The Last of Her Line

by Valerie Veden

  A sudden thought popped into my mind and I turned to the taheert.

  “Have you ever wondered why the sea dragons wanted to take me alive? Why didn’t they drown me at the very beginning? It would have been so much easier for them.”

  Mervin looked at me incredulously, then shrugged.

  “No, I haven’t wondered about that. With my Dark magic revealed, I had other things to worry about. Sea dragons… Sea dragons are strange creatures and their behavior isn’t easy to decipher. Perhaps they needed you alive for your magic. Although I did wonder about Renard. What was his purpose for opening the Portal above the sea? Did he really wish to kill you?” Mervin sounded calm, but a dark shadow lurked behind his eyes.

  I shook my head, recalling the gasping explanations of my mischievous second brother after Kamir had almost throttled him. Later, Renard had apologized to me, a rare phenomenon. Not that I had been in a mood to accept his awkward “I’m sorry.” And he hadn’t even complained about the punishment Father had given to him.

  “Not to kill, no, just to get even for some prank I had played on him. Renard wasn’t one to forgive easily. Besides, his sense of humor was a bit off.”

  “I noticed,” murmured Mervin, making me smile.

  It felt surreal to speak about my brother with the person responsible for his death. Yet, though Mervin didn’t know my family like I did, he was one of the few who remembered them as real people, not a symbol.

  “Is there some prophesy connecting sea dragons and the dynasty of Shorall?” I asked. “Or some ancient legend, or a warning from a god?”

  “Not that I heard of. Why?”

  “One of the prophecies did come true – about the man who would give flowers to a princess of Shorall and ruin the dynasty.”

  “You mean…” the taheert paused.

  “I mean the night after I turned seventeen. It wasn’t a dream, was it?”

  Mervin shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. You looked so wistful when you mentioned flowers and I… It was an impulse decision, I didn’t think about the hidden meaning of that.”

  I nodded.

  Everything that had a beginning would have an end. The prophecy was just a warning, a sign nobody paid attention to. There must have been others we were too blind to see. We ignored the signs, allowing the threads of fate to come together in a final pattern, one where the dynasty of Shorall ceased existing.

  “The sea dragons could have sensed my connection to the Abyss,” I offered.

  “What connection?” Mervin said tersely. “The demon possessed you eight months after that incident. The sea dragons are animals, not psychic.”

  I opened my mouth to explain that the Other Riel had become me the moment I was conceived, but Mervin looked worse than I remembered from before, his skin paler, his face more angular, even gaunt. He didn’t need additional worries.

  “I don’t know,” I said lamely. “Just a random thought.”

  It was definitely time to change the topic.

  “Five weeks. Why was I unconscious for so long?”

  Mervin looked at me intently, surprised I gave up on my previous idea so easily.

  “The priests warned me that both your body and your magic had been exhausted by the demon possession. You had barely enough strength to survive; your energy needed to be replenished. The best way for that was to sleep. Riel, what is the last thing you remember?”

  I shrugged.

  “I remember everything, though some moments seem vague.”

  “Do you remember her?” Mervin sounded wary. “The she-demon?”

  “She was actually a Specter,” I corrected him without thinking. “Yes, I do. She was set on destroying the Kadaries. Didn’t the priests explain that?”

  “No,” Mervin said. “They were not very cooperative. The only things they explained were about your health. Everything else they deemed not of my concern.”

  He said that matter-of-factly and I thought that perhaps he had not cared about those other matters while I was lost in a dream world with no set time of return.

  “Did she really leave?” I asked in a low voice, wondering how she could if we were the same. That feeling not of changing but of expanding my Self that her presence had given… It wasn’t a possession. It was something else entirely.

  “She did,” Mervin nodded.

  “Because the priests said so?” I clarified.

  “They – and Karos.”

  Karos? I recalled the name and shuddered. “The Lord Dragon?” I looked at Mervin at a loss for words. He laughed softly.

  “Don’t be afraid, he won’t hurt you. Not now.”

