“No, Wielder, thank you.” Ilyadra drew back slightly. “I am not ashamed, nor do I tell you our story to curry favor or pity. My people have more than enough pride,” she smiled again. “In any respect, it matters not.” She waved aside the distraction and continued her story. “We travel seldom to the north, to buy what we can and trade what we have, and, in this way, we survive. We are resourceful as a matter of survival, but we are also pragmatic, and our pragmatism extends to help those who have saved our lives.”
14 - Savior
The mention of having saved the lives of the Dar’Duz had an immediate and silencing impact on both Krieger and Grettune who both turned to face Perryn, whose face just as quickly turned pink as he hid it behind a bowl and took a long drink.
“What story is this, then, that we haven’t yet heard,” Grettune asked her husband. She wasn’t angry, in fact, she was proud of Perryn, but to not be told something so important immediately made her feel that he and Ilyadra had been purposefully holding back from her.
“If it pleases the Wielder, I will be honored to tell his story.” Perryn nodded gratefully to Ilyadra and maintained his silence at the foot of the table.
“When we made our camp at the oasis, we moved far from you, not only to give you privacy and respect, but also to keep you from becoming involved in our troubles.” As the leader of her people Ilyadra didn’t like admitting the difficulties they faced, and Grettune could tell that in the battle of pride versus gratitude, the latter had won out as she continued her story.
“As we left Swinton, my scouts and spies let it be known that there were those who might follow us, those who had been hired by advisors of the Dynast to see to it that we did not set foot in Duzmet again. Of course, there is no way to prove a connection to the Dynast or even to his advisors, but proof means little if you are dead.” Ilyadra stood from her place at the head of the table and moved around the room, behind Perryn and to a large firepit built into the wall.
“Behind our caravan another rode, by our spies’ estimation, the better part of a day behind us – far enough back to be almost unnoticed on the horizon. Our people in Swinton made sure the mercenaries knew Wielders traveled with us, and in this way, we made it as far as the oasis before they made their move. They came upon us from the south, so they must have ridden like madmen through the night to go far around us and come back. Of our patrols, one made it back to warn us – or more specifically, to warn Wielder Perryn.”
Perryn held up his right hand and Ilyadra stopped and he looked to his friends before picking up the story.
“I was looking at the stars and the vastness of the sky when I heard a noise and saw a man crawling toward me on the sand. There were several arrows in his back, and still he moved, blood falling from his lips and the sand caked on his face. When he saw me, his eyes grew wide one last time and he said simply, ‘they come’ and pointed toward the camp beyond our own. When I turned to see, his hand and head fell to the desert floor. What happened next, I remember but faintly, but it all happened very quickly. I realized I had to protect you,” Perryn turned to Grettune and smiled. “I shielded our camp from noise and sight, and buried the man lying in the sand, and ran toward the other camp. When I got there, I found three men with blood on their swords and hands making their way to the tent in the middle of the camp.
“They saw me almost at once – how could they not?” Perryn laughed quietly to himself and Ilyadra’s face softened as if she felt sorry for him. Grettune wondered how he had run into camp and caused such a reaction from trained assassins. Even with his collar, Perryn was still just one man.
“There were three men in the camp and a fourth just beyond. After dispatching the three, it took some time to catch the fourth, and then the desert was quiet again. I searched quickly to see if there were more, but there were not, so I came back to the oasis and Ilyadra and her people were burying the remains of the intruders.
“I knew they prepared to leave, and so I used magic to pack their camp and they offered to take me here.”
The room was silent for several long breaths as Grettune tried to find what was missing in her husband’s story. Krieger shared her look, but it was obvious he was going to remain silent, understanding this was a story for her and her husband. It was Ilyadra who began filling in the missing pieces.
“Grettune, your husband leaves out some very important parts of the story, but I assure you it is done from a place of love for you, and for your unborn child.”
Perryn had obviously shared much with this woman and Grettune couldn’t help but being a little annoyed as she stared at Perryn, wondering what he could share with a stranger that he couldn’t share with her. She opened her mouth to ask just that when Perryn started talking again, speaking directly into the empty water bowl he held in his hands.
