The Last Dragon: Book Four

CHAPTER NINE

That question about me being a mage raised all sorts of questions in my mind, none of them good. A single glance in Kendra’s direction told me she was as surprised as me.

I turned to face Big Salim, who was not scowling, smiling, or giving away his inward feelings in any way. Knowing the attitudes that most people have about anyone who practices magic. I said in my most innocent voice, “What are you talking about?”

His eyes were fixed on mine. We hadn’t shared more than a few dozen words since our arrival, and I was not about to provide him with any of my innermost fears or abilities. My assumption was that something either Kendra or I said had given him the information. Now, it was time to defuse the situation before it developed and became dangerous. They seemed like nice people, had fed us, and we owed it to them to be neighborly.

Big Salim still had his eyes locked on mine, searching for deception. I said, “Why would you ask me about that?”

Without flinching, he reached out a massive paw and pointed with one finger as large around as my thumb, to an empty place at the far end of the table where the linen cloth didn’t reach. A flame appeared above the wood. It was only as tall as my fist, didn’t reach or burn the table, and the flame was as red as a ripe raspberry.

I sat nearest it. Without thinking, I reached out and placed my hand directly in the flame. There was no heat, as I’d suspected. Why? I don’t know. But the flame was too perfect, too colorful. It was artificial. A projection.

I produced a similar flame, one orange and yellow. The surface of the table charred under it almost instantly.

“A mage,” Big Salim hissed. “I knew it.”

“And you?” I asked. “What are you?”

He hesitated, then spat, “A failed mage. I was cast out of the society before I was allowed in. After only two months, my instructors knew I’d never succeed in becoming a mage because I refused to do as ordered without question.”

I fought to remain still and unresponsive to his words. He’d mentioned several things I didn’t know in those few short sentences. There was a “society” of mages. No surprise, but unknown to me. There was official training, suspected, but never verified until now. He’d been selected for unknown reasons but cast out as a failure for not going along with the program. He was bitter about it.

I said, “Where did you study?”

He looked confused, and I knew I’d slipped up somehow. He said, “There are other places?”

“Where?” I repeated without answering his question.

“Kaon. I studied in Kaon, a city in the far north.”

I’d expected the answer. The home of the Young Mage was the home of the school for mages. Everything in the last month seemed to revolve either around the Young Mage or his home. I said, “How were you selected?”

Again, I’d asked a wrong question but didn’t know how or what I’d said incorrectly. Instead of answering me, he stood. His hand was now resting on the hilt of his knife, which was as long as my forearm, and instead of a weapon, it was a tool for cutting, prying, hacking, and slicing. Its edge was probably equal to that of my sword because farmers needed good quality tools, and he was a powerful man, easily twice my weight.

I remained sitting and composed myself before speaking. To disarm the situation, I crossed my legs at the knee since his posture was a threat, not an attack. I said in my sincerest voice, “We have much to discuss, you and I. And I owe you honest and true answers.”

“You will explain who you are and why you came here. Then I will decide if you live or die today.” His voice sounded as calm as mine, only more determined.

I glanced at Kendra and saw her hand easing in the direction of her sleeve and the hidden double-ended throwing knife. I gave her a small shake of my head. Elinore had backed away a few steps and looked ready to flee inside. She didn’t know what was happening, but neither did I. Small Sam, or Little Salim or whatever his name was, appeared equally confused.

I had no doubt he’d side with his father in a fight, but he didn’t know what was wrong. I turned my empty palms over and placed them firmly on the table in a show of nonaggression. “I will explain whatever I can, which is very little. I have not lied to you and do not intend to do so, but I would also like you to explain a few things. There should not be animosity between us, sir.”

I’d thrown the word, sir, into the end as a measure of respect. I didn’t stand or make any moves. Big Salim relaxed slightly and asked, “You were not recruited as a boy?”

“No. I didn’t even know they did that.”

“They scour all of Kaon, Kondor, and even Trager in the north for boys with potential abilities in any of the forms of magic. The talents do not become apparent until about the age of five or six, sometimes later.” He paused and waited for me to explain how I was not selected.

“I was living in the Kingdom of Dire at that age. They didn’t find me, I guess.”

Kendra wore a faint smile. We may have discovered a portion of our past, and a reason why two children from Kondor were taken to Dire as children. Someone, probably our parents didn’t want me recruited into the mage society. His simple explanation could explain a lot about us.

