‘He lives, he lives,’ they began to chant, a wailing cacophony driving all reason from his mind. ‘We want him,’ they wailed as one, ‘he has what was taken from us. Save us.’
‘No, I cannot,’ he howled, clapping his hands over his ears and forcing his eyes from theirs.
‘No,’ he roared, and with all his strength he forced himself up. Their grasping hands painfully tore out clumps of his hair. He wrenched himself free and stared in horror across a sea of hands grasping up through the iron bars buried in the sand. The light was fading. He had to get away from this place before the darkness came. What would happen when night fell? His hands shook with fear as he wiped the sweat from his eyes.
Laughter rumbled around him. He didn’t need to run, there was nowhere to go, he realised. This was a game, Keteth’s game, and he was trapped in the White Beast’s twisted world where he kept the souls of the slain as prisoners. He kicked away the grasping hands and struggled towards the rocks where they could not reach him.
The wind grew as the light faded. Vicious gusts blew him to his knees again and again. He reached the rocks and clung to them, exhausted, he could go no further. He welcomed death - a release from being hunted. He closed his eyes as the rumbling terror neared.
‘I cannot…’ he gasped, ‘I cannot run. Just end it.’
‘I too grow weary of this game, though it has been fun,’ a low voice growled.
The wind whipped up into a frenzy, and laughter boomed around him. Sand stung his face and hands as he clung to the rocks, but he could not withstand the growing maelstrom and was wrenched violently upwards.
He was naked and shivering. A cold metal collar chained him to a stone wall, iron cuffs bound back his arms. A dragon in chains… Death is better! He tried to focus on the dim cell around him, but his vision was blurred. He tried to get up into a kneeling position, but everything lurched and spun. He closed his eyes. Keteth’s laughter echoed around him.
‘How far can a mighty Dragon Lord fall? You cannot run from me, dragon spawn. No one can in my domain,’ Keteth rasped.
He shook in anger and fear that shamed him. “Fear will not save you, but imprison you,” Coronos’ words echoed in his mind and gave him a little strength.
‘Why fight? I always win in the end. You will beg me to end it. You cannot hide even your thoughts from me. Through you I will hunt her down, it’s only a matter of time,’ Keteth trailed off in a whisper. ‘I knew there was another Dragon Lord, but that immortal idiot denied it. Ahhh, but I knew.’
‘What is this place?’ he gasped. ‘What do you want from me?’
‘This is my world, a world I have spent eons creating. Maioria and its feeble creatures, Her creatures, trapped in life, destroyed in death… What a pathetic world. Here there is no death, and not even that immortal idiot has power. I am stronger than the Night Goddess herself.’
‘You are mad.’ Asaph spat.
‘You all cast me out. Now you will all come begging to me!’ Keteth screamed. Asaph cowered.
‘You are afraid of her,’ Asaph snarled, but a sharp pain seared through his mind and he howled in agony.
‘Once your body is spent, your soul will forever be trapped here. It won’t be long now. I have all the time in the world. I can wait. Your body is fading, and soon you will be here fully, body and soul all mine. Then I will take your form as my own, and use it to ensnare the girl. It’s such a good plan.’ Keteth’s laughter screeched around him.
‘I will fight you to my last breath,’ Asaph struggled against his chains.
Keteth did not lie. Somehow he could feel his weakening body far away. But the longer he remained here, the more solid his presence was becoming. Keteth could not be allowed to become him, he could not let Issa die like that. Laughter boomed, coming from everywhere, even inside his own mind.
‘That will make the game much more fun, dragon spawn, but you are naïve to believe you can resist me. Since the Maphraxies invaded your pathetic land, I have taken many of your kind, those that fled to the seas. They all grovelled at my feet and then I devoured their souls. Taking the soul is so much more rewarding than destroying the body,’ Keteth relished.
‘You are strong, Draxian, stronger even than many Ancients. But they all fell to me in the end, as will you, and your power will become my power.’