“I know you and Lydria think I am not up to much as a wielder,” he said, waving off a small noise that Grettune was starting to make in denial of the claim. “The truth is, I have gotten quite good at magic, and can do a lot, but there is one thing I can do very well, and I’ve kept it hidden from you and Lydria. From everyone, in fact, except Burvig.”
At the mention of the dragon’s name, Grettune couldn’t hide her surprise, but said nothing.
“I was in the forest, some distance to the west of Brookfield at the base of the Frostspines near a small pond where Burvig was drinking and I introduced myself. We spoke for quite a long time and he told me of how he and the others came to be and that there were whispers among them that there might be a way for them to return to their human form. He didn’t believe it, and he was suspicious when the other dragons wouldn’t tell him where they had heard of such a thing. We also talked about me, and the changes I had undergone while wearing the collar.” Perryn looked down at his empty water bowl and sighed. “Burvig said I should tell you everything. He said you would understand and that my fear was baseless. I was scared you wouldn’t accept this new part of me. But mostly, I was scared this part of me would become all of me.”
Perryn stopped talking but neither Krieger nor Grettune could think of anything to say. Finally, after moments of silence that seemed to stretch for hours, it was Ilyadra who broke the tension. “Show them, Wielder. Show them the savior of the Dar’Duz.”
Perryn gripped Grettune’s fingers quickly and then pulled his hand away and stood, moving quickly from the room and down the hall to a doorway that opened to a courtyard. The others followed and Grettune was dimly aware of more eyes watching them from windows in the ruins. Perryn looked to his wife and smiled stiffly, intent on going through with whatever he was doing before he could change his mind. He closed his eyes and his collar glowed faintly for a single moment and in the next moment, where Perryn the barkeep of Brookfield had stood, now stood something far larger, and it was all Grettune could do not to let out a small scream of surprise. Krieger, who through all he had seen with magic had been surprised by very little, had his sword half-drawn before he recovered and settled himself, his face showing clearly that he was working hard to maintain his calm.
From the windows around them, a cheer went up from the unseen Dar’Duz, and Perryn turned and waved to them.
“I do not know if Perryn can speak, as he said nothing to us when in this form,” Ilyadra said, her words reaching Grettune’s ears but not drawing her eyes from what stood in front of her. Perryn was more than twice as tall as Keldon, the largest man Grettune had ever seen, who stood at least seven feet tall. But Perryn was no longer a man – he was more like a dragon – but very unlike a dragon. He had no wings, but his arms were enormous; long and strong with forearms as large as his biceps which were the size of Grettune’s waist. They were arms that could tear trees out of the ground like picking a flower. One of his hands could easily grasp Krieger and both would fully encircle him.
“While he doesn’t speak, he can hear us, and he understands what we say,” Ilyadra said quietly to Grettune, encouraging her to say something. She nodded mutely and
moved several feet closer, continuing to stare at her husband. “Perryn? Perryn, can you hear me?”
Perryn’s head swung around and down to face Grettune and he nodded. His face had similarities to the creatures of Dragaven, but it was smaller. His jaw wasn’t as long as a dragon’s, extending perhaps only half as far, and his teeth were smaller in proportion to his jaw. His ears were tall and pointed, rising straight up, the dark orange tufted fur standing nearly a foot above his eyes. Perryn’s eyes were also in contrast to the dragons. Burvig and the others had large, dark swept eyes that glared at everything they saw. Perryn’s eyes were long, standing vertically the length of Grettune’s hand, their diamond-shaped pupils scanning the scene as Grettune continued to stare. It was in these oddly-shaped eyes, however, that she found her husband. His eyes were the key to his emotions both in life and in this form, and here they clearly spoke to her of the concern he had voiced before changing, that she wouldn’t love him because of what he could become.
