by Alex Sapegin
The humans brought to Nelita multiplied and multiplied. A thousand years passed and their population squeezed that of the elves and the Miur, who for the time being paid no attention to the newcomers. And then it was too late. The humans developed at a frantic pace; their life was a bright fleeting flame against the background of the dim fires of long-lived ones.
In one generation, they managed to learn more than the elves. The humans were doing their very best to catch up with the ancient races. For a long time, the dragons did not pay attention to the bustle down below. They even used unfortunate humans for their experiments. By agreement with the human chiefs, the bipeds would hand over their renegades and criminals to the heavenly monsters. But life does not stand still. The human population grew; they formed governments and states and demanded recognition. The dragons, recovering from their slumber, realized that the genie released from the bottle could not be tamed. Human rulers did not recognize their authority. It was only the fear of the winged monsters’ power that kept them within the boundaries outlined by the dragons, but that could not continue for long.
The first to react to the risk posed to the winged tribe by the mass of humans was Rastigar, head of the “crystal” clan. He called a council that had not been gathered for more than five hundred years, and there he outlined the prospects of a gloomy future for his fellow tribesmen. Rastigar emphasized the fact that the dragons had moved away from the sciences, giving them up to the Miur, while they themselves plunged into the passions of humans and elves.
After the explosion of an interstellar portal, which destroyed the whole city and caused the deaths of most of the scientists, nothing new came out from under the dragons’ wings. What possibly could? They still hadn’t restored the secret of building interplanetary portals. Society was in stagnation, or, more honestly named, degradation. Even in their home lands, the dragons felt the push from humans and elves. At the university, every other teacher was wingless. There was an urgent need to take the process into their own hands (or in this case, paws).
The Lords of the Sky seriously thought. A hot controversy broke out among the council. Once again, Rastigar came forward, proposing not to break the established world order, but to lead it. He suggested they act based on the example that had been tested on Ilanta, wherein the dragons still closely guarded the elves and the northern human state. It would be the same game for humans and elves, only now the dragons would set the rules. The Council approved Rastigar as the head of this new undertaking, and Rastigar, during all the hustle and bustle of planning, craftily snuck in a clause on direct inheritance of the important post. He was old and was taking care of his chicks: Jatigar and Hazgar.
Several decades passed during the period of intense preparatory work, after which the Lords of the Sky entered the political arena. The humans were horrified to discover that they were ruled by dragons, thousands of them lived among them and the elves. But their passions gradually subsided and the bipeds quickly became accustomed to the primacy of the dragons.
The aged Rastigar left his eldest son in control and retired. Jatigar, whose reign is now called “golden,” gradually transformed the council into an advisory-legislative body, depriving himself of real power, and took the title of emperor. The elderly dragon ruled wisely. During his reign, science was again developed, and training centers were built. On Ilanta, a whole scientific complex was formed, which gathered within its walls the promising dragon youth and a large number of true bloods. He created a stable state system, balancing the interests of all sides and leaving the Lord of the Skies in the lead.
Behind Jatigar, the shadow of his younger brother always loomed. Jatigar’s son perished while exploring other worlds; he never returned from a world without magic. The artifacts with mana reserves he took with him could not provide for the way back. Vatigar dissolved into the astral. Nuirra, his daughter, changed her clan and moved to Ilanta, refusing her inheritance (not without the help of her “kind” uncle). She did not want to bother with people, preferring the life of an ordinary dragoness. Hazgar, who now stood to inherit, was power-hungry. He rubbed his paws together greedily, but then the decrepit old emperor suddenly had another daughter, who was declared the official heiress and presented to the people subordinate to the emperor. The direct line must not be interrupted. So Jagirra, without knowing it, blocked her uncle’s way to power. Dragons make a huge hullabaloo over all the dragonlings; the birth of a child is always a joy for them. But Hazgar, according to the Miur, had been in the human hypostasis for too long. Irreversible changes occurred in his psyche; his brother’s daughter did not cause him any feelings other than disgust and hatred.
