Season of the Dragon, page 36
We have avenged you, Pahpi.
Chapter 26
Nascent
Nascent. It had been over three thousand years since Ishna was born. Aware but imprisoned in the formless existence of Vay’Nada, Ishna had almost given up hope of experiencing life again. Yet here she was, glorious sun on her scales, Juka’s breath rippling through her hair and filling her lungs. She longed to fly with her dragon-kin, dance in the sea and air together, laugh, and share stories.
Soon, my brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, cousins and friends. A dragon reunion must wait. I have business to attend to on behalf of my human heart.
Feeding her bottomless hunger could also wait, but she could kill two birds with one stone. The Dragos Sol’iberi had starved Quen. Only fitting they should now feed the Winter Dragon.
Ishna would have liked to dine on their flesh for days, filling out her muscle and bone. But she needed some of the Dragos Sol’iberi to live. She wasn’t yet ready for her trials with Vahgrin. Until she was, the remaining Dragos Sol’iberi would keep Vahgrin where Ishna knew she could find him.
She gobbled up a half-dozen Rajani and froze several dozen more. By the time Ishna landed in the courtyard, Nevara was already melting. The Rajani’s body seeped into the soil of Volenex. Menauld take you.
The remaining Dragos Sol’iberi scattered from the courtyard in every direction, some running, others taking to wing and headed to the Lenxofré geyser fields to the northwest. Forgotten by the fleeing cult, Aldewin and Nivi stood where they’d witnessed Ishna’s rebirth. Aldewin leaned on his staff, his chin covered in stubble, deep hollows beneath his red-rimmed eyes. A lone glistening tear shone on his cheek.
With grace belying her massive body, Ishna landed. She wiped Aldewin’s tear with the pad of her taloned finger. She’d lived with claws for many millennia and was adept at using them to both rip and soothe.
Aldewin turned his face up to her, his words choked. “Your eyes. They are the same.” He smiled. “One clear-sky blue. One amber yellow.”
Ishna nuzzled him against the snowy-white fur of her beard. With his ear against her chest, he could hear the double thump of her two hearts. Though Aldewin spoke neither the ancient dragon language nor Rajani tongue, he knew the eons-old language used in the Pillars. The language of Vaya di Menaris. Though Ishna had difficulty forming some words, she tried to speak the language of the Pillars as best she could.
“Be easy, Aldewin.” Ishna’s vowel sounds stretched, and her dragon tongue added clicks. “Quen lives in me.”
Aldewin wept into her fur, his tears silent, his shoulders heaving. “I know. It’s just….”
Nivi roared. He was not frightened, but his eyes drooped.
Ishna put a knuckle under Nivi’s chin and ruffled his fur. The giant cat’s chest rumbled a contented purr.
“Are you ready to leave Volenex?” Ishna asked.
Aldewin wiped his face and stowed his staff. “I don’t want to smell this place again.”
Ishna knelt, her belly skimming the stones. Aldewin understood. He grabbed a bit of her hair, pulled himself onto her back, just behind her horns, and wrapped his arms around her.
“What of Nivi? We cannot leave him.”
“Worry not, Aldewin.”
Ishna scooped the giant tiger in her great talons, careful not to squeeze too hard. They soared high, clearing the inner caldera and its chaos. Up and up she flew, the water below glistening like black jewels.
The air ahead shimmered with heat, and the air smelled of sky-fire. Ishna cared for Vay’Nada no more than Quen did. She’d spent far too much time in its icy chasm. But opening the door to the Shadow’s realm was necessary to travel with haste.
“Brace for the Void.”
Aldewin gripped more tightly, and Nivi’s muscles tensed beneath her talons.
Within Ishna, a whisper. The faintest hint of thought, but not Ishna’s. I thought opening doors to Vay’Nada was a Rajani power.
Ishna laughed at the thought. You saw what you wanted to see, dearest Quen. Or perhaps believed what she feared to know. It was the dragon within you who knew how to travel the Void. Rajani have no such power.
Ahead, a clear blue sky of the province of Quen’s birth and a vast, temperate forest below. The sky cracked, and a thunderous boom shook Menauld. Then Vay’Nada was a memory.
