Vedientir

by Ivan Hladni

  "Kam bit to?" asked the king. "Where is your home?"

  After quite a long period of thinking the dragon shook his head.

  "Nai sanam," he said quietly. "I do not know."

  "Have you any more tasks to do for Echa?" the king now asked Dion, turning his head to face Dion directly.

  "No," answered Dion, thinking best not to dilute the conversation by mentioning his plan to visit Kerkio's parents.

  "We will send you home," said the king to the dragon even though he was not using the Old language now. He was talking to himself or so it seemed.

  "You deserve to be returned home, and I shall find someone to do so." The king spoke to the dragon but kept Dion in the corner of his eye the whole time, and he saw Dion fidget and become tense.

  "So, that is solved as well," said the king to Dion again who only then realized that the king had given him a new task.

  "Find the dragon's home and return him there. It is obvious that you two are connected, even if it is only through language now," said the king, and Dion nodded in confused agreement.

  "The dragon seems more connected to you than you to him, it seems," added the king seeing Dion's reaction, and then turned all his attention towards the dragon to explain to him his decision that Dion is to take him back to his unknown home.

  "Dion sah ti hodat damov," he said to the dragon.

  The dragon jumped forward and turned towards Dion. He looked at Dion with wide open eyes that reflected the fire of the throne room's fireplace. They did not see that the king had to stop the worried guards once again and order them back.

  "Lyud?" the dragon called him with a voice full of hope.

  "Ada," answered Dion and smiled to show that he accepts the king's tasks, even though he wasn't sure at all how to approach its execution. He turned to the king then.

  "What about Echa?" Will you send any help to Echa?"

  The king called Dion to his tables covered with news of their dying kingdom.

  "There are now people in Tialoch who came from the Thin Island and even from counties east of there. They all brought the same message as you did, and some brought even worse ones. All Tree cities are under attack and most of them have fallen already. The whole known world is in chaos right now. We are expecting more people to reach us from the east seeking refuge before Renk comes."

  "Renk?" shouted Dion in surprise.

  "Renk," repeated the king coldly.

  "But he must be over seventy," said Dion after he counted in his head how many years had passed since king Bar Renk was ousted from Aelan along with his followers.

  "Bar is old, but his son Pan Renk isn't. And my answer to your question finally is - no. I cannot send help to Echa."

  A cloak of woe clothed Dion when the king's words reached his ears. He was aware of the situation and had expected such an answer, but it was a hard thing to hear. He hoped to the last moment that the king would be able to do something, regardless of the state in which Tialoch was, but that hope was gone now. A helpless anger grew in him and he saw the king's lips move but his ears heard nothing the king said.

  "We are trying to form a new military unit to help the First legion. We are trying to persuade the men from the eastern counties to help us here, and many have answered our call. But, all this takes time, and I have too little of it. I must ensure the safety of Tialoch. Perhaps, if luck is abundant we may even take back the Tree..."

  "But Echa will not have enough supplies to wait so long," Dion stopped the king midsentence, almost shouting at him. "I thought people were always first in this kingdom!"

  "They are! And our talk is over," answered the king in a rough voice and straightened his back.

  "You can go now, Dion, messenger of three Echas and friend of dragons. I am sorry that you have lost your home. I thank you for the news you have brought me."

  He called the guards. He grew angry enough that he could not look at Dion as he and the dragon were escorted out into the courtyard.

  The sound of the tall doors of the throne room closing was the sound of the end of his task. He failed. Echa was left to fend for itself.

  "One thing is certain," Dion told himself, "both of us have no home anymore, but yours we may yet find. There is no hope for mine."

  "Lyud?"

  The dragon noticed the change in Dion, but Dion didn't respond or translate what he had said. He was trying to hide his pain from the dragon.

  The dragon called him once more and then saw tears in Dion's eyes. He moved closer to Dion, and not knowing how to help him, the dragon flapped his wings but moaned in pain. That brought Dion back from his thoughts.

