by Riley Storm
“I will,” he promised.
The first step had been achieved. A place for his people to regroup. To rest and recover. Without the threat of imminent attack.
Perhaps his kind would survive after all.
“Master Loiner will show you to your quarters,” Circe said, gesturing past Damien to the doors. “Please leave us now. We must talk to Initiate Sturgis in private.”
Damien cast an apprehensive look at Anna. “Initiate Sturgis has done nothing wrong,” he protested. “If she is in trouble then I wish to stay at her side, to make sure it is understood that she only brought us here so that you could decide what to do with us.”
Circe waved a hand again. “We simply wish to question her some more. That is all. I am sure you must be tired after your journey and that your companions upstairs will be grateful to know they have found a place to rest.”
“Of course,” he said respectfully, recognizing a dismissal when he heard one.
It wouldn’t do to challenge the Coven after they’d just agreed to so generously help his people out.
Damien retreated from the Coven Chambers and found the same matronly woman who had harassed Anna upstairs waiting for him. She looked at him with clear disdain.
“This way,” she said unhappily, setting off immediately, not waiting for him to respond.
He followed along sourly, wondering why some of the people seemed to hate him already. Was this the sort of welcome his people were in for? Or would more of them be like Anna? Warm, welcoming, and more than a little intriguing…
Chapter Eight
Anna
“Initiate Sturgis.”
“Yes Circe,” she said obediently, wondering just what else they wanted to know from her. She’d told them the major parts of the story, though details had been left out. What did they still need to know?
“You have the most experience with these Dracians. What are your thoughts?”
She gaped at the open invitation to tell the entire Coven how she felt.
How did she feel?
“Um, well I’ve only spent half a day around them,” she said slowly. “Though I’ve learned a lot about them in that time I think.”
“Are they telling the truth?”
She frowned. “I think so, Circe. I watched one of their young, barely able to use his powers, throw himself in front of certain death, just so that the children might escape. I watched as the others killed creatures that could have been their kin, but very obviously weren’t.” She shrugged.
“You believe that their entire world was truly taken over by this parasite, this virus? That it can reanimate the body, turn it against its own kind?”
Anna noted that Circe sounded skeptical.
“I do,” she said. “I saw them with my own eyes. I burned three bodies myself to prevent it from having a chance to spread to Earth.” She steadied herself as an immense wave of sadness for the death of the brave young Dracian washed over her yet again. “Damien himself threw himself into harm’s way, taking the brunt of a blow that would have done significant harm to me, if not killed me. He didn’t hesitate.”
Circe seemed to take that part well.
“I’ve watched them talk, watched them speak about this enemy they’re fighting. Their body language is basically the same as ours. Just like their spoken language. I haven’t detected anything that would indicate to me that they’re lying.”
“Do you have any proof?”
“Other than the bodies after the fight, no, I don’t,” she admitted softly.
“So, can you or can you not confidently say that these are the good guys? That they will not attack us or cause harm to us?” Circe leaned forward as she spoke, imploring Anna to think her answer over carefully before speaking.
“I…no,” Anna replied heavily. “I cannot say it with absolute certainty. Not without knowing more, without knowing the other side of the story at least.” She hated to say it, but it was true. “I am fairly confident they are, but I cannot know for sure.”
“Fairly confident is not enough to risk the entirety of Winterspell Academy on, Initiate.”
“I know,” she said quietly, hating herself for agreeing. She knew, in her gut, that Damien was one of the good guys. But she couldn’t prove how she knew, not even to herself. “That’s why you confined them.”
“Yes. I noticed you seemed not a fan of that decision. I do not normally take time to explain our actions, but then again, not every day does one of our Initiates bring back a species from another planet.”
“I’ll try not to make a habit of it,” she said, then gasped, clamping a hand over her mouth.
To her surprise, Circe laughed. “Please don’t.”
She nodded solemnly, determined not to speak out of turn again.
“We must speak more in private, Initiate,” Circe said. “Patrols must be organized to go out after the others, to bring them here, etc. If we have further questions, we shall summon you."
“Of course,” Anna said, bending at the waist respectfully before retreating from the Coven Chambers. Behind her the platinum doors swung closed.
I wonder if they’ll let me lead any of the patrols again, or if I’m to be grounded.
She suspected it would be the latter, especially if Bowen or Loiner had anything to say about it. Rolling her eyes at their selfish and mean tactics Anna headed back up to the courtyard. It was unlikely Damien and his kin were still there, but perhaps they were moving slowly, and she would get a chance to see him again. To talk to him again.
There were so many questions she wanted to ask still. About his world.
About him.
Chapter Nine
Damien
“So, we’re to be prisoners,” Altair spat angrily as the door closed behind them.
Damien sighed. “Do you see shackles around our wrists or legs? Is the door locked from the outside?”
