Spine of the Dragon

by Kevin J. Anderson

  The auga raced forward and crashed against the barricade one more time, leaking blood, helplessly scrabbling against the barred gate.

  Bile rose in Adan’s throat. “Stop! I’m here. What do you want?”

  “Why, to speak with you, Starfall.” Quo grinned up at the top of the wall. “Will you let me in so I can deliver a message from my sister? Or should I let my auga finish breaking down the gate? Either way, I will come inside.”

  Knowing the barricade would shatter soon, Adan answered with brittle formality, “Even though the hour is late, we will hear what Queen Voo’s representative has to say. I am coming down to you. Just wait—please wait. This is not how an ally requests a visit.”

  “Yes, your culture is strange,” said Quo. “Hurry, I bring wonderful news. I have had a long journey, and I am anxious to get back to the deserts. This cold, wet climate does not suit me.” His shiver might have been an act.

  Adan couldn’t tell if the wreth man was malicious or merely oblivious. “If you are in a hurry to go home, then you should not have killed your mount.”

  Drawn and pale, Penda squeezed his hand. As they hurried down the stairs to the base of the gate, she said, “The news he brings can’t be good.”

  “No, but if he insists on speaking with me, we can’t stop him. I expect he will do something even worse if we defy him. This is horrible enough.”

  Using a pulley and rope, the sentries lifted the huge crossbar, then cranked wheels to withdraw secondary bolts. The battered gates swung open to reveal the tossed torches that continued to burn on the ground.

  Just outside, the dying auga swayed on its feet, its head smashed, teeth broken loose, blood spilling from countless wounds. The creature looked at the open barrier and, its mission finally ended, collapsed into a heap in the road.

  Quo sauntered forward, tossing aside the torch he had retrieved from the ground. He used his vicious-looking spear as a walking stick. “My sister sends you an invitation, king of the humans in Suderra.”

  Rather than inviting the wreth man inside his city, Adan stepped through the open gate to face him outside. Penda followed, taking her place beside him. He spoke cautiously. “I am here. Tell us Queen Voo’s message.”

  Quo laughed. “My sister will speak her own words. I brought them with me.” He extended his fingers toward the wide, well-traveled road. Magic rippled up and out, and the flat paving split apart to expose the sandy base dirt beneath. Soil churned and swirled, building a mass that rose and took shape. Delighting in his work, Quo moved his hands to make designs in the air.

  The sandy soil formed Voo’s striking visage with her wide-set, almond eyes, pointed nose, and narrow chin. The dirt sculpture turned and actually looked at Adan and Penda as if seeing them with eyes made of dust.

  In a grinding, windy voice, Voo’s image said, “King Adan Starfall and Queen Penda Orr, my human friends, I offer you a remarkable opportunity. We have found a dragon out in the deserts, and my wreths will hunt and kill it. As our new allies you must join us to see the power of our magic, as well as our fighting prowess. No human has ever gone on a dragon hunt with wreths. I do you a great honor. You must accept.” When Voo laughed, dust and sand swirled around her sculpted face.

  “I will send an escort party for you in five days, and they will lead you to me. Quo will give you what other information you need.” Her message delivered, her sculpted face sloughed back into a pile of sand and dirt on the broken paving stones.

  Adan tried to absorb the words. “A dragon hunt? Ossus has really awakened?”

  Quo stepped around the dead auga as if he didn’t even see it. “No. It is only a small dragon, but it will still be a challenge to hunt.” He tapped the butt of his spiral spear on the ground. “Has it not been ages since humans even saw a dragon? They are unspeakably rare, and we hope to kill them all. This will be an event to remember.” His voice hardened, losing all its aloof humor. “We do not extend this invitation lightly.”

  Adan realized that he couldn’t refuse the offer any more than he could have denied the pounding on the gate. The sandwreths would do whatever they liked. He had also seen the power of the frostwreths up at Lake Bakal, and he didn’t want either faction as his enemy. He feared the narrow and convoluted path of survival might be to cooperate with Queen Voo, the lesser of two evils.

