Enchanted Realms

Chapter 2

Alyson frowned, peeking around the corner. She reached into her pocket. The tiny emerald on the chain glowed in her palm, the stone growing warm.

The two guards on either side of the door yawned.

She stepped into the corridor and approached them.

Neither took notice, one of them snoring softly, both sleeping on their feet.

Alyson fingered the amethyst on her wrist, and the tumblers clicked. Nudging open the thick oaken door, she slipped inside. The dank dungeon air sent a shiver through her. The cell was two corridors down and to the left, no one else in the dungeon, the six cells rarely used.

Alyson frequently overheard prattle of castle doings from her mother, the Guardian"s Exchequer, and her father, the Captain of his Guard. Earlier, her parents had tried to keep their voices hushed so she wouldn"t overhear, but a touch to the pearl beside the amethyst on her wrist had sharpened her hearing.

“The feckless wastrel tried to stop the Heir from spearing the wyvern,” her father had said.

“The stained glass will cost a mighty copper to replace,” her mother had said.

“Wyrm blast them, they must have known the raw stone"s theft would be disconcerting to us all. We haven"t had a wyvern attack like that in months. And then to follow it with that full-out assault! The Guardian has ordered double shifts on the battlements.”

Five guards had been severely burned when four wyverns had scorched the main hall"s roof.

“How will he pay them? We"re scraping the barrel bottom as it is.”

Shortly afterward, Alyson had slipped out the door.

She stepped to the cage bars.

Beyond them, sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, his legs pulled to his chest and his head bowed, Josh looked so forlorn and dejected that her heart nearly broke. Odd, she thought, we"ve never really been friends. At most, they"d been mutually indifferent to each other, she among the privileged children who lived in the castle, he one villager among hundreds whose labor kept the castle-dwellers in comfort.

The class had gone out to the wyrm ranch just last month on a field trip not too different from that to the castle earlier today. Josh and his father had shown the class around to describe the ranch operations. Alyson had liked Josh"s gentle way with the creatures and how they"d seemed to adore him.

He doesn"t look adorable now, she thought. Just pitiful.

“What are you doing here?” His voice was low.

She jumped, startled, having thought her approach silent. “I saw what happened.” Her voice also was quiet.

“You"ll be reprimanded for coming.”

She could tell he"d been crying. “I don"t care. It"s not right what Tony did. He twisted what happened.”

“No, he didn"t, not by much.” Josh looked up, raising his head from between his knees. “I did try to stop him.”

did“You didn"t want the wyvern hurt.”

His silence was acknowledgement. The silent between them stretched.

“I heard you speaking,” Alyson said finally.

“So?”

“To the wyvern.”

He didn"t reply.

“You are a wyvern talker.”

areJosh snorted. “Doesn"t seem to have helped me here, does it?” He put his head down again.

“It"ll probably make things worse,” she said.

He looked up again. “Huh?”

“The Guardians won"t like it when the King returns. Especially William and Anthony.”

Again he was silent.

“They"ll lie to make sure you stay here.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about them.”

“I"ve lived in the castle all my life. And Tony lied about what happened today.” Alyson looked away, afraid. “And I … I can"t say what I saw. My parents …”

Alyson knew full well the details of Guardian politics. William Kingstead ruled as his father had before him and his before him in the King"s stead for the last two hundred years. Alsace had been without a rightful King the whole time, the longest period since their little kingdom had been founded two thousand years ago.

Along the two spines of the continent lived the wild wyverns, the only creatures known to recharge gemstones to their full power. The wyrms that Josh and his father raised could be used to recharge the stones partially, but those charges tend to fade quickly, and the wyrms died prematurely, if not instantly. The wild wyverns not so, and a king might rejuvenate his ruling stone with a wild wyvern five times in his life. A king could barely retain his crown with only domesticated wyrms. With a gemstone big enough and powerful enough, a common peasant might rise from serfdom to become king or queen.

With a gemstone and a wyvern.

But until a wyvern talker claimed the diamond, William Kingstead was Guardian, and if Alyson were to speak against the Guardian"s son, the Guardian would surely retaliate against her parents.

“Would he really do that?” Josh asked.

Alyson frowned at him; he had picked the thought from her mind. “You don"t have a diamond—how did you do that?”

The diamond was the gemstone of communication; with it, a person might send a thought across the room or eavesdrop on an unsuspecting neighbor.

Alyson saw his shrug, his filching her thoughts without a diamond unusual. Alyson fingered the small diamond on the silver chain around her neck, a gift from her mother at the onset of menses, “so you might know the thoughts of men in your womanhood,” she"d said. What else can he do without benefit of gemstone? she wondered. Alyson probed him.

It was your own diamond I used, he thought.

That too, she knew unusual. Their house wyrm, the domesticated wyvern that her parents kept on hand to recharge the household stones, had recharged this diamond on her chain, tuning the stone to her thoughts, linking its power to her abilities, thus reducing another"s ability to turn it to his or her advantage.

I know you can"t speak against the Guardian"s son, he thought to her.

“So what will you do?” she said, her voice still low.

“What does it matter?”

“It matters greatly. The wizard Whipplethorpe knows what happened. She"s got the sapphire of time. She can tell all.”

Josh smiled. “Maybe, but she"ll not speak on my behalf.”

“Yes, she will. You"re a wyvern talker!”

“I"m afraid that won"t sway her. Perhaps Schoolmaster Saltpeter has a suggestion.” Josh yawned hugely. “Anyway, I need to sleep.”

She touched the amethyst on her wristlet. Tumblers clicked, and the cage door squeaked opened.

