WinterMaejic (17 page)

The king calls for me now, and I must attend. Having lost one dragon, he fears that our power dwindles. Imbecile! Truly he is unworthy of his title “Absolute Monarch.” And yet, maybe I should not be so quick to fault him. He himself has no power and cannot comprehend how it works. I shudder to think what he would be like if he did have power.

Perhaps I shall distract him with a game of Talisman and Queen. Perhaps I shall even let him win.

Ipicked up the staff and rose to my feet, wary for Anazian’s reappearance. I closed my eyes and opened my internal senses. There. The life vibration of the forest flowed through me, welcoming me as a long-lost friend. And without a trace of negative energy. The joy of once again experiencing the maejic almost hurt. I could even feel the subtle consciousness of the sleeping dragon. How would I ever be able to explain everything to Yallick?

Yallick! Oleeda and Traz! I whirled around and ran back into the cave. I dropped Traz’s staff and pushed it aside with my foot, then scooped up an armful of wood and threw it onto the fire. I examined all three of them and found them wan and grey. Their breathing grew more shallow every minute. Time was running out.

I tried to think. How could I ever hope to counter another of Anazian’s spells? Frustration threatened yet again to overwhelm me.

Yallick’s head moved ever so slightly, and he let out a long ragged breath. And didn’t take another.

I couldn’t just let them die! It was unthinkable that Anazian should have the last word.

Herbs. There had to be something that would help. A large sack lay next to Oleeda’s pallet. I wrestled for only a second with the propriety of rummaging through her things without permission. Inside, I found packet after packet of dried herbs—some for strengthening, some for healing, some for calming, and many I couldn’t even identify. Which ones to use?

All of them. In my haste to get to the fire, I tripped over the staff. Kicking it aside, I dumped the contents of the bag onto the fire, not worrying about the paper wrappers. They’d burn off quick enough.

Within seconds, the air filled with pungent fumes. I moved back to where the others lay. Oleeda and Traz were still taking intermittent breaths. Yallick lay unmoving.

My mind froze as I tried to force it to think of something, anything. I saw that Traz’s staff had fallen across Yallick’s knees. Feeling a little guilty, I grabbed it to move it away, and as soon as my fingers touched it, Yallick’s entire body heaved upward.

I let out a cry of surprise. Yallick’s eyes flew open as he sucked in a great gasp of air. I stared at the staff, wanting and yet not daring to drop it again.

Now sitting up, Yallick let out a groan, then started coughing in the herb-laden atmosphere. I finally managed to uproot myself. I moved first to Oleeda and then to Traz, touching them each with the staff, while Yallick watched in wide-eyed astonishment. Soon, Oleeda and Traz were sitting up, moving for all the world like people awakened from bad dreams.

“What . . . what happened?” Yallick asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You all almost died.”’ My voice, so long unused, rasped.

Yallick and Oleeda gazed at me with identical expressions of wonder on their faces. Oleeda tried to rise, but fell back as if in exhaustion. Even Xyla stirred in her sleep, though she didn’t wake.

“Well, give us the bare bones, at least, and then I think we shall sleep again.”

Traz still hadn’t spoken, although he watched my every move with staring eyes. He seemed to like the suggestion of sleeping again, and he snuggled back under the covers.

I sighed. What to tell them? I didn’t feel sure of anything myself. “Let me make you some tea first,” I said, stalling for time. Yallick nodded in agreement.

By now, the air had started to clear. I found a small cooking pot next to the fire, but no water. Well, that was easily solved. There was plenty of clean snow outside.

This time when I stepped out of the cavern, the full cold of the winter night smote me, and I gasped. I looked around for Anazian again, but neither saw nor felt any disturbance in the surrounding woods. The sharp air seemed to burn my lungs, and having got what I was after, I hurried back inside.

As the water heated, I looked around for the rest of the cooking gear. I finally found it on a natural shelf in the rock wall of the cave. Cups, plates, eating utensils, mostly the things we’d carried here with us. That
they’d
carried here. A lump rose unexpectedly in my throat at the thought of my pack. Ridiculous, really, to get worked up over it after all this time. It wasn’t as if I’d been carrying anything of real significance. It’s just that it seemed to represent lost innocence in some way. I sighed.

I found a large packet of herbs and returned to the fire. As the tea steeped, I breathed a simple incantation over the cups, one to speed both sleep and healing.

Traz weakly batted at my hand, but I insisted that he drink. In the end, I had to pull the furs off him, and that spurred him into gulping the stuff down. He was practically snoring before I finished covering him again.

Oleeda and Yallick took the cups I offered them and drank without speaking. It felt very strange to have switched places so suddenly.

Then there was nothing left to do, and I still hadn’t figured out how to explain everything.

“So tell us what happened,” Yallick said, scarcely finishing the sentence before yawning. Oleeda had already lain back down, her eyes beginning to droop.

