A harsh sound broke through the stillness of the large room. Eragon rose out of the pleasant haze that was his sleep, and stood up, calling out to Saphira with his mind, 'Wake up, some one is at the door.'
Eragon flattened his ruffled tunic, picked up his Elvin made bow, and donned his belt, the belt of Beloth the Wise, with its twelve precious diamonds imbedded in it. He fingered the spot by his side where the hilt of his sword, Zar'roc used rest, and let out a sigh. He had yet to acquire a replacement weapon.
He glanced to the back of the room, where Saphira was stretching, very catlike, from her restful sleep.
He strode over to the door, and pulled it open to see a young page quickly jump to attention, and looking very intimidated, he said, "My lord Sh-Shadeslayer, our e-esteemed leader, that is, the Varden's esteemed leader, mistress Nasuada requests conference with you. I shall lead you to her."
Eragon nodded, and the boy stepped back, faced slightly flushed, and looking quite relieved to be done with his message.
Sighing, Eragon turned back to the room and, seeing that Saphira was ready, he opened the door the rest of the way so that she could squeeze through.
She huffed disapprovingly as she struggled through the threshold. 'Couldn't they give us a room with a more suitable entrance! We must have passed dozens on our way up here that could accommodate me easily.'
'We don't want to offend the Varden Saphira,' Eragon told her steadily, 'but maybe we could ask Nasuada for a change of room, I think she would most likely oblige us.'
'They had better,' Saphira huffed while she got the last of her wings out of the doorway and with a final heave, the rest of her body. She walked past him without looking back, and he could sense her annoyance.
The boy led them across the castle and down a winding staircase, and through more dark and hot corridors, before he arrived in front of a large, wooden door, guarded by no less than twelve soldiers. Eragon knew that they wouldn't let him enter unless permitted, so he waited calmly while Nasuada was notified of his arrival. He casually asked Saphira what she thought the purpose of their visit was. She had come to the same conclusion as he.
'It's undoubtedly to try to sway you from leaving for Dras Leona with Roran again. As long as she does not order you to stay, it's out of her hands. Besides, I am going, and you will too, whether or not I must kidnap you.'
Eragon chuckled at her reply, 'I would expect nothing less. It's good to see you're on my side with this.'
She couldn't reply, because the door opening and Nasuada's mistress walked through, interrupting them, "You may come in now."
The guards moved stiffly aside and Eragon led Saphira through the entrance.
After a short hallway, they found themselves in a dark candlelit room. Eragon immediately began to sweat, and wiped his brow upon his sleeve.
They walked up to the large desk in the back of the room, and Eragon greeted Nasuada, who was currently at her desk, examining a parchment on her desk, fanning herself with a palm leaf.
"Greetings Mistress Nasuada, you wanted to see me?"
Nasuada looked up, and replied, "Yes, yes, Eragon, thank you. Do sit down." She gestured a seat.
"Thank you." Eragon sat down. "It's terribly hot, do you mind if I-?"
"No, no, of course not, please do." Nasuada butted in.
Relieved, Eragon muttered a few words in the Ancient Language, and the room dropped several degrees into a comfortable temperature.
Nasuada sighed, and stopped fanning herself. She leaned back in her chair, and clasping her slender hands together, she began, "Well Eragon—and Saphira—I have some important news. There is a plan being put in motion, a plan that will risk many lives, but is of the utmost importance. A plan, I need you, Eragon to lead. Our plan is to steal the remaining egg from Galbatorix. I know that you and Roran will be running off on your harebrained scheme to kill the Ra'zac, but once you return, I am ordering you to be on the team that steals the egg. With Saphira with you, and of course your fighting and magical prowess, you would prove invaluable. Will you do it?"
Saphira snorted, 'Will we do it? I thought that she had ordered us too, or at least you. I don't think she realizes that you will do whatever she commands.'
'But the question still is,' Eragon interrupted, 'whether or not we will do it. I think we must. With the possibility of a new rider on our side, we could put back the hope that was lost when Murtagh was discovered to be the next rider. Also, if Galbatorix were to find another suitor for his egg, our cause would be hopeless.'
Saphira nodded her head solemnly, and Eragon replied for them, "Yes, lady Nasuada, we will go all the way to Uru'baen and steal the final egg. Nothing will stop us."
Nasuada, for the first time that day, smiled, "Thank you Eragon, but don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to go off with your cousin before the plan will be put in motion. You will, of course be accompanied by the Elf spell weavers that are currently here in Aberon and perhaps a few others when the time comes."
