Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. When they landed, the surrounding dragons made a low, resonant sound that felt like it was going to reduce the pillar we stood on to dust. Since Rhelia and Trev returned to their human forms and bowed, I took that sound to signify approval.
“Come,” Rhelia said, nodding at Trev and me. “Let them prepare the fesssstivitiesssss. There isssss much to exssssplain.”
I nodded and followed, wondering how much stranger my life could possibly get.
~~~
The answer was a fair bit.
Rhelia spent the next few hours explaining to me the various intricacies of dragon culture, most of which, I won’t lie, I didn’t fully understand. There was a crazy hierarchy that sounded like it would take years to fully comprehend, and all the cultural subtleties seemed to stem from that hierarchy. The key points were mainly that Rhelia had saved our asses in Unterberg by declaring Trev her mate, because it meant that the Unterberg rulers couldn’t touch us thanks to a treaty struck long ago between the dragons and Unterberg. They couldn’t touch us because Trev being Rhelia’s mate made us dragonkin.
I thought that title was purely superficial when Rhelia first explained it. Like, we were in-laws and it would be a political disaster to mess with us. Rhelia hinted that there was more to it than that, but she said that she couldn’t explain what until after the ceremony.
“What ceremony?”
“Your induction,” she said.
“My induction? What do I have to do with any of this?”
“You are my ssssisssster now. And, assss you are not of age by dragon sssstandardssss and you have no parentssss, you will need a guardian. Luckily, an older ssssisssster issss allowed to be a guardian if she issss of her majority.”
“Umm… what do you mean, I’m not of age? How old do I have to be, to not be under your guardianship? And what the hells does that even mean?”
“You musssst be one hundred yearssss old to reach your majority in the dragon realmssss.”
“Seriously? Wait. How old are you?”
“One hundred and sssseven,” she replied, placidly.
“Does Trev know?” I asked, before I could stop myself. She laughed.
“Yessss. He issss not concerned. If I were a human, I would only be a teenager, that issss why my human form lookssss the way it doessss. Dragonssss live a very long time.”
I nodded and shut my mouth. I mean hey, if Trev knew and was cool with it, then… well, Rhelia seemed like a badass to me. It’s not like she was anyone’s grandmother.
“So do dragons live to be a thousand, then?” I asked, doing some math and rounding up.
Rhelia laughed.
“No, dragonssss lowered the age of majority after the influxssss of dragon shifterssss during the purgessss on earth. The age of majority ussssed to be five hundred, but with dragon shifterssss not living quite assss long assss full dragonssss, the age was moved to 100.”
“So dragon shifters live to be a thousand?”
“Ssssometimessss two thoussssand, it variessss.”
“And full dragons?”
She shrugged.
“The oldesssst are… very old.”
I made myself close my mouth.
“Right, ok. So, were they right about you dooming yourself to a life of loneliness after Trev dies?”
She sighed and shook her head.
“For reassssonssss that are too numeroussss to lisssst at the moment, we think it likely that Trev might outlive me, but regardlessss of that, I wouldn’t have chossssen differently. He issss my mate.”
“You make it sound like it’s just a part of who he is, like it’s not a choice.”
Rhelia sighed and started unbuttoning the silky shirt she was wearing. I considered objecting, but for one thing, I’d already learned that shifters were way less restrained about nudity than most people, and for another, I doubted that Rhelia was just stripping in front of me for funzies.
When she got halfway down her shirt, she pulled the collar open and exposed her chest from the sternum up. Spread across it was the most beautiful tattoo I’d ever seen. In a bright, sparkling white that contrasted starkly with the ebon shade of her skin, the outline of a phoenix in full flame glowed like starlight. It was so entrancing that I began to think it was moving.
“Isn’t it considered bad form to get a tattoo of your significant other?” I asked, despite how awed I was by the beauty of the mark.
To my surprise, she laughed.
“It issss not a tattoo. I have carried thissss mark ssssince birth.”
“Umm… that’s one hell of a birthmark.”
“A sssseeer attendssss the birth or hatching of every dragonling, ssssometimessss they name a child, ssssometimessss they lay a mark upon them, ssssometimessss they do nothing at all. Thissss issss the mark I wassss given momentssss after I wassss born.”
I sighed, not knowing what I was supposed to say, or even believe, for that matter. That Rhelia and my brother were somehow fated for each other? I’d never bought into that concept. I even struggled to swallow the idea when it was wrapped up in a fairy tale or fantasy novel.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, because that much was true.
“You do not believe in fate?” Rhelia asked, after a long and awkward pause.
I shook my head.
“Good,” she said, stunning me enough to make me meet her eyes again. “Neither do I. I do not think that thissss mark meanssss that I have to love your brother, or that we have no choicsssse but to be together… but when I met him, it felt like a missssing part of my ssssoul returned to me, and I only later learned that he wassss a phoenixssss.”
I could read the embarrassment in Rhelia’s face, like all this talk of love made her feel childish. So, I decided to woman up.
“Rhelia, if you love my brother and want to be with him forever, you don’t have to justify it to me. And whether it’s fate, or just a weird cosmic coincidence, or even just a really solid gimmick to get my brother to join some weird cult, you have my blessing.”
