Even Twit got emotional when greeting his old wizard after so long. The sentimentality ended abruptly when the dignified old wren got tangled in the wizard’s beard. He endured unending humiliation hanging upside down while Memlatec picked him out.
His mate was there, too, with a large flock of jubilant birds. When Twit was free and flew up to them, he marveled at the number of wrens who had turned out to greet him. Who are all these wrens, Twit wondered to his mate.
They’re your children and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, she assured him.
The old bird flew up on a post and inspected the lot. He looked with suspicion at his mate. They cannot all be my progeny. You sure they’re not YOUR relatives? No one could say if Mrs. Twit blushed or not.
The town’s officials had agreed to allow the returning heroes the afternoon to spend with their families, as long as the heroes agreed to return to their fellow citizens for the evening’s celebration. The city fathers assured the Prince Regent that nothing could surpass the night’s festivities.
The mob clamored; they must have their prince and heroes. They wouldn’t allow the royal family to depart for the palace until the Prince Regent promised to deliver the heroes himself for dinner, with the whole city, at the stadium. With their most grateful approvals, Augusteros and Prince Saxthor promised to return. Most of their subjects walked beside the royal coach all the way to the palace.
Bodrin and his family, Memlatec, Tournak, Tonelia, Delia, Twit, the Sengenwhan queen, and princess royal, and even the Heedran oarsmen were guests of honor at the palace, where they retired for private reunions. They rested in the afternoon, knowing the night’s festivities would be exhausting if the celebrations at Favriana and Heedra were any indication. All the rich delicacies were killing the poor adventurers, accustomed to the bare necessities and simple foods.
In the evening, the city’s officials went to the palace to escort the royal family and their guests to the stadium, where the whole city had gathered. The city leaders formally welcomed the royal family and their guests for a feast, unlike any other.
In the whole population’s presence, Prince Regent Augusteros stood and officially welcomed home his son, Prince Saxthor, proclaiming him Prince of Hoya. He then elevated Bodrin to Count Bodrin Vicksnak de Vicksylva. The regent recognized Wizard Tournak for his courage and devotion and hardily thanked him for virtually raising Saxthor. Tournak would serve with Memlatec as High Wizards to the Royal Court of Neuyokkasin. To honor the period of exile and restoration, Augusteros renamed the royal palace Helshian Court Palace. Tonelia Tezentok de Hoya was henceforth Baroness Tezentok de Hoya in her own right with the rights, privileges, and estates associated with the title. The prince regent granted Lady Tezentok the privilege of marrying Count Bodrin Vicksnak de Vicksylva as per their request that afternoon.
The whole city erupted, shouting approval of these royal decrees. The citizens cheered and tossed hats, and the excited city officials only managed to get them to return to their seats by announcing the delicious feast was ready for their consumption. The speeches and feasting went on into the night, and no one could remember any celebration like it. It was nearly midnight when the staff cleared the tables. The musicians played on as most citizens danced to the court’s delight.
The occasion was such a success, and the unbridled joy so loud, no one noticed the swooshing of wings that came up the Nhy in the darkness. Not until flames shot across high above the stadium did the populace realize the Dragon Magnosious had returned home to Konnotan.
“It’s found us,” Saxthor said.
The great beast circled the stadium, seeing his potential feast dancing around in the torchlight. Nurturing by Earwig and the Dark Lord had produced an exceptional beast even among dragons. Magnosious was now more than a hundred feet long, with a belly that could hold a fully loaded ox cart with the oxen attached. The torchlight danced eerily on the massive, bronze-colored scales of his plating. His eyes flashed brilliant red in the darkness, and his hundred fangs dangled like ivory spikes amid the many tendrils that sprouted from his jaws. The citizens of Konnotan bolted in panic. They fled out from the stadium gates, seeking shelter in the darkness from a force of evil; they’d no hope of resisting.
Magnosious’ massive wings flapped, and the windblast behind them blew over anything not tied down. Again, the circling dragon snorted fire and shot flames high into the night sky. The billowing fire lit the stadium like the day and exposed those there to the dragon’s malice. Magnosious was searching for Prince Saxthor before settling down to a full dinner of charred citizens. His mission was to slay the prince and return him to the Evil One with the jewels intact.
