The heathen raged, and then
In violence the dragon's kingdoms did shake:
The Gryphon roared. and over their heads
The giant waves on them did break.
The Lord of Eagles, He is with us,
The Gryphon of Yaakov, He is near,
He is our refuge and our safety,
And our shelter from all fear.
Come and see how the Gryphon's paw
Has proven now your worth,
See what desolations He has made
For you throughout the entire earth.
He breaks the bow; He cracks the spear;
He burns the chariot with fire;
He will make all strife to cease;
He will thwart the dragon's desire.
Be still and know, yes, know
That everything rests within My hand;
I will be exalted by all peoples,
I will be exalted in the land.
The Lord of Eagles, He is with us,
The Gryphon of Yaakov, He is near,
He is our refuge and our safety,
And our shelter from all fear. 14
“These words of Jason ben-Timnon, bard of Dragonsback, for now, have ended.”
Much like Raven had done, Jason turned and walked away from his friends. He intended no disrespect by this action. Having pointed out a problem to which he personally did not hold the solution (each man is, in the end, responsible for his own pack), he let his words stand in his place and headed toward the distant bales of straw that marked the place of the children’s games.
~ ~ ~
“I can’t believe my luck!” moaned Kaleb quietly so as not to be heard. “To get sick to my stomach this way just when we were so close to catching up to Jason! And I can’t believe Raven would go off and leave me like this, either. Here I am, stuck in a damp old cave, under the ‘watchful care’ of two of his blackrobe toads. Too sick to even move!
What I don’t understand is how it hit me so fast. I was fine when I first got up this morning. In fact, I didn’t start feeling sick until I ate my firstmeal.
“Hey, I wonder… Naw, nobody else got sick. Still, if Raven wanted to, he could have easily put something in my food. He did bring me a plate today which is fairly unusual.”
He paused as a spasm shook him, prompted by the mere mention of food. He stooped over and added more to the contents of the vile-smelling bucket that already held most of his breakfast. After a while, he straightened up and miserably wiped his mouth on a coarse cloth that had been left for his use.
“But why would he want to leave me behind? Surely he wouldn’t confront that bard without my being there. He’s promised! Yet, what did he say when he left this morning? Something about having an assignment at the Great Games?
“Well, I guess that’s something else I missed, too. I can’t believe my luck!”
~ ~ ~
Jason had almost reached the bales when he heard running footsteps behind him. Unbidden, Nathan’s warning of caution flashed through his mind. Without turning around, he reached across his body to firmly grip the handle of his narwhale sword, ready for an instant defense.
He relaxed slightly when he realized the footfalls were way too light to belong to the giant, Raven.
“Jason! Jason, wait up!” said a breathless feminine voice from close by.
With his heart suddenly pounding like a drum, he turned around with a whispered name on his lips, “Shoshanna!”
“I waited to hear what the adults said about you,” she said drawing closer and stopping with a rush. “Then my Ma sent me t’ look after you. Not that you need looking after, that is. Just thought you’d like a companion today!”
Taken off guard by her sudden appearance, Jason could only stutter, “Wh… What are y’… you doin’ here?”
“Why it’s the Great Games. Where else do you think we’d be?”
The unspoken but implied word “silly” brought bright color to the young bard’s face.
However, if she noticed it Shoshanna gave no indication, but kept right on talking, “You should have heard them. Half of them got out their shell bowls on the spot. Others took their packs off right in front of everyone! If you’d been any older, I bet they would have set you on their platform as a champion!”
“What are you talking about?” asked Jason, still in a daze.
With both of her hands, the dark-haired lass lightly grabbed his left arm (where it hung stiffly at his side), drew herself closer to him, and held on. Looking down she added coyly, “You can release your sword now. I promise not to attack you!”
“I … I…” Further embarrassed, Jason snapped his right hand back to his side, but her quiet laugh warmed his heart more than his glowing face and he started to relax at last.
“What am I talking about?” she asked and using her light grip on his arm, directed them both to start moving toward his original goal. “I’m talking about the boy who visited my home a year ago. At that time I saw that sadly, even though he didn’t know it, he was as bound and weighed down with the Dragon’s chains as much as anyone in Scalina. I’m talking about the man who replaced him; a man so free from the Dragon that he could see thorns and shadows that everyone else ignored. I’m talking about the champion who dared to stand against the so-called righteous because it was the right thing to do. I’m talking about you, Jason. And so are many of those whose packs you just opened! What you said worked! The Gryphon’s team might not win a place in the Games today, but (because of you) the Gryphon has definitely won a place in His team!”
Taken off guard by her sudden appearance and by her incredible praise-filled revelation, he could only stutter in response, “I… You… They… Oh, Gryphon’s paws! I don’t know what I’m saying!” And having said that little and that much he vowed silently to himself not to open his mouth again.
Why is it, he wondered, that I can openly rebuke all the elders on Dragonsback, but can’t find any words at all that I can say to this girl?
