The Dragon King

by Heather Killough-Walden

  “It’s good to see you, Lalura,” he told her. She looked different. But to a friend as old as he was, she also looked exactly the same.

  She laughed a soft laugh. It was pleasant. “It’s Lilith now actually,” she said, smiling. “And it’s good to see you too, old man.” She moved closer, and there was that scent of lavender, washing over him in a wondrous way once more. It was her signature scent.

  But her smile slipped, and an air of seriousness befell her, despite her new and apparent youth. “We need to talk, Roman.”

  That was fast, he thought with solemn bemusement. But he nodded. She was right.

  They made their way to an all night diner, and Roman bought her a cup of coffee. She held the mug in her hands, steaming and fresh, and brought it to her lips, inhaling the scent before she took a sip. When she did, she lowered it and smiled, but her lips were pressed hard together.

  “First cup of coffee as Lilith?” he asked, almost laughing at her expression.

  She nodded. “It’s good to know I still hate the stuff.”

  Now Roman did laugh. It was a deep, hearty laugh, and it felt good, especially amidst the chaos that was unleashing itself of late. He called the waitress over and ordered a serving of tea, then put his elbows on the table, leaning in. They were alone when he said, “It was Arach who killed you, wasn’t it?”

  Lilith nodded. “Yep. He went after the girls first. I was too distracted saving them to save myself. But of course that was the idea.”

  Roman looked at her with a touch of skepticism. “You let him win, admit it.”

  Lilith threw back her head and laughed. “Roman, that body was so goddamned old. You have no idea how painful it is to grow old. Or how terrifying.” She shook her head. “It was time for her to go.” She tilted her head to one side. “As for Arach, I’m guessing you put a few clues together while I was away.”

  He had the decency to look as ashamed as he felt. “Actually, no. We thought it was Solan. It wasn’t until today that I knew the truth.”

  “You thought the Traitor was William?” she asked softly, blinking her incredibly blue eyes. It was so bizarre to see his very old friend looking so very young. But he nodded, choosing nothing but honesty with her, as he always had.

  “A lot happened in your absence,” he said in his defense. “The Shifter King found his queen. Or rather, he’d known where she was all along and the two finally got together, so to speak. But in the process, Arach ‘died,’” he said, making quotation marks with his fingers. “He was offed by the Entity. So naturally we jumped to obvious conclusions.” Now it was his turn to shake his head, and he found he was laughing. “So yeah. That was a mistake.”

  He took a breath and went on. “Hesperos was murdered, but it turned out to be suicide because he was possessed by the Entity. Then he was reborn too – the two of you should get together sometime and compare notes. Anyway, he found his queen as well. Her name is Adelaide. And now apparently Arach is back.” He felt his jaw go tense. “And he’s had an upgrade.”

  The tea serving came, and Lilith doctored her cup as Roman had watched Lalura do a thousand-thousand times. When she had it perfect, she again wrapped her hands around her mug and took a careful, slow sip. This time her smile was genuine, and she seemed to relax at once.

  “I need to tell you about Amunet,” she said, putting the mug down, but keeping her hands around it for comfort. She paused, choosing her words carefully. “Amunet is one of us, Roman.” She looked up, locking gazes with him. “Like the Entity. Like me.”

  Roman blinked. He was lost. But he didn’t have a chance to tell her as much before she was continuing.

  “We’re all the same. Nomads,” she said, shrugging. “There are a number of us, but that number was limited to begin with and it has dwindled with time. There are things that can destroy us for good. Rare things. Terrible things. So far, I’ve managed to avoid them. And so have your enemies.” She paused to add meaning to her last words. “All three of them.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Roman thought a moment. “Three?” The Entity was a Nomad, obviously. And she’d just told him Amunet was one as well. That made two.

  “When Amunet first came into being, she was born into the form of a human, a little girl. But… she died not long after, and it seemed fate wished to give her another chance as a human. She was reincarnated of course, and in her second form, she was an adult woman. That was when the Entity found her. Together, they made a child.”

