“The rebellion is no different than the empire. Both of them search for power.”
The woman smiled. “And you would prefer to remain neutral?”
“I don’t want to be involved.”
“Unless the price was right?”
Fes shrugged. “If the price were right, then perhaps I could be coaxed into getting involved, but I have no interest in helping either the empire or the rebellion.”
“Perhaps then you would help the ancient Deshazl ally.”
Fes met her eyes. How had he thought they were pale gray? They seem to glitter with light here and practically glowed. The sense of power radiated from her, almost enough to wash over him, reminding him of when he had been in the midst of the city with the fire mages flashing power all around him.
How was he able to feel what she was doing if she wasn’t a fire mage?
“What ally?”
“You know the ally,” she said.
“Dragons? The dragons are gone, and there is no way for them to return.”
She smiled. “The dragons are gone, but they will return. They must, or much more will be in danger.”
“You only want the dragons to return so that you can overthrow the empire.”
“Why should I care about the empire?”
“Because you blame them for the dragons dying.”
“The empire isn’t the reason the dragons disappeared.”
Fes frowned. He managed to look around, his neck finally freed enough that he could see that the others who had brought him down into this room with the priest had left them. Why should they leave her alone with him? Then again, he wasn’t a threat to her. He could barely even move, so there wasn’t anything that he could do that would put her in danger. The magic she possessed was strong enough that she overpowered him.
And even if he was free, some of what she was saying intrigued him. What type of magic did she have? What knowledge did she have of the past?
And if she was Deshazl, as he began to suspect, was there anything that he could learn from her?
If he could discover her way of incapacitating someone so that they couldn’t attack, how powerful could he be?
He wouldn’t need to fear any fire mage. He wouldn’t need to worry about confronting Jaken.
He could merely use power to hold someone in place.
“What is the reason that the dragons disappeared?”
“To understand that, you would need to understand the purpose of these places,” the woman said. She watched Fes and, with a strange sweep of power, he was suddenly freed.
He felt it wash over him and he jerked forward, almost reaching for one of his swords before catching himself. There would be no point in unsheathing his sword. He didn’t need to attack this woman. Even if he tried, there wouldn’t be anything that he could do against her.
“Come with me,” she said.
She stood and started toward the far end of the room. He glanced back at the stair, but that closed door likely would be guarded. If he attempted to make a run for it, he would have to fight his way free, and he doubted that he would be able to do so, even if he wanted to. Curiosity got the best of him, and he headed after her, passing into a hallway.
“All of these are connected,” he said.
“They are interconnected. They don’t match the buildings overhead anymore, but they once did.”
“Why don’t they match the buildings overhead?”
“Because a real village was built overhead. It’s not the same as the bunker you must’ve visited. Many of those have access tied to individual buildings overhead. These have the interconnectedness, and there is a way to access the buildings, but not quite as easily as once would have been the case.”
“Where are you bringing me?”
“Come,” she said.
Fes followed her down a long hallway. There wasn’t much light, nothing more than a single lantern that provided lighting, and he saw a doorway at the end of the hall. She paused in front of the door and waved her hand in front of it. He was aware of something happening, but not what. When she was done, she pulled the door open and stepped inside.
The other side of the door was completely dark and whatever was inside there did not feel welcoming. A strange sense of emptiness pulsed out from inside the room. Fes hesitated as he entered, looking around at the darkness. It took his eyes a moment to adjust, and as they did, he saw that he was in a storeroom.
It reminded him of the storeroom they had broken into in the fire mage temple. Much like that room, rows of shelves lined the walls, and there were bins stacked on those shelves. He couldn’t tell what was in the containers, but there was the sense of pressure in here that suggested to him that the room held dragon relics.
“You asked about the purpose of this place?”
“It’s a storehouse?”
“It’s much more than that. It was a place of safety and a place where more than dragon relics could be stored. When these places were created, they were more than relics. They were considered sacred.”
Fes laughed. “I imagine some people would still call them sacred.”
“They are sacred, but not because of any sense of power, not the way you would believe.”
Fes looked around the room. On one shelf was an enormous length of bone. It looked to be a leg bone, but it was gigantic, easily the largest dragon relic he had ever seen up close. It was more significant even than the one the two fire mages had held onto as they attacked.
And here he had believed that they needed to break into the fire mage temple to find relics.
If Jayell had known about this, she wouldn’t have wanted to break into the temple. The fact that she had been willing to break into the temple suggested that she didn’t know.
Then why was this woman showing Fes?
Unless… This was a different priest than the one he had been coming to find.
He turned to another shelf, and on this was a pair of bones, though they were oddly shaped. One end was rounded while the other forked. Even in the faint light available in the room, Fes could see the striations worked along the bone. There were traces of color, though not enough for him to easily see.
