Ærühn nodded solemnly.
Keeper Martin spun around and pushed the others through the door. He ran down the long hall behind them, speaking the words of power from the parchment. The gate formed in front of them. Martin was the last to step through to the other side. As he did so, he could hear Belajl Entreatte scream, “May the two sisters carry you away! May you know the eternal sadness of Adrynne!”
In that moment, as he was swept from the world, Keeper Martin couldn’t help thinking that he did know, and that there was one who knew the sadness and the longing better than any other.
Thought and movement returned to Adrina. “Tnavres, come forth,” she commanded. The tiny dragon exited her flesh snout first, dropping to the ground beside her. It extended its wings, looking up at her.
Adrina took in the sight around her: the dark creatures everywhere as far as the eye could see. Noman’s steady hand on her shoulder. Amir and Xith battling the creatures with blade and magic.
“You are the key, Adrina,” Noman told her. “You have the power to end this.”
“What power? I have no power.”
“Do not play with me, girl,” Noman commanded. “Time is short. Do what you must.”
“The mark,” Xith called out from behind her as he unleashed a wave of flame into the ranks of the wraith. “You have the mark, Adrina. You are the servant. Did he not tell you the price?”
Across the field, the shadow warrior king looked on with sudden interest. The appearance of the girl was as foretold. The master would come now.
Adrina turned around to Xith, her mouth agape, tears in her eyes. She felt overwhelmed. It was all too much for her. As she turned, she extended her arms. Tnavres took this as a sign to sink his teeth into the flesh of her hand. His touch brought the mortification of her flesh.
“What is it you seek?” said a deep, powerful voice and as it boomed across the field, everything and everyone stopped as if frozen in time.
Noman knew at once the words were addressed to him and not to any of the others. “Show yourself.”
“As you wish,” said the other. The air over the field filled with a great clutter of tiny flying creatures. The creatures became one and that one creature was the Dragon King.
“You must restore order. That which has been released must be returned.”
“I am but the keeper. This is but the game of the ages.”
“Untrue, untrue, you are what you choose to be. The game is as you choose it to be.”
The Dragon King roared his disapproval of Noman’s words. “One truth. Choose well.”
“No more games, Bæhmangarin.”
The Dragon King called forth his queens as he spread out his enormous wings and together they blew fire down from the sky. The flames flew to the corners of the field, cleansing the earth in all directions. The flames enveloped the shadow warrior king and all his minions turning them to ash. The beat of the mighty wings blew the dark ash from the field; the flames continued to lick the earth.
“No more games,” Noman repeated.
The Dragon King cast his head down, his flames bathing the earth. Try as he might, his flames did not reach Noman or the others. “This is my domain!” he called out. “Be gone!” He called to his queens and they joined him in raining fire down upon the outsiders.
“Bæhmangarin,” Noman said. “Surely you’ve not forgotten the pledge. The faithful, those that serve are protected. Is it not so?”
“My princess,” the Dragon King called out. “Step away from the others.”
“No,” Adrina said defiantly, “I will not.”
“Do this or the prince dies.”
Her eyes wide, Adrina looked to Noman and then to Xith. “You lie!”
“Show her!” the Dragon King commanded of the tiny dragon at Adrina’s feet. Suddenly Adrina saw her brother. Valam was dressed in battle armor with his great sword strapped on his back. He stood on the balcony of a great tower, in a city that was foreign to her. Father Jacob was to his left. The queen of the elves was to his right. Lines of soldiers stood at the base of the tower. She heard shouts and cheers. “To the High Prince!” went the call. In the distance, beyond the walls of the city, she saw a large fleet of ships. Across the dark waters behind the ships, she saw the great black wave of an army tens of thousands strong sweeping in from the plains.
“Forgive me,” Adrina said, her voice trembling as she stepped away from the others. The Dragon King roared his approval. In his upturned claw, he held a great sphere and he cast the sphere into the fading image of the prince and his men; then he and his queens set upon Xith, Noman, and Amir.
It was as before; the dragons could not reach the three with their flames so the dragons set upon them with fang and claw. Amir blocked the powerful jaws and terrible clawed hands of the Dragon King with his twin blades. Xith and Noman defended against the queen dragons as best as they could. Although their magic had little affect on dragon kind, it still stung as they unleashed it.
“It is time for truths,” Noman told Amir.
“It is,” the titan replied.
Noman turned to Xith. He looked directly at the shaman as he transformed into his true self.
“It cannot be,” Xith muttered to himself as he watched Noman change form before his eyes. The figure before him was familiar but older, much older than he remembered.
“Aven, is that you?”
“It is I, old friend.”
It was unlike Xith, the great shaman, the watcher of old, to be at a loss for words but he was, at least momentarily.
Bæhmangarin and his queens showed their great disapproval by blasting the group with fire. Aven stood defiantly within the flames, his outstretched hands keeping the flames away from the others. “My father, Dnyarr, Elf King of Greye, would disapprove.”
“You betrayed him,” roared the Dragon King. “You betrayed us all. You are the great betrayer.”
Aven shook his head. “He betrayed his people. No single being was meant to rule over all the lands. There must always be balance. Surely you understand this. The balance must be restored.”
