Imogen sat down next to Ben on the cot and nodded for her father to continue.
“My father found the dragon’s egg shortly after Dragonfall. The dragons encase their eggs in rock, transport them into our solar system through some unknown power and then hurl them at the planet as meteorites. This egg hit a space station first, which shattered its casing. It fell to earth along with thousands of rock fragments. As a result, it didn’t penetrate deeply enough into the crust to receive the heat it needed to hatch.
“When my father first found it, he thought it was merely a curiosity. Years later, when rumors of dragons began to circulate, he looked at it more closely and became convinced that he had a dragon’s egg. When strange things began to happen in proximity to the egg, he knew he needed to find somewhere safe to hide it. He searched for a piece of property with a long history of haunting or unusual activity. That’s how he found this place.
Cyril smiled gently at Ben. “He died the year your mother was born, leaving me the title to this property and a letter about the egg with a stern admonishment to keep it secret. I treated it like a curiosity as well, but kept it to myself nonetheless. I noticed that when I was around it, I could do things more easily, I was more creative … and luckier, so I started spending more time here, just to experiment and learn. I discovered that I had the most influence if I was physically touching the egg, but I could still use its power if it was within a few dozen feet. Also, I learned to sense its presence.
“Will seemed to be the key … a fact later confirmed in no uncertain terms by Sephiroth.”
Ben started to ask a question but Cyril silenced him with a raised hand.
“I’ll get there, but yes, Sephiroth was the rebel dragon. He was the real leader of our revolt. Now, back to magic.
“Will is the key. To manifest an outcome, your will must be sufficient to overcome reality’s inertia in order to cause the desired change. To bargain with beings from other realms, you must have the will to resist being swayed from your purpose by their offers and charms.”
He stopped and looked up at the ceiling, as if looking through to the broken-down house above.
“I was here with your mother, Ben—she was just a year old when it happened. It was so quick and so final. All at once, right in the middle of the afternoon, the world died. They detonated several large nukes in high orbit over every continent. The resulting electromagnetic pulses destroyed most electronics and shorted the grid. There were a fair number of people who had home power plants, but the system still ran on a grid so everything stopped when the power stopped.
“But that didn’t really matter because the second wave hit thirty minutes later. All the neural-pulse bombs owned by all six of the corporate conglomerates were launched simultaneously, while at the same time, all global defense systems were disabled. Their plan was nothing if not thorough. Every significant population center in the world died in the space of five minutes.
“Your grandmother died that day, Ben,” Cyril said. “She was working and had to be in the city. One flash of finely tuned electromagnetic energy and she was gone.
“I hunkered down for years after that. Even though this area hadn’t been hit, people forgot how to be civilized for a while. I learned how to fight during that time and I raised Laura as best I could.
“I always came back to the egg. The more I focused my will on it, the more easily magic came to me. I knew that I possessed the single most-prized object on the entire planet.
“Laura was nine when the dragons made themselves known. Four came forth and set fire to the countryside, showing any who dared to look what they really were. They claimed responsibility for the bombings—gloating about how easily they had conquered our world.
“That was the day the resistance was born. I started a cell with a few of the people who lived in the Rogue River Valley. We began preparing—for what we didn’t really know. But then one of the dragons moved into a military base under one of the smaller mountains in the Cascade Range, just north of here.
“We started organizing raids on the wyrm’s minions with some success. Then the dragon came against us. He wasn’t very big—they’re only the size of a bird when they hatch and this one had grown to be no bigger than a horse.
“I was in position to take a shot on a priest we’d been wanting to kill, while the rest of my men were waiting to steal a supply wagon during the ensuing confusion. The dragon came out of the night sky right on top of them before I could take my shot. I was a hundred yards away, helpless to do anything save listen to their screams turn into the crackle of burning flesh. His fire burned them crisp in a matter of seconds. Then he landed in the middle of their charred and twisted remains, shattering them into pieces and scattering the parts haphazardly around him.
“He roared in triumph.
“I froze, not daring to move. Right then and there, I learned the true meaning of the phrase ‘alpha predator.’ As I watched, praying that he wouldn’t see me, another dragon came out of nowhere, hitting the first and tearing into one wing with his talons. As the dragons began fighting, a woman leapt off the second one, rolled to her feet and immediately started shooting at the first.
“When the priest came out to join the fight, I took my shot and killed him. The first dragon fled, with the second giving chase.
“That was the day I met your mother, Imogen. She was the crazy woman riding the dragon. Sarah. She was several years older than I was but I was smitten in a glance. She was more than beautiful, she had a certainty of purpose about her that entirely overpowered my common sense.
“She invited me to join Sephiroth against the other dragons. Before I could answer, the rebel dragon returned and immediately detected the egg. With a bit of persuading by Sarah, I agreed to join them. Looking back, I’m quite sure that Sephiroth would have killed me and taken the egg if I’d refused.”
“I thought he was good,” Ben said.
