Revelation of the Dragon

by J Elizabeth Vincent

  As she entered, Mariah felt the gazes of everyone in the room suddenly upon her, and Mellar and Berg rose to greet her and her companions.

  In complete silence, the two men came to stand before Mariah and bowed solemnly. She wrinkled her forehead at them when they remained there. This was more than a polite greeting. Beside her, Shira hissed with a quick intake of air, and Mariah looked up. Every single member of the council had moved to their knees and was now bowing to Mariah, head down. Kaddan, upon seeing their reaction, smiled hugely as she dropped to her own knees to do the same.

  “Welcome, High Chosen,” Mellar intoned.

  “What?” Mariah took a step back, bumping into Han. “What’s going on here?”

  Berg straightened, a warm, somewhat self-satisfied smile on his face. “After everything we witnessed yesterday, this morning, we felt a vote was in order. You have been affirmed by an overwhelming majority,” he paused, a sour look passing briefly over his face, “as the Banished One. You are now free to take your place as High Chosen, leader of this council and all of the Sovereign, here and throughout the kingdoms. Even though not all here believe that you are the one that was prophesied to save the Ceo San”—that sour look again—“we shall all follow this, the last vote of the council.”

  Confusion overwhelmed Mariah. His little speech held so many implications, but she grabbed onto the last thing he had said, trying to make sense of it. “The last vote? What do you—”

  Shira bumped Mariah’s elbow with her own, and she realized that everyone except Berg was still bowing. She looked at her friend in desperation, and Shira gestured with her hand, raising it, palm up.

  Would they really all stay like that until she gave them permission to rise? Berg nodded, affirming Shira’s instruction.

  “Please …” Her voice cracked, and she swallowed hard before continuing. “Please get up. You don’t need to bow to me. Ever.” She shivered at the thought of their doing it every time they met. Heads started to rise, to look up. “I’m just like you,” she said in a strained voice.

  She looked around as council members rose or sat upright and tried to read their faces. Some nodded to her with grave looks, but others looked at her in disbelief, some even with a little wonder. Unable to hold those awestruck gazes, she looked down, fidgeting with her tunic and straightening it over her breeches. It seemed like the prophecy that she had learned of only last night, the one uttered by a queen who was only questionably in her right mind, had built her up in these people’s minds into something grand and more than mortal. How could she live up to something like that? Did she even want to?

  Shira bumped her again, and she looked up. The councilors weren’t bowing any longer, but they were still all staring at her, waiting.

  So, she looked at Berg and repeated her last question. “You said the last vote? Is the council dissolving?”

  The old man chuckled. “Not at all, but up to this point, we have been a democratic body, here for the purposes of running the Cellar and keeping our people safe. But many years ago, when the Sovereign formed and declared themselves an independent people, they agreed that the council members were only temporary rulers. When the Banished One was found, she would take her rightful place as head of the Sovereign. Whatever your orders, we will follow. We wish to be a tool of the freedom your coming promises. You may delegate to the council all you wish, but we’ll ultimately be carrying out your decisions, not our own.”

  Mariah’s mouth hung open for several moments, and it took yet another bump from Shira for her to snap it closed. So much for being some kind of leader. I must look like a complete fool.

  “But I … Am I expected to stay here? I can’t—”

  Berg took Mariah’s elbow, gestured to her companions, and led them over to a group of empty pillows near the center of the group. As they sat, Berg said, “Perhaps if we took it one step at a time. Last night, you said you came looking for us because you needed help. Maybe we could start with that?”

  Shira, sitting at her side, squeezed her hand, and Mariah squeezed back. She resisted the urge to shout at the council, to insist that she wasn’t anyone’s leader, to run away and fly as far as she could go.

