The Awakening (26 page)

“If you have your own idea, you could sketch it out for us,” the shop owner’s daughter said.

Jahrra nodded and smiled. She wasn’t sure what she would come up with but she followed the girl out into the main room again where she was supplied with a sketch book. It took her some time but she finally came up with a design she could imagine Jaax wearing. It was a simple knotted pattern with two dragon heads facing each other at the top of the ring, exactly where the stone would sit.

“The stone could go here,” Jahrra pointed where the two mouths stood slightly open.

The elvin girl nodded. “I know exactly how we can make this. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jahrra felt suddenly better, as if having a hand in the design would make the final product more pleasing to her guardian. The girl led her back into the cauldron room where Torrell was peering into the glowing potion while the jeweler tried to explain the process to her.

“Do we have a design?” the woman asked.

Her daughter grinned and passed over the sketching.

“Ah, very nice. Your dragon should like this. Now,” she continued, tucking the paper away, “what type of metal would you like to use?”

Jahrra moved forward as the ring samples were presented again. She liked gold, but gold was a soft metal and a bit too rich. She thought silver might do, but another metal caught her eye instead. It looked like a nice blend of silver and gold; not too yellow, not too bright.

“What metal is this?” she asked, pointing down at the centermost ring.

The elvin woman smiled. “It is a rare metal that holds a hint of magic.”

“Oh.” Magic metal meant more expensive. Jahrra sighed in disappointment and looked back towards the silver rings.

“It’s called augrim and it is mined exclusively in the Great Hrunahn Mountains. The elves are given special permission by the Creecemind dragons to do so.”

Which meant the metal was even more expensive than Jahrra had previously thought. And the amount of metal it would take to cast a ring that would fit a dragon’s finger? She shuddered despite her disappointment. The silvery gold augrim was quite beautiful, but not crucial.

“The silver is nice, how much would it cost to have the stone set in silver?”

The elvin man smiled. “If the ring is a gift for who we suspect, then we would be willing to offer you a very special price on the augrim.”

Jahrra blinked up in surprise. What was he talking about? She looked quizzically at his wife and daughter, both smiling shyly as if they were afraid to displease her. How had she not noticed their careful behavior before? Jahrra looked back at Torrell. Her friend simply shrugged, obviously as confused as Jahrra.

“I’m sorry,” Jahrra said, straightening up from admiring the rings, “have we met before? I’m terrible at remembering names, I apologize if–”

The elvin woman cut her off. “Oh no, you would not know us, but we know your guardian. The Tanaan dragon Raejaaxorix, correct?”

Jahrra shouldn’t have been surprised but it didn’t keep her from staring dumbfounded at the trio of elves. Nearly everyone in the city knew of Jaax and the Coalition and through him Jahrra herself, and although people acknowledged her as someone to be respected, no one, thank Ethoes, had ever gone out of their way to make special accommodations for them. Why now? Why this family?

“N-No, that isn’t necessary,” Jahrra stammered, holding her hands up in front of her, her bandaged finger looking larger than the rest. “Please, I want to pay full price just like everyone else.”

Jahrra could feel Torrell behind her, fighting back laughter. She gritted her teeth.

“We insist, Lady,” the elvin man said. “Raejaaxorix did us a great service several years back.”

His smile faded and he looked at his daughter. Not a lingering look but just long enough for Jahrra to come to the conclusion that Jaax had somehow aided their daughter at some point in time. The way the girl’s hand moved subconsciously towards the scar on her neck was further evidence. Something traumatic had happened to this family and Jaax had helped. Jahrra sighed.

“He never allowed us to do anything to show our appreciation, but we would like very much to thank him in some way and this seems like a wonderful way to do it,” the woman said, the entreaty in her voice strong and hopeful.

Jahrra felt her shoulders droop and she cast a look at her friend once again. Torrell just shrugged her shoulders but the arch of her eyebrow suggested Jahrra take advantage of her good fortune.

Scrunching up her mouth and making a decision against her better judgment, Jahrra gave in. “Very well, if you insist, but I must be allowed to pay full price for the stone.”

“Excellent!” The jeweler clapped his hands. “Now, augrim it will be, and do you want a binding on the stone? The extra cost is minimal, I assure you.” He winked.

Jahrra blinked in confusion. “A binding?”

“Yes, it’s a process we incorporate into the making of the stone where we bind the finished product to its future owner. It makes the stone impossible to steal and if for whatever reason the owner should lose his or her stone, it will always find its way back to them in some way or another.”

“How is that done?” Jahrra thought this a useful little safeguard.

“All we need is some essence of the party the ring is for,” the jeweler’s wife stated.

“Oh,” Jahrra said in defeat, “never mind then.”

She didn’t have anything of Jaax’s.

“Jahrra!” Torrell said suddenly, smacking her on the arm. “Your pendant!”

Jahrra found the thin chain around her neck with her fingers, pulling out the scale that always rested close to her skin.

“Torrell,” she said rather quietly, as she rubbed her arm, “I can’t part with Jaax’s scale just to bind the stone.”

“The process doesn’t work the same way for the binding,” the girl spoke up.

“The binding process is different,” her father agreed. “During the creation of the stone, we would merely let the scale drop below the surface of our potion for a moment or two while we speak the words of binding, then we pull it out. Nothing will happen to it at all. It won’t even get wet.”

His grin was infectious and Jahrra smiled widely. She liked the idea of putting a safeguard on Jaax’s ring. She didn’t know why, but it made the gift seem much more valuable.

“Now, for the final price,” the shop owner continued, “the amount of augrim used is the same as it would be should we be making a spirit ring to fit you. The jewelry containing spirit rings is always spelled so that it will grow or shrink to fit its owner perfectly.”

