CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #2
He gave a faint, placating smile. “Yes, but I mean, the real creatures of myth. These demonwolves of Schon are clearly what inspired the tales. That doesn’t mean that their magical counterparts were real too.”
Brea said something in Schonese to Isla, who grinned dryly.
But it was Auden who spoke. “The creatures of myth are real, Jonn,” he said calmly.
“Dragons, demolobis, vaengebjorn. The flamehorn Ilain, Brea, and I fought in the Fire Keep. The wyrm in the Time Keep. They were all once great beasts that filled Terraeus. Until the ancient Mages locked the Relics away. Then magic ebbed, waning away until only the smallest number of Mages and Warriors survived.”
Evylin could feel the unrest in Deckard’s energy.
He didn’t like this suggestion that the mythical creatures had once been alive.
However, she couldn’t help feeling a bit of awe.
What if dragons had been real? Was it possible that all the other tales were true too?
The ones about men and women of old who tamed the creatures of myth, living in harmony with them, and riding them into battle.
She’d not read many stories about such feats—Ephren had banned them with mostly great success—but enough to find the notion intriguing.
“What about the one in the Water Keep?” Rafferty asked. “We never did find out what that one was.”
Auden answered him readily. “Well, there are eight great mythical creatures, as there are eight resources of life. Though I can’t say for certain, not having been there when Blount and his men fought the beast, I’d guess it was a dieumer.”
“Dieumer?” Deckard repeated his pronunciation of the Matteirean word with a far more natural-sounding accent. “What is that?”
“Sea god,” Ilain translated. “Also known as a kraken.”
“Wonderful,” Thom grumbled while Rafferty sat forward in excitement, exclaiming, “I’ve heard stories about kraken.
Growing up in Rasnaack, we heard lots of weird tales, being a waypoint of a sort.
But it wasn’t until I started going to Bridgewater for business that I got firsthand accounts of such sightings, what with all the sailors coming in and out from the Veridus Sea.
One even said there’s this pirate down near the Illes who can control a kraken.
But I always thought the story was him showing off. Kraken, eh? They’re real?”
“As real as dragons,” Ilain said. “Though far more populous near Matteire and lower Giyda than Allund.”
“So,” Ethenn interjected, brow furrowed in thought, “if there are eight creatures of myth for the eight resources of life . . . What two creatures are left for the Terrae and Space Keeps?”
Evylin ran through the creatures and myths she knew in her head.
Auden and Ilain had mentioned six of the eight: flamehorns, dragons, dieumer (or krakens), bloodwolves (or demolobis, demonwolves), vaengebjorns, and wyrms. In all her reading and hearing of legends passed down, she’d only known of dragons, bloodwolves, and kraken. Now, she could only think of one other.
“The Living Land,” Evylin said quietly. “It was a creature in The Traveler and the Rook who spoke with Iona the Worthy, teaching her to care for Terraeus properly.”
Auden nodded. “Likely our Terrae Guardian, yes.”
“Wasn’t that just a great clump of dirt?” Rafferty asked.
“Living dirt,” Thom confirmed.
“That doesn’t sound too bad.”
Evylin doubted it would be easy to defeat, even if it did sound simple. “And what about the Space Guardian?” she asked, looking up at Deckard. “I can’t think of an eighth creature.”
“I wasn’t known to study myth,” he said good-naturedly, though she could still feel the unease pulsing through him.
“No one remembers the eighth creature,” Ilain said, her raspy voice haunting in the shadows of the cavern.
“When the ancient Mages locked the Relics away, the creatures of myth disappeared too. They faded from memory, and only a few were immortalized in literature through the millennium. We only remember the names of the seven because of folk tales and the uncovered texts from the Alliance’s research. ”
“So we have no idea what we’re facing in the Space Keep?” Thom asked.
She gave him a flat look. “We didn’t have any idea what we were facing in the others either. Auden and I knew some of the possibilities, but we didn’t know in what order we’d face them.” She paused, then added, “Though we were pretty sure about the sea god being in the Water Keep.”
“But,” Ethenn said worriedly from his place pressed against her side, “they’re all gone now, right? These creatures don’t exist anymore because they died when the Relics were taken away.”
Ilain shrugged, and Auden’s expression pinched in uncertainty.
Vayden smirked. “For all their genius, my siblings don’t know everything,” he remarked.
“However, it is presumed that the creatures have either gone extinct or that the loss of magic mutated their forms. As Brea said, demolobis no longer appear as the stories say. They aren’t the size of buildings, they don’t hunger for blood, and they aren’t afraid of sunlight. ”
“So,” Rafferty said wryly, “we aren’t concerned that by bringing back these Relics, we’re bringing back these creatures as well?”
Auden shook his head. “It’s highly improbable. And even if we did, the stories suggest that they could work in harmony with the Mages and Warriors if given the right incentive.”
Evylin pursed her lips at the uncertain statement. She couldn’t decide whether the potential of these mythical creatures’ return was horrifying or thrilling. Perhaps a little of both.
“On that pleasant note,” Thom said. He shifted, settling himself on the ground between Deckard and Rafferty. “Brea and I’ve got the second shift, so excuse me while I try to forget this whole conversation in pursuit of two minutes of sleep.”