Dragonfire

by Charles Jackson

  “Indeed?” He countered with a raised eyebrow. “And if this were true, what possible use could you put it to…?”

  “You know exactly what I’d do with it,” Percy shot back with a frown, a little exasperated that De Lisle was being so ridiculously coy. “More power! You saw what I did making this, yeah?” She continued, lifting her sword from where it had fallen beside her. “That took every ounce of energy I could draw from my crystal, and even then it was only possible because I’ve already had so much practice. She has had one of these damned things for only a week and she was already powerful enough to destroy a warship from a range of a couple of miles… and that was without any practice or training! I’m working on experience alone… she has something else entirely: something way out of my league! When I first brought Nevaeh through, Moloch called her a ‘prescient’: it said she couldn’t be controlled, and I gather from what happened on Rapier with that idiot, Silas, that the last thing Moloch wanted was for Nev to get her hands on a Shard Crystal. Trust me on this: she doesn’t have a clue how powerful she is yet, but she will soon enough… and when she does, this pathetic trinket…” she spat darkly, turning the blade to reveal the faintly-glowing crystal embedded in its hilt, “…will not even come close to being enough to stop her. This thing is giving me everything it’s got but it’s just not enough… I need a better connection… more bandwidth…!” She declared finally, not even considering the possibility the cardinal might have no concept whatsoever of internet download speeds. “She’s got better software…” Percy continued, ignoring the fact that she was crafting a flawed analogy at best, “and the only way for me to beat that is to overwhelm it with raw, unadulterated processing power!”

  “I suspect I’ll never understand half of what you just said,” De Lisle admitted with a thin, wry smile, “but I understand enough to grasp the point of your argument. I’ll need to discuss this with the Gods and see what can be arranged. We do have items such as this pass into our possession at times but they are extremely rare and extremely dangerous. I’ll not allow you control of one unsupervised, and certainly not without clear permission from the Shard God itself.”

  “It’ll say yes…” She shrugged, not concerned in the slightest there would be any other outcome.

  “We shall see…” he replied dubiously, a shudder rippling through him as the cardinal thought back over what had just been said. “There was a name you just used… a name for the Gods…?”

  “What… ‘Moloch’…?”

  “Yes… yes, that was it…” De Lisle nodded, taking an almost involuntary step away from the fire as morbid curiosity overcame his reservations. “Where did you come by it? In all these years, I’ve never heard such a name used – I’d always assumed the Shard Gods had no name.”

  “Oh, I picked that one myself,” she admitted with another shrug. “Seemed silly to not have at least some kind of name for it, and it doesn’t seem to mind that I use it.”

  “Moloch…” the cardinal ventured, trying the word out for himself and slightly ill-at-ease for some reason over the idea that the Shard God would so readily accept a randomly-chosen title given by an insolent heretic witch. “What does it mean?”

  “In my world was the name of a mythological god of some ancient civilisation: Canaanite, I think. Not sure if he was powerful or not, but he – it must’ve been a ‘he’, obviously: the nasty ones usually are – demanded a high sacrifice in exchange for whatever it was he gave in return.”

  “And… and what was this sacrifice?” De Lisle asked reluctantly, feeling another inexplicable shiver wash through him.

  “Hmmm… been a while since I took any ancient history…” she wondered aloud, making an effort to recall “…but I think… if I remember correctly… they used to sacrifice children. Yes, children: that was it!”

  “I see…” the cardinal replied carefully, not sure if he were more unsettled by the idea of child sacrifice or by the utterly flippant and uncaring manner in which the girl had described the whole thing, as if discussing a walk to the market to purchase bread. Moloch… even the name itself sounded dark and forbidding, and as he thought more on it, perhaps it was Percy’s throwaway remark about the Shard God not minding her giving it that title that disturbed him the most.

  “I –I’ll see what I can do to get you that crystal…” he murmured eventually, finding it difficult to meet her blank, expectant gaze in that moment.