The elf named a price for Jahrra and she realized with great relief that, although it would make a sizeable dent in her savings, she would have plenty of her small fortune left to purchase gifts for her other friends. She suspected that the elves might have known exactly how much she had, for despite her relief, she still felt the price not adequate enough to cover the cost of the stone and the rare metal. She looked back at Torrell with a question in her eyes but the other girl merely shrugged once again.

Jahrra nodded. “Very well. You may begin.”

The shop owner called his daughter over. She held a tray with several items on it: a bit of orange powder, a pile of leaves of some sort, a vial of a purple liquid, what looked like fish scales and the glass tube with her blood. The elf placed his hands over the cauldron and murmured a few words. The faint glow of green intensified and the steam rising from the surface increased. Small roiling bubbles began to form and Jahrra felt herself taking a step back.

“Tis perfectly safe, I assure you,” the jeweler said with a smile as he turned to his daughter and began gathering ingredients.

Jahrra chose to remain where she was while Torrell moved closer, even leaning over the cauldron, her dark face glowing strangely in the green light.

A great display ensued, what with the elf and his wife adding ingredients here and there while chanting in an almost musical way. The liquid substance in the cauldron changed with each item added, turning strange colors, steaming or seeming to leap up into the air. By the time they appeared to be coming to the end, Jahrra was pressed firmly against the wall while Torrell, as usual, stood with her arms crossed casually, looking bored.

The potion eventually calmed to a placid state and turned the deep blue color of the ocean. Jahrra swallowed and took a tentative step forward.

“Now, for the final steps.”

The shop owner delicately picked up the glass tube, uncorked it and let the blood drop into the cauldron, murmuring his magical words once again. As each drop hit the surface, it flashed silver and disappeared.

Finally, the last of the blood broke the surface of the cauldron and the potion became still again. Slowly, it turned from that deep blue to an almost clear color.

“Quickly, the dragon scale,” the shop owner’s wife gestured towards Jahrra.

Jahrra swiftly unfastened the chain and handed it over.

As soon as the liquid was completely transparent, the elvin woman lowered the scale just below the surface as her husband and daughter chanted softly. A shock wave of color, the red of a brilliant sunrise, coursed through the potion. As soon as it appeared it faded, and before Jahrra knew it the woman was returning her dragon scale pendant back to her.

“Now we must let it sit for an hour before we can fish out the stone, and then it must be cut to the shape you desire.”

Jahrra blinked up at the shop owner then glanced into the cauldron. The liquid was colorless through to the bottom. There was nothing else in the great bowl. Jahrra furrowed her brow and looked back at the elf.

“Where’s the stone?” she queried.

“It should start forming in ten minutes or so. Would you like to watch it?”

Jahrra nodded. If she was going to be spending most of her savings, she wanted to see how it formed. She and Torrell were offered chairs and they both sat to wait.

“You know, this takes nearly an hour,” Torrell mumbled when they were left in peace. “We could go look into the other shops until they are finished.”

Jahrra shook her head. “This is my first spirit stone, remember? I want to see the entire process.”

Torrell rolled her eyes and blew a wayward curl out of her eyes.

The time seemed to crawl by but eventually a tiny speck of something appeared on the bottom of the cauldron. It gradually grew, becoming the size of a very large pebble before the shop owner’s wife reentered the room.

“Ah, looks like it’s ready.”

“How do you know?” Jahrra asked, standing up and stretching out of her chair.

The elvin woman smiled warmly. “See how the water begins to cloud?”

Jahrra had to admit that the crystal clear appearance of the water was now turning a milky green. The jeweler’s daughter stepped through the curtains with a pair of tongs. She dipped them under the surface of the potion, gingerly grasped the stone, and lifted it up out of the cauldron. The stone was roughly round in shape and was larger than Jahrra had thought, but its smooth surface and rather bland colors sent a pang of disappointment through her.

She glanced at Torrell’s fiery stone, its many facets catching the weak light and reflecting it back as tiny red and gold sparks. Looking back at her own stone, Jahrra began to wonder if perhaps her personality was far more featureless than she had thought.

“Don’t look so morose young lady,” the shop owner said cheerily as they stepped out into the main room. “It still needs to be cut. All stones look rather drab and colorless when they first come out.”

Jahrra breathed a sigh of relief and smiled sheepishly. Of course it would look so plain before it was cut. She just assumed that it formed as a complete jewel.

“Why is it so big?” Torrell asked in her usual brusque way.

“This stone’s intended for a dragon, I mentioned that in the incantations. Therefore it grew large enough to fit a dragon’s sense of style.”

The elvin man winked and Torrell snorted. Jahrra didn’t miss her small grin, though.

“Now, all that’s left is for you to pick a cut for this lovely stone.”

“Oh,” Jahrra said. “Um, I’m not sure, what do you suggest?”

“Gracelle?” the elf said as he turned towards his wife.

The elvin woman scrutinized the large stone and then studied the sketch Jahrra had given them before.

“With this ring design and the fact that this is for a male dragon, I would have to suggest a round or slightly oval cut.”

Jahrra shrugged. “I wouldn’t know either way. I’ll leave it up to you to decide. You’re the experts.”

The woman smiled and answered, “Very well, we shall see what we can do. Being that this is such a large stone it will take us longer than the customary time, despite our use of magic. I suggest you come back an hour or so before sundown.”

Jahrra nodded. It was nearly noon, so that would give her and Torrell plenty of time to get some lunch and explore this side of the city. She and Jaax may have been in Lidien for several months but it was a large metropolis and she hadn’t seen all of it yet. Now would be the perfect opportunity. With a smile towards her friend and a waved thanks to the jeweler and his family, they strode through the door to see what new discoveries they could find.