by Gia Tsiknas
“Seven dragons fell from the sky, their glittering scales majestic in the fading light. They stood in a circle around the children, their eyes filled with flame and purpose.”
Seven shapes flew from the heart of the flames, alighting delicately in a ring around the fire.
“The mother beckoned her first child forward to the largest beast. The man stood before the lizard and refused to tremble.
“‘My brave and noble son.’ The woman called for all to hear. ‘You shall be Patience, a weapon to hold the wrathful at bay.’
“She moved on to her daughter. ‘Diligence will be your name, releasing you from the chains of sloth.’
“She named the seven characteristics that combat the seven demon generals to her children. Chastity for lust, Kindness for envy, Charity for greed, until they called all seven forth. Each stood in front of a great dragon. As the mother drew back from her final named child, the dragons opened their maw and bathed the seven in flames. Screams echoed the night but as the flames abated, seven creatures, for they were no longer human, stood in the circle of dragons. Bestowed were they with wings and claws, fire and blood, to fight the generals.”
Saiya’s voice returned to her normal tenor and Machi could pull her gaze away from the flames. She turned to Saiya, her eyes wide, as she whispered.
“The gifts of the Heritage.”
Saiya smiled tiredly. “So you know them.”
“A story my mom would tell me. Nothing more.” Machi turned to the fire again.
“I would expect more belief from one who met the General of Envy and bore the General of Wrath until a few days ago.”
Machi was quiet for a long time before answering. “My mom had a mark. I always thought it was a birthmark, but it was so clear.”
“Well, according to my source, marks appear after the ceremony and they signify one of seven different characteristics.” Saiya looked thoughtful.
Machi stayed silent, motioning her to continue.
“The seven characteristics of Drakian lore are: wings, claws, eyes, fire, blood, tail and scales. It is said the characteristics take full shape once they complete the ritual, and the child gains the power and rites of an adult.”
“How does the ritual of heritage work?”
“You need a dragon’s fire, and a worthy vessel.” She nodded to Moody. “Drakes work as a stand-in, but you won’t be whole until you find your true partner.”
“True partner?” Machi scoffed.
“Yes.” Saiya smiled. “Someone who will complete the ritual and be the partner of your mind and body. Until then, a lesser drake will have to do.”
Machi opened her mouth to stop Saiya but hesitated. Could she turn down this opportunity, even if it sounded fake? Should she?
Saiya waited as Machi deliberated. Moody twined between her legs, shimmering pink and orange.
“Do it.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
WINGS
When Machi woke she was face down. She groaned.
“Oh, you’re up.” Saiya walked over to Machi and handed her a bowl of soup.
“I just ate!” Machi protested.
“Tsk, tsk, you seem to lose track of time a lot.” Machi looked up to see the sun low over the horizon. Grumbling, she got to her feet and took the stew.
“I feel… wrong.”
“The ceremony ritual was only a few minutes, but you fell into a trance and have been sleeping since.” Saiya looked worried. “Maybe you need more sleep?”
Machi looked down at the stew and frowned. She took a bite. She was ravenous. Why did she feel so hungry if all she did was sleep? Machi polished off the bowl in seconds, then went back for a second bowl, then a third. After her fifth bowl of soup she sat back, satisfied.
“My cooking’s not that good!” Saiya stared.
“I’m just hungry.” Machi gave her a sidelong glance.
A twig snap. Machi stiffened. A rustle of leaves.
“Someone’s here!”
“Machi, no one is here.” Saiya just stood there, staring.
“There is someone here! Can’t you hear them breathing?” As the words left Machi’s mouth she realized that she did, in fact, hear breathing.
Saiya watched Machi.
She doesn’t believe me! Machi was speechless. Gritting her teeth, she zeroed in on the intruder. Machi leapt at the enemy, pouncing so fast it was disorienting. Her muscles moved. She was bounding on all fours, gaining on her target. The intruder cut back and forth in-between the trees but Machi could follow it.
He stumbled and Machi snatched her chance. She tackled the figure to the ground. He squirmed and screamed but she held on tight, snapping its neck.
Machi winced as she moved her mutilated arms to see the enemy.
She held a dead rabbit.
Soft padding announced Saiya’s presence as she caught up, huffing from the effort. Moody cawed as he landed on Saiya’s shoulder. Saiya froze as she saw what was in Machi’s hands.
“What—” Machi managed to say.
Silence enveloped them again, broken by the laughter of a small child.
“Silly! You’re supposed to eat it, not stare at it!”
Machi turned toward the small, chuckling dragon on Saiya’s shoulder.
“Did you just talk?”
Moody blinked, staring back at Machi. “You understand me? Machi understands me?”
Moody leapt into the air, cawing and laughing. He flashed gold and crimson. Machi turned to Saiya. “Did you just hear that? Tell me you just heard that!”
Saiya hadn’t moved.
“Shadow take me, Moody just talked!”
Moody stopped gliding around, and landed, giggling on Machi’s shoulder. “I’m so happy Diligence chose you. Now we can fly around together.”
“He just did it again.” Machi pointed at him.
“But I heard nothing.” Saiya said.
“You don’t want to fly with me?” Moody turned blue and whined.
