The Witch (Dragon Eyes Book 1)

by Kristina Hlaváčková

  “Come on, you have to meet him!” She grabbed Michael by the hand and literally dragged him in front of Wilbur’s nozzle. Up close the dragon seemed even bigger and more dangerous. Elena was excited and happy. However, she had only just managed to introduce the two when they were interrupted by rumble of huge wings. Ashrack surfaced above the forest and slowly, with dignity of a King, began to descend. Wilbur moved fast to make space for his father. Even compared to him the red dragon was simply enormous! The piazza open space was suddenly absolutely full.

  Caught off guard, Elena found herself standing between two humongous reptiles. She straightened her back and when Ashrack set one of his eyes on her, she bowed to him. He nodded and turned to Ashka and Alivan. Both queens curtsied.

  “I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!” rumbled Ashrack. Ashka curtsied again. It took a considerable amount of time to get the necessary protocol formalities out of the way. It seemed to take forever! Elena started to fidget nervously.

  “Stop wrigglin’!” Michael whispered and put his hands on her shoulders. With effort she straightened up and stopped fidgeting, but he could feel how nervous and tense she was.

  “I bet I’m in a whole lot of trouble!” Elena breathed.

  “So am I. Don’t ya’ ever run away on me like that again!” Michael scolded her.

  “We’re in trouble,” Elena corrected herself. Behind their backs, Wilbur rolled his eyes. The two of them acted funny. Nevertheless, he kind of liked them both. Even though he had no real clue why, he felt the little girl was somehow part of him. He liked the way she treated him, being informal, straight-up, fearless and affectionate to him. Well, with the boy, the matter was not as simple. From the very beginning Michael was clearly letting Wilbur know that should anything happened to Elena, well, the dragon would be in trouble. And Wilbur found that slightly offensive.

  “I taught my daughter everything I know, but her powers reach beyond my knowledge. I came to ask you for help,“ Ashka was saying.

  “ARE YOU FULLY AWARE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO INTERFERE IN HER FURTHER EDUCATION?” Ashrack made sure and Ashka nodded. For a long time afterwards, Elena thought that her mother had surrendered, given her up, far too quickly. All of a sudden, her hunger for adventure and fear of becoming a black magician, becoming a freak, gave way to fear of all unknown.

  “IF WE TEACH HER, SHE WILL BELONG TO US,” the dragon King said.

  Without the slightest hesitation, Ashka answered: “She has belonged to thee from the moment you awakened dragon power in her veins, my lord.”

  Michael sensed Elena’s tension grow. The happy childish smile disappeared from her face and a worried furrows appeared on her forehead. She listened to the discussion between Mother and the dragon King. To her it seemed as if Ashka was happily getting rid of a burden long lying on her shoulders.

  Elena wanted to learn, yes. The dragons and elves were marvelous, yes. She knew it was important, sure. But this hurt! She had stopped being a daughter and began to be a problem. Ashka fought like a lioness to get rid of her daughter. The closer Ashka was to success, the more tears pushed into Elena’s eyes. But Berbers did not cry! She straightened her back a few millimeters more, her spine would not let her go any further. Lifting her chin proudly, she sniffed quietly and bit her bottom lip. Michael squeezed her shoulders tightly, trying to let her know he was there for her.

  Silence fell. Ashka and Ashrack settled their discussion and turned to Elena. They both eyed her wordlessly. Somewhere in the middle of their talk, she stopped listening. And now they expected something of her. She had no clue what it was. Since Ashka was smiling, the outcome was pretty obvious. Elena took a deep breath. Had she tried to straighten her back even a bit further, her spine would have snapped. It dawned on her that all eyes were on her. Not only were her mother, two dragons and the queen of elves watching her, everybody else was too. Elena fought an urge to start fidgeting again.

  ◆◆◆

  The next few hours were like a dream. Mother took Elena back to their quarters in the tree. Breakfast awaited them. The dragons left and preparations for an afternoon feast were in full swing outside. Ashka decided to give her daughter some more vital advice. Elena listened to it only halfheartedly, thoughts speeding through her head, but none concrete enough to formulate an explicit question.

