by Pedro Urvi
“I advise you to relax while you wait for the verdict. At noon I want you all to go up to the Pearl, for the Graduation ceremony. Your fate will be determined then.”
She left them with these words. The pupils watched them leave, and nervous conversations broke out everywhere.
Erika shook her head. “I didn’t like what she said at all.”
“Why do you say that?” Ingrid asked her, looking serious.
“I get the feeling we’re in for some surprises.”
“They don’t necessarily have to be bad ones,” Luca said.
“Good surprises?” Erika replied. “Can you remember any good surprises there’ve been among the Rangers?”
Astrid made a face. “She’s got a point there, you know.”
“Those of us who’ve passed the test haven’t got anything to fear,” Ingrid said confidently.
“I wouldn’t bet my pay on it,” said Erika.
“What pay?” Astrid wanted to know.
“The one they’ll be giving us when we start working as Rangers,” Molak explained.
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Astrid confessed.
“At best, they’ll save someone who’s failed,” Ingrid said, “but not the opposite,”
“I usually agree with you,” said Molak, “but this time I’m afraid I’m not quite so sure.”
While they were arguing about Sigrid’s words and what was awaiting them, Lasgol found he was missing a voice which was always critical and acid. To his surprise, Viggo was not with them. When he looked towards the entrance to the cave, he saw him slipping away. It was not quite the moment for a stroll, not at that supremely important moment in their lives. It seemed very strange to Lasgol, who decided to follow his friend and find out what he was up to. Probably nothing good.
He left his friends arguing heatedly about what was to come and followed Viggo. He found him at the entrance to the Cave of Winter. He was spying inside, which was absolutely forbidden. Stealthily, Lasgol went up to him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked him accusingly.
Viggo did not flinch, but went on looking inside. “They’re all at the Pearl, deciding our fate.”
“Yes. So what?”
“Well then, it’s the moment I’ve been waiting forever since we first set foot in the Lair.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“I know, you’re not too bright.”
“Stop being a pain in the neck and tell me what you’re plotting.”
“I’m going to go in and find out what they’ve got hidden in there.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Who’s going to stop me? At last this place is deserted, and I know how much time I’ve got.”
“You’re not going in there, it’s forbidden. And if you’re found out, you’ll lose your Elite Specialization.”
“Which I might have lost anyway. You heard Sigrid, nobody’s got it in the bag.”
“Viggo, no.”
“Lasgol, yes.”
“Don’t go in.”
“I’ve got to. Curiosity’s been killing me ever since we first arrived.”
Lasgol tried to grab him. But he moved with amazing speed, and Lasgol’s hand met empty air.
“Oh, hell!”
Viggo went into the Cave of Winter.
Lasgol hesitated. If he went in, he would be in tremendous trouble and risked being expelled just when his fate was being decided. It would be a nightmare if they caught him here and stopped him from graduating. His stomach churned. He saw Viggo vanish into the shadows. Why did he always have to be such a pain in the backside? Because Viggo was Viggo. But Lasgol could not let him be caught. He had to get him out of there and stop him being expelled, even if he risked the same thing happening to himself.
He checked behind him to make sure nobody could see him and followed Viggo into the Cave of Winter. The entrance was dark and mostly covered by strange vegetation, so that nobody could see what was inside. He went in through the opening that looked like a huge cat’s eye, and inside he found a spherical cavern. His attention was caught by the fact that the ceiling and the high walls of bare rock shone with a silver sheen. They had built a floor and square wooden partitions, which divided the cave into a long corridor with apartments on either side. A huge double door which opened into the corridor seemed to give access to a hall at the end. Oil lamps lit up the whole area.
Viggo was crouching in the corridor, looking into the first room on his left. Bent double, Lasgol went after him cautiously.
“This is Gisli’s room,” Viggo said. His voice was completely natural, as if this were nothing out of the way.
“I don’t care whose it is. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Viggo pointed up at the ceiling of the cave. “There’s no danger, they’re up there debating.”
“Yes, there is, they might come in any moment.”
“Don’t be a wet blanket.” He moved to the entrance of the opposite room.
“Viggo!” Lasgol reproached him in a whisper.
Viggo paid not the slightest attention and went into the room. Lasgol swore under his breath.
“This is Ivar’s. He’s got some spectacular bows, pretty strange ones, hanging all along the walls. You should see them, they’re worthy of a king.” He left the room and moved on down the corridor.
“I don’t want to see Ivar’s collection of bows, I want us to get out of here before we get into trouble.”
Viggo ignored him. He moved on down the corridor to the next room and went in.
“Viggo!” Lasgol called in an accusing whisper.
After a moment Viggo put his head out. “This one’s Annika’s, nothing very interesting. Tomes upon tomes on Nature and a couple of unusual staves with silver engraving. I wonder whether they’re magical... they don’t look like it to me. Don’t you want to take a peek?”
“No! I want us to get out of here!”
“In a moment.” Viggo crossed the corridor and went into the room opposite.
