A fuming Kiara took an angry step towards the lady. The latter hissed like a cobra.

I put myself between the two quickly. I had to prick Kiara’s courage balloon if we wanted to stay alive.

“All right, all right,” I said, before the lady lost her cool and burst into attack mode. “We didn’t mean any offence. But… but at the same time, it doesn’t make any sense. She is actually right, you know? Is there no way around this?”

The lady stopped glaring at Kiara and turned to me.

“There is a way, but I do not think it is for you,” she stated.

“Perhaps it is?” I said, raising my shoulders.

The lady snickered mockingly.

“It is not,” she shook her head. Kiara folded her arms with a ‘humph’.

“Just try telling us about it,” I pressed on.

“All right then,” the lady said. “If that’s what you want, then listen: I can allow you to use the well on only two conditions: Condition number one– you renounce the wish. Condition number two– you perform an act of goodwill for the sirens. In the second condition you can keep your wish.”

“What kind of an act of goodwill?” I said.

“A very specific one,” the lady said. “There is a dying old dragon who is dear to us. You must bring us his tears. Nobody has been successful in doing so thus far. All who have tried have perished. The dragon is guarded by a second dragon, who has lost all sense of things. The second dragon guards the first one from everything and everyone. Even folks who mean well for the old dragon. You must find a way to either defeat the second dragon or get past him, and collect the tears of the old dragon.”

All right. No wonder the lady had mocked us.

The task was next to impossible to complete. Perhaps I had a chance in my old days when I used to be a king. Now deprived of my powers, the second dragon would swat me like a fly.

“So what do you say?” the lady asked, suppressing laughter, as she observed that we had gone silent. “Do you still want to use the well? Do you still want to have your wish fulfilled? If you do then tell me quickly, for I would have to call the other sirens and arrange to transport you to where the old dragon is. And note this– The ash of the siren still lives, even though the siren herself is dead. However, in not more than three days, the ash too will die. Neither will your wish be granted, nor will the siren be resurrected.”

I turned to Kiara. She was looking down, not comfortable with accepting the job. There were dragons involved after all. If they let out a breath you would be incinerated.

“Can you give us some time to decide?” I requested the old lady.

“All right, all right, all right,” she said, waving her arms as if to ridicule us. “I give you two hours. Come to me at the end of these two hours and tell me your decision. If you do not come I will take it that you are frightened. Now leave me alone!”

Kiara and I returned to the shore. Fewer sirens threw scornful looks at us there. There were some traces of blood and a few shreds of cloth at the site where the young man was previously being consumed. Other than that there was no sign of either the siren or the man. The siren had eaten the player to the last bone and went to slumber in her hut.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Kiara said to me, her hands over her stomach.

“I do not either,” I told her.

“How are we going to fight a dragon?” Kiara said.

I ran my fingers through my hair and rubbed my neck. The sun was on its downward descent and the day was cooling. I could have delighted in the pleasant seaside wind if there wasn’t an urgent decision to make within a time limit.

“With a sword?” I said. An idea hit me with the force of a gale.

Kiara still had the exchange spell. Could she swap the stone-fusing spell for a sword-making one? All dragons in stories were killed using swords. If we couldn’t have magical swords, at least we ought to have something with a long blade and a hilt. Going to the dragons unarmed would be idiocy.

She squatted down and sank into thoughts when I told her what I had in mind.

“This spell will be weaker,” Kiara said.

“But it’s worth a shot,” I said.

Kiara sighed. She fell backwards on the sand lazily, supporting herself with her palms and stared at me like I had just donated my brain to a food stall run by sirens. But then there was a twinkle in her eyes.

“Maybe I can ask for a spell that allows me to make magical swords? How would that be? Swords that can detect the weakest parts of a dragon’s body?”

Could she?

“Go ahead and try asking,” I said to her.

Kiara went quiet, absentmindedly grimacing as she concentrated on the icons in her vision. She blew air out of her mouth.

“All right,” she said. “This kind of works, but it doesn’t work.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am being offered a new spell in exchange for the stone-fusion spell,” she said, “But this spell will work only once, properly. So I will only be able to make one sword by transmogrifying a suitable piece of wood. The sword will tell its wielder about possible weak spots in the opponent, and if the sword is thrown correctly it might even hit weak spots on its own, though it is not suggested to throw the sword unless in a dire situation. If I make a second sword, all I would get is a stylish sword of wood.”

“One sword is better than no sword,” I said to her.

“And what will happen to the one without a sword?” Kiara asked.

“Simple,” I replied. “They don’t go to deal with the dragons.”

Kiara understood what I meant and her brows came together to form an expression that pierced my soul.

“And what if the sword fails you?” she asked.

I didn’t reply.

“Let’s just make the sword, shall we?” I said. “We do not have any other option.”

It took me a considerable time to convince Kiara before she gave into my demands, for we really didn’t have any option. I was the better candidate to go on the dragon quest because I had two lives. Kiara on the other hand had only one. If she died once, she would disappear from existence.