  Elves are, in their own specific way, a playful nation and any reason for a party is a good reason. This time the reason was Elena, as Ashka had explained. They would thus welcome her into their midst. Lots of marvelous foods, singing, and storytelling were to be part of the celebration. Ashka was happy and Elena did not have the heart to tell her what she felt, did not have the heart to probably spoil the mood. It wouldn’t have changed anything anyway.

  Someone knocked. Ashka answered the door to let in the older elf Elena remembered from yesterday night. Ashka greeted him with a smile. For a moment, she seemed to forget about her daughter.

  “Father!” Ashka exclaimed and for a moment Elena thought she heard wrong, or that her language proficiency was inadequate. Astonished, with her mouth agape, she watched the scene in front of her. Ashka hugged the elf affectionately. A lively but quiet conversation evolved between them. Elena realized her mouth was still open and shut it so hard, her teeth clicked together. Surprised, Ashka and Llillam turned to her.

  “My dear, I think it’s about time to introduce me to this young lady,” smiled Llillam and suddenly, Elena could see their resemblance. A charming smile appeared on her mother’s face.

  “Elena, meet Llillam, my father.”

  Llillam smiled at the girl and nodded to her subtly. Elena stood up, gazing at the man with wide open eyes.

  “I have a granddad?” slipped her tongue. Llillam’s smile froze. He cast a questioning look at his daughter.

  “Yes, but it would not be appropriate to call him so!” Ashka scolded Elena immediately. That, however, did not stop Elena from jumping her newly found grandpa and giving him a huge, affectionate, hug. After a moment of wooden hesitation, Llillam embraced her too. He even managed a laugh. At last, he managed to disengage from her clutches. To get a better look at her, he held his granddaughter at arm’s length, smiling at her.

  “I’m very glad to finally meet you, Eleanor. You are a true image of your mother. I really am what you humans call a grandfather, but it would be extremely inappropriate for you to address me as such, especially in the presence of other elves. It is apparent that we will be spending quite some time together but your mother is leaving soon. May I ask your permission to steal a moment alone with her?” the elf spoke quietly. Elena was so surprised she did not even protest. She watched Ashka and Llillam walk away together. She even ran out the door to see them walk across the piazza.

  ◆◆◆

  Michael found her sitting at the very top of the staircase, all the way up in the treetop. She had her elbows on her knees, her chin in her palms and a very thoughtful expression on her face. Between the green poles of the live railing, she watched the buzz on the piazza. It was swarming like an anthill down there. Michael settled beside the girl and they sat side by side for a few silent minutes. Then Michael caressed the back of Elena’s hand with a gentle finger.

  “Come on, let’s explore our new home.” Michael wanted her to move. She grinned halfheartedly with the right corner of her mouth and continued to sit, motionless.

  “We should get a move on, before someone tries to stop us.” Michael probed on and this time earned a half happy smile. He got up and offered her a hand, helping her up to her feet. Together they walked down stairs.

  “Where we goin?” Michael questioned. It took Elena a while to answer. Finally she seemed to come alive.

  “We’ll explore the city and the edge of the forest. Everyone is preparing the celebration or whatever, no one will take notice.” Quickly, they walked away from the square. They had quite a bit of fun contemplating the tiny houses and dwellings set up in treetops, peeked into gardens and into opened workshops such as a sm
ithy, pottery, and many others. They pointed out strange things to each other. Almost everything seemed unusual, and beautiful to them. Some things were even horrifying. Soon Elena began to smile and the gloomy expression disappeared from her face. She even laughed from time to time.

  When they reached the forest edge, out of earshot of all elves, Elena stopped and looked up at Michael with wide opened eyes.

  “Do you remember the elf, who Ashka spoke to when we came to the … city?” she spat out so fast he had a hard time to understand her.

  “Yap.”

