Quest Of The Dragon Tamer (Book 1) (15 page)

Above them Ren could see more paths cut into the mountain. If paths existed within other mountains people could disappear for centuries and never be discovered.

A sharp clanking reverberated against the rock. As they moved closer to the noise, a distant cursing wafted to them, along with a clank and more colorful invectives. “Grauss,” Neki said, as if that was explanation enough.

Neki walked around one last hook in the mountain and ambled into a huge cavern. Strategically placed torches, whose light ricocheted off multiple mirrors, lit the cavern and created a crystal ravine out of stark shadow. The fires brought life to the cave’s natural formations and cast a formidable light in the large enclave. Two huge apertures at the top of the chamber were covered with a lattice, opening the night sky to full view. Ren frowned, wondering why Grauss, after all the trouble to conceal his alcove, would risk the openings.

Almost in reply to his thoughts, Neki leaned toward him. “That side of the chamber is impossible to reach from the outside. It’s a sheer drop in the mountain and each window is invisible to outsiders, even in broad daylight. Other formations in the mountain cast the openings in shadow no matter the time of day or year.”

Ren nodded, just now taking in the entirety of the chamber. It was immense, and chalk marks coated every wall. Words, numbers, drawings and agendas were scrawled with frantic precision, displaying steps of sagery but nothing Ren could discern. Gadgets of all sorts carpeted the floor. On Ren’s right a clear liquid bubbled in a glass tube above a small fire; on his left a wooden shaft held a metal string that ended in a small pebble and swung in a continuous circle over a pail of water; in front a pit of bubbling black liquid simmered without fire or any other stimulus.

“Burning cinders!” yelled a voice.

Ren searched the cavern until he found a man perched in a metal chair dangling from a rope beside the first window. The rope hung suspended from a thick wire extending from the cavern’s entrance to the high window on the opposite side of the chamber. Ren noticed a similar apparatus for the second window.

Neki walked forward, casually stepping over the pit where the black liquid boiled. “Grauss, I’ve brought someone for you to meet.”

The skeletal body spun at the sound of Neki’s voice. Although Grauss’ head was bathed in shadow, Ren could sense the scowl on his face.

“Dear boy, I’ve no time,” Grauss said, spinning back to the wall and writing something in chalk by the window. After a few breaths, Grauss spun back around.

“You brought someone to the chamber? Have you gone mad? You know the rules! No one can know where I live. My home would become a haven for wolves. Kings would demand answers. Peasants would demand cures. I wouldn’t be able to deal with anything important, only resolve noble bickering and the world’s petty problems!”

“Grandfather, I brought the one you call the synergy.”

Grauss stopped raving. His bony legs dangled in the air like two twigs blowing in the wind. Reaching above him, he released a lever. The chair shot down the wire with lightning speed. Neki stood in its path, hands planted on his hips in complete disinterest. Ren drew in a breath to shout a warning when the chair lurched to a stop. Grauss swung from side to side, his stern face glaring down at his grandson. The chair’s metal parts clicked in the silence. Neki seemed unconcerned, but Ren grew nervous as Grauss’ face turned a brilliant shade of red. The chair bobbed a few more times and then went still.

Grauss leaned forward. “Don’t toy with me, my boy. The synergy is too important, and he isn’t yet complete.” Grauss’ sharp blue eyes glanced up at the latticed window. His voice became low, almost reverent. “The three aren’t yet in a perfect alignment with the one. But it’s begun. Did you feel the earth move?” Grauss turned back to Neki. “Don’t toy with me about the synergy. You know how important he is to me.”

“The synergy doesn’t have to be complete to be alive, does he? Humor me, Gramps. No harm can come of it.”

“Cinders, boy!” Grauss exclaimed, knitting together his thick white eyebrows and pushing Neki out of his path. Grauss released the lever and zipped forward, scant white hair billowing behind him. The chair lurched to a halt beside Galvin. Grauss leaned forward until his long nose hit Galvin’s chin.

“Mmmm, no.” Grauss jumped off the chair and scurried to a section of the wall with minimal chalk marks. “Synergy will look like this.” The sage’s thin arm worked with fervent intent. When he finished the drawing he shoved the chalk into his brown tunic and stepped back to study his masterpiece.

