Dragon's Treasure - 9. The Dragon's Lair

“Why,” Ulee asked, “does your cartouche” the boy struggled with this new word. “Why does your cartouche contain a crow and a donjon? How do they and the grapes make Marion?”

Marion chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair. Ulee was sitting in Marion’s lap. A low fire burned in the grate. Even in summer, night in Kassel was cold, and autumn was approaching. “Grapes? Oh, they’re not grapes, but I’m not surprised you don’t recognize them. Many of those who have lived on the mountain all their lives think that I’m a wine merchant because they do not recognize the marionberry. It’s a kind of blackberry. The cartouche reads Marion of Rook-Rookery.”

“Rook-rookery?” Ulee was clearly puzzled.

“The bird is a rook, a kind of blackbird. And, rook is an old name for the donjon, which is also called a castle. The city of Kassel was once called Rookery, for the birds which nested here—the mountain, itself, was a great rookery.”

*****

“Remember the story of the mage and the dragon?” Ian whispered to Ulee. “Josephus said the mage and then the dragon lived in the mountain above the city of Rook. That’s Kassel! The mage lived in the mountain above the city! The dragon’s there, now, guarding his grimoire! We’ve got to look for it…and the dragon’s treasure!”

“He also said that dragons don’t have treasure,” Ulee reminded Ian. “Don’t you remember?”

“Sure…but in the story, the mage was rich. Maybe the dragon’s guarding the mage's treasure!”

A tenday later, four boys clung to the slope as the dragon flew toward them. Sunlight reflecting on the dragon’s scales danced across the face of the mountain. Brighter still was the flaming breath of the dragon which roiled toward the boys. The dragon lifted its head and beat its wings. After a particularly strong beat and a twist of its body, it turned back on its path and gained altitude. The turn the dragon made a turn that would elsewhen be called an Immelmann. The slope where the boys had been was bare except for the cooling embers of a few scrub bushes. Of the boys, there was no sign. Satisfied, the dragon cupped the air with its wings and extended its legs, preparing to land.

“I told you…she’s just too powerful,” Jeremy said as Ian reluctantly stopped trying to control the dragon’s mind. At Ulee’s urging, the four companions had ventured into the mountain. Now, they faced the reality of a huge, flying, fire-breathing—and very angry—dragon.

A movement caught the dragon’s eye. There! Four more boys…or the same four. The dragon made no distinction, only noting that the figures were even closer to the dragon’s lair. The dragon snapped its wings and tucked its legs under its body, struggling for altitude. Again, the dragon dove toward the boys. Again its fiery breath rolled across the face of the mountain. Again, the flame left nothing on the rocks except smoldering vegetation.

This time, the dragon circled its lair, looking for more intruders. On the ground, nearly a mile away and hidden behind rocks, the four companions watched the dragon chase Ulee’s illusions. “There,” Ian said. “He’s circling that spot. Do you see the shadow? That’s the entrance to his lair. He’s revealed it to us!”

“Why do you say he?” Jeremy asked. “Aren’t dragons shes?”

“Are you sure?” Thorby asked. The boys had planned their strategy. Once they knew the entrance to the dragon’s lair, the attack would begin.

“Quiet!” Ulee insisted. “I’m concentrating.”

“Yes,” Ian said. “See how she keeps looking at it? Watch her head.”

Ian touched Ulee’s shoulder. When he had the boy’s attention, he pointed to a tree-filled bowl on the west side of the ridge on which the boys were hiding. Ulee nodded. When his illusion next appeared, the four figures were standing on the ridge, perhaps a hundred yards away from where the real boys lay concealed. This was the dangerous part. They had to be close for Thorby and Jeremy’s magic to work.

The dragon spied the figures. It slapped its wings against the air, gathering air and magic as it did so. “Now, Ulee,” Ian said.

As the dragon approached, the illusory figures seemed to run down into the bowl. The dragon skimmed the ridge, so close that the boys felt the furious breeze from its wings. Again, the dragon opened its mouth to project its fire. Thorby, however, was prepared. A cloud of dust and pebbles, whirling in the wind of the Air Elemental the boy generated, pelted the dragon. The wind sucked the flame from the dragon’s mouth. Buffeted by the turbulence of the Elemental, the dragon’s wings lost lift, and the dragon plummeted to the ground, crashing through the branches of the cedar trees that filled the bowl.

Now, Jeremy’s magic came into play. The trees reached out, bent over, creaking and groaning as their branches pinned the dragon to the earth.

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll burn the trees?” Ulee asked for the hundredth time.

“No, look,” Jeremy said. “Ian was right. The dragon’s flame is magic. She can’t move her wings to gather magic, so she can’t breathe fire. The trees are safe.”

