by Matthew Lang
“Wait, what’s this about a power source?” Adam asked.
“Do you remember during our journey how I mentioned that Khalivibra has much more mental power than any other dragon known historically?”
“Sort of,” Adam said. “There was a lot going on when you were explaining.”
“Well, as I said, all dragons we know of have had the ability to influence people’s minds. Just never on this scale.”
“And you think Khalivibra’s using some sort of magical MacGuffin to boost her abilities?”
“Macwhat?” Duin asked.
“Item, artifact, thing… never mind. It’s a my-world thing.”
“Xavier said she’d shown him the future,” Esmeralda said evenly. “That she’d shown him proof of power beyond our wildest dreams.”
“Yeah, standard crazy nutjob talk. What of it?”
“What else could she have shown him that would convince him to turn against Aergon? It had to be something he could use.”
“I never knew him that well,” Adam said. “And I don’t know magic, so don’t ask me what would make him turn against your people.”
“Power,” Duin said. “He wanted power.”
“What makes you say that?” Adam asked.
“When you’re on the receiving end of it, you know what it looks like,” Duin said in such a matter-of-fact way that Adam felt his chest tighten painfully. “He thought he was better than everyone and was happy to use his power to prove it.”
“So if Khalivibra offered him that power, why wouldn’t he take it?” Esmeralda concluded.
“That is pure speculation,” Adam retorted. “We have no idea if it was an artifact, let alone one we can get to and destroy.”
“Which is why you’re going to find it,” Esmeralda said. “It’s our best chance.”
“And if you’re wrong and it doesn’t exist?”
“Then cause a big enough commotion that she has to come back and you can ambush her.”
“That’s actually a good plan,” Adam said. “You know, except for the part where I wouldn’t know what a magical artifact that boosts mental abilities would look like.”
Esmeralda smiled. “Put on your helmet.”
“What?”
“Put on your helmet. Just do it, Sir Adam, please?”
Adam sighed the sigh of the put-upon and put his helmet on. “Okay, now I look like I’m being eaten by a spider. Now what?”
Esmeralda reached into one of her pouches and withdrew a small piece of milky quartz. Adam had seen it before, but now it blazed a white-blue across his vision. Blinking, he averted his eyes and was surprised to find he wasn’t seeing afterimages.
“You see it, do you not?” she asked.
“Yes, I do,” Adam replied. “Is that what you did? These patterns?”
“In part,” Esmeralda said. “I have also worked in protective enchantments to help you be resistant to fire, but such magics are not foolproof; you can still get badly burned.”
“Or bitten in two, but I’ll take what I can get,” Adam said. “Thank you, Your Highness. I think this….” Adam let out a long slow breath. “I’m beginning to think we might have a chance.”
“Maybe you should start training with Wyrmbane again, see how it feels,” Duin suggested.
“I don’t know,” Adam said. “Last time we fenced with it, it sheared through Joeri’s practice blade. Whatever else it does, I think it was designed to cut through dragon scale. Wait, how tough is dragon scale?”
“You could probably use one as a dinner plate,” Esmeralda said. “I’ve only seen a few, and we used them for magic—as catalysts or a power source. But the ones we had were about as big as… your hand, and quite thick.”
“Right,” Adam said. “Well, good thing I have a blade that can cut through metal. Let’s hope it works on bone or horn or whatever it is that dragon scale is made of.”
“So we are really going to do this?” Duin said. “We are going to go fight Khalivibra?”
“You don’t have to come,” Adam said. “I’m the idiot who picked up Wyrmbane.”
“The hell I don’t,” Duin snapped. “You go, I go. You know that.”
Adam’s hand twitched toward his lover’s knee, but he managed to stop himself. “Thanks,” he said.
“You’d do the same for me,” Duin said.
“And if it was me, I hope you gallant gentlemen would come to my rescue,” Esmeralda said with a grin.
