The minutes ticked by, as Lynette and the others checked the votes. Then there was a muttered conversation between her, Peter and Best, complete with frowns, chins rested on fists, and the baffled shaking of heads.
Finally, though, Peter once more got up to address the crowd. “We have reached a conclusion,” he said. “And I must say, I’m heartened by it, though more than a little surprised. By unanimous vote, the salases are permitted to stay in Varismont.”
Koradan’s jaw dropped. The result was… well, it was ludicrous. It was unbelievable. After days of snide comments, dark suspicions and belittling accusations, the village had actually chosen to accept them? How had that happened?
“Did they just…?” Sigmore asked. He’d been peacefully resigned to having to leave, after they’d finalised the details of the plan together. To be truthful,noneof them had really believed that the humans would let them stay.
“Yeah, he did,” Melowin said, looking equally as baffled.
“Well, the vreki will be pleased,” Koradan said, feeling a little lightheaded. “Ashd keeps telling me how much he loves the mountains.”
“Well, um… I don’t mean to put a dampener on things,” Rodgard said. “But this does mean we need to go ahead with the next part of the plan. The bit with the…” He made a vague gesture towards his own chest, to the place where an obsidian gem would have hung, had he been wearing one.
“Oh, shit,” Melowin muttered. “Just the fate of every Chalandrian on earth hanging in the balance. No pressure or anything.”
“We’ve asked these people to trust us,” Rodgard said. “It’s not unreasonable that we have to trust them in return.” It was a surprisingly generous statement, coming from the cynical man.
“Let’s get this over with, then,” Koradan said, not wanting to drag it out any longer. If this went badly, he’d prefer to know about it sooner rather than later. He caught Peter’s eye and nodded to him, then began crossing the square towards the platform.
“I have one last piece of news,” Peter called, interrupting a dozen conversations around the square. “This is the last detail of the plan as to how Koradan and his vreki are going to transport Markon into Minia. As we all know, it’s a city full of warriors. And despite our own new understanding of the benevolence of the peoples of Chalandros, these warriors do not yet share our open-minded views. And so in order to safely travel there, Koradan is going to need to employ a degree of magic, generously gifted to him by one of the women of Chalandros.” The explanation of the obsidian gem was overly simplified, but they’d all agreed not to complicate things by giving detailed explanations of exactly how and where the gem had come from. “Yes, you heard me right. I said he’s going to be usingmagic. It’s entirely harmless to the rest of us, and yet probably quite startling at the same time. Koradan, could you please come up here to demonstrate?”
Koradan hopped up on the platform, turning to face the crowd. He felt more nervous now than he had the first time he’d climbed into Ashd’s saddle and been hurtled into the sky. “This is an obsidian gem,” he said, holding up the stone that was still fastened around his neck. “It’s no different from any of the obsidian stones that your miners routinely bring out of your mine. But as Peter said, it has been imbued with a spell, courtesy of a witch. Witches are real things in Chalandros, and their magic, while not particularly powerful, comes with a multitude of uses.” He placed his hand over the gem, pressing it against his chest. Then he gave one last warning. “Brace yourselves. You won’t be expecting this.”
Sending a brief but heartfelt prayer to Arix, the Lifebringer, Koradan recited the spell. “Take my form and hide me deep. Sunlight, moonlight, shadows keep. In human world my self will sleep.”
A harsh gasp travelled across the village square as everyone took in the sudden change in Koradan.
Then Mitch called out, “That’s a bloody fine trick. Do you have another one of those that could make my damn nose less ugly?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“How soon do we leave?”
Koradan was striding towards the paddock where the vreki were waiting, and even from this distance, he could feel Ashd’s tension as he waited for the result about the meeting with the villagers.
He turned around, seeing Lynette rushing to catch up. “I don’t know,” he answered her. “First we need Mitch and Alti to finish designing the stretcher for Markon. That shouldn’t be too difficult. If we run it along Ashd’s spine, it won’t impede his movement too much. And then we need to talk to the vreki and see when they want to go. I still don’t like the whole idea of putting them so close to the warriors, but in the end, this is what we were trained to do; to go into dangerous situations and defend the peoples of Chalandros.”
“You’re serious about that, aren’t you?” Lynette asked. “I mean, about trying to make the whole world change their minds about demons.”
“‘The whole world’ might be a stretch,” Koradan admitted, as he arrived at Ashd’s side. “But I’ve seen the slaughter at the gate. I’ve seen innocent men and women with their limbs cut off, their blood spilled over the ground, when their only crime was wanting to survive. It’s senseless and destructive, and yes, if this is a way to get even one per cent of the human population to start thinking differently about us, then I’ll do it.”
He rubbed his hand up and down Ashd’s nose soothingly.We go city?Ashd asked.
Yes, we go. And the village said we can live here, Koradan reported, knowing that Ashd would spread the news to the rest of the vreki almost immediately.You get to keep your beautiful mountains.
In reply, he received a clear intention to go exploring, to see where the rivers flowed and where there were steep cliffs, and perhaps a lake or two up high past the tree line. They could fly up and watch the sunset over the western peaks.
And there’ll be snow in winter, Koradan told him, which was met with a trill and a wriggle of delight.
“What are you telling him?” Lynette asked, a soft, amused look on her face.
“That he’ll get to play in the snow up on the mountains in the winter. Vreki love snow.”
“Really? I’d have thought it was too cold for them. They don’t have any fur to keep them warm.”
“They don’t like to spend all day in it. In their native mountain range, they lived in caves, which sheltered them from the worst of the weather. But they’re quite robust. And flying takes a fair bit of energy, which generates heat, so that keeps them comfortable most of the time.”
“Wow. There’s so much we need to learn about them.” Lynette reached out, seeming almost unaware of her own actions, and rubbed Ashd’s nose like Koradan had been doing only moments before. To Koradan’s surprise, Ashd stood there and let her.
