“I’d like that very much,” Tess said softly. I saw Blade’s hand tighten as he gave her a squeeze.
Calvin raised his hand. “Um, how about me?” he said. “I think my leg might be broken. Don’t I get any kind of magic mind healing or whatever?”
Yinnilith didn’t even glance up. “Your knee is sprained, not broken, little Realm Keeper. You will live without healing. Our little bodyguard here would not have.”
Samuel glared up at Yinnilith at the use of the word “little,” but evidently he decided to let it go. To be fair, Yinnilith had just repaired a gaping hole in his side.
Barius was one of the few who was still standing, and he came walking up to me, looking me over. His face was smeared with soot, and singed strands of hair stood out wildly from his mustache, but I knew I didn’t look much better. He confirmed the thought by commenting, “I’ve seen you look better, my Lady.”
“You’re not GQ material yourself right now, gramps,” I said.
He chuckled and motioned me forward. We moved over and I collapsed to the ground by the others. Ella took a few hopping steps toward me and then settled down to the ground herself, twisting her neck to lay her head on her own back.
“You know, overall I think that could have gone worse,” I said.
“It could have gone a lot better,” groaned Samuel, gripping his shoulder. I snorted, and Blade laughed.
There was a roar in the air above us, and then the earth shook as the dragons landed all around us. Disturbed by the noise and the vibrations, Ella leaped up and pranced around, squeaking. But when the dragons didn’t move further, she settled back down to the ground, eyeing them warily.
We were surrounded by a rainbow of the colors of the elements: brown, white, yellow, blue, pink and red. Blackscale, now with simply stunning dark pink scales, stooped to place his nose to the ground, and the other dragons followed suit.
“Greetings, Realm Keepers,” Blackscale grumbled. “My apologies for our lack of proper greeting when we arrived. I considered that action might be more welcome than words.”
I knew how exhausted she must have been, so it was truly impressive to see Sarah get to her feet and return the bow. “I couldn’t agree more,” she said. “Thank you so much, Blackscale. Once again, we owe you our lives.”
Greystone stepped cautiously up beside Sarah. With hands clasped behind his back and an eye staring up at the slowly-brightening sky above, he cleared his throat expectantly.
Sarah gave him a look. “Jeez, you’re worse than Calvin,” she muttered. Then she turned to Blackscale and bowed once again. “Elder Blackscale of Wyrmspire, it’s my pleasure to introduce Greystone Ironheart, the Watcher of the Realm Keepers.”
Blackscale dipped his nose to the ground once again. To his credit, Greystone bowed so low I thought he might snap in half.
“Honored we are to meet you, Watcher,” said Blackscale. “My people know little of the Realm Keepers’ ways and customs. What does the Watcher do?”
“Mostly try not to let a pack of incompetent, wide-eyed children let themselves be killed or eaten by the many dangerous things in this world,” said Greystone, making it sound like a courtly pronouncement.
Sarah frowned. “Greystone, the dragons have strict customs about always speaking the truth. It’s disrespectful to joke with them. They see it as an insult.”
Greystone looked at her and blinked. “Who is telling a joke?”
I looked over at Calvin, who was staring at the dragons with unmasked delight. “All right, squirt,” I said. “Spill the beans.”
Calvin turned to me, wide-eyed. “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”
“This,” I said, pointing at the dragons. “You did this. So tell us. You must be dying to. It must have been pretty epic.”
“Oh,” said Calvin. His eyes grew even wider, though I hadn’t thought that was possible, and he got to his feet with a grin. “Well, the whole time we were on Wyrmspire, Longtooth kept saying this thing, right? The gifts of our alliance. And it kept twigging in my mind, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then I saw this stone carving in the temple—Miles saw it, too—of the Realm Keepers and six dragons, and in between them were the six elements. Miles and I thought that the Realm Keepers were displaying the elements, and the dragons were merely fighting with them. But it turns out that that carving actually depicted the Realm Keepers and the Dragon Keepers together.”
