Treasure So Rare (Women of Strength Time Travel Trilogy) (27 page)

"I did not forget."

"They felt your wrath and understood the power you
could bring down upon their heads. And now that the gem is restored..."

Iliana laughed. "I am glad they are gone, but what
power do I hold? It is only today that I was finally able to find the green
gem."

"You hold all the power in your hands," Sorenta
said softly. "Never forget. Your course will be as it was meant to be, as
you willed it to be," she added, standing up.

Iliana stared at Sorenta, then she focused on the dragon
tapestry behind her as it suddenly seemed to move. "That dragon --"

"You never claimed your life tapestry," Sorenta
said, staring at Erik, her head tilted knowingly.

He shrugged. "I did not find it."

"Even now as you look into its face?"

Erik narrowed his eyes, then he too stared at the dragon
tapestry.

With a gnarled hand, Sorenta flipped the one side of the
tapestry, showing the light colored threads on the back surface.

Iliana clapped her hands. "Erik, it is the back of the
tapestry."

Quickly, he removed the tapestry from its pegs on the wall.
Erik placed it upon the large wooden table used for the meals, and smoothed it
with his hand.

He studied the tapestry, his expression wary. "It is
strange to me to see my life as a tapestry." He studied the finely woven
threads, and Iliana could see the scenes taking shape. Suddenly, his expression
became grim.

Iliana gripped his arm. "Erik, what is it?"

He pointed to the tapestry. "Dragons come this way,
both large and small."

Rowenna cried out, "But the curse is lifted, surely the
sorcerer no longer has any power?"

Grimly, Iliana said, "I have thought about this. His
powers were less forceful when he first arrived. Now, having gained entry to
the sacred circle, he seems to have otherworldly power."

Erik leaned down toward her and said quietly. "I fear
his power most likely comes from a pact with the devil."

"How can we defeat this monster?"

"We must best him at his own game," Erik said. He
moved toward the open doorway and stood there, looking up into the sky. "A
black cloud," he said grimly.

"The dragons," Sorenta muttered.

Iliana continued to stare at the tapestry. As she watched, a
curious scene began to form. "Erik --" she stared at him, but he was
busy securing the room. "Erik, your tapestry -- it is creating a possible
future, something I have never seen a life tapestry do." She looked up at
him.

"Let it do what it will," he said. "We have
more important matters to attend to."

Iliana saw them leaving this place, but then the tapestry
was pushed aside. "Erik!"

"We have no time being preoccupied with that, I am
concerned with here and now."

Iliana agreed, but she wished she had been able to see the
outcome.

Thomas the carpenter and young Edward rolled the last wooden
barrel into the courtyard. "Hurry, bring the barrels inside." Erik
said. He looked up beyond the stone turrets at the sky now buzzing with the
approaching cloud of dragons.

"Once the dragons land, we're all doomed," Thomas
said glumly.

Edward looked at him with admiration. "Your plan will
save us, my lord. I feel we have hope with you here. The barrels are a good
hiding place," he added.

Thomas scratched his head. "Or the well is a good place
to hide, if you don't drown. They can't abide water."

"Hmm, well, all I know about dragons is myth,"
Erik said, rolling a barrel in front of him toward the doorway into the great
hall. "Tell me, do they also breathe fire?"

Edward looked at him with wide eyes, and Thomas shrugged.
"The fighter dragons? Nay, no fire," he said, rolling a barrel.
"They'll just rip you from your toes to your ears."

Erik lifted a brow but thought it wise not to comment.
"The only room that may be large and secure enough might be the great hall
and the cellars. Quickly get the women and children inside. They have already
blocked off any means that would allow the dragons entry? Fire pits, openings
and any access to the outside. Have the men who are willing to stand and fight
report to me. They should be told we may not all survive," Erik added.

"Aye." Thomas mumbled. "None of us may
survive."

¤¤

Erik felt they had made a good job closing off any possible
entry by the dragons. But he still feared that like mice, they would find their
way inside. Finally, they bolted the main door with a long iron poker.

Erik looked around the hall, double checking for any
openings that may have been overlooked.

