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Part 9: Dragon

(1) After Armadyl departed from the capital, to journey back to Abbinah, Ikov also prepared to depart. He set out to the north to visit all the towns and villages along the west bank of the river. Everywhere he went he asked to be allowed to come and go without fanfare so that he might move quickly and have more time to speak with the people. He listened to their stories, and sought out any effects of the spirit of which he had been warned. He discovered little, but encouraged all who spoke with him, and thanked them for their time.

(2) For two weeks, he followed the river north, until he came to the end of the human settlements and the southern border of gnomish land. Then he set out west toward the mountains. There the towns and villages were more spread out, so some nights he spent camped alone in the countryside. He had time to think and to rest and to feel more deeply about the land for the spirit there. One night, as he approached the mountains, he had a vivid dream. He saw a beautiful sword, smithed from steal. The hilt was made from a scaly hide, one layer of thick, black scales, tough and bone-like; another layer of delicate scales of gold wrapped about the grip, guard, and pommel; on closer inspection he could see a very fine pattern in the golden scales: thin curving lines of green and tiny squares of red with convex sides. He woke and wondered what the dream could mean.

(3) Once Ikov reached the foothills in the west, he turned south and traveled through many more towns and villages. They were older settlements, poorer settlements. The land was less fertile there. The lords and ladies lived in ancient fortresses, built upon hills, outcrops of rock, or at the base of the mountains - all defensible locations. From those positions, powerful families had once ruled over larger swaths of land in the east, but for a century the nobles had remained within their smaller fiefs. Ikov could sense dissatisfaction among the people there, resentment at their lot. Some of the nobles too were less welcoming of their new peer: in a few he could sense the tyrannical ambitions of which he'd been warned. For a month, Ikov journeyed south along the edge of the range. Still he could not sense the spirit, though he twice spotted the fleeting shadow in the mountains. His foe would not yet reveal itself.

(4) Upon reaching the southernmost villages, Ikov turned east across the plain. There he found the mood lifted among the people. The people there were proud to live on the southern frontier and to till the unsettled land; they were joyous and adventurous and especially hospitable to their guest. Their settlements were sparse, so Ikov once again spent many days and nights alone in the fields. Somtimes he wandered farther south in the day, but he would come nearer the southern border to camp at night. At the start of winter, he forded the river. Then Ikov could sense then that the spirit had followed him from the mountains. It would appear as a large shadow, gliding across the open field, as if from a bird of prey high above. He knew it would not yet strike, not yet reveal itself to him.

(5) After a month, he reached the shore of the sea, and then followed the coast north, visiting the villages and towns of farmers and fishermen. All welcomed him. They were peaceful people, though some were anxious about the spirit in the west. One day while Ikov was among them the spirit appeared in the sky, no longer as a shadow but as a winged creature - it was about eighteen feet from its head and long neck to the tip of its tail; it had large jaws and carnivorous teeth, four legs with clawed feet, and scales all over which glinted red or turned dull black in the sun - it swept down low in the sky so that many could see it, and then disappeared in the clouds. The sight triggered panic in several villages, but Ikov went quickly to each of them to quell their fears. He explained that the beast would not attack them but sought first to destroy the sorcerer who had come against it. He counseled them to continue with their ways in peace and to endure the threats with patience. Many were calmed, but Ikov knew that they waited intently for his victory.

(6) After many more weeks, leaving the last coastal village, Ikov turned inland and walked along the northeastern border. He soon found himself walking across a dusty field, full of rocks, scattered about an ancient oak. Not far from him, he spotted a slab of rock jutting out at a shallow angle from the earth. To its underside clung a bush; its roots wrapped around the edges of the slab to reach the soil above. "This bush conceals something from me," Ikov said to himself. He walked over to it, grasped it, and pulled it away from the slab of rock. In its place he saw a metal disk, secured at its center to metal within the slab above. He wondered whether it could be dwarven technology, of which he had heard among the Fremennik. He grasped the disk in his hands and turned it clockwise. It turned with resistance at first but then gave way and turned with ease; he heard the clanking of metal gears turning within the rock.

(7) Suddenly Ikov heard a sound behind him. He turned about. Next to the trunk of the oak tree, a large, flat, circular stone, partially hidden in the ground and partially exposed, had begun to turn - around an axle under the ground. He continued to turn the disk in his hands, and the large stone behind him also turned, increasing in speed. Then the large stone came to a halt with a thud. And a chasm opened in the trunk of the tree. Ikov approached it. The trunk was hollow; winding stairs led downward beneath the earth, through a shaft only three shoulder-widths wide. He entered the tree and walked carefully down the stairs. After one turn around the stone staircase, Ikov had to bend low, for the passage was not tall enough for him. The shaft was dark and the air dusty. But Ikov was not moved by fear as he descended a depth of three stories underground.

(8) At last he arrived at a small doorway, half his height and just as wide. He crawled through into a larger chamber where he stood up straight and allowed his eyes to adjust to the dim light coming from the outside somewhere high above. He took a few steps away from the hooded doorway and found himself within a vast chamber: the room was circular, bounded by high stone walls - the far wall was too distant for him to see clearly in the dim light. High above he beheld an immense stone dome, around the rim of which he could see small openings which let in pale beams of daylight. Immediately he knew that there was magic at work: he had not descended as far from the dusty plain as the dome was high.

