War of the Wisps

Peter rolled onto his back and sat up. Light streamed through the tarp, and he could tell even through his drowsiness that it was about midmorning. He wondered if he’d gotten enough extra sleep to make up for the other night. Even with the bandits thoroughly cowed, Andrew had insisted they move on before trying to rest again. So they’d traveled through the morning, until Jarn’s stomach growled louder than he did and he forced them to dismount so he could hunt.

The new campsite was far less eventful. It was on a hill overlooking a small village. A group of villagers had come up to see what was going on when Jarn had left, but they were satisfied with Andrew’s explanation and left the group alone afterward, with a request that the three keep the dragon away. Andrew took that to mean staying out of the village. So the three waited on the hill that afternoon, until Jarnvaror returned to sleep in the evening.

Peter was just beginning to think it was odd Andrew hadn’t come to wake him up when the tent flap opened, and his brother’s voice came in. “What are you still doing in bed?”

“Getting up,” Peter said.

“Good. I’m getting some breakfast ready. We need to talk about what we’ll be doing when we get to the capitol.”

Peter dressed and followed his brother out of the tent. Anna was sitting next to the fire, watching the pot Andrew was stirring come to a boil. Jarn was still dozing. The dragon lay curled in a semi-circle around the little campsite, his wings tucked into his body. “Morning,” Peter said. Anna smiled to him, and the dragon sighed a response without bothering to open his eyes. “What’s in the pot?”

“Just porridge,” Andrew said. “We don’t want to stay here too long, once we figure out what we’re doing when we arrive.”

“Aren’t we just planning to land at the castle and find the Archmage?” Peter asked.

Andrew shook his head. “We definitely do not want to land inside the castle,” he said. “Even if they’re expecting us, I don’t think the capitol would be too happy about us flying over.”

“Dragon’s don’t live this far from the mountains,” Anna said. “Up in the valley it might be fine. They’re used to the dragons. Here… Better to wait until we have permission to bring him inside with us.”

“Gotcha,” Peter said. “So what about when we arrive?”

“I’ll handle the talking,” Andrew said. “We’ll let the guards know that we were sent to see the Archmage by Lord Richard, and that a message should have arrived before us.”

“What if we beat the bird?” Peter asked.

“I have a duplicate from Lord Richard,” Andrew said.

“So what will the two of us be doing?” Peter asked, gesturing to himself and Anna.

“I’ll be keeping my mouth shut,” Anna said. “I’m there for the Archmage to check on me. I don’t want any other special attention.”

“Right,” Peter said, nodding.

“You should do the same,” Andrew said. “With any luck, we won’t have to meet with anyone other than the Archmage himself.”

“You don’t want to meet the King and Queen?” Peter asked.

“No! I could barely handle meeting our local governor. I don’t think I could handle speaking with the leaders of Grealand. And I don’t want to have to cover for you during the meeting as well.”

Peter only grinned in response.

“He has a point, Peter. Lord Richard was a very relaxed noble. Others are… more uptight. If you forget your manors around them, they may take it personally.”

“I’ll try and keep my mouth shut,” Peter promised.

Andrew nodded. “So, to review, we land outside the city, then follow the guard’s instructions until we are able to meet with the Archmage. Then we do what he says. Got it?”

Peter nodded. “Absolutely! We ready to go?”

“Soon as we eat,” Andrew said.

As Andrew dolled out servings of porridge, Jarnvaror rumbled a question to Peter. “Oh, yeah,” Peter said, facing his friend. “We should get there long before dark today.” The dragon snorted. He raised his head and began stretching. He swung his head over the trio and huffed at them. His breath still had the scent of yesterday’s meal on it. Both Anna and Andrew flinched at the blast of air, but Peter only nodded at the dragon’s questioning gaze. “Oh, good point,” Peter said. He turned to the others. “How will we know we’re getting close to the city from the air?”

“It should be pretty obvious,” Anna said, pulling her eyes away from the dragon. “It’s the only real city built over the River Canyons.”

“The only one?” Peter asked.

Anna nodded. “I saw the map. There are a few villages built around it, but Woadrok covers the whole of several plateaus.”

