Chapter 37
Dragons are born of air and stone,
Daoine of spring flowers
Dwarven folk of the earth’s hard bone
Lakeborn of water power
Bauchan of the earth and sky
Nymphs of passion’s lyre
Pixies of a lover’s sigh
Jinn born of purest fire
Who do I choose?
Who do I find?
One, two three – it’s you!
Traditional children’s counting rhyme in Harani , collected by Meaves Goldstone of the Alder Branches, published in Songs of the Sunlit Lands
On the White Isle, the Oldest walked into her official conference room. “We need a room less comfortable than the guest reception room and smaller than this one,” she said, looking around the large table that dominated the room,” she said.
“You say that almost every time you have a small meeting with someone you trust,” Ethne said, following her in with a platter holding tea items and a tray of small cakes.
“So why haven’t I taken over another room yet?” the Oldest asked.
“Well, whenever I bring it up, you usually say something about budgets and costs…” Ethne put the platter near the Oldest’s chair. “Do you want me to take notes in the other room?”
“No, Ruell knows all about that.” The Oldest shook her head. “I wouldn’t mind if you take notes, nonetheless. But no need to hide.”
Giving her a nod, he went over to the cabinet and took out pen and paper, and set his station slightly down the table where the Oldest and Ruell would be sitting. “Well, I guess I’m ready, Sulis,” he said. “Are you?”
She nodded, and he went to the door to usher their guest in.
Ruell walked in to the meeting room, and gave the Oldest a cheerful grin. “Such a lovely afternoon, Oldest. I’m surprised we’re not meeting in your garden.”
“You’re always so cheery, Ruell,” the Oldest said. She gave a nod to Ethne, who served the tea, with Ethne’s cup being filled first. “I have been in the garden, but I think these are things better said indoors, protected by our wards.”
“No doubt you are correct. Even here at the chapterhouse, security matters. But it’s just so nice that we’re finally into warm spring weather,” Ruell said, picking up his tea cup, warming his fingers around the cup. “And I’m not in the Borderlands. Maybe it was because I was in the field for a week, sleeping in a tent and checking in with our people in the field, but I got rather tired of cooler days. I’m just starting to feel warm again.”
“It’ll be hot before you know it,” Ethne said, as he took his own cup of tea to his own seat, where he settled down and inked his pen.
“Tell me what you can about the DIC’s ways,” the Oldest said, sipping her tea.
Ruell looked thoughtfully. “I think you mean more than how well they worked with us on the operation? We covered that fairly well in the last meeting.”
The Oldest nodded. “Things that impressed you about how they work, tools, your impressions.”
“One thing that impressed me a good bit was their map technique,” Ruell began. “They can do fly overs over a piece of land, and get the terrain down in a way we cannot. I suspect they have some magic techniques that allow them to reproduce what they’ve seen. The maps we used for the operation were the best I have seen. That’s one thing I’d like to get hold of, very much. Beyond that, their logistics is excellent. It’s like they’ve had a lot of practice of moving their people in and out of sites, with adequate, no, more than adequate equipment and good accounting. Their intelligence network is decent, maybe not quite as good as ours.” He took a sweet cake off the tray and dipped it into his tea, and chewed it thoughtfully, then continued. “Another thing to remember, that even though some of their people were armed, they weren’t warriors. There was no way they could have taken out the smugglers the way we did. Bryony told me that they are police, not army. Dragonkin don’t have an army.”
“That’s part of Gandaran’s magic. Dragonkin have personal feuds, murders, fraud, but the things that would lead to a war among their people makes him stir in his magic sleep. Their leadership is never caught off guard,” the Oldest said. “And among other people, who wants to lose their way of travel and trade?”
Ruell nodded. “That, and it’s hard to pin Dragonkin down to one place. Come after them with arms, they just jump into no space. Takes hard work to set up no jump zones.”
“Except in the Lost Lands,” Ethne said, scribbling his notes.
“The Sundering left many scars across the world,” the Oldest said. “The whys and purposes are not all clear.” She turned to Ruell. “The reason I wanted your assessment is this. I received a message from the Master Investigator for you or someone you approve of to join an investigation team in Willowick, in Sunderland. At DIC headquarters.”
Ruell’s eyes widened. “Damn, and I don’t dare go right now. We’re still up to our eyeballs checking out our informant network.” He gave a deep, sad sigh, and grabbed another sweet cake off the tray.
The Oldest took a sip of her tea, amused slightly at Ruell’s disappointment – of all of her people, he was the most enthusiastic at exploring new and different ways of doing things, and had a strong fascination for Dragonkin technologies. “But should we send someone? They might be there for a while.”
