Guardian Dragons (16 page)

‘Such an army could only benefit
the annexing of the Light Side,’ Lord Fiendrac knew all too well
that this plan was purely for the benefit of the monshaads, not the
vamplins.

‘Nay, Lord Fiendrac,’ the Emperor
rejected this statement. ‘We shall work together in this battle. I
must admit that without your army, the defeat would be a slow
process. You must remember that your race will evolve and grow in
strength with a never-ending supply of new blood. Once the Wall is
down your people can drink the blood of the Light Landers that will
enable them some ability to exist in the light.’

A deep rumbled laugh echoed in the
hall as the observing vamplins became greedily excited at the
possible turn to their futures. The monshaad Lords hissed their
unease at these crude vamplins, daring to make such a din in their
Emperor’s presence.

‘Enough.’ Lord Fiendrac sensed the
unease of the monshaads and silenced his own commanders.

‘Your ruthless plan is to be
commended Emperor.’ Seeing the sense of such a radical change in
their food source. ‘I must confer with my leaders but I do see that
my people will benefit from this change. However, there is still
the sore problem of the Magic Wall to penetrate and the Changeling
to capture.’

‘Fear not Leader of the vamplins.
This is all in hand.’ The disfigured shape of the Emperor’s body
began to fade. The meeting was closed.

The vamplins followed their Lord
who marched back out of the grim habitat. Outside, a gathering of
mir had collected. At first sight the vamplins suspected an ambush.
Yet the mir was a gentle creature. It was for their strength that
the monshaads had use of them. The mir never communicated, not even
with each other. They had not been given this ability. They stood
solid like icy statues staring out at the icy oceans, awaiting
instructions to move. Fiendrac knew they would be of no use as
soldiers on the Light Side, they would simply melt.

He approached his prized basca and hauled himself up on to
the leather hide strap to climb the broad back. Stroking the
white
feathers upon his
beast’s back, he murmured words of comfort to his
pet.

‘There my beauty, I am returned.
Let us fly from these vile creatures and make our way to the safety
of our homelands.’

Taking flight, the other bascas
followed bearing the commanders and their hounds.

The mir showed no interest in the
spectacular sight of the flying bascas creating an arrowhead
formation, with their Leader at the front. The arrow was huge and
pierced the skies as it moved forward with speed. Once in flight,
the bascas were swift movers. As the mir stared into oblivion, the
shape became a dark line over the oceans that glimmered in the
silver moon’s shadow. Soon it was gone.

Chapter 23 Banish the
Witch

I
n the remote little
village of Lumberley, a mother lay exhausted
after delivering what she believed to be a
stillborn baby, unaware that the old midwife Rikka was an acolyte
of the voracious monshaad Emperor. Rikka chanted the words that
were to doom the tiny lifeline that the newborn clung to, while the
unsuspecting family mourned their misfortune. Through Rikka’s
spiritual coma, Emperor Morte-Bielz feasted upon the rare delicacy
of an innocent babe’s soul.

‘Our village is cursed,’ cried the
father as he jumped up from cradling his wife who lay on a
bloodstained hay mattress. ‘This is the third child the village has
lost. I’m taking my wife and children away, far away.’ He started
to gather their belongings together hastily, giving instructions to
the two children to gather food and their menial
belongings.

‘Don’t be a fool Armad,’ croaked
the old midwife. ‘It is not only your family that suffers these
losses. Ye must learn to bear such burdens and work to raise more
children.’

‘I did not ask your opinion, old
woman. My family will move as soon as my wife is well. I have some
sense in my head and this is not a place of safety for the young.
My heart bleeds to see my wife suffer so.’

‘Bah, yer a cowardly husband to
force yer family away from all that they know. Go then, one less
family to care for is no loss to me.’

‘Your herbs have not served me or
mine old witch. Perhaps you are the one who curses this village. It
seems to me every birth you attend; only few survive. Can you
account for that old hag?’

