by Ivy Logan
A REUNION
Joshua finally found his sister, or rather he found her waiting for him.
The Talia who stood before him was the same yet different. She still had the beauty of their mother but she also had the determination of their father too.
Today she was a Heichi warrior. Her blue locks were free and flowing. It was a declaration of her identity. I am not hiding anymore, she seemed to be saying. Her eyes, so much like his own, were fiery and burning with an intensity that reflected anger and revenge. But contrary to a warrior’s battle readiness, her weapons lay discarded in a pile to the side. What do you want? he wanted to ask. To talk or to fight?
Talia wore a thoughtful expression on her face. Joshua had seen this expression before. It meant she wanted to talk. The dragon in him was taken aback. Aiming a stake at his heart would have been a lot easier than throwing herself at his mercy. The most significant hallmark of any friendship is trust. By standing there weaponless without a single soldier in sight, she had done something that King Damien never had. She expressed faith in the dragon’s discernment and empathy. Talia was going to try to win over the dragon. She seemed determined to attempt what no one had done before—appeal to the better instincts of a dragon. Dragons very rarely accepted humans of their own free will. Did she not know that? What if he were to kill her?
The dragon waited. She would say her piece eventually, and she did but without saying a word. She reached out directly to him through her thoughts just like he suspected their mother could. “I do not want to kill you. Enough innocent lives have been lost. Don’t stand in my way. Don’t protect Damien. Win your freedom and I will win my vengeance and protect my family,” she pleaded.
Joshua fixed his blue eyes on Talia in a hypnotic stare. He could see right into her heart, the compassion, love, and courage. She was just the same—his beloved sister with a deep desire to protect the family she has today and to avenge the ones she thought she had lost. No self-serving obsession like King Damien. Her soul had a golden aura. It was magical and filled with the most beautiful thing in the world—love.
How could he make her look into his heart? Don’t you know me, Talia? he wanted to ask. If only he could give her a great big hug to make up for the loss of the past years of anguish. Then he remembered.
Before her amazed eyes, Talia saw the massive dragon, who was looking very uncomfortable in the relative tight fit of the maze, slowly start to spin. He wasn’t encircling her, trying to block her escape or attack. His moves were far from aggressive. She did not know how to react to such puzzling behaviour. He was turning around in a small circle while standing in the same place. Then he stopped and looked at her. Was he expecting some response? What? This was unexpected.
Talia had counted on being targeted and attacked. Not this. This was surely abnormal behaviour for a dragon. When all she did was stare at him open mouthed, he shook his gigantic head from side to side as if in exasperation, and then he repeated the same thing again. He went on and on. She could not take it anymore. “You are going to get dizzy,” she said, when in fact she was the one feeling light headed, but the dragon just shook his head and went on with his task.
Again and again he kept turning around in circles.
As Talia watched, the scene in front of her faded; the dragon was gone and time turned back for her. She saw Joshua twisting and spiralling, going around and around, laughing, giggling but refusing to stop until she hugged him. It could not be. She stared and stared at the dragon.
What was it that Damien had said? I showed him what happened to your brother and told him what I was going to do to you. His heart gave out.
Was it possible that she hadn’t lost Joshua after all?
Talia had nothing to lose. At the most, the dragon would set her on fire, but if he wanted to kill her, he could have done so by now. She would not be taking a greater risk than she already was just by standing in his presence.
Talia ran towards the circling dragon. Seeing her so close, he faltered, almost as if he was scared too. Taking a deep breath, hoping she wasn’t making the greatest mistake of her life, she stepped forward gingerly and almost deferentially ran her hands over his scales. They were neither sharp nor rough like she had imagined but as smooth as pebbles polished by the flowing waters of a river.
Talia spread her arms as wide as she could and gave the dragon a great big hug. She made a gigantic assumption but she had nothing to lose. She put all her love and hope into the embrace, casting her past disappointments away.
