by Eric Vall
“Except the statue of the moon goddess,” Raisa added with a wink to me. “We leave the statue alone. We can’t move it.”
I was surprised for a moment, I didn’t recall ever talking to the architects about the River Moonstone House underneath the gardens. Then again, if anyone would know about it, it would be those two.
“Do you have any questions or comments, my Lord?” Raisa asked.
“Destroy the palace, got it,” I replied with a roll of my shoulders. “That shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Then I guess that’s it,” Azra said. “We can get to work.”
Then he led his workers around the palace to begin work in the gardens, and Raisa turned to me with a smile.
“Are you ready?”
I nodded and stepped closer to the old palace ruins. Then I reached deep into my spiritual sea to connect with my stone magic.
My power raced through my veins and out of my fingertips, and within moments, the walls from the destroyed palace began to crumble under my command, and I shifted them toward the ground. The workers quickly ran forward with wagons, and they started to scoop up the stone pieces.
We continued to work on the walls until late in the afternoon, and by then we’d finished tearing down about half of the palace. The sun burned hot above us, and sweat trailed down all of our backs. Even Raisa looked flushed and uncomfortable from her spot in the shade while she drew more ideas for the restoration.
Suddenly, the crunch of steps along the rocky ground grabbed my attention, and I looked up to see Ruslan admiring our work.
“I really love what you have done with the place,” the fox commented with a sly grin.
I rolled my eyes, wiped some sweat from my brow, and walked over to meet him. “Hey Pops, what’s up?”
“Laika sent me. The group of messengers are ready to leave. She said you wanted to see them off.”
“Right,” I sighed. “I’ll be right there. I just need to tell Raisa that I’ll be gone for a while.”
Ruslan nodded, and I jogged over to Raisa.
“Did you need something, my lord?” She looked up from her drawing and smiled.
“Hey, I have some things I have to do real fast,” I explained quickly. “I’ll head back here when I’m finished.”
“Okay! I’ll let Azra know so we can all take a break until you return.” Raisa stood and stretched her arms. “See you in a bit.”
Then she marched over to the workers who were loading the stone and talked to them quietly.
I jogged back toward the gate and met up with Ruslan, who had barely gotten off the lawn of the palace.
“Do you think this idea will work?” I asked my father as I fell into step beside him.
“Only time will tell,” he answered before he grinned at me, “but yes, I think it will. Hatra has been nothing more than a ghost town since it was destroyed. People may hear whispers of the city being rebuilt, but to actually see the evidence of it will be inspiring.”
We got to the gate, and Ruslan left me to begin his goodbyes to the people. I met with Laika, and her tail wagged quickly as I came to a stop next to her.
“It’s strange to think that within a few weeks, word of Hatra will spread around the country,” the wolf mused with a smile. “We could begin to see new citizens within a month.”
I nodded in agreement. “Hatra will finally be restored to its former glory.”
“It will truly be a sight to behold.”
I turned to the several groups that gathered around the gates, and men and women stood with bags slung over their shoulders as they waited patiently.
“Okay,” I addressed the group, “you guys know what your jobs are. You have your locations and directions to reach them. Your goal is to search for people who you would be proud to work beside and form a community with. If they seem suspicious, don’t give them information. For most of you, your journey will be long, and you will have to go through harsh conditions before you reach your location. Stay together and be safe. Make Hatra proud.”
The groups bowed to me before they walked through the opened gates. I watched them go, and most of them headed off toward the direction of the desert to reach the cities past the sand.
“They are supposed to find a mage to send word to Ruslan when they reach each city,” Laika told me. “We should hear from the first city in about a week.”
“Good,” I replied as the last group vanished behind some hills. “I hope everything goes smoothly. I don’t need to lose any of my people on a journey meant to help us grow.”
“It will be fine,” Laika assured me as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “We’ve trained them as well as we could, and they are determined to see this mission through. This is their home, too, after all.”
“You’re right,” I smiled down at the wolf, “thank you. Now, I have to go back to the palace. I still have a lot of work to do.”
“Of course.” Laika bowed deeply. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
I gave the wolf a quick kiss and waved at Ruslan before I jogged back to the palace. It took me nearly twenty minutes, but when I arrived, I found Raisa and Azra sitting back against the wall with glasses of water.
“You’re back!” Raisa squealed as she and Azra stood. “Great! Everyone, back to work.”
The workers stood from their spots among the dirt, and we all resumed our work. The palace walls continued to be torn down brick by brick with my power, and the laborers carted the stones off. We were like a well oiled machine, and by the time the sun was low in the sky, we finally dismantled the last stone from the original palace.
“Perfect.” Raisa admired the work with a large smile.
“If you say so,” I chuckled and stared out over the empty lot of land. It was weird to be able to see the other side of the city now that the palace ruins weren’t in the way. “Doesn’t look like much to me.”
“Not yet.” Raisa grinned before she turned to shout over her shoulder. “Azra! We’ve finished. Bring me the blueprints.”
