Keep Your Head
It was late by the time Eragon, Saphira and Vanir set up camp at the base of Du Fells Nángoröth.
"What are we going to do with the eggs? Are we just going to leave them in Saphira's saddle bags?" Vanir asked.
Eragon looked over to where the eggs were hidden, "they're probably safest in there."
Eragon glanced at Vanir. Unable to resist the temptation they both crawled over to the saddle bags.
"Careful," Eragon warned Vanir as he lifted each egg out individually.
"Dragon eggs are almost impossible to damage," Vanir said, however he lowered the egg onto the ground as if it was made of extremely thin glass.
Eragon ran his hand over each of the eggs. The eggs were violet, bright yellow, maroon, light blue and emerald green.
"I wonder who they will hatch to... if they hatch," Vanir said.
"I don't know, we should really get to sleep it's getting late," Eragon said looking up at the stars.
"You don't think we should keep watch over the eggs?" Vanir asked.
Eragon thought, they hadn't been worried about keeping watch until now. Eragon and Vanir were both highly skilled with swords and magic and no one in their right mind would attack Saphira, however they couldn't risk anyone getting their hands on the eggs. "Your right, we should," Eragon reluctantly admitted.
"You look exhausted, I'll take first watch if you would like," Vanir offered.
"Thank you".
"That's ok, I'm not tired yet, also it will give me time to contact Queen Islanzadí and inform her of our discovery, you really should do the same with Nasuada before you go to sleep".
Eragon sighed. "No it's late, I'll scry her in the morning, wake me up when you get tired."
"Ok goodnight."
"Goodnight," Eragon replied with a yawn.
Goodnight little-one.
Goodnight Saphira.
After breakfast the next morning Vanir gave Eragon the scrying mirrior he had brought with him from Gil'ead.
"Thank you," Eragon said before picturing Nasuada in his mind and casting the scrying spell.
Nasuada's command tent came into view. Nasuada was joined by her chief adviser Jörmundur, the Urgul cheif Nar Garzhvog, King Orrin of Surda and to Eragon's slight surprise Roran. It seemed that Eragon had interrupted an important meeting. Orrin was yelling at Nasuada, both of them looked furious. Roran was sitting in the corner, his face wasn't showing any emotion but Eragon knew him well enough to know he was mad, really mad. Jörmundur and Nar Garzhvog were watching on, they both appeared unsure about whose side to take.
Eragon and Vanir looked at each other, their eyebrows raised.
"Lady Nasuada?"
Orrin and Nasuada both spun around quickly.
"Eragon," Orrin greeted him with a slight nod, "and you must be Vanir, the new elvan ambassador?" "Yes your majesty, it is an honour to meet you," Vanir said.
Orrin looked around the tent, "as you can no doubt see we are having a slight disagreement here, both of your opinions would be highly appreciated."
Nasuada smirked confidently, "yes, they most certainly would be," she said.
Roran jumped up, "are you mad?" he shouted at Orrin, "Eragon will only agree with her!"
Eragon was shocked by the venom in his cousins voice.
"What is going on?" Eragon asked.
Roran threw Nasuada a murderous glare as she answered. "Late last night I was scryed by Murtagh".
Eragon listened to Nasuada's story in amazement; he didn't quite know how to feel. Even though he knew that Murtagh wasn't responsible for his action he couldn't help but feel some resentment, one the other hand he was proud of his elder brother; he always thought Murtagh had ignored his advice.
"I told Murtagh we would meet with him tonight, however Orrin and Roran seem to think it's a bad idea". Nasuada finished with a hit of anger.
"Of course it is!" Orrin yelled, "how do you know he is telling the truth? It's probably a trap! And why on earth do you have to meet him at night?"
"Because it will take him that long to get here!" Nasuada snapped.
"With all respect Lady Nasuada I have to agree with King Orrin. It seems unlikely that he has changed his true name." Vanir announced. "Eragon gave him that advice months ago, he hasn't attempted to change himself before, why now?"
Eragon felt the anger he had been feeling at Vanir surface again, "she just told us, he changed so he didn't have to hurt her!" he said with a glare.
Vanir spoke evenly, his voice heavy with hidden emotion, "need I remind you why you spent the last two weeks in Gil'ead Eragon? If he wasn't prepared to change to save the life of the last of the ancient dragon riders, why would he change now?"
Eragon remembered what Murtagh had said after he had first met Nasuada in Tronjheim, he thought he knew why.
"Don't bring Oromis and Glaedr into this!" Eragon yelled at Vanir, "I've already told you Murtagh was not responsible for that! The only reason you have a problem with
Murtagh is that he is a human rider! You're jealous of him just like you were of me!"
Vanir looked ready to murder him. "I am not jealous of that pathetic excuse for a rider! And I know you said it wasn't Murtagh's fault but you refuse to tell me how you know that!"
Eragon turned back to the mirror, "I don't suppose you've tried scrying him so he can tell you his name has changed in the ancient language?" he asked.
Nasuada sighed, "Yes I've had Trianna try but she couldn't do it, I should have called her last night but I just wasn't thinking straight, so what do you think Eragon can we trust him?"
