The Wolf Queen Awakens

Chapter 36

Kodlak had seen the fight from Jorrvaskr, watching from the Skyforge with Eorlund, then both of them staring in amazement as they'd seen the dragon flying off again, this time with a small figure on the back.

"Is that Jarl Elisif flying off on the back of a dragon?" Eorlund had asked, disbelieving. Kodlak had just nodded, not sure he trusted himself to actually speak.

"Well!" Eorlund had laughed. "Girl's got guts, I'll give her that. I'm no Empire-lover, but the girl's a true Nord after all."

"She always was," Kodlak said, feeling a little bit tearful as he watched the young queen fly off to her destiny, proud and worried and hopeful all at once. He wasn't exactly a fan of the Empire himself, but he was so very very proud of young Elisif.

Returning to the hall, he'd found Aela and Ria arriving, having just got back from Dragonsreach themselves... and a young woman with them in Stormcloak gear. Except hers was gleaming with enchantments, as were the Blades swords on her back, and she was no Nord. Breton, almost certainly some sort of mage... and he knew her.

The dream, always the dream, of Sovngarde awaiting, Harbingers before him being taken by Hircine, and then his turn... and the wolf held at bay by two of them, a rogue and a mage, the red-haired Imperial in black and red leather, and the Breton witch with her magic at the ready... and the wolf sent fleeing by black arrows and unholy fire.

Kodlak as a rule did not hold with magecraft, but for the dream to keep coming and for him to keep being saved from the beast blood by an Imperial man with his ex-lover's face and a Breton witch with power that probably didn't come from the Aedra, and for the woman to be real and alive and here! Such dreams came rarely, and Kodlak would take this one as a sign from the gods.

"Harbinger," Aela was saying, coming to greet him. "I thought you should know we did it. We caught a dragon."

"And let him go, I see," Kodlak said, tearing his eyes away from the Breton with the knowing smile. "Was that really Elisif I saw on his back?"

"It was!" Ria gasped. "She was right there talking to a dragon like it was no big deal or anything, like it's the sort of thing she does every day, and not only does it tell her what she wants to know, she persuades him to fly her there! She was amazing, Kodlak, you should have seen it."

"I do not doubt it, lass, it was a mighty deed," Kodlak laughed, wishing he'd gone with them now. "But who's your friend?"

The Breton stepped forward, still that unsettling smile on her face. Blind in one eye, warpaint over the scars that covered it, an old battle wound no doubt. But was she honourable? Kodlak had no idea, but he had a feeling she just might be able to help him.

"Eola," she said, and that cleared a few things up. That was no High Rock name, that was a Reachwoman's name. Well now. Wasn't that ironic. He wondered if she was actually Forsworn or just a spellsword who happened to hail from there.

She must have seen suspicion on his face because her smiled faded a little and her eyes hardened.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to join," she told him. "I know you don't take mages."

"Oh magic has its place," Kodlak said, repressing the unease he was feeling at the sight of her. "We just don't practice it here in Jorrvaskr... but what Companions do away from here is their own business, so long as it's honourable."

"Oh I see. So magic's fine as long as you don't have to be confronted with it and mages are prepared to hide the fact they're mages around you," Eola said, nodding her head, scrutinising him carefully. "Of course."