by Aaron Pogue
The only item of any value from its hoard was a silver mirror set in gold. I'd fixed it in the wall of Vechernyvetr's lair and made myself a razor of Chaos power. The sixth night of the blue's hunt for the missing dame, I stood shaving at the mirror by the moonlight.
I barely recognized the man who looked out at me. I was skinny now, long and lean and hard as steel. My face was pale and sunken. And there was a sharpness to my eyes, an animal ferocity. I had never seen it in a mirror before, but it felt right at home for me. I grinned at my reflection, and all I saw was teeth.
A motion tore my attention to the cavern mouth as the blue came settling in. I turned to Vechernyvetr, sprawled lazily on his hoard. "Anything tonight?"
No. There is no sign of her anywhere inside my territory.
I growled low in my throat and stalked toward the blue. A Chaos blade formed in my grip as I went. "We cannot trust in this one. It is weak and useless."
It is me, Vechernyvetr snarled. I use its wings, its eyes, but it is me, and I am not weak.
"Are you useless, then? Why can't you find us a fight?"
He huffed two furious breaths before he answered. She does not intrude on my domain. I cannot find her if she doesn't come—
"She can't be far," I thought. "Let's go to her."
We should not leave my territory. Pazyarev has not forgotten us.
I spun the sword's blade in a wide arc, testing the feel of it. "I have not forgotten Pazyarev either."
For a moment I felt worry from the dragon's heart, but then he laughed inside my head. I have never had a man within my brood before. Have patience, little man. There are many nights to come, and much power yet to gain. We will fight Pazyarev in our time.
"I have no wish to wait. It has been days since we spilled blood."
Shall we strike against the farms, then? Just for fun? His huge eyes fixed on me, intense, while he waited for the answer.
I considered it, and my eyes flicked to the dame, to the tired blue, to the handful of drakes fighting on the floor. At last I shook my head. "Farmers who live this far from civilization will not be soft men. And what will they offer us? No. We need dragons for now."
Vechernyvetr's mouth fell open, and I realized after a moment he was trying unconsciously to smile. His delight glowed in the back of my mind.
That is your reason? You don't object to killing men?
I frowned. Something deep inside me shouted, "Yes. Of course I object." But the words never reached my mouth. There was power to be had, and that came first.
"No," I said at last. "I don't guess I do. But first, I want to find that dame."
I'll send the blue again at sunset, he replied.
"That's fine, but I am going now. Perhaps I'll find something you overlooked."
He hesitated, concerned, but he did not stop me. I nodded once, then headed out onto the hillside. I flew on the threads of air and stretched my legs across the steep terrain. I found a huge black bear and speared it through the eye for fun. I tracked all across Vechernyvetr's land, but I found no sign of the dame. At sunset I went back.
Are you satisfied? he asked.
"Not at all. I'll try again tomorrow."
After that, I didn't bother scouring the ground that he already searched. I went out to the border, and just as I approached the boundary he spoke within my mind. Do not go far.
I didn't answer, I just left his mountainside and went exploring. The locations of the drakes we'd found offered a general direction, and it should not have been too hard to find her lair. Weeks living with Vechernyvetr's brood had taught me what to look for: boulders carved into a star by dragons sharpening their claws, abandoned corpses of their meals left undisturbed by scavengers, the scaling walls, the airing ledges, the charring vents.
Half a mile out, I caught a glimpse of a sharpening stone and cautiously crept closer. The rock was most of a pace across and scored with a five-pointed star. That represented strength enough to be a full adult. I scanned the shape of the terrain and found a likely-looking ledge. My wizard's sight revealed the opaque shadow of a dragon's lair buried in the hillside.
"I've found her lair," I thought, but I got no reply. I looked over my shoulder, toward Vechernyvetr's lair, but it was miles away. He'd heard my thoughts from the far edge of his domain, but he couldn't hear them here.
I almost went back, but after threatening the blue for returning empty-handed, I wanted to be sure. My disguise would hide me well enough, I knew, and if it came down to a fight I'd probably win one empty-handed. I had powers no dragon had ever seen before. A sneer curled my lip as I started forward. I suspected my disguise alone might be enough to win the day. I wrapped myself in threads of air and called a Chaos blade into my hand.
