Tiamat's Kittens: The Chosen
Oct. 17th, 2006 12:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aithne[Ran a bit long, and the end went off into okay this is weird territory, but hey. Sometimes, characters are a lot like dominos. You spend a lot of time setting them up, and when you kick off the chain reaction they go down all smooth and pretty. Hm. That wasn't exactly what I meant to say, but it's late and I should be in bed.]
5/20/978
Sondirra:
We spent three days in the palace, and the funerals were conducted on the 19th. They combined the funerals of Gada, her daughters, all three of their bondmates, and Kaeli, Neva's former bondmate. It was a long ceremony, as befitted a pair of heads of state, and I shifted as I heard the list of Quimby and Baptista's accomplishments and sterling qualities. No use speaking ill of the dead, I supposed, even if they had killed Gada and Jalena.
Palil and Gannon were pretty much completely inseparable; they'd been sticking close by each other before Palil had gone into heat, and now it was if they were joined at the hip. It was a little weird, because after a couple of days of that I was feeling a little irritated by the whole thing.
I realized then that I was cranky because I'd not gotten to spend any alone time with Palil for days. I winced when I realized that, figuring out what a part of my bondmate's reaction when I'd gotten together with Jordan had been.
Then I asked her to go flying with me, because I did miss her. An hour together put that right. We didn't talk much, but it was enough just to be alone together for a little bit. There was something different about her, and it took me a while to figure out exactly what.
She wasn't afraid. That was what the difference was. What was happening between her and Gannon was overwhelming her fear. It wasn't permanent, things there would eventually calm down. Maybe by the time it did, the fear wouldn't be unconquerable.
I had a lot to thank Gannon for, that was for sure. Gannon, for his own part, looked just about as stunned and happy as my bondmate when they weren't in front of people. In front of the rest of our command, both of them retreated into their usual reserve. They didn't get far from each other, but they also weren't affectionate in public.
After the funerals, we were free to go. Palil and most of us would head to the north, to the place we'd picked out to move all of the remaining portals to. The plan was to consecrate a large piece of ground and then use the mother to move all of the portals there, making it look like they'd been destroyed. I let Palil coordinate that, it was her area of expertise.
Bambi, Beamer, Tchar, and Galen would go to the one portal that remained in Reuben's territory. They consented to let me ride along in their heads, since Palil was busy chanting and waving her arms around. We wanted to figure out what was down here, why it hadn't been destroyed. It had been saved for some reason, and we were thinking it might be something about the staff.
The portal was in a hollow near the coast, well-hidden. When they arrived, the first thing that Tchar noticed was that there were a number of people who had been by here recently. "They're heavy, whoever they were, and they were in a hurry," Galen said. "Fourteen of them, or so. Going towards the beach. Didn't go through the portal, though."
Checking with the portal, they found out that nobody had been through here but Reuben, six months ago, and Beamer and Bambi about two months ago. Strange.
They started following the tracks down to the beach. The tracks were fanning out, the trail splitting into seven pairs. At that point, Tchar crested the rise above the beach and pulled up short.
There was a dragon on the beach. An enormous green dragon, about the same size as Jezik, lying with its head in the surf and its sinuous body crumpled in the sand. Dead, without a doubt. The surf was up, the wind gusting from the sea, and Bambi raised her head, sniffing. "Male," she said.
Down to the beach they walked, following the trail of footprints, going towards the dead dragon. A bit away from the body, the tracks changed to dragon, clawed feet digging deep into the earth, half of the tracks disappearing as the bondmates swung up on their bondmates' backs.
The dragon had been torn into, great wounds in its belly and neck. The one that had killed it was probably the great chunk that had been torn out of its neck. It was also scorched, as if by a breath weapon. The four who were there put their heads together and decided that this likely had been done by one dragon very likely another great wyrm. "Possibly a bondmate, that looks like it might have been a sword," Tchar said.
Scouting around a little more led to bits of harness and part of a saddle floating a bit out to sea, and a trail of blood leading away towards the bushes at the edge of the beach. There was an elf in those bushes, who had bled to death sometime in the few hours preceding. Nobody had stopped to check on her, it seemed.
This was all recent, relatively; less than ten hours old. Tchar checked in with Chaim, asking about green great wyrms in this part of the world; he said that the one he thought it might be was called Abbott, who had a female elven bondmate named Tecla. (Tecla is a common elven and drow name; it means beautiful beloved in one of the old drow languages, and so something like every tenth elven and drow baby girl is named Tecla.)
Beamer was scratching his head. "So there's a battle here. These two die. So who's the red or gold dragon? Has to be someone old--"
Tch, I broadcast. Guys, guys, look. Seven pairs of people are hanging out here, all of them old enough to be carrying some serious armor. Someone else arrives, the guards run down to the beach, change, engage the new person. Assume all of the dragons were ancients or close to it. What could be precious enough to spare all of that power to guard?
Bambi was following me. "The Staff of Bahomet."
And an old dragon shows up to take it--or a young dragon who's big enough to be mistaken for a great wyrm. Psyche and Kristof. Who we told about the staff--
"And Psyche's Bahomet's daughter. So what happened to them?"
Ask the dead.
At this point, Jordan offered his team's help, just in case. Bambi agreed to have them transfer to where they were. "Want to come?" he asked me.
"Want to, yes. I need to stay here, though. Someone's got to keep an eye on Palil," I said with a smile.
"Ah, well, you can use my eyes," he said. I grinned, kissed him, and shooed him towards the one portal we'd moved here so far.
It was time for our favorite part: questioning the dead. Psyche killed this pair because they were protecting the staff of Bahomet, we confirmed. The staff had been recovered by Abbot and Tecla's six teammates, so they hoped. If it had been, they were on their way north, flying towards Reuben.
Reuben himself was sitting in a camp about two days' flight south of Kazan, the city with the intact frost giant settlement underneath of it. Beamer was scratching his head. "Haven? You're a cleric of Bahomet. Can you find out if Psyche and Kristof are alive?"
"Give me a minute." Haven stepped away, and spent a minute or so muttering to himself. He returned and said, "Kristof is dead, he was disintegrated while he was on Psyche's back." Ooooh, ouch. It's one of the worse ways to die in battle, because there's no chance of finding even a little bit of your body to resurrect you with. "Psyche is alive but badly wounded."
"I'll go find her," Tchar said. He changed, waited just long enough to have Galen scramble into place, and took off. Meanwhile, Bambi and Beamer found out where the staff had been--a sea cave, about a mile and a half out to sea. They went out to investigate.
Kristof didn't seem Bahomet's type, I said to Jordan. I can't remember if you'd ever met him, but he had a giant chip on his shoulder. Kind of reminded me of you, before, but a ton worse because he'd been like that for a century.
Gee, thanks, Jordan said. I know what you mean, though. You said that Psyche was Bahomet's child. Maybe he didn't pick Kristof as an avatar.
Maybe he was stuck with Psyche's choice, I said.
Maybe, he echoed. Oh, Tchar found something--
He'd found a dead gold dragon. Then a dead black dragon. Then Psyche, bleeding heavily. Neda and Haven got going without even a moment of hesitation, and Gannon and Jordan followed.
