“How many Necromancers are there now?” Teka asked. “Last I was here, there were only sixty-seven.”
“Their numbers have grown at an alarming rate. There are now almost four hundred.”
“How many Sorcerers are there?” I asked.
“Many more.” Thera smiled.
She shot Pox a warning glare as she passed through the room only to disappear behind another curtain. I could hear the girl rummaging around for something, and then a soft spell was muttered. Shortly afterward, I could smell something cooking.
Thera suddenly stood and moved to one of the shelves. She skimmed the titles of many books before removing one and returning to her seat on the couch. She snapped her fingers, and Dragon Diary materialized before her.
“That was impressive.”
“A simple summoning spell. It only works short range,” Thera muttered as she flipped through the ancient pages of the Dragon Diary. “Interesting.”
“What does it say?”
Dear Diary,
I chuckle slightly as I write those words, for I cannot think of another way to begin this tale of my life. The past few years have proven to be a great challenge, not only for me but for everyone involved. You see, we created dragons! Twelve of them, to be exact. Twelve to counter Agasei, the evil force that has washed over our world like a great flood. Within the depths of these pages, I shall tell you the story from its benign beginning to its historic ending.
The year was AR 39, my twenty-first since birth. I was studying for the test of Monkhood when he came to the Temple of Five Souls. He had come for two reasons, the obvious being the Festival of the Ixys. Little did anyone know, he was actually at the Temple for an extremely rare item– the Phoenix plume.
Let me backtrack a minute to explain who he is– Agasei DéDos, a young Sage from Cah on the Southern Stretch. He was not bad looking, to be honest, sporting unruly black hair and gorgeous blue eyes that I could lose myself in. He was tall, well built, and intelligent. Nevertheless, I could never escape the bad feelings I got when he was close…
Pox cleared her throat, effectively stealing our attention. “I made some dinner. It’s ready if you are.”
“Thank you, Pox,” Thera said as she stood and stretched.
She returned Dragon Diary to me as she led Teka and me into the other room. It turned out to be a small kitchen complete with a table set with royal-purple dishes, hearth, sink and more lighted orbs. Thera summoned four chairs from the floor and motioned for Teka and me to sit.
“Your dishes are beautiful.”
“Gratíe, Dragon Keeper. They have been in our family for generations,” Pox said as she dished out some meat and vegetables for me.
They smelled so good that I could not wait to taste them. Pox and Thera sat down when the plates and cups were full.
“Enjoy,” Thera said, taking up her knife and fork.
Teka thanked her and dug right in.
“What kind of meat is this?” I asked, cutting into it.
“Siminea,” Pox answered quietly.
“Lion,” Thera translated.
Teka chucked at my expression. “They wander into Thorna all the time. If they are not killed and eaten, the lions will attack.”
“The last time one attacked was a few years ago. A big male got into Feyd’s Smithy and mauled one of his children before it was killed,” Pox said as she spread soft cheese on her bread. “As I recall, Feyd’s family got to keep the lion’s meat. And they turned the skin into a rather lovely rug.”
“Is his child okay?”
“Welmitek is fine. He brags about the scars all the time.” Pox chuckled.
Thera rolled her eyes. “I smacked him for it one day, and he bragged about that!”
“Yeah. He survived a battle with a Druid!”
“Laugh it up, Pox. Laugh it up.”
We lapsed into silence as we ate. My mind was preoccupied with what Thera had read aloud from the diary. Amorez’s description of Agasei was almost identical to the man pretending to be Valaskjalf. I figured that they had to be related. And by the way Amorez wrote, it was almost as if she was in love with Agasei at one time. If that were the case, then I could not help but wonder if the affair had spawned a child.
Daughter of Amorez. That is what the Elder Feykin had called me earlier. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it was true. I was Amorez’s daughter. But…who was my father? My hair was as black as night, the same as Agasei, not Amorez. Her hair was auburn red. Could I possibly be the heir to both sets of dragons? That thought disturbed me.
“Are you okay, Xy? You look upset.” Teka gently touched my hand, and I forced a smile.
“I was just thinking of…something.”
“Your friend Ríhan again?”
“Not exactly.” I sighed. “I was thinking of something Thera read from the book.”
“Speaking of which, what were you reading?” Pox asked, looking to her sister for an answer.
“Amorez’s diary,” Thera replied after a moment’s thought. “Xyleena came here to get it translated.”
“Oh.” Pox looked at me. “So you don’t know Kinös Elda? No wonder Thera is speaking Standard.”
“There is a Professor at the Temple that teaches Kinös Elda.” I bit my lip as memories of Ríhan resurfaced. “I never signed up for the class. Now I wish I had.”
“Spending your life regretting your past choices will get you nowhere,” Thera replied softly. “Live for tomorrow.”
Teka nodded. “I agree.”
“Speaking of the diary, how about we get back to work on it?” Thera stood from the table, bowed to her sister, and left the room.
Teka and I followed shortly afterward, leaving Pox to clean up.
The four of us spent the next several hours reading page after page after page of the diary, marking the pages that needed translating from the older runes. We would return to those pages later in hopes of finding some sort of clue as to what Agasei’s descendant was after. It was not until the wee hours of the morning that sleep overcame all of us.