At their backs, the splendorous peaks of TasūZaj, the Roof of the World. But they’d landed on the western side of the range, not the eastern. The Brothers’ light reflected off the glaciers on the highest peaks, sparkling in the midday light. The dense Dajianta Forest spread before them for many leagues. Once through the forest, Aldewin and Nivi still had to journey through farmland and vineyards before reaching Bardivia, the city-state of Quen’s birth. Ishna could not risk getting them closer. She had made a promise to Quen, and she intended to keep it. To keep Quen’s loved ones and the people of Indrasi safe, Ishna needed to stay away from them. Confrontation between people and dragons always ended in tragedy. The way it has always been.
She released Nivi into the lush grass of the meadow. No longer trapped in Ishna’s grasp, Nivi roared his appreciation.
Ishna knelt, and Aldewin slid from her back. He teetered on shaky legs, his face the color of a pale moon. “I hope never to do that again.”
Ishna smiled and nodded once. Her movements were slow and meant to reassure. She blinked and her long eyelashes fluttered. Ishna scooped her neck, and her great forehead met Aldewin’s. His heart quivered, maybe in panic, perhaps excitement. She did not know.
“We will see each other again.”
Aldewin nodded. Gone was the nervous quaver in his voice. “I know.” He smiled up at her. “Be well, Ishna. And take care of Quen.”
She nodded then pointed her snout northwest. Bardivia was a problematic word for her to pronounce, containing ‘b’ and ‘d,’ two of the most challenging letters for her dragon mouth to say. Instead, she said, “Rhoji.”
He got her meaning. Aldewin clasped the amber pendant, his eyes misting with tears again. “I will find him, Ishna. And give him this, as Quen asked of me.” Nivi nuzzled Aldewin’s other hand, reminding him of his promise to care for the great cat. Aldewin chuckled. “Yes, yes, and you will come too.” Aldewin ruffled Nivi’s mane. “It will be a glorious adventure, my friend. We’ll meet up with our pod. After being in Volenex, I’m even looking forward to seeing Mishny.” He laughed.
Ishna laughed too, her chuckle a low rumble interspersed with tongue clicks.
“Where will you go, Ishna? If you remain in Indrasi, I fear you will not be safe. The Exalted plans to yoke as many dragons as possible to match the threat from the Dragos Sol’iberi control of Vahgrin. Are there others like him? That breathe fire, I mean?”
Ishna nodded. She looked north toward the highest peaks of TasūZaj, where she once lived. So long ago. She could hide in the mountains, slumbering in the ice. Her eternal heart would keep her alive while men waged war and eons passed.
Because humans could not long withstand the thin air on TasūZaj’s highest peaks, she’d be safe from people there. But even hibernation on the highest peak wouldn’t prevent danger from other dragons. Vahgrin took advantage of her slumber once before. Worse still, now that she was fully awake, her dragon-kin would rise. I need to protect them, too.
She closed her eyes and listened, not just with her ears, but with the inner ear of knowing. Her feet to the ground, Menauld beneath her whispered knowledge of all the world. They wake, and it is up to me to protect them from humans. And to protect Quen’s human family from my dragon-kin.
“Tinox,” she said at last. “Bídea.”
Aldewin tilted his head. “My homeland. That’s an odd place to go.” He rubbed his chin, his brows furrowed. Then a look of understanding. “Or is it?” He nodded. “Yes, I see now. Yes, to Tinox.” He smiled and slapped his thigh. “By gosh, the Bídean Islands. Brilliant.” His eyes shone with mirth. “Of course it’s brilliant. I mean, you are, what, several thousand years old.” He laughed. “My soul’s mate, older than civilization.”
Ishna laughed, too, and nuzzled his shoulder with her broad nose.
From the mountains behind, a thunderous call shook the ground. And in a range beyond human hearing, a second tone. A lament.
“They awake,” Ishna said.
“The dragons?”
Ishna nodded. “I must go.” She peered north, and though her eyesight was keen, she couldn’t yet see the dragon who called. She sensed the life-force of an ancient dragon. Naja. Not primal, but no babe either. A winter dragon as well. At home in frigid weather and snowy peaks, this dragon-kin had slumbered amidst the glacial peaks of TasūZaj. I will take you home, she thought to it.
Aldewin nuzzled her downy neck one last time. “Goodbye, Ishna. Tell Quen I love her, even as a dragon.”
