by Marc Secchia
Hualiama, thou art … what? What was she, this girl? Power. Flame. White-fires. The Enchantress of a Dragon’s soul. Wielder of ruzal. A girl who possessed a fate beyond his comprehension or Yukari’s power of Seeing. How could he trust her, when all was veiled? How could he not? He could not tear away. That was the path of dark-fires, of oath-breaking insanity. He had no choice. He must fly the maelstrom.
Grandion shook his muzzle slightly.
Then, he froze.
Aye, I’m awake, Yukari growled. And you–
Don’t say it, said Grandion.
I will say this, shell-son of Sapphurion. I never thought you a wingless, witless fool, until just now.
The Tourmaline Dragon willed his fires to still, although heat erupted in his belly, and the sphincter valves controlling the egress of his Storm and Ice powers clenched painfully.
The Aquamarine Dragoness said, I see that the Dragons of Fra’anior have developed the power of projection to a greater degree than even Dramagon thought possible. How is it used–to spy on Human slaves by assuming Human form? Seamlessly?
Aye.
The great secret of Gi’ishior, she snorted, richly scornful. You fear the Humans so greatly, you swear death-oaths upon your mother’s egg never to reveal this Dragon power–whereupon you slither and skive like worms among the Human masses, debasing the Dragonkind into common thieves.
Grandion kept his silence only with the utmost difficulty. How dare she? He could point to wars averted, intelligence that saved Dragon eggs from thieves, the delicate balance of politics, economics and social order … yet he sensed it was not these concerns which had roused her wrath. Projection was an art. It could only be sustained by powerful Dragons for a matter of hours at a time–was it Hualiama’s fear she referred to, that Ra’aba was a projection of Razzior’s? Was her father a Dragon’s magic enwrapped in Human form to such an unimaginable degree that procreation had become possible?
No, said Yukari, reading his thoughts. Life transcends the mimicry of magic. Life-bearing Human seed is a mystery, just as the commingling of father-fire and mother-fire produces an eternal mystery, a new triplet of living soul-fires. She suspects this much? You’ll plunge into the Cloudlands, young Grandion.
What harm do you fear? he scoffed, goaded at last into a heated response.
Harm? Beside him, the huge bulk of Yukari’s body writhed in an expression of her fury.
Aye! Grandion spat. Is it not possible one creature can roost-love another? You gave up on your Human and live here, alone, growing old and embittered–
INSOLENT HATCHLING!
Both Dragons caught their breath as Hualiama stirred. However, she only wriggled against Grandion’s paw before sighing and slumbering on. Humans. They’d sleep through an earthquake.
Yukari whispered, But there’s something fey in her nature, o Tourmaline, is there not? Destiny burbles in delight when she laughs. The miraculous seems but a claw’s touch away, and the numinous, to flutter upon the breath of her lungs. Listen well, o Grandion, and set aside these concerns about your physical beings. Still your doubts. You are one intelligent creature, she is another.
Two souls, Grandion agreed, doubtfully. I know this. Of course I’ve been a fool–
A fool who makes fate-defying oaths? To honour a life-debt? Suddenly, the great Dragoness seemed to soften, and her maternal bulk pressed against his flank as Qualiana’s bulk had once overshadowed her hatchling. Grandion, you’re stronger than you think, but you are misguided. You err if you think I disparage your feelings for this Hualiama. Roost-love? Why not? Soul-bonded love? Youngling, that fire-promise is already spoken.
Grandion gasped, No!
You showed me your memories. You did not speak the ancient formulae, but the mien of your hearts is clear. Even against her desires, a Seer must See truly. She laughed, at once softly deprecating and a trill of Dragonsong. You’re a pair of beautiful, wilful, courageous spirits. Who knows what will be?
I’m … confused, he admitted. You called me a wingless, witless fool. I know I am reckless, but these feelings are just so … I burn, o mighty Yukari. How I burn!
What you don’t understand is the way of true-to-your-wings-love, she replied, using the Dragonish in a way Grandion had never before heard, but nevertheless made sense to him. A Dragon must be true to his wings. He must be authentic. He must be …
Oh, Yukari! You mean–I cause her to love a phantasm?
