Suddenly a thunderous boom rang out through the entire area, and the tree building shuddered. The base had broken, and the building began to sway over the construction yard. It started to fall so slowly that it was almost graceful, but it quickly gathered speed as the massive overhanging limbs snapped the trunk and fell.
The ground shook across all of Mill Town when the structure hit. It felt as though there had been an earthquake. Cracks appeared in houses, a few other buildings collapsed, and Stavius and the messenger were thrown off their feet again. Everyone in Mill Town sat where they fell for a few moments while their minds tried to absorb what had just occurred.
“I’ll take that, please,” came a shaken voice from beside Stavius.
He looked over to see the messenger and realized he was still holding her backpack.
“Um, sorry, I was just picking this up for you,” he apologized as he stood to return it to her. He slipped Larsa’s card into a side pocket of the backpack as he rose. “I am so sorry to have run into you. It was an accident. Please don’t report me.”
“I think this can be considered an extenuating circumstance,” said the woman, as she took the backpack. “Did you see what happened when lightning struck the new marketplace? We all said something like that was going to happen. These architects pushed their abilities too far. I just hope no one was hurt. Bye!”
The messenger dashed off faster than Stavius had ever seen anyone run while he trotted in the opposite direction along a side street back up the hill. Larsa would still be looking for him if she had escaped the building collapse. He hoped she would chase the card for a while, but his trick wouldn’t work if she actually saw him.
Stavius ran as far as he could but soon had to slow to a walk. He was out of breath, muddy and bruised. His foot was throbbing from kicking that bucket of mud, and he had managed to bang his hand and elbow, either when he crashed into the messenger or when he was thrown to the ground as the building fell. He was soaking wet from the rain, and his clothes were covered in mud. This was not how he wanted to appear in front of his parents.
Stavius stood in front of the ornate door to his parents’ house and paused before raising the large, brass knocker. He hadn’t seen his family in years after being warned to stay away and was now limping up to their residence to beg for a place to stay while looking like, well, a beggar. He sighed and almost considered turning away and just telling Janus that they would have to sleep on the street, but he steeled himself and let the knocker clang against the door.
A well-dressed, elderly gentleman opened the door and said, “There will be no begging here, young man. Please depart before I summon the constabulary.”
“Gilson, it’s me!” shouted Stavius, who recognized his parent’s butler.
“I know who you are, Staven,” answered Gilson. “Let me repeat. Remove yourself from these premises or I will have you removed and jailed.”
“Who is at the door?” came a voice from the darkness behind Gilson.
“Just a street beggar, ma’am,” answered Gilson, as he began to close the door.
“Well, it is Luna Fest, Gilson. Let us be generous and send him off with some food,” answered the voice. An older woman appeared in the doorway beside Gilson. She was tall, slender, and had a regal bearing, even with minimal illusion. She was wearing a floor-length black dress which was illuded to be utterly dark around her torso except for a few twinkling sparks of light. It was like staring into the endless night sky if it only had a dozen or so stars. She was Claricha Shreeuv Auburnis, Staven’s mother.
Claricha gave Stavius a condescending look and said, “Oh, it’s you.”
Stavius squirmed a bit as his mixture of feelings toward his mother swirled in his mind but blurted, “Hi Mother. May I come in?”
“You most certainly may not!” proclaimed Claricha. “But I am curious. Why have you decided to crawl back here? What do you want from us?”
“It’s nice to see you too, Mother,” spat Stavius. Anger had risen to be the champion over fear, embarrassment, guilt and the myriad of other emotions which had been battling for his attention. “In fact, I do have a request. I am in town for a few days with a friend and was hoping you would offer us a place to stay.”
Claricha was apparently taken aback by his request and replied, “So you’ve grown a spine. You surprise me. Tell me, have your magical abilities improved as well?”
“No ma’am,” answered Stavius. He was not about to tell her about his ability to produce battle magic.
