‘He wants what you have.’
‘Tell me why he left.’
Artell sighed and sat beside her on the mat, where she stretched and tried not to yawn.
‘I think you should sleep first,’ he murmured, indicating the sleeping mat.
‘I think you want me in the furs for a different reason,’ Cora said, then looked up into his blushing face.
‘You don’t want this,’ he said.
‘I don’t want to leave you. There is more to this than just the two of us.’
‘Three of us,’ he added with a grin.
She tried not to sigh.
‘Can you see his past?’
‘Only parts of it. Maybe Silphi is the best Ancient to ask. She was there, so she would understand who and what he is.’
Artell nodded and indicated the furs again. Cora climbed in and closed her eyes, too aware of him sitting beside her. She wasn’t sure if she would need to sleep or just think of the woman to reach her as she lay still in the warm furs. Then Cora was standing in the Ancient cavern of the Nerrim.
‘Welcome, child,’ Silphi said. She appeared younger than she had the last time Cora had seen her, although not by much. She waited, but no children came running through the cavern. ‘What would you ask of me?’
‘I would like to know about Merik,’ Cora said. ‘To you now, he is just a boy, but I would like to know what gifts he has.’
‘And what he will become?’
Cora nodded.
‘You have come alone,’ Silphi said, looking around her. ‘Artell has the gift of the future; he sees so much. He has seen you, I’m sure. Would you like him here?’
‘I am scared of the connection,’ Cora said.
The older woman smiled. ‘Life should not be feared. Bring him.’
Cora reached out and took Artell by the hand, and he appeared beside her. His mouth dropped open, and the woman smiled. ‘You grew to be a fine man,’ she said, reaching out for his face.
‘Do you know me?’ he asked, and Cora turned to him in surprise.
‘Isn’t she the Ancient who trained you?’
‘But she did not know me in this time,’ he said in a loud whisper.
Silphi laughed. ‘I have always known you,’ she said. ‘As I have known all our people.’ Her voice was sadder.
‘Can you tell us of Merik?’ Cora prompted gently.
‘He wishes to be an Ancient,’ Silphi said, looking towards the door. ‘He believes he is stronger than any that have come before.’
‘Is he?’ Cora asked. ‘I have seen some skill, but he only sees fragments of the future.’
‘He is not what he thinks he is, and yet he will find what he needs to make him so.’
Cora’s hand went to her mark automatically. ‘He will take from me.’
‘He will try. He has searched a long time for someone with your gifts. He does not have the skills he wants, and he thinks he can take them from the Ancients who have gone before.’
‘If he can do that, will it change what you are, your history?’
‘I’m not really here, child,’ Silphi said with a grin. ‘You are but a dream.’
‘Dreams can be scary,’ Cora murmured.
‘As your mother discovered, pulled and tormented with the death of those she loved. He was not what a father should be.’
A sadness for her mother tugged at Cora’s heart. She had never told Cora who he was. She had seen him so many times herself in her dreams, and yet she had never made the connection. Now she understood why her mother talked of it so little.
‘Merik hides in the shadows,’ Cora said. ‘He appears in my dreams, watching. He knows what we are, who we are.’
‘I think he guesses at what you are. But his guess is accurate. You are much stronger than you will allow yourself to be.’
‘Everyone says that.’
Silphi reached forward and took her hand. ‘You know what you are. You may have fought against following your mother, but you knew. Look deep within yourself.’ She touched Cora’s heart as Arminel would have, with a steady finger. ‘You found the skill to heal. You always had it, but you would not allow it. You have discovered me, and there will be others. Allow us in.’
‘But if I do that, he may be able to reach you.’
‘We may not be so easily taken,’ Silphi said.
‘What can he do?’ Cora asked.
‘He can talk you into willingly giving him what he wants. He will try to take what is most important. He will show you the world, but not as it is.’
‘The people of his cavern don’t believe in dragons,’ Cora said.
The Ancient before her smiled. ‘And why is that? Many of those people were born in this very cavern, surrounded by green scales.’
‘How is that possible?’
‘How can any of us do what we do?’
‘Is there a way to end this?’
‘You will find it, and then you will grow.’
‘Grow?’
‘You are three,’ she said, looking at Artell. ‘You will be more.’
Then Cora was blinking into the dim light of the cavern, her heart thumping. She felt she had learnt so much, yet she still felt as though she didn’t quite understand the world. It was how she often felt when she spent time with Arminel. As though she understood what he said, but that the words meant something very different.
‘How will we grow?’ Artell asked, and she realised that he still sat beside her with his hand in hers.
‘I don’t know,’ Cora said.
‘Sleep.’ He tucked her hand into the furs and stood. Stretching his arms above his head, he walked to the fire.
‘Artell,’ she said, sitting up. ‘This is your sleeping mat; I should stay by the fire.’
‘We could share,’ he said hopefully.
She smiled at the green light in his eyes and waved him back. He almost leapt onto her. ‘Sleep,’ she said.
He nestled in beside her, and she rested her head on his shoulder, then rolled into him and put her hand on his heart. She could feel the warm glow of it. She moved her hand down across his waist and closed her eyes. She remembered him then from the woods, and her dream of Teven and the dragons.