(9) Fearing a trap, he turned to look at the doorway through which he had come: a green light shone there. He sensed the presence of a spirit, blocking his way, but the spirit was not malevolent. It encouraged him silently to explore. He walked a little farther into the chamber, through a stone arch. Soon he noticed that he stood within a circular ring of stone arches, two dozen paces smaller in its diameter than the circular wall of the chamber. Beyond the arches he saw along the entire wall of the chamber, beginning a short distance from either side of the doorway, a ring of altars set side by side. Each was cut from stone, but every one was cut differently, and from a different sort of stone, and bore different emblems and decorations of stones and gems and metals. And at the far end, directly opposite the door, the ring of arches broke, and beyond it Ikov saw the largest altar, slightly elevated above the others, cut from white stone, and adorned on its front with a star made from eight long and pointed sapphires. Before it and at the ends of the ring of arches stood a tall, stone pulpit on the left and a stone table on the right. "These altars were erected in my honor by two hundred fifty families of the dwarves," said the spirit in the light behind him, "so in gratitude I have preserved this place in secret."

(10) Ikov waited for the spirit to say more, but he heard nothing further in his mind. He walked toward the main altar, between the pulpit and table. He noticed upon the table a short, jagged knife, made from stone. The ominous object seemed to wait for him. He grasped the knife. Immediately he saw on the far side of the table the shadowy figure of a man. The man also grasped a weapon upon the table, a many-headed flail. Ikov sensed malice in the man, and ducked as he swung the flail toward Ikov's head. With the knife in hand, Ikov ran toward the center of the chamber, and then turned to face the figure fast approaching. He had no time to draw his sword but fought with the knife he held, slashing at the man and dodging the swings of the flail. The man was quick, too quick for Ikov to harm him, so Ikov again turned to run. The man followed. Again, Ikov engaged, but neither could injure the other.

(11) Ikov continued to engage and retreat, with the intention of exhausting his opponent. Soon Ikov began to tire and to be afraid, but the shadowy figure appeared to tire too. Ikov felt a spirit in the figure, but he could not discern its source, what caused its malice, or why it sought to hurt him. As the pair fought, they made their way from the center of the chamber, to the doorway, and then along the left wall between the altars and arches. Then Ikov understood: the spirit and he shared thoughts; neither could harm the other. The spirit tired exactly as he himself tired; neither could outdo the other. Neither desired to continue the fight, but neither would risk giving it up.

(12) Ikov was running between the altars and arches, approaching the backside of the pulpit. He ran up its stairs and then lept off its front. He rolled onto the ground, caught himself, turned on one knee to see the spirit atop the pulpit ready to leap upon him. In that moment, he threw his knife to the ground, and lifted up his arms to catch his attacker; the figure lept and vanished in the air.

(13) Ikov let his arms down, and waited there on one knee to catch his breath. Then he heard the spirit of the place speak strange words: "Justly, you sought to kill you. In mercy, you did not. Remember this before the dragon." Then there was silence; the spirit in the light had departed. Ikov looked about him; in the wall on the right of the main altar he saw a doorway, as tall and as wide as humans make them. He walked through it and entered a dark passageway and climbed its stairs which rose in a gentle arc, clockwise in the stone wall around the chamber. Halfway around, he emerged onto a balcony at the base of the dome. All about him white light streamed through the windows; he could not see what lay beyond them. He walked clockwise around the rim until he reached another doorway, far above the main altar. The passage was short, leading steeply upwards to daylight. He ascended and emerged from a crevice in a large rock, a short distance from the oak tree upon the dusty plain.

(14) Ikov continued his journey along the northeastern border. For several days he saw no one, and constantly he puzzled over the meaning of what had happened in the chamber. One afternoon he saw across the plain a courtyard of stone, and stone archways built upon it. It was the monument erected where Armadyl and he had entered the land. Next to it he could see a long, wooden cabin, where those assigned to guard the monument lived. He looked forward to dining and resting there, and set out across the plain.

(15) Suddenly, Ikov felt the full presence of the spirit he had been hunting. It circled in the sky above him in full, draconic form. He drew his sword and reached out to the spirit with his mind. It felt weak to him, dumb, mean, and infantile. He was surprised, but said to himself: "I too feel weak, and dumb and mean and infantile. I am no stronger than this spirit, except when aided by a spirit stronger than myself." His thought immediately went to Armadyl, who had aided him in all his previous battles. "But Armadyl is not with you," said the dragon in his mind. The dragon was right; Armadyl had left the world.

(16) Then, Ikov remembered the sword he had seen in his dream months before. "You never found the sword," said the dragon, "You cannot slay me without it." Fear struck Ikov, and the dragon dove from the sky to strike him mortally. But Ikov braced himself for the impact of the dragon, and raised high the sword he had, ready to plunge it into the dragon's heart. The dragon veered from his dive, coming just close enough for Ikov to swing his blade at its claws. The dragon returned to circling Ikov above.