Chapter 20. "The light of hope"
Right after audience with Señor de la Tribu, dragons walked in direction of quarters of royal medic of tribe, Alivo. At first, Viola suggested that she, Dante and Vixen would come back to their apartment. They weren't medics and had nothing to do with disease. But Sable noticed that knowing the real situation in tribe would help her in negotiations. And so, seven dragons flew down the Core. They were flying for dozens meters down, when they finally reached its bottom. Sunlight wasn't the source of light anymore, there were only torches. For wyverns, night hunters, light was just enough, but all dragons, not counting Sable with his specific eyes, had problems with seeing through the darkness. They landed on the stone circle with diameter of about one hundred meters. Tris looked up, desperately seeking for sunlight. She really disliked that place. Dante encouraged her, whispering something very silently and fire breather giggled silently. Then, there walked to them four wyverns. They were wearing light armor and metal gauntlets able to shoot needles, this same as some of Vengantimos used to use. At their sides, there were small bags, built in special purpose to allow user take needles from it quickly. Those were elite guards, the best soldiers of Celeste Tribu. And their mission was only keeping quarantine. That showed all wyverns that situation was really bad.
"You're the medics from Warfang, aren't you?" The guard asked hopefully. His voice was filled with such a sorrow...And those eyes of person who had lost someone very precious to him...
"Yes, we are." Sable agreed. He saw sparkle of joy appearing in wyvern's eye."Lead us to Royal Medic Alivo, will you?"
"Right away, sir!" Wyvern saluted with enthusiasm. He turned around and walked the dark corridor. All the dragons followed him. They entered some dark corridor where weren't burning many torches. They walked through it to the place called the small Core, since it looked similar to Core, but was several times smaller. Only wyverns were medics, all in haste, flying from one corridor to the other, as fast as they could. After all, several seconds of delay could be decide about life or death. Small Core was high for about fifty meters, lit not by sunlight, but hundreds of special torches, which didn't fume.
"The Royal Medic's HQ is at the very top of small Core. That corridor." The wyvern pointed one of corridors. He turned around and started walking back to his position. All the dragons flew to corridor pointed by guard. All medics watched them carefully, but no one asked them who they were. The good news were spreading quickly. Sable easily found the head quarters. He knocked at the door. Then, he heard silent curse in wyvern's language.
"Come in!" Some shouted from behind door. There could be heard some annoyed muttering and noise of boiling water, as dragons opened the door. They all entered to it with no problem, it was very spacious place. But still, it all was one great mess. At the wall opposite to them, there were tens of medical books. Or those were supposed to be, since the most of them were laying wide opened on the floor. At the left, there was long desk with some test-tubes, bottles, several dozen kinds of herbs and some quite big bottle of boiling blue elixir. Right under table's top, there were several closed drawers. In the middle, there was a desk behind which was sitting quite old wyvern. Whole right side of his body was covered in chemical burns, including his cheek, throat and wing, which had several holes that would make flying definitely much harder for him. Though he couldn't be called young, after all he had forty-five, maybe fifty years, there was nothing really old about him. Neither beautiful, pure green scales, neither eyes, longing for adventure. But this sparkle in his eyes seemed to have faded away a little under pressure of brutal reality. The wyvern raised his head slowly, watching the newcomers. He expected to hear another report. Deceased, technical problems, not tight quarantine, another failures with experimental cures... Then, his eyes grew wide as he recognized the newcomers.
"Sable?" He asked, as if he didn't believe his own eyes. "Is that really you?"
"Who else could I be, mentor?" The lightning dragon noticed. Then, Alivo stood before him and watched carefully his orange eyes.
"Fascinating. Those scales, exactly like dragon's. Separated wings and arms made with chirurgical precision. Almost as if you were born as a dragon. Even eyes are changed, though in amateurish way." He whispered, noticing thousands of little veins covering his iris. "But, where are my manners?" He asked rhetorically, as he stepped back. Then, he bowed slightly. "My name is Alivo, I am Royal Medic." The wyvern introduced himself. "You've brought quite many medics, you know?"