Nasuada straightened her dress, and picking up her parchment, she scanned it a few times for good measure, than recited, "It's written here that the Empire currently has seventy thousand soldiers that survived the battle last week, but we know that they will regain their number of One hundred thousand in a matter of months. But that is only in Southern Alagaesia, they have at least sixty five thousand spread out around the rest of their empire. Those are some very intimidating numbers, especially since we are down to no more than thirty thousand men in Surda – if we can recruit them at a steady rate. With the dwarven allies, that number will most likely change to fifty thousand. Then finally the Elves," she glanced down at her parchment once more, "have about fifteen thousand soldiers. That's about sixty five thousand against one hundred and sixty five thousand.
"These numbers are all estimates, and I haven't added in the Kull allies, and some others, but the point is, none of these numbers matter if you can't kill Galbatorix. No one can stop him. As much as we like to think that the elves could stop him, without you, they can't. It would be impossible for them to all attack him at once, but with you there, you could perhaps lure him to them. But that brings the matter of whether or not you could hold him off at all, when his apprentice, Murtagh, beat you with such ease." She paused. "What we need is for you to continue your training, to learn as much as you can, to become what you are needed to become. We need you Eragon to be powerful. I need you to be powerful. Powerful enough to kill Murtagh and his cursed master. Can you gain the strength needed, Eragon? When the time comes, will you be ready to face Galbatorix?"
There was a long and profound silence, before Eragon answered simply, "I will try to be, my lady. I will try all I can to be what is needed."
"That is all that I ask. You may leave now."
Eragon stood, and with a small bow of his head, he strode out of the room, an uncommonly quiet Saphira trailing behind him. While at the door though, Nasuada called out, "Oh, and Eragon, I presume that you haven't forgotten Elva or your deal with her."
Eragon stopped, and without looking back replied, "Lady Nasuada, she has hardly left my thoughts day and night. Saphira and I are devising the proper spell to cure her. She will be returned to the girl she once was."
With that said, Eragon continued the rest of the ways to the door, opened it easily, and strode through Saphira at his heel.
After a few minutes of walking, Eragon finally asked Saphira why she was so quiet. Her answer surprised him enough to stop his strides.
'You have changed Eragon. You are no longer the boy you were but a month ago. You have grown into a strong leader and icon that should be respected. With that position though comes many responsibilities. Make sure you do not shoulder too many. Though Nasuada's council is wise, she knows not everything. I feel that our path is not as clear as she thinks and I don't think she realizes that it would take more than just effort for you to become powerful. We must be wise in our decisions. The only hope we have is not for you to become powerful, but for you and the last rider to become powerful. Only then can we defeat Galbatorix and his servant, your brother.'
"He's not my brother!" Eragon spat. 'My only brother is Roran.'
With the conversation ended, they continued around the castle to the main entrance and to the sparing grounds. The entire field was full of soldiers doing drills, sparring, or firing arrows at targets. Eragon observed what he saw carefully. With some more work, it seemed, these soldiers would be quite deadly. Eragon strolled between the fighters, who when noticing him, stopped and bowed. He nodded back to each of them, and they continued to fight. Eragon's eyes scanned the crowd.
'Where is he, little one?'
Eragon kept his eyes peeled and replied, 'I'm not sure.' Eragon spread out his senses, touching the consciousness of every soldier on the field, sorting through them, before he felt the presence he was searching for. Roran was but twenty meters away, examining a weapon from a weapons rack he had passed. Eragon went over to him.
"Roran! Why is it you wanted to meet me here?"
Roran looked up from his sword to Eragon to Saphira, and back to Eragon and replied, "I need you, cousin, to teach me how to fight properly."
Eragon looked at him incredulously. He had never taught anyone anything before, but now, that didn't seem too important. He just thought back to his first lesson with Brom, and said, "Okay Roran, I'll teach you."
Eragon found a discarded sparring sword on the ground, and picking it up, he looked straight into Roran's eyes and cried, "Defend your self!"
The attack came quickly, too quickly, and it smacked Roran upon the shoulder. He leaped back, rubbing massaging it slowly, before jumping forward with a wild swing at Eragon's head. Eragon batted it away as if he were batting a fly, and shot his sword back out connecting it into Roran's stomach.
Roran crouched over with an audible "Ooof" and Eragon stood back to let him recuperate, after a few more minutes of Roran getting beaten around, Eragon slowed down his Elvin speed, and showed him how to do the maneuvers properly. They continued like this until noon, when Eragon and Roran went to dine in a large mess hall with the other soldiers. They had an enjoyable meal and shared some stories of their recent doings. Roran told Eragon how he and the Carvahall villagers crossed the great eye that rested between Beirland and Nia. Eragon was mightily impressed. Eragon explained about his transformation, and how now he had the same super human strength and other senses of an elf. Roran too seemed impressed though he hid it well.