The great beast swooped down over the stadium time and again, enjoying the terror the swooshing of his massive bat-like wings created. He dipped down here and there to pluck a morsel from the waves of people, scrambling over each other to escape.
A flick of his tail smashed the main exit from the stadium, trapping the crowds inside to race around the perimeter in a desperate effort to flee. Magnosious circled wider and snorted fire into the bell tower just outside the stadium. The flames’ intense heat caused the bell chamber and roof to explode. The great dragon laughed his sinister laugh that echoed around the stadium, chilling everyone.
As the monstrous dragon was circling the enclosure, another wretched creature was hobbling through a service gate, this one entering against the flood of those escaping. Only iron-will hatred propelled the grotesquely disfigured Earwig through the gates toward the royal dais at the far end of the stadium. The hag wheezed, hobbling across the arena’s grassy center. A fiendish grin appeared in anticipation of her triumph when she would call down the full fury of her precious Magnosious. Surely, in this, her final attempt, she could destroy the entire royal family in a single blast of the dragon’s nostrils. She staggered to the stadium’s center and raised herself to stand erect for this, her blaze of glory. Earwig raised her arms as the full force of hatred and jealousy welled up inside her. She prepared to command the great dragon…
A thunderous PLOP sounded as Magnosious landed in the stadium center, oblivious to the lump beneath him. He stood back up, staring at the royal family, still standing on the dais. The city officials had fled when the dragon first circled. The stadium was nearly empty. Those crushed beneath him would make an acceptable meal when he was finished charring the royal family and picking through the remains for the jewels he must take back to his master.
Magnosious took pleasure in the hopelessness of his victims upon the stage. His leathery skin creaked under the bony scales of his massive head when he grinned at them. The brilliant scarlet eyes flashed brighter, still, as he uttered a low guttural rumble. Magnosious raised his head and snorted flames into the night as a prelude to his next move and their last vision.
The royal family’s stunned personal guards recovered their senses and feebly shot arrows at the dragon, which ignored the barbs, bounding off his scales. Magnosious allowed the soldiers to hurl their spears and shoot their arrows until they ran out. In desperation, the captain of the guards drew his sword and charged the great beast.
Magnosious watched the man rush within twenty feet of him, then coughed a ball of flame, roasting the man in his armor to medium-well. With a grin, he deftly plucked the smoldering man from the ground, shook off the armor, and popped the morsel down his throat.
The effect on the remaining guards was total despair. The soldiers surrounded the royals and Memlatec, hustling them off the dais to the temporary safety of the subterranean storage chambers.
Saxthor’s anger at the attack on his people welled up inside him. It blended with his love for the father he’d lost as a boy and just found again. For all its massive bulk and power, the dragon wouldn’t separate him from his family again. As his anger and love intensified, so did Yamma-Mirra Heedra’s ring glow.
Magnosious arced back his neck. His head shot forward, snorting fire to incinerate the dais and those before him.
Saxthor darted behind a stone column as the flames shot on either side of him. Magnosious’ head drew back, preparing for another blast. Saxthor dashed off the dais, racing across the smoldering grass toward the dragon the instant the flames ceased. Before Magnosious realized his prey had eluded the inferno, Saxthor was beneath him with Sorblade raised. With the strength of both hands, he stabbed the great dragon between scales. The powerful sword glanced off with a metallic ring, striking deep between the right front foot’s toes. Magnosious screamed.
The prince willed the power of the dragon Yamma-Mirra Heedra from his ring into Sorblade. With all his might, he thrust the glowing sword up into the dragon’s throat as its snout breathed fire amid his scream.
Magnosious attempted to roar, but Sorblade had cut through his throat, and his own flames engulfed his scaly head. The great beast burned to charred bone as Saxthor, and the remaining guards stared in shock.
The citizens began to return to the stadium in ones and twos, staring at the ponderous bulk of black and smoldering carcass the length of the stadium.
