A Dragon Born

by Jordan Baker

  "So I'm a squirrel?"

  "No." Keira shook her head. "You are Squirrel and you are you."

  "Oh, that makes perfect sense." Ariana could not help her sarcasm but Keira either did not notice or she simply ignored it.

  "I am glad you are coming to see that," she said. "I have been asked to bring you to the center of the rings. It is very strange that the elders should allow one so young to stand among them, but they have asked and it is their realm to decide such things, so I will do as they ask."

  "And what if you decided not to do as they ask?" In her frustration, Ariana was feeling belligerent.

  "I would not deny them in this way," Keira said.

  "But what if you did?"

  "I would not. They are the elders. They are the light and the heart of the tree and I am but the shadow cast by a leaf, not a branch nor a twig, nor even a leaf. A leaf does not sway the tree and I am not even that, merely the shadow of the leaf."

  "One leaf might not sway the tree, but the tree does not sway itself. That takes many leaves," Ariana told her, turning the idea over in her mind. "The shadow of the leaf does touch the tree and, depending on where the light falls, the shadow can touch many places, while the leaf itself stays fixed on the branch."

  Keira smiled again, pleased at what Ariana had said.

  "Perhaps you are no mere squirrel, but that will be for the elders to decide. With the coming of dawn, we will travel to the center of the trees. Take your rest and be ready at first light."

  Keira swung herself out of the opening of the hollow and leapt to a nearby branch, flitting off into the forest and Ariana lay back on the small bed and sighed. She was not sure how long she had been here, but it had been many days since she had awakened in the forest, healed of her wounds, but kept here, unable to leave the forest, like a prisoner yet not. She gazed up at the intricate patterns of bark inside the hollow of the tree and remembered how she had been trapped within it, held by the tree itself and now it seemed like a memory from the distant past. She reached out with her power and felt the tree around her, its gentle energy flowing from its roots to its branches. The tree murmured at her power, as though awakening from a deep sleep.

  "Tree," she said aloud. "Why is Keira so confusing? She speaks in riddles."

  "She speaks in words, as do you," the tree whispered. "Words are riddles enough."

  "Yes, but most of the time the things she says are like riddles. It is as though she wants to confuse me."

  "Words are riddles," said the tree. "Keira wishes to teach you things that have no words, that is all."

  "What about you? You don't speak in riddles, and you can use words."

  "I do not like words, but they are part of you so I have learned to speak them, just as you have learned to speak with me."

  "Yes, but why not be plain about things? Why talk of leaves and squirrels?"

  "They are thoughts that contain many words, many thoughts."

  "But why not just use many words? If something is hard to explain, then take more words to explain it. Don't just say things like the branch has many twigs or the river flows in more than one direction."

  "Words change their meaning. I cannot speak of the river, for I know it not, but a leaf will always be a leaf and a squirrel will always be a squirrel."

  "But I won't always be a squirrel," Ariana pointed out.

  "Perhaps not, but you are not merely a word, nor are you rooted to the earth. It is your nature to change."

  Ariana reached out her hand and touched the tree, feeling the almost imperceptible warmth of the living wood. The tree responded to her touch, vibrating softly, and she felt the gust of a cool breeze rustle its leaves, the gentle sway of its branches, the damp earth nestled around its trunk, the trickle of water deep underground at its roots. It was always like this when she touched the tree, as though she was somehow a part of it, connected to its every fiber, and she even felt the cool places where the shadows cast by the leaves touched the other leaves, the branches and even the rough bark of the trunk of the great tree.

  *****

  Ariana was already awake when Keira appeared at the edge of the hollow, early the next morning. The elven woman gave her a leather satchel and told her to gather her belongings, for it was unlikely that Ariana would return to the tree. The clothes she had worn and the jeweled dagger that had belonged to her mother lay untouched upon the small table where Keira had left them. Ariana folded the dagger into the blouse that was clean but still torn from where Dakar had stabbed her then she rolled it and the other articles into the green cloak that Aaron had given her and she stuffed the bundle inside the satchel, which she slung over her shoulders. Keira waited as Ariana placed her hand upon the tree and sent it a warm thought of farewell. The tree swayed pleasantly to her and told her it would await her return then the two women leapt from the hollow, beginning their journey across the many branches that reached deeper and deeper into the vast forest.

  They traveled the better part of the day, stopping only briefly to rest or refresh themselves, and the sun had already crossed the sky before they neared their destination. The tall trees in the part of the forest where Ariana had stayed with Keira were much smaller than those that grew deeper in the forest. Some of the branches seemed almost as big as trees themselves and Ariana could barely guess how old they might be to have grown so large. After a while, they encountered a kind of city that had been made among the branches, but it was unlike anything Ariana had ever seen before.

  The dwellings looked as though they had been grown instead of built, like they were part of the trees themselves, except they were made of a combination of wood and stone, each intertwined with the other, which Ariana found to be both strange and beautiful. She asked Keira about it and the elven woman shrugged and said that stone was earth as much as earth was stone, and she did not see why such a thing would be strange at all. Ariana decided that whether it made sense or not, it was the way of things in the elven forest, where many things were different than the world she had known before.

