Worlds of the Never: A book with Dragons, Faeries and Elves, mixed with Science Fiction and Time Travel, for Young Adults and Teens. (Tales of the Neverwar 2)

by CJ Rutherford

  Katheryne gasped as Chran’s ghost began to dissipate, but it didn’t flow outward, into the Never. No, Chran was melding with the dragon, his form joining the essence of the baby reptile to become a new being.

  At that moment, the memory surfaced in Katheryne’s mind, and her head reeled in shock. Derren saw her and held her up as she became faint.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Perri ran over and grabbed her friend’s hand, but Katheryne regained her balance and stood up straight.

  “I’m fine, guys, just a bit overwhelmed.” She chuckled as the expressions on their faces conveyed their confusion. “I think Olumé has been up to his tricks again, and this one’s a doozy, believe me.”

  She gently disengaged from Derren and went to kneel before the dragon. “Hello Chran. I’m so glad you’re ok.” She laughed out loud now. Three jaws opened wide in identical expressions of disbelief.

  “Yeah, Chran’s a dragon. In fact, so are you two,” she said, indicating Derren and Krista. “Don’t you see? That’s where the dragon souls went. The Liberi. You’re all dragons.”

  Everyone’s jaw dropped open. The golden form uttered a sound that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

  Derren was the first to recover his wits.He shook his head to break himself out of the impossible situation. “What? You know in a day of impossible things, this really takes the cookie.”

  Perri guffawed, “Takes the biscuit, Derren, but yeah. You’ve got that right.” She looked over at Krista, who stood open-mouthed and silent for a second, before looking back.

  “I’m a dragon.” She couldn’t get anything else out, so Perri took her in her arms and kissed her gently.

  “It’s ok, honey. It’s what’s inside that counts.”

  Krista looked aghast briefly, before realizing Perri was having a joke at her expense. “Oh, you are so going to pay for that, Perri.” She leaned in and returned the kiss.

  “Mmmm, I hoped you’d say that.”

  A laugh interrupted their musing, but it wasn’t the laugh itself which stopped them in their tracks. It was how it had been delivered. Each of them heard it in their heads, and it was familiar to them all. It was Chran.

  ‘Please, don’t stop on my account,’ Chran said with another mental laugh, ‘I apologize for having to rely on telepathy to communicate, I’m afraid I haven’t quite mastered the vocal cords of this body yet.’

  The golden dragon raised itself onto its hind legs and inspected its outstretched wings. It...Chran, was over seven feet tall and glowed from head to foot as his scales reflected the sunlight entering through the windows.

  ‘I have to admit, I love this body, even if it will take a while to get used to.’

  Derren came to stand next to Katheryne, a smirk on his lips. “It’s quite a magnificent one, I’ll grant you that. But did you have to go to quite such lengths to attain it? What did I tell you about keeping safe?”

  The laugh sounded again in all their heads, but this time, it was accompanied by a throaty laugh coming from the dragon itself. ‘I’m sorry for the trouble, Derren. But admit it; you’re a little jealous, aren’t you?’

  “Well I’m certainly glad he’s not a dragon, Chran. No offence, but I’ve sort of gotten used to the way he looks now.” Katheryne smiled at Derren and put her arms around him. “I don’t think I’d be able to reach up to kiss him otherwise.”

  ‘Ha! Perhaps not. But for now, we have some work to do. I take it Katheryne has informed you of Koron’s treachery?”

  Derren nodded. “Yes, but don’t you need some time to get used to your new form? We’re going into battle, my friend. Don’t take this the wrong way, but we can’t afford to watch your back, and you’ve already died once today. Twice would be just bad form.” Derren’s lips smiled crookedly. His eyes were wet with renewed joy at his friend’s survival.

  Katheryne drew her perception outside her body and examined the large form for a second before returning. “I don’t think we need to worry about Chran’s safety, Derren. It seems the speech and other ‘human’ abilities are the only thing Chran hasn’t integrated with. All the native dragon powers, including their magic, are his to command.”

  “Magic?” It was Perri in her usual curious manner. “I thought magic was banished behind this Veil thing.”

