Author's Note:
SURPRISE! An early chapter! Unfortunately, the next chapter won't be until, at least, mid week...and a good possibility that it won't be until next weekend.
This chapter sees us getting back to the 'story'.
Enjoy!
Horatius set his fork down and scratched his head trying to remember where he had halted the story the day before. He finally looked blankly at Arthur. "I'm sorry, I'm getting old. Do you remember where we left off?"
Arthur frowned in concentration, then laughed. "I'm not that old and can't remem…" he trailed for a moment "Wait…Now I remember. Constans had just been assassinated, and you refused to send anyone for Vortigen's army.
The old man brightened, "Ah yes! And we were concerned about them coming for our lands."
Horatius paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "Galan had a very small Holding to the south of us. He only had a manor house and several fields for the serfs to work. They had no type of protection. I went to him and asked him to join us. I told him that there was a good chance we could not protect his manor, but that we would try to keep his family safe."
Arthur looked slightly confused. "Galan?"
The old man smiled. "He was Sir Ector's father"
The prince's eyes brightened in recognition. "I know Sir Ector. His son, Kay, and I knew each other growing up…but you said it was a small holding. I have been to Sir Ector's estate. It is quite large."
"Ector was granted more lands after fighting for your father. Plus he is the Tenant and Chief Pro Tempore for my lands. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves" The old man winked at Arthur.
"Galan, Lucan, myself, and several of the knights had a meeting to discuss plans. We knew that it should be at least several weeks before Vortigen's army could arrive. It was decided to bring in the harvest as quickly as possible as well as ensure that the walls were well fortified.
"The harvest was large and time was short. We used everyone available to bring it in, even the women and small children. We could hold out in a siege, but not if we didn't have food to sustain us. Lucan came down to help with the harvest as well. Before doing so, he sent some of the dragons out to hunt to bring us meat and fish, and others to try to find Aurelius and Uther and to keep them safe until we could get to them. Unfortunately, that left his lands unprotected. There were only a few laying females there along with the eggs and hatchlings.
"Lucan and Balinor had been with us about a week, working on the harvest and on fortifications. We were eating dinner when Lucan suddenly looked up. He had a look of dread in his eyes. He told me something was happening with the dragons. He got up and walked outside. I could hear him calling for a dragon to come to him since his home was half a day's ride by horseback. He waited for close to an hour before Kilgharrah came.
"Balinor grabbed his bag to go with him, but Lucan told him to stay. He said it was probably nothing and for the boy to get some sleep since they still had to finish the harvest. I remember he grabbed Balinor and gave him a fierce hug before he climbed onto Kilgharrah and flew off. I don't know. May…maybe he sensed something…"
The old man paused for a moment and stared down at his hands. "Later that night, Balinor woke up screaming from a nightmare. He was still yelling and thrashing about when we got to him. My wife tried to go to him to comfort him…but he threw her back. His eyes were wide open, but I think he was still in the throes of his nightmare….then it happened. He threw back his head and bellowed out a guttural roar that I had heard his father use so many times when calling a dragon." Horatius paused for a moment, then continued, his voice cracking "That is when I knew. Lucan was gone."
He stopped, unable to continue. Arthur noticed a lone tear sliding down the man's face. Horatius reached for his goblet, but found it empty. Arthur grabbed the pitcher and refilled the cup halfway. He then patted the man on the shoulder and said he would be right back. Arthur retreated to his chamber and returned with a decanter containing a dark amber liquid. "This is mead from Gaul. It is rather potent, but I think you could do with a stiff drink."
The old man looked up, having used the few moments that Arthur was gone to compose himself. "Thank you, I surely could." Arthur poured them both a small amount. Horatius took a sip and raised his brows "This is quite good. I'm sorry for being such a foolish old man to shed tears for something that happened so long ago."
Arthur looked him in the eye "Sometimes sharing a sad memory can bring back the emotions. Think nothing of it. Will you be able to continue on with your story?"