“Well, some things never change,” she sighed in disgust. “I assume that you’re here for the festival, although I am surprised that it interests you. You’re probably being dragged here by your friend. Who is he?”
Stavius did not want to share anything more about Janus or the reasons for his visit with his mother than necessary, so he lied. “My friend is a girl, Mother. But you are right that attending the festival is her idea. We’re not going to stay for the whole thing though. We’ll be leaving on Fivesday.”
“A girl!” exclaimed Claricha in surprise. “My, my, my. And where did you meet this poor creature? Does she know of your limitations?”
“We met in Clothton, Mother. She is not a poor creature, and yes, she knows everything about me,” growled Stavius. He felt as though he needed to defend his girlfriend, even though Janus was neither his girlfriend nor even a girl. His mother knew how to hurt him with every remark she made.
“I should’ve guessed that you would flee to Clothton after that fiasco with the baby dragon,” laughed Claricha. “It sounds as though she is perfect for you. I’ll tell you what. You two may stay in the shed for the next two nights, as long as all trace of you is gone by Fivesday morning. We are having guests over for a party that evening, and I will not tolerate having people like you around.”
“Thank you, Mother,” said Stavius as graciously as he could through clenched teeth.
“You are most welcome, Dear,” answered Claricha with a wave of her hand. “It is the charitable season and our family is known for our generosity. Think of this as our wedding present to the two of you, but there is no need to invite us to the wedding.”
Stavius just stared at his mother but she stepped back inside, and Gilson had closed the door before he could formulate a response. Sleeping in the shed would be better than sleeping in the gutter tonight, but he seriously thought he would have chosen the street if there was no rain. He turned and began walking back to the fairgrounds to meet Janus. There were still a few hours before dusk, but the talisman tour should be returning soon.
The rain had slowed to a steady drizzle by the time Janus’ tour group returned, but Stavius was soaked to the skin. Janus laughed when he saw him and instantly regretted it when he saw Stavius’ clenched fists. “Dude, come over here and let me clean you up,” he said. “We have got to get you trained in magic.”
They stepped behind the tour booth and, with a wave of Janus’ hand, Stavius was suddenly clean and dry with an invisible rain shield over his head.
“Thanks,” he muttered. “I lost Larsa, but you’d better illude us to look different. I suspect she’s still looking for us and she’s going to be mad.”
They went to a quiet café to have an early dinner and to share what they’d learned. Janus wanted to meet Saiph the dragon as soon as he heard about their conversation but accepted that they needed to wait until dusk. He was so impressed with Stavius’ tale about evading Larsa and the destruction of the marketplace that he had him repeat the story several times. Janus was less impressed with having to sleep in a shed and with having to pretend to be a girl for two more days. “Man, your family is messed up, dude,” he said with a shake of his head.
Janus’ afternoon was much less exciting, but he had learned a lot of valuable information. He had visited five castles and seen five of the talismans. The Spear of Mars was located in Admian castle, the castle nearest the fairgrounds which was designed to look like a tree. The Ring of the Air was on display in
Ringheld castle, which was on the next hill to the west. Auburnis castle held the Crown of Helios. Clivana castle contained the Jewels of Luna. And the Necklace of Venus was stored in Faerinod castle. The tour did not include visits to Claerith or Meissa castles because they were just too far away.
All of the talismans were on public display with only a handful of soldiers guarding them. The public showcasing was due to the pride and arrogance of the seven families. There were no guards needed because reaching into the magical power stream surrounding the talismans would be fatal. And, if you somehow could bypass the power stream, the talismans would explode with incredible force if they were ever removed. Any guards on site were merely there to prevent visitors from doing anything foolish.
The boys chatted until the sun started to set and then wandered back over to the fairgrounds. The grounds officially closed at nightfall, but the boys convinced security to let them have one more look at the prisoners before it closed. There was almost no one there due to the late hour and the rain, so the guards agreed to give them ten minutes. They raced over to the cage, and Nariana immediately threw a bucket of slop at Janus, who was disguised as a rotund, middle-aged woman.
