And then Brynn was there, dropping her trident to huddle over him, kissing the top of his wet head as he continued to cough. Myrian took a step back. It had worked. He was alive, thank the gods.
Brynn looked up at her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Thank you,” she said. Then she looked at Zak. “Thank you both.”
Myrian was pleased she had been able to pull the green king back from the brink of death, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she had saved him from one fate only to be thrown into another that was worse. She gave a small nod, then began to shift back into human form.
Vander could likely use another dose of her breath, but he was past the worst of it. He was alive, and Brynn’s touch and kisses might now be better for him than anything Myrian could do.
Zak came up beside her and slid his hand into hers, locking their fingers. Together they watched as Brynn rolled Vander into her lap, stroking his hair back from his face. His bright green eyes were open now. He looked disoriented, which wasn’t surprising since he had been all but dead just a few moments ago.
But the color had returned to his face. His lips, no longer dark, smiled weakly as he looked up at Myrian and Zak.
“Well met,” he said, breaking into a coughing fit as soon as the words left his mouth.
She wished she could let him rest, but time was running out. “We have come—” she began.
“I know why you have come,” Vander said, forcing himself to stop coughing. He struggled to sit up on his own. He rested his arms on his knees while Brynn put her hand on his back. He took a deep breath. “We are to unite,” he said. “To kill the demon.”
Of course, Myrian thought. Their minds are linked somehow. And since she knows, he knows.
“Will you help us?” Myrian asked. “Both of you?”
Vander coughed once more, spitting out more saltwater. He nodded at where the trident lay in the sand.
“I traveled across the space between worlds,” he said. “I was told I needed to bring that back, to fight the demon.” He turned to Brynn and reached up to cup her face in his palm. “But the oracle never told me the true nature of my journey.”
“Of course we’ll help you,” Brynn said.
“Thank you,” Myrian said. “We are all to meet at The One Tree tonight. If we leave now, we should be able to make it by evenfall.”
“Go then,” Vander said, staggering up to his feet. He certainly did not look as if he were ready to fight, but he looked better than he had when she'd dragged him from the sea. “We will follow shortly after.”
Myrian almost reminded them that they had little time. But Vander needed at least some rest before he made such a journey, and they seemed to know even more about the situation than she did. Though Brynn did ask a question next.
“Do you know what comes next? I mean, after we get to the tree?”
“We'll meet with Magda,” Myrian said. “The High Mage will tell us what we need to do next.” She didn’t know what the old owl would tell them, but she trusted in Magda’s wisdom.
Zak squeezed her hand. Myrian turned her head, and as she looked into his eyes she realized just how far he had come. He'd been a peasant from the swamps when she’d met him. But she realized she’d been more than a little foolish to care so much about where he had come from. What mattered was that he had discovered a well of courage and confidence within himself. Defeating the living mountain had made his transformation truly complete. He was no longer a Mossknot.
He was Zakarai Nightshadow. He was a dragonlord.
And suddenly she wanted him more than ever. She felt a force so strong it was as if it threatened to pull her heart right out of her chest.
“Are you ready?” he asked her.
Yes, she thought. I'm ready for anything.
She nodded, and they bid Vander and Brynn a brief farewell. Then they turned, and hand-in-hand they became dragons, black and white, claw-in-claw.
Together they launched from the sandy beach into the air. The stench had nearly cleared, but as they flew above it all she could smell was the clean ocean air.
They headed back east, towards the center of Xandakar and the home of The One Tree.
No matter what happened next, they had done what they set out to do. They had found all of the members of the alliance they could, and gathered each of their pledges to meet with them tonight. But more importantly, Myrian and Zak had found each other. Even though he had been traveling with her in plain sight, most of that time she had yet to see him as he truly was.
The sun began to slide down to the horizon as they flew, their claws curled together.
25
ZAK
With the sun setting behind them, Zak saw the shadowy outline of the great tree towering up on the horizon. They could reach it before the last of the light drained from the day, and that’s what they were supposed to do. But Vander and Brynn would not be there for a while yet, and Zak wasn’t sure exactly when the others would arrive either.
Time was short. That was true. But if they didn't take this opportunity, then it might be lost forever.
A large hilltop rose up above the others. The tall grass seems suffused with dark orange from the light of the setting sun, almost making it appear as if the hill were burning from within.
Zak squeezed Myrian’s claw. She turned to look at him. He nodded down towards the hill, and she understood him immediately. She didn’t question whether they had the time. They would make the time. His powerful heart thumped in his chest as he realized how close they had become in so short a time. They understood one another without having to speak.
The two glided down from the sky together, alighting atop the hill. The tall grass swayed around their legs. Zak took a deep breath and looked out at The One Tree. It could wait, just another couple of hours. Magda could wait as well. What could not wait were his feelings for Myrian.
He looked at her, a slender dragon of pure white. Her long, graceful neck reminded him more of a swan than a reptile. Even in this form he found her beautiful. But it was not as a dragon that he wanted to demonstrate how he felt for her. He stared into her serene silver eyes as he shifted back into human form to stand before her in the waning light.
