Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (41 page)

“Perhaps there’s a military advantage to giving them
high ground,” Legon suggested.

The turf on the hill was short with small flowers
blooming all over. There were also leafy plants that covered the
ground as well. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the town
was now below them. They were about half-way to the top. If he
remembered right when they saw it from a distance, the top looked
like it was cut off, like a plateau. Then it hit him: this was a
raised area and the Elves lived on top of it! He walked with
surety, now knowing what to expect at the top.

As they reached the top, however, that surety left
him. The hill had an indentation at its top that went down ten feet
or so. At the center of this indentation was a gaping hole that was
easily one hundred and fifty yards across. As Legon stared he heard
the tell-tale sound of a dragon. He instinctively looked behind him
to see a blue Elven dragon gliding down to where they were, passing
overhead and into the hole in the hill. But it wasn’t a hill; it
was a massive structure.

Mantic turned, smiling at their awestruck faces.
“Welcome to our Dragon Dome.”

“The what?” Sasha asked in confusion.

Arkin answered. “Dragon Dome. This is the Elven
base.”

“This thing is our base?” Legon heard himself say,
though he wasn’t aware he had told his mouth to speak.

“Yes it is. Both Elves and Iumenta use dragon domes.
They were invented toward the end of the War of Generations,”
Mantic said.

“The Great War between the Elves and Iumenta,” Arkin
clarified.

They all nodded in understanding. Mantic led them
down the lip and then along the small patch of land between them
and the opening. “All entrances to a dome will be at the top.”

He stopped at an alcove, walked into it and turned to
his left, opening a door. This entrance would be perfectly blocked
from any enemy attack. Legon marveled at the thought behind it. As
they entered he was met by the smell of the forest in spring, an
odd smell to encounter at the end of the summer. The hall ceiling
arched. The walls, floor, and ceiling seemed to be made of one
solid piece of wood. Occasionally they would reach ribs in the hall
that were a darker wood, but his Elven eyes saw no line where the
different woods began and ended.

Along the walls there were little silver fixtures
that were mirrored. In the fixtures were little shining sticks that
stuck up from them. On the end of the sticks were bright balls of
white light, presumably magic, that reflected off the shiny
surfaces lighting the hall.

“Mantic, this workmanship is amazing. It looks as
though this is one solid piece of wood,” Sasha said, running her
hand along the wall.

Mantic looked over his shoulder with warm gray eyes.
“That is because it is. In fact this entire place is one piece of
wood, and it’s alive.”

“This thing is a tree?” Keither said, incredulity
etching his voice. He’d stopped.

Mantic looked appraisingly at him. “Not a tree but an
organism, a plant. Yes, Elves can make plants grow as I’m sure you
know. So, if you are aware of what you are doing you can make a
plant grow however you want. We grow everything. That’s how we
mine, how we get our food, clean our water…everything.”

Mantic walked on, stopping any questions. This was
fine. Legon was sure that none of them would have a shortage of
questions any time soon, but he didn’t think they would be able to
comprehend much right now anyway.

The hall led out to a balcony. To their right was a
vast room that would give most people vertigo, though it didn’t
really seem like a room. The opening in the top of the dome was
about two thirds the size of the floor below them. They could see a
large area where people and, more important, dragons could
maneuver. The room was circular with large alcoves around it, Legon
guessed twelve in all judging by their size. The alcoves were lined
up next to each other with only ten feet of wall separating one
from another at the bottom and openings that arched to a point at
the top, which was about fifty feet tall. Some had large
cloth-looking doors that closed in the center, showing the Dragon’s
crest on it. Some were open and Legon saw the blue dragon walking
into one. The hangars, as Mantic called them, were large in and of
themselves, but still not big enough to take up the whole dome.

“Are there other things like this here?” Legon
asked.

“Yes. The dragon hangars are only in the center but
there are apartments, dining areas, an infirmary, and even a
swimming area in this complex,” Mantic answered.

“Swimming area?” Sasha asked, confused. Back home
they had learned how to swim and Legon enjoyed swimming in the
pond, but he had never heard of a swimming area. He too was
confused.

