Wind and Stone

Chapter 7: Talfryn

Chapter 7: Talfryn

It was impossible to look at Wren the same way. The little girl Talfryn thought of her as, the child in the burned husk of a town, was gone. Everything fell into place now—why she’d spoken to them so strangely then, how she’d aged herself. A phoenix…

“You must be ancient,” said Akton. Talfryn noticed Lochlann shooting Akton the same look he was. He loved the man, but Akton had no tact sometimes.

Wren crossed her arms and gave him an almost motherly look, part discipline, part amusement. Akton backtracked.

“I mean…”

“Don’t,” said Talfryn. “We had no idea.”

“Of course not,” said Wren. “We keep to ourselves. I’m only here because I…owe the original Ylenia.” Her gaze grew distant, and Talfryn wondered what that story was for Wren to still be holding on to it. “I promised her I’d look out for Emylnor. Keep Lord Fanglyr back. But it’s been more difficult over the years. He’s on to me, knows I regenerate.”

“You want to end it for good,” said Talfryn, understanding what she was getting at. “You want him dead.”

Wren nodded. He was about to ask why that meant she needed them—surely a phoenix was powerful enough to take on a dragon herself—but Lochlann spoke first.

“I’m missing something. What do you mean by ‘the original Ylenia’?”

“He doesn’t know,” said Akton as they all turned to look at Lochlann.

“I’ve been taught she’s ageless,” said Lochlann. “Not true?”

“There’ve been a series of Ylenias,” said Akton. “They keep up the title and the role.”

“I suggested it to Ylenia at the end of her life,” said Wren. “This was to keep Reynox guessing. Perhaps he would even suspect her to be a powerful shifter herself—a unicorn, or a dragon like himself, a phoenix like me. But no—the original was never a shifter. That, too, should have been passed along with the title.”

“It was,” said Talfryn, thinking of the new Ylenia. He wanted to obey the summons—he liked the new Ylenia. She was definitely competent if she was handling this new situation immediately. The previous Ylenia had been slow to act about Basil’s threat, which had in turn cost a lot of lives, and drawn in both him and Akton needlessly. And though they’d grown even closer for it, it had been nearly at the expense of their lives.

“So let me confirm this,” said Lochlann, like he was listing back a series of instructions he had to follow. “Lord Fanglyr Reynox was alive generations ago and was the Dragon Lord who Ylenia defeated. You, Wren, were there then and helped her.”

“I was her ally and confidant,” said Wren. “More than help.”

“Then Ylenia solidified Emylnor and you advised her to create a situation where she would seem immortal to prevent Reynox from taking further action.”

“I promised her to watch out for the realm,” said Wren, nodding. “And I have done so with every lifetime since.”

Talfryn had so many questions, and from the looks on both Akton and Lochlann’s faces, they did, too. A knock sounded on the door and Wren crossed to it, let Arvi back in. They took one look at everyone and made a face.

“I missed something good.”

“It was for the best. You don’t need to carry anything more than maps back to Lethrin,” said Wren. Arvi said nothing, but Talfryn could see something on their face that he knew meant trouble. “Now. Are you willing to disregard that letter, or will I have to keep persuading you?”

Talfryn sat on the worn but now clean floor and tried to think. Everyone else had a seat, Wren pushing a pile of old rags off a chair, the others choosing the floor. Talfryn didn’t like this at all, and it was happening so fast. He seemed to be only just recovering and now there was war again—and with dragons, people Emylnor had a wary peace with simply because conflict with them was so deadly. Wren was back and wanted them to follow her off to kill the Dragon Lord, and all Talfryn really wanted to do was build his library and travel a little, Akton by his side. That never seemed like much.

He glanced up, wanting to take Akton’s hand or nudge him, but he was too far away. Lochlann sat closest, within reach almost, but though he was attractive Talfryn still didn’t know what to think of him. He was almost certainly more powerful than Talfryn, being a griffin and having varied magicks, and he was also with Wren. Despite her having given them the rue that saved Akton’s life, Talfryn was still unsure whether to trust her. Someone who’d lived as long as a phoenix probably had motives he didn’t even think possible. It seemed unlikely she would be doing this solely as a promise to the first Ylenia.

