Orrin and Possibilities

We arrived at the Varden's camp late in the afternoon the next day. Eragon looked the happiest I'd seen him yet. A broad smile stretched his face, and he laughed, relieved. "We made it!" he exclaimed. "Murtagh, Thorn, hundreds of soldiers, Galbatorix's pet magicians, the Ra'zac—none of them could catch us. Ha! How's that for taunting the king? This'll tweak his beard for sure when he hears of it."

"He will be twice as dangerous then," warned Arya.

"I know," Eragon said, grinning even wider. "Maybe he'll get so angry, he'll forget to pay his troops and they will all throw away their uniforms and join the Varden."

"Why are you so jolly?" I asked him.

"Why shouldn't I be?" he demanded. I heard him shout, Saphira! sending the thought flying over the countryside like a spear.

While he bounded ahead, I dropped into step beside Arya and asked, "Who are Murtagh, Thorn, and Ra'zac?"

"Murtagh is the rider of Thorn, and the Ra'zac are creatures that eat the flesh of men," she said without blinking. "Eragon killed that last one, though."

I was dismayed. "The other side have a rider too?"

"King Galbatorix is a rider as well. He forces his dragon, Shruikan, to obey him. That is why he has lived so long."

"Lived so long...being bonded with a dragon increases your lifespan?"

"Yes. The bond with dragons is what gives us elves our long lives."

"How long?"

"Undying." Whoa. Elves were immortal? And this Eragon kid was too? The thought of him living for hundreds of years while the rest of us humans grew old and died seemed repulsive.

"Magic," said Arya simply, as if reading my thoughts. Maybe she had.

We slowly walked down the hill to the camp. Finally Arya said, "You must accept the violence, William. All of Alagaesia is consumed by it. Only when King Galbatorix is overthrown will there be peace. Until then, we fight until we die or win."

"There is no middle ground?"

"None."

So much for negotiation.

Arya stopped suddenly. "You still have to tell me how you summoned the music. I have never heard the likes of it from anywhere in Alagaesia."

Uh-oh. "Would you believe me if I said it's would take me several days to explain it thoroughly?"

Her eyes, cold and calculating, met mine. She better not be reading my mind.

"I will accept your answer for now," she decided. Then: "You are different from the rest of your kind, human."

Damn right. I saved the rest of my "kind."

Any further discussion was cut short when Saphira promptly dived out of a cloud a thousand feet above and roared. Arya winced instinctively and I ducked as she flew over us. It was a sight just as majestic as seeing a squadron of F-22s fly by, minus the sonic boom. A plume of fire shot from the dragon's jaws as she flew toward Eragon.

"I had hoped we could enter the camp without attracting undue attention," Arya muttered, "but I suppose I should have realized we could not be unobtrusive with Saphira around. A dragon is hard to ignore."

I heard that, said Saphira, spreading her wings and landing with a thunderous crash. Her massive thighs and shoulders rippled as she absorbed the force of the impact. Folding her wings so they lay flat upon her back, she said, I can be stealthy if I want. Then she cocked her head and blinked, the tip of her tail whipping from side to side. But I don't want to be stealthy today! Today I am a dragon, not a frightened pigeon trying to avoid being seen by a hunting falcon.

"Greetings, Saphira," said Arya, and twisted her hand over her chest in the elves' gesture of respect. I copied the gesture and repeated her greeting.

Crouching low and bending her long neck, Saphira touched Arya upon the brow with the tip of her snout, and said, Greetings, älfa-kona. Welcome, and may the wind rise under your wings.I am grateful to you for helping Eragon to return without harm. If he had been captured, I do not know what I would have done!

"Your gratitude means much to me," said Arya, and bowed. "As for what you would have done if Galbatorix had seized Eragon, why, you would have rescued him, and I would have accompanied you, even if it was to Urû'baen itself."

At that moment, a patrol galloped toward us and, halting thirty yards away because of their nervous horses, asked if they might escort the us to Nasuada. Two of the men dismounted and gave their steeds to Arya and me, and then as a group, we advanced toward the sea of tents. Saphira set the pace: a leisurely crawl that allowed her and Eragon to enjoy the pleasure of each other's company.

As we entered the throng of people, the noise level increased dramatically. All sorts of people surrounded us. Women carrying small children, two boys fighting with wooden swords, men carrying stacks of arrows. I felt a twinge of satisfaction as I pictured those arrows being loaded into repeating crossbows.

Through the crowd of people, twelve tall, slender figures emerged. It took me another second to realize that they were elves.

I leaned toward Arya and whispered, "Why does one of them look like a gorilla?"

"A what?"

"Why is he all furry?"

"He has decorated his body as he sees fit," she said calmly. I decided not to pursue the fact that in front of me was a wolverine-style X-Man wannabe.

The sasquatch/elf and Eragon talked quietly for a few minutes before we resumed our march through the camp. The crowd swelled around us as Saphira made our presence terribly obvious to everyone. People shouted and gestured at Eragon. It was building up to a migraine in my head.

