Alongar lowered his head, closed his eyes, and sighed. “She is beautiful, Brenyn – or was, when first I looked upon her. She was more beautiful than any of the females of your race – well, of the race of humans, for you are not truly human, are you?”
Without giving Brenyn a chance to respond to this arcane statement, he went on. “I found her as I travelled the dark places between the stars as was my wont. She had been exiled to those lightless regions, though I did not know this, for she beguiled me and made me believe an untruth. Soreana told me that she had wandered there of her own will and become lost.
“This, I believed, despite my doubts, for the sake of her great beauty, more than the likelihood of the truth of this declaration. I should have been dubious, Brenyn, of Soreana’s stated reasons for wandering the dark places, for the paths that pass through those regions of outer blackness are treacherous and winding. Only my people know the secret doors that enter those regions and how to gain entrance into those doors. There are strange, dark things that dwell there, in the darkness – horrors, and ancient evils that have been exiled there by the Most Ancient Race – those that are named the Constructors, that formed the universe, made the gods, and formed the very first of my kind.”
The great head swept slowly side to side once more. “I did not know that she had been exiled there by her kinfolk, the gods. The blackness is great and encompasses the whole of the universe, winding among the spaces between the great wheels of stars. I do not fear those places – indeed, I have oft preferred those black and silent regions. Nor do I fear the things imprisoned therein, for they cannot harm me and my kind – but they are a terror to others. Even the gods do not wander there, not for fear of death – for the gods, like my people, are immortal – but for fear of the madness.”
He sighed with regret. “And yet, it was there that I found the beautiful Soreana. I was astonished to find her there, in those treacherous regions. Why was she there? – and how had she found ingress? – I could not comprehend it. Had I known that she had been exiled, I would have known the truth. But she was so lovely and persuasive. She was lost, she told me; she had wandered there, had lost her way, and could not escape.”
He went silent for a moment, and then sighed again, deeply. “I believed her and brought her out. She admired my strength and flattered me with praise. She told me that the earth was her home and asked if I could come with her and use my great strength to aid her in regaining that which she had lost during all the years of her wandering. Alas, I was beguiled by her, and I came.”
Brenyn frowned. “Why was she exiled?” He wondered.
“That, I cannot answer,” Alongar admitted. “Knowing her as she is now, I can believe that whatever she had done to cause her to be punished, it was a wicked thing indeed. I do know, whatever was her crime, it was committed here, upon the earth, but long ago, in the deeps of time.”
Brenyn considered this and nodded. “She is the queen of the darkings, is she not?”
“That is undoubtedly so,” Alongar agreed. “As you have told me – they even now do those things that Soreana wished me to do. Lacking my aid, she created them.”
Brenyn stared up at him. “She wanted you to visit war and death and ruin upon humanity?”
“Yes,” Alongar replied, “upon humanity and also upon those people known as the Sylvan folk.”
“You know of them? – the Sylvan folk?” Brenyn asked. “Can you tell me of that people?”
Alongar watched him for a moment with his unseeing eyes. “There is Sylvan blood in you, Brenyn – did you not know? There is both Sylvan and human blood in you – you are truly a son of two bloods.”
“It has been suggested that my mother was of that people, the Sylvans,” Brenyn answered, “and that my powers came from her.”
“Nay,” Alongar responded. “Your powers do not arise from her. I am acquainted with that people – and they are strange and wondrous creatures – but they do not possess such power as I see in you.”
Brenyn’s frown deepened. “But it is claimed that they are a magical folk,” he argued.
“Oh, they employ magic, that people,” Alongar agreed, “but only as it is inherent in nature – in the earth, in the trees, in the air, and in the waters. The Sylvan folk can manipulate that magic in small ways – though some of them, perhaps, are more capable – but they are nothing like unto you, Brenyn. You are…” He hesitated.
“I confess,” he said, “I do not know what you are.”
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The dragon went quiet then. After a moment, Brenyn asked him; “This Soreana – you say that the darkings do those things that she asked of you?”
