Princess Ahira (30 page)

I frowned, he looked quite serious and almost a little cold. It wasn’t the usual expression he wore when meeting with the sweet tempered Rose and the practical jokester Shammah.

Azmaveth opened the door and sat back on his haunches. Rose a
nd Shammah were quietly talking but
finished after several moments. Zerah was standing a ways down the driveway, his usual mask of snobbery in place.

             
I stared at the dragons I thought I had come to know.
Rose’s usually rose red scales were an angry bl
ood red that matched her eyes.
Shammah’s sh
iny sea green scales had taken on a
sullen
gleam
, and Zerah
’s silver blue hue looked more icy and irritated than usual
. 

             
“Come in,”
Azmaveth stiffly invited
. 
Rose and Shammah shuffled inside, ignoring me. Zerah paused in the doorway, lowering his great head to affectionately nudge me. Rose turned and darkly glared at him as he lifted his head up and glided past her.

             
We reached the main room of th
e den and Azmaveth dismissed me
.
I walked down the kitchen hallway but
, as was practice, I
stopped
and sat
down when I was out of sight.

             
“The war is not going well,” Shammah bluntly started.
“We are gathering all of our available resources, but I don’t think the result will be in our favor.
The v
alkyrie are starting to use high
er
level curses
when they sing. W
e dragons have no natural defense against
that
.
” 

             
“
We are in trouble
,”
Rose
uttered
in a dark voice.

             
There was
a paused and then Zerah spoke.
“Ahira is loved by her country
, Ardeo
, perhaps we could ask her to
rally her people and help us.
They are mere humans, but we do need all the allies we can get. Besides, I’m sure they can at least do as much as the gnomes
.”

             
“Human
s can do nothing!” Rose spat.
“They are useless creatures who have no point in lif
e except to feed off of others.
And Ahira
, what
could she do? She’s nothing but a princess,” s
he sneered.

             
“Leave Ahira out of this,”
Azmave
th growled, shaking the floor. H
e sounded murderous. 

             
Ther
e was an uncomfortable silence.
“The King wants you a
nd Zerah to lead us into battle,”
Shammah final
ly said.
“
He can’t be at the front lines, being king and all. You’re the next best thing
, Azmaveth
.” 

             
“What of the Ke
eper, how much can he help us?”
Zerah asked.

             
“Very little.
He is utterly useless unless he can break his blasted curse and return to hi
s real form,”
Rose scorned.
“It’s taking everything he’s got to keep the valkyrie out of the forest.”

             
“It is hopeless,
” Shammah said, sounding weary and defeated. 

They continued to talk and argue late into the night, but it was
Shammah’s words that stayed with me.

I went to bed that
evening
, wondering if Azmaveth, Kohath, Zerah, L
evi, Behemoth, Tuggles, and all the
other friends I had made would be safe.

This meeting marked the beginning change. After this day those around me began to act differently. Azmaveth had more mood swings than my mother. Some days he would howl for me at all hours, and other days he would be gone from sunup to sundown.

On
the days that Azmaveth was gone
Kohath stuck to me like a burr. It was like everything, from beat
ing
out rugs to reorganizing the library, was absolutely fascinating and needed supervision. What
really
weirded me out was that sometimes Kohath wouldn’t even talk when he watched me. He would just sit and stare, as though he were memorizing my movements for a mental collection.

Whenever Zerah came over he would spe
ak softly, as though I might break
. Levi, his steward, would come over for tea every few days.
It was a little awkward because I really didn’t know him that well.
He would do nothing but
uncomfortably
stare at th
e china set as I poured the tea.
All the same, he always returned at another date, determined to have tea with me.

In the midst of those changes
Kohath
dragged me to a large meadow right before dusk.
The
fairies danced on the dewy leaves and vibrant grass, occasionally flying across the dusty pink sky. A
few of
them played in my hair, messing with my braids.

A little nymph had even ventured far enoug
h out of her stream to greet us. She wrapped a little, blue, webbed hand around my thumb while peering into my face. She occasionally glanced over at Kohath, clearly able to sense his melancholy spirit.

I played with the nymph and kept quiet.
Kohath had something on his mind
, and disturbing him wouldn’t help.
Sure enough
after several quiet minutes he spoke up. “Ahira, no matter what happens
,
you will be safe. I promise.”

I turned
to face him
, careful not to upset the daisy fa
iry sitting on top of my head.
“What?”
I asked, barely shifting from my sitting position.

Kohath refolded a leg and glanced in my direction.
“Even if the dragons lose the war, Azmaveth
will make sure you are safe.”
 

As my eyes bugged out of
my skull, and while I thought about
the implications of this message Kohath laid down on the dewy grass.

“The dragons will win,” I surely said.

“Th
ey’ll try,” Azmaveth grimly replied
.