“Will she die?” Thorby wondered.

“No!” Jeremy said. “The trees will release her—when I say. She can climb to the ridge and fly, again.” He turned away from the dragon. “We’d better not waste time, though.”

The boys found the entrance to the dragon’s lair—and faced six hissing infant dragons.

“Ulee!” Jeremy cried. “Make us disappear!”

“Wait,” Ian said. He concentrated and thought at the dragons. One by one, they retreated a few steps, and then fell asleep.

They entered a large chamber.

“This was a mage's home,” Ulee said. “Look.”

Indeed, the ground on which they walked was flat; the ceiling over their heads was flat; the walls were flat and vertical. This was no natural cave.

“Here,” Ian said. His magic had led them to the right place. In this room stood a cubical block of stone. It was not the same stone from which the rooms were carved. This stone was black, and reflected the light of Ulee’s ring and the images of the four boys. Atop the stone was not one book, but six.

“The mage's book of magic,” Ulee breathed. “But which one is it?”

Ulee stretched out his hand, but Thorby grabbed his wrist. “Wait,” the Boy-Thief said. He looked at Ian. “There’s magic here, isn’t there, Ian?” he asked.

Ian looked at the books and at the block.

“They are all magic,” Ian said. “We’ll take them all.”

“Ssst!” Ian warned. “Someone’s coming.”

The others stopped. From behind the rocks below came a scrabbling sound as someone tripped and scraped his hurried way up the mountain. The boys ducked behind rocks from which they could see the mountain meadow, below them. A figure, struggling in the thin air, appeared.

Thorby was first to react. “Bastian!” he called, as he ran toward the boy. “What? Why?”

The others followed, and caught up with Thorby near the center of the meadow. Thorby was trying to support an obviously exhausted Bastian while opening his water jug. Bastian brushed the jug aside. “Red Robes,” he gasped. “They came just after you left. And, they saw the dragon. They’re on their way here. I—”

The boy’s voice stopped and his body stiffened as the point of an arrow appeared in his chest.

“Ulee, make us invisible.” Ian commanded. “Jeremy, release the dragon.” Ian had seen the soldier who had released the arrow, and the party of Red Robes that followed him into the meadow, only 50 yards away.

Under the cloak of invisibility, the boys retreated. Thorby had been reluctant to leave Bastian’s body, but Ian pulled him away. The Red Robes were in disarray, and the soldiers did not want to leave the shelter of the rocks. One Red Robe could be heard exhorting them. The appearance of the dragon over the meadow stopped even that, and the Red Robe joined the others hiding among the rocks. The dragon circled, looking but not finding.

Ian frowned. “Ulee, can you make us appear close enough to the Red Robes to lure the dragon to them?”

Ulee gulped. “She’d kill them,” he whispered.

“Better them than us,” Jeremy said. Ian nodded, and looked for Thorby’s agreement.

But Thorby was not there. Ian stood, and saw the boy running through the meadow toward the Red Robes, waving his arms. He darted from side to side as if to make it difficult for an archer to target him, but the archers weren’t looking.

The dragon was looking, however, and turned high in the sky before plummeting toward the meadow. Thorby was ten yards from the rocks where the Red Robes and soldiers were hidden when the dragon struck.

“Thorby died instantly,” Ian said.

“You hope he did, you mean,” Jeremy said.

“No, I saw it,” Ian said, as much to reassure himself as his remaining companions. “I saw him die,” and I saw the Red Robes and their soldiers die, too. The rocks gave them some protection, but even there the flames reached them. It took a lot longer for them to die.”

*****

The boys made their way back to Whitten, and Marion’s shop. Marion needed only one look at the red-eyed boys—two fewer than had set out. He tilted his head. Ian, Ulee, and Jeremy hurried through the curtain at the back of the shop. Leaving Oliver in the shop, Marion hurried after the boys. “What happened?” he asked, gently, although his voice was awash with concern.

“Thorby’s dead,” Ian gasped. “And Bastian.” Between the boy’s tears, Marion got the story from Ian. Marion heard how they had tricked the dragon using Ulee’s magic, and how they had subdued the dragon with Jeremy and Thorby’s magic. He heard how Ian had put the baby dragons to sleep, and then how they had found the books—the books that Ian dumped from his pack onto the table at Marion’s elbow.

“There was no treasure…only these books. Thorby thought they were magic, and they looked like it in the cave, but they don’t, anymore.” Ian’s eyes filled with tears, and he continued his story. He told Marion of Bastian’s warning—and then of that boy’s cruel death at the hand of the Red Robes’ soldiers. He told how Thorby had sacrificed himself to bring the dragon’s fire upon the Red Robes and their soldiers. Ulee and Jeremy sat as if in shock, but broke into tears when Ian told of Bastian’s death, and then Thorby’s.

