by N. Saraven
The corridor proved to be empty, so he started forwards.
He knew everything around him. The big enough, yet could-be-wider corridors which criss-crossed the Tower, leading to everywhere. The tunnel, which ran through the middle of the building from top to bottom and was home to a huge waterfall. A magical shield surrounded the tunnel, which prevented anybody from getting wet or being bothered by the noise.
Cameron knew all of these qualities, maybe a bit too well for his own good. He knew perfectly where he stood at the moment, but never believed it to be real. It seemed too good to be true, so it probably was not.
“After all, Neila left me out to dry,” the dragon mumbled. “If only the Gods would give me the chance to see them again. I would give them a piece of my mind …” he promised as he climbed the stairs.
Everything looked so real, it made his heart ache. When he touched the stones, he felt the lively energy flowing through them. They seemed to breathe, filling the inside of the Tower with fresh air, which often brought the scent of spices.
Cameron had to stop for a moment. He felt feverish, so he leaned against the cool stones. He had lived through many things in Indrek’s captivity, but this one was the worst so far. He never knew how much the memories of his home could hurt. Especially when he also knew that whatever he saw, however true it seemed, it was all but.
The dragon tried to fight it, but his memories flooded him. The agonising turmoil inside his soul almost ripped him apart. The moment when he realised there would be no help still tormented him.
After he was captured, he came around in a dark, hostile prison cell, where Indrek himself told him what awaited. Among many things lay the fact that if nobody came forwards before the Sun showed itself fully above the horizon, he would be executed.
As Cameron stood leaning against the black wall, he felt the same fear as in the cell. He remembered perfectly how he tried to fight against it. He trusted his friends, his family completely, who would surely save him one way or another. Why would they not?
This meant the only ray of hope to him, and what kept the panic contained enough. He did not lose it even when he was brought out at dawn to the main square, where his executioner squad lined up in front of him—mages. The dragon bravely stood their and Indrek’s gaze, and the crowd’s as well. He would be saved, he thought, in every passing moment.
Time seemed to freeze. It took an eternity for Indrek to give the order for the mages, who then released their deadly fireballs.
Cameron assumed that he would never be able to forget those bright spheres, flying through the air towards him. They seemed to move slowly, as he stared at them. Even in that moment, he believed in his escape, that somebody would stop those blazing shapes.
The bright dragon could feel the pain as he stood with trembling knees. Even though he only recalled memories, they burnt. Almost literally. He felt again the thrust in his chest when the fireballs hit him; he felt the heat and the agony as he fell to the ground, burning alive.
However, the physical pain was not even close to his soul’s breaking into two. Before he lost consciousness, he realised—there would be no help. The ones whom he considered the most precious persons in the three worlds gave up on him.
Cameron bent double in the corridor. His soul ached so much, he could hardly bear it. The memories did not give him a moment of peace. After all, with his ‘execution’, his story was not at the end.
The bright dragon came around in his prison again. From that moment, he could not even guess how much time had passed, or whether it was day or night. Everything merged into a blur; only the Torment remained still. He dreamed while walking awake, and he escaped many times in his sleep, only to awaken to the same, horrid truth—he did not move a muscle. And Indrek’s fantasy of torturing seemed to be endless.
Cameron whimpered as he fought against the unwanted memories. They were of no use to him; they only held him back. After a little while, he managed to contain the hurricane inside him so he could be on the move again.
Another corridor lay ahead, which led to the study of the Masters of Varomor. He knew it well, as he walked forwards. He imagined this moment so many times before—to walk to the door, to grab the doorknob, and push it down.
But what came after was something new.
Beforehand, every time Cameron made an escape, behind the door always lay the Shade, or Indrek, who jumped on him with cruel pleasure.
On the other hand, this time only three surprised gazes looked at him, then a woman started for him and put her arms around his neck, bursting into tears.
The bright dragon just stood there, without the ability to comprehend the happenings. His eyes looked around blankly. Overall, he seemed lost beyond reason.
“Cameron! How do you feel? Should you be up so soon? Are you hurt? Do you want anything? Water, wine?” babbled Neila, but the dragon’s empty eyes scared her. “Cameron …?”
“He doesn’t recognise us.” Halgor stepped to Neila, who tried everything to bring the reptile back to the present.
“Cameron, please, it’s me! It’s us! You are safe now!” she called to the bright dragon, who stared at her with blunt eyes. Then a spark appeared in them. Even if it shone deep, it broke through the surface.
“Neila …? Is that really you …?” whispered Cameron in a quivery voice, which made Neila almost squash him again with a hug. This time, the dragon reciprocated.
They stayed like that for a few moments, then Cameron leaned away. He glanced at Halgor, who gave a small nod with a smile and look that told everything. The dragon also smiled faintly.
Through their happy reuniting, they could not see Enargit in the background. The Leader slowly swayed his head and murmured something under his breath, which caught Talek’s attention. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he sensed a stunned stare on him, so he turned to the bright dragon instead.
“But … but … but …” Cameron stammered. He became deathly pale and seemed ready to collapse at any moment, so Neila stepped in, guiding him to an armchair. She tried to gain his attention with a glass of light wine.
