Quiris looked calmly at her son, one white eyebrow raised. Tangentially, I wondered if that was an Under-elven trait—they all seemed to be able to raise one eyebrow just so. She placed her now empty cup back down on the silver tray.
“Why not ask a full Elven mage instead, like Lise suggested?” Dusk continued, exasperation showing clearly on his handsome face.
I looked at him in surprise as my attention was yanked back into the conversation. I wasn’t too sure I’d suggested anything, but I didn’t think I wanted to get in the middle of what looked like a family argument. Heather, Ragar, Jason, and Auraus also looked uneasy.
His mother quelled Dusk with a look. “Because full Elven mages would not have the immediate wherewithal to know what is needed, whereas a dragon would. And because I can summon Frelanfur with a word, something I cannot do with a full Elven mage.”
“How is that?” I broke in, unable to stop myself.
“Because he was-and still is-a friend of mine from when I was incarnate,” she explained.
I blinked in wonder. Friends with a dragon? That had to be some story, and one that I would love to hear in the future. But not right now—Dusk looked like he was ready to continue arguing, and I realized that I should probably get involved now. I stopped him by stepping in between him and his mother.
“All right, let’s do this,” I said. “The sooner we can get underground to rescue Arghen, the better I’ll feel.” Dusk looked annoyed at me but indicated with a wave of his hand that I should go on. I looked at Auraus and Ragar. “Let’s start with your pieces of treasure.”
Auraus unpinned the fire brooch from her tanned flying leathers, Ragar twisted the light-making bracelet off his wrist, and Jason also handed over the ventriloquist ring. Auraus was going to give the vial of drink-making and Jason the frost ring too, but I told them to keep those items for the next deal.
Quiris held out her slender, pale hand and said kindly, “Please give them to Me.” My friends gave her the articles, and she said, “I will be right back.” Then she vanished.
I heard a long exhale behind me and turned to see Heather, dark eyes shining in a way I had never seen them look before—even more than when she had met Dusk for the first time back before the war for the valley.
“Wow. A real, live, magic-using goddess who is friends with a dragon! How cool is all that?” she said with excitement.
Jason cleared his throat, looking somewhat relieved now that Quiris was gone, and asked Dusk, “Out of curiosity, was you mother really ‘friends’ with the dragon before she was a goddess, amigo?”
Dusk said grumpily, “Yes, she was. I did not, and do not, like him.”
The fact that Auraus raised both her eyebrows at this indicated to me that this was something about Dusk that she didn’t know. Interesting. I burned to know more, but before I could ask about it Heather beat me to the punch.
“Why not?” she asked, curiosity rife in her dark eyes.
“Because in conversations he will twist things around so that you will end up either agreeing or disagreeing with whatever it was that you had said earlier, and then he will call you out on it,” the amber-eyed Surface-elf said, still irritated.
Auraus asked, “Dusk? Do you want to share the story with us, so Lise and the others can be prepared for what might happen?”
“It has no bearing on the present situation. All you need to know is what I just said—dragons are tricky by nature, and care is needed when dealing with them,” he said shortly as he turned away from us and poured himself another cup of mead from the pitcher. “It would do no good anyway. If you fortify yourself against one thing, Frelanfur will just slip in behind your defenses somewhere else to take the biggest advantage he can.” Dusk took a fortifying gulp from the silver goblet, then turned around again and said with sudden seriousness, “Lise, if my mother can make the arrangement, and you do decide to go this route, make sure to get something for something. If you say something of knowledge or interest, then make sure he does as well. Otherwise he will take advantage of you and your magic items.”
He drained the rest of the cup’s contents and had just put the empty cup down on the silver tray when his mother faded back into the room like she had the first time she’d appeared.
“Frelanfur has agreed to meet you, and listen to your request. You must journey to the top of the ridge of the valley, and he will meet you there,” Quiris announced with a smile.
“Wonderful,” Dusk grumbled.
Ragar and Auraus looked nervous but determined at her words, and I was torn between being excited and being scared. And if the looks on Heather’s and Jason’s faces meant anything, I was sure they felt the same way I did. A dragon! In fairytales, dragons were everything from vicious and violent, to vain and arrogant, to wise and calm. But most stories I’d read agreed that dragons loved treasure, and the fact that Frelanfur wouldn’t even come to talk to us without a bribe meant that that part was true at least. I wondered to myself what parts of the rest of what I’d read were also true.