Haven says he thinks he can save her, she's regenerating quickly. Her wing, though-- Jordan let me see what he was seeing, and I clenched my teeth and told my stomach to stay where it was. The membrane had been shredded, the bones shattered. Someone had latched on to one of her wings and used all of their attacks to try to rip it from her. He says she'll need to regenerate it, but we need to get it off of her. I'm going to help with that.
Good, I said. I turned my attention to Bambi and Beamer, who had arrived in the cave and were poking around. The cave appeared to contain a temple, sealed by great stone doors. In front of the doors was a pedestal with a basin of sorts on top of it. The basin had twenty-five bottles in it, all of them marked with a symbol and filled with a different substance, all of them very magical.
"Someone tried to erase the engravings on the base," Beamer old the rest of us. "Looks like a black dragon breath weapon. The stone seems to be regenerating, though. This is weird. Looks like it should all be back within maybe a day or so."
We should be done here by then, I said. Maybe get the full story of what happened from one of the other dead dragons.
They did, and it was what we thought. Psyche and Kristof had tripped an alarm in the Cavern of Bahomet and Tiamat (Bahomet and Tiamat? Um.) and they had run down to confront her. The staff of Bahomet had been unavailable to them until Psyche and Kristof had emerged from the cavern with it. They engaged with her, she killed Abbot, the gold, and the black. Just before the black had died, he had seen Kristof disintegrated by the bondmate of the red dragon in the group, and Psyche had gone limp with shock. She had been regenerating like mad, though, and they had no doubt that she was likely still alive.
The dead black dragon also said that the writing on the pedestal had been codes that would let you either into the Tiamat temple or the Bahomet temple within the cavern.
All right, then. We regrouped, decided that it was safer for us to spend the night near the ground Palil was consecrating, and we'd go back in the morning. Psyche woke up about an hour after Haven started treating her. After some initial misunderstandings (as Palil would say), Psyche recognized Tchar and Galen, and abruptly changed into her small form, curling up and sobbing.
Jordan ended up carrying her back to the portal and through. Haven dosed her with something strong to make her sleep, because he was going to need to start the regeneration on her soon, and she needed to sleep and finish healing a bit more before that happened.
I realized then that I'd never gotten to see Psyche's small form. She was a rangy half-elf with bright auburn hair cut to her chin, and in her sleep she looked almost childlike.
She looks lost, Palil said. She'd ghosted up to me, looking down at our guest. I didn't trust Kristof as far as I could spit him, but... She shrugged. She loved him. It's a damned shame.
The life of avatars is generally short. I'm guessing she knew that, I said. Come on. Let's let her sleep.
As we turned away, I caught Palil glancing over her shoulder at Psyche, something in her eyes and in her heart that I couldn't name. I took her hand, squeezing it. This wasn't just sympathy for a dragon who was living Palil's worst nightmare. This was something else.
I knew better than to pry, and I don't think my bondmate could have told me, anyway. Sometimes she sees into the future, does Palil, and we both know by now that sometimes what she sees comes true, and sometimes it comes true but in a vastly different form than she thinks it will.
Palil:
Consecrating that much ground is exhausting. We hunted that night, and I slept well, curled next to Gannon. The next morning, we went back to the cavern. This time, we could see the writing, and we arranged the bottles in the pattern for Bahomet. The doors slid open with a rumble, and from the portal thus revealed came a beam of light that scanned across us, first one way, then another.
The light winked out, and we looked at each other. Then, from the altar, a set of silvery stairs extended towards the opening. With a bit of trepidation, we climbed up and into the temple proper.
The first impression that the place gave was that one, it was far larger than it ought to be. The second impression was that it had been put together by a madman. Stairs ran all over, many of them moving from place to place, some swinging, others moving at a stately pace across the floor. Many of them were at impossible angles.
We spent some time trying to make sense of the place, then Haven pointed ahead of us. "I see something," he said, and began to walk forward, dodging staircases. We followed. There was another plinth, only this one was empty. Behind it was a stand that had once held a staff. "More markings," Haven said, bending to look.
"I can't see a bloody thing," Beamer said. "You sure?"
"It's right there. Look, this face says it goes to another temple somewhere, this one to death, this one to...Karop? Weird. And this one says it goes to enlightenment." Haven stopped talking, looking from one baffled face to another. "Does anyone have any parchment? I'll write the combinations down," he said, shrugging.
Turns out, after Beamer and Lida had a chance to go over what Haven had written down, that the other temple was within the frost giant city below Kazan, the Karop combination went to the mother portal, the death combination went to a Tiamat temple, and enlightenment, well...it was something about wisdom, enlightenment, and honesty. Which, if I recall my religion lessons correctly, is Bahomet's motto.
"Enlightenment sounds good," Beamer declared. We decided that it did, and all of us piled out of the temple to try that combination.
As we went out, Galen was muttering to himself. "What if the reason that they couldn't get into this temple was because of that light?" he said to me. "What if it kills anyone who belongs more to Tiamat?"
"I'd say we were lucky we wanted to get into the Bahomet side," I said.
Once we were all out, we tried the enlightenment combination. The stairs folded up, the doors closed, and then the door opened again and we were once more scanned by that light. The stairs unfolded, and this time they were more golden-colored.
No staircases in here. Instead, there was fog, tinged with gold as if there were a sun somewhere close by, lighting the clouds. I was suddenly hearing, though the staves, not just the six pairs linked by the staves. I was hearing everyone.
I closed my eyes. There was worry, fear, anxiety. Calm, from some. Jubilation, from Haven. Determination, from several. Wide-eyed wonder.
I knew all of them, each voice. Eighteen pairs, thirty-six different voices, each of them unique, each of them equally precious. Each of them equally worthy of my protection.
Even the one who I had thought I'd always hate.
The startlement of that realization was erased as a new voice entered our minds. "So what, precisely, is it that you are doing here?"
Beamer found his tongue first, as we all realized who it was who was speaking to us. "Well, we came in search of enlightenment."
"You received the gift of this place just before you set foot in it. The light gave it to you. I suppose I could answer some questions, if you wanted."
So many questions came to mind! Turns out Reuben wanted to get the Staff of Bahomet to Kazan because it was there that it could be destroyed. The frost giants had been trying to destroy the staff of Tiamat, but the former bearer of that staff had died before it had been used. The whole city was part of a great magical machine that could be used to destroy artifacts.
Well, that answered the question of why Kazan. Another question told us that in the temple of Bahomet, there were more of those plinths. In total, the doorway we had just walked through had five hundred destinations, some more pleasant than others. More questions revealed that the staffs did cancel each other out, as we'd thought they might. "Without the staff, you have no chance. Reuben and Tiamat will take over. With it, you have a chance. Possibly a slight one, but it is a chance."
Sondirra scratched her head. "Kristof had a bunch of armor--your armor. What happened to it? Did it get disintegrated?"
"No. The same people who took the staff took the armor."
