Swords of the Six (13 page)

* * *

When breakfast had been cleaned off the table the sisters’ hostess hobbled ahead of them into her living room. The brick fireplace filled the north wall and a low fire crackled, sending a narrow band of smoke up the chimney. A long sofa, upholstered in flowered cloth, stood against the west wall and under the window that looked out over the flower gardens to the Eiderveis River. Two other sofas occupied the room along with five high-backed chairs, two of them rested on either side of the hearth.

The cottage had appeared to be nothing more than a small structure from outside. Now, looking around at the interior, Dantress marveled at how much more there was than at first met the eye. After all, it had enough bedrooms to accommodate all of her sisters, herself, and the old woman. There was even a little stairway in the south end, and she would not be the least bit surprised if that led to more rooms.

“Sit, my dears, and I will tell you why you have come.” The old woman waited until each of the young women sat down, and then she straightened her back and held her chin high.

“Many are the years that I have lived and many are the things that I have witnessed. I am old, eh?” She glanced from one face to the next. “Aye, I
am
old and I have served faithfully the great white dragon for all my days and will do so until my dying breath. He it was that saved this world from the wizard Hermenuedis when no other being was left to stop him.

“I know what you are, daughters of the great white dragon! You are literally and fully dragon, yet born in human form. You have come to the shores of the Eiderveis River with the weapons of the Six, and you have come to deal with the first among those who escaped justice. His name is Kesla. He dwells in the ruins of the ancient temple, Al’un Dai. Were it not for him, the prince of Prunesia, young Brian of Millencourt, may have lived . . . as would Xavion, captain of the Six.

“There are three of the Six that number among the living, three Accursed Ones who must either turn from their wicked path and repent of their deeds or pay with their own lives. Letrias departed this region of the world ages ago. He is now beyond my sight. Auron wandered these lands, but he too left, and I know not where he has gone, though I suspect he followed Letrias, for he did always seem to esteem and follow him.

“You are here, daughters of the dragon, not to discover where these last two have gone. Instead you have been sent to deliver an offer of pardon to the man who even now dwells in Al’un Dai, but if he will not repent and turn from his wickedness then you are here to take his life with the very same weapons that he once used to betray innocent blood.”

For a little while the sisters gaped at her.
If he will not repent and turn from his wickedness then you are here to take his life.
The line kept running through Dantress’s mind.

At last Caritha stood and frowned. “You are asking us to go and find a man that we have never met and kill him? We aren’t even seventeen yet!”

“Ah! If it is necessary then yes, Kesla must be dealt with, and you are the ones whom the dragon has sent.”

“He didn’t say anything about killing,” Dantress stood, feeling a rush of heat pass up her back and flush her cheeks. “I don’t want to kill anyone! Not even if he
is
a murderer.”

“What would you do, child? Eh? Would you have your father kill the man, or would you have someone else do it? Or would you prefer us to do nothing and let evil continue to spread until every innocent creature, and every man, woman, and child are enslaved because of our inaction? No, justice must be served, and the dragon’s judgment is final.

“If you are able to convince Kesla of his wrong, if he repents, then he will be pardoned.
But
,” she added, raising her hand as Dantress let out the breath she’d been holding, “if the man will not turn from his wickedness then he must pay the price of his deeds.”

Caritha walked over to the window and gazed out. Dantress watched her, keeping quiet so as to let her think. Several minutes passed before Caritha turned to face the old woman. “We will go to Al’un Dai, as Father wished,
and
we will find Kesla.”

“Now you are seein' reason!” the old woman said.

“I did not finish,” Caritha said. “When we find Kesla we will deal with him as seems best to us at the time, but we will not kill him unless he first attacks us. He will be brought to justice—we will see to that—yet we will not murder him. Instead we will bring him to Father for judgment.”

“Judgment has already been passed on this man, my dear. He does deserve death.”

