Jahara scanned the scorched countryside before entering his hiding place. It wasn’t that long ago that this place was lush with trees and foliage but the war between Rendel and Tendir had left nothing unscathed when it entered his homeland. He had tried to remain neutral, had told both sides that he would not give his spells to conquer, but now looking out around him he knew he could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch. Just as the war had come to the lands surrounding him, it had now come to him directly. It was time for him to end it before it consumed all of life in the world. He turned from the devastation around him and went inside, waving his hand to seal the entrance doorway. After lighting the oil lamp next to the entrance, he took it with him and walked down the steps to begin.
He sat at an old table with his book of spells trying to determine what the best route to take to end this war was going to be. In the beginning, it was only humans fighting amongst themselves; but now they had involved all surrounding breeds. Worse still, they had involved the dark riders of the north. Stupid. He slammed the book closed and put his head into his hands. The folly of humans, always trying to dominate and rule. They were a plague on the face of the world. Stop it Jahara, he thought to himself, you can not continue to think this way. They are not all wicked, ignorant as a whole yes, but not wicked. In involving the dark riders though, they had sealed their own doom and brought pain and death to all others. Subjugation, dominion of souls, that is what the dark riders wanted and the humans opened the door and invited them in to take it.
So here they were, the world was being torn apart and all because Rendel had to have Tendir’s daughter. Such an arrogant man Rendel was, so much like the dark riders. One might think that he was one of them, in point of fact, Jahara had often wondered that very thing. It was he that called to them and asked them to fight. What was it that he offered them? No matter, they were here now and Jahara would step in and stop them. He just needed to figure out how, and soon. The elven riders would not last much longer against the dark ones, they were too few. He opened the book again and began to read.
It was hours before Jahara stood up from the table and two more before he had the spell ready. He climbed the steps back up to the entrance doorway and stood quiet, listening to the sounds that came to him from the night outside. He heard them land very near to his hovel and listened closer to determine who had come to pay him a visit. When her voice came to him, singing in the night breeze, he relaxed and left his hiding place.
He walked up behind them and said, “Jen, what brings you here? Not that I am not very pleased to see you but are you not far from your course tonight?”
“Father,” she said and bowed her head in greeting. “My course is to protect the ones close to me and so I am here.”
“To protect me? Is that not backward? Is it not I that protects you?”
“There was a time.” Jen slid a hand up to the face of the dragon that stood beside her. “Saphyre has told me that you are in need of us.”
“Has he? And what else has he told you?”
“That you are planning to travel to the north, to the lands of the dark ones, that you will use your spells to try to stop this war.”
“And will I succeed?”
“That, he does not see.”
Jahara stared up at the dragon before him. Saphyre was an unusual dragon, unusual in his multitude of color, unusual in his sight, and unusual in his love for Jahara’s daughter. The bond between dragon and rider was deep, holding the two together and molding their thoughts and movements into one. This was necessary in flight and battle, but the bond that these two shared went further than most. He was never far from her though he never took human form to be with her as some did. He never took pleasure from his rider but stood at her side in all other things.
“Does he see the spell I plan to use?”
“He sees the infants dying as they break free of their shells. It is heartbreaking for him. They are innocent born to an evil land.”
“We can not move them and the dark ones wait close to bond.”
Jen sighed heavily as Saphyre turned his head away. “He knows this, but it still breaks his heart that so many innocents must die.”
“It is not any easier for me Jen. I did not wish to participate in this war. I would not now if the dark ones had not been called. If I do not do something you will all be destroyed and the lands decimated, I can no longer stand aside and do nothing.” He turned and waved an arm out to the surrounding land. “Just look at what they have done here. If left to their own devices, all lands will soon look like this; and the souls of our people will belong to them. They will take Saphyre’s people also, they will bond with their children and change them to the dark dragons. I can not allow this.”
Jen came closer to her father and laid a hand on his shoulder. When he turned back to her she brushed away a tear that slipped from his eye. “Father, you do not have to explain this to us. We are not here to judge or dissuade you. We are here to help you.”
“Is Dayved aware that you are here?”
“No.” She turned away from him and walked back to Saphyre. Running her hand along his neck she said, “Dayved has crossed the lines of leadership in his advances toward me. I can no longer follow him in battle and I will not spend time in the company of one that will not take my word as final.”
“The union would have increased the strength of the elven riders.”
Jen’s body stiffened at his words and Saphyre turned his head to face Jahara. “Is that all I am to you? A warrior to serve in battle and then a vessel for stronger riders?”
“That was not the intent of my words, it was merely an observation. Do not think of me as one that would push you to make a choice that is not correct for you, for either of you. Dayved is a strong leader but if he is not the one you wish for, then so be it. I will not choose for you.”
“Thank you,” she said and relaxed her stance.
“So tell me, how is it that you are to help me?”
