“May Usa’a’mah honor you for your courage and loyalty,” I said to him, wrapping my magic’s fist around his heart.
Easing him into the afterlife, I rose, stifling a groan. Between my own wounds and sending my energy into Rygel, I felt not just as though I’d been rode hard and put up wet, but trampled by the entire herd. I glanced around at the rest of the dead men. “Peace be with you,” I murmured, wondering if they heard me. “Be at peace.”
Turning, retraced my steps to the fire and Ananaya. I picked her up.
“Greetings, my lady,” I murmured.
Her egg felt heavier than its size warranted, and pulsed oddly in my hands. Much like a heart beating in time with a drum. Ja’Teel’s blood still dripped from her pale shell. I cast about, frowning, looking for something to wipe it with. A rag, a tunic, anything.
“Raine?” Rygel called, his voice that of his dragon. “Let’s go.”
“On my w–”
Ananaya’s egg trembled violently. Out from the single deep fissure in her shell, smaller cracks exploded outward, running from one end to the other. Gods above and below . . . .
“Uh, Rygel?” I called. “Something’s happening here.”
“Something what?”
“I think she’s hatching.”
“What? She can’t, Bulvang, er, whatever his name was said she’d hatch in a few days.”
“I think she has her own agenda.”
“Can’t you stop it?”
“How the bloody hell do I stop it?” I almost screamed, near panic.
The egg shivered violently. I heard a faint scraping sound, as though tiny claws sought to dig through the shell. Before my nose, a piece of mottled shell burst up and out. I stared, transfixed, astounded as a tiny beak thrust through the opening.
“Raine? What’s going on in there?”
I couldn’t answer him. Caught in a daze, I gaped as more shell broke away and clattered to the stone floor. Miniscule talons seized the edges and pulled, yanking more fragile shell into pieces. Several large cracks ran long and wide across the bronze-grey egg, revealing small wings yearning to stretch and be free. Oh, gods, this isn’t happening.
With a bitter snap, the egg spit asunder.
From the expanse of my hands, a tiny silver-grey dragon struggled within the remnants of her shell. The hard bloody fragments exploded outward, and fell in a shower at my boots. Ananaya, birthed from hate and death, reached for precious life within that cold mountain cave. She, the only innocent and pure life present in that hole, woke into new life.
Her wet wings pattered up and down as her claws sank into my jacket for balance. Her beak, the size of my small finger, yawned open as Ananaya gasped in her first, life-giving breath. A minute flame escaped on her exhale.
“Raine?”
Unable to take my eyes from the miracle overflowing my hands, I half-saw Rygel’s huge dragon head peering, one-eyed, into the cavern. Too captivated by Ananaya’s birth to respond, I stared in astonishment and pleasure at the new life begun in that place of death.
Ananaya’s green-gold eyes blinked away birth fluid, her small chest rising and falling in sharp gasps. From my hands that held her, her raptor gaze found my belly and travelled slowly up my chest. Higher and higher yet, she took in stride the most alien of creatures that held her captive. As though bemused, her muzzle lifted, her nostrils breathing in my scent and out smoke. A tiny trickle of fire bloomed on my palms. Still, her eyes continued their ascent past my throat to my face.
Those reptilian, green-gold eyes captured mine.
A profound, booming sound, like logs colliding, resounded deep within my soul.
Instantly, heat pervaded my blood, burned my heart. I tried to recoil from that hungry gaze, but it held me to it with bonds harder and tighter than Brutal’s chains. A bond, deeper than blood and stronger than a unicorn’s horn, forged between us. Not the ehlu’braud relationship I shared with Rygel prepared me for the sheer intensity, the raw power, of my new connection to Ananaya. Ly’Tana’s love for me wilted under the fierce and savage love of the newborn Keeper. With a jolt, I understood Left and Right as I never did before, that swift union of two separate beings.
Like twins in the womb, we looked upon one another and were one.
“Glory,” Rygel breathed, his nostrils smoldering. “You just imprinted her.”
Unable to take my eyes from hers, I half-turned my face toward Rygel. “I, er–what?”
