Embers at Galdrilene

by Audra Trosper

  The head cook turned and her eyes went wide. “Di’shan Mckale, what are you doing here?”

  “I thought to take my morning meal here, unless you have objections, or if I will be in your way.”

  “You want to take your meal here?” She smoothed her apron. “Well, I have no objections, there are plenty of open tables. I’m surprised you’re not taking it in the Dining Hall now that you‘ve been properly introduced.”

  He smiled at her. “When it’s not a formal requirement, I prefer simpler surroundings. I’m more comfortable in them.”

  She bowed slightly to him. “Yes of course, I understand.” Her expression made it clear she didn’t really understand at all.

  He abandoned the idea of offering to serve himself and sat down at an empty table. Within minutes a serving girl brought his morning meal along with a pitcher of tea and a heavy cup of coffee. He’d developed a taste for the strong brew and found it much to his liking.

  Several other tables sat groups of servants, already enjoying their morning meal. None of them tried to join him, but they glanced at him several times as if they weren’t sure what to make of having him in their midst. He hoped he hadn’t upset them by coming to the kitchen instead of sitting in the grander place of the Dining Hall.

  He looked out over the plateau. Long shadows cast by the towering rim lay across it from the rising sun. At the far end, the shadows gave way and the lake sparkled in the early sunlight. He reached out to Tellnox and found him still sound asleep. Maleena also would be sleeping for a while.

  He was still astonished he could know so much about her physical and mental condition. Would their dragons really be compatible when they matured? Would he be able to sense her if they weren’t bondmates? So many questions he didn’t have the answers for. Perhaps Emallya or Bardeck could answer them.

  He glanced up as Vaddoc, Kirynn and Serena wandered into the cavern. They took seats at the table with him and mumbled morning greetings. This time the cook said nothing and the serving girls delivered the food and drink as if it were perfectly normal to have Dragon Riders eating in the kitchen amongst servants.

  As Mckale finished his meal, he felt Tellnox wake and leave his lair to feed. Mckale excused himself and left the kitchen. He walked down the length of the plateau to sit on the large pile of boulders next to the lake and watch the green dragon.

  It didn’t take long for Tellnox to eat his fill and then splash into the cold lake. The draclet waded to the shore and Mckale couldn’t help but admire him. The green scales sparkled with the water running off in rivulets. Tellnox spread his wings wide to dry in the air. Mckale ran his hand over the small bud emerging at the tip of the wing closest to him. One day that bud would become a formidable talon. He saw a matching bud at the knuckle in the leading edge of the wing and smaller buds on the supports where they met the trailing edge.

  Using his hands, he raked water off the supple scales to speed the drying. What would the scales feel like when they hardened?

  “They will feel as they do now, supple and flexible. But they will be strong enough to deflect arrows and swords,” Tellnox sent, answering his rider’s unspoken thoughts.

  “So they will always bend and move like this?” Mckale asked.

  “Yes. Movement would be difficult if they didn’t. I cannot imagine trying to curl around and sleep with scales that would not bend.”

  Mckale laughed softly. “I suppose that wouldn’t be comfortable.” He thought for a moment then asked, “So your scales couldn’t resist an arrow or sword now?”

  “No, they would go right through my scales. That is why it is best for me to stay within the Dragon Hold.”

  “I don’t think anyone in Galdrilene would harm you.” The idea made Mckale’s stomach turn.

  “Not now perhaps, but at one time there was always that threat. Mernoth said it is not a chance worth taking,” Tellnox sent.

  Mckale agreed with Mernoth. He couldn’t see any reason to endanger the draclet. “Won’t you get restless being stuck within the hold’s walls?”

  The green yawned, his jaws opening wide and exposing dagger like teeth. “I do not think so. Sleep sounds better.”

  Mckale shook his head, but couldn’t help smiling. “You’ve barely been awake any time at all.”

  “Maybe so, but I can think of nothing I would rather do.”