The longer humans lived on Ithnez, the further from Arcadia we dared to venture. In doing so, we discovered and catalogued many of the native animals and fauna. This, of course, caused some problems as the Ithnezian creatures won out over the ones transported to this world from Earth. Within the first year, we were forced to utilize the native animals in place of the ones we lost.
– FROM “THE CHRONICLES OF ITHNEZ, VOL II” BY ADJIRSÉ DÉDOS
I awoke with a start and bolted upright. I breathed a sigh of relief as memories of where I was returned to me. I was in Thera’s home in Thorna, sprawled out on the living room floor in a tangled mess of blankets. I did not recall ever falling asleep the night before. We were so busy reading what we could of Dragon Diary that we had stayed up almost all night.
Amorez’s firsthand account on history was terrifying to listen to. It was very different from what the history books had taught us. They always depicted Amorez as a fearless woman who could do anything. But she was left terrified and clueless many times, according to her own words. She and I were more alike than I had first realized.
My thoughts were interrupted as Thera pulled back the curtain that lead out of the hut. She looked like she had not slept a wink, but she smiled anyway.
“Good morning,” I said.
The young Feykin pursed her lips for a moment. “Kahs gözandí. That is good morning in Kinös Elda. Kahs nóc is good night.”
I repeated the phrases several times to hopefully remember them later. “What is hello?”
“Tanda.” Thera smiled. “‘Tíc it eo lig standard words den Kinös Elda?’ Remember that phrase any time you want a translation.”
“I need to write that one down.”
Thera laughed.
“Did you get any sleep last night?”
“No. I was too involved in those ancient runes.”
“Any progress?”
“You have no idea.” Thera
beamed and summoned a chair. “Amorez was bound and determined to hide a great deal of information, especially when it came to the Dragons of Light. She wrote a riddle in a language that has not been used on Ithnez since before the Earthic Landings. Then she scrambled the letters and converted all of it to the ancient runes.”
“How in the name of the Five Souls did you figure all of that out?”
“It wasn’t easy. The good news is I’ve deciphered a great deal of the pages we couldn’t read last night, including a page titled ‘Riddle of the Twelve.’” Thera began leafing through the diary until she found the page she sought. “The weird thing is, the handwriting on this page is different than the rest of the diary. And the ink looks quite a bit fresher.”
“Interesting,” I murmured and scooted closer so I could see the page she was looking at. Thera’s pretty handwriting in violet ink stared up at me from the page.
In this mystery must you delve,
To find my sacred dragons twelve,
And vanquish evil from this land.
Now listen close the clues at hand:
Vortex the Wind, on water borne;
And west of magic castle lore.
“Holy Souls! You converted much more than I thought.”
I read the lines over and over again. I kept going until my eyes started to cross. Then I began to wonder what the fifth and sixth lines were talking about. What could this Vortex the Wind be? Could it be referring to one of the dragons?
“Vortex is one of the Dragons of Light," Thera answered as if reading my mind. "The wind elemental if memory serves me. So Vortex the Wind must be naming the dragon.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking. But,” I felt really awkward saying this, “I don’t understand… Why would this point to only one of the dragons? All twelve of them should be together, shouldn’t they?”
Thera stared at me for a moment. “You really do not recall anything from your past?”
I shook my head.
“Very well, I shall remind you. When the battle against Agasei was over, Amorez imprisoned the Shadow Dragons beyond what is known as the Dragons’ Gate. The Dragons of Light, however, were hidden away throughout Ithnez in order to protect them from those who would seek to use them unjustly. This portion of riddle only points to the first of the Twelve; the other eleven will follow. I just need to work on the conversion and translation.”
“Okay,” I said as I let everything sink in. “So… where do we find this Vortex?”
Thera set the diary on the floor open to the page of the riddle and simply stared at it as if her gaze alone could scare it into giving up its answers.
West of magic castle lore… That line had to be the key to this Vortex the Wind. That got me wondering, “Hey, does the Sorcerers’ Isle have any castles?”
Thera never looked away from the open page. “Our capital city, Thuraben, has the only castle in all our lands.”
“What lies west of there?”
Thera thought a moment. “More forest, a river that empties into the sea, a few more cities, and some mountains.”
A river that empties into the sea west of the Thuraben castle? Vortex the Wind, on water borne. Water borne… That has to be it! I smiled. “I think I got it!”
Thera’s gaze was instantly on me.
So I explained, “The sea west of your castle of magic, long thought lore by everyone on the outside. Vortex on water borne. The dragon must be somewhere on the sea close to the Sorcerers’ Isle.”
“I’m impressed.” Thera nodded for emphasis. “So what is the plan?”
“How far is Thuraben from here?”
Teka’s voice called out from the spare bedroom, “Roughly fourteen days.” She pushed aside the curtain to join Thera and me in the main room. After a huge yawn, she continued, “By wyvernback it would be more like eight or nine. I heard you two talking, so I decided to get my lazy bones out of bed.”
“I am not certain if I have ever ridden a wyvern before,” I admitted.
