My thanks to JustWriter2 for the idea about using Effie's sorcerer story again. I usually wouldn't use someone else's idea, because hey, they might want it back later….but, reusing a bit character is better than having yet another faceless knight, and heaven knows I've been uninspired enough lately. I'm glad you enjoyed this enough to suggest it!
9 –Which involves a lot of arguing and some actual fighting
Effie was beginning to think she would spend every morning for the rest of her life waiting for Lintred to leave so she could do something sneaky behind his back. Nevertheless, that's what she did again today, waving him off to his patrol as if everything were normal. Then she ran as fast as she could to Cynthrex's cave.
Stepping into the entrance without waiting for an invitation, Effie heard a bell chime somewhere deeper in the cave. She must have triggered a ward somewhere. After a moment, Cynthrex bustled out into the hall. "Effie! Good! Where's Lintred?"
"Out, finally."
"Good! Come in, I'll make…something…" Cynthrex waved a claw vaguely at the kitchen.
"I just ate, but thank you anyway," Effie said, wondering if Cynthrex cooked any better than Lintred. The dragon shrugged and lead the way into the library instead.
Cynthrex's library was impressive to say the least. There were three caves lined wall to wall with books, and there were even shelves running along the ceiling, books held in place by some sort of magic. Strong magic, Effie hoped, eyeing them suspiciously. Spread throughout the room were tables and chairs, also stacked several feet deep with any books that hadn't been reshelved, or simply didn't fit. She had to watch where she put her feet, to avoid stepping on any loose pages or fallen parchments, and was amazed to see Cynthrex pick her way along without disturbing even one. The dragon flopped onto a clear patch of floor, and looked around in disgust.
"Trey made a complete mess out of this place. I hope you don't think I keep my books in this….state."
"He did say something about wizards always living in dirty houses…" Effie mused, then caught up with herself and turned on Cynthrex. "You are involved with the wizards! You're the dragon Trey's been meeting with!"
Cynthrex looked amused. "Indeed. I was actually very surprised when I realized you didn't know. I was sure he'd passed the word along, but…" she looked questioningly at Effie, who shook her head.
"But…but….why? I thought dragons hated wizards!"
"You know what the problem with today's society is?" Cynthrex asked. "Everyone has this tendency to toss people into groups. All dragons hate all wizards and all wizards want is power and all princesses are stupid…." Here she stopped and winked at Effie.
"Your point?"
Cynthrex sighed. "I suppose I have been around that wizard for too long, I'm starting to bait people like him. It doesn't seem to work for me though. Why is that?"
"Not enough concentrated arrogance behind it." Effie said irritably. Did the whole mountain know she wasn't a princess now?
"Ah." Cynthrex looked thoughtful. "You're still mad at him aren't you?"
"Still? It hasn't been long enough to be 'still'…..wait a minute! This isn't about me! I asked why you were in league with wizards!"
"Not about you?" Cynthrex snorted. "It's all about you! At least, so long as I have to deal with Trey it is. He decided out of the blue that he was going to tell you all about the plan and then you had to get in some sort of argument about it, and now he's useless again. So I asked you to come here so I could explain the rest, and then maybe you two can just kiss and make up or whatever it is humans do, and we can get on with it!"
"What?" Effie sat down hard in a nearby chair.
"You heard me! Humans! I just don't understand you…every time I think something is going to get done, one of you messes it up!"
"How did I mess it up?" Effie asked, incredulous.
Cynthrex rolled her eyes at her. "Are you kidding? I was here, waiting for some unknown representative of the Society to come and meet me, and what shows up? Some kid barely out of apprentice robes. And then, not only does he show up nearly a week late, he doesn't even settle down to business right away, no, first he has to stay up all night working on some random illusion conjuring spell-egg he promised some girl he met. Of all the juvenile…" Cynthrex looked aggrieved. "Then of course by the time I can distract His Obsessiveness from his little school project, he's so tired I can't get a straight sentence out of him! So then I have to wait until he meets you and gives you his courting gift or whatever you want to call it before we can actually get some real work done, and then, every single day, practically, he has to go out and see if you're okay, or if there's something he can do…"
Effie stared blankly at the dragon. "He did?"
"Oh don't look so innocent about it!"
"I thought he was just worried I was going to tell Lintred about him…."
Cynthrex rolled her eyes. "He doesn't worry about things like that. I'm telling you, it's exasperating. I told him it was ridiculous to trust some princess with our plan just because she's got a pretty face, but he said 'oh she's not a princess' like that made it all right or something. Why, of all the wizards in the world, did they send me this one?" The dragon slammed her tail into the floor in frustration, nearly dislodging some of the ceiling-shelved books. "And then, right when things were starting to work again, why did you have to get in a fight with him?"