  She paused. “You should probably know the Entity’s real name is ‘Ahriman,’” she said, “and he has never changed forms because he has never been reincarnated. He and Amunet fell in love at first sight.” Lilith shrugged. “Well, as much in love as those two can possibly manage.”

  Roman refrained from making a derisive sound. But Amunet was composed of hatred. The Entity was fear.

  “Fear and hatred,” said Lilith. “Sound familiar?”

  This entire planet, thought Roman.

  “They make quite a pair. He can make you experience your worst fear. And she will make you want to kill it. Not that humans need any help with that.”

  Roman shook his head. “You said the Entity has always been in his current form. Why is that?”

  “He’s lucked out. In a way. When he is with Amunet, his form becomes more solid, more ‘normal’ looking. He becomes human. He’s just never been killed in that form. However, when they are apart, he becomes immaterial, and hence, un-killable. He’s more of a force or spirit than a person. And that form has always served him well. As you know, he can even possess people in that form.”

  “And yet he was able to reproduce.”

  Lilith nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. Because as I said, when he is with Amunet, he is whole. Nothing makes hatred more solid than fear, Roman. And vice versa.” She sat back in the vinyl seat of the café and turned to glance out the window. It had begun to rain. It was Seattle, after all.

  “They’ve had two children together. One with Amunet’s second human body. A boy. Then Amunet aged and died and was reborn again. And again. And again. And each time, the Entity eventually found her.”

  Roman thought about that for a moment. Then he realized he had a lot to think about – because Lilith was telling him a lot. In fact, as Lalura Chantelle, she had known all of this, and she’d kept it to herself. After a momentary pause, he said, “Lilith is a little more forthcoming than Lalura.” It was refreshing, frankly. But it was also irritating that Chantelle hadn’t revealed more when she was alive.

  Lilith laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. “Chalk it up to youth,” she shrugged. “When you’re as old as Lalura was, even talking hurts. Forgive her.” Her gaze narrowed. “And give me time. I’ll shut up and let you figure things out for yourselves again before long. The way you’re supposed to.”

  Roman digested that and called the waiter over for a tea refill. He knew better than to let it run out.

  Lilith continued. “Thousands of years after Amunet’s first form came the time of pharaohs. In that time, Amunet was incarnated in the form of a legendary beauty. As such, she gained the eye of royalty and was wed to the king, who was also a god. Dannai was born to Amunet, but not with the Entity. When Dannai was born, her father was Amun Re.”

  Roman nodded. He followed so far.

  “After Dannai’s birth, Amun Re overpowered his wife, placing her into a sleep like death to prevent her from being reborn. He would not have been able to do this had she not just given birth. She was weak. He then swept Dannai away and carried her through time, leaving her in my care. As you know, I raised her.”

  Roman did know this. However, he had always wondered about the fact that Dannai was so young when Amunet, the ancient goddess, was her birth mother. Now he understood.

  “The task of traveling through the barriers of time as he did left him weak as well. Long story short, what little was left of his power, he has given to his grandchildren to protect them. Amun Re is no longer.”
<
br />   Roman narrowed his gaze and cocked his head to one side. “Does this mean Dannai is an Entity? Rather, a Nomad?”

  She shook her head. “Not fully. Amun Re was powerful. As I said, a god. But he was not a Nomad. Amunet married him because the Entity had yet to find her in that life. In her true love’s absence, Amunet chose Amun Re for the power he gave her as queen of Egypt. Between you and me, she also relished the strife she caused between the two god brothers, Amun and Kamun. Kamun Re is no longer either, for what it’s worth. But that’s another story.”

  She sipped her tea, then continued. “The difference between gods and Nomads is subtle but important. Dannai has untapped potential to be sure, but she will never match the likes of her mother.”

  Roman took a deep breath. “What does this have to do with a third Nomad if it isn’t Dannai? Is it the other child you spoke of? The boy they created with Amunet’s second form?”