  Katheryne looked at Chran and cocked her head to the side. “A dragon’s magic is different. I remember Olumé hinting something about that. That must be how he managed to keep the souls here, in this universe. But a normal humanoid wouldn’t be strong enough to handle the essence, so he created the Liberi.”

  Krista raised her hand in a gesture which stopped Katheryne’s explanation. “Hold it, you’re saying Olumé not only prevented the dragon’s souls from returning home, but he then seeded them throughout the Never?”

  “The clever bugger,” said Derren. Katheryne looked at him with narrowed eyes. He’d been picking up way to much dialect from watching TV, but he smiled and continued on. “So, when one of us is born, the soul of a dragon bonds with the embryo.”

  “But it must stay latent until we ‘die.’” Krista stood with a look of wonderment on her face. “He really was a clever bugger, wasn’t he?”

  Katheryne groaned. “OK, enough of the English anecdotes. Yes, Olumé was clever. He always spoke of his ‘plans’ when we spoke. Obviously this is another one. I’m starting to wonder whether he had any mundane plans; so far all of them have been pretty epic in scope.”

  ‘You are all correct, but there is more.’ All of them turned their attention to Chran. ‘Olumé did indeed seed the Never with our souls, but he was only able to attract five hundred of the souls to volunteer to remain, and not pass into the Never and be reborn.’

  “Five hundred, so that’s why there are only ever five hundred Liberi at any one time,” said Derren.

  Chran nodded, ‘Correct, my friend. But you missed my point. We volunteered to stay; all of the dragons who had been gold chose to stay, along with a dozen silver. The rest of the five hundred were made up of the more powerful greens and browns. The others had been traumatized by thousands of years of twisted conquest. There was no dishonor in their decision to pass over.’

  “Chran, are you saying you remember everything?” asked Katheryne, her eyes wide, “right back to the fall of the Veil? That’s amazing.”

  Chran expression darkened. ‘A dragon has a race memory encoded in its soul. I remember through Glyran, my father, to before the Veil fell, back to when the world of Teralia was a place of innocence and light. And I remember the moment Tenybris bound all the dragons to his will and twisted them beyond recognition. Thankfully, I have no memory of the conquest that came afterward. Olumé transported my egg to the Never shortly after the dragon host departed. It’s been there ever since, waiting for this moment.’

  Krista stepped forward. “I’m curious, Chran. Why now, and why you?” Her trademark directness brought a sharp look from Perri. “Sorry, Chran. I’m trying to work on my people skills. It’s a…work in progress, shall we say.”

  The throaty laugh filled the chapel along with the mirth flowing into their minds. ‘Indeed it is, Krista. But the questions are valid ones. The timing will come as no surprise.’ Chran looked down at Katheryne. ‘You have become an anchor among the realties, Katheryne. The egg was drawn to you because Olumé imprinted your signature within the embryonic mind of the dragon inside. Once you came to conscious power, it began its journey here. As for why me? I have no idea, though something tells me the truth will come out eventually. Olumé does not seem to leave anything to chance, and the fact that I felt the egg calling me, and providing the strength to stay, would seem to bear that up.”

  There was silence for a minute while everyone took in what had just been said. That Olumé had foreseen circumstances this diverse over the span of thousands of years was incredible.

  Katheryne glanced across at Perri, seeing a dawning recognition on her face. “What is it, Perri? You look like you’ve seen something none of th
e rest of us has.”

  Perri had a knack for doing this. She tended to stay on the outside of conversations and just listen, picking up on parts that lay half-said, and putting them all together at the end.

  “Ok, well don’t shoot me, but Chran’s death just seems a bit too…convenient to me.”

  Chran’s voice was tinged with amusement, ‘I challenge your definition of convenient, Perri. For me, it was the opposite.’

  Perri shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Chran. But all of us know Olumé has made sacrifices before. Why not this time?”

  Katheryne looked at her friend, her brows furrowed. “Are you saying that Olumé had Chran killed? I can’t believe that.”

  “Kat, the guy sacrificed your little sister; offered her up to Tenybris on a platter. What makes you think he wouldn’t resort to this, especially if he knew Chran wouldn’t truly die?”

