by Marc Secchia
“Hey. No drooling allowed.” No, she owned that department!
Rapidly, they moved to the Whiz’s room and Alex padded over to the fireplace. Ten minutes of casting about finally saw him trigger a hidden switch by accident. A false stone swung open, revealing a small, jewelled chest that reminded Zaranna of a Chinese puzzle-box.
“I’ve seen a few of these before,” said Alex. “Now, we should be careful.”
“Why?”
Using Whiz’s discarded belt, he snagged the box and carried it over to the bedside lamp. Picking up a pencil from the floor, Inscrutable Alex bent carefully over the box for several minutes, checking here and probing there. “Because … this.” Snick. A tiny needle sprang out of one side. “Touching that’s bound to be unhealthy.”
“How do you know so much about … wow! Get back!”
Alex’s manipulations caused the box to unfold like a flower, but he barely began to turn his face aside when a puff of gas hissed out of the box. A flight of butterflies batted a small flight of needles side, embedding them in the wooden bedside lamp. Alex turned an incredulous look upon her, before focussing again on the box. “Well. One magical Dragonstone, girlfriend.”
The Imjuniel was as beautiful and as frightening as its sister stone. Zaranna shivered reflexively. The whole piece was carved seemingly from a deep blue sapphire entwined about a metal ring, which was as dark and silvery as old mercury. The sapphire was carved in the likeness of a perfect miniature Dragon, with diamonds for eyes and rubies for teeth, so cleverly made, it appeared as if a Dragon had been shrunk to the size of a wide ring, a quarter-inch thick and two inches wide. While it did not have any obvious magical attributes, she distrusted the Dragonstone instinctively. This object had been created for the subjugation and control of the Dragonkind. She could not imagine what it might wreak inside its wielder; how subtly or unsubtly, that power might corrupt her …
Then it came to her what she must do.
“I know, Alex,” she said simply.
He replied, “Good. Trust your heart, Zara. It knows. Always.”
Tenderly, she added, “I love you, Alexander James Murray.” Picking up the ring with a convulsive movement, she slipped it onto her left forefinger as she had seen Worafion wear his. “Now, I need you to knock me out. Quickly.”
“No, Zara …”
Shutting her eyes, she raised her chin. “Give it your best shot.”
She heard a sound like a choked sob. Wham!
* * * *
Fingers splayed, Zaranna thrust out her hand, crying, “Stop! Illume, stop.”
The Blue Dragon recoiled as though she had struck him with Shuzug’s hammer, and grown a monstrous case of dark earthen flame-disease and a reputation of incalculable evil. The Dragonstone writhed on her forefinger, settling its cool talons against her flesh, glittering as its power reached toward the Dragon in a spray of tiny blue stars, not unlike the inner life of Illume’s eyes.
“I bind thee to my will, Illume!” She spoke the first syllable of his Soul-name, as he had taught her. The power of names.
A shudder passed through the great beast. He sighed. Slowly, the popping muscles unclenched and the inner fires soughed more softly; he breathed easier, the terrible heat dissipating into the cool pre-dawn. As she motioned for him to settle down, the great reptile’s eyes turned upon her with the saddest, most soul-tearing expression, and she knew how deeply she had wounded him.
“You would have killed me, Illume,” she said. “I will not lie; I will not claim I had no choice.”
“You win. I am your humble servant, Ziryana.”
She could not look at Sanu. Merely from the girl’s breathing, she knew what this meant. Betrayal. Fear. Power she had never wanted to wield, but must, for the sake of all. For the sake of Equinox.
Stumbling forward on her oh-so-familiar yet unaccustomed feet, Zaranna threw herself to her knees before the Dragon. “Oh, Illume!”
“Don’t pretend sadness, Autumn Wizard,” he said heavily. At last, his eyes seemed fully clear, returned to black stardom. “This has been your master plan from the beginning, a construct of such devious cunning, I only appreciate it now. To think I considered you a friend.”
Indeed? So that he might influence her powers? Zara thrust those thoughts aside, crying, “To think my friend was about to eat me! What’s the matter with you, Illume?”
“Must I answer? Do you command me?”
Weeping caught Zaranna unawares. She dashed her tears away to sizzle against Illume’s cooling scales, they returned in fresh force, streaking her cheeks. Her fisted hand tried to still the force of her sobs, yet they racked her, torturous, thoroughly wetting the Imjuniel. Very slowly, the Dragon raised his foreclaw until it pointed at her cheek.