Bæhmangarin and his queens bowed their heads. The Dragon King looked to Adrina. “You are the key, princess. The Fourth will listen and return. The balance will be restored.”
Chapter Fifteen
The majestic spires of a palace grew before them. From a distance it appeared that a great serpent enveloped each, baring its head at each tower’s summit. The company followed an ancient byway that unfolded toward the palace gates, which stood agape as they approached. Amir and Aven led the way, with Shchander and Shalimar close behind them. Adrina walked beside Xith with Tnavres perched on her shoulder.
The palace was oddly still as they entered. The eyes of most were fixed on the structure directly before them. Its six towers and one center spire with broad stairs circling their way to lofty pinnacles inspired their hearts. Here they paused, for the long race through the frozen wastes of the Lost Lands was now at an end. For a time they relished the moment. Eventually they did continue on, but the urgency was gone. The pace was slow and deliberate.
They marched up many stairs and came to stand before the doors of a grand hall. They did not hesitate or ask permission to enter; instead, they held their heads high, almost with regal airs, and passed within. The first signs that the palace was occupied arose before their eyes. Flames burned from huge urns placed along the corridor. A faint glow from a distant point told them where the end of the long hall lay, and as they walked its length their footsteps echoed, replacing the silence.
A set of double doors sat before them, but they did not have to touch a finger to them. The doors crept inward, as if on command, just after the travelers had paused. Adrina was visibly the most animated of all. She felt that here she would have her answers, and the past would be well behind her. She followed Amir and was the second one into the chamber beyond the great double doors.
The room was unexpectedly dark and shadowy, but its echoes gave it
s depth away as they slowly faded. Upon a raised dais low flames burned, casting eerie shadows about the chamber. Amir put a hand on Adrina’s shoulder as she sought to move past him. He walked alongside her into the gloom. As their eyes adjusted, it became readily apparent that the shades of gray held shapes, and the images about the room called out to them.
Most visible of all the images was a figure standing on top of the dais, and as it lifted its arms up toward the ceiling the shadows were lifted. The hungry tongues of many flames sprang bright and crisp from their cisterns set along the walls. A handful surrounded the dais and swept out along a path toward the guests. The fires along the path seemed to writhe and move, dancing with the shadows cast upon the floor.
A herald of welcome issued forth and an enormous host swept from the recesses of the chamber. “We have waited long!” said a voice, pleasant and familiar. Amir and Adrina continued toward it. The others were more reluctant to follow. They held their places despite the warm invitation. Adrina turned to look back at Xith and Aven, waving for them to follow. “Do as you must,” Aven whispered to her, but he made no move to catch up with her.
With her right hand, she scratched Tnavres under the chin absently as she walked, thinking how marvelous a place they had come to. Xith had promised her that here she would have all her answers. It was all she could do to keep words from springing from her lips. She wanted the questions answered and she no longer had the patience to wait.
At first she thought that the one on the raised dais was a woman, but as they drew closer she began to think otherwise. It was definitely the face of a man that she gazed upon, and she also remarked in her mind his fairness. She returned the gentle laughter in his voice as he spoke again.
Amir grabbed Adrina’s hand and pulled her back, but she wanted to go forward. Her laughter fell hollow about the room as it died and she wondered what she had done in life to deserve such abasement. Further tepid words brought Adrina to her knees in deep, fitful sobs.
The eyes, Adrina remembered the eyes and the voice; it was so familiar, yet it, too, was changed. “Stand up, child,” whispered Xith, coming up behind her and helping her to stand. His matter-of-factness sparked her anger. “Why have you done this to me?” she cried out.
“I have done nothing your destiny would not have brought to you.”
“But, you were—” The remainder of Adrina’s words were drowned out by her tears.
“I had no choice,” returned Xith.
“You could have—”
“Silence!” screamed a loud and powerful voice. “I demand silence, and I will have it! I have not waited and watched for so long to hear your pitiful cries. Put them on their knees! I like them that way. And if they should stand, kill them all save the one. I want her to suffer until the last when I take that which is due me. Then when her suffering is at its worst and only then may you kill her.”
The darkly robed figures swept off their cloaks to reveal raven-hued armor as they withdrew their blades. Adrina closed her eyes, expecting dispute, but none came. Her mind exploded. A white searing light swam through her mind, but she clung to the darkness. She rebuked with words of her own. “Would you kill your own flesh and blood?” she begged.
The other stammered through the next words. Adrina continued her verbal assault, sensing the dilemma. “That’s right. I knew it when I first gazed upon your face against the light. You hold a likeness that I know well, though I can see you try to hide it, even now.”
“I am He, and I shall have Silence! Speak not a word, or I’ll separate you from your tongue!”
Even as Adrina attempted to stand, hands strong and true held her to her knees. “You cannot hide your past. You cannot deny your heritage. I heard the words Keeper Martin spoke the night you were birthed, and he cursed your name!”
“You lie! Foul treachery spews from your lips. Cut out this creature’s tongue and bring it to me upon a plate so that I may relish it.”
