by JManess
Unable to find the strength to summon up more skyfire, Sondra relied on her physical agility and teeth and claws to tear at the other dragon. They grappled on the ground, the larger and heavier guard gaining an advantage despite the many fights she’d already won that day. She tore at Sondra, sending glittering violet-blue scales flying and leaving behind welts and trails of blood on Sondra’s flank. Sondra tried to draw her sword again but the guard batted her claw away, slicing the leather of the scabbard belt and sending the sword careening to the dirt as she pinned Sondra and snapped at her neck, seeking her vulnerable throat ring. Sondra’s wings crushed beneath her as she brought her hind legs up and ripped at the guard’s stomach, her claws skittering off the heavy scales that protected the other dragon. The guard dragon simply laughed and bit her wing tip, snapping the bones and tearing through the membrane as Sondra screamed in agony.
An outraged roar answered her scream and the ground beneath her shook.
Dragons all over the battlefield of the Cliffs stopped fighting to see an immense black shadow covering the land. Many of the dragons, friend and foe alike, fled at the sight, but the guard dragon remained too focused on killing Sondra to 104
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realize her danger. She bit down again, tearing deeper into Sondra’s wing, and then, suddenly, she wasn’t there anymore.
Sondra looked up in pained surprise and saw a sight she hadn’t hoped to see ever again. Tolmac towered over her, his entire body blazed with flames.
They danced over his ebony scales and Sondra could see the tracery of fire moving beneath his skin. The guard didn’t stand a chance against his rage and he tore her apart in the blink of an eye and turned back to Sondra.
His fury didn’t abate, though the flames licking across his body died down.
He snarled at her and she realized that much of his anger was directed at her.
He confirmed this with the first words he fired into her mind.
“So, little liar, you served the queens all along!”
“No, Tolmac, I swear it, I have never been here before …”
“Then why did you come here?” he shouted, and Sondra winced as his furious voice ricocheted through her skull, carrying some emotion deeper than anger with it.
“I got lost; I didn’t mean to come here. I just lost my way and I couldn’t tell where I was from the air and then this female dragon came out of nowhere and …”
“You expect me to believe that? That you conveniently grew lost over Fomoral and the Dragon City, which is, in case you were unaware of this, miles and miles from my lair, which I asked you not to leave!” Tolmac shouted again, bearing down on her in his fury, his face inches from her own, and the heat off his body scorching her as his eyes blazed.
For the first time since she’d been turned into a dragon, Sondra felt she might actually find the ability to cry. She cowered away from his anger, not fearing a physical attack, believing that even as angry as he was, he wouldn’t hurt her. She feared his rejection, the way she could even now see him drawing away from her inside. She couldn’t bear to lose him like this and she nearly confessed the actual truth, about her humanity, when another mental voice intruded.
“Tolmac?” Rubeliara stood on the edge of the cliff, shaken and battered, but alive. She held Sondra’s sword in one claw and her eyes fixed on Tolmac towering over the storm dragon, her gaze hungry and wistful.
Tolmac greeted her with a snarl. “I see this city is still a den of treacherous, lying females.”
Rubeliara flinched as if he’d struck her, and then turned to Sondra. “You
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dropped this, Sondra. We have routed the remainder of the guards and first-tier dragons. We can never thank you enough for destroying the queens and freeing us. It is strange; I only met you yesterday and somehow I feel that we have known each other for a very long time.” Rubeliara skirted the still glowering Tolmac and handed Sondra her sword.
“Thank you, Rubeliara. I am glad the queens are dead and I hope your chicks will never know pain or hardship.”
“They won’t, thanks to you. We will honor our end of the bargain. Even now the dragons disperse, leaving this land to the humans. I will never see you again, Sondra, for I am taking my young as far from this place as I can go. I say good-bye to you, and good luck.” Rubeliara glanced at Tolmac again, and then back at Sondra. “You will need it.” She leapt into the air and winged to the south, following a group of dragons already airborne.
“The queens are dead?” Tolmac queried, his mental voice subdued but still cold and remote.
“Yes.”
“The red dragon claims that she only just met you, but I happen to know she has long been a member of the Kin.”
“I know.”
“You are not one of them, then.”
“No. I am not.”
“Tell me, Sondra. Why did you leave the lair? Why did you come to this cursed place?”
“I told you, I was lost. I did not lie about that.”
“Then what did you lie about, Sondra? What secret are you keeping from me that drove you from my lair even after I told you it wasn’t safe? What drove you from my side?” The last question he thought so softly that Sondra barely sensed it.
She looked at him, still towering over her, his massive, muscular body dark and menacing, his fearsome aspect concealing a gentle and noble soul. She still loved him, now more than ever because he had once again come to her rescue and, even doubting her, he’d saved her life. Terrible fear squeezed her heart and she remembered her dream. He couldn’t love a human; he had said as much himself, had he not? She could never tell him the truth or he would leave her and despise her forever.
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“I cannot tell you Tolmac; all I can say is that I felt the need to find something and I grew lost instead, winding up here.” Tolmac watched her for a long time, but he didn’t try to enter her mind.