The Dar’Duz children had come out from their homes and were calling out to Perryn who turned to look at them, his head tilted sideways as if asking them what they wanted. Grettune sighed inwardly, glad that her husband didn’t have a tail, but his torso had elongated, and his legs reformed with massive thighs designed to carry his weight. His fingers could easily reach the ground but his hands, with their knife-edge nails, disappeared when they approached the dirt. The same was true of his feet which Grettune expected to end in large talons like the dragons, but Perryn’s didn’t have feet – his legs ended about six inches above the ground, replaced by a swirling grey cloud. As he chased the children in the sand and dirt, Perryn left no trace of his passage.
Scaled armor began below his chest at the bottom of his rib cage and continued to just above his knees. The scales fit him tightly as if they were a part of him like his collar, moving with him and never coming away from his body. His arms and chest were covered with a thick, matted and dark orange fur.
Grettune called to her husband and looked into the creature’s eyes again. His collar was half-hidden by fur, and reading the expression in the elongated and hard face with it’s tall, narrow eyes was difficult, but she finally found what she was looking for, and it wasn’t in Perryn’s face, it was in herself, and she moved forward and raising herself into the air, her collar shining, she hugged her husband around the neck and was greeted by his long snout rubbing up against her head and the first kick of her baby.
“I love you, Perryn. Come back and talk to me.”
In a moment, Grettune and Perryn were standing on the packed dirt holding each other, and his eyes, now level with her own were wet with tears. “I was so worried you would run away or want nothing to do with me.” Grettune said nothing but held her husband’s hand to her stomach where they waited for only a moment before their child kicked again.
15 - The Desert City
The streets of Duzmet were alive with the sound of celebration throughout the night as the Dar’Duz welcomed Krieger and the wife of their savior. In the morning, as the sun rose, the town was quiet again as the Dar’Duz slept.
Krieger had found accommodations of his own and didn’t interrupt Perryn and Grettune until late the next morning, bringing them a breakfast of dates, nuts, and sweet pastries.
“What you can do is extraordinary, Perryn; and that’s saying something considering everything I’ve seen in the last couple years.” Krieger was sitting on the floor nearby the bed where his friends still lay under a cool sheet. Understanding that this was Krieger’s way of asking about his power, Perryn smiled, happy to finally be able to discuss it openly.
“The first time it happened I was so scared. My first thought, despite the snout and teeth and everything else, was, ‘where are my feet?’ It’s very odd running without feet, but it’s done in the same way. They are there, I suppose, but not there, if you follow, and it’s a very good thing too, because I would hate to see what type of tracks I would leave.”
Perryn continued speaking, gathering steam as Grettune and Krieger listened. Most interesting to Grettune was that when he transformed back into his human form, Perryn was healed of magical injury and refreshed.
“This makes you considerably powerful, Perryn. If you can work yourself to exhaustion and just transform and come back healed to do it again…”
Perryn stopped her quickly, understanding her thought. “I can only transform once per day – at least I haven’t been able to do more yet, though I’ve tried.”
“Why would you not want to tell us about this?” It was a question Grettune had asked before, but she wanted Krieger to know the answer as well.
“Burvig suggested I should. It was he who first found me deep in the woods and far from home. As he approached, I made to flee, but he spoke to me and called me cousin. I stopped and listened, and he suggested I tell you at once. ‘You are very fortunate,’ he told me, ‘that you can regain your human form. You should share this gift with the ones closest to you at once so that they might not mistake your absence for … something more personal. And, it may be wise that they know now, so that you are not mistaken for an enemy should you need to use your gift in their defense one day’.”
“My biggest fear, however,” and Perryn looked directly at Grettune as he spoke, “was that I wouldn’t be able to come back to myself. That was when Burvig said some of the dragons thought they might be able to return to their human form, but he knows they cannot. I thought, what if I change and find I can’t turn back? What if I lose touch with my humanity while I’m in that other form?”
There was a stillness in the room as the others thought about the situation Perryn found himself in, and Grettune wondered if she might have done the same in his place. “Fortunately,” Perryn said at last, “I think I find myself more in control of the creature the longer I am within its body. At first, I could do little more than watch as I moved across the country. Soon, I learned to gain some control over the motions and thoughts and now, I think that one day when I change into the creature, it will still be me.”