But no blade came. No thunder pounded in my veins. The threads of air I'd caught danced lightly on the folds of my clothes, then washed away. I stopped, startled, then caught the smell, then saw what lay before me.
There was a dragon on the ledge. The dame I stalked, mottled green and brown, lay cooling on the stones outside her lair. She was breathing, if just barely. Her blood painted the dry stones, and her maw gaped as she wheezed a feeble keen. The belly was torn open, and the talons scrabbled weakly at the air.
For too long I stood paralyzed, stunned and motionless, then I turned on my heel and ran, straight for Vechernyvetr's lair.
I nearly made it there.
Pazyarev's voice came crashing in my head, victorious and smug. I smelled you from a mile away.
I stumbled from the weight of it, then shored up my defenses. They were much stronger now. I tried again to spin a cloak of air, but it would not manifest. I scanned the sky above and saw a dragon coming from the west. It was not Pazyarev, but one of his broodlings—perhaps the red that had carried me to his lair. It flew in low and fast, aiming for me like an arrow.
I ran.
I was ready to give up. He laughed. Ready to forget these worn-down hills. I killed a hundred wretched little worms trying to find your lair. And now you come to me.
I didn't answer. I sprinted for all I was worth, trying desperately to recognize the spot where I'd last heard from Vechernyvetr. It shouldn't have been far, and I could feel the right direction, but nothing looked familiar now.
Thirty nights I've searched for you. You hide like a champion rabbit. But I've been savoring the kill that was to come. And not just you. He laughed again, and it hammered at my mind.
I missed a step and slipped on loose stone, and the stumble saved my life. The dragon's talons closed on empty air where I had been. I rolled aside and barely dodged the tail strike, then I was on my feet and running again. And there, ahead, I saw a fallen log I recognized.
I dove for it while the dragon doubled back.
A clever hare, he said, still so self-assured. But I will have you yet. I'm near, you know, or this little red couldn't reach your mind. I've cast my shadow over cities on the plains. I've burned some down. But there's no pleasure while you both still live. He sighed inside my head. It won't be long.
I leaped the fallen log, heart hammering in my chest, and now I felt a counter-tempo beat. Chaos power came flooding in. The dragon passed again, and as it came I made a blade. I spun and dove and slashed, and the monster's blood carved an arc in the air over my head. The dragon roared in pain and rage, but I didn't stay to fight it. I wrapped myself in air and flew away.
I saw the injured red circling down below, searching for me, and in the distance heard Pazyarev's voice, the thunder falling smaller and smaller with distance. I'll find you yet. Now I know you're here. But not just you. I've tasted your memories. It will be fun to kill your...Isabelle.
The name was barely more than a whisper, but it nearly ripped me from the sky. My concentration shattered and I lost control of the web of air around me. I barely kept enough focus to hold my camouflage in place. I hit the ground as fast as a galloping horse and rolled a dozen paces over stony, rough terrain.
I skidded to a stop, then la
y perfectly still, fighting for my breath and focusing on my thin disguise. I watched the sky, but the commotion of my crash had not drawn the red's attention. Still I waited, Chaos fear and anger pounding in my veins.
But there was something else. An unfamiliar warmth, an empty pain deep in my belly. My chest felt crushed, and I fought to catch a breath. Inside my head, I heard her name again. Isabelle. My Isabelle. I could see her blue-gray eyes and taste her scent. The memory of human touch—of her soft fingers on my skin—sank into me like hunger. Loneliness and fear and pain that I had held so long at bay while in the Chaos fever dream all now came crashing down.
I remembered Isabelle when Pazyarev spoke her name. He meant to harm her because he could not harm me. I imagined Teelevon beneath his shadow. They had no walls; they had no guards; they had no chance against a dragon.
Scrapes and bruises could not stop me. I found my feet and wrapped myself in air again and flew toward Vechernyvetr's lair. As I went, I heard him in my mind.
You are alive?
"I am. Where have you been?"
