"Hundreds of years ago, when the Romans occupied Britannia, the clans of the north were a people impossible to tame," "and so the emperor, Hadrian, erected a wall across the isle to stop their deadly raids and control the countryside." "Though Rome eventually fell, the Wall still stands." "Knights of the southern kingdoms guard its ramparts, ever fearful of the mysterious north, where some clans, led by a wise circle of druids, are content to work their lands in peace, while others envision a day" "when the wall comes tumbling down." "May the fire carry our voices to the stars under which we sleep, let the spirits bless our homelands as we honor the old codes we keep." "Oh, heavens, druids from every clan gather here to understand your mysteries and learn of the future." "A falling star from the constellation Draco." "This is a sign to gather swords, go over the wall and claim the wealthy lands that are rightfully ours." "Put this in our trove for safekeeping." "Brother Brude, sometimes you must leave well enough alone." "Are we not guides to our people of the north?" "Why learn the spells of the ancients if not to use them for a just cause?" "I'm beginning to doubt this druid circle can effectively lead the Celts any longer." "This falling star could mean a new era for the Celts." "An era of peace." "Our people are tired of fighting." "That is why I invited the Painted Tribe to join us." "The Picti." "To spur the clans to war." "They can be quite motivational." "I will take you!" "By sun and moon switching stance, two as one, druids, dance!" "By the light of the moon, by which all power flows, we will show our people the way forward with blood and iron!" "All right, you puking foot-lickers!" "Tomorrow, the squires who have pleased me will be knighted" "and earn a Silver Sword." "This is your last test of combat." "And the winner gets a cut of the collections." "Begin." "Don't take it too hard, we can't all be knighted." "I'm sure you'll make a fine soldier." "I'm not taking orders." "I'm giving them." "Put some weight in it!" "Get a blade!" "Finally, something interesting." "I'm getting a seat at the knight's table." "Do you always need two friends to get your sword up?" "I've been waiting a long time to give your tart mouth a beating." "It's obvious you should quit, Gareth." "I don't quit." "You Will." "I quit." "Oh, now he'll see." "I quit." "Please, Gareth." "Sir Gareth." "First day of the month!" "Pay up!" "Make your payments!" "Pay up!" "Pay your respects to Sir Horsa." "What?" "No." "Please, sir." "Here's your blood money." "And much good may it do you." " Watch your mouth!" "Pay up!" "Come on, pay up!" "Coins." "What good will a few coins from a poor man do you?" "You think that wall is enough to protect you from the savages?" "Show some respect." "It's that time!" "Everyone pays!" "These last few months, they've been preparing for war." "How'd you like us to let them meet your daughter?" "Get inside." "Go." "Who did you think defends the garrison, eh?" "You there." "You're next." "We're about to fetch you some of those coins, squire." "Old man!" "Got clay in those ears?" "It's time for your tribute." "Trade's dried up." "People are scared, they've moved south." "I haven't sold enough to give you a cut." "You know the routine." "Need me to remind you?" "Oh." "You've got a good eye." "Twelve days of my life in that." "How much of yourself have you ever put into one thing?" "Is he giving you trouble in there?" "No!" "Just showing him who's in charge." "Feels light." "Some of them were short, master." "But they won't do it again." "Keep my share." "A squire walking away from his cut?" "I only meant to honor you." "You honor me by obeying my command." "Kneel." "Lower." "Lower." "You remember that smell?" "It's the stench of the poor and the common." "Why do you want to go back there, boy?" "I'm not a boy anymore, master." "And I don't want to go back." "I want to be a knight." "This is what you've worked so hard for, and you'd throw all that away." "For what?" "Mercy." "You're good with a blade but you've cost me money." "Get your kit and get out." "You're not gonna be knighted." "But I've done all you've ever asked." "I've oiled your armor, tended your horses." "I've got nothing else." "By my count, you owe me a hundred crowns." "Bring it to me." "Then you can have your sword." "You can be one of us!" "You can be a knight." "I'd have to steal to earn that much." "Better get started then." "Swear by your life." "I swear my affinity." "Swear