Last Dragon 7: The Fire Ascending

by Chris d'Lacey

  “Who?” he said. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Her, who else? Zanna. Your ‘Pri:magon.’ The one you’d happily die for. Ohhh …” The pain again, as if something … wild … was trying to connect to her. Rosa pressed both hands to her head.

  “I told you to stop that,” Tam said coldly.

  “And I’d tell you to go to hell — except I think you’re already there. I have a headache, okay?” She tapped her temple. “Probably this toxic … stuff in the air. It feels like the dragon is blowing its smog straight in through my ears. The real Tam would have tried to help me. Don’t you feel anything for her now?”

  “I’m here to guard you, human. And whatever you think you know about me, I would never betray my Pri:magon.”

  “Hmph,” went Rosa. She gathered her knees up under her chin. “Does it hurt to know she’s marrying Voss?”

  “Be quiet,” he snapped. “If the Pri:magon orders it, I will gladly throw you off the cliff at dusk. Think about that before you open your mouth again. It’s a long way down to those points of rock. Pray you reach them before the darklings snatch you out of the sky.”

  Rosa gulped as one screeched past, the fourth or fifth she’d seen in the last few minutes. Was it her imagination or were they becoming more numerous, more active? “They seem anxious. Is something wrong?”

  “Nothing can be wrong. The Shadow is everything.” An unconvincing reply, Rosa thought. He sounded as if he was reading from a script.

  “So why are you looking at the sea for so long — assuming you’re not writing poetry, of course?”

  Saying nothing, he crouched to the ground and roughed his palm in the gravel and dust. Then he stood again, shaking his hand, as if he was trying to throw something off. It was the second time Rosa had seen him do this.

  “What’s the matter with your hand?” She was remembering now how David had grabbed him and turned the palms upward, wanting Tam to find something. “What did David say to you? Back in the chamber?”

  “Be silent,” said Tam.

  But this was important, Rosa suspected. She could hear footsteps loosening the scree. Someone was approaching at a speed that suggested urgency. As Tam went to meet them, she closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Somewhere in Zanna’s memories there had to be something about Tam’s hands. The Pennykettle kitchen swept into her mind. Zanna, making tea for him in … the snow? No, Zanna was imagining snowflakes falling, something to do with what he was saying to her.

  “Commander …,” panted a voice nearby.

  Rosa half-listened, but the messenger was too exhausted to report. Concentrate, she told herself.

  Kitchen. Tea. Biscuits. Conversation. Then suddenly it came, a whole slew of information. Tam’s voice, talking about something he’d received from David.

  They weren’t snowflakes, Zanna. They were bear flakes. A small pack of them, come to battle the Ix. Two of them landed on my hands. Since then I’ve remembered things about the Arctic — stuff I shouldn’t know, legends I can’t know — coupled with a crushing desire to protect you and Lucy.

  “Bears,” Rosa gasped, opening her eyes.

  Tam turned and looked at her furiously. The man beside him nodded. “She’s right. An army of bears is approaching the island from all directions.”

  “How could you know this?” Tam Farrell said.

  “Your hands,” Rosa said again. “Look at your hands.”

  Tam turned his palms up and gulped. Two polar bears were glimmering under his skin.

  The messenger shook his head in confusion. He began to mutter something about reporting this abnormality to the Prime when Tam’s fist punched his jaw sideways and the man collapsed like an empty sack.

  Rosa saw her chance and leaped to her feet. “Where are they keeping David? Come on, we’ve got to free him. You are … Tam now, aren’t you?”

  He looked at her as if the truth had poisoned him. “Stay where you are. I don’t know what I am.”

  “But … you’ve just knocked one of your men out cold. Very impressive, by the way.”

  Tam didn’t seem to think so. “I bought myself some time before they kill me, that’s all. When the Collective absorbs this mutation, Voss will seek me out.”

  “It’s not a mutation, you idiot, it’s a gift. If the bears are coming then you should — ohhh …” She fell to her knees again, cradling her head. The pulses were growing stronger by the second.

