Dragon Born: Book I of the Tendaaren Chronicles
Chapter 8: Last Hope

“All it takes is a beautiful smile to hide to hide an injured soul, and they will never notice how broken you really are”--Anonymous

By the time the sun gently rose over the whispering trees the trio had already traveled several miles. They had vanished from the keep early in the morning, so as to not arouse suspicion. Only Allabandar and Ruth knew of their departure. Baellnar led the group. He sat atop a beautiful chestnut mare. His enchanted elven yew wood bow was displayed prominently over his shoulder. Alyenna could not help but admire him from the corner of her eye. Her admiration was not lascivious in nature but even in her short time knowing him, she respected him. Even dressed in simple traveling clothes there was no hiding his strength, kindness, and intelligence.

Aagi sat stoically on his mount Roxanne. Agi had explained that she is a kind of dragonkin that exists only in caves. Her crystallized and granite skin was a form of camouflage for the elaborate underground roads that laced the underbelly of Tendaara, and because she is dragonkin she shares the ability to change her size, which is an ability that her kind evolved to navigate different styles of terrain in the underground caves.

Roxanne had chosen a size that dwarfed Baellnar’s mare. Seeing as how Aagi was a dwarf and apparently didn’t need her to be quite so enormous Aly giggled to herself Someone is compensating for something.

You caught that eh? Roxanne’s voice slipped into her head. Makes him feel ′manly.′ Roxanne chortled, and to empathize their wordless conversation, Roxanne threw her serpentine head in the air and pranced mockingly. Aly’s eyes settled back on Aagi trying to take in his "manly” look.

His armor shone brightly in the sun almost blinding her. It too was an elaborate piece. The steel housing his body was twisted and contorted cleverly and beautifully perfectly fitting his frame, but the most shocking part was his arsenal.

He was weapons master for a reason. From his back alone protruded about 12 medieval style weapons. His saddle also came well equipped with several more massive armaments including an enormous crossbow mounted on the back of his seat. You would think he was a portable arsenal for a small contingent not just one 4 foot tall man.

Alyenna looked at her measly saddle bag and depressing lack of armor. She still had the beautiful dragon sword she had forged yesterday; but, due to their quick retreat, she was not able to stay long enough to be fully outfitted. She stroked the hilt of her sword and gazed off into the distance comforted by its weight at her side.

It had been quite a while since Aly had ridden horseback. She remembered several summers where she would at camp but nothing more than a trot unless she could sneak in a canter when the counselors weren’t looking. Alyenna loved to ride, but it was not a readily an available option for her growing up. She grimaced, definitely not once she moved in with Paul.

Aly sat silently for a while on her horse another chestnut mare. Her horses’ name was Sadie. Sadie was incredibly responsive but as they meandered the long dusty silence began to even bore her. The horses head drooped lower and lower almost to the point where Aly believed she might be sleepwalking. Aly still had so many questions but she could cut the silence with a knife so she was not sure if she was even allowed to say anything.

Finally, her impatience got the best of her, and she blurted out. “So you kidnapped me, and some random guy sees a saw a lady with scary eyes, and now we are running from nothing.” She paused dramatically grumbling. “could one of you warriors care to fill me in on what is happening to me!”

Baellnar let loose a soft, airy chuckle. He looked back at her smiling. She scolded herself inwardly as she felt her resolve soften her mind started meandering into pleasant dreams of her and Baellnar cuddled up on a blanket by a tree somewhere. SNAP OUT OF IT she scolded herself C’mon you are better than that you were kidnapped get answers.

She stared determinedly at Baellnar hiding her momentary spell of weakness, an expectant look scrawled over her face. He sighed and said “what do you want to know?” his voice was soft it ran through her like the feeling of jumping into a pool on a really hot day. In a blissful way, it forced her to calm down.

“Well, I have figured some of what I want to know. Somehow I am living inside one of my favorite books which are fantastic. Never ending story weirdness aside, I want to know why and yes I heard the prophecy bit but how do you know you didn’t get it wrong?” A heavy pause followed her inquiry. There was silence for several minutes. The two gentlemen eyeing each other in some sort of wordless conversation. She waited to figure since she didn’t know where she was going that she had plenty of time to wait. Finally, Baellnar spoke.

“Well Aly, that is a very difficult question to answer. We aren’t entirely sure but we are almost positive that you are the correct girl. Allabandar is never wrong and we have been watching you for quite a long time. The kicker Aly is whether or not you are the girl from the prophecy you will have to learn to be her anyway. There is no other chance for us. If you cannot save this kingdom than to put it lightly we are doomed.” His voice no longer soothing. It was full of force and meaning that made it impossible for her to argue.