“It’s easier to show you,” Mantic said with a
smile.

There were halls that connected to the walkway and he
saw them going deep into the dome. It was much larger than he had
originally thought, and he was sure that it went deep into the
ground as well. Mantic turned into an opening that led down a
winding staircase that seemed to go on forever, with exits every
fifteen feet to a new level.

When they got to the bottom they walked out onto the
floor of the main room, but it wasn’t the bottom. The dome had to
be over two hundred feet high and this room, while large, couldn’t
have been more than eighty feet tall.

Legon looked up above the hangars to see large
rectangular pieces of wood that stuck out from the wall. They were
about half as wide as the hangar’s base and they were about twenty
feet long.

“Mantic, what are those?” Legon said, pointing to the
blocks.

Mantic smiled. “Those are the protective sheaths, if
you will, for the defensive crystals this dome uses.”

“I don’t get it,” Sara said.

Mantic explained that magic could be stored in other
objects like gemstones, which Arkin had already told them about. He
then went on to say that during the War of Generations both the
Elves and the Iumenta were engaged in a magical arms race. It was
impractical to find gems big enough to store any significant amount
of power, and they were finicky and hard to enchant.

During that time of the War, dragon domes were not in
existence. The Elves grew hangers that were just curved buildings
that the dragons stayed in. They grew fortresses out of trees and
other plants, too. They could place spells on these structures,
allowing the energy of the plant to power spells, and the domes
today still used that principle. The structure was alive, and its
energy went into everything.

However, these forts put the Iumenta at an extreme
disadvantage; they could not make plants grow at will. Instead,
they discovered crystalline technology, determining what made gems
so good at holding magic and then finding a way to grow crystals
with those specifications. From there, magic evolved rapidly and
both sides began working on crystals, though even to this day,
Mantic explained, Iumenta crystalline technology was far more
advanced than Elven.

He went on to explain that there were crystals
littering this dome that controlled everything from the dome’s
growth to its lighting. They also powered spells that allowed the
dome to see far away, sensing enemies and even weather patterns.
More important, these crystals powered protective wards that were
extremely powerful, so strong, in fact, that no Elven or Iumenta
dragon dome had ever been defeated.

Legon felt his head buzzing with the information.
Mantic looked sympathetically at them. “This is a lot to take in.
It will take you years to learn all that this place holds and does.
Don’t worry about it for now, just understand that it works.”

They nodded. He waved for them to follow. They walked
next to hangars, most empty or closed with different crests on the
door. As they approached, a woman walked out. Legon’s stomach gave
a slight leap at the sight of her. She was an Elf, slender like all
the other Elves, but her figure was incredible. He felt Keither’s
brain function stop as well, and he understood why Sasha and Sara
had reacted they way they did to Mantic.

She was wearing a pink dress that looked to be made
of silk or some other rare and expensive cloth. It was like no
other he’d seen. It was as if a piece of fabric was wrapped or
inexplicably flowed around her body, simple and elegant. His eyes
moved up her body. Her face was warm with thin red lips and a small
nose. It was her eyes that seemed to make time stop, though. They
were a deep blue green, rich with color and character, with
metallic looking specks in the irises that reflected pink. They
were amazing. What were they? Then it hit him as Mantic reached
forward to introduce the woman.

“You’re a dragon!” Legon blurted without
thinking.

It was the flecks of pink that gave it away. Arkin
had told them that magic affected the look of one’s eyes once they
were strong enough to ascend. The more flecks in the eyes, the more
magic. He hadn’t understood what Arkin meant by “flecks” until now.
She smiled widely, showing perfect white teeth.

“Guilty. My name is Iselin.” She gave a slight bow to
them.

She turned to Arkin and her voice become playfully
condescending.

“Babysitting didn’t wear you down too much did it? Do
you need any more help?”

“Ha ha. I missed you too, Ise. Thank you for saving
our collective behinds,” Arkin said.

“Anytime.”

“You were the dragon that saved us?” Keither said
incredulously.

