The Dragon's Champion (16 page)

“
That,
is Valtuu Temple,” Al said, pointing with his hammer.
“This is where we will wait for Master Lepkin. In the meantime, you have some
studying to do.” Al prodded his horse gently and waved for Erik to follow.

Erik tapped
Goliath’s sides and the mammoth horse lurched forward. He never took his eyes
from the building. As they came closer he could see more detail built into the
walls and the tower. The outside walls were not plain white, as he had thought.
The closer he came the more he could see that the stones used were yellow,
white, gray, and even a few darker stones. At first it seemed as though they
were placed at random, but Erik soon realized that they were placed in a
weaving pattern. It reminded him of a cream colored snake he had seen once. The
effect of the sunlight reflecting off the wall was dazzling, almost blinding in
fact. The large green double doors matched the color of the tile roof above,
but it was not made of wood as Erik had thought. It was made of some kind of
metal, though Erik didn’t know what. It wasn’t copper, he knew that. The green
was too dark, and seemed to be natural, instead of brought on by age as happens
with copper. The doors were studded with round protrusions. They weren’t
spikes, but they weren’t like anything Erik had seen before. They looked almost
like the round tops of black helmets.

“Stop here,” Al
instructed, yanking Erik from his thoughts. The dwarf tossed the guide rope to
Erik for the pack horse and slowly prodded his horse closer to the gate.
“Guardians of the Valtuu Temple, I am Aldehenkaru’hktanah Sit’marihu, brother
to Threntonsirai Sit’marihu, the King of Roegudok Hall. I have brought this boy
by command of Master Lepkin, the Keeper of Secrets. I am here to teach him of
the Ancients, and to prepare him for his duties.”

Erik looked up
to the battlements on the walls, but he saw no one. He looked to the towers,
but again he saw nothing. He wondered if maybe all of the people were inside
eating, or if something had happened to them. There was silence for a long time
after Al had called out and introduced them. Only the wind ripping through the
spaces in the tile of the roof could be heard. Then the door on the right
creaked open, slowly at first, then a little faster as the dust fell from its
surface and it gained momentum. A tall, lean man in white robes came out from
the doorway and held his hand up greeting them.

“Hello, Al,” the
man said.

“Heh, even
they
can’t pronounce my name,” Al snickered under his breath.

“We have been
expecting you. A falcon arrived yesterday from Master Lepkin. He wanted you to
know that he will be leaving Livany tomorrow. He says that he has spoken with
the Lievonian Order and will be making a stop off at Roegudok Hall, to visit
your brother.”

“Headstrong
lubbocks,” Al grumbled. Erik had heard Al try to talk Master Lepkin out of
going to Roegudok Hall before the three of them parted ways, but Master Lepkin
was not one who would easily be dissuaded.

“Perhaps, it
will please you to know that Master Lepkin also informed us of your arrival and
we have prepared everything that you require. I will show you to your quarters,
and then you may begin your studies as soon as you wish.”

“Well, first I’m
gonna need something to eat,” Al said.

The man smiled
and looked at both of them kindly. Erik noticed that the man’s eyes seemed to
be covered by some sort of cloudy film. The color in the orbs was very dull,
almost gray. Erik realized that the man was blind. “Let us go inside,” the man
said. “Please, dismount from your horses and leave them here. They will be
taken to the stables out back and your belongings shall be brought to you.” The
man then turned and walked back through the doorway.

“Horses are
forbidden on the temple grounds,” Al said over his shoulder to Erik. Al hopped
down from his horse and started to walk. Erik did the same.

As he walked
through the doorway he looked up to the enormous tower. The base was made of
gray granite, reaching up a third of the way until it gave way to darker
stones. Windows were evenly spaced along the tower in a vertical column. Erik
assumed that each window marked a new story in the tower as they were
approximately ten feet apart. He noticed that the top third of the tower was
wider than the base of the tower, with wooden porches protruding out and
encircling the structure. He wondered how such a tower could stand. It seemed
to him that a strong wind would take the top-heavy thing down to the dirt
below, but Master Lepkin had told him previously that this temple was thousands
of years old.

