by Logan Jacobs
back into place.
“Tell me more about that brunette,” the other guy laughed.
I turned to smile at Asta, and the elf girl looked prouder than I’d ever
seen her before. Her newfound powers gave her extra confidence, and I could
tell she felt like she was more a part of the team than she’d been before.
We crossed the back garden area quickly, but I glanced around as we
went. The place was beautiful, even in the moonlight. There were huge
bushes with flowers and plenty of fruit trees around the edge of it. There was
also a large garden area to one side that put my garden to shame, though I
was sure they needed ten times the food to feed everyone who lived at the
castle.
We reached the white stone steps that led up to the main part of the
castle, and I stopped for a second to look up and admire how truly huge the
place was. I wasn’t sure how many stories it had to it, but on a nice day it
nearly reached the clouds in height. It must have taken years to build, but it
was beautiful. The outside was all white stone with some golden accents here
and there, and I could see why Kas would think the inside was all gold as a
little girl.
I looked around as we made our way up the back steps, but I didn’t see
any guards nearby. I guess they figured anybody who attempted to break in
through the garden door would first have to go through the guards by the
gate. Then again, Odin and Freya were loved in Asgard, so I doubted they felt
they needed much protection. Not that Odin needed protection at all, since he
was a fearsome fighter, but you couldn’t be a king without guards of some
sort.
We came to a set of large, wooden doors painted white with bright
golden handles. I slowly opened the door, and it creaked slightly, but I peered through the small slit and saw no one, so I opened it wide enough for us all to
sneak in and close it behind us.
“Whoa,” Kas breathed as she looked around with violet eyes full of
amazement.
I would have reminded her to be quiet, but there was nobody nearby,
and the sight before us was extremely breathtaking. I didn’t know how
somebody could look at it and not say something.
The back door had led us to a huge open area with fifty-foot-high
ceilings. The floors were a beautiful dark wood, but the walls were still the
same white stone as the outside. Small golden accents were everywhere, from
door handles to pillars, and on every wall there was a beautiful painting that
depicted Asgard’s history.
The wall to my right had a painting of Odin standing over a frost giant.
The giant’s head was cut off and at the king’s feet, and blood splattered all
over Odin’s face. The colors were beautiful, and the painting itself was as tall
as I was as it hung in a golden frame.
I shook my head to refocus, and I reminded myself we only had a
certain amount of time before the spell wore off. The girls and the dragons
were utterly enthralled with the castle, too, though, so I carefully tapped them
on the shoulders and gestured for them to follow me.
Inger was now on Asta’s shoulder, and Uffe was on Kas, and they all
nodded and followed Blar and me as we led them down the hallway.
I knew the hall of elders would be to our right somewhere, so I took
the first right I could find and led us down another hallway lined with an
ornate red rug and several tables that held swords and shields of past heroes.
We snuck past the doors in the hallway, but just as we got to the end of
it and were about to step out into another open area, Freya whizzed by right
in front of me. My heart rate spiked immediately, and I held my breath as I
stayed perfectly still.
“I don’t want to hear it, Odin,” the beautiful, blonde goddess queen
said. She wore a white dress with a golden clasp on the shoulder, and her fair
hair hung down to the back of her knees and swirled around as she walked.
The air shimmered around her with the power of her magic, and her beauty
almost made my heart stop beating.
“Darling, please,” Odin’s voice sighed, then a second later he followed
Freya right past us.
The god was even more intimidating in person with his long, white
hair that hung down his back, and the eyepatch that covered his right eye. I’d
always seen him as a fearsome warrior, but in this moment, he seemed softer
than I ever imagined he could be as he chased after his goddess wife.
The queen was obviously upset, but their bickering faded quickly as
they rounded a corner and disappeared out of sight.
I turned to face the girls and saw both they and the dragons had huge
eyes. That had been incredibly close, If I’d taken one more step, I would have
run right into Freya, and though she wouldn’t have been able to see me, she
could have felt me, which would have been even stranger.
I didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if we’d
been discovered just now. I didn’t believe Odin would have outright killed
us, but I was just a lowly banner warrior, and being discovered by the king
after we’d broken into his castle would no doubt end my existence.
Once my heart stopped pounding, I led us further into the castle and
toward the direction the council room was, until eventually we came across a
door that was barred with a huge golden lock.
“This must be it,” I whispered.
“How are we going to open it?” Kas asked, and her violet eyes were
panicked.