“What happened during the ritual? And why can I hear Moody talk?” Machi frowned.
“Because you’ve joined your ancestors as a Drakian.” Moody trumpeted, happy to please Machi. Machi bit her lip, could the stories her mother told her have been true? Moody chattered onward. “Because you received the ritual, you have become an adult and so you can hear us lesser dragons.”
“What about the great dragons?” Saiya asked as Machi relayed the information.
“They don’t need a medium to talk, silly, they’re great dragons.” Moody laughed.
After Machi translated she asked. “What did you say about flying before?”
“The spirit of diligence chose you.” Moody cawed.
Machi translated as Moody explained.
Drakians were raised until the proper age when they underwent the ritual. The seven spirits judged the children and bestowed them with their mark of service. Their mark set them apart as combatants for the correlating general and gave them powers attributed to the spirit. Diligence was the patron of wings and enemy of the general of sloth. Each child was also bonded to a particular dragon that would be their companion. The dragons would lend the Drakians strength, even if they were far apart. Not all dragons and Drakians were perfect matches, although the potential was always there.
“That’s just like the story, and the song my mother used to sing me to sleep.” Machi mumbled. She couldn’t remember when Moody had fallen silent. She heard the slow plod of a horse behind her and turned. Saiya led her horse, saddled, packed, and ready for travel.
Machi hesitated. She had more questions. She needed answers. But…
“He’s waiting for you.” Saiya smiled. “We will meet again.”
Machi took a slow intake of breath and nodded to the odd woman. She walked to the horse, letting the beast smell her palm before touching every item in the saddlebag. Brizna’s swords were there, polished to a bright shine. The stones in the pommels sparking with energy. Her cloak and her changes of clothes were packed in oiled
cloth along with her Hunter Garb. Machi turned to Saiya as she sat tending the fire.
“Don’t you have a mount?”
“Raboni provides as he wills.” She smiled up at Machi. “One last bit of advice. Remember your limits and ask Raboni for the rest.”
Machi bristled, but she swallowed back her retort. Raboni may have saved her, but that didn’t mean she trusted him. But this woman had done more than even her brethren in the guild.
Machi walked to her mount and removed Brizna’s swords, strapping them to her belt. She left the rest and walked the horse to the fireside, staking it near a copse to graze the foliage.
“Take him.” Machi turned to the west, refusing to let Saiya see her flushed face. “For all you’ve done.”
Saiya smiled in amusement as the stubborn Drakian jogged into the forest. Moody sat at her side, blue. When Saiya could no longer hear the girls’ footsteps, she turned back to the fire.
“You can come out, you know.”
For several seconds nothing happened. Saiya waited. Her patience was well rewarded when a young girl walked from the forest to her right and shuffled toward the campfire. She was short with long chestnut hair billowing from her hooded travelers’ robe.
“Good tidings, Ayaka.” Saiya greeted the young girl with reverence. “If you came for Machi, she has already left.”
Ayaka giggled, her melodic voice hypnotizing. She drew back her hood and sat. Long pointed ears poked from her volume of locks. “Today I come for you, Somber Knight.”
***
Doubts invaded Machi’s thoughts, but she ignored them. Why leave her horse with an almost stranger? Why walk when riding would get her there faster? Her steady jog devoured the land. As the trees thinned, she found the road. She blinked and turned. Leagues of forest was to her back. Her breath was light to have jogged this far without rest.
“What happened to me?”
Fear not, I have blessed you.
Machi spun, the voice was so clear.
“Who’s there?”
Silence greeted her, along with the bleary cries of crows in the field to her front.
“Answer me!”
The gentle whisper of a breeze tickled her cheek. You know who I am.
Machi shivered. It can’t be. She refused to believe it; she kept walking until she came to a stream. As she knelt and splashed the icy water to her face, she reached for her anger and found once again it was only skin deep. The untamed ferocity was missing.
“Hanaq is gone.”
As I have meant it. As you have asked. The voice whispered, soothing her anxiety.
“Why?”
The sky remained as it was.
“What, you giving me the silent treatment now?”
Again silence was her answer.
Machi snagged a stone from the bank and chucked it into the stream.
Patience never was your strong suit.
“Tell me why! Why did you abandon me? Why are you here? Now? Where were you when my mother and father died? When I was carving out a living in that wretched city? When I was beaten and starving and trying to find Brizna? He believes in you. Why didn’t you help him?”
Raboni was silent, letting Machi work through her tangled feelings.
“For so long we were in hiding. All I wanted was a friend. And when I thought I found one…”
Machi squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget that day she had talked with the other village girl. When she had confided to the girl her heritage as only a naïve child could. Then the raid. The carnage. The loss. She had brought the Grey Demon to the village. Machi had condemned her parents to death for the promise of friendship.
Machi pulled her knees to her chest and held them.
“Why did you do that Raboni? Why did you take him from me?”
Raboni’s voice was soft, filled with an aching sadness. I cannot give you all the answers, Machi. I cannot shield my faithful from all evil. But I promise you, that evil will pass, and the choices my faithful make lead to a brighter future.
Machi drank in Raboni’s words. She could almost believe it was true. Almost.