by your life." "I swear my affinity." "More knights, more war." "All rotten to the core." "Arise, knights of Sir Horsa's Guard!" "My roof leaks, but not this much." "Come on." "More soup, Begilda." "He's a grown man." "The legends say that when dragons were alive, they served mankind." "So I thought tableware seemed appropriate." "But no one buys it." "Who wants to touch a lizard every time you need a drink?" "It'll be popular again, you'll see." "People need a sign to believe in." "Five years." "You asked how long I put myself into something?" "Five years cleaning my master's boots." "And is that an order you still want to belong to?" "Plague took my parents." "Priests got rid of me as soon as they could." "Being a squire was hard, but I belonged." "When you're a knight, you get respect." "I'll find those hundred crowns and my sword." "I won't be poor anymore." "Where I come from, we say," ""The poor are first to suffer, but also first to help."" "There's honor in that." "The heavens weep!" "What sorcery is this?" "Oh, it's a sign." "It's a sign!" "It's a sign!" "Of what?" "Maybe an opportunity!" "Tell the gate to double the watch." "This could be a Celt-skin trick." "Yes, sir." "My father used to mine soil and rocks, and sometimes, he said..." "Ah!" "His tools!" "He said sometimes, the heavens would drop a rock to the Earth, a rock full of riches." "It is north of the wall." "There are painted flesh-eaters everywhere." "You're right." "But I bet there's gold at the end of that rainbow." "I can do it." "I wish you good fortune." "Watching you young boys run around the village made me wonder what a son of ours would have become." "I would have passed him this necklace to give his true love." "Maybe you can use it one day." "Shh!" "Saltpeter." "Did those supplies come in yet?" "They have, sir." "I've got a knight's salary to spend on you now, my lovely." "Cuthbert." "Is that a knight I see?" "No, my mistake." "Just a beggar." "With no coins to my name." "Yet." "He's heading south, looking for a warm street to die on." "As usual you're mistaken." "I'm heading north." "Over the wall." " Oh, I can't see!" " Arrest him!" "He's got my sword!" "Come on!" "He's getting away!" "Help!" "Thief!" "He's on the wall!" "To your posts!" "You're fen-sucked now." "Good luck among the savages!" "You'll eat your words when I'm back with a full purse and a knighthood to claim!" "I can still get him!" "Save your arrows." "They're gonna have his liver for lunch." "No one will ever remember you, Gareth!" "Show yourself." "Ahhh!" "A thousand crowns if there are a hundred." "Pox me." "A dragon." "Gold." "Fetch the sorcerer!" "No, you don't." "That's mine!" "No!" "Shade by day, bright by night, to do my will in full moon's light!" "Brothers." "Our greatest weapon is now at hand." "It's a sign!" "It's a sign!" "It took me an hour to brew that!" "I'm sure making poison takes great patience." "Poison?" "This is to keep you from getting sick." "What is this place?" "All that remains of the collected knowledge of the druids." "They're our prophets and our oracles." "I was an apprentice with the White Circle, preparing to take the Great Trial" "and earn this robe." "That's when Brude began his reign of terror, and the druids were killed." "Brude." "That sorcerer?" "I need to find him." "He has the dragon's eggs." "Yes." "And they're very valuable." "There's no telling what he might do with them." "But save your strength." "The time to face Brude will come soon enough, now that you're on our side." "I'm on no one's side but my own." "Are you sure?" "Look." "The druids prophesized that a favorable omen would show in the sky." "And it has." "A dragon has returned to our lands, and I believe it brought you to us." "It saved your life." "You've been chosen." "A sign." "A dragon was sometimes known to share its heart with an ailing human who'd earned its respect." "You selflessly protected its eggs." "Could this be dangerous?" "I don't know." "I'm just an apprentice." "Right now I'm learning the unknotting spell." "The knots are supposed to disappear." "I was once an apprentice." "A squire." "Before you became a knight." "Yes." "Oh, I knew it!" "The way you handled this blade." "And how you stood up to those savages." "You're a knight of the Old Code." "Old Code?" "Uh, Merlin, the first druid, kept company with dragons over 400 years ago." "They helped the king named Arthur bring peace to the whole isle." "The first dragons taught the knights a code of honor." ""A knight is