Chapter 17: The Anvil of the Dragons

The knowledge that Durin's body wasn't in the crypt built for him here in Peloi was one of those details that slipped past us in our rush to get here, I guess. Like Sid's not being aware of what could happen to an unattached Wizard.

I shared the general dismay over the lack of new information here as well, but everything now was colored by my efforts to resist the call I was feeling from the ocean nearby.

It called to me in a way no body of water ever had.

That it called was exciting and a bit awe-inducing. That every fiber of my being seemed eager to respond? That was terrifying. The events at the museum and the inn were all filtered through the emotions the waters nearby invoked, and I finally had to say something.

"Sid?" I said into a quiet moment, back in Durin's hut, where we were taking one more look around.

"My love?" He answered, looking up and back at me.

"I think its time we were moving on."

Sid took my elbow and moved with me out of the hut and onto the beach.

"Are you saying you can move us across that?" He said, nodding towards the milky waters nearby.

"Yes, and we need to go as soon as possible."

"Alright then." He said with a nod, and a kiss to my cheek. "Trunk! Everyone! Lets get back to the inn and get checked out. River says its time to go."

Without question or hesitation, the five of them nodded and began moving. It made me feel good for a moment. I had felt overshadowed by events recently. It was good to feel like one of the team again.

There was little to pack and little to do in getting checked out. We had to make our excuses to The Captain, and explain why it wasn't practical for him to follow us where we were going.

Someone obviously overheard our conversation with The Captain, as the beach was crowded with spectators by the time we returned to it. The Captain walked us to the edge, fussing, somewhat out of character, over our supplies and our packs. It was at this point I realized that Trunk and Alianna weren't fussing over their own packs.

I stopped at the water's edge and looked at Trunk.

"Well you know we weren't going to be able to go with you. This is for the four of you, not for tag-along companions like us." Trunk said.

"We'll be happy to camp on the beach and wait to see what happens." Alianna added.

"And if nothing happens and we don't return?" Sid asked.

"Then we ride back to Captain Duvoro, and make our way home again." Trunk said. "But I don't expect nothing to happen. We've come too far and worked too hard for you to just disappear."

"No, that's not right." Sky said. "You two need to come. Someone has to represent the rest of the people of Arbor."

"Us?" Alianna asked. She looked at Sid. I realized that she was wondering about her off-Arbor origin.

"I don't think the Spirits would have led you here with us if you weren't intended to come along. You may not feel like you belong, but the rest of us feel you do."

We spent a good while convincing them, but in the end, they decided that going with us into the unknown was better than staying here and not knowing.

We shared hugs all around, and to the shouted cheers and well-wishing of the spectators, I stood at the edge of the sea, and I became its cold, hard heart. The water in front of me turned dark and steely gray. I stepped out on it and began to walk towards the Anvil. I turned after a few steps to see if the rest were following me. Sid was right behind me, and Flare and Sky a few steps behind him. No hesitation, not even from Trunk and Alianna. I smiled.

"Ready to run?" I called. Sky groaned. I had already proved to all of them that I could run them ragged. "Just a steady pace to eat up the distance."

The rising stone column that was the Anvil of the Dragons was just over two miles away. I could feel it, and the ocean told me precisely.

We stopped a half an hour later, to readjust Sky's pack and to take a drink from our water skins. I looked behind me, and could still see the small, distant figures of the crowd on the beach. The hard sea beneath us had returned to its milky state behind us.

"Is everyone feeling normal?" I asked.

"I feel energized." Sid said. I can feel the rock and stone ahead of us pulling on me, but it feels odd — compressed somehow."

"I don't feel anything unusual." Flare said. "Maybe a little extra tingle than being out under the sun would usually give me."

"I've been feeling different since we got to the shore back at Peloi." River said. "Still do."

"I don't feel anything different." Sky said.

I felt different, and I worried that we weren't walking into a trap. It didn't feel like one.

I sure hoped I was right.

Even at a run, which had to be broken up with periods of walking and resting to accommodate Flare and Sky, we were able to reach the base of the Anvil somewhere between midday and evening meal, judging by the sun's position. River's hard water surface had good traction, slightly springy, and not cold at all as normal ice would have been. 'room temperature ice', I described it.

"Room temperature?" What does that mean?" Sky asked. The question caught me by surprise, and I had to think about it for a moment.

"You know, I'm not sure!" I confessed. "It's just a phrase I've heard my parents use at home in the Tower. I guess its supposed to mean the normal, comfortable temperature."

There was a small, sandy shore surrounding the stone and rock that rose to dizzying heights above us. We stopped long enough to break some food out of our packs and have a quick meal. I kept catching Flare and Sky with their heads turned up, staring at the impossibly smooth, sheer wall before us. We ate pork-stuffed bread pockets and melon slices. The melon in particular was sure to go bad quickly, so we ate all we had then.

