Luckily, I had magic on my side. And the one thing I knew how to do was find something.
A seeking spell was simple enough that even a child could use it. I used a pocketknife to slice off a thick lock of my hair and wrapped it around a fallen pine branch. Then, with a prick of the knife, I bound the hair to the branch with a bit of blood, because magic always requires a sacrifice of some sort, and began to mutter the incantation.
“By my hair
By my blood
Take these offerings
Search this land
For the thing I seek
And direct me
In my searching.”
I was supposed say the incantation thrice, but on the second time through, the stick began to glow and pull me through the forest. Quickly.
I had to hop and skip to avoid rotten logs and fallen debris, and a near miss with one of the giant anthills had me squeaking and brushing at my trousers to rid myself of the small creatures. But it seemed like my spell was working.
Eventually the woods opened onto a beautifully clear lake, the water reflecting back the sunset. Nearby was a small cave, far too small for a dragon, and disappointment flooded me. I’d wanted a dragon, but what I’d gotten instead was a lovely place to spend the night.
I sighed, sat down on a rock, and began to eat one of my apples. Maybe Hansen was right. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be much more than a hedge witch.
Despair weighed me down, making me sleepy even though the sun was just beginning to dip toward the horizon. I walked into the cave, making sure that it wasn’t occupied, and then bedded down for the night.
I would worry about finding the dragon on the morrow.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
I woke with a start to the sound of someone singing, the sound low and musical and heartbreakingly beautiful. A boy. And it was coming from outside the cave.
I climbed to my feet and walked out into the cool night in search of the source of the melody. I kind of wished I’d thought to bring a coat, but my blanket did the trick well enough.
Just a few feet outside the cave sat a youth tending a small fire. He startled when he saw me, and I held my hands up so he would see I meant him no harm. “I’m sorry, I heard you singing. Mind if I join you?” The boy had a brace of fish roasting over the fire, and my stomach growled loud enough to silence the sound of the chirruping night creatures in the nearby woods.
“I only had an apple for dinner,” I said by way of apology.
The boy smirked. “I have an extra fish if you’re hungry.”
I grinned, sheepishly. “That would be delightful. I have more apples I can share.”
I went back into the cave and came back with two of my apples. The boy took one and bit into it with gusto.
“I’m Lyle, by the way,” he said. His manners were definitely better than mine.
“Melie. Are you out here looking for the dragon as well?”
The boy stilled and tilted his head to the side, the motion so endearing that I felt warmth that could not be attributed to the fire. His face was very nice, from what I could tell in the firelight, and I tried to tell myself that my fluttery feelings were caused by hunger, not by him. “Dragon?” he asked.
“Ahh, I suppose you haven’t heard.” The boy had the same deep, dark skin of the southern clans, his hair in a pattern of tight braids. His eyes were strange, though, a golden color that seemed to glow in the firelight. I wanted to ask him where he was from, how he came by his strange coloring, but that would be rude, and I was so looking forward to his fish that I didn’t want to offend lest he change his mind.
“You were speaking of a dragon?” Lyle prompted. I mentally shook myself and nodded.
“The Minister of War’s son was turned to stone by a curse, and there is a horde of adventurers now looking for a dragon’s heart to break the spell.”
“What about you?” he asked, sliding a fish off a stick onto a wide green leaf and handing it to me. My fingers brushed his as I took the generous gift, and a shock of power flashed down my arm. Not magic, but the kind of power that made me wonder what it would be like to kiss this boy.
“Thank you,” I said, embarrassed by the sudden thought, even though Lyle’s smile had warmed considerably at the contact as well. “I’m trying to become a sorcerer. It’s not going great. But about the dragon’s heart? I think Hansen, that’s the High Sorcerer, well, I think he’s wrong. Or maybe plotting something, I’m not quite sure yet. See, I’ve read up on dragons, a lot, and one of the reasons they were hunted back in the old days is because they had the ability to break curses, and the old mages didn’t like that.”
Lyle stared at me, and I picked at my fish, feeling indescribably silly. “Anyway, I doubt I’ll find a dragon anyway, since they’ve been hunted near to extinction, and my seeking spell led me here.”
Lyle took a fish from the fire and bit into it, picking bones out of his mouth as he chewed. “What would you do if you found a dragon? Kill it?”
“What? No! Dragons are supposed to be intelligent and witty. I’d mostly want to talk to one. Well, assuming it didn’t incinerate me first. Not that I could blame it for taking offensive action, especially given how awful humans have been in the past. Anyway, that’s a lot about me. What brings you to these woods?”
He smiled, a flash of teeth that transformed him from handsome into something more, and I found my heart pounding in a way I didn’t quite care for. “Oh, I’m out here because once a month our village sends someone to check the nets.” He pointed to the lake, which now seemed to boil as fish thrashed in the silvery light of the moon. “The moon brings the krike to the surface, and we catch them. By morning there will be enough fish in the nets to feed my village for a month.”
Something about what Lyle said rang false. There was something he was leaving out, something important, and my face tingled with the omission thanks to my clear eyes, clear heart, clear mind spell. I watched him carefully, waiting for the spell to show me that lie, but I got nothing beyond the tingle.
I really wasn’t having much luck with my spellcasting.
I couldn’t deny that there were indeed fish and nets, so I wasn’t sure what he’d said that was untrue. I pushed the feeling to the side. “That’s amazing. I wasn’t aware there were any villages up this high in the mountains.”
Lyle nodded. “You should come back with me. Our elders have many stories of the dragons that used to roam these mountains. Maybe they could help you?”
I grinned, and my suspicions evaporated like mist in the early morning sun. Perhaps the knowledge of dragons was what had triggered the spell. Either way, this was a turn for the better. “That would be delightful.” There were few things I loved as much as stories, especially old ones told by village elders.