Chronicles of Den'dra: A land on Fire

by Spencer Johnson

  “This isn’t right. Something is wrong.” Urake regarded Brest suspiciously.

  “That is what I have been trying to tell you!” Before either of them could react, a black robed figure dropped down the bank and plunged his sword into Brest’s back. The man pulled his sword free and shoved Brest over the edge of the precipice before coming at Urake. He dodged the initial thrust and countered with a thrust of his own. Ice Heart was a superb blade that was perfectly balanced. Fighting with it was like moving an extension of your own body. Urake danced back and forth with neither swordsman able to land any telling blows. Hearing more cultist dropping into the creek bed, Urake glanced at the dozen men approaching with drawn weapons. There shouldn’t have been so many. There hadn’t been last time.

  “For Brest!” Urake charged into the cultist that had murdered his friend and tumbled over the escarpment. Below could be seen a pool of water as the two tangled. Plunging Ice Heart in the cultist’s torso Urake separated from the corpse and prepared for impacting the water. A few seconds later, when the expected impact didn’t come, he opened his eyes. The pool of water had changed to an ice lake. Miraculously, Urake was able to land on his feet without suffering any harm. In fact, the landing was a little fuzzy as he tried to ponder it. One moment he was falling and the next he was standing on the ice. The inkling that something wasn’t right slipped through his fingers like water as sound, beyond that of loose snow being blown along the glassy surface, struck his ears.

  Looking up, Urake saw through the falling snow a band of approaching horsemen. Turning, he ran for all he was worth. He had looked the King in the eyes while he held Ice Heart to the man’s throat. The emotions of frustration and powerlessness he had seen there haunted him even now as he ran for his life. Running had been all he had done since sparing the King three days ago. Had it been three days ago? Horses and men alike screamed in terror as the thin ice covering the lake broke and plunged the entire cavalry unit into the frigid water. With the ice crumbling behind him, Urake used every ounce of speed that he could muster.

  “It isn’t…” Urake lost his footing as he saw Brest’s familiar form fall from the sky and break through the ice a few feet distant. A fall like that combined with the frigid water was not survivable so when Urake climbed to his feet, he took off again for the approaching shoreline. Unfortunately this section of shoreline was a rocky vertical wall. Hearing the sounds of shattering ice at his back Urake leaped for the wall and caught a hold on a rock that jutted out. Glancing back, he gasped as the ice shattered and fell down into a seemingly bottomless canyon that had replaced the lake.

  Pulling himself up over the rim of the icy canyon, Urake was only just able to react fast enough to keep from being thrown back into the canyon by a hidden soldier. Using the man’s own momentum against him, Urake watched the screaming figure disappear into the undefined depths. He recalled having seen that face before. A long time ago. Last time he had seen that soldier, he had disguised the man in his own clothes and left him face first in a fire. Something was definitely not right. He couldn’t put his finger on it at first but thinking about it unearthed a few startling contradictions.

  The icebound lake that was now a yawning crack in the earth. The fall from the cliff that was now nowhere to be seen. Then there was Brest and the surreal quality that everything had.

  “I told you that I am not Brest.” Urake turned to see his friend dripping wet with frost forming in his hair and on his cloths.

  “Who else could you be?”

  “I'm Emeck. Don’t you remember?” The ground shook and Urake saw a crack forming a few feet away. Reacting he lunged forward and rolled to solid ground. Turning he watched helplessly as Brest, whose feet were encased in ice, fell with the crumbling earth into the abyss. The look of grim determination on his face was not fitting with the terror that should have been there.

  “Emeck. Why does that sound familiar?” Urake shook himself out of the shock. Retreating from the edge, he started out away from the unstable ground at a walk. A crashing sound up the slope drew his attention. He watched as a figure tumbled down the hillside in a cascade of loose rock. When the figure got up, he recognized Brest, or was it Emeck? A flicker at his side drew his attention for a moment. He saw blond hair and glowing blue eyes for a moment before the image faded. He remembered that face. Someone close to him. Someone he wouldn’t meet for years. Not that face for years. A week and he would meet the child that would grow into that face. How was he remembering something that hadn’t happened yet?