  “I will go,” he said.

  “We will go,” Penda added.

  “What a wonderful story for you to tell your child,” Quo said with a glance at Penda.

  She drew a circle in the center of her chest. “We already have many tales to tell our child.” On her shoulder, Xar extended his wings and cocked his head at Quo as if to insist that he could fight a dragon as well.

  Quo gave the ska a wry glance, then stepped away from the city gate, showing no interest in entering the city after all. “I must be on my way. A sandwreth escort party will come for you in five days. Be ready.”

  Penda looked at the dead auga sprawled in front of the gate. Slime and gore dripped down the sturdy wood of the door. “You’ve killed your mount. How will you get home?”

  Quo was dismissive. “I have other means of transportation.” Dust swirled around him, appearing out of the air like dry mist. As the wreth man retreated beyond the scattered pools of torchlight, he began to trot, and the blowing dust hid him in the night.

  73

  NOW that they had become lovers, Elliel reveled in Thon’s presence. The wreth man was compassionate and caring, and he seemed to draw as much strength from her company as she did from his. But they still had no idea who he was.

  The closer she grew to Thon, the stronger she herself felt in spite of the dark, empty holes in her past. The damning letter Elliel always carried with her reminded her of the collapsing well in the wreth ruins, a slippery slope that could suck her down into a void. But when she was with Thon, she felt able to stand safely on the edge, look down into the treacherous depths, and not fall.

  After exploring the ruins but finding no further key answers, Elliel and Thon decided to move on toward Norterra, where the wreth man felt a strong calling. Shadri continued to find fascinating relics to study in the ancient city, but when the two informed her they were leaving, she ran to retrieve her large pack. “I’m coming, too. If I stay here longer, I might be tempted to stay for the rest of my life, and I can’t ignore the rest of the world. Too much to see. I’ve never been to Norterra.”

  Traveling together, they moved at a brisk walk all day, although Shadri kept stopping to look at plants, an odd rock, or a bright green grasshopper that landed on her arm. At night, though they ate together in camp, Shadri made a small fire of her own and slept curled against her pack, while the two lovers found a place to themselves.

  In the forest shadows Elliel still looked at Thon in wonder. She felt a tingle of warmth as she kissed him, drew his breath into her lungs, felt his skin against hers. He genuinely treasured her, stroking her face with his long, slender fingers. When they lay naked together, he drew his hands over her flat stomach, curious about the lumpy scar from what must have been an awful wound.

  “Who could have done this to you?” he asked. “It should have killed you.”

  She touched the scar, then touched his finger. “As a Brava, I must have been in numerous battles.” She touched the other pale lines of her scars, cut marks, the waxy burn, the missing tip of her finger, then back to the big scar on her abdomen. “This one is the worst, though.”

  “I wish I knew your legacy,” he said. “What drove you to that awful crime? It is not like you at all.” Even in the darkness, his gaze was intense, piercing. “I can see your heart, and I know what’s there.”

  “Those questions will probably remain unanswered.” Elliel touched the scar again, but decided she would rather explore his body instead. She leaned closer and kissed him again. “I want to know your story, why you were placed in that mountain chamber. That’s much more important. Are you certain we can’t find a way to unlock the rune, ca
ncel that seal? At least you’d know what to do, why you’re here.”

  He looked at her with sparkling sapphire eyes. “I wrestle with that decision every day. I do not know if that is even possible. My mark is much more powerful than yours, and I can’t remove the locking element. Either I committed a horrible crime and I don’t want to remember it, or I have been set as a trap, as a weapon. Or something else entirely?”

  He touched the tattoo on her cheek, and she felt a burn, as if he had somehow reawakened the ink in the spell that Utho had imposed. “For you it is different, though. You have your letter, so you know why you cannot remember, why the Bravas imposed such a sentence on you.” He held her, stared into her face, and she saw something dark and intense come alive behind his eyes. “There is no danger to the world if you get your memories back. They didn’t add the locking element to your design.”