Stavius yelled, “Hey, Nariana, it’s us!” and Nariana grunted, “We know.”
Janus said, “No worries. I had a shield up. Fool me once and shame on you. Fool me twice and shame on you.”
“Shame on you, Janus,” yelled Versera. “Real fruits come out, but we can’t get rid of your illusions, you creep!”
“Oh, sorry about that,” Janus sheepishly said as he waved his hand and the stains on their dresses suddenly disappeared. “My mistake.”
Stavius interrupted to inform the girls that they had a plan to get them out. He wouldn’t share it with them yet but promised to explain it all tomorrow evening. They argued that they wanted to hear it now, but Stavius maintained that there wasn’t enough time to divulge the details before the park closed. While this was true, the real reason was that they did not really yet have a plan. They were hoping to come up with one after talking to the dragon, but Stavius felt that this small lie was appropriate and necessary to keep them from committing suicide.
The guards were waving at them from the booth, and the boys waved back before walking behind the prisoners’ cage. Two illuded doppelgangers came out the other side and walked out the park while the boys crouched behind the cage. The guards sat in their guardhouse and watched the illusions leave. They could see that there was no one in the fairgrounds and had made an executive decision to not go outside for rounds until the rain slowed. They extinguished the park lights, and the boys crouched in the mud for several minutes listening to nothing but the steady rain falling on the grass and the tin roof of the prisoners’ cage.
The boys finally crept over to the far side of the dragon aviary near Saiph’s cave.
“Saiph,” Stavius thought. “It’s dark, and we’re here. Come out and talk to us.”
There was no response and, after a few minutes Stavius whispered to Janus, “I don’t think she’s coming.”
Janus replied, “I think you should turn around.”
Stavius turned around toward the cage and found himself staring into an eye as large as his head on a head which was larger than his entire body. Saiph had emerged from her cave.
“Dragons creep when necessary,” thought Saiph in her deep, rich voice. “We are the greatest hunters in the world in the air, land, or sea.”
She crawled farther out of her cave, and the boys only heard the slightest of squishing sounds and a slight rattling of the ancient chain connected to the heavy iron collar around her neck.
“You’re huge,” thought Stavius before quickly adding, “but it looks good on you!” He didn’t know whether female dragons were as concerned about their appearances as the girls at school, but he did know he didn’t want to piss off a dragon.
Saiph snorted and thought, “I am malnourished, unexercised, and haven’t had a bath in a hundred years. I am nothing but a weak and frail shadow of myself. Do not fear to offend me young one. Let me kill those families, especially the Admians, and I will be in your debt for eternity.”
“You may consider yourself scrawny, but Stavius is right,” thought Janus. “You are still large and powerful. Why don’t you just bust out of this cage? You are a fire-breather after all. Can’t you just destroy these bars?”
“Oh, how I wish I could,” groaned Saiph. “This cage is magically enhanced to dampen my powers, I am too weak to break this chain, and I cannot reach my collar. No, I am trapped and cannot even exhale a wisp of flame. Help me break this spell and, although I will not be able to escape, I will gladly roast those viewing stands filled with the Septumcolis elite. I may not have my freedom, but I will have my revenge.”
“Wow, Stavius, this bird has some seriously pent up anger. Are you sure we want to let her out?” thought Janus.
“You do know that I can hear your thoughts, don’t you?” grumbled Saiph in disbelief. She shook her head in disgust, causing rainwater to spray in every direction.
“Janus didn’t mean anything by that,” Stavius quickly thought. “He’s just, well, he’s just like that. He’s a good guy though.” Then, in an attempt to guide the conversation in a safer direction, he thought, “But how can we disable the magic in your cage?”
“By eliminating the magic in the entire area,” answered Saiph. “You need to remove the Admian talisman.”