There was a timbre of great sorrow in Alongar’s voice as he answered. “I did not know that such great evil dwelled in her,” he said. “Indeed, at the first, I thought her as good and kind as she was beautiful.” He shook his massive head once more. “I greatly regret, Brenyn, that I set her free from exile to prey upon the peoples of this world.”
“Why does she visit such hatred upon the people of earth?” Brenyn wondered.
“I do not know,” the dragon answered. “But I believe that her hatred is bound to whatever was her ancient crime.”
“And was her crime committed against the people of earth, then?” Brenyn asked.
“It must be so,” Alongar surmised, “for hatred is a strange thing. It is not only returned against those that have done harm but is also often directed against those that one has harmed.”
“When first we came,” Alongar continued, “after I had freed her from the outer darkness, she was cautious in returning to earth, as if there was peril for her in coming here. We travelled only at night and spent daylight hours in the shelter of great mountains, in caverns such as this, as if she wished to avoid the gaze of others.
“Even so, she seemed glad to have come home. There was no foreshadowing of the hatred that manifested itself later. In time, with great care, and in the dark of night, we went and peered into Androlon, the ancient city of the gods – but found them gone. There was a man – a human – sitting upon the throne. Soreana seemed shocked – yet also strangely glad – that her kinfolk had gone away.”
“A man sits the throne in this city of the gods, Androlon?” Brenyn interjected. “There is a king in the earth?”
“Alas, no, no more,” Alongar replied. “And that is a sad thing – but we press ahead of my tale. Patience, Brenyn, and I will relate the sum of all I know. Soreana sojourned for a time in Androlon, feted by the king, whose name was Massinae. Soreana asked King Massinae many questions of ancient earth, of the gods and where they had gone, but he knew naught of them, stating that Soreana was the first and only of her kind that he had known.”
An expression that might have been a frown came upon the rough, leathery features of the dragon. “Many years, apparently, had passed since last she stood upon earth. And she seemed oddly disappointed in Massinae, as if he were less than she expected.”
Alongar then made a sound that might have been disgust. “I missed so much, Brenyn, that I might have seen were I not beguiled by Soreana. Why did she not know what had occurred here and why her kin had abandoned the earth? Why did she insist that we travel at night and shelter in caverns? – when she was a goddess and could rightly go where she wished?” He shook his head and rendered the sound of disappointment once more. “There was so much – so much that I missed.”
“Trouble yourself not,” Brenyn said. “But, pray, tell me all.”
“We stayed not long in Androlon,” Alongar continued, “but then went to the land of the Sylvan folk and sojourned among them for a time. I thought they would fear me, because of my great size and fierce aspect, but they did not. Rather, strangely, they seemed to fear Soreana.” He shook his massive head. “It shames me that they could see in her that which I could not.”
“For her part,” Alongar continued, “Soreana seemed to me to be surprised, and even disappointed, to discover that there were two peoples tha
t dwelled upon the earth. I knew that the earth was somehow changed from what she had expected, but I knew not the extent or the substance of that change.”
He lifted his head and looked beyond Brenyn with his blind eyes, at the sunlit world outside the cavern. “After leaving the land of the Sylvan folk, we came here, into the west, among the humans. At that time, King Massinae ruled over all the earth from Androlon, over Sylvan and human alike, and was willingly paid obeisance by their princes.”
He looked around at the immense cavern with his sightless eyes. “After walking among the humans for a time, we came here, to this place.” He sighed and his head dropped. “And it was here, in this place, that she revealed her true nature and intent.”
“She stood there, where you now stand, Brenyn,” he went on, “looking out at the world as night fell. And in that moment, she changed. She had ever been beautiful, but standing there, staring out into the night, she became something else, something dark and frightening, even to me. And it was then that Soreana told me of how she came to be wandering the eternal blackness.”