“Like a gosling on its mother,” Rygel explained, laughter in his tone. “Or a foal on its dam.”
“Or a whelp upon its mother the instant it’s born,” Darius added.
“She looked at you and now you’re more than her parent. You’re bonded for life.”
“No, I can’t–”
“At their birth, dragons, among all creatures, are most susceptible to that first instant connection,” Darius explained. “But this–this goes deeper than any other and only death can break it. Even I, with so little strength, can feel its power through you.”
“Gods–”
I couldn’t cease staring. I couldn’t break the tie those eyes bound me with. Ties of tempered steel and double-knotted hawsers captured my heart and soul. In those fierce eyes, I recognized not just trust and faith and love. She gazed at me with a mindless, unspeakable devotion. Her fierce, savage loyalty for me went to the grave and beyond.
My treacherous heart, already deeply loving a mate and a mistress, betrayed me in my most vulnerable state. For I loved this tiny creature I could break with a squeeze of my fingers with a fierce and savage fervor I’ve never felt before. I’d spear my soul and offer it up as a sacrifice to the demons and gods should Ananaya wish it of me.
We might have stared at one another until we froze to death had not Rygel coughed, spurting smoke and flame.
“Let’s go,” he said quietly. “She’s wet and it’s freezing. The cold will soon kill her if we don’t move now.”
Tenderly, I balanced her on my left arm as I folded her damp wings across her back. She snuggled into me, her small head burrowing under my throat and her soft horns tucked under my chin as though born to be there. Her spade tail coiled as far as it could reach around my waist, clinging. I tried to shield her body with my right arm from the ice and frigid wind as I turned my back on the dying fire and dead men in the cave. The blizzard sank its icy fingers into my bones, leeching out whatever warmth I had.
I glanced back once. “Burn it.”
“Say again?”
Stepping onto his palm, I watched the dim glow of the cavern mouth grow dim and indistinct as Rygel carried us up and up, safe within the cage of his talons.
“Send enough fire into that evil place to purge it,” I said. “Make it clean again.”
Tucking us close to his warm chest, Rygel snaked his head down toward the cavern mouth. His breath of fire brought sweat to my brow. Flames hot enough to burn anything blasted into the cavern, belching back outward in orange and white when it hit the far wall. I visualized everything, every corpse in there, burnt into less than ash. Burnt into a dust, cleansed of sin and evil, made whole again.
There’s your funeral pyre, Ja’Teel. May you rot in hell.
Ananaya shivered, breathing hard, her damp body icy in my arms. She cried out in weak protest as the slashing winds cut into her despite my limited shelter. Neither my warmth nor Rygel’s closeness could save her from the cutting blizzard.
“Done,” he said, sweeping his wings wide. “Ready to fly?”
“Get us home, braud,” I said my tone sharper than I intended. “She won’t last long.”
“Your will, my prince.”
Turning to face into Rygel’s chest, keeping that fragile baby between us, I prayed the warmth from us both might be enough. Yet, her shivering didn’t abate. Instead, it tripled and she gasped. Her heart, trip-hammering inside her small chest, beat with a frantic pace to send warm blood to her entire body. If I didn’t get her warm soon, that courageous heart might burs
t within her.
“Straight up,” Rygel said, launching himself into the blizzard and darkness. His great wings cast all into utter darkness, sweeping wide and forcing the blizzard into swirling eddies behind his spade tail. “Up. It’s the only way.”
Straining, his wings that could all but enfold Brutal’s palace beat hard, fighting for every rod from the earth. I caught my breath, knowing how hawks, griffins–and dragons–circled to gain height, using warm thermals. Rygel ignored that, fought gravity’s evil grasp and forced himself higher and higher utilizing nothing but his own great wings and greater willpower.
I recognized his plan. Straight up wouldn’t take us into a solid mountainside. Above the blizzard’s deep storm clouds, he’d navigate by the stars toward the only mountain the blizzard couldn’t conceal.
The dragon’s city.