  Ever since Old Cat Eyes had come to her in that first vision, she had been overwhelmed by the possibility that she would be expected to lead, that she would be responsible for other people, that what she might ask of them would put their lives in danger or worse. After all, at most, she was just a blacksmith’s daughter from a tiny village in Varidian. At the least, she was a recluse and a hermit, someone who would rather live alone than take the risks that the world dished out. At least, she had been not all that long ago. Even now, she barely knew how to deal with people, let alone lead them.

  But she wouldn’t fly away. With Shira’s touch grounding her, she even denied herself the chance to tell the council that they didn’t have to listen to her. There was no question that someone needed to do something, and hadn’t she walked to this chamber just minutes ago with her mind made up, even though she feared what her companions might think of her decisions?

  Mariah looked around at them one more time, hoping her friends would continue to treat her in the same way, that this lunacy wouldn’t change anything with them at least. She hoped they understood that she would take advantage of the situation only because there were people who needed help. When that was done, she’d give it all back and let these Ceo San make their own choices, as they should have been able to do all along.

  Xae sat on her right, his angular face serious. His dark eyes met hers, and she realized that his focus hadn’t changed. He had come looking for her for one purpose, to help Grelem find and rescue his foster parents. Xae wanted her help, but she believed he would do his best to accomplish that purpose with or without her.

  Han, his face now clean-shaven again, was sitting nearly across from her, next to Berg. He looked around the room and then back at her with an odd sort of admiration in his hazel eyes. Gone was the relaxing companionship that they had begun to find during their journey. Here he was, a huge young man, a soldier no less, who probably appealed to many a young woman, and he was looking at her as if she held the world in her palm, as if she always had.

  It made her guts squirm. She looked away with the uncomfortable suspicion that if she were to tell him to run himself through with a sword, he would do it.

  Grelem was tucked into Shira’s other side, playing with a small wooden hand puzzle that Kaddan had given him. He looked happy and content. How was that possible when he had lost so much in his young life? Maybe his experiences had taught him to be satisfied with whatever he had, to live only for the moment he was in. Or maybe he was just too young to understand the significance of what was happening.

  For her part, Shira grinned up at Mariah, despite the dark hollows under her eyes, shadows no doubt caused by the nightmares or visions Biorna had plagued her with. “I’m with you, lady,” she stated simply. “No matter what.”

  Although her throat tightened, Mariah smiled back and held onto her friend’s hand as she straightened up and let her eyes meet the gazes of many of the others who surrounded her.

  “Thank you. I hope I can live up to your expectations of me.” Thinking of Grelem, Berg, Rose, and Jahl, she continued, “The Ceo San are not the only ones whose lives have been turned upside down by the king’s war on us. We must always remember that. Now, here is what I plan to do. I hope you will agree to help.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Hawk Rising

  After several days of planning, Mariah was able to gather her things and finally leave the Cellar. Even then, she and her companions would be spending the day traveling only beyond the Cellar to a safe house, where they would sleep before beginning their new mission.

  Back at the awkward meeting in the council chamber, it had astonished Mariah that no one had argued with her, not even Shira, when she had announced h
er intentions to personally go after Shira’s parents to rescue them from the king’s clutches.

  Xae had looked satisfied as if he had known she would do so all along. Han’s awe-filled expression had not changed, and Shira simply repeated herself. “I’m with you, lady.” Her voice was quiet and assured. What had changed? The night before, Shira had been completely against the idea.

  In the end, Mariah hadn’t asked for help from the council for her quest into the capital city. It was personal after all. Why would these people risk their lives for strangers who were not even Ceo San? But the council had offered its help anyway, with several people volunteering to accompany them. Mariah had accepted only three. Berg, who offered his peddler’s wagon to get them into the city, and Midelia and Teneth, who had spent months at a time in the city and in the castle as spies, Midelia as a mouse and Teneth as a house cat.

  Mariah did ask the council to do something else, something big. Spreading out one of the maps she had gotten in Grof onto the empty table, she asked for a pen and ink and marked the locations of all of the slave camps she had found in her flight from the Foxgrove. With the council and her friends spread out around her, she spoke.

