by Eric Vall
“That makes sense,” I mused. “Dragons typically live for centuries, which isn’t common for people who don’t know how to cultivate. What else did you see?”
“Oh, this family adored the dragons,” Emma sighed. “They believed the dragons had been created for the sole purpose of protecting the mortals on Inati, though the gods never confirmed that.”
“Then why did everyone end up fearing them?” I wondered with a soft sadness. “Valerra made sure everyone feared her because it kept her safe, but why did anyone want to kill our kind before that?”
“I’m not sure.” Emma shook her head and frowned. “When the family stopped writing the book, it was merely because they ran out of room.”
“Are you saying there could be more volumes?” I asked, and a glimmer of hope fluttered in my chest.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” my aunt agreed. “They seriously loved everything about the dragons. They even followed one dragon family in a ship to a whole other continent just to keep up with their historical data. It’s truly incredible.”
“Did you get their name?” I wondered. “I’d like to find the other books, if they exist.”
“Well, now, this is the strange part,” Emma hedged and averted her gaze as she dropped her hand from the book. “The family crest said, ‘duLoc.’”
“Why is that strange?” I asked. “I don’t recognize it.”
“You wouldn’t,” she agreed with a peculiar expression. “Your mother and I rarely talked about our ancestry because, well, our father was a drunk, and our mother was like a skittish colt if you walked into the room too quickly. They weren’t exactly fun at parties, but that was our mother’s maiden name.”
I blinked rapidly in shock, and my mind seemed to go in a thousand directions at once. The family who had spent generations studying dragons shared the family name of my maternal grandmother. It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.
“Aunt Emma, do you think our family is from here?” I whispered.
“I can’t really answer that,” she sighed. “Like I said, we couldn’t get anything about our past from our mother, and ol’ Pop was always too smashed to do anything but stumble from his armchair to his bed. We always blamed the distance, but there’s a whole other reason your mother and I never took you around your grandparents.”
“I can see why,” I muttered. “I just wish we could talk to at least your mother now. Is she still alive?”
“No,” Emma answered, and her eyes dimmed with sadness. “She died in New Orleans not long after your mom and I moved to New York.”
“Damn,” I cursed.
It was sad I never got to meet my grandmother, but then my attention was brought back to the rest of our group as they turned to face Julia and Naomi walking down the aisle.
“Oh, good, you’re back!” Julia exclaimed as she rushed to greet Ruslan and give him a peck on the cheek. “Did you have to sacrifice anything to the gods while you were gone?”
“Almost,” my father muttered with a daggered stare at me.
“But you didn’t,” I chuckled and grinned.
He stuck out his pink tongue before he wrapped his arms around my mother and hugged her close.
“Did you find what we needed?” Alyona asked.
“I’d say so,” Naomi replied with a grin.
Then she and Julia dumped a bag of bones on the floor.
Chapter 3
“Pleeeease, tell me you didn’t just go dig up a grave,” Aaliyah groaned as we all stared at the mixture of various skeletons in front of us.
“No, silly,” Naomi laughed. “These were in the potion storage room here in the archives. We just needed to find the right ones.”
“So, you had to find a hundred bones?” I squatted down next to the pile with curiosity. “There’s a lot here.”
“We had to find eighty-eight, actually,” Julia corrected me with a grin. “Though they aren’t all humanoid. There are some reptilian, avian, and a few other types in there as well.”
“Let’s get started,” Alyona cut in before I could ask more questions.
My wife, Naomi, and Julia began to arrange the bones into a circle, and then they filled in the ivory circle with designs until there were no bones left. Next, Naomi pulled a bottle of bright purple liquid from her robe pocket, and she and Alyona murmured a few words as they walked along the circle together while Naomi poured the liquid onto the bones.
The violet ink left stains on the bones’ creamy surface, and the longer I stared, the more I realized they weren’t random splotches. The purple coloring had formed a series of symbols from one of the languages of Rahma.
“Okay, get in,” Naomi said as she pointed to the center of the circle.
“Uh, alright.” I carefully stepped over the bones to stand in the middle and looked around at all the eager faces. “Now, what?”
“Picture the memory you want to share,” Alyona explained. “Focus on that and nothing else.”
“Got it,” I agreed and closed my eyes.
I remembered walking in the shoes of my ancestor Lord Adrian with his wife Lady Sicily at his, or my, side. He commanded her to use her power with the Sword of Hatra above his head, and then my eyes sprang open as a light seemed to pierce through my body. It didn’t hurt, but it reminded me of the tingly feeling when my foot fell asleep, and the sensation filled my body.
I looked around to see my whole group watching in awe as my memory seemed to project around me, and then I glanced down to see a nearly transparent version of my fox Demi-Human ancestor coincided with my own form. Before I could speak, though, the lights from Sicily’s spell crashed to the ground around me.
Rebecca, Aaliyah, Ravi, and the dryads scurried around the circle with maps and marked each of the places where the lights fell back to Inati.
Suddenly, the images faded away, and I was left standing in the center of the bone circle. The purple ink had disappeared, and the bones looked withered and rotten. It seemed we’d used whatever magic they had left.