The space between Ishna’s eyes buzzed, not unpleasantly, but insistently. “She knows,” Ishna said. “Menaris made us, Aldewin. Menaris will separate us.”
She knew Aldewin longed for her to remain by his side, but the frozen north called to her, and her dragon-kin needed her guidance. The ground rumbled with their awakening. I wonder if Aldewin and Nivi feel it? Menauld carried their rhythm to her, and it synced with the beat of her heart so well she couldn’t distinguish between them. The rolling rumble grew more insistent, tugging like an invisible rope pulling her to the sky, urging her to fly.
Ishna thrust her neck up, opened her mouth wide, and sent a plea to the skies. Her voice shook the ground and filled the air with thunder. She swirled above Aldewin and Nivi.
Aldewin waved and shouted, “Goodbye, Quen Tomo Santu di Sulmére.” He put two fingers to his heart and lips and then made a crescent sign on his forehead. “May you walk always in the light of the Brothers and know the Sister’s loving embrace.”
Ishna shook her body, sending a light shower of iridescent scales to the ground around Aldewin and Nivi. It was all she had to give him to remember her by.
Aldewin picked one up, and it changed colors as he moved it. His voice was low, a whisper only a dragon could hear. “Be at peace, sol’dishi.”
Ishna flew toward the dragon’s call. Another cry, this one a mournful lament. Ishna returned the call and spoke in the dragon tongue. “To me.”
On the horizon, a small roan-colored dragon flapped her tiny wings, circling up and into the dragon spiral.
From behind and near the sea, another dragon called. Its voice warbled, making its way from the sea bottom through the waves.
A third, then a tenth, and soon more voices than Ishna could count. She answered them all. “To me, to me.”
At first, a half-dozen dragons circled the skies, scales shimmering in most every color. Their wings flapped, creating a wind even Juka couldn’t control. There, a brilliant green dragon, black scales upright on his back. His eyes shone red, and Ishna remembered him, even after a thousand-year sleep.
“Owaanir!” Ishna cried. My friend, how I’ve missed you.
A smaller black dragon flew behind, her scales matte black and smooth, pale-green eyes like mossy pools. Côzhili. Ishna called to Owaanir and Côzhili, and their return cries gladdened her heart. We will have ample time for reacquaintances.
Ishna kept her gaze ahead, not behind. Though her heart swelled with love for the long-lost family she was meeting again, Quen was part of her now. And Ishna feared if she looked back, Quen’s heart would break. Instead, Ishna focused on the sky and the growing throng of circling dragons.
Several leagues away, in a massive cave, Niezhan, a great yellow-eyed white dragon had buried himself to await the Awakening. Now, Niezhan pecked his grave’s ceiling, eager to breathe fresh air once again and bask in sunlight. Light spilled into the cave coffin, the first light he’d known in millennia, and it urged him on. He drove upward with all his strength, willing himself to be free. Ishna’s primal call was intoxicating to him, like the primordial chord of life itself. Niezhan pushed his sleek-scaled head from the burial chamber.
His piercing call was so loud it shook the village’s houses near his burrow. On the road, villagers gaped as Niezhan soared, casting a dark shadow over the village. Desperate to once again be with his own kind, Niezhan strained and pulled strength directly from Menauld. It was a dragos trick Ishna had taught him while he was still a youth. “Ishna, old friend, I am coming.” Niezhan’s voice shook the villager’s houses, and made the people tremble.
In a grass-covered mount at the base of the mountains, villagers had buried alive twin dragons. Shackled to a thick post and left to rot, the dragons not only weren’t dead, but hadn’t decayed. Men know not the ways of dragons. The dragons hibernated while metal and wood deteriorated year after year, melting eventually like a snowball in the Sulmére. For creatures that can live tens of thousands of years, dragons don’t dread a thousand in hibernation. The twins with scales of blue and green shut themselves down. “We will wait,” one had said to the other. They’d slumbered in a world of dreams, waiting for the Awakening.
Ishna called again, and it awakened the twins. First, Liejala, a dappled blue drowsily blinked open an emerald-colored eye. Liejala’s voice was dry and crackly like dried reeds in an arid wind. Her sister opened her eyes the color of deep pools of water.
“It is time,” Liejala said.
