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The imagery of the surrounding splendor was glorious. Like all great monarchs, good and bad, the Queenmother was once a young princess who played in the spectacular halls of the mountain, and Pound watched her as she ran between the many low-hanging drapes that hung from the granite ceiling. She seemed to be a child who was free of cares and doubts as she played in the great courtroom of a bygone time. The little princess crouched down in one corner and hid in the darkness between the creases of the long curtains as an older gentleman sought her out. Pound recognized him instantly by the quality of his clothing. He was the king, and he quietly crept up on her as she hid in the folds of the drapes. Without a sound, he knelt down and reached out with one hand, and he touched the tiny shoe that was exposed between the hem of the drape and the floor of the hall. The girl stood as still as a statue as she closed her eyes and pretended to be alone, enveloped in the darkness of her game. When she felt her father’s touch at her feet, she froze in terror of losing the game with her father, and she pretended that she was not hiding between banners in a keep. She was far, far away in a deep, dark cavern within the mountain. In her mind, she imagined her way through the darkness of the holes that burrowed through the mountain, and she climbed her way to the other side of a hollow chamber where a glow peeked through the cracks in the rock. In her mind’s eye, her head was turned to the side, and her eyes were pressed against the cracks where she could see a child of glowing, carven stone buried deep within the cave. The beauty of the glow was awe-inspiring, and her heart told her that she must have this treasure. It belonged to her. Reaching out in her mind, she touched the coolness of the stone and felt its power.
Her imagination overcame her while she stood there hiding between the drapes of fabric, and her hands flinched as she pretended to touch the child of stone. The king reached around the fabric where the little girl hid, and he wrapped his arms around his daughter. In the darkness of the folds, he picked her up and held her captive between the reams of cloth. She squealed and kicked her feet in excitement, and he gently squeezed her midsection in return, all the while growling like a monster.
“Let me down, monster!” she ordered her father, and he bent forward and set her back down on her feet where she peeked out from under the covers. Pointing her finger at him, she squinted with one eye closed and ordered, “You will bring the child to me, and it shall be mine, slave!” King Payton laughed, picked her up with one strong arm, and carried her out into the center hallway.
“Yes, my lady Una. It shall be,” he said as he played along with her childish game and then leaned his head over to kiss her on the forehead. He set her back down on the floor, and she scurried back into the folds of the hanging fabrics to hide once again.
“You can’t find me father,” the princess giggled as she ran out of sight and buried herself in the veils of the drapes. “Count to ten and look for me,” she insisted as one of her father’s royal advisors approached him from the courtyard.
“Sire! Sire!” the advisor yelled out as he ran toward the king.
“Cameron? What is all of this commotion about? You look as if you have seen a giant,” King Payton quipped to the advisor as he slowed his sprint to a stop and handed the king a letter. Cameron, the advisor, stood next to the king, and they were quite a contrast from one to the other as Cameron was half the height of the monarch. Most significantly, Cameron’s skin color was different from everyone else in the land. It was emerald green in color, and no one in the kingdom knew why that was the case. He had been found in the courtyard as an infant, and the king’s father, Gowan, had developed a fondness for the emerald child early on. Gowan gave the child a name, a home within the mountain, and a fine upbringing within the confines of the highland. Cameron grew up playing alongside of the heir to the throne, King Payton, and though the two friends differed in many of their opinions on how the mountain kingdom should be ruled, they turned out to be very close friends.
“It’s just that, sir. I have seen a giant, and he brought that letter for you,” Cameron said as he leaned over and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Curious, the king opened the letter, and immediately a look of grave concern passed over his face as he read the contents. Payton then slammed the open document against his leg in anger, and his forehead wrinkled with deep concern.
“Well, what does it say, my lord?” Cameron inquired.
“They are declaring war on us, Cameron! The giants crave war, and war they shall have!” the king declared in turn as he crumpled the letter in his hands and marched to his planning room deep within the crevices of the mountain. The dwarf followed quickly behind, and his feet moved in a blur as he kept up with Payton’s quick pace. “Cameron, my daughter is playing. Send your sons to keep her busy while we plan, hmm.” Cameron nodded and ran back out of the mountainside castle and into the courtyard. Within a few minutes, he came back inside with his two diminutive sons in tow. Pound watched on from the shadows of the dream, and he recognized one of the boys, the one with the devious frown upon his face.