I cleared my throat. Maybe to start with the least complicated part. “Well, the time just seemed right to try to do something for myself. I woke up.” I paused and bit my lower lip, then corrected myself. “I was still awake after the rest of you fell asleep. I built the circle of meditation candles . . .” Yallick’s soft snore cut me off. In that short time, he and Oleeda had both fallen asleep. I raised my eyebrows in mild surprise. I hadn’t expected my incantation to work so quickly.

I went over to Xyla and gently stroked her neck. She let out a soft sigh, and I hoped she would wake up. I couldn’t wait to talk to her again, to hear her comforting voice. Even as she slept, though, I could feel some of her power flowing to me as my hand made contact with her skin.

Then, without warning, all of my own energy drained from me. What had happened outside within my circle, I still didn’t understand, but among other things, it had given me a boost of vigor. Now that the need was over, though, I felt as tired as the others looked. I went to my pallet and lay down, but my mind kept buzzing and I couldn’t sleep. Eventually I got up and made myself some tea, and it worked as well for me as it had for the others.

I woke up before dawn, while the others slept on. It didn’t look as if any of them had stirred, and they were all breathing normally. I reached out beyond the cave, but found no disturbance in the vibrations. I’d better stay unblocked. I didn’t want anyone—least of all Anazian—catching me unawares.

I built up the fire and sat near it, looking at my hands in wonder. It hadn’t been a dream! I whispered my name, and the sound of it caressed my ears like a stream over smooth pebbles. Smiling, I hummed a tune, a lullaby I remembered Mama singing to me whenever I was ill as a small child. I picked up small twigs with my fingertips, taking joy from such a simple action. I felt the course nap of the fabric of my tunic, the dirt floor of the cave, the skin of my face. It was almost as if I’d awakened from a very long nightmare to find a sunny, Spring morning shining through the window. A whole new life!

Then all of a sudden, “Donavah?”

“Xyla!” I jumped up and ran to her.

I stopped far enough away that I could take in her full size. She was huge, her belly bulging more than I would have thought possible. She watched me with her lips slightly parted in what I took to be a dragonish smile.

“Xyla,” I said again, and it felt good to know that she could hear me again. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I have been here all along,” she said. “You have been here some time, too.”

“I know, but I couldn’t hear you. It was awful.” I walked closer and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“I missed you, too, little one, though I could hear
you
.”

I stared up at her. “You could? But how? Anazian took away my maejic.”

She blew out a great snort of air. “Surely you do not believe that he could do that?”

“But it was gone. I couldn’t hear any animals, couldn’t feel vibrations, or anything. It was . . . it was the loneliest I’ve ever felt.”

Xyla curled her long neck around and lay her head on the ground close to me. “It was nothing more than what most people have their whole lives.”

That made me stop and think.

“Well, it was still awful. I’m so glad it’s over now. But if Anazian didn’t take my power away, what happened?”

“The mind is a powerful inhibitor. He had only to make you
think
he had stripped you of your maejic.”

“He definitely succeeded at that.”

“He is strong. His spell on you was potent, one that took many, many days for him to work. He is a great force with which we must now reckon.”

“It took days? He must have been planning it for . . .” I broke off at the enormity of that thought. “But why?”

“It is hard to say. We may never know.”

“Well, I’m going to find out. To me, this was personal. Very personal.”

“Some of the scars may never heal. But still, you will be stronger.”

I guffawed. “I wonder. But that’s enough about me. How are you? You’ve gotten so big!”

“The little ones grow well. The time will be soon.”

I grinned in anticipation. “How soon? And after that, how long before the eggs will hatch?” I couldn’t wait to see the baby dragons, to hold them and play with them.

Xyla grumbled in that chuckling way she had. “You will see.”

A scuffling noise came from behind me. I turned to see Yallick walking stiffly toward us, moving as if every muscle pained him. His long, white-blond hair, unbound again, was dishevelled, and his skin still looked grey.

I moved quickly to his side, ready to lend a steadying hand if he needed it. “Are you all right?”

He place a hand on my shoulder and gave me a weak smile. Peering into my eyes, he nodded.

“Let me make you some more tea,” I said.

“No!” he practically barked. “Not another of your potions!”

I couldn’t help it: I laughed out loud. And it felt unbearably good to be able to.

“Well, if you think I need to rest easy today, you are right. But I will not do so until you tell me everything that has happened. My powers do not extend to reading minds.”

He leaned backward against Xyla and slid to the ground. I sat next to him, both of us using the dragon as a backrest, and told him the full story. It seemed to go on for hours. Eventually Oleeda and Traz awoke and got up, but they didn’t approach, as if they knew better than to interrupt us. Well, interrupt me. Yallick didn’t say a word through my entire tale. I grew hoarse with the telling; after all, my voice had gone unused for weeks now. When I’d finished, a long silence stretched and grew into a deafening roar. Finally, Yallick broke it.