Myrian looked down at him, then followed suit, transforming as if she were a silvery sculpture of purest snow, melting to reveal a beautiful young woman underneath.
He took a step towards her. “When I first met you,” he said, “I wanted nothing to do with you. Now I can't imagine being without you.”
Even in the weak light he could see her blush as she looked down. The gesture made her seem like a little girl, though he knew far better than that. She was a woman, gentle and kind, but also fierce and brave.
His heart thumped as he felt the warmth of the blood rising up his neck. He felt himself stiffen as well, yearning to finish what he had started only the day before, though it felt like an eternity.
Myrian smiled and took a step towards him. Now they stood nearly chest-to-chest. He could smell her, a cool scent like a field of moon-lit grass. Her silver eyes looked up into his.
“I wanted even less to do with you,” she said, her grin widening.
She put her arms around his neck, the soft white scales of her armor pressing against his skin, and pulled him in towards her. He put his arms around her tiny waist and closed his eyes as their lips came together in a kiss.
Her lips were soft, like the petals of some delicate night orchid, but she kissed him with an eagerness that was far from delicate. Their tongues touched, and he relished the taste of her.
She raked her fingers up the back of his neck through his hair, and he felt the back of his scalp tingle. He slid his own hands up her ribs to cup the small breasts beneath her armor. He squeezed and was greeted with a moaning sigh from her mouth into his.
As they continued to kiss, Myrian worked her hands back down to his neck and slid her fingers under his suit. She pulled, stretching it out and down around his shoulders.
He gave her breasts another small squeeze, then slid his hands up to the nape of her neck to grab her armor. He wanted to free her body. He wanted to look upon her creamy white skin in the fleeting interlude where day meets night.
She was ahead of him, though, tugging his armor down his arms and chest with powerful urgency. He slid his arms free of the sleeves and immediately went back to pulling her own suit away from her body.
Her lithe arms slid out as he peeled the armor downward as if she were some forbidden fruit. Her tiny breasts bobbed free. Once he saw her small pink nipples, he hungered to put his mouth over them, to run his tongue in tiny circles around each one.
But Myrian was too quick. Before he could bend down, she was crouching low to pull his armor to his ankles. He sprung free, feeling the soothing breeze across his length. Normally he would have been embarrassed to expose himself like this. He had always dressed and undressed in the dark corner of his hut back in the swamps. He’d always been self-conscious, ashamed of his body, its strange, scaly growths.
But no more. With Myrian’s help, he had been able to realize his true self, and the time for being ashamed had passed. He wanted her to look upon his naked body while he looked upon hers. He wanted to touch and taste and share every part of himself with her. He didn’t know how much time they had before the others arrived, and he didn’t much care. Besides, time seemed to have slid to a stop, perhaps just for them, so that the two young lovers could cherish one another before they were called to battle.
Zak stepped out of his armor, kicking it aside. Then he took Myrian by the arms and lifted her up. Now it was his turn to kneel down and slide the suit from around her hips and down her silky legs. For the second time in his life he saw the silver-white triangle of neat hair, and he couldn’t help the low moan of longing that escaped from his throat.
Myrian put her hands on top of his head, running her fingers through his hair once more. He leaned forward and kissed the bare flesh just above her mound. He kept his lips pressed against her skin as he moved slowly upwards, kissing her belly button then up to the base of her breastbone. Now it was her turn to moan.
She arched her back into him, inviting him to taste her nipples. He eagerly obliged, moving to the left to take the nub of her pert breast into his mouth. He closed his eyes and sucked at her, sliding his hands down around her to cup her bottom. She felt smoother than any silk, her skin impossibly warm and cool at the same time.
Zak touched the tip of his tongue to her hardened nipple, moving atop and around it, not wanting to pull back. But the stiffness between his legs was now almost painful. He felt the hot ache of longing rising up into his lower belly as he moved his lips to her other breast.
As impatient as he was to be inside her, Myrian must have been even more so. He flinched a little as one of her hands cupped him down below, sliding her cool fingers along his shaft, then curling around it to squeeze.
She leaned down to put her lips into his ear. “I want this,” she whispered, the warm breath in his ear making the whole side of his head tingle. “I want you inside me now. We’ve waited long enough.”
He felt as if he had been waiting his entire life to hear those words. Myrian crouched down with him into the tall, swaying grass and lowered onto her back. As he lay on top of her, the grass rose up just past his shoulder blades. A passerby would not have seen them, though they might have heard their soft sounds and seen the sway of the tall grass where they lay.
She looked like an angel, lying naked atop the crushed grass, her silver-white hair spilled out around her head like a halo. But she did not act like one as she pulled his shaft down between her legs and guided the tip of him into her soft, wet warmth.
Her lips parted and she sighed as he slid himself deep inside her. Now they both moaned in unison as they looked into each other’s eyes.
Just then, Zak thought back to something Brynn had said, a snippet from the prophecy she had found painted upon a shell long ago.
