CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  AS RAINA’S HORSE TROTTED TOWARD LEEANDER she could see Alexa high atop the castle wall. The death of a parent was never easy, but it was the natural cycle of things. When she was closer Alexa had decided to sit on the wall and just stare off, and the sorcerer didn’t think that was at all prudent or safe, it was death if she fell. Brother pulled her off the wall, and she wasn’t happy about it but accepted it. The King was dead, but she had the kingdom and her little one to look after, because unless Marcus became King, she would be Queen. All that remained where the attacking wizard had been was a large hole in the ground. Raina wondered if Marcus had returned and killed him. Or perhaps a spell that he had cast had gone awry.

  There was a deer out in the open which was a little unusual, but strange was the new ordinary these days. It jumped higher than two men standing on one another’s shoulders and then ran off. She watched until it returned to the forest. It appeared that this crazy world was going to get even more insane.

  Back at the castle, Raina went to Alexa and knelt down and was told to stop it. “Alexa, is your father entombed?” Immediately realizing that it was a peculiar way to begin a conversation, but lots of minds were in flux now.

  “Yes, he’s in the sepulcher.”

  “The witch is dead.”

  Alexa nodded. She took some satisfaction from those words, but it wouldn’t bring her father back. Her mind continued to jump from her father to Stone and Marcus and back. There wasn’t much to say on the matter, and she still had no desire to be queen, wanting to go down in history as the most courageous knight, and for all she knew the only woman. Her emotions remained raw, and she was unable to get a good night’s sleep.

  “Has Marcus returned?”

  “He has not and neither has Stone. I think it was foolish to let Stone go out after Marcus because he’s always on the back of a dragon. I don’t even feel like getting up in the morning, but I must. I don’t know what to do anymore. Perhaps that storm will come and kill us all and then I won’t have to think about it.”

  Raina thought about telling her that she would feel better in time but decided against it. It wasn’t a memory that would ever go away. “What happened to the sorcerer that was out there?”

  “Improper magic I think. That crater is all that remains of them. A deafening bang shook the ground and the castle and then they were all dead.” Alexa went back to staring off into the distance.

  Raina left the castle wall to eat and bathe; soon she would return to the book and continue putting its contents together with the big letters; it would take her mind off things at least to a degree. Leeander would never be the same without King Darrius. She felt like going back to her kingdom to see how the efforts of rebuilding were coming along, but Marcus would need her when he got back just as she would need him.

  Raina ate and bathed and then took a nap, dreaming of the expansive ocean where strange creatures were jumping out and making large splashes when they returned to the water. They were abnormal dreams with strange colors and Marcus appeared in every one, and she even transformed into a dragon. A restless sleep is what it was.

  When Raina returned to the letters on the ground, she discovered that they were immovable, which made her consider that once she had the entire book laid out it would become a permanent fixture in the courtyard. And might all TarProelio Wizards come here to read the book for thousands of years to come? It was a strange thought, but events like that did sometimes happen. In years to come might her name be remembered by many because of it? If there were years to come. She sighed deeply.

  High above a giant condor circled. The bird was the length of at least a dozen men from head to toe, with the wingspan of more than twenty-five men. On its back was Equmazz, another TarProelio wizard. An ugly fellow, rotund with a balding head and brown eyes. He had sensed the book in the area for years but hadn’t been able to narrow its location to more than a few leagues, but suddenly his pan over seeing-water showed him its location. He had discovered a stone tablet in an underground cavern nineteen years ago that told of the existence of the book and that it had secrets to enhance the abilities of TarProelio wizards, nearly making them invincible.

  Equmazz observed Raina far below as she shook more letters out of the book and formed words with them though from his position each letter appeared covered in fog. It was as the tablet had foretold, that the one to discover the tome would be the only one able to decipher it. Equmazz would have to kill her before the words would be available for him to read. Why was it that a lot of spells involved the death of another sorcerer? The bird shook its head as it did not approve.

