The Book of the Blessed

The Kingsboro

The bright sunlight in Anson’s rooms shone against the tapestry of the winding dragon glittering across the wall.

“You are a dragon, then?”

Ash, laying before Anson, watched him turn and stretch his long, strong arm, gesturing across the serpent tattoos to his arm and to his side as well as the one on the wall.

“It is said that my ancestor, Sevard became the dragon, eating the dragon’s heart. He was the dragon, as his father was the wolf.”

“I think,” Ash said, “I have heard the tale before.”

“Do you know it?”

“Not well,” Ash said. “Would you tell it to me?”

“I will tell you about the Wolf,” Anson said, “and save the Dragon for later.

“Valkyra was a son of the son of the son of Wode called Wayland and Angytyr, the One Eyed,” Anson began. “Valkyra, being a warrior of a giant spirit, married a Giant maiden named Hljod, and the two of them had great and beautiful twins, a girl and boy, Jikama and Jikimundo. King Valkyra had eleven children with his giantess wife, but in time they grew to full strength and a wicked man, Siggeri by name, came to ask Valkyra for a boon. King Valkyra vowed to give him whatever he wished and so Siggeir asked for the hand of his daughter Jikama. Now, Siggeir and Jikama both wished to resist, but because of honor they could not, and so Jikama went with Siggeir.”

Hearing the tale Ash was touched by the oddness of it. His lover, kissed by the sun, spoke from his northern roots, and cold winds and longhouses, long haired warriors whom the Ayl had not been in centuries, a land not only removed by time, but by place, where neither Anson nor any other would ever go again moved across Ash’s mind’s eye.

“Three months after their wedding,” Anson said, the sunlight playing on his face, “Siggeir invited King Valkyra to his house along with all his sons. He had Valkyra killed, and the sons captured and tied to trees, and sent wolves out to them each night. Each night a wolf ripped out the throat of one of Jikama’s brothers, and it was only on the last night she came with honey and placed it in her brother, Jikimundo’s mouth. When, at night, the wolf came to kill him, Jikimundo opened his mouth, and the wolf stuck in his tongue. When the wolf began to eat, Jikimundo bit down and ripping out the wolve’s tongue, killed it, blood gushing from his mouth. Thus he freed himself and fled into the woods where he lived as a brigand.”

Ash said: “Much like Michael Flynn, no doubt. It is times like this I know Ayl come from some place else.”

Anson ignored this and continued.

“Jikama swore revenge on her husband. She had one child, and when he grew to a certain age, she sent him to her brother. Her brother, to test his courage, placed a snake in a basket of wheat and then asked the boy to make bread. When the boy opened the basket and saw the snake, he cried out in fear and Jikimundo sent him back to Jikama saying, ‘He lacks courage.’ And so Jikama killed him.”

“So Jikama sent her second son,and again, Jikimundo did the same thing. Again the son failed and so, when he returned to his mother, Jikama killed him. She decided that only a son between herself and her brother could be as strong as was needed and so, by a mighty spell, she changed her form and went to Jikimundo, and lying with her brother, she began pregnant with Fitela.

When Fitela grew to a certain age, Jikama called him and said, “Here, let me hem this shirt I have made you.” And while she was sewing it, she sewed his hands together. Then she commanded him, ‘Take them apart.’ Like nothing,” Anson said, eyes wide and pulling his hands apart, a born storyteller, “he ripped his hands apart and Jikama said, ‘Now I know you are ready,’ and sent him onto Jikimundo.

Jikimundo tested this boy as he had tested the ones before, but when Fitela saw the snake, he simply cut it up and served it with the wheat in the bread. Then Jikimundo knew that this one was strong and bold. Fitela and Jikimundo had many adventures, but in time Jikimundo and Fitela trapped Siggeir's entire family in their house and set it on fire. Jikama rejoiced at seeing her father avenged. It was here she told Jikimundo that Fitela is his son, and then, because of her duty as the wife, she entered the burning house to die alongside her despised husband.”

Ash lay on his back.

“I’ve always loved a good Sendic tale.”

“Those were the tales we told when we crossed the sea from cold Aylland, in what is now Dayne, almost a thirteen hundred years ago. When we were more like the Dayne than unlike. We spent a few centuries with the Rufanum, and then in Ververland before we came here. You see before you a civilized knight in a civilized kingdom,” Anson stretched out before him. “The wolf and dragon tamed.”

Ash turned over and placed his head on Anson’s chest.

“Yes?” Anson said, smiling.

“I look in your eyes,” the mage said. “The wolf and the dragon are not tamed. They are only sleeping.”

“Are you calling me a dragon?”

“Yes, Lord,” Ash said simply. “Yes I am. I see it clearly. You do not understand, but even as I look at you, your form flashes in and out. It is as if you are attempting to look like a man and unable to. Plainly before me I see a dragon.”

“But I am in trouble,” Anson said, “How could a dragon be in trouble?”

“Because it doesn’t know it’s a dragon,” Ash said plainly.

END OF PART ONE