Desperate to gain the throne on legal grounds, Hazgar went a roundabout way. His plans included not only the throne of the empire. The dragon thought bigger. Power over one, albeit very large country, did not suit the ambitious and power-hungry dragon. A grandiose plan was born in his furious mind.
For more than a hundred years, Hazgar carefully warmed the ambitions of the Forest Lordships on Ilanta. Dozens of elves swore an oath on him and acted as guides to the interests of the secret puppeteer. Crashing and burning with the Rauu and the Ariates, he achieved his goal under the shadow of the Mellornys. The Forest Elves became burdened by dependence on the true bloods and dragons, who did not understand anything in their life. After all, many dragons who moved to the heavenly neighbor did not accept new trends, preferring to live the ancient way. They rejected the fashion of a second hypostasis. The true bloods could still be tolerated. Their strength was enormous, but it would be better if they continued to study science and did not meddle in the affairs of the Forest Lordships. In his home world, Hazgar successfully subjugated several clans, binding their members to himself by magical oaths.
The long line of intrigues bore fruit. The Lords of the Sky themselves did not understand how they came to be dependent on him, while the motley crew of “idiots” on Ilanta maintained loyalty to the ruling emperor and threatened to hinder the grandiose plans of the crowned ruler’s brother, thereby signing their own death warrant. The true bloods, as the most dangerous enemies, had to be eliminated first.
Hazgar bought the top layer of Forest Elves, promising them the sky. His secret agents brought to the Forest Lordships information that the true bloods had found a way to bypass the ritual and painlessly turn elves into dragons. To give these words credibility, a whole performance was played out before the rulers, where a dragon agent portrayed himself as an elf over whom a new ritual was performed. The “woodies” bought it.
The next step was to help his brother meet his doom and organize an attack on his niece. The frightened girl, swallowing tears, herself flew at him in search of help and shelter….
Asha, or rather the Great Mother, who was ruling at that time and knew Jagirra, did not know the reasons for the death of the old emperor, but was very concerned about the disappearance of the heiress. The Miur could not get to the bottom of the causes of the attacks on Jagirra. She did not believe in the clues left by the criminals which pointed to the heavenly neighbor. Why would the dragons of another world want to kill the young empress? Various rumors spread throughout the country. Hazgar, appointed as the ruler of the empire, sent hundreds of agents to search for the niece who had fled from the crown, announcing a substantial reward for the finder.
On Ilanta, terrible things were happening. No one knew for sure, but according to rumors, many of the true bloods were killed there. Unbelievable, how could that possibly happen at all? The young green dragon Nedagar could have told about it. He took a blood oath and fulfilled the will of his lord. He carried poison to the feast, after which several Forest Elves who’d been brainwashed, being under the mental control of the secret puppet master, chopped off the true bloods’ heads while they were asleep. The trap slammed shut. The Rauu and the Ariates, who received anonymous information, rushed to the rescue and chopped up the righteous and the guilty alike. The responsible parties fell under the swords o
f the dragons’ followers. Many Forest Elves and their children wound up dead, for whom the blood-drenched hall was a complete shock. The real traces were swept away; all the evidence pointed to the Forest Lordships. They, led by righteous anger and a thirst for vengeance, readied their forest army for battle. They were joined by the King of Mestair, who, among others, lost a couple of sons at the feast. The second act of the terrible play was played out strictly according to the script. The various branches of the elves, humans, and dragons clashed; the survivors of the true bloods searched for the murderers, whose bones had long ago turned into ashes.
Everything went perfectly, except that the girl was able to escape from his vigilant care. Jagirra was no longer a threat; she would never again become a dragon, but the little witch managed to get to the Miur. At the very last moment, a detachment of dragons faithful to Hazgar overtook the fighting pride of the cat people as they accompanied the disgraced heiress. In the ensuing short battle, the Miur killed everyone, but the little jerk again slipped away. The thread of Jagirra’s fate was lost for a long three thousand years. The Great Mother did not know that some of the pride warriors, at the cost of their own lives, gave the Empress the necessary time to get to the interplanetary portal….