  As they traveled further into the city, the simple dwellings gave way to more elaborate structures, all sharing the same curved and flowing look, though none of them were exactly the same. They also began to encounter more people, elves going about their business, most of whom looked with interest at the two women as they passed. A few stopped and stared at Ariana, which she noticed a few times and the obvious scrutiny made her somewhat uncomfortable. Thankfully they did not stop, continuing at a brisk pace toward the center of the city in the trees.

  The light of day that flickered through the thick canopy of leaves was starting to fade when the two women finally arrived at their destination. It was a strange place, where the trees seemed to come together and stretch upward, towering high above. The way the trunks and branches were arranged seemed both natural and unnatural and Ariana asked Keira how they had come to grow in such a manner. Keira told her the trees had grown as they had been asked, not offering any further explanation. Ariana marveled at how the giant trunks had created a kind of wall, with the gaps between them filled with a latticework of smaller branches that looked impenetrable, even to the smallest creatures of the forest. Ahead of them, along a branch that was as thick as a road, there was an opening that was large enough fit a sailing ship through. At the foot of the opening stood a group of elven guards, who wore a kind of light armor made of a greyish-green metal and matching leather colored in similar tones and worked with elaborate patterns. They carried bows and long, thin swords that hung in scabbards at their belts. Keira slowed to a walk and Ariana fell in behind her as they approached the guards.

  "Greetings. I am Keira, and this is Squirrel. We have been summoned to the inner rings, to the heart of the tree." Keira bowed her head briefly to the guards while keeping her eyes up and Ariana did the same, remembering at least that much of her etiquette training about formal elven customs. One of the guards pressed his hand to the wood of the tree that made up part of the portal and his e
yes took on a faraway look for a moment then his focus snapped back to the two women who stood before him.

  "You are expected," he said, nodding politely at Keira then at Ariana.

  "Many seasons to you both," Keira said.

  "And to you," the guards said, both of them now staring at Ariana.

  "Many seasons," Ariana awkwardly repeated the elven greeting as she followed Keira past them.

  The guards nodded at her, but continued to stare, and Ariana hurried after the elven woman, feeling more and more self conscious and glad to be away from their searching eyes. Her reprieve did not last long. Inside the portal, there were many more people, all of whom were dressed in much more elaborate clothing than the elves Ariana had seen in the rest of the city and all of whom stared openly at Keira and Ariana as they passed. Compared to the elves in the inner city, the two women were very much out of place in their simple forest garb and Ariana ducked her head, worried that they were also staring at her face, which she knew was covered with ugly scars from where she had been burned. She had not thought about the scars on her face for many days, living out in the forest with Keira, but now, under the eyes of so many people and unable to hide under the hood of the cloak that was tucked inside the satchel, Ariana felt herself shrinking away from them, ashamed at how she must look.

  The buildings, if they could be called such, in the inner city were taller than the ones in the rest of the elven city, reaching up to the sky above, which was open and uncovered. The last glow of sunset cast an orange hue among the giant trees, but for some reason, as the light finally fade, it did not grow dark in the city. The white stones that intertwined with the branches seemed to glow with a gentle, white light that illuminated the city.

  Ahead, at the center of the circle of trees that surrounded the inner city was a structure that seemed familiar to Ariana, though it was as different as the dwellings in the elven city compared to the houses that lined the streets of Maramyr. She knew immediately that it must be the palace, for it resembled her own palace, with its high walls and its many spires, as though it had been built in a similar fashion even though it was distinctively different, similar to the way cousins or siblings might closely resemble one another, yet still be entirely different. Ariana also noticed that, unlike the other buildings in the forest, the palace was made entirely of stone, the same white stone that illuminated the forest. It was beautiful and majestic and, as Keira led her up to its gate, Ariana felt unsure of herself, of whether she should even be in such a place.

  CHAPTER THREE

  "What is wrong with him?" Zachary asked. He sat on a stool at the edge of the bed and stared at the young man who lay, barely conscious, inside the room at the inn. The mage had left his bottle of sweetwater downstairs in the tavern and he wished he had brought it with him, but he knew it would not help. The countless bottles he had consumed barely scratched the surface of his power, sometimes making his body wobble and his words run together, but leaving his thoughts unaffected, which made his drinking something of a futile pursuit. He had taken to drinking to numb himself, to escape from the pain of the world and the things that had haunted him for so many years, but now, right in front of him, was his life, come back to face him in a way that was entirely unexpected.

  Carly returned to the room with a basin of water and several cloths. She walked around to the other side of the bed and placed the bowl on the table next to it then wet a cloth and touched it to Aaron's forehead, which was hot with fever. Stavros finished laying a magical ward on the room, one that should hide their presence from other mages and hopefully would contain any magic they used. At the very least the spell would quickly dissipate any excess power, sending it out of the room to the ground of the island, much like a piece of metal at the top of a tower would conduct lightning to the ground. Thus far, no black robes had taken notice of the magic he and Zachary had used, but Stavros imagined that it was only because they were distracted by their own activities at Maramyr, which he shuddered to think about, and it was only a matter of time before they would resume their search for the handful of mages who had not yet joined their ranks. Satisfied that the ward on the room was sufficient, he stepped over to the foot of the bed, and looked down at Aaron's unconscious form.

