Teal's War

By Royce Day

Which is more monstrous, a callous dragon or an army intent on destroying all who oppose them?

Part Two of The Dragon's Companion omnibus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Royce Day
• Release date: Jan 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458064301

Royce Day

A lover of fantasy and science fiction works since his childhood, Royce Day is now a forty-something creator, using the power of the Internet to tell his tales.

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Teal's War

Royce Easton Day

Published by Royce Easton Day at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Royce Easton Day

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Teal glanced back towards the top of the mountain, where she could still see the occasional burst of colored light spiking out from the entrance to the cavern. She tugged the hood of her woolen cloak tighter, keeping the late fall chill away from her bones. It had been a calculated risk walking down the mountain this close to winter, but the dragon was leaving her little choice. It was either leave or give up on sleep completely.

The problem had started the month before, as the period of service Teal owed the dragon came to an end. The Beast had tricked her into playing songs or telling stories for a month, in return for its pledge not to kill a group of mercenaries that had tried to invade its lair. She had agreed to the dragon’s demand, not realizing that the Beast had expected enough songs and tales to fill every hour of every day of every week of the month agreed upon. At four hours a day of playing or speaking, the best she could manage without straining herself, eight months later Teal had nearly completed her obligation.

She could have just refused, of course. The dragon would not have killed her, it had repeatedly said that it valued her too much to harm her. But it would have had no compunction against hunting down the mercenaries it had let go free. Or punishing Teal by permanently restricting her to the cavern, leashing her with chains or spells. Even the relative freedom she enjoyed now came with a price, a silver ring and bracelet hexed to her wrist and finger, providing a magical beacon so that the dragon could always find her.

Two weeks, Teal thought, as she started walking across the plains, towards the river and woods that separated the dragon’s territory from the human villages. Just two more weeks and I could finish my service.

The initial problem had cropped up one evening, as she played a quiet tune for the dragon. The Beast had simple tastes, ultimately. She had found that when she told tales, it preferred ones about ordinary folk, farmers and the daily struggle of their lives, not great heroes. Its taste in music was equally simple, which was fortunate. Complex musical structures weren’t easy for Teal to play for four hours on end, even with her bardic training.

The dragon listened as it usually did, stretched out on its bed of gold, its neck and head lying across the floor of its lair. As Teal played, she began to feel a deep vibration in her bones. It had taken every effort to keep from skipping her beat, when she realized that the dragon was humming. The basso note from its throat was far too deep for Teal to hear with her ear, but its resonance threatened to shake her lute out of tune.

That wasn’t the end of it, however. The walls of the cavern were filled with crystalline formations, forged by the titanic pressures that had formed the dragon’s lair eons ago. The deep vibrations from the Beast’s humming resonated with the crystals, causing them to chime in counterpoint to Teal’s music. The effect was startling, but after her initial surprise, Teal was delighted with the effect.

No less delighted was the dragon. Teal was almost falling asleep over her lute by the time it permitted her to ceased playing that night. Even after she stopped, it spent much of the evening humming to itself, experimenting with different notes to see which crystals reacted. Eventually she had to beg the dragon to cease, so she had a chance to get some sleep.

Over the next fortnight, the dragon continued to experiment, demanding that Teal play her lute as counterpoint to its humming. It was an amusing diversion, at least for the first few days, but soon Teal was growing slightly deaf at the crystal’s music. The final straw was when the dragon began enchanting the crystals with illusion magic, causing them to glow and sparkle with bursts of colored lights when stimulated by the dragon’s hums. The past day or two it hadn’t even bothered to ask her for any music, having lost itself in its own experiments.

Teal, having grown thoroughly sick of musical chimes and magical lights, had finally fled. It seemed prudent to give the dragon a month or two to get over its obsession, before she returned. She’d hardly be missed, at least for the next few days.

* * *

The last of the lights faded into nothingness, the mana that had powered them dissipated by the breaking of the spell. The dragon hummed a bit more, setting off one of the G sharp crystals. The experiment had been one of the most diverting things he had experienced for quite some time.

Magic and music, he thought to himself. There was something about the frequencies of the crystals that seemed to amplify certain parts of