Michael Mathias - Kings, Queens, Heroes, and Fools

Talon spied a steep fall of rock near the cave mouth. At the bottom was a dark jumble of broken trees and scree. The stuff would have continued falling into the sea had it not wedged itself in to a section of narrowly formed rock.

Up the slope from the cave mouth there was a scattering of wind-blown trees clinging to the rocky soil with all they had. Above that, ominously silhouetted in the moon’s light, was a jagged looking ridge. If he could have stood at the base of the cave looking south, Hyden knew that all he would see would be ocean. Far below Talon, the sea churned and sprayed as it slammed into the rocky shoreline.

Eventually the hawkling flew into the opening. The side of the mountainous formation that faced the sea seemed to be only twenty or thirty feet thick. Talon felt as if he were flying into a hole that had been chipped into a giant egg. From what Hyden remembered of the inside of the great cavern, the spider-web tunnel led back toward the middle of the island. The scallop higher up had to be fairly shallow. No light had crept through that area when they were inside, so he was certain that it was nothing more than a suspended shelf. It occurred to him, as Talon circled back up out of the opening and perched on the lip, that it wouldn’t take much to fracture and crumble that whole side of the cavern. What bothered him most, was that looking down through Talon’s eyes, he could tell the area they had been standing in earlier was a good bit below the level of the sea. If the rock ever did collapse, the ocean water would come rushing in and flood everything inside.

He doubted any of that was going to happen, so he sent Talon soaring down into the maw to search for signs of the ship. Talon wouldn’t go near the webs, and saw nothing resembling a pirate ship anywhere else. Disappointedly, Hyden decided that they would have to burn the spiders out, as Oarly had suggested, and then see where the lower passage took them.

Talon was growing weary, and Hyden still intended to use his minimal magic to heal the dwarf while he was asleep. Calling Talon back to him, he opened his eyes and made his way back to the camp. Inside his tent he fondled his medallion and noticed the same strange tingle it had given off in the serpent’s lair. He watched as the prismatic leaps of light swirled and darted away from the jewel. They seemed to flare to life, and burn out, all within a foot of the dragon’s tear. Some leapt in arcs, some in zigzagging streaks, others in curling loops. It was hypnotizing, and it didn’t cease as he made his way into his bedroll.

He had meant to tend Oarly, but found himself in a mesmerized trance. When he lay down he held the medallion out in front of his face. He watched it until it carried him into a dreamy state where the static hum of magical energy seemed to surround him as if he were submerged in it. Out of the dancing lights a familiar figure began to form, just as it had formed out of the great water fountain at Whitten Loch. With a sad smile, and wide open arms, the White Goddess turned to face him and spoke.

“Hyden Hawk,” she started in her sweet musical voice. Hyden found that, even though she was made of nothing more than a swirling white mist, her full, voluptuous figure flustered him. “Be wary Hyden,” she warned. “When you recover the Skull of Zorellin you will find great danger with it. Be very careful.” Her image began to fade back into the cloudy whirl.

“Wait!” Hyden yelled, but his voice turned into a thick oily smudge that spread across the surface of his vision. The ripples it caused soon wavered into a pair of sparkling glimmers. They formed into great yellow orbs that were split by sharp sword-like pupils. The hot smell of brimstone and sulfur filled his nostrils. The eyes he was looking at blinked from the bottom up. They were dragon’s eyes, and they were familiar.

A deep voice that sounded like shattering boulders filled his ears.

“Hydensss,” the great red dragon Claret hissed to him. “Not all dragons are scapable of understandingss. Some dragons do nothing but hatesss. Do what you must. My tear will sprotect you, but you smust protectss your friends. Do you remember who your friendsss are Hydensss?”

“Always,” Hyden heard himself gulp the response.

Claret’s voice wavered. “Doos not hesitate Hydensss.” The vision began to fade. “Do what you mussst.”

“You must get up,” Phen was saying. Hyden woke with a start as Phen nudged him with his boot. “It’s almost midday Hyden. Even Oarly’s up and about.”

A sharp call came from somewhere above the tent. Talon’s crying shriek conveyed Hyden’s mood.

“All right,” Hyden managed, but the blanket of sleep that was still lingering over him was thick and heavy, so Phen shook him again.

“All right, all right,” Hyden forced himself up onto an elbow. Through the fabric of the tent it was clear that his young friend hadn’t been exaggerating. It was bright outside. Probably near midday. He noticed that Phen, as usual, seemed to be on the edge of bursting with excitement.

“I’m not leaving until you’re out of that bedroll,” said Phen. “On Oarly’s orders.”

“Aye, then,” Hyden huffed and rolled to his feet. Phen eased out of the tent while Hyden readied himself for the day.

Phen also had a dream, a revelation about the ring he found in the Serpent’s Eye. The discovery made clear why the elves were going to give it to the tyrant. Loak hadn’t been an emissary, he’d been an assassin. It wasn’t the ring he was going to give the King. He was going to use the gift to get close enough to kill the man. The ornate wooden box, the story of the gift, was all a charade to get Loak close enough to do the deed. King Chago, Phen finally remembered from a history lesson, had killed a pair of elves for nothing more than chasing an arrow-shot stag out of the Evermore into the kingdom lands. Once Phen remembered that, the rest fell into place. The question he had debated all morning, while the others slept, was how the ring would help Loak assassinate King Chago. Phen finally came to the conclusion that Loak would need no help killing the tyrant, but he might need help escaping after he did.

Phen, so excited that his promise to Hyden was forgotten, slipped the ring on his finger. He didn’t feel a change, but he knew he had guessed correctly. A quick trip around the camp, where he paused to make faces in front of the seamen and feigned a punch at Master Biggs’s face, with absolutely no response, not even a flinch, confirmed it. The ring made him invisible. To further test the ring’s limits, he loomed over a sleepy-eyed Oarly. The dwarf grunted and grimaced with pain as he worked to pull on the new boots Hyden had purchased in Salazar. Phen took a flaming brand from the fire and lifted it before the dwarf. He expected Oarly to see the branch he held, but all the dwarf saw was the fire hovering in the air by itself.

Phen had to laugh. Even now, almost two hours later, Oarly was trying to convince Brady that a fire nymph had come to him.

“…ball of flame as big as a melon, I tell you,” the dwarf was saying. “Lifted right out of yon fire and hovered before me. It’s a sign,” Oarly declared with wide eyes. “Burn the spiders out as soon as possible. I tell you it’s a sign.”

“What’s a sign?” Hyden asked as he came squinting out of his tent.

Phen wanted so badly to tell him of his great discovery, but he remembered his promise, and was ashamed since he had broken it.

Hyden noticed the wave of visible unease that passed across the boy’s face. “What gives, Phen?” Hyden asked, ignoring Oarly’s recounting of the fire nymph story.

Phen looked away from Hyden’s gaze and shrugged, feeling even worse now for not answering truthfully. “Oarly saw a fire nymph,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for you all morning.”