Song of the Dragon aod-1

by Tracy Hickman

  “Run!” the chimerian screamed. “Run from your lives!”

  The mad creature lunged forward, leaping from the platform, its blades slicing with soft ringing sounds through the evening air. Heedless, the chimerian dashed forward into the herd, sword blades churning. The surprised warriors leaped back, several of them reacting instinctively to face their opponent, but the chimerian continued to dash across the base of the hollow, deftly slipping past one, slicing into the side of another, rolling around a third. The sound of the Impress Warriors rose to a thunderous roar, and still the chimerian continued its pell-mell charge across the field, its eyes fixed on one thing.

  An exit portal. . and Soen’s Quorum alone stood in its path.

  Soen stepped forward, spinning his Matei staff deftly in front of him, then gripping it in both hands. The headpiece suddenly flared with brilliant light, an incandescent blade forming outward from the top of the staff into the shape of a razor-edged scythe. At the bottom of the staff, a globe of crackling blue light was forming at the same time.

  Soen kept his eyes on the mad chimerian, widened his stance and waited.

  The chimerian plunged directly toward the Inquisitor, its mind fixed on reaching the exit portal beyond, its blades whirling so as to obliterate anyone or anything that stood between it and its next passage.

  The young Assesia Wreth took a step forward, brandishing his own Matei. . but Qinsei held up a cautioning hand to restrain him.

  “Run from the dreams!” it babbled as it charged. “They’re coming! They’re right behind! Run!”

  The chimerian lunged at Soen.

  The Inquisitor rolled backward, his Matei spinning in his hands. Soen planted the headpiece in the ground next to him just as the glowing ball at the bottom of the staff discharged.

  The chimerian soared straight up into the air, its body bent double by the force of the Aether discharged into its abdomen. The mad creature screamed horribly, and its arms-still gripping the blades in its hands-twisted angrily in the air. Soen held firm to the staff, his arms shaking with the effort. The glowing blade at the head of the staff was now against the ground, Soen using its force for leverage against the chimerian as the creature continued to writhe, now suspended over the staff in the air.

  Soen looked up, his black elven eyes fixed on the chimerian. “I am Iblisi; I am the Emperor’s Will. . you are commanded to obey!”

  The chimerian fixed his hateful gaze on the Inquisitor and then, screaming, slashed at the air with all four of the blades in his hands. “Death to the Emperor! Death to his dreams!”

  Soen’s eyes widened.

  The chimerian’s back arched impossibly backward, and then its entire body suddenly contracted and thickened. The tall lithe form was replaced by a stocky short one. “I’m awake now!” the creature said with a dangerous edge in its voice. “I won’t sleep ever again. . not for you or any of your bastard brothers!”

  Soen nodded, then yelled, “Death to the Emperor! ”

  Assesia Wreth gasped.

  A shocked silence filled the space around them. Jukung stepped forward, an angry frown on his face but Phang placed a restraining hand against the young elf’s chest.

  “Death to his dreams!” Soen shouted. His eyes were fixed on the chimerian above him.

  The mad warrior suddenly relaxed.

  “What is your name, friend,” Soen asked quietly.

  “My. . name?” came the whimpering reply.

  “I’ve come to end your dreams, friend,” Soen said in even tones. “But I must know your name.”

  The chimerian blinked at him, unsure.

  “What was your name in the dream?”

  The chimerian curled his lips back in loathing. “Chentas-that is what they called me.”

  “And your House, Chentas,” Soen’s voice was calm, his eyes fixed on the chimerian. “What was your House in the dream?”

  Chentas began giggling, blood running down from the corner of his mouth. “I won’t tell you! You’re going to put me back to sleep-send me back to those dreams!”

  “No, Chentas, I can’t do that,” Soen replied. “I’ve come to end your dreams.” The Inquisitor was beginning to sweat with the effort of keeping the chimerian suspended above him in the air. “I promise you. . tell me your House in the dreams, and I will end them for you forever.”

  “Forever?”

  “Forever.”