  “Connie, keep your opinion to yourself,” said Equmazz. “There’s an unknown wizard down there that I’ve never detected before, and I need to try and read her essence. One needs to keep an eye on the opposition. Keep your head still or I’ll give it a good whack.”

  The Condor turned and looked at him and wasn’t at all impressed; she had been trying to warn him that a red dragon was approaching from the east. Now she decided to let him find out for himself. She was immune to a dragon’s fire, but he wasn’t. The sorcerer studied Raina’s colors, and her essence was confusing, the tincture of a battle wizard was always orange-yellow, the brighter the color, the more potent. But her color was ruby red, not only that but she had the luminescence of a ruby as well. The shape of her glow was that of a battle wizard, pointy spikes all around. Would a ball of salt mixed with his blood and the extract of a corpse flower kill her or not? He had no desire for an all-out battle with a like sorcerer though a sneak attack usually accomplished the trick. Might a drop of her blood be necessary to make sure?

  Equmazz opened the large leather pouch that he had around his neck and removed his sphere of salt and hefted it, trying to decide whether to go in for the kill or to attempt to find out more about the unusual battle wizard. The spell was old and sometimes the ingredients dissipated somewhat over time, but the weight seemed proper. Suddenly a wall of fire was approaching him and the condor and to avoid it he was obliged to jump from the bird. The dragon scratched at the condor as the wizard fell. The bird plunged catching Equmazz in her saddle as the dragon strangely just continued. The fire breather departed, having disliked the foul stench of the putrid ingredients that the wizard carried with him.

  Raina’s skin tingled; she slowly looked up into the sky and saw the giant condor flying off to the north, and it looked as if someone was on the bird’s back.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  ALL THREE DRAGONS WERE DROWNING, including Marcus on the back of Daganth. Fatigue was overcoming all of them. Marcus’s life dashed before his eyes, Stone, Alexa and his father, all the dragons that he had saw, the time he had climbed the cliff and first met Ryxa. Daganth sank up to his neck, and the wizard struggled to hold onto his wand and his life. It felt awful to get water into one’s lungs, and all fires would soon extinguish.

  “Grab tails!” It was an unfamiliar voice, raspy sounding.

  Marcus abruptly felt a burst of speed as they were all moving briskly through the rough water. The dragons had a hold on each other’s tail and Ryxa was holding onto the black and white snake-like creature, but with no land in sight, she could not guess the purpose of it. As tired as Raina was she would not be able to hold on much longer, her grip was slipping, her muscles cramping. After another increased burst of speed, she felt solid ground under her, and the others did as well. It was an island that was beneath the ocean waves but not by much, and because of the size of the dragons, most of their bodies and their heads were well out of the sea. Not only could they breathe but now they would be able to rest and regain their strength, and the waves were subsiding.

  “What are we on?” Ash asked.

  “The water has covered this island over time, but it should keep your heads out of the water.” It was the winged snake again. It put its head underwater and then when it popped up it squirted Ryxa. Though no one realized it because of its size, the serpent was only a child. And then it vanished under the water before anyone could thank it for saving them.

  Another storm came up and sideswiped them, causing bigger waves, thunder, and lightning, but their heads remained comfortably out of the water. Ryxa occasionally launched bursts of flame over Marcus’s head to warm him and even dry his clothes somewhat, at least briefly. They all drifted off into slumber, including the boy and although it was uncomfortable, he managed it. The gray sky started to brighten and then the sun finally peeked over the horizon giving birth to another day. Ash yawned and then they all followed with yawns of their own.

  “That was no fun,” said Bahati. “I was sure that we were all going to wake up dead this morning.” She said it to aggravate her brother, but he ignored it.

  “I’m rested mother, but I am so hungry.” Daganth turned to look at Marcus on his back, happy to see that he was fine as well, wondering how someone so small could survive so much.