sworn to valor." ""His heart knows only virtue." ""His blade..."" "Well, the rest is illegible, it just says, "his blade."" "Defends the helpless." "So you do know it." "Yes." "We recite it every day." "Lorne." "Is that wall-crawler awake?" "Wall-crawler?" "That's Rhonu." "You want my advice?" "Just nod and say, yes." "I told you to keep the southerner bound." "Stay back!" "Rhonu, he can help us." "He's a knight, and the dragon saved him..." "He's no knight." "I am, and have no quarrel with you." "Now let me pass and I'll be on my way." "Kill the boy if you think it will help." "Wait!" "You need our help to find Brude." "What if he could help us?" "What if he could get the dragon to fight on our side?" "Not poison." "Ah." "My uncle and I cut down five more bodies." "Brude has driven every village into hiding and hanged the able-bodied men who won't join his army." "We only want to live in peace." "But between him and your accursed wall..." "Lorne says this creature saved your life." "Is it true?" "Has a dragon come from the stars?" "And with nine eggs." "How will you convince it to take up our cause?" "When dragons were alive, they served mankind." "Knights had a special bond with them." "We're chosen." "It's southern hogwash." "It was fate that brought me to the dragon." "Perhaps it's fate that our causes unite." "Each noose yields a string that I will shoot back at Brude in the name of the dead." "This one is for my mother." "Show us this dragon." "This way." "I can feel him!" "It's moving." "Whoa!" "My heart." "And your heart." "Is one heart, yes?" "Me, Gareth." "Me, strong." "Good." "Good human." "Uh..." "The others, savages." "Bad." "Really awful, evil, smelly..." "I shared my heart with the village idiot." "You talk?" "And you're a male dragon." "But you lay eggs." "Don't make assumptions." "The eggs are not mine." "I'm their guardian." "No offense meant." "And I didn't know dragons could talk." "We can't." "At least not like this." "You did this to me." "When our hearts were shared," "I suddenly found words in my mouth." "Do you have a name?" "Back home I am called, Hissyoxyillammochogannatoss." "So..." "How about something simpler?" "Uh, I know." "You're a dragon." "How about Drago?" "Drago." "Drago." "It'll do." "Why did you save me?" "For your mercy." "The young dragons, sit in their shells." "Without thinking of yourself, you saved them." "Gareth." "Great!" "No, no, no." "It's all right." "They're friends." "They're friends." "Me, human." "You, dragon." "Been through that, thank you." "It speaks!" "A witness to a dragon and knight" "sharing a heart." "A knight?" "You?" "Yes." "Sir Gareth." "Very well." "I can use a knight to help me rescue the eggs." "In the wrong hands, a great harm can be done with them." "Follow me." "Why don't you fly down and burn them all to a cinder?" "Watch." "Hurry!" "It's coming!" "Keep the fires stoked." "You heard that!" "Downwind!" "I'll take a tongue for every one that goes out!" "The sorcerer has cursed me." "By day or by the light of a torch," "I become ghostly." "If you can darken some torches," "I can get the eggs back and fulfill my duty to raise the dragons as friends to mankind." "And if we return the eggs to you, will you help us defeat these savages?" "Gladly." "Intruder!" "Intruder!" "Prepare!" "Prepare!" "Oil!" "Fire!" "Soon, my child." "You will understand what I have in store for you." "Hmm." "Paint can't hide your true skin." "A southerner?" "So far from home." "What brings you over the wall?" "Are you a spy?" "Ah." "You like my treasures?" "I prayed that the prophecy would bring me one dragon that I could make my own." "Stay down." "But nine?" "They will grow up knowing me as their only master," "and when their wings are strong, they will fly over your wall" "and show your people the horror they've shown mine." "Tie him to the tree." "This is what happens to those who stand against the tide of the moon!" "They share each other's pain." "Water!" "Bonded, just like Merlin said." "If you die, so does the dragon." "So valuable." "Brude chose the moon to be his spirit guide." "When it ebbs, at dawn, his powers will be at his weakest." "Sleep now, Mother Moon." "Swell thy belly to bring upon a blacker night." "Come." "We're going hunting." "I can bring forth a fog so thick it will hide your movements," "yet so natural they'll never suspect it's me." "You better be worth a hundred crowns, or I'm frying the lot of you." "Lorne." "Here." "I can do this." "Earth and water, blackest bog," "water