Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz - 25

“…A thousand years and a day before you or I were born, when the moons were young maidens still painting the sky, these mountains were home to a powerful dragon who terrorized the land, seeking riches for his hoard— Don’t look at me like that, Vi, I’m a performer. If I’m going to tell the story I’m going to do it right.”

Violet pressed her lips together and settled back to listen. Pru the Neighbor was gone and Pru the Bard stood before her as she continued. “His scales were impenetrable as the stone mountains that surrounded him, and his breath wrought fiery despair upon the land. The dragon was stronger than most, for besides his own magic he knew how to draw power from his vast hoard of riches, which was hidden deep in a cave inside the mountain.

“Knights and mages came to steal his treasure, but the dragon defeated them all, leaving a field of scorched bones scattered across the mountainside. No one lived here then. No one could; the dragon would take them as his next meal. So when a great warrior came to the mountain with the intent of defeating the dragon, the dragon thought little of it. But this one was different, for the warrior did not come alone, you see. He had fallen in love with a witch who had lived many lifetimes and watched the rise and fall of kingdoms while she stood unchanged. The witch carried around her neck a great, glowing gemstone that granted her power immeasurable. It was even said to hold dominion over life and death, and indeed the amulet had saved her from many mortal wounds and had kept her young and beautiful across many human lifetimes. ‘This amulet will help us defeat the dragon,’ the witch confided to her lover, ‘because it was once the serpent’s left eye.’ ”

Violet sucked in a breath as Pru spoke, for she realized she knew the story, or part of it at least. Guy had been obsessed with finding the Eye of the Serpent. He believed, like the witch, that it would make him all-powerful. Could it be that this was what Sedgwick searched for?

“As the centuries passed,” Pru was saying, “the witch had grown lonely in her power. Her heart shattered again and again when those she loved grew old and withered away, all while she remained young and powerful. When she fell in love with the warrior, she knew the only way to avoid another heartbreak was to grant him a life as long and unending as her own by capturing the dragon’s other Eye.

“ ‘I will defeat this dragon for you, my love,’ said the warrior when they made camp that night upon the fields of bone and ash. ‘No. We will defeat it together ,’ she insisted firmly. ‘For the brightest constellations shine not from a single star, but many.’ The warrior kissed her sweetly and took her to bed, but after, as she slept soundly in his arms, he slipped the Eye of the Serpent from her neck and stole away from camp. Many had perished in pursuit of the dragon, and he did not want the witch, powerful though she was, to meet the same fate. When she woke and found him gone, the witch knew instantly what he had done.

“Without the power of the Serpent’s Eye she felt weak. Mortal. But more than that, she was filled with a terrible fear for the man she loved. He had lied to her and stolen from her, but if he were to be killed, her heart would never recover, not in a hundred lifetimes. Her love for him fueled her as she made her way to the dragon’s lair.

“The sound of a great battle reached her ears—the roar of the dragon and the clash of steel against hard scales. A wave of heat rocked the witch, hotter than any forge, and she saw the warrior bravely fighting the dragon, his sword flashing with deft speed. But the dragon was bigger and stronger, and she could see her love was beginning to grow tired.

“When the dragon’s blind side was turned toward her, she summoned a great cyclone of dust and ash, sending it toward the beast. But though the witch had once been a formidable power in her own right, she had relied for centuries on the Eye of the Serpent as a source, and the river of her magic had slowed to a trickle with disuse. Casting such a powerful spell without the Eye weakened her, and the witch watched in horror as her right hand grew withered like a crone’s, for all magic bears a cost. The cyclone struck the dragon’s good side, blinding his remaining Eye temporarily. The dragon roared, lashing out with his great claws and striking the warrior to the ground.

“The witch worried for her love but kept to her cause. She lunged toward the dragon and with inhuman strength plucked out its other eye. The dragon bellowed a deafening roar, thrashing in agony, and the witch clutched the eye as she ran back to the warrior. The strength it had taken had required more of her magical essence, and even as power from the second eye filled her, her withered limb crumbled away to ash. Dread overcame her then, for the witch used her hands to cast magic, and though there were other ways to wield power, she would have to learn them all over again—if she survived that long. Tears ran down her cheeks as she reached the warrior, still prone on the ground, and she realized his legs were broken. ‘Why is the Eye of the Serpent not healing you?’ she asked, and he said, ‘Because I do not know how to wield it. I’m sorry, my love. I stole from you and did not consider that I could not use it.’

“The dragon roared again and let out a jet of deadly flame that missed them by inches.

“ ‘Even blind, it is still dangerous,’ said the witch.

“ ‘We must defeat it, or it will take innocent lives in vengeance,’ agreed the warrior, ‘but I cannot stand to fight.’

“The witch looked to where her arm should have been. ‘And I cannot do magic like this.’ The warrior grasped her remaining hand and looked deep into her eyes.

“ ‘The brightest constellations shine not from a single star, but many,’ he said. ‘I shall be your hands.’

“He slipped the amulet back over her neck, then took the second Eye and grasped it in their conjoined hands.

“ ‘And I shall be your legs,’ she replied. Magic flooded her once more, only this time, she could feel his body as well as hers. The pain in his legs was agony, but she summoned strength enough to lift him onto her back. Together, left hands still clasped, they turned as one to the dragon. The witch carried them toward the beast as the warrior held aloft his sword. The blinded dragon turned to them, opening his great mouth to show flames forming in the back of his throat. The warrior threw his sword like a javelin into the roof of the dragon’s mouth, and as he let go, the witch summoned the power of both Eyes, using their hands to channel magic into the weapon. Guided by her spell, the sword struck true, piercing the soft flesh inside the dragon’s mouth and driving into his skull. A wave of power pulsed through the air, throwing them both back until they lay outside the cave’s entrance, still in each other’s arms. The ground around them began to rumble and they watched in shock as the dragon froze, the fire never leaving his throat, and turned to stone before their eyes.”

