by Max Andren
Hulbetto had the apprentice carry me over to the sacrificial rock. After kicking Dreah’s mother off the cairn, the apprentice proceeded to drop me onto its saturated surface. My blood would join the blood of my brethren, adding to the stains already embedded within.
It had bore witness to the repeated reaping and subsequent deaths of hundreds, upon thousands of dragons over the centuries.
I tried to wake myself, but couldn’t. I tried to reinforce my shield, but it was far too late for that. I reminded myself that this wasn’t really happening, but the excruciating pain said otherwise.
The events felt real, as if I were experiencing them right now!
“Knowledge is power and you have neither,” sneered Hulbetto.
I could have replied, but I refused him my voice.
“You will die here, just as your dragon brethren have over the centuries. There will be no saving the dragons from themselves. You won’t release the collective tonight, as you once did. They will remain with me, trapped within the Amulet of the Dead, right where they belong.”
Could I really die within the dreaming? Could history be changed?
Hulbetto raised Aiden, my blood still smeared across the steel and I knew this was it.
I looked over to Dreah and tears blurred my vision. Her complexion was sallow and not the healthy glow of youth. Her auburn hair hung listlessly and her amber eyes were vacant.
For her, I would breach my silence, “I love you, Dreah. Thank you for loving me, as a daughter would a mother; and, for being the sister of my heart as you grew older and needed me as your companion.”
“I might have dropped a tear for that one,” Hulbetto said in disdain.
“I forgive you, Aiden. You are not to blame!” I said, as Hulbetto brought Aiden swiftly down.
17
“My Lady! My Lady! Wake up! Wake up, NOW!”
Sputtering and choking, I came awake with a gasp, but as soon as I stopped coughing, I was immediately engulfed in flames.
The wounds I sustained within the dreaming had followed me here and hurt like hell! My bed was saturated with both the ice water Violet had just thrown in my face and the blood from my injuries.
“What happened, Violet?”
“I don’t know. I was forced to shift when you drifted into a deeper, yet restless sleep. It didn’t feel natural. Did you take some kind of hallucinogen, My Lady?”
“No. At least not that I’m aware of.”
I shifted to a small version of my Phoenix, hoping to heal my injuries. When I shifted back, the burning had lessened, but wasn’t entirely gone.
“Here, let me help you, as you once helped me,” Violet said before whispering something in a language I didn’t understand.
“Thank you. I didn’t know that you could heal people, Violet.”
“You did most of it yourself, I merely accelerated what you had already started on your own.”
The pain had definitely subsided after she whispered over my injury.
“Can you tell me what happened now?”
“I need to see Dreah right now. Do you want to shift to ink before I call her to come to me?”
“No, we need to meet and now is the time,” Violet replied simply.
It was her decision. It had been years, but I was glad they would finally meet. I sent a call out to Dreah and knew that she’d be here within moments. She’d known what I was going to attempt. But neither of us could have predicted what would occur once I was within the dreaming.
She knocked on my bedroom door, but only came in when I bade her enter. She took one look at my face, saw the bloody bed and ran to me—throwing her arms around me and squeezing me desperately.
The residual pain of that alternate Dreah faded to nothing. Its weak hold couldn’t survive in the face of such love.
“I’m okay!” I said, hugging her back just as fiercely, despite the pain of the wound across my back. It was fading, too.
“Oh God, what happened? You were just supposed to try to talk to the collective. Have they gone all wack-a-doodle?”
“Wack-a-doodle?” I laughed.
“Hey, that’s the best I could do, I’m upset! You’re hurt and I can feel it,” she said, her tears making her voice sound hoarse.
“I’m okay, really. I’ll be fine.”
“Charani?” She asked with shy inquiry “Did you know you had a faery sitting on your flowers?”
I looked over to Violet and burst out laughing. The expression on her face was comical. She was perched on top of my wild daisies looking everywhere, but at the two of us—and whistling.
“Did you accidentally pick her up, when you were picking your flowers?”
Now it was Violet’s turn to laugh and it was so beautifully melodic that Dreah and I stopped laughing just to listen her. Once we all settled, I introduced the two of them and surprisingly, Violet explained how we had first met.
“Charani saved your life, Violet,” Dreah said, “just as she saved mine and so many others. She doesn’t realize the gift that she is.”
“That is so true. So we will continue to remind her until she realizes her worth.”
“Okay. Enough you two, I’m right here,” I said, rolling my eyes, “let’s get down to the business at hand,” I finished.
I explained to Dreah and Violet what had happened within the dreaming. How I relived rescuing Dreah and releasing the collective, only this time everything had been different—flipped upon itself and opposite.
“It was like someone was manipulating me within the dreaming, as if they could alter the original memory to reflect what they wanted. How could that be possible?”
“Did you learn anything? Did you have a chance to chat with the collective?” Dreah asked.
“No, I never did.” I turned to Violet and said, “I would have died within the dreaming, I’m sure of it. Thank you for waking me, Violet, and for not drowning me in the process.”