They discussed when they would leave for Dras-Leona and decided that they would depart in six days, so they both had enough time to prepare, and so Eragon would have enough time to cure Elva before he left.
Eragon was sad when they separated at the end of the meal. He went back outside, and met Saphira, outside the castle entrance. He clambered onto her back and they flew up toward their enormous window, and she landed inside the large room. This was the reason for their staying in this room. Nasuada had had her men remove an entire wall so Saphira could fly in and out. There was a curtain that Eragon could pull across to keep bugs or rain out but he often let it stay open.
Eragon sat down, and Saphira and he conversed about the happenings of the empire. There had been some disturbing news given to them that morning. Soon their discussion brought them to what they were going to do if they managed to steal an egg from Galbatorix successfully.
Saphira was telling him, 'we would have to entrust it to someone, so they could get possible contestants to come and see if it would hatch for them. We could do it ourselves, I suppose. It would be easy for us to bring it to Ellesmera and the Elves with us.'
Eragon agreed, 'Yes, but what if the egg hatch for someone here in Surda? What would we do? Train them ourselves until we could travel to Ellesmera? What would we tell the Varden? It would endanger the rider and Dragon if they were revealed before capable of handling themselves. It would destroy much more than your race if they were to die.'
Saphira pointed out, 'I suppose we'll have to wait and see what happens.'
They soon fell into a comfortable silence, and Eragon wondered when their guest, Arya, would arrive. They planned to meet in his room that day and she was late.
Eragon closed his eyes, and spread his senses as far and wide, feeling everything in and around the castle. He was surprised when he felt her consciousness only a minute or so away from him, walking down a long hallway towards his room.
His relief was soon replaced by a small bit of nervousness that he knew stemmed from meeting Arya again. The last time they had talked in private, he had made a complete fool of himself. This time though, he was not under the persuasion of Elvin mead and spells. Taking a deep breath, he went over and opened the door, moments after she knocked on it. When the door opened abruptly, she did not flinch, but navigated around Eragon, and gracefully into the room without hesitation.
When Eragon had closed the door and turned around he greeted her, "Atra esterni ono thelduin."
She replied, "Mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr."
"Please sit." Eragon gestured a chair by a desk in a side of the room, and she nodded her thanks, and sat down on its wooden frame.
He moved forward, and sat down in a matching one next to it. Saphira moved closer to them to form a triangle.
'Well,' Eragon began, 'I-we asked you here today to help us undo a terrible wrong. Elva – the little girl – the one I cursed. I need you to help me fix her. We need you to help us devise a counter spell to return her to what she once was. Will you help us? Do you think it can be done?'
Saphira turned her head to examine Arya closely.
Arya chose her words carefully, 'I think we can surly help the girl, but I do not think we can restore her to the normal girl she once was. The best we can do is help refine her abilities and maybe let her be in control of them. If we can do that, not only will she be happier, but she will still be useful to the Varden.'
Saphira butted it, 'but we don't want her to be used by the Varden! That would be cruel.'
Eragon agreed. Arya said though, with her soothing mental voice, 'We will need her when she is grown. I do not mean to say that she should be some sort of slave. If she can learn to control her unique abilities she will have a bright future, with wealth and renown almost guarantied. What king wouldn't pay dearly for such a servant? One that can foil assassinations, forecast outcomes of battles, and save many lives with nothing more than a vision. It is surly a curse now, but with my assistance, you can make a gift more precious than the worth of a kingdom if circumstances permit it.'
Eragon and Saphira relented, recognizing Arya's logic. They spent the next few hours sweating over the Ancient language, trying to make a spell that would be flawless.
Early the next morning, when it was still dark, Eragon was making his way down the long stone corridors. He paced silently, while Saphira's polished claws clacked and grated the floor noisily.
'Are we going the right way?' Saphira asked Eragon.
Eragon nodded the affirmative – he could sense Elva from miles away.
Finally Eragon stopped before a simple wooden door, and knocked three times.
A few moments later, a tired-looking Angela, opened the door. She looked from Eragon to Saphira and stated, "You've finally come for Elva."
Eragon nodded.
"Well come on in then. I say its lucky that wart hook potions can only be created during the first night of full moon, or you two would have wakened my beauty sleep. That would be a moment you wouldn't likely forget. Lucky, but foolish."
Saphira couldn't fir through the door, so she waited out in the hallway. Eragon told her she could watch from his eyes. He turned followed Angela into the apartment.
She led them past a couple rooms full of odd-looking equipment: Beakers and cauldrons of various sizes, multitudes of herbs and plants, various books, and more of the sort. He even saw a large, immobile toad, lying on a table next to several scripts of parchment. Angela stopped at the last door, and gesturing to it, she said, "She's been waiting a long time for you."
Eragon breathed in heavily, and opened the door.