by Alex Sapegin
***
“Have you got it?” Jaga was sitting on the bench near her home, keeping a glowing magical construction interweaving in the air.
“Yes,” Andy replied lazily. It was a bummer to lift his head off the warm sun-soaked earth. He had memorized the formation nodules of the power constructions last time, but Jaga began each lesson by repeating what they had covered during the last one.
“It’s a ‘spider web,’ a very simple and effective security spell. It has several positive aspects: you can use it on a certain area and volume in order to avoid the possibility of someone violating the perimeter through air or water. It unfolds and folds up in a moment. It takes on the function of a scanner interweave—the nodal response settings are set to the type and kind of external influence, and the size of the trespasser is determined upon deployment of the spell in a large area. Oh, and I almost forgot. It doesn’t require a lot of mana.”
“Excellent! We’ll end on that.” The elf put out the “spider web” and formulated a new construction. “Today, we’ll study ‘canopies.’ A canopy is a spell that allows you to block sound, light, visual, tactile, and mental information. The veil you know so well is one of the varieties of visual canopies.”
Jaga created and sent forth different un-activated canopy constructions and explained to Andy the ways they could be used. The diligent student consciously memorized the positions of the power nodules, the reinforcement points, and the spell activation points.
“Polana, come here,” Jaga unexpectedly interrupted the lesson. A young lady in a leather marching suit with a birch bark box on her shoulders stepped out onto the field from the bushes before the herbalist’s house. She walked up to the elf and bowed low. She paid Andy no mind. He was taken aback by that attitude; he wasn’t used to being ignored.
He naively thought he knew everyone in the valley. He had circled it up and down several times over the last three months. Apparently, he didn’t know everyone, and he hadn’t circled everywhere. Cocking his head to the side, he examined the newcomer with interest. She certainly wasn’t a local, he decided. The village peasant girls didn’t dress like that. Her chestnut hair was in a tight braid under a scarf. Her large, steel-gray eyes looked over the dragon’s figure and scales with polite interest. For an instant, a ravenous flame flared up and immediately went out in them, unnoticed by Jaga and Andy.
“Kerr, why haven’t you put up the security ‘spider webs’?”
“Because my ‘spider webs’ are more energy-packed than yours and they’re screening the simple defense circuit. The free-tracking modules are not to your liking.”
“They’re fluttering around like moths in front of your nose. That means you have something to work on. You’ll fulfill the activation of the spell using minimal impulses.” Andy was only half-listening. Pretending to pay attention to the herbalist’s words, he kept casting sidelong glances at the uninvited guest and was considering whether it was possible for a member of one biological species to arouse sexual attraction in a member of another. Judging by current events, apparently, it was. He hadn’t yet seen local women in pants suits, let alone any like this. The newcomer’s suit fit like a glove. The leather pants hugged her shapely legs and highlighted the curve of her tush. They joined with the jacket in an intricate lacing of colored hide. Coupled with soft boots of goat hide, the outfit allowed its wearer to move about the forest silently
“Kerr?”
“Huh?” Andy snapped out of his contemplation of the dark gap between her full breasts, peeking out from the unlaced top of her jacket.
“I said, go fly to the cave and fetch the almanac of healing herbs. It’s in my chest near the fireplace.”
“Sure… I’ll head out.” Andy took a couple of steps away from Jaga and Polana and strongly pressed his paws against the ground, waving his wings. “Geronimo!”
“Stupid brat,” the elf said without a hint of anger, pulling some leaves from her hair and following the dragon’s skyrocket into the sky with her gaze.
“He’s showing off for you,” she said to Polana. “Sit down, why are you blushing? And why are you dressed like a vampire? Did you want the peasant men to drool, and the young boys to fight? Don’t even think of going into the village in that get-up. Shame on you… but it looks stunning. The dragons and the others won’t be able to stand it.” The girl smiled.
“Fine. Anyway, tell me, how are things in the wide world? Wait. Are there newcomers in the caravan?”