Cora woke feeling hot and sticky beneath the furs. She nudged at Artell, but he didn’t move. The light slowly increased in the small cavern, and she saw the thick, dark liquid covering her. Artell stared up at her, unseeing. Panic closed her throat as she realised he was gone. The blood, his blood, covering not only his body but hers as well.
She looked about wildly, trying to determine what had happened, who had come to them. Then Merik’s face appeared in the shadows beyond the fire. Her heart stopped.
‘What have you done?’ she screamed.
He looked at her as though she was a child with no understanding of the world. ‘What have you done?’ he asked, his voice too calm.
She looked down then, standing over Artell, a blade in her hand, his eyes still staring at her. Had she done this? Why would she do this? She had just found him.
‘Connected to him, you can’t return to the Penna.’
‘He could have come with me.’
‘You are part of his world now. You would have been trapped here with the Nerrim.’
‘I...’ She stopped and focused on his face, too close but still shrouded in shadow. ‘You aren’t here,’ she said. ‘This is not real.’
‘Of course it is real,’ he whispered. The panic and horror washed over her again, and she stabbed towards him with the sticky blade in her hand.
‘Hey,’ Artell moaned. She sat up, her body still feeling as sticky as it had covered in his blood. She felt about, hoping that she hadn’t actually stabbed him during the dream. ‘Will you stop poking me?’ he said, and the lights rose as though it were daytime. ‘What has happened?’ he asked, full of concern. Then he pulled her close.
‘Merik,’ she murmured into his chest. ‘I killed you. He...’
‘I am not dead,’ Artell said
, squeezing her closer. ‘I’m fine.’
‘I was so sure I was covered in your blood.’
‘Why would you think that?’
She chewed on her lip rather than answer, burying herself deeper into his hold.
‘You don’t want to stay,’ he whispered over the top of her head.
‘I’m not sure what I want.’
‘Really?’ he asked, looking at her. ‘What might you need to help you decide?’
She shook her head.
‘I’m hoping you don’t want to see me dead,’ he murmured, and she burst into tears. ‘That is not what I wanted you to do.’
‘Maybe it would be easier if I weren’t here.’
‘But you are meant to be. Serassa says so.’
Can I come in yet? the dragon hummed through them both. Cora laughed through her tears, wiping at her face.
‘Yes,’ she called as Artell groaned.
The small dragon appeared in the opening, and Cora pushed her way out of Artell’s arms to race at her. She threw her arms around the dragon’s neck and pushed close against her.
It is so nice to have a home, Serassa hummed.
‘At least you are small,’ Artell said. ‘This cavern isn’t exactly large enough for one.’
‘We can fit you wherever we are,’ Cora said. ‘We are three.’
We are going to need a bigger cavern.
‘When we grow,’ Artell said, sounding very much like Silphi, which he must have realised because he smiled at Cora.
‘Why are you different?’ she asked, looking at Serassa.
Different from what?
‘Other dragons,’ Cora whispered as she moved around the dragon, looking over her leathery body. ‘You look the same, only different.’
You keep saying different.
‘The dragons I grew with and those of the Nerrim are very like you, only larger, and they have scales rather than leathery skin.’
I have scales, Serassa grumbled defensively.
Cora looked her over carefully.
They have not grown yet.
Cora smiled and ran a hand over her side. ‘Then Teven was correct, and you are just the same.’
Only I am your dragon. I belong to your clan.
Cora looked back towards Artell. ‘Is that the Penna or the Nerrim?’
‘I am starting to wonder if we are somewhere between. Perhaps we have the chance to start our own traditions,’ he said.
‘I am just understanding those I should already know. I want to see some of this world,’ Cora suddenly said, throwing her arm around the dragon. She worried that she was too heavy for the smaller dragon, and then she felt bad that she hadn’t considered it before.
When you are ready, I am ready.
‘Now you sound like the oldest dragon of a clan. And I am ready to see the world.’
‘It is dark, and you haven’t taken the chance to rest yet,’ Artell said. He looked more nervous than Cora had seen him.
‘You aren’t planning something stupid to keep me here?’ she asked.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think I could keep you even if I wanted to.’
She wants to be here, but she wants to be there. It is difficult.
‘Thank you,’ Cora said, moving out of the way as Serassa pushed into the cavern and curled by the fire. It was almost where she had seen the dragon of her vision. Cora was tempted to sit down beside her and sleep, listening to her gurgling insides as she had with Dra as a child.
Artell had climbed back into the furs when she looked over. She didn’t want to cause him any pain. Serassa was right. She wanted to be here with him, and yet she wanted to go home as well. If they were the beginning of something new, she wondered where it would be. Would they need to remain close to the Nerrim, as Merik had done? Had that been necessary, just the way it happened? Or had he wanted to punish them for not being what he needed them to be?
She slipped into the furs beside Artell. With his back to her, she wrapped her arms around him and breathed in the scent of him. She felt at home when she was with him. As though wherever he was, that was where she was meant to be. But something else pulled at her.
