Viyara Nameless
As it turned out, she hadn’t, not fully at any rate. It rather seemed like she had complimented and intimidated him in equal measure until he had grudgingly agreed to play along. Which also explained his sour mood and scrunched up face when we reached him. He wasn’t happy, but his sister, Estrella, his constant, mostly quiet, companion greeted me with a smile that displayed the gaps in her teeth in all their glory.
We were in front of one of the last tents, a couple of metres away from the main path, where dwarfs bustled along, carrying materials or food to either get them to the big fire near the centre or towards the working smithy on the other side of the camp. Quiet a few were also stretching their legs, leisurely strolling along the dusty road. I recognised a handful of them, those were the ones who had been injured down in the tomb and they were probably excused from duty for a day or two, even though they had been healed.
The mixture of smells from the furnaces on the ships in the sky, the slowly roasting spits of venison, the acrid fragrance of working metal and sweating dwarfs, for the heightened senses of my dragon form it was almost overwhelming. No wonder most of my kind preferred to live alone and far away from civilisation, even though they could easily mingle with one race or the other. A cold shudder ran down my spine when I imagined how a human city would reek. I wondered how the kitsune, especially the children, dealt with it. Their noses were just as good as mine, but yet they didn’t seem too irritated. Maybe they had already gotten used to it but from what I had seen in Cassy’s memories, their home had been full of flowers and cherry blossoms, which was hardly comparable.
“We’ll wait here,” Reia said and jumped to the ground elegantly. “Nobody is inside, we three have slept here last night. There’s also a bucket of water if you want to wash off the dirt. It’s fresh, I sent Archy to get some before I went looking for you.” I inclined my head gratefully and folded my ruff close to my body. Luckily I didn’t need much space to move and could manoeuvre my coils around one another once inside, otherwise I’d never have been able to fit in there.
When the flap had closed behind me I quickly transformed. The tent was sparsely furnished, three camp beds with thin blankets, one of which didn’t look like it had been slept in, and a large bucket of water stood around on the grassy ground and the barely hidden heft of a dwarven dagger poked out from one of the unkempt beds. I chuckled softly, washed my face, arms and feet and quickly slipped into the clothes Reia had gotten me. They fit, more or less, and she had even gotten me a pair of sturdy boots which were surprisingly the perfect size. I pocketed Ignus scale, checked my reflexion in the water quickly and brushed through my hair a few times with my fingers, wondering which dwarf was looking for his dagger and if she had nicked something of value. And I was almost certain she had stolen it, otherwise she’d be wearing the weapon openly. On my way out, I decided to check, in case the weapon would be glowing with enchantments or had personalised runes on it, I’d better return it to the owner before it could be missed.
On the plus side, no magic I could detect, but the hilt was heavily decorated with gems and the blade was no doubt forged from mithril with a large, stylised X engraved into the ridge. Oh boy… she’d be lucky to get away with a spanking, if she was caught. Should I make her return it? Burnt fingers were said to be the best teacher, but I wasn’t so sure this time. From what I had heard, dwarfs didn’t tolerate theft in the slightest, the first time they caught you, you’d be taken to the stocks, the second time, they’d have your hand and the third time your head. I couldn’t imagine that they’d be this strict with a child, I didn’t even know if they could, considering Reia was a kitsune and technically still Helena’s subject, but the trouble didn’t seem worth it. Better to have her bring it back to Xorlosh with an apology.
I sighed when I imagined how the conversation with the girl would go, she wasn’t going to be thrilled and from what I had seen of her, she wouldn’t be mortified or remorseful either. Oh well, if I wanted to be treated as an adult, I should better start acting like one. I picked up the dagger and quickly strode out of the tent, with a, hopefully, stern look on my face.
As soon as I stepped into the warm light of the afternoon sun, a half suppressed curse, more vile than I would have expected from a 12 year old, and Archy’s complaints greeted me:
“I told you, that was the stupidest idea, ever! Go on then, explain why you have that dagger!”
“Will you shut up,” Reia hissed.
“Look,” she said as she turned towards me with an innocent smile. “It’s not as bad as it seems. I’m going to return the weapon, at least the biggest part of it, I promise, but we need it. In case you’re willing to help us, that is. Are you?”
“I’d have to know much more than that. What do you have in mind?” And why would you need a weapon, I added silently. Nothing good could come of a plan that involved a mithril dagger. Nothing good, at all. If she was going to mention any form of sacrifice, I’d spank her myself.