Ren emerged from the shadows to examine the picture. It was a simple sketch, but it did resemble him. How could Grauss know what he would look like? He cleared his throat. Grauss spun, but before the sage could open his mouth to bark his displeasure his thick white eyebrows shot up in surprise. The sage flipped down a glass eyepiece from the wide silver band encircling his head. One large blue eye stared up at Ren with a spark of hope and a twinge of belief. After quick examination Grauss flipped the glass back up and tapped the side of Ren’s face.

“Born on the equinox?”

Ren was surprised by the question. “Yes.” He was born on the day where day equaled night. Not many people even knew of the day. He barely gave it a second thought.

“The balance, the synergy.” Grauss mumbled under his breath, whispering numbers and calculating the exact time frame. “Were you the one who caused all of the rumbling two mornings ago?”

Ren nodded.

“Was the rumble magic being reborn?”

“Yes.”

Grauss grinned and took a step back. In a flourish of skin and bone, he bowed. “I’m humbly in your service, my lord… ?”

“Ren, Ren Razon.”

Grauss paused in mid bow and peered up at him. “Ren Razon, the crown prince?”

“The very same.”

Grauss straightened and scurried over to some scrolls on a nearby table. Heartbeats later scrolls were flung this way and that, curses were uttered and the glass eyepiece was slammed back down. “How could I have overlooked something so important? How could I have overlooked …” Grauss paused. “Ah, yes. I missed the split!

“Here, Neki! Here it is!” Grauss held up two scrolls with a wide-toothed grin. Neki nodded in slight boredom. Grauss turned and began scribbling notes on the pages.

“These go together, and I missed it, but you… ” Grauss grinned up at Neki. “My dear boy, you have just solved the most significant event since the beginning of time.”

Neki shrugged, but his eyes lit with pride. “I had a good teacher.”

Ren suddenly understood why Neki approached things with a calm demeanor and constant humor. Grauss was a boiling pot of trouble. No one could get a word in edgewise.

“But wait,” Grauss said, scrambling through the pages again. “If you’re here and magic is reborn, then why aren’t the other stars in alignment? Unless … ” Grauss’ eyes widened into saucers. “There are three others who will assist the synergy. Burning cinders!”

“What do you mean?” Ren asked, stooping to examine Grauss’ charts.

“Lots, my prince. Look,” Grauss said, shoving Ren back into the swinging chair. Before Ren could protest, Grauss pulled the lever and Ren was hoisted into the air toward the latticed windows.

“Grauss, we don’t have much time. We’re on the run from – ”

“The thorn, yes. I just thought it would begin as soon as the stars had aligned, not before. But they shouldn’t be long in aligning. At this rate it should be … ” Grauss paused, counting on his fingers and mumbling something Ren couldn’t make out, “… approximately one full moon. But cinders, I thought it would take months or even years for the quest to begin.” Grauss waved his hands in the air as he ran up a narrow wooden ledge that rose from the chamber’s floor, around the wall, only to stretch below the latticed windows for closer observation. Even before Ren had reached the windows, Grauss was waiting, bony arm outstretched to catch him.

Ren’s brow furrowed. “How do you know about the thorn?”

“The Maker’s stars told me.” Grauss leaned over and pulled the rope above Ren, bringing him closer to the window. Grauss pointed to the night sky. “Do you see the triangular shaped constellation?”

Ren had seen the constellation multiple times before. When the constellation was first born there had only been the middle star. Over the years three other stars had been birthed from that star and were slowly moving outward to form a triangle. Ren knew Grauss had written about the constellation’s movement. The sage conjectured the three stars would stop when they reached equilateral points.

“Yes, I see,” Ren said, keeping in mind the sage had yet to fully answer the question about Ista.

“The constellation didn’t exist twenty-five years ago. You’re twenty-five are you not?”

“Yes, but I have nothing to do with the constellation.”

