Chronicles of the Overworld Book 1 — Nihal of the Land of the Wind (26 page)

Nihal stood and began to move forward.

She thought it would be the same with Oarf as with Vesa—he would look at her suspiciously for a while, but then let her approach. She was wrong. As soon as she drew near, Oarf raised his claws.

Nihal retreated.

Oarf roared at her.

Nihal tried once, twice, ten times, but the dragon grew more and more aggressive, whipping his tail over the beaten earth and flaring his nostrils.

The last time she tried, he rose up roaring, ready to hurl himself at her.

Nihal moved away, angry.
Now I’ll show you
. When she reached the end of the arena she turned toward Oarf, took a deep breath, and ran toward him, yelling.

“Stop! You’re not going to get anywhere if you do that. You can’t force him.” Ido yelled.

Nihal stumbled as she halted. She was exasperated.

“What am I supposed to do? I need him.”

“You don’t need him. You want him to be your comrade, your ally. You have to try to enter into contact with him, feel what he feels. Concentrate.”

Nihal drew upon her rusty magical training.

She took a deep breath.
All is one and one is all
.

She closed her eyes.
All is one and one is all
. She concentrated.
All is one and one
…

The dragon’s emotions washed over her like a wave. Fear, hatred, suffering, contempt. The flow of emotions struck her like a fist. She staggered.

Ido grabbed her by the arm. “You feel it already?”

“I think so. I studied magic for a while.”

“Good. That will be a big help. Go on, now. Try to reassure him.”

Nihal regained her balance and opened herself once again to Oarf’s emotions.

The animal’s rage was just like hers. His pain was the same, too.

She tried to communicate with him, but Oarf responded with hostility, fear, mistrust.

She tried again to approach him. The roar of the beast echoed throughout the fort, but Nihal continued to move forward, her hands open wide.
I’m with you. I’m like you
.

Ido leaped suddenly to his feet and started running. “Nihal!”

But Nihal wasn’t listening.
I’ve lost everything, too. I’m like you
.

Oarf opened his jaws.

Ido threw himself on Nihal and pushed her to one side. The burst of flame hissed right over their heads.

“Where’s your brain, girl? Communing with a dragon does not mean you are safe from everything else! You have to stay in control!”

Ido brushed dust off himself as he stood, then held out a hand to help Nihal to her feet. “Try again.”

Nihal tried again, and again, and again, but each time the animal’s only answer was violence. As the afternoon passed, knights, squires, and soldiers began to gather around the arena.

As Oarf sent out the umpteenth burst of flame, a young knight turned to Ido. “You’re going too far. Don’t you think you should stop her?”

Ido looked back coolly. “Why? We all struggled at the beginning.”

Another knight cut in. “Oarf belonged to Dhuval. There’s no way that little girl will manage.”

“You know as well as I do that a dragon belongs to no one. And believe me, she’s anything but a little girl.”

At sunset, tired, dirty, and enraged, Nihal finally decided to leave the arena. As she left, she turned back to Oarf. “We’ll see who wins in the end!” she yelled.

Ido smiled beneath his mustache and cuffed her ear. “Let’s go, braggart!”

When Nihal woke the next morning, it was still dark. Without waiting for Ido to wake, she went to the stables.

Dawn was just breaking and the dragons were still sleeping, curled up in their pens.

Oarf was no exception. Asleep, he did not look nearly as ferocious as the day before. Nihal sat and watched him silently. His front talons were crossed beneath his head. His flanks rose and fell as he breathed and his tail flicked lightly.
I wonder if dragons dream, too
, Nihal thought. It was fascinating to see that enormous beast lost in sleep. This was her dragon.

For a while, the animal did not notice her presence. Then, slowly, he opened his eyes. His green eyelids fluttered a couple of times and his pupils contracted in the faint light of the stables. Oarf woke up.

The minute he saw Nihal, he reared up on his hind legs and roared in rage.

Nihal clenched her fists, her heart beating madly. She forced herself to stay still.
I’m not afraid of you. We’re the same
. Oarf roared even louder and tried to pounce but a large chain around his ankle held him back.

