The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

084: Crevan

Crevan's legs dangled off the traveling wagon, the lip of which was wooden and splintered, but better than the effort it took to walk on his mending feet. This wagon was the final of three, loaded with supplies that would keep Kib's people alive as they struck out on their own. 

In the long cylindrical leg pocket, he normally would have carried water in was the scepter he'd gleaned from the rubble after Nimiane's death. In his cloak folds, hidden carefully beside his belt pack was the tiny jeweled box that Nimiane had let go of as she died.

This he hadn't opened since those final moments before he'd fought Korlon. He gazed uneasily and then slipped his finger underneath the clasp. Tiny jeweled eyes blinked at him in the twilight. "Let me go, Foeman."

Crevan heard the words in his mind. He flicked the lid with one finger and let it fall, but the clasp did not immediately go back into place. Curiosity got the better of him and he opened the ancient box.

"I cannot." He threw back along the wavelengths towards her mind and saw the dragon blink in resigned acknowledgment.

"I can help you."

"How can you help me?"

"I can talk to the other dragons."

Crevan didn't know if there were more dragons than Talisman and this one, its mother. "Where are they? Can you talk to them now? Bid them come to me."

"I--- bid them come to you?" Dragon laughter. "I am not your slave. I do not do your bidding."

"Darci." He felt the slight tremor as she acknowledged him. "I hold your very life in my hands. I can crush you at will, and am about to, feel my lack of patience. Bid the other dragons come to us here."

"I said I can talk to them. I didn't say I control them. I cannot bid them do anything, and certainly not in the name of Crevan Etrusia."

"Where are they?"

"Talisman is inside Sentinel, Demor is with Ondrea, and Delfi is with Archer upon the sea."

Crevan's face screwed up in perplexion. Was upon the sea different than being inside the sea? But a bigger question presented itself. "There are only four?"

"Four of us, three brought from Earth. I laid the egg that hatched Talisman when the time came."

"What time? Is there a right time to hatch eggs?" That wasn't the question, but suddenly a wealth of curiosity was flooding his mind.

That snide dragon chuckle... as if he knew nothing, which was true, but why should he know anything? He hadn't been raised with Earth legends.

"Our species are tied together, Crevan Etrusia. They have been since the Originals made the Pact Guarantee and Lyonene Etrusia and Eliza Aquaria chose to violate the trust and bring an indigenous species aboard the ships. They did it to facilitate what they called the "What if" factor. And what if happened. We are living it. Dragons have the ability to live very long lives, and therefore store the wisdom and heritage inherent in the Original Pioneers."

"Let me ask you something. Were dragons common on earth?" Crevan turned her in his palm, studying her.

"Dragons have been a part of history whenever they are needed. Always preserved for just these happenstances. No, to answer your question. No, dragons are very uncommon in all the universe. They exist only when needed."

Crevan blinked. This information went beyond his scope of understanding. 

The dragon clawed herself up to perch on the edge of the box. "It is time, Crevan Etrusia. If you desire to unite the pure people of this planet, you must take me to Ondrea Aquaria Taan."