  “While I am gone, I need you to gather as many Sovereign as will follow you and attack the weakest, most vulnerable of the king’s camps.” She pointed to a camp just over what had been the border with Adis Ador. “I have been there. There are fewer reinforcements there, so if we are to succeed at all, it will be there. I want you to free anyone being held there against their will. My hope is that some of those we free will join us, that we can build up our own forces before going for the better protected camps.”

  “It’s a good plan,” Berg said. “It will also give us a chance to rouse and notify the others. They can also help us with their mission and augment our numbers.”

  “Others?” Mariah asked.

  He nodded. “There are other Sovereign sanctuaries throughout the lands.”

  Mariah’s skin began to tingle. “You mean there are even more Ceo San—”

  “Than our grand king realizes,” he interrupted with a sneer. “Most are in hiding. And they’re not just in Varidian. They are gathering in Adis Ador, Lishorani, and even Eseth and Cillian. When we formed our nation, there were those who couldn’t bear to remain anywhere the risk of being taken was still present. And there are allies with them as well. Other Unblessed like myself. Now that you have revealed yourself, they will all be at your disposal.”

  As he finished his words, the light around her dimmed, and in a sudden rush, Mariah’s breath left her, and her legs gave way. Invisible hands gripped her, keeping her from hitting the ground as her eyes fluttered closed of their own volition.

  Slowly moving her head from side to side, she tried to clear her vision, open her eyes. When she did, she found herself standing atop a huge boulder on a rise over endless grassy fields. A strong arm was curled around her shoulders, holding her up. Leathery wings the color of blood floated in and out of her peripheral vision on both sides, refusing to come into focus. Before her, around her, the fields were filled with … with … an army; that was the only way she could describe the scene. But these troops were not lined up neatly in blocks and columns like she had read about in her books. There were too many for that. They squeezed together, all facing her, nearly on top of each other. And most were not even human.

  Not far from her, just a short distance from the boulder on which she stood and surrounded by others like it, sat a large gray and white wolf with gleaming pale blue eyes. When she looked at the animal, it bowed its head reverently. Ruby? A motley group of crows … no, ravens … flew over the crowd, calling to her. Was Xae among them? Ayla? Nya? There were all manner of cats, snakes, even animals she had never seen before, some that she had only read about in books. The noise of the mob grew, a chorus of roars, growls, caws, hisses, and sounds that she couldn’t describe. “They are ours,” a deep voice said low into her ear. Old Cat Eyes. Again. “They are yours. Your mission is clear.”

  His voice melded with the noise from the confluence before her until the sound blocked everything, even her vision. Darkness overcame her again as her knees buckled.

  It seemed only a moment later that she once again felt hands gripping her arms, pulling her back upright. “Can you hear me? Mariah? Can you hear me?”

  It was Han, who stood on one side of her. Berg was on the other, holding her other arm.

  She nodded, trying to get her feet under her once again. As she braced her hands on the table before her, a chair touched the backs of her knees, and she fell gratefully into it.

  Shira knelt beside her, scooping up one hand, concern obvious in her furrowed brow and taut lips. After one hard look at Mariah, she snapped to the others. “Give her some space. And someone get her some water.” As the others scurried to obey, Han and Xae more reluctantly, Shira whispered. “You all right, lady?”

  Mariah tried to nod, but she couldn’t stop her body from shaking. Her breath came in shallow gasps. There didn’t seem to be enough air in the room. She could still hear the crowd from her vision; she could even smell it. It had stretched across the land further than she could see. The warm wind that had blown across the field ruffled the hair above her forehead as if she were in two places at once. Her eyes started to roll back in her head once again, but Shira grounded her, rubbing her back and murmuring, “Breathe, Mari. Stay with me. In and out. In and out. That’s a good girl.”