  Chentas shuddered.

  “TELL ME!” Soen yelled at the chimerian hovering ten feet above him in the air.

  “I dreamed of a slave named Chentas, of the House. . of the House of Acheran,” the chimerian sneered. “Now keep your bargain, Iblisi!”

  Soen frowned and then nodded. The magic holding the chimerian collapsus at the Inquisitor’s command. Chentas fell, but before he reached the ground, Soen whirled with the Matei, the scythe blade flashing through the air. In a single deft stroke, the wheeling Soen drove the long, mystical blade across the neck of the chimerian.

  Chentas’ head rolled a few feet across the ground, coming to rest at the feet of Assesia Wreth.

  Four swords rang against the ground, falling from the limp hands of Chentas’ body just as Soen finished his turn, planted his feet in a wide stance, and swung the blade down from above his head, driving it through the back of the chimerian and out the front of its chest.

  Only then did Soen hear the thunderous shouts of the Impress Warriors around him. The Tribunes were quickly sorting them back into their units and regaining order, as Soen knew they would. He whispered to his Matei, and the glowing blade vanished, leaving only the blood to emerge from the wound.

  “Master Inquisitor,” Qinsei spoke as she approached him. “What does it mean?”

  Soen knelt next to the body, considering it for a time, and then stood up, shifting his gaze to the fold portal at the other end of the marshaling field. We have not even crossed the Ibanian borders, he thought. It is worse than the Keeper believes. . worse than even I could imagine.

  Soen turned back to his First. “It means that the trouble has found us. We will not be camping here or, I suspect, anywhere else tonight. Phang, have Assesia Yarou make a sketch of the Devotional tattoo on the chimerian’s head-he’s got a talent for that sort of thing-then prepare the Quorum for battle.”

  “Battle, Master?” Phang asked in surprise.

  “Yes, battle, Phang,” Soen said, placing his long hands on his hips as he thought. “We’re going to follow the trail back to its source, and if this Chentas is an example of what we have ahead of us, our best course will be following a trail of murderous, insane slaves attacking everyone in sight to their source.”

  Qinsei’s eyes narrowed. “Back to this. . this House Acheran?”

  “Yes, if there is such a House,” Soen said. “Have you ever heard of it?”

  “No, Master.”

  “Phang?”

  “No, Master.”

  “Neither have I,” Soen said, fingering his Matei staff as he thought.

  “It must be a minor House nearby,” Phang said. “Some Fifth Estate fool who lost control of a handful of slaves.”

  “No, Qinsei,” Soen said, looking down at the body of the dead chimerian. “The Keeper tells me this trouble started in Icara-and that more than a dozen Houses are involved.”

  “Icara!” Qinsei’s voice rose in tone. “That’s at the edge of the Western Provinces. . it would take us another day just to get there.”

  “Longer if we have to fight our way through some of the marshaling fields,” Soen agreed, “which we almost certainly will have to do. But it is the Will of the Emperor. . the Will of the Keeper. . and my will that we find this-this House Acheran or whatever House is responsible- and secure its truth for the good of the Empire and the glory of our Order. Gather the Quorum-we leave at once.”

  “Aye, Master Inquisitor,” Qinsei said as she straightened her back with pride.

  Soen watched his Codexia as they moved back to instruct the rest of the Quorum. He reflecte
d for a moment that Jukung would no doubt find some way to report back to Ch’drei and he wondered what the old woman would think of all this.

  He turned and gazed once more toward the fold portal at the far end of the hollow

  House Acheran, he thought, struggling to recall anything in his vast memory about the name. Who in all the gods of the Void knows ANY House Acheran?

  CHAPTER 19

  Loose Ends

  “Is this all of them?” Soen demanded of the manticorian warrior standing next to him.

  The evening breeze was rising behind the elven Inquisitor as he surveyed the scene. He would have enjoyed drinking in the freshness of the air as it flowed around him, still damp from the sea beyond his sight to the south. The sunset was deepening into a rich, vibrant salmon color, marred only by the black smoke still curling up from the ruin on the hilltop, its pall rising to join those of a number of surrounding Houses. He would have preferred to turn his back on the carnage, bask in the rays of the setting sun, and breathe deeply of the fresh evening. Such luxuries, however, would have to wait.