She didn’t even feel the soft tickle of a questing thought as she had felt so often in the Dragon Cliffs. He simply watched her and Sondra knew that he debated whether to trust her again or simply abandon her here to the mercy of whatever dangers might befall her. She could see that he remained angry; nearly invisible traceries of fire still moved beneath his skin and scales. Finally she could bear the silence no longer.
“Please, Tolmac. I’m sorry for all of the problems I caused you. I’m sorry I left the lair without telling you. I’m sorry for giving you cause to distrust me.
I don’t know what else to say, except that I beg your forgiveness and hope that you will continue to train me. I don’t think I’m ready to be on my own yet.” Sondra added to herself, “nor will I ever be.” Tolmac came to a decision. Despite his fury and suspicion, the sight of his little storm dragon torn, bleeding, and pleading his forgiveness forced him to give her another chance. For some reason, he didn’t want to think about not having her around anymore. The memories of returning to the lair and finding it empty still preyed upon him. He asked her if she could fly herself back to his lair or if she needed his help, and she sagged in relief.
Sondra did manage the flight back to his lair. Now that she knew Tolmac would give her another chance, she felt like she could fly to the ends of the cosmos and back, so light was her heart. She studied him as they soared over the kingdoms below, concealed by another stormfront she summoned. After everything they’d been through together, to her, he did look like a god, and she determined to ask him about what Rubeliara told her just as soon as she’d rested and healed. She wondered if she had the nerve to ask him just how close he had gotten to the red dragon. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
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CHAPTER 12
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Sondra didn’t get the chance to ask Tolmac about the fi re god immediately after her recovery. Even though he took her back to his lair and agreed to continue traini
ng her, he withdrew from her and rarely spoke to her beyond the instructions he laid out for her. He didn’t act cruel or impatient but neither did he tease her anymore as he used to before the Circle Kin incident. Sondra tried everything to bring him back to the easy and casual relationship they’d once shared but he remained cold and distant, despite her teasing and her prodding. She’d even attempted to provoke him by deliberately making mistakes: startling their prey before he could pounce, blasting skyfi re at inopportune moments, or wobbling shakily in the air though she fi nally mastered basic fl ight. Nothing she tried goaded him from his frigidly polite demeanor. He didn’t even deign to correct her, simply ignoring her lapses, well aware of their true purpose. He no longer told her stories as they settled in at night and he physically kept his distance as well, curling up as far away from her as possible while still remaining in the same cavern. He didn’t even bid her good night before he dropped off to sleep. Sondra didn’t bother to conceal her pain and sadness; she simply laid her own head down and curled up in misery.
For so many cycles that Sondra lost count, things continued like this, until she began to lose hope that she would ever breech the barrier he’d erected against her. He no longer trusted her and he’d taught her enough to survive on her own. Though her heart broke, Sondra decided that the time to find the wizard and renew her old life had come; she couldn’t bear remaining with this distant stranger, knowing that the dragon she loved still crouched behind his 107
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walls; nor could she remain a dragon anywhere in the world and know that she could never be with him. She would rather rejoin the human world and try to forget she’d ever had this experience at all. At least then she could be with a family that loved her.
Besides, she still didn’t know the duration of the wizard’s spell and whether it would even last. Most cycles, she didn’t even care if she transformed back into a human in front of him. Perhaps that would shake him from his chilly composure. Some cycles she wished that she would change, just to break through the frozen calm with which he treated her. Still, she didn’t confess the truth to him because a part of her still hoped that she could win past his guard and earn his love. If she told him the truth, he would expel her from his lair or at the very least insist on helping her locate the wizard and become human again. Then he would leave her forever.
The cycle came when she’d finally made up her mind to leave. She decided that she wasn’t going to go without getting some answers first. She wanted to know about the fire god, and she decided that he would answer her whether he liked it or not. When they awoke at sunbirth, she confronted him about what Rubeliara told her.
“Tolmac, are you a dragon or a god?” she asked when she’d finished explaining about what she’d heard. Tolmac looked surprised at the question.
“You ask that as if the title matters. Dragon or god? Are they not one and the same, at least as far as most creatures are concerned?”
“You know what I mean! Are you the god of fire, do you control the fire element in this world?”
“I possess an affinity for fire, which you already know, so if I wish, I can control the fire element just as you can summon storms and direct your skyfire.
I am a dragon; perhaps at one time humans, who often make foolish mistakes, might have decided I was a god. Such a title is meaningless to me; I neither desire nor seek worshippers. I simply wish to live my life in peace.”
“But what of Vivacel and Morbidon—the humans worship them and build temples in their name. Rubeliara said they came to this world with you.
Are they dragons as well?”
Tolmac chuckled, the first sign of humor she’d seen since she left his lair so many cycles ago. “The twins? Yes, they enjoy their role as gods to the humans.
It is their affinity with the spirit realm that draws them to the short-lived humans and they certainly don’t mind the worship.”