"What are the pieces?" Bambi wanted to know. "Do they have all of them?"
There was a smile in the god's voice. "The staff, the plate mail, the shield they have. The sword, they do not. That is in the keeping of the white dragon Palil at the moment."
I felt the shock of that statement wash down me.
And I heard Sondirra moan silently, Oh, no, no, no--
Sondirra:
As soon as Bahomet said that the sword from Kristof's set was in Palil's keeping, I knew. I don't know how I knew, but I knew what it meant that Eldil was Bahomet's sword. I took a breath. "We have someone with us who qualifies to be your avatar. Eldil was your daughter. Gannon is her direct descendant."
Bahomet chuckled gently. "You are correct. Jordan, being Gannon's bondmate, qualifies."
I was standing next to Jordan, and my hand found his. He squeezed my hand reassuringly.
I was not reassured.
Palil:
Murmurs ran through the group. I looked over at Gannon. Did you know?
I had no idea, he replied, looking at me and spreading his hands. Maybe Nimri knows, or some of the other older ones.
I ran my hand over my hair, looked around at the golden fog. "I think that was all we had. Unless you know something about the staves we carry."
"Ah, those. I do know something that you do not." The pause after those words was considering, thoughtful. "The staves are waiting for those of you who bear them to choose what they do. Choose well, for the choice cannot be undone."
I looked over at Sondirra, who was biting her lip and evidently thinking hard. It was time to beat a retreat, I thought. I bowed. "Thank you. We are greatly in your debt." Then I began to walk backwards, stepping back towards the staircase. Everyone else followed suit.
For the rest of the day, we played in the temple. We knew that the staff and the armor would need to be flown north to Kazan, and that was a journey of a month. We could interrupt that journey anywhere along its route. We had time here do explore.
Sondirra, Galen, and Beamer disappeared into a doorway that was marked "Cunning", and came back with things--Sondirra and Galen a pair of boots that left no tracks, Beamer with a lockpick that appears to be a skeleton key of some sort. Bambi and Tchar went through a door marked "Speed", and came back with little golden rings in their wings. Those rings would let them double their flying speed for an hour a day.
Me, I found the Karop plinth, after climbing up and down several staircases. One side was labeled "the place of frost", one was "mother" again, one was the Bahomet temple at Kazan, and one was labeled "home".
I blinked. Either the door to frost or the door to home led to Karop's realm, I thought. But which was which? Well, this was something the god would know, and I had a divination spell I could use to ask.
"The door to frost leads to my realm," came the answer in my god's voice. "The door to home leads to wherever the person who opens the door feels most at home."
I thought about it. "Well, that could go any number of places. #2, my parents' village."
"You may be surprised by the answer," Karop said, and I jumped. I wasn't expecting him to still be listening. I took a long look at the plinth, then sighed. I was going to be alive with curiosity until I tried it. I sat down to copy down the combination for both the door to frost and the door home.
I wandered out to the front of the temple to try it; we'd figured out that it was all right to open some of the secondary doors while there were people in the temple. I rearranged the bottles in order, then held my breath as the door opened.
"Where does that go?" Gannon was behind me, looking at the glowing door.
"I don't know," I said. "The place I feel most at home, supposedly. I'm not going through, I'm just going to stick my head in and see where it goes." I started climbing the staircase that led to the door. Stopping on the threshold, I reached through it, then leaned forward, my head breaking the shimmering surface.
On the other side was a sight that I had suspected, somehow, I would see.
It was the cabin on Gannon and Jordan's estate that I'd spent a few days grieving Garnet in. It was familiar, the cabin half-hidden by trees, the lake at the end of the slope lush with reeds at its edges now, calm water reflecting blue sky.
There were tears standing in my eyes, blurring my vision. I didn't know why home was somewhere I'd spent less than a week. But I felt a stab of longing, wanting to be there.
I pulled my head out of the door with an effort of will. Carefully, I walked down the stairs, and rearranged the bottles to close the door. "Where did it go?" Gannon asked, looking at me, taking in my teary eyes. "What's wrong?"
I shook my head. "Later," I said. "I'll tell you later."
Once I've had a chance to figure out what it means.
Sondirra:
Bahomet had been right; this place had given us all a gift. It was hard to explain, but all of us felt somehow more capable than we had been. It was getting late, so somewhat reluctantly we got everyone together, put together the combination for the mother, and transferred there. Once there, Palil gave the order for all of the portals to move to the ground she had consecrated. We bounced there, picked up another portal, and moved it to a place that Chaim had prepared, near Petrozav.
We had some things to talk to him about, but first the dragons needed to hunt. Chaim, Hedda, and Kamal went along with the rest of the dragons. I watched as Chaim transformed, unfolding into his enormous large form. Palil had gotten big in the last few months, but he was still easily ten or fifteen times her size. The sun was setting, and the golden light caught the edge of Chaim's wings and illuminated them from within.
Now I knew what seeing the flush on Palil's wings had reminded me of. The same flush was permanently on Chaim's wings. Something about being that old, probably. He was the last to take off, and as Palil spread her wings and took off, I saw him raise his head and sniff, exactly like Bambi does when she catches wind of something interesting.
They left, we put together an evening meal, and after an hour or so we were eating and the dragons were coming back.
"Reuben's forces are still heading east," Chaim said as he came to sit with us. "If they keep moving at the same pace, they'll be at the capitol of Isla's territory in a month or so."
Palil shook her head. "We have a month before the staff reaches Reuben. We need Isla's troops. Isla needs us to help defend her. I don't know what's got her so scared, but I think we need to go get her sorted out as our first priority."
Chaim looked at Palil. "Are you sure?"
When a dragon that old says are you sure in that tone of voice, it means you've missed something. "What?" Palil asked.
"You don't think those dragons who have the staff will pick up legions on their way north? From my understanding of the situation, they'll pass Novgorod in a day or so."
Crap. He was right. "Four great wyrms versus us. I don't like the odds."
Jordan said, "Jezik might help. I and Gannon can probably take one, you guys can take at least one other."
Palil was still running the odds in her mind, an she shook her head. "I still don't like it."
"I could come along," Chaim said. "Or MI68 would probably come along. Perhaps Orion."
"Orion's not a fighter, really, and I wouldn't want to risk you," Palil said. "MI68, though. They'd be useful. I like those odds a lot better."
"I'll contact them," Chaim told her.
"How are they doing, anyway?" I asked him. "I know Coulter's alive, but is Majesta?"
Chaim nodded. "She was very badly wounded in the attack, but she pulled through and she's on the mend. Lorne and Ridge died, and Jael and Bede. The rest are all right, now. Majesta is probably fit to fight by now."
I nodded. "Well, if you can call them in, we'd be obliged. Then we can get Orion to figure out where they'll be midmorning tomorrow, and move a gate nearby there. Go in, hit them hard, head out."
Coulter did say, after Chaim explained the situation, that MI68 would join us early tomorrow morning. Jezik was game, and since we needed a portal near Seratov anyway, we moved one there that night. Orion told us he'd keep an eye on the people who had the staff, and let us know tomorrow morning where we should drop in at.
