AutumnQuest (15 page)

Two slow breaths and I was deep in meditation. I’d never found my calm center so quickly. I felt a strange vibration, one like I’d never felt before. It seemed to emanate from the crown of my head to the boulder directly in front of me, then to the one behind my right shoulder and on to the third one. It joined the first and continued circling until I felt as if I were engulfed in a thick net of unseen energy. My hair seemed to be standing out from my head, and a shiver went down my spine. The air around me buzzed.

“Donavah!” Xyla’s voice! I tried to open my eyes, only to find that I couldn’t. Or had I? Was I suddenly blind?

“Xyla!” I thought I cried out aloud, but no sound reached my ears. I swallowed against the rising panic. “Xyla?”

“I am far away. I cannot reach you.” I sensed anguish in Xyla’s tone, and this more than anything helped me to get my own emotions under some semblance of control.

“What’s happened, Xyla? Where are you?”

“I do not know, but there are many men all around. Dragons, too.” There was a long pause. “I cannot see the sky or feel the wind. I can scarcely breathe.”

“How? How did they get you there?”

“I waited for you where we agreed, but men came. Unexpected. Many arrows pierced my skin. Poison. They enchanted me with poisoned magic.”

Her voice faded. Others took its place.

“Girl!” Yallick shouted. “You will doom us all.”

Then Oleeda. “You must rescue her. Do not let us down.”

Other voices I didn’t recognize swirled around me.

“You have the strength. Use it.”

“The fate of the dragons rests with you.”

“We believe in you.”

A jolt shook me, as if something were breaking my bones apart. I cried out in pain, but the sound was sucked away into a rushing vortex. Then I was spinning with dizzying speed, whirling round and round, unable to tell where that which was me ended and that which was not me began.

Just when I thought I must surely give up my spirit and die, the spinning stopped. Eyes squeezed tightly shut, I tried to regain my equilibrium. When my thoughts came back into focus, I opened my eyes.

It was like trying to peer through a thick fog.

The ground all around me was flat. With a start, I realized that I couldn’t feel it under me; I felt nothing at all. Unable to move, I could only watch.

Shapes moved in the fog, and as I concentrated, they resolved into dragons. Many dragons. They seemed to be grouped around something, but I couldn’t see what.

Life vibrations washed over me: vibrations of excitement and pleasure. Nothing like what I’d felt moments—or was it hours?—ago from Xyla. Who were these dragons? What had they done to my friend?

As if my thoughts of her caused her to sense me, Xyla’s voice came into my head as if from a great distance. “Donavah?” She sounded joyous and carefree.

Confused, I tried to frame my thoughts into words—one word—Xyla’s name. But before I could, something ripped me away again.

My body began to disintegrate. I screamed.

Then nothing. Blissful nothingness.

I opened my eyes again. Bright golden light shone all around, like being inside the sun. Strands of silver pulsed through the gold, almost like thoughts or words traveling on the air. The colored candles glowed like molten lava spikes, though their flames were lost in the glow all around me. Then I realized that I no longer sat on the pile of leaves I’d made, but on a cushion of air, suspended at least a foot above the ground! Disoriented, I tried to move.

With a sickening lurch, everything went black once again. Black and silent.

Oleeda~

The girl has gone. I failed to impress upon her the gravity of our mission or her place in it.

More frightening still, the creature with whom she travels has grown to adulthood in a single night. I suspect but cannot confirm what magic has been used to effect this transformation, but I fear it does not bode well that she has matured outside the reach of our care.

I tremble at the thought of what the coming days and months will bring. The whole world is askew, and all over a chit of a girl. If you can get away, please come and advise.

~Y~

Upon waking, I immediately rolled over and vomited. A hand supported my head, but for several moments, I was too involved with emptying my stomach to notice.

“That’s it,” said a high-pitched, crackly voice, “Get rid of it. You’ll feel much better.” She continued to chatter in rhythm with my retching.

The odor rising from the bowl just seemed to make me more sick, but eventually, I lay back on the bed and stared weakly up at the ceiling of the room. Bed? Room? I tried to sit up, but a severe pain in my head forced me to slump back against the soft pillow.

“Where?” It came out as a whisper.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of you. You’ll be fine soon.”

“No. Really. Where am I?” The five short words felt like fire ripping through my throat. With every passing second, I seemed to discover a new pain in my body. My ears rang in two pitches. My back ached. Knees, ankles, shoulders, knuckles. Even my hair seemed to hurt. But I desperately needed to know where I was.

The woman’s voice, which had been prattling on although I hadn’t heard a word she’d said, stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, “Penwick, my dear. You’re in Penwick. Now drink this.”

A flexible reed was placed gently between my lips. “Drink,” she repeated. I sipped. A soothing, fruit-flavored liquid dribbled across my parched tongue and down my throat. Almost instantly, the pain went away, followed moments later by my consciousness.

Waking up next time was like trying to swim through wool. I lay there, groggy, trying to remember where I was, and why. I felt more than heard movement, and a few moments later a dim light appeared near the bed on which I lay.

I blinked a couple of times, and though tears came, I was pleased to find that my eyes didn’t actually hurt.

“Are you better now?” said the same voice from before. “Yes. You are. Ralli tells me so.”

“Who’s Ralli? Who are you?” And this time, it didn’t hurt to speak.

A white cat jumped onto the foot of my bed and sat down with a prim twitch of his tail.

“That’s Ralli. I’m Tebina.”

“I’m . . .” I stopped, confused. Who was I?

“Donavah. Yes. I know.”

Hearing my own name seemed to bring me rushing back to myself. I closed my eyes against the strange sensation of thoughts filling up my head to replace a thick, grey mist. It didn’t occur to me to wonder how she knew my name.

