Destiny (Experimental Heart Book 1)

by Shannon Pemrick

  He nodded and looked around. “I see many people in the grass. That’s okay to do?”

  “Yes. You’re allowed to go anywhere you wish in the park.”

  “How big is it?”

  “That’s a good question…” I thought about this. “Maybe one and a half square miles? Might be a bit bigger than that.”

  “That’s bigger than I thought it’d be.” He pursed his lips. “How big is Dalatrend exactly?”

  I tapped my lips with a finger. “Um… around three hundred square miles last I knew, but Zane said the city grew in size. Not a city you could walk through in a single day, hence the great use of vehicle transportation.”

  “I didn’t realize you came from such a big place.”

  The two of us came to a bridge arching over a man-made river. Not far off was the lake it fed from. I leaned on the stone railing. “I much prefer the smaller, quieter towns.”

  Raikidan copied my posture. “So, when everything is settled, you plan to leave for good?”

  I nodded. “That’s the plan. We’ll see how well that pans out.”

  “You don’t sound optimistic.”

  I refrained from making a comment, instead choosing to watch some ducks paddle under the stone structure we stood on. There were some things I knew that made me less than optimistic about my future that he didn’t need to know about.

  “If you did leave, where would you go?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “Not sure. Can’t go back to the West Tribe. I guess it doesn’t really matter where I end up since I’d be on my own.”

  “Do you like being alone?”

  “Do you?”

  He was silent for a moment. “No.”

  I grunted. “Well, there’s something that makes us different.”

  He looked at me. “Why do you like being alone so much?”

  I pushed myself away from the rail and walked toward a large fountain a little ways off. “No one can hurt you when you’re alone.”

  “Thought you said you were the one who hurt others?”

  “I do. They hurt me, and I hurt them. Being alone prevents that.”

  “I don’t see how you’ve hurt others.”

  I sighed. “It’s what monsters do. We don’t know how to help. We only know how to hurt.”

  Raikidan gripped my shoulder. “You’re not—”

  I shrugged off his hand. “Don’t say it, Raikidan. You don’t know me—who I used to be. It took me a long time and a lot of work to be the way I am now. You saw last night how easy it is for me to revert. And what you saw, it was only the beginning. For now, all I can do is try my best to keep it chained, and hope a complete relapse won’t happen until people are no longer around to be in its path.”

  Silence fell between us, but inside I was anything but silent. Patchy half-emotions raged within me, each pulsing at different rates and strengths. I hated it. The constant ups and downs I experienced with no way of understanding how to process it all… I wished I could feel properly, like everyone else, or not feel at all. The latter, preferably…

  The two of us walked quite a ways, the gaps in foliage above us scattering speckles of light all along the ground. When we rounded a corner, the path widened, and before us stood a large stone fountain, the center of it a work of art depicting six people: two human men, an elven man, a dwarven man, and two women—one human, the other also appearing human, though her ears looked like that of a dog, much like Ryoko’s. Choreographed jets of water sprouted up from the base of the fountain every few moments and children screeched and played with the water, their parents or guardians supervising.

  “What’s that?” Raikidan asked.

  “It’s a water fountain.” When he showed he didn’t understand, I thought about how to explain it better. “It’s a type of structure that pours water into a basin, pulling the water from the basin it pours into; or jets water into the air from the basin reservoir. Many, like this one, are ornately decorated to enhance the area around it.”

  “Is that the Six Peacekeepers in the middle of it?”

  I nodded. “This fountain is a memorial for what they did for everyone during the War of End.”

  “My mother would tell me stories of them from time to time. Would you be willing to share a human one? I’d like to see if they’re the same.”

  I pursed my lips. I had never thought a story about these iconic figures could ever be different. But it did make me curious. I nodded and found a bench to sit down on, away from the clusters of people, to keep our conversation a bit more private.

  “Long ago, the races of the land lived in peace. They traded, mingled, and life was generally considered good. This peace lasted many millennia. But it wasn’t meant to last forever. Greed and spite spread through their hearts and war broke out. Humans fought the elves. Dwarves fought the wogrons. They even fought among themselves. The only ones to refrain from this fighting were the gypsies, shamans, and druids, and even they struggled when the war reached its peak. It lasted so long, and so many lives were claimed, it was called the War of End.

  “Then, when all thought life would be lost to the chaos, six individuals came together and found a way to end the bloodshed. There was Varro, an elven man who was druid-born and shaman-trained. There was the dwarven man, Assar, and the human man, Raynn. The woman with the doglike ears is the wogron-human hybrid, Ryoko. Lastly, there are the two who had gotten everyone together, Reiki, a female Green dragon, and Pyralis, a male red dragon.”

  I looked up at the fountain. “These individuals were revered all across Lumaraeon, and statues of them were erected all over the land. These six figures soon became known as the Six Peacekeepers, as they not only stopped the war, but they set up a global governing system that would ensure peace would last. Though, in the past few hundred years, that system has deteriorated drastically, and with Lumaraeon once again in turmoil, a potential war with the same devastation is thought to be on the horizon.”