“Dragons are dragons! There’s nothing more powerful than them!” I announced.

“The valkyrie are messing with the dark arts though,” Kohath shrugged. “They’ve already killed three dragons with death curses.”

“They’re dragons! They can beat curses,” I shakily promised.

“No, Ahira. Even dragons aren’t all powerful. They have no natural defense against cruses,” Kohath said.
His words reminded me of Shammah’s warning.

“Well surely there must be
something
that can help them
,” I tisked.

Kohath shrugged. “We’ll have to depend on the human wizards. The dragons have only a few tools that can be used to break curses, and none of them are dragon
compatible
.”

While I tried to sort out what this meant a leafy tree spirit ambled through the meadow, bowing at Kohath and I with willowy limbs.

Kohath had to be wrong. There had to be a way to keep the valkyrie from winning.

A few days later I was strolling through the forest, searching for mushrooms. Mushroom hunting is a pretty fun activity, but it’s a lot easier when you have a pig that can sniff them out. Because I had no swine to my name, instead I had to scrounge around on the ground.

I didn’t mind too much. It was nice to get out of the den for a breath of fresh air, and dirt was never anything that majorly disgusted me. (Unless it was in Azmaveth’s den.)

I was so concentrated on my dirty task that I barely heard the overtly evil laughter that drifted through the forest.

I straightened up and felt my heart increase its pace. “Oh great,” I muttered. “It’s that stupid valkyrie spy, Trila.”

Now a part of me had a
very
healthy
fear of Trila. But another part of me found her intolerable and annoying. Both parts of me were voicing their thoughts as Trila fell out of a tree, practically landing on me.

“Hahah! I have found you again you pathetic and wretched human!” Trila laughed. 

I frowned and felt the inside of my skirt for
my flute, but she was too fast.
In a flash she ha
d me pinned up against a tree. She
snatched the flute out of my grasp and scowled. 

“This time I’m prepared too!” she sneered as I gulped.
She let me go and I slid to the
forest
floor.

“So to beat a
puny
, human princess you have to be prepared?” I asked, internally horrified. I
had
to start controlling my tongue, one day it would be the death of me.

Trila turned an interesting shade of red that clashed horribly with her beetle-like outfit
.

“Impudent girl!” she roared.
“I could
kill
you any moment I want! It’s your allies that are worrisome.” 

“Oh. So it’s Azmaveth you’re scared of.”

Trila scoffed. “This v
alkyrie is never scared! Just worried
…
” 

I picked up a rock and inspected it, appearing to be un
interested and bored with her. “Uh-huh, I’m sure.”

Trila ruffled her beetle wings and narrowed her eyes.
“You, girl,
do not understand the severity of the situation
! Be grateful that I
, not the Grand Master,
am killing you!”

“Pft!
Azmaveth or Zerah could sit on her and then the
re would be no more Great
Moron
,” I said, tossing the rock aside
.

“It’s
Grand Master
!” She howled.

“You say master, I say moron,” I shrugged while plucking a piece of grass. I tried to keep my hands busy so Trila wouldn’t n
otice they were shaking. I was worried. N
o one had come for me yet.

Trila huffed and
tried to think of a comeback.
Her mind was coming up with a blank so she decided attacking me was the next best thing.

“Die human!” s
he screamed as she launched herself at me. 

Poor, poor Trila. She always tries to stab me at the worst possible moment.

Once
a
gain a
sword blocked her brandish. This time, to my surprise, it was Levi instead of Kohath who waltzed in to save me.

“I believe Kohath made it perfectly clear before that this
girl was to be left alone,” Levi said in his silky cold voice.
“Since you did not listen to him I will
administer a proper punishment.”

Trila screamed but was
silenced when an ice c
asing covered her entire body.
A blinding,
chilly
lig
ht appeared and Trila was gone. Only her wimpy blade remained.

Levi sheathed his sword and walked
over to me, shaking his head.

“One day your mouth is going to get you in a lot of trouble, Princess. Come to think of it, it already has,” Levi sarcastically announced.

I pinched my face, trying to control my
raging emotions
before thanking the snobby steward. Levi, however, shocked the petticoats off me by sauntering up to me and pulling me into an embrace.

“Thanks?” I
said into his shirt. I waited for several moments before carefully lifting my arms around Levi’s neck, settling them on his shoulders.

In spite of the cool air he seemed to radiate he was quite warm.

“Ahira, Ahira, Ahira,” Levi
sighed
, disengaging the hug.
He lifted
my chin up, forc
ing me to stare into his grey
eyes.
“Whatever
are we going to do with you
?” h
e asked
without really expecting a reply
.
“Ahira, no matter what happens, you
must
trust Azmaveth
and Zerah
.
No matter what, do
you understand?” h
e asked, holding me by my arms.