I paused for a second, and Rhelia just stared at me.
“Ok. Fine, you don’t have my blessing if this is just a ploy to get him to join some weird cult.”
She finally laughed.
“I’m all for Trev loving a dragon.” I continued. “I mean, so far you seem like a badass and, more importantly, from what I can tell, you’re a good person. You saved a whole bunch of children and found a place for them here in your secret realm that no one is ever allowed to enter, and you love my twin brother, which shows that you have excellent taste in humans.”
When she still didn’t say anything I added, “Look, it’s not like you two need my approval or anything, but for what it’s worth, you have it. Now tell me what the hell it means that I have to be your ward until I’m a hundred.”
And so she did.
The short version? After a ceremony in which I would swear loyalty to the dragon realm before all others, I would become official dragonkin, and after that I would get to find out all kinds of cool things about the dragons. Then Rhelia would be responsible for me, and if I fucked up at all it would be her fault, as far as all the dragons were concerned. I didn’t like the idea of shucking responsibility that way, but she said we didn’t have much choice in the matter, and she trusted me not to do anything that might get her banished or killed. Then she gave me a rundown on the things that might do that. The biggest ones were revealing the secrets of how to enter the dragon realm to an outsider, or somehow contributing to the death of a dragon. After that, I was given a basic breakdown on dragon history. It was long and boring and by the end of it my brain hurt. The highlights? MOME treated the dragons just as poorly as they treated everyone else, if not worse. Luckily, dragons have always been good seekers (which I learned was the name for folks who could sense seams—seams, of course, being the interdimensional pockets that let someone get from say, a back alley in La Paz to a hidden kingdom the size of Manhattan or, say, a realm fi
lled entirely with big-assed mountains, fresh air, dragons, and dragonkin).
Before I really felt like I had a solid understanding of… well, anything (and wasn’t that just par for the course these days?), I was being ushered out of Rhelia’s cave-like, though well furnished, dwelling, and led to the ceremony.
THE VIEW FROM the top of the pillar this time was both less and more intimidating. It was less intimidating in that it looked kind of like a party. That is, if a party consisted of a thousand dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors, scrambling all around the elder circles making as much noise as a hundred freight trains, and doing everything from slumbering peacefully to flitting about the sky like overexcited bats. Many were decorated with bright jewels and feathers.
I was still wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but had been crammed into an ornate feathered headdress that I was convinced was a rather elaborate prank that Rhelia was pulling on me, which she would spend the next hundred years laughing about.
If I lived that long.
Ok. I was probably overreacting. No one had said anything about the dragonkin ceremony being potentially dangerous. I didn’t think that the elders would eat me if I messed up somehow, but Rhelia had cautioned me to “Be ssssure that you mean the wordssss of the oath when you ssssay them.” In addition to that, I was told, just before Rhelia flew me up to the top of the pillar, that there would be a test of some kind.
“Do not worry, Living Cat,” she had reassured me. “I am ssssure that you will do very well.”
That was scant reassurance when it was the first I’d heard of any kind of test and it was approximately ninety seconds before said test was scheduled to happen.
I thought over the words in the oath that Rhelia had helped me memorize, not an hour earlier, and thought about whether or not I meant them. I thought I did, but honestly, I’d only been introduced to the dragon realm a few hours ago. What if the whole lot turned out to be a band of deranged miscreants who only sought power over the other realms, or wanted to sacrifice virgins at every full moon, or some such shit? I mean, nothing I’d seen so far made me think that was likely, but whatever, I hadn’t pegged Edik as a vampire stalker the first time I’d met him either. Evil lurked behind surprising corners.
I supposed I would just have to trust that Trev’s judgment in partners was sound, and that the culture that had created my brother’s life mate was a good one.
Fingers crossed.
“Victoria Marmot,” boomed one of the thunderous voices that had addressed Rhelia earlier, when she had been declaring her mating to Trev, “are you prepared to pledge your loyalty to the Realm of Dragons?”
“I am,” I replied, hoping desperately that I would remember all the words to the oath, and not fuck it up.
“Then you may begin,” the voice called, across the now hushing crowd of dragons below me.
“In solemn bond with the blood of wings and serpents, I profess my loyalty to the Realm of Fang and Claw. I swear never to betray its people or its place. I swear to protect my people and my home with everything that I am.”
As I said the words, I felt the air around me warm, and a buzz, like the hum just before lightning strikes, enveloped me. I was getting ready to leap from my perch, sure that a freak weather event was about to wipe me out, when the hum ceased abruptly and I was plunged instantly into darkness.
“What the fuck? Why can’t I see?” I muttered into the void. I could still feel earth beneath my feet, but I could no longer hear the sounds of the dragon crowd that had filled the circle below me, nor could I see anything, not even my own hand when I raised it up to wave in front of my face.
“Hello? No one told me that going blind was going to be part of the ceremony.”
I heard nothing save my own voice, but I… felt?… laughter.
“Who’s there?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t about to join the ranks of people who say those words just prior to dying horribly.