Iliana came up behind him, and he lifted William from her
arms and held the boy, pushing the hair from his forehead, staring down into
the boy's green eyes. "We shall come out all right, then, won't we
William?" he asked with a smile.

"Will we, Erik?" Iliana whispered beside him.

Erik reached out his hand and touched her dark hair, letting
his hand rest on her shoulder in reassurance. There was nothing else he could
do for he did not know the outcome.

The men and women who had volunteered to fight stood with
their backs against the walls, warily looking all around, alert for signs of
the dragons. Most were armed with wooden bread peels, and Erik stared at the
flat wooden surfaces of their paddles. At the moment a loud slapping began at
the heavy wooden door.

"Erik, I fear they will find their way inside,"
Iliana said.

"If they do, we shall only have one chance to stun them
using the paddle. The barrels must be manned by two people. One to keep the
barrel steady, and the second man to lift the barrel lid and drop the stunned
dragon inside and then keep the lid in place."

"Are we to capture the fiendish things then?" asked
Thomas. "They'll slash our hands for our efforts."

Erik looked around the room at the fearful expressions.
"Unless you have a better idea, it will have to do. We capture them and
trap them in the barrel." He looked at Iliana. "I would prefer you to
go to the cellars with the rest, keeping the children and elderly from harm's
way."

"I will fight by your side," she said, and took a
deep breath. "William and the others will be safer below. Let us hope it
is over quickly. You know I must see this to its end. It is my calling to be
here, after all."

¤¤

The small but vicious fighter dragons flew down into the
wide cavern of a fireplace. Some fell onto the flaming logs and turned to white
puffs of smoke, others rolled out past the flames and disintegrated into a small
powdery mound on the stone floor. Erik found it curious but conceded at least
there were no messy carcasses to be removed later.

The ones who escaped harm and tumbled unscathed onto the
stone floor, were quickly stunned with the paddles and placed into the barrels.

"They disappear in a puff of smoke," Iliana
marveled.

"They go back to the nether world from whence they were
conjured," Sorenta said with satisfaction.

Erik lifted a brow. "Devanesque created them with
magic?"

"Yes, and they overrun our world at his command,"
Iliana said.

Suddenly, the room was swarmed by the tiny creatures.

"Erik, the door!" Iliana cried, using her paddle
to great effort as two fighter dragons flew in front of her. They fell to the
floor stunned and Thomas quickly grabbed them by their tails and dropped them
into one of the waiting barrels.

Erik swatted another one with his hand. "Reminds me of
times I engaged in tennis while visiting England," he said with a grin.

"Tennis?" Iliana said, but Erik hurried toward the
massive oak door, immediately seeing the fighter dragons as they squeezed in
under the small opening beneath the door. He looked around, saw his life
tapestry lying upon the trestle table, and quickly grabbed it and stuffed it
into the space under the door.

He swatted at the fighter dragons swarming his head, and then
they bit into the flesh at the back of his neck. Swatting at the varmints with
one hand, he came to his feet, staggering a moment as their weight tried to
propel him backward.

"Erik, be still!" Iliana cried, pulling one dragon
and then another from him and dashing them to the floor. Erik grabbed the tiny
beasts, one in each hand as they lay stunned a moment.

"Here." One of the young lads pushed a barrel
closer to him and opened the lid slightly and Erik dropped the two dragons
inside.

"Erik, you're bleeding."

He turned to Iliana. "I am fine. Let us dispose of the
rest." And even as he spoke six more dragons were stunned and dropped into
the barrels.

He looked around, satisfied the dragons for the moment had
been captured.

"That seems to be all that have managed to get
inside," Thomas said cautiously.

"Well, keep a close watch in case there are any hiding
or lying in wait." Erik scanned the high ceiling, then looked at Iliana.
He moved to her, staring with dismay at her bloody hands. "You were hurt
trying to help me," he said. Gently, he urged her to the trestle table and
a chair. He looked around the room. "Is anyone else in need of attention
to their wounds? Sorenta?"

"I have the healing herbs." Calmly, Sorenta sat
beside Iliana and took over the care of her hands. Three others also sat down
on the chairs, one with a slash to her elbow, a young lad with a bite on his
ear and head, and Thomas with several minor slashes in his leg.