Thera shrugged. “It is very easy to learn how. The problem is paying for their use.”
Teka clicked her tongue. “How much does renting wyverns cost here in Thorna?”
“A full seven days for three wyverns may cost around fifteen hundred crowns.”
“That’s about thirty-seven hundred bits,” Teka replied.
I whistled. “That’s quite a bit.”
“I can cover the fee, but—”
I shook my head in a hurry. “Don’t spend all of your money on me, Teka.”
She sharply shushed me. “I was going to say I will cover the fee if you promise to pay me back once you’ve saved the world.”
“Say what?” I blinked in surprise.
“Become the Dragon Keeper, beat the bad guys, and save the world. That will be your payment to me in return for my services.” Teka extended her hand for me to shake. “Deal?”
“But… I’m not even sure I can pull any of that off.”
“I believe in you.” Teka smiled.
I slowly reached up to grasp her hand. “I hope your belief is well placed.”
“You will do great. Remember, Amorez didn’t think she could save the world either, and look what she accomplished.”
“You’re right.” I felt my confidence growing. For the first time since this whole fiasco started, I was beginning to believe I could do it. I could save the world.
“So”– Thera clapped her hands together– “when do we leave?”
Artimista did not look up from her task as she said, “When deeds speak, words mean nothing. Do not just talk about what you intend to do to Agasei once you meet face-to-face; You must act.”
– FROM “THE UNSUNG” BY J’VAC TAIG (TRANSLATED BY B’REG KUNGA)
Dimitri’s crimson eyes scanned the land around him. There were no signs of life in this grey and barren desert. There were only rocks, craters, mountains. Long shadows seemed to come alive, stretching, reaching. Moving his gaze skyward, he found the blackness of night dusted with a million stars. Two planets hung in the void, giving light to the desert. He thought he recognized them both, but his mind was drawing a blank.
“Where am I?” he wondered aloud, his own voice seeming leagues away. He returned his gaze to the endless horizon. “This place is teeming with magic…”
This way.
Dimitri whirled around, ready to defend himself against the source of the otherworldly whisper. There was nothing. Nothing at all. Had he imagined it?
What are you waiting for?
Dimitri blinked in surprise and shook his head as if to clear it. The ground suddenly cracked beneath his feet, almost toppling him before he regained his balance. A black smoke hissed into the atmosphere from somewhere in the depths below. The smoke converged into a single, transparent form; A man, tall in stature, with hair that matched the night and eyes like sapphires. Dimitri knew this man though they had never met.
“Father?”
The greatest treasure lies not far away. The ghost of Agasei pointed the way.
“The Dragons’ Gate…” Dimitri took off at a full sprint. He had done it! He had found the Shadow Dragons!
“Heile pricé!” a girl’s voice cried out.
Before he knew it, a giant tornado of fire spawned right on him. He screamed in agony as the flames devoured him. It felt like forever before the storm vanished and dropped him to the ground. His last image was that of a girl with dragon-green eyes and obsidian hair.
“Dimitri!”
He could hear Godilai now. Funny how his last thoughts would be of her.
“Dimitri, wake up!”
He groaned as he opened his eyes. Godilai’s gorgeous face hovered over him, her cyan eyes betraying her worry for him.
“Am I dead?”
“Dead?” Godilai retreated from her position but continued to stare at him. “What did your dream reveal to you?”
Dimitri sat up in the small bed and glanced about. He was in a room so small he doubted a sing
le wyvern could stand in it. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, even the cot he was on was all craft from wood; dark-stained jávi from the looks of it. Godilai was in the corner, sitting on the floor under the only window. He finally remembered where he was. “We are on the ship.”
“Where did you go when you dreamed?” Godilai asked softly, hugging her knees to her chest and leaning her head against her arms.
Dimitri found the pose rather arousing.
“Dimitri?”
“Oh! Uh…” He felt heat rush to his face. “I do not know where it was, but my father was there. He pointed me to the Dragons’ Gate. That was when Amorez’s daughter hit me with a fire storm.”
“I see.” She was quiet for a while, and Dimitri could not help but stare at her. “Do you think it was a premonition?”
“If it is, then I will have to be more prepared for that little wretch. She will become stronger with each dragon she finds, while I won’t achieve my full power until I can unlock the Dragons’ Gate.”
Godilai sighed. “So it is a race then. And we are lagging behind.”
Dimitri threw the covers off and got out of bed. “We have to get Amorez’s diary at any cost.”
Godilai watched him pace the small cabin. “Maybe someone to infiltrate her team, gather info, and then steal the diary for us.”
“That is a great idea, but it cannot be any of us. If we try to infiltrate her team, she will probably recognize us and kill us before we get a second chance.”
“Hire a desperado. It’ll cost you quite a bit, but—”
“It’ll be worth it in the end.” He grinned maliciously. “I like the way you think.”
Godilai un-tucked herself and stood up. “The best place to find desperadoes is in Zadún. There is a tavern there called Thief’s Paradise.”
“How do you know that?” He turned to face her only to see the door opened and swinging slightly back and forth in time with the waves. He sighed. “I need to learn how to do that.”
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