“Mistress,” he said, “why do you weep?”
Zaranna shivered as if caught in the throes of malaria. “I weep … Illume, darling …”
Both Sanu and the Dragon stiffened perceptibly. Zara had an insane urge to whistle at the Dragon, to say, ‘Sit down. Roll over. Beg.’ Crazy-inappropriate. Her treacherous heart must be cut out rather than entertain these thoughts.
“Illume, you once taught me this.”
Third is the Soul-name, fresh water and life,
Dread follows revelation; dark magic breeds strife.
The Blue Dragon’s eye-motes danced in recognition. Yet he said dully, “What of it, o progeny of Ziryana, o faithful child of your ancestors?”
“Illume, were Human Wizards and the Dragonkind always at odds, or did that only come later, when the Wizards grew … disproportionately powerful?” She touched the Imjuniel as she spoke, indicating the meaning of her words. “I demand an answer.”
The great, spiked head bowed. “You are perceptive, Dreamer.”
Zaranna said, “I am not faithful, nor am I a child, Illume. I am rebellious, or at least, I intend to be.” Her heart pulsed powerfully in her throat; on her finger, the Dragonstone was a block of ice. “I would make several requests of you – as a friend.”
The Dragon responded, “This can no longer be. It can never be.”
Sanu said, “I’m afraid I’m with Illume, Zaranna. I cannot travel with you any longer. I would rather die here than see the Wizards return to rule, for that would be a worse fate for Equinox than all we have seen of the Hooded Wizard so far. Even should you command your pet to slay me, I shall do everything in my power to kill you first.”
“Gee, everyone wants to kill Zaranna. It’s my lucky day.”
Her bitterness gave Sanu pause.
“Listen, Sanu. If I do not hold to my word, I want you –” she swallowed hard, then forced the words past a manacle of steel apparently locked about her windpipe “– I want you to slay me, by any means necessary. But first, listen. Illume. You will take us safely past the defences of the Dragons here in the Beyond, to the place where you know the Hooded Wizard is assembling his forces for an assault on the Vales, so that we can find and rescue Jesafion. There, I promise, I will give you this accursed stone – ah!”
Every talon of the stone dug into her finger at once. Zaranna clutched it, but the stone could no longer be moved. It pulsed horribly, pain radiating up her arm. Daring her to continue, to speak its fate.
That mountain of blue, armoured scales shifted restlessly. “You would not betray the Wizards.”
“I would. You have my – ah, mercy – my p-p-promise – ah!”
“Even if you would, the Dragonstone would not allow it,” the Dragon pointed out. Yet his eye-fires had begun to swirl with curiosity and perhaps, a touch of hope? “You cannot possibly keep this promise, Zaranna. No sane Wizard would.”
“Yet I am not sane. Everyone says so.”
The Dragon snorted, “Aye, to see the Wizards willingly give up the sceptre of their power? My scales would rot ere I saw that day.”
“If I cannot do it, Sanu, you must.”
“Me?” squeaked the girl.
“Do it in the night. When I dream. Wit
h daggers, if needed. Amputate the – oh, God!” The pain made her fall, curled up over the stone, clutching it in the pit of her stomach, grinding her teeth and breaking out in a hot sweat. “Please, Sanu. Promise me. Help me …”
The girl gazed at Illume. “What say you, Dragon?”
“It will never be. Zaranna would thus betray her kin? For what gain?”
“For a chance at peace. To right a wrong.”
Even more than when she had first wielded the stone, the Dragon seemed staggered. His warm breath upon her face was suddenly perfume, a glorious whiff of jasmine-bearing scents yet far more complex than Zaranna had ever imagined. “Fragile, yet glorious,” he murmured.
Sanu said, “I accept. May my daggers sharpen your conscience, Dreamer.”
Slowly, she was able to uncurl herself from her foetal position upon the cyan crystal, and stand. Zara eyed the Dragonstone warily. No, this matter was not done. It knew her thoughts; its response was cold and inimical. She dreaded its power to hurt her. How could she find the strength to do right? Was the Dragonstone already working insidiously in her mind?
“How do you plan to travel?” asked the Dragon.
“Dragonback, if you would have it,” said Zaranna, recalling a movie she had seen.