*
What a fitting burial mound for the wretched Witch Earwig, thought Memlatec, the only one to recognize her at the moment of her demise. Her own dragon squashed her.
*
The next morning a lone stranger made his way through the city that was still asleep after the night of rejoicing and horror. He made his way past the stadium ruins that surrounded the smoldering mountain of bones. Limping, he continued through the streets to the royal palace.
After working his way past a series of servants, the stranger presented himself to the Lord Chamberlain.
“I should like to see Prince Saxthor.”
“The prince cannot be disturbed after such a night as last night,” the chamberlain said, his tone most emphatic.
“But I assure you, the prince will want to see me, in any case,” the stranger said.
The chamberlain hesitated, but seeing the determination in the man’s eyes, he tiptoed through the palace and made his way with the stranger to Prince Saxthor’s apartment. He tapped on the door.
“Enter,” Saxthor said.
When the chamberlain opened the door, to announce the visitor, Saxthor bolted out of his bed and rushed past him to embrace the stranger.
“Hendrel!” he cried. “Can it be you? We saw you dead in the tunnel, burned to ashes.” There were tears in both their eyes. It wasn’t possible, but there they both were.
“Dwarves, relatives of King Bordabrundese, watched the battle and snatched me after the wraith’s bolt shot through me,” Hendrel said. “They opened the tunnel’s rock wall and pulled me to safety. The dwarves nursed me back to health after the rest of you, thinking me ash, resumed the quest. Only recently was I well enough try to catch up with you. It seems you made it home without me.”
Saxthor hugged his long lost friend again, and then stood back to look at him. “I still can’t believe it. Boy, will the others be surprised.” Saxthor wouldn’t permit Hendrel to leave his sight.
*
A week later, after the adventurers had a chance to recover, Saxthor woke one morning and began to shuffle about. Immediately, his new attendant, Belnik, knocked on the door.
“Enter.”
“Your Highness, the Royal Court Wizard Memlatec is waiting for an audience. The wizard said to tell you he needs to see Your Highness as soon as you awaken.”
Saxthor fastened his belt. “Where is Memlatec?”
“He’s waiting next door in your sitting room, Your Highness.” Belnik bowed and extended his arm to the door.
“I have a private sitting room now?” Saxthor asked. “I’ve moved up in the world.”
He went to meet with Memlatec. Memlatec rose and stood tall in his rune-edged robes when Saxthor entered.
He’s not aged at all since I was a boy, thought Saxthor. That’s good to see. However, his furrowed brow is of concern. Saxthor closed the door behind him.
“Your Highness, I hate to disturb you after all you’ve been through, but the threat from the north grows with each passing day. We must reassemble the Crown of Yensupov to counterbalance the Dark Lord’s power.”
“It seems as if my whole life has been for this event. I’m ready to see it done.” Saxthor summoned Belnik. “Please go to my father and request that the Prince Regent grant me and my companions a formal audience in the great hall this afternoon.”
At the appointed hour, he dressed in his formal court robes, strapped Sorblade on his sash, and took the dearly-won jewels in a plain leather bag with him to collect his friends on the way to the great hall.
The five companions, plus Delia and Twit, marched proudly through the palace and entered the audience hall. To the blaring of trumpets, they strode up the central aisle past Neuyokkasin’s high nobles, foreign ambassadors, and the royal ladies of Sengenwha. On the dais with Prince Regent Augusteros and Princess Royal Nonee was Memlatec, Royal Court Wizard of Neuyokkasin, the greatest of the continental wizards.
Saxthor ascended the dais when his father told him to come forward. In the presence of his father and Memlatec, Prince Saxthor removed his simple necklace with its empty loops and handed it to Memlatec, who had given it to him as a boy of twelve. He then took out each of the powerful crystals: Loyalty, Sincerity, Courage, Faith, Honesty, Hope, and Love, handing each to Memlatec in turn.
As Memlatec took each gemstone, he chanted an incantation, and the corresponding rune on his robe’s border glowed. With each spell, the great wizard slipped a jewel into its rightful place in the necklace. When all but the last two, the aquamarines were in the loops, the necklace was complete. The jewels sucked the light from the great hall and began to glow. A brilliant light shone from each in a rainbow that filled the chamber to the astonishment of the assembled nobility. The necklace rose of its own accord and in the glowing light, transformed from a necklace into a solid gold crown with the jewels firmly implanted. Two stems rose as vines from either side to entwine in a peak, each curling back.
