The Last of Her Line

by Valerie Veden

  I opened the door.

  "Daddy!" A small body careened into me. I unhinged my daughter from myself, smoothed down her disheveled braids and squatted down to look closer. Swelled-up lids, grey shadows under her eyes - the magical fear had come here, too.

  "Where's your mum?"

  "Upstairs." Rinna frowned. "She is sick. Little brother is behaving bad again!"

  For an unknown reason, Chani's second pregnancy seemed so much more difficult than the first that I was afraid for both her life and the life of our unborn child. This time it was going to be a boy, and I asked myself again about his fate: Would I be able to make a half-blood my heir and give him my title? Would I have to send him away to the home world of his mother? Would we live long enough to see the day of the choice?

  The door of the bedroom creaked and I looked up.

  "Ramis! Alive!" Chani breathed out. She had had terrible nightmares about my impending death. Whenever I had to leave the house, she said goodbye to me as if it was the last time. Nothing could dissolve her fears.

  My lover went down the stairs, holding her protruding stomach with one hand. I hurried up to her.

  "Everything is fine. Tonight we will leave the city."

  "What about the Lord Dragon?" Chani's voice quivered. "Is he still there?"

  I nodded. Of course, he was still there, behind the invisible dome of our shields.

  "I am scared," she whispered.

  "Everything will be all right," I said with a forced cheerfulness. "If we meet him, he will kill only me."

  Tiredness made me utter such a foolish thing. Chani's eyes filled with tears, she sobbed.

  "I am sorry." I hugged her. "Everything will be fine. You will see." But it was difficult to persuade someone when you couldn't believe your own words.

  The purple dusk of the day turned into the ink-spilled darkness of the night, but from time to time light flashed behind the clouds. Chani walked looking down. It seemed the presence of the Winged One in the sky scared her as much as it would any el'Tuan.

  "Have you ever seen the Lord Dragon like this?" I asked quietly.

  Chani shook her head. "No. He came to us as a human."

  I had difficulty picturing the Lord Dragon, or any other dragon, as a human. Why would the mightiest creature in the world take on such a weak body?

  The streets were empty as the citizens preferred to hide in the houses believing in their ephemeral protection. The soldiers still guarded the royal palace but I knew the king and all his family had left the capital. The Shorall had abandoned the city to be savaged, hoping to save themselves.

  In my hands, I carried Rinna who was stirring and whispering something with her eyes closed. The charmed sleep was usually very quiet but the Winged One's presence spoiled all the spells. I sighed and glanced at Chani, who smiled to cheer me up. Her forehead was covered with sweat and her lips were pale. Not now, I prayed to the Creator in my thoughts, don't let the labor start now!

  Finally, we came up to the city wall. For many centuries, the stonework had presented a beautiful decoration. The real safeguard had been provided by magic that had soaked the wall, the rock base of the city, and the sky above. We aritos, the best sorcerers, had been keeping the balance of power in the old spells, secure in the knowledge that our shields were unbreakable. But the Lord Dragon had come, and a few days of his presence thinned the defense by three quarters. The city didn't know it yet, but it had less than two days to live. After that, the magic would evaporate and the capital would burn, suffering the same fate as seven other cities.

  The city wall had a few secret passages, the favor from smugglers. Yesterday, doing a round of defense renewal, I found such a passage and made it visible only for myself. It would have been so much better to use the Portals, but the first thing the invader had done was block all the short-cuts through the Abyss.

  At first glance, outside the city seemed the same as inside. The same black sky blazed with red. The same dry air choked our breath. The same uncommon heat bore down on us. But as soon as we got outside, some invisible weight was lifted from our shoulders. Color returned to Chani's face, tiny wrinkles between her brows smoothed, and her eyes filled with the same fire that had pulled me to her many years ago.

  We were surrounded by waist-high steppe grass, but farther away the forest edge loomed. The river Keer carried its waters there, dividing the forest into two parts.

