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Chapter 52

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Hours earlier...

Mavis was furious. She stomped dramatically and kicked at pine cones as she traveled on the trail. She realized that punting pine cones with these thin but pretty shoes hurt her toes. That even made her angrier. Here, she thought that she had made so much progress. While searching for Firestorm up on the mountain, she had pontificated to her newly bonded dragon, Mo-Rung, about her recently obtained maturity. Almost dying had changed her, she had said. Now, it all had come flying back in her face."

"Do you even know what love means?" Mo-Rung had asked her as she had ridden on his back"

"I used to think love was about emotional passion, but now I think that love might be putting the welfare of someone else above your own." she had answered.

So cocky. So sure. Loving someone like that was incredibly hard work! She felt so incredibly stupid. Despite being bonded and supposedly immune to Lothinar's pheromones, she instead had fallen for Lothinar's other charms. Candasar had warned her not to spend time with him. She had never intended to. Yet she had been drawn in. She had only watched as Lothinar showed emotional kindness and tenderness to Ronniflass. A woman who had just practically kidnapped him! He had let her off the hook for her behavior because he knew she had fallen under the sway of his pheromones.

Mavis had merely been a spectator to the conversation. Yet somehow, it had inflamed her with jealousy, and if she had to admit it, probably a little lust as well. She had fled, embarrassed at losing control and fearful of what she might find herself saying or even trying to do with Lothinar. Not that Ronniflass would have let her!

Continuing to try and maintain a little discretion, she had come down the mountain she had run right into Cantrell. Someone that she had once thought she had feelings for. Someone who had proved that he was more than able to satisfy her physical and emotional needs. Yet, she had brushed him off. He had been so polite yet firm and unyielding. He had asked her questions that made her face her own hypocrisy. Yet even while doing that he had maintained the integrity of keeping secrets from her that were not his to share. In spite of her putting pressure on him to the contrary. She had been raised a privileged royal princess. She didn't like people calling her on her behavior or saying no to her one bit! She suddenly realized that she was still very spoiled.

She found herself smiling and then laughing at her own emotional antics. Her own entitlement and hubris were the target of a strange inner scorn. The fact that she could see herself from an external perspective was new. Being bonded certainly brought a lot of change. The thoughts and feelings of another being lived and spoke right inside your head. She realized that she not only had Mo-Rung's' very sharp and long-lived perspective with her, but distantly, like a strange echo of a faraway sound, she could still feel Aleena's influences. It felt like a warm blanket of tenderness and motherly wisdom.

That sudden realization brought Mavis a great swell of happiness. Some part of Aleena still lived inside her. The way that the blue water dragon had poured her life force into Mavis's dying body, buying her time, probably had something to do with it. What was the blue dragon trying to tell her by making that sacrifice? Had Aleena somehow adopted Mavis as if she considered her as one of her own children?

She considered Cantrell again. His reluctance to bond with a dragon. He was missing out on so much. She had never realized that relationships could be so very difficult. She had to admit thaCantrell's's way of approaching life had encouraged her to try to be a better person. She continued her walk and thought about it some more. Eventually she had to confess to herself that she really wanted more out of a relationship than swooning over anyone. She continued her walk, now with far less angry stomping, and it soon became a bit of pleasant exercise as she walked through the pine-scented hills and down towards the lake.

Being raised in Argent's court by nursemaids and ladies-in-waiting left Mavis without knowing her mother well. It was the way the paranoid, mentally unstable elf that she had always assumed to be her father insisted that it should be. He did not want outside influences to have undue sway over his progeny. That was especially true with the male children. Mandel must have had it much worse. It was such an impersonal upbringing. Mavis suddenly realized that it would have been very helpful to her to have had someone to ask questions about life and love. She had never had anyone willing to risk growing close to her due to her father's cruel instructions. Aleena bonding with her was probably the first time she had felt that she had a real friend.

There were so many questions" "How does Ardwella cope with having a husband that isn't' bonded"?" Mavis wondered" "What does it feel like watching him growing older? What will she do when he dies?" Even though they didn't look like it, Mavis was suddenly struck with how incredibly old not only Ardwella but Siophra really were" "Could she have been married before"?"

