Blood of the Dragon

by Sarina Langer

  Her connection wavered. “I don’t think we have long. There’s one more thing I need to know.” Mavis nodded for Rachael to continue. “I’ve been told that, if my visions continue, I will die or lose my mind. How much time do I have?”

  She had hoped Mavis would deny it. “Hard to say. Different seers suffer different consequences. Some die quickly, exhausted from using their power. They die in their sleep once their bodies have nothing left to give. Others die slowly, trapped in their minds. They waste away.”

  Rachael shuddered. “Why don’t you make it quick for them?”

  “Because sometimes, these seers speak important prophecies. It’s the cost of war, Rachael. We do unspeakable things to live another day. It’s happening right now, only this time, it’s not our own lives we’re saving.”

  Rachael understood. Necessity was more important than her own wishes. She’d always done what she had to survive. If it meant Cale and her Sparrows would be safe another day, she’d do it.

  War was bigger than her or any one person. She just happened to be in a position of difficult choices.

  The room faded.

  “Thank you, Mavis. I won’t let your sacrifice be meaningless.”

  Mavis replied something, but Rachael didn’t hear it. The seer vanished along with her room—

  And then Rachael’s light disappeared once more, until darkness was all she had left.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Cephy felt Rachael’s energy signature more than she saw her through the eyes of the Mother she’d sent. Her demon was hiding in a shadow, blending in as naturally as night. It had taken Cephy longer than she cared to admit, but Rachael hadn’t moved in the way she’d predicted. Cephy had expected her to go to the White City and seek safety in her palace, but Rachael was nowhere near Rifarne. Rachael was in the Red Wastes.

  And, except for a few injured Sparrows and an exhausted dragon, she was alone. Cephy had recalled her Mothers from the city as soon as she realised. The more Mothers she brought to the Red Wastes, the better. Rachael was too far away for her Sparrows to reach her in time, and even if she weren’t, her Sparrows were tired from the fight Cephy had sent them. This would be easy. No help would be coming.

  “You look pleased,” Arnost Lis said. “I take it you’ve found her?”

  “I have. Taking her shouldn’t be difficult.”

  Cephy was so close. The Dark One had almost reached His full strength. All she needed to do now was sacrifice Rachael, and the Dark One would be free of His shackles. Of her.

  Cephy shivered. She could no longer imagine a life without all this power, but she wasn’t so foolish as to try and trap Him forever. If she tried to imprison Him, He would rip his way out of her and she’d die. Aeron had been wrong—His host didn’t need to be willing. It just helped if He didn’t have to struggle against a gifted mind.

  She hated to admit it, but most of her power now was His. She only controlled so much of it because He allowed it. Once He was free, she’d have to depend on her own gift again.

  But Aeron had trained that gift. Cephy wasn’t helpless on her own.

  Arnost Lis sighed, as he always did when something wasn’t going his way. “This is an awful lot of effort for one sacrifice. Remind me again why we need to chase one girl across the continent?”

  Cephy turned to leave the room. She didn’t want to play his games anymore. He meant to demean her. She wouldn’t let him.

  “That’s right,” Arnost Lis said. “Because your Dark One is playing favourites. Something about Rachael’s blood being special?”

  He knew exactly why the Dark One wanted Rachael. Cephy wouldn’t tell him again that it was because a seer’s blood was stronger, especially in these days. It was an old gift not many possessed. It was a link to the old world. There was power in rarity, and Rachael’s gift was as rare as they came.

  Although, Cephy suspected there was another reason too. It was seers and sorcerers—magic—that had imprisoned Him on Kaethe for so long. The strength of Rachael’s gift didn’t matter as much as its existence. The Dark One wanted to begin His reign by exacting vengeance on those who had trapped Him. Killing the last seer—the last remnant of that magic—was His way of doing it. Lis had a point—another sacrifice, anyone, would have saved them a lot of hassle. But the Dark One was eternal. What was another week, another month, to Him? If He wanted a specific sacrifice, time was of no concern to Him.