  The first dragon attack had turned all the ships to ashes, but I had sent mine off in advance and ordered the crew to wait in the small forest bay. If the Creator was merciful this day, we would reach our destination safely.

  We had made it a hundred steps from the city walls when everything lit up. My first thought was, “The Lord Dragon's magic grew weaker and the sunrays came through the clouds.” The second, “It is way too early for the dawn.” Then I heard Chani's terrified scream and turned around.

  Never before had I known stone could burn like that. The city wall was ablaze wherever I looked, while a winged shadow swept over our heads again and again, each time sending down a new portion of fire. The defense threads vibrated, ready to shatter any moment. Then a sharp prick of pain pierced me. The wards broke.

  We had to run, but I couldn't move, as if my feet were rooted to the ground. Then stone walls began flowing down like molten lava. I was aware the capital would fall, but I couldn't believe it in my heart. Only now I fully absorbed that fact.

  Chani caught hold of my hand, her whole body trembling, while I rocked Rinna. It seemed crazy but the only thing on my mind was to keep our little daughter sleeping through that horror.

  Some el'Tuans, who had had time to run out of the houses, were burned up outside. The others died inside their stone traps. The Lord Dragon was burning out the city and all its inhabitants. The roar of fire was deafening, but the screams of the dying people were even louder. Men, women and children, nobles and commoners, were dying equally in the boiling pot of the city.

  Then, a furious dragon roar pierced the air as he discovered that his main target, the murderers of his family, the Shorall, had escaped.

  Chani fell to her knees, covering her ears with her hands. The wind changed direction and threw clouds of ash and the stench of burning meat at us.

  "Come on." I tried to make Chani stand up. "We must go. Come!"

  She didn't seem to hear, until Rinna woke up and cried. Maternal instinct broke the spell of terror and Chani took our daughter from me, hugging her, trying to calm her down.

  “Yes, we must go –" Her voice broke off, her eyes grew wide and scared. I whirled around.

  A few steps behind us I saw a man. The dancing pattern of shadows and light didn't let me see his face clearly, but somehow I felt certain the man wasn't an el'Tuan.

  "What do you want?" I asked, gathering the threads in case of a sudden attack. The stranger didn't answer.

  It was difficult to define both his age and his race. Dark disheveled hair, deeply sunken eyes with a hint of madness to them, eyes reflecting the burning city. Stern-looking face with strong features, partially hidden behind a beard. The man was tall and lean, the golden embroidery on his clothes proclaimed wealth, and the way he held himself showed he was used to giving orders and being listened to. I felt the aura of power around the stranger but at the same time there wasn't any sign of his control over the threads.

  "I know you." The man looked at me, his voice flat and empty. "You opened the Gates to let your army through."

  "What are you –" I didn't finish as Chani put the girl down, rushed to the stranger and fell to her knees.

  "Please, my lord, show some mercy! Spare my husband! Please!" Chani’s voice rang with tears.

  My lord. So that was the human appearance of the Lord Dragon.

  "Yes, it was I who opened the Gates," I admitted, though he didn't need any confirmation.

  "My lord, show mercy!" Chani was sobbing openly. The man glanced at the kneeling figure in front of him; for a moment, his eyes lingered at the c
lear sign of the woman's pregnancy, then he looked at Rinna, who clutched my cloak, trembling with fear. Finally, he answered, addressing Chani.

  "Take your child and go."

  "My lord!"

  "Your husband took part in killing my family. He must die. You're one of my people, you will live. Go."

  I came to Chani and helped her to her feet, then pushed Rinna to her.

  "Go to the ship."

  "No!" Chani shook her head, crying. I glanced at the Lord Dragon. His human silhouette blurred into a huge black shadow, the sense of the oppressive power became overwhelming. Of course. Dragons had direct control over the natural Elements. They didn't need our crutches of threads to use magic.

  "Go," I repeated and, hugging my lover for the last time, put a hand on her belly. My second, my last, child lived there. The son I would never see. But I could give him my memory, and he would pass it on to his children.

