Heart of Shadra

by Susan Faw

  Shikoba took a tentative step forward, her steps quickening as she drew closer to the crystal. She climbed the steps and paused beside the slab. Curled under the shell was the body of her mother. Her wound was gone. But she was no longer as she had been. Her face and neck were still as Shikoba remembered, but that was where the resemblance ended. Her body was unidentifiable. A light glowed from her core, as though she had swallowed a torch. Shikoba’s hands shook.

  “What have you done to her?” she whispered, horrified.

  “Why, I have preserved her life. She lives, does she not?” Madrid cocked his head to the side, studying Shikoba’s reaction.

  “You call that life? First you slit her throat then you…you…” Shikoba didn’t know what she was witnessing. She couldn’t comprehend the changes. Tears welled. Her mother was gone. “What is she? She is no longer human. You have turned her into a monster!” Shikoba spun on the spot, stalking toward the emperor as anger surged through her veins. The lust for revenge sang in her blood.

  Madrid tensed, readying himself to defend against her attack. “No, I have turned her into a purer form of you. You have the ability to complete her transformation.”

  “You have done what?” It was not the response she had expected. Surprise halted her advance. “What lies are these?”

  “It is the truth. She has been transformed, yes. But she is still there. You see it takes one with magic to be mentally bonded to a dragon. You are familiar with this type of bond, of course. But the triad merger is a frail thing, dependent on three separate entities remaining whole and undamaged. The bonding is only as strong as the weakest member, the weakest mind.” He stepped up beside Shikoba and gazed down into its interior of the crystal shell.

  “But it takes a greater bond to truly become one with the dragon. A life bond. The Dragonmergers of old knew this. The Dragonmergers of Gaia, I mean, not of Jintessa. The Djinn,” Madrid snarled, his face darkening with anger, “know nothing of true merging.”

  Shikoba stared at the emperor. A thought flashed through her mind. Is the emperor sane? “There are no dragons on Gaia. There are no dragons in Shadra.”

  “Ah, but there are.” Madrid walked around the platform and over to the edge of the temple, staring out at the dead city. “What if I told you,” he said in a soft voice, “that there is a whole city of them out there just waiting to wake? What if I told you that it is your destiny to do this, to call them forth from their slumber?”

  Shikoba stared at the madman. “What does this have to do with my mother?”

  “She has begun the process. Her DNA is being rearranged. It is being rewritten by the DNA in the saliva of the naga. She is being remade in the likeness of a dragon. The sea drake and their winged cousins from Jintessa are closer than you ever believed. When the Great Purge occurred, the last of the dragons were killed off. But they did not go extinct. The naga carry the gene for flight, and the human element gives them the intelligence needed. But it can’t be just any human. It must be one gifted with magic. Only the gifted offspring of the naga can fly.” He turned back from the city, his gaze pinning her to the spot. “But not all hatchlings survive. In fact, most perish, because they are still missing a basic part of the creation process. That is the magic of spirit. And that is where you come in, my dear.” Shikoba stepped back from the shell at the intensity of the emperor’s gaze. “I told you that you have an important role to play. You agreed to save your mother.”

  “What is it you wish me to do? I don’t understand.”

  “You are to call on the spirits of your ancestors. They will return to this realm and enter the eggs of the gifted offspring. They will merge with the eggs that are viable and save their lives.” He pointed at her moccasined feet. “With those.”

  Shikoba stared at her feet. The emperor wants me to dance for him? A bubble of hysterical laughter clogged her throat. She clapped a hand over her mouth to hold the sound in. A part of her brain told her it was shock setting in. Sarcee, have you heard all of this? Sarcee?

  The emperor smiled in a wicked fashion. The pure evil in his expression made the laughter die away. “Are you searching for your Djinn friend? I am afraid he has run into an ancient foe. Perhaps he wins his battle, perhaps he doesn’t.” Madrid shrugged. “The barrier was never meant to be a permanent solution. Your little Djinn guide will be of no further assistance to you.”

