The Dragon's Tapestry

Marwen struggled not to glare at him. She put the bread in the bake box over the fire and sat with the others. It had become dark with thunderclouds, and the wind began to batter cold at the windowboards. They would not leave until the storm was over. She looked around the room for Cudgham-ip, but she could not see him.

The fire tossed and popped as it burned rushweed braids, casting demon shadows that danced on sheets of leather curing on frames. The fire shadows danced on the knobs and points and blades of the cobbling tools. The east window remained shut against the worsening storm. Camlach spoke, and Crob, Maug, Marwen, and Politha listened intently.

“You cannot imagine the destruction,” he said. “Entire vil­lages burned to the ground, men and women and little children scorched and blistered and charred black, screaming until their throats are swollen shut, and they die. Those that survive have nothing to eat, for the grain is burnt to stubble. Ashes fall like snow on villages to the south, and the sun is hidden in smoke.”

Camlach swallowed hard and closed his eyes. It had been only a few winds since his rescue, but the spells had brought much healing already. “Your words constrain me to believe,” Crob said, and he shook his huge head in sorrow.

“Has this dragon a name?” Politha asked.

“Perdoneg,” Camlach said.

Politha’s gasp was not heard, for the wind howled at the win­dowsill in that moment and died away to a moan.

“Perdoneg?” Politha said in a half-whisper. “Are you sure?”

“It is the name he gives himself,” Camlach said and then, looking at Politha soberly, he added, “If there is some knowl­edge that you have concerning this thing, please tell it for the sake of all Ve.”

“I will tell what I know, lad,” the blind woman said after a moment, “not for the sake of Ve but for the sake of magic. The story was passed down to me from my grandmother who made me memorize it carefully.”

She rocked a little from side to side, and Marwen felt her invoke a story spell.

“In ancient times there were many dragons, and they roamed the world and had divers powers. But they were small dragons, and grown men with their wits about them could defend them­selves against one. It was the vestige of these that I thought was in your land. In that day many wizards roamed the land, also, bringing peace and prosperity to the people of Ve. An Oldwife in that day could live her entire life without ever burying an unfulfilled tapestry.

“But the people were not happy. ‘Why should we endure these dragons that torment us and even carry off our children?’ they complained, and so the wizards began to destroy the drag­ons one by one. After a few generations, the population of the dragons had been substantially depleted, but the records also say that fewer and fewer men were born with the power. Then one day, in this long ago time, there was only one wizard to be found in all the land, though he was a great and powerful and good wizard.”

Marwen’s legs were folded under her, but at this she sat up straight on her knees. “I know his name: Morda-hon.” Politha nodded, and Marwen snapped her fingers in satis­faction. The old woman continued.

“It was thought by the people that all the dragons had been destroyed, but they were mistaken. One day from across the water came an immense creature that filled the sky when it flew, eating wingwands whole and able to curl around an entire moun­tain to sleep. The creature had given itself a name: Perdoneg.

“Morda-hon was wise and realized that as all the light was now in himself, so all the darkness was embodied in Perdoneg, and to destroy one would be to destroy the other. Morda-hon spoke to Perdoneg of this wisdom, and they conversed for many days. But the nature of the darkness is to want to comprehend and overcome the light, and finally Perdoneg laughed and said he had come to destroy a wizard and his heir, and that he would do so.

“Then ensued a great battle, and in the end Perdoneg was imprisoned by Morda-hon in the land of the lost—that place where come to dwell all those dead whose tapestries are unful­filled. There Perdoneg became lord and master of unfinished souls. It is said that many generations of wizards have lived since then, descending in secrecy, for as belief in dragons disappeared, so did belief in wizards.”

Politha stopped speaking. The fire cast sharp shadows on the faces of the four, and Marwen thought she could see them all burning in dragon’s breath. In the silence of fire and wind, the old woman added, “It has been long since I have found the courage, in this age of disbelief, to say such a thing, to speak of the wizard. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps the magic truly fades from Ve. The Songs tell of an age when the magic will be done away with, when evil will have its chance to reign in Ve. Perhaps that day is now come.”

“The magic is not fading,” Marwen said starting, as if awak­ening from a dream.