Anders stood in awe, his mouth gaping at her story.
“Is that true?” Maija asked, looking to Anders.
He shrugged, “I’m just now starting to get used to the magic I was gifted. I have no idea about its history or implications.”
“Asmond probably removed all documentation of us from the annals of Kartania’s history,” the woman said.
“How do we get her out of here?” Maija asked.
Anders was surprised by Maija’s sudden change of heart about releasing the woman. He waited as Nadir called on the jail’s magic. The white sphere of justice appeared in front of them, the same one that Ivan had used to free Nadir.
As the sphere hung in the air between Nadir and the cell door, he spoke, “I, King Nadir and ruler of the elven people, demand the release of Zorna from this prison.”
Anders felt Maija lean in against him. Her voice was soft and breathy in his ear, “Will that work? Didn’t the Council take away his…”
Anders bumped her gently with his elbow and she stopped talking. He didn’t know if the Council’s pronouncement had gone into effect yet, but he wasn’t willing to risk their whispering to disrupt Nadir’s authority.
As the sphere of light extinguished, the cell door popped open. For a moment, Anders half-expected the youthful elder to fly out of her cell, using magic to turn on them, but, to his great relief, she walked lightly across the stone floor and exited the jail cell. When the small woman started to walk past them, Nadir said, “Hold on there. You said you’d tell us what this means.” He waved the piece of parchment at her.
“And I will, as soon as we’re free from this prison,” she said firmly.
Stuffing the paper in his pocket, Nadir started off down the hallway. Anders and Maija stepped in behind him. Anders kept an eye on the strange Norfolk woman as he held tight to Lazuran. He thought being watched by someone brandishing such a blade would put most people on edge, but the woman acted as if he was no real threat. She continued to walk alongside Nadir toward the exit.
When they reached the stairs, Nadir led them up and out the hatch. Maija followed and Anders waited for the youthful woman to go next. He stood by the stairs with his sword still trained on her. She walked a few steps up until she was standing at his height, then looked him in the eye and said, “You didn’t need that sword, you know. I killed that creature last time. Oh, and by the way, you can thank me later for saving your life again when I help you with this dilemma you find yourself in.”
Anders hesitated to follow, watching the strange woman continue up the prison steps. He wondered what she meant by dilemma? Was she referring to Merglan, or did she somehow know about his struggles with corrupted power? As he started up after her, Anders wondered how many more people Asmond had locked away down below for doing what they thought was the right. Shaking his head and pulling himself back to the present challenges, Anders saw the torches blow out as they left the prison.
Stopping at the courthouse door, Anders joined Nadir in assessing the square out front and the empty streets. The volatile crowd of elves was gone. All who remained were several of Nadir’s most loyal soldiers, waiting for their next assignment from the King. Exiting the building while keeping the Norfolk woman closely guarded, Anders and Maija followed Nadir as he escorted Zorna toward the loyal elves.
Peeling away from the group, Anders and Maija walked toward their dragons. Anders caught Nadir’s glance. A curt nod told Anders that they would not be stopped in carrying out their plan, even if Nadir was prevented from leaving Cedarbridge. Climbing on Zahara and Raffagaun they took flight to the north edge of the city limits. They turned right at the cliff and followed it until Maija’s instruction led them to land on an expansive wooden platform built out over the cliff’s edge, a feature in a home clearly designed for a dragonrider.
Dismounting on the deck, Anders examined the large cedar treehouse that had been Maija’s parents’ house. “This is it then,” he said, walking over to her.
She nodded and pointed to the rider’s shed, “That’s it over there. They had all kinds of dragon tack in there, at least it was there was when I visited the house with Natalia recently.”
“Alright, let’s see what they have. Maybe there’s something that might work for you and we can saddle you up before Nadir and the others arrive,” Anders said.
He followed her to the shed where she asked, “Do you think that woman is telling us the truth?”
“She told a pretty compelling story,” Anders said.
“I know. It’s hard to believe someone would be imprisoned for that petty of a reason,” Maija said.
“Yeah. Well, you are talking about the king who imprisoned his own son for treason.”
“The whole time it was his wife,” Maija said as she forced open the door to the tack room.
Grabbing a candle from the windowsill, Anders summoned a small amount of magic to light the wick, bringing the room to life with light. “Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said they had some riding stuff in here,” Anders said, admiring all of the dragonrider equipment. “First, you’ll need a blade,” he said, stepping to the wall where the weapons were stored.
“You could have one too,” Maija suggested as Anders examined the swords hanging on the wall.
Anders stayed his outstretched hand before plucking down a half sword and handing it to her, “Try this one out,” he said, avoiding her comment.
“I guess now that Zorna can teach you the workings of the crystals, you’ll be keeping that?” she asked motioning to Lazuran.
Anders blushed and nodded, “I know how it must look, me wanting to keep this blade after what I’ve been through, but it’s like Zahara told me; if I’m going to beat Merglan, I’ll need to learn how to master my emotions. I’ll need to learn to control the power before facing him again. Now that we have the key, I can practice.” Anders could tell his words concerned her and he added, “Ignoring the influence his magic had over me won’t help me to become who I need to be, to become what we need to be, Maija.”
Her almond eyes locked with his and she nodded, “This path we’re on is bigger than us and what we desire, isn’t it?”
Anders handed the sword to her and said, “All we can do is our best.”
Maija accepted the blade and hefted it in her palm. Focusing on the half-sword, she toyed with the grip, cutting through the air at her side with quick chopping slashes.
“Is sword fighting something you picked up in Nagano, too?” he asked surprised at her readiness with the shortened sword.
She grinned, “No. A girl picks up a few things when she lives at a dragonrider’s training facility for several months.”
Anders frowned and raised his brow.
“What? Did you think Natalia was only teaching me the basics?”
“I thought she was preparing you to be a rider. I didn’t know she was teaching you how to fight?”
“Well, I’m not that good,” Maija admitted. “We did spend more time prepping for magic.”
“You look good enough,” Anders said, taking the half-sword from her and handing her a longer blade. “Try this.”