No one is here, Living Cat, said a voice in the darkness, which I could tell wasn’t Rhelia’s even though it had used her nickname for me.
“Great. Am I going to be stuck with that name forever because of Rhelia’s crap sense of humor?” I asked.
I do not think it is such a ‘crap’ name, as you call it. It is both amusing and accurate. You should treasure it. Good names are difficult to come by. Besides, the name you use is not your true name, and we need a true name to call you by.
I snorted, not impressed, but I supposed it could have been worse.
“At least it’s accurate and not insulting.”
Indeed, replied the voice in my head, "sounding" amused. I suppose it was more that I felt its amusement, as though it shed some of its emotion to me, but it certainly didn’t "sound" amused, since it didn’t sound at all.
“May I ask who I’m speaking to?”
You may ask. Does the answer matter? Do you know who any of us are by name?
“Fair point. How about sending along an image of what you look like? My guess would be that I saw you earlier today at the elder’s council.”
Smart cat, the voice replied. And then my mind was filled with the image of a behemoth of a dragon, not quite as large as the gold and silver dragon that had questioned Rhelia, but only slightly smaller, and with scales of a brilliant indigo hue.
“You have beautiful scales,” I said, without thinking, then hastily added, “I don’t know if your culture values physical beauty or not, or what a dragon would find beautiful if it does, but… I really like that shade of blue.”
Thank you, child. I am pleased that my colors please you.
I took a deep breath and let it out. It occurred to me in that moment that it had been a bit insane to agree to go through this ceremony in a culture that I knew almost nothing about. Oh well. It was a bit late for cold feet at this point.
“Is this the test?” I asked, when only silence followed the dragon’s last statement.
Mmm… it might be. What do you think?
“If it is, I have no idea what I’m being tested on, but then again, since I was only made aware that there even was a test a few seconds before I came up here, that’s not saying much.”
Tell me, Living Cat, what you see in the darkness.
I refrained from saying that it was a stupid question. I also refrained from making a comment about dramatics, fantasy novels, and plot twists that were driven by surprise tests and challenges. Gwen wasn’t here, and she was my narrator, the one I expected to appreciate literary criticisms of my own story. So I swallowed my glib remarks. I saw nothing in the darkness. That was the thing about darkness, wasn’t it? It doesn’t show you much.
But then, slowly, as though someone were approaching with candle from over a mile away on a moonless night, something began to take shape.
It took me a very long moment to figure out what I was seeing, but when I did, it filled me with the warm fuzzies, almost literally. As though arriving from far away, I began to make out the shape of a snow leopard coming into focus. It was difficult to tell from this distance, especially considering how few times I had actually seen it, but something about it felt instinctually familiar.
“That’s my snow leopard form,” I said, before I even had time to question the notion myself.
Indeed? Excellent. Now if you’ll just—
But the voice was cut off by my gasp, as something much larger approached behind the furry figure, a form that I felt such a deep familiarity with, even though I’d only had a week or so to get to know it.
What is it, child? What do you see?
If I had known what the test was supposed to be about, or how anything in this new world I’d been dumped into was supposed to work, I might have kept my next words to myself, but as it was, I was too awed, and far too unsuspecting, to hold my tongue.
“I… it’s… I think it’s a dragon. I mean, it’s a small one, judging by all the ones I’ve seen today, but… it’s got wings, a long slender body like a snake’s, a head… a head kind of like a horse
’s but with giant horns, covered in scales, and it’s… it’s all silver. It looks as if it should be embroidered onto a kimono.”
The voice was silent for a long time.
Do you see anything else? it eventually asked.
I waited, but nothing else appeared behind the dragon, which swirled peacefully in the darkness above and behind the more familiar snow leopard. I had never seen the dragon before, but something about it felt incredibly comfortable—known, the same way the snow leopard felt to me even though I’d only ever seen it once in the mirror and otherwise had been too busy dodging people trying to kill me to get a good look at the form itself. Besides that, there was nothing in the darkness, save a tiny ball of light far in the distance.
How intriguing, the voice said, after I explained that I only saw those two forms and the ball of light. Let us return.
And with that, I was surrounded once more by light and sound, and saw the crowd of dragons waiting with quiet anticipation as I blinked away the darkness.
The same voice that had sounded in my head now sounded out loud to the entire crowd.
“The Living Cat has looked into the darkness and seen the light, she has said her oath true, and she has been granted the finding of seams. She will forever be called dragonkin and shall enjoy a true drago—”
I didn’t hear what followed, because at that moment a familiar hand grabbed my wrist.
“Seriously, Gwen?” I said, glaring at her. “Now is not a good time.”
“Seamus and Sol need you,” she said, before she pulled me through time and space.
I HAD THOUGHT that Seamus and Sol were safely tucked away in the dragon realm. That’s where I’d expected to find them when I’d asked where they were and Rhelia had replied that we should follow her. And then the first dragon that had confronted us had straight up talked about the refugees that Rhelia had brought through earlier. I had assumed Sol and Seamus were busy settling the kids in or something, but I had figured once I was officially dragonkin, whatever that meant, I would be able to see them.
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 20