Ascension

by Selena IR Drake

Dimitri mumbled a long string of curses as he led his team out of the bizarre castle. He could not understand how such a young and terrified girl could cast a complicated spell like the thunder ball that hit him. He would have to be extremely careful the next time they met in battle.

  He stopped just outside the castle gates and examined the black dragon statue. He knew there was a key to the Dragons’ Gate on the statue, but where?

  “Dimitri, quit playing with that thing and let’s go!” Luna shouted.

  “No.” Dimitri examined the statue, running his fingers along every nook and cranny. Still, he found nothing that resembled a key.

  Vincent sat down on the stairs to watch. “What are you doing?”

  “A key to the Dragons’ Gate is on this statue, but I cannot find it.”

  Godilai moved to stand behind him, allowing her cyan gaze to scan the entire statue. “Are you sure it is an actual key you are looking for?”

  Dimitri faced her. “I read somewhere about keys on black dragon statues. With all twelve keys, the route to the Dragons’ Gate will be revealed.”

  Godilai flashed a smirk, earning an evil look from Dimitri. “Are you sure you are looking for a key like the kind used to unlock doors? Perhaps you are mistaken and the keys are hints that point to a location.”

  Dimitri sighed. “What did you find?”

  Godilai pointed. “Look at the dais.”

  Dimitri mumbled something incoherently as he moved to stand beside Godilai. He followed the invisible line drawn by her finger. Ancient runes were embossed into the black marble just under the dragon’s front claws.

  “Baah!” Dimitri knelt before the dais and ran his fingers over the runes. “What in Havel does it say?”

  “The greatest secret lies,” Piper said slowly as she translated the runes.

  Dimitri quickly scribed the translation into his father’s diary.

  “Thank you, Piper. Now, let’s get out of here.”

  Dimitri led his team down the rainbow stairs at a brisk pace. As they descended, Dimitri formulated their next plan of action. As soon as he was back on solid ground, he initiated the plan.

  “We should destroy their skiff,” Luna said, making a beeline for the beached dinghy.

  “Do not touch it!” Dimitri ordered.

  Luna shot him a dirty, albeit confused, look.

  “They have to get off the island somehow. And when they do, they will try to find the next dragon.”

  Godilai crossed her arms. “You want them to find the next one?”

  Dimitri smiled at her. “Relax. You are going to follow them on foot once they return to mainland. Listen to their conversation closely. If they uncover the location of the next dragon, return to me with the information immediately.”

  Godilai frowned. “And if they should find me before then?”

  “You are a Dákun Daju. I think you can handle those three girls.”

  “Not if they summon that dragon.”

  Luna scoffed. “Aren’t you forgetting something, Dimitri? How do we sneak past the girls as they make their way to the Sorcerers’ Isle?”

  “Simple.” Dimitri laughed and put his hands on Piper’s shoulders. “An invisibility spell.”

  Piper smiled proudly. “That’s an easy one.”

  Vincent pointed toward the top of the stairs. “I suggest using it quickly, because I think that’s them exiting the castle.”

  Dimitri jumped into their skiff. “Time to go!”

  Godilai, Luna, and Piper followed his example while Vincent just sort of fell into the boat, much to the amusement of the others. Dimitri shoved the boat away from shore.

  “Dasai nagarésayo!” Piper cast the invisibility spell the instant the boat reached open water.

  The team lingered there, waiting for Xyleena and her friends to leave the island.

  Several minutes passed before Xyleena and her team reached their skiff. The girls looked it over, probably to see if it had been sabotaged. When they deemed it worthy of travel, they pushed off from the beach.

  Dimitri allowed them to pass his team before he took the oar and followed the girls back to mainland.

  When I asked if he could pull off this impossible feat of creating dragons, Moonwhisperer would only smile and say, “What better way is there to find the limits of the possible than to go beyond them and into the impossible?”