  He laughed softly as the dragon settled his bulk on the grass next to the lake. “Go to sleep then my friend. I have no doubt you will wake larger than you are now.”

  Tellnox closed his big silver eyes and rumbled what Mckale could only think of the dragon equivalent of a chuckle.

  Mckale walked down the length of the crater and through the cavernous Great Hall. His footsteps echoed slightly in the quiet. The massive pillars lining the walls drew him. He reached out, tracing the design in the cool marble beneath his fingers. The stone welcomed him, welcomed his touch. It made no sense, but he felt it regardless. He examined the dragons and roses carved into the pillar. Each scale on the dragons and each rose petal was carved in exquisite detail.

  He almost expected to see the dragons turn to look at him or the veined leaves of the rose vines shift in a nonexistent wind. The longer he looked at the carvings the more real they seemed.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  Mckale spun around, his hands reaching for the hilts of his swords. A tall, rail thin man with fly away white hair stood behind him. The man’s bushy white eyebrows perched above sharp blue eyes.

  He smiled at Mckale and moved to stand next to him, his eyes on the carvings. “Crafting such as this is quite extraordinary and has not been duplicated since the dragons fell. The Earth mages can do simple things, but their power is not great enough to make carvings that seem alive.” He glanced at Mckale’s hands for the first time. “I have no intention of attacking you. I can only hope your intentions go no further than they already have.”

  Mckale forced himself to relax and removed his hands from the sword hilts. This man meant him no harm. “Please forgive me. You startled me.”

  “You are young to have a reflex that has you grabbing for a sword. What life have you led that makes you react so?”

  “I was a Border Guard in Calladar,” Mckale said. He recognized the man from the night before, but couldn’t remember his name.

  The old man nodded. “Ah yes, I remember now. Please forgive me, sometimes my mind wanders off and forgets to leave me much needed information. I should have announced my presence and I apologize for not doing so.”

  “You are not the only one who has forgotten things,” Mckale answered. “I can’t seem to bring your name to mind.”

  “Understandable, you met many people and were given an awful lot of names in a very short period of time. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Davin Po, the University Headmaster.”

  Mckale bowed slightly. “Well met, Master Po. I am Mckale Mandarran.”

  The wrinkles on Po’s face folded themselves into a smile that reached his eyes. “Well met, Di’shan Mckale.”

  Mckale smiled back. “You said there are Earth mages?”

  “Yes, there are six mage towers, one for each of the six powers. One tower houses the Earth mages and their students.”

  “What does an Earth mage do?”

  “Well, the same thing as you I expect, only not on so grand a scale. Dragon Riders have powers that are amplified many times over what a mage can do. One day when you have control of your powers, you will be able to move mountains or near enough anyway. An Earth mage, no matter how much control or how many are linked, will never be able to do more than make the mountain nervous.”

  “Linked?”

  Po nodded. “Yes. Mages of the same magic can link together to increase the amount of power they can use. But only a Spirit mage can link or weave the different powers together. Only a Silver Rider is strong enough to link and weave the powers of other riders.”

  “So mages aren’t as strong as riders?” Mckale felt a li
ttle disappointed. He’d hoped the Earth mages would be able to help him learn to use his magic and he said as much to Po.

  “Oh, but they can.” The old man’s eyebrows waggled as if to confirm what he said. “They may not have as much power, but the execution is still the same. In fact, they have to teach you. There is no one else who can.”

  “What about Emallya and Bardeck? Why can’t they teach me?”

  “Because they don’t have your magic. They might as well try to teach a bee to collect nectar. They wouldn’t know how. From what I understand, Emallya can teach the Silver Rider. Bardeck, who possesses a dual power, can teach the other Border Guard and the healer from Trilene. Though they will learn from the mages as well. You and the other two will have to be taught by the mages only. They are the only ones who have the proper knowledge of your magic.”

  Mckale nodded. It made sense, but who had taught the mages? “If the end of the War of Fire destroyed Galdrilene how did the mages learn how to use their magic?”

