“I see Natalia and Maija chose well,” Ivan said when Anders came to stand at his side.
Looking down at the dark suit, Anders said, “They did, didn’t they?” He smiled knowing he was the most well-dressed he’d ever been in his life. He couldn’t wait for Maija to see him in the full suit. She was with him when they bought it, but he had only tried on the jacket for her. It was much more regal with the pants and boots.
Anders’ jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw Maija walk down the stone stairs and into the main lobby. Her black dress fell around her body perfectly; he couldn’t believe how stunning she was. Her hair had been braided in a way he’d never seen before. She’d cleaned up much better than Ivan or Anders had. Ivan nudged Anders, noticing he was practically drooling like a dog being teased with a bone. Anders cleared his throat and smiled. Natalia followed Maija; her dress also was stunning and fit her body to perfection. As they stopped in front of the men, Anders stood speechless.
“Well? What do you think?” Maija asked.
Anders fumbled for words to describe how he felt. He’d never seen anyone more beautiful. He stood gawking as the dwarfs had done to Zahara just moments earlier. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing recognizable came out, only a mumbling noise. For a moment, Maija looked worried until Anders managed to sputter, “I’m speechless. I can’t even find the words to tell you how pretty you are. You’re amazing!”
Maija blushed and glanced shyly to the ground.
“Well that wasn’t awkward,” Natalia said, rolling her eyes at them.
“You look as lovely as the star-filled sky on a moonless night,” Ivan said, holding his arm out to Natalia.
Natalia curtsied and grabbed his arm with both of hers, “At least one of you knows what to say to a lady.”
Anders stammered and gestured the same bent arm toward Maija. Wrapping her arm into his, Maija pulled Anders in and kissed him on the cheek. “You look dashing,” she said as they followed Ivan and Natalia out of the inn and onto the street.
They found that Zahara had accumulated a mass of curious dwarfs. They had huddled in a half circle around her, pointing and whispering. She rose off her haunches, glad to see she could leave with her group. The gaggle of dwarfs scattered as she moved, pausing to watch her go from a safe distance. She walked behind the others as Ivan led them across the city toward the king and queen’s castle.
Located at the edge of the sprawling city under the mountain, Remli and Joslina’s castle was built with towering spires and expansive halls. The gates and doors were large enough to accommodate a dragon much larger than Zahara. Ivan showed them through a large archway, across a large courtyard and into an expansive dining hall, where the dinner party awaited them.
A long rectangular table stood adorned with vegetable platters and baked goods ranging from many different types of bread to tantalizing dessert pastries and pies. Roasted pheasants on silver platters were placed between every two place-settings. Candelabras ran the length of the table lighting the seating area. Large stone chairs were fixed neatly along the length of the table. Skilled musicians played lutes, harps and flutes while a dwarf woman sang a song so sweet it felt like warm butter melting over a freshly baked roll.
Upon seeing Zahara enter and noticing his guests had arrived, Remli clapped his hands loudly and raised his voice, calling for silence. He held out his hand to his wife as they approached Ivan, the first of the guests to enter. The three-dozen other dwarfs in the room watched intently as their king and queen stopped in front of Ivan and bowed their heads in greeting. Ivan, Anders and Zahara mimicked him while Natalia and Maija curtsied politely.
Remli spoke loud enough so all in the room could hear him clearly, “I’m humbled to have such notoriously honorable company here tonight. Ivan has been a friend to our people for a great many years. We fought together to overthrow the evil sorcerer, Merglan, nearly twenty years ago. Tonight, he joins us with his student in training, Anders, and his dragon, Zahara. Natalia and Maija, the lovely elven goddesses have joined them in gracing us with their presence. Thank you for coming on behalf of the elven people in hopes of mending our recently broken relations. Tonight, however, we’ll not talk of business. Tonight, we’ll feast and speak of happier things. Welcome!” he held up his hand gripped tightly with his wife’s. Everyone in the room clapped in accord with the king’s speech, their cheers echoing off the stone walls.
Remli and Joslina led them to the table and seated them near the head, where the king and queen sat, side-by-side. Zahara stood behind Anders as he took a seat in the stone chair next to Maija. Ivan and Natalia took their places directly across from them. Several dwarf men and women sat between where they had chosen to sit and the king and queen at the head of the table. While sipping from goblets, the king introduced his guests to the members of his protectorate. To Anders’ left sat Metlarm Brightstone, a dwarf with a full gray beard and a weathered face wrinkled with experience. Sitting between Brightstone and the king was Windminer Roarhorn whose thick red beard was braided, concealing most of his face. On Ivan’s right sat Josack Furyaxe, a stout dwarf woman whose brown hair was tangled in thick curls. Seated between them and the queen was Gilcrest Sharpstone, a clean-shaven male dwarf with a strong jawline. His distinction wasn’t mottled by the years on his face.