The soldier on night duty ran over, hollering, “Are you out of your mind? You don’t have permission to be here. Leave this animal alone—you’re no match for him!”

He grabbed her arm, but Nihal quickly freed herself.

“Hands off. This is my dragon and I’ll come see him when I want to. Who told you to chain him?”

“If he’s your dragon, little girl, why doesn’t he do as you say? I chained him because he wanted to escape.”

People wandered in to see what the ruckus was about.

Ido made his way through the soldiers and knights. “What in the devil is going on here?”

Nihal was indignant. “I came to see my dragon and I found him chained up. I want him let loose.”

“He’s not your dragon. He belongs to no one.” The dwarf said, trying to be patient. “He’s chained up for a reason. Now come on.”

Ido dragged her away gracelessly. “Don’t you dare go off like that again, do you understand? You’re not a warrior, you’re not a knight, you’re not anything. You have to do what I say or you won’t go anywhere.”

“I was there to train! Isn’t that what you want? I wasn’t disobeying any order.”

Ido stopped and looked hard at Nihal. His expression made it clear there would be no argument. “Don’t mess with me, girl. I’m your instructor. I’ll tell you when to go to Oarf. Is that clear?”

Nihal nodded, cowed.

An icy rain was falling when Ido brought her back to the arena.

Oarf was chained to a large post in the ground. Nihal angrily pulled her cloak tighter around herself. She could not stand to see him chained like that. Her dragon should be free. She began to trot toward the animal, but Ido grabbed onto her cloak and forced her to sit on the bleachers. He planted himself in front of her and looked her straight in the eyes.

“Remember that Oarf doesn’t belong to you, Nihal. If everything goes well, he’ll be your comrade, nothing more. Let him know that you trust him and he’ll trust you. You have to find the way to win him over. Are you ready?”

Nihal nodded.

“Okay. Let’s get started.”

Nihal stood and walked determinedly toward the dragon. Halfway there she turned on her heels toward the watering trough.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” yelled Ido.

“Trust me!”

When she reached the fountain that fed the trough, she took off her cloak and held it under the water until it was fully soaked. Then she wrapped it around herself again and covered her head with the hood.

Nihal shivered as she moved toward Oarf. The dragon’s roar echoed through the arena. Nihal kept moving forward. Oarf roared with all the strength in his lungs, irritated that this little creature dared so much. Nihal came closer and closer. The beast began to tug against the chain. Nihal stopped twenty steps from the dragon. She looked straight into his red eyes. She knew what he was feeling: Hatred. Fear. Loneliness.

The burst of flame was sudden and powerful and it landed very close to her. Nihal did not retreat one step. She stood her ground, wrapped in the soaking wet cloak.

“This will be the end of me,” Ido moaned from the stands.

Oarf hesitated, doubtful. The flames lost their oomph then went out altogether.

Nihal continued looking him in the eyes.

It was as if the dragon were speaking.

He did not want anything more to do with these creatures who were always killing one another. He hated them all. They had transformed the world into a place of death.

They had taken away his human.

He hated her, too. He hated her and he would kill her.

A second burst of flame spurted from his throat.

Nihal felt her cloak dry rapidly in the heat. She didn’t move. Without Oarf, all her struggles would amount to nothing.

The heat became progressively more intense. The rain was evaporating before it hit the ground.

Nihal began to yell. “I won’t give up, do you hear me? Don’t you see that the two of us are the same? I also lost the person I belonged to and I hate this world just like you do!”

The dragon continued to spurt flames.

Nihal felt her eyelashes burn. Tiny licks of flame lapped the hem of her cloak. “Accept me!”

The heat was unbearable.

Her head was spinning. She felt short of breath.
Here we are. It’s all over
. She fell to her knees.

That was when Oarf stopped spitting flames.

He towered over her for a moment. Then he retreated to the far end of the arena.

Ido brought her to the infirmary. Apart from a few mild burns, Nihal was fine. She was just severely tired. An elderly healer treated her with a freshly made ointment that smelled of herbs, putting Nihal to sleep.

It was late afternoon when she woke. She was trying to remember what had happened when she saw Ido approaching her cot.