  – FROM “THE DIARY OF AMOREZ” BY AMOREZ RENOAN

  It was after midnight when Thera, Teka, and I returned to Kínashe’s boathouse. We tethered the skiff to the dock and gathered our belongings as quietly as possible. The last thing we wanted was to alert someone to our presence, as I was certain Dimitri had not given up on his goals that easily.

  We unhitched our wyverns and took off into the forest. After about an hour’s hard ride, we came across a clearing next to the riverbank. Thera gave a signal. We reined in our wyverns and dismounted. Teka and I set up our camp as Thera placed wards around the clearing.

  I took the first watch. It proved to be a rather chilly night, but I would not dare light a fire for warmth. Therefore, I found myself huddled between the three sleeping wyverns, staring up at the stars and listening to the sounds around me. The rhythmic soft breathing of my comrades mixed with the gentle gurgling of the river a few meters away. It was a sweat lullaby.

  “I remember a night like this…”

  I bolted upright and immediately scanned the clearing. Everything appeared normal… except… A few meters away, a strange man was sitting before a raging fire. I quickly rubbed my eyes, attempting to clear them. He was still there and I drank in his image. His hair was long and black, tied back in a low tail. He was dressed in a plain, blue tunic and brown, leather pants. Something about him seemed familiar.

  “Don’t you remember? It was a few days after your twenty-third birthday. You had been so angry about something and avoided everyone as much as possible. Then I came back.” the man grinned and stirred the fire. “I took you to our favorite hill and we looked at the stars for hours. I don’t know what it was, but something about them seemed comforting to you.”

  “Are you…real?”

  “Later that night, I treated you to your first pint of ale.” He laughed at a memory. “You should have seen your face. You looked like you had just taken a lick of the sourest bitterpome in the bunch.”

  “Please answer me.” I felt tears stinging my eyes. “Who are you?”

  His blue eyes finally focused on me and he smiled.

  Hatchling!

  I gasped as my eyes flew open. An instant later, I was sitting up and searching my surroundings. Thera and Teka were sound asleep. There was no fire, no blue-eyed man.

  You were dreaming.

  “Who’s there?” A quick scan of the perimeter again revealed nobody, nothing.

  There is no need to fear, hatchling. It is only me.

  “Vortex?”

  I heard laughter echoing in my mind.

  “How can I hear you if you aren’t here?”

  I am always here. You can hear me in your mind, because we are linked to each other through the dragon eye.

  “Can anyone else hear you?”

  I would have to be released from the eye to speak to others.

  “I see.” I yawned and rubbed my temples. “How long was I asleep?”

  I cannot say. Vortex was quiet for a moment. That dream disturbed you. Perhaps it would be wise for you wake one of the others so you can get some rest.

  “You knew what I was dreaming?”

  When I am in the eye, I see what you see and feel what you feel. I know that the man you saw in your dream was very close to you…and he is in Havel. The dragon sounded saddened by that, as if he knew the man. He sighed. Please, hatchling, get some sleep. You need it.

  “Right,” I muttered as I got to my feet. A shiver ran through me as the cold of night swept away the heat of the wyverns’ bodies. “I just hope I don’t have another dream like that one.”

  I roused Thera from he
r fitful slumber and helped her get situated for her turn at the watch. I bade her good night and curled up between the wyverns again. I watched her for a while, wondering what was going through her mind to give her young face such a dark look. After a few minutes, I caught a glimpse of a tear as it crept its way down her cheek. She sniffled and wiped it away, almost angrily.

  She must be thinking of her sister’s betrayal. I thought.

  Vortex quietly agreed.

  I diverted my attention then, giving Thera as much privacy as I could allow. As I gazed up at the stars one more time, I thought of that man. His name was on the tip of my tongue, yet – like everything else I tried to remember – I could not coax it from my past. I sighed and prayed to the Souls for peace. Finally, I let my eyes drift shut and was asleep in no time.

  ◆◆◆

  Daylight. I stood alone within a forest of glimmering, snow-white trees. Silver mist clung to the ground and danced in a gentle breeze. Before me loomed an ancient stone ruin that had long ago been overgrown with white vines and other foliage. I knew this place, though I could not recall exactly when or where I had seen this building before. I remembered it when it was new. It had been beautiful.