Many hands held Adrina’s head firm. She bit at the hand that probed her mouth. Tnavres clawed and raked all who came near. “Did not your mother have my eyes? Do you not have your father’s hair? Your eyes and your hair? What of the softness of your voice?”
“Lies, lies! Silence her! Kill them all and rid them from my sight! You have no right to speak to me in such a way. I order you to silence and if you do not listen, I will deliver your life by my own hand.” He grabbed a dagger from another’s belt and lunged at Adrina as she cried out and begged him to remember.
The point of the blade never found its mark although it did meet flesh. Amir’s face was not lit by sorrow or fear as he fell, but disbelief. The wielder of the blade backed away; a tiny voice cried out in his thoughts. It knew the truth. He had not always been.
Shchander and Shalimar jumped over Amir as he went down. They struggled to reach Adrina but Xith moved between them and the girl. “This is not your fight,” Xith told them.
“Come back to us,” Adrina repeated as she fought off her attackers. “What of the boy I once knew?”
“A man, no longer a boy,” the other said as he set upon her brutally, swatting away her tiny dragon as it sought to defend her. A savage kick to her stomach brought her to her knees. She would have collapsed to the floor if his followers had not held her. Instead, she doubled over, coughing up blood.
Tnavres returned, clawing at the man’s face. He angrily snatched the dragon from the air, squeezing with all his might and then thrusting out, sending the tiny flailing beast flying into the stone chair upon the raised dais. Grinning savagely, he returned his attention to Adrina who was now on her hands and knees, kicking her again and again.
Tears such as she had never known welled up in Adrina’s eyes. She cried out, “Please no more, please no more.” Her eyes wide and pleading turned to Xith who was no more than a handful of steps away.
The other brought the heel of his boot to her left forearm, crushing bone as he twisted and smashed down with all his might. The vision flowed strongly. He felt the surge of strength within him peak and the power came unbidden to his hands. As he spread his hands, brilliant bolts of blue and white spread between them, arcing wildly.
“Why, oh why?” Adrina cried out. “What have I ever done? Please no more. Please, please no more.”
For an instant her pleas touched him, he reached down to her, but as he did so pain swept over him. “No, no, not again,” he cried out. He watched as the three circled the other in his mind. “Go away!” he told them but the thoughts would not go.
Seeing the inner turmoil reflected in his eyes, Adrina reached out to him with her good arm, her hand finding his leg. He clasped his ears, pounded the sides of his head until the pain within was replaced by the pain from without, but the voices would not fade.
He pulled her to her feet, grabbed her broken arm, twisted. Adrina’s screams of agony intensified. “Stop, Stop!” she yelled.
His eyes wild, he laughed madly. “You are a great fool. The boy is gone.”
“Fool?” Adrina screamed back at him, finding sudden anger. “Never underestimate the fool. The fool on the board can capture the king just as easily as any.”
She stood firmly, defiantly, despite pain, staring into his wild eyes. She did a thing no one looking on expected of her, he least of all. She raised her broken arm into the air and called Tnavres to her. “Tnavres return,” she said as she lunged, wrapping her good arm and both legs around the other, causing both to fall to the stark, gray granite of the dais.
The granite that should have met them cold and full, pulled them in, allowing them to pass by as if they instead met the waters of some gray dark lake. Soon after, they were falling through the air, landing on firm ground in a shadowed land. It was a place Adrina knew though she wished she did not; it was a place the other apparently knew as well for he howled his displeasure in a long stream of angry words. “Not this place, not this place. It is not fair to return. The master promised more. The master promised all. This must be a lie! This i
s a lie!”
Adrina crab-crawled backward away from him. It never occurred to her as she looked up to him that in this place she had full use of both her arms. As she looked on, one became three and then suddenly there was a fourth in the space between them.
The Dragon King and his queens came winging in. Their great speed surprised Adrina for it seemed that one minute she saw them distant in the gray sky overhead and the next they were landing beside her.
“Dalphan, it is time,” the Dragon King said in his firm deep voice.
One of the figures broke from the circle and climbed onto the Dragon King’s back. “Has my beloved been found?” he asked.
“She has,” replied the Dragon King. “She waits for you.”
“On the other side?”
“As ever.”
Before the Dragon King took wing, Dalphan called back to those in the circle. “Brother,” he spoke firmly.
A dark figure, his face hidden in the cowl of his cloak, turned from the circle. As he climbed onto the back of one of the queens, the skulls and bones in his armor showed clearly. He did not speak as the other had, though he did clench a hand into a fist and wave it defiantly in the air as the queen dragon took to the air.
Tnavres jumped onto Adrina’s lap and licked her cheek. To her it felt more like soft lips than the tongue of a dragon. Indeed as she looked on she saw a beautiful lady elf and not a tiny dragon.
The lady elf said in as beautiful a voice as Adrina had ever heard, “I am Adrynne, Servant of the Dragon, as you will one day be again.”
“What is happening?” Adrina asked.
Adrynne said, “Take the boy’s hand and let us go from this place.”
“But what of the other?”
“The Fourth will remain as must be so. Quickly now, we must be away from this place.”
As Adrina took the boy’s hand, Vilmos’ hand, Adrynne took hers. The shadowland faded.
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