Enchantress 3 - The Last Elf

"I don't approve of traveling in time," groused Granny Weatherwax. "Taint natural."

Ning was speechless. The Empress of the Agatean empire was dressed like a poor farm wife. Was this some ruse?

"Is the magic dog here?" asked Jia eagerly as he peered out through a dusty window.

"No, not yet, but he'll be here shortly. He's headed back with the duke." Octavia rubbed the excited boy's head, "we have bunnies, chickens, sheep, goats, and a mule. Would you like to see them?"

"Can we?" he asked his mother.

"I suppose," she sighed, and soon they were locking up the bookstore and heading up Main Street. Everything was wild and new to Jia. From the mill wheel turning to Trei, the blacksmith striking a rod of white hot iron, making sparks fly. Jia stood transfixed, fascinated, as he watched Trei convert the iron rod into a connecting rod for a wagon steering mechanism.

"Hey little fella, want to try hitting this?" Jia grinned and nodded wordlessly, so Trei held the iron rod steady as Jia lifted the hammer and hit the iron bar as hard as he could. "Well done, young sir! Another strike?" Again, Jia smiled and nodded and hit the iron rod again and again. By the time he was done, his thin arms ached, but his smile never faded. "A new student of yours, your grace?" asked Trei.

"I hope so if we earn his mother's approval. Ready to see the rabbits, Jia?"

Jia was ready to see everything. They crossed Main Street and stopped at the water mill for some freshly pressed apple cider. Only Granny and Nanny Ogg had ever tasted the delicious nectar before. The thick, rich, cloudy brown beverage was the most delicious drink any of them had ever tasted. After that, they walked up the long path through the woods to Nana Partridge's driveway, and Jia had never seen a forest before. He dashed among the trees and occasionally found the brook that flowed through the forest down to the mill pond. "I found a river!" he exclaimed breathlessly as he came dashing out of the trees, a bunch of leaves in one hand, a stick in the other. His playfulness reminded Octavia of Nick just months ago on their first trek up this driveway before they became duke and duchess.

Was that it? Was the King's proclamation that they were duke and duchess? What sent them on this path that set a wedge between them? Or was it Peregrine and Aegir Mining and their never-ending attacks on Nick? That had to be it. The Duke of Ankh, Sir Samuel Vimes, won't tell her what they did with Rifty Peregrine when they arrested him for trying to kill Nick and Octavia. They're afraid that Octavia may try to kill him. Which is silly. She'd never do that. She may disassemble him and reassemble his body in a new and creative way, but he'd still be alive... after a fashion.

As they got near the cottage and Jia dashed ahead and Eryri came out of the gatehouse to greet them, Octavia suddenly missed her Nick. It was like a sudden and all-encompassing case of homesickness. She missed his laugh, his smile, the way he could make an enormous problem go away simply by laughing it away. That's when Marlon wound up and gave her a solid kick in the kidney. It hit her so hard she doubled over in surprise more than pain. "Your highness!" gasped Ning. "Are you all right?"

Eryri was in the doorway of the gatehouse and saw Octavia double over and she dashed to her friend, her beard's twin braids flying, "Duchess!" the female dwarf cried in shock.

Now Octavia was embarrassed, "Oh... I was thinking of Nick and started feeling sorry for myself and the baby gave me a reminder that I'm not alone..." Then looking around in embarrassment she said, "I think I may have peed some."

"Jia did the same to me quite often," said Ning softly.

"Babies do that to us... my poor Lars... he danced on my insides so much," said Eryri, fighting back the tears for her son, lost in a mine collapse with his father.

"Boys are angels compared to their sisters," said Nanny Ogg. "Our Sarah left bruises on my insides from her kicks!"

As they approached the cottage, they found Jia lying on the ground, peering at the vegetable garden. "Shhh!" he warned, "There's people here!"

As they approached the garden, they could see several small people hoeing and weeding the garden. None of them stood over a foot tall. There were three struggling around with a carrot. They had it dug out around the base of the plant and were trying to pry it out of the ground, but it was stuck fast. Ning and Jia watched in fascination as the tiny characters industriously worked the garden. "Need a hand, Poppa?" asked Octavia.

"Aye, lassie," called a gnome. He was wearing a kilt and was smoking a pipe. "This moru is giving us dickens of a time."

"Let me try." Octavia grasped the carrot and gently eased it out of the ground. "That's a big one you found there."

"Aye! Eat it in health, me lady!"