“We still don’t know what you’re asking us to do,” said Talfryn at last.

“This should be obvious,” said Wren. “We will go into the heart of the Dragon Realm, and we will kill Lord Fanglyr Reynox. End this for good. Ylenia won’t be able to defeat him with troops—he keeps himself well guarded far away from the fighting, and has been developing new tricks recently.”

Talfryn suddenly understood. Something that had been gnawing at him for months finally made sense.

“Basil,” he said. Wren nodded.

“One of Reynox’s. Thank you, by the way, for handling him for me.”

Talfryn was not expecting that. Nor was he expecting the torrent of memories that came rushing back, many of which he didn’t care to relive. He kept the memories of him and Akton growing close, then closer, held tight to those, and tried to forget the rest. By the time he cleared his mind again Akton was speaking, and he didn’t sound happy.

“Why haven’t you killed him yet? If he’s such a threat, if you’ve had lifetimes, why not? Why let it get this bad, that we’re at war with them again? We haven’t fought the Dragon Realm since—”

“Ylenia, long ago,” said Lochlann. His voice was quiet. Talfryn suspected he was having second thoughts about following Wren. “I agree. Why?”

Wren sighed.

“It’s…not simple. In the past I’ve been able to keep him in his place through other means, but he’s learned to attack when I’m still young.” She bit her lip, paused so long to consider something that Talfryn had accepted she was done. When she did speak, it was to say something that made it difficult for him not to trust her. “It’s not precise, to be a phoenix. It’s widespread knowledge that we regenerate at the end of our life cycle, yes, but the truth is that it’s all down to chance. I am not endless. Each time I die, there is a chance I will fail to be reborn. Some of my lifespans have been long. The last few have been short.”

“How short?” asked Akton. Wren closed her eyes and tilted her head back as though ashamed.

“As I said, he’s figured out to go after me when I’m young. The first time was an accident. I had grown old, and he was training his daughter to invade Emylnor. When I killed her along the border, I was too injured to return to Emylnor without first regenerating. He came to investigate—of course, it was his daughter—and discovered me, a toddler attempting to flee. This would have been the time to kill him, too, as he’s rarely in an unguarded place, but I was too weak. I’m sure he would have kept killing me, but he detests being so close to the border now. Everything he’s tried since then has been when I’m young. I’ve burned through seven lifetimes in the past thirty years, and I do not know how many I have left.”

Silence fell. The faint sounds of an argument in the street drifted in, got resolved, faded away.

“That’s why you want to kill him now,” said Arvi. Talfryn blinked, realizing that everyone had forgotten the cartographer was still there. “Because dragons don’t have more than the one life. Because he can keep you back.”

“He could still live for another thousand years or more,” said Talfryn. He shook his head.

“I thought I could handle this alone,” said Wren. “For hundreds and hundreds of years, I have. But I’ve been working alone. I couldn’t bring him down alone before, and I can’t now.”

“There have got to be better skilled people than us,” said Akton. “I have no powers, Talfryn’s a bookworm, and Lochlann makes sweets.”

“I’ve never killed anyone before,” said Lochlann. “I don’t see how we can help you, either.”

Wren sighed again.

“After countless lifetimes, you get to be a good judge of people,” she said. “Yes, there are others. Yes, I might have chosen you because you all live fairly close to where I’ve been growing up. This doesn’t change the fact that I need your help, and tracking anyone else down…” She shook her head, gestured to Talfryn and Akton. “Didn’t choose wrong with you two, now did I?”

Talfryn glanced across at Akton and their eyes met. Yes, they made a great team. And Wren was persuasive.

“I have an idea,” said Arvi, and everyone blinked over at them. “Why don’t we sleep on it?”