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Fola was glad she had woven new floormats for her hut so recently. It would have done her guest no honor to ask him to kneel on dusty old mats; and he was certainly worthy of honor, this shaman who had killed a dragon. After offering cool water and dried fruit to Bwire, Fola impatiently settled beside him.

“How did you defeat the dragon?” she asked, wincing inwardly as she thought of what her mother would say; she hadn’t even asked the shaman about the health of his family or blessed his sons and daughters.

Bwire slurped eagerly at his second bowl of water. “Ah, that is simple to say. I found a magical item of great wonder: a polished chunk of amber that allowed me to capture a creature in its depths–even a creature as large as a dragon.” He held his bowl out, empty.

Fola leaned forward to pour the shaman a third bowl. “Do you have this magical crystal with you? With that we should easily defeat the dragon!”

Sighing exaggeratedly, Bwire shrugged his shoulders in defeat. “Unfortunately, since I had to use that crystal to trap the first dragon, we cannot use it again.”

“You can use it only once?”

“No, but to use it again I would be forced to free whatever was inside. No, I threw the Amber Prison into the depths of the western ocean. That dragon won’t trouble anyone again.”

Fola frowned. Just how safe was such an act? What if the stone washed ashore, perhaps to picked up by a child along the sands? Still, she needed to help Kenlo–here, now. “So there’s nothing we can do,” she said, chewing her lip.

“There may be something,” Bwire said, his voice cool as a snake’s scales. “It is no accident I’m here, little guildmage: I’ve heard rumors of another such Amber Prison in the Ntatsu Plain somewhere, and I was looking for it. When I saw the dragon I came here instead, hoping to assist your town.”

Fola chewed her lip. “But you trapped a dragon in the stone you had before. If there is such a stone here, might there not already be something or someone in it?”

Bwire swallowed more water.”There is someone inside, I know that. But he is harmless.”

“How can we be sure?”

Bwire snorted and finished his third bowl. “Which do you think more dangerous to little Kenlo–one more interested in his own lies than true power, or a dragon who has killed already? No, this is the only answer. If we just had some way to find the stone . . . .”

Fola frowned again when Bwire lifted up the bowl for a fourth serving. Water was a precious commodity, even in Kenlo. It was the Bitter Time, when the river was poison to drink and the people of Kenlo had to raise their water from a deep well. Four bowls was well beyond the bounds of hospitality. Still, Fola poured the water as she thought.

“There’s a spell I know,” she said slowly. “It might help, but I have not the power to cast it.”

“You have means of adding power?” Bwire asked. “Kenlo’s survival depends on finding the Amber Prison. It would be a shame–“

“Yes!” Fola moved hastily to a small trunk pushed against the far wall of the hut, just beneath her sleeping hammock, and plucked out a soft leather sack. “I had forgotten about this; it has been so long in my family.”

When she turned back to face Bwire, she caught for an instant a strange smug look on his face. It vanished so quickly that she wondered if she had imagined it. Or perhaps he is only happy to have gotten four bowls of water, she thought sourly.

“What have you there?” Bwire inquired, his face showing only polite interest.

“It is a very rare jewel, a Lion’s Eye Diamond.” Fola unwrapped the precious gem. It glinted even in the hut’s shadows, tawny elegance undiminished. “This jewel was presented to my great-grandmother for her service to the town, so that our family could again serve Kenlo in times of need. I think now may be the time to use it.”

“How does it work?” Bwire bent forward. In his eagerness, he spilled some of his water, making Fola gasp. Such waste! And he didn’t even apologize to the water for the disrespect. Bwire’s voice sharpened. “Well?”

Fola tried not to frown. “By offering up this gem to the gods, I will be granted the power to work a spell I cannot normally cast.”

“Then do it at once, little guildmage. Who knows when the dragon will return to kill another of your townsfolk?” Bwire paused, and a sly grin spread across his face. “Perhaps even that handsome M’bari.”

Fola dropped her gaze, trying not to blush. She didn’t have time for this foolishness! Letting her breath out in a great whush, she opened herself to the energies of the Lion’s Eye Diamond. Her consciousness dropped into the gem’s tawny depths, like a pearl into honey. Fola cast her spell carefully, and searched the surrounding lands for an Amber Prison such as Bwire described.

At first, no image came to her. Just as she began to despair, a magical aura caught her attention. She focused her vision and saw a man in a frayed robe, and beyond him, a small herd of goats. The magical glow was near them.

There it was! Lying like any rock among the grasses. The Amber Prison was no bigger than her fist. There was already a figure trapped in its depths, but she couldn’t see more than a vaguely human shape.

A goat’s head loomed into view so suddenly that Fola fell back, nearly losing her concentration. “What are you–?” Fola began, just as the goat’s grazing, bewhiskered lips closed around the stone. In seconds, the view went black.

Fola stared up at Bwire in horror. “A goat just ate the Amber Prison!”

[What can Fola do now?]
[Who was that person inside the Amber Prison?]
[Whose goat was that?]
[Back]