In his mind, the Recollection opened. He saw Draxians fleeing their homeland in boats. He saw the White Beast come and devour them. Their screams rang through his head. Rage surged within him, and he struggled violently in his chains. Hateful laughter echoed around him.
‘Now your mind is my dominion. Tell me who you are and why you have come, dragon spawn.’ Keteth’s voice was deafening as it boomed.
Pain surged through his mind; bolts of lightning that threatened to tear him in two. Agony filled every part of his being and he prayed death would come. Images and memories flickered through the pain as Keteth shuffled through his mind like a scavenger tearing flesh from a carcass. He fought to keep Keteth from who he was and any memories of Issa, but Keteth was so strong, his power far greater than Asaph’s rage.
He must not know who I am. If Keteth discovered his heritage, so too would Baelthrom. He could not fail Issa, he could not betray his family. If he died now, who else would remember them? Who else would know how they died? The pain intensified and drove out all reasoned thought. All he could do was endure it, and it seemed to last for hours.
The pain paused. He lay there shaking and gasping, hating himself for his wretchedness.
‘Give in to me,’ Keteth roared and the pain began again, stronger.
He screamed and pulled away. He turned inward, the last and only place he could flee to, the only thing he could do to hide his true self and memories of Issa. The chains about him could not hold his retreating consciousness, and they fell away as the prison cell faded. In the distance, he heard Keteth chuckle in surprise at his evasive prey.
He fled down the recesses of his mind, the only place Keteth had not yet invaded. Keteth followed him. He prayed over and again to Feygriene, but she was far from this place.
‘Pray all you want, boy, there is no goddess here…’ Keteth breathed.
The pain lessened the deeper he withdrew. Abruptly, the dragon door appeared before him, magnificent and filling him with hope. For the first time in a long time, he felt the dragon within stir. He searched the door for a handle or someway to open it, but there was none. Laughter echoed and there came a scuttling sound as if thousands of huge insects were fast approaching.
Frantically he felt over every inch of the door but could find no way to open it. Why doesn’t the door open? More laughter, this time closer, and the scuttling sound slowed. He made another frantic search but found nothing.
Think. The answer was there if only he could think. No fear. Fear is death, fear does not exist… Think. He tried to remember some clue from his past, from Coronos’ teachings, from the Recollection. Some answer to the riddle of the dragon door. His mind was blank. The door was shut.
He turned away from the door and looked into the blackness. A greenish light grew and a form began to take shape. He forced the fear away. He would stand his ground and die fighting. If he was the last Dragon Lord, then he would fight and die as one.
A thought came to him. He touched the red markings from his Trial by Fire. Even in this place, when his body was far away, the markings were sore to touch. He thought of the golden face of Feygriene.
She called me the “Dawn Bringer.”
‘I am the Dawn Bringer,’ he said.
The name gave him strength and drove the fear from his heart. A light grew in the darkness, this time from behind him, and it was warm and bright. He looked back over his shoulder. The dragon door was opening, spilling out white light so bright he could not look at it. He ran into the light.
Chapter 37
The Dragon Dream
THE white light dissipated and a purer world took shape. Asaph stood on an endless plain of gr
ass that undulated in the wind like an ocean. In the distance, snow-peaked mountains towered above evergreen forests. The air was cool and fresh, and filled with bird song.
In the clear blue sky, not one, but two suns shone down. Two suns of Feygriene to bless the world, he thought, and took a deep breath to steady his pounding heart. He had the strangest feeling that he had come home after a very long journey.
‘Welcome, brother,’ the deep voice coming from behind startled him.
He spun around and froze. The dragon door was gone and instead a huge beast stood there. Slowly his eyes drifted upwards to look into the face of a massive silver-white dragon. Blue eyes bigger than dinner plates, complete with long black slits stared down at him. The sun glinted brightly off his pristine scales. Two dark silver horns curved back behind long ears, and tendrils of smoke drifted up from a long snout, evidence of the perpetual fire that burned within. Despite the dragon’s fearsome size, there was nothing but gentleness in his demeanour.
‘Why, Asaph, have you left it so long?’ the dragon asked him, sounding sad.