  Elliel let out a sigh. “But that still doesn’t help return my memories.”

  Thon stared intently at her. His eyes seemed deep and full of stars. “If that is what you want, I need only to add a triggering element.”

  Elliel sat up quickly on their blankets. “What do you mean? A triggering element? How can you add it?” Her throat went dry.

  “I add it the same way any tattoo is made. It would negate the rest of the design, and it’s built into the structure of the design. If the half-breed Bravas have enough magic to make the rune work in the first place, then I certainly possess the necessary power to add a new line. I can connect the elements and unravel your erasing.” He looked at her with a gaze as sharp as an arrow. “If that is truly what you want.”

  “Of course it’s what I want!” She didn’t dare to believe it, and found herself suddenly fearful. “But my memories are gone. Utho said so.”

  “Nothing is ever gone. The resonances and whispers still live in your mind. The rune of forgetting merely covered them like a blanket of snow. The question is, do you want your memory back? Are you prepared to face the truth?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.” She had wrestled with her questions for so long, had imagined what she would do if she found the truth, but she had not dared to hope. “Yes,” she said in a quieter voice. “I want to know why I did it.”

  Thon gathered his clothing. “I will ask you again afterward. You might not thank me once you remember.”

  “But at least I will know.”

  Though it was late, they found Shadri sitting cross-legged on her blanket, writing in her journal by the firelight. Her enormous pack was propped against a moss-covered oak. Thon lowered himself to a crouch beside her. “I need a needle and some ink, the same ink you use to write your notes.”

  The girl closed her journal, pulled her pack closer and dug around inside. “That’s intriguing. Why do you need a needle and ink under the trees in the middle of the night?”

  “To complete my tattoo and break the spell.” Elliel’s voice was trembling, her throat thick. “You told us you want to learn everything there is to know? Well, this is something I need to know. Thon has a way to bring my memories back to me.”

  Shadri hummed quietly to herself as she pulled out packets, leaves, shiny stones, and finally a small roll of leather, which she opened. “That’s certainly worth a needle and a little ink. Will you tell us what you learn? I want to hear the real story.” From the leather roll, she plucked a silver needle wrapped in threads. She already had a tiny bottle of ink from writing in her journal. “Can I watch you do it? I’ve never seen a spell broken before.”

  Thon looked at Elliel for permission, and she said, “I don’t mind. If this works, we’ll all learn the answers, no matter how terrible they might be. I don’t intend to keep any more secrets.”

  Taking the needle and ink, Thon sat in front of Elliel beside Shadri’s small fire. He leaned close, focused on her face, and dipped the bright, sharp needle into the ink. Without warning, without ceremony, he pricked her skin, then repeated in a blur of tiny sharp pains. Elliel winced, but she forced her eyes open to stare at him. She watched him as he leaned in, working with nimble fingers. The needle stung far less than the returning memories would.

  Adding the trigger rune was a complex process, and Thon worked with great care. Shadri observed them, curious and absorbed in the activity.

  Elliel felt the burn growing from the constant sting of the sharp needle. Thon paused and looked up from his work to meet her eyes. “Almost finished. Are you certain?”

  Elliel didn’t nod for fear the movement might disrupt the new lines of ink. Instead, she let out a whisper, “Very sure.”

  He dipped the needle into the ink, pricked her again and again, and sat back as if in benediction. He touched her sore cheek. “There, it is done.”

  The lines on her face burned, and she felt a crackle through her jaw, thrumming into her skull. Her thoughts knotted, tangled … then unraveled like a tapestry with a snipped thread.

  Again, she imagined herself on the edge of that slippery sinkhole into a dark void. Suddenly her safe place crumbled, and Elliel fell—but the bottomless pit was no longer dark. Instead, it was filled with memories, filled with her past … filled with the truth.