Polana nodded. “A new head of security.”
“Has he been warned that he’ll have to take an infallible blood oath?” The elf’s gaze became as cold as ice. The air became noticeably colder, too. Jagirra didn’t appreciate uninvited guests, and she really didn’t like it when they’d been brought to the valley by tradesmen who had taken an oath, even if they were from the village. All inhabitants of the mountain nook—forgotten by the Twins—from the babes to the elderly, were under an infallible oath. The Rauu had taken precautions to protect herself; no one beyond the borders of the ancient mountain pass would know what happened there and the identity of the Master of that valley. Anyone who found out would take the oath on the spot or go to Hel’s judgment.
At home, they could chat about dragons all they wanted, but as soon as they crossed the border of the first mountain gates and went down to the gnomes’ tunnel, the spell worked its magic and put a taboo on any mention of the valley and its inhabitants. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to isolate the valley from the outside world completely, but it was possible to cut down on the number of people in the know. She never refused to help those in need and allowed them to stay as long as their hearts desired—sometimes a lifetime—but sometimes, in bringing strangers there, people posed a threat to the quiet life, albeit unknowingly and unwittingly. In 2,000 years, that had happened a couple dozen times. A dozen foreign guys had lost their lives, and five times, they had to bury their own valley-dwellers.
“He was hired under that condition.”
“Good. This evening, he’ll take the vow.”
“Um…” Polana began.
“Kerrovitarr, son of Karegar,” Jaga answered the question before it had been asked.
***
Andy caught an updraft, spread his wings and slowly flew away from the cave. His cheekbones, the tiny whiskers on his snout and the down on his wings caught every movement of the incoming air and the oscillation of the wind, upstream and downstream.
Two months had gone by since that memorable moment when he first flew. During that time, he had been able to feel all the delights of molting and to make almost a pound of gold on his old scales. Gmar, when he found out about the molting, ran from the dragon’s cave—with fire in his eyes—to the herbalist’s house and convinced them that burying these beautiful things in the ground would be a crime. Andy could not care less about it. The elf, pacified by 50 vials of dragon’s blood potion clinking in her basket, waved her hand and gave the go-ahead to proceed with the commercial operation of selling the scales. That evening, she and the gnome came up with an entire legend to justify such fantastic wealth in the hands of an unassuming mountaineer.
For days, Andy trudged around behind Jagirra among the most hidden corners of the mountains surrounding the valley, helping her collect herbs and serving as a means of transportation. They devoted four hours a day to the study of magic and the elements. Jaga complained that she had no experience in teaching and she couldn’t even give him a basic education. The elf knew and could do a lot, but often couldn’t explain the essence of some spell or another.
What she did know, she drilled into him. They studied the microcosm hidden in the mountains, front to back, from the heights of the mountain peaks to the last shell on the bottom of the lake. Jaga cruelly exploited his mage’s abilities and forced him to put thousands of security modules up on the mountain frontiers.
The constant flying and busying themselves in the fresh air helped develop his muscles. The young dragon’s voice bec
ame deep, he could cry out from his chest, he grew taller, and he packed on 1,000 pounds. His father refused to fly with him and lamented that he had kicked him off the cliff too hard; he should have let him fly a bit more slowly and carefully then, but now it was too late.
***
Papa Karegar’s kick off the mile-long cliff had forever united the crystal dragon with the sky. At first, he screamed some perfectly choice words at the top of his lungs as he was sent plunging to the ground. He forgot about his wings entirely. The ground was getting closer with frightening speed.
“Wings!” Daddy yelled, rocketing down behind him.
Andy recalled his third pair of appendages, better late than never, and tried to flap them. Things only got worse. His body started to spin around its own axis, and he was flung to the side. Panic took over, and he could no longer think rationally. Strong paws grabbed him, stopping the chaotic spinning.
“Look at me, and do what I do!” Karegar cried, releasing Andy from his claws.