"Yes, I am fine now" He said as he took another sip. He sat down the goblet and continued. "It took only a little while before a dragon appeared. It wasn't Kilgharrah. It told us to come with it. There were men staying in the compound who heard Balinor's screams who had come out to see what the commotion was. I told them to mount up at first light and head to Lucan's place, that something had happened. Then I went with Balinor." He chuckled as a thought struck him "I have to say that riding on the back of a dragon is an experience I will never forget. And one that I never wish to repeat." He became somber again. "Although it seemed like forever, it only took us a few minutes to get there. As we were coming down to land, I could see Kilgharrah lying on the ground curled up like a sleeping dog. There was someone lying up against his front leg, and Kilgharrah's head resting next to him. Once we landed we sprinted over to them. Balinor was holding on to Lucan and yelling at Kilgharrah to heal him. Kilgharrah told him it was too late. They were both silent for a while…I presume they were using mind-speak to communicate. Balinor kept shaking his head 'no' and finally just looked down at his father and started sobbing.
Kilgharrah told me that as they were descending, the soldiers started shooting arrows at them and that Lucan was hit at his shoulder and fell. Yet still he was able to get up and fight. But injured as he was, he wasn't able to hold them off. Kilgharrah killed the rest of them with fire. When he got to Lucan, he was still alive, but only just. He tried to heal him, but the injuries were just too extensive. I don't know if it was the fall, or the sword wounds that killed him…maybe both."
He sighed wearily and took another sip of the mead. He looked at Arthur who seemed to want to ask something. "You have a question?"
"Yes, if you don't mind, you mentioned 'mind-speak', I don't know what that is. You also said Balinor wanted Kilgare – kilger –um, the dragon, to heal Lucan….?"
The old man thought for a second. "Ah, yes…well, Dragons have healing magic. Much stronger than even most druid healers. But still, there are some injuries that are just too severe. Believe me, if there were any way, Kilgharrah would have brought Lucan through. They were very close.
"As for 'mind-speak', well, that is what I call it. A dragon and his dragonlord can communicate without words….they hear each other in their minds."
"Like mind reading?" the prince asked looking somewhat mortified at the thought.
Horatius laughed. "No, not like that..um, like the conversation we are having now – just without speaking out loud. Some druids have the same gift to speak to each other without talking….I'm not sure if it is learned or if it is an innate ability for them. The druids I mean. Also, now that I think about it, Balinor could communicate with the dragons like that before he became a dragonlord. So I am presuming that it's probably due to being the child of a dragonlord. As I said earlier, they have an affinity with dragons." He smiled "Truthfully, I had never really thought about it until now."
Arthur laughed "I have to admit, that would be a very useful talent to have." He paused for a moment "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your story, but I knew I would forget if I waited"
The old man smiled at him "Oh that is quite alright. Let's see, where were we? Oh yes. As the sun started coming up, I could look around better. There was carnage all around. The hatchlings had been slaughtered. Eggs that they had gathered to move, had been smashed. Two of the younger females had been slain – apparently trying to protect the hatchlings. Two others had been injured. Then there were the soldiers. About 25 of them. They had been burnt beyond any recognition. However we did find a banner. It had been Vortigern's men.
"As the morning wore on, more dragons and dragonlords returned. It was very tense. You could feel the anger rolling off them…both the dragons and the dragonlords. Balinor was in no state to even notice.
"Around midday we heard hoofbeats. The dragons took to the air for attack. Balinor came to himself in time to call them back when we realized they were the men we were waiting for.
"After my men arrived, we searched for any hatchlings or eggs that might have survived, but found nothing. We decided to take Lucan's body back with us as we wanted a proper funeral. The truth is, I needed our people to see, to know, what we were up against. I asked Balinor if it was okay, and he agreed. So we carefully wrapped Lucan's body and started back. Balinor and Kilgharrah took the body. Most of the dragons flew with them. The dragons that were carrying dragonlords stayed in the air above us as protection as we rode our horses back. We were pretty sure all of Voltigern's men had been killed,but the dragonlords wanted to ensure our safe return.
"When we arrived back, the sun had been down for several hours. My wife had already washed and prepared Lucan's body and had him laid in state so that everyone could pay their respects. It had been decided that his funeral would be held at midnight."
"Midnight?" the startled prince asked.
"Lucan was a dragonlord. Not only that, he was Kilgharrah's dragonlord. Kilgharrah was the eldest and undisputed leader of the group. That made Lucan the undisputed lead dragonlord. I guess it is something akin to being First Knight. Therefore, he would be given a full honor funeral. Apparently, they held those at midnight.
