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  “We will only kill the dragon if we must. It is being goaded by the elves to frighten our villagers. Your father and I will try to drive it off, and Uncle Colin will help, too. I will bring back something for you when I return, even if it is not a dragon’s head. Now hop down and be good while we are gone.”

  “Yes, Mamma. I will practice fighting dragons and elves while you are gone, so that next time you and Daddy can take me along. May I ride with you to the portal?”

  “Yes, you may. Go find the steward and tell him to saddle two drunglets. You may ride out with me and come back with him.”

  Leon scrambled down from the trogus and excitedly ran off to find the steward. Within minutes, the boy came out of the stable pulling a small spotted drunglet, with the bemused steward following close behind.

  What a little schemer! Erin thought fondly. He had the stable hands saddle it in advance. He sensed that I would let him come before he asked! She could see his little eyes looking at her proudly as she took her place to lead her troops.

  Then it was time. She turned her trogus and whistled for the riders to move into formation, standing tall in her stirrups.

  “We ride!” her voice rang out. “We ride for Theland!”

  “Sword and claw! Sword and claw!” her troops shouted in chorus, raising the battle cry of the Theland riders.

  They filed out of the courtyard behind the lead rider and the royal banner. Even in the dim light, her riders rode their mounts with ease. A trogus was a difficult animal to master but good in battle – cat-like and agile, and with its fangs and claws, able to hold its own against all comers. These riders had gone with her many times and were well-experienced.

  As she waited for her place in the center of the line, Erin twisted in her saddle to stretch her muscles and flex her arms and legs. This was her first long quest since she had given birth to Ariana. She knew she could ride again and fight, but her body still responded slowly with the residuals of pupping. She looked back, gave one last wave to Ariana, and smiled at Leon. As her riders fell into place, Erin overheard two of them conversing in low voices. “It is good to see the Princess back among us. That is the first time I have seen her smile since she pupped.”

  Erin briefly sensed for her daughter. Ariana, mother will be home in a few days.

  ✽✽✽

  Dawn broke as the riders left the stable yards and moved through the streets of Freeland City. The guards had already opened the city gates in anticipation of their departure, and the entire group moved smoothly to the new portal transport hub outside the city wall. They would join up with Consort Alec at the portal. As her riders grouped up around her, Erin waited patiently in the portal staging area for her consort and the remainder of the force to arrive, Leon and the steward waiting nearby.

  With pride, Erin thought about how Alec, her consort and Great Wizard, had brought portals to her land.

  After encountering the portals used by the Aldermen out on the Grasslands to move people and equipment from place to place, Alec had puzzled out their function and mechanics and built his own versions. He had made medallions and trained several Thelanders to focus and use enough dark energy to operate a portal. A few of the major areas in Theland were now linked and the portals were busy every day. The difficulty of training operators and building portal controllers restricted the expansion; however the few portals that were in operation had changed commerce, transportation, and defense within Theland.

  Erin still did not understand how they worked. “Magic,” she had told Leon one night. “One day you will be able to do magic like your father.”

  “It’s not ‘magic,’ it’s ‘science,” Alec had answered, “Leon also will be able to build portals if he works hard and learns about science.”

  Whether it was ‘magic’ or ‘science,’ she knew her great wizard could outsmart anything she couldn’t outfight.

  ✽✽✽

  Erin sensed her consort long before she could see him. When Alec finally came in sight, backlit in the early morning sunlight, he was easy to pick out since he was half a head taller than the other riders. She could hear the huffing trogus and the muffled rumble of the supply carts as his group neared the portal staging area. Erin watched as Alec rode his striped trogus, followed by several supply carts and some of his apprentice wizards. His trogus was already sweating. To Erin’s experienced eye, Alec rode the big animal capably, but he did not have the mastery of a good rider.

  Another quest, Alec thought to himself. Another chance to die. Not something I studied at the university. He shifted in the saddle and the beast snarled unappreciatively. Calm down buddy, you might look like a cross between a lion and a horse, but you have the temperament of a stubborn mule.