“Yet, we will not kill except as a last resort,” Caritha replied firmly. “If Father gives him death, then so be it.”

“So be it.” The old woman smiled, hunching over again, and hobbled to the door. She held it open. The fragrant scent of flowers blew inside with a warm and steady breeze. “Go down to the river and wait there until the water divides so that you may pass to the other side. Then head west through the forest.

"Watch your step; there are foul creatures lurkin' out there that will tear you apart if you give them the opportunity! The ruins of the dark temple of Al’un Dai lie in the west. You will find Kesla there . . . Take my warning, eh? Watch your step!”

Kissing each of them on the cheek the old woman held the door open until they left and then closed it.

Caritha led the way down to the Eiderveis. When they reached the water's edge, Dantress stood next to her. “What do you think she meant, Caritha? Wait here until it ‘divides?’”

“I don't know.” Caritha knelt on the golden sand. “Whatever she meant, I hope it happens . . . and soon.”

They did not have long to wait. As Dantress gazed into the swift moving current, a dorsal fin, gray-green in coloration, cut the water’s surface. Another soon followed and another . . . and then three more. All angled toward the river’s bank. Others joined these until it appeared that the river swirled a mass of scaled fins. First one of the creatures and then another breached the water’s surface, giggling as they rose out of the water.

“Did you see that?” Evela pointed, her eyes wide. “They are mermaids!”

Dantress could not deny it. The creatures had long hair and shining silver eyes. Scales covered the mermaids’ miniature bodies. Oversized ears twisted back from their heads. Some of them had skin as black as night, while the faces of others looked as white as paper.

One little mermaid, her white teeth smiling from her black face, flipped high out of the water and onto the shore to lie on the sand at the sisters' feet. Resting on her elbows with her chin resting on her fists, she flipped her dark hair out of her eyes and looked up. “Greetings, children of the dragon,” she sang in her smooth voice. “Stand back and let the Wee Mermaids open the Eiderveis River for your passage across.”

The sisters retreated a step, Dantress last of all because she felt curious and wanted to talk to the creature. She kept her eyes on it as she backed up the bank. Evela had been right; mermaids did exist.

Swimming in a large circle, the Wee Mermaids laughed merrily. Their numbers increased, and a faint melody drifted over the water. The river swirled with them, a whirlpool forming in the space of half an hour.

Moving closer to the shore, the majority of the creatures maintained the whirlpool. Two of them slid onto the sand and flopped around, pointing with delicate fingers at the exposed riverbed in the whirlpool’s center.

She harrumphed. “I think we should have made a boat.” But she leapt in and the Wee Mermaids, laughing still, gradually shifted the whirlpool across the river, which at this point was about a hundred feet broad.

An hour or more after, the sisters leaped onto the river’s western bank. The Wee Mermaids slid onto the sand by the hundreds. As far as Dantress could see along the shore the creatures were slipping out of the water to lie in the sun. Their fins flapped lazily in the breeze and they closed their eyes.

One black mermaid—Dantress thought it might be the same one that had spoken to them earlier—remained on watch while her companions napped.

“Do you think it is safe for them to expose themselves like that?” Dantress said as she and her sisters walked west into the shade of the trees.

“I was wondering the same thing.” Evela glanced over her shoulder. “They're rather adorable, don’t you think?”

“Vulnerable and foolish,” Rose’el murmured.

Suddenly they heard screams rising from the river. Racing back through the trees they saw, to their horror, one of the Wee Mermaids dangling from the talons of a hawk. The hawks wings beat furiously, trying to gain altitude.

“Isn’t that—?”

“Yes, I think it is!” Dantress reached out her hand toward the burdened bird flying over the river with the blood-streaked mermaid struggling in its talons. She breathed slow and deep, calming her body, then extended her senses, threading them past the varied emotions rolling from her sisters' minds. Her mind carried her past the thoughts of the agitated and horror-stricken mermaids, up into the sky. She could feel the Wee Mermaid's pain as it attempted to free itself from the bird's talons, managing only to rip her scales.

