Of Dreams and Dragons

by Karpov Kinrade

  Kaden told me to run. He said he had to purify the body. Did he know this would happen? That this monstrous thing would take the boy's corpse for itself?

  If he knew… if he's here to help, then he wasn't the one who killed Mat Parson. And if Kaden is innocent, and he's in danger… I need to help him.

  The creature appears more corporeal than before. Less smoke, more mass. I can use that to my advantage. I raise my gun and aim, hoping to get a good shot, but Kaden's too close. He's blocking my line of vision. I need a different angle.

  I circle around the two of them, limping through the pain in my ankle, as I ignore my survival instincts. I've grown used to fighting my flight instincts as a firefighter. We run into the kind of danger most normal people flee from.

  And so I do the same now. I take position against a tree—where I can remove all pressure from my foot, and I raise my gun and aim, my line of sight clear, my finger on the trigger.

  The creature turns towards me, as if it knows my thoughts. My intentions.

  And it charges.

  I fire as many bullets as I can.

  Some of them strike true, taking the creature in the arm, the chest, the head.

  Dark black blood splatters into the air. But the creature does not slow. The night sky fills with the unnatural sounds of the beast's agony, but it does not pause. It does not show any other sign that it feels pain in the least.

  It closes the distance between us so quickly, I barely have time to think. To move. To react.

  Kaden lands at my side, as if he flew or leaped to reach me. How he got here before the beast, I have no idea.

  He pulls me into his arms, and he jumps.

  We fly into the air, higher than many of the trees around us, moving so quickly the wind whips at my face, forcing my eyes closed. My stomach lurches at the change in motion, and I cling to Kaden for my life.

  We seem to hover forever, and then we land.

  The impact reverberates throughout my entire body, rattling my bones, shaking my vision, sending shoots of pain into my already injured foot.

  Kaden doesn't slow at all. He carries me as if I weigh nothing, navigating through trees and rocky terrain, his boots barely touching the ground.

  The beast gives chase, filled with a bloodlust that seems unstoppable. What remains of its tongue lashes out, cutting into the flesh of my arm, my blood mixing with its own, creating a crimson mist around us. I hold in my cries of pain, knowing I dare not distract Kaden right now; He is the only thing keeping either of us alive.

  I hold my trembling hand over Kaden's shoulder and fire more shots into the night. Whether my bullets make contact or not I cannot tell, but the beast is unfazed regardless. I need to find a weak spot, something that will stop it in its tracks.

  The eyes. I need to hit the eyes.

  I take aim, steadying my hold with both hands, as Kaden jostles us over rocky terrain.

  My bullet errs to the right

  The creature gains on us.

  My next shot is too far left.

  The creature continues gaining on us.

  I close my eyes and slow my breathing. I remember my mother's words as she would guide me in meditation, as she helped me control my heart rate. "The physical form is controlled by the mind and the mind is controlled by the spirit. Center yourself in your truth, Sky. Center yourself in your truth, and you control all things."

  I steady my breath, heed her words, and fire.

  The beast recoils, clutching at its head with its monstrous hands. One of its eyes runs black with blood.

  We begin to pull away, but the creature leaps forward, one eyeball dangling from its socket. It almost lands atop us.

  Then Kaden drops, sliding through a stretch of mud, me still in his arms. We propel into darkness, and I realize we are passing under a bridge. Kaden moves one of his arms, gripping me with the other, and reaches into his jacket. He tosses something to the ground… a golden coin covered in symbols I can't decipher. It hits the ground at the edge of the bridge, and a wall of golden smoke fills the space between us and the monster.

  The beast smashes into the smoke, then jumps back as if electrocuted, letting out a wail of pain and anger as the wall bursts with white light. Moving quickly, Kaden tosses another coin at the other side of the bridge. The beast leaps over us, searching for an opening, but it's too late. It hits the second wall and lightning flashes in the golden smoke.

  Kaden falls back against a wooden pillar under the bridge. His breath is heavy and his body is covered in sweat. And then… he laughs. "Thought we were dead."