The Dragoness’ fiery breath washed over his neck. Aye, now your fires burn unadulterated. Grandion, love can take many forms, but above all, it must be real. You can construct your phantasms of magic–beautiful blue eyes, black hair, so masculine in a Human way. You can be all you imagine she might desire. Yukari’s wings shivered. To speak this truth is hard. I do not understand every facet of your regard for Hualiama, Grandion. What should a Dragon desire in the soft hide and fireless eyes of a flightless creature? Humans are blood and bone. Dragons are fire and magic. Never the twain should–
He broke in, Then you admit she’s Human?
Yukari’s belly-fires chuckled deep in the furnaces of her belly. The impetuosity of youth! Grandion, allow me this counsel. Never toy with a female’s feelings. If she learns what you’ve done, she will despise you. Love must be real. You must summon the sacrosanct fires of your courage–which sing clearly to my seventh sense, of that I harbour not a single cold, dark doubt–let justice shape your breath, and truth be the work of your mighty forepaw. Then, she will honour your soul.
A truth as concrete as the First Egg of all Dragons, the Tourmaline reflected.
Yukari said, Then, and only then, will your souls fly together.
You … wish this, for us?
With all the fullness of my hearts, the Dragoness agreed. If it is mine to give, Grandion, then Yukari the Aquamarine Dragoness would bestow the incandescent blessings of Dragonkind’s eternal fires upon the entwined songs of your souls. Be blessed, shell-son of my spirit. Be blessed, o daughter of fire.
* * * *
From within the curve of blind Grandion’s paw, Hualiama gazed at the Yellow moon, just crowning the horizon.
A tear trickled down her cheek.
Chapter 23: New Magic
Aquamarine and Tourmaline, the two Dragons rose above the easternmost Island of the peninsula that had been Yukari’s home for forty summers, and winged northwest. Dawn fired the eastern sky. The clouds just above the rising twin suns glowed like embers. Golden fingers of life-giving warmth reached across the Cloudlands, between the low cloud-cover above and the dark, sediment-hued clouds below, to gleam cleanly off the Dragon scales flexing and rippling with every contraction and release of the mighty flight muscles, until Hualiama thought she might laugh from sheer joy but found herself ambushed instead by a wild sob.
“Lia?” Grandion turned his head, listening. “What was that?”
“I’m happy,” she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
“Happy? You’re crying.”
“I didn’t say it made sense, did I?”
“Females,” the Tourmaline snorted, even as Yukari, cleaving the air two hundred feet off Grandion’s left wingtip, vented an amused fireball that expired into smoke against her muzzle.
“Lia, would you be willing to do Yukari a favour?”
Hualiama nodded, knowing her Dragon would sense the tiniest movement. Yukari was sweet. She should never say so to a Dragoness! But the Dragons’ interaction had been so beautiful the previous evening. What had she missed before Yukari’s roar, she wondered? How could the ravaging, animalistic beasts of Human scrolls and legends behave like this? How could the creature who had plundered her mind also claim to burn for her, and send phantasms to haunt her dreams, treacherously adoring?
Suddenly, her muscles seized up. Grandion! It had been his work as she confronted Ra’aba at the Onyx Throne of Fra’anior–he had been the bright-eyed young man who had destroyed all of Ra’aba’s archers around the hall! So much for the draconic rule of non-interference.
But how could he have accomplished such a feat of magic while on the wing to Fra’anior Island? He had arrived with Jinthalior the Green clawing him to pieces, whereupon Hualiama had launched herself across the divide with Ja’al’s aid, and killed Jinthalior. Divided consciousness. Perhaps Grandion had not even felt the Dragon’s attack until he vanished from the hall, and returned to his body.
A secret draconic power–aye, and the spy she had heard about at Gi’ishior, accused of spending too much time among Humans! Kayturia must be a Dragoness. Imagine the possibilities! If King Chalcion ever heard of it, there would be open war, of that she had no doubt.
Grandion said, “I hoped you might be willing to show Yukari how we share minds. She has not seen the Island-World since her first roar.”
Yukari snarled, “You take liberties, youngling! I asked no such boon.”
“Yet I am willing,” Hualiama called over to the Dragoness. Was she? A frisson of doubt crawled up her spine like an icy centipede and lodged at the base of her skull.