“Don’t they have sorceresses in Dire?” he asked.

“Sorceresses? Sure, but why do you ask?” His question about Dire had come from nowhere and I didn’t know how to answer, so I asked one of my own.

Big Salim shrugged and said, “It’s them that search out the young boys.”

I glanced at Kendra again. We were in the middle of what was an impassible, waterless, desert and found the home of what might be the only occupants—and they had already, in only a few sentences, told us more about our probable past than we’d managed to learn in a lifetime.

Kendra said, “You say that you were recruited by sorceresses to attend training to become a mage in Kaon.”

“That’s what I said,” his voice no softer or friendlier than before.

Trying to ease the situation, the best way seemed to be honesty, so I told the truth. “I was not recruited, didn’t know it happened, never heard of Kaon until ten days ago, and have never had any training about how to use magic. However, as you might guess, all you say is of importance to us. We’ve been searching for information about us and our situation all our lives.”

“Your mother and father?” he asked.

“Unknown,” Kendra said before I could answer. “Another mystery to solve.”

I said, “Odd that you asked about our parents. Why?”

He relaxed, and sat again, leaning closer as if there might be someone trying to listen. “Our powers are inherited. Not always, but usually.”

That made sense. I’d bet most mages with wives and children lived in Kaon. It also might explain why a mage or sorceress that suspected their child of having magical powers might flee to a foreign land. It was an explanation for our existence—the first we’d heard that made any sort of sense.

Kendra said, “Interesting to me that sorceresses locate potential mages, but that fits with what we know. They deal more with emotions, feelings, and people, instead of elemental magic dealing with metal, water, and air. It also explains another mystery I’ve wondered about. Sorceresses always seem to live well, have nice houses, plenty of money at the markets. The mages pay them, don’t they?”

Big Salim motioned for Elinore to come to the table. She did, although it seemed she was reluctant if her hesitant actions were as I saw them. He said to her as he motioned to Kendra, “This woman. Is she a sorceress?”

In an instant, that told us Elinore was a sorceress, which should not have been a surprise, but was. Elinore shook her head. For some reason I was relieved until she spoke, “She is much more.”

“More?” Big Salim asked. “What does that mean?”

I exchange a look with Kendra. What was more than a sorceress? Not a mage, because they dealt with different magics. She was a puzzled as me. We turned to Big Salim and found his brows furrowed, so I looked at Elinore.

She was watching Kendra, an expression of intense concentration on her face. She turned to Big Salim to answer his question. “How can I describe “more” other than to say no sorceress I’ve ever encountered or heard of has her power. It is as if she carries the power of a dragon inside her.”

That phrase, the power of a dragon, interested me. Could my powers be working because Kendra had essence inside her, like a dragon or Wyvern?

“And him?” Big Salim asked, jutting his chin in my direction.

“Repressed and unrecognized power. His mind is like a young walnut husk with the nut inside growing and expanding daily—and it will soon split the husk wide open. His mind is like that.” Elinore lowered her head and looked at the ground as if somehow ashamed of what she’d said about us, and in front of us. “One day his true powers will burst forth and all nearby will quake.”

Before I found the words to say, Kendra placed her arm around the shoulder of the woman and said, “What you told us is much of what we have suspected but didn’t know. Thank you.”

Little Salim, who was not all that little, said to his father, “You act as if these two are our friends. What if they leave and reveal where we live? Will we have to flee again and find a new home?”

All eyes turned to the boy, his parents looked on him in an admonishing manner, while my sister and I took the time to examine his outburst in detail. Again, with only a few words, an incredible amount of information had been relayed.

Big Salim’s family was hiding. They were in the driest part of the desert at the very edge of the Brownlands, hidden by that waterless wasteland, protected because few carried the water required to cross the wasteland to reach their valley. Their little area was lush and green, indicating that either they had stumbled on a rare oasis, or they had manipulated the natural forces to provide the water needed to grow food.

This was not the first time they had fled. Who they had fled from was unknown, but they were not welcome to someone, or some group with power. Enough power to cause a mage and sorceress to hide.

Kendra said, “Is your son a mage?”

“I am,” he snapped as if insulted by the question.