  As if on cue, a flock of Pterocrits was heading in their general direction, and there were a couple of things that was strange about that sight. Ryxa had never observed Pterocrits flying in a flock before, and neither had she ever observed them so far from land. Pterocrits usually avoided large bodies of water, but the proof was in the visual confirmation. She flapped her enormous wings and took to the air, grabbed one, broke its neck and brought it down to the island and they fed.

  Ash was noisily crunching bone. “Eat some Marcus. It’s good.”

  “No, thank you.” But Marcus was indeed hungry.

  Ryxa knew that look. She tore off a piece if its rump threw it in the air and burned it. She then tossed the piece to Marcus, and it landed across Danganth’s back. “I cooked it for you. Try it. Don’t insult me.”

  He nodded and then smelled the meat, had to admit that it smelled delicious. He took a small bite and realized that it also tasted scrumptious, a lot like beef only there was both a sweetness and a salty tang as well. Before he realized it, he had eaten a lot of it. “It’s wonderful.”

  “You might not want to tell others about it because then humans will be eating our food. There are lots of them, but one never knows what the future will bring.” Ryxa broke a large bone into several pieces before swallowing.

  Marcus wondered why they had never eaten Pterocrit before now, but he supposed that they wouldn’t be so easy to shoot down. A big belch escaped as he knew it was time to return to the sky and resume the hunt for the circular isle.

  After a little more than a day of flying, Ryxa finally spotted the circular island, and it was indeed a perfect circle. It looked relatively small from such a height but was in reality quite substantial; it was beautiful as the waves lapped at the shore. There saw straw huts down there, a village of perhaps a hundred people, apple-red in color. They beat on drums and danced, some celebration or other and they sang in unison, an unknown language that no one recognized. But as they got closer the music stopped. People pointed up toward the dragons, and Marcus found it odd that they appeared to be more curious than frightened. Most were scared of anything that was much bigger than them.

  “I’ve never heard that language before,” said Ryxa.

  Marcus nodded. “That worries me. How are we supposed to ask them about the box if we can’t talk to them?”

  Ash started to go through some spells that he could see clearly in his mind. “I have a translation spell, but there’s a color near it that I haven’t seen before. Usually, it’s just green or red, but with this one I see purple.”

  Marcus glanced at his wand and words were frozen on it. {S l e e p i n g.} The sorcerer had never seen that before either.

  Ryxa touched down first into the wet sand, sinking in a bit because of her weight, but she was able to walk forward. About two dozen of the red’s approached cautiously, and when they observed Marcus on Daganth’s back they were all fascinated by the reality that he had flown on the back of the dragon. They had never seen such a thing.

  One, wearing a palm leaf on his head stepped forward and spoke to Marcus. “Chola do ma maths ya balooo!” He pointed to Daganth and then looked to the sky.

  Marcus turned to Daganth. “I think this would be a good time to try your spell.”

  Bahati looked at Daganth. “I want to be a wizard so I can turn Daganth into dragon snot.”

  Her mother glared at her. Hopefully, it was only immaturity and not something that was wrong with her mind. “Why would you want to do that?”

  “Mother, just for a little while and then he can see what it’s like to be snot.”

  Daganth was not impressed. “Father, are you going to allow her to talk to me like that?”

  Marcus laughed. “What can I do? She’s a dragon!”

  “Yeah,” said Bahati. “I’m a dragon, and he’s a tiny human the size of a bug.”

  Daganth hit her in the face with a wall of fire. “He’s not the size of a bug!”

  “No fair! I can’t hit you since I’d burn the bug!”

  Ryxa shook her head. “Bahati! You are talking to a powerful wizard that can turn you into a bug. The things that kids come up with.”

  “One bug coming up,” Marcus joked.

  Bahati closed her eyes tight waiting for the transformation. When she opened her eyes, she thought that nothing looked different. “Am I still a dragon?”

  Daganth shook his head. “No, you’re a pest.”

  Bahati considered that perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to insult a sorcerer. If she were a bug Daganth would step on her.