“That’s, hum… you see…” “Out with it,” I cut her stammering short.
“I… we…” she hesitated again and blushed but suddenly everything poured from her mouth in one uninterrupted rush: “it looks so beautiful when you transform and I was just too curious how it works, because it doesn’t look like normal magic, it doesn’t feel like it either and then there is this glow, it’s all golden and Archy said he’s seen the magic in your blood when he healed you and thinks he can use some of it to make an artefact with Estri’s help that would allow us to transform ourselves.” She gestured excitedly towards the tiny girl between them. “She can see most forms of energy and has already checked, the two of them have just enough of the golden stuff to make it work and I have more than enough in me and with your help we can turn into the animals closest to us, we hope. Archy could turn into a sparrow and Estrella an owl.” That was much better than anything I had expected… but utter garbage, at least I thought so. Dragons hadn’t been able to recreate that form of magic in forever and these three did it with a wish, a drop of blood and a stolen dagger? No. Way. A small child, barely more than a toddler could see it in people? And a sparrow? An owl? As far as I knew, my magic allowed the transformation from one sentient species in your bloodline to the next. Not an arbitrary animal.
“And what about you,” I asked. I was still curious, even though I didn’t expect it to work.
“We don’t know,” she replied downheartedly. “Estrella couldn’t see it, she said my soul is clouded… or veiled, there’s so much of the golden glow that she couldn’t see the form behind it. But if you helped us, we would easily find out,” she added hurriedly. Fiery skies, I had an idea. Ignus had even mentioned that he was interested in a drop of Mordred’s blood to make sure the Pendragon’s weren’t descendants of this particular draconic bloodline. What if they were? It stood to reason that there’d be traces of it in the higher noble families, an affair here, an unwanted child, raised by someone else, there and after a few centuries, small parts of the bloodline would be dispersed all over the ruling class. But what about Reia, then. Why was it so much stronger in her? Unless… damn it, could she be a Pendragon? A bastard child raised by a different father? I didn’t know much about Cassy’s family, aside from what she had shown me. Reia was older than her, older than her body, at least, so she couldn’t possibly know. Mordred, perhaps, but from what I had heard, he had never been too close to his dad, definitely not close enough to have a heartfelt chat about mistakes, regrets and an affaire over a glass of wine in the middle of the night. Helena… she might know, but if she didn’t and I asked…
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I must have looked befuddled to no end, since Reia asked:
“Are you alright? You look like you tasted something foul. I know I shouldn’t have taken the dagger but I thought it’s most often easier to ask for forgiveness than permission and… if you help us, I’m sure Xorlosh won’t be too mad. He has even told me that this was just one of the things he made when he learned how to forge mithril. I swear, if he wants me to, I’ll somehow pay him back. I bet Lady Helena would even help me out, maybe every kitsune can use the magic.” I highly doubted it and that definitely wasn’t what was worrying me anymore.
“No… I mean yes, you shouldn’t have taken the dagger. Have you talked to anyone about this? I mean one of the other kids or maybe a grownup, anyone at all?”
“No, you’re the first. It’s just us three. Why?” I glanced around, Archy was eyeing me curiously and Reia seemed suspicious. Those two were far too sharp for their own good. Estrella was chasing a butterfly and her laughter, bright as a bell, was loud enough that I could be sure we wouldn’t be overheard, at least not by chance when someone walked by.
“I think we should keep it that way. If you’re right, I can’t imagine that my people would take kindly to a bunch of foxes unraveling their secrets,” it wasn’t even a lie. “And you know, everybody likes to gossip, I can’t imagine all of your friends and all of the dwarfs staying silent. Word travels fast, sooner or later, one dragon or the other will hear about it and then all of you will be in danger.’’
“Why would your people care so much,” Archy asked. “Can’t they do the same thing? Ignus made for a pretty convincing librarian when he chose to.”
“True, but… wait a minute. How do you know his name?” He turned red like a tomato.
“I… uh… we might have possibly hidden in the bushes back there,” he gestured towards the clearing where Ignus had met with us earlier. “But it wasn’t on purpose, it just… happened.”
“You just happened to eavesdrop on us? How did that work? Oh, that’s a nice place to hide, let’s stay here and see what happens. Rolling in the mud can be so much fun, after all.”