I found that coincidence disconcerting as soon as the words left his mouth. There were perhaps only five people alive in the interior of the Brownlands south of the great river, and we’d managed to stumble upon three of them. It’s not that I don’t believe odd things happen, but more often than not, there is a reason. At home in Crestfallen, I never played Blocks with young William because he always won. Not through magic, but because although he was several years my junior, he was smarter, more decisive, and a better planner for the future moves of the game. He saw moves well ahead of me and anticipated mine.

So, coincidence exists, but there are other times when there is more than chance that controls happenings. Not always magic. Manipulation, coercion, threats, and accurate predictions also create what appears to be a coincidence.

Kendra could see mages in her mind. She hadn’t known of these, not at a distance, and not as we sat and ate a meal with them. She was taken by surprise. “Do you have a way to hide from others with magic powers?”

Big Salim turned to her. “You can tell if a mage or sorceress is nearby?”

“Yes.” She didn’t mention she could also do it from a distance.

He wore a rare smile. “Good. I maintain a shield about our valley to keep all magic within it.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded truthful. My mental ramblings returned to the central focus that concerned me. I seized the spark of the beginnings of a flame of knowledge and said, “I saw a glint of light, like a reflection of sunlight off a polished surface, that brought us here. A single random incident in a sea of desert. It was not a glint of light, was it?”

Elinore said, “I have heard of such things happening with mages. They say that they follow the light, a common enough expression among some who control magic. I think it tells them where to find friends.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Meaning that you did not arrive here by accident,” she said.

Warnings cluttered my mind, all centered on the Young Mage. “Who directed me here?”

She shook her head, “No, I don’t think it was a person. I believe the occurrence is far simpler to explain. Your mind searches for something, a place, destination, or objective. Without knowing how, it reaches out and locates those things. The glint or flash you believe you saw was probably only in your mind. That is how I’ve heard the process explained but have never experienced it.”

Her explanation was better than thinking a random act of chance had brought us together. I turned to Kendra. “Can we delay our trip a few days?”

She nodded. “If these good people will allow us to remain here. We have so much to learn and finally have found people who know much more than us.” She turned to them. “We can pay.”

Elinore was already shaking her head, refusing payment. Big Salim said, “We also have things to learn from you.”

Little Salim spun and strode away as if angry or fearful. He was at the age where anger rules his daily life.

“He has chores to complete,” his father said lamely.

I’d never been so anxious to do my chores that I’d almost ran to them but said nothing. Instead, I allowed my mind to wander, thinking of subjects to speak about. It seemed obvious we’d been drawn here, probably by my mind as Elinore had suggested. Since arriving, in the space of eating a meal, we’d learned so much. What else were we going to find out? What questions should we ask? Where should we begin?

*We were ambushed,* Anna’s voice burst into my mind like being struck on the back of my head with the blade of a shovel.

*What happened?*

*They came in the night where the lakes narrowed, probably a hundred soldiers in twenty boats. Instead of fighting, Will ordered the sails raised and all of us to row. They chased us, but as the old fisherman said, they were not very good rowers.*

*You all escaped?* I asked.

*Yes, for now. We are in another large lake but along the shore are soldiers on horses keeping pace with us. The lake is narrower and we will never be out of sight of them.*

I turned to Kendra. “We have to leave.”

“Trouble?” she asked.

“There are soldiers on horseback keeping pace with them.” I glanced at Elinore and Big Salim. “Our friends. We have to go help them.”

Big Salim said, “Then you must go. Elinore will gather food for travel while we talk.”

“About?” I asked, anxious to leave but knowing to remain. We needed food to take and he wanted to talk.

“We are in hiding. This place,” he threw his arms wide to indicate the small valley, “was a desert with a small spring. Using magic, this is what we made of it. I failed at being a mage, and because of that, Kaon wanted me dead. All who fail to meet their standards are put to death.”

“You escaped?”

“And found Elinore a year later. We hid in Dagger for years, then came here when a new mage came into power and detected me. He is in Kaon, the leader of all mages, but he was only a child back then. He started searching for any who failed the mage society and lived. Those who didn’t agree with him were killed. We were lucky to escape. You must be wary of him.”

I said, “Our name for him is the Young Mage. We’ve had a few confrontations already.”

“Then you are either more powerful than I suspected or very lucky.”