by James Maxey
She finished binding up her slippers as I finished fixing the clasp on my cape. She tossed me the bone-handled knife, which I stuck in my belt, then went to grab the Jagged Heart.
“Wow,” she said, lifting it, a bit off balance. “It’s kind of heavy.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I should probably carry it. You carry the knife.”
“Nah. Even if I don’t have supernatural strength, I still have more experience jabbing holes in things than you do.”
“Conceded.”
She looked toward the caldera. “You’re certain the world will be destroyed if we don’t do this?”
“I’m not certain of anything. But Zetetic thinks it’s a real possibility.”
“Yeah, but he’s, you know, a Deceiver. He’s got the tattoo on his forehead and everything. What if he’s tricking us into doing something awful?”
“I don’t have an answer for that. But what’s our alternative?”
She shrugged, but still didn’t look eager to tramp up the slope.
“We have the best reason of all for doing this,” I said. “Assuming you’re pregnant, I don’t want my daughter being born in the land of the dead. For her sake, we have to get you home safely, and we have to make sure that there’s still a world left for us to raise her in.”
Infidel nodded as she pressed her lips together in a look of grim determination.
“Let’s go find this oversized iguana and get out of here,” she said, marching up the slope, the harpoon resting on her shoulder like a soldier’s pike.
The peculiar geography of this corner of the afterlife meant we didn’t have far to go. Barely a hundred yards passed before we pushed through a wall of thorny brush onto a steep rocky ridge that led to the caldera. We advanced arm in arm, in part because it’s the way lovers like to walk, and in part because we were each having trouble walking individually. My ankle still hurt like hell and Infidel was leaving bloody footprints from where thorns had punched through her satin shoes. Not to mention, we were both tender and chaffed and raw. In places.
As we limped our way past the lip of the caldera, we looked down over a field of black rock, dotted with vents of steam. In the center of this barren landscape there was what looked to be the remains of the world’s largest bonfire, a half-mile-long hill of soot-covered coals and glowing embers wreathed in a skin of pale blue flames.
The bonfire crackled with sparks as we approached. There was a peculiar rumble, low and rhythmic, that I had difficulty identifying. Then, Infidel grabbed my shoulder and pulled my ear down to lip level. She whispered, softly, “Is that fire snoring?”
I nodded. Of course it was snoring. This was Greatshadow’s spirit and it was asleep. Infidel always crashed into a corpse-like slumber after a tough battle. Greatshadow probably did the same.
Our eyes locked. Would it really be this easy? Did we just have to sneak up on an exhausted dragon and punch the Jagged Heart between his eyes?
Infidel placed her hand on the back of my neck. She tilted her face to meet mine and gave me a long, lingering kiss. In the aftermath I stared at her, moon-eyed. There was frost in her long platinum locks. Her breath came out as mist. And her eyes, her eyes glistened like deep and mysterious pools in a cavern as she said, softly, “Trust me.”
I nodded. There was never any doubt. My fate, her fate, the fate of our daughter, the fate of all mankind: I surrendered them willingly into her hands.
She motioned for me to wait where we stood, a good fifty yards from the smoldering flames, as she lowered the harpoon to attack position and crept forward. I held my breath as she inched closer, my eyes flickering from her to the slumbering dragon. Now that I understood the true nature of the flaming hill before us, it was easy to make out the dragon’s long neck and ship-sized head. Infidel was marching straight toward his mouth.
Thirty feet away, she knelt, placing the harpoon on the ground before her.
“Greatshadow,” she said, in a very loud voice. “Wake up.”
She didn’t reach for the Jagged Heart as enormous eyes flickered open, great orbs glowing like furnaces, to focus on her with a hate-filled stare.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
WE FELL
“You’ve been sent to kill me,” said Greatshadow, smoke rising from his jaws. His teeth looked like ash-covered logs glowing with internal fires.
“Yes,” said Infidel, still kneeling, her head bowed low. “But I’m not going to. I don’t wish to hurt you.”