That done, we pitched tents and got to sleep, as much sleep as you can get the night before a battle.
Palil:
I woke to the sound of Psyche muttering and complaining. Haven had started her regeneration last night, and by now she was itching something fierce, evidently. I knuckled my eyes free of sleep and wriggled out of the bedroll I was sharing with Gannon. I pulled on a loose shirt and pants and went to see what was going on.
Haven was just walking away from Psyche. "She's regenerating at a surprising pace," he told me when I gave him an inquiring look. "The wing will be whole again in a few days, and unless I miss my guess she'll be flying within a week. She would have regrown it even without my help, though it's going faster for some assistance."
I looked over at the red dragon, who was muttering and shifting. "Good," I said quietly. "I think we may need her. You're up early, Haven."
"Always am," he said with a shrug. "Morning person. If you'll excuse me--" He sidled away, and I let him go. He did run like a rabbit from anyone with more bars than he had. He must be nervous, with the admirals arriving and Chaim being here.
We were in a mountainous area, the granite bones of the earth close to the surface. There was a sheer cliff-face that sheltered the portal here, and I stretched and went to see if it was climbable.
It turned out that it was, happily enough. I was about two-thirds of the way up the wall when I heard a voice from below. "Palil, what on earth are you doing?"
I anchored my fingers and toes and looked down. Gannon was at the bottom of the wall, looking up. "What does it look like? This isn't quite as fun as glacier climbing, but it'll do."
"How are you planning to get down?"
"Easy. Watch." I tensed my body, arched out and away from the stone, tumbling into the air. I heard Gannon's choked noise from below as I muttered the word that caught me, wafted me downwards. I drifted down, landing gently in front of Gannon.
He caught me up in a rough hug. "You are insane," he said. "You are as completely insane as your bondmate."
I laughed and raised my head to kiss him. "I love you too, Gannon," I told him. "Come on. We're about to have an audience, and the Admirals should be arriving soon."
Jezik arrived first, and then MI68 landed in a nearby clearing. I was in my large form, Sondirra was finishing with my harness. "Admirals," I said, dipping my head in salute.
"Majors. Is it time?"
"A quarter hour or so, then we'll go. I and Chaim will move a portal to where we're going, then we'll ambush the people with the staff. Chaim told you what we're facing?"
"He mentioned." Coulter dipped his head and then crouched a bit so Majesta could dismount. She was tiny in her real form, a perfect miniature of an elf--except for the heavy limp that was apparent when she hit the ground. "We are taking the gold with the mage rider, yes?"
I nodded. "Jezik is taking the bronze with the fighter, Jordan and Gannon will take on the red with the mage. The rest of us will take the white dragon with the cleric. Should be more or less straightforward, if dangerous. We have a place to put the staff for the moment that's safe from Reuben, so we won't have to guard the thing."
"Good," he said. There was movement by my feet; I looked down to see Majesta limping towards Sondirra.
"Eaton told me to give this to you," Majesta said. "I have letters for some of the others, as well." She handed Sondirra a folded and sealed parchment, and a packet of other papers.
Sondirra looked down at the letter. "My parents! I haven't heard from them in months. Thank you. There's tea on if you want any, by the way, any of you. We're leaving soon, but there's time enough for a cup."
Majesta smiled. From where I was, I could see that the smile didn't reach her eyes; there was a constant awareness of pain at the corners of her eyes. "I will. Thank you."
"I'll get you a cup," Marcene said. "Hi, Palil, Sondirra. Over there, I take it?" Sondirra nodded, and Marcene walked towards the fire. Majesta limped back to Coulter, and Sondirra broke the seal on her letter.
"Eaton and Harbin survived?" I asked Coulter.
"Hale, fit, and cranky as ever." I let out a breath; I'd feared the quartermaster and our former commanding officer both dead.
Sondirra leaned on my leg as she read. "Oh, no way!"
"What?"
"Mother's pregnant again! Says she's due in October." I felt her eyebrows shoot upwards. "The midwife thinks she's carrying twins!"
"That's unusual for drow," I said.
"Vanishingly rare, actually." Sondirra shook her head. "My grandmother is beside herself with joy."
"I'm sure she is." That was a sour note. I liked Sondirra's maternal grandmother about as well as she liked me; that is to say, not in the slightest. "Is there any news of Sinte?"
"She's well, happy about having little brothers or sisters finally. She misses me and wants me to come for a visit soon. They've been trying to find out where I am, but the military's been telling them nothing, so they're worried. I'm going to have to visit next time we're around there. Go introduce Jordan to the family."
"Heart attacks all round?"
My bondmate snorted indelicately. "I'm lucky there's nothing to inherit, because I'd be disowned for sure. My parents will be happy, they want grandkids, and Sinte will adore Jordan. She's probably going to want to come live with us, you know. She desperately wants out of Ghen."
"We'll ride that tradewind when it blows," I told her. "Right now, we need to worry about surviving the next two hours. Go give the others their letters, and we can go."
There was a letter for Jordan from his parents, one for Aldaric from his older sister, one for Olin from his grandparents, who'd raised him. A number of the others got letters; we'd been out of touch for a long time, and it showed.
Chaim and I moved the portal to the appointed spot, and then it was a matter of lying in wait. I'm going to pull a Jordan, I think, Sondirra said. Just drop me over the white's back, I'll do what I can about the cleric. With him out of the way, the white should go down.
You're joking, I said.
With this spell on me, I'm almost as dangerous as you in battle, she told me. I'll hang in there for a bit, then I'll bail and featherfall down. Don't worry so much, love. I'll be fine.
I settled my wings closer to me. I know. I raised my head, looking over at Gannon. I'm more worried about Gannon, to tell the truth.
He and Jordan were arguing last night, after you fell asleep. Jordan thought I was asleep. I think we're going to need to talk to them.
What were they fighting about?
It wasn't really a fight, it was more of an intense disagreement. Something about the avatar thing. Gannon's not happy about it--
Wings in the sky!
That was Tchar's broadcast, and that was our cue. Sondirra scrambled up into the saddle and I took off, my teammates close on my heels.
The great wyrms we faced were enormous, and the sky was dark with wings.
I did drop Sondirra off, and together Tchar, Bambi, and I ripped into the male white dragon as Sondirra did her level best to kill the cleric on his back, and Galen shot him over and over. I tried not to think about anything but the necessity of survival, tried not to think that this was ostensibly a member of my extended clan, a bloodline we could ill afford to lose.
The things we do in war.
Sondirra:
I did what I could, and bailed. I was drifting down, drinking a healing potion (the guy had kept hitting me with Harm spells, ouch) when the cleric came plummeting out of the sky, tumbling bonelessly to the earth.
"Take that!" I yelled after him. Palil dove to pick me up, and none too soon, since just after that the white we'd been fighting faltered and fell.
Ours was the last to go down. Jordan was already on the ground, preparing to take the red's head, Gannon settling to earth beside him. Coulter was next to the gold, shaking blood from his muzzle, Majesta on his back looking pale but whole. There was the bronze, laid out on the ground, and beside him--
Jezik. Not breathing.