Watching him. He spent some time within my territory, searching for you and calling out to me.
"Now he's gone?"
For the moment, yes. He was silent for a while, angry and afraid. At last he said, I told you not to leave our territory.
"It would not have mattered. He was close. If any of us had been near that border he'd have seen us."
But it was you he saw. You almost died.
"I got away," I snapped, my mind on other things.
The Chaos threads of air set me down inside his den, and I went straight to the corner I considered mine. There was the mirror in the wall, a pile of blankets on the floor, and a pathetic little hoard off to one side. No treasures there, but human things—castoffs and scavenged clothes. We hadn't raided villages, but the blue had found abandoned farms as well, and I'd collected boots and cloaks and clothes my size.
But now I had to leave. I had to go to Teelevon. With the power I controlled, I might protect them. It was a better chance than they had on their own, anyway. I tried not to think what had happened near the dame's lair. It didn't matter. I had to go to Isabelle.
I traded out my belt for one slightly less worn and kicked several boots aside but saw none better. I stooped to grab a heavy cloak and swung it around my shoulders, then glanced in the mirror. My face was torn and bruised. A hand scrubbed across my cheek only smeared the mud and blood there, so I shook my head and turned away.
Vechernyvetr stood before me, blocking the cavern's exit. His head was low against the ground, his eyes narrowed. What is in your heart? he asked.
"We have to go to Teelevon," I told him. "You've been there once before. We must protect them again."
He shook his massive head. We will not leave this place. Not while he still hunts us.
"I have to go. There is no choice. Pazyarev means to kill my family. He means to destroy my home."
You have a lair right here, he said, his voice a growl. You have a brood with me.
I stretched an imploring hand toward him. "You are my brood. You're all I have against that monster. But this is something I must do. Take me there."
No. It would be foolish to go now. I told you that already. We bide our time, we build our strength—
"I can't wait for that. He's hunting Isabelle."
There are other dames. Your kind has quite a few.
I stared at him for a moment, trying to find the words. There was something that felt like reason in his argument. Something inside me wanted to stay here, to cower from the bigger beast and conquer smaller prey. Fear and hunger, survival and power, they'd driven me for days outside my human reason.
But Isabelle had brought me back. Even as I felt the Chaos madness in my soul, I focused on the memory of her touch. It ached to think of her, it made me weak and small and frightened. But when I thought of her, I knew what I had to do.
"It doesn't matter how hard I train, or how much power I gain, it gains me nothing if I can't save the ones I love—"
That's simple human foolishness, he said. You are better than that now. You are nearly a dragon. Leave that world behind.
"I do not have a choice in this. You understand? I have to go." I glanced past him, at the harsh terrain outside. I tried to guess how many hundred miles it was to Teelevon. "It would be far easier with you."
Impossible without me. I will not let you go.
I smiled sadly at him. "You cannot stop me."
His head sank lower still, his muscles bunched beneath his scales. Cannot kill you, he said.
"Vechernyvetr, let us at least part as friends."
We were never friends, he said. You were a trinket on my hoard, and that is all.
I sighed and shook my head, then started past him. His tail lashed forward, and at the last instant turned the deadly tip aside. Still it struck me hard in the chest and flung me back to crash against the wall.
This hurts me near as much as it hurts you, he growled, and I could feel his anger in my soul. But I will do what I must. You will not go.
I wrapped myself in threads of air, but he rolled his eyes and swiped the space where I had been with his massive, plated snout. I almost slipped aside, but he caught me on the hip and spilled me into the pile of stolen clothes. He saw the disturbance, and the tail slashed around again. It caught my shoulder as I dodged and threw me to the ground.
And he was not alone. He was a beast with many bodies. The drakes came swarming across the lair, rushing to surround the spot where I had been. But now I did as Vechernyvetr had done through me in Pazyarev's lair. Wrapped up in energy, I ran on pads of air, and unlike then, I raised the steps up higher and higher as I went, so I sprinted soundlessly above the closing ring of drakes, and dove past Vechernyvetr's spine toward the outer ledge.