  The soft fluttering of wings from behind me stole my attention. I looked over my shoulder to see a phoenix perched in one of the trees. She watched me intently, so I turned to her and bowed.

  The phoenix suddenly burst into flames. A nude woman slowly stepped out of the fire. With a flash of light, she was clad in a simple, pale-yellow dress. She stared at me, and I stared back in awe.

  I had never seen the Goddess of Fire in human form before. She was beautiful. Her silken hair cascaded down her back, almost to her feet, and shifted from red to golden yellow. Her striking blue eyes held a depth of knowledge that no one could possibly hope to achieve. She was shorter than I imagined, standing about my height. And she carried herself regally.

  I finally broke out of my stupor and smiled. “Tanda, Zahadu-Kitai. Núl cistrena ja chee?”

  “Last we met you could not speak a word of the ancient tongue. You are learning quickly.”

  I chuckled. “From what I heard, I already knew Kinös Elda. I just needed to remember.”

  She was quiet for a minute before she nodded. “What you say is true.”

  “Can you tell me how I lost my memories?”

  Her eyes locked on mine for a long, quiet moment. Finally, she sighed and stepped past me. “You fell,” she simply stated.

  I shook my head. “What did I fall from?”

  Zahadu-Kitai smiled at me over her shoulder. “The Dragons’ Gate.”

  I had not expected that. For me to not only know the location of the Dragons’ Gate but to attempt to open it was a huge shock. What could I have possibly been doing? I hoped I was not up to anything bad.

  The silence between us had apparently grown too long, and the Daughter of Fire started walking away.

  “Thank you, Zahadu-Kitai. You have been a great help.”

  She looked at me over her shoulder. “You are welcome.”

  I watched as she walked away and disappeared in a wink of crimson light. I sighed and looked back at the collapsed building. I could not help but wonder where I had seen it before.

  ◆◆◆

  I awoke with a start and shivered from the cold. Thera stood over me, looking concerned, while Teka knelt by my side.

  “Thank the Gods.” Thera breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the blanket.

  I promptly sat up and wrapped it around me again.

  “We thought you would never wake up.”

  Between chittering teeth, I managed, “Why did you think that?”

  Teka frowned. “We’ve been trying to wake you for over an hour!”

  “Oh.” I stretched, pulled the blanket tighter, and finally stood up. “Well, if you were in the middle of an important conversation, you wouldn’t want to wake up, either.”

  “What?”

  “A conversation with whom?” Thera asked as she helped me pack up my sleeping roll.

  “Zahadu-Kitai told me how I lost my memory. It was a rather disturb—what?”

  Both of them looked absolutely bewildered.

  “The Goddess of Fire spoke to you in a dream?” Teka asked.

  I nodded. “That isn’t anything new. She has been coming to me in my dreams for a long while now.”

  “Okay…” Thera cleared her throat, returned to her task. “So what did she say?”

  “She told me how I lost my memory.”

  As I retold the events of my dream, Thera and Teka grew ever more shocked. When I had finished the story, they were both quiet.

  Finally Thera spoke. “Do you know why you were at the Dragons’ Gate?”

  “Believe me, I wish I knew. I really hope I wasn’t on a mission to free the Shadow Dragons.”

  “Maybe you were there just to see if the gate was still locked,” Teka suggested.

  I shrugged.

  “Well, what would it mean if you had gone there to release the dragons?”

  I seriously doubt you had gone there to unleash that kind of evil unto the world, hatchling.

  “That’s what I’m hoping was the case.” I sighed. I noticed the weird stares from my comrades. “I forgot. You guys can’t hear Vortex speak while he is in the amulet.”

  “Wow,” said Teka. “Scared me there for a minute.”

  “You can hear him?” Thera asked.

  I nodded.

  “What is it like?”

