The Stones of Fire and Water E-Book

V.M. Sang

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

After his return from Aeris with the gem of air, Pettic receives a letter from the king. He is to see Torren and rekindle their relationship.

Soon after, Torren and Pettic meet a strange man and their lives change drastically, as they're dragged into a mystery surrounding the red dragon Monarlisk and his former mate.

But will Pettic's magic be enough to help them finish their quest in time - and in the end, will the rightful king be crowned?

Leseprobe

The Stones of Fire and Water

Elemental Worlds Book II

V. M. Sang

Copyright (C) 2017 V. M. Sang

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2019 by Next Chapter

Published 2019 by Next Chapter

Cover art by CoverMint

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author's permission.

To my mother. Thank you for everything you did for me. I miss you.

Ignis

Previously…

Crown Prince Torren of Ponderia had been kidnapped by a mysterious magician and hidden away in a mini-plane of reality, called a Bubble.

His friend, Pettic, and his sister, Princess Lucenra, have discovered, with the help of Blundo, the court magician, that the only way to enter the Bubble and rescue the prince is with four keys corresponding to the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

To get the keys, Pettic must enter the four elemental worlds and find a gem corresponding with that element. he cannot return without it.

He has already entered the world of Terra and found a sword bearing the magical emerald. Before he found it, though, he had to slay what the people called a phantom boar that was killing their animals and also on occasion, their people. With the help of his wolfhound, Cledo, and a young man he met there, he managed to kill the boar, and also help his friend to win the young woman of his dreams.

The next full moon arose, and Pettic once more set off through the arch of the standing stones outside the city. This time he found himself in the world of Air, called Aeris. Here he found the people were divided into two distinct groups. One group, the Aerials, lived in flying cities, kept in the air by magic. The others, Groundlings, lived on the ground and were more-or-less slaves.

Pettic fomented a rebellion of the Groundlings and succeeded in brokering a better life for them.

Princess Eloraine of the Aerials tried to persuade Pettic to stay on Aeris, and when she found he was determined to return to his own world, she gave him a pin with a diamond, the magical gem he required.

Blundo has helped Pettic by giving him an amulet that allows him to understand and be understood by the people of the worlds he visited, as they spoke different languages, and also an earring that warms when he is near the gem he needs.

At the beginning of this book, the false Torren has been sent to a monastery by his father, the king, as a punishment for his poor treatment of the daughter of a Duke and her friend.

Now read on.

Chapter 1

Two days after Pettic had returned from Aeris he went as usual to eat his midday meal with the royal children and their nurse in the nursery. Although they were now grown up, Torren, Pettic and Lucenra liked to return to the nursery, much as other grown up children liked to return home from time to time.

During the meal, Pettic received a message from the king. The young man opened it and found a letter asking him to go to see Torren at the monastery where he had been sent as a punishment for his treatment of two young girls.

Pettic replied he would go the very next day as it would take almost a day to get there. He would have to stay overnight, of course, but since it was still three weeks until the next possible passage to another of the elemental worlds, it would be no problem.

The next day saw Pettic riding out of the city gates. He decided not to take his dog, Cledo, much to that animal's disgust, because of his reaction to the false Torren. He did not want to give any excuses to Torren to have his dog put down.

He found it a lonely ride without his faithful companion, and by the time he arrived at the monastery the sun had long passed its zenith and was descending towards the horizon.

The monastery was in a beautiful setting, chosen deliberately by the monks for that very reason. The hills rolled away in all directions and as it was now summer, farmers laboured in the fields getting in their harvest. The sun shone down making the little streams he crossed glint and glitter.

Pettic found the day was made him feel more optimistic about his success at reconciling himself with the false Torren. After all, this impostor was here to try to be the prince, and he ought to try to like the prince's friends.

Pettic rode in through the gates of the monastery and a monk ran to take his horse. Another came up to conduct him to the visitors' reception room.

A third monk showed him into a sparsely furnished room. The stone built monastery had no tapestries on the walls to add comfort and a little warmth and the chairs were hard wooden ones with no cushions.

He told the monk he was there to see Prince Torren.

`I'm afraid the king's orders are that no one is to be allowed to see Brother Torren, My Lord,' replied the monk, deferentially.

`I've come at the request of the king,' Pettic told him. `I've a letter here to that effect.'

The monk took the letter, read it, then smiled. `My apologies, My Lord.' I'll send for Brother Torren right away.'

He disappeared through a door opposite the one Pettic came through.