  “I have to go,” he said, turning away.

  “Don’t leave me!” she cried. “You’re Tam. Tam Farrell. You swore to protect Zanna. Protect me now. Please, Tam. My head’s exploding.”

  “I can’t help you,” he said. “The Pri:magon will decide your fate.”

  “Not without a fight!” she screamed. “Then I’ll come for you, you useless piece of alien … agh.” But he was already gone, leaving her clutching her temples again. There were voices far below, shouting danger. The screech of darklings. The rumble of the dragon. But none of this troubled Rosa as much as what was happening inside her head.

  “No!” she argued, shaking herself. “No. Not you. Get out of me. Go.”

  Suddenly, there were images to go with the pain.

  “I won’t let you in. I will not let you in. You won’t infect me. Get out, you witch!”

  Then the sibyl’s voice broke through, a ghostly relation of the snappy, croaking voice of old. Just two words entered Rosa’s consciousness.

  Help me.

  Who gave you the authority to attack the prisoner?”

  Another bolt of Voss’s shade swept into the nodes at Lucy’s head. She jerked in pain. It was all she could do to remain kneeling. If he upped the intensity any more, she was going to pass out, maybe even die. “I was acting for the good of the Shadow,” she gasped. “He was trying to escape. What else was I to do?”

  Voss leaned over her, twisting like a snake. “You used a tipped arrow. The kind of dose we save for rats. His inversion will now be slow and erratic; that’s always supposing he lives.”

  “It’s not too late to withdraw it,” muttered Zanna. She was standing over David, checking him for vital signs. His motionless body had been laid out on a ledge on the far side of the chamber. The arrow had been removed, along with his jacket and shirt. From the center of the wound, a web of black veins was spreading up his shoulder and into his neck. He was barely breathing. “The infection isn’t pure. If we stop it now, he will recover.”

  Voss cracked his knuckles. Leaning over Lucy again, he said, “Even if the Pri:magon brings him back, his connection to his daughter will be weaker than it was — though maybe your allegiance has changed, Commander …?”

  Lucy shook her head. “I only serve the Shadow —”

  With a thwack, Voss’s tail came down on her shoulder, the barbed end dangerously close to her skin. “A darkling was found with an arrow through its gut. Explain that to me.”

  Zanna spoke up in Lucy’s defense. “He may have begun the conflict to distract her. It would be easy for him to draw down a darkling. They’re natural enemies, Voss. She may have even done you a service. With his powers diminished, he wouldn’t have survived a darkling’s bite.”

  Voss pressed his tail under Lucy’s ear. “Is this your claim?”

  “Y-yes.” She half-nodded.

  He put himself close to her face and whispered. “I do not believe you.”

  “But —?”

  “Do not speak.” A barb nicked her skin, drawing out a dot of thick black blood. “If he dies … you burn.” Lucy shuddered as he turned and looked at the lava. Gawain was now deep within the Earth once more.

  With a snarl, Voss whirled away toward Zanna.

  “I’ll need to commingle with him.”

  “Commingle?” Voss didn’t like the sound of that.

  “He’s too weak to be a threat. If I reach into his auma I might even be able to access his memories. It will be quicker than forcing him to talk.”

  Still Voss didn’t seem sure. “You forge
t, you were close to him once.”

  “In another timeline,” she said plainly.

  A guard burst in then, shouting the alarm.

  “Get out!” Voss roared. “How dare you disturb me!”

  The guard fell to one knee. “Forgive me, Prime. The island is under attack.”

  “From what?” scoffed Voss. Every species on Earth had been dimmed by the Shadow.

  “Bears,” said the guard.

  Lucy looked up.

  “White bears,” the guard added. He was a burly man with impressive muscles, but the odor of his sweat was drenched with fear. “They are running on the water. The sea has frozen.”

  “That would take powerful magicks,” said Zanna, throwing an urgent look at Voss.

