Fate of Dragons

Chapter Thirty, Part I

Magic energy channeled from Malía and Renna to Emric, who directed the spells toward the blank cavern wall. Tesa longed to enter the magic and observe its workings, but she didn't want to chance any interference with the spell. She would settle for letting Emric teach her how to make a door later.

As Emric neared the end of the spell to create the door, he began to move the energies to two small stones in his hand, like the keys that Tesa had become so familiar with for the doors that the Karume had used to sneak into the city of Areth and kidnap the dragons. Like those keys, too, when Emric forged the spell in the stones he now held in his hands, he etched a symbol in the face of the stone with his magic. The symbol was in the Yennar-Leian language, and described the spell and the destination of the door.

As Tesa watched the magic energies concentrate in the stones, Emric stood and approached the cavern wall. Above the blank space where the door would open, he placed one of the stones. It fused into place on the cavern wall as if it were a gem being glued into a setting. When Emric stepped back, the light of magic died down, and the spells went dormant, waiting only for the keystones to meet to activate the spell and open the door.

Malía opened her eyes and looked to Emric.

"Did it work?" she asked.

He nodded slowly. His shoulders slumped and he sat back down, putting a hand to his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Malía asked, concern in her voice.

Tesa approached and put a hand on Emric's.

"You've worn yourself out casting so many spells in a few days. Let me make you some tea," she said.

Renna leaned forward and put his hand on Emric's other hand, staring into his eyes. "She's right," he said after a moment of appraisal. "Take the tea, it'll help you recover before the riders come."

Emric nodded his agreement and they walked him to a seat not far from the nest. Torun blinked at him from his position curled around the eggs.

Tesa took a small hallway to another cave off of the main nest cave. This one was smaller, with lower ceilings more suited only to the riders, not large enough for dragons. Perhaps it had more space overall than the nest cave, but not all in one area. This cave's walls curved and ducked and wound around, forming many connected chambers. This is the area the dragon riders had chosen to make their camp in. Tesa went to the little alcove that she had been calling home and dug through her pack until she found the herbs she wanted. She returned to the nest cave with her tea and set a pot of water to boil over the hearth fire.

As the tea steeped in the steaming hot water, more riders began to enter the cave. They filed in through the opening Tesa had entered through and one other, which was just as skillfully hidden from the outside. Word must have gone out that the final door was finished. Now the riders would come into the cave, select the eggs they were to transport, and bring them to their final hiding places. When that was done, the riders could focus on finding a final place for the dragons and themselves to call home.

Despite the growing population of the cave, the sound did not seem to increase. The riders filed in silently, a few dragons with them. The rest of the dragons lurked in the trees surrounding the valley, keeping watch. Tesa sent a mental note of reassurance to Orrie, knowing that she would not be able to speak with him once she went through the door.

Emric thanked Tesa as he took the proffered mug of tea from her hands. His shoulders slumped and he bent over the mug as he sipped it. He seemed as if he could slip into sleep at any moment. Tesa wondered if he would make it long enough to see his work completed.

Riders waited in silence around the nest, making a circle one rider deep all the way around. As new riders arrived, they shuffled backward to make room. Maira took her place next to Torun, and the egg guardian dragon straightened up and uncurled himself from around the dragons' collective clutch of eggs. When Eriya and Gypsy arrived, they sidled through the circle of riders and took their places next to Maira and Torun.

Finally, all of the riders had arrived. Malía, looking almost as weary as Emric, joined Maira in the circle.

"The doors have been created. There are thirty doors, and forty-two eggs. Some will be hidden in pairs, so you will go in pairs. The rest will be hidden alone." She closed her eyes and bowed her head, seeming to gather herself.

Tesa's heart began to pound. The moment was really here. She felt a rush of excitement coupled with dread. In this act, the riders would be ensuring the future of the whole race of dragons, albeit a distant one. At the same time, they would be abandoning hope of any immediate future for the dragons that lived now, any return to the life they had lived not very long ago.

Malía lifted her head once more. "Dragons will fly in Arethia again," she said. "Please, choose your eggs."

Now Torun's great shape slithered around as he shifted onto all fours. Gypsy wiggled next to him. At a nod from Torun, Gypsy began to move around the circle of riders, nudging them with her nose when it was their turn to step forward and select an egg. After each rider chose an egg, she carried it to the space in the cavern wall that would open into her door.

When Tesa's turn came, her memories flashed back to the first time she'd held a dragon egg, Orrie's small, mottled, nondescript egg. Berick had compelled her to steal the egg, since, as a man, he could not handle a dragon egg himself. But he hadn't directed her to choose any specific egg out of the clutch, and Tesa had been drawn to Orrie's, which led it to hatch as she escaped the city of Areth through the tunnels.

The egg she chose now was moss green with flecks of rust red speckled around the bottom, wider part of the egg. Tesa wondered about the person who might one day be drawn to this egg, to the potential of the creature inside, and cause it to hatch. First, conditions in Arethia would have to return to those that would allow a hatching, bound magic would have to decrease, which would likely mean the Karume would no longer be in power. How long that would be, Tesa couldn't imagine. The dragons, however, had assured her the day would come, and that the eggs could wait, dormant, for any amount of time needed.

Tesa cradled the egg in her arms and sent a warm thought to Orrie with an image of the egg. She moved out of the circle around nest and found the symbol in the cavern wall above her door. From a pouch at her waist she drew the keystone that Emric had forged for this door. She looked left and right at the riders on either side of her, neither of whom she knew very well. They smiled nervously and shifted their grips on the eggs in their arms.

Once all of the eggs had been collected, and the riders stood ready at their doors, Malía spoke once again.

"Ready? Go forth."

Tesa stepped forward and pressed her keystone onto the symbol in the wall before her. When the stones met, they glowed white to confirm that the spell had worked. The cave wall shimmered and glowed, then the light dimmed. Now, instead of a cave wall before her, there was a tunnel. Since Tesa's destination was another cave, the door barely even seemed to lead to a different place. She glanced at the door to her right. That rider was headed into a forest with thick tangles of underbrush. To her left, water glittered under the midday sun. Tesa nodded again to the riders beside her.

Then, she stepped through the door.