“I’d suppose so,” he said, squinting. “But I’m sure I can’t remember the third one at all, other than he was a tall drink of water. It was cold out, and they had hats and other gear on.
“The next year was hard,” he continued depressingly, as if what he had been relating to that point was all sweetness and light. “More and more arachnids seemed to show up without ties to the crescent moon. That meant they could show up when we were mere humans, and arrive as humans if it suited them to do so while we were trapped in dragon form. We adopted some tactics that—Well, the year was hard.” He shook his head and avoided detail.
“There was a short but fine moment of victory less than a year after Ember died,” he recalled. “The Crown himself came to the portal to do battle. He killed a few of us effortlessly, before a young creeper with a real knack for camouflage—Crawford’s kid, name of Jonathan—leapt out from under The Crown’s feet and sank his teeth right into the bastard’s throat. With no way to speak sorcery, and losing blood rapidly, The Crown fell. Then Jonathan and his father incinerated the corpse.”
Jennifer sat up straight at this and couldn’t hold back a small grin. “Jonathan Scales killed The Crown.”
Unaware of what this meant to her, Xavier rambled on. “He sure did. That kid was a reckless son a bitch—all due respect to his mother, Caroline—but he was a vicious fighter. Seeing their mighty Crown die put the scare in his followers. They didn’t come back for another year after that.
“When they did, there were simply too many of them. And the Quadrivium—that’s what The Crown’s inner circle started calling themselves—really came of age. They overran the cabin, and we had to get back to Crescent Valley. And then the real nightmare began. Our last refuge, precious and pure to us, came under attack. First, the wereachnids only knew about the lake portal.”
This made Jennifer squirm in her seat.
“But then invaders showed up in places far away from the lake, using entry points we had rarely used or forgotten. Worse, what showed up wasn’t just arachnids anymore. It was new things, horribly mutated. The sort of things you saw today. The Quadrivium experimented with their own kind, and then sent them into the fray. It was a terrible thing to do, and it worked extremely well.”
He stroked Goodwin’s back a few times before he spoke again. “You know the story from there—it’s all written on the stone plateau. Three years after we gave up the outside world, we lost this one, too. After our last stand, when Ned died in my own wings, I scratched the last grave on that plateau and fled. It was cowardly not to go out fighting, I suppose. To run and hide, year after year, and slowly fade away.”
“You’re not a coward,” Jennifer protested. “If you had gone out fighting twenty years ago, you wouldn’t have been around to save me today, when I thought I wanted to die—but I really didn’t.”
“Hmmm,” he allowed, his yellowed teeth showing. “Well, that’s my story. A long and sad one, I’m afraid. And now I’m left to wander here by myself. The Quadrivium stopped looking for me in earnest once they were sure I was the only dragon left. Crescent Valley has been left to rot. What possible harm can I do, before I die?”
Jennifer raised her head and licked her teeth. “You wanna find out?”
Xavier volunteered to keep watch and scout the area with Goodwin while Jennifer stretched out and tried to get some sleep. There was a lot of excitement in his voice, but Jennifer wasn’t sure he had much notion of what to do next.
Great, the Ancient Furnace has shown up. So what? What can he and I possibly do together? Repopulate the species?
She snorted and twitched her tail as she dismissed the idea. The old guy was something like five times her age; and while this version of Xavier Longtail seemed okay, she hadn’t quite forgiven the old version for being such an ass. And even if she had a kid, by any father, so what? The kid got to die alone a few years after his or her parents. Not exactly a rousing tale of recovery.
No, the answer wasn’t repopulating this universe. It was restoring the old one. But could they? And should they even try?
She recalled the note her father had written her. It was probably still in Tavia’s guest room with all of her clothes, assuming Skip hadn’t moved it. She felt a pang of guilt. He had told her to sit tight. He had told her to accept this world and make a life. The first time she had read those words, she had resisted the idea. But with a couple of days under her belt here, she wondered if he might have been right. Given how powerful these werachnids were, fighting would probably get her killed. Her father wouldn’t want that.