  Looking back up the hill, Urake started in horror as the figure waved to him, oblivious to the soldiers advancing at his back. Rooted to the ground, he couldn’t even shout out a warning before the soldiers cut his friend down. Free to move now, he realized that hundreds of soldiers were advancing on all sides. There was no retreat. No escape. Not like last time.

  “This isn’t real. I haven’t been harmed.” Urake didn’t even bother lifting Ice Heart to his defense. There were too many to fight; however, if they weren’t real, then they couldn’t hurt him. Walking forward towards the unending waves of soldiers, he watched as the men rushed him before being repulsed by an invisible force. They attacked on all sides, but if Urake kept his arms at his side, their weapons got no closer than an inch. It couldn’t be real. He remembered last time and this was not it. The landscape flickered and, for a split second, was the inside of a cave. A moment later and the hillside returned, only there was not a soldier to be seen in any direction. With nothing else to do, Urake walked on until the landscape shifted again; this time the shift was slight.

  A large boulder blocked Urake’s path. Walking up to it, he pushed it with a finger. A crack formed and the boulder split in two leaving an empty plain. Nothing but grass, waving in an invisible breeze, could be seen in any direction.

  “So we finally meet.”

  “Who are you?!” Urake held Ice Heart up and scanned his surrounding for the source of the voice.

  “You know the answer to your question.”

  “Eld’or… Show yourself.” Urake staggered as his surrounding spun into a blur before reforming inside a chamber. The feeling of the shift felt forced and unnatural. Far different from the previous shifts. The walls were constructed of black glass. The floor and ceiling was made of the same substance. The light that illuminated the room was provided by a star that seemed suspended from the peak of the ceiling. Emeck’s reflection appeared on the wall, but when Urake turned, he couldn’t see the youth. There was one other person in the room though.

  “Emeck is quite persistent, isn’t he? His ill-advised attempts at finding you in here have had more success than I would have thought. Memory delving without the skill to remain an observer is a dangerous thing. You might mention that to him when next you speak.” Eld’or spoke with a softer voice than one would expect for the fabled Dragon Lord. It was hard to focus on the vague figure without shifting one’s gaze to the obsidian walls. Everything had the seeming of being slippery and resisted focus.

  “He must have died half a dozen times trying to warn me. Why would you do something like that?”

  “I could say that I was testing you. Your will to live, it is impressive. Possibly even surpassing my own. However, this would not be the truth. You were in complete control, only you didn’t know it. Few have the mental fortitude necessary to build memory constructs and even fewer can construct ones so dangerous. I did nothing. ”

  “Are you saying that I was the one that killed him all those times?” Urake shook his head incredulously as much at Eld’or’s assertion as the queasy feeling acquired from not being able to look at anything without his focus point shifting.

  “More or less. Your mental defense detected that his mind was alien and tried to eject him by any means possible. The same defenses that keep me locked in this chamber. I gave up attempts at wandering from this sanctuary years ago. Might you recall some nightmares after picking up my blade? It is a wonder Emeck came back, let alone so often
. I died a hundred ways before giving up and experienced each of them in full.”

  “While we are talking about that, how can you be here? You died centuries ago.”

  “It is complicated. I am not even sure how it happened. When Yer’entho killed me with my own sword, my consciousness got entangled with Skeln’den’hal. My existence is bound to that blade now. It could be that all the others are the same even without having died by their own soul forging, but I do not know. The few I examined had… echoes. This might have happened no matter how I died. You have carried my sword for years now and we have, in a manner of speaking, grown intertwined. ”

  “I could simply throw away the sword.” Urake clenched his hand to still the impulsive movement towards the hilt at his waist. Eld’or was smirking for the brief instant that Urake was able to keep his eyes on the sliding face.