“He was a dragon,” Cyril said. “We are a lesser species. And although Sephiroth was the runt of the litter, smaller and weaker than the rest, he was also smarter. He decided that the only way he would ever win against his brothers would be to enlist humans against them. He recruited us, mostly because Sarah had raised him and he trusted her. She had found him as a sickly hatchling and nursed him to health and then to strength.
“He let me keep the egg, but only after I swore to keep it secret. I suspect he had plans to hatch it the moment the last of his brothers was dead.” Cyril held the egg up in the palm of his hand. “This is almost certainly a female. If it hatches, humanity will probably never reclaim this world.”
“Why don’t you destroy it?” Imogen asked.
“I don’t know how,” Cyril said with a helpless shrug. “I tried all kinds of things … all except heat, anyway. Besides, I think we’re going to need the egg before this is over. Now, where was I?
“Ah, I fell in love with Sarah and joined the resistance. We met the Dragon Slayer and the Monk in that first year. Along with Sephiroth, the four of us formed the core leadership of the entire rebellion, and we managed to kill three dragons and countless of their slaves and servants. At one point we had several sizable fighting units at our command and some pretty impressive tech, most of which was useless against the dragons.
“Ultimately, we were undone by a man talking when he should have kept his mouth shut. Someone gave up our base of operations—a large underground military facility built by the NACC under Mount Shasta. We had taken it as our base and used it successfully for years without detection. It helped that it was a hub for several underground roads running off in five directions with various facilities and exit points along them.
“When the dragon attacked, Chen and I and the Dragon Slayer were just returning from a meet with a weapons dealer who turned out to be a no-show. We were close enough that we could see the whole thing but too far away to do anything about it.
“The dragon landed at the entrance, ripped the door open and started breathing f
ire. He’d take a long, deep breath and then roar fire for a minute or more into the bunker. The three of us stood there, helplessly watching for almost an hour while the dragon transformed our home into a raging inferno. Long after we knew that everyone inside was dead, Sephiroth launched from the entrance, his scales glistening red with heat. He flew into the sky with the wyrm in pursuit.
“Stalkers, Dragon Guard, and several priests came out of the surrounding forest and assembled near the entrance.
“We watched as Sephiroth was overtaken by his brother. The wyrm tore his throat out, roaring in triumph and flying away with the corpse clutched in his talons.
“Then, we watched as a small army of soldiers and dragon-conjured monsters went into our home. None of our people came out of that hole alive. Your mother died that day, Imogen. Thankfully, your sister had brought you here for a few days.
“So, first it killed my mother and now it’s taken my baby,” she said, nodding to herself.
“The Dragon Slayer lost his wife and three sons that day. Watching our home and our families be so completely destroyed broke our spirit. We disbanded, right then and there. The Monk went into seclusion at a magical sanctuary we’d built. I moved to Ashland in the hopes of giving my daughters a chance at a normal life. The Dragon Slayer went north into the Deschutes Territory.
“We agreed that we wouldn’t contact each other unless it was important, and we haven’t, until now.” Cyril shook his head sadly. “I led death right up to Chen’s front door, and I’m afraid I might be doing the same thing to the Dragon Slayer.”
“The letter you had me send at Rocky Point … it was to him, the Dragon Slayer.”
Cyril nodded.
“What will he do?”
“That depends entirely on what he can do.”
Ben knew better than to press an answer like that.
“Why don’t you ever call him by his real name?” Ben asked.
“To protect him. We all took titles to use in the field. In a way, those titles became our persona and reputation, often gaining us support with a mere mention. Also, they helped keep our true identities secret.
“The Dragon Guard caught up with us a few years later in Ashland. That was the day your mother and father died, Ben.”
He looked up sharply, cold rage slowly filling him up. He knew that his parents had been murdered, but he didn’t know that it was at the hands of the wyrm’s people. Rather than trust himself to speak, he nodded for Cyril to continue.
“I took the three of you and fled, eventually ending up in K Falls. It didn’t take long to realize that you were special, Ben. If the egg was anywhere near you, you would make things move with your mind, much to your delight and my concern, so I installed this bunker and hid the egg here.
“Raising the three of you, I made an effort to teach you a number of basic skills. Some, like meditation and visualization, will help you wield magic, others like hand-to-hand and bladed combat will keep you alive in a fight.”
Cyril paused and looked at the floor, looking back up at Ben with a twinge of guilt.
“That blue serum you’ve been drinking is going to do more to you than just heal your leg.”
Ben frowned. He hadn’t given it a second thought.
“You’d lost so much blood that your heart was shutting down,” Cyril said. “It was the only thing I had that would keep you alive … so I used it.”
“What?” Ben asked. “That blue juice?”
Cyril nodded seriously. “The conglomerates spent years trying to build an artificially intelligent computer, but it was always just a little farther off. They did, however, manage to create a cognitive-and-sensory-augmentation computer implant with a neural interface.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Ben said, putting his forehead in his hands. “My head hurts.”
“That’s because a computer is being built inside your brain.”
He looked up, frowning with alarm.
“The serum also regenerates tissue and manufactures blood cells, which is what I needed—to get blood into your veins.”