Remli spoke of how these four lead members of his protectorate had guarded them through times of war, rebellion and skirmishes with the goblins in the mines. Anders found it surprising how well they seemed to know Ivan, holding him in high regard. He realized that he still knew very little about the man.
As Anders and Maija ate in silence, they listened to the many jokes and stories the dwarfs of the protectorate told. Every so often one of the dwarfs would ask Anders a question, mostly regarding Zahara and their training with Ivan. He kept his answers polite and short, not wanting to draw attention away from the fun discussion.
By the time all of the food had been eaten and the pitchers had run dry, it was late in the evening. Remli rose from his chair. “My friends. My heart is full of joy as my wife and I depart from this feast. We’ve been so lucky to surround ourselves with such good company.”
Everyone at the table cheered, slamming their fists into the table. They’d grown much rowdier with a few drinks.
Motioning for quiet, Remli continued, “After tonight I think it’s been shown that our guests of honor can be relied upon to enter into the negotiations planned for tomorrow morning.” He turned to Ivan, “We’ll begin after morning tea in the court.”
Ivan nodded.
Remli turned to address his guests again, “I thank you for coming to this feast. Now enjoy yourselves and be well.” He backed away from his chair and Joslina followed him.
Anders and Maija were about to do the same when Ivan gave them a knowing shake of this head. They settled back into their chairs and waited until the king and queen had departed the hall. Once gone, everyone at the table excused themselves. Ivan escorted them out of the hall; Zahara followed.
“It’s rude to leave with the king and queen,” Ivan told them once they’d exited the castle gates.
“Thank you for catching us before we embarrassed ourselves,” Maija said.
“You two did wonderfully tonight,” Ivan said. “The king was very pleased with our behavior, even you Zahara.”
She purred in response.
Anders wished her goodnight as she went off to sleep in the entrance hall and the four of them returned to the inn.
Once back at the inn, Anders lay awake, his mind wandering. Unable to sleep in the bustling dwarf city, he sat up and reached for the saddle packs. Fumbling, Anders found what he was looking for, Merglan’s journal. Through the glowing light of thousands of lanterns burning throughout the dwarf city of Mount Orena, Anders opened the pages of the leather-bound journal and began to read once more. He’d read through the entire book several times but felt he was missing a key element hidden in its pages.
Anders opened to Merglan’s description of the crumbling of his friendship with Prince William. After skipping through ten pages of remarks about betrayal and thoughts of how to kill William’s fiancé, the words came to a sudden halt. His heart skipped a beat. He’d read this part before; many pages followed before Merglan had stopped writing, yet tonight Anders found himself staring at a blank page.
He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes, flipping back and forth through the blank pages now found in the center of Merglan’s journal. Suddenly he saw something, a crude drawing of a stone, no, at second glance it was a crystal. It looked like a diagram. He struggled to read the little scribblings labeling the crystal through the dim light of the dwarf city. Anders didn’t recognize them as Landish, though the handwriting was hard to read.
Anders knew powerful magic had been woven into the journal. He’d guessed that it contained something valuable if Maija’s father had hidden it so well. He grabbed the quill and ink on the stand next to his bed, tore a blank page from the back of the book and copied the drawing exactly. He knew the book might not show him this diagram again. When he finished, he tucked the piece of paper into the saddle bag, closed the book and placed it on the nightstand
He fell asleep wondering what the diagram meant and how it could be used to defeat Merglan.
Chapter 32
A Visitor from Nagano
A knock came at the door. Anders bolted to an upright position, sheets falling to cover his midsection. He looked to his left to see Maija already up and nearly fully dressed. She walked gracefully to the door, opening it slightly.
“Yes,” Anders heard her say through the crack.
A low murmuring floated through the opening in the door.
Maija nodded and closed the door. She turned to face him as he sat half-awake in an early morning fog. “Ivan says we were to meet him downstairs in the lobby five minutes ago, so you’d better get dressed.” She walked to the side of the bed and handed him a shirt from his strewn travel bags.