Lothinar sure grew up lucky"," she thought to herself. Good parents like Albarad and Ardwella raised him in a loving home. Now that she had found out that Argent wasn't her real father, it gave her hope that somehow, whoever he was, her father could be found and become a part of her life. She was going to make it a goal to track him down. Her mother was just going to have to come clean with her about who he really was.

Just as she was about to open her front door to go inside, she suddenly stopped. Her face clouded up in confusion. Could she have been that self-absorbed? Shdidn't't know how she had never noticed it. There were definite differences, but Ardwella looked far too much like her mother. Coincidences like that just don't happen. How could she have missed it? Could Ardwella be related to her mother?"

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Tundor woke up on the ground right where he had passed out. The big blue dragon had moved off a short distance but was looking at him curiously"

"How are you feeling," she asked. Her voice was a strangely alluring feminine basso"

"Ug"." he groaned" "That was terrible"!" He rose unsteadily to his feet and walked around a bit to shake it off.

The blue dragon chuckled a little, but it still rattled the pebbles on the ground near his feet"

"I warned you. Getting un-bonded is terrible. If it makes you feel better, I took a pretty good look inside your soul while you were unconscious. I can happily verify that you are clear of all Ardwynn's mental manipulation." That's a strange way to put it." He said. But now, deep in his soul, he realized that his connection to Ardwynn was gone. It was a big relief.

"Bonding with an elf changes you in ways you probably can't really understand," said Vanquish. "They don't tell you that. Or at least they never told me before it was done to me. Then, once it happens, you are changed, so you kind of lose the perspective of who you were before because the new you is now the one doing the evaluation. It gets complicated."

"I think that I got some bad information somewhere along the way...or rather no information."

"Who did you expect to warn you? Esmarilla? She belongs to Ardwella."

"You really do mean' 'belongs to', don't you," said Tundor. "I was led to believe it was more of a partnership. You make it sound like slavery. By the way, you seem to know a great deal about me."

I have to admit I was curious about where you came from and how you got into this situation, so I took a good, long look."

"What do you mean?" asked Tundor growing a little nervous. He wasn't sure he was happy about Vanquish reading his memories like a book"

”I know your story Tundor. It is the price that I have charged for your freedom from your elvish slave masters. Considering that your slave master would soon have been the evil elf Argent, I think that the price was more than fair. What I did was magically complex. It was blue dragon magic. Esmarilla couldn't have completely removed your bond, in case you were wondering about that. She could only have switched your bond to another elf. You probably would have had to accept someone Ardwella chose for you. Only a free blue dragon could have completely liberated you. It must be your lucky day!"

The big blue dragon laughed, but it was filled with bitterness. It shook the entire area. A few ceiling tiles that had not initially fallen, when she broke through the wall, clattered in the courtyard"

”And what do you think now? Now that you have seen that Ardwynn was able to make you do such unpleasant things. Did you feel like her equal partner? I saw what you were forced to do to Mavis",” The huge blue dragon said with a malevolent growl."

"I didn't want to do that! You must have seen that in my memories."

"Of course I did. I just bring it up to remind you what a bound dragon can be made to do. How far against their own free will they can be pushed!"

"But not all elves take over their dragons will. Candasar is bonded with a good one!"

"From your memories, I can tell that he is better than most. Why do you think that is?"

"Ardwella made him special?"

"That is probably the case. Although, in many other ways, he seems ill-equipped. He is certainly a tool for a purpose. He seems to lack a sense of self-preservation, and that makes him vulnerable to exploitation. Perhaps that, too, was by design. Ardwella has been on a mission to bring back the dragons. I have to give her credit for that, at least. Her plans and motives, though, are harder to explain...Perhaps that is a conversation for late"."

That gave Tundor something to think about.