With the meal eaten, and everyone laughing at the efforts to clean up using the 'slippery' seawater from the shore, I walked up to the stone where it rose and touched it with a hand. For a moment, my mind went blank under the weight of the impressions that flooded me. I stood my ground and let the rest of Arbor center me. I went through a familiar swing of perceptions, where I saw myself at the bottom of a bowl, then suddenly at the top of a curving globe, then back to the bottom of the bowl again.

I asked, and the stone gave.

"Ready?" I asked, turning to everyone. Where my hand still rested there were now stairs carved smoothly into the stone, leading upwards in a climb that seemed endless.

There was no hesitation, no doubt. We took to the stairs and began the climb. A few minutes in, River touched my shoulder.

"I can't feel the sea any longer."

"Too bad there's not some way to ride up to the top." Flare said. "My legs are already starting to kill me."

I saw Sky's ready nod, and even one from River. She was the one I would expect to be able to go the longest. Stairs, either moving up or down, use different muscles, and in different combinations than walking or running do, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that she was feeling it right along with us.

As we sat there I suddenly flashed on an image — a memory from one of those rare trips to Earth that I'd taken with my parents when I was little. There had been moving stairs! I remembered the sensation of riding them very clearly. What were they called? I searched my memories, and heard mom's voice calling out to me. 'Mat! Be careful getting on the escalator now!', she had called.

"Everybody stand up and get in a line." I called out. With some confused looks, and a grin of triumph on River's face, they did.

"I knew you'd think of something."

"Better hope this works sweetheart." I said. "Its from a childhood memory."

I reached out with my mind, the image of what I wanted clear in my thoughts, and the stone beneath us began to move.

"Don't move!" I called out in caution. Once I felt like everyone was settled in and comfortable with the movement, I sped it up. Then I sped it up some more. I was happy with our progress.

"Moving stairs?" Flare called back down to me.

"Its called an escalator. I rode one once with my parents when I was little." I replied. I could feel the top approaching, though it felt strangely blank beyond that point. I began to slow us down gradually until, a few feet from the top, I stopped us entirely.

"We'll have to walk the last little bit." I said. There were no complaints, and even a snort of laughter from Sky.

What did we find at last, atop the Anvil of the Dragons? A flat, featureless expanse of dry reddish stone that I couldn't feel at all.

My stone talents seemed to end at the lip of the cliff wall. I could sense nothing. River was still cut off from the water. The gifts were gone as well, nor could I touch the Light. We were normal people here, plain ordinary Arborians.

In the distance, across the red stone plateau was something white, and we began walking towards it immediately.

There were no rapid movement options here, and as we walked on, it grew darker and darker. Of course nightfall had been coming all this time and we knew it.

The object, looking like a circle of stones, white stones, loomed closer, a circle of stone that I couldn't touch.

"All things possible, all things great and small, are witnessed by men beneath the sun and sky." River quoted.

Durin again.

The circle of stone was just that. Dragonstone, fifty columns set in a circle a hundred feet across. Within the columns were three rings of benches, also made of Dragonstone. We took to running. River took it easy on us, but we were still running at a good pace. Still, at that pace it took us several hours to reach the stone circle.

We passed between two of the columns and saw a cheery little fire burning in the center of the circle, and a figure standing there, hard to describe, back lit by the fire as he was, but the hat seemed familiar.

"Come have a seat children, you've done well." Came the invitation.

It was Master Jo.

"Master Jo!" River called, and she ran forward, but the figure faded more and more as she got closer.

"We're past the time when we could touch and hug." Master Jo said. "But that doesn't mean we cannot enjoy a moment together."

"This has been a long journey, my friends. I should not call you children anymore, for you have proven yourselves far beyond the expectations of any involved."

"Involved in what is the question." River said.

"True. Very true." Master Jo replied. "But I am a newcomer to the tale as well, and it is not my place to tell it, but it is the will of the Spirits that I introduce you to it. Come, sit and join us."

Master Jo waved at the benches around us, and it suddenly came clear to us that, except for the two small ones nearest the fire, the benches were filled. Wispy, fading figures, human and not human sat around us. Those who were men, or near men wore recognizable smiles. Who could think to do anything but smile in return.

"The Spirits of Arbor greet you, and thank you, and want you to know that, as always, they wish you well." Master Jo said. "You will have questions, piling up at the edges of your minds, and poised upon your lips."

We laughed at the understatement, and we heard a murmur of laughter, in forms both recognizable and not, echo through everyone gathered.