  "It is my fault. He's under a spell, a ward that I placed on him many years ago, but something is wrong with it," he explained. "That much I can tell."

  "So, remove the ward," Zachary said. "Will that not remove the problem?"

  "It would if the spell was as I created it. The magic has changed. The ward has somehow become intertwined with the boy's own power and now I am unsure how to remove it."

  "You set the spell, surely it will respond to you." Zachary looked up at the other mage.

  "Take a look for yourself," Stavros told him, "but be gentle with your power. The ward tightens when it is near magic. That is part of its construction, to better hide him, but it has now become twisted. It has been pushed from within while being pried at from the outside. The spell was meant to be removed before he came fully into his power, and I made sure to put safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening but clearly they were not enough."

  Zachary reached for his power, carefully taking hold of only the smallest amount of it, which was not something he was accustomed to doing. Unlike Stavros, who worked with intricate spells and subtle nuances, Zachary's natural approach to magic was more direct and much more powerful, the difference between the two mages being like that of a fine pointed dagger and a large battleaxe. It did not mean he could not use his powers with subtlety, only that it was not his preference and he was less adept at such things, just as Stavros was powerful in his own right, for a dagger could be as deadly as any weapon. Zachary's eyes darkened to an inky blackness that flickered and glowed with fire and lightning as he looked beyond the physical realm and saw the seemingly infinite lines of power wrapped around Aaron. He recognized the work of Stavros, the mage's signature style worked intricately into the ward, which was beautifully made and very powerful, and he saw where things had shifted, where they had twisted into something else.

  "He has been attacked," Zachary said. "Very powerful magic, but from afar, and more than once. There are also places where he has tried to break free of the ward, or perhaps his own power has built up inside and the pressure has caused some damage. This is worse than a bundle of knots."

  "It is, but it is one that must be unraveled." Stavros turned to Carly. "You say he fell unconscious when the storm hit?"

  "He was struck by lightning, sir mage," Carly said, being overly polite in the presence of two men who could probably fry her like a fish in a pan if they chose.

  "Just call me Stavros," he told her. "And that fool of a mage here, is Zachary."

  "Of course, sir mage...Stavros, I mean. It was a thing to behold. One moment he was just fine, walking around, helping on the ship, and then the storm came up and the most blinding flash of lightning struck down from the clouds. It lasted longer than most strikes too. If it had hit the ship, we would have been lost."

  "Whether it was an attack or just lightning, you are lucky he was with you. It looks as though he absorbed most of the energy, which appears to be part of the problem we now face," Zachary noted.

  "That was the nature of the spell," Stavros said. "In order to hide him, I had to make sure that he would seem invisible to anyone searching, or even to anyone searching at random. In the years before his powers truly began to awaken, the ward would simply absorb magical energy and dispel it. To a mage, looking at him with his power, he would be all but invisible, but to normal sight, he would appear physically. In other words, he would look like a person who had no power whatsoever, thus entirely uninteresting to anyone looking for a mage."

  "Stavros," Zachary said. "Once we remove this spell, you and I are going to have a long conversation about why you never told me about my son and why you hid him from the world."

  "No, Zachary, we're not. It is a short conversation an
d I will tell you right now," Stavros said, with an edge to his voice. "If you recall, when you found out about the attack on the family, you went on a rampage and then you disappeared. For years, no one could find you. You will also recall that I did finally manage to track you down and you would not even speak to me. After that, you completely disappeared. I didn't even know you were here, on this island, when I first arrived. As for the boy, he was hidden to keep him safe from whoever attacked the family. Most people thought it was his parents who were the target but, at the time, I was convinced that it was young Aaron they were after, and the more I have learned, the more I believe it to be true."

  "He was an infant. Why would anyone go after a swaddling baby?"

  "Ask yourself? He has your power, possibly more now that he is older, and from what I could tell, he was nearly as powerful as you are, the day he was born. Though his ability was largely dormant, some people might consider that much power to be something of a threat. You remember how things were. Mages were being murdered, assassinated by those who wanted us gone. Wouldn't it be that much easier to kill them when they are young? Luckily, most mages don't begin to show their abilities until they are older, but Aaron was like a beacon, too young to be taught how to cloak his power, unable to hide from other mages, and now we know it was mages who were behind it all, members of the priesthood, rooting out those they could not control. That was why the ward I put on the boy was such a strong one. It was the only way to keep him safe until he was of an age that he could be taught."

  "How is it even possible that his powers would awaken so early? Most mages do not come into their full power until they are of a certain age, usually some time after they start fancying other people their age and experiencing the urges of the young. I know there have been some who show glimmerings of power when they are still children, but only moments, here and there, and their powers remain weak until they are grown."

  "That's the point, Zachary," Stavros said. "He is grown now, and if he was as powerful as you when he was merely an infant, there is no telling how much more power resides within him now. The ward I set was not meant to stay in place this long. The spell was also suppose to call out to me if something went wrong, but it did not happen as it should have and, as you can see, it's a mess."