He shook his head in confusion, too stunned to speak.
‘You are safe here, for a time,’ the dragon continued, ‘but you cannot stay long. Without your mind and soul, your body will soon perish from the mortal world. Come, let us make up for lost time. I must take you quickly to the Tower of the Flame.’
His mouth opened and closed, and his mind was a whir of thoughts and questions, but the dragon did not wait, and with a flap of his massive wings launched his great bulk easily into the air.
‘Where exactly are we and who are you?’ Asaph blurted out. ‘I feel as if I know you for some reason,’ he shook his head. He had never met this silver dragon though he felt so familiar. It must be locked in the Recollection, but he could not bring it to mind.
The white dragon hovered above the ground. ‘We are in the Dragon Dream, young one, the only place where you and I and all dragons and Dragon Lords can commune in peace. Names have no meaning to dragons, but many of your kind call me Faelsun. It means ‘The Finder’ for I find all dragon kin seeking sanctuary and bring them here, which is how you found the dragon door within you.’
‘Zanufey brought me here once before,’ Asaph said. ‘I have seen the Tower of the Flame. There I met an Ancient and the Sun Goddess tested me by fire. It’s how I knew to find the Raven Queen, my beloved…’ he trailed off, feeling foolish for blabbing.
‘Indeed,’ Faelsun breathed out smoke. ‘She came to you and brought you here. All Dragon Lords would have visited here when they were children. So you see, you are a little behind. Come now, we must fly north to the Tower of the Flame.’
‘Who created this place?’
‘The Dragon Dream is just that… There is little time to explain all. Always there was the Dream, a shared dream amongst dragons like the Recollection that we all share, of a place with endless skies and boundless freedom - a dream shared in our blood. So, in a word, this place has always existed. I’m its protector, and I welcome you to the Dragon Dream,’ Faelsun bowed his head.
‘Is this a dream?’ he asked, though it certainly didn’t feel like a dream.
‘No, it’s as real and solid as the mortal world,’ Faelsun said. ‘The universe is vast. There are many worlds, many dimensions, more than anyone can imagine. The Dragon Dream is a physical realm of existence to which all dragons will come eventually. Any dragon kin may come here via mind, body, spirit or all three. You have come here, guided by your spirit, at a time of your greatest peril, but very soon you must return and fight that which destroys you.
‘First I must take you to the Tower of the Flame where there is someone who can help you be free of the White Beast’s prison. Well, come on then, you can’t fly without wings now can you?’ Faelsun said, grinning with a thousand gleaming teeth.
He stared up at him open-mouthed and took a deep breath. He could feel the dragon within again, he almost cried out with joy. He tried to rouse it from sleep. It stirred once, then curled up tighter, much to his annoyance. He opened and closed his fists, huffed a little bit, and tried again, but the same thing happened.
‘It’s no use,’ his shoulders slumped, ‘it comes only when I am angry.’
‘Nonsense. You must not think or try, but know and do. You are thinking you are not the dragon and are willing it to come, but it will not. You must know that you are the dragon,’ Faelsun said patiently, his wings billowing gusts as he hovered.
Asaph nodded swallowing his frustration. Closing his eyes he grew still and a memory came to him. He flew high in blue skies over forests and rivers, he was free and wild and the world sped below him. Without his human physical body, he felt none of the usual changes. He opened his eyes and was shocked to look down upon the world with his dragon sight. He was already airborne. He laughed aloud, making thick black smoke burst from his nostrils.
Faelsun returned an equally smoky laugh, and beat his powerful wings, lifting himself high into the air. Asaph did the same and joined the white dragon. Together they soared. He instantly yearned to fly higher and faster, but Faelsun as if sensing his young companions newness to flying, warned against it.
‘Easy, young one. It takes time to master the air. Though your human body is not here, your dragon one most definitely is.’
Asaph marvelled at how Faelsun moved at great speed through the sky with barely a twitch of his wings.
‘Feel the wind, try to sense when it will change, and flow through it accordingly.’