Peter nodded then looked back to the dragon and explained for him. “You’ll be looking for a big human city. Lots of buildings, covering a bunch of the plateau’s. Those are flat mountains, right?”

“Basically,” Anna replied.

Peter nodded. “Yeah, flat mountains.” Jarn returned the nod, then hissed a final question. “Soon as we’re done eating.” The dragon huffed and laid his head back down. “Yeah, we’ll let you know.” Peter replied.

They hurried through the meal. The food was bland, but filling. When they were done, they packed up the campsite and loaded everything onto the dragon’s saddle. Andrew double checked the map for their location, then had Peter show the dragon the exact direction they should be heading, a little east of southeast. Then they took to the sky.

It took almost no time to reach the River Canyons. From the sky, the eastern horizon looked like dried red dirt. It was an almost flat plain, but with cracks running along it, forming hundreds of segments. It almost looked soft, as if the dirt would crumble if he tried to pick it up. But he knew that each segment was a rocky mountain, cut from the earth by the rivers and streams running in those cracks.

Peter could make out the rivers, too. At least, he could when the sunlight made it into the canyon and reflected off the water. In those places, he could even make out the green of the wilds growing on the banks and up the cliff face. Even the tops of the plateau’s weren’t as dry as their height made it seem. Bright green grass covered a lot of land, and Peter saw the darker green of tree’s growing on some in small groves. Some of the smaller plateaus were just plots of farmland. But even the largest of these settlements was smaller than their home town. Not something that brought the word Capitol to mind.

Peter glanced over his shoulder at the other two. It was difficult to read their expressions with the flight masks on, though Andrew was obviously still watching the landscape rush by beneath them. Anna, though, had her arms crossed and just stared at the saddle in front of her. She seemed almost to be looking through Peter. He leaned back a little, getting her attention. She looked at him, and he shouted, “You okay?” He knew the wind might steel his words, but he made a point of mouthing the phrase as clear as he could.

She didn’t make any response for a moment. Peter was about to shout again, when he saw her first shrug, then give a thumbs up. “I’ll be fine,” she shouted back, mouthing in the same way. Peter grinned and returned the thumbs up.

A few minutes later, Jarn rumbled, and Peter knew he’d spotted the city. He tried scanning the horizon to find it, but it was still a while before he could make out the distant plateau’s covered in grey instead of green and red.

As they got closer, the city came into more detail. It did span three segments of the plain, all large ones, and raised higher than most of their neighbors. A vast system of bridges spanned the canyons between the three parts of the city. In the center of the largest plateau, the castle rose up from among the city like a group of spears. Tall towers roofed in blue slate stretched into the sky, dwarfing every other building within sight. And there were other tall buildings. As they got closer, Peter thought half the buildings must be at least two stories tall. He saw several that may have been three, even. But none of them compared to the castle.

Then Peter felt someone tugging on his arm. He looked back at the other two. Even with the flight masks on, he saw panic in their faces. Andrew was gesturing wildly, pointing off to the edge of the city and shouting into the wind. It took Peter a moment to decipher from his lips “We’re too close!” Peter blinked, look down, and realized that they were indeed over the city. In fact, they were barreling directly towards the castle courtyard. “Jarn!” Peter tried calling. “We’re supposed to land outside the—”

The dragon spread his wings, and the dive slowed as the dragon swooped over the castle walls. With a few more beats of his wings, Jarn set himself down in the courtyard. The dragon turned to look back at his riders. “Yes, I can see we’re here, Jarn,” Peter replied to the dragon. “I thought we said to land outside the city.” Jarn looked a little confused at that, and asked why Peter hadn’t told him that. “Oh. Right.”

“I thought we said to have him land outside the castle!” Andrew said.

“We forgot to tell Jarn about that,” Peter said.

“That’s not we, that’s you!” Andrew said.

“Sorry! I thought he was listening to us this morning.”

“He only understands you,” Anna said.

“Sorry!” Peter managed. “Should we just leave, then?”

“No!” both of the others shouted in unison. Andrew continued. “That would be really bad, now that we’re here.”

“Would it?”

“It would get more attention,” Anna said.

“It would make us look incompetent and suspicious!” Andrew said.