  Sarcee! she screamed, but he did not respond. Alarm shot through her veins once again. She shivered at the weak stirring in the bond, but it was too faint to tell if it was Sarcee or Obsidian. She was on her own. Truly alone. She had never felt more isolated in her life. Shikoba’s eyes returned to her mother, or what was left of her mother. She was slowly being absorbed by the naga essence. If the emperor was telling her the truth, she could save some form of her mother. Her eyes lifted to the dark city. And maybe some of the Naganese. What would be the harm in resurrecting a few dragons?

  She turned back to the emperor. Her heart beat painfully in her chest. It was all she could do not to break down in front of him. She drew in a steadying breath. “I will dance for the ancestors, but I cannot guarantee anything will happen. I am not the owner of these moccasins. They belonged to my mother, and you have slain her.”

  Madrid laughed. “Can you take them off?”

  Shikoba’s eyes widened with surprise. How had the emperor known that?

  “No,” she said softly.

  “I thought not. They never belonged to your mother. She made them for you, as her heir, as the one who would become the tribal queen on her death. They are bonded to you.”

  Shikoba gazed at her feet, lifting one and shaking it. The moccasin did not budge at all. Shikoba raised her head, meeting the emperor’s eyes.

  “Free Sarcee.”

  “No. Please me with your dance, and I will free your bond mate.” Madrid walked over to where the mask lay on the cold stone floor. “Do not think to fake your efforts. I will be able to see everything with this.” He slipped the mask over his face and joined her by her side. “Begin,” he commanded.

  Shikoba walked over to the first rune etched into the floor. “So it begins,” she said. “Ancestors.” She crouched in the first position of the spirit dance. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind and her magic, searching for the connection to the netherworld, to the prayers of her people, to the elements of spirit that formed the bridge to the souls of the dead.

  “Thank you, Great Spirit, for the gift of the elements from which all magic is formed. Shelter and protect us now, as we aid your people.” A surge of warmth tingled her toes. The sensation spread along the soles of her feet and then climbed her legs. She was enveloped in a tingling soft touch, as ethereal as the light of fireflies. The warmth reached her heart and her pain, her anger and her fear sloughed away. Calm spread to tips of her hair. Light speared from her irises, shining in her face like beacons of firelight. The glow was other worldly. Shikoba no longer saw the emperor. She saw only the love of her ancestors. Her feet moved of their own accord, gliding from rune to rune in the ritual dance, guided by the spirits who had joined her at last.

  Chapter 31

  New Life

  THE WORLD AROUND SHIKOBA vanished. The emperor vanished. The Naganese city vanished. Her world shrunk to the temple and the spirits gathering all around her. At first it was only a couple, then ten, twenty, then a hundred. The space filled without becoming full. She knew everyone by name. They greeted her with hugs and smiles and warm words of praise. Shikoba had never felt so at peace with herself and with the world.

  “Why do you call us, Shikoba? What is the purpose of your prayers? You wear the queen’s moccasins. We know Aisha has passed from life, yet we cannot find her in our midst. Something holds her spirit captive. Tell us so that we may aid you.” The whispered words came from all at once, and at the same time from none of them.

  Shikoba swayed in the grip of magic she did not understand. Through the bliss of the communication, she caught the name Ais
ha. Her mother. It brought some focus to her rapture. “Aisha. She has been slain and…I don’t know how to describe it. A naga came…and she has changed.”

  An ancestor parted from the crowd of spirits, stepping forward. He was tall, with long white hair that fell to his waist. High cheekbones accented his deep eyes, which crinkled into a smile, just like hers. She smiled back. Shikoba knew him, although she had never met him. He had died over a thousand cycles ago.

  “I remember this magic, Shikoba. It was of the old faith, magic that was used long before the Great Purge. Dragons still existed on Gaia. It was long before we became known as Shadra. Airborne dragons were not a natural creature to Gaia. But there were those who thought to make them so. The wizards of old, the wizards of the Citadel, experimented with creating a dragon species that could fly. The only raw material they could find was the sea drakes, the naga. It was an inferior form of dragon, preferring the waters of the seas. It had the ability to fly, but they suppressed their ability, preferring the isolation of the ocean depths. The physical trait for flight was slowly being bred out of their young. Fewer and fewer hatching naga had wing buds.