“No way,” thought Janus. “That might shut down the magic around here, but it would also kill whoever removed the talisman.”
“Fools,” Saiph angrily thought. “Those are simply lies spread by the family elders to protect their toys. Don’t you think that the families would have a way to remove their precious treasures safely?”
“Well, I suppose that would make sense,” admitted Janus, somewhat embarrassed for not thinking of that himself. “Do you know how to remove them?”
“Indeed, I do,” thought Saiph, “but you will need some tools which will be difficult to obtain. “You’ll need a dragon gastrolith, but I am afraid I cannot provide one.”
Saiph looked sad, then angry, and then tired. “I have an unhealthy number inside me, but I cannot cough them up. The families forced them down my throat and clamped this neck ring on me so that I cannot spit them out.”
Stavius stared at the dragon and thought, “That sounds cruel. Why would they do that?”
Saiph looked at the first person to ever show her kindness and explained that this was the reason why she was being kept alive. She was being used to transform rocks into dragon stones. Someday, when her keepers felt she was ready, Saiph would be slaughtered so that her gastroliths could be harvested and carved into yet more talismans.
“It’s all about power,” she concluded. “That’s all the families want. It’s all they’ve ever wanted, and they don’t care who or what is destroyed to get more.”
The three of them stood in silence for a while contemplating the greed of the seven families and the suffering they had caused. Finally, Saiph explained that, while it was possible to remove a talisman from the energy stream, something needed to take its place in the temple receptacle quickly or it would, as Janus was told, explode with unimaginable force. That something needed to be a dragon stone.
Stavius and Janus looked at each other and wordlessly agreed to tell Saiph about their stones.
“Saiph, you should know that we actually have a pair of dragon stones,” Janus began.
“But they were given to us, and we have no idea where they came from,” Stavius quickly added. “If we had known they were taken from an actual dragon we would’ve refused them.”
“Then you would have been fools,” thought Saiph, but she was clearly suspicious. “Show them to me.”
The boys carefully took the stones out of their packs and set them on the ground before Saiph. The dragon studied them for a moment before snorting, “These are old, worn gastroliths. They are far too smooth to be useful
for grinding food and were probably spit out years ago. At worst, whoever collected them violated a dragon’s nest, but these could also have been simply found in the woods. Fear not, youngsters, you have committed no draconic crime and these will serve our needs well, although they are unrefined and thus unlikely to last more than ten minutes in the magic stream. You will need to move fast, and you will need a distraction if you plan to make the switch and avoid the guards during your escape.”
Saiph then taught both of the both of the boys the secrets of how to remove the talismans from the magical power streams and of how to turn the talismans off. The talismans were each carefully crafted from multiple dragon stones into specific shapes which could absorb, retain and release incredible amounts of magical power. However, they were unstable outside of the power streams and would explode within minutes unless they were, in effect, turned off. Once in this deactivated state, though, they would safely hold their charges for centuries while releasing a steady trickle of energy.
So, the theft would result in the Admian temple exploding ten minutes or so after the Spear of Mars was replaced with the dragon stones. The explosion would damage Admian castle, and disrupt the surrounding magical pool, including the dampening field around Saiph’s cage. She would still be unable to break her chains but could use her dragon fire to destroy the cage and, most importantly to her, to wipe out any members of the seven families in the viewing stands.
Saiph thought that Stavius should be the one to steal the talisman because his size and strength would help him with the guards, but both boys were emphatic that it should be Janus’ task. Saiph was unconvinced but had no choice but to accept their decision.
“You will need an exceptional diversion since you are too small to fight the guards, Janus,” warned Saiph. “You should begin your plans now while I speak with Stavius.”
“No worries,” laughed Janus. “Creating annoying distractions and diversions is one of my special skills. I already have some ideas, but you’re right. It will take all day tomorrow to set up, and I’d better start planning all the details right now.”
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