Relix blinked, then looked at Granny.
Granny nodded. “It was a man. A terrible man named...” She opened her mouth. But no sound came out. Instead, there was a blank spot in the world, a blankness that felt as off putting and discomforting as nails on a chalkboard. Relix and Lisa squirmed. “...and his weaponized dragons. He made the chromatics, you see. It was a proof of concept - some macho bullshit, showing off what nice toys he could make. And he was right, they were really good at killing people. And fighting. And planning for fights. The wars they started were devastating and decisive and left him in charge...but when the killing was done and he had his empire , the chromatics realized they had a taste for it. And the killing began all over again...”
“Why couldn’t I hear his name?”
“It was struck...” Granny looked down and to the side. “Struck from the annals by the strongest magics there were.”
Relix bristled. Then she sprang to her feet. “Not all men!”
“Hashtag what?” Lisa asked.
“You both are so eager to throw down an entire gender because of the mistakes of some of history’s greatest monsters! But...but...but...” She trembled. “But that’s throwing aside every gentle heart and strong soul. Every Merton and every Brash and Carlos, and even Trevor! There’s so much passion in each of them, and when they harness it they can do amazing things! It’s easy to be cynical, but...but...” She closed her eyes, her snout glistening. Tears gleamed in her eyes. “But if we don’t believe in them , then what the fuck are we doing anyway? If we cannot love, then why even fight?”
Lisa smiled, slightly.
Granny looked as if she had been clubbed in the side of the head. “Which breed of dragon are you, missy?”
“Feathered,” Relix snapped. She jerked her head to the side, wiping at her snout with her forearm. Her tail lashed. “And open a damn portal to my husband, or-”
“Wait...”
Granny and Relix both looked at Lisa.
Lisa looked at Granny.
“What cynical bastard were you talking about before?” Lisa asked, watching Granny.
Granny sighed. “If there’s a Granny, there’s a Grandfather.” She shrugged. “I control the castle. He controls the shadows inside. They’ve kept me here.”
Lisa paused, thinking through what Granny had said so far. And she thought of what she had seen - of magic and of dragons, of the universe writ large. She took her time, considering it from every angle...save one. But when she allowed herself to look at it from that angle - from the angle of a tabletop roleplaying game - she immediately saw the hole.
Lisa grinned. “I don’t buy it.”
Granny looked at her, her brow furrowing.
“Every other human with magic like yours is dead. Any human left, like this Grandfather, they wouldn’t have spent thousands of years just keeping you prisoner. And if you guys didn’t build dragons with failsafes, then I’m a monkey’s uncle.” She stood slowly up. “Grandfather would have taken over the galaxy millenia ago. So, that means, either Grandfather is hiding among dragons...or there’s something you’re not telling us.” She looked around the room.
“For example, you could be not telling us how how you can control a fortress made of solidified regret with your mind .” She looked right at Granny, her eyes narrowing.
“You think you’re a real smart bitch, don’t you?” Granny asked, her voice sour.
“Nah,” Lisa said. “I just always know to look for obvious plot twists.”
Granny looked obstinate. Relix, though, looked like her patience had run out. With a snarl and a streamer of smoke from each nostril, she grabbed Granny by the throat. She lifted the incredibly elderly woman up and snarled, her voice a low growl. “Explain. Now . ”
Granny’s feet kicked. Her face purpled.
“Humans can’t talk while you’re holding them up like that!” Lisa exclaimed.
“Oh, right,” Relix said, looking abashed. She set Granny down. Granny coughed, rubbing at her throat.
“Fucking gods ,” she gasped. “I forgot how dim dragons can be...”
Relix’s growl was loud enough to shake the room.
Granny rubbed her shoulder. “Fine...” she looked down. “I’m him. I’m...” She spoke the name again – and again, Relix and Lisa shuddered. “I was the only one left, after the war, save for the slaves.”
“Slaves...” Lisa whispered. “You didn’t mention the slaves earlier.”
Granny scowled, showing her blackened teeth. “Hey, bitch, nostalgic editing!”
“So, you made chromatic dragons,” Lisa said. “And after the genocide, you fled here, the last place in the multiverse anyone would look for you.” She shook her head. “Surrounded by your own self hatred, sustained by your own stubbornness...”
“Why did you become a girl?” Relix asked. “Beyond us being the clearly superior gender.”
Granny shot her a look .
Relix scoffed. “Just because not all men are terrible doesn’t mean that women aren’t clearly better. Duh.”
Granny sighed. “I thought if I changed...the castle would let me out. Back then, I thought it was someone else. It was one of the good gods, or Ethosa, or the the Judges of O, something, someone. I thought it had to be someone keeping me here, someone who wanted vengence, who couldn’t recognize my genius .” She slammed her palm against her chest, her eyes flaring. “I tried every form, every spell, for years and years...until…” She trailed off, her eyes closing. “Until I realized that it wasn’t the form. It wasn’t them. It was just...me.” She spread her hands, slowly. “And that I would never leave.”
