Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (22 page)

Once the bread and roast
were passed around, I went around the table to serve out the soup to everyone. Having the big pot on the table would mean that no one would be able to talk to each other. Both Rosa and Nia dived right in once I filled their bowls, but I could tell that Maya was doing her best to restrain herself. Once everyone was served, I took my seat, but those who weren’t already eating were looking at me as if I had forgotten something.

“
What? Go ahead and eat everyone.”

Mom was the only one
who seemed to know what was doing on. “Alex, it is a dark elf custom that the one who serves the meal should be the first one who eats. It’s a sign of respect for the service of delivering the food. At least, that’s what three of us are doing; I don’t think your new friends know what to do.”

I looked over at the twins and both of them were trying to use the wrong end of a fork on the soup
. Thankfully, I was able not to laugh at their expense; it was clear to me that they haven’t had much time among humans.

“
Maya, could you please?” I nodded in their direction. She smiled and turned to help them, showing them what everything was for and how to use it. Once they were using a spoon, I finally started to eat. As soon as the soup touched my lips, Maya was downing it as fast as she could. The scene around the room must have been very strange to my parents, so I leaned over to them to explain.

“
I’m sorry for all this. I know we must look like we have no manners. But please understand that all of us are either magical critters, wizards or both, and we all need a lot more food every day than a normal person would.”

“
So that’s why Primus Rosa said to cook for thirty?”

“
Exactly.” Having talked for long enough, I dived into my food. Just like the others, I was starving. Maya finished her first bowl, and with the edge off her hunger, was finally able to talk again.

“
This is really good. It’s been so long that I have almost forgotten what food from the villages tasted like.”

Rosa and Nia both
agreed with her in between mouthfuls of food. The twins also seemed to be enjoying it as well, but from the amount of roast on their plates, I would say that they prefer meat. The meal went on for almost an hour. Well, it went on until we ran out of soup, to be more precise. Everyone was partaking in conversation, and my parents were telling everyone stories from my childhood. Thankfully, they didn’t fully get into the really embarrassing ones. At the end of the meal, Nia was flat on her back groaning from overeating. The twins seemed to be in a similar state; apparently wizards can out-eat dragons, who knew? Dad and Rosa were nodding off in their chairs after way too many bottles of wine. Mom, Maya and I were the only ones who didn’t seem to be in some sort of coma.

“
Well, who wants dessert?”

Groans
came from the twins, but Nia made an effort to sit up, propping herself upright with her tiny arms. “If it’s the blackberry cobbler, then count me in.”

“
Nia, you can barely move.”

“
Yes, but I
can
move, so I obviously haven’t eaten enough yet!”

I helped
Mom dish up cobbler for everyone, well everyone who was awake anyway. I decided to be mean and placed large slices in front of the twins and Nia.

“
I think you’re trying to kill me with food, aren’t you, Mr. Alex? Oh well, I can’t think of a better way to go,” Nia sighed sorrowfully and did her normal great job of eating everything. I still have no idea how she can eat more than three times her body weight at each meal. “This is really good and made with berries found in the forest, not grown on a farm, I can tell,” she moaned.

The twins only managed to finish off ha
lf of their cobbler, promising Mom that it wasn’t that they didn’t like it, but that they had eaten too much as it was. The rest of us who were smart had remembered that there was dessert and had ample room in our bellies to enjoy the best cobbler in the kingdom.

Unfortunately
, once we were all completely stuffed and nearly comatose, it was time to leave, and we still had a long hike ahead of us. Thankfully, both Dad and Rosa woke up before we had to go. Mom said her goodbyes to everyone, breaking into tears. She even gave the twins hugs that they definitely weren’t expecting, but they seemed fascinated by all the touching. Lastly, was Maya and myself; Mom was still crying.

“
I can’t believe we’re doing this again. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were forced to send you away.”

“
Mom, being sent away was the best thing of my life. If I hadn’t been, I would never have met any of my friends, become an enchanter, or worst of all, never have met and fallen in love with Maya.”

Maya pulled me down and kissed me,
wrapping her arms around me. She stopped kissing me but didn’t let me go. “You got that right, Magic Boy. But don’t worry, Mrs. Martin, I’ll keep him safe.”

Dad gave us both a hug
. “Be careful. Reports are coming in that there’s an army of undead on the move out there.”

“
We will, all of us can hold our own in a fight. I will come by again sometime after the tournament is over, but we have to get going or we’ll never get home.”

Everyone said their final goodbyes and we started down the road
. Maya was hooked in my arm and Nia was on my shoulder. Rosa was stumbling along and seemed to be mumbling to herself like she sometimes did after drinking a lot. And the box with all the metal in it was floating along behind all of us. What struck me as odd was that the twins seemed to be having an argument, but neither seemed mad at the other. Suddenly, they walked ahead of us and stopped us. With their heads held low, Dawn was the first to speak.

“
Alex, Maya, please forgive our actions. We had no right to do what we did and we are truly sorry for deceiving you.”

“
What are you talking about?”

“
We lied to both of you. We told you that your real mother was the one who sent us, that was not true. She did save us as we said in our story, but we have already repaid her real price. The reason we told you that was we hoped you would accept us without question if you thought your mother sent us. But after you shared so much with us, we felt that we would never have had to deceive you. In truth, we replaced your real gifts with ourselves.” Dusk bowed and walked off into the forest. “She is going to get them for you. I know that we lied to you, but we never planned to take her gift to you. We would have given them to you as gifts from us. It makes me sick to think of what we were going to do.”