Legon and Keither felt the slight horror of knowing
that their new true love had burned twenty people to a crisp not
too long ago.

She laughed. “Why, do I look like a fire breathing
beast to you?”

“Ah no, no…that’s not what I’m saying,” Keither
stammered. “You’re very attractive. Not that I was looking…”

Sara spoke. “He’s fun to mess with.”

“I can see that,” Iselin said, smiling.

Keither chose silence. Legon thought that was a good
idea. They stood quiet for a moment. He focused on Sasha’s mind.
She was thinking. What was she going…?

“So Iselin, I’m sorry we’ve been rude. I’m Sasha.
This is Sara, Keither, Arkin, who you seem to know, and my brother
Legon.” As she finished she nudged him slightly forward. Reason and
logic dictated that Sasha avoid doing anything embarrassing,
something she usually succeeded at, except in one particular
situation: Sasha’s favorite pastime was trying to set him up with
people. To her credit she was good at it, but he needed to find a
way out of this. Too late.

“You are a very beautiful woman Iselin. Your husband
is lucky,” Sasha said.

Iselin looked a little uncomfortable. “Oh,
I’m single…”

Sasha didn’t really try and conceal her happiness at
the news “Really? Well are you going to be the one that shows us
around?”

“Ah, I don’t know. I can if you would
like…”

It was clear Sasha had taken Iselin off guard, and
Legon wasn’t sure that it was a good idea, considering she was in
fact a fire-breathing monster, albeit a very attractive one.

“It’s just, well, you seem so nice, and you know
Arkin, and Legon is new to this Elf thing so…” Sasha trailed
off.

The lights visibly went on in Iselin’s eyes as she
turned her perfect gaze on Legon. He knew she was on to Sasha. She
looked him over. He felt blood rushing to his face. Oddly, he found
himself reciting the fear litany in his head. This was all the more
embarrassing because Iselin, like Mantic and probably every other
Elf in the room, could hear his heart speed up and see his face
flush, even if the humans couldn’t. And worse, Mantic and Iselin
most certainly felt the heat off him. This was great. Maybe he
should go back to bothering the empire.

He spoke. “That’s ok Sash, I’m sure
that…”

“No, I think it’s a good idea. Mantic, I will take
them from here. Sasha, Sara, I like you two. We’re going to be
friends, I can already tell.”

Mantic looked like he had been taken off guard.
Clearly this was not part of the plan, and clearly Iselin had no
authority to do this, but he turned and walked off anyway.

* * * * *

Sasha knew that she probably shouldn’t be trying to
set Legon up with the first Elf she saw, but Iselin seemed to have
a good sense of humor and probably wasn’t the type to be bothered
by this behavior. Arkin was standing behind her and she could hear
him trying not to laugh. Iselin made a jab at him and it appeared
to be in good fun. She wondered about their history.

“Well, I will show you to your quarters first and you
can rest and refresh yourselves. Then we can eat and I’ll show you
around. Oh, and Legon, Mantic is in the process of contacting your
house so they and the other great houses can ratify you.”

“Ratify me?”

“Yes. They need to certify that they believe you are
who you are. It’s a formality, not to worry. They’ll have answered
by this evening.”

Iselin whistled and Sasha gasped as she saw a large
cat come walking up to her. It wasn’t a cat, though. It was made of
pink fire and was in the likeness of a cat, slightly transparent
with glowing eyes and a grapefruit sized ball of bright pink magic
in its chest. The cat walked forward to inspect them, stopping
first at Arkin, rubbing against his legs like any other cat would
do. He petted it. Iselin looked inquisitively at them, and then
seemed to realize something.

“So Arkin, what exactly did you teach them about
magic?”

Arkin looked up, his countenance showing much
irritation. “Oh, I’m sorry my lessons weren’t up to your standards.
Forgive me for keeping them alive.”

Iselin laughed. “Touchy aren’t we. Come, Cat.”

“You still haven’t named her yet?” Arkin asked
flatly.

“No. Why should I? Cat is so perfect. She is a cat,
after all.”