“Oh, well, not really as impressive as it seemed at the time,” Jugar said at once, his countenance shifting with remarkable swiftness from belligerent to shy. “It really was mostly the Heart of Aer that was impressive. I just used it to conjure a little trick or two.”
“ ‘A little trick or two?’” Drakis said, his words slower and with more consideration. “You bested not one but four or possibly five Iblisi with those ‘little tricks.’”
“It is most kind of you to say so, but, in all fairness it was only with your most able and impressive aid that such a feat was accomplished,” the dwarf said smiling once more.
Drakis was not convinced. “You’re a wizard, Jugar. When were you going to tell us. .?”
“It was a terrible battle, indeed, my boy, but at least we are rid of that chimerian Ethis,” Jugar continued as though he had not heard the man. “I dare say that each of us sleeps better at night knowing that he has gone on his way. I do not say that I wish the fellow harm-never let it be said that Jugar would be so cruel-but there was something about him that I did not trust. True, it is most likely that he is a fallen comrade lying scorched and broken among the ruins of Nothree, but, tragic as such an end may be, it has brought us to this fine ship and furthered us on our very honorable journey in search of your destiny.”
Urulani just shook her head. “Unbelievable! How does he do that?”
“Listen to me, dwarf,” Drakis said, squatting down on the deck before Jugar, but the dwarf continued to look down at the wood he was working in his hands. “You’ve been making me out to be this legendary hero to everyone we’ve met since the fall of House Timuran. It kept Belag sane when he might have fallen into madness. . and I’m glad for that. It even managed somehow to bluff us through the Faery Kingdom although I find it hard to believe that Queen Murialis didn’t see through the lie from the first. It got us fed on the Vestasian Savanna. . and it seemed like just a convenient little lie then.”
The dwarf continued to look at his hands as they worked the wood.
“But now people are dying,” Drakis continued. “The city of the Hak’kaarin is filled with the dead-and RuuKag with them-because of that lie. All of Nothree was burned to the ground and who knows how many of the family and friends of this crew may be dead for all we know-certainly all of them now homeless-because of that lie.”
“It’s not a lie,” Jugar huffed.
“I am not the man,” Drakis said each word with emphasis.
“You could be!” Jugar shouted.
Drakis stood up.
“How do you know?” The dwarf continued as he, too, stood, turning his face up so that their eyes could meet. “You’ve lived your entire life so far as you recall under the thumb of your pathetic elven masters-masters, they call themselves! They stomp about the world taking what they want, bleeding the world pale just to satisfy their whims while the rest of us die for them. They destroyed your people, Drakis. . they hated humanity so much that they killed as many as they could and enslaved those that remained not because you were such prized slaves or warriors but because they wanted every day. . every day, Drakis. . to see the evidence in the flesh of their superiority over conquered humankind. When the dwarves wouldn’t bow to them, they destroyed them, too-oh, yes, they took them apart throne by throne until only the Ninth Throne stood, and even then they would not bow to the Imperial Whim. They paid for it with their last blood!”
“But you!” the dwarf said, taking a step toward Drakis, “You can change all that. One man alone is worthless. . but a legend? A legend can forge a new destiny, Drakis. A legend can change the world! You-me-we’re nothing-lumps of flesh who just wander the world for a few years before we return to the ground that spawned us. But a legend lives forever, boy! A legend has a destiny beyond the life of anyone!”
“I’ve seen the fruits of this legend you’re so pleased about,” Drakis said in a voice that barely carried across the deck. “So far it has motivated hundreds-maybe upward of a thousand-very inspired deaths.”
“You’re missing the grander picture, my boy,” the dwarf replied not unkindly.
“Nonsense,” Urulani interjected. “I’d say he’s got a rather clear understanding of the situation.”
“This from a corsair! A woman whose people subsist on the scraps they can steal from their neighbors while they hide in coves along a coast that no one wants!” Jugar suddenly changed his gruff tone after the look on the captain’s face conveyed her sudden desire to test her dwarf-floating hypothesis. “My apologies, good Captain, it was an ill-advised phrase that I used in the heat of the argument. I should have suggested-and, indeed, do suggest-that the perspective of the Sondau Clan should be broadened beyond their pressing and immediate concerns. Rhonas is at war with the entire world and has brought it to heel.”
The dwarf turned back to Drakis. “The one thing that survived the fall of humanity was this legend-this tale of the great dragon warrior who turned his back on the world and would return again to save it in its hour of most desperate need. The hope of this redemption-this story of justice to come-has found its way in one form or other into every nation and race from the Charos beaches of Mestophia to the breaking waves of Chaenandria’s Lyrac shores. They all look to the north-and wait for the legend to fulfill his destiny and bring peace to their lives. The sands have fallen again and again through the glass of time, our need has grown more desperate with each passing year, and still he has not come.”
“But now you’re here, Drakis,” the dwarf poked the human with the tip of his knife. “Mortals do not get to choose their fates. . their fates choose them. You’re going to be the Drakis. . that’s your fate.”
Drakis gazed down at the dwarf and shook his head. “When we get to these God’s Wall Peaks you keep talking about, then we’ll find out whether I choose my fate or it chooses me. There is only one way to be absolutely sure.”