  I didn't feel fear. Three weeks ago, when the Lord Dragon broke into our world, obsessed with revenge, destroying and killing everything in his path, I felt my life was coming to its end. I wasn't a fortuneteller, but my few premonitions had always come true.

  "I love you, Chani," I said, then hugged Rinna. "Now go."

  Chapter 10.

  "Why didn't you warn me about the Lord Dragon?" I demanded.

  "And break his direct order?" the taheert raised his eyebrow.

  "Why did he order you to keep quiet?"

  Mervin shrugged. "Perhaps he wanted to see your natural behavior. You may ask him next time."

  Next time? I had no desire to meet the Lord Dragon in any foreseeable future.

  "Is that a joke?" I asked hopefully, but Mervin shook his head.

  "The Lord Dragon said he wasn't going to repeat his ancestor's mistake, leaving us without surveillance and in doing so, letting us renew our raids."

  Assured I wasn't hurt, Mervin left.

  Still feeling weary, I lay down again, recalling whatever I knew about the first dragon invasion. After killing Ramis an'Toel, the Lord Dragon, the ancestor of Karos Dakaant, had continued destroying our kingdom. He had found and burned the king and all his family but the youngest son. I had read a legend that the lucky prince had made a deal with one of the Abyss denizens, who had helped him survive, but the matter of the deal remained unclear. The Lord Dragon had been finally tossed into his own world, but almost all aritos, the best sorcerers of that age, paid with their lives for that.

  The dynasty of Shorall had ruled the kingdom for ten more centuries, and less than fifty years after that first disaster we had renewed our old habit of robbing the neighbors, the Twin Worlds. No wonder the present Lord Dragon was unwilling to let us out of his sight.

  Father had explained to me that most of all we needed slaves - to work our fields, to fish in the lakes and seas, and to do all the manual jobs that would have been a waste of our precious time and magic. He had said that vampires had lost the Grace of the Creator and slavery was their just destiny, while beasts were just beasts: half-humans, half-animals. As for pure humans, well, their life was so short and meaningless it didn't matter how they spent it and how it was finished.

  We, el'Tuans, had a much longer lifespan than any other race, and we were all born with magic, even the lowest of the commoners. Yet, it was our Gift that affected our ability to have children. The more Gifted the parents were, the more children could they conceive. Commoners usually had one child, rarely two. Aristos were lucky to have two or three. Our number stopped increasing a long time ago, though our magic steadily grew stronger and the best sorcerers ruled. The king and the queen had five children because Father was the mightiest sorcerer of our kingdom and Mum, being a princess of the Island Empire, had almost as much magic as he.

  We had found a reason to return to our former practice. Then the second Lord Dragon came, and our time was over.

  Three days had passed since my meeting with the Lord Dragon. The taheert busied himself with something and didn't come. I mostly read. Sometimes I tried to use my power, which Mervin had unblocked. After a long break, it wasn't that easy. The threads obeyed slowly and reluctantly. Still, a part of my soul, which belonged to magic, stopped echoing with painful emptiness. I was almost happy.

  The fourth day, Mervin came to my room, but only for a short while.

  "I must leave for two weeks," he said.

  "All right," I replied, surprised. It was the first time the taheert had decided to inform me about his plans. Mervin looked at me with a strange expression, as if he wanted to add something but couldn't find the words. It wasn't like him.

  "What has happened?" I put the book aside and stood up.

  "Nothing," he answered briskly and went to the door, stopped there for a moment, then turned to me.

  "Be careful, Raisha."

  Bewildered, I stared at the closed door. I didn't like his last warning.

  Two weeks passed.

  Then the fifteenth day.

  The sixteenth.

  The seventeenth...

  Gradually, I started to panic. I didn't have the slightest idea what had happened to Mervin. I didn't know what was going on in the kingdom and how my people lived. With each passing day, my magic grew stronger; in the absence of Mervin I believed I could try to leave the castle. Yet I didn’t know where I would go.

