They reached the Sidhe camp just before nightfall. The men had found a flat rock outcropping over a ravine. The ledge overlooked a quickly flowing creek. Math couldn’t see how this little piece of rock would protect them from a swarm of Kobalds, but Khel seemed to believe the ground was rocky enough. The creatures could still attack over land, but at least they wouldn’t be pulled under the earth as they slept.

After a whispered conference, Rowan and Destrian shouldered bows and small packs and strode back into the dusk. Ulric and Khel remained and quickly had a fire roaring. Math and his friends had no food or supplies, but their new companions willingly shared bread, dried meat and clean water. They sat chewing in silence. Khel was simply content to not talk. Math was trying to wrap his mind around all the legends come true that day.

“Go ahead, ask,” said Khel with a smile.

Math hesitated. A dozen questions came to his lips, but he hesitated to ask. He decided to start without prying too much. “Where did you come from?”

“Me personally? I live here and there. The Sidhe in general? We live in many places.”

“Not in the underworld, apparently,” Math said.

“Some live in caves, if they find one that can be turned into a nice home,” Khel said with a smile. Many live in forests. Some choose a nomadic lifestyle, some build more permanent dwellings. Some even live in your towns.”

“And nobody notices? You look…” Rai trailed off, uncertain if his comment would offend the man.

“Look what? Human? We are human, despite your nursery rhymes,” Khel laughed.

“You said there was a Dragon?” Thea joined in the questioning.

“Yes,” Khel replied. “The Sidhe managed to imprison it long ago, but it has found a crack in its bindings.”

“What happens if it escapes?” she asked.

“Before it was imprisoned, it burned half the world. Its escape would be cataclysmic, to say the least.”

“How is it escaping?” Thea asked.

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“Can you stop it?” Math joined in.

“Can you kill it?” Rai added.

“Hold on, let me answer.” Khel held up his hands to slow down the questions. “Can we kill it? I don’t think anyone knows how. Otherwise I would have to assume they would have killed it the first time.”

“But it was imprisoned once, it can be again,” Rai pointed out.

“Theoretically, yes. But we need to find three scions.”

“Scions?” asked Thea.

“There is a key to the prison. That is the weakness the Beast has discovered. It has found servants to remove that key. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea. It can be repaired, but the sorcery that created it requires three scions of the ancient Sidhe emperor”

“Scions? As in descendants?”

“Yes,” Khel answered. “The emperor created the bindings with his two brothers. Only three of his blood can remove the bindings. It is our hope that three of his blood can also repair the bindings.”

“So you don’t know for sure?” Rai asked.

“No, we don’t. We hope. We don’t know of any other way.”

“Who would serve a Dragon?” Math asked.

“You’ve met them already,” Khel replied. “The Kobali.”

“Those creatures? How could they serve a Dragon?”

“Don’t underestimate them. Those you saw today were only a few stragglers from the cete. Low ranking, less intelligent, not as dangerous.”

Math stared into the fire, trying to imagine how those claws and fangs were ‘not as dangerous.’

“What’s a cete?” Thea asked.

“Think of it like a herd. Or a colony. Or like a swarm.”

“How many are there usually?”

“Thousands. Tens of thousands. The swarm in that great war covered the land like a carpet of teeth and talons. It’s said that the sight of men torn apart in that tide would dishearten entire armies,” Khel said. Ulric, still silent as he sat next to Khel, nodded grimly as he watched the conversation.

“How are creatures like that able to undo some ancient sorcery?” Rai asked.

“They have sorcery of their own,” Khel answered. “Their blood shamans have been picking at the arcane knots.”

“Maybe the bindings will hold,” Math said.

“Unlikely. They are already giving way. We need to stop them, or the world will burn the way your town just burned, and worse.”

“Do you know where these scions are?” Rai asked.

“We do. We were going to gather them together when we ran into you at the farm.”

“There are no Sidhe around here. Well, except for your group,” Rai said.

“As I said, we Sidhe look the same as you, for the most part. Think of those you know in your little town. Can you think of anyone who is taller than most? Fair skinned? Anyone who seems to take easily to physical games as well as mental challenges?”

Math looked at Rai, who shrugged. “You could be describing anyone.”

Math turned to Thea, who was sitting with a strange expression on her face as she looked at Rai.

“Well Rai here has always had good eyesight. Maybe he’s a Sidhe!” Math joked.

“And Math has big ears, maybe he can hear better underground,” Rai retorted with a smile.

Thea turned to look at Math, eyes wide, then at Khel. Khel nodded to her with a smile.

“It’s you,” she whispered, looking back at Rai.

“What?” Rai said.

“Huh?” Math added.

“You two are the scions. You are Sidhe.”