"Do you have lots of these?" asked Jia as he reached out to try to touch a gnome who crouched to avoid the boy's touch.

"We don't have any of them," said Octavia. "They're friends that come to help and we share our crop with them."

"Can I have one?" asked Jia.

"No, you can't have one. They're people, just little," scolded his mother.

"They don't look like people, they look like him," said Jia, pointing to Eryri.

"He's a she," said Octavia, "just like your mom, except with a beard."

"And a pickaxe," said Eryri, taking a few swings with the pickaxe.

"She looks like Axemir, but his beard was better," said Jia with all the assurance of a world-weary six-year-old.

"You know Axemir?" Eryri asked.

"He was in the courtroom with the dragon. He said the dragon was going to eat the empress, but she was going to like it."

"WHAT?" demanded Octavia, not sure who she should slap, but a slap was in order.

"That sounds like Axemir," grumbled Eryri.

Jia stepped up to Eryri and squinted at her as he studied her face. "Your eyes!" His gaze went from face to face. He even dropped to the ground to look at the gnomes. "Everybody has..." now the lad was confused. He was used to everyone having dark brown to black almond-shaped eyes. Now he and his mom were the only ones with eyes like that. Jia stood up and stepped up to Eryri and found he was almost taller than her! He was so used to being the smallest person in the palace.

"Jia, this is Eryri, she's my friend and my head of security until Dexter and Bertie are healed up," said Octavia as she placed a gentle hand on Jia's shoulder.

"She? I'm taller than her!"

"I'm a dwarf!" said Eryri proudly, and she held out her pickaxe for Jia to hold. Jia grasped it eagerly, but when Eryri let go, gravity took over and almost pulled Jia into the dirt with it.

"It's heavy!" he gasped, "like Mr. Metzgar's hammer!"

Eryri laughed her rolling laugh and helped skinny little Jia sling the pickaxe over his shoulder like a true dwarf and said, "There's more to life than being tall, we dwarves have built some of the greatest cities on the disc, and all underground!"

"Mr. Axemir didn't have a pickaxe," said Jia as he almost fell over backward from the weight of the tool.

"Of course not, it's his day off," said Eryri with another rolling laugh.

"Come along Sir Jia, let's go meet the animals," said Octavia and she led them around back to the "Critter shed" where there were chickens, goats, sheep, a cow, and a hutch full of bunnies.

Jia found himself overwhelmed by the goats, they were aggressive and kept pushing him around, the cow was huge and scared him even though Miss Eryri sat down on a stool and placed a bucket under the cow and started milking it. The sheep were fascinating, they didn't seem to mind him, in fact they didn't seem to care that he was there, but the baby bunnies were the best part of Jia's petting zoo experience. Sadly, the empress made him put the baby bunny he was rubbing on his face back in the cage and said, "Come to the cottage porch, the emperor wants to meet you."

Pouting with disappointment Jia put the baby rabbit back and gave it a pat goodbye then sadly left his new friend and followed the pregnant farm girl/Duchess of a tiny Duchy, Empress of the richest empire on the disc to the porch and there was no emperor there. Just him, his mother, Octavia, two witches sitting at the table sipping tea, the weird walking stick, and the dwarf. "He's not here," said Jia with a pout.

"We're waiting for Axemir to put the mule away," said the female dwarf.

"Axemir is here too?" Jia was grinning from ear to ear.

"You like Axemir?" asked his surprised mother.

Jia nodded firmly. "He's funny. He taught me the dwarf's secret handshake and their secret greeting."

Ning and Octavia looked at Eryri, who just shrugged. She didn't know of a secret handshake. Shortly Axemir joined them, "I had to put Dave away... Hi ho little buddy!" Axemir held out a fist at waist height, facing Jia.

"Hi ho, mister Axemir!" said Jia happily, and he brought his tiny fist down on Axemir's extended fist three times, causing Eryri to start chuckling. The "secret handshake" was a game that dwarves played with their young miners, a symbol of their mining heritage. "Where's the emperor?" Jia whispered a little too loudly to Axemir, "we're the only men here."

His remark caused everyone to start laughing including Granny Weatherwax, who tried to hide her laugh. "You're a good man, Mister Jia," said Eryri. She didn't have the heart to tell him that dwarves are not men, and Jia is a few years short of wearing that title.

Finally, Axemir pointed out toward the pond and said, "Look out over the water. What do you see?"

"A bird."

"That's a Lancre Black Eagle, the symbol of this kingdom and the symbol of the Duchy of Wægn the land we are standing on," said Axemir. "Keep your eye on him."

