The sky darkened even more, and the stars grew brighter. The moon would rise later, but for now, the blackness between the stars was the hue of coal. The stars took on an intense blue-white tinge without a cloud to obscure them. I looked up, awed, much like Kendra did when wyverns flew over. No words were needed or wanted. Each of us was lost in the beauty of the sky in a way we had never seen it. Well, Tater may have seen it. He’d crossed the mountains this way before, but he appeared as entranced as we three.
Elizabeth whispered, “Is it always like this up here?”
“Not so much,” Tater said. “Only before the moonrise on cloudless nights. But when it is, a body tends to feel small.”
He was right. The hint of all things unknown looked down on us from above. I listened to the crackle and hiss of the fire, to a few insects that dared the cold, and an owl hooting off to our left. An answering hoot came from our right, and I hoped they managed to find each other in the stillness of the cold night air. The world could use a few more owls.
Tater started to snore, and Elizabeth had curled up with three blankets to protect her tender skin. Kendra also slept, a small lump in the darkness not far from me. She stirred a little, rolled over, and then sat up, her eyes locked on me.
“Feel it?” she asked in a husky, wide-awake whisper.
“Not a thing.”
Kendra stood and peered into my eyes, then sat again. “Inside your head. A sharp, evil feeling, like a pin sticking your mind. Nothing?”
“A dragon?”
“No, this is completely different,” she said.
“He has different powers than yours,” a calm voice behind us said. A woman emerged from the darkness and walked past us to the fire where she reached out and warmed her hands in a familiar gesture. She wore an ankle-length dress that shimmered blue and emitted its own faint light, so she moved in an eerie glow. Her white skin was so pale under a head of hair so black that both reflected the blue light from the gown.
I was already on my feet, my knife in my hand. Kendra stood a single step behind me, also ready to defend herself, but as usual, she wanted me to go first. As she stepped to my side, she looked ready to attack or run.
However, the strange woman made no threatening motions and appeared to ignore us as she watched the flames. She finally turned our way after giving us time to get used to her presence. She appeared old, yet her skin was unwrinkled and blemish-free, so how could that be? The pale blue light seemed to emanate from everywhere on her body equally, not just her dress. She stood taller than most women and moved with a quietness and grace that suggested royalty, her feet barely touched the ground when she walked. That caught my attention. Looking at the soft ground behind her revealed no footprints because they didn’t touch.
“Who are you?” I asked in a hushed voice while holding my knife higher. “What are you?”
“Do not be afraid to speak up and talk to me in a normal voice. The others will not wake until we are finished with our business. I am called any one of several names, none of which you will recognize or should care about. Perhaps it is better if we do not share more information between us than necessary. Our time is limited.” Her speech patterns were refined and educated.
Kendra said, “What do you mean they will not wake? Not even the dog? Why not?”
“I have drawn a morsel of power from the essence of the world and used it to place them into a deeper sleep. They will awaken in the morning, none the wiser and much refreshed.” She smiled as if that was acceptable and desired.
Kendra, always stronger and smarter than me, stood taller and demanded, “What is this essence you speak of?”
The woman still stood near the fire, still calm and glowing blue. Her movements were more than graceful when examined again. She moved slowly, precisely, and calculated in a stiff manner. I glanced at the dirt under her feet again. Still no footprints, and that held my attention more than anything else about her. Was she a dream? My mind wondered if her action of warming her hands on a cold night was also done a diversion intended to convince us she existed.
She looked directly past my shoulder at Kendra and answered, “Essence is the force that holds our world together. It is the power that binds, and it is the receptacle for all unused energy, the same source your brother draws his miniscule needs from when he performs what he refers to as his small-magic. Of course, no magic is really small, nor is it really magic. It is, in plain terms, the judicious use of what we call essence. Some use more than others, which is the reason for my visit.”
Kendra stepped from behind me to stand at my side. She took my hand. “He means no harm. I have tried to make him stop using magic.”
“We know that, child.”
“I am not a child,” Kendra retorted in the sharp manner of one who was recently a child and that now wished everyone to recognize her adulthood.
“Damon is not the reason I’m here. He touches the essence and occasionally draws so little of it for his nefarious uses that it is barely noticed or missed. No, I’m here because of you and your dangerous intrusions on the essence we all depend upon. Those ventures must be stopped or controlled.”
“Me?” Kendra wailed loud enough to wake any people sleeping on the other side of the mountain pass. “I don’t use magic! There is none in me.”
“Yes, my mission here is to come here and to speak with you. Your demands on essence the past day has drawn fear and loathing from those of us who monitor and require its use. The existence of enough essence for all of us is necessary, the supply is finite, and you demand a disproportionate amount. Your indiscretions allow the forces of darkness to emerge unchecked.”
“Who knows what that is, or who you are, or what we’re talking about,” Kendra said, her voice growing strained.
“Me neither,” I said, fully supporting my sister by admitting my ignorance in a strong, clear voice, not the first time I’d done that.
The woman wrapped in shimmering blue light waved her arms wide and threw her head back as if to laugh. Instead, she spoke to the night sky as she quoted a strange verse, “Essence is the very being of the world. Every egg that is fertilized, every seed that sprouts, the tangled roots under our feet, the air all lungs inhale to survive. Essence is the energy created by animals eating food or plants drawing nutrients from the soil. It is the very fabric of life.”
The aggressive stance of Kendra and the subtle jut of her chin told me she was getting angry. Before my fumbling hand could restrain her, she took three steps closer to the woman and said, “Me? Why are you accusing me of destroying all that?”
The blue woman lowered her head and faced my sister. “Those damned wyverns are the problem. We cannot seem to rid them from our world. We finally have those few remaining contained in one area of the world, and you call out to them, draw them with a waste of essence, and now you’re traveling to where they thrive, and the dragon is chained. Interference in the root of life may do irreparable harm to all of us. It cannot be ignored. It must be stopped.”
“Listen to me. Whenever dragons or wyverns or whatever they are fly near, they seem to do something to my mind. They shut it off.” Kendra said in a calmer voice, her actions restrained. “I do nothing intentional to them.”