Crown of Horns

by Alex Sapegin

  Andy was ready to bargain. He looked at the empty pitcher. How easy it was to turn from a victim of political games to a player. Don’t you feel a prick of conscience? You were just thinking you didn’t want to be crushed by an impersonal machine, and now you’re ready to throw entire states on the altar of your own interests. Two months ago you judged Miduel, and now… I really miss him. The old elf’s advice would be very handy just now.

  Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to speak to my hostess. What have we? Andy drummed his fingers on the top of the table. Throwing a few berries in the mouth reminiscent of grapes, but with a pronounced mandarin flavor, he re-hashed his recent meeting with the Great Mother. The cat ruler knew about the meaning of my tattoo. And statements of kinship with Jagirra was the last thing she expected to hear. Judging by the Miur’s reaction, my mother has long been listed among the souls who left the mortal world and entered the palaces of Hel. The news that she’s alive and she has a son was a shock to the Great Mother. The cat woman behaved as if she were personally acquainted with the young Empress at the time. Hmm, that doesn’t make sense. From what I know, Miur live no more than five hundred years. The average life expectancy is three hundred and fifty. The lady does not look like an ancient grandma. She can’t be that old, so when did she meet Jagirra? How the Great Mother is related to Jagirra remains to be seen. The question should be marked as paramount. I need all the knowledge I can get to help me maneuver the currents of the muddy sea of politics. Based on the ruler’s reaction, I can make several conclusions: she didn’t know that Jagirra survived the ancient showdowns and is still alive. And it’s no wonder! We haven’t exchanged news with our heavenly neighbors for the last three thousand years. And I didn’t hide the fact that I, her son, remained ignorant of my mother’s origin. So she showed tact and gave me time to recover from my shock, too. A cunning beast! She hid her shock behind politesse. Right now, the Miur’s probably evaluating the situation from all sides, just like me, and figuring out what to do with the piece of cake that fell into her lap. Eat it herself or send it onwards as bait…. Just be careful, Mother, not to burst inadvertently from “overeating.” This “cake” has a trick or two up his sleeve.

  Andy poured himself juice from another jug. He decided on his priorities: from the Miur, he needed, first of all, to learn the history of his own kind, whatever her version might be. He would have time to find other options for interpreting events and comparing what various storytellers said.

  “What do you wish?” A slender Miur in clothes of a dark blue color reminiscent of an Indian sari was waiting for him behind the door. The fabric further emphasized the white of her coat and the blue of her feline eyes. A wide blue ribbon was braided into her long braid.

  Near the wall was a table where the weapons confiscated near the gates were laid out. Nobody prevented him from taking them back. Andy looked doubtfully at his arsenal and decided to do without it. A few thin, weightless magical interweaves prepared by him in advance would be preferable to steel. Andy looked at her carefully and grinned. The Mother knew her stuff. If his eyes weren’t deceiving him, this was the younger sister or, more likely, the daughter of the ruler. The Great Mother took measures to preserve secrecy. It was unlikely she would repeat her mistake of letting the elves who served him lay eyes on him.

  “Take me to the Great Mother, please,” said Andy.

  “Follow me,” the Miur waved her hand. Countless sparks flashed on the gold threads and small precious stones sewn into the sari cloth. From the movement of her head, the dot of the magical communicator amulet on her neck was exposed for just a moment. So, Mother’s been informed….

  Following the Miur’s small step, Andy mentally applauded her mother. The ruler showed herself to be an excellent psychologist. At first, she knocked him off track by presenting one psychotype with her behavior, which was more characteristic of a human woman than a member of a different race, and now she was messing with his head with the help of her daughter. Her heiress had an attractive figure, seductive even from the point of view of people and elves. Wrapped tightly in the garment, she was forced to take short steps, shaking her hips and invitingly wagging her bottom. A great way to knock the guest off guard and take his thoughts down another channel. A blatant move aimed at his youth. It didn’t matter that the lady was two heads taller than him. Actually, being shorter it was more convenient to watch the tailed butt. Plus one for the cats. Only he did not fall for their trick.

  They came to a mighty door which opened in front of them. Another cat came out to meet the colorful couple. She was like a copy of his escort, only her sari was a tender olive color. Andy’s suspicions were confirmed as to the identity of his guide. These kitties were definitely all related.

  “The Great Mother is waiting for you,” the kitty in olive purred, rather than said. The sisters exchanged glances. Now, now, ladies, don’t glare like that with your pupils. It’s not your fault that the young shkas knows a little more about women than you expected, relying on the experience of Alo Troi, whose personality he absorbed when learning a language.

  “Please,” the olive-clad cat let him into the lady’s office and slammed the door. Like a razor cutting his skin, the clap of the door closing activated the curtain spells. Now no sound could be overheard.

  The Great Mother was sitting at a wide desk. On the polished surface lay two feather pens and three leather folders with papers. The light transparent gauze on the Miur’ shoulders was replaced by a colorful cloak. The bracelets with bells on her arms and legs disappeared; the jingling rings woven into her braid were now tied with colored laces. The leader now most resembled an earthly businesswoman.

