The Young Knight
Once upon a time in a not-very-magical land called Suburbia there lived a perfectly ordinary little boy named Justin. Justin lived mith his father and his father's second wife in a splitlevel ranch house with white aluminum siding, a lawn with three sycamore trees and a driveway that Justin's father refinished every other summer, Justin had a room at the end of the house that had two windows; he decorated the walls with pictures of dinosaurs, Justin's stepmother disapproved of the dinosaurs and said that the walls of Justin's room should just be white, but Justin's father let him keep the dinosaurs. It was better, lustin's father said, than trying to keep the walls white, then coming home from work one day to find that Justin had covered them in crayon drawings of dragons and knights. At least that's what Justin said they were. Truth be told, they looked more like green-and-red squiggles, or maybe overly aggressive pasta, but to Justin, they were dragons. And dragons, like beauty and magic, live in the eye of the beholder.
Justin's mother died when Justin was very small. His father, whose name was Jake, had remarried when Justin was only a little bit bigger, and Justin could barely remember his mother at all. His stepmother, whose name mas Leah, didn't seem to like him much, and sometimes Justin could hear her fighting with his father. On those nights, lustin closed the door to his room and put his pillow over his head, pretending not to hear and wishing that he was somemhere else. Occasionally he wished he was in the land of his crayon dragons, but most of the time he just wished he was somewhere else.
There mas one other little boy who lived on Justin's block, and his name was Devin. Devin and Justin were best friends, which was funny because they were complete opposites in many ways. Justin was tall and clumsy, with blond hair and blue eyes, while Devin was short and quick, and had brown skin and black hair. Justin and Devin did everything together; they raced their tricycles and Big Wheels, dug holes in the backyard, explored the mysteries of Around The Corner, drew pictures and watched cartoons - everything. Justin sometimes got the feeling that his stepmother didn't much like his being friends with Devin, but he didn't care.
So it was Devin that Justin told when he first started seeing things - flashes of butterfly wings and curious faces peeping out from trees. Devin told Justin that he saw these things too, and had been seeing them for a while. After that, whenever one saw a magical shape, he would laugh and smile and point it out to the other. It became one more secret for them to share. "But," Devin said, "you can't tell your parents about this, or something bad will happen."
"What could they do?" asked Justin.
"I don't know," said Devin, "But I can tell that it would be bad." And he went home shaking his head, because he already knew that Justin wouldn't be able to keep the secret.
Sure enough, Justin forgot Devin's warning and told his father about what he had seen. The second he had done so, Justin knew he'd made a mistake. Later that night, he heard his father and Leah talking. Theg used words he didn't understand, like "therapy" and "boarding school." Leah used them a lot, he noticed.
The next day, Justin's father told him that he would be going to a new school, far away. Justin asked if Devin was coming with him, but his father said no. "This is going to be an adventure just for gou," he said.
And so Justin went to the school far away. The visions of strange and magical things, though — they didn't vanish. He saw more and more of them every day. He'd daydream for a moment, and suddenly his teacher would be eight feet tall and blue - with horns! Or, late at night, after all of the lights were turned out and he'd been sent to bed, Justin would hear the strange voices of the Monsters Under the Bed in secret conversation.
Justin had learned from experience, though. This time he told nobody what he saw.
Then, one day on the playground outside, lustin saw something wonderful and terrible. As he played with the other children, he heard phantom footfalls loud as thunder. Finally, he could ignore it no longer. He looked up, and there he saw all his dreams and nightmares come true — a dragon! It mas green and gold, and where the sunlight sparkled on its scales it shone so bright it was like a knife to the eyes. Its neck was long and thin, its claws huge and sharp, and its roar loud enough to call rain down from the skies.
Justin thought that he was the only one to see the dragon, but his teacher saw it, too. Ms. Lombard ran to where the dragon stood, and as she ran Justin saw that his teacher wore armor and held a huge sword that was so bright that it gleamed. None of the other children saw, but Justin wanched Ms. Lombard (who was blue, of course - Justin had expected no less) battle the dragon. Stroke and counterstroke, challenge and echo - Justin watched it all in rapt fascination.
