Soul of the Sorcerer - Part Three: Daughter of the Dragon (18 page)

Darrion had instructed the four masters, including Rhodalie, in the intricacies required to cast the portal closing spell. He now watched, as they each  opened their soul portals with their own words of power, and then cautiously brought their soul portals together; an act of collaboration, between schools, and therefore equally banned by the rules!

They all gasped, at the shared experience, and he noticed Rhodalie throw a withering stare at the younger water master, who responded with a flush of embarrassment. No doubt the older High Master had sensed some feeling of arousal in the young man, with long dark hair.

They then each recited the rest of the spell in unison, “seal the void with sorcerous power, stitch it thrice to be so sure and seal the gate and Daemen door!”

Weaves of the different colours of magic, began to extend from the combined portals, under the control of their individual owner. Slowly, almost cautiously, they sewed a mesh sweeping back and forth surrounding the swirling portal.

“And tighten!” High Master Rhodalie ordered; the mesh began to tighten and constrict the spherical portal, which slowly but surely began to shrink. An unpleasant screeching sound began to emanate from the portal, as it tried to resist the magical energies bearing down upon it. Finally, with an almost ethereal scream, it vanished; and the four masters sank to their knees, breathing out in relief and blotting the blood, from their noses, upon their robes.

Several of the monks and other mages in the room, clapped in recognition of the effort and skill the spell had taken. When the room quietened, Rhodalie looked around until she located Brother Kenneth, “Let’s go discuss what should be done with Master Darrion.”

To any observer, who did not know them, Amy Brook and Boadaiska Febella Orakhan did not look like two people whose relationship had started so frostily. At the time it had been a shared love of Darrion that had made the Wolf Clan Princess so dead set against liking the Doctor.

The two of them now walked arm in arm, down a corridor deep in Dragonmight, giggling at a shared joke. As with many in the last few days, this was at Arden’s expense.

“You really thought he would sleep on a bed of treasure?” Boadaiska chuckled again. Amy too could not stop herself from laughing, “well I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be a four poster bed with a mattress!”

They had discovered Arden’s Bedroom yesterday, which had been a huge disappointment in Amy’s eyes.  She really had high hopes of finding the King of Dragon’s huge store of treasure. Today, however, they had gone a level lower, deep into the mountain. The corridor they were in was lit by the myriad of tiny lights similar to most of the other rooms in the Dragonmight complex. The main exception to this was the room Amy had come to call the mortuary; illuminated as it was by the light of preservation.

The place where the dead lay eerily frozen, had been the first, very sobering one, they had explored in detail. Of the bodies, about twelve were pure dragon-kind, an equal mix of males and females. Some bodies were in very poor condition, caused by the injuries they had sustained in the final battle with the Daemen centuries ago. There were also six bodies of women, such as Larissa, Edala’s Mother, who had borne him children; many of these it appeared died of old age.

Sadly, there were even three of Ingemar’s children. One of these was a very venerable old lady, while the other two were aged, in appearance at least, about eight and ten years of age. These two, it had turned out, had been sisters born of the same Mother and had been experimented on by a mad wizard.

“Do you find it strange to look at his wife, old loves and children in this place?” Amy had asked Boadaiska on that day.

“Yes...I know that I am his, here and now, and I have already had a close call with one of these plinths, but part of me still feels like I will be here again; with his next love, standing here looking at me” Boadaiska had replied.

“Hopefully, you will be old and wrinkly like her” Amy had joked a little wickedly. Boadaiska, however, had seen the funny side and their shared humour and companionship had bonded and nurtured their relationship to one of a deep friendship. They were currently, again, on their task to locate Arden’s wealth and had, on this occasion, decided to tail the giant man when he set off to retrieve a keg of Ale to “Drown out the sound of you two laughing!” as he had put it.

All had been going well, when a left turn, after a right, then a left and another right, had them completely disorientated; they had also lost track of their prey.

In every corridor there was always at least one large iron door, on either side of the floor. These they carefully opened as quietly as possible, which was not easy. Some had been shut for a very long time and needed both of them, to put their weight against the door, to open.

On each occasion they had been disappointed, and also a little saddened, to discover a neglected bedroom of one of the long dead dragons. This was the case with the latest room; which, just like Arden’s, had a large four poster bed, with covers now deteriorated with age. On the wall, above a chest of drawers, was a large oil painting of two people…a man standing with his arms around a woman; there was no doubt from their angular faces and violet eyes that they were dragon-kind. Above them, in the sky, two dragons flew with their necks entwined, seemingly in affection.

“Do you think that the dragons are them?” Amy asked Boadaiska.

“Yes they are” a deep voice startled them, from behind, and they turned to find Arden standing there looking at the picture with sadness.

“They were my closest friends, Tuathadar and Maragia, and I would be grateful if you two tomb raiders would leave their home in peace,” he said this kindly, knowing that neither Boadaiska nor Amy wished ill intent.

“Sorry my love” Boadaiska said gently reaching to his chin and kissing him softly on the lips.

“I can’t remember seeing them in the mort...plinth room” Amy said.

“No, I never found their bodies. Like some of our other friends, I think they may have been consumed by the Daemen.”

Amy grimaced at his response.

“Now what is it you two are trying to find?”

Boadaiska and Amy both flushed a little in embarrassment,

“Well…your treasure room of course my love!” Boadaiska said smiling disarmingly at him.

“It’s a good job you are pregnant with my child” he replied with a soft smile, “You could have just asked; follow me.”

He led them down the corridor and, at the end, stood in front of the wall. Arden seemed to concentrate on the air; just in front of the wall. Then, all of a sudden, it began to lift up to the ceiling revealing a large chamber beyond. This time, there was no sign of any disappointment on either of the women’s faces.