"Of course, I had never seen a dragonlord funeral, so I was rather curious. One of the other dragonlords had come and asked for a place that they could perform the ritual. He said it needed to be a place that would not be harmed for the earth to be scorched. I took him to a plot of land not far from the north curtain wall. It had been somewhat rocky and hard to work. I asked if it would be okay, or if they needed a better site. He said it would be fine, but that people would need to stay back. He suggested watching from the wall. It would offer the best view and keep them safe from the heat. He explained that usually, only the dragon that the dragonlord was bound to would perform the rite. But due to Lucan's standing, all the dragons would perform the ritual to honor him.
"I asked him if there was any danger due to the heat, but he assured me that they would keep the heat contained to that area. He wanted the people to stay back just to be safe.
"A couple of hours later, we had all gathered on the wall to watch. The entire length of the wall was filled with people at least two deep, as well as the towers. I'd like to think it was in reverence to Lucan, but I suspect some may have just come because they were curious.
"There were about fifteen dragons of various sizes and five dragonlords, excluding Balinor. The dragons stood in a large circle surrounding Lucan who was laid out on the ground. The dragonlords stood next to their own dragon. Balinor stood next to Kilgharrah. Everything became very quiet.
"Balinor called out something in a language I didn't know. The other dragonlords repeated his words then walked forward, surrounding Lucan and bowed on their knees with their foreheads touching the ground. Kilgharrah then bellowed out something in dragontongue. Then he, and all the dragons bowed down to the ground laying their head on the ground facing Lucan.
"The dragonlords then stood up and turned to face the dragons. Each held a cup. They each walked to a different dragon and placed the cup next to one of the dragon's eyes. Then it looked like the dragon shed a tear into the cup. They did that until each dragon had placed a tear in a cup except Kilgharrah.
"They then took the contents and poured it all into a single cup.
"Then Balinor had taken a cup and placed it to Kilgharrah's eye and also collected a single tear. He walked forward to his father's body and bent down and said something again in that language. He dipped his finger in the cup and touched Lucan's forehead. He repeated the act again, this time placing his hand on his father's chest.
"He then stood and took the cup from one of the other dragonlords. He added that cup of tears to his. He raised the cup towards the sky and chanted those same words that he had said before. He handed the cup back to one of the dragonlords and stepped back. The cup passed from dragonlord to dragonlord. Each one performed the same ritual to Lucan that Balinor had done earlier. Then they handed the cup back to Balinor.
"He bent down again over Lucan and said something quietly to his father. I think must have been a final goodbye. He ran his hand along the side of Lucan's face gently as he spoke. He then stood up and poured the remainder of the cup over Lucan's chest. He turned and he, and all the other dragonlords, started walking towards their dragons. The other's continued walking past the dragons until they were well behind them. Balinor, though, walked to Kilgharrah and bowed deeply to the Great Dragon. He then straightened, and like the others, walked past the dragon until he was well behind them. They spread out evenly around the circle of dragons.
"Kilgharrah roared out something in dragontongue and all the dragons rose back to a sitting position and raised their heads in unison to the sky and roared. I swear, Arthur, the whole place shook. Then they shot flames high into the sky. It was like the sun had come up! They continued that for at least a minute then the fames changed.
"They seemed to get shorter in height and turned a deep red color. I then noticed that all the dragonlords, including Balinor had placed their hands in the air and there seemed to be some sort of shimmer encircling them and the dragons. It must have been some sort of magical shield.
"The dragons then began to lower their heads as one, the fire still coming out of their mouth. For a moment I was petrified, I was afraid that the flames would reach us. But they didn't. They seemed to be stopped by the shield, or whatever it was. The dragons continued lowering their heads, the fire still shooting out, and all the flames hit Lucan's body at the same time. They must have continued for at least another minute.
"Then…then I saw gold sparks rise into the air. They hovered and formed the shape of a man, then turned into the shape of a dragon. Then it faded into nothing.
"The flames then changed from that deep red to an almost icy blue and they kept going. After another minute, they stopped altogether. The body was gone.
"After that, the dragonlords went back and stood next to their dragons. Kilgharrah stepped towards the center of the circle. Balinor met him there. Then the Great Dragon bowed deep before Balinor, accepting him has his new dragonlord."