Pettic stood and walked over to a window next to the entrance door. It looked out onto the courtyard where he had entered. He watched his horse being unsaddled and taken to the stables. Shortly the opposite door opened and Torren appeared.

Pettic thought he looked a little haggard. His dark hair seemed limp and a little lighter than before, and he walked with a bit of a stoop.

`Oh, Pettic,' he said, `I'm glad to see you. It's so-o boring here. Nothing but praying. Prayers in the morning, prayers at lunch, prayers in the afternoon, prayers at dinner, prayers before bed time, and would you believe it, they even get us up in the night for more prayers. I've said enough prayers to last me for the rest of my life. I swear I'll never, ever pray again.'

He sat down heavily in a chair before continuing.

`Then, as if that isn't enough, between the incessant prayers we have to meditate. Meditate on our failings, meditate on our sins, meditate on how we can improve our lives etc. etc. etc.'

`Hello, Torren. I won't ask you how you are then. I've just got back from my business trip and heard you were here, so I've come to visit.'

`How did you get the monks to let you see me? Father said I wasn't to see anyone.'

`I prevailed on your father to let me come,' Pettic twisted the truth a bit here, but Torren didn't seem to notice that it was unlikely the king would allow himself to be persuaded by a mere earl.

`Thank you. Now, what's the news from court?'

The pair sat down and began to chat. Pettic told him what he could about the happenings at court, but having been away himself, he was a little behind on the latest gossip. Prince Torren did not seem to mind though. He was avid for news of any sort.

Just at that moment the door opened and the monk who had admitted Pettic entered, followed by another man. In spite of the heat of the summer's evening, he was wrapped from head to foot in a white robe with a white cloak draped around it and a hood over his head. The hood fell forwards so his face was obscured in shadow. He bowed to the two young men and sat down on one of the chairs.

`Who's he?' whispered Pettic. `He looks strange. What's that garb he's wearing.'

The stranger looked towards them and to Pettic's embarrassment answered the question he had asked.

`My name is Umberli. I'm from a land far from yours. It's called Aran. My “garb” as you call it, is my national dress. It's very hot in Aran and we dress thus to keep out the heat.'

`My apologies,' said Pettic. `I didn't mean to be rude.'

The stranger bowed. `I accept your apologies, young man,' he said. `Youth is often thoughtless.' He then relapsed into silence.

The abbot allowed Torren to skip the evening prayers and to eat dinner with Pettic. It was a sparse meal compared with those at the palace, of course, and although adequate, it did not please Torren at all. He said this meal, made for visitors, was a feast compared with the other meals he had here, but even this was scarcely edible.

Pettic sighed inwardly. The Torren he grew up with would never have complained like this. Still, he was doing what the king asked, even if he was not enjoying it very much.

After the meal, Torren surprisingly begged Pettic to excuse him. He had something to do. Pettic raised his eyebrows at this, and he became a little suspicious when he saw the man from Aran walking out of the courtyard and into the stables, followed very shortly by Torren.

Pettic, of course, slunk after them and entered the stables by a back door. He was just in time to hear the words of magic being muttered over Torren's ring, suspended in a contraption like the one Blundo had in his rooms.

Umberli handed the ring back to Torren who put it back on his finger. The young man seemed to visibly change. His lank hair became much more glossy and darker and he stood up proudly, like a prince.

It seemed that this “man from Aran” was the mysterious magician in disguise. Torren's ring had needed a boost of magic and so the man sneaked into the monastery disguised as a foreign traveller to give it to him because Torren could not get out.

Clever, thought Pettic.

The next morning, Pettic bid farewell to the prince and set off on the long ride back to the city. When he arrived back at the palace he went and told Lucenra about the visit of the “man from Aran”.

She agreed that it could be the same magician as had performed the magic previously, but then went on to say, `We mustn't discount the possibility that there are more people involved in this conspiracy. It may not have been the same man at all. You said you didn't see his face.'

They continued talking for some time but did not come to any conclusions.

In the weeks following Pettic's visit to see Torren/Dilrong in the monastery, he and Princess Lucenra talked long about Torren and his rescue. They visited Blundo in his tower on many occasions. The pair were not worried as Torren/Dilrong was not there to see them, and so they came and went freely.

Blundo said he thought Pettic's amulet that allowed him to understand other languages probably needed recharging.

He took it from the young man and went over to his workbench. There he suspended it between three inward-pointing spikes, chanting words of magic as he did so.