“Breyard!” I gasped. Once again, I struggled to sit up, but Tebina placed a hand on my chest. Her touch was warm and seemed to pulse in rhythm with my heart.

“You must stay abed a few more days. You’ve barely begun to recover.”

“I need to save my brother! How long have I been sick?” Terror that it might be too late clenched my heart.

“Just a few days, Donavah. But you’ve been extremely ill. You must listen to me.”

“No! You listen to me! My brother is going to die in a few days if I don’t do something to save him. There’s no way I’m going to let you or anyone else stop me.”

This short speech left me weak and gasping for breath. Tears of frustration sprang to my eyes as I realized that my own body might well betray me—and after everything I’d done!

“Donavah.” Tebina’s voice was quiet, tender. “You don’t understand what has happened. It’s little short of a miracle that you aren’t dead. I will explain when you are stronger. For now, you must eat this restorative soup I’ve made. I will do what I can to nurse you back to health, but you must bear some of the responsibility for yourself by following my instructions.”

I gazed at her in the dim light. Her wrinkled face looked somehow both stern and kindly. One thing we agreed upon: I needed to regain my strength. So I nodded in agreement.

Ralli padded up the bed and lay down next to my shoulder. Tebina helped me sit up, adjusted the pillow so I could lean back against it, and brought me a tray.

The meat soup was fragrant with healing herbs, and a bread roll, so fresh it was almost too hot to touch, sat next to the bowl. I could almost feel my body absorbing the virtue from the food. When I’d finished eating the small meal, I felt quite full, but Tebina made me drink another draught before helping me slide back under the covers. Ralli, fast asleep, purred as I buried a hand in his fur. Within moments, I fell asleep, too.

For two days, I did nothing but sleep and eat Tebina’s healing broths and stews. I quickly gained strength. It became more and more difficult for Tebina to keep me in bed, as my anxiety about Breyard grew.

Finally, desperate that I should understand her concern and obey her, Tebina told me what had happened.

She started out explaining that the three boulders between which I’d unwittingly decided to camp were the centerpiece of an ancient stone circle.

“It was one of the most sacred maejic sites in this part of the world.”

I sat up straight and looked warily at her. Was this a joke? Some kind of test? A trap? Tebina looked at me, her light brown eyes not flinching. I swallowed.

“A magic site?” I asked, purposely using the wrong word.

“You heard what I said the first time.”

I stared at her, trying to decide what to say. A denial seemed easiest. “I’m not maejic.”

She let out a snort of derision. “Denying it doesn’t make it less true. One cannot wish power away.” A pause before she muttered, almost under her breath, “Especially not power like yours.”

“I’m not maejic,” I repeated. “I might be good with magic; I haven’t studied long enough to find out. But that’s it. Nothing more.”

“And yet you talk to dragons.” The challenge in her voice was unmistakable.

She had me there. “How . . . how do you know that?”

A roll of her eyes. “Because you’re here. Don’t frown at me like that. Let me explain. When you meditated in the stone circle, you inadvertently activated a resonance vibration. Quite a strong one. Didn’t you hear voices?”

The memory came flooding back. Xyla. Oleeda. Yallick. Others I didn’t recognize. “Yes, I did.”

“The entire maejic community on the continent—maybe beyond—tuned in.” She broke off, took a deep breath, and continued. “You couldn’t have known what you were doing, and it remains to be seen the full extent of the consequences.”

That sounded ominous. “What do you mean, consequences?
What
happened?”

She cleared her throat. “Xyla also felt your vibrations and tried to go to you. She’s been captured and is now captive in the stable for the fighting pits. She tried to free herself. But though the ancient power of the dragons is strong in her, it is still immature.”

“It took her to Stychs once.” The words came out of my mouth as if by accident.

Tebina’s eyes narrowed until all I could see were little pinpricks of reflected light. “Stychs?”

I sighed. At least I didn’t have to worry about telling her too much, since I didn’t know much myself. “She went there to grow. When I went to bed one night, she was a tiny baby, and the next morning, there she was, full grown and everything.” I didn’t add that Yallick had been upset by the whole thing.

She raised a hand to cover her mouth and started pacing up and down the room. Then she shook herself and stood in front of me again. “No matter. I can contemplate the significance of that later. For now, you must understand what happened. When Xyla tried to escape the dragonmasters—”

“Dragonmasters?” I interrupted. “Who are they?”

“They are Erno’s most powerful magicians. Their magic is strong enough to control the beasts, force them to do their will. You don’t think they would fight in the pits if they had a choice, do you?” I hadn’t actually thought about it at all, but I just shook my head.

“When Xyla tried to escape and go to you, her power and the dragonmasters’ counterspells created a massive disturbance in the vibrational field. We felt you there, we felt Xyla, and of course we felt each other. We all exerted much energy to keep the field intact. Then suddenly both you and Xyla seemed to disappear into a rip of the fabric of the world. That broke the resonance vibration, and the connection shattered.” She reached out to stroke the cat, who arched up against her hand. “Ralli watched over me until I came to myself.”

Ralli stared into my eyes. “I told her you were nearby,” he said. “I led her to you.”

I scowled at the cat, then asked Tebina, “But what happened to Xyla? Where is she?” Dread soured my stomach and seemed to take my very breath away.

“We don’t know,” came the unwelcome answer. “We have felt no trace of her since then.”

“Do you think . . . she’s dead?” I swallowed over the lump that rose in my throat.

Tebina sighed and seemed to shrink a little. “Now, please. Do as I say. We don’t want to risk losing you, too.”

“I’m no one special, and I’m certainly not one of you.” I put as much stubbornness into my voice as I could summon.

She gave me a long stare. “If you say so,” she said, though the words had an ironic tone. “Another healing draught and then more sleep for you.”