  I slide out of his arms and sit down in the mud, keeping weight off my right foot. "What is that thing?" I whisper.

  "A Fenrial Spirit," he says. "A corrupted one."

  "A spirit… "

  He looks at me, his blue eyes piercing. "It wants you. Your body, to be more exact."

  My eyes widen. "What? Why?"

  Kaden sucks in a breath, and his body calms as he replies. "There are people… people like you who draw spirits to them. You're like a conduit. You're not an empty shell, but you have an opening—a crack in your spirit. And your power, it leaks out, attracting them."

  "What are you talking about?" Spirits, conduits, empty shells… My mind is spinning and I'm trying to grab hold of something that makes sense, but nothing does. Not the beast. Not the golden walls of smoke. Not the powers Pike displayed when I tried to use my phone or describe his appearance.

  Kaden continues, his voice calm. "Spirits can't affect the physical world by themselves. They need a body. But they can't take one already occupied. They need one that's empty. They need someone dead."

  "Like Mat," I say, things begin to click in my mind.

  "Yes." He holds my gaze, his blue eyes pleading with me to believe him. "I swear to you, Sky, I found him already dead. I think he stumbled down the cavern and fell on the broken tree. One of the branches tore through his gut. He was stuck there, on the tree, bleeding out until he died."

  I can't imagine his pain. His agony. His helplessness, as he tried to call for help. As his words were whisked away by an uncaring wind. As his life bled out of him. He must have been terrified. So alone. What were his last thoughts? Were they of fear? Of sadness? My heart breaks for the boy who died alone, and bile rises in my throat. I turn away, emptying my gut into the mud.

  When I finish vomiting, Kaden continues. "Usually, bodies stay dead," he says. "But I knew Spirits were in the area. So I sought the boy out. I tried to purify his body before it could be possessed, but, well, you showed, and you know the rest."

  "Purify? How?"

  "With this," he says, pulling another coin out of his coat, this one silver, the symbols on it just as strange but different. "This is a talisman," Kaden says, shuffling the coin across his knuckles. "This one purifies a body to protect it from corruption. The ones I threw earlier form barriers against unwanted spirits. They don't last forever, though."

  He pushes himself off the pillar and hisses in pain, falling back down.

  "You're injured!" I limp towards him. "Let me see." I have enough medic training to know what to look for, how to handle it.

  He nods and pulls off his coat to reveal his shoulder. The cloth from his shirt is burned through, and his flesh is a seared red blister. "It's from earlier. Nothing I can't take."

  "This is a third degree burn," I say. And then it hits me. "The fire! You were there, at the fire. You were the man I saw."

  He rolls his shoulder, flinching so quickly I barely notice. "Yes," he says. "When the girl died amidst the smoke, I knew the Fenrial would come for her. I was too late, though. I fought the possessed body as best I could. Almost won, even. But… the house collapsed. I got out with the burn. The Fenrial got out too. They do that, leave a body if they must."

  At mention of the girl, I am overwhelmed with fury. "If you were there, why didn't you save her? Why did you let the beast take her?" I expect him to strike back with words.

  But his voice
remains calm. "I didn't let her die. I wouldn't do that, but I have no way of finding those in danger." If anything, he sounds sad. Helpless. "I can only find those who are already dead. Or very near it. Only those who have opened themselves to the spirits."

  "I see." Though I don't see at all. I don't understand any of this. I shake my head, looking around for anything I can use to help Kaden, but I don't have a med kit with me. I slump back down, shivering in the cold wind, pulling my jacket close. Around us, the wall of gold holds strong, but I hear the beast, the Fenrial, behind it, pacing along the bridge. The night is dark, and getting even darker.

  "You said the Spirits want my body. Why?" I ask.

  "You are what some call a Broken One," Kaden says. "You draw spirits even though you live, because some part of your own spirit has fractured. It's not something you were born with, not usually. It manifests later, from trauma. Even then, it begins as a small crack in your spirit. A crack that grows over the years. Eventually, that crack spreads into a gaping hole that leaks enough of your own spirit to reveal a chasm that needs filled. Spirits are drawn to that empty space. And so are those like me."

