Eudroch walked up to Balach and spoke a word in the Fire Dragon tongue to the boy’s face, waiting to see his reaction. Balach stood still, sweat dripping from his forehead.
“I think he might be telling the truth, Mother,” Eudroch said.
“And how can your magic force Mona do my bidding?” Eudroch asked.
“If you are the one to speak my true name to her, she will obey you—out of her love for you. I will tell you how, if you promise on Sigela’s spirit that you will not harm any of us.”
Eudroch looked at Mona’s stern face and back to the Queen, before turning to Balach.
“You must first prove to me that what you claim is true. Give me your name and I will test its power. If you are telling the truth, I will leave the others unharmed.”
Balach took a hard swallow and steadied his shaking body.
“First, you must swear that if I give you the power to make Mona do anything you desire, that you will let Cara and me live. You must swear it first.”
“I swear on my loyalty to Sigela, Dragon of Fire, that I will not harm you or your friends, if what you say is true. If it is not, I swear to Sigela that you will die slowly after watching your friends suffer even more.”
“Balach, don’t do this,” Cara said.
Balach looked ashamed, his face red as he opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. Balach walked slowly over to Eudroch and motioned for him to bend down.
“Don’t try using your magic on me, young one. Guards, if this boy tries to enchant me with his name, no matter what I say, kill him and his friends. Am I understood?”
The guards nodded and steadied their grips on their weapons.
Eudroch then did as Balach asked, and Balach told Eudroch his creation name. As Eudroch listened, it seemed that even his hardened face softened for a few passing seconds as it was filled with the truth of the essence of love.
“If you use my name on Mona, she will love you above all else and do whatever you command of her. She will even lie to Merrick. Now, as you promised, Cara and I will leave.”
“I never said that I would let you leave, only that you would not be killed. But before I even agree to that, I must test the power of your name.”
Eudroch turned to face the Fire King, who had been watching the scene unfold with his arms crossed and a scowl of disbelief on his face.
“Great Fire King, he who was chosen by Sigela herself to rule her people on this world, come to me.”
With hesitation, the King stepped a few feet closer to Eudroch. When he did so, two of the Fire Warriors stepped forward in unison, one on each side of him. Eudroch closed the rest of the distance and whispered something in the King’s ear that Mona knew must be Balach’s true name.
The King dropped his arms to his side and stood, with his eyes wide open, staring at Eudroch. The King’s two Fire Warriors awaited their instructions, but the King remained silent.
Finally, the King’s lips parted. “Eudroch,” the King said softly.
Eudroch raised his arms and circled around the room, looking at each of the people assembled there, one by one.
“I have done nothing wrong. Is it not fitting that a father should love his son? You all heard him earlier. He said that he would adopt me, and so I have merely helped him along in the process.”
Eudroch drew dangerously close to the King, who stood with his eyes softly gazing upon him.
“You do love me, don’t you…father?”
The King nodded, tears flowing down his face.
“If you really do,” Eudroch said, “then prove it to me please, by…well…by standing on one foot.”
The King quickly lifted one of his legs and stood on the other, still looking blissfully at Eudroch.
“We do not have time for this foolishness!” the Queen said.
“Of course, Mother. King Polopu, would-be-father of mine, please put your hand on the altar, take your knife, and cut off one of your fingers. I don’t care which one, but I want you to do it to prove to me that you really love me. Do not let anyone stop you.”
The King, without hesitation, walked to the nearest stone wall and slapped his left hand onto the wall, his fingers spread wide. The King’s other hand reached for the knife hanging at his side. Even though he grabbed his knife with one flowing movement, Mona thought that she could see his other hand trembling as if trying to escape the oncoming blade.
With a terrible roar, the King brought the blade down hard against the stone and severed the smallest finger on his left hand. Blood spurted everywhere as the finger fell to the floor, and the King collapsed on the floor. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he tried to stop the bleeding by squeezing the wound with his right hand.
Mona stepped back automatically, expecting the room to erupt in a battle between the King’s Fire Warriors and those more loyal to Eudroch. Instead, no everyone stood perfectly still, unsure of what to do.
Finally, Eudroch broke out in a great smile and went over to the King who was still on the floor. The ruler looked up at Eudroch with open eyes that were still filled with adoration. Eudroch patted the King on his head and turned back to face the crowd of people still staring in stunned silence.
“Your name is indeed powerful, little one,” Eudroch said as he stepped toward Mona. Eudroch touched Mona lightly on the face and then spoke what Mona knew must be Balach’s creation name along with other words from the Fire Dragon tongue. Balach’s name sounded and felt like a warm breeze caressing her skin on the freshest of spring days.
Suddenly, she felt different toward Eudroch. She understood the pain that he must have gone through as a child, being torn from his family, watching his father killed before his young eyes—stolen from his mother and left by Ohman to die.
“Now, my love,” Eudroch said, “will you help me convince Merrick to assist me with the ritual…of your own free will?”
Mona heard herself say “Of course, my love. I’ll do anything to help you.” Even though it seemed as if someone else had spoken the words, Mona knew that she had just spoken the truth.
Eudroch repeated Balach’s name again.
