And now I was remembering the scale in the World of Legends. And, again, something tugged – pulling at the inside of my brain as I begged for relief.
It released me.
A third memory – the Kah’deem – but the tugging started before I could fully remember it. Pulling so hard now that I could hear my own scream echoing through the massive cavern. It went on and on and on.
And then it stopped.
And I was left shuddering, gasping, heaving on the floor.
I wanted to die.
I didn’t want to do this anymore.
Anything to be free of this. Anything.
Darkness bloomed like night flowers in my vision, bursting and then fading in a rapid rhythm.
I tried to crawl forward, to get to the lip of the dish, but I only managed to fall partly off the central stone before my limbs failed me completely. My feet were stuck. I didn’t even have the energy to whimper. I lay there, the screams only echoing inside my mind.
A very long time later, something lifted me, but I didn’t have the energy to open my eyes and see who it was. I didn’t care anymore. My only hope was that they would kill me quickly. Waiting for it, only made it hurt more.
Chapter Seven
I woke with the key clutched so tightly in my hand that it hurt. I was shaking so hard that my teeth chattered. My sleep had been filled with horrific dreams – or maybe memories. One after another, after another.
“You’re awake just in time,” Atura said from beside me. “We’re about to go underwater.”
“We?” I gasped.
“Yes,” she spat. “You and me. They don’t know if they might need the keys in both our heads to unlock the Haroc, or if mine will be enough. So, they’re taking us both there. We won’t be able to speak soon. We’re about to go underwater.”
“Your mother loved you,” I whispered. I could still see her child-eyes so huge and dark in my mind’s eye.
“We’re caged together,” she said as if she didn’t hear me. Bitterness laced her words. “As if I am not the daughter of the Saaasallla! As if this is not my victory, too!”
“She only wanted you to be safe.”
“They’re going to drag us the whole way in this cage – on the backs of anthrods. They’re like giant crabs.” Now she sounded like she was trying to talk so that I wouldn’t.
“Her last memory is of your eyes.”
“Shut up!” Her snarl surprised me, but I had no energy left to flinch or to stop shaking. “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
Her words faded off and with them, my consciousness.
When I woke again, I wasn’t shaking anymore and Atura wasn’t talking. Water washed around me, caressing me, bidding me a briny welcome. I drew in a long, watery breath, grateful for the embrace of the sea. When my eyes flickered open, I could see that Atura had been fitted with a facemask like those her people wore. I thought she might be scowling behind the mask. But I didn’t fear her anymore. I felt nothing but pity for the girl whose mother had been dragged away – and maybe a shred of echoed love.
A strange crab-like creature as large as a dragon drifted by. On his back, a small Manticore in a breathing mask was carried by two human Bubblers also in masks. They rode the anthrod like he was their horse. How odd. I was awake and yet in the waking world, I felt more like I was dreaming than when I slept.
I sat up carefully. I was weak as a newborn kitten and I felt like I’d been wrung out and then burnt up until there was nothing left of myself. And yet, I was still here. Still watching a frowning Atura. Still looking at the bars of my cage – also on the back of an anthrod.
Around us, hundreds of the creatures walked along the ocean floor. The light was so dim this deep that bright orbs had been affixed to poles and attached to their backs to light the way. It must be some kind of magic lighting them. A fuel-burning light would only last a short time under so much water.
I scratched at my face and realized they’d put a mask on me, too. I ripped it off. I didn’t need a mask and I didn’t want one either.
I missed someone.
But I didn’t know if I was missing Heron and Nasataa and Olfijum or if I was missing the child I’d lost, the parent, the lover. My own memories were so tangled in the memories of others that my pain now was for people I’d never really met. My longings were for hearts I didn’t know existed only a day ago.
I gasped in a shuddering sob and collapsed in on myself, wrapping my arms around my bent knees and tucking my head into the little space provided between them. I let myself sob back to sleep like that.
When I woke again, we were being pulled from the cage.
In the silence of the deep, I looked around to see what was happening. A guard of some kind had Atura by the arm, directing her out of the cage while another pulled me to my feet, pushing me toward the door of my cage.
A line of Bubblers in masks – two carrying the baby Manticore – waited for us. And far down the line toward our destination, I saw a wall of darkness. The Draven must be finding their places around the Haroc first.
I should have been despairing. They were going to unlock it with my mind, after all, and take the rest of the magic from the world – destroy everything I loved. But I couldn’t help but feel like they’d already destroyed everything I loved.
Why keep mourning for a future that you couldn’t even have?
Why keep crying for a past you couldn’t change?
Why keep aching for loves you never knew?
And yet I did.
I didn’t fight them as they shoved me forward.
I just went along, one foot after another as we climbed in a long line between thick coral and startling water plants. The plants undulated in the water as if they were waving to me, but I hated them for being so placid when I wanted only despair. The coral branched in ways that were both decorative and full of life, clouds of bright fish clustering around them and then darting out toward the water. And I hated all of them for their exuberance – for their very life.