“You managed fine for sleeps without us,” Adam said. “What makes you think you’d need rescuing?”
“I did last time,” Esmeralda said.
“Xavier got the drop on you,” Adam said. “Would he really have won if you and Darius were prepared for him?”
“Honestly? I have no idea. I would like to think not, but I cannot say for certain. In any case, Sir Adam, I think it is reasonable to suggest Khalivibra is more powerful and more dangerous than Xavier was.”
“Probably,” Adam conceded. “But I don’t think she’ll be sneaking up to stab you in the back.”
A nervous cough stalled any further discussion, and they turned to find a child, probably no older than ten, loitering awkwardly by their table.
“Your Highness, Waur Jirsca sent for you. The first of the scouts has just returned.”
“Of course,” Esmeralda said, rising to her feet. “Thank you, Puck.”
The boy smiled a gap-toothed smile and scurried away.
“You should come with me,” Esmeralda said to the three of them. “You will all want to hear this.”
ESMERALDA LED them to a council room larger than the one where they had met the elders. All in all, it looked like a war room, with a three-dimensional map of the area standing in the middle of the empty floor. There was a notable lack of document piles on tables and weapons mounted onto walls, and Adam had to remind himself that the haerunwoln were a people unused to the notion of full-scale war against another people. Instead, the walls were hung with woven tapestries and hunting trophies, and Adam realized this great, cavernous tree hall had probably been co-opted into use as mission control, as it were. Now it was at the heart of their efforts to take back a city, slay a dragon, and hopefully, Adam added privately, to go home. The three elders were there, of course, sitting in padded chairs and doing their best to not look tired. There were also three other men who rose when they entered, who Adam did not recognize.
“Your Highness, good of you to join us,” Elder Faas said, straightening in his chair as they walked in. “And Hunter Joeri. Sir Adam, these are Captains Wendell and Roelof,” he said, indicating two large men who were more muscular than the average haerunwoln male, “and Hunter Stephan. Stephan led our first scouting team to the city of Aer Goragon.”
Stephan, a lean man in his thirties, bowed his head slightly, and Adam could see there were streaks of gray in his reddish brown hair and laugh lines in the corners of his eyes.
“The city ain’t much like it’s told in stories,” he said, walking over to the map. “The forest goes north more further than we’ve gone, and the trees’ve grown right up to the walls.”
“And the houses outside the walls?” Esmeralda asked.
“Gone or overgrown, for the most part,” Stephan said. “There are some by the north and dark gates that folk still live in, but I didn’t dare go too close.”
“Dark gate?” Adam asked. “Oh wait, that’s west. Yes?”
“That’s right,” Esmeralda said. “If you would continue, Hunter Stephan?”
“Yes, ma’am, uh, Your Highness. The walls are still standing, but there are some weak parts. That yellow rock’s crumbled somewhat with tree roots and all, and the southlight corner’s been reduced to rubble. The houses inside are more intact than the ones outside, and you could get in through the gap, but it’d be hard to do sneaky like.”
“Any other weak points?” Adam asked.
“There’s a few pines growing next to the southdark wall,” Stephan said. “A good climber could
drop onto the parapet from there. Also, the keep inside the north wall has a large hole in it, though you probably don’t want to invade there. I’m guessing that’s where the dragon sleeps.”
“Of course it is,” Esmeralda said sourly. “She probably fancies herself Queen of Aracao now.”
“And that’s your job, I take it?” Elder Thera asked somewhat tartly.
“It is my right by birth,” Princess Esmeralda said evenly. “Although if you want that title, I’m sure we could come to some arrangement.”
“We must all play the hands we are dealt,” Elder Faas said smoothly. “Selune knows that coveting your neighbor’s wealth leads only to strife and unhappiness.”
“We should go in by the south,” Adam said. “People don’t look up, and there’s probably less chance that those walls will be patrolled, right?”