Vanquish then changed the subject"

"I was able to see a lot while I took the bond of the elf called Ardwynn out of you. She is a bad one, Tundor. You are fortunate that she is gone. All of her. It took a little bit longer, but I felt it was my duty. If you had bonded someone else, another kinder elf, it might have been less harmful to leave traces of them behind...but you, more than anyone, must realize that carrying bits of her around with you for the rest of your life would probably not be good for you. Just breaking the bond does not always undo the changes"

"Thank you! Now that you mention it, I do feel better!" said Tundor" "I was so angry! I had started to get used to it, I think... I had no idea what I was doing when I bonded. I just got caught up in what some of my friends seemed to think was expected of me" "

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Vanquish sighed. It was deep and slow. Her breath was warm"

"It does have benefits, but you can lose yourself. So can the elf, for that matter. Ardwynn was strong, and you are still very. young. She took advantage. She was able to completely take control. That had to be very unpleasant." said Vanquish"

"It didn't happen immediately, but as she came back to her original self, it was terrifying," said Tundor. You must have been able to see, then, that she was going to force me to bond with Argent."

"That would have been extremely unpleasant. Mandel was right to bring you to me. We can never allow Argent access to a dragon. Ever. His path was never a good one, but now with what he has done by consuming so many of our unborn young, he has become more than a monster. He has been insane for hundreds of years. Even his own advisors know this."

"Why don't they do something?"

"He is too powerful at this point. don't't think he actually could be killed by any physical means. I have heard rumors of his experiments. Actually, cutting body parts off one of his prisoners to test the limits of dragon magic healing on elves. I heard that removing the head of the victim was not enough to kill her. Dragon healing magic can be that powerful, especially in the white dragon."

"You're talking about Siophra!" whispered Tundor.

"Yes, I was glad to hear that she had finally escaped."

"Argent has spent hundreds of years feeding a reservoir of dragon magic by consuming the magic-infused eggs of dragons. We can't possibly fathom his limits. Our only hope has been recently, when the egg supply was reduced. If he doesn't get them, his great age will eventually catch up to him, and he will die. It will hasten his demise if we can drain off some of his power by drawing him into a fight, but there is certainly the risk of getting ourselves killed."

Vanquish paused, then continued" "Now that we have foiled his plan to bond with you, he will move rapidly against the water dragon revolt. We must reinforce them to prevent him from getting control of the lake and the eggs again."

Tundor looked about." "You said that Mandel Is the name of the elf that brought me to you"?" asked Tundor" "He had told me his name was Clark!"

"More stealth and misdirection, I'm afraid." He was actually very afraid that Ardwynn was still able to communicate with you. He couldn't really afford to take the chance of giving you his real name"."

"I kind of thought he might be bonded to you."

The big dragon laughed again. "He's just a child!" No, I am not bonded. Well, I was, but I have not been for several hundred years. I wanted my freedom, and actually, so did my old bond. We parted amicably and are actually still very good friends. Mandel is her son."

"You broke your bond with your elf, just like you did for me!" said Tundor, suddenly putting the pieces together"

"Yes. It was not done as a rushed emergency, and therefore, it was not as painful."

You are very large. Um, actually, it is extremely large. I have seen Vanador and Esmarilla. I thought they were full grown."

"I forget that you have no basis for comparison with the dragons you have seen with the dragons of old. Before ending the bond, I was about Esmarilla's size, but my energies now are entirely my own. I do not have an elf that I am sharing them with. She has begun to age normally again. A bond takes a lot out of a dragon. I have grown substantially since ending it. Also, I am a blue dragon. We tend to be large."

"I know a blue dragon. Her name is Candasar. She is my mate."

"I also saw this in your memories. She has a compelling story. She is also very brave. She is fortunate that Lothinar is much more likely to be a good partner to her than your bond was."

Tundor liked Lothinar. He was glad his feelings were not wrong about that"

"Where is Mandel now?" Tundor asked.

He's in the temple there behind us. The one with the roof about to come down."

"Yes, observed Tundor. I hope it does not fall and smash him. It looks a little quite dangerous at this point."

"He doesn't come to see me very often. Almost never, in fact. This place is a long way from the capital without a dragon to ride. Also, until very recently, he has had many other responsibilities as Argent's youngest general. His actions have subverted Argent's orders and delayed the attack on the lake. You probably owe him your life in more ways than one." Said Vanquish" "But don't feel too obligated. I am certainly not asking you to bond with him! If I had to guess, rescuing you was on his agenda because he actually hoped to hitch a ride out here."