Ms. Lombard won the battle, and the dragon turned to run. Bleeding from a score of cuts, it turned to her just before it vanished and spoke three words. "I shall return," it said, and then vanished into three rows of corn beyond the distant soccer field. Ms. Lombard sheathed her sword, then turned back to her charges.
She seemed rather surprised when Justin came up to her and said, "I didn't know that dragons could talk."
Late that night, when everyone else was asleep, Justin sat up in his bed. He knew that it was important that he be awake, just as Devin had known so long ago that to share their secrets would somehow be folly. Quietly he dressed and waited for the door to open.
He only had to wait a few minutes. Ms. Lombard came for him, beautiful and cold in her armor. She was not at all surprised to see Justin ready for her, and he in turn was not surprised to see that his skin was the same color as the sky. "Come with me," she said, and he did. Out in the hall two others, garbed and visaged like Ms. Lombard were waiting, also armored and unsmiling. They took up positions to Justin's front and rear, and refused to speak a single word. Somehow he knew, though, that the man who marched before him was Mr. Simms, the janitor, and that the woman behind him was Ms. Loveless, who taught the girls' gym. And even though no one said a word or even so much as looked kindly upon him, Justin could sense a secret joy bubbling up out of the three who escorted him.
Theg led him out of the building into the night, and shimmering firefly globes sprang into existence to light their way. Out past the main courtyard they walked, across the soccer field and past the waving stalks of corn. Finally, they came to a place that Justin had never seen before, where laughter and music heralded their approach.
At the edge of the woods mas the most wonderful and most terrible thing Justin could imagine. Seated upon a throne of glass that sparkled like it encased a thousand stars was the most handsome man lustin had ever seen. The man's hair mas black and fine, and his face was thin and pale. He wore armor of black and gold, and a naked sword thin as a whisper lay across his lap. At his brow the man more a thin circlet of gold, set with a single green gem.
Around the throne dancers cavorted, graceful men and women like the man with the circlet. In a wider circle whirled other dancers, but dancers like none that Justin had ever seen. Men with the features of animals cavorted with elegant, dark-skinned women, while faerie musicians made sounds that would call the woods themselves to dance. Thin, sad-faced waifs in tattered finery waltzed as wine was poured and songs were sung. Glowing lanterns hung from every tree bough, and the very grass seemed to put forth a dew of pure silver.
The dancers parted for Justin and his escorts, though the music never faltered. To the very base of the throne the four walked, and the man who sat upon it greeted them. "Well met," he said, "and welcome to you and your charge, Anneke."
"I pray that he may find welcome here always, Duke Hamish, for I think that his is an old soul, and one that has greatness in it," the warrior woman replied.
"We shall see what the future casts for him, Anneke," said the duke. "But there is a more pressing matter."
"Your Grace?"
"I have it on very good authority," said the duke, nodding at a pair of pasty-faced waifs in flowing dresses who were waltzing a score of feet away, "that you single-handedly faced and defeated a chimerical dragon of some mickle might this day - and that you did so with aid of neither cantrip nor charm, but only the strength of blade and arm. This," he said, rising to his feet, "is a deed of greatness! To honor gou, and your deed, Anneke, I declare this night to be a night of revels! May all who are here shower you with praise and gifts, for gou have earned them. And as pride of place here is mine. I give gou the first gift of this night. Pages!"
From behind the throne came two youths, thin and imperious as their master. They bore in their arms a great shield which shone like silver, and had the shapes and forms of many beasts upon it. The pages bore the shield to Anneke, who took if from them. They bowed, and vanished back into the shadows.
