Chapter 1

Corliss set her bounty down by her feet, her heart pounding against her ribs with a mixture of exhaustion and fear. Kneeling in the shadows of the great stone perimeter of the castle, she adjusted her worn leather gloves, making sure they covered all of her hands and wrists. She knew the egg couldn't hatch for her, but her orders were explicit: she must not let it touch her skin.

Scooping up the egg again, Corliss rearranged it in her leather satchel and took a deep breath. She began to whisper a spell into the evening air, reciting the words by heart: "Frethya eka frá ven." As the magic began to take hold, the girl looked down at her slender feet and watched them gradually disappear, followed by her legs, then torso, the plain gray servant's uniform melting into the dim shadows of the twilight.

Once the invisibility spell was complete, she tore off into the night, running through the plan in her mind for the hundredth time as she went. Every aspect of her escape had been planned down to the smallest of details, but it couldn't hurt to think through it again. Gods willing, nothing would surprise her tonight.

Well, nothing else, that is. The color of the egg she had stolen had certainly given her pause. She couldn't understand it! All of Nasuada's sources had spoken of a green egg remaining in Galbatorix's possession. Green, not a deep, metallic copper! Her sources must have simply been misinformed of the details. After all, it didn't matter what color the damned thing was, she reminded herself. Hopefully… hopefully there were no other details they had gotten wrong.

In what little spare time she had had as a scullery maid in the castle kitchens, Corliss had poured endlessly over a map of the city given to her by the Varden. She had traced every manor, shop, and alley, committing them all to memory. She pictured it clearly in her mind as she ran: the city of Uru'baen was organized in a great circle, with the king's castle in the center on a high hill. Spreading outward were the mansions and vast gardens of the nobility, then the middle class homes and merchants' shops, which grew shabbier and more cluttered as they spread outward. Surrounding the city was a great wall, made of colossal blocks of grey stone; they were stacked oppressively in a ring around the city, with only four gates, one facing north, one south, one east, and one west.

It was the northern gate that Corliss ran to now. She deemed it the least likely to draw suspicion, since the majority of the fields and farmhouses lay to the north of the city, which would be more difficult to pass through unnoticed once she had made it past the wall. However, that was a small price to pay if the guards were drawn to the eastern and southern gates, which were a more obvious choice for a thief headed towards the Varden in the Beor Mountains. Corliss's real destination, though, lay to the north, in Du Weldenvarden, where her bounty would be kept safe and ferried through the elven cities to find it a Rider.

She dodged, invisible, between manors and opulent gardens, down wide, empty streets. King Galbatorix had issued a curfew in the city decades ago, and this late in the evening only a few stragglers remained outdoors, rushing towards their homes with their heads down. Corliss didn't dare imagine what punishment awaited those who didn't make it inside in time. She dashed past them all, her cloth shoes silent on the cobblestone streets. She had made it almost halfway to the wall, when an alarm sounded from behind her.

Horns shattered the silent evening air, and Corliss nearly jumped out of her skin in horror. So Galbatorix had learned that he had been robbed. Barzul. A moment later horns sounded ahead of her as well, most likely from the guards prowling the city walls. Heart pounding, Corliss positively fled down the winding streets, her hands sweaty in their gloves. Barzul, barzul, barzul!

As she twisted her neck around to look for guards that might be pouring down the street at any moment, she tripped. Loudly. As she landed, the egg flew out of her satchel, becoming all too visible as it soared away. The copper orb bounced with horrible clangs down the street, clashing with the horns still echoing from every direction.

Corliss, having fallen spectacularly and skidded for several agonizing feet on the cobblestones, watched in horror. The egg finally rolled to a stop as the girl scrabbled to her feet and lunged for it, but too late: a group of five soldiers appeared at the south end of the street, eyes wide in surprise. Corliss didn't know if they had a magician among them that could sense her presence through an invisibility spell, but there was no way they could have missed the great shining copper egg, reflecting a ruddy golden light on the cobblestones all around it.

Perhaps the guards were taken aback at seeing their prize sitting in the middle of the street waiting for them. Perhaps they suspected a trap. In any case, they hesitated for a moment, and that was all Corliss needed to grab the egg and dive behind a shop corner. "Copy me," she breathed in the Ancient Language as the soldiers leapt towards her.

A dark-cloaked figure sprang up from under Corliss's feet, clutching a shining copper orb in its hands. It flew past the soldiers in the opposite direction, and the soldiers shouted in surprise and followed on its heels, aiming their spears expertly at its fleeing back.

Her face screwed up in concentration, Corliss remained kneeling behind the shop window, clutching the egg as tightly as she could in her gloved hands. She knew she couldn't keep up this illusion forever. The farther away the shadow-person got, the harder it was to control its movements. And besides, if the soldiers managed to hit it with a spear, they would no doubt realize something was up: most people don't keep running after a spear passes through them. But at least Corliss now knew none of them were magicians—or at least, none of them were skilled magicians—or they would have noticed the ruse.

Corliss mentally commanded the figure to continue running up the southward street, then continued on northward toward the wall, the egg stowed once again in her satchel. Her knees ached where she'd fallen, and she vaguely was aware that her gloves had torn and her hands were bleeding. She heard loud voices behind her, but couldn't tell how close they were. Her heartbeat had grown so loud it was impossible to think clearly. Come on, you're almost there! She breathed to herself. Just a bit farther…

Finally the great wall loomed up over the low, ramshackle homes she was passing: a great gray barrier lined with sentries at the top and bottom, some holding lanterns, all holding spears. Many were likely magicians. Filled with panic despite herself, she forced herself to remember the plan. The plan! Right…focus now, Corliss whispered to herself, and wove her way through the homes, looking for the right one.