  “Could you? I mean, could you really do it? Remember how Skeln’den’hal called to you when the elves had him? Even now, you want to ensure that he still is with you. You would do anything to keep him close. You sleep with him in hand. Could you intentionally force yourself to part with him for even the briefest of moments? I think not.”

  “My son did this. He said something that started this.” It was a wry smile this time before Urake had to close his eyes to settle his stomach.

  “He did give me the opportunity to lead you here.”

  “I saw him briefly.”

  “Which one?”

  “What do you mean? I only have one son.”

  “In a way, because you and I are combined, he is your son as much as he is mine. What I meant is which one was it? Cero or Skeln?”

  “I don’t know. His eyes were glowing that eerie blue.”

  “Skeln was helping Cero make contact then.”

  “What is wrong with him?! That one that calls himself Skeln claims that he is part of Cero.”

  “He is. When I created the two new Dragon Lords, I had no way of knowing what kind of person they would turn out to be, so I bound their powers to soul forged metal. I thought that if perhaps the Dragon Lords existing within their soul forgings thought them worthy, then they could wield their full powers. There was the possibility that soul forged metal might not be available so I created a backup. It was a part of their mind that was tasked with protecting them and had access to their powers. It now seems that they have developed separate consciousnesses from their hosts. You met Skeln and I met Sarina when she held Skeln’den’hal. Sarina barely asserts herself while Skeln seems to be a more forceful personality. I believe it was because Cero carries the final soul shard within his blood.”

  “The shard of truth…” Urake frowned as he tried to understand how he knew.

  “Yes. It altered him in ways that I couldn’t have predicted. His powers aren’t bound to a soul forged weapon anymore because he is a soul forging. Inadar needs to be carrying a soul forging in order to access her powers.”

  “That isn’t necessarily true. I watched her and Cero fight and she definitely had powers.”

  “That was one of the few times that Sarina intervened. Probably why Inadar doesn’t remember the actual fight.”

  “It was a stupid fight. All over that ridiculous dragon.” Urake scowled.

  “Enthbani is adorable.” An expression of amusement formed for an instant.

  “Vicious little beast.”

  “You have never seen a Vaulwar dragon hatchling. The Garoche are far more elegant creatures. I regret that I was unable to save them, but it seems that Cero was able to bring them back from the cusp of extinction.”

  “How is that possible? There is only one.” Urake found himself curious about the fact that there was more than one type of dragon.

  “A little history first. Before we came here, we were known as shifters. We were elemental energy that was able to take various forms as we desired. There were thirteen banished shifters that came to this land. We discovered a lone dragon. Their kind were mortals at that time and were about to go extinct. A disease had ravaged them with only one remaining. One of our number, Deep Tremor was her name, she was fascinated by the dragon. She shifted and took the form of a dragon in order to preserve the race. That dragon mated and fathered a generation of new dragons that were part shifter part dragon. This is how they gained their elemental abilities. However, Deep Tremor had taken the form so wholly in order to bear the hatchlings to maturity that she was never able to take another form. Although, she was able to divide herself similar to how a human cell divides and created more dragons after her form. The two distinctive races of dragons chose the separate mountain ranges for their homes.”

  “What is a cell?”

  “Never mind the cell. It was a poor example. The point is that Enthbani is neither male nor female. In a few hundred years, Bani will lay an egg. Every three hundred years or so after that, Bani will lay another egg. The Garoche race of dragons will return to this land in a few more centuries.”

  “How are they different other than well… what you described?” Urake inquired taking a seat on a black glass chair that he didn’t remember having been there before.

  “They are more graceful. Where the Vaulwar dragons beat the air into submission, the Garoche dragons mold it into their will. Young Garoche dragons can bend the light through their clear scales and hide in plain sight. The ability diminishes as they mature, but an adult is a thing of beauty regardless the way the light is refracted. Their elemental abilities also tend to be stronger than the Vaulwar dragons.” Eld’or described the dragons with an enraptured expression on his face.