Effie, who'd still been mulling over the idea of Trey being worried about her, was jolted back to reality, and the original topic of discussion. "It wasn't a fight," she snapped. "He asked for my opinion and when I gave it to him he got annoyed because I wasn't simply agreeing with him!"
"Oh?" Cynthrex's tail continued to twitch. "How much did he tell you?"
"Enough. That wizards are jealous of the stores of magical power here in the mountains, and want to remove the dragons from the cycle so that they can tap it. It was nothing but straight out greed!" Effie glared at the table next to her. She was sounding awfully petulant and she knew it.
"Maybe you can believe it's all greed coming from a wizard…but what about myself?" Cynthrex caught Effie's gaze and dragged it back to her. "I am a dragon. I'm risking my life, my very dragonhood on this. I believe in it. Every morning I wake up wondering if I'm going to see webbed feet in the mirror, but I believe in it! Why won't you give me a chance to explain?"
Effie couldn't break her gaze for a long time. Then she snapped away and buried her face in her arms. "What do I know about it," she murmured to the table. "I'm just here because of a stupid fairy in the woods. I was out hunting mushrooms. What do I know about dragons and wizards and magic or anything!"
"Not much," Cynthrex said, but gently. "That's why we want to talk to you."
"Oh, now it's we?" Effie raised her head but continued to glare at the table. "Where is Trey anyway? If it's so important, shouldn't he be here to 'explain' further?"
"I haven't the foggiest." Cynthrex shrugged. "Off sulking somewhere. He stormed in here after talking to you, sat shoving books around and being generally unpleasant for a few hours, and then stormed back out. Reminded me of Lintred, really."
Effie almost giggled at that. It was such a typical male reaction, she thought, carefully stepping around the fact that she'd been doing the same thing. Slowly, she took a few deep breaths and let them out again. This was ridiculous, sitting here having a screaming argument with a dragon. A few weeks ago, she would never have even been able to begin to imagine something like it. If this was possible, who was she to pass judgment on anything?
"All right," she said finally. "Tell me what I didn't give Trey a chance to explain."
Cynthrex let her breath out quickly. "Oh thank goodness you've come around. Here I was afraid that idiot wizard might have irritated you enough to make you go running to Lintred or Shiara or some other hot-headed individual."
Effie shook her head. "I wouldn't do that…I might have threatened it at first but, I doubt I meant it even then."
"Ha. That's what Trey said, but I wasn't so sure. He's a little…you know…"
"Overly trusting?"
Cynthrex nodded. "Odd, in a wizard, that, but…oh well. It doesn't matter now." She looked at the ceiling for a moment, then nodded again. "This is all moving so fast, especially for a dragon…we tend to change very slowly, spend decades researching things and thinking them through…but lately things have moved very quickly. Change is overtaking the world like a tidal wave. The war over the Enchanted Forest, when did it end, not even four years ago! It changed things. It was the first all-out offensive we, as dragons, have been on in a long time…and we won."
"Yes, Shiara told me…"
Cynthrex cut her off. "I know I sound like I'm rambling, but please, bear with me here." Effie nodded, thinking to herself that both Cynthrex and Trey were awfully fond of tangents.
"The wizards were decimated by it," the dragon went on. "I don't mean a minor setback, the Society is nearly non-existent, at least, compared to what they were before. They had to pull in all their representatives from the various kingdoms and such just to keep every minor sorcerous sect from charging in and taking over their headquarters." Cynthrex, despite her apparent desire to make peace with the wizards, seemed oddly pleased about this.
"So the wizards really want to make peace to keep from being wiped out?"
"Ha, they'd never admit that, but I'm sure it's in the back of their minds." Cynthrex grinned, rather nastily.
Effie frowned. "But what does that have to do with the Mountains?"
"It didn't at first." Cynthrex paused for a moment. "Okay. It started about three years ago, just when things were starting to die down a bit from the Enchanted Forest war. A bit. I met…well, met is too polite a word. On a journey of mine, I fought a wizard by the name of Rathan. We were pretty evenly matched, and after some days of running and hiding and flinging spells and such at each other, we were both exhausted and declared a sort of uneasy truce. We were both tired of fighting, and instead we started talking…he had used a spell I had never seen before and I was curious about it…and one thing led to another and soon he was showing me his library and collection of artifacts. It was amazing." Cynthrex said dreamily.