  Po shook his head. “The city was destroyed, young man, and a good many of its people, but not all of them. Many of the older mages were within the walls of the Dragon Hold and survived. Enough to teach when new mages finally found their way here. A good thing, too. Otherwise you and the other two would have to bumble about, causing the Fates know what damage before you learned enough to get by.”

  A twinge of excitement coursed through Mckale. “How do I find these Earth mages?”

  “I will take you there.” Po smiled wryly. “Heleanna will be chomping at the proverbial bit to meet you anyway.”

  “Who is Heleanna?”

  “She is the Mage Councilor of the Tower of Earth.”

  A brief memory of a woman, her silver white hair in a bun, flashed through his mind. “Didn’t I meet her last night?”

  “That, my young man, was an introduction.” Po’s blue eyes fixed him with a serious look. “One can hardly equate an exchange of names at a busy dinner with a proper meeting. Heleanna won’t consider that she truly met you until she’s had the chance to sit and talk with you. Come, let me take you to her so there can be a true meeting between you two.” Mckale followed the Headmaster out of the hall across the outer terrace and down the massive stairs beyond.

  The same single petal roses carved into the pillars grew in abundance on the outer slopes of the rim. Some appeared to grow out of nothing more than tiny cracks, the vines clinging to and climbing the sheer rock. They blanketed the outer rim. Their clusters of blooms ranged from white, to delicate pale pink, to rich dark pink. Each cluster contained all the variations of the colors with white petals brushed against pale pink and dark pink in the same cluster.

  He turned his attention to Po. Though Po walked with the posture and step of a much younger man, Mckale watched him closely. How would the old man handle walking down so many steps?

  Po glanced over at him and smiled. “There is no need to worry about me, young man.”

  The statement caught Mckale by surprise. How did the man know what he’d been thinking? “Are you a mage?”

  Po chuckled softly. “No, I’m not. I haven’t a speck of magic in me. It doesn’t take any of those mind tricks the Spirit mages do to read the look on your face. The Fates have graced me with good health and vitality, even now that I am old. If I’m lucky they will see their way to let me die as I see fit.”

  Mckale smiled, his curiosity piqued. “And how would that be?”

  “If I have my way, I’ll be at the very top of the ladder in the University library reaching for a book when I just croak over dead.”

  “Why would you want to die like that?”

  “It will mean not only will I be in my favorite place, but also that I am still able to climb those ladders.” Po’s eyes sparkled with humor. “Of course, the Fates can be tricky and have their own sense of humor. I may very well die that way, but by then I may be feeble and have limited control of my mental faculties. I may only be in the library because my senile mind thinks I’m still teaching and I die because my body is too frail to handle the climb to the top of the ladder without giving up.” He laughed heartily, as though the idea of the Fates playing such a trick highly amused him.

  The city was unlike anything Mckale had ever seen. The wide streets fanned out in an organized manner, each paved with large flat stones and already full of people going about their business as the morning sun spilled among the buildings. The same pink and white roses of the rim climbed up many of the walls and created fragrant garlands of natural decoration.

  The signs above the various shops caught his eye. Words accompanied the pictures he was accustomed to on signs. He glanced at the tall, wiry man walking beside him. “Do many people in Galdrilene read?”

  Po’s eyes widened as if he’d asked if many of the people in Galdrilene breathed air. “Of course,” the old man answered emphatically. “Only the very young don’t know how to read. Education is very important here in Galdrilene.”

  They passed through an open air market, full of small children playing. Some tossed a stone and skipped through a series of squares drawn on the pavement, others carried puppies around like they were babies while the mother dogs looked on anxiously and adults supervised.

  A short time after passing through the market, Po stopped in front of an enormous building. “This is where the bulk of the learning goes on. This is the University, where everyone comes to be educated.”

  “Educated in what?”

  Po didn’t take his eyes off the building. “Reading, writing, numbers, history, reading maps and stars etc.”