“Exactly,” Reia nodded. “We were unbelievably surprised when you guys just appeared and started talking. Who could have known? And before we realised what was going on, you were already speaking about names and bloodlines and dragons and we didn’t want to interrupt, so…”
I couldn’t help myself, I had to laugh, even though it wasn’t funny. They were well on their way to become a veritable gang, a miniaturised squad of special forces and if Estrella ever caught up to the poor butterfly, they’d even have their first hit under their belts. At least they didn’t seem to put much faith in what they had overheard, otherwise they might have arrived at the same conclusion as me.
My laughter faded away when I realised that I still didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to do. My first instinct was to talk to Cassy, she was the one I was most familiar with, after all, but since it was about her father and all I had were speculations, I wasn’t exactly sure how she’d react. Plus, I didn’t want to smear her memories of the man, in case I was wrong. I didn’t think so, though and there might be a way to be decently sure.
“Alright then, let’s not talk about you spying on us or stealing from Xorlosh for a minute. Estrella can see the golden energy in people? Has she looked at some of your friends, or Mordred, perhaps? Do they have the same magic in them?” Reia was immediately prepared to change the topic and called the little girl over. Estrella’s locks were flying around her head wildly as she bounced towards us and slammed into Reia like a battering ram who picked her up and whirled her around in a circle, eliciting another joyous laugh from Estrella.
“Uff… You’re getting stronger by the day. Have you been doing the exercises I showed you? Soon you’ll have to carry me around. Look,” she continued while she placed her gently on the ground, “Viyara wants to know if you’ve seen the golden glow you saw in us somewhere else. Have you looked around and maybe seen it in one of your friends, Loraine, or what was his name, Barand, maybe?” She shrugged and answered quietly:
“I haven’t looked. Do you want me to?” I nodded in Reia’s direction and she replied:
“Please, why don’t you go now? Run through the camp once and get back here as fast as you can.” Glancing at me from the side, she added: “if you can, try finding Prince Mordred. We’d really like to know if he has the golden energy in him, as well. You can tell us what you’ve seen afterwards and if you’re really quick, I’ll teach you the spell to change the colour of your fur and hair, like you wanted.” And the plot thickened. If Reia knew a spell like that, it stood to reason she had used it before. Now, why would she want to change her colours unless it had caused problems in the past? Maybe she didn’t exactly look like she was supposed to? I didn’t know her family but if all of them were similar shades of red, and she had been different, I could easily imagine that she’d have wanted to fit in. I focused back on the two girls, resolved to ask her immediately.
“Promise?” Estrella chirped.
“Promise, now go, hurry. I’ll give you 15 minutes, not more.” With a squeal the tiny vixen scrambled off, kicking up a cloud of dust in her wake.
“Are you trying to turn her into a monster,” Archy inquired morosely when she was gone. “First the exercises, now this… she’ll become a whirlwind of destruction with pink hair, if you keep it up. I’m the one who has to look after her all the time and you’re not making my life any easier.”
Reia stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t be so grumpy, she deserves a little fun. By the way, you would be much better off, if you joined her and didn’t complain so much. It’s not my fault you can’t run a mile without collapsing. Anyways, what’s this all about, Viyara? I don’t see the problem.” No… of course not. Your little, innocent friend had already developed a form of enhanced vision that put those of dragons to shame and we might have stumbled upon a royal family scandal but everything else was just peachy. Oh, and you stole from the leader of the dwarfs without any intention of ever returning the item, except the parts you wouldn’t be able to turn into artefacts. But by now, a little kleptomania didn’t seem too bad.
“Long story short, the kind of magic you’re asking for is lost to my people and they’ll be after everyone who can help them recover it. But you should know this, Ignus explained most of it back in the clearing where you just happened to hide in the bushes. How did you prevent us from smelling you, by the way?”
“Cloves,” came the immediate reply. “They can cover any scent, but you have to rub them over most of your body, it’s a pain. And we couldn’t understand everything, you were too far away.”
“And again, you just so happened to cover your scent before you strolled through the forest? Never mind. Basically you’ve stumbled across… oh my, I don’t even know where to begin.” I truly didn’t. I couldn’t even tell them much about the magic itself without insinuating that Reia might be a Pendragon. Unless I managed to come up with a convincing story as to why there was a seed of the magic in most kitsune and why she was brimming with it. The first part wouldn’t even be too difficult, I could just leave the name Pendragon out of it and hope that they hadn’t picked up on it before. As for the second part… everybody wanted to be someone special. Why not give them a mystery they could puzzle over until I had a better idea of what to do?