Twenty Three
Eko and the blue dragon stare at each other warily from across the narrow cave the blue dragon has led them into. Hidden between the peaks of two craggy outcroppings, about halfway up the larger mountain, is a small pass of a thin valley that leads down a slope into zigs of interconnected caverns. From where Iza stands at Eko's shoulder, she can see the way the rear of the cave opens into a wider branch, surely connected to more under-mountain passes.
But the blue dragon has only led them to safety. It does not allow them a step further.
Iza is caught by the sharp intelligence in its eyes – so like Eko and so unlike the dragons that they have just slayed. There is something different about this blue dragon, something that makes it different from the others. Iza rightly reckons it is because this blue dragon is not being controlled by a hidden puppeteer.
The blue dragon is independent. And judging by the way it guards the rear of the cave, there must be other dragons like it.
Hope blooms in Iza's chest, unfurling slowly and with caution just like daisies in the early mornings of spring. This is good news, if it is true. Finally, there is something that goes the way she wants it. She does not think she could handle yet another surprise – Edvard having seidr and unmistakably being the son of Loki is quite enough.
With the blue dragon standing proudly before them, Iza sees how her mission for the village is rekindled.
But she needs this dragon to cooperate. Earlier, the dragon had responded directly to Iza speaking with it, so she assumes that this dragon understands the human tongue. She clears her throat, calling attention to herself as she prepares to speak to the dragon again.
"We are not here to harm anyone. We are seeking peace between dragons and humans," Iza says bluntly, carefully watching the blue dragon for any indication of understanding. The blue dragon's icy, almost grey-white gaze, is unblinking. Iza frowns. "You understood me before," she tells it.
At this, the blue dragon blinks lazily with a flickering of a blue forked tongue. Eko's frills stand upright at the action, almost as if offended.
From where he stands near the entrance of the cave, Edvard decides to speak up. "It does not seem like the dragon wants to cooperate."
Iza refrains from rolling her eyes at his mildly threatening tone. "The dragon helped us earlier when it did not have to. Now, it has taken us to shelter. Clearly, the dragon has some goal," she says over her shoulder. She turns to look at the dragon closely. "Is it that you cannot speak to me, because we are not bonded?" Iza guesses.
The dragon inclines its head and Iza shoots Edvard a triumphant look.
"Then will you speak with Eko?" Iza asks.
And the blue dragon does.
Iza has never seen two dragons communicate before, never mind Eko speaking in the dragon tongue. To her human ears, the dragons make a series of pitchy intonations and rumbles between sharp teeth. It certainly does not sound like a conversation, but there is clearly something being exchanged between the two, as Eko silently relays on the information she gathers from the conversation.
The blue dragon is called Kaldr and he is part of a rebellion, of sorts. What he is rebelling against is unclear, but he makes it known that he is essentially a guard for other dragons of like minds in the mountain. There are evidently not many dragons in this rebellion, which is why they can hide so easily, and most of them are much younger than the dragons that frequently attack the village.
Kaldr is intrigued by the fact that Iza and Eko are bonded, as he thought that dragon bonding was a legend of old. He also says that Edvard stinks of magic, which Eko agrees with now that she understands what she is scenting.
But for all that they learn from Kaldr, he is still obviously hiding some information – things that Iza suspects but needs confirmed. Yet with Kaldr's overall disinterest in the humans and his reluctance to share more than minimal information with Eko, she is not sure of how to move forward.
One thing for certain is that Kaldr will not allow them to move past his guard. They are to go no further into the mountain. But at the point, neither is it safe to leave the mountain.
Iza presses her lips together and thinks. She looks at Edvard, silently asking what they should do, and he shrugs, looking like he wants nothing more than to have some kind of weapon in his hand. He does looks rather bereft without one.
They cannot leave and they cannot move forward. For now, they need to stay where they are. Maybe when night falls, the darkness will cloak them enough to do something. But moonrise is hours and hours away. And right now…
"Kaldr," Iza says somewhat abruptly. The blue dragon shifts his white gaze to her, attentive. "Could you breathe some ice for us so that Eko can melt it down? If we cannot move, we might as well slake our thirst."
Kaldr shifts on his feet, dropping into a slightly lower stance, and tilts his head downward, to the side. When he opens his mouth, a thin blast of ice rushes past the gleaming white of his teeth. The ice piles on the cave floor until a small mound is made, the formation clearly deliberate in its height and shape. The ice is not like any Iza has seen fall from the sky or spread across the fjords in winter – it is crystalline, so clear it is almost blue, and forms together in long, smooth, sharp chunks.
Eko watches Kaldr, ears pinned to the side in curiosity. Through their bond, Iza can feel Eko's curiosity. Eko wants to know how the blue dragon had breathed ice – and so easily as well.
You have your own strengths, Iza reminds Eko, thinking of the amber shield and the way her claws glow to turn things to ash. And of the way Eko can now breathe thick, molten fire that hardens to stone – an ability she took from the red dragon she fought earlier.
Iza wonders if Eko must kill to learn a new skill or not. She hopes not, as killing is a terrible burden. She also knows that it is not up to her, but rather Eko's very nature.