  “No,” she said shortly and with a pointed look. Lightning flashed outside the window, and thunder rolled low and ominous. Lilith paused for a long time – as if thinking of that boy. Roman felt a tightening in his throat. Then she said, just as tightly, “But I’m getting to it.”

  The waitress returned with a fresh pot of steaming tea, and Lilith poured milk into a fresh cup. “Now back to the issue at hand. Fast forward several more millennia.” She looked up at Roman. “To yesterday, to be precise. A former dragon king is due a reward for saving Amunet’s life, not to mention the Entity’s. The two Nomads are reunited at long last, and the Entity has taken on his solid form once more. So what do they decide to do? To celebrate, they create an offspring of their own. Only this time, they choose a body that is already fully grown.”

  “Arach.” Roman’s blood turned cold.

  Lilith nodded. “And let me tell you, Roman – this love child is a prodigy. He was already powerful as a dragon. Now?” She shook her head, just once. “Where Amunet is hatred and The Entity is fear, Arach is hard, cruel lust.” Lilith ran a hand over her face. “I thought we’d seen the worst of that kind with Gabriel Phelan and his tyrannical reign in the werewolf society. But Phelan was a puppy compared to this man. Arach is going to make anything Gabe did feel like a sweet dream.”

  “Why lust?” Roman asked. To his knowledge, Arach had never been particularly fond of women. Not that he was fond of men either. It was simply that Roman knew Arach to be somewhat sexist.

  “Think about it for a moment,” Lilith said. “The desire a woman ignites in a man is an automatic and completely natural response, but some men feel weakened by it, as if the woman has some sort of power over them. They can’t stand that a woman might control some aspect of their behavior, especially when they are doing it unintentionally, simply by existing. These men are threatened by that power, and they fear it. Ultimately, they hate it. You’ll find most chauvinists are actually quite attracted to women. And because they are so attracted, they feel the need to destroy what attracts them. On the most harmless level, this destruction can come in the form of lower pay scales, a lack of voting rights, oppressive dressing laws or laws meant to control women’s bodies in general, down to something as seemingly small as the insistence that a woman take a man’s name as if she belongs to him.” She thought for a moment. “On the other end of the spectrum, the destruction is quite a bit more sickening.”

  She fell silent, letting that sink in before she said, “It’s rather like the human need to walk across a field of freshly fallen snow. Some people just can’t stand the pure, clean beauty of it. They have to mess it up. Once its beauty is destroyed, so is its power over the beholder.”

  Roman closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed them. He already knew what Lilith was telling him. Truly, he did. If living as an apex predator amongst males for thousands of years had taught him anything, it was that women really were the more powerful sex, and men could become very, very ugly because of it. What he hadn’t known very well, it would seem, was Arach.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Now Roman braced himself inside. The revelation about Arach’s transformation was the worst possible news. Especially considering what Roman had to tell the woman across from him. “Lilith, at this very moment,” he said slowly, his words careful, “a young dragon by the name of Melody Margaret Tannym is with Damon Chroi in the Goblin Kingdom. She’s under house watch, so to speak. As you know, the Goblin Realm is one of the least accessible to the other realms.”

  Lilith looked at him for a moment. A muscle in her jaw ticked. “Mimi,” she said. That was the young dragon’s nickname, and clearly Lalura knew the child. “Arach went after her, I’m assuming.”

  “Yes,” Roman said, holding his breath. Because the Lalura he knew wasn’t going to like this next piece of information one bit. “He was planning to use her against Evangeline.”

  Lilith stilled in the seat across from him. Her blue, blue eyes sparked with something ancient. Roman felt the air around them grow thicker with some unspent, unfamiliar and whole-heartedly deadly attribute. After a moment, she mercifully pulled her gaze from his and turned back to the window. He saw that blood had flushed her cheeks.

  Just because he was curious – he tried to read her mind.

  He failed.