“We will take you to the north, to the borders of the dark ones, and when you have completed your journey we will return you here. They will sense our presence if we cross into their lands but we can make it to their borders without detection, and this will save you many months of dangerous travel.”
Jahara stared into Saphyre’s eyes. “You would carry me?” Dragons did not carry those they were not bound to, which meant they only carried one in their lifetime. To carry another was unheard of.
“He will,” Jen said. “He will carry you there and carry you back here. He will protect you as he protects me.”
“Even knowing that I am going to kill the children of your cousins?” he asked still staring into the dragon’s eyes.
“Yes,” Jen whispered as a tear slipped from Saphyre’s eye and shattered on the ground at his feet. The broken shards of his tear buried themselves into the dirt to wait for the song that would wake the life held within them.
Jahara turned from them and walked away. As he walked, he thought about the pain Saphyre was feeling, the pain that made itself so evident in his eyes. He had never thought much about the dragons of the riders and now he was seeing something that he had missed. The dragons felt as deeply as the elves themselves, they had to in order to fully bond. This was something he had hidden from himself and now he wondered if maybe there was another way to end this war, a way that did not cause so much pain to Saphyre.
His thought had been to decrease the number of dark riders by decreasing their dragons. The dragons bonded with their riders in the first weeks after their birth so the only way to decrease them was to kill them before or immediately after hatching. The only spell he had for this purpose had to be completed as the newborns broke free from the egg; which, in itself, presented danger to him. The bite of a newborn dragon was deadly. It would kill the one bitten within days or even hours when the one bitten did not rest, and there was no cure, no spell that could save you; and he would be in the center as they hatched.
As he thought on other possibilities, a dark shadow flew over him. He turned his head to the night sky then immediately started running as a dark form dove from above. They had caught him out in the open. He ran for the rocks surrounding his hiding place, making it under one just as the dark rider fell to the ground with an arrow pierced through his armor. They hadn’t known Saphyre and Jen were there. The rider's dragon disappeared to the north and Saphyre landed.
Jen leapt from Saphyre and ran to her father. “There is no more time for considerations. We must leave now. She will return to the north and tell them we are here with you.” She grasped his arm and pulled him out from under the rock. “You will ride behind me. Wrap you arms securely around my waist and try to move with me.” She leapt to Saphyre’s back and lifted Jahara to sit behind her, though he thought it more as lying against her as her feet were behind, not in front.
Once they were in the air he understood the position. If they had been sitting up they would most definitely been blown off his back. The speed in which Saphyre flew was beyond anything that Jahara had known was possible. What would have taken him months to travel they were accomplishing in hours. The speed was so dizzying that he clung to Jen, trying hard to mold himself to her and closed his eyes. Saphyre slowed as they neared their destination and the air suddenly grew cold. Jahara wished fervently that he had a winter cloak with him but there was nothing he could do at present but endure the bite of the north wind.
Once on the ground, Jen pulled a cloak from a pouch that she rested against and handed it to Jahara. “It is not as thick as yours but you will find it warm.” Taking hold of his arm, she lowered him to the ground. “We will wait here for you. The nest is in a cave on that mountain,” she said and pointed off into the distance. When he made no move to go forward, she looked down and met his eyes. “You must hurry father, the eggs will hatch soon. Saphyre can hear them tapping now.”
“I would find another way if I could.”
“I know.”
“And Saphyre?”
“We know, now go quickly. We will watch; we will wait.”
Jahara left them then and made his way silently to the opening in the mountain where the eggs waited. As he walked, he looked around him at the bare earth and twisted trees. There should have been pines here. Long ago, he knew, there were vast forests of pines in these lands, before the dark ones appeared. Now it was a desolate land, cold and empty but for small villages here and there. The people he saw were quiet, all of them staring up at an opening in the mountain before him. Each village he passed was the same, those there stared up to the mountain and soon he realized that there were no children present within the villages; the time of hatching was close indeed. Walking up a worn path, he came to the opening and passed through the rider’s children unseen. They crowded around the entrance, waiting for the newborns, waiting to be bonded to the dragons and becoming riders themselves. When he entered the mountain, shock overcame him. So many, he thought, how will I ever destroy so many? There were dozens of eggs and as he stood they all began to crack. He thought about the crowd of children at the entrance and knew for certain, they had been bred for this moment in time. Looking around and the hatch began, he quickly began to run to the nearest newborn breaking from it’s shell; at the same time he pulled the prepared spell from his pocket. He opened the bottle and speaking the words, he dipped his finger in then touched the newborn’s head. He did not stop to watch as the newborn curled and died, but went on to the next. In horror, he saw that they were hatching too quickly for him to reach them all; then he slipped, and as he reached out to steady himself his hand was bitten. He had failed, and in his failing his world would end just as his life would end. No! his mind screamed, It can’t end this way! Reaching in to his memory he found a spell to slow the outcome of today. He turned to the newborn that had bitten him, placed both hands over it’s head and spoke. The newborn froze and with it all dragons younger than it was itself, not only here, but in all the world. No dragons anywhere would hatch until one with the countering spell woke them.