“Ha,” she burst out with her tinkling laughter, “I was just returning the favor, My Lady, from when you first found me and nearly drowned me with your tears.”
She explained to Dreah how I had nearly drowned her and we both laughed. Though recalling how I found her was sobering and so was the flipped memory.
“You’re welcome and I do think you are correct about the dreaming. You sustained injuries there and they followed you here. Plus, you were bleeding from those injuries while you were laying in your bed—dreaming.”
“How in the hell is that even possible?”
I just couldn’t wrap my brain around any of this, and I was having a hard time with the implications. But as I reasoned out various explanations, one thing that kept coming back to me. What if this was how the dragons and our brethren were being attacked?
“Do you guys think that the drampires are somehow manipulating us within the dreaming? Altering our perceptions and killing us when we’re vulnerable and unable to protect ourselves? How could they do that?”
“With a very rare ability used by a Morpheus Dragon,” Cipriano said as he walked into my bedroom.
Violet flew up to Cipriano and gave him a rare caress to his cheek, “My Lord, I am so happy to see you. We are in need of your guidance.”
“So good to see you, too, Violet,” he told her with genuine affection and then with a pointed look in my direction, he said, “And thank you for reaching out to me.”
I shrugged my shoulders. I would have told him what was going on—eventually. I was still trying to shake the hold that altered reality had on my emotions.
“Tell me what happened.”
I went over the altered memory again for his benefit. I left nothing out, not even the part with Aiden. Cipriano needed to know everything that occurred so that we could figure out what was happening within the dreaming.
I would rather take on my demons, every day and twice on Sunday, over having to deal with another flipped memory. It had left me emotionally drained.
Dreah and Violet were sitting togethe
r by the windows with Violet sitting in Dreah’s palm. Another wave of peace drifted through my unsettled heart as I watched them getting to know each other.
Dreah’s excitement and animation as she chatted quietly with Violet, helped to dispel the lingering effects from that flipped memory. The vision of Dreah’s vacant eyes and sallow complexion were fading and my heart sighed in relief. They were gradually replaced by the beautiful and vibrant—real Dreah.
I watched Violet wrap Dreah’s long auburn hair around her shoulders and whisper, “I’ve wanted to touch your hair for years! ’Tis beautiful, lille venn.”
Dreah smiled shyly at Violet’s comment. They were going to be the best of friends that much was evident. Violet had come to know Dreah through me and had watched her grow and mature into the beautiful and gracious young woman that she was today.
Returning my gaze to Cipriano, I asked, “Could this Morpheus Dragon invade Dreah’s dreams as well?”
“I think so. She had dragon essence flowing in her veins before you ever gifted her with some of yours.”
“Did I gift it to her, Cipriano? Or did I force it upon her? By intervening in her life, did I alter who and what she would have become?”
I turned away from the concern in Cipriano’s grey eyes. These questions were tearing me up. I couldn’t shake the vile doubt from toying with my mind. The idea that I may have hurt Dreah by giving her my dragon essence made me physically nauseous.
“Charani?” I heard Dreah say, just before she stepped in front of me.
“Look at me,” she instructed, as if I were a child to be coddled, “Are you looking at me?” she asked.
“You can see that I am,” I replied a little miffed, as the anguish from the damned dream kept ripping through me. But I stared into her amber eyes and listened to what she had to say.
“Are you, Charani? Do you see me? I mean really see me? I’m not the Dreah from your flipped dream. I’m your Dreah, just as I’ve been since the moment you stormed into Hulbetto’s warehouse.”
She reached out to grab my hand, her ring warming under my touch.
“I’ve been yours since you saved my life and became my mother. All in an instant! There was no question or indecision on your part. You would be a mother to me and that was the end of it. And I have loved you ever since that moment and will never stop.”
Her words were replacing the doubt.
“May I tell you what I have found to be the most astonishing thing of all?”
“You never have to ask, Dreah. You can tell me anything and everything.”
Dreah and I had always been close. I made sure to foster an open relationship with her so she would feel comfortable sharing her thoughts and her feelings with me.
“You were the perfect mother, Charani. But what I find amazing is that you had no role model to emulate, no bastion of motherhood that you could refer back to as a point of reference. No, you had to figure it out all on your own.
“You made sure that I felt loved and wanted. You encouraged my inquisitive nature. You taught me that being different was okay and that we should celebrate who and what we are. Now, hold onto my ring and see what I see!”
I held on as Dreah pulled me into a vision and opened my eyes in an unexpected way.
18
“That’s how I saw things that night. Granted some of the events are missing. But from the moment you held me in your arms—until today, that is how I see you,” she told me.
Her vision was a montage of me through the years. It was so strange to see myself through her eyes. I didn’t recognize the person she showed me in those vignettes. I wasn’t heroic, like she had portrayed. I failed all the time and I’d failed her when she needed me the most.
“It’s not your fault that she died. Please, let that go. I’ve never blamed you and you shouldn’t blame yourself or hold yourself accountable. That was all Hulbetto and his apprentice—not you.”