  “I’ll need some quiet while I cast this spell.” Ash blinked several times as he concentrated on the enchantment, and then sparkles of blue stars covered the red people.

  “Will the dragon take me up to the sky?” said Crucher. “I want to touch the sky!”

  The spell had worked.

  “I’ll take him up if it is okay with you mother?” Bahati thought it might be fun.

  Ryxa nodded. “I guess that would be okay, but whatever you do don’t drop him.”

  It was almost a collective gasp as everyone was astonished to be able to know what the dragons were saying and the peculiar colored person on the dragon’s back. One shouted, “I can understand them!”

  “Climb on my back and I’ll take you up into the sky! It’s fun.”

  Crucher scurried up on Bahati’s back and then she pumped her wings and climbed into the sky. He began to scream. The scariness of it frightened the urine out of Crucher, and it wasn’t at all fun; he underestimated what it would be like so high up. He shrieked and cried, desperate for Bahati to return him to solid ground. The entire village roared with laughter and others that considered it a good idea now didn’t. They were meant to be on solid ground.

  “Take me down! Please!” His heart was beating faster than it ever had in his life.

  Once on the ground, Crucher ran off to be alone and would never try that again. He was going to have nightmares for months.

  One of the apple-red approached Marcus, who had jumped off Daganth’s back. He was carrying a spear but using it as a staff. Gustin had red hair with specks of white in it. “What brings you to our island? A very long time since we have had visitors. And they wanted to kill us, so we had to kill them.”

  “We are searching for a box that ah, isn’t really a box. A container I guess. Shaped like this.” Marcus showed them the form of the hourglass by drawing it in the sand, disturbing a nearby crab.

  The villagers now didn’t look so welcoming. They knew what they were saying. However, to them the container was magical, and they had constructed an altar of sorts to display it on. The reaction told Marcus and the others that they did indeed have it. But what if they didn’t want to give it up? With the dragons, they could take it by force, but would that change their chances of success in saving the world? Sometimes magic seemed to have a mind of its own, working hand in hand with fate. It was something that Marcus and Adorok had discussed several years ago, and he wasn’t sure if it had any merit but did he dare ignore it now.

  Gustin shook his head. “We have the glow of magic. It brings good luck. We will not part with it.”

  Three villagers were talking in whispers beside one of the dwellings; they pushed their way through the crowd and threw a white powder on each dragon. Daganth collapsed first, and then his sister. Ryxa got weak in the legs and then she fell as well, now only able to move her head. Ash appeared to be unaffected for a time, maybe because he was a sorcerer, but suddenly he was unable to think. His mind was empty, unable to form a single thought as he also fell.

  Marcus was unsure of his next move.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  THE DIMINUTIVE PURPLE OOAF lay in the mud hut, his knees and the rest of his legs protruding from the doorway into the grass that had grown over the old path with his head just inside the doorway. The loss of the cottontail disheartened the Ooaf, so much so that he didn’t feel like getting up anymore. He had been in that position for hours. His state of melancholy was confusing, his emotions as incapacitating as an arrow in the gut. Several tears ran down the side of his cheek. It was now becoming possible that he would not survive the loss of his little friend as he had no desire to do anything.

  “Ooaf!” said the Ooaf, slowly blinking, taking in a deep breath he sighed. He remembered playing with his little friend, and reminiscing only made his state of mind sink to an unhealthier level. If he descended much further, he might not be able to return. Ooaf stared up at the dry mud that composed the top of the doorway, watched as a cute Big Eyed Caterpillar moved, but even that wasn’t sufficiently interesting to make him want to get up. He felt sick and sad and a little angry too. Why did it run off? He didn’t hurt it. Had he done something wrong?

  He sighed again and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of birds singing for a time before he drifted off. He saw a castle and his fellow Ooaf’s attacking and killing everything and everyone in sight. He watched but didn’t participate, instead feeling sorry for the victims.

 

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