Explaining the Inexplicable

The two horsemen came within view of the fort and trading outpost on the junction of the Istria and Marcion in the afternoon. The sentinels at the fort saw few who came from the north, and, as they had not heard about the death of the dragon, they were vigilant. They were also aware that Princess Astra had disappeared some months ago, so any event from the north was keenly watched. A knot of observers gathered around the main gate, with some others strung out along the walls. As the riders came closer, the sentinels on duty recognized Vedagaisic, the brother of a local Dunchovian tribal chief, Radagaisic, and relaxed a little. The antelope were probably running farther south than usual, and Vedagaisic would naturally be sent ahead to let the outpost know that the Dunchovians would be in the area.

As the horsemen approached the gate, one of the sentinels raised his hand in command to stop and dismount. Both riders slowed and then followed his command. A boy handed a bucket of water and a dipper to the horsemen, who washed their hands and then poured some water into their cupped hands to drink. While this was happening, the chief sentinel talked to Vedagaisic.

"How's the hunt going?"

"Not bad."

"Are the antelope moving down here?"

"No, they are moving east. The rest of the tribe is moving west."

"Hm. That is not usual. Is there a problem?"

"We have seen some miracles. Thought you would like to know."

"That is always appreciated. They are good, I hope. Did you finally capture the Golden Hind?"

"No, not yet, but it has appeared. And since that has happened I and many others in the tribe have seen things that we have never seen before."

"Such as?"

"There is a beautiful woman of white stone that has come to us and given us a vision. The gods themselves have charged us with going to the Dragon's lair and rescuing the companions of the woman. She told us to look for another woman wearing strange clothing and jewelry. That woman knows a lot of magic to help us. Would she live around here?"

The sentinel stared at him, trying to find words. The assistant said, "He did tell you that it was a miracle."

The sentinel said, "Yes, I would say so. Why don't you come in? Just walk your horses in, and follow me. I think my boss needs to talk to you."

The two Dunchovians were led down a side street to a wooden building. They tied their horses to a hitching post and waited at a table. They declined offers of wine and bread, and the two tribesmen talked quietly between themselves while waiting on the sentinel's boss to arrive.

A fleshy, well-dressed woman and a thin, bald man wearing a uniform approached the table.

The thin man said, "Hello, Vedagaisic. This is Her Honour the Mayor of Istria-Marcion, and as you know, I am the centurion of the legion posted here."

Vedagaisic bowed his head toward the woman in recognition of her office, and then said, "Ma'am, Sir ... this is Balischo - this is his first time here, and I am Vedagaisic of the Greater Marcion tribe of Dunchovia." He then told the two dignitaries exactly what he had told the sentinel.

The centurion said, "Vedagaisic, no offense, but I do not think you know what you are getting into. Going against that dragon without extreme magical means is suicidal. Some of the mightiest heroes in the world have led hosts against it, and have been routed."

"That's one reason we came. The stone woman is powerful. She might be magical enough, but she gave us a vision of another woman."

Balischo added, "Besides that, our shaman received a vision of the dragon as being destroyed. So we do not have to beat him."

The mayor said, "How do you two know that the woman is not bewitching you? That she is not sent from the dragon to lure you and destroy you?"

Vedagaisic said, "If he were still alive and wanted to harm us, I would think that he would just show up on the Marcion and attack us."

"That is an argument to be considered," replied the centurion. "Your tribe does not have anything special that the dragon would want, does it?"

"Don't think so," replied Vedagaisic. "Some leather, some metal goods like the kettle, some pans, and ... we have some needles, too."

"No magical books or jewelry?"

"Oh, no. We have our shaman."

The mayor then asked if the two Dunchovians could walk with them to a certain building. The two tribesmen considered the building to be very fancy, with the floor being dressed with some fine cloth. A number of very fancy paintings were on the walls.

The mayor then asked, "This stone woman, did she look something like this?" as she pointed to a picture of a woman riding a horse in a large painting.

Vedagaisic shook his head. "No, no. She is about a hand taller, and a little more full in the chest. That girl is brown-eyed, too. This one had blue eyes."

Balischo had not been paying attention to the picture of the mounted woman. He had taken a few steps toward the middle of the room, and a small picture caught his attention. He said, "Sir, this one is pretty close. I would say this could be her older sister. What do you think."

