In the Shadow of the Dragon King

by J. Keller Ford

  Charlotte laughed. “Oh my gosh, what was that?” She shook her hands as if air-drying them. “That tickled.”

  Slavandria smiled, her eyes gentle and kind. Tender. “I bestowed a very powerful and important magical gift upon you — the gift of healing. From this point forward, you will know the properties of every root, every weed, every plant, and every animal in Fallhollow, and which ones will benefit you in the treatment of ailments and illnesses. In essence, you will be the healer, and responsible for the health and well-being of your companions while on your journey.”

  “Seriously?” Charlotte’s eyes widened. “I can’t look at a drop of blood without passing out.”

  Slavandria smiled. “That was then. Now you have the skills to patch the most despicable of wounds with nary a second thought.” She tucked a stray hair behind Charlotte’s ear and pressed her palm to Charlotte’s cheek. She seemed to search Charlotte’s face as if committing the lines of her face to memory. “Let’s hope the wounds you see are small and few.” Slavandria squeezed Charlotte’s hand and turned her attention to David.

  His heart jumped in his throat as her gaze fell on him. Mesmerizing amber and lavender flecks swirled in her pupils. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t look away. A shiver raced through him as she took his hands in hers.

  At her touch, the mark above his heart grew warm. Like an ember fed by a wind-blown fire, it grew hotter by the second, but it didn’t burn like before. The air around him shimmered and distorted. Tingles spread through his arms and legs.

  “What’s happening to me?”

  “The mark upon your chest is receiving the magic I’m spinning around you, preparing you for the magic I am about to awaken within you.”

  David’s mouth fell open. “Huh?”

  A cold sensation gathered at his feet and swirled upward until it exited his skull, leaving him with a dull brain freeze. The distortion faded. He marveled at his sense of clarity. Every smell, every object he saw was sharper than before, magnified many times over. He rubbed his chest, the sensations overwhelming.

  “Your discomfort will go away with time,” Slavandria said. “Are you ready to learn your first spell?”

  “Spell?”

  “If you are to have any chance of succeeding in your quest, you must learn to ferry, and not the sort you experienced with Twiller. This will require concentration and practice as the portals you use are ones you create with your mind.”

  David looked at Slavandria. Really looked at her. Like she’d lost her stinking mind.

  “Repeating the words Accelero Silentium to yourself will ferry you from one place to another by merely thinking of where you want to be.”

  Okay. Now we’re talking. David glanced over his shoulder at Charlotte and grinned.

  Slavandria turned his face back to look at hers. “This is not a game, David. As with all magic, there are limitations to its use, and if done incorrectly, it can kill you.”

  There was that word again. Kill. He was beginning to develop a severe dislike for the four letter word.

  “You may only ferry within Fallhollow,” Slavandria continued, “and you may only travel to a place you can physically see, or to a place you’ve been before.”

  David rolled his eyes. “Figures.”

  “Shall we try it?” Slavandria asked.

  David gulped. “What? Now?”

  Slavandria gestured to the furthest point on the terrace. “Charlotte, would you please stand by the terrace wall?”

  Charlotte glanced nervously at David as she passed and took up her position.

  Slavandria paced before David, her fingers steepled against her lips. “David, I want you to focus on Charlotte. Imagine she’s in trouble. You need to go to her right away, but you cannot use your feet, only your mind to get there. Repeat the following words to yourself, Accelero Silentium. Picture yourself rushing to her side. Go to her.”

  David laughed. “You’re joking, right? I can’t do magic.”

  “Yes, you can. All you need to do is believe.”

  “But there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s fine.”

  “I’m asking you to imagine she’s in danger.”

  Charlotte hopped up on the wall and leaned back slightly, her hands in the air. A wide smile brightened her face. “Look, David, I’m going to fall.”

  David’s stomach churned. “Come on, Char. That’s not funny. Get down.” He turned to Slavandria. “Look. I know you have this crazy amount of faith in me, but I’m not what you think I am. I can’t just—”

  Trog slapped his hand on the table. “We don’t have time for this.” He stormed across the terrace toward Charlotte. Her eyes widened as he grabbed her by the back of her leather shirt and lifted her in the air.