Pru’s next words broke the silence like a plucked bowstring. “The cave trembled around them, and the witch used her remaining strength to drag herself and her warrior farther from the cave while it collapsed to a great pile of rubble, taking the dragon with it.

“ ‘We did it,’ said the witch with no small amount of wonder.

“ ‘Together,’ added the warrior, pressing a kiss to his love’s lips. ‘I’m so sorry I left without you.’ The witch clutched her amulet, determined to heal the warrior’s legs, only to realize it was gone, as was the second Eye. In fact, the entire hoard of the dragon had disappeared entirely, lost in the wreckage of the cave. She cried out, searching, but the Eyes were gone.”

Even Bartleby was captivated, his vines curled up beneath him in tense wonder, and it took Violet a moment to understand that the story had finished.

“What happened to the Eyes?” she asked, and Pru waggled her brows.

“No one ever managed to find the dragon’s hoard, or the Eyes of the Serpent. The witch, it is said, believed the dragon had taken them back, for dragon magic is not something we understand. ‘Anyone who searches for it,’ she claimed, ‘must first find the stone dragon.’

“Before long the story became just that—a story, powerful magic in its own right, as all stories are. As the years passed, the land began to heal from the dragon’s rampage and the collapsed cave began to grow over with grass and wildflowers until it was indistinguishable from the rest of the mountain. The place where the great stone dragon took his eternal rest became a bustling town, and the witch and the warrior lived out the rest of their days there—mortal, yes, but together. Starting over wasn’t easy, and came with its share of challenges, but as the community of Dragon’s Rest grew and grew, the witch and the warrior knew they never need be lonely again.”

Silence rang like the after tone of a struck bell. Violet’s chest felt tight.

“So we start with the stone dragon,” she said finally, setting her troubled thoughts to rest until she had time to examine them.

“Maybe.” Pru’s smile turned wry. “If the story’s true. Personally I think it’s a load of dung. People have been searching for the dragon’s hoard for centuries. If it ever existed, they’d have found it already.”

Violet frowned. Shadowfade had not been known to chase ghosts.

“But the Eye of the Serpent has a reputation that expands beyond the legend.”

“Of course it does. The Eye was always a big tourist draw for the town,” said Pru. “Back when, you know, we had tourists.”

The name Shadowfade hung in the air between them, because of course no one would want to visit a windy little mountain town that also happened to be within spitting distance of a dark sorcerer with homicidal tendencies. Violet was working on that, of course, but even once she managed to get rid of Sedgwick, that wouldn’t change the fact that Dragon’s Rest was tainted with fear. Just another story , she thought, but the seed of an idea began to take root.

“What if it could be again?” she asked. “What if we could bring the tourists back? More business for both our shops, as well as everyone in town—and you’d have a larger audience to play for. You wouldn’t have to travel so much to find work if you didn’t want to.”

An image struck her then, of Pru up on that stage, telling that story—accompanied by music and costumes and a few actors to play the different roles—to a rapt audience each week on Market Day.

Pru cocked her head, thoughtful. “I suppose there’s an entirely new generation of people out there who have never heard of the hoard of Dragon’s Rest.”

“Exactly.” The idea had sprouted now, unfurling leaves and opening to the sun. Violet could feel it budding as it took on life. “We could build a town-wide treasure hunt that takes tourists through all the major business districts. Talk to Quinn and Fallon and the other business owners in town, and we could cast ourselves ”—she stumbled over the word—“the businesses and all the people who live here, I mean, as the ‘treasures of Dragon’s Rest.’ ”

Pru looked intrigued by the idea. “If we could boost tourism, we could offset some of the hardship folks are facing and even head off some of what’s coming now that Feldspars is…” She trailed off, frowning.

“Right,” said Violet. “What about the blight?” For a moment, she had forgotten all about the blight and Sedgwick and the reason she was trying to learn about the legend to begin with.

But just as quickly, Pru waved a hand to dismiss the thought. “Do you honestly think my brother will rest until he’s found a solution?” she asked. “Nathaniel’s even more pigheaded than the warrior in the story, and he won’t hesitate to fight this particular dragon alone if he needs to. I’m not saying this isn’t a serious problem. It is. But it’s not a bad thing to look toward the future even as we’re still figuring out the present. The point is, with Shadowfade gone, Dragon’s Rest has a future now, and we can help be the ones who make sure it’s a good one. It’s a great idea.” She grinned. “We’ll call a meeting of local business owners and start planning. They’ll want to help, and they’ll have even more ideas than what the two of us can devise alone.”

As they chattered about festivals and themed market days, Violet reflected that Pru was right—Dragon’s Rest did have a future now, and Violet was flattered and a little sheepish to be a part of it. Maybe this was how she could redeem herself and put the Thornwitch to rest. Planning community events was about as far from villainous as she could imagine. Was this what it meant to be good?

But despite Pru’s optimism, Violet knew that in order for Dragon’s Rest to truly have a future, she had to keep it from sliding back into the past. She committed details of the legend to her memory.

She was certain now that Sedgwick believed the Eye of the Serpent could be found in Dragon’s Rest, and she had to stop him from taking over, not just for her own sake, but for the sake of the community she was growing to care about. Guy had been a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid: whether or not all the details of the legend were true, Violet believed the Eye existed, and even if Sedgwick had a head start, no one had known Shadowfade like Violet did. She would follow his logic and pick up the trail where he had left off.

She would find the Eye first, and she would destroy it.