  “I will not beat around the bush,” Andy began, taking the initiative. “You probably realized that my mother was hiding information about her past from me. Your words about her belonging to the ruling family of the empire were a shock to me. Due to certain circumstances, it is now difficult for me to hear the truth from primary sources. I ask you to tell me your version of the ancient events. It may sound pathetic, but my family dark past caught me at the most inopportune moment, and without knowing those events, it is difficult to judge my current situation and assess the consequences of my actions. It would be extremely imprudent to somehow cast a shadow on my parents or tarnish them with improper and unworthy deeds.”

  The test probe was launched. The Great Mother shut the file folder she’d been examining pointedly and laid it on the edge of the table. The dark pupils in her yellow eyes turned into narrow slits. For a long time, she stared at Andy, who was now a silent statue. From under the table, the twitching tip of her tail was peeking out. She was facing a dubious choice. Refuse, and any potential cooperation could be forgotten. The blue-eyed boy’s strengths would be of no use to her. Any dragon can tolerate pain and keep his secrets. She had no leverage over him. The scope of his interests was rather narrow, but telling him could be problematic. It was all simple in words, but for individuals endowed with huge power, nothing in life is simple. It would be impossible to tell him in words.

  The Miur pushed back the chair and stood up from the table. Andy continued to stand motionless. He’d said his piece; it was his opponent’s turn. The feline came up to him and, bending her knees, crouched. Their eyes were on the same level.

  “Do you want to know the truth? I can show you.” The Miur touched her temple with the released claw of her index finger. “Are you prepared to trust a cat?”

  A bold move. She wasn’t denying him but put before him a difficult choice: direct transmission from the brain to brain, the fusion of minds. Was he ready to reveal to someone else’s essence his personal secrets, to allow her to dig into his memories? In all the books he’d read, he never heard of a dragon agreeing to the fusion of minds if he hadn’t broken the other’s will himself. By asking the question and setting the condition, the ruler of the cat people showed that she did not have secrets; she was completely open to him, the choice was his. The
Miur knew the psychology of dragons, but in this particular case, she miscalculated….

  Yes, she could look into the dark corners of his soul, but her secret storehouses would appear before his gaze as well. On the other hand, “merging” would help them better understand one another. It was better than living without a past, as he was forced to since his first notorious portal jump, and his secrets…, what secrets could he have? The medallion, the so-called “key?” His other-worldly origin? All his secrets were not worth the past, and therefore, the present. The Great Mother fell into her own trap.

  “I am,” he answered and looked into the eyes of the fully straightened Miur. He was looking up at her, but it was the strong look of an equal. In the Great Mother’s eyes, he saw genuine respect. Checkmate. In agreeing, he had just deprived them both of any retreat path. In any case, he had one piece of work up his sleeve, already prepared and ready to be activated, which was connected to his reason and free will and designed to kill anyone who attempted to control them.

  “We had better sit down.” Andy looked around for a free chair. “Not here,” she interrupted him. Taking him by the hand and pushing back a curtain behind the desk, she led him through an inconspicuous door. The next room resembled the apartments he’d just left—carpets, pillows, padded stools, a low table, a wide ottoman just above the floor, the subdued light of magical lanterns. A place where you could relax after a hard day’s work. The Miur, dragging him along with her, sank to a mountain of pillows:

  “Relax, take off your shields.” Andy obediently removed the cocoons of will shields. “Clear your mind of extraneous thoughts….”

  The cat woman touched his forehead with hers. Her yellow eyes turned into bottomless wells, dragging his mind into the dark depths …

  * * *

  …He woke up and felt that his head was lying on something soft and springy at the same time. With difficulty focusing his vision, Andy looked up from the “pillow,” which turned out to be the ruler’s left breast. His right cheek bore the mark of the concentric circles of Asha’s nipple. A hammer pounded in his head. He looked at the Miur, curled up like a little kitten, her mysterious feline eyes gazing back at him, and grabbed his temples….

  The cunning cat had calculated all the options, not forgetting to include in the layout of the future conversation some of the most incredible possibilities, including the fusion of minds. Actually, to say she hadn’t forgotten about it is an understatement. The Miur planned to gradually bring the conversation to the slippery topic of unification. His statement about Jagirra was simply incredible; the Great Mother did not believe the dragon’s words. She was afraid of making a mistake. In three thousand years, Jagirra had twice re-emerged out of nowhere, and once, her daughter did too. Each time, the pretenders presented irrefutable evidence of their origin, but all the empresses turned out to be agents of the secret intelligence service. Hazgar adored fishing around, finding out which clans were beginning to intrigue against him, and if he found anyone, they disappeared not only from the political scene. There hadn’t yet been any stories about Jagirra having a son, or anyone having a family tattoo. The shkas did not emphasize his origin, which was strange at the least and did not match the modus operandi of the empire’s secret services. A different approach, but still, doubts remained. Penetrating into the mind was just dotting the “I.” The stakes were too high not to. Tricky cat! The desire to have your fish and eat it too doesn’t always come true. The dots on the “I” and other punctuation marks were a surprise to you. Is it tough getting caught in the trap of your own disbelief?

