The dragons standing in the front of the crowd grabbed her and one put her on their shoulders. The crowd cheered and pressed close to touch the child that was kissed by their savior. It was overwhelming, knowing that they put so much faith in my kiss that they needed to touch that orphan.
Chapter 17
I turned toward the building to find Axoular staring at me through the doorway. “Riley Effler, you are crucial to my people.”
“But I’m just…me! I’m nothing special.”
A rich voice came from behind me. “You better hope you are something special. You are The Jade, and you’ve come to save us.” I whirled around to see an elderly Sárkány woman with scales of white and silver being helped up the porch stairs. She wore a rough dress of what appeared to be burlap, no shoes on her feet, and she leaned on a wooden cane.
“Riley, this is our eldest surviving Sárkány, Boudicca. Boudicca, this is Riley Effler.” Axoular bowed to the elderly dragon and took the place of her helper, escorting her inside. I followed behind them to a room straight out of a fantasy movie.
An enormous wooden table was in the center of the room, complete with benches made of halved logs. There was a massive fireplace on either side of the room. On the walls were the heads of strange creatures mounted as trophies. One resembled a bear with a big pig snout. Another head, like an elephant with tusks and big ears, but the nose was more like a dog’s.
Axoular walked Boudicca over to the head of the table and helped her into a chair. Three other Sárkány walked in behind me and sat on the benches on Boudicca’s left. Axoular and I sat across from them.
“Savior,” began Boudicca, “This is Drest, Maedoc, and Morcan. Along with myself and Axoular, we make up the Elders of the Sárkány.” I inclined my head at the two men, Drest and Maedoc, and the woman, Morcan. I was beginning to be able to tell the women from the men. Drest and Maedoc’s heads were more angular and larger than Morcan’s or Boudicca’s, or, I assumed, my own. Morcan was advancing in years, by the color of her scales. They look like they’d once been gold mixed with browns, but they were fading. Some had turned white and silver.
Drest and Maedoc were twins. Their scales were the same bright shades of orange and yellow. Their eyes and noses mirrored each other and their eye color, a pale yellow. I asked them if they were related and they confirmed they were twins, which was incredibly rare among the Sárkány. It was difficult to tell how old they were.
“It’s nice to meet you all, but I can’t stay long. I came here with no knowledge of what sort of world I would be entering. I’ve got to return to Earth and reassure my family that I’m safe. Plus, Axoular closed the portal, so my family, who are visiting their own ancestors through the portal, will be stuck in other worlds.”
Maedoc narrowed his eyes at me. “You’ve only just arrived, and you’re already leaving?” He turned to Axoular. “How do you know this is the savior?”
Axoular became defensive. “Two hundred years we’ve waited! The prophecy says, ‘When a female of jade and jasper appears in the night, the Sárkány will be saved.’ Well, here she is, prepared or not. We were never promised our savior would come through with a grand plan, it simply said that she’d be able to save us.”
Maedoc grunted and looked me over. I raised my hands in front of me. “I will do anything to help you. I have certain resources in the other world that might help you here. I want to take Axoular back with me to meet my family. My husbands will be able to help us come up with a plan.”
Boudicca raised her eyebrows. I raised my finger to feel my own, I really want a mirror.
“Husbands, child? More than one?” asked Boudicca.
“Oh, well, sort of. I’m married to one man, but his two best friends, we…well, we're one family. It’s sort of new…” I trailed off in a small voice. “I take it you don’t typically take on multiple partners here?”
“No. We don't,” said Morcan, voice dripping with condescension.
“Ah, well.Wedo.” I couldn’t help but throw her a little attitude. “And now, if you'll excuse us, wemustgo. We’ll return as soon as we possibly can. Hopefully, it'll only be a few hours.” I backed away from the table and gave a head bob to Boudicca. My butt bumped into the door, and I stopped, waiting for Axoular to join me.
He jumped up and bowed deeply to the table full of elders. Axoular scurried over to me and tried to crowd me out the door. “Stop!” commanded a voice from inside the room.
Axoular cringed with wide eyes. “I didn’t think we’d actually make it out the door.”
“We can hear you, Axoular,” said Boudicca.
Axoular let out a long-suffering sigh, and turned, “I know, Boudicca. I meant for you to hear me. I suppose you have issue with Riley taking me and not someone else?”
“Not at all. We trust you to protect the interests of our people. But there are things you need to know, Axoular. If you’re to go to the human world, you should be prepared,” Morcan motioned for us to sit down. Axoular walked to the table, his body rigid. I followed and sat beside him again. The room became overly warm. Sweat beaded on my lower back.
“We know more about the human world and the portals than we have previously told you.” Morcan gave a head nod to Boudicca.
Maedoc let out a curse. “I thought we’d agreed to get everything out in the open? How much information are you old crones hiding?”
“It isn’t anything that would've done anyone any good,” said Boudicca. “If we’d let the people know that the portals could be opened, they would’ve tried to go through to the human world, and the results would've been catastrophic.”
“The portals?” Maedoc was becoming visibly agitated.
Boudicca nodded sagely. “You see, there's more to the prophecy than is known. Now that our numbers are so dwindled, only Morcan and I know the full prophecy. The second half of the prophecy essentially says that our people must stay in Sárkány until the Savior comes for us.” Boudicca paused, as if for dramatic effect.
Her eyes blinked, showing her eyelids were nearly opaque in her old age. I wondered exactly how old she was. “If we leave Sárkány before our fated time, it would be to disastrous consequences,” she finished wearily.
