Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (82 page)

Den-Orok waved a claw. “They are a simple anti-gravity based device. They are fine for short travels on the planet. We often used them to get between here and what you call Angon. One can hover or travel at significant altitude. With Shyar pointing the way, it only took a short time to locate your storage box, retrieve it and return here to the medical area. We had everything ready, and when we took you out of the box, we simply slipped you into the waiting chamber and let the system go to work. We have repaired humans in the past, and Iach-Iss always had a fine touch for directing the Logicmind to adjust for your physiology.”

“
While we waited for you to recover, quite long actually since you were badly infected, we spent the four days getting to know a bit about each other. It appears we might have to take a hand in this once again, although I must warn you with only the two of us, and our abilities sadly very much reduced, I am not certain how effective we will be. We had expected to die in the chambers. It is clear none from our world will ever be coming for us. Our resources are all but depleted, and the surviving war scout ships are somewhat damaged from the last encounters.”

“
It didn’t help matters that you provided their most effective wizard with one of Grout-Lannnu’s devices, altered to make it even more of a problem,” Den-Orok grumbled. “We told him he shouldn’t experiment with methods of melding our technology with the local magic, but the engineer in him couldn’t leave it alone. As a result he built those infernal adapters, which were unpredictable and which caused the death of a number of our original crew. It would have been better if the last of the devices had been left unfound. There were only two that we hadn’t recovered and destroyed, and now this wizard Cheurt has one of them.”

After they finished eating the two dragons left to allow the three friends a chance to reunite properly. Since they were telepathic, Jolan assumed the dragons could have listened to whatever they talked about, but he also sensed that doing so would violate a sense of propriety that the dragons seemed to have. He was certain their conversations would be private, not that they had anything to discuss that would have mattered.

Jolan watched as the two dragons ambled off. He wondered at the word that popped into his mind, but after Shyar spoke he felt it had been an appropriate observation.

“
They are old and discouraged,” she said after they had been alone for a few minutes.

Jolan looked at her with the question clear on his face.

“
Think about it,” she said. “They have been stranded on Gaea for thousands of years. Iach-Iss has said they have pushed even their technology for extending their lives beyond what was considered possible. Now what do they have? They have heard nothing from their home world in all that time. The Nexus is some kind of communicator that interacted with the magic of Gaea. You should talk with them about that. They think they understand why there has been no response, but if they are correct it means they will never contact home. It is also remotely possible that something happened to the home worlds, and that bothers them. It has been a long time even measured in their lifespan terms after all.”

She paused briefly then continued. “All of their friends and mates are gone. They started out as thirty-three adventurers long ago. Once they were trapped here, they tried to bring a world from the edge of savagery. For a time it seemed to have worked, but things fell apart on them, and they ended up fighting and being killed by the very people they tried to help for so long. Now there are only the two of them, alone and aging, with no hope for the future. They had expected to die in the suspension chambers, and now they are facing what seems like a continuation of the battles they had thought finished at great cost. To them, since they have been asleep all the time, it is essentially only a couple of weeks since the last war and since they bade farewell to the rest of their friends.”

“
What happened to the others?”

“
Only eight of them survived the wars. Some of their own actions doomed many of them. That was why Iach-Iss was so unhappy to learn about your amplifier amulet. Apparently that experiment cost them dearly once the wars began. Five of the survivors elected to go back to their ship which is in space. Den-Orok says it was a suicide flight. Most of the scout ships were badly enough damaged that it was uncertain if they would make it back to the ship. Even if they reached it, over the years they had depleted its supplies and reserves so that there was not enough to keep them alive very long, even in suspension. Basically, the five had chosen to die. They had nothing left to live for.”

“
Three remained behind?”

Shyar nodded.

“
Sams-Ough died in the suspension chamber,” Asari explained. “They found him when they woke a while back. Apparently it wasn’t a big surprise. He had been badly wounded in the last battle. More than even the medi-table could handle given how the dragons had aged. Since none of them had expected to wake up, it hadn’t mattered so much at the time.”

Jolan shook his head. It was indeed a sad tale, and here they were again hoping to impose on the last of the dragons to try and help them once again. It didn’t seem right, yet without something, all of Gaea might yet fall to the wizards.

“
Iach-Iss said they don’t have magic. All the time I have been on Gaea I have heard how dragon magic was different, and they say it doesn’t even exist.”

“
Their magic is their technology,” Shyar said. “They can do things we have never considered even with our ability with the power. No wonder it appeared different. They appear to understand our magic quite well. The unexpected melding of their communicator with the power fields of Gaea to produce the Nexus prompted them to begin a detailed study of how the magic works.”

“
We have no right to ask them for more,” Jolan said after a moment. “We should ask what we can do for them and leave them in peace.”

Asari shook his head. “They have already decided to help us. We don’t need to ask. Once they understood the situation they decided they hadn’t finished their task from before. Iach-Iss says it is fortunate that there are very few with any real power. They were badly battered at the end and even their almost indestructible ships were falling apart after repeated abuse from high level wizards. He was unhappy when he learned of the triads. They were what almost turned the war into a total victory for the wizards.”

“
Have you made some kind of plan while I was out? I still haven’t properly expressed my gratitude to everyone for bringing me through. It sounds like it was a very close thing, although I feel like none of it happened.”