"I do," he answered without hesitation.
Roran spoke from the corner, "Only because he's your..." he was silenced by furious looks from Eragon and Nasuada.
"Should we put it to a vote then?" Nar Garzhvog asked. No one argued so he continued, "I vote yes, we should trust Murtagh Morzansson."
Eragon wasn't totally surprised, the Urgal's valued those who were proficient in battle and Murtagh certainly was that.
"Yes," Nasuada said.
"No," Orrin said.
"Absolutely not," Roran said.
"No," Vanir said through gritted teeth, he was still livid at Eragon.
"Yes," Eragon said.
Three- Three, everyone looked expectantly at Jörmundur. Jörmundur shifted uncomfortably, "it would certainly be a huge risk to take, for that reason I have to vote no."
Nasuada started to argure. "However," Jörmundur raised his hands and cut her off, "I think I have a solution. We will not meet with Murtagh tonight. When we don't show up he is sure to scry Nasuada, then we can have him swear to us in the ancient language that he isn't a threat to us".
Eragon was surprised Jörmundur had managed to come up with such a simple solution. "That sounds fair," he admitted.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Ok, settled," Nasuada said with relief, "now Eragon, do you have news?" she asked with a smile.
"Yes, good news" Eragon said, with all the excitement he had almost forgotten about the eggs. He looked at Vanir, the elf looked to have regained his composer somewhat.
"Yesterday Saphira, Vanir and I arrived at Du Fells Nángoröth". He continued with the story, Vanir interrupting every now and again to share details Eragon had chosen to miss out, such as Eragon falling down the hill and pushing Vanir down the hole.
"Anyway..." Eragon said throwing a quick glare Vanir's way, "when we got down there we discovered that the consciousness belonged to five dragon eggs.
Everybody's faces broke into giant smiles, except for Roran's which simply looked stunned.
"Good news indeed!" Orrin laughed.
Looking at the smiling faces Eragon found it difficult to believe they had been fighting so bitterly only moments ago.
Indeed little one.
Eragon looked up at the sky in time to see Saphira glide down and land gently behind them.
How did you go hunting?
Horrible, I flew for miles and found nothing bigger than lizards! Interesting news about Murtagh.
Eragon felt uneasy, he remembered Saphira's desperation for revenge.
Relax, if he is telling the truth then him and that red oversized lizard have nothing to fear from me.
Eragon laughed out loud, Good.
"That is fantastic news Eragon," Nasuada said, "is there anything else you wish to discuss?"
"Yes actually, I was wondering if I could have a word in private?"
"Of course," she looked expectantly around the tent. One by one the other Varden officials left, nodding to Eragon and Nasuada on their way out. Roran hesitated before he left, "It was good to see you Eragon," he looked as if he wanted to say something else but he settled with a small smile before following the others out.
Eragon looked at Vanir, with an exasperated sigh he got up and let Eragon have his privacy.
Eragon waited until Vanir had gone far enough away that his sensitive elvan hearing wouldn't be able to pick anything up.
"Do you think Roran's right? After everything he's done I still like Murtagh and I know you do to. Is it possible that we are biased?"
Nasuada frowned not because she was mad at him but because she was thinking. "It's possible but I don't think so. When I spoke to him he didn't appear to be lying, also I was the one that suggested he come here."
Eragon nodded. "How is he?"
'I don't know. To start with he looked frightened; I think he was worried about how I would react. He started to act more like himself after I yelled at him though."
Eragon laughed, "did he say anything else interesting?"
"Not really, he guessed you were in Gil'ead though."
Eragon was surprised, "did he say how we knew?"
"No".
"Maybe he saw me, I keep thinking we were bound to run into each over".
"You're probably, right. So what about Gil'ead? Do you know anything more about Arya?"
"No," Eragon said sadly, "Vanir was going to talk to Islanzadí last night, I don't know what she said though. Islanzadí told me Arya was staying behind so they could spend more time together, is that what she told you?"
Nasuada nodded, "what of her replacement, Vanir?"
Eragon shrugged, "most of the time he is ok, sometimes he can be a bit reckless".
Nasuada laughed, that's a bit harsh coming from you!"
"Probably," Eragon agreed. "He tends to get a bit emotional though".
"Yeah, I noticed," Nasuada said. "You need to talk to him, the Varden can't afford to have you two fighting."
Eragon sighed, "I know, I will talk to him today".
"Good, hello Saphira how have you been?"
I've been better Lady Nightstalker, the hunting here is terrible. It's nice to have time of though.
Eragon repeated her words and then asked, "how's Roran? He seemed terribly mad at me."
"To be honest I haven't seen him much, I'm sure he is enjoying having some time off with Katrina though, I wouldn't worry about him being mad at you, he was just really against the idea of letting Murtagh back into the Varden".
Eragon nodded. "I'm sure your right. I had best let you get back to your work, I'll scry you tomorrow morning to see how things went with Murtagh".
"Ok, goodbye Eragon".
With one last nod Eragon finished the spell.