  David stared, wide-eyed, her cry for help stabbing his heart. “What are you doing? Let her go!” His feet kicked out with the urge to run, but Slavandria held him with the touch of one finger.

  “Concentrate and use the words.”

  Charlotte kicked and flailed. “Put me down!”

  Trog held tight, his eyes on David, his brows arched in a taunt.

  David swept Slavandria’s hand from his shoulder and darted forward. “I said let her go!”

  His contact with an invisible wall propelled him back several feet. He landed on his back with a thud.

  Slavandria knelt beside him.

  “Get away from me!” He scampered back.

  “David, this could all be over if you would just use your words.”

  “I can’t!”

  “You must. Accelero Silentium. Say it.”

  David’s heart rat-a-tatted away in his chest like never-ending machine gun fire. Sweat beaded his brow. How could he use words to conjure magic he didn’t believe in? He wiped his palms on his leather pants.

  “This is getting old,” Trog said, studying his fingernails. He swung his arm to his left. Charlotte dangled over the edge of the terrace like a wrecking ball from a crane.

  Terror struck, David dashed into and propelled off the invisible wall again. He pounded his fist on the ghostly barrier. “Please. I beg you. Let her go. I’ll do whatever you want, just put her down.”

  “Ten,” Trog said.

  The blood in David’s veins froze. No. He wouldn’t drop her, would he? “Stop that. It’s not funny.”

  “Nine.”

  Charlotte whimpered.

  David jammed his fingers in his hair and spun around. This couldn’t be happening. Why? Why me?

  “Eight.”

  Charlotte screeched. “David, do something!”

  “Seven,” Trog said.

  “Stop it! Just stop it!” David spun around, his eyes wild. He pressed his palms to the sides of his head, and shouted, “Accelero Silentium!”

  Nothing happened. He fell to his knees.

  “David, calm yourself,” Slavandria cooed. “You must settle your mind.”

  “But those are the right words!”

  “Six.”

  “Stop it!”

  “You must settle your mind!” Slavandria said again.

  “You settle your mind!” David locked eyes on Trog.

  The knight opened his grip on Charlotte. She screamed as he let her fall a few inches before catching her again. Tears streamed down her face, her pleas painful to hear.

  “Damn you!” David yelled, standing. “You’re supposed to be a knight. Where is your sense of mercy, your honor?”

  “Five.” Trog swung Charlotte around, grabbed her with his other hand, and hung her over the steepest edge of the terrace. “I am growing tired of this. How long do you think it will take for her to hit the rocks below?”

  Loathing settled in David’s gut. His lips twitched before settling back against his teeth.

  “Four.”

  Charlotte cried out. “David, please. Say the stinking words.”

  Trog cocked an eyebrow. “Three.”

  “I will ne
ver forgive either of you for this!” David closed his eyes and breathed through the emotions welling within him. Accelero Silentium.

  “Two.”

  Warmth oozed over him as he repeated the words in his mind, each time, stronger and more focused. Energy swarmed like bees around him, the buzzing loud in his ears. It grew louder, tighter. Suffocating.

  “One.”

  Save her. Get Charlotte.

  The buzzing soared deep into his ears, shooting into his veins. His limbs stung and grew numb.

  Slavandria’s voice crept into his brain. Drop her, Trog. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he’s not the one.

  David cried out in his mind, Accelero Silentium one last time. He shot across the terrace and hurled into an unforgiving object before crumpling to the ground. Nausea churned in his gut and burned upward into his throat. He got to his hands and knees and threw up. Twice.

  Charlotte shrieked behind him. “I hate you! I hate you both!”

  Trog chuckled as she stormed off.

  David glowered at the knight. “Don’t you ever touch her again!”

  Trog sucked air through his teeth. “Or you’ll do what, pup?”

