“I’m afraid that I’m not familiar with that term,” Veregoth said. She raised her voice again. “Merithia?”
“You don’t know what a human is?” Marla asked.
“A type of monkey?” Veregoth hazarded.
“Not exactly,” Marla said, “We share some features in common with monkeys and apes, but...”
“Merithia!” Veregoth shouted.
“What is it?” the dragon ghost known as Merithia called out as she approached them again. Marla felt the buffeting wind of the dragon’s wings tousle her hair.
“It’s talking to me, Merithia,” Veregoth whispered, “and you know I don’t like talking to strange things!”
“Fine, fine,” Merithia sighed, “I’ll take over from here.”
“Good,” Veregoth said with relief, “What did Mother have to say?”
“She wants to see her,” Merithia said excitedly.
A thrill of fear washed over Marla, knowing that she would soon be in the presence of the Dragon Queen.
“You can tell me all about it later,” Veregoth said. Marla could hear the other dragon moving away, her wings beating the air, and her claws sliding across the glassy surface of the floor.
“Vera, you coward! Come back here at once!” Merithia cried.
“Sorry, very busy!” Veregoth shouted from somewhere high above, “Have to go!”
Merithia sighed heavily as her sister flew away.
“Why can’t I move?” Marla asked, “I can’t see anything, and I can’t move my arms or legs... am I dead?”
“Oh, no!” Merithia laughed nervously, “You’re quite... ah, well... Mother will sort it all out, I’m sure of it.”
Marla breathed out slowly, feeling the warm sense of well being lulling her back to sleep again.
She awoke again the moment she heard the Queen’s voice.
“A thing so small, so fragile,” spoke a voice like a sea storm looming on the horizon.
“Yes, she is a bit... tiny,” Merithia chuckled.
Marla felt the Queen’s breath move through her hair, like a warm breeze upon her cheek.
“Is this all that remains?” the Queen’s voice sighed, “a single tear to mourn my lost children.”
“No,” Marla answered, “We are not all lost... Your children yet live.”
“What?” Merithia gasped.
“Many... many died,” Marla said, struggling to move against the deadened weight of her unresponsive limbs, “but some live still... my masters, the dragons of Thrinaar, and others, perhaps... They live, my Queen!”
“How?” Merithia asked.
“When the moon fell,” Marla said, “You stopped it from killing everyone. Whatever you did, my Queen, you saved us!”
“No!” the Queen’s voice rumbled, “I felt them die! I feel their souls, even now, crowded upon the shores, calling to me!”
“Then go to them, my Queen!” Marla begged, “We need you now more than ever! Your enemy has returned and seeks to destroy this island and all traces of the crystal moon... He has returned, and I... I helped him find this place...”
“The Betrayer, my Queen,” Merithia whispered, “It is true.”
“I know,” the Queen answered.
“I’m sorry,” Marla whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
Marla felt the Queen’s breath upon her hair and cheek once more. She held her breath, feeling the massive presence of the dragon looming over her.
“You have sinned against me, child,” the Dragon Queen’s voice rumbled.
Marla’s heart hammered in fear as she gasped for breath again.
“As I sinned against the universe that created me,” the Queen sighed, “In this alone, I know you for what you truly are.”
“Forgive me,” Marla sobbed.
“And how, child, would you atone for this sin?” the Queen rumbled.
“Anything,” Marla wept, “I will do anything you ask of me. Just tell me what it is I am to do!”
“What offering would you give?” the Queen’s voice demanded, “What cherished lives would you sacrifice to save yourself?”
Marla’s heart ached as she thought of her mother, of Claude and Alyss... of Garrett. “My life is yours, my Queen,” she answered at last, “Take it, if it pleases you.”
“No!” the Queen hissed, “Your life is not mine to take, nor does it belong to you... nor has it ever.”
“What do you want of me then?” Marla asked.
“What are you willing to sacrifice, child?” the Queen spoke in a whisper like the shifting of desert sands, “What would you give to save this world? What would you be willing to lose in order to protect its Song from those who would silence it forever?”