"Sable, the lightning dragon. Only four of us are medics. Those are: Captain..." He made a pause, wanting to present others, but he realized he forgot to say her name. "Ivory." He added after a second and ice dragoness bowed gently, smiling slightly." Crag and Tris." Two remaining medics bowed as well. "All four of us are one medical team." Sable explained.
"And who are your two?" Alivo watched Dante and Viola carefully. He and Vixen had already been introduced to each other at Vixen's first visit, there was no need to ask her about it as well.
"Dante, the earth dragon I am. Because of my mate, Tris, I came." Poet introduced himself, rhyming, as usually. This time, Sable spared comment about that.
"My name is Viola, daughter of Crystal. I am Sable's mate." The azure dragoness bowed gently before wyvern who watched her carefully, as if estimating.
"So the rumors about your new family was true, huh?" The wyvern said to himself after several seconds. "Sable, you've always liked behaving in…" Alivo considered which word to use. "Hmm… Extraordinary way, as for principe." Then, he turned to Viola and Dante. "So, your two only accompanies the medics, right? Or do you have some mission I don't know about?"
"We're negotiating conditions of alliance between northern tribes and dragons." Viola explained.
"Alliance?" The Royal Medic asked with disbelief."Just seven dragons and so many changes." He noticed.
"Master Alivo…" Sable started.
"Call me by name. I'm not your teacher for years." The wyvern noticed.
"Alivo, what's the situation?" The lightning dragon continued. The Royal Medic rapidly saddened.
"It's very bad. Whole small Core is cut off with quarantine, which appears to be not tight, we still fine new diseased outside. We estimate that about ten percent of society is ill, maybe even more, but the most of them are now here. Besides, we can only slow down effects of disease, but not heal it. All our tried to discover cure were complete failures." Alivo explained. He sounded very crushed with his helplessness. Reading the statistics was nothing compared to watch death of so many wyverns.
"We have an antidote." Sable declared. The Royal Medic watched dragons completely aghast. "Tris, could you?" The lightning dragon suggested. Tris nodded and took from bag at her side some notebook. She opened it and gave the wyvern. Alivo started reading it quickly.
"We don't have any ironweed already. What is cat's claw?" He asked.
"It's Uña de Gato, acacia plumose." The fire breather explained.
"We lack it as well." The wyvern stated.
"You can replace ironweed with marigold and lavender will be perfect instead of cat's claw." Tris suggested.
"Are you sure?" Alivo asked doubtfully. "Marigold and ironweed are completely different herbs." He noticed, not sure about that idea.
"Marigold, together with flax seeds, which are ingredients of this cure, work exactly in this same way as ironweed for itself. Besides, it grows much faster and you have much more of it here." Tris didn't consider her answer for even a second, surprising everyone.
"We don't have Hawthorne's fruits as well." The Royal Medic watched her curiously what she'd say.
"I suggest comfrey." Tris said. The wyvern smiled slightly, watching young dragoness.
"I see that you have a little encyclopedia in your team." He noticed, smiling slightly. In her age, or maybe even now, didn't know the herbs that well. "So, what more have you found out about this disease?"
"It's called Nooner's disease." Ivory started. "It's specific and rare disease, dragons thought it had been dealt with even before the Great War. Anyway, it's specific, it damages veins all across the body. The most vulnerable are kidneys, lungs and brain. Time of decease is unpredictable, some die in month after discovering first symptoms, others after just a week."
"What are symptoms?" Alivo asked. Maybe there was something they were missing.
"The first ones are red discolorations of skin, which look as if you were blushing, but in specific places. The other early one is so called pink eye, conjunctivitis, that is. If treatment is started right after discovering those, the chance to heal it is practically one hundred percent. The last symptoms are coughing up blood and losing consciousness, most often about ten minutes before death." The white dragoness continued. "If treatment wasn't started until that moment, chance of survival is very low, even if there's professional help of medics." Ivory finished.
