War of the Wisps

The flight to Prohr took three days. Anna was worried about Peter, but the boy was unphased by his wounded legs. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the excuse to sit around whenever they stopped to make camp. Andrew wouldn’t let him idle, of course, so Peter made most of their meals. These were… edible. Peter seemed to understand that he knew nothing about seasoning food. So he just boiled their rations and added salt. Still Anna was glad when she saw the port city appear over the horizon. Even they couldn’t make something that tasted more like seawater.

Prohr spread out along the coastline. Where the city met the water, piers stretched into the sea. Fleets of merchant and fishing ships were docked in the harbor. More were sailing out from the city or just returning. They were all different sizes, from little skiffs to massive galleons. From so far a way, the small boats looked only like dark dots at the head of white water. The larger ones looked like toys, and Anna knew those would be larger than most buildings. Even Jarnvaror could fit snuggly on one of their decks, she thought.

The city hardly seemed large enough to support so many ships. Buildings and roads sprawled up from the beaches and piers without any real sense of order. As Anna looked, she changed her mind. There were several patterns. Each neighborhood of streets and buildings seemed to follow a rigid pattern until they clashed with their neighbors. She thought the pattern made the city look more chaotic than it would have if everything had been random.

Most of the city was contained within a set of two walls. One was a ring, circling Prohr’s central district. The other was built like a wide U spanning from one end of the docks to the other. Still, the city seemed to spill out of the second wall, especially to the south and east, where hamlets had sprung up along the major roads. The closest had merged together with the city, but from here, Anna could still see the farms farther out that gave the city most of its produce.

Anna felt her stomach lurch as the dragon dipped into a dive. Wind rushed past until the dragon pulled up again, and they touched down almost two hundred meters from the wall northeast of the city. “Peter, could you please tell us before you have the dragon land?” she asked.

Peter grinned back at her. “I would, but you can’t hear me up there.”

“Hand signals work, too,” Andrew muttered. “At least we didn’t land right inside the city for once.”

“Hey, we landed outside of Kalligair,” Peter said.

“By five meters. If that,” Andrew shot back.

Anna undid the straps on her legs and slid out of the saddle. She pulled her pack around and began rummaging through it. “They did send a letter ahead of us this time. Assuming we didn’t beat it, they probably would be alright with us landing closer to the castle. We need to go their anyway to talk with Lord Mac’Fureigh.”

Andrew landed on the ground next to her. “And if we did beat the message?” He asked, nodding toward the city. Anna looked over her shoulder and saw a group of mounted soldiers riding out of the gates and turning to head toward them.

“Then we introduce ourselves,” Anna said.

Behind her, she heard Peter say to the dragon. “No, Jarn, that’s just the welcoming committee again... Because you’re so popular of course.”

“Does he even understand sarcasm?” Anna asked up at Peter.

Both brothers replied, “Yes.” Anna raised an eyebrow at Andrew, and the older boy explained, “That was one of the first questions I asked.”

“I didn’t even need to teach it to him,” Peter called down.

“How do dragons learn sarcasm?” Anna muttered to herself. Then the approaching horsemen drew her attention. It occurred to her that even if they saw Anna and Andrew on the ground they may just lower their lances anyway to run off the dragon. She wondered if the two of them would be able to dodge out of the way in time.

There was no reason to worry, though. As the warriors drew closer, Anna heard one of them shout for the group to raise their lances and fan out. The horsemen formed a semicircle around the dragon. A warrior in gilded armor trotted his horse a little closer than the rest and dismounted. “Who are you?” He asked.

Andrew cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Word was sent ahead from Woadrok, but it looks as though we’ve beaten it again.” He reached into his bag and produced the letter of introduction Daniel had given them. He presented it to the knight, who took it and read it.

“You are here about the pirates?” He asked.

“The Wisps,” Andrew clarified. “Though, we understand that pirates are using the them.”

The knight nodded. “Lord Mac’Fureigh will want to speak with you. Come with me.”

“Even us?” Peter asked, patting Jarnvaror’s shoulder. The knight looked back, and seemed to see Peter for the first time. His face darkened.

“Children,” he muttered. “They send us an envoy of children.”

“Hey” Anna found her self saying. “I’m a Dwarf, not a child! And he’s the only one who can control the dragon. So—”

“Calm down,” Andrew hissed.

The knight shook his head. “No matter,” the knight said. “Fine. Bring the beast. But this girl had better be right that you can keep him under control.”

“Will do,” Peter said. “Jarn! They’re leading us to the city lord. Let’s go.”

The ride into the city made for a spectacle. Anna and Andrew had remounted Jarnvaror, who followed the Knights to the city on foot. The gate was too small for him, though. Rather than take to the air, he climbed up the wall and pulled himself over with his wings, like a bat, before slinking down to the streets, still following the line of horsemen. Anna could tell Andrew had gone ridged in the saddle behind her. She could feel her own face burning as crowds of people stared at the group as they passed by.

“Maybe next time we should just land in the castle,” Anna managed. Neither of the brothers replied.

After enduring the attention of the entire city and climbing over the second wall around the center of town, they came to the entrance to the castle. The knight told the trio to wait with the dragon while he brought news to the lord. It didn’t take him long to return, followed by a red faced, dark haired nobleman.

Lord Mac’Fureigh walked right up to Jarnvaror, examining the dragon and riders for the better part of a minute without saying anything. Then he said, “All of you, dismount.” They did. The man frowned at Peter, seeing him take up his crutches as he slid down. “This cripple is the only one who can control this beast?”

“Oh, I hope I’m not crippled,” Peter replied, though the question had been addressed to the knight commander. “But the last mage we dealt with was probably hoping for that, at least.”

The lord grunted, with something almost resembling respect in his face. Then he turned to Andrew. “And you speak for the group, then?”

“Yes, my lord.” Andrew said, bowing a little.

“Very well, then,” Mac’Fureigh said. “You’re here for Wisps, if I heard from my men correctly. The Pirates’, or any?”

Andrew blinked. “In general, we’re looking for any. We only knew about the Pirates’ though.”

Lord Mac’Fureigh nodded. “Sounds about right. Well, for all we know, all the Wisps around right now are theirs.”

“What exactly are they doing?” Andrew asked.

“The same thing as always, just with more magic,” Mac’Fureigh replied. “They raid trade vessels that are on their way in or out from the city, and some of the surrounding villages, too. They started using those little glowing orbs about a month back to keep our patrols from interfering. Whenever the men get close, a bunch of those little things fly out, and then no one can focus.”

“What about the others?” Anna asked.

The lord grunted again. “Some fishermen have reported seeing more of those yellow lights along the coast. Don’t know if they belong to the pirates or not, though. My sailors don’t want to get close to them.”

“We’re all about getting close to them,” Peter said.

The nobleman turned his eyes on Peter. “I should hope so. That letter of yours says you lot are the only help I’m getting from the Scepters on this.” He turned back to Andrew. “You ready for that?”

Anna could see Andrew was shaking. “We’ll help however we can,” the young man replied.

“Good,” the lord said. “You can start by confirming for us if these loose Wisps are related to the pirates or not.”

“How do we do that?” Andrew asked.

“How should I know,” the lord said, turning away. “You are the experts on these creatures. And, as your friend pointed out, you are all about getting close with them. Get close. Chase them off. Destroy them. I don’t really care. Just make sure they aren’t around to surprise us when we deal with the main threat.”

“Our goal is to help free the Wisps, not destroy them,” Anna said.

The Lord turned back to look at her. “Then do that,” he said. “And let me know when it’s done.” With that, he disappeared inside the castle.