Eko dips her head in acknowledgement and moves closer to the ice. "One claw," Iza prompts, holding a waterskin at just the right angle to catch the most melting ice when Eko's claw heats enough to turn the ice to water. She fills her own water, then motions to Edvard to fill his, and then they all step away from the ice.
While Iza and Edvard retreat to one of the naturally smooth dips in the stone of the cave where resting might be more comfortable, Eko lingers near Kaldr. Quietly, the two dragons begin making those pitched intonations again. Iza feels her lips curve, just a bit. Eko is socializing with another dragon – it certainly is not something that is seen every day.
Iza has seen many things this day that are not seen every day.
She looks at Edvard and wonders which of them will bring it up first. With no more food stored on them and only water to fill their stomach, there is quickly no excuse to not speak of the sheep in the room.
"You have seidr."
Edvard's jaw clenches, an expression of tense unease crossing his face. "I do, yes."
Iza thinks about her strange interactions with Loki, about all that he has alluded to, and finds herself speaking. "You are not the only Halfling in the village," she says, repeating what Loki has told her before. She looks at Edvard, dual-colored eyes steady on his face. "And neither am I. Half of who or what, I do not know. Certainly none who have seidr, as you know that I have no magic. And I do not know whether it is my mother or my father who…Or if perhaps I was told a trick."
Edvard stares at her, pensive and silent for a moment too long. "I doubt it," he says eventually, his eyes trailing down to where her tunic has parted around her neck, showing the smallest of tendrils scarring her skin. "Not anyone could survive Thor. And you have always been…"
Yes, Iza has always been odd.
"So have you," she counters.
And it is true. Edvard was always set apart from their peers – too serious, too skilled, too quiet, too tragic. Always just a little too good, always a little too favored, always a little too lucky.
Whether that is fate or birth remains to be seen, but the fact is that, if the both of them thought about it, there are others in the village who are not quite average. Alise is a glaring reminder to them all that the Gods are always watching, always involved, even when they think they have been forgotten and their prayers unheard. And there are others who are not Alise or Edvard or Iza who are undoubtedly unique. An Elder, one of the youngest children in the village, a friend of her father's, a uncannily skilled fisherman – there are others who Loki could have been speaking of.
The two he was certainly speaking of are now stuck in a cave together with two dragons. Iza has accepted that she is perhaps not as mortal as she always thought – there is too much evidence to ignore out of hand anymore – and she quickly adapts the same idea for Edvard.
Edvard Lokison.
"The seidr, yes," Edvard agrees. He flexes his hands, as if waiting for a spark of green magic, then clenches his fingers into a fist. "I am…not a child of a mortal father. The blood in my veins I share with Loki and the trickster has given me magic instead of fatherhood."
Edvard sounds so bitter about it that Iza's heart aches.
Yet she can relate. The Chieftain is a difficult man, gruff and often with impossible expectations to reach. Removed from his role as a parent, although he likely loves his daughter in his own way. But it is not the same as other relationships parents have with their children in the village – this Iza has known from a very young age.
"We are the same, in a way," she murmurs.
Edvard falls quiet again. "Perhaps," he agrees, voice hushed and almost unheard.
By that time, Iza's exhaustion is catching up to her and she has begun to lean more heavily against the smooth stone walls, her spine curving the shape of the cave. Her heavy eyes close, more than reassured of her safety in this strange place by how alert Eko is through their link, and by the mere fact of Edvard's presence. Her heart flutters at being so close to him now, when the only thing there is to do is rest rather than focus on an impossible mission on an insurmountable mountain.
Sleep must take her at some point, her body not used to such constant activity and excitement. But for all that her eyes rest, the sleep is light and her sore body remains alert – which is why Iza is on her feet just as quick as Edvard when a scuffle from the other side of the cave sounds through the echoing, empty space.
Beyond where Kaldr and Eko stand emerges another dragon, who seems to latch its attention onto Eko and ignore Kaldr's irritated squawking altogether. The dragon at the far end of the cave speaks to Eko and Eko stands alert, tail lashing slowly.
Without turning her eyes away from the dragons, Eko speaks directly to Iza's mind. She wants us to go with her. There is a dragon we must meet.
Iza, although this was not her original purpose of coming to this mountain, she can do little else but agree to the demands of this new dragon, that same tingling in her fingers telling her to go and trust.
And when Iza steps forward, it is with Edvard at her back, shadowing her every step with a flicker of green magic.
A/N: Well, would you look at that? Character development! And some plot stuff, I guess.
No Norse things for this chapter - but a big thanks for everyone who reviewed with name suggestions for our blue dragon here! I ended up tallying the most common suggestions - Kaldr/Kalt, Jokul, Frysta, Svell, and Issar - and conducting a Facebook poll-type thing. Kaldr seemed to be the favorite out of everyone, but don't worry, there are many more dragons to name!
In fact, I'm taking suggestions for dragons who breathe lightning, dragons that have stones for scales, and dragons with similar abilities to Eko! If you have a suggestion, drop a review. I might also have to do another Facebook poll if the suggestions are too perfect, so if you haven't found me already, my Facebook contact information is on my profile.
As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.
~cupcakeriot