  Andy looked at the unconscious cat and squeezed his fists, gritting his teeth. He ought to strangle her. How his head ached! After all, she knew very well that unification of the minds of two different kinds of beings resulted in stunning pain, the pointy-eared jerk. On Ilanta, human and elf mages never merged with dwarfs. Silicone organisms were incompatible with humans. They had different brain structures and active magical zones. With Miur, the situation looked different. They had the same protein structure, but humans and Miur were distinguished by different biochemical processes taking place in the body, customs, social order, moral norms, etc. In other words, he and Asha were computers with different operating systems, and combining them caused irritation of nerve endings and pain.

  Two fools, luring each other into traps like clinically certifiable paranoiacs. In the end, they both won and lost.

  Asha was perfectly prepared, blocking her middle and deep layers of memory in advance, setting her mind’s defense against breaking. At the confluence, the closed zones looked like dark patches. The ruler was right in that sense. Protection helped her stay on the brink and break off the connection with the dragon just in time. As for Andy, he didn’t defend anything, just drove the Miur into a sector of his mind that was filled with a kaleidoscope of memories. Let her be occupied with other things! Asha, plunging into the cycle of events, could not tear herself away from the amazing revelations for most of the merger. She was engrossed by the world from which Andy-Kerrovitarr-Andy came to Ilanta and upset by the massacre at the school and the events at the Helrats’ monastery. The moment he discovered the interplanetary portal on the lake shore was viewed several times. Much later, her attention shifted to the young dragon’s mind, which was so vast and developed that the cat was confused. The Miur knew what to look at. Experience, thanks to the previous generations of rulers, was invaluable, but all her experience was somewhat useless against Andy’s mind. At first, it seemed to her that nothing threatened the threads that controlled the trance, but when she realized the opposite, she was shocked. Andy absorbed her preparations faster than a flame devours dry grass. The powerful swirl of foreign will begin to dissolve and tighten her “I.” The virtual killer she discovered hidden at the very edge of perception, which controlled all the processes of influencing his free will, caused a slight panic. So that’s why he wasn’t afraid. Fear of taking an unguarded step and being killed or absorbed and synced into someone else’s mind caused the cat to break off contact.

  While his counterpart was looking at the protection spell and reading his unusual biography, Andy did not waste time, leafing through the “book” that described the history of the imperial family. The painting abounded in gaps. He immediately felt doubts. He discarded some facts right away; others were accepted without too much hesitation. To Andy, the history of the reigning dragons looked biased. Hazgar, Jagirra’s uncle, was unnecessarily demonized. His associates were mentioned casually, which was understandable: the Great Mother singled out the main enemy from the herd and listed his strengths and weaknesses in Andy’s head, analyzed his deeds. Hazgar’s companions lay on “separate shelves;” it took time to get to them. Despite the bias, Andy managed to isolate the main thing. The truth was bitter, leaving on his lips the characteristic salty taste of blood.

  He recognized a secret of the Great Mothers: tribal memory. The Miur with snow-white fur had a tribal memory common to all leaders. They could freely refer to the memories of past generations, up to the tenth. Poor creatures, they had no childhood. What kind of discoveries in life could the kittens make if they remembered their mother’s whole life, and the lives of a dozen generations from the very moment of their birth? They were little grandmothers. A useful gift, but a heavy burden.

  Andy picked up the Great Mother under the armpits and dragged her to an ottoman. Magical contact was harder on her than on him….

  He closed his eyes. Foreign memories rushed into his brain again…. How many Miur, humans, elves, and dragons perished and vanished into obscurity, gathering information about the imperial clan, analyzing and comparing all the facts and knowledge that was later deposited on the shelves of the Great Mothers’ collective memory and, seven generations later, now reached him?

  Humans and dragons. Dragons that had become humans….

  * * *

  How simple and how complex. Power, the desire to climb to the top of the pyramid and the unrestr
ained thirst for possession of an ephemeral thing that gives visible and invisible advantages. Power was to blame for everything….

  The initial point of the fall of the dragons should be considered the opening of portals. Thousands of immigrants erupting from their depths. The arrival of people on Ilanta changed the Lords of the Sky.

  The opening of portals on Ilanta and the appearance of a new race on the stage brought a fresh vigor to the life of the ancient creatures. The discovery of a way to transform humans into dragons and dragons into humans radically changed them. The fashion of a second hypostasis swept over the Lords of the Sky. The boredom that tormented many of the long-lived creatures was satiated.

  The Lords of the Sky played “people” and didn’t notice how or when the game turned into real life. Humanization gave them not only the positive qualities of the bipedal creatures, but also the vices inherent in that race….