  The facts struck them dumb. It all made a sort of twisted sense, but one thing bothered Katheryne.

  “How would he even do it? I mean you were shot, weren’t you Chran?”

  Chran’s dragon features looked thoughtful for a second. ‘I may have an explanation which corroborates Perri’s outlandish suggestion.’

  Everyone looked at each other before Derren nodded for Chran to continue.

  ‘As you know, I lingered awhile on Dranis IV before coming here. I witnessed an exchange between Koron and the shooter. He seemed to be quite upset I’d been killed when I had…I know how he feels. I too was a little…perturbed.’

  The others could sense the anger bubbling, just beneath his outer calm, as he continued:

  ‘The shooter didn’t seem to remember pulling the trigger, but he couldn’t deny he’d made the shot. He’d had me in his sights the whole time. I’m wondering if he might have been…persuaded to unwillingly twitch a little. Just enough to press the firing stud.’

  “We’re not seriously considering Olumé, the guy who is trying to save the universe, actually murdered Chran in cold blood?” Katheryne looked at the faces of her friends, seeing doubt on them all. “Are we? Jeesh, I guess we are.”

  “And don’t forget, Olumé would have known Chran had a dragon egg waiting for his soul,” said Perri, grinning smugly.

  Katheryne smiled back, “Perri, when did you become so…deep? You know, you were so much easier to figure out before all this happened.”

  Perri stuck her tongue out as Krista put her arm around her, pouting slightly. “Are you dissing my girl, Katheryne?”

  “Oh God, not you too. That’s it, no more TV for you two.” Katheryne’s comment broke any tension which had built up and everyone laughed.

  A buzzing noise interrupted the merriment, and all of them turned, as one of the emergency anchor devices activated, forming a portal beside the altar. A second later, a slightly bedraggled Toshi ran through the shimmering silver disk, panting heavily. If he was surprised to see a greeting party, he didn’t show it.

  “We have a problem….What the?” His eyes expanded as he took in the seven foot of glowing golden dragon standing before him. The group laughed at his surprise, but he quickly regained his equilibrium. “Chran? Is that you?”

  All Liberi possessed the ability to link to another. They could ‘taste’ the mind of the other. In this way, Toshi was able to tell the soul, which inhabited this creature in front of him, belonged to his friend.

  ‘Yes, Toshi. It’s me. It’s a long story which we can discuss later. You appear to have pressing news.’

  Toshi stood up and dusted himself off. “I’ve just come from Planet Canun III.” When the name didn’t seem to register, he continued. “I know you left me off on Planet Trelyn with the children, Katheryne, but once I’d got them settled in with my friends there, a ship arrived from Canun. Apparently a Zhibalban courier vessel brought news of an assault on their home planet several weeks ago. An attack by Sanctuary!”

  There was a collective intake of breath at this news.

  Derren recovered first. “Zhibalba? Why would Sanctuary want to attack there? What was the damage?”

  Toshi looked them all in the eye, one after the other. “Total. The planet is a volcanic morass. Its crust was ruptured by orbital bombardment by their own space craft, after the Liberi killed the crew and took over.”

  A sound of anguish escaped Chran’s lips. ‘Is there no end to these people’s evil? A whole planet destroyed.’ Chran’s monstrous head bowed in sadness. ‘But in answer to your question, Derren, I believe their goal was the fleet of ships the Zhibalban space forces had amassed. I believe the action on Dranis IV may have had the same goal. For some reason, the Leadership needs ships.”

  “Why would they need ships? You can go anywhere from Sanctuary. There are thousands of portals linking all the realities.” Derren paced as he thought, but he was at a loss to explain their actions.

  “What if they didn’t?” asked Perri.

  All of them looked at her. She’d done it again, put all the disjointed pieces of the jigsaw together to form a bigger picture.

  “You mean what if they didn’t have portals?” Krista looked at her brother. “Is that even possible? Can they collapse all the portals?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied, “but why would they? Why would they want to shut themselves…off…?” The revelation hit them all at the same time.