  Mckale raised an eyebrow. “Anyone can learn?”

  “Yes, anyone can learn. Here in Galdrilene expansion of the mind is insisted upon, creativity is cultivated, and ideas are encouraged,” Po said with enthusiasm. “You too my young man, you will learn these things.”

  “I will be attending this University of yours?” Mckale had to admit the idea of learning the things Po talked about appealed to him.

  Po shook his head, making the thin, wispy hair atop his head fly around like it meant to take off. “Goodness no, young Di’shan. I and several of the senior academics will be teaching you within the hold itself. There are so many things for you to learn, it would be best to teach you there rather than have you running all over the city.” He smiled and clapped Mckale on the shoulder. “Come along now, Heleanna will have my hide if she thinks I’ve spent the whole of the morning keeping you to myself.”

  They walked on through the streets, passing houses with well kept little front gardens, and shops with tidy storefronts of tables laden with neatly, stacked goods. Large windows of glass showed the wares inside other shops. A butcher shop had sausages, slabs of smoked bacon, hams, and other meats hanging. A seamstress shop showed bolts of material and rolls of ribbon prominently displayed along with two dresses to showed the skill of the seamstress.

  The apparent abundance of prosperity in the city surprised Mckale, as did the wide use of glass. He’d never seen so many of the expensive panes in his life and certainly never in something so simple as a storefront. In his travels to Trilene and Shadereen, as well as where he lived, he had never seen glass planes in anything other than a lord’s manor.

  Finally they stopped in front of one of the six towers that reached high into the sky. A road, twice as wide as any they had walked, ran along the inside of the wall. It separated the tower and the rest of the city from the wall with fifty yards of paving stones.

  Mckale looked at the tower, its base ringed with fenced gardens and chickens that scratched the ground inside secure pens. Two milk goats, one black with tan stripes on its face, the other cream and white, raised their heads and looked at him with interest from their pen. Their ears were so tiny at first he thought they had no ears at all.

  Po led him past the gardens, chickens, and goats, and through a heavy wooden door. Inside, Mckale blinked to adjust his eyes to the darker interior. A room as large as the circumference of the tower spr
ead out, its walls lined with shelves of books. In the middle of the room, a staircase began a wide spiral up through the center of the tower.

  He followed Po up the stairs. Each level of the tower revealed a small landing and a door. The top level was no different and when they reached it, Po knocked softly.

  They waited only a moment before it opened. A woman in long, deep green robes greeted them, her youthful face at odds with her thick, silver white hair. “Good morning, Headmaster Po.” She smiled and turned her hazel eyes on Mckale. “I see you have brought the young Earth Di’shan.”

  “That I have, Mage Councilor Heleanna. I will take my leave. You have much to talk about and I have other things to attend to.”

  Heleanna bade him goodbye before turning to Mckale. Taking his hand in a strong grip, she pulled him toward a small group of chairs. “Come in and sit, young man. I will send for coffee and tea.”

  While he sat down, she walked over and pulled a cord several times in a pattern. He glanced around. Shelves of books lined the walls and a heavy desk occupied the other side of the room. “Do you live here in the tower?”

  “No, neither I nor any of the mages live in the tower.” She stood and walked to one of the windows, beckoning him to follow. When he joined her at the window she pointed at a large collection of modest houses, with neatly thatched roofs spreading out around the tower in a fan shape that started at the edge of the road on one side and reached around to the road on the other.

  “That is where I and my fellow Earth mages live. Students live in the houses nearest the tower and all take part in caring for the animals and gardens. We supply as much for ourselves as we can. Each of the mage towers is set up in the same way. The tower itself is a place for learning and for the offices of the mages who oversee various things.”

  A knock at the door announced the arrival of the tea and coffee, and they returned to their seats. A young man in pale green robes set a tray with cups, a teapot, and small pitcher on a low table and left.

  Heleanna smiled and sat in a chair on the other side of the table. “Tea or coffee Di’shan?”