He continued to make his way along the shelves, searching the items stored there. “Are you attempting to collect dragon relics to keep them from the empire?”
“Keep them from the empire? No. You don’t understand the purpose, if that’s what you think we’re doing here.”
“Then what?”
“This place has long stored items like this and many others. There are other items of significance here, and many of them would be considered incredibly valuable to the empire.”
“So you are keeping them from the empire.”
“Not in the way that you would think. The empire would use the power stored in the relics, whereas we recognize that power cannot be used, not yet. We understand that doing so sacrifices too much, much that we aren’t willing to sacrifice.”
Fes stopped and turned to face the priest. “None of this explains what you think it does.”
“You believe that the empire attacked the dragons, and while that is partially true, that’s not the entirety of the story. The empire—at least, those who were part of the earliest stages of the empire—did attack dragons, though they attacked only those dragons that were dangerous to them. Dragons that had changed, that had abandoned their vows to protect.”
Fes started to smile. “Now you’re going to tell me that they abandoned the Deshazl.”
“Some of them. The Deshazl had long been connected to the dragons in ways others were not. During that time, there were some who believed the Deshazl could control the dragons while others believed that the Deshazl served the dragons like slaves.”
Fes struggled to imagine dragons, but serving them? That seemed even more impossible to believe. Who in their right mind would serve dragons?
“So which is it?”
“As far as we know, the reality is somewhere in between.”
>
“As far as you know?”
“There are no dragons remaining, and the records of that time are difficult to reach. It was a time of war, and little effort went into documenting. What we think we know is that the dragons and the Deshazl were allies. The dragons lent some of their strength to the Deshazl, and through that, the Deshazl helped defend them, but it wasn’t servitude.”
“What was it?”
“A partnership. One that the world has not seen for centuries.”
Fes considered the relics, trying to make sense of what she was showing him. “From what I’ve understood of the Deshazl, they became the scavengers for the empire.”
“They did. The Deshazl were best equipped to search for and find dragon relics. At that time, few understood the power stored in the bones, and while some did, they didn’t have the same ability to access that power and couldn’t draw it out, not the way that the fire mages of today are able to. Time has given them knowledge and wisdom.”
“That doesn’t explain the empire attacking dragons. If the Deshazl served the dragons as you say—”
“They didn’t serve the dragons.”
“Fine. If the Deshazl worked with the dragons, allied with them, then why would they have been willing to work with the empire?”
“Because of the other threat.”
Fes tore his gaze off the shelf that he’d been looking at. Something within it seemed to call to him, practically drawing him. It was an odd reaction, especially as few of the dragon relics ever seemed to call to him. Whatever was in there had to have some power. “What other threat?”
“You really know nothing outside of the empire, do you?”
“I’ve lived in the capital much of my life.”
“Have you never questioned why the empire continues to collect dragon relics? Have you never questioned why there was a belief that they need to store so much power?”
“I’ve never cared,” said.
“As a descendant of the Deshazl, it’s time that you care.”
“I’m not sure that it matters,” Fes said.
“It matters.”
“How? The fire mages have an enormous collection of artifacts of power. I’ve seen it. Some of the artifacts are large, rivaling the one that you have here.”
“Yes. I imagine they have many items that would rival what we have here. It’s what they do not have that’s the key.”
“The key to what?”
“The key to everything.”
Fes made his way to the bin that seemed to call to him and pulled it out from the shelf. An enormous dragon pearl rested inside. It filled the entirety of the bin, nearly as large as the dragon heart that he had found on the dragon plains. Multiple colors streaked through it, red and orange and purple and green and blue, all of them rippling as he twisted his head, looking from side to side. He was compelled to rest his hand on it, touching the surface of the pearl, and he found striations—deep striations—that he didn’t find on many relics. He traced his fingers along the striations, feeling something like a pattern to them. Had the Deshazl of old understood that pattern? Was that why they were considered the dragon walkers? Maybe there was another reason for it, and that they really did have some connection to the dragons, but what was it?
“You said that the dragons lent the Deshazl some of their power?” The woman nodded. Why was that important to him? “What was that power?”
“That is the power that came from the dragons themselves.”
“From the dragons and not from the relics?”
“The Deshazl has a direct connection to the dragons. They don’t rely on relics to reach that power.”
Light began to glow, surging in the dragon pearl. He felt nothing from the woman, so if she was using fire mage magic, it was nothing like what he felt from mages. It wasn’t the kind of power or spell that he thought he could cut through with the dragonglass.
“You are Deshazl,” he said. “That’s why I couldn’t get away.”
“You couldn’t get away because you refuse to acknowledge that part of yourself.”
Fes frowned. “Refuse? I’ve been using that part of myself. That’s why I’m still alive.” It was the anger that seethed within him, roiling within him, that allowed him to survive when he would have—and possibly should have—died.