“
But why do this, then?”

“
We are dying. Not the two of us, but all of the metal dragons. There are so few of us left that we have become desperate. We ask, no, we beg you to please help our kind. Soon your true self will be revealed, and your mother said you would be the only one who could save our kind. So please, let us serve you both for the rest of our lives in exchange for sanctuary. Please, we only did this to save the future of our species.”

I looked
at Maya’s reaction next to me. Her face was stern but I could read her eyes much better anyways. And as much as she hates dragons, I could tell she couldn’t let them die either. “What do you think?” I whispered.

But before she responded, Dusk came out of the forest with
two extremely large white horses. They were perfect, completely white, and had more muscles than any horse I’ve ever seen. Dusk led them up to us and let go of the reins. One walked right up to me and one to Maya and then started to nuzzle against us. The shoulders of these two were as tall as I am, and I’m six feet tall. Their heads were almost ten feet in the air! Dusk walked around and stood between us.

“
I am so sorry for what I have done. Any actions you want to take should be made against me, my sister never wanted to go with this plan.”

“
That’s not true and you know it. Punishment belongs to the both of us.”

I looked again to Maya
. “Well?”

She
nodded and stepped forward to the both of them. “We forgive you. And we accept your terms under a few conditions.”

Both dragons about passed out when she said that
. They thought we would kill them for what they did. At the same time, they both wondered what her conditions were.

“
First, obviously, never do anything like that again.”

“
You have our word.”

“
Never again will anything like that happen, we swear.”

“
Second, Alex already has Nia, so you two are with me.” She looked at me for approval, and to be honest, I was going to send them both with her anyways. We all started walking again as we talked.

“
Third, over dinner, I could tell that you two don’t have many life skills so we are going to fix that. From now on, you will be helping Alex and Nia in the kitchen for the morning and evening meal. You will also join Alex everyday for lunch to help with social skills. Any other time, you’re with me. Oh, and one more thing, you two are joining my combat training class! Consider that your punishment.”

I thought all of that was rather fair, seeing that I have Nia do most of that with me as well
. This should be fun to show off two dragons to everyone at lunch. But both Dawn and Dusk were crying. Now I know her combat class is grueling, but to cry over it?

“
You’re forgiving us and letting us learn how to better serve you. There is nothing more that we could ever dream of!”

Of
course, Nia cried as well the first time she came home. She wouldn’t let me out of her sight for those first few days until it really sank in that her life had truly changed for the better. Speaking of Nia, she was tapping me on the ear. “Uh, master, I think Rosa is walking in her sleep.”

Sure enough she was
somehow walking and sleeping at the same time. I have heard that over long trips elves can sometimes do things like that, but I always thought it was a form of meditation. Well, at least we have two strong horses. I picked up Rosa and brought her over to the horse that has been following directly behind me. As soon as I was next to her, she did a sort of bow, lowering her back so that I could lift Rosa in place. Once she was safely on her back, we continued on our trip.

“
They are very well-trained.”

Dawn and Dusk
smiled. “Of course they are; they’re two of your mother’s best warhorses.”

“
Somehow, I have a feeling that there are mounted combat classes in my future.”

Getting through the portal took longer than expected, as Maya
still wasn’t really happy about it. Rosa was no help at all, Nia was passed out in my pocket, and the dragons apparently like getting wet about as much as your average cat. Oddly enough, the horses took the experience stoically as if they were totally used to this sort of transportation. Clearing the portal, it was already fully dark on the Xarparion side and we still had a hike to go. The twins began to limp after a few hundred yards, something that I attributed to their lack of experience with human feet. Also, the slippers that formed with their shape-change clothes were not really hiking friendly, but neither girl complained. After nearly losing Rosa off the back of the mare for the third time, I called a stop and asked Maya to climb up and help keep the elf from toppling over. I called over the stallion, which had been trailing the group almost like a watchful guard dog, and he moved in obediently as if he knew what I wanted. He lowered himself and I lifted a very grateful Dawn and Dusk up onto his broad back. I led the way through the rapidly chilling night air, glancing back at the two dragons. They were riding happily, seemingly not affected at all by the cold, and were whispering animatedly to each other.

Eventually, we
all made it back to the hall in one piece, well almost. Nia had gotten warm in my pocket and had crawled out and resumed sleeping on my shoulder without me knowing, so when I stepped over a log, she fell off. Thankfully, the big stallion right behind me reached down and deftly snatched the bottom of her dress in his huge teeth before she hit the ground. The remainder of the trip was rather fun. The twins really opened up to Maya and me about their lives. Sadly, they haven’t been doing anything exciting recently, or ever, for that matter. They just lived in the deep forest away from everyone, learning to be dragons, until they could defend themselves, and then my mother called.

As we
made our way around the hall grounds, Maya finally realized that something was different as we entered the stables.

“
Um, Alex, since when did we have a stable?”

“
Since this afternoon.”

“
Huh?”

“
You know that this place is probably the most enchanted structure on the planet right? Rosa had hundreds of years with nothing much else to do than place enchantment after enchantment on these walls. After the first couple centuries, the level of magic in the place reached kind of an arcane terminal load, where it became semi-sentient and self-directing. So the hall has the ability, among other things, to change its shape and repurpose internal spaces with just a request from one of us. Over the afternoon and dinner, the two of us added a few new things to the hall. For one, the twins needed a place to stay. We need more room in the rest of the hall and a larger dining room and kitchen. And a stable, among other minor changes. I also added a few things of my own. And yes, we do it with our minds.”