  She braced herself to face the screams of the children she had slaughtered in her feverish rage, the massacre of innocents with her ramer—

  But that was not what she remembered.

  The flood of returning memories held no murder, no children, no teacher, no fever. No crime at all. Except for one. She had been betrayed.

  The story was false. The letter Utho had written was complete fiction. Elliel had never committed the crime she was accused of, and because her memory had been wiped clean, she had never known.

  Now, a different guilt filled all the dark and empty corners of her mind—and she remembered everything.

  * * *

  Once she completed her training as a Brava, young Elliel had worked for several hard and dangerous years, serving any need she found. She had been a paladin, wandering in the northern counties of Osterra, enjoying the rugged highlands with cloudy skies and cold mists. She had been self-sufficient and deadly since the age of fifteen, and she spent years hardening herself, laying the foundation for her legacy, the great legacy of a Brava.

  At nineteen, beautiful and fierce, she came to the attention of Lord Cade, a powerful noble who ruled a wealthy county best known for producing saltpearls. The coveted pearls were harvested at great risk by divers who pulled shellfish out of alcoves in the cold churning waters off the coast.

  Cade convinced Elliel to enter service as his personal Brava. He was very charismatic, offered her good pay and an important position. The prestige was exactly what a Brava wished for. By bonding herself to him at such a young age, she would already write her legacy large.

  She was caught up in the possibilities. Cade himself was politically powerful back in Convera, and his county was among the strongest, with its own well-equipped standing army. Elliel would be his Brava, ready to protect him and his holdings, to increase his power.

  His wife, Lady Almeda, was intense and wealthy, with many connections to merchants in Convera, and marriage to her had brought the real power to his county, although Cade was the one named lord. Almeda was too aloof to be a ruler, uninterested in things that didn’t involve her personal comfort, clothing, or baubles. The two were under each other’s thumbs, both of them influential, both stubborn, both self-absorbed.

  Accepting the bond, Elliel signed the paper, adding her thumbprint in blood, pledging her strength, her mind, and her ramer to Cade’s service. This was far more significant than any of the smaller contracts and agreements she had taken as a younger paladin.

  Cade swore her to secrecy as his bonded Brava, and demanded that she pledge her absolute loyalty to him and his holdings, on her honor. That was when she learned that Lord Cade’s wealth and power came at a dark price.

  Although some of his saltpearl divers were swimmers raised in the local villages, most were Isharan slaves, captured during i
llicit raids, often in collusion with Watchman Osler on Fulcor Island. Isharan boats were seized, their crews taken prisoner and delivered to the rugged northern coastline, where Lord Cade forced them to dive for the pearls. Many died in the risky operation, and some Isharan captives simply drowned themselves to be free from the terrible enslavement.

  Elliel was placed in charge of the Isharan prisoners, who were held in utterly secret camps. Although she disliked what Cade was doing, she knew the story of Valaera, the Brava colony wiped out by the treacherous Isharans. She had already sworn her allegiance to the lord, and no Brava would break such a vow. She did as he commanded her to do, and because his windswept county was far from the capital, few people knew or cared what he did on the high coast. They did not ask questions, and his own standing army kept prying eyes away.

  Every few months, Utho came to the northern coast on an inspection visit. Even though the konag himself knew nothing about the Isharan slaves, Utho knew the truth behind the saltpearl operations, and he grimly approved of how the enemy captives were treated. He and Elliel were Bravas, bound by the same code of honor, and Utho did not interfere with her work.

  Soon after she bonded with Cade, though, the nobleman stopped treating her as a partner and loyal defender; rather, he seemed to consider her to be his property. She had her duty and was expected to do it.

  Eventually, whenever he looked at her his eyes began to carry an intense, predatory gleam that she had never seen before. Elliel was a confident, beautiful woman. She knew that men found her attractive, but Lord Cade unsettled her. She could tell that he wanted her, and she rebuffed his advances, coolly and professionally, thinking there would be nothing more to it. What lord, however powerful, would dare try to force himself on a Brava?