  "Nai to sah krilah," said Dion and waved his arms. "Don't do that with your wings."

  "There is nothing here for us. We should go to Teikos and Lanika as my father said I should do," said Dion in the Old language. "While I can still discern pine from birch."

  The sounds of skirmishes raging all around the city were growing louder and the dragon got more nervous with every new step they took downhill.

  "Sied," said the dragon and moved in front of Dion to block his path.

  "I will not sit on you, if that really is what you're offering," answered Dion in the Old language, but the dragon was adamant and again got in Dion's way when he tried to continue downhill.

  "Berzyi bit," explained the dragon, and this time Dion stopped to think about the dragon's offer.

  "Are you sure that you can carry me?" he asked in the Old language.

  "Ada! Sied!" the dragon yelled, and Dion quickly found himself sitting uncomfortably on the dragon's neck and shoulders. He placed his bent legs under the dragon's wings and grabbed his neck tightly with one hand while still holding the battle standard in his right. He felt funny, ridiculous even, but he was happy again for a moment.

  "Drzat seb," said the dragon when Dion pointed towards the North gates. "Hold on."

  Chapter 11 - Respite

  They were soon out of Tialoch's North gate. They stopped at a crossroads, but there were white birches growing there. Not a single pine tree was in sight.

  "Grak! Kam?" croaked the white raven after it landed onto a birch on Dion's right. The black raven landed next to the white raven but said nothing. He simply stared at Dion, looking at him first with its left eye, then turning its head and looking at Dion with the other.

  "Tam," answered Dion and pointed to where he thought they all should go - further north. They passed another crossroads where tall poplars grew and continued until they finally reached the pine tree crossroads. There they turned right onto the road that led east between houses strewn on both sides of the road like leaves on a branch.

  There was no grace in his dismount in front of the wooden gates of the fifth house on the left side of the street. He left the dragon in front of the larger section of the gates - meant for carts and cattle and other large things, and he went a few more steps to a door between the large gates and the house.

  The ravens landed onto the dragon's back as soon as Dion dismounted, and the dragon seemed not to mind them being there, except for occasionally shaking his leg when they walked too quickly or pecked at his scales.

  Dion struck the doors a few times with the soft underside of his hand and pulled his hand back when the doors opened slightly ajar on their own, but he did not enter.

  "Good day," said Dion when a short old woman wearing a white dress covered with knitted red flowers opened the door that were twice as tall as her. He could tell by her expression that she did not know who he was.

  "Kerkio is not home," said the old woman courteously.

  "I know," replied Dion.

  "I am Daedar's grandson," he introduced himself.

  "Kerkio said to tell you that he would be home later today."

  "Dion!" Her smile displaced the orange freckles on her wrinkled face, and she came out to the street with opened arms. Dion bent slightly so the old woman could hug him but she grabbed him by the cheeks with both hands and pulled him closer, and then
kissed him first on one cheek and then on the other.

  "Welcome," said Lanika pleasantly surprised by her guest and then she noticed the dragon. She pulled her hands back from Dion, but her distress was brief.

  "Don't worry. He is my and Kerkio's friend, and he draws a lot of attention. May we enter?"

  She checked the dragon once more with a piercing stare and then disappeared behind the gates. She pulled the metal pin that held the larger section of the gates closed and opened it just enough for the dragon to enter the yard. Lanika closed them as soon as the dragon's tail was inside the yard but then went out the small gate and waved off the neighbors who flocked to catch a glimpse of the dragon.

  "Teikos!" she called Kerkio's father after she had closed the small gate behind her. She ran down the stone path next to the house and overtook her guests so she could properly host them.

  "This way," she called them and they followed her from the narrow entrance between Kerkio's and their neighbor's house into the large square-shaped yard behind the house. Teikos greeted them there. He was a man of somewhat thinner hair that had run far away from his forehead years ago. It was almost entirely white now but you could still see that it was blonde in his youth, just like Kerkio's hair. He was at the verge of being chubby, but he was quick and nimble, and the speed with which he arrived before them from the other end of the yard showed that.