Relix nodded.
Lisa looked down at her rifle. “Is there a failsafe?” She asked. “Some kind of magical self destruct that works on dragons?”
“If there is,” Granny said. “I’m not sharing it.” She looked at Relix. “Some of them, at least, deserve the chance to prove they’re better than their creators.”
Relix’s muzzle flushed. Lisa closed her eyes. She breathed in, then breathed out. “All right.” She shouldered her laser rifle, swung it around, and fired into the pool before anyone could stop them. The pulse of laser light smashed into something deep within the water, sending up gouts steam of blessed heat. The pulses kept pouring from the rifle, causing a stuttering drum of steam bursts, until the pool flickered, then went out. Granny gaped at her.
Lisa looked back. She smiled.
“An exit, ama sani, ” Lisa whispered.
Granny smiled as the light faded more and more. Darkness surrounded them. Then the door opened – and Lisa and Relix stepped out into a courtyard of slagged glass and smoldering piles of ash and scorch marks and spent shell casings and still humming spinfusor disks and a discarded hellwhip – still crackling with heat. They walked slowly past a shadow of past regrets that had been sliced cleanly in half.
Merton sat on a pile of obsidian bodies, still sheathed in Brash.
“Hey,” he said, panting. “This dragon is OP as balls .”
Relix tackled him with delight.
Chapter Seven: Roll that Diplomacy Check!
Merton pinched the bridge of his nose as Brash snored atop his head.
“Run this by me again,” he said.
“Okay,” Lisa said. “Dragons originated on Earth as weapons of warfare and magical creations made by human wizards. One wizard decided to use them against his enemies, and the resulting war devastated the planet. It’s probably what’s behind pretty much every ancient flood and story of Atlantis and why every human culture in the world has art and legends about dragons. In the end, the wizards were dead and the dragons left behind a devastated planet and the mage-blind slaves. Us.” She inclined her head slightly. “The dragons formed the Five Talon Empire-”
“Technically,” Relix cut in, taking a pause from her snuggling of Merton. “They formed the Empires of Qesemat and Asamat, split between chromatic and metallic dragons. It was only after the Dragonstar Wars and the creati
on of the War Spheres that the Draconic Empire was formed under the Prismatic Throne. That was then stable until...well, by this point, I usually fell asleep during history class.”
Then she went back to squeezing Merton’s naked body. Merton smiled and hugged his wife back. Then he felt a bump and saw that Julia, his girlfriend, was pressing against his other side.
“Can I snuggle Merton too?” Brash asked, waking up.
“You’re already his hat,” Lisa said.
Brash gasped. “That is the most important job. Hats are the snuggles of the head.”
“Quite,” Lisa said, then shook her head. “Still, there was one survivor: The man who created the first chromatic dragons and set them to war. He fled here...and his regrets created this place out of pure willpower. ” She gestured around herself.
“Fuck me sideways,” Merton said.
“Well...” Relix murmured, sounding tempted.
“Later, honey,” Merton whispered.
“I’ll bring the lube,” Julia said, giggling.
Merton shook his head. “So, this is literally the Fortress of Regrets? And these shadow things are...” He looked down at the pile of obsidian monsters that he had been busily hacking up while Lisa and his wife had stumbled on the originator of this mysterious floating castle. “What?”
“Her conscience,” Lisa said, sighing. “What a guilt brain can do after a few thousand years of wallowing next to a pool of radiant energy. While also being the brain of an arch-mage that makes the most powerful draconic sorcerer look like Gandalf the Grey.”
“Planescape and Phlan, Jesus Christ,” Merton said, putting his hands to his face.
“What?” Trevor asked, frowning. “I usually get your fucking stupid references and in-jokes, but I’m lost.”
“It’s not important,” Relix said, drawing her snout away from Merton’s arm. “What is important is we get to Earth.”
“... que ?” Carlos asked.
Relix sighed and then slipped her arms around Merton’s belly. Her scales rasped gently against his taut belly muscles and Julia took her chance to bury her face against Merton’s abs. She started to lick him affectionately. Which reminded Merton to remember to ask her later how the flying fuck she had not only gotten magic, but also learned magic. But so many things had been happening so quickly that he felt like he was doing all right if he managed to keep abreast of the important stuff. Like the dragons. And the space politics. And the assassination attempts.
“If Earth is the homeworld of dragon-kind, and not Draconis Prime,” she said. “Then there will be artifacts left of the old empire. Maybe we can find something that will give us an edge against the other dragon suits. Those were powerful enough to wipe out a dragon freehold, we’re going to need every fragment of help we can get even after we gather up our allies in the FTE.” She shook her head. “There must be something left.”
“After...what? Ten thousand years?” Lisa asked. “Not to mention, humanity has never found anything . Zip. Nada. Zilch.”
“Where was Atlantis?” Carlos said. “If we never found it, maybe there are artifacts there?”
