Saffi's Delve

“Why has Vaikal been placed under guard?” demanded Saffi as she stormed through the council chamber toward the arc of giant pedestals where the council members sat. Dragons weren’t easy to startle, but at least one of them nearly fell off his perch. Saffi was the only human living in the realm of the dragons, and she’d had to develop a strong voice just to be heard among them. And a strong resistance to the cold of the mountains. Dragons didn’t have much use for enclosed spaces, and the wool of her tunic didn’t offer much warmth under the open dome of the council chamber.

“You don’t belong here, princess,” sneered Zallug, who never passed up an opportunity to take a jab at her. “These proceedings are not for your ears.”

“Do not call me princess. The king stopped being my father the day he tried to have me killed. I want nothing to do with him or his kingdom or his title.” She folded her arms. “But then you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Zallug,” said Agromon, the eldest of the dragons. “Saffi is welcome here. This concerns her as much as any of us.” Dragons didn’t have official hierarchies, but they did respect seniority, and Agromon was the oldest by centuries.

“What concerns me? What has happened? Is Vaikal in trouble?”

“He is suspected of a crime,” said Agromon.

“What crime?”

Agromon sighed. “He was overheard claiming that he kidnapped you from the castle grounds when you were a child. That he was the cause of the war between humans and dragons.”

“No. No, no…that’s not true. You know that’s not what happened. The king abandoned me in the forest. He left me for dead. Vaikal found me and rescued me.”

“Several of us heard him, including myself. We can’t ignore it.”

“Then he didn’t know what he was saying. You know he sometimes has…trouble knowing what’s real and what’s not.”

“I know, Saffi. Nevertheless we must detain him until we can find out the truth.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“A tribunal. He must appear before the council.”

“You can’t make him do that. He’s been in decline for years. His own testimony would mean nothing.”

“Nonsense,” said Zallug. “He knows what he’s saying, and he’s already confessed.”

Saffi spun toward him. “Who’s to say you didn’t manipulate him into believing he kidnapped me? Everyone knows you hate him.”

“Saffi,” said Agromon, “he has to appear. We have no other way of determining what happened.”

“I know what happened. I was there.”

“You were barely three years old. Do you remember the moment he found you?”

Saffi was raised by dragons. She had never mastered the human art of lying. “No, I don’t remember. But I remember that he saved me. I remember that he brought me here. That he took care of me and was kind to me and raised me as if I were his own child.”

“But if you can’t remember what actually happened, then we have nothing to go on. There’s nothing we can do.”

“There’s the delve.”

“Saffi, that’s not—”

“It can extract memories, yes?”

Agromon sank on his perch. “Yes, but it’s—”

“If you can bring out my memories from that time, then Vaikal won’t need to stand trial. You can all see the truth.”

“Saffi, the delve is dangerous even for dragons. It could kill you.”

“I don’t care. You must do it.”

Agromon stared at her for a moment, then glanced at the other members of the council, all of whom bowed their heads in agreement. “Very well. Do you want some time to…”

“I’m ready now. What do I do?”

***

Saffi stood directly in the center of the domed chamber. All of the dragons on the council spread their wings and began chanting in unison toward the oculus of the dome.

“Where will the memories…appear?” said Saffi.

“Inside our heads,” said Agromon. “Everyone in this chamber will see and hear what the delve extracts.”

“How do I—" She felt a stabbing at the front of her skull, and dropped to her knees as it tore into her head and down her spine.

“Concentrate, Saffi.” said Agromon. “Try to remember when you first saw Vaikal.”

She tried to answer, but only a cry of pain came out. She rose to her feet slowly and reached back for the earliest thing she could remember…

The open, sunlit courtyard of the castle. It looked massive through three-year-old eyes. She played in the dirt by herself, ruining her silvery white gown as the king and queen watched her from the tower. She shouted up at them. Not real words. She didn’t have the words yet. Soldiers watched her from the edges of the courtyard. She remembered wondering if they were real people. They never talked to her, and people who didn’t talk didn’t seem like real people. They frightened her. But suddenly something was frightening them. They glared at the sky and began shouting as a shadow washed over everything.

And then he landed. Giant, green-scaled Vaikal. He ignored the scrambling and shouting of the soldiers flooding in at the edges of the courtyard and laid his head on the ground in front of Saffi. He laid motionless for a moment. “Hello, little mouse.”

Little Saffi climbed to her feet and stumbled toward him.