Azra broke away from a group of laborers and bounded over to us with blueprints in hand. Then he sat along the dirt to unroll the paper, and Raisa and I joined him.
The designs were extraordinary. Large marbled pillars lined the main pathway from the entrance to the city all the way to the gates of the palace. The new Lunar Palace was also split into three main compartments: two rectangular sections that sat on either side of the middle building, and the center, which was where the golden domed roof would be placed. Each of the main compartments were filled with long windows along the sides and large, crescent shaped windows along the top.
“Guys, this is amazing,” I praised. “Where should we start?”
Azra pointed to the bottom of the blueprints. “We need to expand the current foundations so we have enough room. The new palace is going to be even bigger than the old one, so we need to expand the basement before we begin to build any walls.”
“But we have to make sure we expand from the other side, because with the gardens here, we don’t have the room we need,” Raisa reminded him. “We should start on the other side, so we can expand as far as we need.”
“Then let’s get over there,” I agreed. “The faster we finish with this, the faster we can get started with the real construction.”
The three of us walked the length of the palace, and we were mindful of the debris as we carefully walked around large, broken stones. It took us about five minutes to reach the opposite side, and then Raisa and Azra immediately got to work.
“Okay, so if you end the expansion here, that should be the perfect length for our design,” Azra called out to me, and he marked an ‘x’ in the dirt with his shoe.
“And here for the width,” Raisa shouted as she walked down the width of the palace. She marked another ‘x’ before she returned to us.
“Got it,” I replied. Then I closed my eyes and focused on my stone magic. Power crackled through my veins, and I could feel as the stone within
the earth bent to my will.
The ground cracked open suddenly, and I had to focus to hold the trench in place so it wouldn’t spread past the marker. Once the crack was stable, I bent the stone to smooth along the sides and opened the gap to an even length. Then I summoned more rock to form along the dirt and molded a gray stone wall over the ground.
I could feel sweat drip down my face as I concentrated on my work, but I gritted my teeth and bore through it. When I was finally finished, I looked down into the hole I’d created and grinned. It seamlessly fit next to the stone walls from the original palace. The only difference was the original palace walls were a white limestone while my stone was a darker gray.
“How does that look?” I asked the architects.
“It’s brilliant!” Azra’s amber eyes shone in excitement. “Lord Evan, with you at our side, we will have the palace finished in no time.”
“The sooner the better.” I glanced up at the sky to see the sun had begun to set, and I sighed. “We should finish up here, it will be dark soon.”
“Do you think you can build at least one of the walls before it’s dark?” Raisa asked eagerly.
“Sure,” I nodded, “it shouldn’t be much harder than what I just did.”
“Let me grab some stone so you don’t have to strain your magic to search for materials,” Azra offered and ran to a wagon. Then he pushed the wagon forward and rolled it toward me.
When the wagon came to a stop at my side, I focused on my magic once more. The stones from the cart obeyed my thoughts and fell to the earth in neat rows. Then they stacked on top of each other and slowly began to morph together to create a solid structure. It took me nearly half an hour to finish the wall, and when I was done, I sighed and leaned against the now empty wagon.
“I can’t believe it,” Raisa gasped and rapped her knuckles over the wall. “Azra, look at this! It’s incredible!”
Azra’s jaw dropped as he ran a hand over the wall. “It’s perfect, there isn’t a single flaw here.”
“I know, I’m pretty incredible.” I smirked, but it quickly faded as I swayed. I was suddenly light headed.
“Lord Evan, are you alright?” Raisa asked with concern in her dark brown eyes.
“I’m fine, but I’ll have to make sure I pace myself,” I said as I waved off her concern. “That used a lot of magic, and I can’t risk exhausting all my power.”
“Of course.” Raisa nodded. “You will be back tomorrow, though, right?”
“Yeah. I should feel fine by morning. I’ll talk to the two of you then. Thanks for all your hard work today.”
“No, thank you, Lord Evan,” Azra corrected with a smile. “Without you, we would still be dismantling the ruins for weeks to come. Your power truly is amazing.”
“I try,” I chuckled. “Have a good night, and try to get some rest, you two.”
The architects nodded absently and continued to fawn over my stone as I retired back to my room in the temporary palace. Thankfully, I was close, and I quickly collapsed onto my bed when I entered my room.
It might have been a long day, but now the construction was well under way, and I couldn’t wait to see the newly restored Lunar Palace in all its glory.
The weeks passed quickly after that, and my days were filled with nothing more than stone walls and blueprints as I worked with the architects to finish the palace. Wooden beams were added by the construction workers as well, to help with the structure of the palace and ensure it would last as long as possible.
It took me a couple of days to shape the dome over the center of the building, since stone didn’t like to bend into a curved shape easily, but I finally finished it and all that was needed was the gold plating to be added over the top. We decided that could wait until the end, though, so I could shift into my dragon form to melt the gold coins and other treasures into a solid piece.
Once the outside of the palace was complete, I worked closely with Raisa and Azra as we began to create the rooms for everyone. Today, we were working on Alyona’s room.