  “That’d be lovely,” Percy chirped brightly, trying to be nice. “It’s the only solution… I promise you…”

  There was a large mirror affixed to the inside of the lid of one of the queen’s steamer trunks and as Nev stared into it roughly twenty minutes later, wearing just the pants and blouse, she wasn’t entirely sure who she was looking at. Although she still felt like she could’ve showered for a whole day straight had one been available, she was at least wearing something other than the two outfits she’d been forced to alternate through for the entirety of the last week, of which one had been ill-fitting at best.

  “These ‘stays’ – or whatever it was you call them – are a bit tough to breathe in…” she observed, wincing a little as she pulled at the bottom of the fully-boned, lace bodice beneath her blouse. Narrowing above the hips, it had the rather strange effect of lifting her bust line and drawing in at her waist while providing a surprising amount of firmness and back support at the same time. Both the bodice and the halter top worn over it were form-fitting and – amazingly – also combined perfectly to not show any unwanted details of the body beneath.

  “Trust me… the style they make these things in, it’s a wonder anyone can breathe with them on…” Charli replied with a dry smile, not having the heart to tell her new-found friend that she’d actually gone ‘easy’ on her when tightening the stays at her back; that women at court were usually expected to wear their bodices far more tightly laced. “It looks amazing though: I told you it would…”

  “I guess it does look pretty nice…” she conceded, turning slightly to either side and still feeling a little disconcerted over how much more prominent her bust seemed than she’d ever have allowed back home, particularly considering how low the neckline also seemed to plunge.

  The outfit itself was of the finest silk with matching, incredibly detailed collars and cuffs of white, inlaid with a multitude of tiny pearls. Nev had to admit that Charli had been right about the colour too: the emerald green really seemed to accentuate her hair colour, making it seem far redder than her usual auburn tone. She was also surprised by the excellent cut of the design; one which seemed to make her waist seem narrower than was actually the case, although she suspected that effect had more to do with the stays underneath.

  The deep neckline was definitely showed a great deal more of her upper body than she’d normally feel comfortable with, although Nev found it wasn’t quite so bad once she’d slipped on the suit jacket. The Shard pendant and her drekar necklace, which had been remained well-hidden beneath her previous multiple layers of clothing, were both now clearly on display, resting at the centre of her exposed upper chest for all the world to see.

  “That necklace… they’re dragons…” Charli noted almost in a whisper, sounding surprised.

  “Oh, this…?” Nev asked innocently, reaching up and lifting it in one hand as the queen drew closer for a better look. “My grandfather gave me this when I was little. The two dragons represent the figureheads of Viking longships…” she explained, turning it over in her fingers. “He wanted me to always have something close that reminded me of our ancestors…”

  “It’s beautiful…” Charli breathed, almost unable to take her eyes off it. “Dragons have a very special place in our history, as you may have already discovered… particularly two-headed ones…”

  “You mean ‘Nethug’…?” Nev asked immediately, raising a sceptical eyebrow. “Corpse-Eeater… Soul Destroyer…? Yes… Godfrey already told me about him.”

  “Lately, there have been rumours suggest the real
spirit of Nethug may be one of change – of revolution – rather than of outright evil...” Charleroi ventured thoughtfully, recalling what her father had said out on the balcony at Cadle the night before they’d left for Burnii. “Quite a coincidence…”

  “It is… but I can’t see how it could be anything else,” Nev replied evenly, not ready to consider the likelihood that it was anything other than bad luck and the betrayal of a close friend that had brought her to that moment in a different world.

  “And there’s the Shard crystal too…” the queen observed softly, still sounding vaguely in awe, if for very different reasons now. “I saw what you did with it… what you were almost able to do for Father, had they not prevented you…”

  “I…” Nev began, halting momentarily with absolutely no idea what to say to that. “I… still don’t know what this thing actually is or why I was able to use it the way I did. I know Percy can use one of them too: she’s the ‘friend’ that stabbed me in the back… betrayed me…!” She corrected quickly as Charli’s eyes widened in shock. “The first time I touched it, some filthy old priest – Silas, I think his name was – tried to hurt me with it… I think he called it ‘burning’ or something like that. I’m pretty sure he was surprised when I took it from him and used it against him,” she added, almost smiling faintly then as she remembered the terror on his face as she’d taken control of it. “Godfrey had been hit by a crossbow, and Percy showed me how to use it to heal him.”

