It is why I attacked your group past the Wall. I did not know you would be there, because our timelines, our destinies had begun to diverge at that point. If I had known, I may have acted differently, I’m not sure. But once I saw you beckon Umi and slay the dragons I had come to know, the dragons who had become my family, I pulled back. I decided to watch over you from that point on, realizing that you were perhaps in more danger than I had been. It is why I was there when you battled the Ashwraith in the cave. Why I was there to catch you when you fell from the library balcony.
And it is why you are here, as the Sundering has begun, and the Cliff is under siege.
It was the compromise I had to make.
The dragons would not destroy the Nine Worlds. They would put centuries of hatred aside and spare billions of people, but the Cliff they could not forgive. The massacres of their young. The entrapment of their race. They could not forgive.
So they will burn Dragoncliff to the ground. They will kill all who stand in their way. And then, in the end, they will build a home for themselves in the northern half of Nirandel. The people of the Frozen Mountains will be free to travel south to Al’Kalesh and the deserts beyond. The people of the islands will be left alone.
It is the… best… I could do. The only way I could find to save the worlds.
Most likely, the Ashwraith rebellion will succeed in this timeline. Most likely, they will take over southern Nirandel and Al’Kalesh. Kaden should be safe. But of course, I cannot be sure.
The Mask of Nir will not work again. As the Valarata said it could only be used once. I did what I had to do to make sure the worlds would survive. It may not have been the best course, but it was the one I could be sure of.
Now, perhaps you understand who I am.
And perhaps, just a little, you understand more of who you are.
Her story is a fantastical one, beyond the realm of reality, beyond my comprehension. And yet, it must be real, for she has my face, and as she shares more with me, about nights of eating ‘pasgetti with the kids, about sharing her secret with Blake, I realize she has my memories as well. This cannot be. And yet it is.
“If you are me from the future,” I ask, “then does what happen to me effect you? If I am hurt are you hurt? If I die do you die?”
She shakes her head. “No. Not as far as I know. Once I traveled back in time, you and I became two completely separate individuals.”
I see the Mask of Nir laying between us. Such a simple, plain thing, and yet so powerful. It tugs at my memory. I feel like I have seen it before, on another person, in another place, but I don’t know why I think such things.
I tell the Outcast, the Red Queen, the other me, my own version of events, the way they differed from her own. Fighting dragons past the Wall. Finding the woman in the cave. She listens patiently, carefully, clutching her legs close to her chest and pressing her chin against her knees.
When I am finished, I ask the question pestering my mind. “What about Kara?”
The Outcast sighs. “She cannot be saved. It is impossible. Pike cannot be defeated.”
“But there must be a way.”
She scoffs. “Do you think I fought with all my strength when I faced Kaden in the cave? When I challenged your group past the Wall? That was but a splinter of my power. I had to be careful simply not to kill you all. And yet, I could not defeat the son of Nir.”
I frown. “I have seen Kaden fight Pike. He held his own.”
“Pike was holding back. He doesn’t like killing unless it is necessary. Besides, he cares for Kaden. As Orcael, he trained him, raised Kaden since he was a boy. He does not wish him dead.”
I cannot abandon Kara. I will not. I need more information. “What of the Dragoneyes Squad? They are at the fortress, probably defending it right now. Can they be saved?”
The Outcast shrugs. “It is possible, I suppose. I don’t believe they will willingly surrender the Cliff, but perhaps they can be guided away from the battle. Or maybe you can just knock them out, take them somewhere safe.” She speaks so casually about the people I have come to call friends, family even.
“Do you care nothing for them?” I ask, my voice harsh.
“I did… once… but to be honest,” she sighs. “To be honest I can barely remember their faces. My memory isn’t perfect, and they have faded away in my mind. I know they were good friends. I know they were kind. But they were not a priority.”