Marla felt a terrible coldness seep into her chest as she whispered, “Everything.”
Marla felt the stone against her cheek crack as a deep rumble passed through the earth below. The distant sounds of crumbling rock filled the still, dead air.
Then a terrible gust of wind blasted over Marla’s body, whipping at her exposed hair and face.
“Arise, my daughter,” the Dragon Queen spoke, her voice causing the world to shake.
“Arise and take up the mantle of Queen!” the dragon’s voice crashed upon Marla like a breaking storm.
The stones beneath Marla shattered and flew apart at the Dragon Queen’s roar. Marla felt suddenly weightless as her body tumbled through a maelstrom of battering wind and fragments of rock. The featureless white void that filled her vision flared to an unbearable brightness as the storm tore Marla’s scream from her throat.
Then everything crashed back down again with the thudding of massive chunks of stone all around her. Marla’s body lay flat upon the broken earth, her ears ringing in the utter silence of the storm’s aftermath.
She opened her eyes again and pushed herself to her elbows in the drifts of gray ash that filled the shallow crater in which she now lay beneath an angry red sky. Above her towered the Dragon Queen like the golden temple of a lost goddess. Tears of fire streamed from the dragon’s eyes as she smiled down at Marla, and, as she wept, she faded, her scales turning gray as the island wind dispersed her body like mist.
“No,” Marla whispered, reaching out her hand toward the Mother of Dragons as she vanished like rising smoke.
The Queen spread her four mighty wings across the sky one last time, tilting her head slightly as she looked down at Marla. “My children,” she said, her voice now hollow and indistinct, “They cry out to me. You must go to them.”
Marla nodded, pushing herself to her knees as the wind coated her hair and clothing with ash.
“They are your children now,” whispered the Queen’s fading voice upon the wind, “Protect them as I could not. Please... do not let the void claim them as well.” The dim outline of her body burned away to nothing in the glorious light of dawn that now broke over the rim of the crater.
Marla leaned back, letting the light of the sun pour over her, filling her with its song. She tore away her leather mask and spread her arms wide, laughing as she joined in the song. Words without meaning poured from her lips, but she knew their truth. She gazed with golden eyes into the heart of the sun, unblinking, as it filled her with its radiance and did not burn.
At last, as the sun ascended behind the roiling clouds of the basin, Marla stood and walked toward the edge of the crater. No bright glow of the moonstone now remained, only the cracked gray shards of lifeless rock lay strewn amidst the ash. The island was dead.
She stood on the edge of the crater and looked down toward the dark waters of the lake as the strange mist that surrounded the island burned away in the morning light. Soon she could make out the distant peaks of the basin’s mountainous rim along the horizon.
The ground rumbled beneath her feet and she looked back to see the eastern peak of the island shear away and slide into the lake below.
“Marla!” Claude shouted as he pulled his way up over an ashen gray boulder farther down the western slope.
Marla giggled as she greeted her friends, but Claude and Alyss could only stare in amazement as they approached.
Marla smiled back as she scratched Zizi behind the ear, feeling the wind in her hair and the morning sun on her face. There was no pain, no sun-sickness, and no fear of her people’s ancient enemy anymore.
Claude and Alyss stared at her through their dusty goggles, speechless.
“I’m all right,” Marla laughed, “I’m really all right.”
“Did you find her?” Claude asked at last.
Marla nodded.
“Where is she?” Alyss asked.
Marla looked out over the horizon, smiling at the way a beam of sunlight danced across the dark surface of the lake.
“She’s with us now,” Marla said, smiling at her friends.
The ground trembled again, and Zizi began to chatter in fear.
“We have to get out of here now!” Claude shouted as a large section of rock separated from the mountainside and rolled to pieces down the slope.
“Back to the beach!” Marla said, “I think I know a way home.”
Marla and the others met James halfway back. The cave troll Lump plodded along behind the vampire boatman with the bundled tent, dripping lake water, slung over one of his massive shoulders. Both of the castaways’ bodies were plastered in fine gray sand.