“Of course we should!” he replied. He rubbed his chin. “It might leave us shorthanded for a bit, but I think we should send one of the inner circle, not one of the outer. It needs to be someone who understands what we’re doing, and can make snap decisions that we won’t have to clean up. And whoever it is can only join them if they have a certain freedom to report home. But we must do it. We’ve never had an opportunity like this before.”
“It would be a unique opportunity,” the Oldest said, nodding. “The Dragonkin leadership must be truly worried. But who shall we send in?”
“Sammisa, Merith, Dylan, and Haran are here at the chapter house,” Ethne said. “Sammisa’s collating the data on our operatives, and I don’t know if she would do well in a climate as hot and dry as Sunderland is.”
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“And Merith doesn’t work well with Dragonkin,” the Oldest said.
“I need Dylan here to put together the puzzle that we’re building,” Ruell said. He rubbed his chin. “Nobody knows how to tease information of what we’re finding like Dylan. The DIC would find him very valuable, but so do I.”
“Well then, that leaves Haran,” the Oldest said.
“Somehow, sending a Jinn to the DIC has an interesting irony to it. The one race who lives where no space jumping doesn’t work to work with those whose whole life revolves around it.” Ethne said. “I like it”
Ruell gave the group a wicked smile. “Me, too.”
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In the Gray Lands, Violetta Greenleaf let herself be led towards the building she had spent so many days in recently, turning back once to see Xhindi sitting on the bench she had been on, twirling the daisy he had offered.
The Called draped her white veil over her face as they moved.
“We’re not going back to my room?” Violetta asked.
Her companion shook her head. “No. For this, you will enter the depths of Almyrah, fifth ray of the Star of the Mother of Smoke and Fire. Now we must be silent until we meet with the Elder Mother. Save all questions for later.”
Violetta nodded, torn between confused, curious and a little frightened, but she held her thoughts as asked.
They headed to a large door, heavy wood decorated with the emblem of a five pointed star with runes, all in bronze. It was guarded by a portico of two colomns holding up a shape that might have been a pyramid, or perhaps a stylized mountain. As they passed under the portico, the door swung open to the inside, and Violetta felt a cold shiver run down her back as if there was some power searching her. But before she got to the door, the cold turned into a warm inviting presence. She felt a bit invigorated, accepted, and some of the nervousness she had been feeling evaporated.
The Called watched her reaction, and nodded in approval as they entered the hallway in front of them. Although where they stood was brightly lit, with flickering light that looked like fire, but felt magical, the way ahead was in pitch darkness. This did not stop the Called. She strode boldly into the dark, and as she walked forward, more light sprang into being, guiding their path.
Their steps echoed softly on the stone floor. There was nobody else in the hallway than them. Once, Violetta glanced backwards, and saw that the light that was guiding them on the way disappeared into a black midnight behind them. Only the lights one flagstone step ahead, the step they were on, and one behind them stayed lit.
Finally, after what seemed like an endless walk, but one Violetta realized had more to do with magic glamour and sensory conditions than actual time, they reached another set of doors that swung open as they neared.
Unlike the hallway, this room was blazing with light. Violetta stepped forward while her companion hung back, and she found herself blinking, then hanging her head down slightly in pain, as her eyes adjusted to the difference. The door behind her slammed shut, leaving her alone. Finally she could look up, and realized she was alone.
“What the…” she said, and moved forward, but suddenly she stopped. “I’ve...I’ve seen this before. When?”
She began to move forward again. The room she was in was large and sun drenched, like in a forest clearing. Looking up, she couldn’t see the ceiling, just sunlight and things growing. Turning around, she found the door she had walked through had disappeared behind a curtain of shrubs and vines that crawled up the walls. She turned back towards the center of the room.
There, a huge tree raised its arms up to the light. Birds sat in its branches and circled around the room, a pair of squirrels ran up its trunk, and a rabbit hopped by, stopped by the trunk and turned to look at her.
“This looks like something I saw when I was dreaming,” she said.
“So you remember?” said the rabbit.
Another animal, a hedgehog waddled close to the rabbit. “I told you what she told me, even if you didn’t want to believe,” it said. “She has been touched.”
The rabbit cocked its ear. “But why? Why a woman of the Aos Si?”
“Why did the brown one come to us with a warning? He was not of our people either. It was he who left the key for her.
“Brown, brown,” Violetta whispered. “Haladin is a brown Dragonkin. Are they talking about him? He came to warn them? About what?”
The tree they stood next to began to glow. The birds in its branches took off, flying in circles around the tree, and then going to roost in other vegetation. The squirrels took off likewise. Even the rabbit and the hedgehog stepped back.
“My Lady,” the rabbit said, her voice cowering.