  After several moments, when she was sure the real world wouldn’t fade away from her again, Shira pressed a goblet into her hand. “Drink.”

  She did, and the cold, crisp water finally cleared the remaining wisps of her vision from her mind. After draining the cup, Mariah set it down on the table. No one else had approached. It was just her and Shira. “It was him,” she whispered. “And … I … there were so many … I can’t—” She shook her head, the ability to explain beyond her current reach. If she failed … there were so many of them!

  Shira seemed to understand. “Worry about it later,” she said. “For now, just breathe, and stay here, right here. With me.” Mariah squeezed the hand that was curled around hers. Shira’s other arm came around her back, and Mariah leaned into her. She didn’t miss Shira’s angry whisper. “Stupid, meddlesome gods.”

  * * *

  Mariah stayed curled into Shira until she felt like herself again, although a feeling of confusion and wonder still swam in circles at the bottom of her gut. She nodded to her friend and rose, surprised to find her legs now steady and strong.

  Mellar and Berg stood nearby, waiting silently at attention. There was concern on their faces. “Please.” She gestured them back toward the table, to sit across from her. She sat again as well, thankful that whatever happened, she wouldn’t collapse again with the chair beneath her. Han and Shira flanked her, and Teneth and Midelia took the seats to either side of them. Nilovi stood nearby.

  Meeting Berg’s gaze, Mariah said, “Tell me more about the others.”

  “The other gatherings are not as large as this one,” he began hesitantly, as if he was afraid that she would black out again. She shared his fear, but nothing happened, so he continued. “There are pockets, communities, some in hiding like us, others in plain sight but watchful. They have all taken the vow of the Sovereign. To wait, to observe and listen, to serve none but the Banished One. It would seem that our waiting is over.”

  Before she could respond, Mellar spoke.

  “High Chosen, I must ask. Are you well?”

  She didn’t want to share. Her visions, the messages from Old Cat Eyes, felt so personal, so intimate, but these people were depending on her. If they felt that she was ill or unwell, how would that affect them? How would they be able to trust her to do what must be done? She found herself suddenly terrified that they would change their minds and refuse to act. That they would begin their waiting again. That more children wou
ld become lifelong slaves to the king while they did.

  “I … A vision came upon me.” The room around her went silent, and she noticed others gathering more closely around the table. “I’ve not shared this openly before, but sometimes those around me”—Gwyn, Shira—“and, since my imprisonment, myself as well … well, the Althamir have spoken to us, shown us things.”

  Murmurs erupted all around her.

  “When you spoke of the other Sovereign, a vision overwhelmed me … it’s never happened that way before,” she admitted. “The visions have always come in sleep. But this time … I was shown an army, an army of Ceo San and … others, the Unblessed you would call them”—she would not—“all standing together, facing me, waiting. Some I knew, but overwhelmingly, these were strangers. A god—I do not know his name, but he has spoken to me before—he stood beside me.”

  The council members and her friends looked at one another and back at her, astonishment clear on her face.

  “I’m afraid that’s all. It faded quickly, and I was back here.” She laid a hand over Han’s forearm and nodded at Berg. “Thank you for catching me.”

  “Of course,” Han said gruffly.

  She gave the others only a few moments to process what she had said.

  “I want to get back to what we were discussing. This does not, cannot, change my plans.”

  “Yes, Chosen,” Mellar responded. “I must tell you one more thing before we do. It concerns the other Sovereign.”

  Taking a deep breath, she braced herself, one hand still on Han’s arm and one on Shira’s.

  “Berg mentioned that I knew your parents.”

  Mariah’s chest tightened as she nodded, trying to control her eagerness.

  “Magnus, my old friend, and your mother, Ashanya, came here, to the Cellar, only days after you were chased out of Eaglespire. They had tried to send you here, but there wasn’t time. They acted too late, and you flew away before … Your father was gravely injured by his accident, but one of our number managed to secret them away in a cart during the night and get them safely to us.”