  I blinked. “Why? I mean, I’m glad if it is really so, but why? He hates me!”

  There was a flicker of some emotion in Mervin’s eyes, but his lips smiled.

  “Karos has promised his heir that he won’t hurt you. Alex has decided it’s unfair to blame you for the deeds of your relatives, and Karos loves his nephew too much to quarrel with him over some el’Tuan.”

  “‘Some el’Tuan,’” I repeated indignantly and huffed, trying to look offended. Soon the mask slipped and I giggled.

  “No one has ever called me ‘some el’Tuan.’ Were these actually the Lord Dragon’s words or did you take liberties with the phrasing?”

  “His words,” Mervin tugged gently at a strand of the hair that had freed itself from my braid. “You are not really offended, are you?”

  I shrugged. “He is the Lord Dragon. He can call me whatever he wants. Besides, ‘some el’Tuan’ sounds much better than ‘a dead el’Tuan’”.

  Another idea popped in my mind.

  “The first meeting in your castle? Was it Alex’s idea to join his uncle for a visit?”

  Mervin’s smile grew into a sly grin and, following a sudden urge, I tugged, quite forcefully, at his too long, shaggy hair. Mervin didn’t even wince.

  “So, was it his own idea?”

  “No, it wasn’t,” my el’ero acknowledged. “I asked him to come along. Alex is a kind boy, too kind for a dragon. He saved my life once.”

  “When?” I asked, surprised.

  “Eight months ago, when I was dying in the Storm Valley.”

  “Dying? How? What were you doing there?”

  Mervin looked away and didn’t answer for a long while. Then he shrugged.

  “On the king’s order I had to go to the fortress of Keesh near the Storm Valley border. I didn’t expect it to be a trap and was stupid enough to eat and drink there without checking first. The food was drugged, and put me into a deep sleep. The king had ordered his two older sons to execute me, but they wanted to… to play… and I managed to escape… but not intact. If not for Alex, I would have bled to death.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “Why? Why did Father order that?”

  Mervin smiled bitterly. “I committed two crimes. I had blood of shyfters in my veins, no matter how diluted, and I could wield Dark magic, which made me potentially stronger than the king.”

  I swallowed thickly again. It was so in Father’s character. I wasn’t surprised that my brothers and not some palace guards were assigned to the task. As a ruling dynasty, we stayed above the law, but Father was prudent enough to understand the aristo discontent if one of them, even a half-blood, was killed outright with no crime committed and no trial.

  “No one told me anything about your fate.” I said. “When you disappeared, I asked and asked, but no one would say where you went. I was so glad to get your note, to know that you were safe and sound.”

  Mervin shifted, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

  Silence stretched and stretched until finally I decided it was enough. I got up, smoothed the hem of my dress, and patted the shoulder of the still-sitting taheert.

  “I want to go down to the shore.”

  He cocked an eyebrow.

  “What for? To improve your swimming skills?”

  His voice sounded hoarse, but there were familiar notes of dry amusement in it. I
huffed, hiding my relief, and brushed his insinuation off.

  “Not at all. I am going to look for beautiful shells and you are going to carry my finds. Come on, it will be fun, I promise.”

  Mervin made an inarticulate sound, suspiciously similar to laughter, and got up, too.

  “When my princess commands,” he said, bowing with mock humility, “I shall abide.”

  “You shall,” I nodded grandly, then tugged at his sleeve. “I can see a pretty pink shell right from here. Come!”

  Chapter 2

  We spent a couple of weeks in Mervin’s castle. Sometimes it felt strange, even awkward, but more awkward for Mervin than for me. Too often he looked at me with a pained expression, as if ready to say something. I wondered what it was. I wondered if I really wished to know.

  I still lived in the same room. The taheert had offered me a free choice of any other chamber but I didn’t need another, the locks were gone. We spoke often, but never mentioned my family. Some wounds needed time to heal, and both of us had deep ones.