I see her in a new way now. No longer is she just the Outcast. Now, I see a broken woman, one who lost everything when she lost Kara, when she lost Kaden. And over a millennium of a lonely, solitary existence, somewhere along the way she stopped caring. She decided to save the Nine Worlds, but forgot about her friends. She decided to save billions of people, but forgot about the individuals among them. About the people who make life worth living. Somewhere, in a distant future of ash and death and solitude, the Outcast forgot how to be human.
I stand, leaving her sitting alone in the dust. My voice is low and quiet as I speak. “You may have abandoned Kara, but I have not. I will go to the Palace of Storms. I will go the Dream that Cannot be Dreamt. And I will save my daughter.” I turn away from her. “You can come with me. Perhaps together we will stand a chance. But I will fight alone if I must, and if I die, I will die knowing I did not abandon those I love.”
I am halfway out the door, when she finally speaks. “I will take you to the palace,” murmurs the Outcast, still clutching her legs. “I will do this one thing and nothing more. But first, I must show you something.”
She takes my hand, and where once we were at the top of the city, now we are at the bottom. Hatchlings swarm around us, playing with each other in the sand, nipping at each other’s scales and breathing flame into the air. When I realize exactly where we are, I turn around, and see the largest dragon I have ever seen.
She is the size a mountain, curled up in a ball, her head resting on her tail and legs. Her green scales shimmer in the sun like a deposit of precious emeralds, while her giant white eyes shine like the moons. Her breath is so powerful it warps the very air around her. Her heartbeat is so loud, I feel it instead of my own.
I gaze deep into one of her giant eyes, mesmerized by her sheer beauty and strength. And then I hear it.
Adragasa.
Adragasa.
Adragasa.
I hear her name in my mind, just as Kaden heard Umi many years ago.
The Outcasts walks up behind me. “The reason dragons can kill Twin Spirits, is because they are masters of Sanctuary. They can destroy an Ashlord in their dream, in what feels like an instant to us. They too have their own Sanctuaries, more vast and beautiful than we can imagine. I want you to experience hers.”
I step forward trepidly. “Is she okay with me doing so?”
“She is. Within her Sanctuary, you are no threat to her. Her dream is different than our own. It is why we can slay dragons without entering their Sanctuaries, but it is also why we cannot enter their Sanctuaries as easily. It took me years to discover this. First, I learned about Pike, and how he possessed a Sanctuary. Then I found out other dragons possess one as well. They use them differently than we do, as a way to communicate, to share feelings and ideas. It is how they sometimes seems to act as one. It is how I have spoken with them, given them orders over vast distances and without a word. I want you to see Adragasa’s Sanctuary, because it is the only way to truly know a dragon.”
I nod and step forward, reaching out with my hand. I place my palm gently against the massive dragon’s tail, and close my eyes, focusing as Kaden and Phoenix taught me to do, reaching out with my Spirit. Slowly, I feel myself leave my body, and I awaken in a new world.
Thousands of images, thousands of places, flash before me. Fields of grass that stretch out as far as the eye can see. An ocean with waves the size of mountains. A forest with trees that weave into the shapes of dragons. A sky full of stars. A hundred skies. A planet. Thousands of planets. A galaxy. Millions of galax
ies. The world, all the worlds, before me.
Is it not, I realize, something my mind is made to comprehend. This place, this dream, is beyond me, beyond humanity. It is a place infinitely larger than I can imagine, infinitely more complex that I can navigate. All I can do is attempt to soak up even the slightest detail, the slightest glimpse of euphoria and unending wonder that far surpasses my own paltry existence.
One scene appears with more clarity than the others. A crooked mountain, a cave within its depth. A dark chamber. A dozen stones piled in the shadows.
I see it again and again.
The crooked mountain.
The crooked mountain.
The crooked mountain.
And then I appear in a world of gray, standing on a slab of stone, as Adragasa, her skin glowing a pale blue, her body ethereal and majestic, towers over me. Save us, she says.
And then the visions fade, and I slam back into my body, falling backwards and opening my eyes.
The Outcast catches me, keeps me from crashing into the dust as she holds me.
“I saw…” I whisper. “I saw… everything.”
The Outcast, a reflection of myself, nods. “Then perhaps now you understand that dragons deserve to live,” she says.