  “They want to stop me getting there,” said Katheryne. “They know the prophecy, and if I can’t get there, I can’t fulfill it, can I? They’re setting up a blockade.”

  Derren shook his head. “But that won’t work. They have to know your power surpasses our abilities to create portals. They know our limits. We Liberi need to use Sanctuary as our way station to travel to other worlds. They must know you aren’t limited that way. You can create portals on any planet you choose.”

  “Derren, that’s not actually true. You know I can only port to places I’ve either physically been to, or seen through another’s eyes...” Katheryne’s face drained of color. “Oh shit, they’re destroying everywhere we’ve ever been. That’s why Dalryas was destroyed; because I was there, because I used it to get to Sanctuary!”

  Derren shared a look with Perri, but Katheryne saw them. “I’m not about to wallow again, guys. This isn’t my fault. I know that. The responsibility for this rests firmly with the Leadership. We need to take them down.”

  Derren breathed deeply before exhaling loudly. “Kat, we are nowhere close to being ready for that battle. They’ve used the last few weeks to purge the ranks of the Liberi of anyone who might rebel against them.”

  “And they’ve replaced them with untrained kids, Derren. They’re no match for us,” said Katheryne.

  “Do you want to kill children then, Katheryne?” asked Krista. She said it calmly, with no recrimination, “because even if we go in with the intention to avoid loss of life, the sheer numbers of them will force our hand. We will have to kill them, Kat. Do you want their blood on your hands?”

  Katheryne visibly wilted. Derren took her in his arms. “I know you’re angry, but good intentions aren’t enough, love. We’re just not ready. We do, however, have another way to sting them.”

  Katheryne leaned into his chest. Perri joined the embrace, and leeched the guilt her friend felt over her emotional outburst.

  ‘We must strike soon. Koron will attempt to persuade the government to deactivate the scramblers. He will argue they must surrender their fleet to Sanctuary. He will argue if they could reach out and strike an enemy Liberi down, what would stop them from murdering them all one by one?’

  “Quite a valid point, Chran,” said Toshi, “Fortunately, we have you. They will never expect a dragon to appear in the skies above them. I take it you can fly?”

  Chran raised himself to full stretch, almost eight feet, and extended his amber tinged wings. A dragon used magic and fire to fly. With this sight before them, none of them doubted his ability.

  ‘I might have trouble with the line from that, umm, movie? Is that it, Derren?�
� Derren laughed and nodded, ‘Well my favorite line in the Star Trek movie was, “Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war.” I may just have to loose fire, and be damned the havoc. I suspect havoc might follow the fire anyway.’

  Laughter burst out among all of them, except Katheryne. That TV was toast.

  Toshi cleared his throat to get their attention. “There is also the Zhibalban incident. The leadership appears to be attempting to cover up the news. When I arrived on Canun, I heard of the destruction of the courier ship. I was attacked shortly afterward, which is why I activated the emergency device. I thought it prudent to bring news back here first.”

  Derren smiled at his friend. “I’m sure you have a plan in mind already, don’t you?”

  Toshi returned the grin, and shrugged his shoulders. “Well, now you mention it, I do. I’d originally planned on investigating the situation on Zhibalba, hiring a ship to look for any survivors, but the situation on Dranis IV takes priority. We may even be able to stop another Zhibalba from happening.”

  “I agree,” said Krista. “Katheryne, you’ve already been there, so you don’t need us to open a portal, but you’ll need to move it away from the capital. We need to arrive unseen and scout the ground first.”

  “Do you want to go in first?” asked Katheryne.

  Krista shook her head. She looked over at her brother who responded for her. “I think we all need to be there, and ready to go. There can’t be many of them, but we need to be quick and decisive in our takedown.” He smiled and looked at Chran, “And now we have the perfect way to create a diversion.”

  “Ok, everyone,” said Krista, “We have some prep to do. Let’s get to it.”

  Chapter Twenty Two

  The Prison

  The beast finished recounting its progress. Normally, its choice of puppet might have angered him. Tenybris preferred to select an innocent soul and corrupt it, but his patience was wearing thing. Millennia had passed since he had hidden here. Thousands of years of loneliness and madness.