“That dwarf must be Shad,” he thought to himself, though the other one was not at all familiar to him.
“Sean and Shad,” Cameron said as he looked almost eye to eye with them. “The court will be very busy this afternoon. Please spend the rest of the day playing with Princess Una here in the grand entrance,” he ordered them, and off he went to collect the other advisors within the stronghold. The princess had overheard the new developments, and she was completely dissatisfied with the distraction that had interrupted the game with her father. She did not hold back her frustration on the boys.
“I don’t want to play with you!” Una squealed as she stomped her feet and pursed her lips in a tantrum.
“That makes two of us then,” Shad said with a frown, and he kicked a pebble on the floor in anger to emphasize his point. “Hide and seek is for babies!” Una returned his reply with a swift kick in the shin, and Shad grabbed his leg in reaction to the pain. “Hey! What did you do that for?!”
“If I can’t play with my father, then I will make you hurt, slave!” she barked, and then she turned her attention to Sean. “You’re next!” she said as she started toward him. He deftly dodged her next kick and headed back out toward the courtyard.
“I’ll go look for your present,” Sean said with a wink and disappeared into thin air. Shad was left alone with the moody princess, and he wished that he had thought of disappearing first. Now it was too late. He knew Sean well enough to know that he was not coming back. His brother would go down into the mines to find a slave to make friends with. Someone else would have to play with her little royal so-and-so, and it looked like it was going to be him.
“If you can disappear and reappear anywhere that you like, then you can take me to the baby! My baby!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, and Shad grabbed her hand to calm her down.
“Una! What baby? What are you ranting about? You know I cannot take you anywhere within the mountain that I have not already been to,” Shad said as she stopped screaming and simply glared at him. “Listen, I can play hide and seek with you, if you would like,” he offered.
“And I can be the monster?! I love to be the monster!” she howled and gritted her teeth. Una’s personality took after her father’s. She had a quiet content side that could turn dangerous in a moment’s notice. “I shall rule the mountain and the forest, slave! No giants, humans, or little green men shall oppose me! I am the Queenmother!” she declared as she stomped her royal shoes on the floor and lunged for Shad with her make believe claws.
“Not this again!” he yelled and ran in and out between the many curtains that draped the room. The last time he had played with her, she had scratched his face with her fingernails. There was no stopping a mad queen.
Time passed quickly by in Pound’s dream, and the room grew dustier as the troubles of the kingdom rested heavily on King Payton’s sh
oulders. He hunched forward as he scratched his beard and contemplated the dilemma which his kingdom faced. His daughter no longer cared for playing hide and seek, and she certainly cared nothing for understanding the inner workings of the kingdom. Her father carried the fate of the realm solely in his own hands, and he had failed to defeat the giants in battle after battle. The tartan guard that served him had diminished in numbers with the losses, and he was puzzled as to how to hold the giants at bay from overthrowing his kingdom. The giants certainly were too large to get at them inside the mountain, yet they continued to steal and to destroy their crops in the fields below the mountain. Over the years, circumstances had become dire, and the king no longer listened to anyone’s advice, not even his most trusted advisor Cameron. A year earlier, he had dismissed him along with his sons to the fields, and his daughter Una had carried a grudge against him for banishing Shad. The dwarf had been her playmate for many years, much to Shad’s displeasure, and his abilities would have provided her the means to find the Soul of the Mountain. She dreamed of finding the child of stone within the mountain, and her lust for the magic contained within the item grew. It had been rumored that the child of stone would allow her to travel through portals in a magical fashion, similar to the abilities which Sean and Shad had both displayed. If she had that power, she could defeat giants and travel to other worlds where she would become the all-powerful Queenmother. All that she required was the child of stone, the Soul of the Mountain as it were, and the kingdom would change for the better.
Now, with her surly attitude, she had no one within the confines of the mountain with which to pass the time. At least, there was no one that met her approval. Much like her father, her thoughts all drifted toward the acquisition of power and her own personal prosperity, and not that of the people within the mountain. And certainly the welfare of the slaves was never a real consideration. When one of them died, there would be another to take their place.