“You must teach Lia the art of Juyhallith to counteract this fear of mental domination,” Yukari said. Lia stared at the massive Blue Dragoness. She was far too adept at reading thoughts. How much else had she revealed, inadvertently?
“Teach Lia to protect herself from me?” Grandion laughed hollowly. “We began her training, but not on the defensive–”
“Teach her the skills every hatchling is taught,” growled the Dragoness.
Hualiama frowned. “I don’t understand your underlying tonal implications, Yukari.”
“As you know, youngling, Blue Dragons excel at the higher magical disciplines,” replied the Dragoness. “We’re adept at cognitive functions and mental powers–shielding, foresight, insight, kinetic powers, levitation and even psychic blasts, amongst many others. Telepathic Dragon speech is the most basic of these skills. However, possessing these powers also makes us vulnerable. Therefore from our hatchling days, we learn to discipline the mind. Lia, you do not protect your thoughts well, though you exhibit elements of natural shielding. As you suspect, I can read some of your thoughts. Your thoughts and emotions are exceptionally powerful.”
“A volcano erupting,” Grandion averred.
The Human Princess clucked in annoyance. “Unfeeling lump of flying granite. Fine. I will learn your mental trickery, if you tell me where we’re supposed to find healing for Grandion’s sight.”
“If I may finish my thought,” the Aquamarine Dragoness snapped. Hualiama had to smother a chuckle at the picture of a stern, talon-wagging Dragon-Elder Grandion projected into her mind. Yukari said, “Dragon magic has always been thought to eclipse Human abilities. For many generations, Dragons have rested secure in this knowledge–although, what Grandion did to you, Lia, is strictly forbidden. But my wings tingle. If powers like yours can rise in Fra’anior Cluster, and ruzal is loosed upon the Island-World–that’s a Dragon of a wholly new colour.”
“Razzior has a power like ruzal,” Hualiama put in. “Perhaps it was he who read about ruzal in the library of Dragon lore at Ha’athior.”
“Could it have been Ra’aba?”
It took Lia a few moments to string together the implications of Yukari’s typically obtuse draconic reasoning. Then, she caused Grandion to stall in the air as she shouted, “Razzior’s the innocent victim in this? Ra’aba subjugated a Dragon?”
Grandion gasped, “Lia–”
Inexorably, Yukari rumbled, “Consider what he did to you. Why not just slit your throat? Why throw you off his Dragonship? A short flight to a long drop–what could be more draconic?” Lia was so maddened, words stuck in her craw. She could only scream incoherently as the Dragoness’ voice resounded in her mind, Your descriptions accord him ruzal enough. He has stone skin and inhuman strength. He escaped Sapphurion at Gi’ishior and roams free. Who but a Dragon could do that?
She hissed, Now Ra’aba’s a Dragon?
The Aquamarine heaved a mountainous sigh. No, he’s a Human with Dragon powers stolen from Razzior.
Child of the Dragon, she moaned, rocking back and forth between Grandion’s spine-spikes. How else could he overcome an Enchantress from the Lost Islands? How else could he make–me? The bastard child of Dragon magic? What the volcanic hells am I, Yukari? WHAT?
Her scream thundered out over the Isles. Real power. Real thunder, a whip-crack of her inner despair. Was she the twisted spawn of Ra’aba’s ruzal magic, a corruption of the very kind Dramagon had hatched in his hateful experiments, which had seen him cast out from the Dragonkind and eventually destroyed by his fellow Ancient Dragons?
Softly, hatchling, Yukari gentled.
Windroc sh–Lia roared back, biting off an expletive. Even now, her precious morals intruded. She shook. Mercy, how the fires consumed her, how the intolerable white-fires of magic burned her up, too bright. A shooting star must combust. The fires of a comet must burn, and die. Yukari, it’s too much. Too many layers. Magic. Everywhere I turn. Flicker’s dragonet lives in me. Amaryllion’s white-fires burn–what did he do to me, Yukari? Why did he demand this of me? I can’t keep this inside … and now ruzal … my father hates me, Yukari! He abhors everything I am!
The Dragons did not speak, but she sensed their deep, abiding sympathy.