"That shield was taken from a trollish champion during the fires of the Accordance War, Anneke, and it has charms and spells woven tightly about it. You have merited its return to yoar people, and knowledge of its powers. Of all the images of beasts that dance on gour shield, gou may choose one this night from which you will henceforth be protected. I grant gou leave toselect any, save the dragon, for gou have shown that you need no magics to defeat one of that brood," the duke cried.
"I thank gou, my duke," said the woman whom Justin had once known as Ms. Lombard. She knelt then, and made obeisance to the man on the shining throne, then rose and walked away. The others walked away mith her, and suddenly it was just Justin and the man who wore the crown.
"And you, my young warrior," said the man very softly, "do you know your name yet? It would be a very good thing if you did."
And suddenly Justin knew - knew that he'd borne another name time and time again, in many skins and in many lives. The details of those other days were a blur of blood and blue sky, of ringing steel and crashing glass, but they were real, he somehow knew.
Moreover, he knew that in those bygone lives, he'd been called "Ulf," which means "the wolf" in many lands and many tongues, and that once upon a time, it had been a name to be feared.
"I do know my name, Your Grace," said Justin. "And I would fain take service with you, if you would have me."
"Bold words, boy. Tell me your name, and I will consider it."
"Ulf, Your Grace."
The man on the throne was silent for a minute. "Ulf," he said softly. "Well, then, Ulf, if you would take service with me, say these words: I swear fealty unto you, Duke Hamish Starguided. Your command is my desire and your request my desire. May my service always please, and may my sight grow dark if it does not. As the tides to the moon, my will to yours, my liege.
And so Ulf swore the Oath of Fealty, and became a part of the court of Duke Hamish. Then Duke Hamish swore the Oath of Noblesse Oblige unto Ulf, and accepted him as vassal, and here began Justin's true journey into the lands of the fae.
It was later that same year when trouble came to Justin. He had spent his days in school, learning what Ms. Lombard taught him about reading and writing and arithmetic. He had spent his nights learning what Anneke could teach him, and that (as far as he was concerned, at least) was far more interesting.
She instructed him in the use of sword and shield, until his skill was lauded by no less a personage than Duke Hamish himself. She taught him the rules of court and the ways of the fae, and he learned much from what she did not tell him as well. He learned the small magicks called cantrips, and used them in ways to make his dreary, dreary school a much more interesting and magical place. And he learned about honor, and what it might cost him.
Justin - or Ulf - was a very apt pupil, and never had to be taught anything twice. Occasionally, Justin would go home for a holiday, but he found more and more that the school was home, and the house he'd lived in was simply the place where his father dwelt. School was altogether more magical these dags, and Justin much preferred it when his father came to visit him there. His stepmother, of course, never came to visit.
The first time Justin went home, he tried to go see Devin, but strangers now lived in the place where Devin's family once had dwelt. Justin asked his father what had happened, and Justin's father said that they'd moved away. Justin asked if they'd left an address so he could write to Devin, but Justin's father said that they hadn't. And so, Justin became convinced that he had lost his best friend. When he returned to school, he told the Kithain he knew from court about what had happened — Melinda the sluagh, and dashing Desmond the satyr, and Sir Reginald the pooka knight, who had the features of a squirrel. They all said that it sounded like this was a quest in the making, and they were sure that ere too long, Ulf would find a reason to go seek out his friend. Duke Hamish, on the other hand, claimed that bigger magics were afoot, and refused Ulf permission to quest for the boon companion of his sandbox dags.
Ulf even tried to ask Anneke for help in questing, but she refused. "You have sworn an oath," she reminded him, and his face drooped in shame. "It mould be a disgrace to all of our kind if you mere to forsake your oath to seek your friend. Besides, the world is large; you are still small. You're not ready get for the dangers it holds."
"But you could come with me," said Ulf plaintively. "And what," replied Anneke with a frown, "would your father say about that?"