  But Cephy wasn’t going to share any of that with the Tramuran ambassador. The man was lucky she let him live; she didn’t need to entertain him on top of that.

  Why the Dark One insisted she keep him alive was beyond her.

  “Be ready,” she said. “The ritual I need to perform to prepare the Dark One will take a few days. After that, we will go to the Red Wastes.”

  Arnost Lis scoffed. “I hope you have a better plan than travelling by boat.”

  It irked him that she hadn’t shared all her plans with him. Cephy revelled in it.

  “Of course.”

  He didn’t need to know. Once the ritual was complete, she would open a portal directly to Rachael. Now she knew where Rachael was, it would be easy. Rachael was as good as trapped; it didn’t matter if the Dark One needed another week or two. They’d go when He was ready, and there’d be nothing Rachael could do about it. Arnost Lis worried that Kaida would be recovered and too powerful by then, but Cephy didn’t share his fear. The Dark One would be recovered too. What was one dragon against the lord of the Mists?

  And then Cephy would cut them down before they realised what was happening. She would deliver Rachael’s blood to the Dark One, and the gifted would finally know the freedom they deserved.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  In the beginning, everyone died. Rachael watched it happen. Saw a man—a sorcerer, she knew instinctively—and a group of students open a door into the Mists. For research, he told them. Be careful, he instilled repeatedly. His intentions didn’t help them when they looked through the window they’d opened and the Dark One looked back. When Mothers pooled through and slaughtered the students.

  When the Dark One took the sorcerer’s mind.

  It was the beginning of the end. All this, because of a silly mistake. Not fate. No one’s destiny. Simple, beautiful, human error.

  Blood flooded the field where the students had stood. The shadows darkened as Mothers stayed behind to guard the way home. The others went with the Dark One to Sanciond, invisible until He told them to kill. Their subtle corruption blackened the old world and suffocated it.

  Cathedrals and homes fell to their black touch. Lives extinguished by their Mists.

  The people’s last few days, and still they fought.

  And hidden away above the city, a group of sorcerers destroyed what the demons hadn’t already.

  All Rachael smelled was smoke and ashes. The people’s screams and monsters’ screeches were quickly replaced by a deep rumble and a flash so bright Rachael neither heard nor saw anything. The smells were the only things that remained—first blood and fear, then ashes and peace. Nothing but a wasteland left in their determined, desperate wake.

  And so, the Sanciond Mavis and Vail had known fell.

  But Rachael was no longer in the old empire. She recognised some of the rubble—the garden in the palace, Blackrock, Arlo’s hut. The lake behind Cale’s house beckoned her, oddly intact amidst the silence. The water rippled even without a breeze, and Rachael sank to her knees next to it.

  She heard a rustle behind her, a strained breath, and spun around. Her legs no longer worked, and her reflexes were slow, but she knew that sound and needed to get to it.

  Her heart stopped when she saw Cale. His body destroyed, his spirit broken, his flesh charred. He reached for her, and she tried—tried so hard—to get to him, but her body was heavy. Her eyes were heavy.

  She could no longer move.

  Cephy burnt what was left of Cale, and his final scream chilled what was left of her.

  She had al
lowed this. Because she hadn’t protected one little girl caught up in a much bigger injustice.

  Cephy smiled. Created a fireball of black Mist.

  Rachael heard herself scream as it seared the flesh from her bones and scattered her ashes.

  She awoke to a familiar lullaby sung in a voice Rachael wished she’d known better. Erimentha, her mother, cradled her. Was she dead? Had everything been a bad dream, and Erimentha had never abandoned her? Or had Rachael died and gone to wherever good souls went? But that couldn’t be right. She wasn’t a good soul. All this death, because of— Besides, she was four years old. Nothing bad ever happened to four-year-old girls desperate to be held by their mothers.

  Erimentha kissed her eyebrow. “Paschros kai zo, my everything. Fight strong and live.”

  “But why—”

  Their house burnt. Flames devoured their home, melted Erimentha’s face until her smile became a grimace and she finally—finally—died and found peace.