Azra and Raisa walked around the bare room, and wooden beams and stone walls rose around us. The walls were a dull gray color, and the room was bleak and plain for the time being, since the carpenter in Hatra was busy trying to finish all the furniture we’d requested for all of the rooms. Hopefully, something would be done soon, so I could show Alyona her room furnished, not empty.
“Okay, so you want her to have a miniature library, right?” Raisa asked as she turned her head to inspect a wall along the back of the room. “What if we add it here? Then we can keep the rest of the space open for her spell training and for meditation. All we really need is for you to shape the stone into some shelves for the books, and then we can talk to the carpenters in the city and have a beautiful desk made. A matching bed and wardrobe as well.”
“That sounds great!” I grinned. “Alyona will love it.”
I focused on the wall where Raisa had told me to create the shelves and let my stone magic rush through me. The wall slowly reacted to my magic and created a shallow alcove within the stone. Then two rows of long shelves stretched from the floor up toward the ceiling inside the newly formed opening.
“How does that look?” I asked when I finished.
“It’s perfect!” Raisa squealed, and her brown eyes sparkled with delight. “It looks great! Exactly like I pictured!”
“It’s fantastic!” Azra agreed and nodded his blue-haired head vigorously. “Is there anything else you want to add to the princess’s room?”
I thought for a moment as I looked around the room. “She needs a balcony. All of the rooms should have one, actually, so everyone can get some fresh air.”
“We can easily add that over here, next to the largest window.” Raisa replied. “We’ll change the window into a door, and then we can have a set of doors made. It shouldn’t be a problem.
“Awesome.” I clapped my hands and rubbed them together excitedly. “This is going to be great. Alyona will be so happy when she sees this. Do we have an estimation of when the rooms should be done?”
Raisa sighed. “We’ll be done with our part within a few days. We don’t really have much left to do in this room besides the furniture and now the balcony. We will just have to wait for the local carpenter to finish with everything, and unless he gets help within the next few weeks, we will be waiting a while to get what we need.”
“Then we’ll need to make sure we complete our part so we can be ready whenever he is finished,” I told them. “If we can at least finish the construction of the Lunar Palace, we can update the King and tell him the city is completed. He wants us done as soon as possible, and because of the two of you, we are nearly a month ahead of schedule.”
“It’s because of you, my Lord!” Azra waved his hands frantically in front of him. “We had no part in that. With your ability to manipulate stone, you made the construction of the foundation quick and easy. We had estimated it would take a month, if not more, just for us to get this far. But because of you, we did it within two weeks. I never thought I’d be working side by side with a dragon, so I didn’t know how to plan out the work schedule accordingly.”
“Well, I’d rather us be ahead of schedule than behind, so your miscalculation is a blessing.” I shrugged. “Now, we have some extra time to make the city perfect before I have to leave for the campaign.”
“See, I told you he wouldn’t mind,” Raisa laughed, and she jabbed Azra’s side with her elbow. “You were worried over nothing.”
“I wasn’t worried.” Azra shot her a glare. “I miscalculated our schedule, it’s a valid concern. I was hired to do a job, and I made an error. We could have been fired, Raisa.”
The scarlet-haired woman giggled and rolled her eyes dramatically. “I don’t think Lord Evan would fire you because of a mistake. He’s a fair leader, he would have understood.”
I stood silently as the two architects bickered amongst themselves and shook my head in amusement.
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�Listen,” I said after a moment, “I still have a few things I need to do. Is there anything else you need from me?”
They both shook their heads in synchronization.
“Oh, no, we’re fine.” Raisa smiled brightly as she answered. “We are going to be working on the outer aesthetic of the palace once we finish up here.”
“If we have any questions, we’ll find you,” Azra added. “Although, I’m not sure how many ideas you have planned for the flowers in the gardens.”
“None, really,” I laughed and shook my head. “Honestly, I don’t care what any of it looks like, you’d have to talk to Alyona about that. Or maybe the dryads. I’m sure they’d love to give some input.”
“Oh, that’s a great idea!” Raisa’s brown eyes opened wide. “I’m sure the princess and the sisters would have brilliant ideas!”
“We should go find them right now! I hope they’re not too busy.” Azra turned back to me and bowed his head. “Thank you for the idea, Lord Evan. We’ll let you know when we’ve finished so you can tell us if we should change anything.”
I waved as they left in a rush to find Alyona and the dryads. Then I left the room as well and walked around the rest of the palace. The rocks that made up the structure of the palace were different shades of gray and black and made my future home look like a badass gothic medieval castle, only with a domed roof that gave it an Arabic, or maybe Russian, flair.
There were three main parts of the new Lunar Palace. The bedrooms were along the left side, and the center held our throne room, meeting hall, dining hall, and more rooms that would be used for any official business. The center was also the part of the building the domed ceiling covered. Then the right side of the palace was where the library, kitchens, and the treasury vault for the city would be located. The vault for my hoard would still be inside my room, underneath me, but we figured the city should have a vault to protect our other valuables as well. We still had plenty of space throughout the palace, though, just in case we wanted to add more rooms inside.