The glow grew and then stepped out of the tree, slowly coalescing into a female form. Scarlet hair cascaded from her head, as if it was caught in a wind. As Violetta watched, and the figure stepping out of the tree became more solid, she realized that what she thought was red hair was really flame dancing in its own wind. Her body was wrapped in something that resembled the gauzy robes, but in her case was fine smoke.
“O Mother of Smoke and Fire, have mercy on me,” the rabbit said, crumpling up into a small ball.
The fiery-haired woman bent over and picked up the rabbit. “You meant so well, my little one, and you knew the news the Brown One brought. Yes, your job is to protect the secret, but your protection doesn’t include restricting who I choose to use to safeguard the secret.”
The rabbit whimpered as the eldritch being placed her on the ground gently. “Rest my child. Contemplate what you have learned here. Go home to the center. It will all become clear there.”
“Yes, Lady,” the rabbit said.
The Lady turned to the hedgehog. “You have been very brave, my child. Accepting the stranger that your brother brought you, in spite of the rules took both mercy and courage, even though you knew of the Brown one’s message and your brother’s role in making them come to fruition. You showed wisdom in how you chose to home her while she needed to sleep, and even more after she awakened. If Elder Mother hadn’t intervened, she would have never known more that she had visited a holy site, and if following your brother’s suggestion to blindfold her on the way out, she would have been unlikely to ever have stumbled into the deeper mysteries.” She bent over the hedgehog and touched it lightly on her head. “Take my blessing, child, for you have earned it.”
“Thank you, my Lady,” the hedgehog said, clearly in the Called’s voice.
The Lady of Smoke and Fire then turned to Violetta. “Yes, the Brown One chose well, I believe.” She looked at her deeply, and Violetta felt like her soul was being bared, examined, judged, but yet found worthy. Her knees felt shaky, and a part of her wanted to curl up and hide, yet a gentle warmth began to fill her, calming her shakes and fears. She knew without saying anything the Lady had found her acceptable.
“Your mind is full with the need to know, to understand, my child. I grant you the boon of asking.”
Violette looked up into the Lady’s eyes, kindly inclined to her, deep, full of power. A gentle smile touched her lips as she waited for the outlander’s questions.
“Who are you, Lady? Are you the Lifegiver? Were you the woman who talked to me while I was being healed?”
“Yes, I kept watch over you while you were in that enchanted sleep. Otherwise, your spirit would have drifted away into the ether, and you would have woken up with no sense of yourself, no Violetta to fill your body. No, I am not the Lifegiver herself, although you could say I contain a small spark of her. The Lifegiver formed me from the need in her heart, called me out of the heat of the desert and the despair of the world, the fire of creation and the smoke of grief and ruin, and perhaps the pain at the path that the world she made had chosen. She made me to be a guardian, and guardian I am. As I was born, she brought me to the deep desert, where she had wrought a star of five points. At the center of it, she hid something so strong and terrible that only she is the one who should wield it. As I watched she raised a mountain and wielded a great weave of spell over it, a tapestry to keep out the prying and the curious.”
“Like no space magics?” Violetta asked.
“Yes. And to keep it even safer, she set me here to guard. And called up the Jinn and Peri to help me. It has worked well until now.”
“You know Halidan Graystone?” Violetta asked. “Where is he?”
“Yes, child. Halidan Graystone came here at great risk to warn us of something dark and awful being planned. Asking my aid, he sent you the message about finding his box just shortly before the one he was afraid of attacked and killed everyone they could find associated with the site. But before that, before they could actually take him, he went somewhere where neither you nor I can go to.”
“Is he...dead?” Violetta asked.
The eldritch woman shook her head, and small bits of fire flew out, cascading like sparks, flickering from light to dark. “Not the way you mean. No, he is...elsewhere. It is a dragonkin thing, and even I cannot follow.”
Violetta chewed on her lip. She had heard of dragonkin fleeing into no space, or getting lost. It was rare, but it happened. “What do you need me to do?”
“Take the box back to Ynys Afel. Do not give the box to your employer. There is a safer harbor. I do not see well in the lands of the Aos Si, but I am told to tell you to return to the roots of your childhood. I will send Xhindi to aid you and be my eyes.”
The Lady rested a hand on Violetta’s head. “Take my blessing with you, too, for what it is worth in the green and cooler world. The Lifegiver guide you.”
Eldritch magic swirled around her, while a light, as bright if not brighter than when she first stepped into the chamber, forcing her to close her eyes. She felt a warmth, almost hot but quite soothing envelop her. Slowly the feeling of light and warmth faded, and Violetta dared to open her eyes, and she was back in the garden, under the tree.
The daisy she had left behind was gone.
“Was it all a dream?” she asked. She looked down, and saw the image of a flame emblazoned on her right hand. It wasn’t there before. She touched it with her left hand. It was warm, feeling a little like the touch of the Lady when she blessed her. “I guess not. Now what?”