  “She helped you…? Even after her betrayal…?” Charli asked with a frown, enthralled now as she moved back to the bed and took a seat.

  “I know, right? So weird! She was going on about ‘revenge’ and how she wanted to be the one to get ‘even’ with me, not them…” Nev shook her head slowly, saddened by both the unpleasantness of it all and the reality behind it. “She’s crazy, obviously. Maybe not all her fault – I think they might’ve tortured her after she let me get away – but nuts all the same…” Her voice trailed off and she was lost for a moment in her own dark thoughts, fighting off a sudden and unexpected wave of misery as memories of home, her father and her mother rose to the forefront of her thoughts. “Anyway… I just don’t know what this thing is…” she continued eventually with a growl, pushing through her self-pity and shaking herself loose. “I sure as hell don’t trust it, but all the same it feels important that I keep it with me for the moment… that I’m going to need it in the future – well, more than I have already.”

  “What…” The queen began, almost too scared to ask, “what’s it feel like… what happens…?”

  “Heh… I’m not even sure of that, to be honest,” Nev shrugged, taking a seat next to her and smoothing down the material of her trousers at the same time. “At first, there was only darkness… nothingness… and a voice… a voice speaking directly into my head. It’s hard to explain: if I reach out for it with my mind, I can feel the connection there, always waiting. It does what I ask but it also shows me how, like when I was healing Godfrey and your father. It scares me – more than a little: Percy warned me not to let it take control of me… that it could destroy my mind... you saw what happened when I did let it take over… when the Blackwatch attacked us on that hill.”

  “You said it talked to you?”

  “Oh yeah – it definitely did that. It tried to goad me during the battle – trying to frighten me, maybe… just before everything started exploding and I destroyed the gunboat out in the harbour.”

  “A Shard God spoke to you…?” Charli hissed, apprehensive now in spite of her own scepticism. “Father didn’t believe in them – he never said so, but I could tell all the same… especially after he told me about finding the Night Dragon. I didn’t believe either but to hear you now, saying you’ve talked to one…”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa…!” Nev interrupted immediately, raising a hand as a stop sign. “I talked to something, yes, but whether it’s some kind of god is another thing entirely! You said your father found a ‘night dragon’. I’ve heard someone talk about Night Dragons and this ‘Cleansing’ business once before, and I’ve seen the wall hangings in the chapels back at Cadle, but this is the first time anyone’s mentioned finding one…”

  “Father told me a story not long ago of a time when he was very young – younger than I. He’d been looking out through the palace windows at Cadle and had seen a Night Dragon fall behind the nearby mountains, close enough see a flash of light and hear the roar of its landing. He and Randwick rode out to look for it…”

  “…And they found it, didn’t they…” Nev finished the sentence as a statement rather than a question.

  “They did…!” Charli exclaimed, becoming more excited now. “And you’ll never believe what it actually was…!”

  “Let me guess… a huge rock in the middle of a big crater?” There was a long silence as a suddenly speechless Charleroi could do little other than stare in surprise.

  “How could you ever know that?”

  “Charli; they’re called meteorites and we have them in my world too: nothing more than random chunks of rock – big and small – that speed through space, mostly minding their own business until they get caught by a planet’s gravity and either burn up in the atmosphere or come screaming down out of the sky, and either way leaving a trail of fire behind them.”

