Dealings in the Council of Avalhein - Chapter 21

Dealings in the Council of Avalhein

Chapter 21

“W-where?” asked Dervyn suspiciously. In the small fragment of education he had, he had not heard of any glorious city of Avalhein. However, he had indeed heard of the dragons’ descendants, Ceree. Only then did it dawn on him that this was no ordinary dragon he was talking to. It was a Ceree.

“Dear child, I do hate repeating myself. You are in the grandest city in the east, the court-city of Avalhein. Not to mention, everything is made of solid gold and marble” said the pale blue Ceree with a soft smile. The voice was pleasantly female, thought Dervyn, but it still carried a draconic rasp. At the mention of gold, though, Dervyn’s eyes lit up.

“Wealth…” said Dervyn, trailing off. He imagined a city made of solid gold. Why, he could just chip off some random part of some random building and he would wallow in all the money he could spend. He would, of course, have to arrange for transport back to Galaria and the City.

A stray thought brushed against Dervyn’s mind and quite literally sent him reeling. He fell off the bed in stark realization, he had no idea how he had gotten there. “Tell me, mistress, how exactly did you find me?” The words left his throat which had then started feeling dry.

“I didn’t find you child, you were brought to me by the night watch. They said you materialized out of thin air right under Malhanrrerrye’s statue” said the lady dragon, her voice trailing off softly. “Perhaps it’s a sign of what purpose you will serve in the coming destruction…” she said even softer. Perhaps it had been something not meant for Dervyn’s ear, or perhaps it was spoken as a sign that it was to be kept in secret.

Dervyn opened his mouth to speak, only to be shushed to silence as the dragoness laid a thin appendage on his lips. “Rest well, child, you must be prepared for what is to come” The she-dragon smiled pleasantly. “And I want none of this ‘mistress’ talk, it irks me. Call me Geirrha.” She walked across the room and as she walked, her form shimmered and… changed. She became an elven woman, regal and upright. In her hair three plumes of electric blue swayed in the wind. She took a teapot and breathed onto it, instantly, a column of steam erupted from the spout.

“What is your name, little one? I find it better to use names than call others by description” said the woman. Now that she faced him, he was struck by her flawless fair skin and sapphire blue eyes. She was beyond beautiful. She was godly. Dervyn found himself smiling uncontrollably. The woman noticed and laughed a high-pitched melodious laugh that only served to make Dervyn redden. She was beautiful as a dragon, her angelic blue coat and snowy-tipped wings, but as an elf, she was drop dead gorgeous. Much worse was when she smiled and her perfectly aligned white teeth dazzled him.

“D-dervyn… pleased to make your acquaintance” he tried to stand up, only to land hard on his bottom. His knees felt like jelly. He held out his hand for Geirrha to shake, and then his eyes fell on the symbol etched into his palm and the back of his hand. He immediately withdrew the gesture and stared at his hand in horror. “I was hoping it was a dream…” he mumbled. “…nothing but a dream…”

“Dervyn, don’t!” cried Geirrha but she was too late. The boy traced his index finger along the lines and his eyes glazed over and his shoulders slumped. A gray haze spread over his eyes as a black dagger materialized in his palm. As though compelled by an unseen force, Dervyn placed the tip of the dagger on the rugged floor. Immediately, the threads blackened and disintegrated, revealing a small patch of the marble floor underneath. Geirrha froze in her place, her mind flashing with images.

“A nick was all it took to draw blood…”

Dervyn drew his hand across the rug, gouging both rug, marble and solid stone with the dagger as though slicing through wax with a hot knife. His arms followed the motion as a black haze filled the air, spaces in between the clouds of black crackling with bolts of energy.

“A nick was all it took to draw blood… blood that promised eternal power…”

Geirrha squirmed where she sat, the memory drowning out much of everything else. Her mouth tasted of metallic blood. Her nose picked up the same scent.

Three circles were burned into the marble. The largest was intersected by a smaller circle in its upper left, the smaller circle intersected by another, smaller in the side within the largest circle. As Geirrha fought back tears, Dervyn traced three wavy lines through the circles.

The dark haze deepened and the leaping bolts of energy increased in intensity. Dervyn’s hair was standing on end, but he could care less because at that moment, his eyes snapped shut and the haze rushed back into the symbol. Geirrha began to rise but was thrown back as the haze turned to pure light and shot through the ceiling. The ceiling, unfortunately, for that room, had been stained glass. The light created a column that cast dancing colors upon the clouds overhead.

There was an audible crack and a resounding explosion when it finally reached the limit of Avalhein’s defenses. It was light made manifest and Geirrha thought that the magical barriers were strong enough to restrain the light but she was horribly mistaken. With a sickening sound of glass shattering, the light broke through. The dome took on a sickly yellow color as it began to disintegrate from where the light had punched a perfectly circular hole. Unfortunately, the dome was disintegrating unevenly and the gaping hole had jagged edges. Sparkling motes of magic rained down upon the citizens of Avalhein. The few that bothered to look up ran screaming in various directions.

Dervyn’s eyes fluttered open. The room was in disarray. The last thing he’d remembered was holding the dagger…  “Geirrha!” he shouted in dismay. She was in a crumpled heap in a far corner of the room.

“I am fine, Dervyn” said the ruffled Ceree. She was disgruntled, but Dervyn could see no sign of physical hurt on her. “The court would want to question you… I suggest you keep the dagger’s existence secret…” she trailed off.

“But--!” Whatever Dervyn had been about to say remained unheard over the din that erupted. The entire city had been alerted to the destruction of the dome that even as the Ceree ran in frenzied panic, was disintegrating ever so slowly.

Their panic was perfectly reasonable. The only reason the Dark One had not attacked yet was that the dome hid the city from his eyes. Even from the word of a traitor, he would have been unable to reach the city. He had tried once, but failed even before he set foot on Malleithen. The Languid Sea was affected by the dome and because of the magic that had seeped into its waters; it guided any without good and true cause off course. Now that the pillar of light hung in the air, there was no way of telling what could happen next. Only one thing had stopped the Dark One from attacking. He simply did not know.

Now, thanks to some outside force, he knew.