And with that rebuke ringing in his ears, the magic fled from Ulf, dribbling out in little streams of faerie Glamour all over the floor. He went to bed that night just sad little Justin once more. It was not long after this, however, that a tap-tap-tapping came at Justin's window one night. All of the other boys were asleep, so Justin didn't dare turn on a light to see what was doing the tapping. He turned, and in the window was a creature of enchantment - a chimera, as Anneke had taught him. It had huge round eyes like a tarsier, and splayed fingers with suction-cup tips that let it cling to the glass of Justin's window. Its body was small and gray, and covered with soft fur. At its waist it wore a belt, and on the belt was a pouch that bulged ominously, no doubt hiding some treasure within.
When it saw Justin's face, the creature gestured frantically at him to open the window. Ulf (for he found he had taken on his fae guise while observing the fascinating creature) did so, and was rewarded with a soft "ker-thump" as the creature fell into the bushes below. However, it soon clambered back up to the windowsill, where it executed a most courteous bow.
"Do I have the honor," it said in a voice like one might imagine a chipmunk to have, "of addressing a certain Justin, friend to one Devin?"
"You do," said Ulf.
"Ah, then I bear great thing for you! First, I bring you tiding that your friend is alive and well, though many miles from the land where once you knew him. He did leave word of his destination with the queen of the demesne where once you dwelt, but through his mighty arts discovered that she had with malice aforethought mislaid the secrets of his missive."
Ulf nodded; he had suspected as much of his stepmother.
"But that is not all I bring! Ceeker is my name, for I have been woven from the dreams and the small scuttling noises of the night. I also bring you two gifts from Devin, if you would take them from me.
"I will take them, Ceeker, though I'm afraid I have nothing to offer you in return."
"Ho," and the chimera's eyes grew even bigger, "nuts, even? Ah, well, 'tis but a moment's fancy. The first gift I bring you is that of prophecy. Devin wishes you to know that you and he shall meet again, and not to be disturbed by any news you hear of him in the days to come. He has soothsayed the future, and knows these things to be true."
"The second gift I have for gou, however, is something more tangible." And with that, the chimera reached into his pouch and drew forth a ring of silver. The band was polished smooth, and an amethyst sat atop it in a setting like the claws of a dragon. "Devin said gou might have need of this," said Ceeker in a more sober tone. Silently, Ulf took the ring and placed it on his finger. The stone began to glow softly; the glow was brightest when Ulf pointed his hand in the direction of the coming sunrise.
"Thank you, Ceeker. If you see Devin before I do, tell him I miss him."
"Oh, I most certainly shall, most certainly shall," said the chimera, and then with a hop and a skip and no small amount of thrashing in the leaves, the creature was gone.
Justin shut the window and went to sleep. In the morning he awoke to find that there was a ring of wire and paste on his finger. Wisely, he decided against taking it off. Ms. Lombard looked oddly at it during class, but said nothing. She was a troll, after all, and knew the value of silence.
Later that day, Justin received an emergency phone call from his father. He was very upset, and didn't want to alarm Justin, but needed to tell him some very bad news: Devin's parents had called because their son had run away.
They were hoping that perhaps Devin would find his way back to the old neighborhood, and that if he did so, Justin's father would take him in until they could come get him. Justin's father told Justin not to worry, and that everything would be all right. "I'm not worried," said Justin, and hung up.
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But talk of Devin vanished on the fourth night, when word came that a chimerical dragon was again loose in the land. Whispers flew like daggers: the beast wanted vengeance for some imagined slight; the creature had been born of Duke Hamish's dreams; it was the dread beast that had laid waste to Caer Dhomnaill and all who dwelled therein!
But Duke Hamish did not heed rumors, or perhaps he knew precisely which ones to heed. He called for the services of one of his knights who had already vanquished a dragon of this sort, and set a geas on her to slay the beast so that it would trouble the fae no more. Anneke, when told of her geas, merely bowed her head, then retired to her dwelling to sharpen her chimerical blade. The dragon, she was sure, mould find her soon enough.And so it did indeed come to pass. The very next day after class had ended, Justin heard the familiar roaring in the fields and saw the towering head of the dragon, breaking through the waves of corn like the prow of a Viking ship of old. The beast bellowed a challenge like thunder raining down from the skies, and waited for an answer.
