When Dragons Die- The Complete Trilogy Box Set

by K. Scott Lewis

  “I will not hold you here,” she told them. “But I would greatly like to speak to someone who says the name Valkrage as if they met the man in person.”

  Tiberan hesitated. “We’re intending to travel into the wastes,” he stated. “I have no more use for the world’s problems.”

  “And the girl?”

  “I’m not a girl,” Keira muttered.

  “She seeks to follow me into seclusion, although I am not sure why.” Then he added, “She has lost her family.”

  “I will pay your room and board tonight if you would stay and dine with me,” Tallindra offered. “I will give you supplies for your journey and will not hinder your way. In return, I ask to hear what news you know from the south.”

  “There’s more, Lady Tallindra,” Rolaf added. “One of our hunting parties met their end on the plains today. These travelers came to warn us of troglodytes.”

  “Then it’s doubly important to me we speak together,” the high elf woman reiterated. “Take me to where they died.”

  Tiberan nodded, finally conceding. Now that they had met, any earlier chance to escape her notice was gone.

  He took the elven wizard back to the sinkhole, and she surveyed the bloodied soil in silence. She reached into one of her pockets and withdrew a feather, a cinnamon stick, and a small bag of dried leaves. While rubbing them together, she spoke words that Tiberan could not understand. He tensed at her use of magic but held himself steady.

  She opened her palms to the sky. The bundle burst into flame in her hands and quickly reduced to smoky ash. The smoke gathered in a ball, rising above her hands until the wind caught it. It released its outer motes of dust to the wind, slowly dissolving in size as the rushing air scattered it over the ground.

  She continued to study the ground in silence, seeing things only she could see.

  Finally, she turned to Tiberan. “You are right,” she said. “Troglodytes. The tunnels below us lead all the way to the Ice Mountains. The servants of Klrain are stirring, and that is not a good sign. I’m not sure north will take you from the world’s problems.”

  He considered her words. In that moment, his heart was not conflicted. It wasn’t the world he was running from. Even from Aradma, he wasn’t truly running. Just withdrawing until his heart settled. But if troglodytes moved north, they needed to be watched.

  They needed to be hunted.

  “I intend to follow them,” he told her. “You are right. If they have left the Underworld for the surface that they detest… something is driving them. There is a dark purpose that guides them.”

  “But Klrain is dead,” Keira said.

  “The Black Dragon is not the only force for evil in the world,” Tiberan replied, “and there are many dark things in Ahmbren’s depths.”

  “Come,” Tallindra said. “It is getting late. Let us return to the town for dinner.”

  * * *

  Keira sat beside Tiberan at the wooden table in the saloon’s common room. The long table was served by two benches. Ghost lay down behind them, and every once in a while his tail flicked the small of her back.

  Keira felt so short sitting next to Tiberan in her human form. She barely came up to his chest. The elf was nothing like she remembered as a child. He had been warm and accepting and had helped return her brother Arlen to their family when he was lost. The man who sat beside her now was distant and reserved.

  Rolaf brought a finely carved dining chair with dainty legs and a spindly back and placed it at the head of the table for Tallindra. At her order, he brought forth a bottle of wine.

  “Ice wine,” she indicated as he poured the white wine into thin glasses for all of them. “From my people in Sirindle.”

  “Where is that?” Keira asked.

  “Home of the Frost Court, and one of the few remaining sidhe cities from the old Imperium,” she said. “It’s far to the west of here, deep within Icecap Forest.”

  “We’re at the edge of Icecap Forest,” Keira remarked.

  “The forest spans a thousand miles,” Tallindra replied.

  Tiberan raised his glass and sipped at it, thoughtfully working his jaw as he let it sit on his tongue for a moment before swallowing.

  Keira took hers and put the glass to her lips. Bursting sweetness filled her mouth, so intense it shocked her.

  Tallindra continued. “I’m glad you thought to warn us,” she said. “I will send word to Sirindle. Now, tell me. How is it you knew Valkrage?”