His hand burned with pain as he ground the spell of newborn death into the dirt and left. He had stopped the hatch but at more of a cost than just these. Would Saphyre forgive this spell? Would his daughter forgive it? He made it out of the mountain still unseen and started walking when he heard the cries of the children behind him. What he had done had been discovered and the search for him was on. He needed to make it back to Jen. He needed to tell her what he had done and tell her where to find his spells. They needed to be hidden until one was born that could undo his folly and give the dragons back their children; one that would carry not only the power of a sorcerer, but the love to correct the dark hearts in the ones changed. As he made his way through the crowd of children and down the worn path, the pain in his hand spread to his arm and his vision began to blur. Shaking his head to clear his vision, he continued and began to run when passing the first village the adults started to point. He was visible to them, no longer able to sustain his fade. He ran, stumbling as the newborn’s poison worked it’s way faster into his blood. Just as he thought he would not make it back to her, Jen was there. She had crossed the borders of the dark lands and come to get him. Lifting him over her shoulder, she ran to Saphyre as the sounds of the ones searching grew louder. She threw him up onto Saphyre’s back and laid over him, clinging to Saphyre as he lifted from the ground. Flying swiftly, he went directly to Jahara’s home.
Jahara was laying in his bed. He knew it was his bed by the smells that came to him. The poison of the newborn was in his eyes and he could no longer see. “Jen...Saphyre,” he called out.
“We are here,” he heard her say and felt her hand touch his cheek.
“I have caused a sorrow to you,” he said gripping her hand.
“We know what you did.” She held his hand tight in her own. “You did what had to be done.”
“It can be undone, but the book must be hidden until he comes. They must not find it. If it falls to their hands the world is lost.”
“You have already hidden the book.”
“There is no more time Jen. The place where I have hidden it will open on my death. Go to the rocks, there will be an opening, you must go in and down the steps. It is there, burn what you find and take the book to a safe place, a place where they will not look. Take it deep into our lands, take it to the mountain Jen, they will not cross to the mountain. It is in your hands now, in yours and Saphyre’s. Hide it there until he is born.”
“Until who is born? Who are we to give the book to?”
He was growing weaker now. He could sense his death coming close as her voice came to him from a great distance. “He will have the power to see, the power of the dragon, but also the love of the elf. He will undo my folly and heal the hearts of the dark dragons.” He could see now for the first time the bond between them and what it meant. “Saphyre can you see? He will be a rider of many and he will hold the color of dragon fire in his soul. Saphyre, tell me, can you see?”
“I can see.” His voice came from the open doorway and Jen turned to see him standing as a man with her cloak wrapped around his waist.
“You know what must be done?” Jahara asked him. “You know what you must give?”
“I know.”
Jahara’s grip tightened on Jen. “You love him much more than dragon and rider, you always have. He will give up his dragon form for you. The one you must give the book to will come from his seed. Take him as husband and birth the one needed for the world to survive.”
“Father, we will take the book to the mountain, but I will not be the cause for Saphyre’s loss. You see my feelings, you do not see his.”
With his last breath he said, “Yes daughter, I do.” Jahara’s eyes stared out then in death as his last breath passed his lips. Jen screamed in agony at her father’s departure from the world.
Saphyre stepped up next to her and reached down, closing Jahara’s eyes as Jen laid over his body and wept. He stood as she grieved until the tears subsided and she lifted her head. “What is your wish?” he asked her when she stared out the window overlooking her father’s bed.
“My wishes are not important. I will follow his instruction.”
“All of his instruction?”
She was silent as she stood and left the hovel to find the book. Walking slowly to the rocks she had seen her father sitting on so many times in the past, she thought about her father’s instruction. Find the opening in the rocks, go down the steps and burn everything. Take the book to the mountain and hide it there until he comes. She pushed all other thoughts from her mind as she searched for the opening. When she found the opening he spoke of, she entered and lit an oil lamp resting close to the entrance. Using it’s light, she found the steps and went down. Burn everything and take the book. The book sat in the middle of a lone table and she lifted it into her arms, throwing the oil lamp into the shelf behind it. She stood as the potions and spells on the shelf began to burn, then turned and made her way back up the steps. The glow from the fire behind her grew brighter, lighting her path as she climbed and she held the book tight to her breast, leaving her father’s life burning behind her. Emerging from the rocks, she continued back to the hovel and saw Saphyre standing, no longer as a man but as the dragon he was born to be. Take him as husband, his final instruction, but she could not be the cause of his loss. He was born as dragon, it was his life. If she took him as husband, he would forever lose his dragon form and be caught in the lesser form of man. Everything he was would pass to the child they birthed. She pushed his final instruction aside as she walked. When she reached the door to the hovel she heard Saphyre as he spoke to her mind. He is gone. He faded when the smoke of the fire hit the air outside.