  Pieces of a convoluted and mysterious puzzle begin to fit together. A puzzle I didn't even realize I'd been trying to solve since I was a child. Ever since my mum gave me my leather cufflink. "That's the business you're in, isn't it? You're here because of me."

  He nods without saying a word.

  "So what? You protect me? And then you fix this crack in my spirit?"

  He sighs. "Not exactly. I protect you, yes. But there is no way to fix the break. There is only a way to fill it."

  "Fill it?"

  He nods, a lock of dark hair falling into his eyes. "With another spirit."

  "But… I thought the point was to not let spirits get those like me?" My eyes dart to the wailing beast and I shudder. Is that what he wants to do to me?

  Seeing my fear and revulsion, he reaches for my hand. The contact shocks me. I'm so cold. So chilled to the bone and scared beyond anything I've ever felt. But the feel of his hand, of his warmth, of the reassurance his touch provides, sends a calm wave through my body.

  "There are two basic kinds of spirits, Sky," he says. "Those that are corrupted, like the one outside this wall. And those that are not. Corrupted spirits wish to cause chaos and destruction in the world. They seek out dead bodies, hoping to possess them. They seek out Broken Ones even more, hoping to overtake them. With dead bodies their time is limited. Decay and rot set in. If they can possess a Broken One, they can live forever. Over the years, because of the leak in your spirit, your body has grown closer to the spirit realm. And thus, you would make for a much more powerful vessel. If a Fenrial inhabited you, even I would have a hard time stopping it."

  I squeeze his hand gently and glance at the fading barrier, the dissipating smoke. "Seems like you're having a hard time already," I say, my voice hopeless.

  He nods. "Fair enough. But it's my shoulder. It's slowing me down. If I'd had a way to keep the spirit still for a moment, I could have ended it, but it's too fast. Well, too fast for me in this condition, at any rate."

  I raise an eyebrow at that. "You seemed unnaturally quick. And the way you jumped, how is that even possible?"

  He chuckles. "That's where the second kind of spirit comes in. The Pure Ones. They can bond with a Broken One, but they will not take over your will. At least, not if you keep them in line. Instead, they seek to establish a symbiotic bond with their host. That bond is the only way to make a Broken One whole again."

  "So you have one of these spirits?" I ask. "A Pure One?"

  He nods. "I do." He pauses, staring at the golden smoke, a thin wisp now. "How about I tell you more about this when we get out of here. That wall won't last forever."

  "When? You're sure it's not if?" I eye the Fenrial prowling on the other side of the golden light.

  "Come now," he says, grinning with such confidence I wonder about his sanity. "Pessimism never won any battles. I believe Eisenhower said that."

  I shrug. "I wouldn't know. Public education around here isn't what it used to be."

  He chuckles.

  I can't help but smile too.

  For a moment, we grin and snicker at our own foolishness, forgetting our impending doom. Perhaps that is why we laugh. To drown out our own despair.

  Kaden's face grows dark. "I will admit, we aren't in the best of positions. The Talisman's weakening, and I don't have any more of their kind. In about two minutes the Fenrial will be upon us."

  My heart races again at his words. We need a plan. "So these Pure Spirits. They give you powers? Abilities?"

  "Yes," he says slowly. "If you know how to control them."

  "They let you do things… things that should not be possible?"

  He narrows his eyes at me. "Not what most consider possible, true."

  I try to deny it, but the pieces have been coming together in my mind for some time, filling in so many gaps of my childhood. "I… I can help us," I say, holding out my arm.

  He shakes his head, his eyes widening. "No. Before the barrier falls, we must run. I'm in no shape to fight off the Fenrial. It will consume you and kill me."

  "No. It won't." I pull the leather cuff off my wrist, exposing the symbol beneath. The creature jerks its head towards me, its red eyes glowing.

  "What are you doing?" Kaden asks, voice raised.

  "I'm saving us," I say. And I hold my hand forward, revealing the secret my mother kept hidden for as long as I can remember. Adrenaline surges through me, and though I don't know what I'm doing, or how to channel what I've always known I have, I focus my thoughts and my feelings and my fears into one purpose. And as the golden hues that carved out the smoke walls fade, I walk forward towards the beast. My body convulses.

