The Drache's Love

Chapter 5, Cormac

This human had fire in her blood, if nothing else.  And when she laughed at my rather crude joke, it would be a lie to say I didn’t find her laughter enchanting.  It reminded me of a small brook, near my home.  Gently babbling and oddly soothing.  Perhaps I had underestimated her, but I would reserve that judgement for a later date.  But I decided that at the very least I would give getting to know this princess the effort it deserved.

I held the door open for her as we entered the barracks, and on first sight, I was impressed.  In this large hall, there were sixty beds.  What surprised me the most, I suppose, was that there were beds appropriate for each race.  Beds the size of oxcarts, and three times as sturdy, for the golems, and beds sized for a human child barely toddling about, for the goblins, and then all of the requisite sizes in between.  It was clear that King Asmund wanted his experiment to be a success.  The human females did not receive separate quarters, but each gender had changing chambers and privy rooms at opposite ends of the barracks.  Melkree was the only one with private sleeping quarters, situated toward the male end of the barracks.  There were common areas with comfortable looking arm chairs scattered throughout the room, and each common area had an open fire pit at its center.  The most intriguing bit, though, was that the beds were not separated by race.  They were mixed, here and there, to further aid in a successful integration.

We found some of the other soldiers already abed, and the rest gathered around the different fire pits.  I motioned her toward an empty common area to continue our conversation.  I was officially a bit intrigued with this princess.  We each settled into an appropriately sized - and amazingly comfortable - armchair, each of us sighing as the cushions seemed to envelop us.  This chair alone was reason enough to be in this company.

“I would kill for a bit of whiskey,” I said, and almost before I had finished saying it, Avva passed me a tumbler of the strong amber liquid.  At first, I was confused, but then the realization dawned on me.

“Humans can conjure food?”

The Drache used magic, but conjuring food had always eluded us.

“What,” she said, as she took a sip of some hot beverage from a miraculously appeared mug, “the Drache can’t?” 

“No! They can’t!” I exclaimed.  Perhaps she could teach me this bit of her craft.

“There is likely magic you can perform that I cannot as well.  We can always try to teach each other,” she stated, matter of factly.

She was apparently a deep well of surprises.  I found myself wondering how many more surprises she had in store for me, and just how surprised I would be when they were revealed.  I decided it was time to get more information on the biggest surprise she had hit me with so far.

“So,” I began, “how does a princess become the Spymaster?  Excuse me, Spymistress?  It’s well known that Broma has by far the most superior spy network of all the kingdoms, but this only seemed to happen within the last five years or so.  And that was all you?”

“Oh, no!  Not all me.  My spies are the best, but that’s because they’re all adept at one thing:  scrying.  When Da asked me to take it over, I simply couldn’t bear the thought of one of my spies being found out and executed, so, I refocused the training and put the onus on scrying.  We still have a few spies afield, but for the most part, we have hundreds of people at multiple undisclosed locations who are gifted at scrying.  This way, we can watch and listen to each and every second of the different Kings’ days, without putting anyone in danger.  That’s how we know that Strumman is considering war, and how we know that Stieg would die before integrating his army,” she explained, nonplussed.

“And can you scry?”  I asked.  Very few of the Drache had this ability.

She grinned and pulled a small black teacup from her pocket and ran her finger around the edge, and the size increased to that of a bucket.  She sat it on the small table between us, then with a wave of her hand, the teacup, or bucket or bowl filled with water.  She raised her eyes to mine. Such blue eyes.  Piercing, even.

“What would you like to see?  The next kingdom?  The next dimension?”  she queried.

“Home,” I replied, emphatically.

Avva smiled, knowingly, and and blew across the surface of the water.  When the ripples settled, I saw my village, small as it was.  Mothers ushering their children inside for their own dinners.  Men of the village were making sure all were safe and sound.  This was my home, and everything I wanted to protect.

“Can you teach me this?”  I whispered.

“I can try.  But for now, I think we should rest.  Tomorrow will be an interesting day.  We can begin after training, if we’re not too tired,” she answered with a smile.

As luck - or misfortune - would have it, we were the last two to bed.  Of course there was one human bed left, and one Drache bed left, and they were right next to each other.  We retired to ready ourselves for bed.  When our ablutions were finished, we met back at the beds, and just sat for a moment, looking at each other.  Perhaps, we would be friends after all.  But I still had my doubts about her abilities as a soldier.

“Good night, Avva.”

“Good night, Cormac.”