destroy a world, and this will be the second one.”
“I didn’t do it!” Zaine couldn’t help the outburst to defend his innocence.
Guyan looked around to see why Zaine had raised his voice, and then she stared at Trianna as if she had only just seen her. “You’re not in the time-loop. Did it fade already? I thought it would last for weeks.”
“Zaine released them,” Davyn explained. Trianna was glowering at the reminder that she had been trapped in the time-loop by her own son.
Guyan seemed to forget the broken circle of runes for a second as one eyebrow rose in surprise. She looked at Zaine with a piercing stare. “You reversed a time-loop?”
Zaine just nodded, wondering if he had done something wrong. Her reaction said that she doubted he had done such a thing at all.
“Any weaver can remove a spell,” Trianna scoffed as if her son had not done anything of importance.
Guyan shook her head and remained looking directly at Zaine. Her expression had changed from doubt to intense interest, and Zaine grew uncomfortable at her inquisitive look.
“A time-loop is different,” Guyan explained. “Just weaving one takes skill that requires many years of study, and only a timeweaver can do it at all. Removing one is to unpick the fabric of time and stitch it back together. I have been studying for hundreds of years, yet I doubt I could weave well enough to do it.”
“If he had done it incorrectly, you would all have been dispersed into the depths of time,” Aldren said slowly, with an awed look in Zaine’s direction. “You would have been motes of dust in eternity – voices on the wind – never seen again.”