Her voice is soft, and calming, as if it is my own voice. “And now, I will take you to the Palace of Storms. Now, I will take you to the Dream that Cannot be Dreamt.”
I see her then, so much myself, and I realize I am on the same path she once traveled. When my friends sought to help me find Pike, I turned them away, because my task was my own. It was my burden. And I see how soon, or perhaps in years, I will turn them away again and again. I will turn Kaden away, because his goal is not mine. And one day, I will be alone. I will have found the solitude the Outcast found, and lost everything I hold dear.
I will not become her.
I will make a change now. Because I am not alone. I never was. And it is time I stop pushing away those who seek to help me. We can do this. Stop Pike. Stop the Sundering. If we work together.
I look up at my own withered reflection, “No,” I say. “First, you will take me to my friends.”
Forty-Four
Sundering
We appear on the tallest tower of the Cliff, the wind raging against us, whipping at our hair and robes. Fire streaks across the sky. The horizon burns. Roars and cries and screams fill the air. Below us, the battle has begun.
A dozen small dragons swarm the fortress, attempting to set the ballistae on fire, avoiding bolts aimed at their skulls. My friends, the Dragoneyes squadron, have divided into two groups, each doing their part to fight the battle. Bix, Landon, and Mabel remain on the ground, manning the largest ballista at the Cliff. They use barrier talismans to protect their flanks and rear, leaving only a small place of vulnerability in the front, from which they fire bolt after bolt. One hits a dragon in the wing, and the beast smashes into the tower beside us, tearing it down as it falls to the earth, bones and muscles crushed.
My friends cheer as Bix single handily loads a new bolt twice his height into the war machine. He wears his Spirit armor, having transmuted most of his skin into a hard emerald shell. To his side, stands Landon, having also transmuted most of his body, not for armor, but for speed. His skin is covered in auburn fur, his legs twisted into a form allowing for great agility. When Bix lands another shot, and a dragon falls to the earth, wing crippled, but still very much alive and dangerous, Landon lunges outside the protection of his barrier talisman, moving in a blur, and rams his giant white lance into the dragon’s eye, killing it in one blow. Before he can be targeted by a flame strike, the Ashknight retreats back to the ballista, ready for another opportunity.
Mabel wears her Spirit armor as well, skin gray and rough and sturdy like a shark’s. But unlike her allies, she presses the offensive using talismans, flicking coins marked with the disintegrate glyph far into the sky with her enhanced strength. When one hits a dragon in the belly, the scales began to peel away, melting and burning, as the beast's blood turns into an acid-like substance, killing it from within.
Three dragons down. Nine remaining.
Here, the other half of Dragoneyes squad seizes initiative. They have chosen a different approach, taking to the skies. Raven glides through the air on wings dark as night, slicing at a dragon’s throat with her transmuted black sickle. Her aim is true, and she rips open the beast’s neck, turning her weapon crimson.
Zev zips beside her on translucent wings, tossing a disintegrate talisman at one of the smaller dragons. The beast evades, then crashes into Zev, knocking him down. He recovers mid fall, zooming back up to join the battle. Zev was never particularly gifted at slaying dragons, and the beasts seem to notice his weakness. Four of them surround him. But as they open their mouths to breath fire, a blazing comet streaks through the sky.
Phoenix, in her Spirit armor, body aflame, wings of crimson, dashes at the closest of the four dragons. Before it can react, she smashes into its side, and bursts out the other end, having burned a hole straight through the serpent’s body. It collapses before it even realizes what happened, guts spilling from it’s carved out belly.
The second dragon tries to spin out of the way, but it is too slow, and Phoenix hits it in the neck, decapitating it. This is one of the strongest Ashlords in her element. A weapon honed over centuries to slay monsters. She targets the third dragon, and the beast, having learned from its fallen comrades, manages to evade her assault, only to be struck by a ballista bolt in the eye.
The final dragon turns and flees.