"Why is he flying weird?" asked the boy.

Octavia stepped off the porch like she was hypnotized, "he's flying figure eights," she said to no one. She walked out past the garden and all the garden gnomes paused to watch as she waved to the eagle. Nick's words came back to her from the first time they made love as he traced his finger around her breasts in a figure eight.

"This is the figure eight, the number of perfection, the sign of Octavia, the sign of my love for you. It's the symbol of infinity, which is the length of time I will love you."

The eagle saw her and turned toward the cottage. He locked his wings and began gliding straight toward the cottage, then as it crossed over the pond one last time there was a flash of octarine, the color of magic, a color that only magical beings, like Nick and Octavia could see, and the eagle became a man who plunged down to the pond. Then there was another flash, and the man became an Agatean dragon, huge and powerful, shining gold wings glittering even in the cloudy early autumn day, his body a huge elongated Agatean sabertooth lion but with golden scales rather than hair. His head was covered with fine, soft hair, his foot long teeth glimmered when he opened his mouth, then suddenly a tongue of flame twenty feet long roared out of its mouth.

"Wow!" gasped Jia as the enormous dragon gently came to a landing in the meadow between the pond and the cottage. "Can I go see it, mom?"

"Ok," said Ning, but she didn't sound convinced of the safety of this idea.

"We'll go with you," said Eryri, so the four set out to see the dragon. Axemir and Eryri walked on either side of the Agatean mother and son as they approached Octavia, who was stroking the fur on the cheeks of her "big golden kitty."

"Is this the emperor?" asked Jia as they neared the immense beast.

"Yes he is," said Octavia. "Let him sniff you so he knows who you are."

The cat/dragon began to sniff Ning, then it sniffed her son. The dragon stopped in mid sniff then backed up a couple of steps, spread its wings, and bowed deeply.

"The dragon likes me!" said Jia with a laugh and he ran up to the dragon and began rubbing his hands through the soft golden hair on the dragon's right cheek. "Even one of his eyes is made of gold!"

Octavia gently stroked the bridge of the dragon's nose. "Ok darling, come back to us," said Octavia and with a flash the dragon became Nick. He was a bit dazed, coming out of a creature that big put him into shock the first time. This time was better because he expected it, but he was close to passing out. When his senses returned, he found Octavia holding him up and he saw a small boy bowing to him.

"Greetings, mister emperor," said the boy politely.

"Hello Jia," said Nick, returning Jia's bow. "Did you enjoy seeing that?" He started to slump. Standing up after the bow made him dizzy and Octavia caught him. Jia was a little dizzy himself, dizzy from the airshow he just saw. He was trying to recreate what he saw with his hands.

"You were an eagle, and you swooped around and around, then you became a man and you fell, 'oh noooo!' then you were the DRAGON!" he held his arms straight out and began running around in a big circle.

"Why did you bow to him?" Octavia asked as Jia was running around the meadow.

"I was returning his bow. It's being polite."

"No, when you were the dragon, after you sniffed Ning and Jia, then you backed up and you spread your wings and bowed to Jia."

Nick looked concerned and whispered softly, "About that... we need to talk."

"DOG!" Jia saw Gaspode and his excitement over seeing the dragon disappeared as he ran toward the cottage where Gaspode was drinking from a dish of water. Hearing a boy calling "Dog!" he looked up, saw Jia running toward him and suddenly Gaspode felt like a puppy again. It was time to play! They were soon running around the meadow chasing tossed sticks and barking at frogs.

"Gaspode, keep him busy right here where we can see him, ok buddy?"

"Ooo ot it!" said Gaspode around a stick he and Jia were tugging on.

Nick wrapped his arms around Octavia and whispered, "Please forgive me."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"You're carrying our baby and I haven't been here for you," said Nick, trying to hold back the tears. "Look, you're practically carrying me now." Which wasn't quite true, but she was supporting him as they returned to the cottage.

"We carry each other when we need the help," she whispered.

Nick's mind was awhirl with everything that went on in just the past couple of months since Octavia rescued him from the throne room. He needs to get his mind focused; the baby will be here soon and he's going to need a daddy. Octavia is going to need a husband, the people are going to need their witch back, and the king needs his duke, and now Agatea needs their emperor. "I didn't like being the dragon. It didn't want me there, and it was telling me I wasn't his emperor."

"How did you feel when you were in the eagle?"