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“Twins! I thought they were lovers, that their union created mankind.” Tolmac glanced at her strangely. “Why would you think that? You are very young if you do not realize that humans have existed for eons. The Creator made them and scattered them to all the worlds. Did I not tell you the story of Solendar and his human lover? As for Vivacel and Morbidon, even among ‘gods’
such a union would be unacceptable. They are twins and they fight mercilessly.
I can’t imagine that even they would appreciate such a story being spread about them amongst their followers.”
“But it is in their religious writings as told to the prophets.”
“You read human religious texts as well? You possess strange tastes in literature. I don’t know what they actually prefer from their worshippers. I have never been very close to them. Spirit dragons are strange creatures, as you discovered with the queens of the Circle.”
“Then they are dragons, like the queens?” Sondra felt aghast at the thought.
“No of course not; Morbidon and Vivacel are far more powerful than the queens could ever dream of becoming. Besides, they are only half-dragon.”
“Half-dragon? What do you mean?”
Tolmac sighed heavily, watching Sondra, and debating whether he wished to open up any more to her when she held back so much of herself from him.
She wanted the story of the five ”gods” that piggybacked through his portal with him, but that involved telling her something about his own life. He still harbored anger and resentment toward her that she didn’t trust him enough with her secret. Why should he tell her more about himself? Why should he lay open his soul any further to her scrutiny? She had already made it clear that she didn’t care for him and that he offered only a means to an end, worthy of her presence but not of her secrets. It shouldn’t bother him. In strength, size, and birth he remained superior to her, but her lack of regard for him still cut him deeply, and he didn’t want her to have another chance to wound him.
“Tolmac? Please tell me. Tell me about you and the other dragons that pretend to be gods.”
“Pretend? Make no mistake, Sondra, in this world the others are gods.
They wield great power and often grant some of it to their worshippers. Vivacel gives her priestesses the gift of healing and resurrection. Morbidon grants his priests the power of death magic. Aquea, Terroc, and Zephrona all reward 110
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their followers with elemental magic. To the humans, they are as good as any of the old gods of this world that they replaced.”
“And you, Tolmac? Do you give your followers any powers?”
“I told you, I have no followers, nor do I want them.”
“But you can give them abilities?”
“Yes, of course I could grant a human the power to control fire. Why I would ever wish to do that is beyond me.”
“Tell me the story behind the gods.”
“Why should I, Sondra? What stories have you told me? What about your past, which you guard so carefully? Will you tell me that in return?”
“I cannot, there is nothing important to tell Tolmac. As far as I am concerned, my past doesn’t exist; only the present, this moment in time is all that matters to me.”
“So you will not tell me.”
“I am sorry …”
“What happened to you, Sondra, that you fear telling me so deeply? I already know you are not of the Kin. What could possibly be a worse secret than that?”
“Please, Tolmac. Don’t ask me anymore. Can’t we just start from today?”
“No. We cannot.”
Sondra shuddered at the finality of that rejection. Tolmac watched her aura darken and roil frantically before drawing into a tiny ball around her heart. Red smoke seeped into the ball and Sondra folded in on herself. To Tolmac’s horror, he heard the softly clinking sound of crystallized dragon tears striking the ground. After her near death not once but twice, Tolmac had never seen his little dr
agon cry, but his own words caused her spirit to bleed and rare dragon tears to fall from her eyes. He couldn’t hold out against her any longer. He couldn’t keep her at claw’s reach if it wounded her so deeply. He raced over to her and folded himself around her, closing his wings over them both and holding her closely in his grasp. His own aura reached out to the tightly clenched ball of her spirit and encircled it gently, soothing away the red smoke of pain.
“Shh, little one, do not cry. I will tell you the story, I promise. Just please do not cry.” Crystal tears still dropped into the growing pile, and Tolmac grew desperate, agonized by each perfect drop that fell. “Sondra, forgive me. We can start from today. I don’t care about your secret or your past. You are right, what
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happens now is what is important. Please stop crying so that I can tell you the story. I know you love stories and I think you will like this one.” Sondra’s tears finally stopped and her body relaxed in his arms. He slowly released her and stepped back, putting distance between them because his own body started responding uncomfortably to her closeness. She valued his companionship, which he now knew, but she’d never said she wanted to mate with him. He refused to frighten her with his own desire. He folded his wings, falling back on all fours to watch her as she gathered up her pile of tears in surprise.
She held up the tears. “I wondered why I couldn’t cry before. They were very painful to shed. Why are they solid like this?”
“That is something I could never figure out, little one. I only know that I have only cried once in my entire life. You must keep them, hold them somewhere safe, for they possess tremendous powers, far greater than even our own blood.”
Sondra tucked the glittering teardrop gems into her cheek pouch, a flap of skin within her mouth where dragons often stored small items of importance, having neither clothing, nor bags, in which to carry their things. Tolmac waited while she settled back.
“You said you would tell me the story?”
“Very well,” Tolmac sighed, “I will start with the beginning. The other five ‘gods,’ as you call them, are Solendar’s children.” He held up a claw when she made to interrupt. “Please, no questions until I finish as I will probably answer them within the tale itself. Before Cindara banished her soul mate to the Void, he went on a rampage, his hatred for all life driving him to destroy it.