It regroups with the five remaining dragons on the other side of the Cliff, who fight against Gray squad, or at least what is left of them. I only see Tara and Clive, Ashknights I don’t know well, but admire. They were new to their rank, however, newer than us, and it appears they were unprepared.
This slaying of six dragons happens in under half a minute.
The battle is going better than I expected. But these are smaller dragons. What happens when a colossus shows up? Or something larger, like Adragasa?
“I…” The Outcast's voice shakes. “I cannot take sides in this battle.”
I nod, understanding her position. She has spent years creating an alliance with the dragons. I don’t expect her to break it for me. “Very well. Meet us below then, once I rally everyone together.”
I don’t wait for her to respond as I jump off the tower, transmuting my Spirit armor and silver wings, and dive toward the remaining six dragons. I descend like a falling star against a dark, smoke filled sky, gaining momentum with each second, my enhanced senses the only reason I can still see. I toss two disintegrate talismans at the dragons to my sides, hitting both in the back of the head, turning their blood into acid. As they writhe in pain, I transmute my hand into a claw and smash into the beast below me, shattering its skull with one blow.
Only two dragons remain. I focus on the one before me, but realize I have lost track of the other one. Then something hits me from the side. Hard. Sharp teeth in a jaw capable of crushing bone bite down on my arm, and blood sprays the air. My blood. I scream, my entire body on fire. I try to pull away, but the dragon has me locked in its mouth. I use my free hand, my claw, to hit it in the nose. I don’t have momentum this time, so the attack doesn’t break bone, but it does do damage. The dragon doesn’t let go as we fall through the sky, spiraling down, so I hit it again and again, until its jaw goes slack. I tear my arm free from its teeth, and see that my Spirit armor is shattered on my left side, the pale skin below cut up and bloody.
I flap my wings to stop my fall, but it doesn’t work. One is broken, I realize, the bones snapped by the dragon. The ground rushes up quickly toward me. I do the only thing I can think of, and toss a wind talisman at the earth below. As soon as the coin hits bottom, an unnaturally powerful gust of wind erupts from the ground. It pushes against my body, catches my wings, and slows my descent. I still fall, but not as quickly, and when I hit the side of the Asylum and tumb
le off the roof, I don’t break any bones. Just get a lot of bruises.
Only one dragon remains. I see it hovering above me, until a red comet strikes it through the side, ending its life.
Then they land around me. Landon, Mabel, Zev, Bix, Phoenix, and Raven. My friends. My family.
Each of them grabs a part of my body and helps me stand, and Mabel places a regenerate talisman on my arm, helping it heal faster. “Thought you were looking for your daughter,” she says, raising an eyebrow.
“I was,” I say, breathing quickly. “I am. But I need your help to find her. If you don’t want to come with me, if you wish to stay and protect the Cliff, I understand. But if—”
“Stop your yapping,” says Landon, clasping my good shoulder. “Like we said before, we will follow you anywhere, Silverwing.”
The other Ashknights exclaim their agreement.
I turn to Phoenix. “What about you, Ashlord?”
She looks toward the horizon at the burning forest along the river, at the silhouettes growing larger in the distance. “More of them are on their way. And they’ll be bigger this time.” She gestures at the dead dragons around us. “This was just a scouting party, a way to gauge our strength, and still we lost half of Gray squad.” There is no sadness in her voice, no mourning. There will be time for that later. Her face is hardened by battle. “We’re getting tired. Our talismans are running low. Our bolts are almost gone. Maybe we can survive another wave. But not two. I say…” she looks at each of, eyes serious. “We abandon the Cliff.”
They don’t know about the deal the Outcast made with the dragons and, because it would be difficult to explain, I’m glad Phoenix makes the decision to leave Dragoncliff on her own.
“However…” the Ashlord adds. “I cannot go with you, Sky. My mission is to fight the dragons. I cannot do it head on, that is clear, but I can fight from the forests, the shadows. I can take them out one by one. I will not force the rest of you to join me, however. The world may very well be ending, and you should decide how to spend your last moments.”
Of Dreams and Dragons Page 36