Alongar sighed, an expression of dismay that rippled along his massive frame, reverberating into the depths of the grotto. “But much of what she told me, I am certain, was a lie,” he said. “She told me that the gods had betrayed her, that the governance of earth had been promised to her, but had then been given to another, one of her kinsmen named Menavir. And when she protested, they had cruelly exiled her to the outer darkness.”
The dragon shifted his bulk. “I did not know the truth of it – even now I know not the whole truth of it – and so I believed her, at least at the first. And I thought it cruel, what they had done to her. This was the reason, she explained to me, that we travelled in secret and sheltered beneath the vastness of mountains – for if her kinsfolk knew that she had returned to earth, they would come and banish her again.
“And then Soreana spoke the truth of why she had returned – she had returned to earth to exact vengeance for her treatment, upon her kinsfolk. But, since her kinsfolk had gone away, she now determined to wreak havoc upon those that they had left here – the humans and the Sylvans.” He shook his head. “And she wanted me to aid her in this, much to my shock and dismay.”
Still gazing into the world beyond the magic veil, a world he could no longer see, Alongar continued. “And I saw something else in her then – something dark, menacing, even terrifying, something akin to those terrors that dwell in the darkness between the stars. Indeed, I feared her then as I have never feared them.”
The dragon seemed to droop. “I saw then what I had failed to see for so long, that she was consumed with hatred and had been rendered irrational by whatever had occurred in the past. That hatred, now, could find but one object – the people of earth.”
Alongar sighed again, deeply, and continued his tale. “‘We will make them suffer,’ she told me, speaking of the inhabitants of this world, ‘and if those that betrayed me come to their aid, we will destroy them. First,’ she said, ‘we must go to Androlon and slay every one of those useless creatures that infest that city – and then I will curse it so that none will dwell there ever again.’ She turned to me then and asked me to help her in this. ‘If these vermin truly be Thagavor’s issue,’ she said, ‘then I will require recompence from them for the sins of their father. ‘”
“But who is Thagavor?” Brenyn interrupted.
“I know not,” Alongar said. “Apparently, she thinks him the father of both humans and Sylvan. One of her kinsmen, perhaps. Whoever he is; Soreana despises him more than any other.”
Once more, the dragon turned his unseeing gaze upon the sunlit glade outside his prison. “I was stunned, not only by her words, but by the alteration in herself, in her bearing, in her mien, indeed, in her very soul. She had hidden her true nature from me, from King Massinae, and from the human inhabitants of the earth. Only the Sylvan folk suspected that she was not as she seemed.”
Alongar shook his head. “Soreana believed that the people of earth, both human and Sylvan, were descended from the one she named Thagavor and her hatred for him had consumed her. She intended to bring misery, death, and ruin upon them – and in this she sought my aid. She did not wish me to slay them but rather that I set the people of earth at war, one with another, prince against prince, year after year, century upon century, ceaselessly, and this unending horror would bring her pleasure.”
“I knew then,” Alongar went on, “why it was that she wished me to go forth to cause conflict among the people of earth, and why it was that we travelled at night and sheltered in caverns beneath the mountains – for she feared the return of her kinsmen; that they would exile her once again. And I understood, then, that whatever she had done, it had been a hideous crime.”
He shook his massive head. “She could not go forth and do what she wanted, for her kinsfolk might pass by the earth now and anon and know that she had returned. And so, she asked me to go forth and torment humanity and the Sylvan folk in her stead while she concealed herself underneath the earth, under the rock, inside the shelter of a mountain.”
“I refused her,” Alongar said, “for I knew then how terribly she had deceived me. She meant to use my great strength to exact revenge upon the people of this world for what she perceived as the sins of their ancient and common father. But I could not. I could not wreak havoc upon the innocent.”
A shudder seemed to pass along his giant frame, stimulated by the terrors of memory.
“She changed, then,” he said, “her beauty vanished, and she became as a vast and dark winged shape, terrifying, even to me. I tried to leave, to escape her presence, but she shrieked curses upon me, blinding me; and taking away my ability to fly.”
