by JManess
He couldn’t hurt the Creator directly so he struck out at his creation instead, primarily the humans. He hated them the most of all because of their frailty and mortality, the very things that took his human woman from him. He didn’t kill them all though.”
Tolmac paused, certain his soft-hearted little dragon with her fondness for the fragile humans would dislike the next part of the story. She watched him expectantly.
“Solendar raped many human women.” She gasped in horror as he expected, and he continued. “He did not take human form to do this, instead he remained as a dragon and most of the women died from the … act.” Sondra couldn’t speak, shocked by the stark and horrible image of tiny women attacked 112
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by a massive dragon, one she guessed would be larger even than Tolmac himself.
They must have suffered greatly before their tragic deaths.
Tolmac continued. “Some of the humans survived the brutal attacks, and four of them gave birth to half-human, half-divine dragon children. Cindara sought out all of the children and took them to her realm to raise them.”
“She raised his children? That was very good of her.”
“She is a force of goodness, but her actions were not entirely altruistic. She feared that Solendar could influence his own bloodline even from the Void, and since his offspring possessed their own considerable abilities, she wanted to insure that they were raised as champions of goodness and justice and would not succumb to the evil of their father.”
“And you? Where do you fit in?”
“I am coming to that, little one. I am Cindara’s child, sired by a fire dragon, one of the many consorts gifted to her by the Creator in way of an apology, I suppose. She raised me from a chick and I found myself in the company of her other charges from time to time.”
“So you’re a full-blooded dragon?”
Tolmac snorted. “Of course, isn’t it obvious? Let me continue … Solendar’s spawn traveled to many different realms with Cindara’s assistance, as they could not make their own portals—only Cindara’s direct bloodline can do so.
They forever sought a place to call home, a place where they could find peace and acceptance despite their unusual traits. They often took human form and attempted to live among the human settlements that cluttered the cosmos, but discovered that humans distrusted those who held too much power. Inevitably they returned to Cindara’s realm, each time growing more discouraged more bitter, more disenchanted, more like their father. Cindara began to fear that they were slowly regressing into darkness. By this time, I stopped in to her realm for a visit and she asked me to take them all on my next migration. It appeared she’d seen the world I planned to travel to and felt they might find their purpose here. So I brought them and they scattered as soon as we arrived.
We all made our own way here and though they plague me from time to time, I don’t see them often.”
“So they found their purpose in acting as gods?”
“The old gods of this world were dying out, and the humans descended into chaos and fearful superstition, some even sacrificing their children to the harvest or shedding their own blood to the full moon. Solendar’s children
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gave them hope again in the form of faith and belief and in turn they found a purpose and a home.”
“What are they like, Tolmac? You’ve met them; what do they look like and act like?”
“They look however they wish to. They can choose any form they desire, and they often suit their appearance to the occasion. They rarely ever choose the form of a dragon, though Morbidon does form an excellent bone dragon when the mood takes him. As for their personalities … they differ greatly from one to the next. Vivacel is arrogant and impetuous but filled with vitality; she accomplishes a great deal without appearing to make any effort at all …”
“Is she beautiful?”
“What do you mean? Beautiful how? Her dragon form is a nice silvery-white and perfectly proportioned but that is simply because she can look any way she wants. She usually takes the form of a human woman for her followers.
I suppose that form holds a certain ascetic value.”
“Oh. You wouldn’t find her human form attractive, would you?”
“Not particularly. Now, you wanted to know about their personalities. Let me finish. Morbidon, her twin brother, is dour and serious, but disgustingly noble. He has very little sense of humor that I can see. Terroc is far more entertaining; he loves practical pranks and plays them often, but he can be very serious when necessary. Zephrona, with her affinity to the air element, unsurprisingly behaves in a flighty and unreliable way. Aquea possesses many moods and, though often temperamental and demanding, she has a good side and especially favors all sea-faring humans.”
‘There, I have described them all. Be grateful if you never need come into contact with them because even though they have been raised by Cindara, they still harbor their father’s blood within them and are capable of hurting or killing you on a whim. As far as they are concerned, that is the prerogative of gods.”
“Thank you, Tolmac. You tell an excellent story, and now I know so much more about this world than I ever did before. I would love to meet Cindara someday.”
“All dragons meet Cindara someday, little one, but you don’t want that day to come too soon. You have already come too close to meeting her early as it is.
You have an unfortunate habit of placing yourself in mortal peril.” Sondra couldn’t disagree with that. She wondered where she would go if 114
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she did die in dragon form. Would she see the great Cindara then, or would she still travel to Morbidon’s kingdom like all of the other humans of this world, to be reborn again?
“I have a special hunting trip planned for next sunbirth, Sondra. You have explored too far to the south on your own. I wish to take you farther up north than we have traveled previously. There is an excellent herd of cattle there, the likes of which I doubt you’ve ever seen. Rest up; you will need your strength for the flight.”