Memlatec inserted the two aquamarines within the tendrils.
Before the awed court, the glowing crown’s rainbow of colors blended into a brilliant white aura. The crown floated, of its own accord, to settle on the head of him, who was crowned King of Neuyokkasin by his proudest of fathers.
Epilogue
The Crown of Yensupov restored, King Saxthor Claremendak Calimon is now established and prepared for the looming war with Dreaddrac’s sorcerer-king. The War for Powteros sequel continues with the war that threatens to destroy the Powterosian world.
The End
Books 4, 5, and 6 are available on Amazon starting with
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Neuyokkasinian Dictionary
Augusteros (a gus ter’ Os)
Prince Consort and husband Queen Eleatsubetsvyertsin of Neuyokkasin; also name of Crown Prince; brother of Saxthor Claremendak
Ahkenspec (ah’ ken spek)
King of Memtahhamin the remnant of forest elves now isolated and hidden in the western hills above the Morass Desert
Akkin (ah’ kin)
River flowing from Edros Swamps of southern Dreaddrac; Border between Prertsden and Heggolstockin
Aleman (Al’ man) Memlatec’s housekeeper
Armon (R’ mon)
Sail maker and merchant in Tixumemnese; Memlatec’s agent to aid the travelers
Astorax (as’ tor ax)
Creature half man half deer with deer’s horns.
Battara (Ba Tar’ a) Saxthor’s dog (as a boy in the palace)
Betsoya (Bet soy’ a)
Mother of Bodrin Vicksnak; Countess Vickinsoff
Bodrin (Bod’ rin)
Bodrin Vicksnak; Closest friend and companion of Prince Saxthor
Bordabrundese (Bor’ da brun’ dEs)
King Bordabrundese was king of the sandhill dwarves of Hador.
Botahar (BO’ tah har)
P
rimary inland commercial center of Sengenwha just north of Lake Pundar
Calamidese (Cal am’ a dEs)
King Calamidese VII, king of Sengenwha.
Chatra (Cha’ tra)
Prime minister of a sovereign court
Calimon (Cal’ i mon)
Family name of dynasty succeeding first dynasty of Neuyokkasin; Augusteros Calimon, Count de Chatronier and Neuyokkasinian Prince Consort; father of Prince Saxthor Claremendak Calimon de Chatronier
Castilyernov (Cas’ til yer nov)
Castle or fortress
Chatronier (Sha’ tron yA)
Title of Neuyokkasinian prince consort Augusteros Calimon
Claremendak (Clair rem’ n dak)
Middle name of Prince Saxthor Claremendak Calimon de Chatronier
Dreaddrac (Dred’ drac)
Kingdom of the Evil One at the northern point of the peninsular of northern Powteros continent
Earwig (Ear’ wig)
Upstart, classless woman who sold her soul to the Evil One through witchcraft to overthrow the ruling family of Neuyokkasin. Married to Minnabec III, deposed last ruler of first dynasty of Neuyokkasin Irkin Megla, formal name
Earwighof (Ear’ wig hof)
Fortress home of Zerwin and Minnabec III outside of Konnotan
Edros (ed’ rOs)
Swamps of southern Dreaddrac between east and west mountains on border of southern Dreaddrac
Eleatsubetsvyertsin (el eat’ soo bets vyert’ sin)
Eleatsubetsvyertsin Calimon de Chatronier, Queen of Neuyokkasin, daughter of Minnabec II, husband of Augusteros Calimon and mother of Prince Saxthor
Favriana (Fav rea ah’ n a)
Fortress in Talok-Lemnos guarding southern point of Lake Pundar at source of River Nhy
Feldrik (Fel’ drik)
Fortress in Heggolstockin at the mouth of the Akkin River that guarded against incursions from Dreaddrac and Prertsten.
The N Arc of Empire- Complete Series Page 92