Oh, no...
Neda had landed next to him, and Haven had his hands on Jezik's bloodstained hide. "Dead," he said as Palil landed, blowing his hair back with the wind from her wings. "Nothing I can do."
"Can we get the body away?" Palil asked, glancing at the sky.
Coulter answered that one. "We're probably about to have company. Ours messaged someone before she died."
Palil snarled to herself. I hate leaving him here--
That's not Jezik. That's just meat, I told her. Find the stuff, let's go.
"Got it!" Beamer yelled.
"Everything there?" I called.
"Staff, armor, shield," he said.
"Let's go, everyone."
We took to the sky again, diving for the portal. Palil was the last through; we were taking this one back with us. Just before she dove, she glanced over her shoulder. What happens when Reuben knows Jezik's dead? I think Jezik was the last thing that whatever's left of Reuben loved.
We can't worry about it, I told her. I felt her turn and her wings folded, starting in on a dive. I closed my eyes. We mostly survived, that's all that matters--
The portal welcomed us, and a shimmer later, we were back north of Petrozav. We took the staff back to the temple of Bahomet, and within twenty minutes we were back with everyone. MI68 took their leave, as well as Chaim. Psyche was still with us, for the moment.
It was barely noon, but it had been a full day already. Our camp was still up, so we settled back into it for the afternoon. Beamer had handed Jordan the armor and shield without comment, and he was sitting cross-legged on the ground, going over the armor.
I dropped to my heels beside him. "Nice," I commented. It was fine steel, dwarf-forged, it looked like.
"It is. Though Gannon wishes we hadn't recovered it."
I gave Jordan a look. "I heard you two discussing it last night. To be honest, I'm not happy about it, either. I don't want to lose you, and, well..." I shrugged. "Might as well have painted a nice target on your back."
"I've always known I might die doing this," he said. "I wish it weren't true, but no use fighting it. I'll do what I have to to make sure Reuben goes down."
As I looked down at the armor, a thought occurred to me. "If you go up against Reuben and Tiamat with Gannon...Gannon won't live through it."
"That's what we were arguing about." He sighed. "Not a whole lot of a way around it."
I remembered the look Palil had given Psyche, after we'd found her. I knew, suddenly, what she'd been thinking. "There is, though. We have a daughter of Bahomet with us, who's a match for you in battle, once her wing's healed."
"Psyche? You think she would?"
"She has every reason to hate Reuben. She regenerates like mad, and she's great wrym-sized. It's the only way Gannon's going to survive this, Jordan."
"I know," he said, and looked away. "He's going to hate it."
I imagined trying to tell Palil that I was going to be riding Chaim into battle, and shuddered. Palil's voice broke into my reverie. What on earth are you two talking about? Whatever it is, Gannon's upset about it.
Where are you?
Southeast, by the stream.
"Come on," I said to Jordan. "Let's go talk to Gannon about this."
Palil:
I had been having some quite pleasant alone time with Gannon. Then he'd stiffened, pushed me away. "Jordan," he said through gritted teeth. "Little gods be good, Palil, he wants to leave me behind--"
That was when I contacted Sondirra. A couple of minutes later, Jordan and Sondirra arrived. "Gannon," Jordan started, then faltered when he saw the look on Gannon's face. "Gannon, please. You know what we're up against."
"And am I a wet dragonet to be protected? I go where you do, Jordan. We agreed. Don't break that promise, not like this."
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" I asked, a bit querulously. From the look on Sondirra's face, this was serious, but what was it?
Gannon turned to face me. "Jordan is talking about possibly riding Psyche into battle against Reuben, rather than me."
I blinked. "Oh."
"I need to be there, to the very end. I need to protect my bondmate." Gannon's voice was low. "Palil, you would feel the same way. I know you. You'd go to the ends of the earth to protect Sondirra. If it required your life, then you would give it."
"But you don't have to!" Jordan broke in. "Gannon, if I can keep you from dying by partnering for this one battle with someone capable of taking what Reuben's going to dish out, then I will."
"This one battle, the most important battle of our lives, and you're going to leave me behind. She's not your bondmate. She doesn't love you. She won't know when you're hurt, when you need to be caught. She won't defend you. Not like I will."
"I know," Jordan said. I watched him take a step forward, pain written on his face. "But she might also survive. And if she survives, so might I."
Gannon turned away, shoulders rounding with pain. "I know I'm your weak place," he said, and his voice was filled with agony. "You don't have to point it out. But you promised. You promised you'd never leave me."
"I'm not!"
I couldn't stand this. I stepped forward, took Gannon by the shoulders. His head was hung low, and I saw as he raised it to look at my that his eyes were shining with tears. "Hey," I said, my voice quiet. I reached up, brushed his hair out of his eyes. "Hey, Gannon."
Silently, I offered comfort. Gannon accepted, letting me hold him for a moment, putting his head down on my shoulder. "I hate this," he muttered into my shoulder.
"I know," I said. "I would, too. But, Gannon...it's the only way you're going to live through this. He loves you. So do I. Would you break both of our hearts, for pride alone?"
"Not just pride. Love, as well."
"I know." I tightened my arms around him. "I know you're not going to be happy about this, ever. But better unhappy and alive than dead."
"But--"
"Enough." That was Sondirra's voice, a whipcrack over our heads. Startled, we all straightened and turned towards her. My bondmate had a sharp look on her face, and I realized that worry was mixing with irritation in her, giving rise to one of those rash actions she's prone to. "I am not happy about any part of this. I am not happy about you--" and here she stabbed her finger towards Jordan-- "being given the part of Bahomet's avatar. I am not happy about the necessity of separating the two of you for that battle. There is every possibility that we are all going to end up dead. However. We have to fight this battle, and sometime soon."
She was pacing now, the pacing she did when she was giving orders to the others. "Captain Jordan. Talk to Psyche. See if she'll agree. If she does not agree freely, this discussion is all moot. Captain Gannon." She turned to face him, and he straightened, taken aback by the look on her face. "You can be as unhappy about this as you like. But if you're going to be unhappy with someone over it, let it be me. I will fucking ground you for that battle if I have to. I will not like it, but I will. This is not your choice to accept or reject. This is an order. And I'll get Coulter to back me up on it if you give me grief."
I saw him close his eyes, grit his teeth. "Yes, Major," he finally said, the words ground out between his teeth.
"Good. Dismissed." But instead of waiting for us to leave, Sondirra whirled and stalked off. Take care of Gannon, both of you, she broadcast to both Jordan and me. Her silent voice was much gentler than her words had just been. Let him cast me as the villain if he needs to.
Jordan's thought was wide enough to include me. I don't think he will. He's not going to be happy, though.
I knew that. Tell him drinks are on me, afterwards. We'll probably have some bridges to mend.
Gannon had turned towards Jordan, opening his arms, and Jordan stepped forward, hugging his bondmate tightly. Gannon's shoulders were shaking, and Jordan wasn't paying attention to anything other than Gannon.