He followed Faelsun’s tuition, and felt the wind whooshing under his wings, lifting him higher. A little tilt downward and the wind would rush on top of his wings pushing him down. He practised turning, dipping one wing lower than the other, and curved around in a graceful arc.
‘I wish we had time to teach you more,’ Faelsun said regretfully, ‘but still, you are already gliding well.’
Asaph grinned, all teeth and smoke, and followed Faelsun. Mountains and forests sped below them. Long silver rivers emptied into sparkling lakes, and out again on their long journey to the sea. He felt like he knew this place intimately, though he had only been here once before.
The ocean came into view, an endless expanse of blue-green water the colour of Issa’s eyes, eyes in which he could drown. He longed for her company, and the feeling was strange in his dragon form because dragons were solitary creatures. An island loomed on the horizon, and from a distance it looked like a sleeping dragon rising defiantly out of the sea. This time as they neared he had longer to look upon the massive castle, it seemed even bigger than before.
The flame-red stone stood out starkly against the glittering blue ocean. Its turrets were the dragon’s horns, and a long winding path to the sea was its tail. As before, storm clouds began to gather around them as they drew closer, blocking the castle from view. White and blue magic crackled within the billowing grey masses.
‘A storm to protect the castle,’ Faelsun explained.
Dark clouds, lightning, and lashing rain engulfed them. Asaph laughed in exhilaration as he flew within the storm. The lightning crackled around him, and the wind buffeted his huge body. Through the rain, they circled down towards the castle, and onto a large platform before the massive main turret. As they landed the rain ceased, the clouds went, and warm sunlight shone down upon them.
Asaph could feel the presence of other dragons; pure dragons and Dragon Lords alike, and he was humbled and excited by their presence. They touched his mind in greeting and whispered “brother.”
‘Greetings, brothers and sisters,’ he acknowledged them back respectfully, surprised at how natural the dragon mind talk was. He wanted to speak more, but what could he say? Besides, flying took up most of his concentration.
Far from adept at landing, he stumbled heavily onto the platform, massive claws raking cobbles the size of boulders for purchase. He stood tall and tried to hide his embarrassment, but Faelsun grinned.
‘It gets easier every time,’ he reassured.
/> ‘How are there so many dragons here?’ Asaph said as he followed the white dragon towards the giant archway that led into the fortress. Walking was certainly not as easy as flying and much less elegant, he decided and longed to be flying in the storm again.
‘Some are the eternal guardians of this place. Others are those who left before the Immortal Lord destroyed Drax. Still others are those who have died but have chosen to remain here before returning to the Fire in the Sky. No Dragon Lord has been here since he destroyed Drax because he destroyed them all,’ Faelsun said.
Asaph wondered then about his mother, had she come here after Baelthrom murdered her? He couldn't bear the thought of her soul being taken by him.
‘Your mother saw the face of Zanufey, and thank the Night Goddess she was not enslaved by Baelthrom,’ Faelsun added, answering Asaph’s unspoken question held deep within him. Asaph looked away, grief was an unfamiliar emotion to his dragon self.
‘Some who go to the Fire in the Sky, return here to help others. From here Maioria can be watched and helped without bringing harm to ourselves or this place. Your mother’s presence is close,’ Faelsun explained. Asaph remained silent, considering the other dragon’s words.
Two dragons stood guard, one dark silver and the other royal blue. They were both smaller than he and Faelsun and stood unmoving as if made of stone. They greeted him and Faelsun respectfully without speaking, and for the first time, Asaph really felt the difference between pure dragons and Dragon Lords. Pure dragons were older, their minds wilder, feral and tempestuous.
He recognised the minds of the Dragon Lords within the fortress, they were instantly more familiar to him. Their minds were more logical than pure dragons. Their thoughts were ordered into rows rather than into the entwining circles of pure dragons. The magic that flowed from them was constructed and controlled, rather than wild and raw. Dragon Lords could fear and love whereas such emotions were under-developed in a pure dragon.
Night Goddess (The Goddess Prophecies Book 1) Page 37
