Chapter 2. Murtagh and Thorn

Despite the war there were places in Alagaesia untouched by the war. Places that went on untouched by human hands or the hands of any other race in Alagaesia. Murtagh and Thorn stopped so that Murtagh could relieve himself and then they decided to stay and enjoy the moment away from Galbatorix, his greedy servants and scheming spell casters. Murtagh lay in the grass with a blade in his mouth staring up at the blue sky. He thought of his mother Selena and the fact that Eragon was his brother. A part of him was jealous that his mother didn't think to hide him when he was conceived. Murtagh sighed in aggravation, turned his head to the right and watched Thorn bob his head in and out of the water like a giant heron.

Thorn felt him watching and looked up; ("What is it?")

("Nothing we should get going… if Galbatorix catches us he will be upset…")

Thorn snorted; ("Perhaps, but first…") He dipped his head in the water again then he jumped out of the water and glided over to Murtagh. His tail had been restored through magic; he opened his mouth dropping two fish and blew a light fire from his mouth on the fish then after it was cooked on one side he flipped it over with his talon and blew on the other side. ("Eat…") Thorn said when the fish was done.

Murtagh had to laugh; "And when did you learn to do that?" He asked aloud.

("Whenever I wasn't practicing with Shruiken I would practice… It has always amazed me how you two-legs must cook your food before eating it…")

"Well if I had a dragon's stomach then I wouldn't need to cook it either…" Murtagh ate the warm fish and it felt good going down his throat it only lacked seasoning but it was perfectly cooked.

("How was it?") Thorn asked.

Murtagh hugged his neck; "It was the best I have ever eaten… I just need to teach you how to season food and then you could cook for me all the time…"

It took Murtagh a few seconds to saddle Thorn then they took off heading southwest towards Belatona. They had been flying for the past two hours when out of aggravation Thorn broke the silence.

("Is it true?")

Murtagh answered with his mind because of the noise of Thorn's wings; ("Is what true…")

("What Eragon said about changing our names…")

The good mood Murtagh had been in changed because of Thorn's question. He had thought about Eragon's words on more than one occasion and he was able to hide them from Galbatorix because Shruiken had showed them a trick to hide certain thoughts from Galbatorix and it had saved them a lot of pain on more than one occasion. ("Yes it is true… so what…") He answered in anger.

Thorn was just as angry as he was; ("So what are we going to do about it…")

("Thorn…")

("I have no wish to spend the many long years of our lives shackled to that mad man…")

("Neither do I, but what can we do? We have already done some things and if Galbatorix gets wind of any of the stuff we've already done that will be it for us…")

("We can't count on Eragon or Saphira to save us… we must do more… we must help ourselves…")

("Fine then tell me what to do and I will do it…") Murtagh waited for an answer, but none came; ("Just as I thought… And until you can think of a sure fired way for us to free ourselves stop bringing this up…") Thorn snorted as they continued on their journey without stopping and by sunrise the next day they had arrived in Belatona.

Belatona was one of the first human cities built after old King Palancar was defeated by his own relatives. The royal house of Belatona had betrayed its own people to Galbatorix during the riders fall, the King had even betrayed several Riders to Galbatorix, and as a reward, Galbatorix blessed the man with long life in the ancient language. His name was Xastell of the house of Belatona and he had the title of King Regent. His title combined with Galbatorix's faith in him allowed him a lot more power and freedom than anyone else serving Galbatorix. Xastell took pleasure in running his country like Galbatorix and he had slain his own wife and children a hundred years ago. Xastell had taken an interest in magic and had even shown a talent for it, he had studied under Casmuss.

Xastell stood in the courtyard with the captain of his guard, his chief advisor and ten other spell casters, because of his interest in magic and the ancient language Xastell surrounded himself with people who could use magic in some form or fashion so even the captain of his guard had some magical talent.