  And I change into my true form.

  Nine

  Twin Spirit

  Ever since I can remember, I've worn the leather band around my left wrist. If I ever took it off, my mother would scold me. If Pat ever saw me without it, he would fly into a rage that often ended in bruises. But in my most private of moments, I studied the mark on my skin that the band hid. The mark that made me different. The mark that made me move from one place to another in a blink, made water boil or freeze around me. The mark that made me powerful.

  The mark that made me dangerous.

  I don't know why the band is special. But I finally understand what my mark means.

  Spirits are real.

  And one lives within me.

  A white glow explodes from the symbol on my wrist, consuming my body. My skin turns ivory, my hair turns silver and whips around my head in the wind. I feel lighter on my feet, as if I'm barely touching the ground. All the pain in my body is replaced by a euphoric feeling of endless power.

  With the barrier down, we are vulnerable, but the Fenrial sees me glowing in the darkness of night, and it jumps back, hissing, as if realizing I'm not the host it was hoping for. I'm not a Broken One. I already have a Spirit. Now it's time to see what I can do with it.

  I whisper something, then. Words I do not understand, but which feel part of my very soul. And the light from my body pushes outward, taking shape before me. Claws. Wings. Scales. Eyes of silver, glowing, like me. My spirit, in its own form. A silver, winged serpent, ready to defend me. Ready to fight.

  It crashes into the Fenrial, biting down on the monster's neck and knocking it to the ground, pinning it with sharp claws.

  Kaden rushes forward, leaping past me, and impales his sword into the Fenrial's neck. There is a bone crunching sound as Kaden saws through the creature's neck, cleaving off its head. It rolls away from us, with eyes still moving, tongue still lashing out. But then, as if realizing it's no longer connected to its body, it gives one last gasp and falls still. Its headless body squirms and shakes, the muscle and skin melting away, burning like a pile of steaming sludge, until only the boy's body remains, fully intact, and just as fully dead.

  Kaden pulls two
silver coins from his coat and lays one on each of the boy's eyes, then whispers words in another language.

  "Alar argaris." A hissing sound rises from the body, then it goes quiet and Kaden sighs. "It is done. The spirit is purified. We will not see the corrupted Fenrial again."

  The silver serpent that saved us vanishes, and the glowing of my skin fades to my normal cream. My hair darkens to its ordinary brown, and I fall forward, exhausted, and land on my knees on the cool earth.

  Kaden kneels next to me, his eyes studying me. "You're a Twin Spirit. But how?"

  I lean back onto my feet to face him, and for the first time I realize my ankle no longer hurts. "I don't know," I say. "Ever since I was little, I knew something was different about me. But I never knew what, not until you told me about the spirits. Not until you showed me what you could do. I knew, somehow, I could do the same thing."

  "Not the same. Not yet. Not without practice." He frowns. "This is strange. I could sense strength in you, but it was barely a sliver. The sign of a Broken One. And yet now I can clearly see the spirit within you. A Dracus, or Dragon, in your tongue."

  "A... dragon?"

  "It is said, all spirits were once living creatures. That Fenrial once hunted in the northern mountains. That dragons… well, dragons are another matter. You will see, in time." He pauses, and picks up the wrist band I wear. "I wonder... "

  He hands it to me and I put it back on, a reflex so ingrained in me I don't even think about it.

  Kaden nods, as if I've just answered a question. "I see. It appears this leather cuff keeps your spirit hidden, but not completely. It's leaking out some of your power, making you look to others like a Broken One."

  "Do you have a mark like mine?" I ask.

  He rolls up his sleeve, revealing a black horned serpent caged within a circle of flame. "It is the seal that makes a Broken One whole again," he says. "It's what makes one Arayel, or a Twin Spirit. Of the two worlds. That of the seen and the unseen." He pauses. "In simpler terms, it means that once you bear the mark, you are of the physical and the spiritual. Both together. At once. Never apart."