Anneke came forth to answer soon enough, with blade in one hand and gift-shield in the other. She strode out to where the dragon stood and commanded it to take itself to a place where it would trouble neither mortal nor fae ever again. The dragon just laughed, however, and struck at her with one cruel claw. Anneke ducked under the blow with ease, and taunted the monster as she did so. "Is that the best you can do, worm?" she shouted. "I've a student who's only seen seven summers; he could have avoided that!" Then she raised her blade and struck at the dragon's belly; only by recoiling like a serpent from a fire did the beast avoid certain death.
Then the battle was joined in earnest, with Ulf watching in wide-eyed horror and fascination. He longed to go down to the field and aid Anneke, to give her an ally, or, at least, a distraction that might enable her to strike a fatal blow. But he knew that his skills were not get ready for such a challenge. Furthermore, it had been Anneke's geas to fight this beast, not his. If he were to interfere, she would not be pleased.With burst of flame and shine of silver, the battle raged on for a full hour. The dragon's flame and claws could not find their target, and yet the dragon always managed to stay out of reach of the troll-woman's flashing blade. Back and forth across soccer field and cornstalks the conflict continued, until disaster struck. Retreating onto a patch of earth where previously she had hewed the dragon with mighty blows, the troll-woman slipped. Ere she could rise, the dragon had taken one of its claws and pressed it down upon her with all its terrible weight.
"And so, little valkryor," the dragon purred, "it ends." With that, if bent its head down and seized Anneke in its terrible jaws. The gift-shield of the duke, charmed against other beasts, crumpled like thin tin, and the warrior woman's armor buckled as well. Ulf could not bear to watch, and so he turned away.
He could not, however, block out the sounds of his teacher's destruction - the tearing of metal, the sharp sound of breaking bone. She cried out, once, ere the end, then the dragon lowered her to earth and lumbered off, whistling a song known only to dragonkind.
Before the beast had even left the field, Ulf pelted domn the hill upon which he sat to be at his teacher's side. Winded and terrified, he reached her before any of his school playmates even noticed he was gone.
Ms. Lombard lag there in the wreckage of some cornstalks. Her dress mas muddy, and one of her sensible shoes was missing, leaving her toes to trail in the dirt. She looked confused, rather than hurt, and neither blood nor armor was angywhere to be found. "Why, Justin," she said when she sam him, "what are we doing all the way out here? I must have fallen. Come," and she rose up from the dirt, dusting off her knees as she did so, "let's go back to where the others are playing. It's not good to be here away from everyone else."
Justin let her lead him back to where the other children were playing, and even managed to join in their games for a while.
That night, before he could sleep, Justin cried for a very long time. Ulf cried for even longer.
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His resolve wasn't even shaken when in class, Ms. Lombard asked him to take off the silly ring he was wearing. He refused and she acted puzzled, but did not press the matter.
That night, Ulf went before the duke to petition for freedom to pursue the dragon that had slain Anneke. The duke listened to Ulf's request, then shook his head.
There are many reasons I cannot grant this, Ulf. I have already lost one of my bst knights; I do not wish to lose your services as well. You are not ready to face such a beast, not at all. Then there is the matter of where the beast dwells. It has gone now, wandered off again. Even in defeat Anneke accomplished her geas — the dragon is gone, is it not? I cannot countenance your trespassing on the lands of another. Glamour, the substance of dream that nourishes our fae souls, is precious and rare. Other lords and ladies might not take kindig to the presence of a brave warrior," and he said this with a patronizing smile, "such as yourself invading their freeholds. No, Ulf, I cannot let you seek this dragon. Serve, and be content with that."
"Then may I ask you one question, my duke, before I return to my duties?"
The duke waved his hand magnanimously. "I grant you this boon. Ask."