  He looked at both of them with equal interest. If he had any doubts or fears regarding the dragon it wasn't showing on his face.

  He extended his hand to Dion and he took it firmly.

  "Arnos' Dion?" asked Teikos when Dion introduced himself and then moved away a step when Dion nodded.

  "You have really grown since I last saw you. You were this big then," said Teikos and pointed to his forearm. "You have your grandfather's eyes," he said approvingly, and then turned to his wife.

  "Lanika, I won't be long," he said and with urgency in his step went into the street.

  "Come to the porch, to the little table," she said and showed Dion to the large wooden porch that extended across the entire length of the house. A small table surrounded by tall tripod stools was there, to the right of the small entrance located in the middle of the house.

  "Is Daedar or someone else coming?" asked Lanika when Dion sat on one of the stools.

  "No. Only Kerkio. The rest of my family stayed at home."

  "Well, you chose a tough time to visit. There's a lot of turmoil in Tialoch these days. How was your trip?"

  Dion decided to leave the details for some other time or for Kerkio when he comes home.

  "It was interesting, but a bit different than I had imagined."

  Lanika looked at him askew. She did not fail to notice old crusted blood on his shirt and wounds on his head and arm, but she asked nothing more.

  "Our neighbor Orta," Teikos introduced the other man who was with him when they appeared from around the corner of the house. Orta was a slender man and immaculately clean. The white robe that he wore increased that impression even more. He carried a worn-out brown leather bag in his right hand.

  "Herbalist, healer, and a former horse apothecary of the King's legion," Teikos continued introducing the man to Dion. "Let him clear your wounds. Let him have a look at you and your companion."

  Orta was silent for a long while but Dion could tell that the old man enjoyed looking at the dragon even more than the king had. But, Orta looked at the dragon differently. Studiously.

  "If you do not wish for this great lizard to have a permanent hole in that wing, I need to sew that wound," said Orta after he had walked around the dragon for a while and noted the dragon's wounds without touching him once.

  "You will have to hold it still when the sewing starts."

  "Not a lizard, a dragon," Dion corrected him.

  "If you wish," the apothecary replied and looked at Dion. "A dragon. However, I am more worried about losing my head when I start sewing its wing than how to call it. Also, get up from that stool and come closer. Teikos said your head needed seeing to."

  "Teikos. I need clean, boiled water. A taller stool or chair for the boy. Let's do this before sundown," Orta said when he looked at Dion. In the time it took him to blink twice he knew what he had to do.

  "Sit," said Orta to Dion when Lanika brought a chair from the kitchen into the yard, and they waited for Teikos to boil some water in the kettle and bring it out. Dion's arm was soon checked, cleaned and wrapped in a new bandage. Orta then took out a wooden box out of his bag that contained curved silver needles of various sizes, and then a pouch containing strands of sheep intestines that were as thin as the most exquisite threads you could buy in Phares.

  "Let's clean and suture that small cut on your head first, and then we will take care of the dragon. There's much less work to be done on you."

  Dion started sweating before the large needle even touched his skin, but in the end it wasn't that painful. He only felt two or three stings. Orta's hands were quick and his moves were precise.

  "Teikos, pour some cold water on my hands so I can go deal with the dragon," Orta said when he placed the needle aside.

  "I should talk to him first," said Dion. "He might have trouble with someone hurting him for whatever reason after what I have seen being done to him."

  They could not hear what Dion was saying, but it was obvious to everyone that the animal was afraid. The dragon pressed his wings closer to his body and looked warily towards the apothecary. Dion pointed to his head and then to the dragon's wing, and quite some time passed before Dion persuaded the dragon to come to Orta.

  "I will be quick," Orta said.