“When we find Merrick, speak Balach’s name to him and wait for my instructions. This is powerful magic, but you must get close enough for it to work. I know you must be feeling the intensity of his name coursing through you, but do not forget that you are still just a human. You will have to wear one of those headsets and one of the collars from Rune Corp, so that you will be able to whisper Balach’s name correctly into Merrick’s ear.”
Eudroch turned back to Balach.
“Well done, boy! Merrick will help bring Sigela back, and he will do so without a fight—all because of the power of your name and because of Merrick’s love for this human.”
Mona blushed and bowed her head to Eudroch. Inside, she could not believe what she was doing, but her heart told her that she had somehow misjudged Eudroch and that she had to help her true love however she could.
#
At least Merrick had escaped. Now Balach had to worry about keeping everyone else alive. It would be what Merrick wanted him to do.
While Eudroch and the Queen argued over who was to blame for Merrick’s escape, Balach noticed a fluorescent stain on the floor near the altar. It was speckled with glowing pieces of something he could not quite discern. His heart sank, as he feared what it might be, but he had to get closer to make sure.
He slowly made his way over to Cara, who was standing closer to the altar, and he knelt on the floor. As he had feared, the stain was made from the smeared pieces of fireflies. All around the stain were tiny chips of glass. He forgot to breath as he remembered how his love, Firefly, always carried her pets close to her chest in a big glass jar. If her fireflies were dead, then so was she.
Balach stood up, his head reeling as the Queen and Eudroch continued to argue, each placing the blame for Merrick’s disappearance on the other.
He watched through a mental fog as the largest of the Fire Warrior
s lay on the lava altar.
Although he felt completely empty of love, he studied Mona’s face and recognized a part of his own self in her eyes. He saw true love and caring in there, and he knew that she was thinking about Merrick and wondering if he was still safe. He could see her inner conflict as she fought to reconcile her desire to find Merrick with her hopes that he would remain safely hidden from his pursuers.
Putting aside his own despair, he saw his chance to help Merrick, even as Eudroch prepared to kill him and Cara.
Balach offered his creation name to Eudroch and it was eagerly taken. The use of his creation name would seemingly give Eudroch a way to make Mona help him of her own free will. Balach’s act had either condemned Merrick or it had saved him—Balach didn’t know which yet, but at least this way, he knew that Mona would be there when they found Merrick.
Although the power of his creation name was strong, it was still only a word, and Balach hoped that Mona’s actual love for Merrick would be strong enough to break the spell that Eudroch had placed on her.
If it was not, the entire world would suffer.
CHAPTER 46
BENEATH THE FULL moon, Merrick sat by the crackling fire on the shore of Annoon, and for the first time in a long while, he felt relaxed and could breath easily. He loved the way half of his face was hot from the blaze while the other half was cool from the night breeze off the ocean.
The woods that had been so mysterious when he first arrived had been reduced to a dark, uneven mass that only existed outside of the ring of light from his fire. Merrick wished that he could stay there forever. He wouldn’t have to face Eudroch or decide between Cara and Mona. He could stop thinking about who he was destined to be. He could just be who he was.
Merrick turned to look at the ocean. He imagined that the far off horizon was really the crest of a gigantic tidal wave that might come and sweep him away from his destiny. Somewhere out in the waters was the strange tubular thing that had twisted along beside him—maybe it had been the Water Dragon, Lagu, protecting Annoon.
He turned back to the fire and held out his hands to warm them. He loved it here, but he knew that he had to move on. If he wasn’t successful in discovering who he was and in stopping Eudroch, Annoon along with the rest of the world as he knew it would cease to exist, turned to so much steam and ashes.
He had to move on, but not yet. He had earned a little time to rest and to gather his strength. His bones still felt stiffer than usual, and his back ached.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a streak of white moving out where the forest was. He closed his eyes and turned away from the fire. After the residual brightness behind his eyelids subsided, he opened his eyes again and peered out at the forest.
Slowly, his night vision returned, and he could see a naked man standing at the edge of the tree line.
The man was bone white from his feet to the hair on his head. Even from this distance, Merrick recognized the man’s outline. It was Ohman, come back from the dead…or another of Eudroch’s tricks. Whatever it was, the figure did not move or say a word. His eyes glowed a dull red and looked directly into Merrick’s.
Merrick stared, transfixed by the ghostly image of Ohman. The sounds of the fire by his side died away as he fell into a waking trance. Getting up, he barely noticed a few embers landing by his feet. It was if the fire itself was trying to urge him to stay, but Merrick had no choice in his actions. If anyone could help him, it would be Ohman, whether dead or alive.
Merrick’s body grew colder as he moved farther from the flames of the bonfire. He desperately wanted to go back to the warmth and security of the fire, but he forced himself to keep walking. As he did, the pale creature remained motionless.
When Merrick was close enough to the man, he could see that it was indeed Ohman or his ghostly double. His skin was bone white as was his hair. Only his ears were tipped with the color of blood red and his eyes shone like fiery rubies. There was so much that Merrick wanted to say to him, but Ohman turned and walked slowly into the forest before Merrick could say a word.