  Only a few years ago he had been a young research scientist, newly-appointed to a position at the North Atlantic Institute to study military and commercial applications of dark energy. Much of his work then was top secret; although difficult and exciting, it did not involve physical danger. However, an accident in the dark energy laboratory had unexpectedly activated his research medallion and transported him through time and space to Erin’s world: Nevia, the Land of the Five Moons. Then, of course, he met Erin, the Princess and Heir Presumptive to the Queenship of Theland, became her Consort, and fathered her two children. Erin thought of him as her ‘Great Wizard,’ he thought wistfully. Now his ability to use dark energy was integral to the peaceful rule of Theland, and he wouldn’t trade his life with Erin and the children for any other. This is home.

  Colin rode beside him this morning. In addition to his royal duties as Erin’s younger brother, he had become Alec’s apprentice – one of the more enthusiastic of Theland’s new wizards. Colin tries hard and is one of the best that I have trained on this world, Alec noted appreciatively. But, realistically, he knew that Colin was adequate, but not real good. Not an ‘A’ student.

  The young man rode eagerly beside him, clearly wanting to ride ahead, but knowing that his place was not in front of his superior. Confident in the saddle, his dark hair pulled back, as handsome as his sister, Colin was every bit the young prince. Alec admired the younger man’s skill at riding and fighting but chafed at Colin’s lack of academic training and lackluster study habits, and his impetuousness. Still, Colin was learning the basics of how to use dark energy. Being the Queen’s son makes him not try as hard as some of the others do. His weakness is a fault of his position in this society. No one on this world will ever be a strong user. To be an expert user of dark energy, a person must have an understanding of the underlying physics and chemistry. The limited knowledge of science on this world will always limit Colin’s ability – and the abilities of my other apprentices, too. That is too bad. The possibilities for using dark energy on Nevia are boundless. This is a zero-point world – a rare focal point in the multiverse – and as such has a local maximum of dark energy. With my medallion, I can use dark energy to create anything that I can visualize. I wish I could use it to re-create a computer or a cell phone – two things I miss so much from Earth – but I can’t visualize the electronics that make them work.

  Alec and Colin rode up and greeted Erin; Leon stood up on his drunglet’s saddle and took a great leap to land in his father’s arms. Alec almost tumbled off his trogus, but the animal swayed and kept both on.

  “Hey buddy, you’re up early!” Alec laughed.

  “Daddy, Mamma promises she will bring me something back from your quest. I want the dragon’s head because I want to see a dragon,” Leon answered eagerly. “I want to climb on its horns and feel its scales!”

  “One day, you will be big enough to come and see a dragon for yourself, but they are not creatures to be trifled with. Promise me that you will take good care of your sister and keep Grandmother safe while we are gone.”

  Leon beamed with pride at having been entrusted with such a great responsibility. “Don’t worry, Daddy! I will! I’ll make sure they stay safe.”

  “Okay, son, I need to get busy now. Th
ere’s a dragon to tame!” He hugged the little boy. “Wish me ‘good journey.’”

  “Good journey, Daddy. I’ll see you soon.”

  I hope so, my child, Alec thought.

  The steward maneuvered Leon’s mount alongside the two and Leon jumped back onto his drunglet. Leon pushed his drunglet back to his mother and put his hand in his pocket. “Mamma, I brought you a gift. Close your eyes.”

  Erin closed her eyes.

  “You can open them now, Mamma.”

  Erin opened her eyes. Leon was holding out his little hand, a little red river stone nestled in his palm. “I found it down by the creek, yesterday. I think it is pretty. I know it is your favorite color. Take it for good luck!” he said excitedly. “It is from Ari and me both,” he added.

  Erin took the stone and reached across to hug her son. “It is very pretty, and it is my favorite color. I will take it with me and remember you both every time I feel it.”