Tolmac curled up, closer to Sondra than he’d been in many cycles. Once again Sondra put off leaving him; now that he’d given her a second chance, she fell back to hoping and praying that the wizard’s spell lasted permanently, or at the very least persist long enough for her to find him and ask him to transform her into a dragon forever. Her eyes moved hungrily over Tolmac where he slept.
She didn’t think she could ever bear to leave him now.
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CHAPTER 13
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The next cycle, Tolmac proved true to his word, and they set off to the north, traveling well past her very fi rst training site and the unicorn-infested valley. Th
e sight of the world spread out like
a colored map below Sondra entranced her as the air rushed past her heated scales. Th
e jagged tops of the mountains marched like endless teeth across the ground below, appearing nearly fl at from the distance. Here and there, rivers wound through the mountains like delicate ribbons twisted across the untamed land. Th
e entire world sparkled with color and vitality because beside her Tolmac glided, his impressive wingspan casting a dark shadow on the mountainous region below, his gaze constantly scanned his surroundings, ever alert for danger. From time to time, Tolmac would fl ap his huge wings and push himself until he soared to a higher altitude, scouting the horizon and seeking out their ultimate destination. Sondra watched him go, maintaining her own position as she simply enjoyed the feel of freedom fl ying gave her.
Sondra’s relationship with Tolmac had changed last night when she rediscovered her ability to cry. The pain of his rejection wounded her far more than anything else that had ever happened in her life, and the hopelessness of her love for him nearly destroyed her. She felt like she died on the inside, and then he came to her, holding her and comfo
rting her. He apologized for hurting her and vowed to ignore her past and forget the secret that remained between them. Surely that meant he loved her? He claimed that dragons only mated to insure their future offspring, but he described Solendar and Cindara as soul mates, even though their story didn’t end happily. Dragons must feel some deep emotions, because they did possess the ability to cry, and Tolmac 115
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had already demonstrated his capacity for compassion many times to Sondra.
She had to believe he also possessed a capacity for love.
He rejoined her after another scouting mission, and she broke away from her thoughts, promising herself that soon she would find the courage to tell him that she loved him. She had no idea how he would receive the news, but she knew that he would never hurt her if he could avoid it. He had proved that already.
Sondra watched their shadows pass together over the mountains and valleys as they traveled in companionable silence. Their silhouettes glided close together, their wingtips nearly touching. To her, the sight symbolized everything she desired, her and Tolmac together, free from the world below and all of its demands.
“You are enjoying yourself this morning. I am pleased to see I made an inspired decision to take you on this journey.” Sondra glanced over at him; his aura sparkled with gold. It seemed she wasn’t the only one enjoying their flight and the brisk morning air parting around them. “I am having a good time, Tolmac. It’s beautiful here! The mountains seem so small, more like ripples in green water than massive peaks.”
“Much different from the last time I took you over the mountains, little one.”
Sondra laughed, unaware that gold shot through her aura at the memory of Tolmac lugging her over the mountains so he could teach her to hunt without frightening the human inhabitants of Ariva Valley.
This journey north consumed several cycles. For Sondra, it was the first time she’d ever spent the night out under the stars since she was a child. Tolmac planned for them to reach the edge of the green land just before it sank into the Frozen Sea before the third sundeath, allowing them plenty of time to hunt from the herd of herbivores he promised Sondra tasted better than anything she’d ever eaten. Along the way, Tolmac told her about the frost dragon he once encountered. To Sondra’s surprise, even Tolmac avoided frost dragons and this one nearly defeated and killed him. Sondra could not imagine the kind of dragon that could ever harm him. According to Tolmac, frost dragons once looked and acted just like other dragons, but when the war between Cindara and Solendar came where she banished him to the Void, all the dragons in existence chose to side with one divine dragon or the other. The frost dragons descended from the dragons that sided with Solendar.
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Those that Cindara did not banish to the Void with their master, she cursed, stripping them of their fire, their heat, and their status as dragons. She consigned them to a barren existence in the coldest places of the universe as punishment for siding against her. Because of this, they held no fondness for other dragons and attacked without provocation when one entered their frozen territory. Though not as strong as ordinary dragons, much less a dragon such as Tolmac, the bitter cold they lived in and controlled served them far better than claws and teeth as an effective defense and offense. While normal levels of heat and cold rarely affected Tolmac and most dragons, he explained that extreme cold forced all of Cindara’s chosen dragons into an involuntary hibernation after only a short time, long enough for a frost dragon to kill them. The cursed frost dragon that Tolmac encountered lived at the very top of the world, in the region of frozen spires referred to by local human nomads as “Aquea’s teeth,” aptly named for the water goddess who sheltered the frost dragons within her frozen womb.
Fascinated as she was by the tales of the frost dragon and the far north, Sondra was even more entranced by what she saw beneath her as she flew over the endless ranges of mountains that separated the valley from the northern lands. For miles and miles those lands appeared constructed entirely of mountains, yet tiny settlements spread out like miniatures on their inaccessible peaks, or tucked in small valleys. The majority of the human dwellings boasted animal-hide tents, and as they flew, they often accompanied herds of the agile and sturdy mountain sheep and goats that roamed the area.