“Where’s Nerrys?” Marla cried.
“In the tent,” James gasped, panting for breath with his hands on his knees, “The beach is gone! There was no time to... Where’s your mask?” His goggles flashed in the morning sun as he suddenly stood bolt upright to stare in wonder at Marla’s uncovered head.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Marla cried, “We have to get everybody together, as close as possible.”
“Why aren’t you on fire?” James asked, still staring at Marla’s face.
“Together, now!” Marla shouted.
Lump stepped obediently past his master and laid the sodden bundle of black canvas on the ground at Marla’s feet. Nerrys moaned and stirred within.
Another tremor shook the island, and Marla looked up to see the entire side of the western slope crumble away and begin rushing downhill toward them with terrifying speed.
“Marla!” Claude yelled.
“Everyone together!” Marla cried. She spread her arms wide as her friends huddled together around the tent before her.
“Marla?” Alyss cried, her voice shaking with fear as the avalanche of ash bore down on them.
Marla drew in her breath. A white-hot swell of power filled her chest as the song of the sun above rang in her ears. The roar of the avalanche grew louder still as she continued to inhale, far beyond what she thought her lungs could hold. Then, as the first stones of the crumbling mountainside began to pelt the ashy ground around her, Marla exhaled. Her breath burst from her mouth like a sheet of white flame, her lips shaping it into a single word.
“Dorenaar!” she cried, and the white flame whipped around their bodies like a whirlwind of light, whistling with a chorus like a thousand draconic voices joined together in song.
Marla had a sudden sensation of weightlessness as the island crumbled away beneath her feet. She hung together with her friends, suspended in a void of stillness at the center of a great typhoon of white flame. Her friends screamed in terror all around her, clutching at one another’s sleeves as they began to drift apart. Marla felt only a strange euphoria that brought a bemused smile to her face as she watched them pull themselves together again in the eye of the strange storm.
Lump the troll grinned broadly as he reached down to touch his toes, sending him into a sort of weightless somersault. As his dusty feet went over his head, he burst into a hearty gale of laughter.
“It isn’t funny, Lump!” James shouted, “We’re all gonna die!”
“No!” Alyss cried, her eyes on Marla as she clutched Claude’s sleeve in one hand and the seam of the black tent in the other, “Marla saved us.”
Marla gave Alyss and Claude a dreamy smile, feeling an overwhelming wave of exhaustion sweep over her as the storm of white flame began to flicker and fade around them. She lifted her eyes heavenward as the light died away. Above her, the moon shone down from an indigo sky dusted with stars. An evening breeze whispered through the towering fir trees that ringed an amphitheater of mossy green stones, at the center of which Marla and her friends found themselves gently deposited by the dissipating whirlwind of dragonfire.
Marla’s feet settled onto the jade disk set into the center of the stage, taking her weight again. She swayed, losing her balance, and nearly fell before Claude could catch her. He tore off his goggles and ripped away his mask, his concern for her burning in his crimson eyes.
“Marla!” he whispered fervently, “Stay with us, Marla!”
Marla’s eyelids fluttered as she fought the overwhelming urge to sleep. She smiled up at him and asked, “Are we safe?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding his head, “We’re...” He looked around in confusion.
“This isn’t home,” Alyss said, starting suddenly as the silvery blade of a sword thrust upward through the black fabric of the sodden tent on the ground in front of her.
The blade neatly sliced downward, letting the ruined tent fall to either side of Nerrys’s white helm and pauldrons as she sat up, shaking her head as though to clear it. She brought the stump of her left wrist up and stared at it for a moment before asking, “Where are we?”
“You are in the monastery of Gau Behr,” spoke a tall man as he walked toward them from the shadow of a small dome-like structure nearby. He wore a long red robe with an eyeless hood that covered his face and head.
Nerrys scrambled quickly to her feet, holding her sword ready at the newcomer’s approach. Lump simply bowed his head and fell back a step as the other vampires stared in wonder at the red-robed man.