"Did you know wizardry is one of the oldest forms of magic? Outside of ours, that is. They still have some things left over from ages ago, and I'm talking about ages in dragon terms. If our knowledge and their knowledge could be pooled instead of pitted against one another….can you imagine?"
"Not really," Effie said, truthfully.
"Rathan and I could. We thought about it and decided that something should be done. He showed me some preliminary ideas for a spell he had been working on since the start of the war…it was meant to be used as for fighting dragons, but some of the ideas behind it would work equally well for…well, what Trey said. Making us immune from the harmful affects of wizard magic." Cynthrex stood up and paced over to a shelf, gliding one claw along the bindings there. "Ah, here it is." She set a thick stack of parchments on the table in front of Effie, held together by red cord. Effie squinted at the runes on the front. She'd been picking up a few, bit by bit in Lintred's library, but it was limited.
Hmm, great lightning…no, perhaps slicing? Cutting? Nah, dragons would go for something more poetic sounding..."Grand Severance?" she asked, hesitantly.
"Very good!" Cynthrex positively beamed. "Trey said you were smarter than you let on. Forget princess, I should take you as my apprentice."
"Um," Effie decided to just let that one pass, again. "I can't really read much more than that. So, this spell would allow dragons and wizards to interact with one another without suffering harmful side-effects?"
"That's the idea. It still has some kinks to work out. Rathan has had the best and brightest wizards he could find smoothing it out…well, the best he could find that were willing to work on such a project, anyway."
"So it hasn't been tested?"
"It has…to a point. Trey has been testing it bit by bit while he's been here…that egg of yours for instance," Cynthrex pointed at Effie's apron pocket.
Effie pulled out the egg and looked at it sadly. There was a long crack running up the side. "I don't think it'll work anymore."
Cynthrex shook her head. "It doesn't matter. It did what it was supposed to, at least as far as this spell is concerned. Lintred never got a sniff of it, until it broke, right? It was completely insulated from him."
Effie started. "Wait, what if it hadn't worked? Lintred would have smelled wizardry on me right away?"
Cynthrex frowned. " Well, maybe. The egg itself was probably fine, but the knights should have reeked of it. I told Trey it was a stupid risk to take, giving that to you at all…but I didn't find out what it did until after he gave it away and it was too late. I was irritated enough with him for wasting his time working on it, and I was really not happy when I found out he had risked our project on it as well, trust me. So you don't have to yell at him about it too."
"I'll try not to." Maybe. "No wonder he was so worried about me breaking it." Effie closed her hand over the ball tightly, then dropped it onto the table with a shrug. "But…I suppose I asked for it."
Cynthrex sighed, but dropped the subject. "We've been working on Trey's staff too, as you can tell, since I'm not having a coughing fit all the time even after hiding him here for weeks. None of it is perfect though…I've been hard put to explain my recent allergy attacks to others, it's turned me into a real recluse…but that's because the spell is supposed to work concurrently on the wizards and dragons casting it. With only me on the dragon side, that part is still a little sketchy." She flipped idly through the pages of spell-work.
"You're the only dragon who knows about this?"
Cynthrex nodded, looking embarrassed. "I haven't had the…courage to ask anyone else. A few times I've thought, maybe I should, but…if I spoke to the wrong person it would be over for good."
Effie looked at the parchment, wishing she could understand what it all said. "So," she was trying to make sense of it all, and she always thought better aloud. "The dragons would no longer have an allergic reaction, or worse, every time a wizard's staff comes within range…the wizards become able to access the power of the Mountains without inconveniencing dragons. Once they have access to that power, they no longer need to make plays for other power sources, like the Forest… so ending to the reason for the war. Once dragons and wizards are no longer fighting each other….they are both able to concentrate on other things, such as the furthering of general knowledge…."
"See? It's not what you were thinking. An end to all this fighting and dying and taking over of kingdoms and running around behind each others' backs…it'll be good for everyone."
"Too good to be true." Effie continued to stare at the parchment. "It'll never work, something has to be missing…otherwise why aren't you telling the King about it? Why all this sneaking around?"
Cynthrex sighed. "Well, not all wizards are going to be thrilled about this, and I personally know quite a few dragons who won't like it either. We just wanted to make sure it was completely possible before bringing it to public view…"
"So...that's why Trey is here? Wouldn't it be safer for you to fly to them?"
The dragon nodded. "Yes, we were doing that for a long time, but we came to a point where we needed to experiment with the Mountains themselves. So…Rathan said he'd send a wizard to me…though why him I don't know, and plan to ask Rathan next time I see him. Still, young and er…easily distracted as he is," here Cynthrex looked appraisingly at Effie, who studiously ignored her. "…he's utterly brilliant at magic theory. We've been able to iron out quite a few problems, though, the more we find, the more keep cropping up..." Suddenly Cynthrex stood up irritably. "Where is Trey anyway? He should have been back ages ago, there's been plenty of time for him to get it out of his system."