  “Only briefly,” Tiberan replied.

  “I’m told he died in Artalon.”

  Tiberan gave a short nod.

  He killed Valkrage, Keira remembered. If it weren’t for Aradma and Tiberan, the Archmage would have destroyed the city…

  “Can you tell me how he died?” Tallindra asked.

  “He fell to madness,” Tiberan told her.

  Tallindra considered this for a moment. “Yes, that is what I have heard. He paid a high price for being Eldrikura’s avatar.”

  Tiberan shrugged. It was clear he didn’t want to engage on the subject.

  Tallindra frowned slightly, and Keira smelled disappointment in her scent. She obviously thought to get more from the seelie, but he kept himself hidden behind a taciturn wall.

  “You are the first light elf I have met,” she said. “I have been quite curious about your kind.”

  Keira had heard all this before. Tiberan went into the explanation of how the Otherworld had broken apart when the God-King killed Klrain, and the Green Dragon had sacrificed her life to save Ahmbren from being torn apart by its fallout. The light elves had emerged as a new race, formed from faerie remnants and given life by the Green Dragon’s soul.

  Keira turned and scratched Ghost’s head. At least this conversation seemed to be satisfying Tallindra’s curiosity. Tiberan wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t common knowledge in the rest of Hammerfold by now, and she suspected he was grateful that the conversation steered itself away from his personal encounters with the Archmage. He also spoke generally enough not to call out Aradma by name. He really does want to forget her, she thought. It’s not an act.

  Keira’s attention came back to the table when she realized they weren’t talking about light elves any more.

  “So, you still intend to travel north,” Tallindra was saying.

  Tiberan nodded grimly. “Are there people in the wastes?”

  “To the north are the Ice Plains and Ice Mountains,” she answered. “Endless expanses of cold. The human Glavlunder tribe lives there in a village between the mountains on the bank of the White Sea, called Glavlund. They have little of value, which is why they have remained undisturbed for generations. I would be surprised if they are the troglodyte’s objective.”

  “Troglodytes will kill them for food or sport,” Tiberan commented.

  They sat silently for a long moment. Tiberan looked at Ghost, and the tiger returned his stare. Keira swore that sometimes it seemed they spoke together in words she couldn’t hear.

  “It’s getting late,” he finally said. “We will set out early tomorrow for Glavlund.”

  Rolaf gave them each a key to separate rooms across the hall from each other, and they retired for the night. Ghost followed Keira into her room and stretched himself out on top of her covers before she could lay down. It had been a while since she slept in a bed, and she nestled in beside the great cat, pulling the covers up and wrapping them over her.

  She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep, dreaming of the time she had been a little girl in Artalon and Tiberan had found her lost brother.

  Moaning cries of alarm from across the hall awakened Keira. She didn’t know the hour, but it was still dark outside. She recognized the voice as Tiberan’s and threw open her door.

  A faint sheen of purple light escaped from underneath the sill of Tiberan’s bedroom door, casting an eerie glow over the floor. Incoherent mumbling came from within, accompanied by the thrashing and rustling of bedsheets.

  She grabbed his do
or handle, prepared to shift into her wolven form and break through if necessary, but he hadn’t locked it. She pushed it open and stood in shock at what she saw.

  Tiberan tossed in his sleep, uttering mumbled words. He had thrown the covers from his bed, and his body was bare, covered only in a sheen of sweat. He glowed purple, and tiny fingers of crackling violet electricity sparked over his skin, sometimes arcing out to the floor and wall.

  Ghost growled and backed out of the room but stayed within eyesight. Without thinking, Keira rushed towards the man and placed her hands on his bare shoulders, trying to stabilize his thrashing.

  At her touch, the lightning vanished, but the faint violet glow remained. Tiberan sat up, eyes opening wide. Instead of the normal glowing gold set in his blue eyes, they radiated purple light. He stared right through her.

  He’s still asleep. He doesn’t see me.