They will come, two as one.
Two as one. That’s how he felt at that moment, not like Zakarai, not like an individual. He felt like two halves melding together into a unified whole, as if they had wandered the world looking for each other all this time and finally joined together as a complete, singular entity.
If he had thought her skin was soft, the inside of her was like experiencing softness all over again. Her wetness felt impossibly smooth, but at the same time he felt the tightness of her. And as he pushed himself deep, her small breasts pushed into his chest. His body pressed against her creamy, cool skin. He had never felt pleasure anywhere close to this before.
Zak almost didn’t want to pull back at all. He just wanted to lay there, pushed up as deep as he could into her, feeling himself inside her forever. But some deep instinct compelled him to slide back, then forward again, to move within her.
He looked up at the darkening sky as he fell into a rhythm, and he saw the bright pinpricks of the first stars making themselves known. His eyes watered with the perfect ecstasy of it all.
Myrian wrapped her legs around him, locking them at the base of his back as they rocked into one another, somehow gently and forcefully at the same time. She reached up and cupped the sides of his face, tilting his eyes back down to hers.
Her eyes glistened with tears as well, shining with a faraway look of dazed joy. She opened her mouth, her lips pursing into an O, her eyes growing wider. Then she pulled him down into a strong wet kiss.
Her whole body shuddered beneath him as she cried out into his mouth as they kissed. Her hands squeezed his face even harder, then pushed his head up to allow her to arch her back into him and let out a scream.
Seeing her lose control like that made him follow right behind her. He thrust himself deep and held it, his whole body clenched as light bloomed in his mind and heat surged through his shaft, releasing into her with unbridled pleasure and relief.
He cried out, then gasped as he seemed to empty his soul and energy into her. Time stretched out, losing all meaning. They lay in the tall, swaying grass in the waning light, locked together as one.
Then the brilliant explosion in his head began to fade, leaving behind an exhausted sense of peace. He slid himself out of her with a tinge of regret and looked down to see a funny little smile of content on her face. He couldn’t help but smile as well. He had not known such happiness was possible.
Zak thought of something to say, but the only words that could even come close to conveying how he felt fell from his lips in a whisper.
“I love you.”
Her smile widened, her silver eyes still slightly dazed. “And I you,” she said.
And that completed the perfection of the moment. He rolled off of her to lie side-by-side in the grass, looking up together at the dusky violet sky, dotted with the sparkles of a few dozen stars.
Zak closed his eyes, unable to stop smiling as his happy exhaustion carried him off to sleep.
26
MYRIAN
As she slept, there were no dreams to match the sweetness of what she had felt while awake. Myrian had fallen into a deep slumber, her small hands folded across her bare chest, the evening breeze cooling her body from the heat of their lovemaking.
The sounds woke her, a series of thundering, faraway explosions. She swam out of sleep, sitting up in the grass. The darkness of the night was complete, but as she blinked and wiped the sleep from her eyes, she looked out towards the tree in the direction the rumbling sounds had come.
Myrian watched in horror as a great plume of orange and white erupted from the base of where The One Tree stood, rippling up along its massive trunk. She felt the ground tremble beneath her. That woke Zak, who sat up beside her, rubbing his eyes.
“What’s going—” he began, but another series of explosions rocked the base of the tree.
Myrian flinched, shielding her eyes instinctively. Huge bursts of flame leapt out and upwards, as if some gigantic living flower of fire were blooming before their ey
es. It was beautiful and horrifying at the same time.
“No,” she whispered. How could this be? What was happening?
The grass of the hills bent towards them as a hot wind hit her face. She could smell the bitter char of burning wood.
Some part of her hoped she was still asleep, that this wasn’t really happening. But as she watched the flames grow and rise, she realized with growing dread that this was all too real.
She reached out to find her suit in the grass, then drew her legs into it and stood. As she pulled her arms into the sleeves and sealed the suit around her body once more, she saw Zak finding his armor and doing the same.
Once he stood beside her, fully clothed, he took her by the hand.
“What do we do?” he asked.
Of all the things they had gone through, this was one she had not been prepared for. For once, she had no idea. There was nothing two dragons, black and white, would be able to do to help. In a matter of mere seconds, the flame had overtaken the entirety of the tree, flaring out along the branches and lighting up the night with the brightest fire she had ever seen. It was like the dawn of some horrible new day.
Even a hundred blue dragons breathing great clouds of ice could not put out such a fire, she thought, though she wasn't sure a hundred blue dragons even existed anymore.
Then she gasped as she thought of all the owl mages living there. The One Tree was a living city, home to thousands. They could transform and fly, but had there been time? And what of Magda? She was supposed to guide them and tell them what to do next.
But as the questions swirled up inside her mind, she heard another sound, one that made the light hairs on her arm stand on end. Coming across the fields of grass towards them was the sound of ragged laughter, and ugly, gargling noise equal parts glee and pain. She lowered her eyes from the great, glowing pyre and saw the shadow of a figure lurching towards them.
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