The Second Prophecy (Part 1 of the Dragdani Prophecies) (7 page)

She loved
living there and had no problem expressing it. She told everyone,
and she certainly had no intentions in ever leaving again. Though
she liked being Queen, she knew that one-day the true reason why
they left their Normal lives behind would catch them up. It worried
her beyond all reason day and night, even after all of the
reassurances from their friends old and new. She still couldn’t
forget all she had been told. She remembered John’s words to her
after she saw there were only four representatives of the six main
races of Dorminya at the council meeting the first day they
arrived. She had wandered why. When asked by his wife, John simply
said, “It’ll only worry you as it does me.”

Not satisfied
with his reply, she pressed and pressed at him until he finally
gave in and told all.

“
The
reason there were only
representatives from four of the main kingdoms of Dorminya (which
were Dwarves, Elves, Wizards and Witches, and the Men of the
Morden) was because the Eagle-Men of Kealhal were secretly
attacked, overthrown and wiped out by Ulicoth’s army and by
Kilamen,” he told her.

It was John
that had found out what had happened, for he had befriended the
immortal Wolf Demala, although he did not fully trust the talking
Wolf, as he had heard of the terrible crimes he had committed while
in his human form. Although mistrustful, the King could not very
well ignore this terrible information. So he had the claims of his
new friend investigated and had found the terrible tragedy to be
true.

The mistrust
John had felt toward the once-dark Wolf lifted a little, though he
still knew to be wary of him, for it was well known that the Wolf
had once worked under Salith himself for the promise of release
from the curse that bound him to that eternal body. The truth of
the matter is that Demala had not always been a Wolf. He was once a
man and nephew to the King of the once-powerful land of
Phadkew.

By the time
the Wolf had told John the news of the Eagle-Men, it was too late.
Only a handful of the giant eagles survived, but unfortunately they
moved to the unmapped lands and have not been seen
since.

When all was
finally realized, letters were sent to those the Wizards and
Witches considered potential allies, and all agreed to meet. All,
of course, but the Men of the Tarlonal in the land of Frepwen, who
had all vowed to never be involved in anything that the Morden were
involved in. For they have been mortal enemies for many a year and
would kill their cousins before lifting a single finger to help
them?

At the Towers
of Telian, the council of the four races held yet another meeting,
and this time Helen was invited. She had taken an active role in
all council meetings and enjoyed doing so. At the end of this
meeting the council had decided that the time had come to bring
their forces together.

“
Finally, we
will attack the fortress of Wulfed and rid the world of the evil of
Ulicoth and Kilamen,” said the Dwarf lord, Eiaten.

It took only
sixteen days for everyone to arrive. For the armies of the four
races had been on standby for two whole years.

The Elves
were the first to arrive, closely followed by the Dwarves, and
together they waited with the Wizards and Witches for the men to
arrive. They did not have to wait very long, as the men were not
far behind the Dwarves, who themselves had run all the way from the
great city of Eiaten, which is located under the Twin Mountains of
Duilsan. The Dwarf city was named after the Lord of those mountains
and was the largest of their empire.

Taden,
Eiaten’s cousin, was stationed on the second balcony of the right
tower. He was not the only one there, as there were two Wizards and
an Elf as well.

One
could be forgiven for thinking that all were
there purely out of friendship, but as always. There was an
alternative reason. The Wizards came simply because the building
belonged to them. The Elf was there out of helpfulness. As his
sight was better than the others, it seemed right for him to be
there. And last of all. The Dwarf was there, funnily enough, simply
because the others were there.

Eiaten
, seeing that the Elf was
allowed to stand and look, thought that it was only fair and that
one of his own be allowed there too. Everyone wondered why Taden
was there, for all knew that a Dwarf’s sight is very limited, and
he couldn’t possibly see what he needed to, but John saw no harm in
Eiaten’s little game and let the Dwarf stay where he was, simply
because he knew that Eiaten would love to have an excuse to start
something on that day in particular. So there the four stood
looking for any sign of the men.

There was
moistness in the air that day, and a light fog rolled along
sluggishly. The grassy land was saturated after the downpour the
night before, though the sky was clear, apart from little puffs of
white cloud gently floating past. And although the sun was high in
the sky, the trees of the forest behind the Towers made it
impossible to see if there was anyone moving their way until they
would clear the tree line.

“
What do you
see cousin?” shouted Eiaten.

“
Nothing
yet,” replied Taden.

The Elf,
Avelan, who was the brother of Feudel, the master of the great
Elven City of Haludon, had caught sight of something with his keen
eyes. There were five figures moving closer to their
position.

“
THERE ARE
FIVE OBJECTS COMING OUR WAY!” he shouted to those below.

“
Where are
they? I don’t see anything,” said Taden as he looked to the edge of
the forest.

“
Not there,
Taden. There,” said Avelan. He pointed to five dots in the sky
moving ever closer to them.

“
Yes,” said
Taden, “now I see them.” But to him they were faint fuzzy
blurs.

John rushed
to the balcony he jumped straight on to it from the ground. “Where
are they, Avelan?” he asked.

“
The
re,” said the Elf as he
pointed to them again.

“
It’s
all right,” said Delsani,
who was standing below them. “They’re Wiccas and Warlocks whom the
Council of Witchcraft sent to us. They decided they don’t want to
be left in the dark, so they’re sending some of their most talented
people to join us.”

Helen wanted
to see what everyone up there found so fascinating. “What’s going
on?” she asked as she came up behind the old Wizard.