"It felt like I could stay an eagle. Being the dragon felt alien. It was too much work to remain the Dragon. It was like the Dragon knew I wasn't Agatean and it was trying to kick me out of that body."

As they drew near the cottage, Nick regained his strength and his hold on Octavia was no longer a crutch. It was more tender. And then he said, "dear, I think we're in trouble again."

"It wouldn't be us if we weren't. What's wrong?"

He stopped her before they were within earshot of the cottage. "It wasn't me that bowed to Jia, it was the dragon. It bowed out of respect."

"Why?" Octavia was getting nervous.

"The future of the empire is on the line."

They finally made it to the cottage and joined the adults who sat around the table on the porch of the cottage dividing their time between watching Jia play for the first time in his life and listening to Nick. He started out by asking, "Ning, what is your family history?"

Ning looked embarrassed. Her hands twisted together in a knot on her lap and she stared into her lap, hoping the half-dozen people and dwarves would disappear. Finally, she said, "I come from the Hau Chung family."

"Your family held the throne for several centuries, didn't they?"

"Yes," her voice was small, terrified, but she didn't hold back. She was sure that she knew what was coming next. "Seven centuries that we know of some say, twelve centuries."

"Until the brat Emperor Fu Ki died, the throne was held by the Shì Pha family, wasn't it?" Nick had nothing nice to say about Fu Ki, the mad child emperor who had held him captive for months, but he held his anger. He was whispering, but he was insistent.

"Yes, they stole the throne and kept it for ninety-seven years and bled our country dry. They kept someone from the Hau Chung family close to the throne in servile positions to humiliate us and our entire clan. I am just the most recent."

Nick was torn. How to ask the next question without harming poor Ning, who looked like she was on the edge of a breakdown. He gestured to Octavia, Eryri, and Granny Weatherwax to move close to Ning as he moved a little farther away. He wanted them close to support her. "Jia is the son of the Hau Chung family, and he has Shì Pha blood also, doesn't he?"

Ning's face was an amazing series of emotions, sorrow and torment, but mostly shock. Trying to hold back the tears, she said very quietly, "how did you know?"

"I didn't know, but the dragon knows. He could smell Jia's heritage, he could smell the Hau Chung and the Shì Pha blood, he bowed to the rightful emperor."

Ning's head spun, she knew that Nick was right, but she didn't want it to be real. Yes, his being emperor would solve so many of their problems, like where their next meal would come from, and where to sleep next. She was paid almost nothing and many a night she fed Jia her food and went to bed hungry, always telling Jia, "I ate earlier." But her little boy would be lost to her. He would be swallowed up by that pit of hell called the throne. Visions filled her mind of sweet Jia succumbing to greed and power and becoming as bad as that monster Fu Ki, the brat emperor. Before she knew it, she was terrified of the death of her beloved son's soul and began weeping uncontrollably.

Out in the meadow, Jia and Gaspode played and ran, but Jia suddenly stopped running. His trouser legs were soaked up to the hips due to an unfortunate misjudgment of distance when jumping over the creek, but that didn't slow Jia down. This was his very first chance ever to be outside and be a boy. He wasn't going to waste the opportunity by weeping over wet shoes. However, a sound carried on the breeze from the cottage stopped him in his tracks.

Grateful for the break but not about to show weakness, Gaspode spit out the stick he was wrestling with Jia over and panted until he could talk normally again. "Getting tired there, kid? Did ol' Gaspode wear you out?"

"My mom is crying."

"Moms do that."

"She needs me, I can tell." The boy started walking back to the cottage and Gaspode could tell that there was a shift in the wind. Jia's boyhood had just started, and in a moment, it ended. Gaspode caught up with the slowly walking Jia because, as sometimes a mom needs her boy, a boy needs his dog.

On the porch Josh sat hating himself while Octavia, Nanny Ogg, and Eryri tried to comfort the emotionally shattered Ning. Soon the saddened Jia joined them and crawled up on his mother's lap while Gaspode sat next to Ning so the boy emperor could reach down and pet him for comfort.

Nick sat on the porch step watching the garden gnomes continue with their harvest, and as Jia slowly lost the energy to cry at the level her soul needed to purge the pain and fear. A shadow appeared next to Nick and a stern voice said, "walk with me."

"Yes ma'am," said Nick as he got up and brushed the dust off of himself and caught up with Granny Weatherwax, who started walking without waiting for him. When he finally caught up with the witch, she said, "You cannot hand an empire over to that lad and his mother."