The Princess's Dragon (41 page)

“Tolmac, I already chose you; I chose you the moment I blundered into your lair so long ago. I am yours.”

“Dragon of Thunder Mountain! What nonsense is this? You expect us to believe that, Wizard?”

The king’s shocked exclamation shook Sondra and Tolmac from their private conversation. Suddenly Sondra realized that a drama played out around her, and she was a key character.

“I imagine he could give you demonstration, but it tends to damage the furniture, and the walls, and the hangings…”

“Wizard …” Tolmac growled warningly.

“If you truly are a dragon what do you want with our daughter, a human princess?” the king demanded.

The queen nodded in agreement, her face pale from shock and fear for her daughter. Sergen hung from the edge of his seat, engrossed in the drama and eager to see a real dragon up close. Elona watched curiously, calculating the benefit of claiming a dragon as a brother-in-law. Sarai huddled in her seat, terrified.

“I’ll have you know, we refuse to sacrifice our virgins to your foul appetites; we don’t care what threats you make.”

Sondra started laughing. She couldn’t help it, especially since she technically wasn’t a virgin anymore, not that she was going to mention that to her father.

“Father, Tolmac doesn’t want to eat me, he wants to marry me.” She turned to Tolmac. “You told me that if that form didn’t please me, you would let me choose another one. That form doesn’t please me, Tolmac.” Tolmac waited, watching her as everyone else, even the king, fell silent.

She touched his face again. “You are a dragon, Tolmac, and that is what you should always be. If I ask you to remain human you will have to deny such a big part of yourself that you won’t be Tolmac anymore.”

“Are you denying me then, Sondra?”

“I choose for you to be a dragon, Tolmac. That is the form I prefer.” 246

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Tolmac closed his eyes and prepared to shift, but the wizard stopped him.

“Not here, by Vivacel’s ample bosom. I wasn’t jesting about the destruction!

Let us relocate, shall we.”

And with that, the old man struck his staff on the marbled floors, and in a flash of light they appeared in the meadow—the wizard, Tolmac, Sondra, her father, her mother, and her three siblings. They stood alone, without guards or the trappings of royalty, just her family, the wizard, and the dragon surrounded by the majesty of nature.

“There, now you can change, dragon,” the wizard proclaimed, motioning everyone to move away.

Tolmac nodded, spared one last blazing glance at Sondra, then burst into flames, transforming before their stunned eyes into a towering black dragon.

He crouched in the meadow, and Sondra heard the startled shouts from the distant guards patrolling the curtain wall. Sondra nearly cried at the beautiful sight of her lover, his scales glittered like polished obsidia, and she felt immense pride as her family gasped in awed shock and fear. She’d never seen a more glorious sight.

She turned to the wizard. “I am eternally grateful for what you have already done for me, kind sir.”

“Oh, so now it’s ‘kind sir’? I seem to recall you weren’t so friendly the last time we met.” The wizard grumped, folding his arms over his beard.

Sondra heard a snort from Tolmac that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

She ignored it and implored the wizard, while her family looked on like an audience.

“I am so sorry for my previous behavior. You did teach me to see. Now I know the truth about magic, now I understand so much more. I beg you, Wizard; please make me a dragon again. I don’t think I can ever be happy as a human now.”

Her father gasped in outrage. “So that is what happened! I’ll see you hanged for treason!”

The wizard simply sighed and rolled his eyes, unconcerned by the threat.

The king wouldn’t dare carry it through, for he had witnessed the wizard’s power personally.

Her mother cried out to Sondra, “No, my darling daughter, you cannot become a dragon! What about your life here, with us? We would miss you terribly.”

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Sergen and Sarai stood stunned, and when Sondra looked over at Elona, her eldest sister just winked and said, “Follow your heart; it certainly beats an arranged marriage. I think your dragon is magnificent.”

“Father, Mother, all of you. This is what I want; this is my destiny. I have never felt complete as a human, especially not as a princess. When I was a dragon, I was free and the whole world opened up before me. I can never experience that kind of exhilaration in this life. Besides, Mother, I would still leave, even if I married a human, to make my home with my husband. Listen, Ariva will always be my home, and I will always return as long as I have your blessing. And I promise that as long as I live I shall guard this kingdom with my life …”

“That’s all very admirable of you, but there is a problem, young lady,” the wizard interrupted.