“
The
y can see the Witches who were
sent by the Council of Witchcraft, that’s all.”

John was
looking straight ahead. He saw something reflecting sunlight in the
distance. He realized it was the Morden just about to enter the
opposite end of the forest. His eyes seemed to be as keen as
Avelan’s, as the edge of the forest was two miles away. “The men
are coming,” he shouted. “I can see them.”

Avelan
looked, and he too could see them.

By this time,
everyone could see the Witches as they came closer. They could also
see that they were riding broomsticks. This offended some of the
older members of the Wizard’s Council, for they had banned Wizards
from using broomsticks, which they deemed too dangerous. But the
younger Wizards found it fascinating, for the law was passed just
before their time, so it was to them a rare treat.

As the
Witches came into plain view, they sped up and now were coming in
to land. When they had landed, the Council of the Four Races
greeted them. There were two Wiccas and three Warlocks.

The Warlock
ambassador, Lenwer, then spoke to the Witches in their own
language, which greatly pleased them.

“
Thank you
for that greeting” said one of the Wiccas, who seemed to be the
leader of the five. But she spoke in the common tongue for all to
hear.

John (who had
climbed down from the balcony) and Helen recognized the Wicca and
the Warlock standing next to her as their friends Joan and Harry.
“I am Saren,” said the Wicca. “And this is my husband, Henkot. Our
other companions are Kerfuz, Senom, and my niece, Molnet,” she said
as she pointed them out. They all nodded at each other one after
the other.

“
Don’t you
think your niece a little young to go?” said Lenwer looking to the
girl before him.

“
Trust me
when I say that she’s one of the most talented Wiccas I have ever
known,” said Saren, who then saw Helen and John staring blankly at
both her and her husband. “Hello,” she said to them.

“
All this
time you pretended to be our friends, and what you were really
doing was spying on us,” said John taking a guess. He shot a stern
look at one and then the other in turn.

“
We sent them
with no intention of spying, John,” said the Grand Wizard. “Delsani
and I did, however, ask the Council of Witchcraft to lend us two of
their people stationed in the Normal World to befriend you and help
you. We knew that you would be alone. We only wanted you to have
friends to turn to, in case you fell on hard times, that’s all. We
had no intentions to spy.”

“
We didn’t
want to lie to you,” said Henkot. “We had no choice. We couldn’t
disobey the Council of Witchcraft out of fear that they might have
taken our licenses, which would mean that we could not go back to
the Normal World.

“
We didn’t
know you back then. To us you were just a mission, but through the
years that changed, and now the both of you are our closest and
most trusted friends.”

We hope that
you’ll forgive us,” said Saren. “We never spied on either of you.
The only time we told them anything about you was when Delsani told
us who you really were.”

John was
calmer now, but still angry. He glanced at Helen as if to look for
support, but she just stood there silent. The truth was she didn’t
care that they had lied; she was just happy that they were
there.

“
We should
have been informed of this,” said Galfad angrily. Galfad was the
Council member who persuaded the other members to sign a petition
to expel John from the order, to feed the personal hatred that he
felt toward him.

“
But we
didn’t want you to know,” said Delsani with a certain amount of
satisfaction in his voice. “That was why we asked for two Witches
rather than two Wizards.”

Galfad looked furiously at Delsani, but said
nothing.

For things
had changed in the Wizard world. The power that the Council once
held had been handed back to the Grand Wizard, which was as it used
to be in the old days. The reason for the change was because the
Wizards lost confidence in the Council after a few bad decisions,
the worst, of course, being that they all signed the petition that
got rid of their future King, though they didn’t know that at that
time.

Numerous
complaints from members of the Wizards Council still loyal to
deputy Grand Wizard, Galfad (to give him his full title) followed,
but were soon shot down by Jaucal and his own loyalists. After the
short debate, the Witches were asked to trade in their broomsticks
for horses, and they were more than pleased to do so.

An hour after
the Dwarves had marched, in the Men made their extraordinary
appearance in the thousands. First came the drummers, then the flag
bearers, the archers, the foot soldiers, and lastly the cavalry,
all wearing neatly polished suits of armor. There armor was silver,
as were their helmets, and was like that of the knights of the old
stories. At the top of their helms were short, red-feathered blooms
that curved a little near the tip. And just above the slits for
their eyes was the emblem of yellow flames surrounding a green sun,
which was also on their breastplates, only larger. On their
gauntlets were spikes at the knuckles. Their elbows also had one
large spike each. Their shoulders each had a plate with a red line
running along their edge, and sitting on top were three small
spikes. Their knees held one spike each, as did the tips of their
shoes. They were truly a magnificent sight to be seen, even without
their King, for he had sent his youngest son to lead his troops.
The youngster, to be truthful, had only ever fought small
skirmishes rather than any large battles, though to be fair he had
won every one he had ever taken part in.

One
might
wonder why the Wizards and Witches
didn’t just Phaze them all to their destination. The main reason
was that Phazes can be detected, and although there is a fair
chance that they would be successful. The Grand Wizard deemed it
too risky. Not mention the Men and Dwarves, who were none too
pleased with that idea and were not afraid to voice their opinions.
So for secrecy and to keep the peace, they were going the
old-fashioned way.

Before John got on to his horse he gave Helen
a letter.

“
Hold on to
this,” he said. “Only read it if I don’t make it back.”

Helen could
not believe what her ears were hearing. Never before had she heard
him speak of his possible death.

“
I don’t need
it,” she said, “because you’re coming back.”

John threw
his arms around her, and she embraced him in return with a peck on
the lips and then the cheek.