“Don’t think so, Sir Adam,” Stephan said. “There’s chunks missing in lots of places, so’s you can’t walk around it all without getting down off it at some point.”
“The southlight would be the slums,” Esmeralda said. “Surely Khalivibra would have people living there.”
“Wouldn’t the slums be the first area to crumble?” Adam asked. “People would be living in the rich houses because they’d be the sturdiest.”
“Hm… that would be the northdark, historically.”
“That fits with the troop concentrations Hunter Stephan saw,” one of the captains said—Adam thought it was Roelof.
“Then any feint would need to come from the north or dark,” probably Captain Wendell said. “Provide a distraction from the south.”
“Light,” Joeri said softly.
“I beg your pardon?” almost certainly Captain Roelof said, his deep voice quizzical.
“If you attack from the light, you have the sun at your backs,” Joeri explained. “They will be staring into Helene’s face, which is never a good way to fight.”
“The city’s fourteen sleeps northdark of here,” Stephan said, “Longer for an army, I’d guess.”
“According to the old military journals, yes,” Esmeralda said. “They had to bring their provisions with them.”
“We can forage as we go,” Wendell said.
“Not always,” Adam said. “If you have a few thousand people, you’re going to run out of food very quickly. If this becomes a protracted campaign—”
“It won’t,” Esmeralda said. “If it becomes a protracted campaign, the dragon kills us all.”
“Ah, right. Sometimes I forget that.”
“That’s about it from me, Waur Faas,” Stephan said. “I know it ain’t my place, but I think we should get someone into the city next time. Look around some.”
Elder Faas inclined his head. “Thank you, Hunter Stephan. Please eat and rest. You have done well.”
Bowing his acknowledgment, Stephan exited the room, leaving a thoughtful silence behind him.
“So events move on,” Elder Jirsca said thoughtfully. “Are you ready, Your Highness?”
“I am,” Esmeralda said. “We will go once Captain Wendell’s men have had time to say goodbye to their families.”
“We will leave after nextsleep,” Captain Wendell said. “Until then, Princess.”
“Captain,” Esmeralda acknowledged with a curtsy. “Wauren, I will come to you before I leave. Your hospitality has been gracious and more generous than I would have had the right to expect as a representative of Aergon.”
“Your words are kind, Princess,” Elder Faas said. “But we are all the children of the gods. Sometimes that is too easy to forget.”
Chapter 19
“YOU WOULDN’T want to get married, would you,” Esmeralda said, more as a statement than a question.
They were walking along the upper walkways of Boolikstaad, the constant rotating chanting of the haerunwoln priests and priestesses filling the air around them.
“No,” Adam said simply. “I don’t mean to insult you, Esmeralda, but you aren’t my type.”
“I know,” she said. “You are not attracted to women at all.”
“No.”
“And your home, where you come from, this is… accepted?”
Adam smiled. “Yes.”
“And if it were allowed here, would you want to stay?”
Adam shook his head. “No.”
“Even for Duin?”
“Duin’s coming with me,” Adam said as they wandered through the treetop gardens of epiphytes and baby herbs.
“Is he?”
“You’ve seen how they treat him here,” Adam said. “They didn’t even acknowledge his existence in that room. Once I leave, what happens to him?”
“I… had not noticed that.”
Adam shrugged, reaching out absently to pick up a lantern berry and pop it into his mouth. “Tell me about Aer Goragon?” he asked.
“What about it?”
“What was it like?”
“I do not know,” Esmeralda said. “None in Aergon has ever seen it.”
“Then why do you want it back so badly?”
“Because it is mine,” Esmeralda said. “Or rather my people’s. It is our home, and it was taken from us by the dragons, and we need to take it back. We need to stop hiding from the past and build a life we can be proud of here, on the surface.”
“So, you don’t have any idea what it was like?”
“Some,” Esmeralda said. “But only what I have read in books and diaries.”
“Tell me?”
“Why do you wish to know?”
