(A/N.) And here we are, the final chapter. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me with the making of this fic, especially those who helped me with the research on the various topics covered here. I can't name you all here, but you should all know who you are. I would also like to thank all of my reviewers, who are the reason that this story is now finished.

Chapter Eight:

Magic

Many months later, King Lief and the new Quean Jasmine stood hand in hand on the stairs in the entrance hall of the palace in Del. As usual, there was a crowd before them, but this particular crowd made them both feel uneasy.

It was not just that this group was mostly made up of young girls between the ages of twelve and eighteen, nor was it that many of them seemed to be giggling and whispering at the sight of Lief and Jasmine together. It was that today, Lief and Jasmine were going to ask each one of these girls to cut off a length of her hair to donate to the dragon of her tribe.

Lief and Jasmine knew that they were taking a great risk by doing this. They both knew only too well that the people's attitudes towards dragons would take a long time to change. Lief had even heard tell that some of the families of the maidens before them had only brought their daughters to the palace for fear that if they did not, the dragons would simply carry them off, taking their lives as well as their hair. But Jasmine had made it clear to Lief that it was not just she and any daughters they might have who should be giving their hair to the dragons. "That will only last for a few years," she had said. "If we want Deltora's dragons to live on long after we are dead, then we need to find a way that can be sustained. Our land needs them."

And so it was that as soon as she had married Lief, Jasmine had set out to encourage Deltora's maidens to give their hair willingly.

At first, many parents refused to let their daughters even speak to Jasmine. But after being persuaded to do so by Lief, many of them had changed their minds. However, this had not changed the people's attitudes. Many of the girls who were in the palace that morning were from old farming families, who had heard stories passed down through the generations of how dragons would destroy their herds, causing them to lose everything. It had taken much time and effort for Lief and Jasmine to persuade the people that as long as they did not harm the dragons, the dragons would not harm them or their animals, and to make absolutely sure of this, every girl who donated her hair would have her name, age and other relevant information recorded. These records would be kept not only in the palace in Del, but also in the minds of the dragons. As soon as each girl had given her hair, Lief and Jasmine would deliver it to each of the dragons in turn, along with the information. Dragons had excellent memories. This was all being done so that each girl need only donate one length of hair during her lifetime, though if they wished, they could do so, as long as two years had passed since the previous donation. This would also ensure that no girl could be forced by her family, or indeed any future monarch to donate her hair more than once.

Lief raised his hand for silence, but as he had expected, it took a short while for all the girls to stop giggling and whispering to one another. "Thank you all for coming today," he said, trying not to let his nerves show. "You may not realise it, but what you are doing is perhaps one of the greatest things you could do for this land."

"But why are the dragons good for the land in the first place?" One of the girls who was closest to the front asked. "My father says…" She broke off as her neighbour nudged her.

Lief was not sure how to answer this question in a way that the girl would easily understand. She looked quite young, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old, and whatever her father had said had surely helped her to form an opinion on the matter already.

"What is your name?" Lief asked, making direct eye contact with the girl, who now looked rather shy.

"I am Pia of Del, daughter of Roland and Maeve." She answered him.

"And you have heard of the Os-Mine hills, Pia?" He asked.

"Yes, and they are dangerous because of the granous." the girl answered, no doubt repeating something she had been taught.

Lief chose his next words carefully, not wanting to frighten the girl. He knew only too well that one frightened young girl running home and telling her parents what the king had said would be enough to stop any Deltoran maiden from donating her hair, and that would not do. He and Jasmine had worked too hard over the past months for that to happen.

"You are right, Pia." He said, smiling at her. He noticed that as he spoke, many of the girls toward the back of the hall began to push forward, eager to look more closely at the one who had impressed their king with her knowledge.

"I have even met them, you know. They are truly hideous creatures that will breed out of control if allowed, and if you are unfortunate enough to come by one in the hills, they'll tie you up, make you play a game, and if you cannot answer their questions, they'll bite off all your fingers and toes!"

Lief stood silently for a moment, allowing his rather dramatic lesson on Granous to have a complete effect on his audience, and it did. As one, all the maidens gasped. Half the girls in the room were looking at Lief in awe, impressed that he had experienced such a thing and lived to tell them about it, while the other half looked horrified by the very idea.

Lief felt Jasmine nudge him sharply in the ribs. He looked down at her.

"Did you really have to say that, Lief?" She whispered angrily. "You'll frighten them all half to death!"

"Yes," he whispered back. "Frightening them will be good for our cause. Were you not the one who insisted that Deltora needed us to do this?"

Jasmine did not answer him. Instead, she turned back to the crowd, who were all watching their discussion with interest. A smaller girl in the centre of the group addressed her, standing on the tips of her toes in order to be seen.

"Your Majesty?" the girl began shyly. "Is it true that you have actually ridden upon a dragon? Not just him," she pointed at Lief, "but actually you?"