“Dragon Keepers?” said Miles, cocking an eyebrow.
Calvin nodded excitedly. “Of course! It’s the best name ever, right?’
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Okay, keep going.”
“So anyway,” said Calvin, “I was thinking during the battle, why would we come all this way for the alliance not to work out? And even if we were going to do that, why bring the runestones? That made less sense than everything else. Why lug them all this way when we didn’t even use them in the Council hall or show them to the Council? And finally, I realized why. Back home, the runestones aren’t what summons the Realm Keepers. That’s what the stone circle is for. The runestones are to give the summoned Realm Keepers their powers. And so I figured that’s what we had to bring them for. To turn the dragons into Dragon Keepers.”
“He nearly got himself killed in the process,” remarked Bonebreaker. “But I had a very lovely fight keeping Bloodtooth from harming him.”
“Hey, so one thing I can’t believe, though,” said Blade, looking around with his brow furrowed as though utterly confused. “Blackscale.”
Blackscale blinked and inclined his head to peer at Blade. “Yes, little Keeper?”
“You’re pink.”
Blackscale blinked again. “Of course. I am now of Mind, though I can sense I have much to learn of it.”
“No, but…” said Blade, trailing off. “You’re pink. Like, really really pink.”
Blackscale looked up at the other dragons, then back down at Blade. “I do not understand.”
“Never mind,” said Blade, looking away with a smile. Behind him, Calvin was desperately stifling laughter with his hand.
“Elder Blackscale, if I may?” said Sarah. At his nod, she said, “As I said, we’re eternally grateful for what you’ve done today. But what about the Council? Now that you’re…changed…have they reversed their decision? Or can you countermand it?”
Blackscale sighed and lifted his head, turning it to look back out across the landscape to where Wyrmspire rose up into the clouds. “The Council has not changed, nor their ruling of which I was a part. And yet I have decided to aid you anyway. It is against the will of the Council, and I and my kin are now banished.”
I started and leapt to my feet. “What? They can’t kick you out for not following their stupid rules!”
Blackscale turned his eyes on me, and in them I saw the first totally clear dragon emotion I had ever seen. It was grief, a grief so thick and so pure that it threatened to swallow me up. I felt tears spring into my own eyes at the sight of the pain in Blackscale’s.
“They can indeed banish us, and they have,” he said. “Indeed, Redwing wanted to go further. She and her kin gathered to put us to death for helping the Keeper of Air. But with our powers we proved…difficult.” The sadness faded a bit, and his lips pulled back over his teeth, but the smile seemed half-hearted.
“Well, who wants to say it?” said Calvin.
Darren looked at him, nonplussed. “What do you mean, Lord Calvin? Say what?”
Calvin swept his hand in a grand motion that encompassed all of the dragons one by one. “Fire. Ice. Lightning. Dragons breathing elements. What did I tell you? On, like, my second day in Midrealm I told you. So go ahead, someone. Go ahead and say, ‘Calvin, you were totally right.’ Let’s just get it out of the way now and move on.”
“You knew of the Dragon Keepers before?” said Blackstone, staring at Calvin with narrowed eyes. “Why did you mention nothing?”
Sarah put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “Never mind, Elder Blackscale. Please igno
re him.”
Yinnilith had sat quietly the whole time, but in the sudden silence that followed he got up and went slowly to the dragons. Once there he placed his hand over his heart, then to his lips, and then held it out to the dragons. “Hail to you, mighty friend,” he said. “It has been many long years since your people and mine had dealings.”
“Long indeed, too long for me to remember,” said Blackscale, dipping his head. “You are well met this day. It seems that the Realm Keepers have friends among more than one race in this world.”
“And more to come!” said Calvin happily. “It’s like I said. The prophecy is real, and it’s going to come true.”
“You were supposed to recruit an army of dragons, not just six,” Greystone snapped, glaring at Calvin. Then his eyes went wide as he raised his hands and looked at Blackscale. “Of course, six dragons is a mighty addition to our fighting ability, to be sure.”