Effie frowned, then suddenly her eyes widened. "What if he went to Lintred's? Looking for me?" She leapt to her feet, nearly knocking over her chair. "Lintred could be back any minute!"
Cynthrex looked puzzled. "I can't imagine even Trey doing something so obviously stupid…but…"
"I can!" Effie shouted back over her shoulder as she ran out of the cave.
Approaching Lintred's cave, Effie heard the sounds of shouting coming from the front. Her heart sinking like a lead balloon, she ran even faster. Bursting outside she saw Lintred and….a knight. She nearly fell over in relief until she remembered that she'd never seen Lintred fight a real knight… and hadn't been too impressed by his efforts with the fake ones.
"Lintred!" she called. "Wait!"
The dragon looked over his shoulder. "Effie!" he said happily. "You're back! I was trying to stall him so you could watch."
"This might not be…" she started, but the dragon wasn't listening. He'd already spun back to the knight.
The knight and dragon circled each other, one occasionally making feints with his sword, the other trickling experimental bits of flame. Suddenly, the knight lunged, forcing Lintred to back up, which sent him sliding down a slight incline to the path behind him. A huge a cloud of dust rose up from the dragon's passage, and the knight jumped eagerly into it after him, neatly obscuring the battle from view.
Effie cowered by the entrance to the cave, jumping at every clang and scrape that reached her from the path below. Occasionally the knight would shout something, but Lintred was eerily quiet, which made it even more mind-jarring when the dragon suddenly screamed.
"Lintred!" Effie shrieked in reply, and found herself sliding haphazardly down the slope to the middle of the battle. Coughing, eyes streaming from the dust, she could just barely make out the form of the dragon, sprawled on the ground, the knight raising his sword for the final blow.
"Stop it!" she yelled. "Stop!" Looking around desperately, she snatched a rock from the roadside. "Go away!" Pulling back, she pitched it at the knight's head. It whistled harmlessly past.
The knight looked around. "Now, just a minute, isn't this what…" The second rock hit him squarely in the faceplate.
"Go away!" Effie yelled again. "Leave him alone! Get out! Now!" She threw a third rock, then a stick for good measure. The knight, looking awfully confused, backed away hurriedly. Effie dropped her last rock and ran forward. As the last of the dust settled, she could see the slash just behind the right front leg that had felled the dragon.
"Oh," she said, incoherently. "Oh, oh…are you all right?" she finally gained control of her sentences. "Can you walk? What should I do? That needs to be cleaned! Can you get up?"
"I'm fine," Lintred said irritably. "It's just a scratch." He started to get up, then collapsed predictably back to the path.
Effie glared at him, exasperation with draconian stupidity overriding her worry. "It's not, if you can't stand up…" she looked closer. It was just a scratch. Surely even Lintred wasn't that much of a baby…
Suddenly a mailed hand closed on her arm. "Princess, we must flee before the beast regains its senses!"
"What?" Effie snapped at him. "You are not rescuing me! In fact I never want to see you….again…" she peered closer through the now-broken faceplate. "I have seen you before! You drank my tea and ran away before doing your dishes!" Effie realized that sounded inane, but it was all she could think of at the moment. "Why are you back here?"
"Because you need to be rescued, fair lady…" he said, stubbornly. "Now just come on!" The knight pulled on Effie's arm again.
"Hey!" Lintred struggled to get up. "You let go of her, you're not her knight!"
For once Effie agreed with Lintred and resisted further.
"It doesn't matter!" the knight snapped, finally dropping his affected speech. "I don't have to marry her or anything! For all I care, she can walk right back here as soon as I show her off! I just need to rescue someone, and no one else will let me!"
"You know, that doesn't say a lot for your credentials."
Effie craned her neck to look back over her shoulder. Trey was standing a few feet away, with his staff pointed at her, er, rescuer. "Why don't you just let go now and save me the trouble of doing something unpleasant," he continued. He closed his eyes briefly and shook his head at himself. "Like saying something even more cliché."
The knight just stared. "Wait! I know you! You must be the evil sorcerer!"
Trey blinked. "Evil sorcerer?" He looked affronted. "Effie…I know we didn't leave off on the best note last time, but what have you been telling people?"
"Nothing!" Effie protested. "Not like that…it was a story I told before I even met you!"