"Why did you charm Anneke against taking protection from dragonkind?"
A hush fell on the court. Duke Hamish's smile fell away like the last leaf from a tree in autumn. "She had defeated the dragon once; she seemed to have no need of such protections. Such is the way of things among our kind, childling! You ask above your station!"
But Ulf just shook his head. "I think we both know the true answer to that question, Your Grace. An oath has been broken here this night. It has been pleasant in your service. I do not think we shall meet again."
And before the faces of the stunned multitude, Ulf marched forth from that place, eyes bright with tears. For he knew that his master had betrayed his teacher, and that his was the path of vengeance and sorrow.From the court Ulf returned to the place where Anneke had fallen. There, on the ground, pieces of her broken shield still glistened faintly. Guided only by the light of the Stars, Ulf searched through the wreckage until he found what he desired: a fragment of the Shield that bore the image of a dragon rampant. He tucked the jagged metal inside his baldric, then held up the hand that bore Devin's ring. Slowly he turned in a circle, and the fire of the ring's stone shone brightest when Ulf faced east. And so, with a heavy heart and the barest of supplies, Ulf strode steadily eastward. Having known this day would come, he had prepared some food and water for the journey, but he knew that his rations would not last long. Success would have to come soon, or else there would be perils far worse than dragons to face.
But it was dragons that Ulf did face, or at least one. For with three days of walking between him and the duke's court, Ulf found himself face to face with the dragon. It was on a road, and many passersby shouted at the small boy mho weaved and dodged between the parked cars, ducking and rolling like an acrobat or a madman. Of course, they could not see the dragon, nor could they see Ulf's true face. Theg simply saw a small boy playing a dangerous game.
But Ulf saw the dragon's face, and it saw his. Worse, somehow it knew him for who he was. "You have the stink of that trollish woman I killed on you, brat!" the dragon roared. "Will her heirs send babes in swaddling clothes after me next?" And with that he breathed forth flame that engulfed Ulf completely. It burned like the sun, like salt in an open wound, like nothing Ulf had ever felt before. It burned and burned, and in its burning, consumed him. Even as Ulf fell, swathed in fire, the dragon laughed and turned away.
A passerby saw the strange little boy cry out and fall, beating at himself as if in agony. With great concern, the man lifted Justin from the street and brought him inside a nearby store. He checked Justin's pockets and found there a boy's wallet, and inside the wallet found the address and phone number of Justin's father. With mounting concern (for the address on the mallet was many states away), the man called Justin's father.It was Justin's stepmother who answered the phone, but it was Justin's father who rushed to his son's side as soon as he could. He bundled Justin up in his arms, thanked profusely the man who had taken care of him, and took Justin back to the house he had once known. But no one else saw the dragon go, and no one had the heart to take the wire-and-paste ring from Justin's finger.
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"Well, theb." said Leah, "perhaps we should see about a different type of school." Ant with that, there was silence in the house.
Justin frowned. He knew he could not return to Duke Hamish's lands; that way was closed to him now. Nor did he wish to remain here for, although he loved his father, his stepmother's mere presence wore away at his dreaming self. It was as if even her voice was the chill autumn wind that presaged the coming winter of his soul. Ulf seemed very small and far away whenever Leah spoke.
But this third choice, this new type of school that his stepmother had oh-so-vaguely threatened - that seemed fraught with menace as well. Beset on all sides, Justin closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
Suddenly, his room was alive with a shimmering purple light. It was the stone from his ring, dancing with fire and brilliance that he'd never, ever seen before! The whole room was bright as day with the stone's glow, and Justin gazed at it in wonder. He'd been following the ring's glow in order to find Devin, which meant that if it were glowing this brightly now, Devin must be —
There came a rap at the window. Joyously, Justin scrambled out of his sheets to fling it open. There, clad in a vest and trews of a bygone age, crouched Devin. His eyes seemed to hold more wisdom than ever, but he was smiling with sheer joy at seeing his friend once again.