  David managed to find his feet and shuffled toward Charlotte leaning against the merman statue.

  “Don’t talk to me.” Her hands were visibly shaking. Her voice trembled.

  “I’m sorry, Char.”

  “Sorry doesn’t cut it, David! All you had to do was say two stinking words, and you couldn’t do that even while I dangled like bait over a shark tank.”

  “But I did do it.” Realization bloomed in his mind. He held Charlotte’s hands, his breath coming faster. “I did it. I rocketed to you like a freaking bullet! I was there, and then I was here.”

  “Yee haw.” Charlotte folded her arms across her chest. “Excuse me if I don’t celebrate in your newfound talent.”

  “Oh, come on, Char. Don’t you see what this means? I did magic.”

  “And you’re about to do some more,” Slavandria said, joining them.

  David shook his head. “No. No more. I’m not doing that again. I’m sore, and I still feel sick.”

  Trog’s shadow engulfed David. “Your enemies won’t care if you are sick or hurt. In fact, they’ll count on it.”

  Slavandria nodded. “Trog’s right. That’s why you have to learn all you can to avoid any entanglements with them. The next spell will leave you feeling a bit dizzy at first, but like the spell before it, the more you practice, the less it will affect you.”

  “I doubt it,” David said.

  “The following spell works well in conjunction with Accelero Silentium. It blends you into your surroundings, rendering you more or less invisible. I don’t think I need to explain to you the importance of being able to mask yourself to your enemies and having the speed to move away from them undetected.”

  “You know, if you just sent us home, we could avoid having to do this all together.”

  Slavandria ignored his comment. “I want you to stand here and this time, picture yourself as part of this fountain and repeat the following words in your head, Ibidem Evanescere.”

  David closed his eyes and envisioned himself as stone. Ibidem Evanescere.

  Nothing. Four more times, the words tumbled around in his brain, and still nothing happened. He shook his head and said, “I’m not feeling it.”

  “You must believe you can do it. Erase all doubt. It will destroy you. Try it again.”

  “Come on,” Charlotte said, putting a great deal of space between her and Trog. “You can do it.”

  Charlotte’s confidence in him drove back his doubt. He closed his eyes and pictured himself as the merman. Powerful, indestructible, with a triton in his hand.

  He waited for the magical buzzing to attack him. Instead, it started in his veins and retreated, flying out of his body.

  Charlotte gasped. “David! Where did you go?”

  David opened his eyes and looked down. He looked no different. “What are you talking about? I’m right here.”

  “Where?” Charlotte asked, walking toward him, her eyes narrowed, searching. He shuffled quietly out of the way as she did her mime impersonation. “Okay, you’re freaking me out. You were just here. I heard you.”

  David’s spirit jolted, and he smiled. “Wait. You really can’t see me?”

  Charlotte spun around, searching for him with her hands. “No, I can’t see you. Where are you?”

  Daring to risk feeling sick once more, he closed his eyes and thought Accelero Silentium.

  The buzzing returned, swarmed, but it felt different this time. The spell collided with the magic within, both springing off of each other like polar equals of a magnet. He shot across the terrace and beyond with unimaginable speed, and clung to a limb high in a nearby tree. Triumph muffled nausea. He hooted with delight.

  Charlotte jumped and spun around. “David Heiland, this is not funny. Show yourself!”

  David ferried back to the terrace, only feet away from Charlotte. “I can’t. I don’t know how.”

  Slavandria stepped toward him, a large smile on her face. “I believe the word you are looking for is Andor.”

  David repeated the word. A cool chill, as if doused in a peppermint patty, spread over him. A thin film disintegrated from him and vanished in a poof at his feet. “Whoa. Awesome!”

  Slavandria called for Twiller who trudged toward her dragging three rucksacks. He laid one at David’s, Trog’s, and Charlotte’s feet.

  “What are these?” David asked, picking his up.

  “Items you will need for your journey, including some additional sundries you’re accustomed to. You can go through it later. Right now, I have one last gift for you.”