The mayor and centurion nodded their heads. Vedagaisic said, "Oh, that is much closer. The stone woman is maybe a bit taller, her hair is worn a little different, and maybe her nose is different, but that is very close."

The mayor said, "Vedagaisic, I am going on intuition. You have just picked out a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen, painted about ten years ago. Unless you have been to Themyscira, I do not think you could guess that."

"I was not trying to guess anything."

"Your story is unbelievable, but there are too many things that you cannot be making up. We need to get you to Themyscira as soon as possible."

"We will saddle up now and start out."

"A night journey is too risky, and besides, you must be tired. I will send advance word by the post, and the court at Themyscira will be prepared when you arrive."

"If the post can make it, we can."

"You do not understand. We use several riders, and the horses are changed every ten leagues."

Vedagaisic replied, "Ma'am, uh, I think we can handle it. Xethymian [88298] can go much farther than the normal horses. And we are practiced at catching a nap while riding long distances, if you can show the way. If it becomes too much for us, we will just stop in the field and sleep. Never felt too comfortable indoors anyway, unless it is raining hard."

The centurion looked at the mayor with wide eyes and nodded his head just a bit, as if he were trying to tell the mayor something without alerting the Dunchovians. She then said, "Are you sure that you want to go now? Without food or rest?"

"We had a good rest sitting and this table and talking. And we still have some antelope jerky that we brought with us. Let's go."

As the two Aqualarians left the table, Balischo whispered to Vedagaisic, "Glory! We get to go to Themyscira."

"The Aqualarians are seeing some things in the vision that we are not, I think. I am glad that we brought an extra set of clothes."

"We gotta dress fancy?"

"I was more thinking of selling that extra change of clothes. We should get a good price down there. They like our leather and our horses. But if I catch you selling your horse, then you are walking back."

"No problem, sir. What can we buy down there?"

"Themyscira is big. Really big. I have been told that you go on a hill, and look down, and there are houses as far as you can see."

"I do not think so. You cannot have a camp that big. Not for a long length of time, anyway."

"We will see."

"So what are you thinking about getting? Looking glass? Knives?"

"Depends on how things shake out. Knives, of course. But I will also be looking for beads and jewels."

"Glory be! For the women. I probably need to get some myself, in case I get lucky and win someone's heart when we get into winter camp with the other Dunchovian tribes. I almost wish that I had asked someone what to get, but I didn't think about it."

Vedagaisic replied, "In my case, I will be looking for beads a shade of robin's egg blue, cut like an oval, and set in silver if I can get it. Make sure that it does not have more than nine stones, or that will be more than my sister-in-law has, and we need to keep peace in the family. Also Viani would like some loose stone of the same type, as well as some porphyry. And if I see any sapphire, which is a clear blue stone, then forget about anything else and get as much of that as I can."

"Wow. We had to go to Aqualaria very quickly. How did you figure all that out?"

"I like to live a peaceful life," said Vedagaisic without further explanation.

The centurion said, "I am glad that they are willing to go now. There are stange things going on, and the mages in Themyscira need to consulted. In the meantime, I am going to mobilize the soldiers. This could be a trap of some sort, although I don't see how it would work. I will have scouts fan out in a half-circle from here, and look for anything unusual, with a couple of squads going out toward the northwest, to look for signs of the Dunchovians from Vedagaisic's tribe."

The mayor replied, "I agree. Something is going on, but this is not making any sense. The Dunchovians going into the Dragon's Lair, of all things."

"The centurion replied, "Not even all the Dunchovians. Vedagaisic's tribe is about forty or so adult men and women, if I remember correctly. And notice they are shy about coming indoors. And now they think that they are going into caves and clear out all the Dragon's evil?"

"May the Goddess bless them, but I am worried for them - and us. At least they sent someone over to let us know, so they are not completely out of their senses. I hope that the court in Themyscira can make sense of this."

1. We continue to follow Vedagaisic and Balischo as they journey to "the big camp" at Themyscira.
2. We follow Astra as she leads the rest of Radagaisic's tribe toward the settled lands and the Dragon's lair.
3. Back in the Dragon's Valley....

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