The dust billowed as Thorn came in for a landing in the courtyard and it was Xastell who greeted Murtagh first when they landed. "Welcome… Murtagh son of Morzan and welcome Thorn to my city…"

"Your greeting is prompt…"

"I make a habit of screeing my lands at sunrise noon and night… I saw you and your dragon cross into our lands late last night and deduced you would arrive at this hour… although I had expected the two of you sooner…"

Murtagh grunted; "We were delayed by a relief stop…"

Xastell smiled; "Of course…" He allowed the captain to step forward; "This is Merson the captain of my guard…" The two men nodded at each other; "We prepared some food for you and Thorn…"

"No thank you there are many preparations to make before the Varden arrive and we wish to be ready…"

Instead of eating Murtagh and Thorn went over Galbatorix's plan to capture Eragon and Saphira then Murtagh went through the city in disguise with the spell casters laying down trap spells on the city gates and walls. Then Murtagh ordered all scouts back to the city and as Galbatorix ordered the farmers in the country side to abandon their farms at five crowns an acre, because he didn't want those farms falling into the Varden's hands.

The day was well spent when Murtagh was done so he went down to the dragon's keep beneath the city and placed ward spells so the only person who could contact or watch him was Galbatorix. He was going over the latest reports on the Varden's scouting raids into Belatona's countryside; that is when Thorn growled in frustration.

Murtagh looked at him; "What is wrong with you…" He asked out loud because he was still getting used to the idea of having Thorn inside his head at all times.

("I want to do something… something that will give us our freedom…")

Murtagh sighed in aggravation: ("How many times do we have to go through this…")

("I am a dragon and you are my rider and we should be enslaved to no one… I can taste our freedom so much…")

("What… what would you have me do…")

Thorn was silent trying to think of every spell and word in the ancient language but all he could manage to say was; ("Well… I don't know… It seems to me that if you had a second heart like me we could accomplish our goals or if…") Thorn stopped speaking when he noticed the look on Murtagh's face. ("…What?")

("What did you just say…") Thorn snorted because he hated repeating himself so he mentally sent Murtagh an image of what he said. Murtagh stood up and started pacing as images and ideas started forming in his head.

("You know I hate it when you do that…") Thorn said in anger.

Murtagh stopped and looked at Thorn; ("What if I did have a second heart to change my character…")

Thorn lifted his head up and twisted it to the side; ("What are you talking about…")

Murtagh smiled; ("I have an idea…") Murtagh replied and left the hold. Thorn tried to see what he was talking about in his mind but Murtagh closed off his mind to the dragon. An hour had passed before Murtagh returned and when he did Thorn sat up on his hind legs.

Murtagh was carrying a glass orb; ("What is that for…") Thorn asked.

("You gave me an idea… what if I did have a second heart a place I could put part of my conscious and through it I could change our true names…")

Thorn blew smoke from his nostrils; ("Interesting plan… it may work…")

Murtagh nodded ("It will work… First I need a spell that will warn me when Galbatorix is about to contact us. Then I need that spell to look like a ward…") Murtagh put the spell together in his head with Thorn's help, then he wrote the spell down to make sure he didn't mispronounce a word then he quoted the spell and burned the paper he wrote the spell on. "Lucias deloi ren veal…" Murtagh said in the ancient language the spell he invoked transformed the glass orb into a diamond orb then Murtagh began transferring energy into the orb. The diamond orb was half full when Murtagh and Thorn felt this enormous pressure weighing down on them. It was the warning spell Murtagh created; he hid the orb under Thorn's dais and as he designed, the spell it used the trick Shruiken showed them to hide things from Galbatorix. When the orb was hidden Murtagh sat at his desk and pretended he was going over field reports on the enemy.

Galbatorix's mind touched both Thorn and Murtagh; ("Murtagh where are you?")

("In Belotona of course…")

Galbatorix grunted; ("Why did it take you so long to get to Belotona?")