Lasgol could not believe how stubborn and how much of a troublemaker his friend was. They were going to end up expelled, both of them, it was becoming clearer and clearer. All that training and hard work, for nothing.
Viggo’s head appeared at the door of another room. “Now this really is an interesting room. It’s Engla’s. There are no end of knives and throwing daggers in special armories. They’re beauties. Come in and have a look.”
“I’m not going in! Come on!”
Viggo rolled his eyes and ignored Lasgol’s protests. He went on to the next room.
“Nothing. This is a guest room.”
“Viggo, let’s go.”
Viggo went into another room.
“Another guest room.”
At last he found Sigrid’s. It was next to the great double door at the end of the corridor.
“Don’t go into the Mother Specialist’s.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s the Mother Specialist!”
“That’s exactly why I’m going into it, to see what’s in there.”
“By the Ice Gods!”
Viggo went in and stayed there for a while, with Lasgol waiting in the corridor and constantly looking behind his back, fearing that at any moment one of the four Elder Specialists would come in, or even the Mother Specialist herself. His stomach was so queasy that he was beginning to feel sick.
“What a disappointment...” said Viggo’s head from the door.
“Disappointment?”
“There’s nothing interesting. A heap of scrolls everywhere, a huge working table and tomes and more tomes. Really boring...”
“What did you expect the life of the Leader of the Shelter would be like?”
“Dunno... I was hoping for some secret or other.”
“She devotes herself to her work.”
“She’s got three owls at the end. I didn’t get near, you know those scrawny fowls don’
t like me.”
“Nobody likes you.”
“That’s part of my charm. Why would she need three different owls?”
“Don’t you start on your conspiracy theories...”
“If she only speaks to the Rangers, she only needs one owl. Why the other two? Unless she speaks to someone else... someone she doesn’t want anybody to know about...”
Lasgol rolled his eyes. “Of course she must speak to other people, and she’d want it to be private. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Yeah, for you everything’s always completely normal. But it smells fishy to me.”
“That’s because you always see conspiracies everywhere and strange things where there aren’t any.”
“Yeah, yeah...”
“And because you don’t wipe your nose.”
Viggo gave a chuckle.
“That was a good one. Let’s see what’s behind that big door.”
“No! We’ve got to go!”
“Come on, we’re here in front of it.” He began to try the doorknobs.
“See? It’s closed. Let’s leave before we’re found out.”
“D’you really think a closed door’s going to stop me going in?”
“Don’t force it!”
But it was too late. Viggo had taken out a pick and was working on the lock.
“Leave that lock alone!”
There was a metallic click.
“Easy as winking,” said Viggo with a broad smile of satisfaction. He opened the door and went in.
Lasgol stayed outside, looking at the entrance of the cave at the end of the corridor, in the direction they had come by, fearing discovery.
“By all the winter storms!” he heard Viggo cry out loud. He rushed into the chamber to shut him up.
“Shhh! Lower your voice! They’ll catch us!” he whispered furiously, and closed the door behind him.
Viggo turned to him with eyes like saucers and pointed to the far wall. Lasgol half-closed his eyes and stared at the place. It was a room built at the end of the cavern, with three high walls, one behind them with the double door, two on the right and left, the fourth being the rock of the cave itself. Two oil lamps illuminated it with a yellowish light. It was a large room, and the strangest thing of all was that it was completely empty. There was not a single piece of furniture, no decoration, no clothes, nothing at all. The floor too was of rock, and it was polished. Lasgol felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
“I think there’s magic here...”
“Look!” Viggo urged him. He was pointing insistently at the far wall.
Lasgol took a couple of steps, and then he saw it. His jaw dropped. On the wall, engraved in silver, was the image of a colossal dragon.
“Oh...”
“See? I was right!”
“It’s enormous... majestic...”
“It’s a bloody dragon!”
“The representation of a dragon,” Lasgol corrected him.
“And why d’you think there’s a hidden representation of an outsize silver dragon on the end wall of the Cave of Winter, where they’ve forbidden us to enter?”
Lasgol was staring at the carving. The detail in it was so highly skilled and realistic that it left him breathless. It looked as though it were about to jump out of the rock and devour them at any moment. He had to swallow while he stared at it. A shiver ran down his spine. There was no doubt that this did not bode well.
“I don’t know...”
“And why the hell is there magic in this place? What do you think’s the reason?”
“I don’t know for sure that there’s magic... I can feel something... and it usually indicates the presence of magic.”
“Don’t evade the question.”
“I don’t know...”
“I’ll tell you why. Because the Lair’s really the lair of a dragon! The one that’s frozen at the entrance to the Shelter! That’s why!”
“Shhh, keep calm, they’re going to find us.”
“But how on earth am I supposed to keep calm? We’ve been living in the home of a dragon!”
“We don’t know that. It’s just a guess.”
“A guess as true as the fact that I’m amoral.”
“You’re not amoral.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Nonsense. We don’t know whether this is a dragon’s lair.”