“To be most sure,” growled Blackstone, sounding amused. “Any of my kin are the worth of an army of your little foot soldiers.”
There was a soft, timid throat-clearing noise nearby. I hunted around for the source of it for a second before I spotted Abidemi, standing behind and to the side of Nightclaw. Once Greystone’s attention fixed on him, he removed his helmet and pressed it to his heart. “Forgive me, Watcher,” he said, his voice reedy with fright. He glanced up at the dragons nervously. “But we must begin to the tending of the dead. Then we must return to our homes, where our maidens and our children await.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said Greystone, waving the man off. “Thank you, Abidemi. Your service to us will not be forgotten, nor will it go without reward.”
“Hold on,” said Sarah, shooting Greystone an annoyed look.
She stepped up to Abidemi and held out a hand. Abidemi stared at it for a second, clearly not understanding what he was supposed to do. Sarah gently reached out and took his hand, placing it in her own.
“Thank you for helping us,” she said quietly. “We’ll remember it always, and you can always consider the kingdom of Athorn your friend as long as we live there. Go home and take care of your families, and tell them that you fought bravely.”
Abidemi gave another nervous look around at the dragons. “Yes, Realm Keeper,” he said. “We will tell them that.”
“What will you do with your men?” said Sarah, looking at him with concern. “Will they be buried?”
“There are so many,” said Abidemi, looking around with stern eyes. “But yes. They must be returned to the soil of the world, to be reborn against as mighty warriors.”
“Do they need to go anywhere special?” said Sarah. “Do you have a graveyard? Or will they remain here? It might be nice to have their eternal rest in a place that gets lots of sunlight, and probably a nice wind.”
“It is good. We will bury them here,” said Abidemi, but his brow furrowed. “Why do you ask these things? What concern is it of a Realm Keeper what happens to the Netiri dead?”
“I can help you if you want,” Sarah said softly. “So that your men do not have to waste their strength again today. I can help you return your dead to the earth so that your men can enjoy their victory.”
“That would be most kind, Realm Keeper,” said Abidemi, his eyes narrowing. “How would you do this? With your…” he gestured vaguely at her hands. “Witchcraft?”
“With magic, yes,” said Sarah.
Abidemi shook his head firmly. “Then I must say no,” he said. “Men should be buried by the labor of the hand, or else it is a poor burial, and they cannot move on.”
Sarah nodded. “I understand. Then thank you, Abidemi. Good luck.”
Abidemi disappeared with a final uneasy look around, and Sarah came back to rejoin the rest of us on the floor.
“Well, I guess things turned out pretty okay,” said Blade.
Of course they did, said a voice in my head. I was here to guide you.
My lip curled without my meaning it to. Meridia.
“Don’t make me throw you off that cliff,” said Blade. “You know I’ll do it, too.”
Tess leaned further into Blade’s shoulder with her own, and Blade adjusted his seating to move a little closer to her.
“So what happens now?” I said. “What, six dragons are coming back to Morrowdust with us? City’s going to be cramped.
Blackscale’s face lost its smile again, and he stared gravely at me. “Yes, I am leaving the Wyrmspire,” he said. “We all are, at the orders of the Council. And that means one more thing. It means that Bloodtooth is now Clan Elder.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine at the thought. Sarah gave a little gasp, and the boys groaned.
“That’s not good,” muttered Miles.
“It remains to be seen,” said Blackscale, almost muttering now. “Whether that will do more harm than the good that the Dragon Keepers do remains to be seen. But for now, we are victorious. For now, we may be happy.”
THE OLD MAN
TESS
I OPENED MY EYES TO find myself not back on Earth, but in the dream state. It was easier and easier to recognize it. I knew I was there the moment I awoke.
I sat up on my bedroll. The others were asleep. I saw Nora lying next to me, her hand on her sword hilt, her eyes closed peacefully. The dragons, too, rumbled with snores a few yards away. Only a few Elven sentries stood on watch, looking out at the eastern sky as it grew lighter and lighter.