“You’re wrong, my prince. The middle star is you,” Grauss said, glancing out the metal partitions in the lattice. “Twenty-five years ago that star was born, on the equinox, on the balance. Over the past twenty-five years the three outlying stars have emerged from the middle star, slowly moving to their positions until they’ll finally reach equal distance between each other and the center star. When that happens they’ll be in perfect alignment, tied to the one that birthed them.

“But, the middle star hasn’t dwindled since they separated. On the contrary, it’s grown. Can you believe it? That’s a theoretical impossibility!”

Ren frowned. “I don’t see what this has to do with me.”

“Your birth created the star, caused it to be. You’re the synergy, the union. Because of you, other things will begin to live, to be, to exist. All these years I thought the stars would have to be in alignment for you to exist, but that isn’t so. You’re here, you’re whole, and you’ve already rebirthed the power. The stars that came from you aren’t you. On the contrary, they’re independent of you, but because of you, they are. It’s convoluted but that’s the case.

“You, the middle star, the one who grows larger though things are taken from him, can bring light or can bring dark. You, born on the equinox, will have to balance the light and dark inside you. Which side you choose will determine the fate of all mankind.” Grauss clapped his hands together as if he had just discovered the secret to life.

Ren shook his head in horror, causing the swing to creak and grown under his weight. Grauss clamped his hand over Ren’s mouth before Ren could speak.

“We are influenced by three external elements: choice, chance, and fate. Their influence affects what we do, as well as limits what we can do. However, the Maker also gave us an individual soul that has its own three internal elements: love, hate, and pain. Our internal elements influence the external elements, causing all six to be very unpredictable, hence chaotic. Though what appears like chaos to you to us theologians is underlying order. Yet the underlying order is very hard to predict for there’re many ways we can view the interaction. That’s why prophecies change. Some branch off, have different meanings, throw us a curve if you will. That’s why each roll of the dice influences something else. One thing influences other things.

“People are normally born with only one dominant external element. Although all are fated for an end, some are more fated than others. Meaning, some people’s fate can’t be easily altered. Others are more prone to chance and either luckily or unluckily spin through life. Still others are deeply impacted by their choices. Just as we are born under dominant external elements, we are also born through and develop dominant internal elements. The internal elements influence and react unpredictably when the outer elements are affecting our life. People rashly turn from the correct choice, or run from their fate, hence making prophecy something that needs to be read with caution.

“But the synergy was created through all the elements, both internal and external. That’s rare, almost impossible in fact, and powerful, extremely powerful, powerful enough to change the course of our world, to change history, and to even change the fate of all. You’re that person. You’re that power: the synergy, the balance, the union of all the elements into one.

“I don’t know the method of your birth, but you were created with the external elements of choice, chance, and fate as well as the internal elements of love, pain, and hate.” Grauss stuck one bony finger in the air. “But all six were in balance, weighted equally. They had to be, or you couldn’t have rebirthed the power. You will, if you haven’t already, grow the internal elements to be equal in you. This will make you even more powerful.

“Only one other thing in history was born from all the internal and external elements,” Grauss said.

“The Quy,” Ren said.

“Good, good!” Grauss said. “Only someone created with all the elements could be strong enough to rebirth something as powerful as magic. I’ve been studying the Maker’s stars for many years. The middle star is you. The triangle points are the external elements: choice, chance, and fate. These elements will help guide you, but they will also influence you. That’s why they separated. They don’t make you up, but they helped bring you to existence. They’re part of you, but they’re also external. They’re not easily changed, not easily altered. All these external points contain the internal elements because they were born through you, the synergy, which was born of all the internal elements as well: love, hate, and pain. This will make them strong. They’ll be strong for you to draw upon, for it’s the internal elements that allow you to use the power and allow you to have control and influence over the external elements. One person can be many, my prince, and you are all. You’re the synergy.”

Ren stared at Grauss, unsure if he should be honored or frightened. “Then what did you mean by three others?”

Grauss turned to gaze out the latticed window before his lips widened into a jester’s grin. “I’m a fool. All these years I thought magic’s rebirth would occur when all the stars were in alignment, but you’ve released the power. That can only mean three others will help you and give you power from which to draw. Once they’re in alignment, that’s when you’ll be, in some way, joined with them and able to draw from them.”