It may not have been necessary, Marion thought. Was he avenging Bastian? Did he not want to live without Bastian? Did he doubt Ulee’s ability? In the end, it doesn’t matter. He died; his friends lived. Perhaps he and Bastian will be reborn as brothers … somewhere they will be able to grow up together in plenty, and not in want; in Light, and not Darkness.

Ulee had climbed into Marion’s lap. Marion stroked the boy’s hair. “You three met Thorby for a reason. You found this place for a reason. Thorby and Bastian fell in love for a reason.”

“So that they could die?” Jeremy asked. In Jeremy’s voice, Ian heard the softness of moss and the brittleness of a winter twig, and remembered their first meeting with him.

“No,” Marion said. “Much more than that. You told me that he helped you make your way into Kassel, but I think the reason was greater than that. I think that the reason was that it took the magic of all four of you to conquer the dragon and to claim its treasure.”

“What treasure? There was no treasure?” Ian said. His voice was bitter.

Marion took one of the books that had fallen open when Ian dumped them on the table. “Look. Look at this book. See how each letter is perfectly formed? You’ve not seen many books, hmmm? So you’d not notice.” He picked up another. “Look. See? This one is the same. These books are something very, very special.”

Ian had wiped his tears and picked up another of the books. “These letters…they’re not like those…Oh! I know that word! It’s veratum. This must be a book about healing, like Josephus’s grimoire!”

Jeremy listened to the words Ian read, and then said, “No. Not healing. I know those herbs, and they are not healing herbs. They are…weeds…weeds that grow in a farmer’s fields and pastures.”

Ian flipped several pages, and read the names of other herbs. “Those are healing…at least, that’s what Josephus said.”

Jeremy agreed. “Read some more,” he asked. After another page, Jeremy announced, “Those…they’re used in ritual…magical ritual.”

A handful of pages later, Ian had an epiphany. “This is a grimoire! There’s all sorts of stuff in here. It’s got to be a grimoire!”

Marion sat quietly for a moment, and then said, “Boys, you know, don’t you, that you are no longer safe here? You know that you cannot stay?” Marion’s voice was low, and Ian could feel the sadness behind the words.

“Yes, cousin. I know. How long do you think…” Ian left the question incomplete.

“The Red Robes will be missed, perhaps within a month. There will be some delay. Their masters in Herten will suspect that they were killed somewhere along the route. Eventually, however, more Red Robes and soldiers will come. Oliver and I will be safe. We can conceal ourselves; however, I do not think we can conceal three boys whose auras are so much brighter than they were before they left for the mountain.

“Yes,” he continued to the boys’ surprise. “I can see your magic; that is a secret you know you must keep. If Ian were to look, he would see, as well, how much strength, how much power you gained from your ordeal. That, too, may be why Thorby and Bastian lived: so that you would become powerful enough to…well, to do whatever it is you are destined to do.”

“We promised to only do Good,” Ian said. Ulee nodded. “Jeremy…?” Ian said the boy’s name softly but the question was apparent in his voice.

“I know. You have told me of your oath to Josephus. I too, swear to do only Good—as long as it is not Evil to kill Red Robes,” Jeremy replied.

Marion thought for a few minutes. “You can stay perhaps another tenday. You must leave not only before they come, but also in time to cross the mountains before winter.”

Ian’s stomach tightened. He and Ulee had survived one winter because they’d found Josephus. They, and Jeremy, were equipped to live in the wilds. It was not, however, something he was looking forward to.

“There is a path across the mountains,” Marion said. “It’s used by smugglers—Thieves, mostly, but others, as well. It’s dangerous…hazardous…” The man seemed uncertain.

“I will take them,” Oliver said. The boy’s voice startled everyone, including Ian, who should have sensed his approach. “Please do not forget that I loved Bastian, too.”

Marion sighed. “I had in my mind to ask you,” he said. “But I could not.”

“I know, father,” the boy said.

“Father?” Ian spoke first.

“Yes, my very dear fifth cousin once removed. I am Marion’s son. My mother and sister live with her family, and father and I have hidden our relationship to protect them.” Oliver walked across the room and embraced Ian. “Will you let me lead you across the mountains?”

Rather than answer immediately, Ian looked to Ulee and Jeremy. Ulee broke the silence that had fallen. “As you are cousin to my friend, you are brother to me. I follow Ian. If he follows you, so will I.”

Jeremy’s answer was simple. “Ian and Ulee and I have not sworn to one another, but I am bound to them by…well, by something more powerful than any oath. I am so glad you will lead us.”

The End