"Do those symptoms fit what you've seen?" Sable asked. For a moment, he was worried, if they hadn't brought information about wrong disease.
"It's perfect." Alivo dispelled Sable's worries. "Does magic have any use against it?" He asked.
"If working on right organ, it can slow it down." Ivory explained.
"So, from now, we can really start fighting against this disease. Viola, Dante, Vixen, you better come back to the Core, to your quarters. You should prepare for..." Then, door opened. All dragons watched carefully a wyverness who stood behind them. Alivo smiled.
"Esperanza, come in." He ordered with warm voice. Young wyverness was about fifteen years old, she was very thin as for her age and beautiful. She moved very gracefully, stepping slowly and gently. At her side, there was bag, characteristic for medics of most likely all races. She also wore two gold bracelets at her left paw, clanking silently with every her move. The wyverness stood next to Alivo.
"Everyone, this is my daughter, Esperanza." The Royal Medic explained. Sable smiled slightly. He wasn't really surprised with that news. After all, those father and daughter were very similar to each other. Especially eyes, those deep brown eyes.
"Last time I saw you, you were just an egg." The lightning dragon noticed.
"Last time I saw you..." Esperanza wanted to say something, but she interrupted in half of sentence, as she realized that she had never seen Sable, only heard of him, the banished prince, former Vengantimo. "Never mind." She added after several seconds and Sable watched her with amusement.
"So, where was I?" Alivo asked. "Right, now I remember. Viola, Dante, Vixen, I suggest you coming back to your quarters. You need to rest before negotiations, which definitely won't be short." The Royal Medic noticed. "Esperanza, will you show those three medics the terrain of quarantine?" He pleased, pointing at Sable, Crag and Tris.
"What about me?" Ivory asked curiously.
"I need to talk with you. We'll join them soon." Alivo explained. Then, six dragons and wyverness bided them goodbye and left them alone in small room. Door closed behind Dante, the last leaving.
"Where are you from?" Alivo asked curiously, as he made sure that no one could hear them. Ivory watched him, dumbstruck.
"The white city, Teria." She explained. "Why do you ask?"
"The city of famous Lian, huh? Are you relative to her?" The wyvern continued series of questions.
"Yes, I am her descendant." Ivory confirmed.
"You've inherited her blessing, haven't you?" Alivo guessed.
"Blessing or curse? I'm still not sure about it. Let's just call it heritage." Ivory recalled her and Crag's meeting after the banquet and the one earlier, on Dante's Freezer. She had neither forgotten about elders of Teria, both fearing and hating her because of her talents. "How did you know that?"
"I'm quite talented in magic, I can feel even the slightest presence of magic in every life. And you're great burning lantern, surrounded by darkness and rare sparkles, like mine or your teammates'."
"But I'm muffling my magic, you can't…" Ivory tried to argue.
"I can sense it despite muffling. It's a common technique amongst the talented magicians like you and I need a way to counter it." The wyvern explained.
"So you're a typical sensor. A good one." The dragoness summed up.
"Exactly. You know, years ago, soon before Cynder's fall, I've met someone similar to you. Crona. Do you know her?" Alivo asked curiously.
"No, I've never heard of her. Who is she?" Ivory watched him curiously.
"The white dragoness. I guess she's ice user, but, honestly, I haven't seen her using any element. All her scales were white, she had only several characteristic black spots on her... shoulders, I think. She had black horns, talons and tailblade. She wore some jewelry at her horn and neck. I guess she's your equal. She has blue eyes. And she had powerful magic within herself, incomparable to any I've ever seen, even yours. For a moment, I even doubted, if she wasn't some kind of spirit who descended from the celestial world." The wyvern described her.