  “The world owes her for her sacrifice,” he stated. Then he lay back down and closed his eyes. The purple light faded, and only a single shaft of moonlight now fell through the window onto the bed. His body glistened with sweat.

  Retrieving the bedcovers, she lay them over him, covering his body up to his shoulders, making an effort not to stare at his nakedness. He tensed but relaxed when she laid her hand on his arm. She crawled into bed beside him, and he unconsciously shifted to make room. Ghost lay down beside the bed.

  She sat up, holding the elf’s head in her arms as he gentled into less fitful sleep. He muttered every so often, so she stroked his hair and beard until he quieted, whispering a soothing, “Shhhhh. It’s okay. Shhhhh.”

  She finally fell asleep, her head resting on the top of his.

  * * *

  Tiberan awoke the next morning when a beam of sunlight warmed the bed. Another fitful night with the same damned dream. Why did this memory haunt him? Why now? He knew it was a Dragon’s memory that wasn’t his own. It was not he who surrendered himself to the Black Dragon’s pleasure. The piece of the Dragon within him had not been part of the projected dreamwalker. It was as if it wasn’t his memory—and yet it was. He remembered remembering. The part of the Dragon that had given him life witnessed and mourned for the part of herself that surrendered to the Black Dragon’s pleasure in order to distract him. To buy time for the Champion. For Valkrage and Kaldor.

  The tiger’s tail flicked up from the floor beside the bed and lay itself across Tiberan’s nose. He twitched his head to escape the tail’s tickling hairs, but it flopped back towards him. When had Ghost come in? He thought the cat had gone to Keira’s room.

  That’s when he became aware of Keira sleeping next to him. Tiberan’s head lay cradled in her arms, and he felt her even breathing touch lightly across the crown of his head. She was warm on his back, and he was reminded again that she was no longer the little girl he once knew.

  He gently rose, lifting her arms away from him. He retrieved his clothing and dressed himself, fastening his belt, which held the sidhe daggers he had found in a dead elven city on the island of Vemnai. He still had the bow as well.

  He turned to find Keira watching him. She looked away hurriedly, blushing.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Your dreams are getting worse,” she said.

  He nodded.

  “There’s more,” she continued. “You glowed last night. Lightning touched your skin. It was purple. It reminded me of the Archmage’s magic when we escaped Artalon.”

  Tiberan did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. He remembered Valkrage’s final words before he died, about passing his seal on to the seelie. “He did something to me,” Tiberan stated. “I don’t know what.”

  “Maybe Tallindra—”

  “No,” he cut her off. “I don’t trust the sidhe. They allowed Valkrage to rule, and administered the Empire for him. And at this point, I’m none too fond of wizards.” Valkrage took you from Aradma. Kaldor took Aradma from you—stop whining! You’re better than this. “The sooner we are away from here, the better.”

  She didn’t say anything further, only nodding in acquiescence. She rose from the bed, wearing the nightgown the inn had provided, and detoured to her room. A few moments later, she joined him downstairs, dressed once more in her grass-stained cotton gown.

  Tallindra met them in the common room. “Do you still intend to go north?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Tiberan confirmed.

  Tallindra cocked her head quizzically. “I know you said this last night, but you also said you wish to withdraw from the world. There are other places you could go. Sirindle would offer you haven from the churn of the lesser races. Why follow the troglodytes? Why get involved?”

  Tiberan had asked himself that same question. “Because, lady,” he answered, “I’m not seeking to escape life itself. I loved someone, but she found happiness with someone else, believing I was dead. I do not wish to intrude on her, nor do I wish her to know of my return. I believe that it would be difficult to not do so while remaining in the Nine Realms.”

  Tallindra’s amber eyes widened, and her brow furrowed in sympathy. “The matters of the heart are the most trying for those like us who descend from the Fae. It is the hardest part of physical life in Ahmbren for us to master.”

  Something in her words rang true. “I’m glad you understand,” he said. Then: “We’re losing time. We must go.”