“I know you’re right, but you should’ve had your real mother to raise you, not a surrogate…”
I could hear the tears in her voice as she interrupted me with her passionate reply, “You have never been a surrogate, a facsimile or anything other than my mother—plain and simple! I know we’ve transitioned to a sister-like relationship, but you will always be my mother.”
“Come here,” I said opening my arms.
We held each other in unconditional love and understanding. We were both orphaned and as such, we’d adopted each other. The dream-Dreah faded and disappeared in the presence of my Dreah.
“Okay, down to the business at hand,” I said.
Cipriano and Violet had been speaking quietly with one another, giving Dreah and I a small measure of privacy while we had our moment. They walked back over to join us, Violet sitting on Cipriano’s shoulder.
“Violet and I were talking about your altered dream. What if your idea is right? What if drampires really are invading the dreaming to attack dragons while they are asleep and vulnerable?”
“It would explain a lot. Dragons aren’t exactly helpless creatures. But there would be no way to anticipate such an insidious attack and one so stealthily orchestrated.”
“Exactly! I think a Morpheus Dragon must have been captured by a drampire. What if that dragon’s essence was stripped and their gift of dreams stolen? That could be the root cause for all of our problems.”
“So drampires sneak into the dreaming to find dragons they can manipulate and ultimately kill. Stealing their essence to fuel their immortality. It makes sense, but if we’re right, how in the world do we prevent them from doing so?”
“We make protective amulets and fight them at their own game,” Dreah said.
“Like the ones you made for us?”
“Yes, similar to our family amulets. I would need to create all new ones and for every dragon at sanctuary.”
“Dreah you cannot do this on your own. That is far too many amulets for one person.”
“I’ll have Kestrel, Dusky, and Lyan, help me.”
“Count me in as well,” Violet said.
Over the next week, the five of them worked tirelessly to create enough amulets for everyone, a daunting task. They worked well together and the witches had welcomed Violet into their midst, as if they’d been friends for years.
Every night, Violet would return to rest upon my skin, just as she had for years. I would miss her terribly when she was ready to live beyond this existence we had created with each other.
I sensed there was more to why she stayed with us. But I would keep her for as long as she wanted to stay. But when she was finally ready to address the abuse she had suffered, I would be there for her—no questions asked. I wanted to meet her abuser so I could dish out a little dragon vengeance.
While the girls worked their magic, Cipriano and I spent our time in meetings with clan leaders. We explained what we thought might be happening and our concern for their clansmen. Most of the leaders had agreed that there would no harm in wearing the amulets, especially if they would help to protect their clans. But, not all of them were convinced and a couple had outright refused.
Stubborn old coots!
We couldn’t force them to wear the amulets, just as we couldn’t force them to participate and interact with the other clans. Their ancient ways and stagnate ideas were exhausting.
“I only want to protect your people and the dragon race as a whole. Do you want the drampires to win?” I practically yelled one day, not my finest moment, but I’d been beyond frustrated.
The clan leaders were my elders, by centuries, and I had to remind myself of that every time they were being obstinate. They’d seen centuries come and go, which gave them a unique perspective on life, albeit backwards and not very forward thinking.
I was thankful I could seek expert guidance from Cipriano, Ian and Isabella, the twins, and the collective. Although, the collective had been suspiciously quiet when I’d sought them out within the dreaming.
Had the collective been there
after all? Were they invisible and inaccessible to me because the drampire had manipulated my perceptions while within the dreaming?
What other dreams or memories had been altered by malicious manipulations? Would I ever know the truth?
Dreah reached out and asked me to come to Kestrel’s home where they had been creating the amulets. She said they needed me for the final step and activation of the amulets.
I wasn’t sure how I could help, I didn’t know the first thing about spelling, or, casting magic. I would do whatever it took to keep sanctuary safe—except what they asked me to do.
19
Dreah, Violet, and the witches were beyond exhausted from creating hundreds of amulets to protect the clansmen while they were asleep and vulnerable within the dreaming. Similar to the amulets Dreah had created for the family, these would prevent manipulation of the clans while they were fast asleep.
At least, that is what we hoped they would do.
“No, Dreah, I can’t do it! Anything but that. I did it for the family, but I don’t know about this.”
The dejected look on her face nearly ripped my heart out. I was willing to do a lot of things to protect our race, but providing my blood and my essence to activate all those amulets…
“Isn’t there another way to make them work? Can’t you do some fancy spelling?” I asked in desperation.
“We’ve done everything that we could. It has to be your blood and your essence. As the last true Phoenix, you are the only one capable of providing the necessary ingredients to make them function.”
She gave me a look that said it all, but she sent me a private message as well, “We must have your druid and dragon blood, as well as the essence of your Phoenix. It’s the only way to protect the clans, or so we hope.”
The amulets were laid out, row upon endless row, seeming to go on forever, though I know they didn’t. Each one had been intricately created and molded, just like my amulet from Dreah, but that’s where the similarities ended.