  Rachael screamed. The ground opened, a deep hole swallowing her until the fall became familiar. There was nothing to hold on to, nothing to see or do about eternity’s punishment for her.

  Only whispers, and disappointed accusations.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  “Rachael?”

  Cale had watched over Rachael with Kiana ever since Kaida had carried her back to their camp. He wished she had told him what she was going to do. He should have been there.

  Kaida said Rachael had mastered her gift, but from the looks of it her new mastery had come at a price. He remembered what Rachael had told him about the possible consequences and hated himself even more for sleeping through it.

  But her hand had just twitched. He’d felt it in his.

  Cale squeezed her hand. His heart jumped when her fingers tried to close around his.

  “Is she waking up?” Kiana asked.

  “I think so. She’s more responsive than she was.”

  When Kaida had brought Rachael to him, blood had trickled from Rachael’s nose down her chin. Her skin had lost a lot of colour, and she’d always been pale to begin with. She hadn’t moved. Cale had worried she’d given too much.

  Rachael’s eyes fluttered open and she groaned.

  “Ssh, don’t move,” Cale said. Rachael relaxed and closed her eyes again. “You need to rest after what you put yourself through.”

  “Good to see you awake,” Kiana said. Rachael smiled in acknowledgement.

  Kaida had healed Rachael once he and Kiana were watching over her, but it had still taken her several hours to wake. Cale hated what her gift was doing to her.

  “I don’t like this,” Kiana said. “You said her visions did this?”

  “She told me what Kaida told her. That, in time, her visions would take too much.” He couldn’t get himself to be more specific, but he knew Kiana understood.

  “I think we can agree that this is the last time we let her wander off.” Kiana took Rachael’s other hand. “No more visions for you.”

  Rachael smiled and tried to sit but moaned and fell back. The blanket they had folded into a pillow wasn’t ideal, but so far away from civilisation it was the best they could do.

  At least it wasn’t cold in the Red Wastes. The magical residue had left a strange resonating hum that warmed the air. When Cale closed his eyes and focussed on it, he felt it in his bones. He worried what it would do to them if they stayed too long.

  “It was worth it,” Racheal said. Her voice was barely more than a croak, but Cale was glad to hear it.

  “Help her sit,” Kiana said.

  Cale helped her up, and Kiana held a flask to Rachael’s lips.

  “You learned something?” Cale asked when he eased her back down.

  “Let me sit,” Rachael said. “Please?”

  He sighed but allowed her to rest against his side.

  “I spoke to someone,” Rachael said. “A seer in the old empire.”

  Kiana’s eyes went wide. “That’s amazing!”

  Cale was less impressed. “I hope she had something useful to say. This cost you too much.”

  “She did, but—” Rachael’s eyes flicked over the camp. “It’s complicated. I need to speak to Kaida.”

  “What did this seer say you need to do?” Cale asked.

  She relaxed into him, and he cherished the feeling.

  “As I said, it’s complicated. I don’t want anyone to overhear us until I’ve talked to Kaida, Reeve.”

  For a moment, Cale worried Rachael had lost more than he’d feared, but then the Sparrow stepped out of the shadows. “I can worry about my queen, can’t I?”

  “Can’t you do it where I can see you?” Rachael asked.

  Reeve shrugged. “Apparently, I don’t need to. You knew I was there.”

  She sighed but didn’t argue. Reeve was right, anyway—the only shadows were around the tents, and they weren’t large. It never ceased to amaze Cale how well his Sparrow hid.

  “For now,” Rachael said, “let it be enough that I know how to stop the Dark One.” She grimaced. “It’s not an easy decision. I don’t know what to do.”

  “What’s there to think about?” Kiana asked. “If you know how to end this, let’s end this.”

  “And if someone has to die?”

  Cale squeezed her hand. “We’re all prepared to die, Rachael. We’re your Sparrows.”

  Kiana nodded. “We’re nothing if not dedicated.”

  “And I’m the Sparrow, unofficial leader of the group. And I’m your queen. It’s my job to keep you safe and do what’s right.”