  Raikidan nodded. “For the most part, that story is the same I was told.”

  “I thought it might be. I’ve never heard it told any other way. But your kind is so removed from the other races, it could have been possible.”

  “Can I ask you something else, about another war you mentioned?”

  “The Great War?” I guessed. Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, his lips pressed into a thin line, showing me he wasn’t sure how I guessed correctly. “It was brought up once before, remember? You accepted my simple answer about it so easily, I figured you may have more questions later if it ever came up.”

  He chuckled. “I shouldn’t have expected anything different from you. I’d like to know why that war happened, since you were led to believe we’d gone extinct because of that war.”

  My brow furrowed. “It was a war of humans versus dragons. Humans were said to have prevailed. Do you not know of that war?”

  “Of course, I do. It made it so the red, black, and green dragons were the last remaining colors. I just wanted to know your take on it.”

  “Oh, well what I was told is that humans saw dragons as evil beings for some reason, and they thought it best to eradicate them. My guess this was a lingering opinion from the times of the War of End that grew as the Peacekeeper’s peaceful hold crumbled. This war is the reason we experiments exist in the first place, as they needed soldiers who could hold up against the power dragons wielded.”

  “Do you believe we’re evil?”

  Loaded question… I had to word myself carefully. “I… don’t think any race is inherently good or evil. It depends on what they wish to do with the resources at their disposal and how they treat others around them.”

  Raikidan stared at me. “Have you always believed that way?”

  I nodded. “For the most part, yes. I had always wanted to know if the claims were true, that there could be a race that fell out of my shades-of-gray view, but it was claimed that the last dragon was finally killed about eighty-five years ago, so I never thought I�
�d be able to find that out.”

  Raikidan’s hand clenched his pants tightly. I narrowed my eyes. Something about what I had just said upset him. “Raikidan?”

  He looked at me. “I’m fine.”

  Slowly he looked down at his hand. Realizing what I had done, I quickly pulled my hand off his. I hadn’t consciously made the action. Feeling slightly flustered and confused, I stood up and walked away. I couldn’t be near him. It had been a long time since I had touched someone in that way. And that path… had led to disaster in the end.

  Raikidan ran to catch up with me. “Hey, wait up.”

  Pulling myself together, I slowed my pace.

  “Now that you know me, do you still see my kind the same way as you always had?”

  While grateful he didn’t bring up my behavior, this wasn’t a question I wished to answer. “I want to say yes… but you are only one individual, and I haven’t known you for long. So, I can’t make a proper judgment.”

  “I see.”

  Silence fell between us, which I found unusual. Unless my words upset him in some way, which I highly doubted, he should have been reaming me with questions. Especially after my story retelling.

  “I’d like to understand something,” he said, after a minute or so. “It’s about two of the Peacekeepers.”

  Bingo. “Ryoko and Raynn, yes?”

  “How did you know I was going to ask about them?”

  “Because you’ve already met the Ryoko and Raynn of our time. I knew bringing them up would get through that thick skull of yours.”

  “Our time?”

  I took a deep breath. This was always a doozy to reveal. “The Ryoko and Raynn you’ve met are clones of the two Peacekeepers.”

  He stopped following. “What?”

  “It’s exactly as I said.” I waved him to continue following. “The two Peacekeepers had qualities many looked up to. Raynn was brave, chivalrous, handsome, and exceptionally strong for an ordinary human. Ryoko was even stronger, fierce, and beautiful. Much like you and other halflings, she wasn’t accepted by either side of her blood. No matter how hard she tried, she could never prove herself to them. Any yet, she never let it stop her. People coveted most of these qualities, trying to find ways to obtain them themselves.

  “But after the war, and once the global laws were laid down, they, along with the other Peacekeepers, disappeared. No one could find them. It was if they had never existed at all.” I closed my eyes for a moment as the wind blew gently. “Then, centuries later, Raynn’s remains were found. His grave was found in this very city, his records discovered soon after. After the war, he had led a normal life. He settled down, had a family, and even held a normal job. How he managed to stay so low on the radar perplexed everyone. Even when his descendants were interviewed, they give little away.”

  I took a deep breath. “Many years later, Ryoko’s grave was discovered, though it was hard to get to, due to it being protected by her wogron pack. Not much was found out about her life after the war, beyond knowledge of her attaining full shaman status, and mixed accounts were given about her death. Some claims said she had married and settled down, where more accounts claimed she never found full acceptance. Whatever the case was, she had been buried next to another grave that was too small to be a wogron’s, and written in a dialect of Elvish that is no longer known, even to scholars.

  “The other Peacekeepers were never found, and it’s unknown if anyone is still looking for them, or if anyone is still alive at this point who would have any information about where they’d be located.” I chuckled. “Sorry, I went off on a tangent. Barely any of that had anything to do with what you wanted clarification on.”

  “No, but I don’t mind,” Raikidan said. “I… liked hearing you speak so freely with me.”

  His words made me falter. What is he trying to get at? A connection? That wasn’t happening.