Higher and higher he climbed, using nothing less than the energy I shoved into him and his own fierce will. I dared not speak to offer encouragement for fear I’d break his absolute concentration. Into the thick snowfall he flew, blinded by darkness and the constant, heavy layers of swirling whiteout. My hair, wet and clinging to my head and neck, froze and cracked at my every movement. I saw little save bits of ice before they struck my face amid the whipping snow.
The storm enveloped us, sank its bitter fangs into our hearts and our courage. Not even my wolf’s vision saw anything as the cloudbank wrapped us within its cold robes, wafting by my nose, choking my breath, freezing my lungs. Snow whirled by in a sickening dance of ice and death, hurting my eyes, stinging my nostrils.
They will never end. We’re going to drown up here, the three of us, swallowed up by the endless clouds and storm.
Like a whale broaching the sea’s crest, Rygel burst out of the clinging clouds and winged up and out. Eddies of wispy fog trailed, swirling like tide pools, in his wake. His flight leveled, his wings wide and quiet, he took a brief moment to rest as he soared high above the boiling blizzard below. Flame and smoke burst from his clenched muzzle as he breathed raggedly.
After a brief respite, those massive wings began to beat again. Faster than the wind, more swift than a diving hawk, Rygel winged northward at roughly the speed of thought. Above us, above the winter blizzard, the stars winked like a hundred thousand white diamonds. Rygel zeroed in on the Boundless Star, hanging exactly over the dragon city. Not even the moon could eclipse its regal beauty.
I never dreamed I’d ever feel so happy, and so safe, so far away from the ground.
Ananaya grew still in my arms. I still felt her breathing, yet I heard her heart slow its heavy thudding. She was cold under my hand, so very cold. Her flesh was as icy as death itself. “What do I do, Rygel? This chill is killing her!”
“You have to keep her warm.”
“It’s not working. I’m losing her.”
Ananaya was dying. She needed heat and my body didn’t have enough of it.
“Put her in your mouth.”
“Say what?”
“Don’t be stupid. Turn wolf and clasp her in your mouth. Inside your body, she may be warm enough.”
Not giving myself time to think, I set Ananaya down on Rygel’s thick-skinned palm. Carefully, yet quickly, I tucked her tail around her and scooted her limbs and wings tight to her body. Changing forms, my massive body forced Rygel’s talons outward.
Lying down, I scooped Ananaya up into my mouth, resting her body on my tongue between my ranks of sharp teeth. She filled my mouth from end to end, and I forced myself not to gag as her hindquarters slung close to my throat.
“Don’t smother her now.”
Trying to swallow the drool that oozed from between my jaws, I used my paw to gently arrange her beak close to the front of my lips. With her head resting on my lower incisors, she could gasp in the cold night air.
Hang in there, baby, I sent to her. Be strong. I’ll get you home, I promise.
Raine, her tired mental voice answered me. Raine.
After sending my strength into Rygel, I kept very little for myself. I was so tired, exhausted, and the pain from my wounds interfered with my ability to think straight. I slumped against Rygel’s talons, lying half-on my belly, half on my side. I had to find more, dammit. Ananaya needed it.
“You have a different kind of strength, my son. Use it.”
What was he talking about? I had no other–Whoa, time out, I do have another source.
Darius’ blood.
“Use it, boy. It’s there, waiting.”
I struggled to find that divine power I’d no idea how to use. Rygel’s magic always surged to my hand when I called upon it. However, unlike that power of a magician, this force proved elusive, slithering away when I sought to grasp it. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t grab onto it, nor bend it to my will. Like a slippery snake, I touched it and felt it slide away.
Focusing hard, mentally gritting my teeth, I reached out and snagged a small portion of that divinity, that pool of white magic. It wasn’t much, perhaps akin to a puddle of water beside a vast ocean, but it was all I could get. Snagging it with inner fangs, I dragged into my clutches.
Before I could lose it, I hurled it into Ananaya.
She inhaled sharply. A gust of flame licked past my muzzle to singe my nose. Stirring against my encompassing jaws, she tried to wiggle out and be free.
Stay, little girl, I said. Be still. The strength I gave you won’t last long and you must conserve it.