King Payton amassed a last group of tartan soldiers for a final battle with the giants of the forest, leaving only a spare few men behind to look after the defense of the mountain. Most generals would have wisely deemed this an ill-advised maneuver, but the king was under no one’s advisement, and he trekked out of the entrance to the mine with a force of a thousand brave men. They hiked on foot around the base of the mountain where they were subsequently ambushed by the giants along the mountainside. The Old Men of the Mountain watched as the giants stood on high and pummeled the men below with huge stones. The king, being adorned with golden armor, was captured and held prisoner in the giant’s wooden castle as a bargaining tool against Princess Una.
Distraught by her father’s capture, Una called upon her father’s closest advisor, Cameron, along with his two sons to appear before the throne. When they arrived, her eyes brightened as Shad appeared from behind his father. He had grown in age, but not in stature, and she returned a look of disappointment at his small size. Yet her father had kept them apart, and that was enough to make her interest in him exceedingly great.
“Cameron. I see that you have done as I ordered and brought Shad and Sean with you. Good,” she said from her high place upon the throne. Several of the remaining guards appeared in the hallway behind them and blocked their exit. “My realm is in a most unhappy place. The giants have captured my father, and I am in need of assistance. Can each of you offer me your services?” Cameron looked hopefully to his sons, and then back to Princess Una before answering.
“I have always been willing to offer my advice to the throne, and I still hold that as my duty,” he replied with a bow. Shad and Sean stood straight as their father bowed, and she looked over Cameron’s shoulder at the two sons with a scowl. They reluctantly joined in the ceremonial bow with their father, and a wicked smile came across her face.
“Shad, I would like to speak with you first. In my quarters, please,” Una said as she rose from the throne and motioned for him to follow. The dwarf followed along proudly as his father and brother watched him disappear behind the curtains. Inside her room, she locked the door behind him, and she set about to do whatever her heart intended at that moment. Princess Una approached the dwarf and gently ran her finger along the edge of his youthful beard. Shad blushed, and upon seeing his reaction, Una bent down close to gaze into his eyes. She was sure that she saw interest in his stare, and she began to kiss Shad, and he returned her display of affection. Soon she had seduced him into her bed, and when her intimate cravings had passed, she asked him for a favor.
“Shad, we have known each other for a long, long time. I need your help in finding the child of stone that is hidden in the depths of the mountain far below. Would you use your gifts to help your Queen find the carven stone?” she asked, and it was the first time that she had referred to herself as the elder monarch. Shad was surprised that her thoughts were still on the Soul of the Mountain as it was known, especially while the king was held hostage and the realm was in dire straits in the war with the giants. He hardly knew what to say to her request, and she sensed his hesitance. Impatient with his silence, she added, “Think well before you answer.”
“Before I answer, let me explain my concerns. You do remember what I told you when we were younger. When I use my powers to open portals, I have to know where it is I am going, or I could end up inside a rock,” Shad replied.
“Yes, my dear, I do remember you telling me that. But if that is true, how is it then that you are able to open the portal to the other world so that the guards may steal the slaves? Surely you cannot tell me that you can see the other world,” Una said mockingly. Though she had grown to be a beautiful lady, Shad still did not find this side of her personality very attractive.
When Pound heard these words in his dream, he gasped at the revelation. He understood now who was responsible for kidnapping people from earth. It was Shad, and in his heart, he felt that he had been a fool for trusting the dwarf.
“You are right; I cannot see the other world. However, when I was very young and daring, I took the chance and opened the portal and went through blindly. Luckily, I survived and marked the location of the portal for myself, and the guards return with me to the same place each time . . . ,” he explained, and she interrupted.
“Then you could do my bidding, but you choose not to?” she asked with a bitter tone. Una had summed up his reply correctly, but he was unwilling to cross her face-to-face. When they were younger, she had been cruel whenever she did not get her way, and from her tone, he could tell that aspect of her personality had not improved with age either. “Very well. Guards!!” At her call, two tartan guards came and removed him from her chambers through a back door and marched him through hidden corridors. “You will continue to aid in the recruitment of slaves, but you are hereby banished from the royal palace. Return at your own peril!” she had decreed, and exiled him from the mountain.