“Yet you’ve brought the accursed Heart to my elemental realm. Merely looking upon it causes my soul to weaken. You must know the agony it brings me.”
Infidel shook her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t personally bring the harpoon here, though I was told it could hurt you. I confess, however, I don’t really understand why.”
The ashen heap that was once the most feared dragon in the world turned his enormous head away, so that the Jagged Heart was no longer within his line of sight.
“It’s a part of her,” he sighed, his voice crackling like a campfire stirred by a breeze. “Long ago, before we dragons entangled our souls with the elements, we were mortal creatures. Like all beasts, the most important goal of our lives was to mate. Unlike other beasts, we dragons prided ourselves on the spiritual nature of our relationships. We weren’t mere animals, puppets of our instincts and lusts. We based our coupling on refined courtships that ensured that we were perfectly paired: mentally, spiritually, magically, and physically.”
“I was told that you and Hush were lovers?”
Greatshadow shook his ragged head as cinders fell from his eyes like dark tears. “More than lovers. Alone, we were incomplete beings; together, we were one perfect soul. Her cold balanced my heat. My wrathful nature was calmed by her grace, while my brash and sudden passions could stir her cool and logical heart. When we lay entangled together in our coupling, staring into one another’s eyes, there was no loneliness. We were a universe in total, beyond all cares. Or so I thought.” Greatshadow swallowed hard as the ground trembled beneath my feet.
Infidel cast a glance back at me. I studied her face for some clue as to why she hadn’t attacked. I longed for Relic’s telepathy. I didn’t know why she was taking this risk. And yet… and yet she gave me a slight nod, with her eyes locked on mine, and the message was plain. Trust me.
I nodded back, and waited.
Greatshadow’s voice was almost a whisper as he said. “Our universe was not so complete as I thought. There was… another. As I stared into the eyes of Hush, she dreamed she was looking into the eyes of Glorious, the dragon who was to become the elemental partner of the sun. My flames, it seems, were not enough for Hush. Her cold, logical heart judged that Glorious would be her perfect mate. So, she abandoned me, and flew to him, to profess her love.”
“I’m sorry,” said Infidel.
“What is there to be sorry for?” Greatshadow growled. “It proved a great stroke of good fortune, at least for those of us who were to become the primal dragons. Glorious rejected Hush; he was on the verge of merging his spirit with the sun, and had no time for such trivia as love.
“In her anger, Hush struck Glorious, killing his body, which freed his soul to fully merge with the sun. Such was the violence of Hush’s blow that fragments of solar material fell to earth.”
“The glorystones,” said Infidel.
Greatshadow nodded. “While I was not yet the dragon of fire, I studied all flame, and saw the blaze of the glorystones as they fell. I flew to investigate and found Hush standing over the mortal shell of Glorious. Hush tried to convince me that Glorious had attacked her, but my telepathy was superior, and I saw the truth. My rage was so great that I felt my soul burst into flame; I became the elemental embodiment of wrath. My first act upon wielding this power was to lash out at Hush for her betrayal. Even then, her mastery of cold helped protect her from my physical assault, but the emotional pain of that moment forever altered her. Understanding the source of my primal rage, her heart literally fr
oze when she realized she had driven away the one dragon who had truly loved her. As her ice-bound heart shattered into a thousand sharp shards, the unfathomable chill that filled the vacant spot within her soul triggered Hush’s transformation into the primal dragon of cold.”
“I’m sorry you’ve felt such pain,” said Infidel.
Greatshadow let loose a low rumble that might have been a rueful chuckle. “We’ve become much greater beings as a result of her betrayal. Though I wonder, at times, if we aren’t also something less.”
He cast a baleful glare at the harpoon. “Just as everything I cherish eventually turns to ash, everything exposed to her cold heart will eventually wither and perish. Even I.”
“If I knew how, I would remove it from this place to stop it from hurting you,” said Infidel.
“I know,” said Greatshadow. “I see your thoughts so plainly. You have not come here with hatred in your heart.”