  “As usual, you scrape at the door to my thoughts like a clumsy stray dog, Roman,” she told him without looking at him. “But yes. I’m worried for my daughter. And yes… I knew this would happen. Eventually, anyway.” She shook her head. “It was inevitable. She’s so very beautiful… and so very special.”

  “Lalura,” he said, filled with a sudden earnestness. If Evangeline fell to Arach, the Thirteen Queens would never be complete. And Lalura’s vision had made it clear to them that the only thing capable of killing the coming evil would be the combined power of the entire baker’s dozen. “Why….” He closed his eyes and licked his lips, trying to form the question in a way that wouldn’t upset his dear friend.

  She turned to him, silencing him at once with her gaze. “Why haven’t I killed the Entity myself?” she asked for him. “And why won’t I kill Arach now? When my daughter’s life hangs in the balance?”

  Roman fell silent. She had taken the words from his mouth.

  “We can’t kill each other, Roman.”

  He blinked. She leaned forward over her steaming cup of tea. “Nomads. We literally can not take the life of one of our own kind.” She paused, adding extra emphasis to her next words. “It simply doesn’t work. And my name is Lilith.”

  Roman let the revelation move around in his head for a bit, trying to make sense of its mind-numbing importance. Finally, he demanded simply, “Please explain.”

  She sighed. “Imagine two people with swords coming together in battle, but no matter how hard they try, they never deal a fatal blow. Their swords may touch, they may even cut and scrape one another superficially. But they will never each other cause mortal harm. They just can’t.” She shrugged. “That’s what our magic does. Except only we are immune to the killing blows of our kind. As we’re mindlessly fighting, everyone and everything around us suffers plenty of damage. And plenty of death.”

  Her gaze drifted back to the window, and she seemed to fall back several years. “I’d always hoped Calidum would get to her first, to be honest.”

  Roman’s brow furrowed. “Calidum the red dragon?”

  She glanced at him. “Yes, why?”

  “He’s our latest king,” he told her with a wry and too-late smile. “I’m sorry. I forgot I had yet to tell you that part. What’s more,” he added helplessly. “Evangeline is his queen.”

  Lilith stared at him a moment, then shook her head, her lips slowly spreading into a bemused smile. “He’ll have a devil of a time with that one. Especially with what she believes about him.”

  Roman rubbed his chin for a second. He wanted to ask about that. But he wanted to ask about a lot of things, and they were losing order in his mind. Finally, he asked, “Why did you hope Calidum would get to her first?” After all, the Dra
gon King was only a red dragon. Reds were awesome in their power, yes. But Evangeline was half Nomad.

  “Oh Roman,” Lilith said with a chuckle, still shaking her head, “there’s so much more here than meets the eye.” She cocked her head to one side, and her gaze slipped to the table before once more sliding headlong into the past. “Calidum is not a red dragon,” she told him frankly. “His real name is Korridum. He is the Great Gray.”

  Something like an invisible wall hit Roman, knocking him senseless. The latest king was none other than one of the three Legendary Dragons…. All Roman could do was sit there across from his ancient friend and numbly listen as she went on.

  “Myths have spun countless versions of what happened all those years ago with the three Legendaries. But they’re all wrong. My daughter fully believes that the Great White, her father, was killed by the Great Gray. She has believed this her entire life. Millennia.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a weary sigh. “She knows that Calidum is the Gray. Of course, she would recognize him immediately. So naturally she is going to loathe him.”

  Roman opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so he closed it again and waited.

  “But the truth is, Korridum killed no one that day.” Lilith shook her head, picking up her spoon to idly stir her tea for no reason. She was lost in the clouds in her tea cup, and trapped in the storms in her memory. “And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Not where Evangeline is concerned. Because the Great White was not her father.”

  Several long, quiet moments passed while Roman sat and watched Lilith casually sip her tea. The rain picked up outside, splattering sideways against the café window. Thunder rumbled in the distance, low and ominous. The storm was drawing closer.

  “If… the Great White was not her father,” Roman ventured finally, “then who is?”