The Dragonskin Chronicles Bk. 02

"Zyndyr," Korwyn breathed, "his next target for revenge was my Zyndyr."

"Aye, it was. I slowed down the pace at which I was using up time, looking back more closely at that vision I'd seen of you fighting the White Dragon, seeing just before you stabbed him with a wee dwarf sword that a flying Elf-Warrior was seen sending arrow after ineffective arrow at the dragon. I searched the scene before me and there, as part of the guard around the Elf-King, I found my warrior, a female that looked familiar to my vision. Her immediate future, I could see, was being burned to a cinder. I quickly recanted a spell, to send her to my chamber at a local inn for a couple of minutes and another spell sending her to sleep while she was there. I watched the flames roll over the Elves, seeing a group seek safety in a gully behind a huge rock. I rematerialised the Elf-warrior--"

"Wait! You sent Zyndyr to your comfortable inn chamber and tossed my wounded body down a ravine?!"

"Aye, you were wounded and you were bleeding. How would I explain all that blood on the sheets to the innkeeper?"

"I suppose you were thinking on your feet," Korwyn grinned.

"Aye, I was working in split seconds, with your futures changing with every breath we took. Zyndyr came to after tumbling into that gully, a little bewildered and even somewhat guilty that she had somehow found safety, while her brother the king, who she swore to protect with her dying breath, perished in the flames. She saw the Black Dragon turn his attention to the separate group of Men, the Imperial Guard, bathing them in fire. I realised that part of my father's anger was that he was trapped in this body of a dragon with no one knowing the spell to release him."

"Trapped?"

"He was trapped in the body of a dragon. Look, a sorcerer or witch can do small things like deflecting an arrow with merely a thought and a twitch of a hand, a finger, even the wrinkle of a nose, but big spells, like transformations and my spell to make Zyndyr disappear, need a spell to be called out loud and then confirmed by a gesture. You were in the ravine, so I couldn't see all your futures any more, but I looked again at the visions I had seen, as you cut off his toe, you were older and stronger, years into your future, yet the snippet of vision of my father appearing before me as a Black Dragon was that his damaged claws were still bleeding... he had bodily returned to the past and only in the last hour, maybe even minutes! Whatever spell he called out when a Sorcerer to turn him into a dragon, he needed another spell called out loud to turn him back. He had by then burned up the main body of your Imperial Guards, but a handful were separated and engaged in combat with surviving Elves. I sent the Black Dragon a message, a thought only, exactly like the Spirit speaks to you in your head, I spoke in my father's head. I told him that he needed to save someone, whoever it was who he had instructed with the spell needed to change him back. That is why he saved the surviving men, he must've recognised them from his past, when they were deposited on his doorstep at Mount Blearn by a strange black dragon that flew off before the Sorcerer was summoned by his Orc servants."

"He must've had some idea of when that would be, because that was in his memory?"

"Aye, Korwyn, to a degree, he would 'remember' when he changed himself into a dragon to rejuvenate himself in the red-hot roots of the mountain, but would be unclear exactly when he was awakened from his slumber in the lava."

"So you saved the lives of Zyndyr, Fydryk and myself on that day at Hawkshart?"

"Aye, tho' I had little understanding of what I was doing. I was rushing down the treacherous slope to get to you before you died. I sensed your mother following me, which I did nothing to delay. I found you and administered the first aid of my healing hands, to keep your lung from filling with blood, to ease your pain and keep you alive. You were semi-conscious and in agony, in so much pain that I knew that I had to completely immobilise you, put you to sleep for at least a week or as long as a month to allow your lungs and bones to heal."

"Thank you, Urmah."

"You may want to hold your thanks. I couldn't send your consciousness to my inn chamber...." She grinned, "you needed a host, a living breathing man, someone with the intelligence and a creative mind who would think of your intrusion as an inspiration rather than an invasion."

"So where did you send me?"

"To another world, where you were a passenger in another man's head, with you observing what you would think was a dreamworld, one of fascination rather than fright."

"Clive's head!" Korwyn realised with a start, "no wonder my dreams seem so real. I was actually there, where riders get inside iron and crystal carriages and are pulled along by invisible flying oxon and magic water and energy comes out the walls! Thank you, Urmah, what an experience!"

"You're welcome, Co-King Korwyn. If you regard that as a favour, then you have returned that small thing many fold, and you will always have my gratitude."

"And you protected me on the road thereafter?"

"Aye, after assisting your mother in nursing you, fixing your broken body and holding back the fevers that would devour you. Your physicians were not well versed in anything other than the basics. I had to repair your lung and made you sleep in a coma for a week while your bones were aligned and bound so you could start to heal with your body as near perfectly as possible."

"And my damaged shoulder?"

"Elf magic, Korwyn. My father kept me in ignorance of my potential bringing me up, he simply sold me as a commodity when I was old enough. When I was with child, one of my nurses, a very old dwarf-woman, Kithryn, felt familiar to me, she too, sensed that I was a half-witch. She was a quarter witch, but her grandmother, a full witch, had taught her much white magic. For fifteen years, I kept her as my personal maid and helped ease her comfortable passing in old age. She taught me all that I know of witchcraft, while in the past week, the Spirit of my grandfather, who I invoked to help you in the dungeon, has been filling in some of the gaps, virtually doubling my knowledge."

"So you knew through second sight that I would meet Zyndyr, we'd collect your granddaughter and her children and send the dragon back to Hawkshart?"

"Aye, not by certainty, because your free will changes the foresight I see. If at any time you had abandoned the road and gone home, your future would change. I followed and monitored you for ten years. I kept your seeing me from time to time a little fogged so your mind interpreted a slightly different picture, so you wouldn't keep recognising me. I grew fond of you Korwyn, your bravery, honesty, respect and steadfastness. And now, before you complete your final two tasks to ensure your daughter and wife are safely changed to mortals, I will equip you as best I can to succeed. I want you to have the happy life you deserve."

"And you know what my two tasks are?"

"Aye, I do. The first is straightforward and doesn't affect you other than the support you give to Zyndyr. It is all about Zyndyr, who has to undergo a ritual of Elf-magic that I can appreciate but understand little. Then you must endure a task never before attempted in anyone's memory... you must visit the world of your alter ego, one you call Clive and sever the unique connection that my emergency solution made between you."

"What do you see in my and Clive's futures, Urmah?"

"I see only two outcomes, my dear Korwyn. Either you kill him, or he kills you. I can only see one survivor."

THE END OF BOOK THE SECOND

Book 3 "A Realm Without Dragons" will be a novella consisting of 3 short chapters: 1. Breaking Links, 2. Elf Law, and 3. Clive's Realm and will be be ready this coming winter 2021.