and air, white as fog." "White as fog!" "White as fog!" "What's this?" "Sorcery!" "Horses from the trees!" "Brace yourselves, men!" "Get out of the way!" "I'll take that." "Catch!" "Ha!" "Ha!" "You'll need more than smoke tricks, runt." "Ha!" "Ha!" "Stop." "We'll wait for my uncle here." "We should keep moving while we can." "Where I come from, when you have the advantage, you use it." "Wait!" "Lorne!" "Lorne!" "Are you hurt?" "Sorcery has a cost." "Even when you get it right." "Here, get up." "The younger you are, the more it drains your energy." "Drago." "Thank you for saving them." "Daylight burns." "I must stay in the shadows." "Did you see that?" "He jumped." "And what good is a dragon powerless beneath the sun?" "We've staked everything on him." "Can't you break the curse?" "I was never ordained." "But perhaps with time I could study my scrolls." "Find your remedy?" "We've some time until they catch their horses, but they'll hunt down every last family in the vale to find you." "No, Brude will follow the eggs." "I'll take them south in the wagon, drawing his forces away." "That will give you time to gather those in hiding, and a chance to make a stand." "Head south and you hit the Wall in three days." "There's more road to the north." "Unless you're planning on taking those eggs back over for yourself." "No." "I can travel faster over ground I've already covered." "Besides, I'm a knight." "I'm chosen." "The dragon trusts me." "All right." "South it is." "But Brude has men taking slaves in the hills." "We'll have to be careful." "We?" "Well, I'm coming with you." "And Lorne can study his scrolls along the way." "Arm every man who can fight, then come south and we'll trap Brude against the Wall." "Rhonu, the journey will be difficult, with little sleep." "Do I look like I've lived a life of comfort?" "I forbid it." "Forbid?" "I'm only concerned for your safety." "And can you blame me?" "You must have felt something when you touched my heart?" "Let's get started." "She grows on you, does she not?" "Like a thorny vine." "The answer is no, by the way." "I can't blame you for feeling protective." "Well, laugh, if you will." "Come now, you really think a Celt could like a southerner?" "Well, a man is a man, is he not?" "Aye, a man be a man, but his homeland gives him his nature." "At least that's what we believe." "Inside the Wall." "Inside?" "You mean outside." "No, this side is inside." "The other side is inside." "This is outside." "You built the Wall to keep us in." "Like animals in a cage." "It was built to keep you out, like monsters at your door." "And I didn't build it." "And I am not a monster." "I could have chosen wiser words." "Whoa!" "What in hellfire just happened?" "I was just holding it." "I didn't mean to." "Until the dragons hatch, they have no control over their fire." "I'm afraid some of them might not survive this journey." "I need the southerner alive!" "They'll have heard the sound." "Then we get off the road." "Go on foot." "Stick to broken ground." "Hand me the eggs." "Slowly." "That's it." "Careful." "That's it." "There's a cave up ahead." "Gareth." "What do you see?" "A shadow." "It has shape and feeling." "Yes." "Brude's dark sorcery has opened the shadows to me and through our hearts, to you as well." "Come." "I'll show you how it works." "Waiting for me to carry you over the threshold?" "Master shadow jumping and you'll travel with great speed." "Like growing wings!" "Drago!" "Wait up!" "Step number one, think of the shadows as doors." "Use your imagination." "See?" "Every shadow is a passageway." "Now give it a try." "It's shadow jumping, not shadow standing." "Yeah, keep laughing, lizard breath." "Step number two, choose a shadow to exit ahead of you." "Step number three, focus and take your mind off distractions." "Now follow me." "Jump, jump, jump!" "Jump!" "Jump!" "Jump, jump, jump!" "Jump!" "You can do it!" "Concentrate!" "Jump!" "Ow." "Maybe you haven't inherited anything from me." "Either that or Rhonu's distracting you." "I do think she likes you." "You're mad." "Notice how she sneers at you." "When a female dragon finds a male worthy, she strikes him with her tail." "Let's hope that tradition doesn't catch on amongst humans." "You like her too." "I do not." "Each day, our bond grows closer." "First it was pain, sorrow." "But now I can feel how your heart races when she's near you." "We're being chased by a murderous sorcerer." "Of course my heart's racing." "A true knight would be able to train hard