  “The wizards sought to change that. They experimented, pushing the boundary of decency, but one wizard was successful in creating a naga with wings. He did this by merging a Shadrian woman with a naga egg.” He placed a ghostly hand on Shikoba’s shoulder. “This is what has been done to your mother, Shikoba. She is being transformed into a dragon.”

  “A dragon?” gasped Shikoba. “How is that possible?”

  “Her spirit is merging with the body of the embryo. Her soul will become the soul of the dragon. I do not know how it is done, only that it requires a soul to bring about the transformation.”

  “That is why he sent me. He wants the ancestors. Madrid wants you, not me.”

  “Shikoba, this cannot happen. Remember the story of the Shadra tribal queen? That was the first attempt to gain the soul of a Shadrian woman. For some strange reason that we do not understand, only women of our birthright can be vessels in this transformation.”

  “I understand. So she is already lost to us?”

  “Yes, she is gone. You are the new tribal queen.”

  “Then I have but one request of you. The barrier must come down. That has been my mission all along. Can you help me? It is nearby. I can feel it.

  “We will do this for you. We will take down the barrier, and you will be free to go. The emperor will not follow.”

  “Thank you, thank you all for hearing my prayers.”

  “You honour us, Shikoba. We will always be here to aid you.”

  One by one, the ancestors left the temple, sweeping down into Naga City. From where Shikoba communed with the spirits, she could see the shimmering field of the barrier, like a blue bubble over the city. Little golden explosions flashed as the ancestors attacked it. Shikoba smiled, rejoicing in the unity she felt with her ancestors. It was pure bliss.

  More and more ancestors joined in the attack, striking the barrier with increasing frequency. The golden lights darkened to a tangerine glow, then darkened further into a burnt orange as the intensity grew. Shikoba’s smile faded with the dimming colour. Her joy faded to be replaced by concern. The attack did not cease but grew even more intense, fading to a deep red, reminiscent of the glow under the altar.

  “Stop!” yelled Shikoba. “Stop! You are hurting yourselves. Come back!” Alarm spiked through her. She sprang onto her toes to run to the point of the attack, but the moment she took the first step, the cocoon with her ancestors collapsed and she fell to the ground of the temple, the connection broken. “Stop!” she croaked. Her voice cracked as though she had been screaming at the top of her lungs.

  “It is too late,” Madrid said with a chuckle. He stood at the edge of the temple, watching the city. “They are lost to you. They are mine, all mine.”

  Shikoba leapt to her feet and ran at the emperor. “What have you done!” she screamed and launched herself at the emperor, but she crashed into a clear barrier and crumpled to the ground.

  Madrid didn’t even turn around. “What have I done? Why I have given your ancestors a new life, one that they were destined to fulfill. I heard everything, through the mask. They defied the wizards once, but they will not do so again.”

  “Let them go! They are at peace. They are the honoured dead. They are no threat to you.”

  “Threat? They were never a threat. They are an asset. They, like all magic, will serve me. Today is their day. Watch, Shikoba. Did you not want to see the barrier fall? Was it not your sworn mission? Then watch. For the fall has begun.

  Shikoba picked herself up from the floor, eyes drawn to the dark city. Only, it was no longer dark. An eerie light spread across the skies, as though a polluted moon shone through thin clouds. The blue of the barrier flashed a sickly green as the ancestor’s attacks weakened it further.

  What she had taken for buildings were actually leveled mountains, and the broad streets the basin of long dead waterways. The palace of the Naganese was a smaller version of the Citadel, complete with multiple spires soaring into the sky. The city was a dream dragon scape.

  With a crack and a red flash, the barrier exploded in streams of flashing pops and whistles. Wind roared up from the valley floor and rushed up to the temple, swirling around it and sparkling with the fading explosions as the barrier collapsed completely.