A bright light emanated from the spikes and as they watched, it flowed into the stone at the centre of the setting.

`There! It should now last you another couple of visits,' Blundo told Pettic as he handed it back. The young man put it on over his head and stood.

`It's nearly the full moon again. Could it happen that I don't go to a different world this time? Could I find myself on Terra or Aeris again?'

`I don't know that, I'm sorry,' replied the magician. `This isn't something I've really studied much. We'll just have to hold our breaths and hope you find yourself in Ignis or Aqua this time.'

Princess Lucenra interrupted.

`Blundo, Pettic saw Dilrong having what he assumed was magic done over him. Could it have been something similar to what you did to Pettic's amulet, and Dilrong has a gem that somehow changes him into Torren?'

`Absolutely, Your Highness. I suspect that's what has happened. Magic only works when it's in a gem of some kind.'

He walked over to the table and picked up a peridot.

`We can charge the gems with magic to give them particular powers, and some gems are better at receiving particular types of magic than others. That amulet you're wearing has an opal in it and that is especially good at receiving magic to do with communication.'

`I see,' replied Lucenra. `So, the gem in Dilrong's ring will be the kind to be susceptible to changing the shape of the wearer.'

`Yes, that's right. It's probably iron pyrites, otherwise known as fool's gold.'

The two young people went back to their quarters. Cledo, greeted them as they entered his apartment. Pettic bent down and rubbed the dog's ears.

`We'll soon be off on another adventure, boy,' he told the animal. `Another few days and then we hope to be in Ignis or Aqua.'

The next few days flew by and on the evening of the full moon, Pettic, Lucenra and Cledo made their way up to the standing stones. It was now the height of summer, and the evening was warm. The stars shone brightly in the sky as the full moon began to rise,

Pettic turned to Lucenra, who, as usual, kissed him on the cheek.

`I hope it's not too long this time,' she said, and she stood and watched him disappear into the mists that rose on the other side of the stone arch.

She continued to stand and gaze at the place where Pettic had disappeared. The mist vanished when the young man was completely through the stones and she could now see the city of Glitton and the palace below.

She sighed as she turned to return down the hill.

Chapter 2

As before, Pettic walked into the mist, but with more confidence than he had the first two times. The mist soon gave way to a view halfway up a mountain.

It was night here too. He looked back but could only see the cliff where he had exited. It was going to be more difficult to find the way back than the previous journeys. On Terra, he had exited in a cave and there could be no mistake in the place to return. On Aeris, it was through an arch in a rose garden. Here there was the whole side of a cliff. He looked around for some landmarks to indicate where he had come out. He spotted a rock just ahead that looked like a dog's head. That he committed to memory and began to walk down the mountainside.

He found himself in a range of large mountains from what he could see. The moon was full here, too, and lending a silvery light to the scene. He could see a valley below, but not any details. Whether there was a village or town he could not make out. He tripped on a rock he had not noticed. Perhaps he should stay here on the mountain until daylight when he could see better where he was going.

It was not cold here, but there was an unpleasant smell. It was a bit like rotten eggs, he thought. He sat down and Cledo lay down next to him. The smell was not good, but a broken leg would be worse, so he lay down next to his dog to sleep. Cledo cuddled up to him and the pair shared their warmth and soon fell asleep.

He woke to hear the sound of creaking leather. He sat up rubbing his eyes and coughing against the smell. He thought perhaps some people had come up in leather armour and he slowly opened his eyes.

What he saw astounded him. In front of him, black scales gleaming in the sun, was an enormous beast. It had two black horns protruding from its head and a mane of leathery fronds around its long neck. Its eyes were green and slit vertically, and on its back, now neatly folded, was a pair of leathery wings.

All the way from its head to the tip of its tail was a double row of spines of varying length, longer on its thorax tapering to small ones at the tip of its tail. The sound of the wings folding away had woken him.

Then the beast spoke.

`What have we here on my mountain? A little human it would seem.'

`Yes, I'm a human,' said Pettic, his voice trembling, but he felt he should say something, `but not small by human standards.'

The beast looked startled. `You speak dragonish? How come you speak dragonish. Humans have never been able to speak our language before.'

`Actually, I'm speaking my own language and we can understand each other because of this magic amulet I'm wearing.'

`How intriguing. We dragons have magic, but no magic that can do such a thing. What kind of magician are you that can make such a thing?'

`I'm not a magician. This was given to me by a magician on my home world.'

`What do you mean, “your home world”?'