I watched the two of them. They were talking silently, that much I could tell, and the look on Jordan's face held fear, worry, but most of all a deep love.
I was pretty much superfluous, and I turned to walk away. Let the two of them have some time alone. But as I stepped away, I heard Gannon's silent voice. Palil--
I looked over my shoulder to see that Gannon had let go of Jordan with one arm and was beckoning me over. Please...
Without thinking, I stepped over and joined what became a three-way embrace.
I had both Jordan's and Gannon's arms over my shoulders, my arms around both of their waists, my head against Gannon's shoulder. My heart pounded, but I stayed where I was. Gannon needed me, and he needed Jordan. I could deal.
It wasn't so bad, honestly. I concentrated on sending comfort to Gannon, feeling Jordan against me as kin to Gannon's flame. Brothers, soulmates, bound together for their whole lives, no matter how long or short they might be.
I wished Sondirra were here. Oddly enough, right after I had that thought, Gannon and Jordan both shifted, and I looked up to see my bondmate slide in between them. "Hey," she said, and looked at Gannon. "I'm sorry."
"I know," he said. "It's all right. You're right, all three of you are right, but I still hate it."
She tightened her arm on his shoulder. "All three of us love you," she told him. "Sometimes, you have to admit that there are foes out there you can't beat by yourself. He's not leaving you behind forever." She looked at me, and her eyes laid me open to the core, a lance of meaning to the heart. Do you understand now? she asked me, silently.
Gannon to my left, Jordan to my right, Sondirra before me. Home. Home was not a place. It was people. These people.
I closed my eyes. I understand, I think. When the hell did you get so wise, love?
About the same time you got to be able to understand what I've been trying to tell you for months, she said, and her mental voice was warm as Gannon's banked fire.
We stood in a circle for a few more minutes, silent. Then, by silent consensus, we broke apart and started walking back to the camp. Sondirra fell in beside me, and I reached out to take her hand. He loves Gannon, doesn't he? Really, truly loves him. And he loves you. He would do just about anything for either of you. I think, I said, consideringly, that I can live with that.
She glanced over at me, and smiled. Forgive him?
Yeah, I do.
And yourself?
I thought about it, turning my behavior of the last few months over in my mind. That's harder, I admitted. I don't like the person I seem to have become. I'm surprised that Gannon does.
Gannon sees beneath the fear, she told me. So do I. She paused, tilting her head slightly. Truth be told, I think it's taken Jordan a while, but I think he sees the person you are. Gannon's helped.
It's going to take a while for us to be friends. Years.
Let's worry about surviving first, all right? Then everything else. She chuckled, and I joined her.
We reached the camp about then, and it turned out that there was a friendly game of dice going on. Sondirra and Jordan both joined in, but I didn't really feel like it--dice isn't my game, I'm more of a bridge person.
Gannon had gone to his packs, digging out what appeared to be a tablet and stylus. I wandered past him, intending to go find a lake nearby and have a bath. He raised his head as I went past. "Where are you off to?"
"Going to go find some water, clean up. Battle always leaves my large form kind of grimy. I think I remember Aldaric mentioning there's a lake nearby."
"Want some company?" he asked. "I could use a dip, too."
"Of course! I'd have invited you along, but I thought you might want to be alone."
Gannon shook his head. "I thought you might be wanting some alone time. It's been a long day, and it's barely afternoon."
"I'm fine," I said. We were out of earshot of the camp now. "So what was it that you wanted to ask me about? I know there's something."
He chuckled. "Curiosity, nothing more. I was wondering, when you opened the door home, where home was."
I pressed my lips together, looking away. "It's going to sound silly," I warned him.
"No such thing."
I let out a noisy breath. "Your folks' estate. Specifically, the cabin you let me borrow right after Garnet died."
I glanced over at him, and he was looking at me with his eyebrows raised. "Why would that be silly?"
"I've been there all of five days in my whole life. Not long enough to get attached to a place." I gave him a rueful smile. "But home has a whole lot of different meanings. Karop was either having a bit of fun at my expense, or he was trying to tell me something. Knowing him, it was probably both."
"And what might he have been trying to tell you?"
I was silent for a moment, deciding how I wanted to say this. "Home doesn't have to be a place. Sometimes, it's people, the people who are the most important to you. Sondirra. You." My voice was shaking a little. "I think Sondirra's already thinking of the estate as home. And it's always been home for you."
"And Jordan," he said.
"And Jordan. I don't mind that." I looked at him sidelong. "Chaim's home is nearby. I could study with him, have him pass on what he knows about the mysteries of Karop before he dies. I could teach the little ones. Maybe find someone to teach me music. I can do all sorts of things." We'd reached the edge of the lake, and I shed my clothes and changed form, Gannon following suit. "The important part is that I'd be near you and Sondirra, and that Sondirra would be somewhere where she's happy. I'm pretty sure she's planning on having several children."
I waded into the water, swimming where it became deep enough for me to do so. Gannon followed me in, ducking his head under the water. "And you, Palil? Did you want children?"
"Want them? Yes." I shrugged my wings. "Destined to have them? Not sure. I'd have to find a white dragon to father them, someone I trusted. I know my parents want me to have children."
"Do you have anyone in mind?" Gannon's voice had an air of forced casualness about it.
"Not really. Well, okay, Kavan might do. I can't talk to him very well, he's always off in his own world, but that's just as well." I dipped my head under the water, shaking my head to swish off my horns. "Really, though, I'm hoping that enough white dragons from the old days are left after this war to make me reproducing optional. Maybe I'll help raise Sondirra's, and yours. You have that duty to the line, and all that."
Gannon snorted. "Have you seen how many brothers and sisters I have? My mother and father have barely hit their prime breeding years. The line's pretty much secure, no matter what I do. If Domen has children, then the line of pairings between the humanoids of the estate and the clan won't be broken. The pressure's not really on me to carry on the line."
I paddled a bit further out into the center of the lake, gnawing on this. "You know, didn't we say we were going to let the future be?" I asked. "We need to survive the next year, yet. Let's not talk about this, Gannon."
"I suppose." Gannon dove and came up under me, and I squawked in astonishment as I was lifted almost up out of the water by his body. I rolled off of him and dove, passing beneath him with my belly brushing the weedy bottom of the lake.
We roughhoused like this for a while, wrestling with each other playfully. Eventually, we dragged our dripping selves out of the water. "I know we said we weren't going to talk about the future, Palil," Gannon said as he fanned his wings to dry them. "I did have something I wanted to say, though."
I'd sat back on my haunches so I could nibble at an itchy spot on my belly. "What?"
"Well, it starts with a question. You don't have any siblings, do you?"
I shook my head. "My parents were together for two centuries before they had me. I don't know why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that they're both past their active breeding years and have been for some time."
"Don't you think it's odd, that most of the white dragons we know have been only children?"
"Things have been influencing that," I told him.
"What they add up to is that the white dragons are going extinct," he said. "You can't count on the ones from the portal to survive."
"What are you getting at?" I asked Gannon.
"Just saying that if either of us has a duty to their line, it's you. And there's a possibility for a partner you're overlooking."