So this was his final spell. There would be no need to care for his body.
With a nod she turned back to him. “Then all that is left is to take the book to the mountain.”
He gave her no response as she climbed to his back and took hold. When she was secure, he lifted from the ground and flew to the lands of the elves, to the mountain where they buried their dead. He flew to a spot just short of the peak and rested as Jen slid down with the book still held tight. When she set it down and began to claw at the frozen ground he pushed her aside and raked his claws into the earth, moving great pieces of frozen ground out of the way, digging a hole into the mountain peak. Soon, it was large enough for Jen to step inside. She went to the back of the opening and set the book down then retreated again to his side. “Seal it,” she said and he pushed some of the frozen earth back and burned it, sealing the entrance to the book's resting place. She stood shivering in the cold, staring at the burned earth in front of her, sealing it into her memory until he curled up around her, covering her with a wing and breathing into the small space to warm her.
And his final instruction?

Jen curled up into a ball at his side, ignoring his question, and pushing all thought from her mind, slept. In her dreams she saw Saphyre standing as he had in her father’s hovel. His eyes were diamonds shining with prisms of color as he stared at her and his skin was golden, smooth over long muscles. Slender fingers traced down her face to her throat then into her hair as he pulled her to his lips. Such fire in his kiss, she woke with a start and sat up shuddering, with the fire she still felt racing through her body. She leaned back against Saphyre, closed her eyes and slowed her racing heart. “We need to leave before the riders know that we are here.”
They already know. Dayved is coming now.