Pettic wondered if he should be talking to this creature. Dragons were mythological creatures on his world, like unicorns and griffins but did not actually exist. There people considered them to be evil beasts. Were these myths based on fact and were dragons evil? If so, perhaps he should not be telling this creature too much.

`I think I may have fallen and taken a blow to the head. I really don't know where I am,' Pettic told the dragon. `Please tell me.'

`You are on the side of my volcano, near the sacrifice stone.' replied the dragon. `This valley and the one beyond are my territory. No one comes here except to sacrifice. Perhaps that's why you're here. Are you the sacrifice, or is it this beast with you?'

Pettic swallowed hard. Sacrifice? This creature wanted a sacrifice and thought that he or Cledo were it. How was he going to talk his way out of this one? It would have to be talk because there was no way he and Cledo could fight this creature and win.

`When I fell,' he began, `the sacrifice must have escaped. I apologise and will go and find it.'

He turned, but the dragon said, `Not so fast, human. Do you think I'm stupid? As soon as you get away from the range of my fire, you'll run and try to return to your people. It will do you no avail, though, because I can fly and toast you from the air. If the other sacrifice has escaped, then you and your animal will have to do instead.'

He reared up on his hind legs and took Pettic in one claw and Cledo in the other, then with a powerful thrust of his hind legs he leaped in the air and flew towards the summit of the mountain.

The air rushed around Pettic as the dragon flew to its lair. Its claws dug into him and he felt he could scarcely breathe. As they flew higher, the sulphurous air grew thicker and that added to his problems. By the time the dragon settled down before a cave high on the side of the volcano, Pettic was coughing and so was Cledo. He could scarcely breathe. The dragon, however, seemed quite at ease.

`You seem to be having some difficulty,' the dragon said, making a sound a bit like laughing. `It seems your kind can't tolerate the volcanic gases. Never mind. You won't be alive for long enough to worry about it. Usually the people kill the sacrifice before I bring them up here. They seem to like to do the blood shedding themselves.'

The huge creature shook its head before continuing.

`Their priests, or whatever they are, come up here and make a big ceremony of it. They think it will keep me from killing their cattle and sometimes them. It doesn't, of course. I do what I like.'

Pettic could believe that easily. The creature continued talking.

`What they don't realise is that I don't need to eat like they do. One large meal will suffice me for quite some time. So I go and steal a few cows, or some of them, they come up here and sacrifice. I take the sacrifice and eat it when I need to, thus I don't need to raid their cattle. Sometimes I eat the wild animals too. Then they think their sacrifice has appeased me. When I need more food I start again.'

He laughed at the thought of the ease with which he fooled the people.

Pettic thought quickly. What could he do to stop the dragon from killing him? It seemed to like talking and so he had an idea.

`Look, before you kill me, why don't you let me tell you about the places I've been? I can tell you about my world and about the worlds of Terra and Aeris.'

`Well, I suppose you will keep better alive than dead. Dead things go off quickly and I prefer things fresher. I ate a deer yesterday so I'm not very hungry at the moment. Alright then. I'll allow you to live as long as you can keep me amused with your stories.'

Pettic and Cledo were both then overcome with coughing.

`Perhaps we could talk out of this air that is so hurting to our lungs?' Pettic asked the dragon, and the creature complied.

He once again picked them up and flew down to lower slopes where the sulphurous gases were less apparent.

The flight was another terrifying experience. Pettic closed his eyes until he felt himself touch the ground once more. Cledo, remembering his flight on the Pegasus on Aeris, and the near disaster when he slipped from her back, whined and struggled, but to no avail. The dragon held him tightly.

Although the gases where they landed were no longer choking to Pettic and Cledo, the air still smelled of sulphur, but at least they could breathe.

Pettic could see buildings below them now they were lower down the mountainside and the sun had begun to rise. He decided to ask the dragon what world they were on, although he did have a strong inkling.

The dragon replied that humans called this world Ignis, confirming Pettic's supposition. He could see very little water, so it could not be Aqua.

Then the dragon spoke again.

`If we're to converse with each other for a while it's only good manners we introduce ourselves. My name is Monarlisk and I own, as I said these valleys. What is your name, human?'

`I am called Pettic, and my dog is Cledo.'

`I'm not very fond of dog meat,' muttered Monarlisk, almost to himself. Then he continued. `I have another cave at lower levels over on the other side of the valley. We can go there if you wish.'

Pettic told the dragon that although a cave would be good, he would walk there rather than fly in his claws.