Tundor pondered this. It kind of disappointed him that Clark, no... Mandel had rescued him for less than completely altruistic reasons. Well, for whatever reason, he had done it, and Tundor still appreciated it. If he hadn't, his morning would have gone quite differently"

"I don't think I am going to rush into another bond. If I ever bond again."

"I can't say that I'm surprised to hear that," said Vanquish.

Mandel is also kind of a history buff. He seemed convinced that there was some weapon hidden inside the cathedral behind us somewhere that he wanted to try and find before the roof fell down. I told him it was probably just a rumor and that I had been staying in there for years... Of course, can't fit into many of the small places that he can.

Vanquish rumbled again. "He's probably almost done with his search. You were out for a while. He has to give up soon."

"What do you think is going to happen to Ardwyn"?"

"Do you care?"

Tundor did a dragon shrug. "Ardwynn's probably in a great deal of trouble." She has blown the best chance the emperor has had of getting a dragon, let alone a white one since this whole business started. I don't think it's going to go well for her."

The big blue dragon moved away a bit and snaked her head behind an outbuilding. She pulled out the carcass of a cow. She reached back again and pulled out a large bull"

"Are you hungry?" While you were out, I flew out and got these two. There were some humans raising cattle in the area before I burned it up and knocked it down. I let the cattle run free. They still occupy the nearby area. I don't feed from them every day as I don't want them to go extinct here, but I did today because it's so very convenient. I brought you one. I'm sure you must be hungry."

"That's very kind"!" said Tundor. "It's not every day I see one of our kind. I'm especially pleased that we have stolen a prize away from Argent. I'm considering it a celebration feast." said Vanquish.

Tundor blushed a little at being called a prize. The two dragons quickly began eating their meals. It was still very fresh"

"How long was I actually out"?" he asked as they finished" "I was hungrier than I realized."

"I worked on you for about three hours. You were unconscious for a couple of more. You got here at dawn. It's still early afternoon."

Tundor squinted at the sun. It looked consistent with what she had said. He had another thought"

"Why is Argent so intent on a white dragon?"

"Since the beginning, there has always been something very wrong with him. A mental congenital birth defect. A hereditary based insanity. The wrong combination of elven genes. They are probably from the royal family, historically inbreeding with each other so much. I'm not an elf, so I don't completely understand their inner workings. I think he even realized that he had some problems himself when he was young and slightly less insane.

The prevailing thought of Argent's family at the time was that bonding with a white dragon would help balance that out. Possibly heal him. He wanted Vanador from the very first. Now I think that it's just stubbornness. People in his position don't like being told no. He couldn't get Vanador, so he decided to try to get you."

"This is starting to make sense"," he said" "Did the Emperor plan for me to hatch and not be taken away in the egg, or was that an accident? Was my mother in on this?"

"You have to remember that there are factions even within the Emperor's government and that Argent himself is neither sane nor completely in control. I think your egg not being harvested and your eventual hatching was initially just a mistake on the part of Ardwynn's mother Ulaire. Your mother probably had the best of intentions.

Eventually, when Ulaire saw what had happened, She and the emperor started making plans to see if they could get control of you. They needed you to bond with someone in his family. Someone must have had inside knowledge about Lothinar's genetic changes. They are unique and hard to duplicate. Ardwynn was sent in on a deep. long-term undercover mission. She needed to find a way to make herself acceptable for bonding."

"That seems like a big gamble. She initially turned me down when I suggested that she bond with me," said Tundor. "I'm struggling to understand why Ardwella didn't say something!"

"Well, it should be pretty obvious to you by now that Ardwella is severely compromised"," said Vanquish" "We are going to have to figure out a way to deal with that very soon. My understanding is that she is either already in the elven capital or will be on the way shortly. She will be meeting with Argent's right-hand man, Talmadge, but I don't think he really has Argent's interests at heart. He's been playing both sides for his own reasons. I personally think he wants to be the next emperor. He has held my old bond Muina hostage to keep Ardwella in line ever since, just after the twins were born"

"Muina?" asked Tundor"

"Yes, Ardwella's twin sister. Mavis and Mandel are her children. Albarad is their father."