That’s right, adult Saffi thought. He called me “little mouse” when I was small. And she remembered that she had never been afraid of him, not even when she first saw him. Something about his face and his voice and how he moved—gently, as if he couldn’t hurt a fly.

“Dragon!” she said, poking his nose. It came out more like “rangon!”

“Yes, that’s right. We must go on a trip, little one.” He gently gathered her up and took to the sky. “I promise I won’t drop you.”

“Fly!” she said, more like “fie!”

“Don’t look down.”

“Rangonfie!” she said, looking down at the shrinking courtyard full of ant-like screaming soldiers.

“That proves it,” said Zallug, breaking the delve. “He lied. He didn’t find you in the forest. He kidnapped you from the castle, as he said. It follows that he’s also responsible for the war. As he said.”

“No!” said Saffi, sitting back and rubbing her temples to try to soothe the pressure. “That’s not enough. We need to know why he took me from the castle.”

“It doesn’t matter why he did it,” said Zallug. “He stole you from your people and started a war.”

“You can’t condemn him if you don’t know why!” said Saffi.

“She is right,” said Agromon. “But…Saffi, are you able to go on?”

“I’m fine,” she said. But she wasn’t fine. She was crushed. The excruciating physical pain was bad enough, but now she knew that Vaikal had lied to her, and she had to know why. There must be more to it, she thought. “Let’s go on.” She sat on the floor this time.

Agromon nodded to the others, and they all resumed the chant.

Saffi braced herself, hugging her knees as the stabbing returned. She tried to remember where Vaikal took her after they left the castle.

A clear spot in the forest. The sun was nearly gone. Little Saffi slapped Vaikal’s tail with her little hands to try to get his attention as he crouched in the middle of the clearing, talking to someone who wasn’t there.

“No…he promised…this is for you. We’ll be together soon…”

She jumped on his tail. “Rangon!”

He turned to look at her, then rolled onto his side and laid his head on the ground. “This is where she died. This is where I lost my Kasta.”

Adult Saffi knew what he meant, as did every dragon in the chamber. Kasta was his mate. His love. It was no secret that his mental state began to decline when she died.

Little Saffi had had no idea. She only sensed that Vaikal was sad.

“I’m sorry, little mouse. You don’t understand a word, do you?”

She touched his nose and made an “unh” sound. She didn’t have the words yet to console him.

“It’ll be all right, little princess,” he said without lifting his head. “I’ve just got to take you somewhere, then you can go home to your family.”

“I don’t see how this is relevant,” said Zallug, disrupting the delve once again.

The stabbing subsided. Saffi wiped her mouth and looked down to see red on the back of her hand.

“Saffi,” said Agromon, “do you need to stop?”

“I’m okay,” she lied. “Let’s get on with it.”

“As you wish. Can you remember where he brought you?”

She shut her eyes against the jolt.

A platform under the stars. The top of a large stone tower. Vaikal stood next to little Saffi. Before them stood the wizard Raznid, dressed in dark red robes and holding a long staff with a blue glowing headstone that lit up his gaunt face like a bearded skull. Adult Saffi knew who he was, because his name had become a curse word among dragons. Three-year-old Saffi felt more afraid of him than anyone she’d ever seen.

“I’ve done what you asked,” said Vaikal. “The princess, unharmed. Now bring Kasta back.”

“Soon—"

***

This time it was Saffi who interrupted the delve. “Wait…is that possible? Could Raznid do that? Is death not…final?”

“Yes, it’s possible,” said Agromon. “But it’s a ghastly spell. One who is returned from death is…changed.”

“There’s no need to go on,” said Zallug. “You’ve just proven that Vaikal knew what he was doing. He colluded with a human wizard in a conspiracy against his own kind. It doesn’t matter if his motives were selfish or treacherous.”

“His reason for doing it is everything!” said Saffi. “He was confused. This was only a few months after he’d lost Kasta. He was confused and desperate and would have done anything to see her again. He would have been easy to manipulate. We have to see more…”

“Agromon,” said Zallug, “we can’t in good conscience put Saffi through any more of this. I suggest we end it now.”

“You dare to pretend to care about my wellbeing?” she hissed.

“Saffi,” said Agromon, “I care about your wellbeing. You’re bleeding, and you’re obviously in pain.”

“I'll be fine. We must continue.”

“You’re killing yourself.”

“I need to know what happened—why he brought me here.”

Agromon sighed. “Very well.”

Through the jabbing in her head Saffi concentrated on the tower again…

“…Now bring Kasta back.”

