A Bard's Story: Here There Be Dragons

Epilogue

Leyha is cooking breakfast when Oren crawls out of his borrowed tent. He settles down by the fire, not seeing its flames but the ones that have haunted his dreams instead.

"Did you get any sleep?" she asks.

"Did you?" he asks.

"A bit," she says. "I fell asleep fine, but..."

"Bad dreams?"

She nods slowly.

"I didn't do much better," he says, and then proves his point with a wide yawn. "Kehdem?"

She shrugs. "He fell asleep somewhere between the second and third time I woke up," she says. "I'd like to let him sleep, if I can."

Her fireside companion nods. "I've got nowhere to be."

"Oren," she says softly, and then waits. With some visible effort, he pulls his gaze from the fire to her. "You should go say goodbye."

He makes a sound of wry amusement. "Sure. Yeah. Oh, wait. It's a bit late for that."

The look she gives him would wither lesser mortals, but he's lost the ability to care. "You don't say goodbye because you're going," she says, as if she knows more about it. "You say goodbye because you're leaving them behind."

"Great," he says. He's not even sure what the difference is. "But you forget — there's no one back there I care about."

Again the withering look. He isn't dead on the spot, but the second time, it makes him a little antsy, like perhaps he's being slowly cooked alive. "There are still people who care about you," she says.

The problem with this statement is that he knows she's right.

"Fine. Whatever." He sighs. "Come get me if Kehdem gets up."

She nods, and he heads off into the bleak promise of a winter morning.

#

Oren starts down the path to town, but as soon as he's out of sight of their camp, he turns away. Talerin is the last thing he needs to see right now, especially in its current state. Instead, he wanders aimlessly. If it works for Kehdem, maybe it'll work for him.

The problem is that he knows this place. Wandering through it is full of memories, and they all hurt. So he goes to the one place that's helped before.

The rocky shore where he and Geri spent so many evenings dragon-spotting has changed with the Holy Order's presence. There's a nice wooden watch tower they put up in their second or third week in town. Oren climbs up to the top of it. With the extra height, he can see over the trees and out across much of the endless sea. It's certainly impressive, but now more than ever he doesn't expect to see any dragons.

The Holy Order have left behind a chest on top of the tower. Oren doesn't really expect there to be anything in it, but he checks anyway. To his surprise, there is a book in the chest. He doesn't recognize it at first glance, so he flips to the title page.

The Dragon Hunter's Manual, it reads.

Thirteenth Edition, it reads next.

Oren's so surprised he drops it. He picks it up, feeling foolish — who actually drops things in surprise? As he does, he notices there's a loose page. He flips to it, berating himself for mishandling a copy of the Manual. It's actually a scrap of a note that someone has shoved in between two pages, and it's addressed to him.

Oren—

I found this in Geri's room. I left it in the HO's tower hoping you would find it before you leave. I don't expect you would take it if I gave it to you, so know this: He would have wanted you to have it.

Good luck out there. And remember, there will always be people in Talerin who love you.

-Laila

Oren sits down on the floor of the tower and cries.

#

Kehdem wakes with a start in the middle of the afternoon and reaches for the space between his and Leyha's bedrolls. He's a little confused when his hands close around his staff and not his sword. Then, he remembers that the war is over.

They're just losing friends to dragons, these days.

With a heavy sigh, he climbs out of the tent. Ash is carving away at some runestones, but what little Kehdem knows about the craft is enough to tell him Ash isn't making any progress in his efforts. Leyha is sitting a few feet from the fire, her knees pulled up to her chest and her gaze a thousand yards away.

Kehdem goes over and sits down beside her. She rests her cheek on his shoulder, and he rests his on her head. After a moment, he asks, "Where's Oren?"

She shrugs. "I told him he should go — talk to Laila, or something. Say goodbye, at least."

"And you think he did it?"

"No. I wouldn't have, if I told me to."

Kehdem has been the one to do the telling, when Leyha hasn't listened. He doesn't have anything to add, so he simply sits quietly and tries not to think too hard about the people they've lost.

"So I was thinking," Leyha begins.

"You think it's time for us to go."

"I just think..." She sighs. "I don't think staying here is going to get us anything. Oren isn't getting anything out of staying here. And the truth is..."

"What?"

"I want to go home," Leyha says very quietly. "I don't mean right away, I definitely want to get rid of the marks first, but I want — I mean—" She sighs, frustrated that she's having trouble articulating herself. "I know Mama's worried about me, but what about Anni? What about Bea and Claudi — what if they've found adventures to have? What if—?"

"Shh," Kehdem says. He reaches an arm around her shoulders and gives her a half-hug. "We'll go get the marks removed, and then we'll go back to Anni's inn. I promise."

Leyha picks her head up off his shoulder to look him in the eye. "Thank you," she says. "And then you get to pick where we go next."

He gives her a wry smile. "Alright," he says. "I'll try not to pick anywhere too boring."

She smiles and returns to using his shoulder as a headrest. "I don't know," she says gently. "Boring sounds pretty good, right about now."

They sit in contemplative silence until Oren returns, around dusk. He looks rather worse for wear. Leyha stands up, walks over to him, and holds her arms out.

He sags into the hug.

Leyha holds him tightly until he can stand on his own. Then she pulls away, and returns to the fire beside Kehdem.

"So," Leyha says. "We've been talking about leaving."

"Now?"

"In the morning. It would be nice to get supplies, but—"

Oren tosses a sack in front of her. "Will this do?"

Leyha goes through its contents. "It'll do quite well," she says. "Where did you get this?"

"I — I went and talked to Laila, like you said," he admits. "It wasn't very easy, but..." He shrugs. "She had some food to spare."

Leyha's just impressed that he went. "Thank you, Oren. It was good of you to do that."

He looks uncomfortable at the compliment. "Right, well. Leaving in the morning, you said?"

She nods.

"I'll try to get some sleep, then."

"Goodnight, Oren. Sleep well."

And, in spite of the fact that he knows it will be his last night in Talerin for a long time, he does.