  I clicked my tongue. “It’s hard to describe. Imagine having someone whispering in your ears, but it echoes as if there are about seven people speaking at once.”

  Teka laughed as she mounted her wyvern. “Sounds like it will drive you mad.”

  I grinned. “Probably.”

  Vortex snorted.

  Thera hopped into the saddle of her own wyvern while I rummaged through my hip sack. “Xyleena, may I see Dragon Diary again? I’d like to work on the riddle some more while we ride.”

  I gave the young Feykin the diary before mounting Ekvinöj.

  “Do let me know if you remember anything about the riddle. It would make this quest much easier.”

  “I hear you on that one.”

  Let them know if you remember anything, even if it is as seemingly unimportant as the origins of that ruined building in your dream, Vortex said.

  I nodded, even though he probably could not see me.

  After taking a moment to gather our bearings, the three of us were back on the trek east.

  These so-called Sorcerers– or Fey-Kin as they referred to themselves – were becoming a problem. Not only had the general population grown fearful of them and their mutations, but they had also grown aggressive. Brutally forced from society and eventually exiled by the king, the Bedebian survivors vanished. Rumors were they had taken up refuge on one of the islands in the far north.

  – FROM “THE CHRONICLES OF ITHNEZ, VOL. IV” BY ORN TERSON, COURT HISTORIAN

  Thera woke us from our sleep much earlier than usual. She seemed very excited, which was odd considering her lack of sleep the night before. When Teka and I were finally awake, the three of us gathered around the small fire to prepare breakfast. Thera explained her excitement.

  “Great Kkaia of Rock I took, and hid away on isle that shook.” Thera smiled proudly.

  “Oh! It is the next part of the riddle. Say it again, Thera.” I listened as Thera repeated the fragment she had finally converted. “Kkaia of Rock on isle that shook.”

  “What could that mean?” Teka said between yawns.

  My sister Kkaia is of earth. However, I have never heard of an island that shakes, Vortex announced after what sounded like a huge yawn.

  I relayed the message.

  “Blast. I was hoping he knew the answer so we didn’t have to spend the next unknown span of time thinking of an answer.” Teka muttered thoughtfully as she chewed her food.

  “It could be worse. We could be searching for the
se dragons without any clues to their locations,” Thera muttered.

  Teka snorted. “Think, Xy. Try to remember the ‘Riddle of the Twelve’ back when you wrote it. Maybe you will discover the answer.”

  “I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee anything. I don’t even remember when I originally wrote the riddle or why I put it in my mother’s diary.”

  So it would never be lost? Vortex offered.

  I suppose that would be the best place to keep the key to all twenty-four dragons. I thought.

  Vortex’s chuckle echoed in my mind.

  “How about we think on the road?” Teka asked. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m dying to sleep in a bed that doesn’t include rocks.” She rubbed her back for emphasis.

  “How long until we reach Thorna?”

  Thera looked skyward as if she could gauge the distance by the thickness of the forest canopy. Maybe she could, I realized. After all, she was the native to this land. Who would know it better?

  “We should pass Thuraben later today, so I’d say we were still six days out of Thorna. But if we ride hard today, we could be there in three or four.”

  “I like that idea,” Teka said as she packed her belongings and tied them to her saddle.

  I quickly scarfed down the remainder of my breakfast and began packing my own things up. Minutes later, the three of us were speeding through the underbrush.

  ◆◆◆

  Great Kkaia of Rock I took, and hid away on isle that shook. I repeated the portion of the riddle for probably the thousandth time.

  Vortex was just as lost as I was when it came to discovering an answer. Had Ríhan been here, he probably would have laughed and given me a long list of geographical locations in the world with islands that experienced earthquakes.

  That is it, hatchling! Ask Teka if she knows of any islands with abnormal geographic activity.

  I relayed Vortex’s message as requested.

  “I have been thinking the same thing,” Teka answered. “The only place I can think of that would frequently cause earthquakes is along Zarconia’s Fault. But it’s mostly just open sea, no islands.”