  Voss spread his wings, making the guard cower. Battle stigs emerged all along his spine. “It’s the child,” he said, with malevolent certainty. “It appears she has decided to come to us. What direction are these bears coming from?”

  “Every direction,” the guard jabbered. “Even the bridge. They are falling from the sky in great number. The darklings are fighting but the bears are strong.”

  Lucy clambered to her feet. “Prime, I will defend you….”

  Voss stared at her and beckoned the messenger to stand. “Bind her and take her outside. Hide her in one of the caves.”

  “Bind … her?” The man pointed at his former commander.

  “Unless you want to die on your overweight knees.”

  “But I’m Shadow,” Lucy protested.

  “No,” he corrected her. “From now on, you’re hostage.”

  Without dwelling on his options, the messenger stood up and attended to his orders. Within moments, Lucy’s hands were tied and she’d been pushed outside on the point of a sword.

  “Voss, wait,” Zanna called as he prepared to follow. “If magicks are being used, I should come with you. I might be able to undo the freezing spell. The bears would still be able to swim, but in the water they would be easy victims for the flock.”

  He nodded and took a knife from his belt. He threw it across the chamber floor. It stopped spinning at Zanna’s feet. “Do what you can, but kill the Fain first. He is no use to us now.”

  And he swept toward the opening and flew into the sky.

  Zanna bent down and picked up the knife. An old hunting blade. Not overly sharp, but effective against the human template. She scraped it over David’s body, making a nick in the region of his heart. “You should have come to us willingly,” she whispered. “Who knows what might have been?”

  David tried to speak. His lips parted and he made a quiet zz sound.

  “Touching,” she said, thinking he was trying to speak her name. She placed the blade flat to his lips to quiet him. “Shh, David. This won’t take long….”

  And for whatever reason she cared to imagine, she took the knife away and kissed his mouth.

  As she rose, he managed to say what he’d wanted to.

  “Z … ookie.”

  The Pri:magon touched her lips. They were tingling slightly. The Ix inside her swarmed to the point of alien contact. “What have you done?” she hissed. “What have you done?” The faintest smile broke over his lips. She gave a cry of fury. Clenching her teeth, she raised the knife. It had reached no farther than the height of her chin when something heavy thudded across her shoulders. She collapsed in a zigzagging motion to the ground.

  “Cow,” said Rosa, throwing the rock aside. “You leave my David alone.”

  And careful not to make any contact with her clone, she stepped over Zanna and shook David awake.

  She had to slap him twice to bring him around fully. “David, wake up. We need to get out of here.” She cradled his face. “Look at me, will you? Are you okay?”

  He nodded woozily. “Umm. Just cold.”

  She found his jacket and draped it over his shoulders.

  “Voss?” he murmured, looking around.

  “They’re all outside. We’re safe for now. A messenger came saying bears were attacking.”

  “Bears?” That woke him like a shot of adrenaline. He refocused his gaze at the entrance to the chamber.

  “They think Alexa sent them. They think she might be here.”

  Still bleary, he swung himself upright. He saw Zanna laid out at his feet and slowly worked out what must have happened. “Please tell me you didn’t kill her.”

  “She was kissing you.”

  “That’s no excuse to knock her senseless.”

  “Oh, and about to drive this through your heart.” She slapped a supercilious grin to her face and twiddled the knife in front of him.

  He found the nick in his chest and drew his hand across it, smearing the tips of his fingers with blood. “Yeah, well. She’d have a few good reasons.”

  And not all of them to do with this timeline, Rosa imagined.

  David staggered to the entrance and carefully peered out. The gray sky was striated with flying darklings but there was no sign yet of bears approaching. Most of Voss’s men had run to the shoreline, hands cupped above their eyes, unsure of what was coming or what to do. A few brave parties were advancing out to sea, stamping their feet to test the surface, their swords raised high like candlesticks. Voss himself was nowhere to be seen.