News from the mother planet made its way to the surviving true bloods on Ilanta, who immediately stopped searching for the alleged killers. The dragons managed to come to the right conclusions.
Realizing that his plans could go wrong, Hazgar gave the command to implement a back-up option while it still fit into the conceived model. The self-made emperor knew the psychology of his native species, and they, as Andy now knew, were just as he expected. A large group of elves set out to visit their neighboring planet several hours ahead of the true bloods that later arrived on Nelita from Ilanta. They were a mental leash held by a pair of magicians. The dragons sent with them, who did not know the goals and tasks of the pointy-eared squad, carried them to the mountains, hiding them from Rauu patrol posts. Hazgar did not learn the results of the diversion. The “guests” from Ilanta, ruining a grandiose plan to capture the whole world, sealed the interplanetary portals.
Andy shuddered. “Grandfather” expected that the dragons who lost their families would go insane and destroy the Mellorny forests along with their inhabitants. Indeed, he himself was a…, no, Andy could not call that monster a dragon. Oh yes, Hazgar was not mistaken neither in his assessment of his fellow tribesmen, nor in his evaluation of their actions. He planned everything accurately. According to the plan, there should not have been Mellorny forests or dragons left on Ilanta. A world without magic was a ripe apple, ready to fall into the hands of someone who possessed magic and portals. A whole world at the feet of one master! Myriad subjugated people, who could be turned into terrible fighters, would sweep away all those who did not submit on Nelita and then begin expansion into other worlds. That vile cur Jagirra, to ruin such wonderful plans!!! It remained to hope that the murderers sent on her trail found her. Pity no one could bring the glad tidings.
The discord that began after the arrival of the interplanetary guests put an end to the ancient state and grandiose plans. The former governors of the suburbs declared themselves princes and formed the Alliance. They did not care about the deceased empress; they hadn’t sworn an oath to her. The princess fell victim to human vices. They tasted power and sought to keep it in their paws. Prince Ora was one of the few who questioned the goals of a new war and for a long time kept aloof, but the fiery turmoil eventually reached him. The prince believed his fellow tribesmen that Hazgar was behind the whole mess, but he dismissed all the idle stories about Jagirra. A dragon could not lift his paw against his own blood! It was impossible!!!
The new emperor, who controlled many clans, managed to retain power and defeat the armies of the Alliance. He clashed with the cat people, whom he eventually drove to the mountains. Hazgar did not forget who helped his niece. Not a single Miur remained in the territory of the empire that fell to him. All the villages were burned to the ground.
The Great Mothers of the Miur, the most secluded race of the old world, believed that the young empress remained alive, hoping that she would return someday. But centuries and millennia passed. The wars between the Celestial Empire and the other states faded and then flared up with renewed vigor. The pretender who had seized power constantly expanded the boundaries of his lands, but there was no word of Jagirra. The clan of “crystal,” which bore the family coat of arms, now the imperial coat of arms, was reduced to two dragons—Hazgar and his son.
One day, at the fifth outer gates of the city, a messenger from a free elf village appeared (the very same elvish village where Evael was chief). The elf was taken to the Miur in charge of the upper lands, Gella, but he refused to speak to her, insisting on a personal meeting with the ruler. When he was pointed to the gate in a rather polite manner, he asked Gella to give the Great Mother an information crystal sealed with a secret code known only to a certain few.