  “Your world knows all this?” Charli asked as New simply nodded in reply. “But you already know about The Cleansing, and how the Night Dragons are an integral part…” she continued, alluding to Nev’s earlier comment. “You see how it looks then, if what The Brotherhood tells us are fire-breathing demons that fell out of the sky to destroy us are nothing more than lifeless pieces of stone? If that part isn’t true, what else isn’t? How much of any of it can we believe? I already doubted, and when father told me that story I was certain that none of it was true – that it was all lies…”

  “Well, I reckon most of it is,” Nev agreed, never having had much time for the idea of organised religion herself. “Although there’s definitely something going on with these crystals and the whole ‘voices in my head thing’: I’d really like to think it’s more than just me going crazy!”

  “But that’s the thing isn’t it, Nevaeh? If it is all lies, then why can only a few women see the Keepsakes? Where does the power of these crystals come from, and how are the Brotherhood able to use it? How did you do everything you’ve done with it? And if there are no gods, what are the voices you’re hearing? They never really talk about it, but De Lisle and some of the others higher up must hear things too… it can’t just be people imagining things!”

  “Well, whatever it is,” Nev began, thinking seriously on the matter. “I’m willing to put money on it not being some ‘supreme being’ controlling every aspect of people’s lives. In my world we have a principle called ‘Occam’s Razor’ which contends that in most cases, the simplest explanation is the most likely to be true. Maybe we can’t explain how these crystals work right now, or what those voices are, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an explanation… it just means we don’t know what it is yet.

  “My grandpa used to say there wasn’t really any such thing as ghosts or magic: there were just things that we can’t explain yet. I think the same thing here – I really do. Maybe I can’t explain what the voice in my head is yet, or how I can do what I do with the crystal just using my thoughts…” Nev continued, stopping momentarily, mid-sentence to take a quick breath “…but the one thing I’m sure of is that it isn’t magic, and that whatever it is behind all this – the thing you all call a ‘Shard God’ – is anything but! After the battle with the Blackwatch, it told me it was ‘ageless’… a ‘devourer of worlds’, so maybe it’s some other kind of life form – something from another planet, maybe…” she added, catching the frown of confusion regarding her last comment. “Either way; if it lives it can be killed, and behind all the gloating and the boasting the last time it spoke to me, I got the distinct feeling it was somehow scared of me… scared of us: huma
ns. I know that doesn’t make sense, but I felt it all the same. All I need to do now is work out how to use what I know against this thing and destroy it!”

  “We have no right to ask more of you,” the queen began slowly after taking a moment to think on what Nev had just said. “…I have no right to ask any more of you...” she corrected quickly, taking responsibility as she knew any good monarch should. “Yet I think Huon will need much more of your help before this is done…”

  “The morning after I first landed here,” Nev began, having taken a good moment or two to think about her answer, “I snuck away from Godfrey and Lester, trying to find the ‘portal’ or whatever it was that I came through.” She paused again, taking a breath and fighting off another wave of emotion threatening to take over. “It was gone – obviously – but I did run into a bunch of Blackwatch lowlifes who’d have raped and murdered me on the spot if the boys hadn’t come to my rescue. I couldn’t think of anything other than getting back home as fast as I could and I nearly died because of that. Later that day, Godfrey said he thought that if I was ever to get home again, maybe there were things I needed to do here first. I didn’t understand what he meant then, but I think I’m starting to now. Maybe it’s not things I need to do so much as it’s things that need to be done… by someone who knows how to use a blade and a crystal…

  “This thing that I hear in my head might not be a god, but it’s very very powerful,” she forged on, thinking hard about what she recalled of her first moments in that world, so many days before now, “and I’m certain it’s behind all of this: The Brotherhood, the Keepsakes… all of it…! It called me something on that first day – a ‘prescient’ – and said I couldn’t be controlled.”

  “Perhaps that’s why it’s scared of you…” Charli observed with a cheeky grin.

  “It should be…” Nev growled, meeting her lighter gaze with a stare that was deadly serious. “I don’t know what that word, ‘prescient’ means, but it was scared of me being one… and now I have access to the power of one of these crystals too. I swore to this thing that I was going to kill it, and that’s a promise I intend to keep…!”