I wrinkled my muzzle at him. "Who?"
"Chaim."
I blinked, my wings mantled. "Chaim? But he's..." I faltered. "Not someone I'd ever considered. He's ten times my size, for starters. And, well...he's more of a teacher than anyone I could be attracted to."
Gannon snorted. "Palil, you've just been through your first heat. Did you really care whether you even liked the dragon you mated with, at least for the first part? You don't have to be in love with him. In fact--" He looked away, wings drawing tightly to his body. "Er, I would probably prefer that you not be. If you and I are together at that point."
"And he is a great wyrm. He's survived over a thousand years. Obviously, he's doing something right." I reached over with my damp tail and ran it along Gannon's haunches comfortingly. "It's a thought. The size difference is worrisome, but as I recall, the important bits don't grow along with the dragon. It's the whole danger of being crushed thing that worries me." I felt a bit flushed, and fanned my wings. "Anyway. Said your piece? Can we go back to not talking about the future now?"
He chuckled. "All right. Dry enough? Want to go back?"
"I think so." I changed to my small form and put my clothes back on. We walked back to the camp together in a companionable silence. I felt overwhelmed, a little tired, but beneath that...
Hope.
Dear Karop, let us all survive!
Quotes:
"Do you want a player's handbook?"
"...Would it help?"
--Kris, Graham
"If she's alive, she'll be able to tell you what happened."
"If she's dead, she can tell us what happened."
--Sondirra, Beamer
"Recklessly into the bushes we go!"
--Galen
"The gods are always slippery."
--Sondirra
The Rules, Continued
Things they would have forbidden us to do...if they'd thought of them.
27. Strip poker is not authorized PT.
28. That chainmail bikini? Still not a uniform.
29. Posing as pirates involves more than randomly saying, "Yarrr!"
30. Just because we sprang the Colonels and the Lt. Colonels from prison does not mean that any of them owe any of us sexual favors. (They may, however, grant them if asked nicely.)
31. Ambushing someone almost never involves running headlong into a cave.
32. Not allowed to make fun of the bard after he fumbles his Disable Device check for the fifth time in a row.
33. Killing a classmate just because he's about to break our cover is frowned upon.
34. None of us are paladins. We are not allowed to act like we are.
35. "Take over the prison administration" is not in our objectives for any mission, ever.
36. The frost giants are extinct for a reason.
37. "Collecting butterflies" is likely never going to be a mission we're sent on.
38. Not all problems can be solved with burrowing.
39. The spell is called "Detect Secret Doors", not "Detect Secret". And we should be glad of it, too.
40. "Take over the world": also not in any mission objectives.
41. After apprehending the hunter who's been poisoning a village of white dragons, not allowed to let him go if he promises not to do it again.
42. I am a lieutenant in the Dragon Corps. My mother is not allowed to give me orders, even if she was a major. She is retired and has been for a number of years now.
43. No going back in time just to watch the Nessamin high holy days.
44. Not even if the ritual can be described as "highly educational".
45. No poisoning communion wafers. Ever.
46. Not allowed to hire a bard to make songs about some of our more public battles.
47. Not even if they're especially patriotic songs.
48. Drow are, in fact, "real elves".
49. Not allowed to break cover without a very good reason.
50. "But he was really cute..." is not a good reason.
51. Neither is, "I needed to win a bet."
52. Do not attempt to spy on MI68, who run MI. They are much, much better than you. You will get caught.
53. Not allowed to dodge an assignment for months on the grounds that it involves clowns.
54. Killing all the clowns is probably not kosher.
55. Making friends with a mind reader and using her to spy on our own military is poor form.
56. While starting every interrogation with the question "what is the meaning of life?" is an interesting tactic, it usually doesn't get any useful information in response.
57. You can only blame so many things on the Virgo dragon clan before someone starts to suspect they're being framed.
58. Not allowed to publicly speculate on Gemini dragon breeding habits. Especially not using the phrases "two for one deal" and "sloppy seconds".
59. Taking over the world may look like fun, but once you have it, what do you do with it?
60. "Kill them all and let the gods sort them out", while not requiring a lot of thought, is usually not a viable political maneuver.
61. Sometimes it is, though.
62. The avatar of Bahomet is not actually at our personal beck and call.
63. Not allowed to get the avatar of Bahomet killed.
5/20/978
Sondirra:
We spent three days in the palace, and the funerals were conducted on the 19th. They combined the funerals of Gada, her daughters, all three of their bondmates, and Kaeli, Neva's former bondmate. It was a long ceremony, as befitted a pair of heads of state, and I shifted as I heard the list of Quimby and Baptista's accomplishments and sterling qualities. No use speaking ill of the dead, I supposed, even if they had killed Gada and Jalena.
Palil and Gannon were pretty much completely inseparable; they'd been sticking close by each other before Palil had gone into heat, and now it was if they were joined at the hip. It was a little weird, because after a couple of days of that I was feeling a little irritated by the whole thing.
I realized then that I was cranky because I'd not gotten to spend any alone time with Palil for days. I winced when I realized that, figuring out what a part of my bondmate's reaction when I'd gotten together with Jordan had been.
Then I asked her to go flying with me, because I did miss her. An hour together put that right. We didn't talk much, but it was enough just to be alone together for a little bit. There was something different about her, and it took me a while to figure out exactly what.
She wasn't afraid. That was what the difference was. What was happening between her and Gannon was overwhelming her fear. It wasn't permanent, things there would eventually calm down. Maybe by the time it did, the fear wouldn't be unconquerable.
I had a lot to thank Gannon for, that was for sure. Gannon, for his own part, looked just about as stunned and happy as my bondmate when they weren't in front of people. In front of the rest of our command, both of them retreated into their usual reserve. They didn't get far from each other, but they also weren't affectionate in public.
After the funerals, we were free to go. Palil and most of us would head to the north, to the place we'd picked out to move all of the remaining portals to. The plan was to consecrate a large piece of ground and then use the mother to move all of the portals there, making it look like they'd been destroyed. I let Palil coordinate that, it was her area of expertise.
Bambi, Beamer, Tchar, and Galen would go to the one portal that remained in Reuben's territory. They consented to let me ride along in their heads, since Palil was busy chanting and waving her arms around. We wanted to figure out what was down here, why it hadn't been destroyed. It had been saved for some reason, and we were thinking it might be something about the staff.
The portal was in a hollow near the coast, well-hidden. When they arrived, the first thing that Tchar noticed was that there were a number of people who had been by here recently. "They're heavy, whoever they were, and they were in a hurry," Galen said. "Fourteen of them, or so. Going towards the beach. Didn't go through the portal, though."
Checking with the portal, they found out that nobody had been through here but Reuben, six months ago, and Beamer and Bambi about two months ago. Strange.
They started following the tracks down to the beach. The tracks were fanning out, the trail splitting into seven pairs. At that point, Tchar crested the rise above the beach and pulled up short.
There was a dragon on the beach. An enormous green dragon, about the same size as Jezik, lying with its head in the surf and its sinuous body crumpled in the sand. Dead, without a doubt. The surf was up, the wind gusting from the sea, and Bambi raised her head, sniffing. "Male," she said.