"We were lucky," Iliana said, wincing as Sorenta
rubbed an herbal cream into the cuts on her fingers and a slash on her palm.
"It could have been much worse." Sorenta lightly bound her palm with
linen. "Much worse. When I think of Ulrich..."

"Aye, Ulrich paid a high price."

"He did it willingly," Sorenta said. "He knew
the price of defiance." She smiled and nodded sagely, staring at Erik.
"You owe him a greater debt of gratitude than you know, pretender. He
saved your son," she added softly.

Erik frowned. "Yes, Iliana's son."

"And yours."

Erik stared at her and then he smiled. "Yes, I love the
little one."

Iliana gripped Sorenta's hands. "Wait. What are you
saying?"

"I am saying your child is also the pretender's
child."

Iliana stood and Erik came to her side. Her breath rose and
fell quickly, as if she had run a great distance. She looked up at him.
"Erik..." She shook her head. "No, how can that be?"

"It is so," Sorenta said complacently. "Why
question the how and why? Be content with what is."

Iliana gazed at him with an expression of fear and love in
her eyes.

"It is very quiet," Thomas said from across the
room, drawing their attention. He looked to Erik for guidance. "Could they
be gone?"

Erik wanted to pursue what Sorenta had so calmly stated, but
it was not the time. They still faced a life or death struggle with Mandrak.

Still, a sense of wonder filled him. His thoughts raced.
William was his son.

¤¤

Carefully, they lifted the iron bar from the doorway,
removed Erik's rolled up life tapestry which was now tattered and frayed, and
Erik opened the massive wood door just enough so that he could look outside.

He pulled the door fully open, staring in amazement at the
courtyard which was now covered by a fine white dust.

Iliana came to stand in the archway, as did Thomas and the
others who crowded behind them to see what lay outside.

Erik stepped outside, then moved back quickly as an enormous
wer-dragon flew overhead. He remained hidden from sight, watching as the dragon
circled back, then seemed to fly a serpentine route, back and forth. A second
wer-dragon joined the first and they seemed almost to be patrolling the skies.

"More fighter dragons," Thomas cried, urging
everyone to step back into the stone archway.

As Erik watched, a blast of fire erupted from the sky,
engulfing a small swarm of fighter dragons in the courtyard. Like snowflakes,
white dust floated gently to the ground.

"The wer-dragons are killing the fighter dragons,"
Iliana said in awe.

"And why would they not?" asked Sorenta. "The
wer-dragons are the protectors of the sky. They are taking back what Mandrak
has turned black with his evil game."

¤¤

Mandrak walked into the castle through the open gate. He
narrowed his eyes, clearly displeased at the scene before him. "Oh, sad
day, you have killed my loyal fighters."

He then looked up to the skies and the hovering wer-dragons.
With a grimace of distaste he waved his hand at them. "Fly off. You have
dispensed with my fighters. Be off, I say."

"No doubt you are next on their minds," Erik said,
confronting Devanesque. He stared in morbid fascination at the rotting skin on
the entire right side of the man's skull. "How the devil can you walk
around a rotting corpse?"

"A trivial concern," Devanesque said. "Surely
you have more pressing concerns, such as your own personal safety? Shouldn't
you be hiding like children within your stone walls?"

"We have defeated you yet again," Iliana said.

Devanesque brought his attention to her. "You should
have an abundance of fear, my lady. Especially since you have something I
want," he said softly.

"It belongs to the people of Dutton Keep now,"
Iliana said, lifting her chin.

"That was a pretty trick, distracting me with a lesser
gem, even as large as it was," he said. "Now take me to the real
emerald."

"It is in its rightful place."

He stared at the area where the sacred circle of trees once
stood. "I think not." He strode toward the area where the green
emerald now resided in the fine sand.

¤¤

Devanesque stared at the green gem, its size more than he
had ever expected, the brightness and clarity speaking of the power he could
feel emanating from the stone. He stood still, letting the energy flow into
him, the purity of its power a siren call that had beckoned him across time. He
studied the intricate symbols etched across its surface, leaned down on one
knee to trace the ancient carvings. Sparks flew from the stone to his hand and
traveled up his arm, forcefully jolting him and then pushing him back as if a
giant hand had shoved him.