  Mervin let it slip that the Lord Dragon knew a lot about the Specters but refused to share the information. It was the Lord Dragon who had named the exact date of my awakening and had pointed out that I needed to be under the open sky for this to go smoothly.

  The order from the Lord Dragon came at the end of the second week. We were to present ourselves at the capital. The former capital actually, as Alm-Tiren was now nothing but ruins. The Lord Dragon hated that city, the symbol of Shorall rule, but hadn’t formed a new capital yet.

  Mervin omitted the details of his interaction with the Lord Dragon’s messenger but I got a feeling that Karos Dakaant wasn’t happy with his governor, and suspected I was the reason for this unhappiness. I didn’t pry further, afraid to worsen the situation.

  And so, we returned to the empty ruins of Alm-Tiren. The royal palace of the city, my beautiful home, was now nothing but burned and blackened walls. If there were any survivors, they had long fled.

  In the city itself, the houses along the streets had only two colors: the gray of melted stone houses and the black of heaps of fat soot, spotting the ground and ruins everywhere.

  The city was devoid of any life. It seemed odd we were summoned here. By “we” I didn’t mean only Mervin and myself. It was a big company we had to join in, a few dozens of shyfters and vampires. I had difficulty distinguishing shyfters in their human form from real humans, so there could have been a few humans, too. And, of course, there was the Lord Dragon in his human disguise.

  We crossed what had been the capital’s center and moved deeper into narrow streets. This part of the city suffered less. Some of the buildings looked whole, though they were also covered with piles of ash.

  Finally, we stopped in front of a three-storied stone house. The Lord Dragon dismounted first and made a gesture for Mervin and me to do the same.

  Inside, the house was gloomy and dark, furnished with old, dusty furniture and dilapidated tapestries. The Lord Dragon led the way. He seemed to know this place quite well. A few corridors later, we came to a tall door. The Lord Dragon went in first and politely inclined his head in greetings to someone we couldn’t see. Then he turned and gestured for me to enter.

  The chamber was small and windowless. A strange white light seeping out of everywhere – the ceiling, the walls, even the floor – illuminated the room. Its only occupant was an old man sitting in a chair. His arms were thin and bony, and his face gaunt; his eyes were covered with whitish leukomas.

  The old man turned his gray-haired head to me. Bloodless lips moved, “Is that she?”

  “Yes, Teraihi.” The Lord Dragon said, his voice filled with reverence. “I have brought the last of Shorall.”

  The old man’s blind eyes stared at me, his withered arm rose in the air.

  “Come.” The old man’s voice sounded emotionless. Unnerved, I approached him. Disobeying didn’t seem possible. The blind man touched my face with his fingers, the touch soft and feathery – but it took all my willpower not to shudder; it felt as if a snake slid over my skin.

  “Was I right, Teraihi?” asked the Lord Dragon.

  “Yes,” the old man whispered. “You were right. Now send her away.”

  “Go,” the Lord Dragon nodded at me and I hurriedly left the room. I couldn’t remember a place I wanted to leave as much as I wanted to leave this one.

  Mervin, still standing outside the door, hugged me and only then I noticed I was trembling.

  “Who? What was that old man? What did he want from me?”

  Mervin just shook his head. The Lord Dragon surely knew, but I wasn’t desperate enough to ask him for an explanation. That old man, he wasn’t an el’Tuan, but he wasn’t a vampire or a shyfter either. A human? I doubted that. His touch felt too creepy, too wrong, as if he had taken a piece of my soul with his fingers.

  We had waited for a few hours at the house entrance before the Lord Dragon emerged.

  “Return to Neiges,” he told Mervin. “Check all the middle flows and get everything ready. My worst expectations are coming true.” Then he turned to me and I stepped back involuntary. “As for you, Princess, don’t make me feel sorry for letting you live.”

  I nodded hurriedly, afraid to say anything. The Lord Dragon could have promised his nephew he would keep me alive, but tolerating my company seemed the maximum he was able to give. The best thing I could do was let him forget about my existence.