Had it started raining? Water was dripping on her head. It meant she was still alive. All her limbs were intact. Stepping back, she craned her neck upwards to look at the dragon.
The dragon was standing still, his head bowed. It wasn’t rain that she had felt but his tears.
“Joshua?” she asked, cautiously.
The dragon looked at her, his eyes shining. He vigorously nodded. She finally recognized him. “Oh, Joshua, how did this happen to you? Don’t worry; I will make it all right,” she said, planting a kiss on his salty and scaly cheek. “I will get you your body back; I promise.” Then her smile turned into a distressed frown. “You have a niece, Joshua. She is six and she is beautiful. Damien has her and he is waiting for me.”
Knowing that another family member was in the clutches of King Damien riled Joshua like nothing else could. This had to end permanently. King Damien had to be stopped. His actions had taken away some of the sweetness of his reunion with Talia, but there would be time enough to celebrate later. It was time to face King Damien. He must get Talia there quickly. Her mount was nowhere in sight.
Joshua gave a mighty purr and bent his forelegs. He then flattened his long and powerful tail to the ground, allowing Talia to climb onto his back. Joshua waited a beat, but the bond between them was as seamless as ever. Talia understood. As soon as she climbed onto his back, ensuring her grip around his neck was firm, he lifted his massive body off the ground, tail arched as straight as an arrow, wings unfurled to full length like the twin masts of a large ship.
The dragon glided into the air as graceful as a swan and headed towards King Damien.
CHAPTER XXVI
The thing about fear is that it is always greater when it lives in your heart. Bring it out in the open and sometimes it has no choice but to be gone.
The thing about a weapon you create to use against others is that sometimes it turns right back on you.
Talia
THE MORTAL KING
The dragon set Talia down a few feet away from Damien with a tenderness that belied his size. The king stood triumphantly holding Katie against his chest, her feet dangling helplessly in the air. An unsheathed sword lovingly grazed Katie’s neck, the threat against the child implicit.
Damien’s cocky expression turned stormy when he saw Talia’s ride. He shook Katie in anger. That wretched dragon was always trying to befriend humans even though he had lost his own humanity. The poisonous looks he directed towards the dragon would have usually been enough to make the dragon shiver in fear, but not this time. The little girl’s cries enraged him. When he looked at Katie, he saw a little Talia in Damien’s cruel grip.
Damien had successfully used the threat of violence to coerce Joshua in the past, but no more. He had an identity. He wasn’t a dragon. He never had been. He was Joshua, brother of Talia and son of Michael and Caitlin, and that should count for something even if he was trapped in the body of a dragon.
Finding the dragon impervious to his taunting looks, Damien turned on Talia instead. “Took your time, didn’t you? Almost had a change of heart about your daughter’s worth now that you’ve managed to charm my dragon?”
“Never,” said Talia. “Nothing is more important to me than family.”
“I am here now, Katie. You’ve been a brave girl and I am proud of you,” Talia said to her.
“You aren’t angry with me for following you?” Katie asked. Katie’s shouting and howling had driven Damien crazy, but seeing Tal
ia, she had quietened down considerably with only the occasional hiccup tempering a sudden sob.
“Hmm, only a little,” said Talia, forcing laughter into her voice. Katie finally stopped sobbing altogether and gave a small smile. Damien sighed in relief when the racket died down but the way the mother and daughter were carrying on as though he wasn’t even there was too much. To add to his woes, his dragon seemed to have switched sides. He wished he had his whip with him. That would have quickly got the dragon back in control.
“You managed to charm my dragon like you did me the first time we met,” commented Damien in a chatty voice, something else clearly simmering beneath the surface. “Does he remind you of someone you used to know?” he asked in jeering voice.
Talia could no longer maintain the mask of ignorance. “You knew!” she spat out. “You knew and you still forced him to kill for you? He was just a child. How could you? There has to be a limit to your depravity.”