"Why, yes it is." Jasmine answered, smiling broadly at the girl. Both she and Lief realised that this girl was perhaps the youngest of the group. Her small stature, the pattern of her speech, and the way she blushed scarlet as Jasmine answered her were all indications that she almost certainly had not yet reached twelve, which was the minimum age at which a girl could give her hair. This was a problem they had not foreseen. This time, it was Lief who whispered to Jasmine.

"She is very young," he said. "What shall we do with her?"

"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked.

"I mean, we cannot take her hair," Lief answered. "She does not look like she has even…" He blushed.

"Bled," Jasmine finished for him. "How do you know that, Lief? The fact that she has not developed in other ways does not mean anything. Many girls start bleeding early. Besides, she probably has more magic in her than any of the others, if she is indeed the youngest."

Jasmine turned back to the little girl, and seeing that she had her quean's attention again, she asked another question.

"You gave your hair to a dragon too, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did." Jasmine answered. "And I must say, I was very glad to get rid of it. It was very long."

But after hearing that Jasmine had indeed given her hair, the girl was no longer listening. Already, she was asking another question.

"Do you think that if I give my hair to the dragon, that it will let me ride on it too?"

"I think so," Jasmine said. "I cannot see why not, the dragon will know your name and some other information that we will take from you, so it is indeed possible that the dragon that gets your hair may find you and give you a ride."

Jasmine knew that she had said the right thing, when she saw the delight on the little girl's face. And indeed, her words had had even had more of an effect on the crowd than Lief's granous lesson, for now, they were no longer interested in anything else that Lief or Jasmine might have to say. They had begun to surge forward, each one wanting to be the first in line to donate her hair.

'Yes,' Jasmine thought with satisfaction. 'We are doing the right thing.'

Much later, when all the maidens had returned to their homes, Lief, Jasmine, Marilen and Ranesh were beginning the painstaking task of sorting through the recorded details of all the girls who had given their hair, and putting them into the official palace records. All of them were exhausted. Lief and Jasmine were exhausted because they had spent the whole day cutting the girl's hair, and answering their questions, some of which made them both blush.

Marilen and Ranesh were exhausted because like all infants, their newborn son Joseph slept when he wanted to sleep, and ate when he wanted to eat.

Little Joseph was sleeping now, and as Jasmine gazed at him, she wondered how she would tell Lief that soon, they would also have a little one to care for.

Lief was also gazing at Joseph, though his thoughts were different. He was sure that he had seen another baby somewhere, perhaps not too long ago, who was wrapped in a blanket that was the same shade of royal blue as the one that now swaddled Joseph. For some reason, the memory of that other baby nagged at him, but he quickly put it out of his mind. For now, there were more important things he needed to know.

"Jasmine," he began. "Why did you tell that little girl that she might ride upon a dragon? Surely you know how unlikely that is to happen."

"Of course I know it is unlikely," Jasmine answered him flatly. "But now, for the remainder of her childhood, and indeed throughout her life, she will always live in hope that she might one day ride a dragon. Thoughts of it will colour her dreams, and feed her imagination, and even when everything else in her life is going badly, that hope will keep her strong."

Lief found that he did not quite understand what Jasmine had said, but there was another question he had to ask.

"What did you mean when you said that there was more magic in her than all the others?"

"I meant just that," Jasmine answered. Marilen and Ranesh both nodded, seeming to understand something that Lief did not. Seeing that Lief was still puzzled, Jasmine explained.

"Those who have not lost their innocence are still children. They dream, they imagine, and they wonder about the world around them. They ask questions, and sometimes, it is actually more exciting to not know the answers. To a child, the world is always beautiful, whatever it actually looks like. As a child grows older, life becomes more and more cruel. Many of the girls in the hall probably have been touched by that cruelty, even if they are as yet untouched by someone else. Dragons are much like children, they do not know cruelty like we do. As we have seen, they will fight to the death for what they love, but apart from that, they are quite carefree, as long as their needs are met. That is probably why they never got along with humans. I think that dragons have always chosen girls because when the blood begins, it is clear that a maiden can think for herself, and therefore survive being carried off. I do not think it is as easy to tell with young men. Also, girls usually have longer hair, so there is more of it to line a nest. But once a person has let go of their youth, and can no longer be considered untouched, the world changes. By that time, most people's minds are filled with doubts, fears and are weighed down by responsibility."

Lief nodded, suddenly understanding something that had puzzled him before. He remembered waking up beside Jasmine, after the first time they lay together. A feeling of sadness had settled over his heart, and at the time, he could not understand why. Now, he knew that it was not because he and Jasmine had been unhappy, or their love had lessened because the experience had not gone as well as they might have hoped, it was because despite the fact that Lief wore the belt of Deltora, he still had to let go of part of the magic that made him who he was. Lief and Jasmine really were children no longer.

'And it makes sense,' Lief thought. 'Children cannot have children of their own, and Deltora does need a new heir.'

Lief considered asking Jasmine how she had come to know all this, but he thought better of it. Even though Lief was no longer a child, it still gave him a thrill to know that there were still many more things in the world that he did not know. But now he knew that in time, he would find them out.

The End