"While I have been your teacher in the past, I am not one to stand and deliver a speech in the way that is needed, so I am going to ask you to let another Spirit speak now."

"Of course." We all four said almost in unison.

Master Jo sat then at one of the small benches across from us, and as he sat, the figure of a man rose from the bench beside him. The light from the fire brought his features into sharp contrast as he approached it.

We had all seen portraits and countless drawings, the face was instantly recognizable to all of us as that of Scaramoc Durin!

"Spirits walk the world, and walking still, they find the lost and give them hope, they lift those tired souls and cheer sad hearts." River quoted again. There was another ripple of laughter from the assembly.

"The man that was Scaramoc Durin would have been embarrassed to have his own words quoted back to him so faithfully, but the Spirit who remains can only stand and smile in appreciation for the memories of me that remain." He said. "I found my answers, in the end by becoming them.

The Spirit paused then, not to gather its thoughts I imagine, but to give us a chance to prepare ours.

"When minds of intelligence first arose on Arbor, there was Magic here, but it was a wild and unrestrained thing, and Arbor was a wild and unrestrained place. Minds, both bright and dark, pure and bestial, learned to interact with the Magic, and with it, they shaped Arbor, and they shaped themselves, and there were no Spirits to guide them. None to lead them forward or offer them hope.

Generations passed, people grew, across the centuries, and civilizations rose and fell, both under the light of the sun, and within the earth and sea. And now and then, across the many centuries, sometimes many, many centuries, the Magic of Arbor plucked a soul from among the dying, and a Spirit was born. So it had happened to me, and so it has happened to Master Jo, your friend and teacher."

"But for what purpose?" Sky asked, without even realizing she had spoken.

"Purpose? Whose purpose?" Durin asked in return, but he didn't wait for us to answer. "We are aware, Obsidian McKesson, of the origins of your family, and of the greater world that exists beyond Arbor, in both the physical sense and the metaphysical. We are aware of the Light, and of the Dream Stuff, and of other things. We understand faith and religion and worship and what is expected of deities."

There was a murmur again through those gathered.

"But we are not deities, we aren't Gods, or even collectively, a God. We are the Spirits, what was once left of good beings of conscious who have merged with the Magic of Arbor, and who watch over those who remain. That some men would worship us is unfortunate. We are not here to be worshiped, we are here to help."

"Where do the Dragons come into this?" I asked.

"Andrew McKesson was not the first being to come to Arbor from beyond. Even the Dragons weren't, but they were the first to come in large numbers, and to decide to act." A Spirit's voice spoke from one of the benches towards the rear.

"By the time the Dragons arrived, Arbor was divided and ruled by those called the Arborim. They were considered, at the time, to be angels, descended from the gods who created Arbor." Came yet another voice.

"Great or cruel, and sometimes both, they were the first beings who learned to tame the wildness of Arbor's Magic. They had great power, but little knowledge." Came another speaker.

"The great among them spread civilization across the entirety of Arbor, and raised everyone up to an age of reason."

"The cruel among them drove people away, and those who could, chose the sea, or the deep underground."

"Those who were able to move under the land met those who had already been there, and together, they became what is now the Shar, and the Shar achieved their own kind of greatness."

The Spirit of Durin stepped forward again, and I sensed that perhaps he was taking the focus of the conversation again.

"When the Dragons arrived, they changed things, and in a dramatic way. They had complete and utter control and understanding of the underlying forces that were the Magic of Arbor. No matter how powerful or accomplished the Arborim, they could not hope to beat even the least of the Dragons in a combat based on Magic. They saw the great inequities that existed on Arbor between the Arborim and the rest of their society, and they decided to act. They sought out those among the Arborim who would support them, and they began to teach Magic, and not just to the Arborim who supported them, but to any with the Talent. They were not creating more Dragons, those able to wield the entirety of Magic, as you and your father do."

That startled me. I hadn't seen it coming, but by the measure of the Spirits, Dad and I were Dragons, we had that level of Magic.

"Those few Spirits who had existed when the Dragons arrived saw the good that could come from their decision, and we worked to support it. We brought our influence to those among the Arborim who had always been most attuned to us. The Wind of Arbor was one of the greatest of these, as was the Sea-King, and they rallied to the Dragon's cause. While the dragons battled with the Arborim who refused to change their ways, the Wind of Arbor and the other allies worked to create safe harbors for those unable to defend themselves against the use of Magic, those without Magic themselves. When the battles were over, and the wild ones had been tamed or destroyed, the Dragons turned to the Spirits."

"This is not our world, it is yours." The Gathered Spirits quoted collectively. "What is your will?"