"Come in, come in!" and Justin pulled him in from the window-frame. "Tell me everything!"
And so Devin did. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he told Justin how his family had moved away, and how his strange visions had continued. Then, one night an uncle of his, a man neither he nor his parents had seen for years, reappeared on their doorstep. Devin's parents, naturally, were thrilled to have this prodigal return, but Devin was even more thrilled.
His uncle, you see, was one of the eshu, the wandering tale-tellers of the fae. By some magic or charm he had sensed that his nephew, long-forgotten Devin, also harbored an eshu soul, and as such had braved long roads to find him. And so this uncle, whose name Devin never revealed, visited many times over the following months, teaching Devin (or Ismail, as he was known among the fae) the ways of the eshu.
It had been when this mysterious uncle had taken Ismail away for his Saining — his formal initiation into the ways of the changeling world - that Devin's parents had thought that he'd run away. He returned, but somehow his parents had guessed that his uncle was at the root of the "trouble" and barred the man from their house.
And so Devin had done the only logical thing - he had run away for real.
"But," he said when his tale was finished, "there are other things afoot. A betrayal to avenge. A dragon to slay. Honor to unstain. I've heard tell of all these things, Ulf - your tale echoes louder than gou know. So, what road do you travel from here?"
Justin looked up at his friend with sad eges. "I don't know. Anneke is gone, and there is no place for me with the duke anymore. I'm not strong enough to fight the dragon, either."
"Not strong enough alone." corrected his friend.
Hope dawned in Justin's eyes. "Does that mean you'll come with me?"
"Did you ever doubt?"
Justin laughed with sheer delight. "I had hoped, but oh, this is wonderful!" And the two changelings collapsed in a fit of giggles that was so loud that it shook the rafters of Justin's father's house.
"Would you keep it down, Justin? Some of us need sleep!" came Leah's thundering voice. So with exaggerated quiet and courtesy, the two boys helped one another out the window, down the drain pipe, across the yard and into the great wide world in search of a dragon.
The next morning, mhen they moke up to find Justin gone and the window open, Leah and Justin's father had another fight. But that's not really part of our story.
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"But why don't you riddle the dragon?" asked Ulf in one of his more plaintive moments. "You'd be good at it."
"Yes, but this is your quest, Ulf," replied Ismail for the hundredth time. "I've already had mine, found my own magic, earned my own name. How it's time for you to do the same. I can help you, yes, but the hand that slays the dragon has to be yours."
And with that, Ulf would slump into sullen silence. "It's just not fair," he'd often say, and Ismail would nod and agree.
It was only after seven days' travel, ducking friendly policemen and not-so-friendly chimera, meeting the occasional fae or dreaming human, feasting on stolen chocolate bars and the sweet fantasies of mortals, that two runaways found the dragon's track. A huge scorched mark in the center of a park marked a spot where the tragon had spent the night. Ulf had been all for charging off after the monster immediately, but Ismail had other ideas. "Let's spend the night here, he counseled, "sleeping where he slept. Perhaps we'll pick up something of his dreams. By doing so, we may learn his weakness."
So two bedded down for the night amidst chimerical dragon-stink and closed their eyes. Almost immediately, Ulf began to dream dragon-dreams. They were dreams of pain and fire, showered with gold and hacked to ribbons with steel. More than one dream showed Anneke, here triumphant, there defeated. But one face appeared in every dream - the unsmiling visage of Duke Hamish. The light of his eyes and throne was cold in these dreams, colder than ice, and Ulf tasted the dragon's fear.
Ismail, for his own part, claimed in the morning to have dreamed nothing, but looked oddly at his friend all the next day.
Thus the two continued on their journey, which lasted several days more. Eventually, Ulf noticed that the country was becoming familiar. Soon the hills and roads resolved themselves into the land around the school where so much had happened, seemingly so long ago.
Ulf commented as such, and Ismail replied, "He's returning home. This is his third time doing so, you know - third times are always endings." Ulf asked him how he knew such things, but Ismail just shrugged and said that it was magic.