Gella then detained the elf magician and took all measures to get the crystal to its destination. She realized that the information was of particular importance; otherwise, the village magician would not have made himself out to be on a death mission, trying the patience of the cats and wishing to commit suicide in such an exotic way. She surmised that the crystal could be somehow connected to the Prince of Ora’s secret ambassador, who had visited the Great Mother five fivers ago. It was unheard of, but the ruler had received the ambassador. After their conversation, the guards on the Miur’s southern border posts with the Principality of Ora seemed to have gone blind. Caravans of smugglers passed them without any obstacles. Gella was mistaken: the crystal was not associated with the secret ambassador from Ora. But the elf magician was immediately summoned upstairs.
Several prides of “shadows” were sent out, reinforced by magicians and the latest armor and weapons.
The information given by the chief of the free Elvish settlement excited Asha and her daughters for real. The old elf claimed to have seen the imperial coat of arms on the shoulder of a single shkas, who was actually a dragon. He then described the tattoo and said many quite incomprehensible things. Evael reported that the mysterious shkas was a fugitive from the dugaria and was not at all oriented to his surroundings, but that he remembered High. And the language of dragons in its archaic form, which only the high society of dragons spoke. The shkas learned Common quickly, and, according to the observations of experienced mages, his ability to learn was not in any way hindered by the tree-chimera. Evael told a lot more, including the coat of arms bearer’s crazy reactions to things and the new methods of fencing he showed them. At the end of the recording, he added that the daughter of Prince Ora was at the settlement and was keenly interested in contacts with Miur. The shkas, who at their first meeting called himself Kerrovitarr and who absolutely did not understand what was so strange in his name and why the elf did not recommend calling himself that, joined the princess’ virk as a voluntary assistant, not included in the general detachment.
What was this? It was extremely incomprehensible. It wasn’t at all like the games of the prince or the emperor, but the name? What dragon would call himself that? It’s directly spitting at the celestial throne. A lot of assumptions were put forward at the Great Mother’s meeting with her daughters, but the most realistic one was that the shkas could be the son of someone from the Crystal clan, perhaps Nuirra, and the tattoo was drawn on him before his mother’s clan was replaced.
They knew that Nuirra had two sons and a daughter. True, they did not have the right to the throne because of their mother’s refusal to inherit, but Hazgar could very well have put the unwanted individuals in the dugaria. On the other hand, Nuirra moved to Ilanta. How could her son be on the mother’s planet? How did he slip past the imperial and princely astals? It was necessary to check everything in detail. Maybe they were mistaken and the bearer of the coat of arms was a clever bait by the emperor. The version about Jagirra being h
is mother was, for some reason, not considered….
The “shadows,” once they discovered the princess’ virk, installed a round-the-clock surveillance with the help of birds. The results obtained gave rise to more questions than answers. Kerrovitarr’s behavior did not fit into any model. He skillfully concealed the fact that he was a dragon, but still, through the numerous masks he wore, something alien, not connected with modern dragons, broke through. The songs by the fire? No one knew these songs; the music performed on the tair differed from anything they’d heard before. Judging by the conversations he overheard, Kerrovitarr guessed that Ilirra was not a real princess. The Great Mother knew about the virk. She and the ambassador discussed this topic in detail. The prince’s daughter had an excellent disguise, but the shkas was not always with the detachment and therefore did not discover the real princess. But the conclusions he made based on stingy data were astonishing. Somehow, the Imperialists sniffed out the virk and launched magical creatures into the miur’s lands—vogrs. The Miur decided to drive the vogrs right up to the detachment using magical controllers. The Great Mother wanted to make sure that all this was not a set up. How would the animals behave, guided by magicians through special artifacts? How would the members of the detachment behave? To the cat woman’s surprise, the shkas was able to destroy two magical monsters with minimal effort.
Asha decided to meet him personally.
* * *
The Great Mother opened her eyes and looked at the dragon bending over her.
“So you’ve discovered the secret of the Great Mothers. What are you going to do with it?”
“Take it to my grave,” Kerrovitarr replied calmly.
“I believe you.”
Kerr smiled; the smile turned out ambiguous:
“Of course, we know so much about each other now….”