Apparently the new arrival with her flouncing long black curls and softly flowing azure-blue tunic, fully intended to fill all the silences, whether he could speak or not. She continued undaunted by his apparent inability to communicate, “I’ve never met someone else my age who loves the Gryphon’s Son like you do. Most of the boys I know – and the girls too for that matter – (the young people who claim to follow the Gryphon’s Son) only play at being a Swimmer. They turn the whole thing into a Great Game that has no more significance than a child’s straw ballot. They think they can make up their own rules and try to make the Champion of All carry them where they want, instead of the other way around!”
That’s it, talk to her about the Games, he thought in desperation. That will turn her focus off of me. At least it should be a subject she knows a lot more about than I do.
“I’m very sorry, Shoshanna,” he said (and rejoiced in his regained ability to string sensible words together), “but I know very little about the Games of the Heartland, so your illusions to them are about as clear to me as midnight on a foggy night …”
She laughed and he thought he had never heard a sweeter sound in the entire world.
“Then I’m sorry as well for confusing you. Let me be the sun that burns away your fog. And, by the way, my friends just call me ‘Shanna’.”
Stumbling over his words again, he managed to say, “I’d like that. I mean the part about you helping me to understand. And… am I really your friend?”
Instantly he regretted that last question, but it had just escaped before he could bar the gate. A childhood without friends fills the corral with stock that is hard to tame.
“Of course you are, silly. Do you think I’m in the habit of holding on to just any boy’s arm?”
Again the sound of her laughter filled his world and in that instant made everything seem all right. Suddenly it occurred to him that he could not conceive of a more pleasant place to be in the whole of Dragonsback. Sure, it was a damp, bar
ren, people-filled plain stuck under the Head of the Dragon, yet at that moment no wildflower-filled field high in a mountain pass could even begin to compare to its beauty.
“No… No, I don’t imagine you would. It’s just that (besides my brother and Nathan) I’ve never had a friend before, much less one that’s a girl! I don’t know… I hardly know how to think, act, or speak. But I think I really like it!” The confession snuck out to fill the void created by the passing of her laughter. He groaned inwardly at this blunder. She really didn’t need to know the full extent of his backwardness!
“Well, it’s a very bad habit boys get into at some point or another,” she said with a sun-filled smile and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, “having girls as friends that is. Are you sure you’re ready to get corrupted?”
This time they both laughed together.
He knew then that she had accepted him, backward or not. He reached up with his free right hand to momentarily rest it over the two soft hands she had entwined about his left arm. The sudden and unexpected thrill of that touch almost robbed him of the words he meant to say. Quickly he returned his hand to his side, and managed, “Thank you, Sho… Thank you, Shanna.”
“You are most welcome, I’m sure, my young bard.”
She didn’t even have to ask me what for! He thought. She knows what I am thinking!
“We’d better begin your education before it’s too late and you miss something,” Shoshanna said matter-of-factly.
“And what education is that?” Jason couldn’t help asking.
They both laughed again until finally, she said, “Why, about the Great Games, silly. And I mean the official Games about to take place on this field!” As if to emphasize her words she pinched his arm with both surprisingly powerful hands.
“Do you know of some other games that I should be learning about?” he countered with feigned innocence.
This time it was her turn to blush. She let the question go unanswered. Having reached the first of the wagons, she turned her escort around to face the direction from which they had just come and abruptly changed the subject.
“Pay attention, now,” said the young woman, mimicking the very proper tone, Jason imagined, of one of her early childhood teachers. “It’s time for your lessons to begin. The Games are divided into two parts (unless you count the straw games that the children play in the early morning). The Preliminaries are held in the morning, and the Finals begin just after the noon meal. The Finals will last till twilight if need be. (Sometimes the victor is declared early and we can all pack up and go home before dark!)”
“You mean you’ll only be here just for today?” he asked, trying not to let too much disappointment carry in his words.
The mischievous twinkle came back in her eye as she asked, “Why, there’s no reason for me to want to stay around here, is there?”
Jason, too unused to the ways of this new friend and still too unsure of himself in any relationship, did not catch the twinkle. Instead, he found himself floundering for words like a non-Swimmer fallen suddenly overboard. “I… I had hoped… I mean… Well, it sure would be nice… that is, to get to see you more before you left!” He finished the sentence in an embarrassed rush to make sure he got it all out.
“You silly boy, what am I going to do with you?” she said and leaned her head momentarily against his shoulder.
The brief touch of those dark tresses against his cheek and the lingering trace of her smell (a haunting combination of cinnamon apples and flowers) made his knees weak and filled his chest with a warm, strange, wonderful feeling, unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Words came unbidden to his mind, I sure do like it when she calls me “silly”!
“I was only joking with you!” Shanna continued and he heard the apology in her words. “It’s too far back to Scalina to travel at night. We always stay over a friend’s house, usually not leaving till noon the next day. It’s possible, I suppose that we just might see each other again before my Dad takes us home… You know, I think it’d be nice, too, Jason.”
The last she added in almost a whisper as though she were sharing with him one of her deep secrets. The happiness that he felt could not be expressed even by the words of a bard, so he remained silent.