A sudden slap to
his gut brought Erik out of his wonder and back to the present.

“Stop gawking
boy, this ain’t a sight-seeing trip,” Al chided. “Get goin.”

Erik quickly
fell back in behind the blind man and tried to maintain pace, though his eyes
didn’t stop feasting on everything around him. He noticed a pair of men
standing on either side of the red, arched door at the base of the tower. Their
heads were shaven, except for a single braid of hair that hung from the back of
their heads and draped over the front of their shoulders. They wore red, loose
fitting suits of silk, with gold buttons up the front. Their shoes were tan
leather. In their hands they held great staff weapons with blades the likes of
which Erik had never seen before fixed at the top of the shaft and wicked
looking flanged steel points on the bottom. Erik looked from the weapon to one
of the guards eyes and noticed that he too had the same silvery film covering
his eyes. Erik was puzzled by this, but he decided he would ask Al about it
later. He didn’t want to get slapped again for not keeping up.

The man in the
white robes opened the red door and walked inside. Erik followed him in and
stopped dead in his tracks, letting Al slam right into him. Al pushed Erik
aside and groused about tall folk being easily impressed and walked on,
following the man in the white robes. Erik paid no mind. He craned his head up
and marveled at the painted scenes above. Great dragons of all colors soared
through the painted clouds and sky. Fireballs and streams of yellow split the
scene as the magnificent beasts battled each other. Erik let his eyes fall down
to the wall and noticed that the scene continued. The walls had scenes of men
fighting each other through a great valley by a blue river. There were wizards
throwing lightning bolts, knights on horseback, spearmen slaying great beasts,
and archers letting loose their arrows. Erik spun around slowly, taking each
inch of the mural in. It was all depicted so realistically. The men painted
were life-size, with the men in the background shrinking to give the illusion
of distance. Erik felt as though he were in the middle of the great valley
himself, watching a moment of history unfold before his very eyes. He looked
back up to the ceiling and noticed that the dragons, too, were painted so that
their size fit in with the battle scene around him. The beasts high in the sky
were smaller, and those that cast their fiery breath at humans from above were
much, much bigger.

Erik turned to
say something to Al, but then realized that the dwarf was gone, and so was the
man in the white robes. All at once he felt uneasy, as though he were inside a
nobleman’s house without permission and rifling through personal items. He
quickly shuffled his feet along the green carpet, which he realized was colored
to fit in with the mural as well. As he quickly left the room he wondered who
had painted it if all of the people here were blind.

The next chamber
was just as large as the entrance area. It also had a completely enclosed mural
painted on every wall and on the ceiling, but it was not a scene of battle.
This room showed the inside of a grand hall with columns of gold holding up
high, vaulted ceilings. The left wall had a throne painted with a dwarf sitting
on it. There was a great gathering of dwarves all around the throne. Sections of
them wore distinct colors on their tunics and held different banners aloft. The
markings of different clans, Erik assumed. Erik looked closely at the dwarf
sitting on the throne and thought the dwarf looked a lot like Al, at least in
the respect that the dwarf also had a ridiculously long beard of red and seemed
to be scowling all the time. Erik looked at the dwarf for a while before
turning to the opposite wall. There he saw another throne, with a man sitting
on it. There were hordes of warriors around the man, all kneeling, but not
looking at the man on the throne. Erik followed the gaze of the men in the
painting to the wall behind him. His jaw hit the floor when he saw a giant leg
painted on either side of the doorway through which he had entered the room.

He backed up and
gaped at the large, golden dragon. Its wings covered the breadth of the entire
wall, and they weren’t even extended. The head of the short necked dragon
reached onto the ceiling, as though he were towering over Erik and looking
right into his eyes. Its arms were extended, the one pointing at the human on
the throne, and the other pointing to the dwarf. The dragon’s mouth was open
and beams of gold were extending from it.

“It is
beautiful, isn’t it,” a man called out from behind. Erik almost tripped over
himself as he tried to turn
around.           