The Dragon was clearly miffed. He growled, “Oh, what is another taboo to you? Break one. Break them all! What do you care, o Mistress mine?”
She must retake the high ground. Show confidence. Zaranna laughed, and then boldly reached out to stroke the tiny scale-detail near his right eye. So hot! So silky-soft, yet tougher than any armour. “I’m not the Dragon who chose to rescue a Plains Horse from a swamp.”
Grrrrr!
“Or accepted her word, in order that the Dragons might be informed of this invasion.”
GRRRRR!!!
“Are we lost for words, Illume? This is a momentous –”
GRRRAAARRGGH!!
“Come now, my pretty Dragon. What do you say?”
“I AM NOT YOUR DRAGON!”
A swift check of the ceiling found her in no danger, although a couple of crystal formations collapsed at his thundering. Zaranna prodded her ears. “Loud and clear. Can’t I keep a few grand delusions? Please, Illume?”
The Dragon seemed nonplussed, growling, “Are all of you Humans so utterly impossible?”
“I don’t know. Ask Sanu, Mistress of the Impossible.”
“Don’t drag me into your personal dustbowl!” Sanu laughed, albeit roughly. “Alright, Dreamer, I will deal with you. Prove you are not like the Wizards of old, and we can talk. Fail, and I will personally dissect your heart while you’re still alive, so that you can best appreciate the experience.”
Zaranna wanted to quip, ‘Lovely to have friends like you,’ but the words stuck in her throat. Wow. The Outland Human truly meant her threat.
“Well spoken!” Illume approved.
Sanu added, “Now, your majestic Wizardness, shall we fashion you clothes from the royal silks of the Pegasi? Those Equines have their own secrets, Zaranna. I do hope you know what you’re doing in planning to release this Jesafion.”
She nodded sombrely. “Giving as many Vales as possible a chance at life.”
“And stuffing half a Gryphon up the Hooded Wizard’s nose?”
“Sanu, just for you, I’ll make it a perfect fit.”
Chapter 28: Taboos? What Taboos?
Illume the Stars grumbled, “I cannot describe the nadir of my humiliation. I am debased. I’ll be the laughingstock of my people. My hearts will stop beating from the brutal shame I am forced to bear, and my wings fold in eternal grief, unable to beat ever again.”
“Heavens, I think we get the point, Illume,” said Zaranna.
“My belly-fires weep Earthen Fires of sorrow, o cruel fate, what woe is mine; I swear I am about to shed every scale on my body –”
“Making you look like an overgrown swamp toad?” suggested the Dreamer, cruelly.
Illume gnashed his fangs in rage. “Meantime, I am forced by your remorseless command of my physical being to protect you from all the nice calamity I could have brought – splitting your worthless heads open upon a nice crystal spear up above, or dumping you in the Crystal Sea, or experimenting with the flight capabilities of Humans. That would’ve been the most fun. A true scientific experiment. All for nought. I am undone. I am –”
“About to goad Zaranna into forcing you to give yourself a kick where no light ever –”
“Sanu, please!” gasped Zara.
“Merciful heavens, and here you were extolling how noble and brave and majestic Dragons are,” said Sanu, mimicking Zaranna’s Earth tones and delivery with devastating accuracy. “All I hear is a whining infant, albeit a large one.”
“Insulting a Dragon is never wise, Sanu. Just keep listening to me … since I set such a wonderful example in this area.”
Seated one position behind her on Illume’s back, above his shoulders where the spine-spikes were tallest, Sanu leaned forward to pat Zaranna on the shoulder with her dagger. “I suggest you keep firm command of this fine beast, Wizard.”
With that, the dagger vanished and Sanu finished knotting a length of cloth about her former friend’s waist, pinning her to the spine-spike behind her. Zara thought the Outlander took just a little too much relish in tightening the knots. She eyed the spike in front of her. Ten inches wide at the base, which was the Dragon’s spine that also constituted her less-than-comfortable seat, the spine rose to a height of half a foot above her head, in her seated position. Any shorter and a sudden stop might have impaled an eye. The surface of that spike was hot, silken metal to her fingertip touch, as were Illume’s scales. From closer up than she had ever wanted to see a Dragon, she chuckled wryly, there was an unambiguous crystalline quality to his outer covering, as if glittering dust were embedded within his hide and scale-armour. Her supposition had been correct. Did that mean these Dragons were crystal-infused flesh? That they took on the properties of their extraordinary environment in the Beyond? The scales overlapped perfectly. Gone was any trace of his time in the swamp, of plants anchored on his flanks or skull. He was as sleek as a shark, and admittedly, quite beautiful.