  “Sometimes, the right decisions are the hardest,” Cale said.

  “Or the most morally confused,” Kiana said.

  Rachael didn’t look happy about it. “I will do what’s necessary. I just think we need to exhaust all other options before we resort to desperate measures. The sorcerers did that, and look what it got them—dust and ground so dry it’s cracked and still hums with their gift.”

  “Whatever it is,” Cale said, “we’ll do it together. The Sparrows are behind you. There may not be many of us here, but we will fight with everything we have. Lady Nerine wouldn’t have given us warrior names if we hadn’t earned them.”

  Kiana huffed. “That’s not fair. Why do you get to have warrior names and I don’t?”

  Rachael blushed and turned to Kiana. “Lady Nerine named you Aella. I completely forgot.”

  “You what?” Kiana looked torn between joy and disappointment. “I get a warrior name, and this is how I find out? Like you’re telling me it’ll be another dry day in the wastes tomorrow?”

  “I’m sorry,” Cale said. “I forgot too.” There’d been so much going on, it hadn’t crossed his mind.

  Kiana pouted. “I can’t believe you two.” Her face brightened a little. “I really have a warrior name?”

  Rachael nodded. “Lady Nerine said you fought like you were possessed by spirits.”

  Kiana grinned. “I guess I can live with it coming late. Now, you should get some rest. You’ve got to be drained after that.”

  Rachael nodded, but didn’t look too sure. She looked haunted.

  “Bad dreams?” Cale asked.

  She paled. “It’s nothing. Just a reminder of what will happen if we fail.”

  Rachael shivered, and Cale pulled her closer. His shoulder still stung a little, but he’d bear it.

  “We’ll end this together,” he said. “You have my word.”

  “And mine,” Kiana said. “We’re warriors now. Winning wars is what warriors do.”

  Rachael nodded but she was still pale, and Cale hated that he couldn’t change that right now.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Rachael couldn’t shake the final whispers of her vision. Usually, visions showed her what she had to know and left, but this one held her in a firm, icy grip. She still felt her bones burning. It should have been a motivator to fight harder, but instead she felt defeated already. This vision was inside her and wouldn’t let go. Wors
e, it had started in the past, moved into the future, and turned into a nightmare. Her gift hadn’t crossed timelines and turned into a regular dream before, which could only mean one thing: her gift was progressing fast, and every time she had a vision, she was unconscious for a little longer. Would she wake from the next one, or would her gift demand its balance?

  Rachael was determined not to lose any more people, but how could she do that if this was her future? As much as she wanted to change the vision’s outcome, she knew that some things were inevitable. She had tried to avoid her imprisonment, but she had fought the wrong prison. It was possible her visions held answers, but she couldn’t risk it or she might not get to fight at all. No matter what she’d done, the Mothers had got to her and made her nightmare come true. Even worse, Cephy was now part of that nightmare.

  Rachael remembered how she’d felt when she first met Cephy and allowed the girl to stay with her. She’d felt nauseous, like she’d made a mistake. At the time, Cephy had been a terrified girl clutching her stuffed bear for familiar comfort. But Rachael had known. Deep down, her gift had known not to trust Cephy. She always trusted her gut feeling. Then she ignored her instincts once and it still haunted her today. But how had she been supposed to know that the scared little girl would try to destroy the world one day?

  “Are you okay?”

  She wanted to pace the small camp but didn’t have the energy. Sitting and thinking was all she could do. No vision had ever left her so drained. Mavis had said some seers were forever caught in their visions until they eventually faded away. Was that her fate? Not the quick death some seers were granted, but a slow, involuntary crawl to the end? And then she’d plunge into the abyss, falling forever with nothing but the accusing whispers to keep her company.

  “Rachael?”

  She looked up and saw Ludo sitting next to her.

  He smiled. “Are you all right? Cale told me what happened.”

  “He did?” She’d figured he wouldn’t tell anyone she’d found a way to defeat the Dark One since she hadn’t given him any details.