Shanna, too, seemed content, for the moment, to stand there silently holding his arm. Gently she leaned her head once more against his shoulder. When she did not immediately remove it, a bold idea crept into Jason’s mind. Slowly, nervously at first, and then, when he fully decided he wanted to do this thing, with more conviction, he inclined his own head to the left, through those soft wonderful curls, until at last his cheek rested lightly on the top of her head.
Unbidden, a tear escaped from his right eye to trickle toward the tip of his nose. He did not dare move to stop it, lest he disturb the woman on his arm. Any action might end this special moment. He wanted this moment to last until the end of time.
At last, she moved her head and Jason, of necessity, lifted his own away from hers. Quickly he swiped at his face to remove the telltale sign of his emotion. Shoshanna turned then so the two of them were looking eye to eye. He could tell that her mood had changed to one of seriousness or concern, so, before she could speak, he attempted to build a verbal bridge in her direction.
“What is it, Shanna? Is something wrong?”
“No, Jason, nothing is wrong. It’s only my curiosity acting up. Before I teach you any more about the Games I have a request for you…”
Surprised by this turn, but confident now in their growing relationship, he returned, “Why of course, what is it? I promise anything I can do for you I will!”
“You’ll probably think this is strange…” Now Shoshanna was the one who sounded unsure of herself.
“If I have learned anything today it’s that unexpected things can sometimes be pretty wonderful!”
“Thank you, Jason,” she said and then paused, obviously nervous. Finally, she grinned at him, shrugged her shoulders, and continued, “When you first came to my house, you came with your GrandSire, Thaddeus the carver. I had heard that name since the time I first learned to talk, but never thought I would see him in person. You see, I have grown up in a city famed for its carving artisans, but as a Swimmer, I knew that scaline art always found its source and purpose in the Dragon from which it sprang. I guess that is why the tales I heard of Thaddeus so intrigued me.”
Shanna paused to catch her breath before continuing. To Jason’s delight, her eyes never left his the whole time she spoke. That warm internal glow had returned to his chest again. He discovered that the irises of her eyes were the same curious gray color as the distant wall of clouds that hid the Gryphonsland from mortal sight. He wondered what glorious mysteries hid behind those as well.
“Then suddenly one day he appeared in my very home and lifted that wondrous bone sword of his in greeting sign to my mother and to my house. From a distance, for that brief moment, I caught a glimpse of that hand-carved treasure (and its twin in the hand of Nathan the Bard). Then it was gone from my sight. So I watched in vain as the swords of his two grandsons were presented, but alas, both were only of common scaline. I thought that I would never see such a wonder again as those two carved bone swords, until today, suddenly, only a short distance from where I stood, you held up that very sword in defiance to the Dragon…”
Suddenly she stopped and her face colored, first with a slight blush and then went decidedly pale.
“What is it, Shanna?” Jason asked her again. “What could be so terribly wrong?”
Apology filled her words when she spoke again. “I… I just realized how horrible my words have to sound to you. You must think that I ran across the Playing Field today to chase a sword. Believe me, please believe me when I promise you that was not the case! It’s just that my Mom sent me after you and then you and I started talking and I got to know you and this idea suddenly popped into my head and… Jason, can you ever forgive me? I didn’t really come here to see the sword. An
d I really didn’t mean to hurt you by what I said!”
She lowered her suddenly tear-filled eyes, as though ashamed to look at him and hung her head in silence. Her hands fell from his arm to drop to her side for the first time since their meeting.
With those actions, the human sun that had warmed Jason’s heart suddenly went behind the horizon. Seeing her cry turned his whole world dark and dismal. Her obvious pain hurt him more than almost anything he remembered in his whole pain-filled life.
Deliberately, he took a step back from her. The sound of his action caused her to audibly catch her breath. But he had only done this so that he could safely extract the blade she so longed to see.
With the sword held in his right hand, he stepped back toward her and then gently reached out with his free left hand to cup her trembling chin. As softly as he would have lifted a delicate flower, the young bard raised her head until her reluctant eyes met his again. He smiled at her hoping to restore light to that darkened sun.
He moved and momentarily saw her eyes go wide with wonder as he dropped to his knees, lifted up the sword horizontally with both hands, and then bowed his head. I SURRENDER, UNCONDITIONALLY, he had signed.
He held the pose for a long moment waiting for her to take in hand his hand-crafted heritage. However, instead of touching the blade, she reached under his elbows and, with surprising strength and urgency, lifted him to his feet.
“Jason, you silly,” she exclaimed. “Get up! We’re in public! What in the name of the Gryphon are you doing?”
He rejoiced to hear the life that filled her words once more. She had called him ‘silly’ again! In spite of himself, he grinned and, raising his eyes, saw her respond in kind. He rose to his full height with the sword still held out to her in front of him with both hands. Deliberately he sought and willingly fell once more into the (now receptive) wondrous depths of those mysterious, sun-filled clouds of gray.
“Do you think that I could ever be hurt by someone loving my GrandSire’s work?” he asked her with no rebuke at all in his words. “In praising the root and the tree, you have also praised its living fruit. Dry your tears, sweet Shanna. The only hurt here has existed in your mind and not in me. What does it matter, even if you did come here to see a carved piece of bone? At least it brought you here to me!”
The Dragon's Back Trilogy Page 46