  “His name is Llillam. And he’s my granddad. But I can’t say that. I don’t know why. But mother says he’s her father, so he’s my granddad. And mother is leaving tomorrow. She’ll leave me here and she’s happy to be rid of me. I think she’s scared of me. And they went to the forest together. She went somewhere with granddad and just left me here.”

  “Wait! Slow down, will ya?!” He interrupted, when she made the briefest of pauses to take a breath.

  “Ya’re talking too fast. I don’t understand a word ya’re saying.”

  She took a deep breath and said it all again, a bit slower and clearer this time.

  “Ya’ were looking forward to learnin’ something, so don’t worry about it all. There’s none ya’ can do about it anyway. And it’s great ya’ have a granddad, even though ya’ can’t call him that. What’s he like?”

  Elena shrugged her shoulders. “I hardly had a chance to talk to him,” she replied and after a short silence described the encounter with her newly found relative.

  “Well, at least we solved one mystery. Rumor has it that the Queen is an elf. Now we know it’s true.”

  “Just a half-elf, I think her mother was a human.”

  “That still means ya’re also partly elf,” Michael said.

  “But I’m a redhead!” Elena protested.

  “What’s that got to do with anythin’?”

  “Exactly how many red-headed elves have you seen?”

  “Have ya’ seen any red-headed Berbers?” he retorted.

  “True.” There was silence for a while. Then Elena looked towards the forest. She pointed.

  “Will we go look?”

  Michael started to fidget. He didn’t like the forest at all. Yesterday’s passage was still fresh in his mind. Elena poked him in the ribs.

  “It’s only trees, even though they’re weird. We won’t go far.” She tried to persuade him. He looked back toward the settlement longingly.

  “Come on, we’ll be living here. How exactly do you want to do that without going to the woods?” She asked and he scratched his bald head nervously.

  “How about ya’ tell me where were ya’ in the morning, first?” Michael tried to put off the inevitable. Elena sat down onto the moss and motioned to him to do the same. Then she described her encounter with the Queen of elves.

  “Well, at least I think it’s the Queen. She looks like one. And the Queen is called Alivan. And everyone treated her like a queen.” Elena’s speech was more of thinking out loud, than actual speech. Michael watched, as those two worried lines appeared on Elena’s forehead again.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, because the pause Elena made, was strange.

  “Something about her was … weird.”

  “Weird?”

  “I don’t know what. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s as if she looked familiar, but I’ve never seen her before.”

  “Well, with what circulates ya’ veins, ya’ never know.” Michael murmured and Elena gave him a confused look.

  “Pardon?”

  “Ya’ tell me!”

  “Ha, ha, very funny!”

  “It might just as well be one of ya’ lost relatives or some, like granddad,” commented Michael. She wanted to say that that was a really dumb idea, but did not even open her mouth to do so, since she spotted a young elf walking towards them from the city.

  “Fun’s over.” Michael commented in a low voice. Elena giggled.

  The elf stopped a step in front of them and bowed. Elena answered his greeting in appropriate manner.

  “You are both expected at the feast,” he announced. Fun was over.

  ◆◆◆

  It is true, the elves are widely considered a wise, self-possessed nation, but as it had been mentioned before, they are also buoyant and playful. Strangers had not usually been allowed to see this side of them, but they really never went far for a reason to celebrate. This time that reason was, at least in theory, Elena. Why then, did she feel so unwelcome? The fair folk were dancing, singing, eating and making merry. Apart from a bunch of elven children bluntly staring at her, nobody took any real notice of the girl. The children, however, were pointing at her, giggling and whispering, as if she were an adorable weird creature. Well, maybe more weird than adorable. She glowered at them for a while, but then decided not to let them spoil her mood. There were far too many new, interesting things around her and she was trying to take them all in. Fast music, unknown songs, strange whirling and beautiful dancing filled her senses. Michael happily accompanied her in tasting all the peculiar foods, drinks and dishes they could find. Elena tried to listen to the lyrics of the songs, making a mental note to work on improving her language skills, since her knowledge of her ancestors’ speech was showing to be inappropriate. Her ancestors’ language? Reluctantly, she tried the expression in her mind, trying to figure out, what it all really meant for her. She glanced at the Queen of elves. She lost interest in Ashka after a few courteous words with her and now she watched the happening with a light content smile. She seemed very cool and distant.