and set aside distractions." "I trained for years, you talking saddlebag." "How dare you?" "Take that." "Oh!" "Ow!" "Ow!" "You're making assumptions again." "Armored." "You don't feel anything?" "Maybe a tickle." "It's nice to see you found the occasion to play the fool." "Come." "Lorne's found something." "It is called, simply, the Sorcerer's Curse, an incantation of enslavement." "The victim will follow the druid's command, but only from dusk till dawn." "In daylight they will be weak, useless." "There is always a price, even to a sorcerer such as Brude." "See here?" "The curse takes its hold slowly." "But at the full moon, the victim loses his own will." "Drago will be on Brude's side." "Two days." "Come to me." "Come to me." "Something wrong?" "I was dreaming of the great things the dragons will do for mankind." "When I felt the curse quicken." "It seems evil desires can spoil a dream just like they can a heart." "Two more days to the Wall." "And for Drago." "What was her name?" "Begilda." "Is she beautiful?" "Has she borne children?" "You'd have to ask her husband." "What wicked habits do you keep over that Wall?" "You misunderstand." "She's an old woman who showed me kindness." "And as for beauty," "I've seen more of it on this side of the Wall, truth be known." "They were here." "Signs of a fire." "Fear." "We're getting closer." "Put your feet on!" "Get down." "Move yourself, you dog!" "I know that clan." "Some are cousins from homesteads to the east." "Five guards." "We could free them." "Are you mad?" "We have to keep moving." "Once they pass, we can carry on over the ridge and into the forest." "The eggs are the only thing that matter now." "What matters is my people's freedom." "Here." "Careful." "Do what you will." "I'm helping them." "Rhonu, wait." "Listen." "You could have tried to stop her." "Me?" "You're supposed to be the knight in shining armor." "Oh, we're leaving?" "She said to go on." "It's a clear shot south once we get through the forest." "Sir Gareth." "I've seen you fight." "You can take them." "She's all alone." "You've already lost us one dragon, do you intend to kill the rest?" "Keep going!" "I said move!" "The ties that bind, hear my call, un-entwine," "free from all!" "We're free!" "Lorne!" "We're free!" "Gareth." "Whoa!" "A knight is sworn to valor." "Look!" "I'm back!" "Shade by day, bright by night, to do my will in full moon's light!" "All cannot survive this journey." "Sacrifice what you must." "Shoot!" "Shoot!" "Shoot!" "Oh!" "Through your own shadow!" "What valor!" "Southern man!" "I see you've gone dizzy-eyed for that yeasty scut!" "Kiss her neck while you can, before I stretch it like her mother's." "Hey, hey." "Wait." "Let's go." "No!" "No!" "Let's go." "Come on." "There's still too many of them." "Come on." "The code." "When Drago regained his form, could that have been your doing?" "Me?" "How?" "Well, you upheld the code." "You came back." "And to my recollection that was the precise moment Drago appeared." "You share feelings, pain." "Perhaps he can feel the valor in you too." "How does it feel?" "Seeing home?" "Hard to see anything but a wall." "By end of day tomorrow we'll be trapped between it and Brude." "Your uncle will make it, I'm sure." "He'll be riding into certain death if Drago has fallen under Brude's control." "The men of the Wall will honor a knight's request for protection, won't they?" "Yes, honor's in their every word." "Well, I know a place we can shelter." "The Druid's Circle, where I was to get my robe." "No more." "The curse grows stronger." "I can't move." "You have to fight it." "Brude is a potent sorcerer, which apparently I'll never be." "I can't find a way to break the curse." "I am now a danger to you all." "You must leave." "We need you." "I will not be enslaved." "I will take my own life first." "And mine?" "No!" "There must be another way." "Rhonu is right." "I can't take your life." "Choices must be one's own." "I never thanked you for sharing your heart with me." "And I never said I was sorry for doubting that you're a true knight." "It is time." "Will I still feel your heart?" "What do I do?" "What happens now?" "Follow the code, like a knight always does." "I'm not a knight." "I never was." "I don't even know what one is anymore." "On the other side of the Wall, there is no code." "It's just cruelty." "I'm sorry." "Gareth, if you would truly be a knight, your might will uphold the weak, your word will speak only truth." "And if this is to be my last dawn of