Alyenna somehow realized that was all she was going to get from either of them, for now, she attempted a new way to glean information. “Honestly I would call your kidnapping more of a rescue.”

Aagi and Baellnar raised their eyebrows.

“Well, I was not exactly in the best circumstance. You found me as I was running away anyway.”

Baellnar smiled softly. “We know.”

Dumbfounded she stared at both of them. “What do you mean you know.”

“Like I said we have been following you for some time now Aly.”

“How!? I was in another world, and the only route to me was a portal that only opens every 150 years. It is not possible that you could follow me.” After the words escaped her mouth she realized the stupidity of her assumption she was now in a land with talking dragons, elves, and monsters, of course, there were other ways.

“Oi girlie ‘aven’t ya realized we’re in a land o’ magic?” Aagi piped in looking up from polishing one of his many weapons.

“Well yes but I do not exactly know what kind of magic do I?” She retorted, trying to cover her mistake.

“Well, girlie all kinds o’ magic o’ in dis land,” Aagi said like it would end the whole thing so he could go back to lovingly working on his arsenal like they were his brood.

“You are being terribly non-specific Aagi,” she said coolly.

Baellnar sighed “Aly; you will find in time all the answers you seek. For now, know that there are ways for us to monitor dimensions other than our own. Know also that means others including Scelestra have that same capability for all of our stealth we could be watched at any time and never know.”

Aly was shocked. “So I have no privacy.”

Aagi let out a howl of laughter “oi girlie traveling’ wid us privacy is da least o’ your worries.” He winked and let out a playfully lascivious growl, thus ending the conversation. Afterward, the trio rode in silence for several hours.

When the sun had reached its pinnacle in the sky Baellnar raised a hand and all the horses stopped. Wordlessly he jumped down and put his hand on the road. He pointed to the woods and obediently the three followed. They led the horses away from the site of the highway Baellnar quietly whistled a couple notes and the horses laid on the ground and then Baellnar beckoned for Aagi and Alyenna to get down.

Aly lay there hunched in the grass her heart racing, and she had no idea why. She was vaguely aware of a rising aura of panic encompassing the group. Their alarm gave credence to her mounting anxiety. Even the whites of their mounts eyes were showing. All of the tension resonated in the simple thin line that formed on Baellnar’s lips. Aagi silently pulled a blade from his pack and held it next to him close.

Then Aly heard it. A low rumble of horse hooves on a dirt road. A black carriage roared by with am emblem of a roaring fire on the side. Aly never had the lessons about the culture of the land, but she had a broad sense of foreboding just looking at the carriage. She caught sight of a man in the carriage. She could not see him from a distance, but something familiar about him haunted her. Her eyes locked on the carriage as it thundered by. A chill coursed down her spine. Her horse sensing her did the opposite one would expect. It nuzzled her carefully and blew warm air on her face. The act did brighten her mood and oddly reassured her.

Then her mind echoed again this time it was a new one this was deep but feminine. Similar to what she thought a conversation with Billie Holiday would be like. Do not fret little Philly no harm will come to you this day.

Confused Aly looked around. It was only the three of them Roxanne was clearly focused on the road, not on her. All she saw was her horse looking at her calmly. Who is speaking? How she got so used to random voices in her head was alarming, but she decided to go with it.

They call me Sadie. Shocked at this realization, she was speaking to her horse. Immediately confused thinking that this voice thing was a dragonkin thing but not wanting to offend her horse and upset some animal manners system she knew nothing about, she answered back with a normal sounding question.

What do you mean they? Do you not call yourself Sadie?

I had another name once, but Sadie works just fine for me. Human’s change my name all the time. Human names do not matter to horses we have our own but you could never comprehend it. Our names are part of our smell and our rank in the herd. Our names are ever changing but to you, I can be Sadie. I rather like the simplicity of it.

The sound of cracking underbrush startled Aly out of her conversation. She watched as their mounts and the two men slowly stood up.

“What was that?” Aly asked.

“That” Said Baellnar. “Was one of Scelestra’s coaches. She knows we have left the Kaelen’s Keep.” They were off in a real hurry most likely following the road to our next obvious stopping point which is a town a little bit from here. So we must wait here and go deep into the wood we must take as they say in your world “The scenic route.”

The group pushed deeper into the brush. Aly was knocked with low-lying branches and tripped several times on raised roots. She kept her bruises to herself focusing now on the danger that she was slowly starting to realize she was in.

“Okay so clearly Scelestra is a mean bitch and my sworn enemy according to you and the prophecy. If I am to conquer her and save everyone I need to know exactly what I am getting into. No one is actually this bad this has to all be an exaggeration.”