  Almost everybody I knew was dead. I was the last one from the Great House of Shorall, a priceless trophy for any ambitious nobleman. If I left and announced my name, somebody would try to use me as a symbol of a liberating war against invaders.

  The last thought made me shudder. No, I didn't want to oppose the Lord Dragon. Even dying was better than losing your Self and becoming an empty shell, and he had showed me that.

  I worried about Mervin. In this strangely twisted world, he was the last thing connecting me with the past. I didn't want to think about his betrayal and involvement in my family's murder. I thought only about him.

  Twenty days.

  I couldn't bear it any more. I wanted an escape route, I was ready to do anything to get out of my prison, even dive into the Source and use its power to open the Portal; though the last part, with my unfinished education, would have really looked like a suicide attempt. At any rate, I decided to start with the main entrance. I roughly knew where it was, though the castle had misled me every time I had tried to get there. This particular day it turned out to be surprisingly easy. I walked down a few corridors and a handful of small halls, and I stood in front of the door, having no idea what spell was required to open it. Finally, I shrugged and simply pushed it with my hands.

  The day was so bright that I cried out and closed my eyes with a hand, then slowly moved it away.

  The sun.

  For more than six months, I had seen this beautifully bright, wonderfully warm sun only through window glass. For a while I just stood there, on the porch, with my eyes partially closed, and enjoyed the gentleness of its rays. And scents! After the mustiness of the castle air, the richness of motley grass, sweet notes of putrid earth and faint aroma of pine needles overwhelmed me. I breathed in deeply and couldn't get enough.

  Sometime - a long time – later, I opened my eyes and started to look around.

  Either no one cared about the castle surroundings for many years, or the forest had been allowed to come near the building on purpose. A wide staircase led to a narrow path, disappearing under the trees' shadow in just a few dozen steps. On either side of the path stood bushes, uncut for many years. To the right, I saw a broken fountain, and to the left, a small lawn. It could have been a typical view of the inner yard but for the thick forest in front of me that looked wild. It was not a park any respected aristo should have cultivated.

  I didn't know what to do. The unfamiliar forest didn't seem all that inviting for a long walk on foot and I lacked the skills to operate other ways of traveling. It was strictly forbidden for an el'Tuan to open Portals or Gates before turning twenty, as the Abyss was known to seduce young souls. Fortunatel
y, it wasn't dangerous to use Portals opened by others.

  Coming down the stairs with loose blocks rocking under my feet, I stopped at the beginning of the path. The more I looked at the forest's forbidding shadow, the less I wanted to go there. Memory helpfully supplied me with history lessons about marauder gangs, appearing after each big war, raping, robbing and killing. When you were dead, it didn't matter who murdered you, other el'Tuans or former slaves, extracting revenge for years of servitude.

  Finally, I returned to the castle, closed the door and put a couple of wards on it. In my room, I sat on the bed and hugged my knees, contemplating the situation.

  The sun set. Making no decision, I went to sleep.

  So cold.

  The pain has become duller. I take shallow breaths so that broken parts of my ribs won't pierce the lungs.

  So very cold.

  Flashes of memory: ambush, alien magic... Such a sinister feel to their spells.

  Does the Lord Dragon know?

  It feels as if the Abyss Herself has taken me. She is freezing when you are powerless. But I'm not in the Abyss, not yet. It's the healing taking all my reserves. Inner cold is to be expected, but if I had just a thread of Fire, just a spark of energy...

  Raisha is alone there. She will do something stupid, something... Still, I couldn't have left her without power, without any defense. The Lord Dragon has to understand that, to understand she is just a child...

  Darkness, strange shapes - what are they? I can't seem to remember...

  Was there poison on the blade they stabbed me with? No, I don't feel poison in my blood. It was something else, that ominous feeling... Everything is getting black...

  I woke up with a start. The air was warm but I lay snuggled with the blanket over my head, shuddering from inner cold. My eyes continued to see the flashes of memories that were not mine. As soon as I stirred, the pain echoed where the attacker's knife had stabbed.