But he reminded you about the stone plateau, a new voice in her head argued. He wanted you to fight. He just didn’t want to tip off Skip.
This was certainly possible. Of course, it was hard to be sure either way. Jonathan Scales had probably had less than five minutes to write words that would pass Skip’s inspection and still mean something to Jennifer. His mention of stone and fire certainly seemed like a code now—but it may have been a code to check out Crescent Valley, and give up if this refuge was lost. And lost it was.
And why is it lost? the voice persisted, making Jennifer roll over restlessly. Who lost it, Jennifer? Who brought the enemy through the portal, revealed our deepest and most ancient secret, and then got angry at the dragons who thought it was reckless to do so? How many names are on that plateau, Jennifer? How many people did Skip kill when he gave the Quadrivium the location of Crescent Valley? How many people did you kill?
The guilt was more than she could bear. She covered her head with her wings but she knew the voice would not let her sleep. Not with that knowledge. Not until she had set things right.
It may kill me, Dad. But I can’t let that plateau stand like that.
The voice in her head accepted that resolve as down payment on her debt, and it quieted down long enough for her to slip into an uneasy slumber.
CHAPTER 12
Friday
The lichen in the nearby copse of trees was graduating from orange to yellow again when Jennifer woke up. Even without the visual cue, she would have known it was morning: The enigmatic warmth that radiated from the ground at the start of each day was, at least, a familiar comfort. She remembered asking her father about it on one of her first trips to Crescent Valley. He had told her it was the breath of Brigida, the first dragon, who no one had ever seen die thousands of years ago.
The thought of an ancient dragon breathing somewhere in the deep earth to provide warmth for an entire world comforted Jennifer, even though she knew intellectually that such a thing was impossible.
Xavier was not around, but Goodwin was back, staring at her. Jennifer stared back, stretching her wings.
“So what’s your story?” she finally asked. “You the same little guy I left back home in his terrarium, or what?”
Goodwin’s tail twitched.
“Hmm. Not exactly a decisive statement.” She craned her neck and caught sight of a cluster of cobwebs, far above in the branches of a nearby moon elm. The dew on them had frozen, and the gentle wind blew the crystallized strands like ghost’s hair. “Okay, how about this? Lick your left eye three times if you’re part of the secret plot to screw up my life.”
Neither his tongue nor his eyes moved. Jennifer realized he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking over her right wing.
Tail twitching…looking behind me…uh-oh.
In half a second, Jennifer shrank back into the shape of a girl, which caused the black spider the size of a soccer ball to miss as it jumped at her. The hairs on its legs brushed her ear, and it landed with a piercing scream on the ground in front of her.
It was more than a spider, she saw now: twelve legs, four with clicking claws. It had quills on its bloated abdomen, and its mandibles opened wide to reveal a blue forked tongue.
Picking up one of the flat, heavy stones spread throughout their camp, Jennifer raised it over her head with both hands and brought it down hard. Though the results were spectacular, she immediately
regretted the move.
Ick. Mutant spider guts all over my nightie!
“Jennifer!” She looked up to see Xavier sailing above, coming from the direction the spider had. “I’m afraid we have to move on. I’ve been scouting. They’ve definitely gathered in numbers to find us. You have awakened something violent in them, I think. Can you fly, or do you need to ride?”
“I can fly. Just needed a quick change to pick up a rock. Come on, Goodwin!”
The gecko scrambled up her leg as she shifted shape again and set to the air. From above, she could see a black mass of creatures approaching from the southwest. “Wow, it didn’t take long for them to find us. Where do we go now? Can Goodwin find us another place that’s safe?”
“Of course,” Xavier answered. “But he’s been doing that for decades. I think it’s time for something different. Follow me!” He appeared quite pleased with himself, and even began to hum as the infested landscape below disappeared under sunlit clouds.