I just wanted all of this to be over so I could die in peace.
Octon was wrong. The key wasn’t in the memories.
There was no key.
There was no life.
A flurry of activity ahead barely even caught my attention. Not even when Atura shot a look of excitement my way. Not even when the guard picked up his pace. What did I care what was coming up? It wouldn’t make a difference.
Not to me.
Chapter Eight
The Draven had to part so we could reach the Haroc.
Shouldn’t that be a big warning to all the humans who served them? The fact that our lifeforms were so incompatible that we couldn’t even be in the same area at the same time or risk being completely blind and deaf?
What kind of effect did we have on them? I hoped we did something equally nasty to them when we came into contact. But I kind of doubted it. Especially since I’d watched them absorb hundreds of humans, dragons, and Sentries as if they were nothing more than fresh air.
It also begged the question – what would they live on once they’d killed all of us? We were a source of food to them – or at least the Troglodytes were and considering the fact that humans just disappeared around them it was reasonable to assume that they ate us, too. They were wasting their food source.
Unbidden, a memory surfaced of my family in a small hovel. My mother clinging to a precious baby and trying to hide him so that the patrols wouldn’t find him.
I felt ill and wanted to vomit, but there was no food in me. I hadn’t eaten in as long as I could remember. Hadn’t had a sip of water in just as long.
Guilt and sadness filled me in equal measure. All of this had happened in the land of the Rock Eaters while I was having a happy childhood with Renny and Halana. Children were torn from parents to feed the constant hunger for power – their souls used as a source of magic. Like livestock on a farm, the people of the Rock Eaters were nothing more than a resource. And I’d been playing in th
e white sand of our beaches and falling asleep in my hammock to my mother’s sweet songs while their lives were drained from them like water from a well.
It wasn’t fair.
And yet, I couldn’t have prevented it. Couldn’t have stopped it.
I couldn’t stop it now.
And yet.
The Haroc was up ahead. According to the prophecies I was supposed to unlock it and put Nasataa on the Haroc and restore life to all these people – all those still living under this yoke and all those endangered by the heavy hand of the Draven.
If it had all worked, then maybe this would have been a moment of triumph, instead of just utter defeat.
I stumbled along with my arm shoved ahead by the guard. No one spoke. No one could speak under the water.
I was going to open that Haroc, wasn’t I? Whether I liked it or not, the keys were in my mind.
My eyes strained as I looked ahead, trying to get a glimpse of it. The seat of my salvation – and my destruction.
There it was!
We emerged from the coral to a rising spire of rock and at the top of the spire, something glowed.
The guard tugged me upward and we began to swim. How had they walked on the ground without bobbing up into the water? Was it part of the magic that let them breathe underwater? Or maybe that was why they clung to the anthrods – a simple way to ride along the ocean floor. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter.
What mattered was the glowing thing up above and the dark clouds swirling in the sky – no wait – the dark creatures swirling in the water above it. Draven. They surrounded the Haroc like a school of fish. There would be no escape through their tight ranks.
I swallowed, and I wished I could quell my nerves with the motion of my throat – but it did nothing to steady me. I felt as frayed as an old rope, as worn down as driftwood, as riven as the beach after the rain when the waters flowed from higher ground and carved new channels through the soft sand. There was hardly any Seleska left to be ripped into pieces.
We had risen a long way and I could finally see the Haroc. It was a seat, of sorts. A seat surrounded by a huge spherical metal cage. Tendrils reached out from the seat, stroking the cage with ropes of light that swirled and curved around it like vines and leaves. It shimmered a little and then disappeared and returned.
It was part of this world, and not part of it at the same time.
Just like the keys needed to open it.
Just like the power it held.
No words were spoken – no words could be, but someone sped through the water from below us and as he passed Atura, he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the cage.
The cage flared to life, the tendrils of light reaching through the bars and wrapping themselves around Atura. They shook her and then froze, holding her in place as she struggled in their grasp – and then just like that, they dropped her, sinking back into the cage. She drifted in the water until the figure – Branson Kendark, my memory reminded me – grabbed her again. He flung her to the side like a piece of refuse. She floated, senselessly, drifting toward the ranks of Draven.
No!
I kicked against my guard, trying to get toward her in the eerie silence of the water.
But I couldn’t move. Strong arms seized me, dragging me toward the Haroc – my guard held one arm and Branson seized the other.
If they got me there, my mind would open the cage.
And all would be lost.
I thrashed against them as hard as I could, but my struggle was as useless as trying to tame the tide.
I was nearly close enough to reach out and touch the cage of light when the water filled with bubbles.
Chapter Nine
Bubbles shot up all around us and then rocks were flying, too. I tried to cover my head with my arms as I tucked my chin against my chest.
What was happening?
Sound filled my ears – a loud, turbulent, rushing sound – and I was flung backward. The hands on my arms released me and I flew through the water until something gripped my waist, pulling me backward.