As I passed above him, I felt the panic in his heart. The huge head swung this way and that, but he could catch no glimpse of me. He was not hateful; he felt fearful and betrayed. Compassion touched my heart as I stepped out onto the ledge. I turned back to him, and thought, "I'm sorry, Vechernyvetr. I leave you stronger than I met you, but I must leave you."
Suspicion flared and he turned my way, though he did not focus on me. No! You are more than a man here! You are strong. You are fearsome. Why would you leave that behind?
"For love. It is a human thing and nothing to do with Chaos. I have tasted Chaos power and it is sweet." Behind my eyes, I saw Isabelle's smile. I nodded to myself. "But it is nothing against love."
He stalked in my direction, but he didn't strike. He only lowered his head like a hurt dog. Then go as a friend, human. Perhaps something of humanity has touched my heart. I cannot understand your choice, but I would not have you for an enemy. Show yourself to me, and teach me to say goodbye.
I hesitated only a moment, then let the robe of wind wash off me. I didn't go to meet him but waited there at the cliff's edge. I spread my hands. "I'm sorry, Vech—"
There were no words, only an animal snarl as he sprang at me. I felt no shock at his deception. The Chaos power still roared within me. It lashed earth around me—not the delicate elemental coat of air I'd worn before, but half a turret of pace-thick stone. The dragon's talons screamed against it, and the long neck snaked above. Sharp fangs flashed and he snapped down at me, but I was already moving.
I waved a hand, and a doorway opened at the base of the strange stone wall. I stepped through, under the beast's belly, and the power raging beneath the thin veneer of my humanity screamed at me to strike. There was a blade already in my hand, of Chaos more than earth and flame, and I could have carved Vechernyvetr down to bone.
But he had been a friend, and he had saved my life. I darted out from under him and wrapped myself in air and darted down the mountainside as fast as I could run. He roared behind me, bellowing his rage, and threw his will against me.
It was not a blind attack on my consciousness as he and Pazyarev had tried before. Now it was an order to h
is brood to take me down. Somewhere deep inside I felt it, felt a compulsion to obey even to my own destruction, but the power in me drowned it out.
The others came, though. My brothers and sisters, now. Limbs of my own body. They came to overwhelm me. I drifted down the mountainside, but the broodlings were hard on my heels. I could feel Vechernyvetr's rage like a physical thing in the air around me, feel his animal hatred overwhelming any shred of reason in his head.
He sprang from the ledge above me and spewed flames in a torrent, but they never came within a pace of me. I felt the shape of his compulsion, sensed the drakes slipping soundlessly among the trees beneath me. He rose up high above and sent the dame along behind me.
I shook my head. "You do not have to do this. We were friends."
You ache, he said, and it was snarling accusation. From the very first, you ache. No matter how long you rest, no matter how well you heal, no matter how strong you grow. Your body always aches.
"And you will fix that by destroying me?"
I cannot destroy you. But yes, I would have fixed you. You are broken. Your power's flawed.
"I am a man." I thought. "It is not enough to be strong. We will always ache for those we love."
A roar split the air, high above, and I felt the fury of it clawing at the back of my mind. I shrank away from it.
I gave you all the power of Chaos, he said. And you have given me this.
I saw him circling above, and I remembered the day he first came looking for me in the sky above. He couldn't see me, but he could sense my location through his connection to the lair. He'd missed with wild fire, but he had many weapons.
I remembered her just in time. The dame came in fast from my left, and I flung myself forward, out, up away from the hillside. I hurled the Chaos blade toward her and drove it with my will, but Vechernyvetr hit me, striking from inside my head. He battered at my mind and I held him off, but it cost me concentration. The blade only glanced along the dame's ribcage, but worse, the web of air around me tattered. I hit the boughs of winter pines like a catapult shot.
Tree limbs cracked and crashed and tore beneath me, and instead of grabbing for some purchase I turned my attention to the ground below. I plunged straight to the uneven slope, but I grasped the strength of stone and wrapped it around me like a shell. I let myself fall to the earth, into the earth, and it swallowed me like a still pool. I sank down, dragging a great bubble of air with me, and the earth closed over me as though I had never passed.