The chains meant to bind had long ago rusted, and the twin dragons easily broke free of their bindings. They clawed their way out of the mound, their scales once brilliant and shining, now dull and covered in mud. They were initially slow and ambling, using the dewclaws on the aft side of their wings to dig into the soil. Like Niezhan, their pace quickened once they saw first light. Their frenzied wings flapped away the last remnants of the barrow’s ceiling, and with a powerful surge, they pushed through and took to the sky.
In caves now buried in shallow waters along the coasts, dragons clawed and pecked their way out of the water. Flapping wings created wind. Their barrows and caves crumbled as if caught in a land quake. Their calls drove fear into the hearts of the peoples of the realm. Humans didn’t know what the loud thunderous roars and screeches meant. They worried about dragon fire burning their villages and feared for their lives.
Ishna soared higher and higher. She joined the fray of circling dragons and spiraled through the center of them like a mighty wind. Higher and higher and higher still, wind sleeking back her silvery-white hair.
She called again, a great bellow shaking air and land. A thunderous roar shook Menauld as dragons from across the realm answered her sonorous call.
It was time to leave this land, the only one Quen had known. Time to lead Ishna’s large family to a more hospitable place. To the realm where human magic, Menaris, had been born. A place where people respected magical creatures and dragons, not feared them. They would cross the Orju Sea and seek the land of primordial dreams.
Higher and higher into Juka’s realm, they climbed. Below, the world was a lifeless mass of land and water. Distance and time obliterated human dramas. The mountains reverberated with Ishna’s last cry to the land and people Quen had known. A song of respect for the person Quen had been and for the loves she’d made—and lost. Other dragons added their laments to hers until they filled the air with wails of sorrow and regret. It was their way to mourn and leave these sadnesses in the land of their nascence.
Before long, thermals rose from the Sulmére’s scorching sands. They’d coast on these winds, Juka’s gift, and soon meet the eastern sea. Ishna smiled and pressed forward. A new Dragos Teplo had begun. I am going home.
The End of Book 1
APPENDIX
Dramatis Personae
(in alphabetical order)
Aldewin di Partha (AHL-doo-win)
Anu’Bida di Māja Wix (AH-noo BEE-dah dee MAZH-ah WIX)
Caz
Dini (DEE-nee)
Druvna (DROOV-nah)
Eira Nathisen di Suab’hora (EYE-rah)
Hrabke (HRAHB-kee), Prelate of Val’Enara
Imbica di Tikli (im-bee-KAH)
Ishna, The Winter Dragon
Kine, Archon of Val’Enara
Liodhan Tomo di Jima (lee-oh-DAHN)
Lumina Zarate di Jima
Luz
Mishny di Sulmére
Nevara (neh-VAR-ah)
Nivi (nee-vee)
Pelagia (peh-LAY-zhi-ah), Mistress of the Menagerie
Quen Tomo Santu di Sulmére
Rhoji Tomo Santu di Sulmére
Santu Inzo Dakon di Sulmére (SAN-too IN-zoh DAY-kahn)
(aka Pahpi (PAH-pee), formerly Ser Santu Inzo Dakon di Vindaô)
Shel di Suab’hora
Tomo Suliam Vindiére di Vindaô (TOH-moh SOO-lee-yahm)
Vahgrin (VAH-grin), The Summer Dragon
Vidar, Prelate of Val’Vatra
Xa’Vatra (ZHAH-vah-tra), Exulted of Indrasi
Zarate Kareth di Jima
Glossary of Terms
Altair (ALL-tare): Archon of Val’Qüira. He coined the term Doj’Anira (see Doj’Anira entry.)
Archon (AR-kahn): Spiritual leader of a Pillar.
Ascended: The designation after Rising at the Pillars.
Atyro (ah-TYRE-oh): A neophyte in the Drago Sol’iberi at Volenex, they are Nixan girls that have not yet had their first Promena (see entry for Promena).
Badi (BAH-dee): A word for father, especially in reference to the “Great Father,” the masculine aspect of the Creator godhead.
Bardivia (bar-DIV-ee-ah): A prosperous city-state and capital of Vindaô Province.
Béanju River (bay-AN-joo): River that creates border between Sulmére and Tikli Provinces.
Besha di Tikli (BESH-ah dee TEEK-lee): Trader that carts wool and leather from southern provinces to the capital.
Bídean Archipelago (BEE-day-ahn): Archipelago of islands to the northwest of the continent Tinox.