“Yes, I have returned,” said Talek, and he gave one of his rare, warm smiles. “No, it is not an illusion. Arisha made this possible, and yes, this is real. You are safe,” he reassured the dragon as tenderly and sincerely as he could possibly do.
Cameron blinked a few times, then asked for another glass of wine, with something to eat as well. Halgor obeyed, which made the kobold smile faintly.
“So …” Cameron started while munching, but his gaze had found Enargit.
The Leader, for once, stayed completely in the background. He did nothing to raise attention, which led to his late discovery. However, now Cameron became seemingly stunned by his presence there.
Anger glared in the bright dragon’s eyes as he jumped to his feet. His body language showed that he could strike at any moment, was just waiting for a reason.
“Who are you?” he asked with such a firm voice that it made Neila shudder beside him.
“I am called Enargit.”
“That is not possible!”
“It is, if the Gods provide it,” rumbled the shadow dragon under his breath. A thin string of smoke spiralled out from his jaws. “And you are Cameron, I assume.”
“Yes.”
Enargit looked the bright dragon up and down with such a gaze, it made the mages uneasy. He seemed understanding and concerned at the same time, filled with knowledge they could not begin to guess.
“It is a strong name. Brought luck to many before,” the Leader mumbled almost tenderly with a shadowy gaze, which threw everybody off, even Cameron.
“How do you know me?”
“Your companions said more than enough of you.”
Enargit returned to his usual self; his condescension and mockery became clearer than daylight.
“Anyhow, I knew some of your ancestors. I even considered one of them as my friend, if I may say so.”
This fac
t stunned everybody. Even Cameron, although he seemed to be concerned about something else.
Enargit looked around at the astonished stares, then swayed his head as he turned back to the map. His movement broke the frozen air in the room, and slowly all the others returned to their work.
But this reaction turned the shadow Leader sad, which he found equally ridiculous and uncomfortable. This meant that no two-legged had ever thought about the question, what relations actually lay between the dragon races? And, maybe more importantly, why the dragons never took over the worlds.
After all, they could have, with ease. They were bigger, stronger, and more powerful than any other species. Until the Lost Wars, all the species were in contact with each other. Their connection broke after the shadows gained a bad name for themselves. The ones who participated in the Crossing became very hostile towards everybody else during the ages, so their bright and sunlit relatives grew cold towards them.
But these problems could have been overcome if the reptiles really wanted to. The three races together—there would be no obstacle to what could stand between them and complete domination. Yet the dragons had never intended to do such a thing; they took the path of peace. They evaded the other species rather than engage in war and killing. That was their decision, and Enargit believed that neither of them regretted it since.
On the other hand, even though the existence of dragons was never a secret, the other species rarely met them. Especially after the Lost Wars. Only the Dragonwars made a difference, when they became a part of the two-legged world again.
What good that would bring still lay in mystery.
The Leader wandered on his path of thoughts, as he stared at the map on the table. He did not give any notice to Cameron’s firm gaze. After a little while, the Masters also joined the shadow dragon, and they continued discussing their plans. Talek sat in one of the armchairs, sipping his wine, listening from there.
Nobody paid any attention to Cameron at the moment, who stared at the shadow Leader disapprovingly. He obviously felt wary around an ancient enemy. The brights, especially the younger generations, still considered the shadows as such. So he probably could not even guess how one would be in the Tower.
The most feared one of those, nonetheless.
Which Cameron did not believe for one moment. The bright dragon knew the legends of their shadow relatives through their own stories, so he recognised the name. But it could not be possible, he reminded himself. He could not work out how that reptile made Neila and Halgor fall for him.
On the other hand, there was something about that shadow that made Cameron reevaluate.
He himself was a fully matured male and had the pleasure to live through many things so far. He could not deny that magic had changed during the ages, even amidst the dragons. But he sensed it in the other species too, who had shorter lives. Even Halgor used a newer kind of magic, which seemed smoother somehow than his own. And when Cameron thought about it, his forefathers handled much wilder energies.
Although Cameron was not truly interested in the history of magic, he could not let this sensation slip.
Enargit represented something of a lost art. His aura made the bright dragon wince; it showed enormous power. It seemed like a huge, wild running river after snow melts, but he obviously could control its rawness.
Cameron had never felt anything close to that before, ever. Moreover, the way the shadow held himself and his behaviour seemed different as well.
The bright dragon always wondered what ‘ancient’ could mean. Now he knew.
Maybe it is him. He mentioned something about the Gods, who are known to love to interfere, he thought, when he calmed himself enough to think logically. Although it all may be a hoax from the Four …
This was not soothing at all to him.
Whatever the truth might be, Cameron still felt uneasy. Especially since none of his friends seemed to mind Enargit being there. They talked to him as if he were a sunlit or bright, instead of a dreaded shadow. They chatted about nonsense, as in a sunny afternoon.
Because he wanted to know what they were talking about, Cameron stepped closer. They truly seemed in the middle of something. As he looked around more closely, he discovered how tired they all seemed. Maybe the world turned upside down, and they had the responsibility to make everything right again. Otherwise, how could they abandon him, like a useless kinwa?