Aagi’s face grew ashen his eyes started to well up with tears, and he looked away. She turned to Baellnar and waited.

He looked at her a long time. “I was hoping to spare you from this part so soon,” he whispered and signaled for the group to stop. “It’s about time we made camp. Aly water the mounts and settled the ground for our bedrolls. I will work on getting firewood.”

“Are you sure we want a fire?” Alyenna shivered at the thought of a simple tendril of smoke revealing their position.

“Remember what I told you about magic Aly?” He said “We can shield our camp and our fire from watchful eyes remember I have power over the element of air. So I can control our smoke. We are too far from anyone to catch sight of the blaze so we will keep it low.” With that, he went off into the woods to work on his task.

Aly brushed down and watered their mounts fetching water from the nearby stream. The mounts were all grateful and exhausted. Once Aly had finally finished her task she turned to see Aagi patiently roasting some wild caught animal she didn’t recognize over the fire.

She sat by Aagi in silence and waited for Baellnar to return. When he came back Aagi solemnly and wordlessly passed out their portions of the meal. This attitude of his was alien to Aly. She was not sure how this normally boisterous man was so quiet. What had she said to offend him?

“Scelestra is the very essence of wicked.” Baellnar began. “She has many powers and many forms, but it is not her power alone that is devastating it is what she does with it. She has the control of fire and wind, her own shape, and her victim’s minds. But the last part she can only control if they are helplessly in love with her. Essentially they have to surrender to her entirely emotionally.” He paused a while staring meaningfully at Aly.

“Well, that last part shouldn’t be that big of a problem if she’s such a bitch then no one would love her.” With her words, Aagi got up and left camp. She looked to Baellnar for guidance as to why he was so upset but he just stared at the fire for a few minutes. Finally, he continued.

“No one is in love with her Aly. What she does is take the form of the person you love most. In that form, she easily manipulates people into believing they are in love with her. While on the outside she wears the form of their wife, their girlfriend, their mother, their crush, their child, even their lover. She studies the form she takes before she does. She is telepathic Aly. She not only takes on their physical form but the personality. So whoever she is conning has no idea of the doppelganger deception.

Once they truly believe she is who she pretends to be. She slips into their mind stealing their free will. Once she has a person sworn to her she forces them to accept some sort of villainous task and until that task is completed she controls you entirely. She will slip unseen in and out of their mind. The claimed rarely know they have been captured. Which makes it impossible for those around them to identify what has happened. She becomes like a virus and will infect whoever she chooses. Silently taking down strongholds. We have some magic wards to identify people but they are almost impossible to acquire so we can only use them when we are almost positive a person has been claimed. It is because of this that we never know until it is too late and their task has been completed.” Baellnar solemnly looked after Aagi’s shadow in the forest.

“Usually the task involves killing that same person she pretended to be. They cannot complete that task until she says so. Up to the point that they do complete her task. She is free to manipulate them to do any number of tasks. Essentially it is only death that breaks her spell. There is no true loves kiss. It is only death.” His hands balled up into fists. He pulled out his lute and began to play a soothing melody. Whether it was for her or for him Aly had no idea. She was now terrified of what he was saying was true then there was no happiness for anyone here. That old adage of love conquering all was wrong. It was love that destroyed so many lives.

He continued. “It is in this way that she has created an army of men and women bewitched by her. Their loved ones lost at home without them mourning their loss.”

Aly protested not allowing the sense of hopelessness to overtake her. ” there has to be a way to identify the claimed? Everyone has a weakness.”

Baellnar strummed harder his anger and loss becoming a part of the song. “The only way you know if someone is bewitched by her is to look them very closely in the eye. In moments of strong dark emotions like anger, greed, or jealousy their eyes flash red.

The single worst part of all of this is when the spells break and the claimed wake up. They have control over themselves the moment their loved one is murdered by their own hand. At the last sigh of death the spell breaks. Many of the victims have been so devastated by the loss that they take their own lives in that same moment.

Scelestra has taken thousands of victims in this way over the centuries. No one is safe. No in any position of importance can openly admit they are in love. So many in this land will never marry, will never have that first kiss, will never raise a family for fear that they will be taken by Scelestra. Our people are isolated and alone and miserable. It is by your hand Aly that we can end this. So whether or not you believe you are the girl in the prophecy. We need you to be.”

Baellnar then whispered firmly to her. “Aagi himself was taken by Scelestra once. He lost his wife and his entire family. He woke up to her lifeless body in his arms, her dead eyes staring at him in surprise, and her cooling blood in his hands. He has sworn since that day to bring about her downfall however he can.Aly, we need you as a country and as your friends. We all need you-you are the last hope of a dying nation.”

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