People made requests for help, aid, and offered him money and invitations to dine. It reminded me of the days when I'd first hit it big. The paparazzi had been just as annoying. Suddenly an idea struck me. I raised my voice and cried, "Shadeslayer, will you marry me?"

I doubled over laughing as he looked around. Arya herself grinned. She repeated the call, and we were both laughing as Eragon looked around, bewildered.

Pulling myself together, I noticed that the elves had fallen into step next to our procession.

"Are they acting as bodyguards?" I asked Arya. She nodded.

"All the races of Alagaesia have an interest in keeping him alive," she said. "He is our best hope for overthrowing Galbatorix."

All this hope rested on one kid. Hmm. I was needed a lot more than I had first thought.

Eragon's brother materialized out of the crowd. He and Eragon embraced and exchanged a few sentences. Then Nasuada was there, along with a man wearing a crown that I did not recognize.

"That's King Orrin of Surda, whose land we stand upon now. He shelters the Varden and provides us with men and materials," Arya said when I asked her.

"What happened to his ear?"

"It was injured in an explosion while he was mixing up concoctions in his laboratory."

Whoa, whoa, whoa…

"King Orrin has a laboratory? Containing explosive chemicals?"

"I suppose that is the case."

"I must meet with him immediately." I had thought that I would need the dwarves to get me the stuff I needed, but if it was already here...

"Well, you'll be competing with Eragon for his attention after they all give speeches."

Sure enough, Nasuada and Orrin both made addresses to the Varden. Nasuada's was full of propaganda and posh (my job required working with politicians and I knew my way around their speeches), while Orrin's was more serious. I could tell at once by listening to him that he was a cut above the rest of the Varden. He didn't rally the gathered crowd as Nasuada did, but I could tell he didn't care. His mind was on other matters.

Finally, after Eragon too had stumbled over a few words, which nonetheless received a chorus of cheers, the group of people slowly dissipated, and we gathered in Nasuada' pavilion. There was another group of people waiting for us here, but they had the look of nobles rather than commoners.

Thinking quickly, I deduced that they were here to meet Eragon and had no idea who I was, which was what I wanted. I sat down at a table loaded with food and heaped a variety of dishes onto a plate. As I chowed down on some sort of meat pie and a sort of honeyed-apple, I saw Eragon flashing jealous glances at me while he himself remained locked in the crowd of people trying all to speak with him at once.

The gathering went on for hours. I propped my feet up on the table and sat idly daydreaming about what it would be like to ride on Saphira. Finally, when Eragon looked ready to tear his hair out from boredom, the mighty dragon growled, low and threatening. The message was clear: I'm done with this. Immediately, the crowd thinned and some positively fled through the large entrance flap. Eragon joined me at the table with Nasuada, Orrin, and Arya, and he too grabbed an apple and a slice of pie. Unfortunately, the royal rulers bombarded him with so many questions that he barely could take three bites. It was quite amusing to watch.

Finally, during a lull in their conversation, I wedged my chair closer to Orrin's and asked, "How'd you blow your ear up?"

Everyone looked at me. I shrugged. "Just curious."

He looked me over hesitantly. "I mixed some chemicals together and apparently they were best off being left alone."

"Do you have beakers and tubes, scales and measures in this laboratory of yours?" I asked, hoping…

He looked startled that I was so well informed. "Yes, without them I would be very precise in anything, would I?"

"No, probably not," I grinned. This was too easy!

"As much as you two are interested in combining powders and burning strange plants," Nasuada said impatiently, "We need to hear Eragon's explanation of his absence." Orrin nodded and turned his attention from me, which was fine. I was already drawing upon my vast stores of knowledge (modest, wasn't I?).

I have to admit, Eragon's daring fight with the Ra'zac was pretty impressive. I was interested in the magical wards he used to deflect arrows and swords. As soon as I started fighting, I was going to get some magic body armor...until I made some Kevlar, anyway.

I got rather bored of the endless talk about fighting, and how Eragon had met this guy called Sloan, and all the other stuff. Then he and Arya described the journey back to the Varden. Arya made a point of mentioning that I had had an adverse reaction to the violent fight on the road. Nasuada raised her eyebrows but said nothing. I could tell that they were all thinking, what a sissy. I felt embarrassed. In my defense though, real combat was a hell of a lot different from Blazing Barrels IV.

I soon lost interest in the conversation, and when Arya left to "go heat a tub of water, wash the sand from my skin, and return my features to their usual shape. I do not feel myself, with the tips of my ears missing, my eyes round and level, and the bones of my face in the wrong places." I hastily made after her. I would have loved to take a bath as well, but somehow I doubted that she would appreciate me joining her.

Instead I went back to my tent. I put my few possessions under my pillow (I had never slept on a pillow filled with real feathers before, and boy does it feel weird), and even though it was only early evening, was out like a light. The last few days had taken a toll on me, but after a few sets of forty winks each, I would be ready to face the new day, or rather, my new destiny.