The man stopped about three paces short of the central disk and bowed slightly with his hands crossed over his chest. “I welcome your presence,” he said in perfect Gloaran.
“You’re a vampire!” Alyss exclaimed.
“Yes,” the man chuckled, “Though I had not expected to see any of my kin so far from home.”
“About that,” James said, “You see, we’re not exactly sure where we are.”
“The monastery does not often receive uninvited guests,” the man said, “It is not an easy place to find, and, if you have come here, I can only assume it was for a purpose.”
“And where is here exactly?” Alyss demanded.
“The monastery of Gau Behr, on the eastern coast of what you would call... Lapria,” the masked man answered.
“Lapria?” Alyss gasped.
“We’ve gone halfway around the world!” Claude cried, still cradling Marla in his arms as he knelt beside her.
“Indeed,” the robed man said, “and I am most anxious to discover the means by which you have traversed so great a distance. Who among you bears such power?”
“I’m not sure we know you well enough to be having that conversation yet,” Alyss chuckled warily.
“I am afraid I must have an answer,” the man said, all hint of humor gone from his voice.
“By what right, stranger, do you dare question the agents of Samhaed?” Nerrys growled, her sword held at the level of the draconic rune embroidered over the man’s heart.
Marla’s eyes fell on the rune. It swirled in her sleep-addled mind like a blazing emblem of lost hope as she struggled to recall its meaning.
“I mean no disrespect to Lord Samhaed or his kin,” the robed man said, “but it has been a very long time since I saw another...”
“Father?” Marla rasped as she pushed herself slowly to her feet with Claude’s assistance.
The robed man fell silent as he stared at the golden-eyed vampire girl before him.
Marla swayed a little as she took a step toward
him, trying to focus her bleary eyes on the wavering vision of the man in red.
“Marla?” the robed man whispered. He reached up and dragged the hood from his head to reveal the iron-gray curls of his hair and his scarred face, now set into a mask of disbelief.
“Is it really you?” Marla cried, taking another halting step toward the man from the painting she had loved since her earliest memory.
“Marla!” the man cried, rushing forward to embrace his daughter.
Marla burst into tears as she squeezed him tightly, sobbing as she lay her face against the rune on his chest. She had at last found the man she had long thought dead, the Drinker of Sorrow himself.
“How?” her father sobbed, “How did you do it, Marla? How did you find me?”
“I just wanted to go home!” she whispered, “I just wanted to go home.”
Chapter Fifteen
Southern Astorra
Garrett emerged from the front door of the mayor’s house just after noon to find the eyes of nearly a hundred fae creatures upon him. The faint, glowing shapes of countless wisps hung against the blue sky overhead as rows of curious fauns, centaurs, and fairies stood gathered on either side of the broad lane leading to the town square.
Garrett lifted his hand in mute greeting and many of them returned it with silent waves or slight bows, but none spoke, save Shortgrass who fluttered quickly into view.
“Ya sure ya don’ need another six or eight hours o’ sleep before ya join us at tha Meet?” he asked, giving Garrett a look of mock concern, “‘Tisn’t as though we’ve all been waitin’ patiently on yer darstep fer ya to wake!”
“Ugh, was I supposed to meet somebody?” Garrett asked, rubbing at his jaw with his palm.
“I told you he would be a few minutes,” Haven laughed as she slipped through the door past Garrett.
“Ah,” Shortgrass sighed, “I must’ve been mistaken in me understandin’ of the word minute!”
“What am I doing?” Garrett asked blearily.
“I told you the Amber Court people wanted to talk to you,” Haven said.
“You did?” Garrett asked, rubbing his eyes, “Right now?”
“Oh, no,” Shortgrass said, waving his hands dismissively, “Take as long as ya like! I mean we’ve only been waitin’ since tha fall of Uroe for our deliverance from tha terrible bondage o’ slavery. What’s a few more hours? Ya need yer rest.”
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