Chapter V

The days leading up to the Grand Ball that the King and Queen were throwing for the Summer Solstice were busy and at times chaotic.

Jane didn't have much chance to see her friends as they were all off, busily doing their part in helping prepare for the Ball.

It was times like these that Jane felt quite useless, even more so now because of her injured arm which was healing very slowly and causing her more pain than she let on. She wished she could give a hand to any one of her friends, but she always seemed to be more of hindrance than anything else. And now with her arm…

She looked down at her injured arm and tried wiggling her fingers. Nothing, not even a twitch, only pain, so much pain. The Court Physician had told her only this morning that her arm should be almost completely healed by now.

She gritted her teeth and went back to staring out over the field outside the castle, watching the knights and their squires' train.

She was suspended from training as well, due to her arm and she just knew that the other squires were laughing at her because of it.

She angrily kicked out at the wall in front of her.

It wasn't fair! It just – it wasn't fair!

"Life not being fair to you again, young squire?" Jane jumped at the unfamiliar voice suddenly speaking to her from atop of the battlements near to where she stood.

Jane looked around and blinked in surprise as an old man with a long silver beard and dressed in faded blue robes, carrying a staff that looked like it had come from a tree made of many twist and knobs, moved slowly towards her.

"Sir?" She started slowly, leaning away from the wall that she had been previously leaning upon for a good many hours, her aching back and stiff elbows were thanking her greatly for this fact.

The old man waved away her hand that she had held out in a way of maybe helping him in someway before he came to stand by her.

"Lovely evening is it not?" He started companionably.

"Ah, yes, I guess it is."

"But you were not up here to admire the view, were you?" He guessed sagely and Jane nodded, maybe a little bitterly.

"No sir."

The wizardly old man nodded and they stood silently together, watching the knights and squires finish up their training below them.

"Where is your great, green friend?" The old man asked unexpectedly, his dark eyes drifting around at Dragon's usual lounging spots along the battlements before turning his gaze to the sky above them.

"Oh?" Jane's head immediately turned towards the mountains, in particular the one that housed Dragon's caves. "He's away at the moment. He's missed being here and so is getting himself reacquainted with all his favourite places."

"Natural, dragons are said to be quite territorial and do not like to leave the land that they've call their home willingly. You must have a strong hold on him, to convince him to leave his lands to go with you on quests to distant, unknown lands."

Jane chuckled at the thought of her having any kind of hold over the big newt.

"Hardly." She snorted, "He was simply curious, that is all. I could never make him go anywhere that he does not wish to go to in the first place."

"Are you sure?"

Jane frowned and looked at the strange old man beside her.

She had never seen him around Court before; she knew that if she had she would most certainly remember him, being such a strange looking old man with his odd and ancient blue robes and long silvery beard that fell down past his waist.

"What do you mean?" She asked slowly and maybe a tad cautiously as she eyed the old man closely.

He shrugged his ancient shoulders, letting at a wheezy sigh.

"Simply a passing wonder of mine. I have many of those, you know, what with all the time I have on my hands to spare. I spend a great deal of my time thinking and pondering over things."

"Oh." For that was all Jane could think of to say in response for what else could you say to a comment like that?

"I think a great deal about your scaly friend. Where he comes from? Where are the rest of his kin? Do they still exist or is he, the poor creature, the last of his kind. I wonder why a young girl, such as you, has such a strong hold over him. Is it simply due to the two of you being friends or is it… something more?" He looked at her intently as he spoke, his wise dark eyes looking her up and down, searching for the answers of his questions as if she somehow held them all.

"I-I…"

He shook his head, sighing softly.

"And I fear that I am not the only one pondering upon these matters." He said sounding worried and gazing once more out over the kingdom.

"What do you mean?"

"You have many allies, dear child, but you and your scaly friend have also gained a number of enemies as well, some you aren't even aware of but who plan to use you and him for their own purposes."

Jane scowled in fury at the very thought.

"I won't let them! I won't let anyone touch Dragon or use him for any purpose, good or evil! He is his own creature and will do what he wants! No one can make him do anything against his will! He's a dragon for goodness sake!"

"A Dragon who seems to have bonded himself to a human girl child." The old man muttered, mostly to himself.

Jane pulled a face at that.

"Bonded? He's my friend. My best friend! And I am his." She snapped angrily even though she wasn't sure why she was angry exactly. Only that it felt like this strange old man was asking something intimate of her relationship with Dragon. She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew she didn't want to discuss it. It was between her and Dragon and that was how she wanted to keep it.

"Hush child, I meant no disrespect to you or your mighty friend. As I stated before I am merely an old man who wonders over many things, too many things one might even say, but I mean no harm to you or your friend with my wonders. Trust me Child when I say that it is not I who you should fear harming you or your great friend."

Jane stared up at him, a little frighten but did her best to hide it.

"Who is? Who is trying to harm Dragon and me?" She asked quietly. "Please tell me."

"I have my suspicions but I pray that I am wrong." The old man muttered and Jane felt her stomach turn.

"Who?" But the old man only shook his head and turned to leave the battlements.

"Child, mind your arm won't you? For it is no ordinary injury." He added over his shoulder back at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Just, be sure to have me called if the pain grows too much for you bear."

"Sir?" But he made no answer to her question and simply continued to make his slow way back down the stairs leading from the battlements and down to the courtyard below.

She walked to the stairway and watched the old man make his slow way towards a tower that she had previously thought uninhabited, except for… for the Wizard.

She felt the blood rush from her face as she realised that she might just have been speaking to the Wizard himself.

She had never met the Wizard but everyone in the castle knew that he lived in the abandon tower at the far end of the Royal Gardens.

Her father and Sir Theodore were said to have spent time in the Old Wizard's company but whenever she asked her father or Sir Theodore about what they spoke about with him they never told her, simply smiled and patted her head, saying that it was nothing she needed to worry herself about.

She watched as the old man, the Wizard, disappeared into his tower before she herself walked down the stairs in the direction of main structure of the castle, not knowing that she was being watched from a window high above her, not knowing just how at risk she really was or how much danger Kippernia Castle was truly in.

And she wouldn't know until it was too late.

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