I thought for a moment, then I walked over and tried the door. It didn’t
budge, so I looked around quickly and found a table with more decor on it.
This one had several feathers cast in gold, a dagger, and a few other things,
but I was most interested in the feathers.
I carefully picked up two of them in an attempt to make the least
amount of noise possible, then I turned and headed toward the door.
“What are you doing?” Kas whispered fervently.
“Trust me,” I told her as I knelt down in front of the huge white doors.
Growing up, I’d learned a thing or two, and one of those was how to
pick locks. It wasn’t a skill I liked to use very often, but it was one that came
naturally to me and that I’d had plenty of years to perfect. As an orphan, it
was a great way to stay out of the cold at night. I could pick the lock on
someone’s shop or barn and stay there, and that’s what I did until I found the
place I now called home and fixed it up.
Blar put his front paws on my knee and stared at my hands as I worked
the gold feathers into the huge lock. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to
listen, and after a few seconds I heard the distinct click I needed, so I
carefully withdrew the feathers before I tried the door again.
This time, it opened easily, and Kas and Asta stared at me with
shocked faces while I smiled and gestured for them to head inside.
I quickly returned the feathers to their rightful places, then followed
behind the girls through the huge white and gold doors.
Once inside, I felt around and managed to grab a candle from a table
by the door, and I had Blar light it for us s
ince there didn’t appear to be any windows in the room. The space was incredibly dark, and at this point, I
wasn’t sure we were even in the right area.
With the candlelight flickering in my hand, I could tell the room we
stepped into was at total odds from the rest of the castle. While the castle was
pristine and completely clean and tidy, this room looked as though it hadn’t
seen the light of day in years.
The whole place seemed to be covered in a thick layer of dust, and
even the fireplace on the far wall had cobwebs in it. Still, this was definitely
the right room. One wall was lined with shelves that held dragon eggs of
various shapes, sizes, and colors, and the rest of the space was filled with
scrolls, books, and paintings of dragons that must have been torn down from
around the castle and hidden here.
“This place is so creepy,” Asta whispered, and she grabbed a nearby
painting that faced the wall and turned it around so we could see.
It depicted a huge black dragon with a male in the forefront.
Immediately, I felt a disconnect with the image, and I knew that had to be
Vinrar. The man had long, straight black hair, and a scar curved down his
chin. His eyes were a dark blue, and he wore a navy tunic to match.
The dragon in the background looked fierce, but something about the
way it was posed struck me as wrong. It didn’t look relaxed or comfortable, it looked scared. Its tail was curled around it, and while its head was lifted
slightly, its shoulders were hunched, and it kept its belly to the ground. I
didn’t know a lot about dragon behavior yet, but something about this one
didn’t feel right.
Blar walked over to the painting and put his front two paws on the
dragon before he turned to look at me with sad blue eyes.
“I know, buddy,” I sighed, then I looked around the room. “Okay, we
don’t have much time. Let’s spread out and see what we can find. Just
remember to be quiet.”
The girls nodded, and Kas headed to a nearby table while Asta walked
over to the dragon eggs. I could see the one we’d brought to the council. It
was on the bottom shelf and had the least amount of dust on it, so it stood out,
but as I looked at the other eggs, I wondered where they all came from. Some
were scaly like the twins had been, and others were smooth but vibrant in
color. Then there was a small one in the corner that was speckled like Blar’s
had been, and I looked down at the little dragon next to me and wondered
where he’d come from.
I headed to the closest table full of books then, and I thought if I found
the right volume, I’d be able to figure out where Blar’s home world was. It
would be nice to have more information on him as a species and his specific
abilities as well.
I looked through the books around me and found several about dragon
lore and all the realms they were found in, but a lot of it appeared to be old
myths instead of facts. As I perused the tables and books, though, I stumbled
across a table over in the far corner that was cleaner than the others. It was
clear this table had been used fairly recently, and I figured it must have been
the council, since they’d obviously been in here to put the dragon egg away.
Did the council have to steer clear of Odin when they came in this
room, too? The room was locked up, and I hadn’t seen any other locks as
we’d gone through the castle, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Odin tried to keep
everyone out, council member or not.
The desk in front of me was cleared of dust, but there was a candle on
it, so I lit that with my own and looked at the book open on the table.
Blar jumped up onto the desk and peered over my arm as I read the
words on the page.