He made a sound of distress, low in his throat. “This was my reward for freeing her from darkness. Because I would not aid her in wickedness, she turned her fury upon me. Shrieking curse after curse, she put a spell upon this cavern and the rock that contains it, trapping me inside. Rock alone, you see, cannot contain me, or any dragon; but her magic does.”
The dragon raised the hand with the withered digit. “Once, I tested the magic that binds me in this place, thinking to slip my bonds and inform the gods of all that she intended, though I would necessarily be implicated in her sins. The result convinced me that, should I attempt escape, I would die.”
Alongar drew in a deep breath and exhaled, causing Brenyn to brace himself as the rush of air blasted past him.
“You may wonder,” the dragon said, “why I would not wish to seek death, to confront her magic, and be no more.” He sighed. “My people do not die, Brenyn – we may be slain, but we do not die. Life is precious, and I decided to endure the years and conditions of my peculiar exile. I suppose that I hoped that the gods might one day return, end the cruel reign of Soreana, and set me free.”
He lowered his head and gazed at Brenyn with his blinded eyes. “Mayhap I do not need to wait upon the gods, now that you have come,” he stated with hope in his voice. Raising his head once more, he looked around. “You passed through her magic, which is powerful, as if it is nothing. Can you not free me, Brenyn – remove the curse that she has placed upon me?”
For not the first time, Brenyn felt the rise of frustration that he did not understand the nature of the strange power that resided in his blood and how to employ it. Sadly, he shook his head.
“The magic that binds you here seems not to touch me,” he agreed, “but I know why, nor how to negate its power. I am sorry, my friend.” He considered for a moment and then continued. “But if Soreana were to die – should I find her and slay her – would not her powers dissipate? – and her curses fail, thereby returning your sight to you and setting you free from this place?”
Alongar went silent for a long moment. “Perhaps, but –” the leathery features of the dragon wrinkled in doubt “– can you slay her? – truly? – for she is powerful – and a god. Indeed, I believe that her powers may exceed even those of her kinfolk.
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“I have given it much thought, Brenyn, after seeing what her hatred and madness had made of her – what she became in the very height of her fury – and I suspect that she met someone, out there in the darkness where she wandered, someone ancient and terribly wicked, whose power at one time was hideous and immense, who had also committed great crimes and had been exiled there by the Constructors. And I suspect that evil someone imparted much to her, rendering her a terror. Can you therefore slay one such as her, I wonder?”
Brenyn shrugged. “I must destroy her, if I am to free Emi.”
“I have witnessed her power, Brenyn,” Alongar warned; “it is terrible. As great as is the power that I sense in you, hers is likely much greater.”
Brenyn considered that for a moment and then turned and indicated the veil of magic that blocked the entrance to the cavern. “I passed through this easily enough. If this be her power, I need not fear it. I only need know where she dwells, that I may discover her.”
“But I know not where she dwells,” Alongar answered, with regret and sorrow. “I know only that she cursed the lands that lie here about, so that none would ever find me, and I am certain that she did as she desired and cursed Androlon as well and slew the king.” He shook his head. “But where she went then, I know not.”
“She dwells inside a fortress named the mountain of power,” Brenyn told him. “It is in the east.”
The dragon lowered his head to him. “How do you know this?”
“The darking told me,” Brenyn answered. “The darking that summoned me to go and find her.”
“A darking summoned you to go and find her?” The dragon shook his head. “And you do not see mischief in this?”
“It matters not whether there be mischief intended,” Brenyn replied, “for I mean to find her with or without a summons. I must find her,” he added, “if I am to save Emi.”
Alongar went silent for a moment and then nodded. “These darkings – whatever they may be – they do for her that which she once asked of me.” He studied Brenyn for a time with his blinded eyes. “There will be many of those creatures that defend her place of dwelling,” he warned.
A Plague of Ruin: Book One: Son of Two Bloods Page 52
