The Fire Queen

Chapter 68

All that was left now was for all of the rulers to become official signatories to the agreement for the realm to enter a new era of cooperation and fairness. I flew home to Aseron feeling proud of what I had accomplished and a little incredulous that I had managed to accomplish it. Were it not for Brumli and the dwarves none of this would have been possible; their steam engine and its wide range of uses was what made it possible for me to convince Kandalar and Erst to support me, which, in the case of Kandalar, included their acquiescence to my stipulation that Grunheim be returned to the dwarves. Soon I would be able to make good on my promise to repay the dwarves for all that they had done for me by getting their homeland back for them, which was the most gratifying outcome in all of this. Myra was flying nearly at full speed so that I could get back to Aseron and give Brumli the news as soon as possible, but my journey home was delayed by an unexpected occurrence.

While flying over Theran on my way back to Aseron, a dragon swooped down in front us, not just a dragon, a dragon with a rider on its back. Dragons had not been seen in the realm for over a thousand years. It was believed that they had been driven to extinction by the relentless theft of their babies by beastmasters who trained them and sold them off for huge sums of gold. Despite it being discovered that captive dragons would not breed the dragon trade continued until the captive dragons died out and wild dragons were no longer to be found. The dragon rider swooping down in front of us was a challenge, which Myra was eager to accept. The dragon was at least twice Myra's size; we followed the dragon as best we could but its powerful wings allowed it to comfortably stay ahead of us. We kept flying north, all the way over Glendale, the Northlands and eventually the frozen expanse. I stopped when we reached the ocean at the end of the frozen expanse, but the dragon kept going, flying out over the ocean until it was out of sight. The dragon rider had sought me out and sent me a message: there were lands beyond the realm, lands that held answers to many mysteries. I told only Uraia about my encounter with the dragon and about the choice I had to make about whether to follow them to wherever it was they had gone.

"Do you want to go?" Uraia asked me when we were outside with Myra and Igor.

"I can't deny being curious about what might be out there, but there is still so much to do here, I can't just up and leave on a journey that would take me away from Aseron for what could be a long time."

"Most of what you wanted to accomplish most is near completion, all that's left is for everybody involved to make it all official, and besides, you don't have to go now."

"I couldn't go alone, there's no telling what might be out there."

"I'll go with you."

"I'll need to take a lot more than just you with me, which means I'm going to need a ship."

* * *

Six weeks later all nine rulers gathered in Avondrea, the location of the headquarters of the new Supreme Council, to sign their names to the document that would bind their kingdoms to the new rules that would govern the way that kingdoms conducted their affairs with each other. Herana, as host, served as the master of ceremonies, which was fine, my only concern was my vision for unity and peace among the kingdoms becoming a reality, which it was. I was able to give Brumli the good news when I returned to Aseron that he and the rest of the dwarves could return to Grunheim, though I did ask him if it would be possible for some to remain behind to continue working on the steam locomotives.

"I'll stay," Brumli answered immediately.

"It doesn't have to be you Brumli, anyone with a working knowledge of the steam engines will be fine."

"I want to stay, I'm excited about what we could do with these engines and I want to keep working on them."

Approximately half of the dwarves chose to stay. Work on the steam locomotives was completed by the dwarves that remained and additional blacksmiths that traveled to Galand to help, allowing for work to begin on the engines required for the ship that was being built for me in Erst. To accomodate the size and weight of the boilers the ship that they were building was much larger than anything they had built before, and to help overcome the engineering challenges Brumli flew out routinely to the port in Erst where they were building the ship.

Over the following months, as the steam locomotives went into service and work continued on the large steam ship, the new laws as set out in the charter that all of the kingdoms had signed on to came into effect and, aside from a few contentious incidents that were able to be resolved in the Supreme Council, mostly concerning trade, the new system was working well.

The ship that the Erst shipbuilders built for me wasn't just big, it was enormous. It was the height of a three storey building with two huge paddlewheels on either side which, Brumli explained to me, were each powered by two large boilers. The ship was big enough to accommodate Myra, Igor and Nelly and a crew of thirty. Brumli, because of his deep knowledge of the ship's engineering, would be managing things in the engine room.

The success of my reforms and the peace and stability that they had produced in the realm had caused me to become restless, and when the day arrived for us to depart my whole body was tingling as I boarded the ship with Brumli and Uraia, excited at the prospect of discovering a new world made up of creatures and civilizations that we would be the first to see.