“We don’t?” He pointed to the great silver dragon on the wall.
“Well... that doesn’t prove it...”
“And the magic this place gives off? And the runes of power in the Cavern of Runes? And the frozen dragon?”
“I see your point...”
“It’s crystal clear!”
“We don’t even know if dragons ever really existed.”
“You can deny the evidence all you want. It’s absolutely clear to me that dragons existed, that this place was the lair of one that’s frozen, and that one day the dragons will come back and this’ll be one of the places they come back to.”
Lasgol was thoughtful. Viggo’s theories, although rather farfetched, never strayed too far from reality. What he was saying made enough sense... and the last thing he needed was to have problems with dragons. No, even if they had once existed, and even if this place was really a dragon’s lair, it was something that had happened thousands of years ago. Now there was no danger.
“Be that as it may, it’s something in the past. There’s no danger now.”
“Yeah, until they come back.”
“Dragons aren’t coming back.”
“Because you say so.”
“Because common sense says so.”
“Sure.”
Lasgol rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s get out of here. You’ve seen all you wanted to see.”
Grumbling, Viggo accepted.
Lasgol opened the double door carefully, and as they were about to go out they heard a noise. Someone was coming along the corridor.
“Back!” he urged Viggo. He closed the door.
“What’s the matter?”
“Someone’s coming.”
“They’re up there. It can’t be them.”
Lasgol shrugged. Viggo pushed him aside and looked through the keyhole.
“It’s the dwarf,” he whispered.
“Enduald?”
“He’s gone into one of the guest rooms.”
“What are we going to do?”
“What are we going to do? Get out, obviously.”
“And Enduald?”
“We’ll creep past, and that’s that.”
Lasgol shook his head. In Viggo’s world everything was either very white or very black.
Viggo opened the door very carefully so that it would not creak, then moved on at a crouch, in total silence. Lasgol followed him trying to be as silent as Viggo, which he found impossible.
They went along the corridor until they came to the door to Enduald’s room. Viggo stopped, and Lasgol did the same. The door was open. Viggo put his head in, looked inside and withdrew his head, all in the blink of an eye.
He turned to Lasgol. “He’s changing his clothes,” he whispered.
“Do we wait?”
“No, follow me.”
Viggo whipped his head in again. He gestured to Lasgol, then with unbelievable agility and control rolled over himself in front of the open door. Lasgol froze, waiting to see whether Enduald had seen him. He had not. Viggo gestured to him to get ready. He glanced back into the room and signaled him to go ahead.
Lasgol could not roll over his head like Viggo without making a noise, so he crawled like a snake across the door as fast and silently as he could.
Enduald did not even notice.
The two friends reached the entrance to the Cave of Winter. Viggo took a look to see if it was safe to go out, and gave a nod. They both left unobtrusively, talking about the weather, and set off for the Cave of Spring.
Chapter 50
At noon, they all gathered together before the Pearl
for the Graduation Ceremony. Sigrid was waiting for them, looking serious. Behind her were the four Elder Specialists. They were all wearing formal dress, appropriate for Ranger ceremonies. The formal dress was not showy, but it was a little more elaborate than the clothes they usually wore, and of better quality.
“Today we’re going to celebrate the Graduation Ceremony. It’s the end of the route for many of you, because you’ll be able to take possession of your title as Specialist. For a few others, the dream won’t come true. But remember this: those who dream and try with all their heart will reach their goals.”
Lasgol swallowed and looked at his friends. He hoped very much that they would all graduate.
“For the ceremony we’re to be joined by two guests of honor.”
Enduald and Loke appeared from behind the Pearl and took their places between Sigrid and the pupils.
“Annika, the Logbook, please. Everything must be duly registered for posterity. So says the Path of the Specialist, and so must it be.”
Annika brought out the Logbook and handed it to Sigrid. With a firm thrust she buried the end of her staff in the ground. Silver flashes bathed everyone there. She opened the tome and prepared to write.
“Pupils of the Specialty of Nature, stand forward and pay your respects.”
Elina, Frida, Sugesen and Gonars stepped forward and put one knee on the ground, looking straight ahead.
“Elder Specialist of Nature, please.”
Annika came to stand beside Sigrid, with a scroll in her hands.
“After evaluating all my pupils’ credits, and the Proficiency Test, this is my verdict.”
“Go ahead,” Sigrid told her.
“Elina...” She paused deliberately.
Elina was staring at her, looking as though she were about to have a heart attack.
“Elina has successfully attained the Elite Specialization of Expert Herbalist.”
Elina gasped so loudly that the whole crowd heard it.
“Stand up,” Sigrid said.
Elina got to her feet, very excited, holding back her tears. Annika put the Expert Herbalist medallion around her neck and smiled.
“You’re a magnificent student. It’s been a long time since I had anybody with a mind like yours. You’ve impressed me with your capacity to learn and the effort you’ve put into studying all the tomes I’ve given you.”