It would only take a twist of Dantress mind, a thought, to muddle the hawk's mind and send it crashing into the Eiderveis River. But as the threads of her thought bent around the bird, she detected—not merely hunger—but a consciousness, desperate and afraid.

Her thoughts latched onto the bird's mind.
Let the mermaid go
. She applied pressure to the bird's neck.
Let her go now and I will let you live.

Something more than basic instinct, awoke in the hawk's mind.
No, no, please no! The water creature is mine, my chicks haven't eaten . . . don't hurt me!

I
have no desire to hurt you.
She relaxed the pressure on the bird's neck.
But you must realize that I will not let you eat that mermaid. She is an intelligent being, deserving of life . . . not death.

Please, we must eat—

Hunger is not a justification for your actions. Drop her now and I will spare you.

What am I going to feed my chicks?

She reached out with her mind and sensed the presence of a rabbit nibbling on some grass by the riverside. It had no intellect, only instinct. Sighing inwardly, she threaded her thoughts down through the air, latching them onto the creature.

Drop the mermaid
, she said to the hawk.
You will find a freshly killed rabbit on the shore not far from here.

You are strong and wise, dragon daughter—for I sense the source of your strength: you are dragon blood—I will do as you say.

Dantress opened her eyes. The bird dropped its victim. The wee mermaid somersaulted in the air and dove into the water.

“Whew, what a relief!” Evela exhaled slowly.

Caritha studied Dantress with a frown on her face. “Did
you
do that?”

“I told him to let her go.”

“Him?” Her sister’s eyebrows lifted. “Who did you tell?”

“The hawk, of course.” When all five of them looked quizzically at her she realized and frowned. “You couldn’t communicate with it . . . could you?”

“With a
bird
? Dantress, since when have you been able to do that?”

“Well, actually . . . this was the first time I used my ability to do anything like this.”

Caritha shook her head in amazement. “Sometimes, your abilities trouble me, little sister.” She walked toward the forest and gestured that they should follow. “Come on, we should get moving.”

Dantress stood near the base of a large dark tree, cloven from its highest branches almost to the ground. It reminded her of something out of a fable. Its two halves bent to the grass in the clearing, shaded now by the surrounding forest as the sun set. It had no leaves and its roots anchored it to the western edge of the clearing, guarding a broad trail leading into a thick growth of gnarled old trees.

To the right of the moss-covered tree gaped the hollow heart of a log of extraordinary size. It wouldn’t have fit a dragon, but it would easily accommodate Dantress and her five sisters. The log extended out of sight into the forest, extraordinarily long. Darkness descended.

One by one, Caritha leading the way, the sisters entered the log and lay down to sleep. Their feet squished into the wood like a sponge, rotting and thus moist. But they felt safer here than leaving themselves exposed in the clearing.

The hoot of an owl startled Dantress awake, but only for a moment. As the air chilled she and her sisters huddled together for warmth. She closed her eyes. Somewhere beyond the trees, beyond this quiet forest, lay the ancient temple, Al’un Dai. She wondered what it would look like. Would the old warrior who had once been a member of the Six be waiting for them? Surely he would be. But . . ..

She sat up. Something didn’t feel right. But what was it? Probing the vicinity of the clearing, she found no minds apart from those of her sisters. They were alone.

Wait! Levena’s thoughts were racing a mile a minute, frantic and feverish. Should she intrude on her sister’s mind. No! It wouldn’t be right. She willed a question into Levena’s mind.
Levena, what’s wrong?

Help . . . C-can not . . . wake up! I must w-wake up!

“Caritha! Rose’el! Wake up!” Dantress crawled over Laura and Evela, ignoring their startled protests as her knees and feet landed on their stomachs.

“Dantress, what are you doing?” Rose’el sat up. Even in the dim light of the moon within the hollow log Dantress could see the scowl on her face.