Gaius Darkspell and the Sapphire of Regret | Part 4
The Client
The teleportation spell snapped shut behind Gaius and company with a bloop, and the four heroes landed on stone — smooth, warm, and smelling like a centaur with a pack-a-day habit. All around them, gold glittered in the half-light: coins, crowns, gemmed goblets, and at least three questionable statues of people in various states of dress. The treasure stretched in all directions, a molten sea of wealth stacked high against the red walls of a vast cavern.
And looming above it all was a dragon.
Massive. Crimson. Eyes like molten amber. Wings partially unfurled as if preparing to smother the entire cavern in flame. His head alone was large enough to swallow the minotaur whole and any amount of cherry cobbler the Duke of Dread could dredge up. He was not smiling. At least as far as Gaius could tell. Dragons were few and far between, and when there were illustrations or warning posters, the dragons weren’t depicted as friendly or welcoming. All he could be sure of was that there were a lot of teeth, and there seemed to be the backend of a goat caught between two of them.
Gaius looked up, blinked once, and said, “Valkath the Inferno, I presume.”
Ilium instinctively raised her hands, already murmuring a spell. Bane had already stepped in front of her, battle axe raised. Axor began tuning his sitar, possibly out of panic, possibly in preparation for a funeral dirge final soundtrack to their impending deaths.
The dragon's voice came slow, rumbling from deep within its chest as it turned its head to the side, one great black eye staring at an apparent snack. It’s breath was smokey, each syllable spoken with varying levels of heat, like an assortment of peppers from a farmer’s market. “Who dares interrupt Valkath the Inferno? Who trespasses unannounced upon my hoard?”
Gaius held up his hands. “Right, okay, I can explain—sort of. You see, we stole this stupid Sapphire of Regret, and —.” He fumbled at his robes, yanked a small satchel loose, and pulled out the glowing pink gem. It pulsed faintly, radiating the kind of magic that always led to someone weeping by the end of the night.
Valkath’s eyes locked onto it. The shift was instant. The growl stopped. His pupils narrowed. “The Sapphire,” he rumbled. “You brought it?”
Gaius hesitated. “Yes? I mean—yes. Technically it brought us here, by way of a very technical spell that—.”
“You’re the wizard I hired?” Valkath interrupted, leaning in slightly, tilting his head to get a better look at the massive gem that was nearly as big as Bane’s fist. “From the message stone. Gaius… Darkstick?”
“Darkspell,” Gaius said with wounded dignity. “Dark Spell. Darkspell. Everyone knows.”
The dragon blinked once. Then slowly, impossibly, he smiled. “Well then. My thanks, Gaius Darkspell Everyone Knows. You’ve done well. Very well indeed.”
Axor stared, his fingers lingering over strings. Bane gaped and leaned on his axe. Ilium twisted up her face, incredulous and just over it all. “Wait,” she said slowly, hands on hips. “You’re saying you hired us?”
“Dragons can’t just go out and burn down castles and take what we like anymore, you know? There are always fines, and then signs like ‘No dragons’ and ‘Dragons not welcome here’,” Valkath said with a frown, sort of the opposite of a dragon smile, but equally terrifying. “That’s not very neighborly.” He snorted. “But you’ve completed the job. As promised, payment awaits. Although,” and the dragon beamed its gaze at Gaius and the sapphire again, “I don’t know how you found me? This address is unlisted.”
Gaius swallowed, letting a beat pass before something popped into his head. “I cast a spell to go to the safest place on the Four Continents, and it sent us here. It’s magic.” Seemed legit, and after all, Valkath the Inferno was considered the most terrifying terror in the Four Continents and known for the most horrendous crimes. A short list of Valkath’s most impertinent crimes rattled through Gaius’s head — how he was accused of impersonating a bishop and officiating a wedding — a legally binding wedding, mind you — between a kobold and a broomstick. Valkath was also reported to have snoozed on the King’s Road in Upper Milquetoast for nineteen hours and held up trade for days, resulting in more than a few spoiled turnips and a bardic hit song entitled, “Snoring on the Silk Road.”
The mighty dragon, the most terrifying calamity that ever existed in the Six Kingdoms on the Four Continents, sat back on his haunches and gestured to the massive pile of gold immediately in front of them. “Take what you can carry,” he offered. “And thank you for your service.”
The group stared. Axor’s sitar made a hopeful chord. And Gaius stepped forward reverently, still holding the Sapphire. “Right. Then… here.”
He placed it gently on a pedestal of coiled chain and crushed rubies.
Valkath sniffed it.
Sniffed again.
And then—
“AH-CHOO!”
The sneeze was volcanic. It echoed through the cavern with the sound of a hurricane throwing a tantrum. A ripple of pink magic pulsed outward from the Sapphire of Regret, rebounded off the dragon’s snout and touched the hoard—and everything changed. Gold. Jewels. Silver chalices. Enchanted scepters. All of it—every last ounce—suddenly shimmered and lifted into the air as shining, iridescent bubbles.
Thousands of them.
They floated skyward, popping gently against the stone ceiling with sad little piff sounds.
The party stood frozen. Mouths slightly open. Gaius blinked twice.
“Did… did that just—”
Bane groaned. “Dragon bop?”
Axor coughed, grabbed his friend’s arm and helped him lower his battle axe. “On the bright side, they were beautiful bubbles.”
Valkath stared at the empty floor where his hoard had been. He blinked once. Then calmly turned to his guests. “Would you care for tea?” he asked. “I’ve got biscuits. And if you’re not in a rush, I’ve uncovered a fascinating lead on a cursed scepter buried beneath the Citadel of Screams.”
A long pause.
Then Ilium sighed. “Fine. But you wouldn’t happen to have a little cherry cobbler, would you?”
Author’s Notes: So, early on I did know that I wanted Gaius to cast a spell to escape and that it would bring the companions face-to-face with the most feared creature in the Six Kingdoms and Four Continents, who you’ve presumably already met in Gaius Darkspell and the Duel of Fates.
What I didn’t know for sure was that there would be one more effect from the Sapphire of Regret, regretfully turning Valkath’s entire stash to bubbles, but it seemed fitting when the moment came and the words dribbled out of my fingers and onto the page, as it were.
Also, the whole idea that Valkath was, in fact, the client that requested the stolen gem, didn’t come to me until I was literally writing that scene. It just happened, and it seemed perfectly natural. Given that this is a prequel to the first story, which I also didn’t realize until I figured out the ending, is just another part of why I love writing. I didn’t know any of this was going to happen. It just did.
And finally, I have a bunch of cute pictures of Valkath and the party that I made, but that weren’t appropriate for this story since I’m going with a certain style. Here they are. (See above.)