“What is the problem, Wizard? Please—I will give you everything I own, I will give you whatever you want …” Sondra pleaded, and the wizard blushed and stammered before continuing.

“I meant that I cannot make you into a dragon permanently,” the wizard explained.

The black dragon snarled and the wizard waved his staff at the dragon, but Sondra didn’t believe that silenced Tolmac; no doubt whatever disagreement they were having continued within their minds. Her guess was confirmed when the wizard continued on in a loud and harassed voice, “As I was saying—before I was so rudely interrupted—I cannot make you into a dragon permanently, but you can do so for yourself.” The wizard finished and glared at the dragon, crossing his arms over his chest again.

“What do you mean? I can’t perform magic!”

“Bah, sure you can. You were tested to have some of the strongest potential since my … since your ancestor Ulrick. You didn’t think that sort of talent never showed up again, did you?”

“Tested?” Sondra looked over at her parents, and both nodded before the king answered.

“It was a long time ago, before the Woods incident. After that you wouldn’t even hear the word magic spoken without having a fit, so we never brought it up again, nor did we send you to the Academy when the time came.”

“I have the talent for magic? Why did no one ever tell me?” 248

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“Sondra, in case you have forgotten, you didn’t even believe in magic and tried to disprove its very existence,” Sarai found the courage to answer.

“I see. So how do I change then, how do I make myself into a dragon?”

“Well, first you must get your belief back. It is faith that gives you power.

You had a great deal of it when you were a child, but you lost it in the Woods.

She has kept it for you; all you must do is ask for it back. But ask nicely, she gets a little temperamental, you know.” The wizard winked as he gestured to the Woods looming darkly behind him.

Sondra nodded, swallowed her discomfort, and moved to the edge of the Woods, the hairs on her neck prickling at all the eyes fixed upon her. She reached the Woods, and tried not to feel foolish as she addressed the murky darkness within.

“Pl—please, um, Woods. I beseech you to return my belief. I’m thankful that you have kept it safely through all these years, but now I find that I must have it back in order to find happiness.” Silence greeted her request. Sondra glanced back at the group of people and one dragon watching her and shrugged.

The wizard motioned for her to turn back to the Woods. When she did so she stumbled back in fright. Fairy lights deep within the gloom of the woods formed into the image of a woman’s face, a stunningly beautiful and, at the same time terrifying face. More fairy lights formed a hand, and the hand lifted to the lips of the face, which parted on a sigh, pursed, and then blew. A swirl of dancing, giggling breeze swept toward Sondra, engulfing her in a joyous feeling of wonderment. Suddenly she was a child again and the lights surrounding her were all fairies, beautiful tiny people with gossamer wings that whirled around her and tickled her cheeks.

The image faded, as did the fairy lights, back into the gloom, and Sondra touched her cheek where the wings had brushed, finding it wet with tears. She took a moment to compose herself and turned back to everyone waiting, a new lightness in her step. She felt years younger and the whole day seemed brighter and more magical.

“Now, Wizard,” she addressed the old man, unaware that her family was stunned by the change in her appearance; her hair bounced and sparkled as if it had a life of its own, her eyes glittered, her skin glowed, and her dress was replaced by a glittering robe. “Please tell me what I must do next.”

“Perhaps Tolmac should show you what to do next,” the wizard replied.

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Sondra turned to her dragon where he waited so patiently, still and silent as an obsidia statue. She walked over to him and lovingly laid one small hand on his scaly jaw. She looked into his eye, and suddenly they were together again, flying high, soaring, their auras entwined even though their bodies didn’t touch. She didn’t hear the gasps of her parents or siblings as they watched a blazing violet light engulf her body. She felt nothing but the joy of being a dragon again: the stretch of wing, the flex of muscle, the caress of aether over her scales. She didn’t know that her family saw her body change, until before them crouched not one but two dragons, cheek to cheek.