Daddy stretched his neck down and corrected the spikes on his tail. His wings were pressed tightly against his back. Andy stopped all attempts to move his wings, quickly flattened them to his back and stretched out his neck. The speed of the fall immediately increased.
“Come on!” Karegar sharply spread his wings and curved his neck upward. Andy copied the maneuver. The approaching air stream blasted him upward. The fall speed decreased; he was no longer losing altitude.
“Wings!”
A simultaneous flap of both wings, another one; it was indescribable. He had flown in his dreams so many times, but the dreams couldn’t compare to the real thing. As he pushed the last traces of fear out of his mind, powerful, ancient instincts awoke in him. He could read the slightest movement of the air, and those winds awoke his perceptions of the world through his dragon cheekbones and the sensitive vibrations on the end of his snout. His wings caught every vertical upstream. The plates of his tail spikes tilted outward and stabilized his flight, similar to how a bird’s tail feathers do.
Jaga had sat on a hot stone and watched the two dragons frolic in the sky, her hand on her forehead shading her eyes.
***
Andy was so engrossed in fondly reliving recent events that he almost flew right past his home cave. Clicking his claws against the stones, he ran to the chest like a whirlwind, got out the old almanac, and dashed toward the exit. He could admit it; he wanted to see Polana again as soon as possible.
Andy ran out of the cave and folded his wings, preparing to jump off the rock shelf. Instead, unleashing his claws, he stopped suddenly and remained on the platform. Clouds of smoke were rising over the village, which he hadn’t noticed earlier for all his thinking and remembering. He put the almanac back into the chest and decided that Jaga and Polana could wait. Pushed forward by a strong wind, he flew toward the human dwellings.
Gmar the gnome’s haystacks and house were burning. The barns’ roofs blazed in hot flames, the second-floor windows of the house emitted black smoke, and the roof tiles flew off with a whistling sound. It was clear that, without Jaga’s magic, the fire could not be put out. Andy himself couldn’t control the elements as the elf did. Gmar’s house was quite robust; they had built it with several generations in mind. Half the village’s population was fussing around the fire. People were trying to stop it by passing buckets of water to one another taken from a stream that flowed near the house and the smithy, but the hot flames wouldn’t allow the firefighters to approach the source of the fire, and most of the water missed its mark. The ravenous red flames attacked the logs of the second floor from all sides. A strong wind gathered up burning hay and carried the fire toward the village, which upset the boys keeping watch at the gates and made them grab their ready buckets of water. Several humans and gnomes were holding Gmar and his wife, Nired, by the arms and legs so they wouldn’t run into the house.
“Dara’s in there!” the gnome, pinned to the ground, cried in despair to Andy when he saw the dragon.
“What?” Andy didn’t understand.
“Dara is in the house!” Gmar cried once again, tearing himself away from those who were holding him down. To stop him from doing anything stupid, Andy brushed him back with his tail and put a spell on himself that he’d learned from Jaga. The “water shield” gave him immunity from fire for five minutes. He dashed into the flames.
Many people think dragons are clumsy creatures on the ground, but they are profoundly mistaken. An adult dragon, despite its six- or seven-ton weight, can run far at a speed of 20 leagues an hour or speed up to 30 leagues an hour and maintain that for three or four minutes.
Clumps of dirt and little stones flew from under Andy’s feet, and he knocked a good-sized hole in the wall with his shoulder to stick his head inside. Dara was there. She was lying down near the staircase on the second floor, her arms out to the sides. The girl’s aura was glowing with a weak, greenish light; a little longer, and it would go out completely. Apparently, she had tried to run downstairs, but had breathed the poisonous smoke and passed out. A burning ceiling beam collapsed from overhead, crashing down on his head and almost breaking his horns. Another one fell on his neck and blocked his way back. Now, his horns wouldn’t allow him to go back, and there was too small a hole to move forward. His water shield’s time was running out; the defense was losing power. His wings started to bake from the outside heat. Why aren’t I human? Dara was so close! I could certainly go get her if only I were human. Oh, why aren’t I a human!