"A story?" The knight looked back at her in surprise, which was a mistake. Trey closed the distance between them and brought his staff down hard on the knight's arm. Armor or no, the knight let go of Effie with a cry, and she scrambled away before he could recover and grab her again. He wasn't interested. Instead he turned on Trey and launched himself towards the wizard, eyes blazing.
"So you wish to duel for the hand of the fair princess, foul practicer of the darkest arts?" The knight challenged, recovering his composure and his vocabulary.
Trey just stood there, gaping at him, and almost forgot to dodge. "Whoops," he said, sidestepping the over-zealous knight. "Not really. It wouldn't be much of a fight." The knight spun on his heel and charged in again. "Hey, you don't really want to do that..." The knight swung his sword in a wide arc. "…all right, if you insist." Trey brought his staff up to intercept with a move that looked more like a shrug than a block, and the sword struck it full center.
For a moment, the pair just stood there, weapons crossed, and then the sword exploded in an array of green and purple sparks. Trey stumbled backwards, but kept his balance with his staff, the knight was not so lucky and fell full on his back, the armor aiding his momentum.
"Huh?" Trey said in surprise, recovering and poking at the pieces of the sword. "That was wizardry." He frowned. "Who enchanted this for you?" Effie's eyes widened at 'wizardry' and she spun and ran to Lintred's side.
The knight didn't answer. He clambered to his feet, shot a terrified glance at the wreckage of his weapon, and bolted. Trey started to follow him but Effie called out to him. "Trey! Lintred…" she said, staring at the dragon. He was stretched full out on his side, breathing shallowly. She looked up at the wizard with worried eyes as he rushed back over.
Trey stared down at the dragon, his eyes drifting over the wound, up to Lintred's half lidded eyes, and back down. Then he raised his staff again.
"What are you doing!" Effie grabbed his arm. "You'll make it worse!"
"I won't!" he said, shaking her off. "Besides, I don't think it can get worse. Stupid knight…" he shook his head. "I'm going to draw the spell out. A little scratch like that won't do much to a dragon like Lintred, if I can remove the magic."
"If?" Effie thought about stopping him again.
"When, of course! When! Now stand back!" He moved his staff so it was parallel to Lintred's side and began chanting.Severance, Effie thought suddenly. Cynthrex said they were practicing on Trey's staff…perhaps it could work without hurting Lintred!
Green light was glowing around the staff now, and as Effie stood by the dragon's head, looking rapidly between his eyes and Trey, she saw faint purple lines begin to emerge from the dragon's body. They grew brighter and brighter as they were drawn out, then suddenly stopped. The purple light disappeared into the staff, and the green light begin to fade. Lintred drew in a deep breath, but Effie's happy cry was lost in the sounds of something exploding.
Effie looked up to see Trey shaking his hand as if he'd just dropped something hot, staring down at the shattered remains of his staff in front of him. "Tch," he muttered. Rather an understatement, Effie thought. "What was that!" she asked, "Is it gone? The spell?"
"I don't know," Trey said, hurrying over to her. "It must have been weakened by the blow it took before. I'm sure I got the spell out, though. How is he?"
As if in response, Lintred's eyes flew open and his head snapped up on his neck. Trey had the presence of mind to jump backwards, dragging Effie with him. Lintred managed to briefly choke back the flame he was obviously about to breathe and then pointed it straight up, sending out a pillar of bluish fire that looked quite hot.
"Wizard!" he snapped, swinging his head back around. "Get away from my princess!"
"I think he's fine," Trey commented. Effie shoved him back and stepped between him and the angry and understandably confused dragon.
"Lintred!" she yelled. "Stop it! Calm down now!"
"Calm down? When there's a knight and a wizard trying to take my…." He stopped, blinking. "Where'd the knight go?"
"The wizard sent him running!" Effie explained rapidly. "And saved your life too, no doubt, so please get a hold of yourself."
Lintred stared blankly at her, then slowly his gaze drifted over to Trey. "Saved my life?" he repeated dumbly. Effie nodded quickly, rushing on to explain. "The knight had a magic sword, it was enchanted with wizardry…all he did was to scratch you and you were out like a stone…Trey sucked the spell out, or you would have…"
"Trey?" Lintred blinked some more. "You know this wizard's name?"
"It's…it's a long story…which I'll tell you as soon as we get inside…" Effie fidgeted and glanced at the sky. "I should treat that scratch, and I'm afraid someone might have noticed…"
"Too late," Trey said ruefully, directing her gaze back to the air. Three dragons burst into view over the mountain and dove towards them with a speed that left no doubt as to what they'd seen.