“...where could Atlantis possibly be?” Trevor asked, slapping the back of his head. “Man, if only there was some kind of Atlantic ocean to search!”
Carlos looked at Trevor, crossing his arms over his chest. “Dude. Trevor. You can’t go looking in the obvious places. Where do you find your car keys? In the obvious place? No, you find them behind the couch.”
“Uh, no, actually, I find my car keys in the place where I put them. Which is on the fucking counter, which is where everyone puts them!” Trevor snapped, his eyebrow twitching. “Listen, this is all insane . Why the hell would a ten thousand year old artifact do diddly to a modern starship? There’s this historical myth called the dark ages, which is where most of fantasy fiction gets the ass-backwards idea that older stuff is better than newer stuff. Well, guess what, we aren’t goths squatting in the Roman Empire wondering how they built aqueducts. Fuck. If we’re going to Earth, we might as well go for the nukes .”
“How many nukes could Earth possibly have?” Relix asked, sneering slightly.
“Twenty thousand,” Merton said.
“Fifteen thousand,” Lisa said.
“Between fifteen and twenty thousand!” Carlos said, cheerfully.
Relix blinked. “Oh. Right.” She clearly had just remembered Merton and her’s first meeting.
“Hey, question,” Carlos said, lifting his hand. “What happened to the old wizard?”
Lisa shrugged, the strap on her laser rifle shifting along her shoulder. “I shot up the pool of radiant energy that was sustaining her life. It seemed like she was ready to go.” She nodded. “Why?”
“Sooo...you...took the wizard whose regret keeps this place stable off life support?” Carlos asked. “Before we stabilized the portals so that they’d head to Earth?”
Lisa and Relix both blinked. And, with fantastic timing, the castle took the cue. The ground heaved as if they were in a 7.5 earthquake, sending the few armsmen, Gunner, Speccy, and Merton’s friends sprawling onto their backs and bellies with cries of alarm. Brash went soaring off of Merton’s head with a squeal of delight, while Relix held Merton in place by by wrapping around him like a snake and plunging her tail into the ground as if it was an anchor. The shake was followed by aftershocks and a groaning, crashing, rending noise. Chunks started to fall from the metallic ceiling and Merton screamed.
“Back to the shiiiiiiip !”
Relix unwrapped and dragged him to his feet.
“Brash!” Merton shouted. “Help everyone!”
Brash flapped his wings, then dodged away from a massive head that fell from the ceiling, tumbling through the cracks as if some vast statue that had been part of an upper level had come spilling down. The head struck the ground with a tolling like a gong. Brash swept forward, his arms growing to absurd Schwarzenegger beef-slabs sticking out of his small, cat-like body. He scooped up Trevor and Lisa with a sweep. Carlos, keeping his feet with remarkable skill, grabbed onto Speccy and helped the four armed purple skinned engineer to her feet.
Gunner grabbed one of his armsmen and dragged the woman out and away from a tumbling chunk of wall slab which would have pancaked her.
The whole group rushed towards the airlock, which was starting to shake and jar free.
Merton looked over his shoulder – one last glimpse at something that had stood the test of time longer than any structure on the Earth had. He saw the darkness, lit patchily by the mage lights that Speccy had set up, being split by the deeper, purer blackness of the plane of negation. He could see those bizarre machines, crumpling as stones the size of small houses fell on them. He could see the floor dropping away like teeth from a kid with scurvy, dropping into blackness and infinity. He shook his head slightly, then leaped onto the airlock.
The door slammed shut behind him and the Talon-9 bucked as it skidded away from the castle. He got to his feet in time to look out the airlock window and see the castle collapsing inwards, swirling and groaning as the chunks lost definition, becoming dust, and then tiny particles, all of them twisting on a whirlwind of destruction. At the center of it, he could see a sputtering, strobing light.
The debris fell inwards.
And then with an unceremonious pop and minute poof of smoke that dissipated nearly instantly, the castle was gone.
“Well,” Relix said, sourly. “I guess we’ll have to take the long way to Earth now.”
“No,” Merton said, shaking his head - with the loss of multiple portals, he had to make the hard call, even if it put his friends in danger. “If we have to choose between going to Earth and going to Draconis Prime, I say we go to Draconis Prime. We have to tell your father about the threat from House Byraugh, Xosh, and Forin before they make their move. Nothing on Earth can stop them, unless the Atlantians left some super weapon there.”
“Like the draconic command words that let them control the entire species for
millenia?” Lisa asked, her voice dry.
Merton paused. All of them considered what Lisa had just said. Trevor looked irritated - resentful that his point about older magic being less useful being torpedoed like that.
“Fuck,” Merton whispered, before pinching the bridge of his nose. “Speccy, where can our planar whipple shields bring us too?”
“They’ll bring us right back where we started from,” Speccy said, brushing some dust from her shoulder as the inner door of the airlock opened and each of them started out into the corridor.
Scales Like Stars (Dragons...in...SPACE! Book 1) Page 18