  “Yes, Master,” the manticore rumbled. “Fifteen of the House servants survived. Two warriors of the House Centurai were alive, but they engaged us on our arrival, and we were forced to kill them. . and it appears impossible to account for the full Centurai.”

  Soen turned his head slowly toward the manticore, his gaze itself a question.

  The manticore was an old one, golden streaks running through his shorn mane. He shifted uncomfortably. “The Impress Warriors were still returning from the war. The majority of the warriors of this House appear to still have been in transit through the folds.”

  “We will deal with one disaster at a time,” Soen said in clipped tones. “You were the first to arrive?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “And what is your name?”

  “Gradek, Master. . Centurai Captain of House Megnara.”

  “Megnara?” Soen said with studied casualness. The names of these petty frontier Houses were only now, after four days into this investigation, starting to make sense to him. House Acheran was only one of the many Houses that had fallen on the frontier, and that name had quickly led them to a host of others within what Soen had come to call the Dark Frontier. It was not until Codexia Qinsei brought him a report of a messenger from the House Megnara Centurai that he had even heard of House Timuran. “Oh, yes, House Megnara. That’s about fifty leagues from here, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “So how does a Centurai Captain of a House many days’ journey away end up at the door of this fallen House?”

  The manticore’s eyes narrowed, but he gave no other sign of his anger at his embarrassment. “By accident, Master. We were set upon by the mad warriors when they hit during our return from the war. We fed through whatever folds were convenient and available, trusting that the Myrdin-dai would sort out our transportation home after the mad warriors were killed. After several folds, we arrived here and sent a runner at once back through the fold to report to the Myrdin-dai what we had seen.”

  Soen nodded. “What of Lord Timuran and his family?”

  The manticore gave a quick grunt to show his discomfort before he spoke. “The remains of Lord Timuran were found just inside the main doors. The fire had not reached the body, but there was little left nevertheless. He was only identified by the baton still in his grip, his signet rings, and what little remained of his clothing. We have not yet found his head.”

  “It was expected,” Soen thought. “Anyone else?”

  “We actually found Lady Timuran first,” Gradek continued, the bile in his stomach apparently settling as he spoke. “We saw her above the subatria wall, impaled on one of the House standards. My Octian Leader Jatuh believes she was dead before the fire reached her body. He is the one who brought her down.

  “Go on,” Soen urged.

  “Beyond that, the overseers and the Guardians were undoubtedly all slaughtered.”

  “All of them. . you’re sure?”

  “The moment we arrived, Master,” Gradek said, “I specifically ordered each of my Octian commanders to secure the House and protect any elves they encountered. None were reported.”

  “Still, they will have to be accounted for in any event.” Soen turned back to examine the huddled group sitting on the ground before him, the smoking ruins of their former life behind them. “These slaves are all that’s left, then. Any of them broken?”

  “I do not understand,” the manticore replied, shaking his wide head.

  “No, of course not,” Soen muttered under his breath, then spoke more clearly to the monster beside him. “A broken slave is one who has fallen outside the discipline of House Devotions, Gradek. Their souls no longer yearn for the peace and glory of the Imperial Gods-and as such they are dangerous to both the body and the spirit of the state. I’ll need to examine each of them. You will stay close to me throughout, and I will tell you which are broken and which are not. If I tell you that one of them is broken, you are to kill him or her at once-at once, you understand, without further question or thought.”

  The manticore nodded and then looked up at the sky, searching for stars, perhaps, that could not yet be seen. “Yes, Master. . I believe that four of them. . perhaps five. . are broken.”

  “Very well,” Soen said, drawing in one last, deep breath of the sweet evening air before setting about the grim task before him. “Your Lord Megnara shall garner much favor this night because of your sure action in his name.”