After dressing herself in her royal garments, she returned alone to the throne room where Cameron and Sean were still waiting. Cameron remained standing before the throne, but Sean had laid down lazily on the floor under the drapes as he waited for Una’s return. When they looked up and saw that Shad had not returned, their suspicions peaked, and Cameron brought up the subject first.
“Is Shad with you, Princess?” he asked her, not knowing that she had promoted herself already.
“No, he is not. He has refused to help his Queen,” she replied with a grimace. Her foot tapped nervously on the floor as she considered her next move carefully. “Cameron, you are of no use to me. I hereby decree that you shall be executed for not correctly acknowledging my rank as Queen. Right now,” Queen Una ordered, and the tartan guards seized Cameron and Sean. Separated, they could not help one another, and reluctantly, Sean used his powers and vaporized alone from the throne room.
Cameron, however, was not so lucky. Pound watched the vision spin into a nightmare as Cameron was beheaded before the Queen in the very thr
one room where he had wisely and loyally advised the king for so many years. The guards then cleaned up the mess, and Queen Una sighed her disgust at how the meeting with the advisor and his sons had turned out. Once again, things had not gone her way, and she sat and pouted on the throne for many long hours that evening. Una looked around the empty throne room for guidance, but based upon her and her father’s ill temperament, there was no one left in her kingdom that was willing to offer any advice or strategy with which to help her free the king. Confused and alone, she sat on the throne and cried to herself in despair at the situation that had been created by her and her father.
Pound observed as a swirl of smoke materialized within the air of the throne room. By its thermal nature, smoke rises in the presence of cooler air, but this smoke was different. It billowed into the form of a man and settled gently upon the floor in front of Queen Una. She gasped as the magical vapor lost its transparency and appeared to solidify into an armored man with a rugged, handsome face.
“My dear lady,” he said with a charismatic voice. “What troubles you?” The princess was reluctant to reply at first, but seeing as how she was all alone in her rule, she gave it a try.
“My father’s kingdom . . . my realm is in distress. The king has been captured, and our army has been decimated,” Una said with an air of haughtiness. For her, it was no loss to tell him the most obvious facts that everyone in her queendom would easily acknowledge for free. She required help, however, she did not know this man, nor did she trust him.
“Perhaps I could help,” he said with a gesture of his hand and a bow. When he lifted his head, the stranger’s face bore an uncanny resemblance to her father, and she gasped at the sight. Then his body shrank to the size of a dwarf, his skin turned a pale green, and his face altered to bear a resemblance to Shad. Just as quickly then he changed back into the man in armor. “Who would you prefer, my lady?”
“I would prefer to see no more of your tricks, charlatan!” Queen Una replied in anger and stood up from her throne to draw her sword. “Leave me to my ruin, trickster!”
“Don’t be so hasty, my lady. I can offer you the salvation of your realm, rocky and dark and damp as it is,” the mysterious guest said with a grin. “All I ask in return is your cooperation.”
“You may be able to change form easily, but the salvation of this principality is beyond the power of a mere shape changer. I require real and powerful magic if I am to hold the empire of the mountain intact,” she reasoned, and she hesitated to mention the Soul of the Mountain. She would keep the buried talisman a secret from this being. It was also never her first inclination to be pleasant in her dealings with others, and certainly not to strangers. Actually, it was never in her nature to be pleasant at all.
“Magic you say? You crave the power hidden within the mountain, do you not?” he replied, and her anger boiled over.
“How could he know of the Soul of the Mountain?” she thought to herself in desperation.
“Guards!!” she screamed as she looked in his eyes. “There has already been one execution here today! We have time to add one more to the list, stranger!” The tartan guards surrounded the armored stranger, and when they sought to lay hands on him, their fists passed through him as if he were no longer there. But he was. The Queen and the guards could all see him standing there proud in their midst, yet they could not touch him. Seeing the stranger’s powerful abilities, Queen Una called off her protectors with a wave of her hand and ordered the throne room locked, leaving her alone with the stranger. Perhaps if she could not take him by force, she could take him by charm.
“Stranger,” her voice softened. “What is your name?” she said as she rose from the throne and removed her royal cloak to reveal her scantily clad figure and soft white skin beneath. The stranger smiled and allowed her to touch his strong shoulders as she examined him more closely.