  “We haven’t much time,” David said, drawing away. “If the bears reach the island, Voss’s men will retreat here, into the chamber.”

  Rosa pointed at his arrow wound. He’d been feeling his shoulder ever since he’d woken up. “Are you …?”

  “Infected? No. Just a bit tender.” He pushed the jacket aside to reveal the punctured skin. “The scars will show for a while, but there wasn’t enough poison in Lucy’s arrow to invert me.”

  “Lucy shot you?”

  “She thought she was doing me a favor.”

  “Some favor. What is it with the women in your life?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me.”

  When she couldn’t find an answer she flapped a hand and said, “Put your jacket on. You’re making me nervous.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Not in a good way. What do we do about goth girl here?”

  He knelt down and rolled Zanna onto her back. Brushing her dark hair away from her face, he carefully opened the lid of one eye. A glint of green was showing in her iris. Her natural eye color, coming back. “It’s started,” he said, relief in his voice. He lifted her and carried her toward the lava.

  Rosa stayed rooted to the spot, arms crossed. “What? What’s started?”

  “I had enough of Gawain’s auma to begin a transformation on the Shadow. I passed it on to Zanna when we kissed.”

  “She kissed. There wasn’t a ‘we’ involved.”

  “It’s low-level,” David said, ignoring her. “They’ll crush it unless I get help from Gawain. He’ll still have the power to multiply the antidote and spread it through the humans controlled by the Collective.”

  Appropriately, the dragon rose from the pool. When he saw the state that Zanna was in, he hammered his front feet against the force field. Sparks flew around his chest and head. Still the barrier between them held.

  “Somehow, we have to get him out of there.” David laid Zanna down again, taking care not to knock her head against the rock. Something about the tender way he nursed her prompted Rosa to take a breath and say, “Can I ask a question?”

  David stood up and pressed the force field again. Fluid. Movable. There had to be a way to get into it. Had to be. “Not now, I’m thinking.”

  She asked it anyway. “What happens if Zanna returns to normal?”

  “Sorry?”

  “If you cure her, if you make her human again — what will happen once she’s rid of the Shadow?”

  “Zanna is one of us,” he said, irritated by the need to state what he thought was obvious. “She’s strong. She’ll help us defeat —”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Rosa turned a knee inward. “If Zanna’s back in play, what happens to us?
”

  “Us?”

  “You and me.”

  His gaze lingered over her.

  “Will you be with her or will you come back home to Co:pern:ica — with me?”

  He watched her nervously picking at her fingers. Her vulnerability was uncomfortable to see. All the same, he answered truthfully. “I don’t know what’s going to happen; I just know I have to save her.” He saw her throat ripple and looked away. “Rosa, we can talk about this when —”

  “I think I can help you.”

  “Help me? How?”

  “Gwilanna’s in my head. I’ve been hearing her voice.”

  “Gwilanna?”

  “David, just shut up and listen. I had this seriously weird headache — then she broke through.”

  It took him a second to figure this out. Then he remembered Zanna’s words from earlier and everything seemed to make perfect sense. Her sibyl tendencies are still intact. Gwilanna obeys my greater will. Which meant that Gawain did, too. “What did she say?”

  “‘Help me.’”

  “Is that all?”

  “Isn’t that enough? She sounded scared.”

  “Have you tried to speak back?”

  She shook her head.

  He came over and gripped her arms. “Zanna’s been giving Gwilanna orders, which means that you can, too. If you concentrate hard enough you should be able to strike up a conversation.”

  “I’m not meeting her for morning coffee, David! This is a dragon’s head you want me to enter. One that’s been twisted by the Ix, remember?”

  “I know,” he said, raising his hands to calm her. “But you wanted to help, and this might be our only —”

  Before he could complete his sentence, a loud screech echoed off the walls of the chamber and a darkling hurtled in. It plummeted down at a long, sharp angle, skidding haphazardly across the floor before tipping over, onto one shoulder. A trail of black fluid marked its landing.