  “Master,” Gradek said, his wide, flat face gazing down at the elven Inquisitor. “We have not slept in nearly two days. It is nearly the hour of House Devotions. Many of my warriors are anxious to return to our Field Altar so that they might. .”

  “NO!” Soen barked. “Not a single Impress Warrior is to leave until I have questioned them to my satisfaction-especially for House Devotions! Is that absolutely clear?”

  Gradek drew himself up erect with great effort. “Yes, Master Soen!”

  The old human woman had stubbly, gray hair barely emerging from her head, but she was stroking it with her fingers like a brush. “There were flowers in the fields then. Such beautiful flowers. The smell of them was overwhelming in the bright sun. Patches of red and yellow and brown and blue. We ran and ran and ran through the field with the flowers rushing past us. How I laughed!”

  “What is your name?” Soen asked in soft tones.

  The old human woman’s eyes came into focus again on the Inquisitor’s face, but she didn’t seem to actually see him. “She always called me Essie. I never much liked Essenia though Mama told me she named me after her grandmother. It’s strange, in a way, because I can remember Mama telling me I was named after her sister, too. She called to me, ‘Run, Essie! Run!’ and we ran through the flowers in the fields. What a game we played, with the elves chasing us, but we were so fast that they couldn’t catch us! Not Mama and me!”

  “Essie,” Soen said. “Do you know where you are?”

  “Yes!” the woman said as her fingers caught on an imagined snag in her hair. “Are you looking for Mama, too? She fell into the flowers of the field-I think she was playing a trick on us. She fell among the red flowers, so bright and still wet. She said to keep running, but I can’t remember to where. I’ve looked and looked for her, but she’s hiding in the field, I know she is. There were flowers in the fields, then, you know. Such beautiful flowers!”

  “Perhaps I can help you find your mother,” Soen said, patting the woman on the hand.

  “Thank you, sir,” Essenia smiled childlike through her weathered, ancient face.

  Soen stood and spoke to Gradek.

  “She is broken.”

  “Please, sire, I need help. . I’m sick. . something is terribly wrong!”

  Soen nodded as he gazed into what passed as the face of the chimerian. It was difficult to look at because its shape kept shifting, the plates of its bones sliding beneath the skin as the creature struggl
ed with his own inner monsters tearing at his memories.

  “We can help you,” Soen said with measured words, his black gaze trying to lock with the shifting, feverish eyes of the chimerian. “What is your name?”

  “My name? My name is. . I don’t know!” The chimerian’s voice rose to a panicked pitch. “I have too many names!”

  “It’s all right,” Soen reassured the quivering being, the tips of his own ears starting to twitch. “Just tell me what happened here and we can help you.”

  “What happened? What happened?” The chimerian worked his hands nervously until the fingers on each hand had lengthened to nearly a foot in length. “Didn’t you see it?”

  “Yes, but tell me anyway,” Soen said, licking his sharp teeth. “What was happening right before. . when everything was still right.”

  The chimerian blinked, calming as he concentrated on the single memory. “We were at House Devotions. Lord Timuran was beside the altar with the Lady and his daughter.”

  Soen nodded. At last we’re getting somewhere, he thought. Everything appeared fine up to the House Devotions. “And then. .”

  The chimerian was blinking faster now, struggling to organize his memories into words. “Then there was some trouble on the other side of the garden. One of the warriors just returned. I didn’t recognize him, but he must have arrived earlier in the day.”

  “The day of the trouble, you mean.”

  “Yes. . there was a shout. . that’s what got my attention. . and when I looked up, the Guardians were moving toward this warrior. He was fighting them, too. I remember thinking he was frighteningly strong for a human.”

  “A human?” Soen asked in mild surprise.

  “That’s right! I remember now; somehow he had a blade. Lord Timuran drew his own sword and was charging toward him. This human saw him coming, I’m sure of it. Guardians were all around him but I saw him turn and. . and. .”

  “What happened next?” Soen urged. “One thing after the other. . what happened next.”

  “The Well. .”