Tolmac finally broke their gaze, and Sondra returned to herself to find her body greatly changed from only moments before. She was a dragon again, this time permanently. She gazed at Tolmac with love, and then turned to her family. They didn’t shy away, after having seen her change; they now knew that she was still their Sondra, whom they’d known all her life, just in a different form. She reached out to them mentally and spoke within their minds.

“I love you all, which will never change. I will still always be a part of your life, for no matter where I may travel, I will always return to Ariva. This is my home, and it will always fall under my protection till the end of my days, this I vow.”

Her mother gave in to her tears; her father realized that he’d never felt prouder of his daughter than at this moment; and her two sisters nodded at her, their own eyes glossy.

Her brother said, “Can you give me a ride on your back? I want to know what its like to fly!”

Everyone laughed tearfully, and Sondra turned back to Tolmac.

“We must go now,” she said, “I’m eager to return home, to our home.” Tolmac nodded, and they readied themselves to leap into the air when a thought occurred to Sondra. She addressed the wizard.

“Why did this transformation happen so painlessly and the other time hurt so badly?” she asked.

“Ah, well … yes, you see … we ‘charlatans’ may get the words slightly wrong in a spell; you know how it is.” The wizard turned away and headed back into the Woods.

Sondra huffed in outrage, and she heard a deep masculine chuckle in her mind.

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“He did that on purpose?”

“I’m guessing he didn’t appreciate the way you spoke to him.”

“Oh! Why, that old …”

“Careful, my dragon princess, wizards have excellent hearing.” The royal family watched the dragons leap into the air, spreading their massive wings and ascending as they caught the aether drafts. They soared into the sky, and the entire city watched them go.

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The skies overhead exploded with color, and Elona, racing her new horse after the soaring dragons, laughed at the delighted shouts emanating from their backs. Sergen clung to Tolmac’s back, whooping in joy. On Sondra’s back, a young boy, a mere three rotas old, struggled to stand up in his specially made saddle just like his uncle as he giggled and laughed in glee at the dragon ride. He tried to wave to his mother below, but it was diffi

cult to see her unless his aunt banked to the right.

Sarai, heavily pregnant with her second child, stood on one of the new balconies her father had ordered for the castle, and used Sondra’s far-seeing tube to watch the play, while her own baby daughter napped quietly in her chambers. She alternated watching the aerial stunts of the dragons overhead with peeking down at the training grounds where her husband, former general and new Warlord of Ariva’s armies, put his soldiers through their paces. Her heart swelled with happiness at the sight of Heinrich, so strong and handsome, even bearing the scars he earned in the battle of Ulrick Pass.

The king and queen held court in a newly refurnished throne room, feeling great pride at the wealth of even their lowest citizens, and at the new projects the king implemented: open parks, shrines of healing for even the lowest citizens, and learning centers where skills and trades were taught in an organized and regulated fashion. All these resulted in a better quality of life for Ariva’s citizens. Everyone in the kingdom seemed happy.

At Ulrick Pass, the Duke of Arivale stood with his men, once again examining the massive, uncharged ginacite obelisks ordered by the Queen of Vanguard. The cart used to transport them was huge and well built, but the 251

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lengthy journey to Vanguard through Halidor still concerned the Duke, which is why he personally escorted this shipment. He glanced up at the new sentinels built on either side of the Black River Chasm, an obsidia dragon on one side and a ginacite dragon on the other. Rumor had it that if any threat passed this boundary to Ariva, the real guardian dragons of Ariva would sense it through those statues and come to the aid of the Kingdom. The Duke didn’t know if the rumor was true, and he made it a point not to dwell on dragons in general.

He personally hadn’t sighted either dragon since he’d left the capital three rotas earlier to assume his new title.

The Duke of Arivale and former Warlord of Ariva took one last look behind him at the valley before crossing the black bridge. It would be a long journey to the border kingdom of Vanguard, and his steward would handle his business and his lands until his return. How long that might be lay in the hands of the gods. Lord Derek didn’t really care if he never saw Ariva again, his sharp vision spotting what appeared to be very large birds dipping and gliding over the capital city far to the north.