  Leon smiled. “Good journey, Mamma!” Leon gave his father and mother a parting wave and rode off, following the steward back to the residence.

  “What a little scamp,” Erin said, to no one in particular, watching the little boy ride away.

  Alec nodded. “He sure is.” Then he turned to his consort. “Have you heard anything new? Or sensed anything?”

  “The dragon is in the moonward reaches of Theland, close to the Gott borderlands and the Elf Mountains. Mother and I used the Dragon Stone before dawn, and I could sense the dragon. It has crossed into an isolated valley. There are several villages in the valley; Pome is the largest of them. The valley is one and a half day’s ride from your nearest portal station. I think the elves have sent the dragon to terrorize that portion of Theland.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully.

  “Mother asked me again this morning if I wanted to take the Dragon Stone with us, but I declined. I think that is what the elves want. If we take the Dragon Stone, the elf spies will know, and then they will send the dragon to terrorize Freeland City while the stone is not there,” said Erin.

  Rand, the lead rider, rode up and interrupted their conversation. “We are all assembled and the portals are ready for us. Do you want to go first, Princess?” he asked. “I will go with the second group.”

  Erin rode onto the portal platform with nine other riders. Sweat beaded on her forehead and she clenched and unclenched her hands. Porting made her uncomfortable. Her consort had made each of the portals, and she had ported many times, but she still found the experience spooky. She sensed the young wizard apprentice operating the portal as he focused and fed dark energy into the portal controller. The world dimmed, went black, and returned. She was in a different place.

  3 – Mountain Pass

  Erin spurred her trogus and the beast stepped off the moonward portal platform; she waited in the staging area while the remainder of the riders and equipment ported. From here, they would have to ride through a mountain pass to the valley where the dragon had been reported. Alec ported with the final group, along with his young apprentices, who seemed overawed at the experience.

  “Oh, there you are,” Alec said, riding up to her. “Any problems porting?”

  “No, it all went fine,” Erin said.

  Rand assembled the column, and they left the staging area, soon joining a roadway leading towards the mountains. The forty riders and their spare mounts, and the drungs with the supply carts and Alec’s junior wizards, made a long caravan.

  “Pretty landscape,” Alec said, looking at the vast panorama of the Elf Mountains rising before them. “Have you been here before?”

  “My father brought me with him once when he came to visit this valley. I was a little girl, only a little older than Leon, but I still remember the spectacular views.”

  “We must turn here to reach Pome, Princess,” Rand said, and the group turned off the main road onto a smaller trail threading through the foothills. Soon they were in a rugged, rocky territory skirting the higher mountains.

  Erin looked and pointed at the broad vista that stretched before them. On one side of the trail, a sheer wall stretched high above them. On the other side, a steep talus slope dropped several hundred feet down into a canyon. At the bottom of the canyon was a rushing stream, its swoosh clearly audible even this high above it. The Elf Mountains rose majestically over the far rim of the canyon, the mountain foliage at a resplendent peak of fall color, and only a faint hint of snow on the highest peaks.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Erin.

  “Reminds me a bit of the mountains where I grew up, in Washington State,” Alec agreed.

  As they climbed, the trail narrowed; it had been hewn out of the rock wall at some time in the far past and this section was only wide enough for one cart or two troguses abreast. The trail showed signs of its age and had traverses where rock falls had made it precariously narrow. Alec kept his trogus as close as possible to the sheer rock wall on the uphill side, while Erin preferred to ride her animal along the edge, nonchalantly leaning out to see the gorge below.

  “The view is beautiful, but it is a long drop,” Alec finally said to her.

  Erin laughed. “I can sense your discomfort, but there is no other road.”

  “It’s a little difficult,” Alec said. “I am going to be really stiff when I get off this trogus tonight.”

  Erin nodded. “This is the longest trip for me since our daughter was born. My body is not yet where I want it to be, and I too will be stiff and sore.”