  “Well, anyway, back to Ryoko and Raynn. Our former leader was approached by one of Raynn’s descendants and offered to allow the use of some of his DNA. He thought maybe if a clone of him existed, even an enhanced clone, it’d help bring back the peace his ancestor had created.” I shook my head. “It didn’t work like he’d hoped. The Raynn we know had very few of the qualities of Peacekeeper Raynn, and those that he did share died out over time. It came as no surprise to most. Clones may share the same exact genetic code, but they have a different spirit, a different consciousness. You’ll never get a living person to be a mirror match to another, even with cloning assisting you.”

  Raikidan peered at me. “What about Ryoko? She was made after Zarda took power, right? And you said the wogrons were protective of her grave.”

  My hands clutched into tight fists. “Zarda saw the potential in Ryoko’s DNA, so he took it by force.” Raikidan’s steps faltered, but he kept up. “As you may have expected, the pack wasn’t going to allow him to desecrate her grave, and as a result, the pack’s numbers were decimated. Zarda got what he wanted before he could kill all of them, but to this day they’re still trying to recover.”

  “That’s… terrible.”

  “Do your best not to ask Ryoko too many questions about it. She’s very sensitive to the topic.”

  He nodded. “I promise. I just can’t believe he’d stoop so low as to desecrate a grave. It’s disgusting.”

  “Why do you think I can’t stand Genesis’ necromancy ability? It’s basically the same thing.”

  “I suppose… I never thought of it that way.”

  I sighed quietly. “Not many do.”

  “Hey.” Raikidan grabbed my shoulder and stopped me. He moved to face me and cupped my chin, so I’d look up at him. “Don’t go back into that mood. You shouldn’t be so miserable all the time.”

  I pushed myself away from him. “Don’t touch me like that.”

  “What did I do wrong?” he asked as he reached into my cloak and grabbed my arm.

  I yanked my arm away. “Forget about it.”

  “No, tell me.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” I yelled. “I just… I just don’t want to talk about it…” I held my arms close to my chest and picked up my pace. I didn’t want to be asked about it. That memory hurt far too much.

  “Laz, stop!” Raikidan begged.

  My lip curled. “I told you not to call me that.”

  He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “No one ever does…”

  “I’m not good at this. I’ve never dealt with humans before. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

  “It’s not you, Raikidan. It’s me. You’ve done well. No one suspects anything from you. They truly believe you’re human. Me, on the other hand, I’m human but can barely pass as one. Like I said earlier, it’s best not to get involved with me. There’s no point. I’m just too different to matter.”

  Raikidan grabbed my shoulder again and stopped me from walking. “Yes, you do matter, and yes, you are different, but that’s not a bad thing. Your friends are predictable. The way they speak and act, it’s all very predictable. You, on the other hand, are not. You’re guarded and methodical. You act like a dragon.” I looked at him now. “I don’t know what to do because you act like one of my kind and then turn around in bursts of anger and freak out like a human.”

  I turned away. “Do what everyone else does. Just leave me to myself.”

  He chuckled. “If I did that, I wouldn’t learn how to deal with you.”

  I smiled, despite myself, his comment lifting my mood. “You’re so weird. I throw something at you and you just roll over.” I shook my head. “Why are you really here, Rai? You put up with too much from me and our cause for your sole motive to be craving the power that comes from my revenge. What are you really gaining from this?”

  “I have my reasons, I told you that.”

  I sighed. Looked like I wasn’t going to get that answer for some time. Definitely meant I couldn’t trust him. “C’mon. We need to head to the T
emple if we want to be back at the house by dark.”

  “What is this ‘Temple’ you keep talking about?”

  “It’s a giant, multi-shrine building dedicated to the gods.”

  “What?”

  Interesting. Even if they didn’t have temples, I would have thought even dragons had small shrines. I motioned him to follow. “You’ll see.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We walked up the large stone steps of the giant temple. Quietly we made our way through the enormous archway entrance and moved through the spacious building filled with statues and pillars, aware of all the civilians and priests clustered about in prayer.

  “This place is huge,” Raikidan said as he gazed around. “Humans made this just to show their respect to the gods?”

  I nodded. “The gods are very important to us. More effort had been placed into making this temple than any other building in the city. Well, except Zarda’s castle.”

  “I guess that’s one way to show how much you like them.”

  “Many people have small shrines at their homes too”—I chuckled—“but we as a species like to show off a little too much.” He chuckled as well. “Based on how you’re reacting to all this, I guess dragons don’t go this far? Not even something small, like a shrine?”

  He shook his head. “They’re important to us, but it’s a private matter to us dragons.”

  I quite liked that, actually. “Humans could learn a thing or two from you.”

  Raikidan looked around. “How many statues are in here?”

  I smiled. “One for every god. Or close to it.”

  Raikidan looked up at one statue. It was of a man with short hair wearing metal armor that matched the armor from ancient warriors found in library texts, with a large great sword strapped to his back. “Even Nazir, I see.”

  I looked up at the statue. “Some say he’s misunderstood. That he’s not an evil god, and death and corruption are a natural part of life. But I don’t agree with that. The kind of death and corruption he spreads, and the types of deals he offers people, are too suspect for him to be labeled ‘good.’”