Everything was chaos around me. I felt rocks pelting my body and waves lashing at me, but my vision was blocked by flying debris and bubbles. Whoever – or whatever – had me by the waist was pulling me toward the chaos. I kicked against it, but it was stronger than I was, drawing me inexorably downward.
The figures of the two men who had been holding me swirled away in the strong currents, and the Haroc grew more distant as stones and water swirled around me and then slowly fell away.
As quickly as the exploding rock began to fall, my enemies streaked toward me – not just humans, but Draven, too.
My heart was beating so quickly I thought it would burst. They were going to catch me and absorb me!
There were so many rushing toward me that they couldn’t be stopped – not even by whatever had me in its grasp.
I both dreaded and longed for the death that would come with them – both hoped for and feared the final end. I stopped fighting whatever was holding me and let it pull me downward.
I was ready. I wanted to die, and if this was death, I embraced it.
My vision was clearing enough now that I could see massive shapes rushing up around me, as if they were planning to challenge the Draven – huge, almost translucent figures with glowing organs inside – Troglodytes!
I gasped.
WE COME. WE FIGHT.
But they’d gone silent! I thought they were all dead!
WITH OUR LAST BREATH, WE FIGHT FOR OUR CHILDREN.
The dragons. Those were their children. Were these the last of the Troglodytes? Sorrow – vast as the ocean – filled me as I watched the few figures left rush up around me. They were huge and glowing and ... vulnerable. The Draven would eat them alive.
GO! YOU MUST BE THERE TO OPEN THE HAROC FOR THE CHOSEN ONE. WE DO NOT DARE ALLOW IT TO BE OPENED TO FELROC. THEY FED HIM OUR SOULS. THEY GAVE HIM OUR CHILDREN. HE WILL DESTROY US ALL.
And then they were ahead of me and I was being sucked into the rock – or dragged into the rock maybe – I still hadn’t seen what was behind me.
As I watched, before the narrow gap in the rock stole my vision, the Draven wave crashed into the waiting Troglodytes.
And then my vision was gone and all was darkness. I squirmed, trying to twist to see what was holding me, but the grip was unbreakable.
I gave in to despair, letting the waves of grief and sorrow crash over me like a stormy sea. There was nothing I could do for the last of the Troglodytes. And they’d given their lives for nothing, because there was no way that I had the strength left to do what they needed. I didn’t even know where my little blue dragon was – or even if he was still alive.
And I hadn’t stopped longing for death. I was going to disappoint them.
There was a roar above us – a roar I didn’t recognize – and then all sound was gone. I didn’t even hear the whoosh of water around me anymore.
I knew exactly what that meant.
The Draven had slaughtered the Troglodytes. And they were closing in.
Whatever was holding me spun me suddenly through the water and I gasped again. We were at the very edge of a portal. Where had that come from? It was in a tear of rock in the side of the sea mountain.
I was shoved through the portal before I could even process what was happening, and then whatever held my waist released it for a moment.
I was just catching my breath when it curled around me a second time and this time it was more than just something pinning me. Something wrapped around me, pushing my chin to my chest, wrapping around my back and then a sound boomed through the water and we shot forward from the opening of the portal, spinning through the water in the darkness away from it. There was no longer any glow from that doorway to the Draven. It had been destroyed – I was certain. Something struck my leg and I cried out as pain shot through me and then we were tumbling again.
It was long minutes before the tumbling stopped.
&nb
sp; Arms wrapped around me. There was no mistaking that part.
Who –?
Strong, unstoppable arms.
And they weren’t holding me like a prisoner or even a rescuer, they held me in an embrace that I knew by memory. I’d felt it from a thousand pairs of arms. I’d offered it with a thousand pairs of arms. This was love. It was a full, desperate, yearning hug from someone who cared.
And there could only be one person in all the world who cared about me like that.
I couldn’t hope.
I didn’t dare hope.
And then one of the arms scooped up under my legs and I gasped and choked as my head burst into a pocket of air. The rhythm of feet climbing up on land was the first thing I felt and then the soft blue-green light illuminated the most precious face in the world.
I reached up and pulled the breathing patch from Heron’s mouth, choking on a sob that was half relief and half cry for salvation. He set my feet on the dry ground of the cave, carefully brushing loose wet hair from my face before taking it between his hands.
He held my face like I was delicate and breakable and precious – like a perfect rose plucked at full bloom. And the look of completion and desperate longing all mixed together that filled his face – that look gutted me in a way that felt odd and so very familiar all at once.
This time the burning in my belly wasn’t from a stone. The warmth that filled me from the tips of my toes to the crown of my head wasn’t artificial. It was as intense as the fires of a dragon, as powerful as the magic of the Haroc, as certain as the stone under my feet.
Desperate joy shot through me like a plant blooming overnight. I reached out and clung to him, melting into the gentle kiss he laid on my lips.
The moment he pulled away I pressed my cheek to his chest, gasping sobs rocking me as he held me in his arms making soothing sounds.
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