“I’m sorry, I
wasn’t trying to be nosy,” Erik replied quickly. He saw the man in white had
returned, probably to look for him.

“It’s alright,
young lad. I too have spent many hours in this very room, marveling at the
wonder of this moment in time.”

“But, I
thought…” Erik tried to think of how to ask the question without being
offensive.

“That I was
blind?” the man asked with a crooked, knowing smile. Erik nodded his head.
“Come, I will show you to the library. Al is there, eager to begin your
studies. Perhaps we can talk some more another time.”

“Can you answer
one question first?” Erik asked.

“I suppose I can
grant you that,” the man replied.

“There are a lot
of dragons painted on the other room. Here there is only one. He must have been
important. Who was he?” Erik pointed up to the painting.

“His name is
Hiasyntar’Kulai. He is the progenitor of the Ancients,” the man replied.

*****

“Read page four
hundred and ninety-seven, third paragraph down,” Al instructed.

Erik wearily
flipped through the pages. He had been reading for hours already and his vision
was beginning to blur. When he found the page, he traced the words with his
finger until he found the third paragraph. He began reading to himself.

“Read it aloud,”
Al said.

Erik sighed.
“Page four hundred and ninety-seven, third paragraph:
In the days of Nagar
the Black and Tu’luh the Red a great and powerful magic was discovered. The
words of this magic are written in a magical book entitled Nagar’s Secret, and
can not be repeated in any other book. Know only that the magic contained in
Nagar’s Secret has the power to transform all life into dark and sinister
servants of the underworld. Tu’luh and Nagar the Black used this power in an attempt
to control the Middle Kingdom. Many lives were lost, and many dragons turned
from the ways of the Ancients and became vile demons and beasts, devouring the
land and every living thing.”

“Skip to the
first paragraph of the following page,” Al Interrupted.

“
The great
Battle of Hamath Valley was the final chapter in Tu’luh and Nagar’s reign of
darkness. The Ancients, with the help of the armies and wizards of men, were
able to turn back the tides of darkness using the magic of Allun’rha. Nagar and
Tu’luh were slain at Hamath, and during the winter following that battle, the
Ancients hunted the rest of the dark army that had swept across the land like a
plague.”
Erik looked up to Al, who was pacing back and forth in front of
him with his hands clasped behind his back and his head aimed at the red rug on
the floor.

“Go on, I didn’t
tell you to stop,” Al insisted.

Erik looked back
to the book and continued.
“After the dark army was destroyed, the Ancients
took Nagar’s Secret back to a secret temple in the mountains. They tried to
destroy it, but the magic that had created it prevented its destruction. Worse
than this, over time the Ancients realized that the magic within Nagar’s Secret
called out to them, and wormed into their minds with its dark powers. Several
more of the Ancients were twisted by the book and had to be slain in order to
keep the magic from being loosed again.

“After many
years living under the fear of the book’s dark magic, Hiasyntar’Kulai, the
Father of the Ancients, understood what had to be done. He had come to
understand that the book’s magic did not reach out to the minds of men the same
as it called to the minds of dragons. He knew that men would have to guard the
book, as it could not be destroyed and dragons could fall victim to its charms.
He selected from among the human kind a man of great integrity, a man of
strength, character, and an unyielding sense of duty and honor, to become the
Keeper of Secrets.”

“You can stop
there for a second,” Al said. “What have you learned, boy?”

Erik thought for
a moment, rehashing the words he had read over the previous few hours and
combining them with this new passage. “The Ancients are a race of dragons that
were here before the Old Gods. When the first beings appeared in this part of
Terramyr, the Ancients helped watch over them.”

“And who were
the first beings in this part of the world?” Al asked. Erik hated being quizzed
like this, but he had been hungry for answers, and now he was getting his fill
of them.

“Dwarves were
the first beings created by the Old Gods to dwell here. They built Roegudok
Hall and became very close with the Ancients. Then, humans, orcs, goblins, and
elves came as well.”