Time heals all wounds, daughter and trials build faith.
Machi plopped back down on the ground and sighed. Everything’s changed so much. I’ve changed so much. Brizna’s laugh came from her memory, and with it a wave of emotion. Machi sat up.
“What was that?”
You drowned out many of your emotions during your slavery to wrath. Now they are coming back.
Machi closed her eyes, bringing the emotions she had felt back to the forefront of her mind. Her memories of Brizna filled it. His warm tone of voice, his wicked grin, his comfort. With her memories, came his disappearance, her grief, her desperation. Machi’s heart ached, and she opened her eyes.
“I don’t want to be lonely anymore.” Machi admitted.
I am with you always.
Machi was torn. Did she want the love and wholeness he spoke of? Did she trust his words? Indecision made her lash out.
“Go away!”
I will always be here for you, My daughter. Call if you need Me.
Machi was silent. The immeasurable love in His voice was unbearable. She pulled out her knife and leaned against a nearby tree. Taking her whetstone she slid it across the blade. The slow, rhythmic motion soothed her, bringing her emotions back under control. With the clarity came a memory. The odd child and bard. What had the child said again?
“Turn the tide, mount up on wings, and free the chained one. Shadows whisper sweet words, but only forgiveness will save the boy.” Machi frowned as she tested the edge of her blade, set it aside and grabbed another. “What does that mean?”
Shadow… as in the great Shadow? The ten-headed beast and his generals? Machi shook her head. Bedside stories, all of it. But she had seen the Gray Demon and its dog. How had he introduced it? As the general of envy? And claws and wings? Machi’s mother used to sing a lullaby to her that was similar. How did it go again?
The sun was setting; the sky was brilliant shades of orange, purple, and pink. Machi stood and closed her eyes, a whisper floating in the wind. The words seemed to echo. Words from a long forgotten language. They rang with power as she sang.
A sudden gust of wind encircled Machi, ruffling her hair. She opened her eyes and stared at her shadow. Two enormous, dragon wings sprouted from her back. They were stretched out, warming in the sun. She walked to the water’s edge and stared at her reflection.
They were green and pearled as if made of gemstone. The sun’s warmth was intoxicating, a charged energy jolted through her. With barely a thought she moved them, feeling the air fill the stretched skin in a wonderfully chilling caress as she flapped. She wanted to scream. She wanted to laugh.
Realization dawned on her like a hammer. This was what made Drakians demons in the eyes of Denarians. This is what they feared and hunted.
“You did this?” Machi spoke to the whisper, to Raboni.
Didn’t you listen while Moody explained all this?
“Uh, I was a little distracted by the talking lizard.”
Raboni laughed. I believe this is adequate transportation, don’t you?
Machi nodded. “But why didn’t you give them to me before?”
You weren’t ready. Raboni answered. But now you are.
Machi flapped her wings and felt a solid air current stream past her.
Raboni chuckled.
She had nothing to tote around but her cloak and swords. Had Raboni planned this? Machi shook her head. She didn’t want to dwell on it.
Laughing, she leapt into the sky, snapped open her wings, and flapped hard. She streaked upward, off-balance from her weapons. She plunged into a cloud. Surprised at the sudden dampness she covered her face. Her wings stopped flapping and curled around Machi’s torso. She plummeted like a stone. Wind shrieked as Machi wiped her eyes. She squinted them open just in time to see the trees. She tried to spread her wings, but since she was on her back, she only turned
herself.
Machi made it past the trees but smacked headlong into the water, skipping along twice before sinking. Machi fought to right herself as her weapons dragged her down. She hit the bottom and situated herself. Pinning her wings to her back she made it to shore. As she dragged herself out of the water she cursed.
Machi let her wings lay spread out, her entire right side was a red welt.
Raboni was laughing so hard Machi was surprised there wasn’t an earthquake. That was the most spectacular first attempt I have ever witnessed. And believe Me, I’ve seen many.
Machi cursed between hacking up water and laughing.
A close second was when a boy launched head first into a duck and then landed on a bear.
Machi choked back laughter. “How’d that end?”
With a very bruised boy, an angry bear and a dead duck.
Machi laughed and then winced as her side throbbed.
Don’t worry, nothing is broken. It’s just bruised.
“Good to know.” Machi pushed herself to her feet.
Ready to try again?
She flexed her wings. “You know it.”
Machi leapt into the air for a second time. She fluttered her wings, trying to hover above the trees.
Testing her abilities Machi soared in tight quick circles which lengthened into large ovals. The movements felt natural, as if her whole life she had wings. She closed her eyes and visions of red scales flashed in her mind.
They dove, she followed.
Machi pulled her wings tight and used the tips to steer her descent. Thirty feet from the ground she swooped away up into the sky. Adrenaline pumped through Machi’s veins.
“Amazing.”
Machi glanced around, darkness had long since fallen. The stars twinkled in the night sky. Machi grinned, she could still see as clear as day. She hesitated, the strange child’s words in her head. Then turned and headed off toward the distant glow, toward Den. She needed answers to the slave train incident and another lead to find Brizna, and Eri was the best place to start.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DESPERATE