Dawn was coming soon, which meant it was about to be night time back on Earth. I’d be at the fake Medicorp facility when I finally awoke.
I stood, glancing down at my body, and then noticed the old man.
He stood at the edge of the plateau, and like the Elves he was staring at the growing light in the East. But as soon as my eyes found him he turned, and his gaze met mine. He smiled and motioned me over. I didn’t recall taking any steps—one minute I was standing above my sleeping body, and the next I was beside the old man.
“Let us observe the dawn of a new day,” said the old man. “Come. There is a place I have often liked to watch it from.”
He reached out for me, and I took his hand. We floated up, up through the air, weightless as a feather but unmoved by the wind. We soared to the top of the mountain, to the peak where a single boulder marked the highest height. We settled on the boulder together, both of our legs dangling over its side, and watched the horizon swell with pink and orange.
I didn’t want to talk and break the perfect silence, but it seemed like a waste to visit with the old man in the dream state and not say anything. “Why am I here again? I haven’t seen you for days.”
“Because you have questions that need answering,” he said.
“What questions?”
He glanced at me. “Hasn’t anything odd happened to you recently? Haven’t there been forces meddling in your life that you do not understand?”
My brow furrowed. And then I saw myself on the ground below the plateau, a vision of the previous night. I saw myself reaching into Sarah’s mind, strengthening her magic with my own. And I heard the voice of an old man in my head, guiding me as I helped Sarah save us all.
“It was you,” I said. “You helped me strengthen Sarah so that we could escape.”
The old man nodded. “The Watcher is a good man, and very wise in the ways of magic. But I fear that he did not have the willpower to guide you in that moment. Had I not interfered, you all would have been lost. The Keeper of Earth could not have raised the road of stone, and Terrence would have found you in the mountain’s cleft, where he would have destroyed you.”
I shuddered as I pictured it, seeing all of our bodies lying broken in the dirt. “Well, then, thank you, I guess,” I said. “For some reason, I’m not as surprised as I feel like I should be.”
He chuckled.
It was silent a while longer. The pink deepened to red. The grey of the sky above us was so pale that it was almost blue now. Any minute now. Any minute and it would be the new day. A new day just li
ke so many other new days we’d had recently. Now this new day would see us sleeping beside Elves and fighting with the dragons.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to ask you,” I said. “How can I get the answers when I don’t even know the questions?”
“The questions are up to you,” he said. “You are the one in the dream state. I am merely an image from the past.”
“But I don’t know you.”
He sighed and placed his staff on the stone behind us. Then leaned back on his arms and kicked out his feet. He shucked his shoes off, one after the other, and they spun away into the empty space below, tumbling down the mountainside. He wiggled his bare toes in the growing warmth of the dawn. It made me smile.
“Time is a tricky thing, Keeper of the Mind,” he said. “It twists and turns and starts and stops. And sometimes, on very rare occasion, it crosses itself. That is what this dream state is. The track of your time in this world has crossroads where times converge. Where you can call upon the past for knowledge, upon the future for advice, and upon the present for guidance. I represent one such crossroads. I come to you to help.”
“Help with what, though?” I asked.
“Well, that is up to you, my dear.”
The sun broke over the horizon, and I had to squint for a moment. I looked away and let my eyes adjust to the sudden brightness. I looked at the expanse of the mountain’s cliffs and ridges to either side, watching as the line of sunlight slowly made its way down them, creeping toward my friends as they slept below.
“Yinnilith,” I began. “Why does he seem to know me? And why do I see the two of you together in my dreams?”
The old man gave a long and wheezy laugh as he picked his staff back up and placed it across his knees. “Yinnilith. Yinnilith, the Elf. He is an old soul, the oldest you have yet had the pleasure to meet. Older even than Longtooth, that senile old dragon.” But the old man spoke even Longtooth’s name with great fondness, and a smile tickled the edges of his mouth.
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 75