It was that night that they found the dragon, finally, in the field where Anneke had fallen. He lay, his great bulk couched on the patch of earth where the trollish knight had fallen, snorting small jets of flame as he slept uneasily. He was huge! From snout to tail the dragon must have been a hundred feet, and Ulf despaired of ever defeating him. Then, Ismail nudged him. "I am with you. Anneke's spirit is with you. This deed is yours to do, and you shall do it in such glory that I swear to you, the songs I will sing of this night will echo down a hundred years. Go!"
And with his friend's encouragement echoing in his ears, Ulf drew the chimerical blade he had carried with him through all his journeys and poked the dragon squarely on the snout. A single drop of black blood welled up from the cut, and the dragon reared its head with a terrible roar. "WHO DARES?" the monster called to the heavens, and then he looked domn and saw Ulf. "So you have returned, troll-child, returned to taste death! Well, I shall be merciful this night; yours will be less painful than your teacher's!" And then, like a striking serpent the great scaled head ducked, jaws open, directly at where Ulf stood.
But Ulf had prepared for this battle in his own way; he'd seen the dragon's dreams and witnessed its battles, and so he was ready. Even as the great maw crashed domn, Ulf rolled to the right and came to his feet; his sword scored the dragon's cheek as the beast's head rushed past. The dragon howled again, and then the battle mas joined in earnest.
Oh, what a clash of arms that was! Despite sense, despite reason, despite even magic, Ulf was able to parry every blow the serpent struck, and give better than he got. Nor was it long ere Ulf became aware that others were matching his battle: Isidore and Melinda, and Desmond, and Sir Reginald, and all the other members of Duke Hamish's court. The duke himself came last of all and stood alone, his whip-thin blade drawn and shining in the light of dragonfire. But of Ismail, there was no sign.
Then came the moment the dragon had waited for. Ulf had foolishly pressed an attack until he stood on the very ground where Anneke had fallen, and, like her, he too slipped. The crowd gasped its horror; the dragon roared its triumph and prepared to lower a fatal claw.
And at precisely that moment, Ismail drew forth from his pocket a long steel pin that he kept for just such occasions, and jabbed the dragon's tail.
The scream that followed would have shaken houses down, had any been able to hear it. Forgotten for an eternal second was Ulf, and he took that opportunity to scramble to his feet. However, as he had lain on the fatal earth, Ulf had felt something sharp pressing into his back: the wreckage of Anneke's gift-shield. It was then and only then that he remembered what he carried with him, and dropping his sword, he drew the fragment of shield from his baldric. Even as the dragon recovered its wits and stooped again to devour him, Ulf cried out a curse on all dragons and their makers, and flung the broken metal into the beast's mouth.
The effects were both immediate and profound. With a screech like a thousand fingers on a thousand chalkboards, the dragon collapsed heavily to earth. It thrashed there in its death throes, even as Ulf and Ismail scrambled to safety.
But what was more interesting, at least to Ismail, was that at the moment Ulf pronounced his curse, the duke thrust his sword into the ground and turned away, never to be seen again by fae or mortal. And in the celebrations that followed Ulf and Ismail's triumph, not one fae missed the duke's presence, nor did anyone comment on it.
And if one listens to the tale that Ismail made of that night, sung by eshu and whispered by sluagh time and time again over the years, you will hear other things: that Isidore Webbery told Ulf that the fatal shield had been his in a previous life, taken on the field of battle by Hamish's treachery; that the duke's blade, now scorched black with dragonflame, still rests in the hillside inhere Hamish thrust it, and none have been able to draw it forth; that Ulf had made for himself armor of dragonscale that no flame or blade could pierce; and many other things.
But the part of the tale that Ismail does not tell is that when the deeds of dragon-slaying and traitor-banishing were done, Ulf turned to his friend and in Justin's still small voice said, "Devin, let's go home."