‘Do ye accuse me of witchcraft? I
brew my potions to heal. Folks do not come to me if they do not
want my wisdom. A curse on ye fer yer evil thoughts. Be gone on the
morrow or suffer the wrath of my hand.’ Rikka pushed the father
aside with a strength such a frail old woman should not possess.
She did not fear this man, the other villagers would not listen to
him, he suffers grief at his losses and his mind is boggled. She
pushed the rye-thatched door open and stepped outside the grey
stone dwelling. The villagers were gathering at the front of the
house wondering why Armad and the midwife were shouting at each
other. They had expected joy at the birth of another child for this
family and for this village.

‘Rikka,’ shouted Milo the
Blacksmith of the village, ‘is another baby lost?’

‘Armad is crazy,’ replied the old
woman. ‘He threatens my very life with his grief.’

Armad appeared at the open door
with fist raised in the air and fury in his puffy red eyes, staring
at the increasing crowd of his neighbours.

‘This woman,’ spittle erupted from
his lips as he announced angrily, ‘she is the reason for all our
losses. Of this, I am certain. She chants strange words and says it
is to ease the pain. My pain is not eased, it pounds at my heart.
She is a witch, I tell you all.’

‘Ye are possessed of madness man,’
screeched Rikka as she backed down the wooden stairway, pushing her
way through the throng of people gathering. ‘I have delivered
children since before any ye were born to this world. I cannot stop
nature stealing what it must take. Ye should be thanking me with
rewards not rebuking me with yer evil words, ye cowardly beast!’
she shouted, walking away from the confused crowd.

‘I say Armad speaks the truth,’
shouted another male voice from the front of the crowd. Everyone
turned their attention to him, eager to listen to his words and not
paying much attention to the escaping Rikka. ‘My family has also
suffered losses in the witches so called trusting hands. My son
fell from a tree. We thought his injuries were not serious and then
she attended him with her chanting spells. His life was taken from
us. I think Armad is brave to speak what others dare not say
aloud,’ Shainston the baker finished.

As the people at the back pushed to
see the unfolding events of the front, Rikka had already managed to
shuffle her way through the entanglement and make good her escape.
She went unseen and made her way to the dry mud path that led out
of the village. She must move quickly and cared not at her few
possessions, she had lived through this ordeal many times before.
Being found out by the villagers was always a possibility. She
called upon her Master, for ease of flight.

Emperor Morte-Bielz endured the
sensation of Rikka’s pleas. This acolyte had served him well. It
would not benefit him to have her crooked body die at the hands of
the angry mob. He imposed his will on another weakened mind within
the crowd, to create a diversion.

‘Listen, listen,’ shouted the
woman who had been an occasional helper to the old witch. ‘You must
all go with great care. I have seen what that old hag can do and
she will bring the darkest devils to eat all our souls. I say we
cast her out and be done with her. She can do us no more harm if we
are rid of her.’

The crowd murmured with a humming
of unease.

‘We should do no less than hang
the hag!’ shouted Armad in his rage.

‘No, no Armad. She has the devil
within her I tell you. I dare not speak up before as I feared no
one would believe me. Let us leave her to flee and then we can
start making our families happy again. Trust me on this Armad. She
will destroy us all if we hasten after her.’

‘The woman talks sense,’ a deep
bellow from the blacksmith. ‘If it is true that she has been a
curse upon our children, then we must let her go.We do not welcome
the devil to seek his revenge on our village.’

‘Aye,’ many voices
agreed.

‘Let us send word to the King of
this event. Perhaps the King’s Guard can track the witch down and
dispose of her as he sees fitting,’ another spoke.

‘Well, Armad?’ Milo asked. ‘You
are the one who grieves, what is your wish?’

‘I wish to be with my wife just
now. We will be gladly rid of the hag. I agree, we should inform
the King and try to pick up our lives as once we lived. I do not
wish any more lives to be lost to this evil curse,’ Armad replied
with a feeling of relief that he could return to his family and put
this bad memory behind him.