The book described how dragons could be used as weapons for war,
and how to train them to properly assist Aesir in the fights. I read about how
dragons had assisted in several wars since they were domesticated in Asgard,
but before that the Aesir and dragons seemed to coexist peacefully. There
were even stories of untrained dragons running into Aesir and being nothing
but friendly.
It looked like one of the council members must have been doing
research about how to use the dragons in the battle against the frost giants.
There were a couple of scrolls next to the book that talked about how dragon
eggs hatched, how they required warmth and the presence of their mother,
and how they could sit dormant for years and still hatch later. I was shocked
to know all the eggs on the shelves could still be potential dragons, and I
wondered if they’d ever get hatched.
How had I managed to hatch the eggs anyways? I’d provided heat, but
the scroll said they required the presence of their mother to hatch.
Apparently, dragons were quite finicky creatures, and if something happened
to the mother, then some of them may never hatch, unless another mother
took the egg in and kept it as her own.
Had it been our bond? Was I like a mother, or rather father, dragon in
some way? Is that why the eggs had hatched for me?
The thought was strange, but I couldn’t think of anything else to
explain how the eggs had hatched if the words on the scroll were accurate.
So, I shook the thought out of my head for the time being and focused on the
book in front of me.
Blar laid down by my hand and looked at each page as I slowly flipped
through the book. His little blue head moved just slightly as if he were reading the pages with me, and I absentmindedly reached over to scratch
under his chin.
The book showed depictions of dragons that used to live in Asgard,
and they looked similar to the ones in Asta’s home world, but not quite the
same. The Asgardian dragons appeared to be a bit longer in their bodies, with
less of a large stomach and back area. They were more of a cross between
Blar and the twins, and they came in all different colors, though I saw several
illustrations of black ones with deep purple or blue eyes. One picture showed
a black one with yellow eyes like Asta’s, and the contrast just made the
creature that much more beautiful.
I moved to turn the page of the book on the desk, but then I noticed an
unfolded scroll underneath, so I set the book aside and picked up the scroll.
To my surprise, it was more information about Vinrar. This scroll told
of his rise to power among the dragons and how he’d captured one as an
infant, and that was where it had all begun. The one he captured was the same
black creature as the one in the painting Asta had turned around for us to see.
It was huge, with piercing white eyes that stared into my soul, even through
the picture on the scroll.
Apparently, Vinrar had raised this creature, who he called Tombin,
from the time he was a baby. The dragon grew to listen to him, and once it
was fully grown, Vinrar had taught the creature to allow him to ride on his back.
After his accomplishments with Tombin, he decided to train other
dragons and sell them to people. He sold many to Aesir warriors, who kept
them as pets and also used them in battle. The largest dragons he could find,
though, he would train for Odin to be used in whatever battle the king saw fit.
As I read, I realized this scroll must have been very outdated. The way
it talked of Vinrar was as if he’d accomplished something instead of torturing
dragons and creating a hostile situation they eventually had to escape from.
The more I read, the more detail it told of how Vinrar was the only
man capable of training the dragons because he had no fear of them. It
described how he would use a whip to direct them and teach them as babies
to listen to his commands.
The dragons were kept in a shed on his land, and he would starve those
that were the most spirited of food and water, which made them all the more
dangerous.
I closed my eyes at this point, and then I felt Blar nudge my hand
before his two paws touched my chest.
I opened my eyes to see the little blue dragon’s face just inches away
from my own. He wanted me to know he was okay, I knew that, but it still
hurt me to think about this horrible man who had mistreated so many
dragons. It wasn’t just a few, it was hundreds from what I could tell, and it
made me sick to my stomach to even think about it.
I never wanted another dragon to have to go through the pain and
torment these had gone through, especially Tombin. I felt the worst for him,
since he’d been just an infant when captured and tortured, and not only had
he been tormented into submission, but then he was forced to watch as the
other dragons of the land were, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one
who began the dragon revolt.
I stroked down Blar’s back and smiled at him.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, and the little dragon rubbed his head against
my chin. His skin was soft and cool, but his horns were sharp and hard, and
he scratched them against my beard as he nuzzled me.
I vowed right then I would never allow any of my dragons to fear me
like that. I’d never treat them with anything but the respect they deserved as
the noble and intelligent creatures they were.
“Rath,” Kas whispered quickly as she ran over to me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We’re running out of time,” the sorceress told me, and she held up the
same piece of paper as before. There was only half of it between her fingers,