She relaxed, her horns butting the roof of my mouth as she settled herself more comfortably on the nest she made of my tongue. Ananaya’s breathing smoothed out. Her heart beat strongly again. She stirred and mewled, her claws digging into my tongue and cheeks. Despite the incredible discomfort of not being able to close my jaws and the drool that dripped, my spirits rose.
Rygel’s wings beat in steady, swift strokes up as he carried us closer to the dragon’s mountain. Jhet may fly fast by dragon standards, but Rygel outflew him, surpassing his speed as hound outruns a rat.
“I think we may be within hailing distance,” Rygel said. “We’re close enough.”
“Ugh?”
Rygel snorted flame, annoyed. He raised me, still trapped within my prison close to his chest, yet higher, toward his head. He snaked his muzzle around to glare at me, his raging, reptilian eyes full on mine.
“Warn them,” he snapped, his nostrils smoking. “Get the dragons away from us, out of our path.”
I understood, then. At his present speed, Rygel could kill any dragon, and us, in an instant. Flaming the entry tunnel wasn’t enough warning. Rygel’s current speed would hurtle his huge body, and us, into that madhouse of dragons flying, chatting, laughing and flaming into one huge massive accident. At our current speed, no dragon could ever hope to evade us in time.
Throwing my head back, I shut my eyes tight, calling on what little strength I had left to me. I sent every bit of my voice and my being into one mammoth shout.
Toward the only one who might possibly receive my message.
Ly’Tana. The only one to whom I could speak and understand in my dreams. If anyone could hear me, she could. My skull felt as though someone had taken an axe to it when, throwing out my mental voice as hard as I could, I hurled it up and away.
“Get them out,” I screamed, silent, deep within my mind. “Clear the way. We have her and we’re coming in hot.”
I’d no way of knowing if she heard me. If she did, my warning to her would clear all dragons from our path. From the entry tunnel, we’d drop into a straight descent toward the Sacred Flame. She’d tell Bulvang to get his people out of our flight line; clear our way to the nest and safety.
If she didn’t, we flew straight into suicide.
Ananaya
Chapter 16
I fell to my knees.
“Ly’Tana! What’s wrong?”
My ears ringing with the force of Raine’s shout, my head aching as though he had pummeled me with his fists, I clasped my arms over my hair. I couldn’t speak. Trembl
ing, nauseous, I shut my teeth hard so I wouldn’t hurl.
Get them out. Clear the way. We have her and we’re coming in hot.
I heard Raine’s voice. I felt it inside my head, screaming a dire warning. I felt his fear, knew from his panic just how fast Rygel flew. On fragile dragon’s wings, faster than thought and roughly at the speed of death, he came. His life wasn’t the only one in peril: Raine, Rygel and the infant dragon would die on the solid stone floor of the cavern.
I caught a fraction of a vision, a rapid here-then-gone-flash into Raine’s mind. Instantly, I knew without knowing how truly close to death Ananaya was. If she didn’t receive medical attention soon, the dragons lost their connection to the divine.
“Ly’Tana?”
Kel’Ratan gripped my shoulder. His calming presence brought my senses back, yet anguish and terror kept them just out of reach. I felt his solid body kneel beside mine.
“What is it?” Bulvang asked, concern in his voice. “What’s wrong with her? Is she ill?”
“I don’t know.”
My hair across my face, my eyes, my hand half-raised to swipe it back, I looked up. Straight up the hollow mountain, the sheer sides narrowing upward towards the distant peak, thousands of rods away. This city, the dragon’s city, populated with the laughing innocent and the ignorant. Hundreds of dragons flew and gossiped and exchanged bits of news or complaints. Happy, many sang to their offspring, perched on ledges or tall pillars. Wives exchanged recipes as husbands quarreled good-naturedly or participated in games of talent and flight. Hundreds winged their way to home and hearth, chatting with neighbors, unaware that Rygel meant to drop from the entry tunnel at that insane speed.
No dragon could possibly get out of his way in time.
Using Kel’Ratan as a launching post, I leaped to my feet. “Bulvang!” I screamed, protocol forgotten. “Get them away, get them all away.”
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