Auraus, Ragar, Jason, Heather, and I trooped into the back yard of the broken keep. We tried to discuss what the plan to rescue Arghen should be, but really, there was little we could do in the way of pre-planning. We had no idea what these guides to Chirasniv would look like nor where we would encounter them. We would also have to slip into that city-state again somehow, and the only thing we could think of was to once again cause some sort of cavern collapse that would bring the Under-elves to investigate. Hopefully they would leave the gates open and allow us to use our makeup and their armor so we could sneak in as faux Under-elves.
The area behind the keep was a very different place from the last time we’d been there. Before, it was a working outdoor prison-zoo. Now, the guard shacks along the walls were missing, and the cages were gone. The only thing marking where the cages and shacks had been was the checkerboard pattern of discolored spots on the ground around the yard. Auraus’ and Ragar’s faces both had a mixture of disgust and relief on them as they looked around. Clearly they were remembering when they had been held prisoner in this very yard. Looking around, I spotted Dusk standing at the bottom of the avalanche that had crumbled from the cliff face at the very back of the yard during the destructive earthquake. The half-Under-elf/half-Surface-elf’s bags were at his feet and a sour look was on his handsome face as he glared at Frelanfur, who had arrived. The dragon had made himself comfortable on the remains of the huge slide of dirt by wallowing out a trench in the loosened earth. He rumbled a pleased sort of sound as we approached. Heather made a gasp of part terror, part delight while the rest of us steeled ourselves to interact with him again.
“Ah, Champion Lise. And these are your chosen companions?” he boomed.
“Errr, yes, Frelanfur. They are. Their names are …,” I started to say, but he cut me off.
“No need, Champion Lise. We will not be together long enough for it to matter.”
Dusk spoke up. “Lise, do not agree to any other prices for anything. I caught Frelanfur helping himself to the cages that used to be here, so he is indebted to us for them.”
The dragon frowned but didn’t say anything. Dusk’s words reminded me that I’d stuck my hand inside a cage out of curiosity when we’d first came to the keep. I’d felt a distinct temperature difference inside it from the outside, marking it as a magical object.
I smiled at Dusk, feeling one up on the dragon for once. “Caught, eh?”
“Oh, yes,” Dusk replied. “The empty prison yard could have been explained away by the inhabitants taking them for building supplies, but I came just in time to see him crunch up the last one in his teeth.”
“Is there some convention that needs to be invoked here because of that, then?” I asked him. I certainly didn’t want another “opening ceremony” like I’d already been put through, even though Dusk had tried to warn me about it.
The dragon grumbled wordlessly, but Dusk said, “He knows that any magic which belongs to some being ….”
“The owners of this keep are dead, so therefore this was clearly abandoned magic which no longer had a possessor. Furthermore, I knew that those things would be useless and abhorrent to you in their present state, so I chose to do you a favor by taking them away for you. And, out of courtesy and respect, I will not even charge you for that service. You are welcome for that, by the way,” Frelanfur interrupted quickly, trying to quash whatever the amber-eyed Surface-elf was about to say.
Dusk, ignoring Frelanfur, said to me, “The dragon knows the rules better than that. He knows that any physical article left over after a military engagement, magical or mundane, becomes part of the spoils belonging to the victors’ side. Since our side was the victor, the keep and all its items are technically ours.” Dusk threw an unreadable look at the dragon before looking back at me. “He is forgetting that you have me to advise you on rights. My mother had occasionally mentioned dragon dealing to me before she became a lesser goddess. Frelanfur has taken liberties, and so now he is beholden to us for their price.”
“I like the sound of that,” I said, grinning, “and in the future I’m going to have to pick your brains about dragon rules. Meanwhile, what should I use his beholding for?”
The dragon rumbled ominously.
Dusk ignored him. “Unless you have something pressing, I would suggest holding on to the favor he now owes us. Having a dragon in your debt is a rare occurrence. If we need more help trying to rescue Arghen, having a dragon to call upon would be a good thing.”
“How can we do that?” I asked.
Instead of Dusk answering, Frelanfur used a talon to delicately hook a tiny, light brown oblong-ish scale off his face. Its rainbow sheen flashed in the sunlight as he blew the scale off his claw’s sharp tip and sent it sailing to land at my feet.
“There,” he rumbled. “All you need to do is place the scale against your lips and blow three quick breaths on it. I will sense your call and come to you as soon as I am able.”
I picked it up. The scale, which had looked small on him, was actually the size of a small teacup saucer. It was also smooth, inflexible, and lighter than I’d expected.
“Ooo. That’s even prettier up close,” breathed Heather.
I angled the scale back and forth in the sunlight, making the rainbow sheen slide across the surface. A throat cleared. I looked up, and Dusk jerked his head in the direction of the dragon, indicating we should leave.
I blushed. “Oh, errr, right. Sorry, Dusk.” I looked at the dragon. “All right, Frelanfur, how are you accomplishing what you promised me?”
“You may pile your equipment in front of me, and you may-one at a time, mind you-climb up onto my back. I will fly you where you need to go, and will carry your gear in my arms.” He looked at Auraus. “And that means you as well, Wind-rider. You could not hope to match my speed.”
I just barely stopped myself from jumping up and down for joy and squealing at his words. We were going to get to go fly on a dragon! Heather looked excited too, but she also kept her cool. Jason smiled eagerly. However, I noticed that the three who lived in this world—Auraus, Dusk, and Ragar-exchanged uneasy glances.