“Does your brother still look like a child? I am not the one who turned him into a dragon, am I?” Damien retorted mildly. “It was your mother. If he wasn’t going to serve me, I would have got rid of him. You should thank me for keeping him alive even though he is a sign of your mother’s betrayal,” Damien told Talia. “Aren’t you disgusted by what he has become?” Grasping the struggling Katie tighter, Damien began laughing. “Your father was disgusted. He was so determined to learn the truth. I just helped him along, but instead of being happy to see your brother, he collapsed and died.”
The dragon roared in anger again, only succeeding in inciting the king to laugh louder.
“You are a terrible person,” Talia said. “You will be punished for what you have done. You have had your fun. Let her go now,” Talia insisted as she took a step closer.
“Of course not. This little charmer is my guarantee that you will do as I say. Come here,” he commanded.
“Katie is a child. What power do you think she will give you? If a single hair on her head is harmed, I will not be of any use to you,” threatened Talia.
Recalling how Joshua had put a spoke in his plans, the king hesitated. He knew she wasn’t lying. Like mother, like daughter, he whispered to himself. Caitlin had been ready to do anything to save Joshua, and Talia would do the same for Katie. These sorceresses were mothers before anything else. What a waste of power.
“I will come back to Aberevon with you, but you need to let her go and give me Joshua back,” Talia promised.
“Katie is not going anywhere. Besides, I can’t give you your brother back. The ghosts who came for your mother also took away his body. Even with magic, how do you plan to change this creature back into a boy without his body?” Damien snorted derisively, pointing at the dragon.
Talia wanted to kill Damien right then but she knew that he spoke the truth. This was the Wraith her father had told her about, the ones who had doomed her mother’s life. She would get Joshua back, but first they had to free Katie. The lance would have been perfect, but all she had now was the sword.
From the rear side of the maze, Aiden suddenly appeared. He did not seem to have any weapons on him. He must have run after Katie when he realized she was missing. Talia saw him but did not react. His appearance gave her the hope that the situation could yet be retrieved. She deliberately turned her focus back to the belligerent king to distract him from any noise Aiden might accidentally make.
Katie saw Aiden and was about to call out to him, so Talia shouted, “Katie, fall forward! Now!” For a moment, neither Katie nor Damien reacted. Then, for once in her life, instead of arguing back, the little girl did as she was told. She almost slipped out of Damien’s grasp, surprising him, but he did not let go. Damien engaged and absorbed in holding on to Katie. Aiden shoved the king aside, grabbing hold of the little girl at the same time. Eager to be of help, Talia rushed to them. Damien threw her to the ground and pointed his sword at her.
“Let us see how immortal you are. Will you survive my sword plunging into your heart? If I can’t have you, no one can.”
A familiar voice spoke in Talia’s head. It was Joshua reaching out to her. “Do you remember the furnace and how father chewed you up for going near it?” Before Talia could react, the voice shouted, “Move! Now! It is furnace time again.”
Talia ducked out of the way without a second thought. If Katie could follow orders blindly, so could she.
Once, a long time ago, with the absurd curiosity that only children possess, she had gone closer to a huge furnace than she should have. The heat had exploded all around her, torrid, blistering, red-hot and scorching. Luckily, her father had pulled her away just in time, but the yelling she’d received from him had not been any less fiery. Joshua had been witness. He was the one who had consoled her, holding her tight in his little arms.
As she watched, a blast of fire walled Damien in. The warmth of the furnace had ben positively chilly compared to the scorching heat emitting from her brother. Stunned, she watched as Damien’s deathly prison of flames encircle him until the struggling figure was no longer visible. He literally vanished from sight having been burned to ashes just like his victims
Death by the very dragon he used as a weapon to kill countless of innocents. Damien’s own instrument of death had turned on him. Wasn’t this justice and a fitting retribution?
Another peril had arisen in the maze. Damien was dead but the dragon’s fiery flames continued unabated. Joshua was exercising his own free will for the first time in his prevailing avatar, seeking vengeance for all the infractions that Damien had heaped on him and their family.