“First dibs!” Amy said before running into the room.

Boadaiska and Arden looked at each other inquisitively, “I have no idea what first dibs means my love, do you?” Arden asked.

“Nope!” Boadaiska replied before taking him by the hand and leading him into the chamber.

The words
Dragon Horde,
no doubt for anyone from our world, Earth, conjures up a vision of a mountain of gold with all manner of items, whether silver, gold or gem encrusted buried beneath it.

In reality, the dragons that had lived in the mountain, and in particular their King, must have had some kind of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; the level of tidiness could only be described, rather appropriately, as Godlike.

The chamber was circular and set on two levels, the top level about twenty feet wider in diameter than the lower. A set of stone steps swept around a third of the lower wall, feeding up to the top floor. The walls, however, were not entirely smooth, but instead had hundreds of small recesses, upon which sat all manner of treasure; from ornamental in nature, through to lethal looking weapons.

The ground floor of the room was not without content. Both of the ladies gasped at a huge stack of gold coins. Although all sizes existed, each had been separated and stacked with its own kind, with an accuracy so great, that it was difficult to tell where one coin started and one finished.

About the only items, which were not placed with pinpoint accuracy in the room, were the gemstones. These had been separated out, by colour and type, into boxes about two feet square in size. On one box full of diamonds sat a large uncut diamond the size of a hand.

“Is that Edala’s Star?” Amy asked.

“Yes, but its light has long since faded” the Dragon-Man replied.

Boadaiska had already made it to the second level; which had an armoury of sorts, and she went to inspect a rack full of swords.

The other two climbed the steps to join her; she had picked out two swords, similar in length to the those she had always used and began to practise fake strikes and parries.

“What happened to my magical swords?”

“Do you remember allowing General Ambrosta and Captain Penrod to use them while you lay in my arms dying?” Arden replied.

“Yes...just, so did they survive and still have them in their care?”

“I have no idea, but I hope so.”

“Can I keep these two for now until I get my magical ones returned?” she asked.

“I’m not certain you should be playing with swords in your condition” he said, looking to Amy for support.

“No mister; don’t drag me into a fight neither of us can win!” Amy protested with a smile.

Arden sighed in defeat, “Oh well you can have those; there is no need to retrieve the other swords, as these two are equally magical; maybe even more so, as things somehow seem less these days” he conceded.

Boadaiska spun the blades with an appreciative smile at the father of her child, “And what are their powers?”

“That one is called Gutter, it can slice through the thickest of hides,” he said indicating a fearsome looking sword with a dragon head hilt, black runes etched along its blade. “The other is called Dancer; it can be moved far quicker than any other blade, whether to parry or cut” Dancer was a much finer looking weapon, with a slightly thinner blade, etched with silvery runes; its hilt had no animal, whether mythical or real, but instead was encrusted at the base with a sapphire, its blue seeming to illuminate from deep within.

“Beautiful” Boadaiska said appreciatively as she practiced her classic sword whirl.

“Deadly” was all Amy could think to say, with a raised eyebrow look at Arden, no doubt finding the vision of a woman, wielding weapons in the final stages of pregnancy, quite disturbing.

“Personally I’m sticking with beautiful!” he added with a wink at Amy.

That evening, the three of them sat in the main communal area, to share a meal. This was served, as ever, by Lisa and the other volunteers from Daria whom, Arden admitted, took his stature far too seriously.

“I would have thought Darrion would be back by now” Amy said after finishing her first course; a chicken and vegetable soup.

Arden relaxed back in his chair, “I too have wondered about your husband Amy; tomorrow morning, if he has not arrived for breakfast, I will fly you personally all the way to Arrenloft and see if we can drag him away.”

“Hmmm I shall come with you my beast, I quite like the idea of taking the weight off my back in one of their wonderful baths” Boadaiska said.

Arden lent across from his chair and kissed his beloved on the forehead, “No my love, I do not think that bouncing around on my back, several hundred feet up, is going to be a good idea in your condition.”

Rather than protesting, as she may have done months ago, Boadaiska nodded and smiled at the Dragon-Man. She then cradled her arms around her bulging belly and said “It’s funny, but unless I feel him move, I tend to forget that I really should not be as active as I would like to be.”

Amy smiled at them both; Boadaiska seemed adamant that the baby will be the boy that Arden had spent centuries trying to sire. Amy wished that she could do an ultrasound scan for them, to check the baby’s sex, thus avoiding any possible disappointment when the child is born.

“Thank you Arden; I will appreciate your help in tracking down my husband” she said, finally, before tucking into her second course.

“Well, it looks like he's forgotten about the two of us already” Bethany said with a grin at Allen, as the two of them walked alongside the wagon, that belonged to the daughters of Ingemar, on its trek back to their home in Oldwealth. Lloyd and Edala were currently sitting together at the rein; the attraction and sexual tension between them, clearly visible to all. Allen, the normally serious soldier, smiled back with careful fondness towards the red haired mage, who enjoyed teasing him at every opportunity.

“Love is a strange thing Bethany; and to have loved and lost, and then rekindle that love, is perhaps the sweetest love of all” he replied.

Bethany threw him a sideward glance, “When have you ever loved and lost?”

“You don’t know me as well as you think you do” he replied enigmatically.

A wicked gleam came into her eyes…”I would really like to work on that!” she said, placing her arm in his. Normally this would have brought a blush to his face; today, however, he kept his eyes locked on hers. A challenge? No - an invitation Bethany realised...this trip was going to turn very interesting.