("Well I stopped to relieve myself and one thing lead to another…")

("You were dawdling weren't you?") He asked in anger, but Murtagh couldn't respond. ("When I see you again we are going to have to have a talk about following orders…")

("Yes my lord…")

("What were doing before I contacted you…")

("Going over reports…")

Galbatorix searched the room with his mind and felt the spells Murtagh had placed that allowed Galbatorix to listen or watch him but they kept everyone else out. He broke contact as he felt nothing suspicious about Murtagh's spells then he was gone.

Murtagh waited for an hour then he smiled his spell had worked so he stood up and went to Thorn's dais and removed the diamond orb. It took another hour to fill the orb up and then Murtagh placed spells on the orb that allowed it to hold and shape memories into a living conscious; he also placed spells that allowed the orb to replenish it's energy by the sun, wind, or water.

The job done he stared at the orb then he looked at Thorn; ("What memories shall I put in here…")

("Thoughts of your mother… your desire to be free of Galbatorix… start with that…")

Murtagh sighed and thought of his beautiful mother and the kindness she always showed him. It was his mother Selena who taught him how to guard his mind ("Murtagh my son… Guard your mind… for in your inner most thoughts will you be safe…") He lived by his mother's words and allowed no one into his mind. His mother wanted to teach him the basics of magic and the ancient language but Morzan wouldn't allow it out of fear that his son would betray him. Then Murtagh grew angry as he remembered how his mother left on her last mission and it was during that mission that she had Eragon and hid him in Carvahall.

("You can't do that…") Thorn barked.

("She could have hid me when she was pregnant with me…")

("Your mother didn't love Eragon more than you and she probably wanted to hide you from Morzan but the chance never came up… and from your thoughts I gather that your mother did what she did to protect you the best way she knew how…")

("How would you know?")

("I am young… but the blood of my kin flows through my veins and my thoughts are ancient… Selena protected you as much as she could… and she loved you no more or less than she loved Eragon…")

Thorn's words were comforting and calmed his anger; he continued with the task of pouring his thoughts into the orb. He had one last talk with his mother before she died and it was he who chose her burial site; that was a strange time mainly because of that weird gardener who was always hanging around and giving him advice. When he was done with every pleasant thought on his mother his mind turned to his faithful servant Tornac. Tornac was more of a father to Murtagh than a servant… he not only taught Murtagh the sword he also him taught Murtagh how to hunt and survive in the wild. Murtagh once caught Tornac eyeing his mother as she was planting in the garden; he asked Tornac if he had feelings for his mother. Tornac smiled and replied that if Morzan knew what he was thinking he would remove his head. Then Murtagh poured his thoughts and desires to free himself from Galbatorix. As he did the thoughts became a living conscious. Thorn added his desires for freedom as well and it was then that the orb spoke.

("That is enough… we can hold no more…") As the orb spoke it flashed and the voice was a mixture of Murtagh's and that of a dragon.

"Amazing I never thought…" Murtagh's voice trailed off as he looked at the orb in wonder. "Do you know why I created you…"

("Of course we do… a clever plan…")

Thorn growled; ("Why do you say we?")

("It is how the magic made us… we are apart of you and Murtagh… We cannot speak of ourselves as an individual…")

"Great now that I made you what am I going to do with you…"

("May we suggest that you find someone who could be trusted to place us in their care until we have changed our true names…")

Thorn snorted; ("And where would we find such a person…")

("One of the Varden's spies of course… as you know Nausada has spies here in Belotona… reach out to one of them… they would jump at the chance to free a rider from Galbatorix's control…")

Murtagh dropped into his chair and considered the possibility; ("It is too dangerous…") Thorn grumbled.

Murtagh looked at Thorn; ("If you have a better suggestion then I am all ears…")

Thorn racked his brain for what to do, but nothing came to mind. ("if you get caught by one of Galbatorix's puppets…")

Murtagh stood up and took the orb in his hand; ("I know the consequences, but it is too late now… you're the one who suggested that I do something to change myself and now when there is a little danger you wish to back off…")

("I am not afraid!") Thorn said defensively.

(It is settled then… we should all rest…") The orb said. Murtagh hid the orb in Thorn's bed then he lay down next to thorn and they fell asleep.