“Is there anything wrong?” I asked, my joy dimming.
“N-no,” said Auraus, a hesitant look in her grey eyes.
It was such an obvious lie that I gave her a “Seriously?” kind of look. “What are you not telling me?” I asked.
“Never mind, Lise, truly,” she replied. “I have never heard of anyone riding a dragon before, but if this is what Frelanfur says to do, then it is what we do.”
Wow. Not only were we riding a dragon, but maybe we were going to be the first! Dusk and Ragar meanwhile had put their gear and the flying carpet that I’d insisted we bring in front of Frelanfur. The rest of us added our backpacks and headed towards his back.
“Hold!” commanded Frelanfur.
We all stopped short.
“What is this poison that you are carrying?” he demanded.
I shared confused looks with Heather and Jason. “Poison? I dunno what you’re talking about,” I replied.
He bent his agile neck around so that he looked straight at us. “I smell worked iron! Are you trying to kill us all?”
Ah. So that was what Frelanfur meant. “Actually, it’s not poison; the iron is part of our gear,” I said. “Humans are not affected by the metal, and each one of us humans here has an iron bar. We have found them to be useful.”
Jason smiled a wry smile at me for that understatement, considering it had been through the use of those iron bars that we had defeated Bascom Bloodknife, Morsca the slaver’s mage and lover.
“What about your companions?” the dragon challenged. “They could be hurt if you used the iron around them!”
I shrugged. “We’re careful when we take the bars out around our friends from this world. Is this going to be a problem for you?”
“Not for long,” he grumbled, turning his head back around and picking up the pile in front of him gingerly. “But I require something for dealing with items outside of what is considered normal to use.”
Before anybody could say anything, Jason yanked off his frost ring and threw it at the dragon’s head with an annoyed look his bronzed face.
I raised my eyebrows as I watched Frelanfur’s long brown tongue spool out, catch the ring mid-flight, and slurp it down. So iron affected dragons too, if Frelanfur’s reactions were anything to go by, I thought to myself. It made sense, really, given what Ragar had told us about dragons. I mentally filed that tidbit away. One by one we climbed onto the dragon’s back the way I had when I’d tried to fight him. I got a better look this time while climbing on him, but other than sitting between his wings and holding on for dear life to them, I didn’t see how we were going to stay on.
“How are we not going to fall off when you go for liftoff and then fly?” I called out to him.
“Just sit down together as a group wherever you like around my spine. I promise you, nothing will happen to you as we go,” Frelanfur replied in his booming voice.
The six of us made ourselves comfortable in the broad space between his leathery wings. Auraus was the first to sit and fold her feathered wings closely about herself. When we were all seated in a circle facing each other, we filled Dusk in on our tentative plans to rescue Arghen.
As we talked, a smooth surface rose up from the dragon’s hide and formed under us. I knocked at it, which I could see lifted us slightly above Frelanfur’s scales. It felt hard and cool like glass or maybe plastic. Without any other warning the dragon leapt into the air. I was surprised when there was no rush of air around us. The flight felt more like a quickly ascending elevator rather than riding a living animal. All of a sudden I missed my horse, Saffron, but I consoled myself that we would be back together soon. Or so I hoped. The ground sped away beneath us at an incredible speed as the dragon arced himself upwards. Amazingly, once he leveled off and picked up speed, we could still breathe easily despite being high in the atmosphere. On top of that there was no noise—not even from the huge, rhythmic flaps of the dragon’s wings we sat in between.
Heather narrowed her eyes at Frelanfur’s back, then looked towards his head. “So, is this dragon magic?”
I was startled only for a minute. Then I remembered that Heather worshiped Quiris now. She was now affected by magic and could no longer semi-see invisible magics like at Bascom’s tower a few days ago. I smiled a wry smile—while having her being able to be healed by magic was a good thing, the loss of her non-magic abilities from non-belief might hurt us. I sent up a prayer to Caelestis about it and received a reassuring mental pat in return.
Jason daringly stood up then laughed as he took a couple of steps away from the circle and remained unaffected. He reached up, but his fingers met with no resistance. “This must be what it’s like to ride in an airplane!” he whooped.
Heather eyed him with surprise. “Haven’t you ever flown in a plane before?”
Jason started to bristle, but I jumped in. “Not everyone can afford to fly, Heather,” I said lightly. “I’ve never flown in a plane before either, so I’m finding this pretty exciting!”
Heather lowered her eyes, perhaps in embarrassment, and Jason looked at me gratefully. I stood up, too, and together we explored to find out the extent of the magic that kept us safe on Frelanfur’s back. It turned out that the magic was like a half bubble in shape, was solid to the touch, and covered from the dragon’s shoulders all the way down his back to where the base of the tail began. Standing near the dragon’s head, I marveled at Frelanfur’s pace.
“We’ve got to be going near or at the speed of sound!” I said enthusiastically to Jason.
“Wouldn’t we hear the sonic boom if we were?” he asked.
“No, because we’re traveling away from the sound faster than we can hear it,” I replied. “But you can bet that every animal or being down below can hear us!” I became thoughtful. “And so that’s why there’s this shield, then—if we’re traveling at the speed of sound, our skin wouldn’t be able to handle it. It would burn if unprotected and maybe even peel off our bodies. So this magical shield must disperse heat as well as wind. Cool.”
A rumbling chuckle came from Frelanfur in response. Jason put an arm around me wonderingly as we stood together to watch the scenery flash past beneath us like we were watching a sped up video.