“No,” she said. “I set out on this quest to find comfort for my own broken heart, not because I held any animosity toward you.”
“You came to steal my treasure,” he said.
“Yes.”
“But you’ve decided you no longer want it.”
Infidel touched the band of hair on her finger.
“Gold and glorystones are wealth, not treasure. I can see that I was surrounded by genuine treasures all along. I just had to learn how to recognize them.”
“How sorrowful to find these truths only once you are in the realm of the dead,” Greatshadow said.
“But I’m not dead.” Infidel looked up to meet his gaze. “I arrived here by accident and I need to go back. You must possess the power to send me home. You have the ability to travel between the spiritual and physical worlds, or else Zetetic wouldn’t be so worried.”
“Traveling between the worlds comes at a cost,” said Greatshadow.
“Name the price,” she said. “Send us back and I promise that we’ll never bother you again. I promise to take the Jagged Heart as far away from you as possible, and I promise to fight anyone who even whispers of making an attempt to kill you.”
“You would kill my offspring? The one you call Relic?”
“Consider it done,” she said, snapping her fingers.
Greatshadow pondered for a long moment. “No. Tell the pathetic broken-wing that I shall have my revenge at the time and place of my choosing. The thought of the sleepless nights the young one shall endure pleases me. A swift death shall not slake my smoldering rage.”
“Consider the message delivered,” she said. “Just send us back.”
Greatshadow eyed the Jagged Heart. “You must take this weapon from this place. I cannot recover while its bitterness poisons the energies of this land.”
She gingerly lifted the harpoon, making sure not to point the tip toward him.
“Some people are worried you’ll destroy the world because of what we’ve done to you,” she said, softly. “I could have killed you as you slept. I chose mercy instead.”
“Mercy is not a quality often attributed to flame,” growled Greatshadow.
“Is it not?” asked Infidel. “Many a wound has been cauterized by fire. Meat half gone to rot becomes a safe meal once it’s cooked. Men could not survive harsh winters without your help. There is more to flame than wrath and destruction.”
“Too many men think this way,” said Greatshadow, sounding indignant at what I thought had been a compliment. His eyes began to blaze as he said, “Men believe they have tamed me, trapping me in hearths to bake their bread and in foundries to forge their steel. They forget that I am a wild thing that will not remain in a cage. I have killed many men to remind others of this truth.”
“Perhaps you need reminding, too,” she said.
The dragon tilted his head in a quizzical look.
Infidel said, “The wind, the sea, the frozen wastes… these elements are used by men, but none are worthy of the partnership that man has formed with flame. Thanks to mankind, fire is everywhere. In the middle of the trackless ocean, fire can be found in lanterns aboard a ship. On the most frigid, snow-capped mountain, you’ll find fires glowing on hearths. Right now, even at this moment when you are at your weakest, men are lighting candles, torches, and bonfires, all of which help to restore you. There is far more fire in the world due to the actions of men than there would be without us. You may be a wild thing that doesn’t wish to be tamed, but certainly, even the wildest beast enjoys being fed. We nourish you with coal from far beneath the earth, we cut down forests to fill our fireplaces, and sometimes we even offer you our dead.”
Greatshadow nodded grudgingly. “You are wise, Princess Innocent, though you tell me a truth I already know. Even in my darkest moments of smoldering anger, I dare not destroy mankind. In a world without men, I would be very hungry indeed.”
“I don’t know that I’m wise,” said Infidel. “I just think we’re alike in some ways. We both hate anyone who tries to tame us, but understand we sometimes must do things we don’t want to do in order to keep a full belly.”
Greatshadow lifted his head high, sparks flying from his jaws as he roared, a sound like a blast furnace in great, puffing gusts. The noise nearly deafened me, but I felt no fear. It was obvious from the expression in his eyes that he was laughing.
“That a mere mortal thinks she is in any way like me is an amusing notion, Princess,” said the dragon. “It has been many centuries since I laughed so freely. You have earned your journey home.”