Then, some mind appeared in Ivory's head. Candice had mentioned something about white dragoness like that appearing in Warfang soon before Venganza's attack, together with other black dragon, probably mate, and two hatchlings. One of dragon wizards mentioned that he had felt intensive magical pressure from the newcomer. Could that be Crona? It had to be her. Who else? It would mean she lives... beyond time, like Chronicler, for example. But was it even possible for average dragon... Average? No, Crona definitely wasn't average, just like Ivory. For Crona, it definitely was possible.
"I think I've heard of her. From what I know, she lives, but she's... unreachable." Ivory said after moment of silence.
"I see..." Alivo watched her curiously, but he didn't ask. "Well, I mentioned about her, because your magic very similar to her. Weaker, but similar. It's like... I not really know how to explain it." The wyvern lacked words, most likely even in his native language.
"I have Lian's magic?" Ivory guessed.
"Not exactly. I read what kind of power Lian had and it's a little different than yours, Crona's more similar to you at this point. It seems like there have been several Cronas, dragons very similar to her. And from them all you have parts of their powers. From Lian you have healing magic, from other dragon the other skills... You know what I mean?" Alivo watched her curiously.
"Yes, I guess so. Do you think I've inherited it or is it something else?"
"I can't say for sure." The wyvern just shrugged helplessly.
"Where did you meet Crona?" Ivory asked.
"On Dante's Freezer. It was blizzard, she'd most likely freeze to death, but I found her and brought to warm hideout. At first, she didn't trust me, after all I'm wyvern. But with time, I achieved her trust and she said that she was following the purple dragon, Spyro. After a night spend in the cave, I accompanied her for several days and left her, giving her some medicines and map."
"Followed Spyro?" Ivory asked with disbelief.
"I'm not lying." Alivo knew what she meant. "Anyway, I wanted to talk with you about something else. You've been to the Throne Hall, haven't you?" He asked.
"Yes, I was there in time of the banquet." Ivory confirmed.
"Have you seen the writings on the ceiling?" The wyvern watched her carefully.
"What writings?" Ivory asked, pretending that she had no idea what he meant. All the dragons were already laughing because of her reading invisible letters and that was her prepared answer for that question. "I saw those." She agreed, seeing wyvern's skeptical sight. "What have you read?" She asked.
"I discovered that only wizards can read those writings, the better magician is, the more he can read. I've managed to read only this: Time and space. And you?"
"Time and space are under shield, keeping their secrets unrevealed. Space shall be bent." She recited slowly the text she remembered from banquet. "I've also learnt how to control magic with right arm much better." Alivo watched her with disbelief.
"How long did it take you to read this?" He asked.
"Half a minute, maybe less. And you?" Ivory watched him curiously.
"Two days. After then, I've reached my limit, the ceiling didn't want to show me any secrets more than it did at the first seconds." The wyvern explained and the white dragoness watched him with disbelief. Was there really such a difference between them? "Could you show me what you've learned with right paw?" Alivo pleased. Ivory agreed, though very reluctantly. She focused and in several seconds, her right arm covered in gentle aura of magic.
"I still work on it, but it will allow me to use my arm as shield when it comes to combat." She explained. After several seconds, the azure aura disappeared. "It's very tiring, I can't use it for long time." She explained. "Is there any wyvern that can use magic in combat?" She asked curiously after a moment.
"Definitely not in Celeste Tribu. But leader of Esteralldo Tribu is powerful magician. Still, it's hard to compare him to you." Alivo said.
"You exaggerate." The white dragoness refused with disbelief.
"No, I mean it. When it's up to magical potential, you're the strongest wizard I've ever met, except for Crona, of course." The wyvern confirmed. "But, enough of this flattering or it will rush to your head." Alivo noticed, smiling slightly. Then, he walked to the door. "Come on, let's join your friends." He suggested. The white dragoness nodded, agreeing, and followed the Royal Medic.