While she found this charming, Jennifer was not content to let the matter rest. “Um, Longtail? If you’ve got a plan, I’d like to hear it.”
“All in good time—”
“Uh, no.” She pulled up short and hovered impatiently, forcing him to pull up himself. “Dude, I know yesterday and today probably rate as a high point in the last several years for you, but for me, this week sucks dead horse eyeballs. I’ve lost my friends, my family, and everyone else I’ve ever known. Every place I go is like a nightmare reflection of itself. And those freaking things”—she pointed as another screaming black missile tried, and failed, to reach them in the sky—“are driving me nuts. What the fuck are they, anyway? Never mind—I want them gone. I want the whole thing gone. No offense, I want you gone. I want the cranky Xavier Longtail back, with the niece who hates me and my parents because they did horrible things in the past, but it’s my parents and our past, and I want that all back, too. I want Winoka instead of Pinegrove, Catherine instead of Nakia, and Susan…instead of nothing at all! I want it all back, do you hear me? And I want to know how you’re going to help me do it. Right now!”
He watched her for a while as they both dangled up and down in the sky, like self-propelled reptilian marionettes. His yellowed teeth were presentd as something between a smile and a sneer. It was very old-world Xavier, Jennifer thought. A bit of perception, and a bit more of contempt.
“Well, my little princess,” he finally said. “It sounds like you have quite a performance to put on, and very few volunteers around who can satisfy your high standards. If you don’t think I’m dancing fast enough, I’ll just collect Goodwin, say good-bye, turn tail, and take my chances with our arachnid neighbors. I’ve led a long life—not necessarily a happy one, but certainly unique. I can last a little longer on my own. And I certainly don’t want to be a burden to the Ancient Furnace!”
She didn’t reply, so he went on.
“Or you can trust me and give the signal for us to get moving. Your choice, kid.”
Chewing her tongue in frustration and wretchedness, she finally relented. “I want to change things back. But I don’t know how. If you have a way to get me help, I could really use some. P-pl-please.” She felt her eyes get wet. Again! Cripes! I can’t believe I have any tears left!
He cocked his head and groaned. “Aw, hell, girl, don’t cry on my account. I haven’t had much company for the past twenty years, and I’m afraid I’ve forgotten most of my social skills. Look, we’re kinda going out on a limb, and I just didn’t want you to worry. About the only lead I can think to follow is a scrap of a story my mother taught me before Eveningstar.”
“Wh-what’s that?” She sniffled.
“There’s a creature named Sonakshi,” he told her. “According to dragon legend, he’s a prophet. He might have clues to steer us right.”
Jennifer waited for more, but when Xavier began flying again, she had no choice but to follow. “He might have clues? What kind of clues? Does he have any powers? Can he help us fight?”
“He’s not a fighter, he’s a prophet. If he exists at all.”
“What good will a prophet do?” Jennifer tried to sound inquisitive, rather than upset. She was sure Xavier was doing his best; but this hardly seemed helpful. “I mean, a prophet just tells the future. We’re not trying to change the future; we’re trying to change the past back the way it was.”
“My mother once told me,” came the answer as the lands began to thin and the water became more plentiful below, “that a prophet is not someone who can tell the future. A prophet is someone who can see the change in the present.”
“Okay, that might be useful. We’ll have to see exactly what’s changed, I suppose, if we’re going to change it back. But will this Sonnyshack—”
“Sonakshi.”
“Will this Sonakshi be able to tell us how we can make things right again?”
“No idea,” he called back as he increased speed. The air was decidedly cooler now, and the growing shimmer beneath them suggested to Jennifer that they were totally above water, with at most a few lingering strips of land flung out into the mysterious expanse.
“One more question. Where is this Sonakshi?”
His long, black head craned back. Jennifer could just make out the tiny form of Goodwin perched upon his elderly skull. His tone was very old-school Xavier as he nodded down at the glistening surface. “Where do you think?”