“No,” Altair agreed. “But we’re not allowed to leave. We have to stay within certain areas of their precious Academy. That certainly doesn’t sound like we’re guests to me.”
“Think, my brother,” Damien urged. They weren’t actually related, but sometimes it felt like it. “Put yourself in their shoes. They have no reason to trust us. They don’t know if we’re telling the truth. Yet they still agreed to give us a place to sleep. To feed us and keep the young ones warm.”
“Maybe. I still don’t like it.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Damien said with a sigh, rolling his eyes. Altair’s temper had always run hot, but it was an inferno at the moment, and he needed to deflect its focus to something else.
“How are you so okay with this?” Altair raged, coming to stand in front of him.
“Because the alternative is to go back to Dracia and die!” he shouted. “Which is not really an option at all, now is it? So, stop taking out your pain on me, my friend. We are all hurting, not just you. Think of the children. They have lost everything, and they’re too young to do anything about it. But you don’t hear them raging, do you? No, they’re fast asleep next door.”
Altair looked away, shamed at the reminder that fledglings—not even fledglings—were handling things better than he was.
“I am sorry for Milon’s loss,” Damien said. “If I had just been faster…”
“It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have left their side. We should have walked together. The portal was right there. I wasn’t thinking,” Altair said, trying to shoulder the blame.
“Yet one more death in this war,” Damien said, flopping down into one of the plush lounge chairs in their room. It was surprisingly soft, and he sank in deep. “Maybe though, just maybe, it’s over, and we can begin to rebuild.”
“Maybe,” Altair agreed, but he didn’t mean it.
Both of them were thinking about the portal and what it meant that it hadn’t closed all the way.
“Any word on when Rane will join us?” Altair asked quietly after a moment.
“Nothing was told to
me. But I would assume they will send more of their own out to see the portal for themselves. I don’t think they’ve encountered that sort of magic before.”
“Neither have we,” Altair pointed out. “I didn’t know that we were capable of it.”
“I still don’t know how they did it. But the important thing is, they did.”
Altair didn’t answer. The two dragons let the silence wash over them, reflecting upon their long journeys, on everything that had gotten them to this point.
“What do we do now?” the younger dragon asked.
Damien frowned at his long-time friend. “How am I supposed to know? I’m not in charge.”
“Well, you kind of are,” Altair said. “The witches seem to think you are, and they dealt with you, not us. You’re older than either Rane or me. Logically then, you’re the one in charge.”
“You really don’t like me right now do you?” Damien groaned.
“And he tells me to stop whining,” Altair retorted.
Damien considered that, and his friend’s words. “I don’t know. I don’t really have a plan. This all happened so quickly, I haven’t had a chance to really think about it.”
“What’s there to think about?” Altair wanted to know. “They offered us a place to live for now. We took it. Prisoners or not, we needed it.”
“No, not that,” he said, waving that aside. “I mean bigger things. One of the others is bound to be found sooner or later. Rokh or someone who can take over. I’m not concerned about that.”
“Then what are you concerned about? Because something is bugging you.”
“It doesn’t bother you that they look exactly like us?” he said, looking over at Altair to judge his reaction.
“Bother? No, it doesn’t bother me. Surprise, yes. But so did the announcement that another world had been found and we were going to open a portal to it. Maybe we didn’t make the portal. Maybe our worlds are linked, and we just took that link. There are all sorts of explanations. What about this Abyss that they were talking about when they first landed? Could that be another planet again?”
Damien didn’t have an answer to that. “Maybe,” he said.
“Or perhaps we came from here a long time ago. Or they came from Dracia.”
“Wouldn’t we have records of that?” he countered.
“Depends how long ago.”
Damien glared helplessly at his friend.
“All I’m saying, Damien, is that we have bigger issues to worry about. This is, if anything, a blessing. It means our transition to this world will be easier than we ever imagined.”
Somehow, he doubted that anything about it was going to be easy, but Damien kept his worries to himself. There was no sense upsetting any of the others and having them worry about things that were out of their control.
There was a knock at the door, and a moment later the young came in, led by the oldest, who couldn’t be more than eleven. Damien started as he realized he didn’t even know the names of the children he’d brought to the Academy. Everything had happened so fast, and when he’d come through the portal, they had been the only ones left. They and Milon.
“What can we do for you?” he asked as one of the smallest ran forward, arms outstretched.
Damien snagged him up in a hug, resting the six-year-old on his hip with casual ease. “What’s wrong, little guy?” he asked as the child buried its face in his shoulder.
“I want my mommy.”
Damien looked helplessly over the child’s shoulder at Altair. What was he supposed to say to that? Altair just shrugged helplessly. None of them knew what to do in this sort of situation.
“I know,” he said quietly. “I know.” He waited a few seconds. “Are you hungry?”
Nod.
“Okay, well, Altair here was just heading down to the kitchen. If you guys are good and quiet, then you can go with him while he finds some food, okay?”