  Into the sudden silence a keening sound rose from the city. Lights streaked to the surface, and Shikoba heard the howls of the ancestors as they were sucked to the surface. What Shikoba had taken to be boulders on the floor of the city, glowed at their hearts, brightening with life. Thousands of pinpricks of light glowed across the city. With horror, Shikoba turned back to the slab where her mother lay, but she was gone. In its place was another egg. Shikoba screamed as the emperor grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over to the egg.

  “It’s a shame, Shikoba. I really don’t know what this will do to you, to be consumed by the life force of a naga while bonded to another dragon. It is something I have always wanted to experiment with. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Shikoba shrieked, and her instinct to survive roared through her, heating her blood. She swung her fist at Madrid, catching him on the ear and then swung her foot out, catching him on the knee. Madrid cursed and staggered back, his eyes lighting with hatred. Madrid raised a hand and shot a ball of flame at Shikoba’s head. Her hair caught fire, and she screamed, trying to put it out with her hands. But it was wizard’s fire and burnt with an unrelenting flame. Shikoba ran for the water’s edge, thinking to douse it. Before she could reach it, her feet were jerked out from under her and she fell hard, smacking her head. Dazed, she tried to push herself to her feet but a heavy force smacked her into the sand, knocking the wind from her lungs. She gasped for breath, trying to regain her feet when a fist gripped the patch of hair remaining on her head and hauled her back to the platform. Shikoba struggled in the emperor’s grip. A slip of magic ran down her body, immobilizing her legs and arms. She would have fallen, but the force floated her over to the slab and laid her down on top of the cold stone.

  All Shikoba could move were her eyes. They darted from side to side, seeking an escape that was impossible.

  Madrid bent over her and smiled a sinister leer full of triumph. “I must insist you stay, my dear. You will be the houseguest of the emerging naga dragon younglings. You may even say, you will be their guest of honour. As will your friend Sarcee.” Madrid reached inside his cloak and pulled out a crystal container. Sarcee flew around inside, desperate to escape. He kept knocking up against the clear walls. He placed the jar down on the other side of the naga egg. “I am afraid I must be going. I would not expect a rescue. No one can reach this chamber. There are no passages above ground to access the interior here. Only the naga can pass, so the fall of the barrier will not help you to be rescued. Besides, you will not be free to roam the city. I am putting you into a deep sleep and when you awaken, if you awake
n, it will be as a young dragon. If you can stand the merging. Sarcee here, well, he will just be a snack on the way. Sweet dreams, Shikoba.”

  Emperor Madrid straightened and then spoke an incantation, placing his hands at either side of Shikoba’s temples. She fought to keep Madrid in sight, but could not resist the lure of sleep. A fat tear fell from the corner of her eye. She faded away before it could run down her cheek. Only Sarcee watched its fall.

  Madrid stepped back from the platform. He raised his hands moving them in an intricate pattern as he spoke a different spell. A dome formed over the altar, sealing them inside its crystal curve. A soft glow filled the space inside the bubble.

  Madrid ran a critical eye over his handiwork. With a satisfied smile, he strode across the floor and out of the temple. It was time to perform an inspection of his new troops. He descended the steps and leisurely strolled down into Naga Palace.

  Chapter 32

  A Deep Breath

  CHUTZPA LEANED OVER Fire Dancer’s neck, pushing the stallion to run faster. Branches of the bare trees slapped his face and arms as they pushed through the scrubby trees. Tesha clung to his back, her arms snaked around his middle as they raced down the dark trail with Deshi keeping pace on Marsai’s mare as they rode for their lives. They had barely escaped the erupting mine. It swarmed like a kicked anthill, slaves and guards battling on every level. At every turn, they were confronted by blood, swords, and magic. The hallways were slick with blood and filled with the screams of the dying, captor and captive alike.

  The only thing he had paused to collect was the box he had stashed under the boardwalk. It was now strapped around Deshi’s waist, bouncing on the back of the saddle as they fled the coast. For some reason he couldn’t identify, he knew the box was important. But the theft had not gone unnoticed. There was a whole squad of guards pursuing them, chasing them through the dangerous, dark woods.