They were riding chilled air currents over the ocean for over two hours before Jennifer thought up another question she thought Xavier would tolerate. “So, is this Sonakshi supposed to be a dragon?”
“Nobody really knows what he is,” the dasher admitted. “The most frequent explanation is that he’s the most ancient of the lurkers.”
“Lurkers?”
“Yes, lurkers.”
She pulled up next to him. “You’re losing me. Like, sea monsters?”
His expression suggested he didn’t believe her ignorance. “No, lurker as in the dragon type.”
Since she was too embarrassed to say anything, he continued. “You’re the Ancient Furnace, Jennifer. You have all dragon types in you—dasher, creeper, trampler, and lurker. How can you not know about lurkers?”
“Um, I know…that they, um. Lurk.”
“Great oceans, Goodwin,” she caught him mumbling. “We get saved by the Ancient Furnace, and it turns out she’s an ignorant twit—
“—Ow!” he exclaimed with a grin after she rattled his skull with a flip of her tail. “And a pretty good shot, too. At least that’s something: You know dasher skills.”
“Skills?” The plural confused her.
He let slip a wary hum. “Yes, skills. You know more than tailwork, don’t you?”
“Well, I know lizard-calling, and camouflage.” Suddenly, she felt inadequate. His reaction didn’t make her feel any better.
“But what of the Elder skills?”
The phrase did trigger the memory of her confrontation with Ember Longtail. “Oh, like calling up a swarm of insects! Yeah, I guess I can do that.”
“And how about meteor diving?”
“No. It sounds painful.”
“It’s the dasher Elder skill,” he explained. “Great fun, especially over the ocean.”
“Why would someone want to meteor dive?”
“It’s a good way to make a little room,” he answered with a wink. “You just hold your breath, curl your tail so the prongs are up by your head, start dropping…and then sneeze through your ears. You really have to see it to…Here, I’ll just show you!”
Before she could ask him what sneezing through ears entailed, he had curled into a ball and dropped like a stone. As his velocity increased, a faint burn enveloped him, and then right before he hit the surface of the ocean…
KAPOW!
At first, Jennifer thought he had exploded in a massive fireball, and she screamed. But then she saw the splash right below the expanding fire cloud. He had ignited right above the surface, it seemed, and then dr
opped into the ocean.
Poor Goodwin, she thought. But then again, Goodwin seemed the sturdy type.
“Try it!” His voice came up faintly from the dark, sparkling water. “Don’t forget to sneeze through your ears!”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll sneeze through my ears, you crazy old fart,” she muttered, and then held her breath and pulled her tail up so the prongs scratched her chin. Like that, she stopped flying and started falling.
How am I going to sneeze through my ears how am I going to sneeze through my ears omigod the ocean is coming up really fast and am I catching fire how am I going to—
Just before she hit the water, she stopped thinking and just did it, forcing as much air as she could through her aural canals.
The results were spectacular. She had never been inside an explosion before. An orange and purple starburst coursed over the ocean as she dropped into the water with a glorious splash.
“Wow!” she heard Xavier say nearby as she regained the surface. “That was pretty damn good for a first try!”
“Thanks.” She really was grateful for the diversion. It was the first time she had actually done something fun in days. After lifting themselves out of the water, shaking themselves off, and making sure Goodwin was still firmly attached to Xavier’s wing, they continued.
“What other skills have I missed?” she wondered aloud as they climbed back into the sky.
“Not too many,” he admitted. “Of course, the legend of the Ancient Furnace suggests that in addition to Elder skills of the four types, there are unique powers that no other dragon has.”
“Huh.” She decided she didn’t like this turn in the conversation. She didn’t want to disappoint her new friend any further. “So if there are such things as lurkers, have you ever seen any? Did they help you fight? Are they all gone?”
“I’ve never had the chance to find out before today. The legend of Sonakshi is such that the lurkers never show themselves without their chieftain. And I’ve never been able to summon him on my own. We couldn’t do it twenty years ago, either.”
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