The Emperor listened as the village
silently celebrated their ejection of Rikka. The time for punishing
these beings was soon and he would ensure this particular village
suffered slowly and painfully. For now, he had a new assignment for
his minion. He searched for her presence and reached out with his
powers

Old woman,
Morte-Bielz
Mindtalked Rikka.
Go to your
son at the palace.

At your will my Master,
Rikka obeyed and made her way to the road that would take
her to the Royal City of Beldroth.

Chapter 24 Guardian
Dragons

A
arabassa
spins within two rotating moons.
Within the Light Lands the sun moves around the entire horizon
slowly, ending at the point it started. This measures one
suncircle. The division of a suncircle is so named as to which
quarter on the horizons line the sun is positioned. Each quarter
equals two hundred moonwakes. A human birth date is celebrated
within the quarter positioning, with no exact recording of exactly
which moonwake one was born on. Each moonwake begins when the moons
cross each other’s pathway at the summit of the mid-mountains. The
silver moon that descends throughout the moonwake on the Light Side
to disappear at the horizon is known as Dayloon, a time when the
population of the Light Lands are active. The red moon, known as
Nytloon, starts at the ocean horizon to ascend in the skies and
disappear over the mid mountains as it crosses its partner Dayloon.
This is the moonsleep period for the Light Lands, the period of
rest and sleep. There are few climatic seasons in Aarabassa and if
the rain season does not fall at the time expected for the crops,
then magic methods aid the elements so the crops do not
whither.

The Guardian Dragons from the Light Lands. Their
counterparts, the cold serpents, are from the Dark Lands. Both have
lived by this measure of time longer than any other creature on the
world of Aarabassa. Dragons and serpents have lived through battles
that are long forgotten, and never recorded. The most recent
is the Serpent Wars, which marked the
beginning of the trusted bond between dragons and humans. Before
this great battle there existed no Magic Wall to separate the Light
and Dark lands, so all creatures could travel around the world
freely.

It is said that the Battle of the
Serpents began as a consequence of a misfortunate romance. The King
of the giant serpents, from the icy waters of the Archaroneon
Oceans on the Dark Side, captivated the heart of the Queen of the
dragons who dwelled upon the Light Side. The young that she spawned
from their mating, grew quickly to adult hood. As arranged by their
cunning father, they murdered their doting mother the Queen dragon,
then attempted to kill all the dragons of the Light Lands, with
their acid breath. The dragons had been deceived and many
suncircles of battle between the dragons and the serpents nearly
led to the extinction of the dragon race.

The new Queen Thimat is one of the
largest females and one of the oldest of the dragon race who now
live in the mid mountains of Ginnung. Her scales shimmer of a rich
golden yellow with a striking contrast of deep red bloodlines
outlining each and every scale. Female dragons are generally
smaller and more slender than the males but when her wing span
spreads in flight, she is a magnificent sight to behold. With eyes
of huge deep ruby red pools, her muzzle is long and slender ending
with large nostrils at either side that can breathe out the
deadliest of burning fires. The dragon’s tail is a deadly weapon in
battle, as are the huge razor teeth and the strong metallic claws.
The Fire Breathing Dragons are true opponents in any battle and
better to have them as an ally than an enemy. Having ruled with
King Apsle since the end of the Serpent Wars, she has lived to see
many changes in the world. This bitter war was the nearest she had
witnessed in her lifetime, where the dragons were nearly no
more.

Her devotion and gratitude to the ancient mage Saurlton
Barronz, as the saviour of her race, is immeasurable. She has vowed
to protect his people for as long as she rules. His Magic Wall now
separates the serpents from the dragons. Yet dragons are able to
pass through the Wall as are Changelings. Thus, the Light
Land
dragon and any existing
Changelings, became the Guardians of the Light Side of the
world.