A slight smile momentarily crossed Shyar’s face, but then she turned serious again. “We haven’t planned as yet. The dragons want to go to Angon and meet with the leaders there. We can get an update on how things are going and plan accordingly. The dragons will be able to explain how they can help. A bit of their technology might be as useful as their actual involvement.”

“
Do you have any sense of how things are going at home?” Jolan asked.

“
From a couple of brief exchanges with Tishe, I get the feeling it is starting to fall apart. Winter will provide a respite, but next spring is likely to be very bad unless something changes. I suspect she has been told not to worry us over much since they think we can’t get back until mid winter at best, but I can sense the worry deep inside her.”

The way Shyar had phrased her statement caught Jolan’s attention. “You say that like we can be back much sooner.”

“
The dragon ships may be damaged, but Iach-Iss says simple flight on the planet is no problem. We can fly back in a couple of hours.”

“
You are talking about one of the skimmers you used to pick me up?”

Asari grinned and shook his head. “No, those are slower, and while they would make the trip aren’t really armed. We are talking about their scouts, which could go into space and have some serious weapons. Den-Orok showed me around one the other day.”

“
What about the ship?”

“
I’ve already contacted them and told them what is happening. I also explained it is likely we will be taking an alternate path home and that they should stock up on supplies and begin planning for their own departure. The sooner they can start back, the less time they will have to sail under the harsher winter conditions.”

“
When do we go?” Jolan asked, suddenly eager to get back.

“
I’d guess Iach-Iss and Den-Orok will want to have a longer talk with you tomorrow. They are intrigued by you and curious about the current status of Earth. We can do a bit of preliminary planning to make things easier once we get to Cobalo. I’d guess we would leave the next day.”

Just like that, Jolan thought. Months to get here, all the time with significant dangers, and then suddenly it was easy again. Almost like when they had found the portals. That reminded him.

“
They helped build the portals, didn’t they?”

“
One of the first conscious meldings of their science and magic. They know all about them and there are ways to restrict Ale’ald’s use of them. That’s what I meant about using their knowledge rather than putting them back into the battle itself.”

It was getting late, and Shyar pulled Jolan to his feet.

“
You need to sleep. There will be time for more questions later. We have rooms down the hall. They have obviously entertained humans here before.”

“
Why did they locate this facility here, so far from everything?” Jolan asked as they walked.

“
Privacy in part. I think it is a bit more like home than the rest of the Settled Lands. Also, for them it isn’t very far. They can travel by their ships quite quickly and I also suspect they have a portal here. Den-Orok has hinted as much, but I haven’t actually seen one. I don’t think they wanted us to jump back home and bring in a bunch of people until you were recovered and a few things have been settled.”

The rooms that Shyar led them to were a testament to what technology could do. No magic had been used here, but the rooms were far more comfortable and elaborate than anything Jolan had seen in all his time on Gaea. Although subtly different, it was like being in a five star hotel back on Earth.

As Asari bid them goodnight and headed off to his own room, Jolan couldn’t help but think that his friend had a special glow about him and he seemed as content as he could ever remember him being. He had found his dragons, and while they were different than the stories, Asari had no complaints.

Iach-Iss, whom Jolan had come to think of as the senior dragon whether it was true or not, and Den-Orok reappeared and joined them for breakfast the next morning. Jolan was completely recovered and back to his old self, and if anything, felt better than he had in a long time. He wondered if the dragon’s medi-table had fixed up some of the random aches and pains that he had developed over the past few years while it was cleansing his system of the toxins from the bite he had received.

The dragons were dressed in essentially the same type of garb as they had been the previous day, although the material had a faint purplish sheen to it today. As they walked into the common room where the three humans sat eating, Jolan couldn’t help but notice the way they walked and moved. Despite having only been exposed to the dragons for part of a day, there were signs obvious to him that showed the dragons’ age and tiredness. Iach-Iss had said that they had used the machines to extend their lives far beyond the normal, and Jolan thought he could detect indications of the fact in the way Den-Orok walked. He didn’t limp, but he clearly favored one leg a bit, perhaps the result of an injury, or maybe it was just age catching up with him. Certain other mannerisms, while different, were suggestive of the way older humans moved when their bodies had reached the point they were starting to fail and movements became an effort rather than simply automatic responses to a person’s desired actions.

Each of the dragons stopped by the FoodSynth unit and ordered up more food than any six humans could have consumed. They made their way over to the table and sat down on one of the large chairs that surrounded the smaller seats occupied by the humans.

“
We have much to talk about,” rumbled Iach-Iss once he was seated and had greeted the small group. “We can proceed with our planning after we have finished here.” He looked at Jolan and asked, “How are you feeling this day?” It appeared that small talk was considered more appropriate during meal-time.

Jolan smiled. “I haven’t felt as well in a very long time,” he answered truthfully.

Iach-Iss nodded. “The medi-table has that effect. It seems to remove the strains of everyday activity while it repairs more significant problems. The extra glow will disappear again in a few days when the normal level of toxins build up in your blood once more.”

Iach-Iss handed over the small sphere he had been carrying casually in his left claw since coming into the room. It was about a foot in diameter, and was made of some clear material. Lighter than it appeared, it was also strong. Jolan could tell the surface was going to be resistant to any scratches or marking he might attempt. Inside the transparent ball he could see thousands of small grains of some material, all carefully arranged in a lattice array. The materials were not homogenous, as some were larger than others, and a variety of colors could be seen. Everything was far too small to make out any detail, but he had a feeling that there was more to the object than he could see.