Adam shrugged. “I’m going to be fighting there soon. I guess I’d just like to know why.”
“You do not have reason to fight?”
Adam laughed humorlessly. “We both know my reason for fighting, and as far as I care, it could be here, in the swamps, or on the walls of your city of gold. The location for me only matters on a tactical level. For everyone else… there’s something more to it, and I want to know why. I mean, why is it even called Aer Goragon?”
Esmeralda smiled and sat down in a garden hollow, a space against the tree where a small bench had been grown and nearby planters held flowers that gave off a soft, delicately sweet perfume. “It means the Golden City,” she said. “I think it was named because it was the heart of the kingdom, and all the wealth flowed there. Also it’s made of a yellowish stone, which is said to ‘reflect the golden rays of Helene,’ which shows what they know.”
“Why do you say that?” Adam asked.
“Helene’s rays are red.”
“Here, yes,” Adam said. “But if you went far enough east, they wouldn’t be—you know, assuming your sun is anything like mine.”
“Then Helene has turned her back on the city that spurned her,” Esmeralda said. “And sent her serpent to punish those of us who made it so.”
“And the city?” Adam asked.
“It sits on a small hill, surrounded once by the fields that fed its people. There are four main gates that lead towards a great park in the center of the city, which housed the King’s Menagerie and the great monument erected in honor of the royal family. His castle is to the north, surrounded by the manors and palaces of his jarls, at least, those jarls that keep a palace in the city. East of them is the trading hub of the merchants, where traders from across the empire come to sell their goods—fine silks from far Backera or the sparkling wines of Freeport, all would pass through the markets of Aer Goragon. The Temple of Helene rose in the east, and you could walk down the Thoroughfare of the Gods to greet the priests of her sister at the Temple of Selune in the west, and there was balance between both of the sisters as they danced across the sky.”
“Where’s that from?” Adam asked quietly.
“Inel,” Esmeralda said. “One of the finest playwrights of times past. That was the opening of her epic, Fall of Aracao, although I don’t think it was ever finished.”
“What happened?” Adam asked.
“Who do you think?”
“Oh.”
&
nbsp; Esmeralda nodded. “I am sorry, Adam, but I cannot tell you what to expect when you get into the city. I cannot even tell you where you should go.”
“What was on the eastern side of the city?” Adam asked. “It had to be more than just a temple.”
“I am not sure,” Esmeralda said. “I think it was where the craftsmen lived mostly—the farriers and the blacksmiths, the candlemakers and the butchers. Inel did not speak much of them. Personally, I think she was more interested in the foibles, trysts, and goings-on of the upper classes.”
“Just like everyone else, then,” Adam said. “I’d say she wanted people to come to her plays.”
“And that required ignoring the poorer people?” Esmeralda asked.
“Of course,” Adam said. “The poor don’t want to hear about themselves. They’re living it. The rich don’t want to hear about the poor because then they’d have to wonder if it’s fair that they have all they have while others have nothing. But everyone wants to hear about the rich, either because they want to be rich or to see the rich tumble and fall.”
For a while, Esmeralda just stared at him. “You are a very complex man, Sir Adam,” she said finally. “And it is a great shame you refuse to be king.”
“I don’t want to rule anything,” Adam said firmly.
“I am aware of that,” Esmeralda said. “It is one of your main qualifications.” Rising to her feet, she brushed off her skirts and smiled down at him, her face slightly eerie in the greenish light of the algal lamps. “Sleep well, Sir Adam. I will see you in the morning.”
WHEN ADAM returned to his rooms, Duin was sitting in the corner, cross-legged with his eyes closed and hands resting on his knees. Moving as quietly as he could, Adam sat on the bed and pulled off his boots and helmet, before starting on the buckles of his vambraces.
“I can hear you, you know,” Duin said, his eyes still closed.
“I know,” Adam said as he took off his arm guards and started on the breastplate. “You probably heard me approaching the door.”