Merrick hesitated at the edge of the forest. His instinct told him to follow Ohman’s apparition, but his common sense warned him that it could be a trap. As he stood, undecided, he noticed the glint of something metallic on the forest floor. He bent over and picked up a sliver of divinium. It looked as if it had been rent raw from the spine of Terrada herself. Having no way to secure it around his neck, almost without thinking, Merrick made a fist with his left arm and slid the sharp divinium into his tensed forearm. The rock sliced through his flesh and melded with his sinews, a rocky lump that glowed under his skin. He grunted quietly and then, as silently as possible, he followed Ohman through the woods, weaving between the trees even as Ohman walked through them like they weren’t even there.
For hours, Merrick followed the ghostly figure, first through the woods and then down a narrow, winding dirt trail that was hemmed in on either side with densely packed trees.
Merrick called out to Ohman once or twice and asked some tentative questions about whether he was really his deceased mentor or simply a projection in familiar form to help guide him along. The figure of Ohman said nothing, as he continued down the twisting path.
Merrick started to feel warmer as went deeper into the forest, but unlike the glow from the bonfire, this heat was one of increasing discomfort and claustrophobia. Bending down at one point, Merrick touched the dirt under his feet and was surprised that the ground itself was the source of the increasingly uncomfortable heat. He remembered seeing the volcano at the center of the island and decided that the heat from the ground must be from underground lava flows.
He raced to catch up with Ohman’s ghost. Even though Ohman had turned out not to be his father, the bond he had formed with Ohman was strong, and it held him fast as he followed his ghost farther down the winding path, even deeper into the unknown forest.
#
Throughout his life, Ohman had learned to endure all levels of pain. His creation name spoke of both patience and endurance. He had been able to tolerate anything that he had encountered in life, but nothing had hurt him more in his waking life than the pain he felt after he had been killed, and his incorporeal self had been forced to watch Merrick leave Rune Corp, still unprepared to meet his fate.
Oodrosil, the yew tree had helped reunite Ohman’s energy and helped him find Merrick. Being a restless spirit did have its advantages. Ohman could travel with almost the speed of thought. Where he had spent his entire life thinking in terms of the four elements and their dragons, now everything was as one to him. Passing through water was the same as passing through earth, wind, or fire. He felt no dampness, nor blowing breeze, nor searing flame. There was no language for him to learn and no subtleties of craft to master. He intuitively knew the names and the sounds of all things. Unfortunately, despite his vast understanding, he could not directly communicate in words with the living—at least not in words that Merrick would yet understand.
As such, Ohman could do no more than appear to Merrick and show him the way through the forest, where the greatest danger in the woods was for a traveler to decide that it was not worth persevering to the other side—that he did not possess what it would take to see his journey through to its end.
As Ohman led Merrick through the thick forest and onto the path, with all his might and remaining magic, he tried to send a single message to Merrick.
Let go of everything, and do not stray from this path.
If Ohman were able to speak to Merrick, he would tell him to free himself from everything he knew or held dear. He would tell him to let go of Cara and of Mona—to let go of Fenton’s son and the emptiness he felt from not knowing his family—and to even let go of his mentor.
He wished that he had told Merrick that everyone, whether friend or enemy, had his or her own ideas about who he should be and what he should do.
Before Merrick was even born, Terrada and Sigela had given him everything h
e would ever need—his creation name. All Merrick had to do was to remember that name and to be who he was naturally—a truth that every piece of him, other than his conscious mind, already knew.
Ohman’s ghost wanted to tell young Merrick all of this. But he could not.
As Ohman lamented his situation, he noticed that the forest was filling with ghosts as white as he, each with red tipped ears and ruby eyes, and all of them moving toward Merrick. Ohman tried to stay close to Merrick, to protect him, but he was pushed away by the sheer number of ghosts that crowded around the young Drayoom.
All he could do was look on and hope that Merrick would survive the forest and continue on to his destiny.
CHAPTER 47
MONA’S TRUE LOVE, Eudroch, held his hand above the warrior who was spread out on the lava altar. He spoke a word that sounded to her like dry twigs crackling in a fire. As soon as the words had left his lips, she felt a surge of heat and smelled the pungent odor of burning flesh and hair. Her upper lip curled as she turned away from the warrior, who remained perfectly still as his body burned and his ashes rose above their heads in a grotesquely dark stream of smoke.
The warrior’s blood seeped into the stone of the altar, hissing as if on fire. Mona looked down at the floor and saw that the altar was sitting on top of a circular dais with a giant X-shaped rune carved into its surface. At the center of the rune was a hole through which the blood began to drain. Within seconds, molten rock bubbled from the sun sign and rose to engulf Eudroch. Mona’s love began to scream, as he was burned alive by the power of his own dragon. Mona started toward Eudroch, desperate for a way to help him. She stopped short of the flames, however, when she realized that Eudroch was screaming, not in agony, but in rapture.
Eudroch raised his arms as the Queen stood by his side. The warriors around Eudroch shrank back in fear as the lava dropped off of Eudroch’s body in steaming slabs, flowing back down the hole from whence the flames had come.
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