“Incredible,” Ruslan breathed. “It was like I was watching from Lord Adrian’s point of view, but also I could see you in him. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“I’m just glad it worked!” Julia exclaimed with a grin. “Now, we have something to work with.”
I clambered over the bones where my lovers had laid out the maps. There were eleven total marks, and they were all over the place.
“I can’t believe it,” Miraya whispered as she pursed her lips together. “Some of my sisters are so far away. This will not be an easy journey, I’m afraid.”
“I don’t mind a challenge,” I chuckled. “I’m just glad we figured out a way to map them out. I don’t think I could have done all that from memory.”
“The first one is easy,” Laika said as she studied the map. “It’s Lord Nikolaus’ Sword of Light. Here, it was mapped while the blade was in Leyte.”
“After that, we only have one other dot that landed in Rahma,” Ravi continued. “Then we’ll have to venture past the borders.”
“I thought the Noble Swords were divided among Rahman cities,” Polina gasped. “These are much further than that.”
“The story was simply that the gods had divided us around Inati.” Miraya frowned and shook her head. “It doesn’t surprise me they separated us as far apart as they could.”
“Has anyone here ever left Rahma?” I asked.
“I have,” Laika answered. “Twice with the Blue Tree Guild, but I don’t know any of the noble families well enough to simply arrive without warning.”
“I don’t think we’ll have much choice,” I countered. “In order to get to all these places quickly, we’re going to need to portal there. The sooner we get access to their power, the better for everyone. We need to close the Breach.”
“I only have one question,” Nike piped up in a confused voice. “How are you going to bond with a daughter I don’t have?”
“Well, do you have any sisters?” I aske
d.
“No.” Nike shook his head. “My father was, ah, a difficult man to love.”
“Okay, how about aunts?” I pressed. “Your grandfather gave you the sword, right?”
“He did,” the noble replied and frowned. “But I don’t know if he bore any other children. It’s possible, I suppose.”
“Then we’ll have to go find out for ourselves,” I decided. “But first, I’d really like to get some grub.”
“Oh, gods, finally,” Valerra groaned. “I’ve been starving for hours.”
“You could have gotten some food,” I chuckled. “Where are your ladies-in-waiting?”
“With the eggs,” she muttered. “That’s the only time I can get them to leave me alone.”
“Then I guess I won’t invite them to dinner,” I teased before I led everyone out of the archives and up the stairs into the city.
As we stepped out of the passageway, I realized the three moons of Inati had already risen above us. We’d been in the archives and Olivier’s cavern all day, though it had only felt like a few hours. At least we’d accomplished making the map, and we could start our journey first thing in the morning.
We trudged toward the Lunar Palace, and Ruslan rushed ahead to have the kitchen staff prepare dinner.
“You aren’t worried about this trek?” Miraya nearly whispered as we made our way toward the palace.
“Not at all.” I shrugged and gave her a confident smile. “We’ve overcome many obstacles to get where we are already. I know we can do this. The distance is nothing.”
“My sisters are just so far away,” she sighed and looked down at her feet.
“They are,” I agreed before I stopped and guided her chin up to face me. “And we can handle that. The hardest part will be finding the right person to bond with, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. So, stop worrying, okay?”
“I’ll try,” the spirit replied in a soft voice as tears swam in her pale-blue eyes.
“Lord Evan is right.” Alyona appeared on Miraya’s other side and linked her fingers through the spirit’s with a reassuring smile. “We always find a way.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Miraya said after a moment.
“Then, tonight, we only worry about filling our bellies and getting some rest,” Polina declared.
“And we reeeeally want to fill our bellies,” Trina agreed as her stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear.
“See, it’s not just me who’s starving!” Aaliyah quipped.
My lovers giggled together as we headed inside the cavernous entrance of the Lunar Palace, where the delicious aromas of dinner filled the air. I could pick out some herbs and spices, as well as chicken and beef, but the other meat was a mystery to my powerful nose. All I knew was I was ready to tear into it.
As we filed into the dining hall, I took my place at the head of the table while Alyona sat next to me, and my mother left an empty seat on my other side for Ruslan. I’d had to get used to the chain of command that came with royalty, as it was my old-world tradition for the father to take the head chair. In Hatra, however, I was Lord of the city, and I took the seat that indicated the most power.
My aunt shuffled around the table with awkward glances at open seats, and I figured she was confused about the seating arrangement as well, but before I could direct her to a place, the dryads took tour guide status and placed her between them and Valerra.
Everyone else sat down, and one of the staff appeared with goblets and a jug of wine. Soon, we all had drinks and bread to appease our empty stomachs until the main course arrived.
“So, son, do you plan to begin your travels in Leyte?” Ruslan wondered as he sipped from his mug.
“I think that’s the easiest,” I agreed. “It’s close, obviously, but we also have Lord Nikolaus to help us navigate the family and figure out who I can bond with. I don’t imagine showing up in random cities with no idea who to look for would go over so well.”
“It will be difficult enough to explain the situation at hand,” Alyona pointed out. “If someone doesn’t want to bond with you, what are we going to do?”