  “First, I have some gifts for you,” she said. “I wanted to know your intentions, but they are noble. I’m glad that you go to warn the Glavlunders. They are a good, if private, people. I will give you what aid I can.”

  She presented Ghost with a collar and a hanging medallion. At first, Ghost did not seem to be pleased with the idea of wearing a collar. She explained that the lands to the north grew cold quickly in autumn, and a tiger from the jungle would not survive the winter. The gem on the collar was enchanted with high elven magic and would thicken and lengthen his fur to meet the frozen air. Ghost bowed his head and accepted her gift as the elven woman fastened it around his neck. She kissed the top of his forehead, and Ghost seemed particularly pleased after that.

  Next she turned to Keira. She presented the young woman with two sidhe blades, curved short swords slightly longer than Tiberan’s daggers.

  “I can’t use these,” Keira said. “I’m grateful, but I’m not trained.”

  “The lands are dangerous,” Tallindra responded, “and it is unwise for a woman to be unarmed. And are you not wolven?”

  Keira nodded.

  “Then you don’t need to wield them. Just take them in hand before you shift, and they will be absorbed into your body, making your wolf claws longer and sharper than steel. And they are enchanted. They will guide your attacks and confound all but the truest of strikes against you.”

  “Thank you,” Keira replied. She accepted the blades and drew one of them, admiring the pure, sharp metal.

  “One more thing I have for you,” Tallindra continued. She brought out a small square package and unfolded the green leather bindings. Inside was a light tan shirt and trousers, made of the softest supple leather. “Elven travel clothes,” Tallindra said. “It will keep you comfortable, and not sacrifice movement. It will also absorb into your wolven form, giving you some measure of added protection. It will not keep you from the winter cold, but it will suffice until you can trade for heavy winter furs in Glavlund.”

  Keira held open the shirt and eyed it appreciatively. The leather had a soft, thin fleece lining, and its collar and cuffs were adorned with a thin border of black velvet. A matching hooded short-cloak was also in the set, which would keep her head dry should it rain. “Thank you,” she said. “I—I can’t pay for this.”

  Tallindra laughed. “They are gifts. Remember that when you find someone else in need.”

  She brought out a set for Tiberan as well. He had still been wearing the southern garb from Artalon, and he was grateful for something more sturdy than his thin cotton leggings and shirt. His was similarly styled to Keira’s, only maroon velv
et, instead of her black, bordered his collar and cuffs.

  “I noticed your bow,” the elven wizard told Tiberan. “It is from my people, from a forgotten age long ago.” She handed him a fresh, full quiver of arrows. “Many use firearms these days, but both the sidhe and the Glavlunders appreciate the value of a silent kill. May these serve you well.”

  He took the quiver and bowed his head, feeling ashamed of his mistrust.

  “You are more than generous,” he stated. “I’m sorry to have doubted you.”

  “You have your reasons,” she replied. “I take no offense. One more thing I give to you.” She handed him a scroll case and opened it to reveal an unlit candle. “Should you feel the need to reconnect with the larger world, light this. I have its twin, and you can communicate with me through it without having to make the long journey. Do not use it trivially, for once the candle is burnt, its magic is spent.”

  Tiberan and Keira returned to the backrooms to change into the new outfits. His leggings and shirt fit snugly, as if they had been tailor-made for his tall frame. Even though it hugged him, it flowed and moved with his body without restriction. He admitted that sidhe magic might have its uses after all. Returning to the common room, he found Keira already changed and waiting. Her outfit fit her just as precisely as his did him.

  Rolaf gave them a modest amount of provisions, traveling packs, and fresh water skins, and then the three of them left the inn, saying their goodbyes.

  As Tiberan crossed the door’s threshold, Tallindra touched his back. He turned, and the woman slipped her arms around his waist.

  “Time will heal your wounds,” she told him. Her soft long ears extended back and to the side at a gentle downward slope as she looked up into his eyes. “But only if you allow yourself the possibility of love.” She stretched up on her tiptoes and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. “May the light’s music bless you with song, light elf,” she smiled warmly.