She woke with a jolt the next morning. Merik had been watching her again from the shadows of her dreams. Only she had dreamed of the chief and their relationship as brothers when they were children. Merik had been cruel, but Edgris was strong. He knew that Merik only did as he did to look powerful. But he was relieved to see his brother leave. Edgris hadn’t believed Silphi that Merik might actually become powerful, although he wondered how he had talked that young woman into carrying his child when she had appeared so scared of him. They all did, but sometimes to save the cavern, you had to sacrifice a few.
‘I don’t want to have to make those decisions,’ Cora murmured as Artell sat up with her. He tried to coax her to lie back down, but she wanted to see the world. When she pushed the furs back, Serassa was looking at her with wide eyes, and she was sure the dragon was smiling.
Serassa lifted her out of the cavern into the clear, crisp morning. She transitioned to help keep herself warm against the morning chill, then changed the ice to the stone Artell had shown her. It had the same effect, protecting her from the chill, and she could still feel the morning sunshine trying to warm her.
She grinned into the wind as they flew over the trees. She glanced towards the cavern of Merik and Teven, but they went in the other direction, leaving both caverns and their people behind. As well as Artell.
‘They are so close,’ she said.
They would not have survived if they had travelled further away.
‘I wonder why he left them at all if he could not support his own people.’
Where will you put your people?
Cora wasn’t sure it should be her choice. She watched the green landscape blur beneath her. It was so comforting to be on dragonback, and she was relieved to breathe in the fresh air. ‘Can you flicker?’
Not yet, but we are already far from the three caverns.
There were three, and although Artell had still been a part of the Nerrim, he had isolated himself as well.
The trees were thick, like those around the Penna cavern and yet so different. The green leaves not only softened the world below but hid the ground from her. She wanted to leap from the dragon and roll in the leaves, yet she knew from experience that the ground was a lot harder than it appeared.
She allowed Serassa to guide her, but it felt to Cora as though she had a plan in place and was taking Cora to somewhere particular.
My favourite place.
‘I am happy to be taken wherever you would carry me. I’m not too heavy, am I?’
A soft purring rumble moved through the dragon, and Cora accepted it for contentment. It was some time before Serassa slowly descended, flying around the trees. Then Cora saw a large clearing, which they landed in the middle of.
A stream ran though it and, at one point just before the tree line, it widened into a pond almost like the one she had been in beside Artell’s cavern. ‘It is beautiful. I have never in all my life seen so much green.’
The grass grew in short, soft, narrow stalks, similar to what grew over Teven’s cavern. She wondered then if they called themselves something different. Or if Merik did, for she didn’t believe that the people had much choice in anything. As she turned and took in the beauty, she noticed a hill just tucked within the trees, almost as well hidden as that of the Nerrim.
‘What is here?’ Cora asked, walking towards it.
The dragon jumped between her and the hill, playful in her stance, but Cora wondered what else might be behind it.
Mine, she hummed in Cora’s mind. Cora felt a sense of worry, or fear.
‘I just wanted to look. And if it is yours, is it not mine as well? We are three.’
No, just mine.
Cora waited, but the dragon offered no further explanation. Could this be where she hid from the others, or were other young dragons hiding in these woods?
As she turned away, she noticed the dark gap within the green and knew in her heart that this was a cavern. Had this dragon belonged to someone else? What would they think of her being here?
Instead of exploring as she so desperately wanted to, Cora followed the dragon towards the stream, where they both leaned into the clear water and drank. And then Serassa curled in the sun.
‘You have only just woken. We have much to see. What else can you show me of the land? How far are we from the snow?’
A single golden eye blinked at her, but the dragon remained silent. Cora tried not to sigh as she sat down on the cool, damp grass and leaned into the Serassa. It was beautiful. As much as she missed the snow, she could sit out here in the sunshine and watch the trees sway in the breeze all day long. They made a different sound from the trees she knew. Rather than the clacking sound of dry branches smacking against each other, it was a lulling rustling sound that she could have drifted asleep to.
But she thought of Merik and what he might get in her dreams, and she sat forward.
Would you listen to my heart? Serassa asked.
‘Listen to it? I hear your insides making all sorts of noises all the time,’ Cora said with a laugh.
I want to know what you can see.
Cora stood slowly and ran her hand down the long face of the dragon. Then she moved around and ran her hand over the dragon’s side. She indicated that Serassa stand, and the dragon raised herself from the ground. Cora ran her hand down the long neck and across the chest between her forelimbs. Then she waited. It was as though she could feel the dragon mark—as though the whole dragon before her was a single mark. She felt a tingle in her own mark, but not the burning sensation she had expected.
She was starting to wonder if her parents’ sensation had been singular to them. But she remembered Arminel talking of a similar sensation. She sighed. She knew she was meant to be with Artell, and yet all the signs were very different. There were different things that had made her mark twinge with fire. Teven had been one of those things, and Cora wondered what her connection to him was. Although he wasn’t likely to want to talk to her about that now.
The dragon pushed against her, and Cora focused on her heart rather than all the thoughts racing through her own. She could feel a strength within Serassa. But she didn’t quite see what she might be or where she had been, as she had with Artell.
The Heart of Oldra Page 22