“Who wouldn’t want to bond with a badass dragon?” Marina giggled.
“An idiot, of course,” Polina retorted.
“A big, stupid idiot,” Trina agreed as she threw back the last of her wine.
“I didn’t want to at first,” Valerra interjected with an arched eyebrow.
“Well, we didn’t mean you,” Polina replied and grinned. “You’re obviously not a big, stupid idiot.”
“Yeah, you were just protecting your egg,” Marina said as her green skin took on the pinkish tint of a blush.
“Egg?” my aunt chimed in with curiosity. “What egg? I thought you’d only just had one together.”
“Oh, gods, uh…” Valerra looked at me with panic in her eyes. “I didn’t--”
“It’s okay,” I chuckled. “Aunt Emma, Valerra already had her sister’s egg waiting to hatch when we met, and we made our own since then.”
“So, two eggs?” Emma’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Two little grand-nieces or nephews?”
“Yep,” I replied with a proud grin. “How about I take you to see them after dinner?”
“I’d love that!” my aunt gushed.
“They would love some visitors!” a high-pitched voice suddenly shrieked from the doorway.
In a flurry of blue dresses and blonde and brown hair, two human women rushed into the room and stood next to Valerra’s chair. I recognized her ladies-in-waiting and greeted Eleanor and Emily with a warm smile.
“Good evening, ladies,” I said.
“So great to see you, Lord Evan!” Eleanor replied and grinned back. “We just came to check on dinner.”
“Forsythe said it will be ready soon,” Emily finished. “He wanted to welcome you with his newest specialty.”
“What is it?” I wondered. “I smelled something new.”
“A new breed of animal wandered into the forest we hunt,” Ruslan explained. “One of our hunters caught one, and someone else said it’s something called a buffalo.”
“Oh, wow,” I murmured. “I haven’t seen one of those since I took a vacation to the Midwest when I was a kid.”
“They make a good burger,” Emma chimed in with a laugh. “Your mother and I used to eat buffalo burgers every time we went to visit our cousins in Nebraska.”
“So, you’ve eaten this meat before?” Ruslan’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yeah, it’s delicious,” my aunt answered. “You’ll love it.”
“Fantastic,” the fox Demi-Human said and rubbed his hands together with excitement.
“How about we go check on the eggs while we’re waiting on the food?” I suggested to Emma. “I haven’t really had a chance to go see them, either.”
“Oooh, yes!” she chirped. “Lead the way!”
I pushed my chair from the table, and we headed for the door. I saw Valerra’s body tense with the natural instinct to protect her eggs, but she kept her cool. It had been rough when she first laid our egg, and she hadn’t wanted to let me see it or even tell me about it. When she finally realized I would protect our child just as fiercely as she would, she seemed to be able to relax, at least a little.
“Oh, just a second!” Alyona called out before we left the dining hall. “Emma can’t get in the chamber.”
When we built the room that held the eggs, we’d made sure it had an extra layer of protection. Alyona had spelled the doorway with a barrier that only allowed a dragon to pass through. Even when the ladies-in-waiting guarded the room, they could only stand in the stairwell to protect it.
“Oh, right,” I murmured. “How do we do that?”
“Just a drop of your blood and a quick spell,” the princess replied as she seemed to pull a necklace from thin air.
The necklace featured a pendant that looked almost like a transparent gem, but then she flipped open the top, and I realized it was a prism-shaped vial.
The princess pulled a dagger from her spatial storage and reached for my hand. Then she pricked my finger with the dagger and squeezed several drops of blood into the vial.
“Will this work?” I asked. “I thought only a dragon could enter.”
“Yes, only a dragon has full access to enter the room,” Alyona agreed. “However, you can share that ability with someone who has your blood and enters with you or another dragon. She wouldn’t be able to go in alone, but she can go in with you once I finish this spell.”
“Fascinating,” Emma whispered as Alyona spun the vial around and coated its interior with my dark crimson blood. “We already share blood. Does that matter?”
“I can’t be certain,” my wife explained. “Only because the blood you share is his mother’s, and we don’t know which parent was the dragon.”
“Which parent?” Emma repeated with wide eyes. “You think my sister was a dragon?”
“No,” I answered. “I think my father was.”
“You never knew him,” my aunt pointed out. “Hell, your mother barely did.”
“Did you meet him?” I wondered as I realized my aunt and I had never discussed my father. “Was he from New York? Or somewhere else?”
“Listen, Evan, I promised your mother I wouldn’t go into that part of her life,” Emma replied and wrung her hands together. “It was a promise I made to her when you were a child. She didn’t want you to worry about who he was because he didn’t seem very worried about you.”
“I have a right to know,” I argued.
“And I have a promise to keep,” my aunt said simply. “I don’t know enough to be worth any value to you. Just leave it at that, okay?”
The dining hall was completely silent, and all I could hear was my heart thudding in my chest as I tried to decide if I should continue to argue with her. I didn’t think she would have any answers for me, but now it seemed she might and wouldn’t share them. It was maddening, but I couldn’t be so selfish that I asked her to break a promise to my own mother.