  “More like an ice queen,” Michael commented, when she mentioned it. Elena giggled, but her smile froze on her lips, when she noticed Ashka stand up and walk onto the dance floor. As if Elena was not even there. Despite Elena’s efforts, Ashka had not paid any attention to her daughter the whole evening. And Ashka was leaving in the morning. Elena longed for just a few private moments with her. It was beginning to dawn on her, that that was not going to happen. The thought that she was more of a problem, rather than a beloved daughter, settled uncomfortably in Elena’s head. Unsuccessfully she kept trying to suppress it.

  Michael watched the lass. He was beginning to be a good judge of Elena’s moods and did not like what he was seeing. As if she could not decide whether she was more excited about the adventure, or more frightened and sad about being left behind. She noticed him looking at her and grinned, but her eyes remained sad. Michael stood up, straightened his shirt for show, bowed dramatically and offered her his hand.

  “Would it be too bold to ask ya’ for a dance, ya’ highness?” An absolutely disbelieving expression crossed her face, before she laughed happily, accepted his hand and stood up. With the easy grace of her mother, she floated onto the part of the lawn designated to be the dance floor, but their entrée was far from being discreet. Elena would have appreciated for them to sort of blend in with the other dancers, but that just was not happening either. They caused quite a commotion, as they bowed to each other and began to dance, combining Berber moves with those they have seen tonight. Fascinated, the elves watched them. Some even stopped dancing to get a better look. There was a moment of odd surprised stillness around them before both children became the center of the whirling commotion.

  ◆◆◆

  They started out at daybreak. Elena was so persistent that Ashka finally gave in and let her accompany the departing Berbers to the edge of the forest. Elves escorted them. Sensing they were leaving the enchanted forest, the human horses cantered a lot lighter than on their way in. In Elena’s opinion, they were moving far too fast. All the elves, Llillam included, rode out of earshot, leaving Ashka and her daughter enough privacy to talk. Ashka’s first sentence sounded very much like the beginning of another lecture.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about grandpa?” Elena interrupted and Ashka’s face went wooden.

  “Do not call him that!” she scolded the child.

/>   “Why? If he’s your father, he must be my grandfather.”

  “It is, however, inappropriate.” Ashka went silent. Their remaining time together was not to be long and it seemed to be explanation time, because Elena was still not privy to certain important parts of the family history. And the girl was now waiting to be told.

  “The elves are very … private and reserved. That is, they guard their secrets fiercely and protect their exceptionality very carefully. They have always kept away from the world and other nations. Intimate … connections … with humans or other races are unacceptable.” Ashka stopped. For some reason, she was not sure how to say it. Elena made an impatient gesture.

  “Mother, you taught me both healing and midwifery, I know how children are made.” Well, in theory she knew. Kind of. The practical side of … things she was not really sure about.

  Ashka continued: “My mother was stunning. Or rather, she was so beautiful, even the fair folk considered her so. But she was a human, an exceptional Adragon smart, fierce and courageous. Father fell in love with her thus violating many laws, traditions and practices of his nation. His being of royal blood made the offence even worse and his family rejected him. After Lily had died in battle, he returned to his folk and was accepted back, but lost all his privileges. You must understand that before he met my mother, your grandmother, he was to become king. Now, Alivan, his younger sister, rules instead.” Going silent, she gave her daughter a sidelong glance. The so familiar deep furrow appeared above Elena’s nose.

  “I am not welcome in these blessed woods. I am living proof of the disgrace. If you call Llillam your grandfather, you bring back memories of his sins,” said Ashka quietly.

  “Is that why they don’t want me here?” Elena asked.

  Relieved she did not have to say it, Ashka nodded.