  “We won’t have to return this way. I can set up a portal for our return, if you want. It will link your village of Pome to the rest of Theland, and make the trip home faster and easier,” Alec replied.

  ✽✽✽

  The carts creaked and groaned as the drungs pulled them along the path, the trogus and drungs snorting in time with the creaking. After an hour or so they came to a sharp bend on the trail, leading around a jutting column of rock. The lead scout and his mount vanished around the corner. Erin could sense his concern even before she heard his whistle.

  “Column halt,” shouted Rand, and the whistle and the command was repeated down the line until the entire party stopped. Rand rode ahead to confer with the scout, and soon returned. “The road is blocked, Princess,” he told her. “There has been a rockfall across our path.”

  Erin urged her trogus forward, edging past the riders in front of her without hesitation. Alec followed her, gingerly guiding his trogus around riders and rocks. His trogus nimbly scampered along the edge of the trail, two feet securely on the path and two feet precariously balanced on the edge. Alec thought about dismounting and walking to the front, but before he could find a place to get off without falling into the canyon, his trogus had reached the front of the column. He positioned his trogus back towards the uphill rock wall as soon as he caught up with Erin.

  “There’s our problem,” Erin said, pointing along the rocky trail. Just ahead of them, chunks of rock were strewn across their path and a ten-foot stretch of the trail had slid into the valley below.

  “Looks like a recent rockslide, Consort Alec,” Rand said. “This time of year, in these mountains, it is not uncommon for some rock up above to come loose and take a piece of the trail with it.”

  Erin surveyed the damaged section.

  “Do you want our riders to clear the boulders?” Rand asked.

  “It would be easy to clear the rock, and we could get the trogus to jump the gap, but we would have to go without our supply carts. I don’t want to arrive without our supplies. They are essential for us to fight the dragon.” She eyed the breach in the trail. “Can you do something, Great Wizard?”

  Alec looked at the gap with an appraising eye. Then he looked at the long drop down to the river below. I am not sure that I want to be on a trogus that jumps that gap.

  A trogus snorting behind him interrupted his thoughts. “What is the problem? Why have we stopped? Sis, what’s going on?” Then the voice became quiet as Colin looked at the gap in the road. “So �
�� that is why we haven’t encountered any other travelers. I was wondering why we had not met anyone going the other way.”

  Alec turned to Rand. “We can build a bridge across this.” He cautiously turned his trogus around. “Colin, you can help me.”

  “Dismount,” Rand called to the riders. “Take a break whilst we fix this.”

  “Should we camp here for the night?” one of the riders asked Rand. He looked at her, then at Alec. “Consort? How long do you need to make repairs?”

  I can’t sleep on this ledge, Alec thought to himself, then realized that Erin knew what he was thinking. She looked at him and raised her eyebrow.

  “Colin and I should be able to fix this in plenty of time for us to travel further on before evening,” he said to Rand. “Colin, are you ready?”

  Colin was not sure what he was ready for, but nodded his assent.

  “Rand, I need some of the riders to help. First, I need them to stack some boulders by the edge of the gap, right here.”

  “Yes, Consort. Reuben! Pete! Come help!”

  Several riders came up and moved medium-sized boulders into a stack at the edge of the rockslide. Alec kept estimating how much rock he would need to construct an arch over the gap. “That should be enough,” he said finally.

  Focus. Alec felt the dark energy flowing through and interacting with the medallion around his neck. He visualized the result that he wanted, and released his focus. About five feet below him a rock ledge appeared, lined up with the trail. Alec focused again and another rock ledge appeared on the other side. A whooshing sound disturbed the dirt on the far side and a small whirlwind exposed bare rock.

  “Now Colin, I need you to help me,” Alec said to his brother-in-law. “This is going to take the two of us, working together. We both need to focus, and I need you to follow me and feed dark energy to me.” Colin looked uncertain. “This is just like what we have been practicing.”