He snorted, looking at the open cage door. “I can"t do that, Alyson. You"re very kind to offer, but I can"t.”

She sighed and closed the door. “All right.” She looked down, biting her lip. “You"re not alone; I want you to know that.”

“I know that now. Thank you.” He smiled at her.

As she slipped away, quietly sidling between the two slumbering guards, Alyson realized she respected him all the more for facing his fate directly, even if it seemed the imprudent course.

* * *

Josh entered the hall, two guards guiding him unkindly up the aisle.

Spectators stood to either side, and a gauntlet of faces swiveled toward him in prurient curiosity. The underside of the roof showed burn marks. The attack by four wyverns had set it on fire. The smell of charred wood and soaked stone still pervaded the room. A large tapestry covered the hole where the stained glass window had been.

Near the front of the assembly stood his father, looking dour but standing proud in his best overalls, his clothing remarkable for its contrast to the velvets and satins worn by the castle dwellers around him.

Josh was glad to see him. His guards allowed him a moment to embrace his father.

“Just be the person you are,” his father said quietly before relinquishing him back to his guards.

They positioned him to one side near the front. On a smaller throne in front of the empty, larger King"s throne sat the Guardian William Kingstead.

In a knot opposite Josh were the Heir Anthony Kingstead, the Schoolmaster Saltpeter, and the Alsace Court Wizard, Constance Whipplethorpe. In her hand was a crooked staff, mounted on its end a sapphire the size of a thumb.

Guardian William stood. “We are assembled, the good people of Alsace, to determine the fate of one Joshua Wyrmherd, son of John. Yesterday, in this very chamber, Joshua aided a wyvern in its theft of our sacred raw diamond and then prevented the Heir, brave Anthony Kingstead, from stopping the wild wyvern with a spear.”

“That"s not what happened,” Josh said, plain as day.

Flush, William whirled on him. “Silence, boy!”

“I"ll not be silent in the face of lies.” Josh was surprised how calm he felt.

“Who do you accuse of lying, boy?”

“Ask Wizard Whipplethorpe what happened,” he said. “She"s got the sapphire of time. She can tell us.”

“We already know what happened! Why would—”

“Ask her, or are you afraid of the truth?”

“Silence! We know the truth!” Redder than an apple, William stepped toward Josh, towering over him. “You broke the glass to help the wild wyvern steal the diamond, and then you stopped the Heir Anthony from killing the wyvern! Cease your obstinate protest and accept your fate!”

Josh could feel the man"s breath upon his face and the weight of his wrath upon his soul. He kept his voice low but firm when he responded. “I"ll accept my fate when you speak the truth.”

“Silence, I said!” William slapped him.

Josh"s head spun to the side, and he tasted blood. Dizziness washed over him, and he almost went to a knee.

“Cease this nonsense!” a voice called from the back of the room. The voice was more disconcerting for having been a girl"s.

“Alyson!” said another voice from the back. Her mother, the Exchequer.

Alyson walked to the head of the aisle, dressed in formal court wear, her chiffon dress the yellow of corn, three necklaces glowing against her breast, the diamond, emerald, and amethyst stones each alight. “I saw what happened yesterday, and the truth has not been told today.”

Someone cleared a throat. “I too saw what happened,” Schoolmaster Saltpeter said. “The truth has not been told today.”

“Guardian,” croaked the old gravelly voice. The Wizard Whipplethorpe brushed a cobweb from her forehead. “He whose fate is to be decided asks for the truth seen through the sapphire of time. The truth is not much to ask.”

Guardian William grunted in disgust and returned to the throne. “Tell them the truth, Wizard, so that we can be done with this sordid affair.”

She ambled forward, peering at Josh. Her breath smelt of fish. The sapphire mounted on the head of her staff lit up at her gesture.

Above their heads, a shadow stained-glass window exploded inward, shadow wings spread with a pop like a parachute, and the wyvern settled on the floor, its wings reaching halfway across the chamber.

Spectators scattered to make way for the towering beast, standing three times taller than the nearest person, not that the shadow wyvern could hurt anyone.

It croaked something incomprehensible at the shadow Josh just picking himself off the floor. The shadow Josh croaked back. Struggling against the wyvern"s will, the shadow Josh pulled off his belt and swung it.

The shadow display glass shattered, the wyvern croaked at Josh, then grasped the raw shadow diamond. Flapping its great wings, the wyvern croaked again as shadow-Josh reached into his pocket.

“Drop that, you beast!” A shadow Anthony rushed into the room, spear c****d.

He hurled, Josh threw himself, the wyvern plunged out the broken window, and the spear snagged the hind flank, eliciting a screech. The images collapsed.

Sweat rolled down the face of the Wizard, the glow dying, the sapphire going dark. Constance tottered but hands on both sides steadied her.

“What was all that croaking?” Alyson asked.

The rasp of the Wizard was the only reply. “Wyvern-talk.”

A collective gasp was heard. All eyes turned toward Josh. “The wyvern talker will claim the diamond,” someone said aloud, and neighbor turned to neighbor in exclamation.

“Silence!” Guardian William stood and the crowd hushed. “Clearly, I was misled. Clearly, the boy was compelled to help the Wyvern. But it is also clear he attempted to stop the Guardian Heir from killing the wyvern with the spear. Do you deny it, boy?”

“No, Sir, I do not. I tried to stop him of my own free will from hurting the wyvern.”

“The boy admits it,” William said. “For the greater offense of aiding the theft of the diamond, you would have been put to death. For this lesser offense, you are banished for life from the kingdom of Alsace.”