  “As enjoyable and enlightening as this is, I need to get back to the real world.” Urake stood and realized that he had no idea how to do what he proposed. Eld’or remained seated, Urake didn’t quite remember when the Dragon Lord had taken the seat, and smiled at him. Urake felt the distinct sensation that the Dragon Lord had read his mind.

  “I will help you on one condition.”

  “What can you do to help me? You are a shadow of something from an age long past. An echo is what you called it.”

  “I saved your life a few times. When you had your run in with the elves, I was the one that stopped you from bleeding to death and helped you heal your wounds. I was the one that hid you from their searching minds. That cultist that you killed, I was the one that stopped him from tearing your mind to pieces. Not that he would have fared much better in your mind. How do you think that you have been able to go for weeks without any sleep? I am Eld’or the Night Soul. I may be a shadow of what I once was, but I am not powerless.” As Eld’or spoke, he stood. Images of battles with Eld’or wielding lightnings against armies flashed on the walls of the chamber and energy arced between his fingers casting reflections that danced and twisted. The dark glass shifted violently between scenes of from millennia ago. The very dark quality of the stone seemed to reach towards him with shadowy fingers that could have been there or nothing more than an illusion created by the backdrop of tortured motion. Urake shivered as he thought of the meanings attributed to the warrior Night Soul. He had taken elements of that reputation and forged a legend, in his own lifetime, which roamed the nightmares of grown men. The inkling of the original Shadow Reaver was forced into his mind and made him shiver to the bone.

  “What… what is your condition?” Urake was not scared, only he now had a proper appreciation for Eld’or’s power. This Eld’or needed him and despite all his looming, Urake was certain that he couldn’t be harmed. That it was all bluster.

  “There is a girl in a village a few days away from here. Her power has awakened and she has put her entire village at risk. I want you to save her.” A map of the Braebach appeared on a wall and zoomed down to a small village to the south west. A day or so north of Cercha. A smaller farming community off the beaten path. It looked familiar to Urake, but he couldn’t capture what it was that he was almost remembering. After the image finished playing, Urake opened his eyes and squinted. It was a strange experience having your eyes op
en, then opening them in truth. Trying to focus he realized that he was looking at the cave ceiling.

  “Cero! He is awake!” Urake cringed with Inadar’s shout reverberated through his head.

  “Shush. My head feels like it is about to explode.” The head ach was further amplified when the vegetation covering the entrance to the cave was swept back letting in a beam of light that stabbed into Urake’s eyes.

  “Sorry. We were just excited.” Inadar apologized and stepped out of the way as Cero made his way over.

  “I see that it is still daylight outside. I'm glad that I wasn’t out for too long.” The look that Inadar and Cero exchanged told Urake otherwise.

  “You and Emeck arrived here four days ago.” To Urake, it had only seemed like a few minutes or hours, but not days.

  “How is Emeck doing?”

  “He got a killer head ach every time he tried to bring you back, but he is doing a lot better. He was going to try again when he wakes up today.”

  “I'm sure that dying would give you a head ach.” Urake massaged his temples in an attempt to control the throbbing.

  “Dying? He refused to tell what he saw, but he was terrified every time he broke the connection.” Inadar frowned as she looked at Urake like he had some mysterious secret.

  “I would have been more than terrified if I were him. He burnt to a cinder, got shot in the heart with an arrow, got stabbed in the back, fell off a dry waterfall, fell through the ice, fell off a cliff and lastly got hacked to pieces by an army. I was reliving memories and he sort of took the brunt of it whenever he was there.”

  “Did you figure out what Skeln meant when he called you Eld’or?” Inadar inquired curiously. Urake pondered whether to tell the truth, but decided that the time wasn’t quite right to tell her everything that he now knew.

  “Not exactly. We need to get moving so make sure that everyone knows that when Emeck wakes, we will be going. I'm not sure what to do with that girl, Anissa I think that was her name.” It wasn’t quite an untruth. It was next to impossible to know something exactly and he still knew little about what was happening to him. Again Cero and Inadar exchanged a glance catching his attention.