Neither he nor the other dragon were remotely hungry, but Damien needed some time alone to think. If he was going to lead Rane, Altair and the children until someone else was found, he needed to formulate a plan. Come up with a schedule, to keep their days occupied. There was much schooling they would need to learn as well. If he could keep them busy, then hopefully their thoughts wouldn’t stray to home too often.
The child slipped from his arms and ran over to Altair, taking the big man’s hands.
“Food?” he asked hopefully. The others all perked up at the mention of eating as well.
Damien left him in charge and headed out into the hallway. He needed space, needed air, somewhere he could think. This was all too much for him, and it was wearing on his nerves, the stress tightening his muscles.
He wandered out into the hallway, eyes focused elsewhere, his feet guided by his subconscious as he went. In his mind he was back on Dracia. Back home, before everything started. Before he had to be in charge of anyone. An easier time.
The question he kept coming back to, as images of serene peaceful life in the major cities on Dracia was replaced with warfare—armies battling one another and the constant retreats as their numbers dropped further and further—was why.
Why had such strife come to his people?
Why hadn’t they acted faster?
Why did the little child have to lose his mother?
It ached at him, gnawed at his heart until he felt sick to his stomach. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore, reaching out for the wall as all the events that had led up to this moment washed over him at once. His knees gave out and in a moment of weakness, he slid to the floor, his back against the wall, the cold stone a reminder of the losses just like everything else.
No tears came, but he sat there, knees pulled to his chest, arms crossed over top with his head buried in them for an unknown amount of time.
Eventually, his breathing began to recover, returning to a steady pace. The pain was still there, but the immediacy of the moment was gone. The adrenaline that had kept him going for day after day in the twilight of his world’s life had finally faded. Now he was just…empty. There was nothing left.
You have to go on. For them. For the young.
Damien drew a long, shuddering breath.
“Damien?” A familiar voice called his name.
He lifted his head to see Anna standing not ten feet away.
“Anna?” He got to his feet. “What are you doing here? I didn’t think they’d allow you to see me.”
She frowned. “What do you mean, what am I doing here? What are you doing here?”
Damien looked around.
The hallways were still stone, but they weren’t the same color as the ones where he’d been. The air was slightly thinner too. They were higher up.
“Where am I?” he asked uneasily.
Chapter Ten
Anna
“Here is the middle of the Initiate dormitories,” she informed him, looking around uneasily. Another one of the senior level students could come along at any time and spy them. Any man would stand out like a sore thumb at Winterspell, but by now everyone knew who Damien was, and he wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.
“What?” he looked around again, dazed.
“How did you get here?” she asked. “Didn’t anyone stop you?”
“I…I don’t really remember,” he admitted. “My mind was elsewhere. I have a lot going on.”
That was an understatement.
“Still,” she said. “You can’t be here. If we get caught, if you get caught, then we’re all in big trouble. I’m stunned nobody saw you come in.”
“They might have,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t remember anything. I just remember leaving my room and then…”
“Then what?” she asked when he trailed off, looking up at her.
“The sound of your voice,” he said, catching her gaze directly for a moment and holding it.
Anna chewed on her lip. What did he mean by that, she wondered? Was it her voice, or just any voice, that would have sti
rred him from his thoughts?
“Come on,” she said at last. “We need to get you out of here. You’re not allowed to be here. If someone saw a man in the living quarters…”
Damien nodded. “I understand. I’ll go.”
“No, you can’t just go on your own. Not now. If they saw you leaving, they’d think…” she trailed off, fighting back the blush in her face.
“What would they think?” he asked, very clearly not understanding the dynamics of the situation.
She shifted back and forth from one leg to the other quickly. “They’d think that you were leaving my quarters because they saw you arrive with me,” she said in a rush. “So, can we please leave?”
Damien looked at her. “You would be bothered by that rumor? You don’t like that idea.”
“It’s not that I don’t like it,” she said, then stopped as her brain caught up to her mouth. “I don’t know how I’d feel, but I likely would get in some trouble, and you would definitely get in trouble, and really I just brought a whole new race back to Winterspell. I’d rather fly under the radar for a little bit, if that’s okay?”
Damien nodded. “Right. Of course. Lead on.”
Wasting no time, Anna set off farther down the hallway, away from the direction she’d come.
“Is this how we get home?” he asked.
“No, it’s that way, technically.” She pointed in the other direction. “If you take the main hallways.”
“I gather we’re not doing that.”
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this,” she said, looking him up and down pointedly. “But you kind of stand out. It would be best if we took you back to your area in a more…shall we say, discrete, manner.”
Damien frowned. “You’re not going to turn me into something, are you?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “No. Nothing so crude.” They reached a blank slate of wall.
“You want me to...do what?” he asked as she faced it. “Punch it?”
Anna rolled her eyes. “It’s not always about you,” she said, reaching out to press a stone, then another. She paused, then pressed a third stone.