Jarnvaror rumbled, asking what the plan was, and if he should do anything about the group of humans spilling out into the courtyard. A dozen knights in full plate, armed with spears had flooded into the courtyard and spread out around Jarnvaror. They kept their distance, though, which was good, because if they got close enough to make Jarn nervous, he wouldn’t stay no matter what Peter told him.

“Right, um, so I think we’re staying now that we’re here,” Peter told the dragon. “Just… stay calm. We have a letter of introduction.” Jarnvaror snorted, acknowledging the suggestion. Then he pointed out he was a bit more concerned about the spears. He huffed again, looking down, and added something about a child running right up, past the knights. “There’s a kid under you?” Peter asked.

“Child?,” Andrew asked, panic creeping into his voice. “We didn’t land on anyone, did we?”

“No,” Peter said, scanning the ground. “At least I don’t think so.” He spotted a little girl with golden blond hair standing close to the dragon, looking underneath the dragon a little nervously. Another blond figure ran out from under the dragon to her. A boy, about the same height with the same blond hair. They were dressed in fine blue cloths covered in lace and gold trim. He spun around to look up at them face beaming, eyes darting between each of the riders and the dragon.

“Majesty! Your Grace! Please step away from the creature!” One of the knights called. “It isn’t safe!”

“But it’s a dragon!” the boy called back over his shoulder to them. He looked up at Peter and the others again. “I’ve never seen a live one before! You have a dragon! A big old fire breathing DRAGON! How’d you even get him?”

“He’s an old friend of mine,” Peter replied. “I’ve kinda’ grown up with him.”

“Really?” The boy’s eyes bulged and his grin got even wider. “So did you raise him? Or your parents? What was that like?”

“No, no,” Peter said. “I met him when I seven, while I was climbing a mountain.”

“Peter,” Andrew hissed. “I don’t think you should be encouraging this.”

“I’m just answering his questions,” Peter said.

“Sure, but we’re not here for that. Besides, I’m pretty sure that’s—”

“Why don’t you lot come down so we don’t have to keep shouting,” the boy said. He looked back to the knights. “It’s alright,” he told them. “You don’t have to worry about us.”

“That is literally their job,” the girl muttered, her voice low so Peter thought it was only meant for the little boy.

Peter grinned down at the kids and started undoing his saddle straps. Jarn gave him a curious look. “Oh, don’t you worry, either,” Peter said. “I think he likes you.” The dragon’s eyes swung to the boy. The child met his gaze, grin growing wider. A deep chuckle rose from the dragon’s throat. Peter frowned looking at the boy. “What do you mean? He looks nothing like me.”

The boy approached as the riders slid to the ground, followed a few paces behind by the girl. She maintained the lofty air much better, keeping her hands folded before her as she looked up at Jarnvaror. “You said you found him when you were seven?” the boy asked. “Why didn’t he eat you?”

Peter grinned. “They usually don’t eat humans,” Peter said. “Apparently we taste bad. But he was just curious because he could understand me.”

“You can talk to him?” the boy asked. “Like, by speaking dragon?”

“I guess,” Peter answered, shrugging. “I kind of just… know what they’re saying. And they know what I’m saying.”

Here the boy started nodding. “I see. I think Sol has told me and Em about that before. Not with dragons, though. But people who could talk to cats and horses.”

“Beast tongues,” said a little girl walking up behind them. Then the girl took the boy’s arm and whispered in a way she clearly thought he would be unable to hear, “And remember, we’re supposed to call each other by our tittles in front of guests.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the boy muttered in the same whisper. “I guess we’ve got to go through the formalities as well.”

“Mother will be very cross if we don’t.” Watching the exchange, Peter saw both children had pointed ears through the strands of their yellow hair. Not too long, but sharp like a cat’s ears.

“Oh.” Peter said. “You must be King Henry and Queen Emily.” He heard Andrew almost whimper behind him.

The boy grinned up at him. “It’s a bit stuffy sometimes.” He took a step back and then began speaking in a louder voice. “My sister the queen and I welcome you to Castle Greal, um… Dragon riders. We’ve received Lord Ironhill’s message, and are eager to learn more about your journey thusfar.”