They rose above the curve of the Island-World, and a darker dawn Lia had never seen. Only the susurrus of air moving over Dragon wings could be heard, and the faraway cry of a hunting copper-headed eagle, melancholic.
A whisper drifted like blown ashes into the silence, I wish I had never been born.
Grandion said, Lia, you’ll spread your wings–
I’m not a bloody Dragon! Islands’ sakes, can we at least agree on that? Breath clawed in her throat. I swear, I’m not going to give him the satisfaction. That man raped my mother. He attacked my family and tried to kill me. He will choke on my power. Razzior too. And if I have to shake this Island-World into prophetic madness with my dying breath, I will see it done!
Both Dragons began to shout to drown her out, but even as the words scorched her tongue, Hualiama knew they could not be unsaid. Magic rippled outward. A shocking oath.
She pressed her forehead against Grandion’s spine-spike, overheated, miserable and alone.
* * * *
Traversing the Eastern Archipelago up to a remote northern peninsula of Eali Island, a large Human-inhabited Island over seventy leagues in breadth and fifty-eight in height, took until the evening of a fourth day at Yukari’s deliberate pace. The Dragoness would not be hurried. They must instruct Lia, she growled. The Tourmaline took no small pleasure in learning at the mighty Dragoness’ paw himself. The Dragon lore she knew! The stories she told!
Constantly, his thoughts turned to his Rider. She clearly brooded over the possibility of finding her blood-mother, but her behaviour showed none of the suicidal dark-fires he feared after her outburst upon leaving Yukari’s lair. Instead, she applied herself to earning a Dragon-sized headache. Even the Aquamarine’s wings had quivered in surprise at the Human girl’s knowledge and insight.
One morning, like Dragon fire from clear skies, Lia had said, “So, Yukari. Seeing as you’re intent upon keeping your silence, I’ve read your mind. You wish us to fly to the Lost Islands and there whistle up a Land Dragon who will provide us a magic potion for Grandion’s healing?”
Yukari’s hoary muzzle turned as if she could indeed see the irrepressible Human girl, or at least, burn the cheek out of her with her fiery gaze. “Exactly. A perfect read.”
“You’re joking.”
“You’re insulting an aged Dragoness, hatchling.”
“You mean it?”
“Shiver my wings, a Dragoness who flies true to her word,” the Aquamarine Dragoness snorted, without great rancour.
What he saw in Hualiama’s mind, Yukari could see, too. How the Dragoness had wept fire-tears when she learned to see through Lia’s eyes! Now, she would see perhaps the largest living Dragon in the Island-World, two hundred and eleven feet from muzzle to
tail, glaring at a tiny Rider seated above her Dragon’s shoulders. She would see blonde hair flying in the breeze, and the easy way Lia rode the motion of Grandion’s every wing-stroke. High cheekbones and curling eyelashes framed eyes of a luminous blue, the eyes of a Fra’aniorian Enchantress. How they had changed. None of them could fathom it, nor did Yukari know any applicable Dragon lore. Grandion clearly remembered her having eyes of Flicker’s smoky green colouration. Now it was as if the storm clouds had drawn aside to reveal deep lakes of power.
His vision bobbed as Hualiama’s head bowed. “Please explain, mighty Dragoness.”
“Grandion’s optic nerves have been damaged by the growth of a rare type of fungus, which I have removed. Dragons can regrow nerve damage, but they require certain key and unusual minerals and nutrients to do so. Magnesium, potassium, zinc and meriatite are essential.”
“Common minerals,” said Grandion.
Lia chuckled, “Won’t meriatite give him the most terrible gas?”
Yukari cut in, “For the remainder, you must fly to the easternmost of the Lost Islands, little one, where it is said that a high-flying Dragon can see the Rim-mountains. There, you will summon the Land Dragon Siiyumiel–I will teach you the words to use. You’ll ask him for a cocktail of heavy metals, which the Land Dragons are able to extract from the base of the world using their unique brand of refining magic.”
“Heavy metals?” asked Grandion.
“Dragon scientists have categorised numerous rare elements found in the Islands,” said Lia. “Some are much heavier than copper or iron, for example. What else do we need, Yukari?”