Most of the homes here were more or less identical; they were one-storied and pressed up against one another, with small crowded yards and gardens facing the street. Take the next left, now right, three blocks down, and fourth on the right...aha! Corliss pumped an invisible fist in the air as she found the right house. It was shabby and cramped, like all the others, its only door an ill-fitting cloth curtain. Pushing through it, Corliss stepped inside and found it musty, stuffy, and mercifully empty, just according to plan.

Lifting the protective spell over the dirt floor, Corliss smiled as a dark, narrow gap appeared in the ground. It widened until it was large enough for a person to leap through: not spacious by any means, but enough. Not wasting another moment, Corliss leapt into the tunnel entrance, the illusion reappearing as soon as she was underground. The second she landed in the tunnel, all light and sound from the city above died out. Undaunted by the pitch dark and damp, still air pressing around her, the girl began to crawl forward.

The minutes ticked by as she crept northward on hands and knees. The tunnel was narrow and extremely low, making a straight path far below the wall. If it trailed too near the surface, the magicians' spells would detect her presence exiting the city, but the fools had not considered to extend the spell below the ground, as Corliss had discovered with delight long ago.

It was utterly silent in the tunnel. The only sound was the shuffling of Corliss's hands and feet, and the occasional muttered curse when a piece of dirt crumbled from the ceiling into her eyes. Corliss made herself breathe evenly, her satchel bumping against her side as she went. She had allowed the invisibility spell to die out in the tunnel, and now the wisps of blonde hair falling out of her braid and into her eyes were annoyingly visible.

She continued to crawl. And crawl. How long had it been? Hours, certainly. Had the sun come up yet? Barzul, she hoped not. She wanted to be well away from Uru'baen by daylight. She urged herself faster, her legs stiff and cramping. Just when she thought she might scream with impatience, she smacked face-first into the end of the tunnel. She scooted back a few feet, rubbing the dirt off her nose.

"Garjzla," Corliss whispered, her voice sounding unnaturally loud after crawling for so long. A sphere of orange light appeared in her open palm, and she held it out in front of her like a beacon, peering around in the dark tunnel. With a sign of relief, the girl saw that the roof of the tunnel had risen just enough for her to stand. Rising stiffly, she spotted something in the corner of the exit. Aha! There sat a small leather bag filled with extra provisions for the next leg of her journey, as planned. Gratefully, she stuffed it into her satchel.

Corliss breathed deeply and sat down in the dim light of the tunnel. Despite the urgency of her mission, she needed a moment to rest. After all, the plan was going perfectly, as it should, and besides, she had crawled for at least three miles in this cursed tunnel, and it looked as though she had evaded the guards and even the king's magicians perfectly. She smiled at the fierce joy of completing a mission, of defying the king.

Now that she was out of the city, Corliss remembered happily, she could remove the final spell she had placed on herself. There was no need to disguise herself as a human servant any longer; she planned to spend the rest of the journey invisible anyway, so there was no need for another spell on top of it. "Moi eka aptr unin halfr dvergr."

As the spell took effect, the girl's body began to change. Corliss winced in discomfort as her bones shifted and changed. Her frame grew stockier, and her legs, arms and torso shrank slightly, her clothes shifting in size as well. Her hair morphed from a wispy blonde braid to a much coarser, dark brown one. Her face widened, her nose flattened a bit, and freckles sprang up on her arms and the bridge of her nose.

Corliss sighed in relief. It was so nice to be herself again! She had hated that disguise, as necessary as it had been: for almost two months now she had worn the disguise of one of the castle's servants, a human scullery maid named Oliva, and barzul, it had gotten uncomfortable. She wiggled her fourteen toes happily, looking at her shoes, magically expanded back to their normal size. No wonder she had tripped back in the city, trying to run with tiny human feet like hers had been!

The half dwarf took a look at herself critically, and sighed. Her pants were ripped and muddy from crawling all that way in the tunnel, and her knees were scabbed and sore, but it was nothing she couldn't live with. There was dirt in her braided hair and dirt coating her clothes, but that wasn't exactly a priority either. Shuddering from weariness, Corliss stuffed her gloved hands in her pockets and hunched over her satchel, trying to keep warm. She didn't want to start moving again just yet…her muscles ached, and she had made such good distance already…

Her satchel twitched.

Corliss jolted upright, startled out of her wits, and threw the bag down. Had a mouse crawled in there or something? She lifted the leather flap and looked inside cautiously, feeling an odd sort of shaking again as she did so. What was…no.

That was impossible. It couldn't be...not for a half-dwarf. Not for me.

But even as she watched in disbelief, the strange copper egg twitched violently and rolled out of the satchel. The eggshell, glowing dimly in the orange light Corliss had made, had sprouted a lightning-shaped crack down its side. As though in slow motion, it shattered at the girl's feet. Her blood froze in her veins, but whether from horror or excitement she didn't know.

At her feet sat a dragon.


Frethya eka frá ven: Hide me from sight.

Barzul: the dwarvish equivalent of "damn it," basically. At least that's how I'm interpreting it.

Garjzla: light

Moi eka aptr unin halfr dvergr: Change me back into a half-dwarf.

So this story has been in the works for a long time, and I've made a ton of changes to it. I've had Corliss in my head for so long now, and she's undergone a ton of changes too. She started out very different (and entirely human) in Wandering Path and Bolt of Lightning, my first failed story that was probably more than a little cliche. So let me know what you think, and I'll have the next chapter out soon! Also if you're thinking it starts out a bit cliched, well, I kind of agree, but it gets much less so in future chapters. Hopefully. :)