`Oh, no you don't,' replied Monarlisk. `If I let you walk you will go to the town and escape me. No, you will fly. If you wish you can ride on my back. You can hold onto my spines. It's ride or be carried, but I won't allow you to walk.'

Pettic agreed that riding might be preferable so he clambered onto the dragon's back and positioned himself as securely as he could between a pair of spines, gripping hard with his hands on the pair immediately in front of him. Cledo would have to be carried, of course, a fact that the wolfhound hated just as much as Pettic had.

Pettic felt a sense of tensioning muscles as Monarlisk bunched his legs in readiness for the take-off, then a leap into the air and a flap of the huge wings and they were airborne. Pettic heard a yelp from Cledo as they took off, but if the dog made any more sound, Pettic did not know. All he could hear was the rushing wind and the creak of the dragon's wings.

Monarlisk found a thermal, and, using it, he spiraled upwards without any flapping of his wings. Pettic risked a glance down. Below him he could see the valley in the light of the rising sun. A river flowed down its centre and about halfway down another smaller river joined it flowing from the mountains in the east, towards which they were now flying, Monarlisk having gained enough height to satisfy himself.

At the confluence of the two rivers, Pettic could make out a town surrounded by fields. He thought people would soon be getting up to go about their daily tasks, and as he did so a column of smoke rose up in the town, followed by another and another.

Monarlisk glided with very few strokes of his wings. He seemed to unerringly find the thermals he needed to regain height when he was getting a bit low in the sky. Pettic could not help but feel exhilarated by this flight, but he did feel sorry for poor Cledo.

The speed at which they crossed the valley and then the next one amazed him. The sun was still quite low in the sky when they began to descend.

Pettic felt almost sorry the adventure was over. What a tale he would have to tell Lucenra. She would never believe him. Then he remembered. He had to find a ruby in an artefact and escape from this world. The gate was now a long way away and he had no idea how long it would take him to return to the dog head rock on foot. That was if he could escape from Monarlisk. That was not going to be an easy task, either.

As soon as Monarlisk landed, Pettic scrambled down. Cledo leaped at him, delighted to be once more on solid ground.

`It's alright, boy,' Pettic reassured him. `We're down now.'

Monarlisk looked at the pair.

`This isn't my preferred cave, you know,' he said. `I prefer to be near the Mother Volcano. We dragons believe we were created by the Mother Volcano many, many eons ago. Although we live long, there are no dragons alive today who remember the creation, so long ago was it. Still, this cave is warm and dry. I use it to keep things I find on the sacrifices.'

He waddled towards the cave entrance and called to Pettic and Cledo, `Come on in. There's lots of room in here for all three of us, you being so small. There's actually enough room for two dragons.'

They followed him into the cave. Pettic thought briefly about making a run for it, but then he thought about what Monarlisk had said about toasting them, and for all his apparent friendliness at the moment, Pettic had no doubt the dragon would not hesitate to do so if they tried to escape. Somehow, he would have to negotiate their freedom.

Days of living in the cave with Monarlisk began. The dragon was quite good company in a strange way. He liked to talk and was fascinated by Pettic's adventures. He talked of dragon magic, which was dissimilar to human magic.

Dragons could not make the gestures that humans did to imbue gems with magic. They had developed a way of making the magic work without gems. They did not need to mutter words either, just think of what they wanted to accomplish.

Monarlisk thought perhaps humans did not need to make the gestures, mutter words of magic, or use gemstones either, but believed they did, and so the magic did not work for them unless accompanied by these gestures, words and gems.

At the end of the first day, Monarlisk brought a lamb to the cave, and after Pettic had skinned it and given its entrails to Cledo, Monarlisk breathed his fire onto it and cooked it for him. This was the first time that Pettic had actually seen Monarlisk using his fiery breath, and he was impressed at the finesse with which the dragon could use it.

On the second day, Pettic prevailed on Monarlisk to tell him something of his life. The life of a dragon was alien to the young man and he was interested to hear how they lived.

`My story is long, young man, but we have time. I came from a very long way away. I had a beautiful mate and we had five eggs. Dragons are getting scarce on Ignis. Our fertility is low and there aren't as many females as males. Pressure for mates is very high.

`Crinilisk, that was her name, was a beautiful young dragon. She was red as the sunset and her eyes were yellow as the sun itself. When the sun shone on her scales it could dazzle the eye, so shiny were they. She laid only five eggs though. Once, queen dragons would lay at least a dozen eggs. Still, they were coming on nicely.'