“Not that part. There is anger within you, and there can be power with anger. The dragons knew power when they were angry, but they were strong without it. Dragons were well known to be incredibly wise, not only powerful.”
He was still troubled by what she’d said. It wasn’t so much that the Deshazl had a connection to the dragons, it was that she implied that they drew power from the dragons.
“If the Deshazl had power that was tied to the dragons, how is it that you have the power that you do? The dragons are gone.”
“Are they?”
Fes grunted. “Dragons haven’t been seen in over a thousand years. They were hunted and killed.”
“The dragons of that time have all passed,” the woman said.
“You still don’t make any sense.”
“Because you aren’t paying attention.” The dragon pearl began to glow, filling with power. “Those dragons might be gone, but the dragons themselves have never left. They are wise, and they recognized that the time they were in posed too many dangers. It was why they willingly went to the dragon field. It was why they allowed themselves to move on. To pass.”
“They weren’t hunted by the empire?”
“I’ve already told you that some of the dragons were hunted.”
“Some.”
“Some of the dragons were exposed to a danger, one that the empire has managed to hold at bay for the last thousand years. That danger is the reason for the empire. That danger is the reason the empire continues to draw upon power from dragon relics, using the fire mages to keep it at bay. It is a darkness that attempts to overpower all things.”
“What kind of darkness?”
“There’s a reason the dragons stayed in the north as they did. They feared traveling too far south. There is a place across the sea, far away, where there are other peoples of power, people who don’t rely on connections to the dragon relics or to their dragon blood, to give them strength. They can command… And control.”
Fes blinked. “Control?”
The priest nodded.
He turned his attention down to the dragon pearl, staring at it. If dragons were controlled, he could understand why the empire would have attacked them, and it might even explain why the empire had felt the need to have power such as was found in the dragon bones, but how could there be such a people when there had been no sign of them?
He asked that question to the priest.
“No sign? There are signs everywhere if you are only willing to look.”
“Such as?”
“There is danger in the dragons, but there is great power, as well.”
Fes’s breath caught. “The rebellion?”
“Rebellion? It is both more and less than a rebellion. Some within the rebellion seek to bring back the dragons, but not because they would worship them, but because they would control them. That cannot be allowed to happen.”
The dragon pearl glowed again, and he stared at it, resting his hand on the surface of the pearl, feeling the striations. Heat ballooned within the pearl, and it was a comforting warmth, one that seemed to wash over him, almost as if it knew him. Something deep within himself responded to that warmth, echoing that sense.
Why should he feel that way?
“Is that why you’re here?”
“We are here to protect these items. We are here to ensure that if the dragons do return, they won’t be controlled, not by the threat that had once sought to overpower them. And we are here to protect their future so that we might protect ours.”
Chapter Seven
Little light made it into the room, barely more than a sliver of the moonlight glowing beyond the window. The only other li
ght came from a fire crackling softly in the hearth, the coals glowing softly. Fes sat hunched toward the fire, pushing back the chill from the night, and stared at the mug he clutched in his hand.
The old priest sat at a table, her back to him, the sound of her pen scratching across the page the only sound other than the steady crackling of flames. Two others stood by the door, guards more than anything else, and they watched Fes, almost as if they expected him to make some stupid mistake. He had no intention of attacking the priest, and even if he did, there wasn’t anything that he could do. She was too well guarded, and he had no interest in harming her anyway.
The second sword—the one he’d been forced to carry—rested against the chair. The other remained strapped to his back, making him uncomfortable and trying to find a way to shift so that he could fit in the seat better. The daggers were on either side of him, pressing in, leaving him thinking about his parents and the family he had never really known.
The priest turned toward him. Her eyes caught the light from the fire, wrinkling as she watched him. “You’ve been quiet.”
“What’s there for me to say?” Fes asked.
“I imagine that you have questions.”
“More than questions,” he said. If what she said was right, then members of the rebellion served something dangerous, something darker than what he had known. Fes didn’t know whether to believe her, but he had no reason not to.
“You wonder about your place,” she said.
Fes grunted, turning his attention back to the mug he held. He took a swig, letting the warm ale wash over his lips and mouth before swallowing it. It wasn’t pleasant, not like what he would find in the capital, but it was better than what he’d been offered for quite some time. The months that he had remained on the road, traveling with Jayell, had taken away some of the niceties that he had grown accustomed to while living in the city.
“I’m just not sure what to believe,” he said.
“You question. That is good.”
“Is it?”
“Every man must make his own mind.”
Fes took another drink. It was part of his problem. It wasn’t that he couldn’t make up his mind. He had never been indecisive. But it was more about the fact that if what she had told him was right, he had already placed himself into danger with the empire, going against Jaken and the Dragon Guard while essentially siding with the rebellion.
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