“Aaaaah!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. He jerked his head down as hard as he could, broke the wall to pieces and plunged forward, scooping the girl up in his arms.
Suddenly it seemed as if a large-caliber missile had been fired into the two-story house. The blast blew the roof off, luckily not injuring anyone. The beams of the second floor and the bricks and masonry of the first floor were blasted dozens of feet away. People were knocked to the ground. Slowly turning and leaving smoke trails behind them, beams, boards, and pieces of furniture of the blown-up house fell to the ground after the people. The explosion knocked the flames from the barns and the hay that were still burning. Pressing the girl to his chest, Andy left the ruins of the former house. He didn’t understand what had just happened. The village-dwellers picked themselves up from the ground as if in slow motion.
In a fog, he went over to the gnomes and gave Dara to Nired, who was standing staring at him with an open mouth. Before Andy could ask why, the loud sound of beating wings came from behind him. The ground in the courtyard trembled. Karegar landed. Jagirra and Polana jumped down from his neck.
The elf ran up to Nired and looked the girl over.
“She’ll be okay. I turned her faint into a deep sleep,” she said after her examination. “Who was it that was trying so hard with your house?”
Nired stepped to the side and pointed at Andy. The herbalist’s lips formed an “O” shape. Behind her, Karegar sputtered loudly, and his jaws clamped shut. Polana’s cheeks became flushed. The young village women giggled. The elf walked right up close to him and pulled an apron embroidered with protective charms from her belt. In her extra-large eyes, besides the reflection of the still-burning flames, he saw amazement, disbelief, admiration, and a whole gamut of other emotions.
“Cover yourself up!” she handed him the accessory.
Andy looked at her quizzically.
“Oh, what a pain you are!” Jaga sighed. “Lift up your arms!”
Andy obeyed the command and found himself staring at his human arms. After that, he no longer heard or understood what was happening around him. He returned to reality when Karegar unloaded him onto the ground near the entrance to the cave.
***
In the cave, Jaga met Andy with an absolute interrogation. She passionately demanded to know what he was thinking about and what he had done in Gmar’s home. In response to all questions, the person of interest only shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and asked for a mirror. Sufficiently convi
nced that she was getting nowhere with the stunned poor excuse for a rescue worker, Jaga spat and postponed the interview until a better time. She pulled a silver mirror from her chest and handed it to the were-dragon. One glance in the mirror and Andy immediately knew: he wasn’t a person. No, the face in the reflection wasn’t the face of the Earth boy he used to have. The blue eyes with yellow vertical pupils spoiled the view. So did the sharp fangs in his mouth. The whole set was in place: the five or so front teeth Nirel had knocked out had grown back in. Even his wisdom teeth decorated his upper and lower jaws.
“I was right. You were tortured by an elf,” Jaga said, examining the horrifying scars on his back and sides. “How nasty. The delayed-action spell isn’t reversed with incarnation. What a wretched villain you have to be to use that. Better to just kill someone right away, than…”
What it was better than, she didn’t say. The scars interested her, but they weren’t her first priority.
“Have you tried turning back?” she asked the young non-human, who had torn himself away from the mirror. Andy shook his head. “Try it. Imagine you’re a dragon—”
Jagirra hadn’t finished speaking when Andy began imagining. He heard a scream from the elf as she darted away from his sudden dragon’s mass.
“You almost squashed her, you idiot!” Daddy laughed and immediately hushed upon seeing Jaga’s strict glare. “Now, back again.”
“Yes, of course! Where’s the apron?”
“The old one’s in tatters. Just cover up with your hands.”
“Again!” Karegar cried.
“Yes, you can do it again. There’s no apron, and who cares? Now, turn back again. Incredible! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” Jaga went on, “I would not have believed something like this was possible. Turn human again.”
“I’m sick of this,” Andy whined.
“It’s the last time. I need to compare your aura in different hypostasis.”
“Well, for science’s sake then,” Andy answered.