“That’s enough! Enough of all this!” came a woman’s voice from inside the castle. The door to the palace opened, and a woman stormed out, followed by half a dozen attendants. She wore a dress that seemed to be a much louder version of the one the young queen wore, with matching hair done up in a knot of braids. Most of her attendants wore blue and gold livery, save for one tall thin man with very pointed ears, who wore red.

The woman immediately placed herself between the child rulers and the travelers. She glared up at the dragon, then looked to all three riders. She spent almost no time at all examining Peter and Anna before her gaze settled on Andrew. “Are you in charge of this… trespass?”

“I suppose,” Andrew began. “We didn’t mean to land at the castle. The dragon mis-“

“I don’t care what you meant to do! Why are you here now?”

“Please calm down, your Highness,” said one of the servants. “His Majesty and Her Grace are both unharmed, and the beast seems rather docile.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” said the red robed Elf. “He’s looking at all of us very attentively.” He met the dragon’s gaze with his own. Then he examined the three riders. He returned Peter’s grin, before looking to Anna and Andrew. Then his gaze returned to the noblewoman. “Not that I think you have anything to worry about,” he added.

“Nevermind what the beast is thinking!” the woman said. “I want to know why these intruders are here!”

“But Mother,” the young king said, tugging at her dress for her attention.

“Not now Henry!” the woman said. “Get inside and let me deal with this.”

“Mother,” the queen began. “We already—”

“Enough from both of you!” the woman shouted. “No titles in this world will ever let you talk back to your mother! Especially at your age! Now, go inside!”

The king’s face went red. His brow furrowed and his jaw worked, but he said nothing, turning to go. His sister followed, a stony face belying her look of composure.

“Your Highness,” the first servant said, stepping forward.

“Not now, Daniel,” the woman said.

“Aunt Thalia,” the servant cut in, exasperation creeping into his voice. The woman’s face turned as red as her son’s had as she turned to look at the servant. “I believe what Her Grace was trying to say is that we’ve already received word of this group. The letter from Lord Ironhill earlier this morning?” he added

“Quite right,” the Elf said. “Ironhill did say they would be coming on a dragon.”

“We got a letter from old Richard this morning?” the woman said. She settled a bit, looking between the two. She looked at the group of other servants. “Did you all know about this?” she asked. There were mixed responses as some shrugged, a few denied it, though one pointed out she’d been present when the letter arrived, though she’d been lecturing one of the other servants at the time.

“That sounds familiar,” the Elf said.

“Don’t you start with me, Sol,” the woman said. “And just because we were told they were coming—” she paused and spun to address the dragon riders. “Just because we were told you were coming does not give you any right to land in our courtyard!”

“It’s okay, Mother!” the King called from inside the castle doorway. “I was hoping to see the dragon up close, anyway.”

“Not now!” the woman called. Then she jabbed a finger at Andrew. “So. Explain yourselves!” Andrew stared down the woman’s finger. “We… Um… We’re here to meet with the Archmage about—”

“Why are you in my courtyard!” the woman interrupted.

“There was a bit of a miscommunication with the dragon,” Peter said.

“Miscommunication?” the woman said. “How?”

“We thought the dragon was aware we were not supposed to land inside city limits anymore,” Andrew cut in before Peter could answer. “We were mistaken about that, and giving instructions midflight is difficult.”

“It’s just a matter of training and the right hands on the… where are the beast’s reigns?”

“He doesn’t need them,” Peter said. “Didn’t need training, either.”

“Peter!” Andrew snapped.

The woman’s jaw hung loose as she stared between Peter and Jarnvaror, and she took a step away from the two of them.

“Your highness,” the servant Daniel said, stepping in. “Why don’t you go lay down and let Sol and I handle this. I’ll make sure the dragon doesn’t stay here too long. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing at all,” the Elf agreed. “Besides. They’re here to see me. You just leave it all to us.” The elf glanced over his shoulder. He had dark rings around his eyes. But there was something almost predatory about his grin, and the glint in his eye. Then he realized the Elf’s gaze was focused on Anna. Suddenly he felt very sorry for his new friend.