Damien had channelled the strength of the dragon for his own ends, and at the same time, manipulated and exploited Joshua’s weaknesses as a child. Dragon he might have been in power, but in reality, Joshua was driven by the feelings, fears and anxieties of a nine-year-old boy. The fire raining down represented the angst, pain and resentment Joshua had bottled up inside against Damien.
Talia knew her brother needed an outlet to release his anger. Joshua had finally built up the courage to face the man who had destroyed him. He was hurting, but if he didn’t stop, her husband and daughter would also be killed by the dragon’s fire.
“It’s over, Joshua, STOP!” Talia shouted. But Joshua either couldn’t hear her over the din, or had chosen to ignore her. She skirted the path of his fiery flames and made her way to him as fast as she could.
Aiden and Katie watched, their expressions a mixture of awe and terror as Talia embraced the predatory looking dragon as though he were Aherin or a harmless palace pet. They didn’t know the dragon was Talia’s little brother and wouldn’t harm her for anything in the world.
The flames sprouting from the dragon’s mouth gradually subsided. They faded away as Talia’s wordless embrace offered unconditional understanding and support to her beloved brother. He would never be alone again. He was where he belonged. With his family.
Tears of relief flooded Talia’s eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand when she spotted a pale, shimmering, but very familiar figure at the periphery of her vision. “Mama?” she whispered in surprise.
CHAPTER XXVII
What happens when the past and the present collide? Which do you choose: A bright future filled with happiness at the cost of the sacrifices and pain of loved ones in the past? Or do you right the wrong?
Talia
A LIFE FOR A LIFE - TALIA
Talia stared at the ethereal and translucent lady standing before her—Caitlin, her mother. To Talia, it appeared as though her mother had just stepped out from a painting, for in appearance, she was as vivid as a muse created by the brush strokes of a master, but there was a lustre and brightness lacking in her eyes. Is she real, a ghost like the Wraith, or just a figment of my imagination?
“None of those,” said Caitlin as though reading Talia’s mind. “As a punishment for misusing the powers of the Heichi, I have been banished to the realm of the spirits, the great beyond, the unknown, but I am the onl
y one who still retains my human form. I feel hunger, thirst, pain, sorrow and joy, but my prison is an eternal one. I have returned to you here on Earth just this one time.”
“Oh, no, Mama!” sobbed Talia. Talia remembered and recognized every distinctive feature of her mother’s face. There were lines where earlier there had been none. Despite that her mother’s aging, it was as if Talia was but a child again, holding Caitlin’s hand and staring adoringly at her.
There was so much she wanted to say to her mother but she didn’t even know where to begin. The words and emotions had been contained inside her for so long. Why did you run away? she wanted to ask. Father was in pieces without you and Joshua. But all she said was, “Mama, you’re alive! You came back. I missed you so much.”
“And it seems that I have missed out on so much that has happened in your life,” Caitlin said, casting a lingering glance towards Aiden and Katie through the murky haze. “All grown up with a family of your own. When I left, you were only twelve, a little girl.”
Talia nodded, “Yes, mother. I never thought I would have a family again, but here they are. Aiden, my husband, and my daughter, Katie and that is Jo—”
“He is so handsome and she is beautiful. So much like you when you were a child,” Caitlin interrupted her wistfully.
But news of Joshua couldn’t be avoided any longer. Does mother know? “Do you know that Joshua…” asked Talia sounding worried. How would Caitlin react?
“Joshua is a dragon,” Caitlin completed for her. “I know. That is the reason I am here; his time on Earth is done. It is time for him to leave” she said, her voice laced with sorrow. “I am so glad I also got a chance to see you one last time to say goodbye. I didn’t earlier… I just left. I couldn’t say goodbye, otherwise I would have not been able to leave.”
It had been useless to hope her mother had returned to them, but as her hope for her mother’s return faded, she realized what Caitlin had whispered.