Tundor just stared at Vanquish for almost a minute. His head was spinning. No wonder Mandel looked so much like Lothinar"

"And I just killed Mavis under Ardwynn's command. Does Mandel know about that?"

"No, he doesn't, and don't recommend that you tell him. I will deal with Mandel and Muina. I will explain what happened. They will blame Ardwynn as I do."

"Does Ardwella know that her husband Alberad fathered her sister's children?" asked Tundor. "

"Of course. She set the whole thing up."

Tundor was denied a reply to this because suddenly Mandel came running out of the ruined building. He was waving a rune-covered red sword. It gleamed brightly, augmented by the red afternoon sun"

"I found it. The old stories were right. I told you it was still in there!" He shouted" "I found Crimson! My mother's sword!"

"Well, that's going to complicate things," Vanquish sent telepathically so that only Tundor could hear her. "I thought I had hidden that cursed thing better than that."

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“Even unconscious, Ardwella could tell when it happened. She didn't know how Siophra had accomplished it, but she had done the impossible. She did what Ardwella, under Talmadge's compulsions, could never have done. She had killed the Grand Chamberlin. She had felt Talmadge die. Her mind was free. She felt the strange compulsions and power he had placed on her fade. It was safe to wake up. She sent the all-clear to Esmarilla, and the dragon began channeling power, and Ardwella allowed healing to flow to the area in the back of her head. A half-hour later, she opened her eyes. Starett was looking down at her. The young man looked very concerned.

"I'm so glad that you finally woke up. Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Where am I?"

"You are in the temple. One of the anterooms."

"Ardwella observed that the young priest had a swollen lip, and his hair looked a little burned."

"What happened to you, Starett?"

Another man stepped into the room"

"Ardwella, this is King Enderlin." said the priest"

"Your Majesty, I apologize for not greeting you formally and appropriately! What can I do for you?"

The King grimaced" "You can start by telling us the truth about how you were actually injured."

Ardwella was surprised at the tone of the question.

"I must have been struck from behind. I assume it was my sister Siophra. We had just had an argument. She didn't like something I told her."

"Why, then, did she flee with her dragon?" asked the King" "Starett tells me that Siophra was under Argent's influence for a very long time. He also said that her sudden appearance here was somewhat mysterious. I have found myself wondering if she might have been turned and allowed to escape from prison to act as a spy for Argent. That she might have been working in tandem with your husband to undermine our efforts her"."That's just not possible!" she said.

"If that is true, then no doubt you will be able to convince your husband to turn himself in." Said Starett.

"What? Albarad? What has he done?"

"He attacked me, the king, and his entourage. The queen is severely injured. Somehow, he has taken over control of the black dragon."

"That doesn't sound like Albarad at all!"

"I have issued a warrant out for his arrest," said Enderline" "Until he turns himself in, I'm afraid you are not going anywhere. I'm afraid you must remain my hostage."

"Esmarilla! What is going on?"

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Vanessa was getting tired of this. She was too young to be tied down to a nest. Her parents had been trying to gain favor with Candasar by volunteering to watch over Aleena's nest. Now they were not around, seemingly having better things to do. Their father, Mo-Rung, seemed too preoccupied with other matters to sit here long. Such irresponsibility! Maybe they were all punishing her for accidentally betraying the secret of oTundor's existence. Surely, that wasn't entirely her fault.

Suddenly there was a cracking sound. She jumped straight up off the nest, lost her balance, and fell into the water. Pivoting around she could see, in the exact place that she had been sitting a large crack in one of the eggs. Had she accidentally broken it? She didn't think so. Another cracking noise came soon after the first. This time, she watched in fascination as the pair of large eggs shifted and wobbled.

Soon a little white head was poking out of one of them. Then another crack. The second egg split apart, revealing a black-crowned little dragon face. Both little dragons eventually shook off the shells, revealing legs and vestigial wings. Aleena had done it! thought Vanessa. She had laid a black and a white pair of dragons. They looked at her expectantly. They seemed to be asking for food. Vanessa started to panic. All she could probably get was some fish. She was going to be at this all day!

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