Jen jumped to her feet and leapt to his back. “Then we will leave now. He must not see what we have done. No one here must know.”
Saphyre lifted from the ground and flew. Where?

She didn’t know. For the first time in her life she did not have a direct course. She could not follow Dayved; she could not stay here having him continuously pursue her, and she had no father to protect. Where was she to go now?
Will you allow me to lead?

“Yes, I have no direction. My course is no longer clear to me.” She pressed herself close to his neck, molding to him, allowing him to go where he wished and closed her eyes.
Hours later, she opened her eyes when she felt him slow to descend. She watched as he circled down to an island set on it’s own. When he set his feet down on the sands of the beach she asked him, “Where is this place?”
It is the place of my birth. It will be the place of my daughter’s birth, and when the time comes, it will be the place of my death.

Death, always death, why would he speak of death now? She had seen too much death in her time and didn’t want to think about it now. She walked to the edge of the beach and stared out at the ocean. She had been born a rider and had searched for her dragon a long time before he came to her. She had never asked him where he had come from, it didn’t matter, only that he was with her. Now, seeing how far he had come, she wondered. “What made you come to me?”
I have always been with you, from the time you were born. You had only to call to bring me to your side and at your side I will remain.

“How will this end?”
Do not ignore his final instruction.

“I will not be the cause of your loss.”
I can not lose what I give to you. I have been yours from the time of your birth and I will be yours beyond the time of my death. Do you not see Jen?

“You would no longer fly, you would no longer see. The power of the dragon would cease to be yours. This is the loss of which I speak.”
“I would have you bear the child needed. Will you not also choose me?” She felt his hands as he pulled her back into his chest and melted into him as his lips grazed her throat. “The seed of the dragon must be given for the first witch to be born.”
“He asked you if you see and you answered that you did. Tell me what you see.”
“I see a child with the color of dragon fire, a rider of many. He will bring healing to the dragons and make them one people once again.”
“Is this set?”
“Nothing is set Jen. There are always those that would oppose, those that seek to destroy all that is good.”
“Then you could lose yourself for naught. I would not have this happen.” She pulled away from him and began to walk away.
“Jen, it is my seed that is needed for the child to come. Will you not love me as more than a rider’s dragon?”
His words burned as they hit her ears and made their way into her heart. She had loved him as more that a rider’s dragon for a long time. She had bound her heart to him, this was the reason she could not say yes to Dayved. She could not say yes to anyone but Saphyre. She stopped walking but did not turn to face him. “You know that I do,” she said. “I always have.”
“Then let me give myself to you.”
She stood very still for a long while watching the ocean as the tide began to come in closer to her feet. A child with dragon fire in his color, but Saphyre had said a daughter would be born here. First witch, so there would be more. She turned around and looked back at him as he stared at her. “You said a daughter would be born here, the first witch.”
He didn’t respond.
“Others will do this? Others will give up their dragon form to join with their riders?”
“I see only one, a female, a dark dragon. You can not have light without dark.”
“She will do this even if we do not?”
“The dark ones will do everything within their power to find and use the book. Your father only slowed the outcome of this war, he did not stop it, and if they reach the book before the child of dragon fire they will defeat all who stand in their way.”
“The child of dragon fire, are you sure that he is of your seed?”
“I am.”
“Then if I do not let you give yourself to me, you will give yourself to another?”
“No. I will not give myself to another. If not to you, no one and the child will not be born.”
“Then the decision is made,” she said as she walked back to him. Pulling him into her arms, she said, “I will take you as my husband.”
When her time came, she bore a daughter and named her Marie. The first witch.

Impressum

Texte: Copyright 2010 L.A. Borgaard
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 14.03.2010

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