  "Dobro bit," Dion whispered into the dragon's ear, telling him that it was going to be better soon. He held his hand on the dragon's neck and felt every shudder that passed through the dragon as Orta cleaned his wound with water. He calmed the dragon when he growled deep inside his throat as Orta pulled at the thin ripped skin of the wing to suture it back into place.

  "All done," Orta said loudly and moved away from the dragon unexpectedly quickly. He learned through the years to expect some sort of reprisal from the animals he healed, but there was no reprisal this time. Dion let go of the dragon, and he turned his head to see what the horse apothecary had done to him. He extended his wing, folded it, then extended it again, and the wind he raised with his wings made the apothecary's curly hair twist and flutter.

  "Satisfied?" Orta asked, enjoying the sight of the dragon playing with his wings. The dragon stopped suddenly, almost like he understood that Orta was talking to him. He got closer to the apothecary, lowered his head slightly so that their heads were next to one another and licked the apothecary's left cheek with his meaty tongue.

  "You are welcome," said Orta but the dragon had already turned towards Dion. He simply stared at Dion and neither moved nor spoke for the longest time until Teikos's voice broke the silence.

  "Do you wish to eat with us? Drink maybe?"

  Orta declined Teikos's offer to eat but washed his hands once again.

  "I cannot even stay to marvel at this wondrous animal - other patients are waiting for me. Tomorrow perhaps, if time allows."

  Orta bowed to Lanika after he finished speaking, gathered his equipment and escorted himself out. He stopped for a moment at the gates. He was blocked by - judging by their number - the whole neighborhood. They were quite energetic in their intent to peek into the yard and disprove the neighborhood liars spreading rumors of live dragons, but Orta closed the door behind him and thwarted their efforts.

  "Time for supper," said Teikos seeing that the threat of neighborhood eyes had passed. "Let's go into the house," he finished, and they all followed him - all except the dragon whose shoulders were too wide so he stayed on the porch, right next to the door where he could see Dion.

  The door led into a kitchen occupied mostly by a large table placed in its center. You had to walk around it to get to the four doors that led to the other parts of the house. Lanika and Teikos sat Di
on down at the table, and then Teikos went through a one of the doors deeper into the house.

  "Lanika, do throw this onto the compost," said Teikos when he returned into the kitchen with an untouched bottle of cherry tonic that he almost served to his guest, but the sight of the grayish wrinkled cherries that floated inside was too unsavory.

  "They lost color. It's not something I would wish to drink anymore."

  Lanika took the bottle out of his hands and frowned at the choice Teikos made.

  "Find something else. Give him something to eat, not just to drink," she said and Teikos obeyed by going out of the kitchen again. Dion's eyes followed Lanika into the yard. She took a right turn toward the large compost heap located in the north-east corner of the yard, next to a house-sized shed covered with a thatched roof. Half of it served as storage for Teikos's tools and half served as a shelter for geese that were still roaming freely all over the yard.

  Teikos returned carrying a large wooden tray and on it there was golden-yellow corn bread and small round slices of some dry sausage, red as a ripe apple, but dotted with many white spots of fat. He placed the tray in front of Dion and went back to fetch a bottle of some brown liquid - it looked like some sort of brandy. He poured both of them a glass and filled a third one for Lanika who was still in the yard, and then he finally took a seat across the table from Dion. Dion kept looking at the served food and drink without touching any of it while Teikos was already pouring his second serving of brandy.

  "I can hear that you are hungry," Teikos said when he heard the rumbling of Dion's stomach that was awakened by the smell of the dried seasoned meat. "Eat."

  Dion put one of the coin-sized slices in his mouth and chewed twice before he abruptly stopped and his eyes turned watery from garlic and other spices in the meat. He tried breathing through his mouth but that helped little.

  "Now take a sip. These two go well together," said Teikos and then took a sip himself. Not wanting to offend the host Dion downed the small glass and regretted it the moment the liquid touched his tongue. It burned. His whole mouth was on fire and he grew as red in face as the sausage he had eaten. He cried and laughed at himself the same time, wiping off the tears that ran down his cheeks.