The Dragon’s muzzle, mounted on a sinuous neck twizzled over his shoulder to look at her. “You laughed?”
“Will a compliment offend you, Illume?”
“Everything about you offends me, Autumn Wizard.”
“Then I wish you to know that you are an exceedingly handsome … ah, specimen, of a Dragon.”
“Specimen?”
“Sorry. Exemplar of a Dragon. Illume, despite what you may think, I do not take this moment lightly. I am privileged above all Humans, yet I know this was no choice of yours. I will do my utmost not to dishonour you.”
“I’m so grateful, my wings hurt.”
And he was so sarcastic, it almost throttled him to grate out those words. She sighed. “Very well, Dragon. If it must be so.”
She might as well fight the wind. Illume’s hatred could be no deeper, no less rooted in the history of Whiz controlling him in exactly the same way; how it must rankle the Blue Dragon to be duped a second time!
Zaranna bit her lip as Illume swung into motion. Even on the ground, his walk was as smooth as water, his shoulder and back muscles bunching and flowing beneath that surprisingly supple armour. He chuckled, probably smelling terror-sweat upon her skin. Oh, angels surround her, she was actually doing this, riding a Dragon, about to plummet off a miles-high cliff tied to a vast aerial predator who was likely dreaming about wrapping her guts around the nearest convenient tree and using them to catapult her eviscerated body into oblivion.
Illume the Stars coiled, his talons digging into the crystal with ease, like a sprinter digging his spikes into the starting blocks, feeling the tension in the knees and thighs, the readiness of the body to spring forth and run like the wind unleashed. Then his massive thighs twanged audibly, propelling his tonnage forward, slamming her head backward into the spine-sp
ike between her and Sanu. Zara gasped; Sanu cursed. The Dragon accelerated as smoothly and relentlessly as Alex’s Kawasaki Ninja H2, making G-forces tug at her innards as he shot down the natural chute into the first light of dawn over the Crystal Sea. Illume snapped open his supple wings, and dived off the cliff like a kingfisher making its plunge for a fish. A fresh wind tousled Zaranna’s unbound hair. Despite her stomach crowding into her throat, she experienced that same thrill Alex had shown her by driving over two hundred miles per hour on his bike. Skin tingling. Heart lolloping along. Shrieking for the sheer joy of being alive!
Words could do no justice to the poetry of Dragon wings flaring across a fragrant dawn sky.
Illume’s splutter of disdain for her shrieking came to Zara as a puff of acrid smoke mingled with his signature fragrance, that complex, jasmine-like aroma she had come to associate with Dragon magic. His flying must be magic. Either side, his wings rode the breeze with perfect elasticity, the multiple wing joints and supporting struts flexing with apparent independence to support his flight.
Judging by her stomach’s complaining, her friend was not enjoying the dawn’s poetry quite as much.
“Isn’t this magical?” Zara threw over her shoulder.
“Earthen Fires,” moaned Sanu, leaning over the side to empty her stomach loudly, violently and at considerable length. But she kept her palm on Zara’s shoulder, rendering the two Humans invisible.
The cliff’s shadow lay long across the Crystal Ocean as yet, but the light of the floating islands reflected gloriously upon the spreading, vertical crystal forest they traversed. Great shards and branches, sprays and lucent cathedrals flashed by upon their starboard flank as the Dragon angled north, away from the gathering of Dragonkind that still drifted around one floating island in particular, albeit much more slowly than the previous evening. Zara popped her ears to ease the pressure as Illume levelled out, still travelling very fast, but the wind-blast lessened enough for her to be able to look at her surroundings.
An endless ocean sparkled to the horizon, still restless, streaked with long, curving shadows that proclaimed mighty waves tinted and crest-burnished by the orange sun. The sky slowly brightened from aquamarine to teal, every moment introducing fresh degrees of glory to the quality of the endlessly variegated crystalline light. Ahead and behind, the shoreline remained an unbroken, monumental cliff that brought the word ‘skyscraper’ into true perspective. It curved steadily around toward the east, disappearing beyond the horizon.