She tried to read his expression, but Ido was inscrutable.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No. It was quite a challenge. The problem is really something else altogether.”

Nihal stared at him, astonished. “What do you mean?”

Ido sat on a stool beside her bed. “It’s an issue of strategy and opportunity. You had a fine idea for dealing with Oarf, but the results were terrible.”

“But I—”

“Quiet. Listen to me. In war, every time you undertake an action, you have to evaluate your movements. An army is made of men, each of whom is crucial to victory. A knight is a leader and the lives of many soldiers depend on his actions. This is why everyone has to take pains to guard his life, because in the end it belongs not just to him but to all those who fight with him.”

Ido lit his pipe and took a long drag.

“There’s no sense throwing your life away like that. It won’t help anyone. A good warrior does only what has been ordered, and if he operates on his own initiative he has to take his own limits into account. The action you undertook earlier was useless and dangerous. You didn’t know your limits and you risked your life for something stupid.”

Nihal was deeply offended. She sat up, flustered. “I knew what I was doing.”

“No, you did not. What did you think? That you were going to solve the problem with a wet cloak? You knew your trick wouldn’t last, but you did it anyway.”

Ido took another drag on his pipe.

“Perhaps some hothead convinced you that a warrior does not fear death, but nothing could be farther from the truth. A warrior is like anyone else—he loves life and doesn’t want to die. But he doesn’t allow fear to take over, either. A warrior must be able to distinguish between when dying is necessary and when it is pointless. That’s what makes a warrior. You, on the other hand—what do you risk your life for? To impress me and to strut your stuff in front of a dragon who doesn’t want you. Neither one of those serves a purpose. They’re just stupid.”

He had struck a nerve. When she learned of her true identity, Nihal had sworn that she would not die in vain and yet, here was her tutor accusing her of being reckless with her life.

“You’re wrong,” she said heatedly. “I was sure Oarf wouldn’t kill me.”

“Nihal, we haven’t known each other for very long, but you don’t fool me. I know you weren’t sure of anything. You just wanted to show me how brave you are. Well, what you did was not brave. It was irresponsible. That kind of irresponsibility does more killing than all the Tyrant’s troops together.”

Nihal was silent.

An unpleasant thought crept into her mind. Could it be that she no longer cared whether she lived or died?
No, that’s not true. I knew what I was doing! I want to live. I have to live because I have a mission to accomplish!

“Remember what I’ve just said. I’m not angry; I’ve acted impulsively myself. But from now on, you have to learn to think rationally about what you do and the reasons that you do them.”

“I know that dragon is meant for me,” Nihal said. “He’s meant to be mine.”

Ido leaned over her bed. “Does water belong to anybody? Does the wind? Does a hurricane? A dragon is a force of nature. Every so often he chooses a companion. If you can’t get that into your head, you’ll never mount Oarf. This morning, you said the person you belonged to is dead. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but whoever he was, he didn’t own you, Nihal.”

Nihal lowered her gaze. She didn’t want Ido to see that her eyes were full of tears.

“No human being, no half-elf, no dwarf belongs to anyone. Each of us must find the strength to trace our own destiny. Slaves have an owner, and you’re no slave. If you want to be a knight, you have to overcome your sorrow and take charge of your life. It’s your choice whether you put it to good use or throw it away.”

Ido leaned back and calmly relit his pipe.

Nihal looked at him for a moment. Such strength, such courage from such a little man. For a moment he seemed like a giant.

“Do you feel like taking a trip?” Ido asked her once the pipe was lit.

“I think so. Where?”

“Into battle, my girl. We have to help a group of rebels who’ve freed a city not too far from the front, but they’re under siege by a group of the Tyrant’s crack troops. We’re going to free them.”

Nihal’s heart quickened.

“Can I fight, too?”

“You have to fight. I have to see how you perform in battle.”

It was a brief march to the city.

The strategy was explained before their departure. With no camps nearby, there would be no time for making plans once they got there. The element of surprise would be their only advantage; they would try to take the besiegers from the rear. Ido, as the only Dragon Knight on the mission, would be in charge of the attack.

Ido and Nihal rode side by side. The dwarf smoked his pipe, the picture of ease, but Nihal was beside herself.