“Many have asked my name, and yet it remains unsaid,” he replied. Una sensed the power that surged within his body, and she clasped his hand and led him to her chambers where she attempted to seduce yet another in her unquenchable search for power that day. He complied, and when they were finished, he dressed in his armor and sat in the chair next to her bed as she lay sleeping. He held his hand to his lips as if he clinched a cigarette, and he blew out streams of smoke from his nostrils as he waited for her to awaken. When her eyelids blinked and opened, she stared up at him as he sat smoking his own fumes, and she realized that in her lust for power, she may have gone too far. This man that sat before her was no mere mortal like the men of her court. He was something much more.
“Maybe that is what is required,” she thought to herself as she gazed into his burning eyes.
“Maybe so,” he agreed as he read her thoughts. She blushed with the exposure of her wicked wonderings, and never to be underestimated, her anger surfaced once again. Covering herself in the bed sheet, she sat up on the edge of the mattress and challenged him.
“What is it that you want from me and my kingdom, heretic?!” she crowed.
“From you, nothing. And there is nothing in this world that you could offer to me to repay the debt that you will soon owe me,” he said with a crooked grin. “Not even that silky body of yours.” She smirked as she tried to think of a snappy reply to his insults, but before she could snatch the clever remarks from her mind, he continued. “I seek to offer you what you desire. The destruction of the giants, and the return of the king,” he said with his hands laid out open before her. Then he blew a smoke ring that rose up into the rafters as his eyes burned a fiery red.
“And what do you desire in return, if not me?” she asked as she considered biting down on the bait which he teased her with. The stranger looked at her through his ruby eyes, and he saw her like a witless fish in a very shallow pond.
“Nothing. Just do as I say, and all things shall repair themselves,” the stranger replied, knowing that following orders would be the hardest thing for her to do. She stared at him with an untrusting glare, and without answering, she began to dress herself. This time, though, she dug deep into her closet for her armor. Laying it out onto the bed piece by piece, the red and black chainmail that her father had the armorers construct for her the previous year was all accounted for. When she suited up, the Queen had the unsettling appearance of an armored wasp, though without the wings.
“A velvet ant, my Queen Una,” he snickered. “You are the wingless wasp of your father’s kingdom,” he said with a straight face and then blew smoke from his nostrils as a proposal came together. She withdrew her sword and held it at his throat.
“But not without a stinger!” she threatened with the blade, and he wiped it away from his throat with his hand.
“Come now, queen of the hive. I have much to show you,” he said as he grabbed her arm and escorted her back through the throne room and out past the guards into the courtyard.
“Where are you taking me?” she pleaded as they reached the edge of the cliff. She had doubted his power before, but now that he had taken charge, she feared for her own safety.
“To your destiny, my lady,” the stranger replied as they stepped out over the cliff to walk on the thin mountain air. To her surprise, they did not fall as they walked on the breeze, and he guided her through the clouds of the mountains to the far side of the peak. A winding trail appeared on the side of the cliff, and he placed her at the bottom ledge just above the treetops of the forest. Placing his fingers to his lips, he commanded her silence as he explained what she would need to do.
“To gain my trust, you must climb this ledge as it winds to the top above. Along the way, you will come upon the Old Men of the Mountain. They are an ancient race that have inhabited the stone of this mountainside since the beginning of time, and they hold the keys to the resurrection of your failed kingdom. You must convince them that you need their help as well, my lady,” he explained.
“Your plan sounds simple enough, e
xcept for the part where I am doing all of the work,” she replied with the bitter tongue by which she was renowned. The stranger ignored her insult, and left her alone on the ledge with a last suggestion.
“Please do hide that awful tongue which you brandish so carelessly, my lady. It does you no justice in your quest. Speak highly of your father, and focus on his salvation, and the rest will follow. When the giants have been defeated, I will return to bestow the power upon you which I promised,” the stranger said as his body turned to smoke, and he dissipated on the currents of the wind.
“You had better keep your promise,” Queen Una grumbled as she began the long hike up the lonely mountainside.
“I fully intend to,” the stranger’s voice laughed over the wind.
Chapter 2
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Rise of the Dragon