“What did Burvig have to say about that?” Grettune was sure her husband had spoken to the dragon of losing control.
“He said we were approaching the change from opposite directions. He and the others have their humanity and think they may lose it.”
The three spent the morning together and decided they would need to begin traveling east to Dar’Ahlmon as the sun began to set, making their way through the desert at night and hopefully joining with another caravan on the road to the city.
Later that day as the group prepared to leave, they were called to a private meeting with Ilyadra before they made their way east to fulfill their mission in Dar’Ahlmon.
“Friend Krieger, Wielders, before you leave, understand that the Dar’Duz will stand by you. However, we are under increasing threat from the Dynast’s advisors. Our numbers grow slowly despite the attacks that you witnessed. Those attacks are not the first for us. We are culled like animals, and to do more than run would result in annihilation. It is a bad system, but one that ensures, at least for now, our survival.
“While it is not known within the city, there are Dar’Duz who dwell there still. It is not a large network, but it is well maintained. They have been informed of the Savior of the Dar’Duz.” Ilyadra looked at Perryn with warm eyes that did more to thank him than any words.
“How can we help you?” Grettune asked the question before Ilyadra could speak again. To her way of thinking, the Dar’Duz had saved her husband as much as he had saved them.
“You have already helped us, Wielder. We are not a violent people. We are scholars first as is the Dynast, we believe. He is young, but he is being manipulated by certain advisors who would have him renounce the way of our people and set aside our policy of not initiating aggression. Be very careful in Dar’Ahlmon, especially in the palace of the Dynast. You will always be watched, have no doubt. They will be civil and pleasant, but they will test you and to fail their tes
ts will be an affront to the Dynast; and an affront to the Dynast could be considered an act of aggression against Dar’Ahlmon.
“I don’t know what experiences you have Krieger, but all of them will not have prepared you for your visit to the palace of the Dynast. Tread lightly.”
Ilyadra and several other Dar’Duz walked with them for a time as they began their journey east, telling them what they knew of the city, and what they knew of their path to the city. When they said their good-byes and turned back toward Duzmet, the three northerners continued east, and their shadows lengthened as the sun dipped behind the hills that sheltered the Dar’Duz. They walked in silence considering what Ilyadra had told them and what to make of their mission.
“If you and Perryn wish to turn north again, it may be for the best,” Krieger said. “The words of Ilyadra make me think that we will be longer at the palace than I would have thought. It may be better for both…for all three of you…if you return to the Tower Cargile or Brookfield.”
From his voice, Grettune knew that Krieger believed what he said, but she also knew he did not want them to part company. “We hear you, Krieger, and while I may agree that your plan has merit, there is no denying that we are with you. If there is trouble, I think it will be wise for us to be with you.”
The shadows of the oncoming dusk hid Krieger’s smile, but Grettune noticed the rise of his cheeks and knew he was happy in the company of his friends.
It took two full days before they crested a small dune that gave them their first view of Dar’Ahlmon, and it was breathtaking. Even from a distance the city was huge. A row of palm trees indicated there was a river along the eastern shore of the city and cultivated fields and irrigation canals were common on the river’s opposite bank. The city was a vast unbroken wall of tan stone that, from where they stood, Krieger estimated to be at least thirty feet high. Towers were built into the structure and large enough to be visible from where they stood. Apart from those items, the city of Dar’Ahlmon was dominated by a castle the likes of which Grettune had never dreamed to see. The castle itself seemed to cover an area larger than Brookfield and the tallest spires dwarfed the Tower Cargile. Even Bayside would have fit snugly within the walls of the city with room to spare. But the walls of Dar’Ahlmon could not contain the city within. Outside the walls, to the north and south, likely along the border of the river, crude tan shacks stood stacked together like bricks and in the early evening, torches were starting to be lit. Soon the small orange lights would create a constellation of flickering stars on the desert floor, and their light would hide much of the heavens.
Magic's Genesis- Sword of Wilmamen Page 12