“So, what does this computer do? Is it going to take over?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Cyril said with a guilty shrug. “We took it from an abandoned NACC weapons lab. It was labeled: Combat Agent Augmentation Implant. A few specifications were given, but not enough information was available to risk using under less desperate circumstances.”
“Well … it did heal my leg pretty quickly.”
“Just be aware of how you’re feeling,” Cyril said. “Take note of any changes.”
“Right now, my head hurts.”
“In that case, you should lie down and get some rest.”
Ben nodded, lying back on the cot, his head full of swirling ideas, questions, and pain. He didn’t sleep, instead, drifting into a detached, weightless state. It felt as if all of his memories were suddenly called up one by one, impossibly quickly, in perfect chronological order. He had no concept of time, only that his entire life was just filtered through in profoundly intimate detail.
He sat up with a gasp as if he had been suddenly released from paralysis. His head hurt even more.
“You okay?” Cyril asked, leaning over to look into his eyes.
“I just saw my whole life, everything I’ve ever done, all in a rush. I thought I was dying.”
“You’re all right. Lie back down.”
Ben closed his eyes against the image of the ceiling spinning. He focused on his breathing, stifling an urge to vomit. The pain in his head intensified gradually over several minutes. At its peak, Ben could do little more than breathe. He lay on his back trembling, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, his mind fixed on the burning agony in the center of his head.
And then it was gone.
All of the pain, the disorientation and the nausea vanished. It felt like a cool breeze washed over him. He sat up, concentrating on the spot in his head where it had hurt so much, but the pain was no longer there.
“What’s happening?” Cyril asked.
“Lots of pain and then it was gone. Now … I’m not sure.”
He got up, pacing absentmindedly until he realized that his wound didn’t protest in the least.
“John should be strong enough to travel by tomorrow,” Cyril said. “I just hope Frank and Rufus didn’t get into too much trouble on their own.” He opened a compartment on one wall and removed a sword and handed it to Imogen. “It’s identical to ours—balanced like the one I taught you with.”
She smiled her thanks and drew the blade, testing the weight.
“It feels fast,” she said.
“And very sharp.”
“Good,” she said, carefully returning it to its scabbard.
“I have a few other weapons, including a sword for Frank, a good old-fashioned brush gun and a tech pistol with some smart ammo. I also have a few grenades and some explosives … but more importantly, I have this.”
He held up a simple dull-black ring with a single black cube not an eighth of an inch to a side set into it like a gemstone. Smiling at their confusion, he slipped the ring on his finger and the cube floated into the air. A moment later it vanished in a streak. Ben searched for it without success.
“What’s it do?” Imogen asked.
“It’s a surveillance drone,” he said, motioning to the nearby wall.
A screen of light appeared, showing an image of the three of them. After orienting himself, Ben pointed to the drone, which was wedged into a corner of the ceiling. Then it came free and floated into the middle of the room, the image on the screen shifting as it moved.
“It can fly anywhere I tell it to,” Cyril said, “and relay images and audio back to the holo-screen projected by the control ring.”
“I didn’t know magic could do something like that,” Ben said.
“Oh, it’s not magic,” Cyril said. “This is all tech, which brings me to an important point. The dragon can see electronics and electricity in general and he d
oesn’t like it at all. If he’s anywhere nearby, you must shut down all electricity or you’ll draw him right to you.”
“That ring is one of the most magical things I’ve ever seen,” Ben said.
“And yet it’s just an advanced piece of equipment used by the NACC military. Lot of good it did them. Now, remember the part about electricity. The priests can see it a long way off as well, so be careful with tech.”
“What about this implant growing in my head?”
“I’m hoping your body will provide adequate shielding.”
Ben blinked a few times as the potential consequences of the implant started to become known.
“When will I know?”
Cyril shook his head helplessly.
Ben shrugged. “So far it’s healed me, given me a headache, and thoroughly invaded my privacy. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.”
Chapter 27
While Ben lay resting, he quite suddenly heard a voice in his head, a loud booming, drown-out-everything-else kind of voice.
“Hello, I am your newly installed combat augmentation implant—”
“Stop!” Ben shouted at the top of his lungs.
Quiet descended over the room, all eyes on him. Ben took a moment to savor the silence.
“Whoever you are, you’re talking too loud,” Ben thought, enunciating the words in his mind.
“Oh, my apologies, is this better?” the voice said at a much more reasonable volume.
“Yes, that’s much better.”
“What’s happening?” Cyril asked.
“The implant is talking to me,” Ben said, closing his eyes and relaxing into his cot.
“I’m afraid there’s been some mistake,” the augment said. “After a review of your memories, I see no indication that you are an NACC combat agent.”
“That’s because I’m not. The NACC is dead and gone. You’re leftover tech—salvage.”
“Why would you implant me if you’re not an NACC combat agent? This package is specifically designed to work in conjunction with combat-agent body armor, weapons and other cyber upgrades. Without those components, your combat effectiveness will be less than 17% of optimum.”
The Dragon's Egg (Dragonfall Book 1) Page 26