“Soon,” said Raznid. “I need to deal with the child first.”

“Yes, of course,” said Vaikal, craning his neck to look at little Saffi. “How do you plan to get her back to her people? Without anyone…suspecting what we did, I mean.”

“I don’t.”

“But…I thought—“

“The princess is no longer your concern. You will be reunited with Kasta soon.”

“What’s going to happen to the girl?”

“The king needs sons, not daughters.”

“I don’t—"

“He needs a proper heir to the throne. She’s in the way.”

Adult Saffi felt tears streaming down her face—at least, she hoped those were tears. Vaikal hadn’t lied about this part. He’d always told her that her father condemned her to death. But hearing it this way for herself…

“This isn’t what I agreed to,” said Vaikal. “We were just supposed to scare Bergith’s people—help him get his subjects in line. I...couldn’t hurt her.”

By this time little Saffi was hiding behind his left front leg, peering out from behind him at the wizard.

“I know. You don’t have to. Just leave her to me, and think about Kasta. You’ll be with her again as soon as this is over. Now, move aside.”

Instead Vaikal held out his hand for little Saffi. She held up her arms, and he picked her up and held her against his chest.

“What do you think you’re doing, dragon?” said Raznid.

Vaikal didn’t answer. He reared back on his hind legs, holding the little princess close. “Kasta, forgive me. I…I didn’t understand.”

“Give me the girl, dragon,” said the wizard, “if you ever want to see your Kasta again.” He swung his staff toward Vaikal. A shard of lightning leaped from it, landing with a zap on the dragon’s wing just as he raised it to shield the girl.

Vaikal drew in a sharp breath, and little Saffi felt a surge of soothing warmth in his chest. Then he lurched forward.

She looked back just in time to see a massive bolt of fire strike the ground in front of Raznid, hurling him backwards off the tower. She buried her head in Vaikal’s chest as he lifted her into the sky. “Fly.”

“Yes. Fly,” he said. “Somewhere you’ll be safe.”

Adult Saffi fell backward, unable to hold herself upright any longer.

“Enough!” said Agromon, stopping the delve for good. He jumped from his perch, glided down to the floor beside her, and called for attendants to help her. “It’s over, Saffi. You must rest now.”

But it wasn’t over for Zallug. “None of this disputes the fact that Vaikal colluded with Raznid to kidnap Saffi from the castle grounds, which led to the war between her people and ours. It doesn’t matter whether that was Vaikal’s intention or not.”

Saffi’s rage overrode her pain. She pushed herself to her feet and spat blood at Zallug, shouting, “It was Raznid who colluded with the king to have me taken. To have me killed. They’re the ones who started this. King Bergith is the one who made the decision to declare war. They just needed an excuse, and if Vaikal hadn’t gone along they’d have found another. Raznid just found that it was easy to manipulate Vaikal with his lies. He took advantage of his desperation and confusion. If that’s too complicated for your sulfuric little mind…”

She turned to Agromon. “You know very well that Zallug has been thirsting to ruin him for ages. He’s always been jealous that Kasta chose Vaikal over him. He…” Dizziness engulfed her before she could finish. A darkness invaded the corners of her eyes.

Agromon caught her and eased her to the ground as she collapsed backwards. “Rest, Saffi. All of what you have said will be taken into account. And all that we have seen. We will do no more today.”

She stayed on the floor of the chamber and watched the dragons fly away one by one through the opening in the dome, disappearing into the stars above. When the attendants were finally convinced she’d be okay on her own, she slowly rose to her feet and walked toward the door.

Zallug was still perched on his pedestal as she ambled past. “Remember, princess,” he said, “I was right.”

She didn’t even bother to stop or look at him. “I will remember how eager you were to destroy him. I will remember your jealousy.”

The flapping of his wings faded into the distance behind her.

She walked past her own chambers to the ones where they were holding Vaikal, a space no bigger than her own. It couldn’t be easy for him. Dragons weren’t used to living indoors. They lived in eyries under the open sky.

The dragons guarding him didn’t try to stop her from entering.

Vaikal lifted his head from the floor when he saw her. “So you know the truth.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t blame you if you hate me.”

She walked straight to his side and collapsed against him. “For what, saving my life? Protecting me? Raising me? You absolute monster.”

“For lying to you.”

“You were afraid I’d hate you for that?”

“I was afraid you’d leave me.”

“Silly thing. You’re my only family.”

She fell asleep curled up next to him in the warmth under his wing, the way she used to when she was small.