  Slavandria conjured a longbow, the sleekest, most beautiful weapon David had ever seen. It was almost as long as he was tall, red in color, and feather-light in his hand. She handed him a leather quiver with six arrows and strapped on him an armguard with leather lacing.

  David shook his head. “Wow. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Thank you would be sufficient. Oh, and as a special treat, each arrow you release will replenish by one. I gave you a few extra just in case.”

  “Limitless supply, huh? I like it.”

  “You will also need these.” Slavandria rolled her wrist. Three full-length cloaks appeared, draped over her arm. She gave one each to Trog, David, and Charlotte.

  “I take it we’re going somewhere?” David said.

  “Yes. It is time for the three of you to go. I have done all I can do for now. The rest is up to you.”

  Trog tightened his belt and adjusted the sword and dagger at his sides. “I take it you have alerted General Balendar and the shime we are entering the Southern Forest. Our journey will be much smoother if they know you have sent us their way.”

  “I’m afraid you will not be going through the Southern Forest, Trog. You are to travel by way of the I’ildril Road and make your way to Gable. From there, you shall travel the Domengart Mountains northward to the fields of Valnor and onward to Hirth.”

  Trog’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand, Your Grace. That path takes us out of our way. I must return to Gyllen immediately. Their Majesties are counting on me to find them.”

  “Trog, I understand your desire to fulfill your duties as a faithful knight and general, but war has been declared. Your military expertise is now required of you in a different, but equally important, manner. You will accompany David and Charlotte to Gyllen via the I’ildril Road. From there you will travel the Doomideen Pass, then to the field of Valnor, and then on to Gyllen.”

  “You’re mad!” Trog said. “The Northern Forest will be teeming with shadowmorths and trolls. I don’t care what sort of spells you’ve given these two; this tadpole will die before he gets within pissing distance of Gyllen.”

  “I’m not a tadpole,” David said, “and what are shadowmorths?”

  Slavand
ria raised an eyebrow. “Are you admitting you do not have the wherewithal to oversee two children, Trog?”

  David turned to Charlotte. “They’re ignoring me.”

  Trog’s glare shot darts through him. David gulped and lowered his gaze.

  Trog turned back to Slavandria. “I’m saying you should let me do my job, and perhaps you should escort these two to Gyllen. You can do it much more efficiently than I, and in far less time.”

  “I am not concerned with efficiency or speed of reaching Gyllen. I am concerned with learning firsthand what is happening on the ground. Who is teaming with Einar, and who is willing to fight for Gyllen. Only you can do this. There is no reason you cannot search for King Gildore and Queen Mysterie while assisting David in his quest, can you not?”

  He growled, waved his arm in disgust, and turned away.

  David glanced at the ground and shuffled his feet. How humiliating it must be for the highest-ranking knight and commander of an army to be ordered around by a sorceress.

  Slavandria moved to stand before Trog, her eyes soft and gentle. “I know this is not what you expected, but I need you. It has to be this way. How else will David find what he must seek?” She touched his face, her eyes soft and pleading. “May I count on you to do what is required?”

  “I cannot protect them as well as you think I can,” he said.

  “You won’t need to. Charlotte can heal. David can ferry you out of any precarious situation you might find yourself in. They will, however, need your eyes, your expertise, your wisdom, and your guidance.”

  David affixed the quiver against his back.

  Charlotte whispered in his ear. “She’s got a lot of confidence in you and those magic spells.”

  David’s stomach fluttered. “Yeah. I wish I did.”

  Trog brought Slavandria’s hands to his lips and kissed them. “I will do as you request, Your Grace.”

  She smiled and withdrew an amber pendant dangling from a gold chain around her neck. She slipped it over his head. “In case you need to summon me. You know how it works.”

  Slavandria squeezed his hands and stepped back. “David and Charlotte, stay with Trog at all times. Listen to him. He knows what’s out there. David, practice your spells until you can do them with ease and little discomfort.” She turned toward the verge near the stone table and called out, “Agimesh. Tacarr.”