Twice, they flew over stone edifices; one small stone building that Tolmac didn’t recognize and, farther out, perched on the very top of one of the highest mountains and only reachable from the ground by a winding, treacherous trail, stood a large stone building carved out of the very top of the mountain itself.
Tolmac claimed that the nuns of Vivacel made their home here high in the mountains because they practiced the art of resurrection, which Morbidon despised and treated as theft. The nuns so feared his wrath that they chose a location as far from the underworld realm of the god as they could, lest he send his reapers to destroy them and the knowledge they held.
Sondra wished for just a moment she could fly down to the temple and speak with the nuns there. She spotted a few working in a sparse garden; their white robes bright and vivid against the gray stone of the mountaintop. They glanced up at the shadows looming overhead but seemed unsurprised and 118
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unafraid at the passage of the two dragons; one tiny figure even waved before turning back to her work. Sondra commented on their lack of fear and Tolmac explained that the nuns often saw him when he hunted and even hailed him from time to time. There followed a flash of something in his mental voice that spoke of some previous experience, but Sondra missed the chance to ask about it as he quickly banked and headed off in an oblique direction, leaving the nuns and their temple of forbidden knowledge behind.
Sondra struggled to ignore the jealousy she experienced at discovering yet another part of Tolmac’s past that belonged to someone or something other than herself.
After two cycles of gliding flight, they reached the end of the mountain ranges; Sondra tried to calculate how long the journey would take on foot and the distance boggled her mind. She found it little wonder that her people possessed no knowledge of what lay beyond Terroc’s Ring to the north. Their journey brought them to a verdant flatland that stretched before them, covered with grasses and small, tented settlements. Herds of wild herbivores grazed on the plentiful grasses that made them round and fat.
The dragons avoided the human settlements, though the shadow of their passing created havoc with the people below. Sondra witnessed humans in animal skins pouring out of their tents as the dragons flew past. Their effect on the humans failed to approach the reaction of the slow-moving, shaggy-coated herbivores that neither Sondra nor even Sir Pilphragm ever catalogued. The sight of the dragons galvanized the herds and sent them charging recklessly away. Their speed, so much slower than the fleeter-footed mountain sheep the dragons hunted previously proved no match for the winged goliaths and it wasn’t long before both hunters ate their fill and began scouting a place to rest for the evening.
Sondra admitted to Tolmac that those creatures did taste better than anything she’d ever eaten before and he gloated, disgustingly satisfied with the success of this journey. As they selected a location to rest, Tolmac reminded her again that even dragons must consider safety when choosing a place to camp beyond their lair. Sondra knew from personal experience that other dragons posed a very real threat to her continued well-being. Before the wizard enchanted her, she had spent her entire life secure behind castle walls. Since becoming a dragon—supposedly stronger, faster, and more magical—she’d experienced more peril than anything she’d ever encountered as a fragile human.
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She’d seen for herself that dragons shouldn’t live as humans do, clustering together for safety, but she wondered if Tolmac ever considered that sometimes just two dragons could protect each other far more than one alone.
Tolmac taught her many camouflage techniques during her training; shifting her scale pigment to blend into her surroundings proved her favorite by far. Not only did she enjoy the process of changing her appearance as much as she had as a human, but she found that she could will her scales to take on almost any color, and she practiced forming tapestry-style images on her stomach that left Tolmac groaning at her immaturity. Tolmac chose boulders to conceal his presence. Most humans ignored a dragon-shaped rock, but wouldn’t hesitate to hack away at a harmlessly sleeping dragon. Other dragons couldn’t spot a dragon’s telltale aura from an aerial perspective, so they also tended to overlook a large, lumpy boulder.
On this hunt, they flew farther north for a few hours and reached the coastline, where the chill bit deeply even through their scaled armor, and towering boulders marred the rocky shore. Tolmac settled against a particularly substantial boulder and Sondra watched, amazed as always, at the way his black scales shifted and changed to blend with the stony gray of the boulder. She could still see his aura from where she crouched, but for any other observer he would appear as just another enormous rock on the beach. Sondra shivered a little. For the first time since becoming a dragon she registered the cold stealing away her body heat, and she barely hesitated when Tolmac motioned her closer.
She curled against his warmth and with his guidance shifted her own color to match the rocks. Then she settled in to sleep, as he had done.
Sleep beckoned but her thoughts kept her awake. The warmth of the male dragon against her side distracted her in ways she barely understood but knew on a primitive level. She wanted him badly, though she wasn’t entirely certain what that entailed. She knew that people mated and animals mated but didn’t understand the actual process. Even a father tolerant of her boundless curiosity would never allow a virgin princess to study that sort of logical subject. Sondra had culled some information from the gossip of servants and overheard comments by the guards but none of it made any sense to her. She’d only ever been kissed by Derek and those kisses had been very nice, in fact they had made her entire body tingle and crave his touch.