“Very well then, we’re going,” said Neila, which made Cameron blink. He was so lost in thought that he did not hear anything from the conversation.
“What? Where?” stammered the bright dragon, which held back the others for a moment. Neila turned back at the door, looking at him as if she did not understand his confusion.
“To the castle,” she answered. But Cameron looked even more lost than before. Then he caught Enargit’s condescending glance.
“Could we speak in private, please?” asked the bright dragon, almost hissing the words through his teeth.
“Go, I’ll catch up in a moment.” Neila motioned to the others, so they left. Then she turned to Cameron again, but she stayed where she was, as if she did not trust him or felt uncomfortable with his closeness.
This only fuelled Cameron’s anger.
“Tell me, since when are shadow dragons allowed in Varomor? How could they even exist?”
“Since Arisha told us about Enargit’s imprisonment, and we went to their Homeland. You know as well as I do that not the colour of the scales decides who is the enemy.”
“So you believe him now?” demanded Cameron harshly, which made Neila look disbelieving.
“Don’t you feel it, his power? But even if not, Arisha assured us. He is her Chosen One, whatever that mea—”
“So we believe anything the Gods tell us now?!” snapped the dragon with such fury, it made Neila step back. However, she seemed more concerned than fearful.
“Cameron, you are not well. Stay, and rest. We ought to come back in a few days,” she said softly, and she started for the door.
“What? Leaving you with that wretched drake? Never!” he announced firmly, and before the mage could say or do anything, he teleported down to the square before the Tower.
He became utterly surprised by the scene that greeted him—Halgor chatted with Enargit nearby, as if they were going on an afternoon walk in the sunshine. Beside them, Talek regarded the Mist absentmindedly. But when they discovered the bright dragon, it seemed to him that they gazed at him disapprovingly, as if he did not have a place there.
Anger flared in Cameron’s red eyes. Regaining his dragon form, he stared at Enargit with such fury it made even the Leader wary. Neila stepped between them to stop their nonsense. Even though she was much smaller, her aura of power proved that she truly earned the title, Master of Varomor.
“Enough, you two!” snapped the mage, which made Cameron turn his smouldering gaze. “Enargit, please take the lead. We will fly after you.”
“But I thought you’d be on my back …” interrupted the bright dragon.
“I don’t want to burden you further. You should re—” she explained, but the reptile cut her off by angrily snapping his jaws shut. Then he took off without any more words, circling in the air as he waited for them.
Neila gazed after him with widened eyes. She clearly did not understand the bright’s behaviour. The mage exchanged glances with the others, who looked just as astonished as her. Then, because there was not much to be done in that matter, Neila suggested to join Cameron in the air and be on the move.
However, Talek put up a little fight, as usual. The kobold, although he was a truly hard-working soldier, if he could, he evaded the effort. Especially when it came to magic. He too knew spells, albeit only those of which he thought useful for a soldier like him. He had never become a skilled mage, nor did he want to. So he really did not want to use a flying spell for a long journey.
First, he demanded in his ‘charming’ way that Halgor or Neila should teleport them to the castle.
The Masters refused though.
Teleportation had its upsides and downsides. The latter contained a very … ‘hateful’ side effect, as the mages liked to call it. Namely, that after every teleportation, the mage who had cast it got a terrible numbness in their whole body. Luckily, it lasted for only a few moments, yet it could mean a disadvantage if they arrived in the middle of something dangerous. Especially since the longer the distance the mage had to teleport, the more unpleasant they felt after it. In other words, the more complicated the teleportation spell had to be, the more serious the side effect was in the end.
And going into an unknown territory happened to be very complicated.
Moreover, the castle lay too far away, meaning that even if they wanted to, the Masters could not teleport that far. Nobody could, as far as they knew, because it would need an enormous amount of energy, if it was possible at all.
Against this argument, Talek said that they could fly close enough, then teleport. Or the other way around, it did not matter to him. Neither of the mages gave in, however, saying that they truly did not want that terrible numbness. The kobold just snorted as an answer, murmuring something about, “How bad could it be?”
“You know the feeling too, so don’t give me that look! When you bang your elbow in that specific way, so there is a painful numbness-like result?” Neila asked the paragon firmly, obviously starting to get angry about the delay. “Well, imagine that in a much stronger version, and in your whole body, top to bottom. Of course, if you must, you can overcome it. But now, we don’t want that! Deal with it!” she snapped with glaring eyes. Finally, she said that she also wanted to see the terrain, to check out everything she could from above.
When Talek eventually backed down in the matter, he asked why could they not fly on a dragon’s back? There was an entire army of them not far from the Tower. However, Enargit turned down this idea, with no true explanation. He just announced that they would not use any of those shadows for such matters, period.
After the companions finally resolved the argument and Talek had run out of complaints, they took off too. Enargit flew in front, then the mages with the soldier behind them, and finally Cameron. But the bright dragon stared at them with such fury, the others could not know when they would be imprisoned in a huge chunk of ice …