“When?” I asked out loud.
“Now,” Quiris replied.
“What?” I cried. So much for my bath, I thought with regret. “It’s going to take us at least a half degree of the sun to get up there!” I finished out loud.
Dusk coughed gently. “You do have the flying carpet, you know. And Auraus can fly herself.”
I mentally smacked my forehead. Right. How could I have forgotten the carpet?
“Que? A flying carpet!?” Jason exclaimed. “A real one, like in the Aladdin movie?”
I blinked again. Oh, yeah, that was right—Jason hadn’t been flying on it yet.
“Yeah, a real one,” I told him. “It’s a lot of fun. All right,” I said, including everyone else now, “Who is coming with me?”
Jason was the first to agree eagerly, and then Ragar. Auraus said she would fly beside us under her own power. But Heather said no.
“I’d like to talk to you instead, if I may, Quiris?” she asked the goddess.
That surprised me, but it wasn’t like I could force Heather to go anywhere she didn’t want to go, and in any event she wasn’t really needed on the parley. But I did wonder what an atheist wanted to talk to a Goddess about.
“Do as you will, Lise,” Dusk said. “I have some last few things to accomplish here anyway. I will see you upon your return. Goodbye, Mother.” He started to leave, but then turned back to me. “Oh, and Lise? Prepare yourself for a challenge.” Then, stiff-legged, Dusk stalked out of the room.
Quiris sighed as she picked up the silver goblet she’d been using and poured herself another mead. “I wish he would get over that.”
“Over what?” Jason asked.
“Frelanfur played a joke on my son the last time he saw Dusk,” said Quiris. “And Dusk has not quite forgotten nor forgiven, it seems.”
“What was it?” I asked curiously. “Would it prevent him from traveling with us?”
“Do not worry on that score,” she said reassuringly. “My son would never let personal feelings get in the way of his responsibilities. But it does mean that you would have to be the Intercessor between him and Frelanfur. And if you are going to do that, then you should be the point of contact for Frelanfur from the beginning.”
“What’s an intercessor?” Jason asked.
“An Intercessor is a go-between between different sides in a conflict. Dusk and Frelanfur may not be in conflict, but I believe that Dusk sees it that way. However, you are wasting time. You should go. Dragons are not patient beings.”
“But I don’t know where to go, or where the carpet is now,” I said fretfully.
“Do not worry. I am sure my son will have it waiting for you in the courtyard,” Quiris replied. “As for where to go, get yourself aloft and head towards the rim of the valley. You will see him easily, I do not doubt.”
We hurried out the map room door, and behind us I heard Heather say, “So, Quiris, I was wondering …” but the door closed behind Ragar and cut me off from hearing the rest of her sentence.
That in turn also reminded me that the goddess hadn’t answered my question about Dusk, but then I guessed it really was Dusk’s business to answer and not his mother’s.
As we walked out into the ruined front courtyard, it came to me that dealing with the dragon sounded like trying to deal with one of the trickster fae from one of my fairytales. But most of the stories I read about trickster fae were from the point of the tricksters themselves. There were precious few that showed someone triumphing over a trickster spirit, especially a human someone. And of those, the human was a faster talker, somehow, than the trickster. How was I, a fifteen year old sophomore in high school who had trouble with oral reports in class, supposed to out trickster a trickster?
The intricately red-patterned flying carpet was waiting in the flagstone courtyard for us, as Quiris had predicted. Jason’s wide smile at the rug indicated that he was looking forward to the flight.
“All right. Let’s get this show on the road,” I said, seating myself in the control spot.
Ragar and Jason sat down behind me while Auraus sprang into the air and did a tight spiral upwards. I rose the carpet straight up like an elevator until we reached the Wind-rider’s cruising height.
“Yahoo!” Jason cried, as I gave the verbal commands to fly us where we needed to go.
I smiled happily at his enthusiasm as we banked in the direction of the closest rim of the valley, and I showed both him and Ragar how to control the carpet.
“Look!” Auraus shouted, pointing ahead of us to where a pair of huge, but shiny, leathery wings disappeared below the tree line on the valley’s lip.
I waved to let her know I heard her and headed us in what had to be the dragon’s direction.