"The Dragons found Arbor very attractive. The conditions here which fostered what we call Magic are not found anywhere else that they had been, and their ability to tap into that Magic allowed them to move beyond their previous limitations to accomplish things for themselves they had thought beyond them. They were reluctant to give up their access to that, but knew that Arbor would inevitably change the longer they stayed, until it was no longer the Arbor that we knew and had been watching over."

"We were going to make a deal, the Dragons and us." Another Spirit said. "But there was a wrinkle."

"The Shar." I guessed out loud.

"The Shar." Once again the assembled Spirits said together.

"The collective Shar mind had been witness to all these events, and they saw the good, both for them and for us that came of it." Durin's Spirit continued. "They wanted to make sure that whatever deal was worked out, there was some failsafe in place so that the Dragons could be brought back to Arbor if they were needed."

"So we're a failsafe?" River asked. "Our Transformations, our lives, our very destinies were meant to provide a failsafe?"

"Yes and no, young one." Durin's Spirit said. "Yes and no. You four were selected, because the Shar prophesy was triggered by certain occurrences."

"The prophesy was more a set of conditions then?" Flare asked.

"Yes, one of many, and once those conditions were met, the rest was somewhat automatic." A Spirit said.

"But there were surprises." Another Spirit said.

"That you would be one of the chosen, Obsidian, that was a surprise." Master Jo said.

"That Master Jo would join the Spirits, that was a surprise." Durin said.

"A surprise indeed." The rest of the Spirits intoned.

"A Spirit raised from one who was nor born of Arbor. A very large surprise, and one that made us reconsider many of our assumptions."

Surprisingly, Flare cut off a snort of laughter at that. We all looked at him expectantly. All of us, Spirits and people.

"I'm sorry, I just thought of one of my sister's frequent admonitions." Flare said. "She would always tell me not to make assumptions — 'Assumptions are lazy thinking!', she would tell me. I laughed because I thought of telling her that even the Spirits make assumptions. Don't think she'd have a come back for that."

There was a collective chuckle, but not all the Spirits were in the same position to appreciate the humor of it, I think.

"Spirits, do have assumptions, and those surprises did cause us to reexamine them." Durin said. "The Shar Prophesy triggered more things than we knew, when the conditions were met.

I thought about what those conditions might have been, and about the events that had happened in my lifetime, and recent history, looking for the key that would explain things. River saw it before I did.

"Its you!" She said. "Or your Dad, actually."

My Dad's arrival on Arbor was the catalyst that had made me one of the Transformed, and had sent me on this quest? I might have felt bad about that, if it hadn't also brought me River. I nodded to myself. I could understand how the appearance of another 'dragon' on Arbor might trigger the Shar's failsafe.

"So we are the failsafe, but we still don't know what we are expected to do." I said.

"The Dragons wanted to maintain their tap into the Magic." Durin told us. "This place, and the Magics around it are designed to do that. In addition, the many things you've seen and experienced in and around the Anvil are designed to keep Arborians, Magically inclined or otherwise, away from the link that keeps the Dragons connected to the Magic. You are here, because in order for the Dragons to return, and for them, and the Shar to agree that things are still as they should be, someone will have to take their place at the other end of the link."

There it was, I guess. We were some sort of metaphysical bookmarks so that the Dragons could work their deal with the Shar. All the power and peril we'd gone through was so we could babysit the link that would allow the Dragons to return.

Here at last was something I could grasp with a little enthusiasm.

"We must have some time to discuss this amongst ourselves, now that we know what our choice is." I answered. "I do have it right, that doing this is ultimately our choice?"

"Yes, that is true."

"And if we decline?" River asked.

"Then you will return to your lives, Your Transformations will return to more normal levels, and we will begin to raise another group of Guardians from the next generation of men."

"You name us Guardians?" I asked, my head perking up.

"No, The Dragons do." Durin's Spirit said. "'Guardians' is how they named you."

"We shall leave you to your discussion." Master Jo said, and with that, the Spirits assembled around us faded swiftly away.

We stood, silent and still for a long moment, adjusting to being alone again. Finally we all moved closer to the fire at the center of the ring and sat together on the ground.

"Lets meditate a moment, reach our calm centers and gather our thoughts and feelings before we begin." I suggested, and received nods in return.

With the fire as a focus, and River, Flare and Sky as points of balance, I found my center quickly, and there, I was finally able to sense the touch of the Spirits that had cut me off from the Gifts and my Transformed self. Sense them, yes. Alter them? Not a chance! I could tell without even trying that it would be like trying to move the universe itself.

Several long minutes later, I felt that we were where we needed to be.

"There will be danger, in guarding the link for the Dragons." I said.

"There was danger before we got here. There will be danger after all is said and done." River said.