  Mervin opened the Portal to Neiges, an’Toel family domain.

  “Can you explain? What did he mean by ‘middle flows’? What worst expectations?”

  “Not now, Riel. First, I must carry out the order.”

  An hour later, Mervin came to my room. During his short absence Mervin’s face became even thinner; his pale skin developed an unhealthy hint of gray and his lips looked bloodless, all signs of magic exhaustion. It didn’t mean his reserve was empty – not in the presence of the Source – but it clearly pointed at the level of power he had to wield.

  Mervin smiled lopsidedly at my concerned look and settled into a chair.

  “You want the details, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  Mervin rubbed his temples wearily.

  “A war is coming.”

  “A war,” I repeated. “With who?”

  “Your favorites.”

  “The Kadaries?” I jumped from my seat, feeling a sudden and powerful mixture of emotions. There was anger, fear, hate and even something similar to anticipation.

  “Yes,” he agreed, watching me intently. “The Kadaries.”

  “But why? What do they want?”

  “Our world.”

  I settled down again. “Why?”

  “The Abyss is pushing them out. Actually, no, not the Abyss Herself but the Specters. I have some acquaintances left among the half-blood Kadaries, the only people in the clan of Taor who deem me worth speaking to. The plans to conquer our world were put into motion a long time ago. Courting the king, your father, was a part of the bigger scheme. After the Lord Dragon came, they switched to courting the resistance, hoping to bleed us white and make the Lord Dragon leave our world. They weren’t in a hurry, but last month, the Specters learned how to break the Kadaries’ protection spells. Several clans were wiped out.”

  I turned my eyes from Mervin’s face. From the Other-Riel’s thoughts, I remembered many Specter attempts to kill the Kadaries off. It might have been a coincidence that the Specters’ breakthrough in the attack technics happened shortly after the Other-Riel left me. It might have been, yet I greatly doubted it. Judging by Mervin’s intent expression, he had drawn similar conclusions.

  “So the Kadaries desperately need a shelter in some constant world, where the Specters can’t get them,” I said slowly. “And it’s not in their character to ask for something they can take by force. But why us?”

  “It appears they can stay in Terrine longer than in any other known world. Unfortunately, our home is too hospitable for them.” Mer
vin shrugged, trying to pretend it was just small talk and not a glimpse into a gloomy future.

  The war.

  With the Kadaries.

  I could hate them, could detest them, but I couldn’t deny their skill in war and magic. Any of their clansmen was as good as any of the aristo el’Tuans, as efficient and well trained. However, in our world, aristos with the Gift strong and developed constituted only one percent of the population, all the rest were commoners with weak magic. It was our duty, the aristos’ duty, to act as their protectors. The Kadari society was different; all the adults were warriors there, weaklings didn’t survive.

  Well, we didn’t have to repel attack after attack, century after century; the Kadaries had to, and every day they lived was a victory. I almost respected them for their survival, for the fact they kept their civilization.

  Almost.

  It would have been so much better for us were they less lucky.

  “How many clans are going to the war?” I asked, trying to remember their exact number.

  “All of them,” Mervin said.

  I swallowed hard.

  It wouldn’t be just a war, it would be a slaughter. Our populations were equal in number, a few hundred millions each, but in reality, it would be one of our warriors against a hundred of theirs. Our advantages were knowledge of the terrain and natural magic Sources. It was far from enough.

  “What about the Lord Dragon?” I asked tentatively. “Will he help us? Will he stop them?”

  Mervin sighed.

  “He is one and there are millions of them. Yes, Karos promised to help – he said even we are better neighbors than the Kadaries. We were ‘greedy bastards’ but we didn’t sacrifice our prisoners to the Chaos gods.”

  “The Kadaries… Do they really…?”

  “Yes. Few clans don’t – and I was lucky to live in such a clan – but most do. For them a new sacrifice is much better than a new slave. The Lord Dragon will help us, but he won’t let his people die for us, neither his warriors nor his sorcerers.”