With these words, he extended his talon and used a long glowing claw to trace a large circle upon the ground before him. The stone inside that circle fell away, revealing a black pit, full of stars.
“The material world lies through this portal,” said Greatshadow.
Infidel turned her head toward me and motioned with her eyes that I should join her. I ran up and clasped her hand, giving her a swift kiss. She dragged me closer to the ring of fire. Fortunately, the Jagged Heart shielded us from the heat. Hand in hand, we stared into the abyss.
“Is it safe to jump?” I asked.
“When have we ever worried about that?” she said with a grin, falling forward, her fingers wrapped in mine. She dangled on the edge for the barest instant as my weight held her. Then, in total confidence, I leaned forward and we tumbled into the darkness.
Infidel released the Jagged Heart and it fell beside us in a lazy spin. We hugged each other tightly as we flew past stars, past moons and suns and comets. We tumbled though airless voids, hugging one another in terror, awe, and wonder. We were neither in the spirit realm nor the ordinary world of matter; we were two isolated souls, entangled, entwined, a whole and complete universe where seconds and hours had no meaning. Yet, despite our inability to measure time, our eternity of togetherness drew to a close as a great blue jewel of a world emerged from the void beneath us. We clung to each other as the world grew large enough for us to make out the shapes of landmasses beneath the wispy white oceans of clouds. We fell toward a small green speck amidst a vast blue sea, the wind tangling our hair as we slowly emerged from the abstract realms. Far below, we spotted a smoking caldera atop a high mountain that seemed to be the bulls-eye where we’d land.
We looked into each other’s eyes. There was no hope of speaking amid the howl of the wind whipping past us. We both knew that Greatshadow had cared nothing for our safety by sending us back along this path. Dropping to earth was no problem for him; he had wings. It was going to take more than a net of vines to save us this time.
Despite this knowledge, all I felt looking into Infidel’s face was joy that we would once more be together in the land of the living, however brief that experience might be.
She kissed me.
I kissed her back.
Her lips grew softer and softer until, suddenly they were gone. My arms closed around empty air. I opened my eyes and she was still inches away, her eyes wide, searching. I raised my hand to her cheek and it passed right through, as if she was a ghost.
Or as if I was. Infidel had fully emerged into the physical realm, and I was left behind, still a phantom.
“Infidel!” I screamed, as she dropped away, feeling the full tug of gravity. The Jagged Heart flashed past me, following its parallel path. I hovered in mid-air, no longer touched by gravity. I felt for the spirit tether of the bone-handled knife to pull me closer to Infidel but didn’t move at all. I looked down, and saw the knife tucked in my belt. My link to the material world was trapped with me on the other side.
I gave chase with all the speed I could muster, drawing close enough that I could see genuine fear in Infidel’s eyes as she tumbled toward the black caldera below. Even if Infidel had still been invulnerable, I don’t know if she could have survived a landing on volcanic stone without a net of vines to cushion her.
Then, rising from the caldera in a pale blue mist, a humanoid shape flew to intercept Infidel a half-mile above the ground. The foggy wraith reached out with ethereal fingers, stroking the shaft of the Jagged Heart. Light flashed from the tip of the harpoon, striking the stone below, and suddenly there was a hill of snow heaped a hundred feet tall, its base sizzling on the black rock. A second later, Infidel punched into the snow mound, leaving the perfect outline of her splayed limbs in the surface. The Jagged Heart dropped into the snow several yards distant, far enough away I didn’t worry she’d been impaled.
The ghost of Aurora continued to drift upward, raising a hand in greeting as she saw me. “You can see why my people built a temple around the harpoon.”
“Will she be alright?” I asked, staring down into the hole Infidel had left in the snow mountain. I couldn’t see anything in the shadows. The whole pile was melting at a frightening pace, an ever-growing puddle boiling off at the edges.
“It was like she fell onto a mountain of feathers,” said Aurora.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you. You’ve stuck around longer than the others did after they died,” I said. “Does that mean I’ll have some company from now on?”