freedom," "I'm glad you were here by my side, my friend." "Well, this is it." "We can't run any further." "Stay hidden." "Oh!" "Oh!" "Hey, wait!" "They'll shoot one of us on sight." "Hail!" "Hail!" "Men of the Wall!" "It's me!" "Gareth!" "Don't shoot!" "Hold your fire!" "Don't shoot!" "Man approaching!" "Don't shoot!" "On your post!" "It's me!" "Kalin, it's Gareth!" "I returned from the north!" "Kalin, open the gate." "Any moment, a pack of savages will come through those trees, hundreds of them..." "Well, what have we here?" "...led by a cruel and powerful sorcerer and a dragon." "You won't be laughing when you're under attack." "So you've returned!" "Not empty-handed, I hope." "A dragon's egg, made of gold." "What's he doing?" "Showing his true heart." "Gareth!" "Wait!" "Don't!" "Archers ready!" "No, wait." "They're with me." "Fire on my command." "Look!" "I see you've found the fortune you needed to buy your knighthood." "Chosen, was it?" "I don't want it anymore." "Open the gates." "You have to believe me." "I just want to help." "Open the gate!" "Your quest hasn't improved the company that you keep." "But you've certainly accomplished what I asked of you." "For this marvelous creation," "I would knight you." "But, seeing as you've brought this, what is it," "a powerful sorcerer to my wall?" "I'd have you denied." "Welcome, my pet." "Tonight, you will be mine in body and mind." "Was this part of your plan?" "He's led us to our deaths." "And you, druid." "You said he'd help free us." "What are they waiting for?" "The fools have forgotten their ladders." "They can't get over the Wall." "They're waiting for the moon!" "Waiting for Drago." "If we're up here when he attacks, we'll be burned to ash." "I can free Gareth." "But you can't do the rope trick because he's in chains." "This is no rope trick." "I hear your king has feasted on every creature that walks, flies or swims." "He will pay handsomely to consume these rarities." "Now, my child." " To arms!" " To arms!" "Moon and sun, two as one." "Switching stance, druids dance." "Lorne?" "How did he..." "Get up to the wall, you cowards!" "Feed!" " To battle!" " To battle!" "We've lost him." "Drago's gone." "We've lost everything!" "And the best thing I could do is put an arrow straight through your heart and his!" "Kill me if you want." "But the only good part of Drago left is in here!" "He shared his heart with me before he was cursed." "But what are you gonna do?" "Give it back to him?" "I'm going to do what the code requires." "Onward!" "We've lost the dragon!" "I've led you to a slaughter!" "Come this far, my dillie." "I'm seeing the other side of that wall!" "Charge!" "Grab what you can." "No need to count." "Closed for business." "You still trying to earn a silver sword?" "This one will do." "Leave." "You see what caring about savages unworthy of your status brings?" "You've doomed this settlement." "A knight is sworn to valor." "That old rhyme?" "Just poetry, boy." "It's more than you ever taught me." "And if it wasn't for those words," "I'd still be stealing from the poor." "And you'd still have your head!" "My blade shall defend the helpless." "See?" "I've taught you something." "And now for your last lesson, squire." "The old codes have been bought and sold." "A knight is only worth his profit!" "Aim for their front line." "You, raise your elbow." "Don't they teach you anything here?" "Better." "Life takes some damn strange turns." "Ahhh!" "I won't leave their side." "Our hearts know only virtue." "Brave lass." "Show me the dragon's eggs and I'll spare you the noose." "Rhonu!" "For my mother!" "Run!" "Run!" "Gareth!" "The curse is broken!" "You saved me!" "The village idiot strikes again!" "I only see a knight." "Sir Gareth." "Druid's alive!" "Get him down!" "Gareth?" "I guess it worked." "I'd say you've earned that robe." "Gareth!" "Gareth!" "Hold on, Rhonu." "We did it." "We won." "Gareth." "Now we really do have something in common." "Let today mark the beginning of a new age, with the wisdom of the dragons and the Old Code." "We can lay down our weapons and unite together in peace." "Sir Gareth!" "This will now be called the Dragon's Gate, and it will always remain open for people from both sides." "Am I the chosen one now?" "Choices must always be one's own." "Ah!" "Welcome from the north." "Hi, there." "Would you like a gold dragon mug, sir?" "Uh, that one." "This one?" "Yeah." "This is the best." "One only." "That one?" "Okay" "Welcome, Northerners." "Who would like a dragon pot?"