Down to the beach they walked, following the trail of footprints, going towards the dead dragon. A bit away from the body, the tracks changed to dragon, clawed feet digging deep into the earth, half of the tracks disappearing as the bondmates swung up on their bondmates' backs.
The dragon had been torn into, great wounds in its belly and neck. The one that had killed it was probably the great chunk that had been torn out of its neck. It was also scorched, as if by a breath weapon. The four who were there put their heads together and decided that this likely had been done by one dragon very likely another great wyrm. "Possibly a bondmate, that looks like it might have been a sword," Tchar said.
Scouting around a little more led to bits of harness and part of a saddle floating a bit out to sea, and a trail of blood leading away towards the bushes at the edge of the beach. There was an elf in those bushes, who had bled to death sometime in the few hours preceding. Nobody had stopped to check on her, it seemed.
This was all recent, relatively; less than ten hours old. Tchar checked in with Chaim, asking about green great wyrms in this part of the world; he said that the one he thought it might be was called Abbott, who had a female elven bondmate named Tecla. (Tecla is a common elven and drow name; it means beautiful beloved in one of the old drow languages, and so something like every tenth elven and drow baby girl is named Tecla.)
Beamer was scratching his head. "So there's a battle here. These two die. So who's the red or gold dragon? Has to be someone old--"
Tch, I broadcast. Guys, guys, look. Seven pairs of people are hanging out here, all of them old enough to be carrying some serious armor. Someone else arrives, the guards run down to the beach, change, engage the new person. Assume all of the dragons were ancients or close to it. What could be precious enough to spare all of that power to guard?
Bambi was following me. "The Staff of Bahomet."
And an old dragon shows up to take it--or a young dragon who's big enough to be mistaken for a great wyrm. Psyche and Kristof. Who we told about the staff--
"And Psyche's Bahomet's daughter. So what happened to them?"
Ask the dead.
At this point, Jordan offered his team's help, just in case. Bambi agreed to have them transfer to where they were. "Want to come?" he asked me.
"Want to, yes. I need to stay here, though. Someone's got to keep an eye on Palil," I said with a smile.
"Ah, well, you can use my eyes," he said. I grinned, kissed him, and shooed him towards the one portal we'd moved here so far.
It was time for our favorite part: questioning the dead. Psyche killed this pair because they were protecting the staff of Bahomet, we confirmed. The staff had been recovered by Abbot and Tecla's six teammates, so they hoped. If it had been, they were on their way north, flying towards Reuben.
Reuben himself was sitting in a camp about two days' flight south of Kazan, the city with the intact frost giant settlement underneath of it. Beamer was scratching his head. "Haven? You're a cleric of Bahomet. Can you find out if Psyche and Kristof are alive?"
"Give me a minute." Haven stepped away, and spent a minute or so muttering to himself. He returned and said, "Kristof is dead, he was disintegrated while he was on Psyche's back." Ooooh, ouch. It's one of the worse ways to die in battle, because there's no chance of finding even a little bit of your body to resurrect you with. "Psyche is alive but badly wounded."
"I'll go find her," Tchar said. He changed, waited just long enough to have Galen scramble into place, and took off. Meanwhile, Bambi and Beamer found out where the staff had been--a sea cave, about a mile and a half out to sea. They went out to investigate.
Kristof didn't seem Bahomet's type, I said to Jordan. I can't remember if you'd ever met him, but he had a giant chip on his shoulder. Kind of reminded me of you, before, but a ton worse because he'd been like that for a century.
Gee, thanks, Jordan said. I know what you mean, though. You said that Psyche was Bahomet's child. Maybe he didn't pick Kristof as an avatar.
Maybe he was stuck with Psyche's choice, I said.
Maybe, he echoed. Oh, Tchar found something--
He'd found a dead gold dragon. Then a dead black dragon. Then Psyche, bleeding heavily. Neda and Haven got going without even a moment of hesitation, and Gannon and Jordan followed.
Haven says he thinks he can save her, she's regenerating quickly. Her wing, though-- Jordan let me see what he was seeing, and I clenched my teeth and told my stomach to stay where it was. The membrane had been shredded, the bones shattered. Someone had latched on to one of her wings and used all of their attacks to try to rip it from her. He says she'll need to regenerate it, but we need to get it off of her. I'm going to help with that.
Good, I said. I turned my attention to Bambi and Beamer, who had arrived in the cave and were poking around. The cave appeared to contain a temple, sealed by great stone doors. In front of the doors was a pedestal with a basin of sorts on top of it. The basin had twenty-five bottles in it, all of them marked with a symbol and filled with a different substance, all of them very magical.
"Someone tried to erase the engravings on the base," Beamer old the rest of us. "Looks like a black dragon breath weapon. The stone seems to be regenerating, though. This is weird. Looks like it should all be back within maybe a day or so."
We should be done here by then, I said. Maybe get the full story of what happened from one of the other dead dragons.
They did, and it was what we thought. Psyche and Kristof had tripped an alarm in the Cavern of Bahomet and Tiamat (Bahomet and Tiamat? Um.) and they had run down to confront her. The staff of Bahomet had been unavailable to them until Psyche and Kristof had emerged from the cavern with it. They engaged with her, she killed Abbot, the gold, and the black. Just before the black had died, he had seen Kristof disintegrated by the bondmate of the red dragon in the group, and Psyche had gone limp with shock. She had been regenerating like mad, though, and they had no doubt that she was likely still alive.
The dead black dragon also said that the writing on the pedestal had been codes that would let you either into the Tiamat temple or the Bahomet temple within the cavern.
All right, then. We regrouped, decided that it was safer for us to spend the night near the ground Palil was consecrating, and we'd go back in the morning. Psyche woke up about an hour after Haven started treating her. After some initial misunderstandings (as Palil would say), Psyche recognized Tchar and Galen, and abruptly changed into her small form, curling up and sobbing.
Jordan ended up carrying her back to the portal and through. Haven dosed her with something strong to make her sleep, because he was going to need to start the regeneration on her soon, and she needed to sleep and finish healing a bit more before that happened.
I realized then that I'd never gotten to see Psyche's small form. She was a rangy half-elf with bright auburn hair cut to her chin, and in her sleep she looked almost childlike.
She looks lost, Palil said. She'd ghosted up to me, looking down at our guest. I didn't trust Kristof as far as I could spit him, but... She shrugged. She loved him. It's a damned shame.
The life of avatars is generally short. I'm guessing she knew that, I said. Come on. Let's let her sleep.
As we turned away, I caught Palil glancing over her shoulder at Psyche, something in her eyes and in her heart that I couldn't name. I took her hand, squeezing it. This wasn't just sympathy for a dragon who was living Palil's worst nightmare. This was something else.
I knew better than to pry, and I don't think my bondmate could have told me, anyway. Sometimes she sees into the future, does Palil, and we both know by now that sometimes what she sees comes true, and sometimes it comes true but in a vastly different form than she thinks it will.
Palil:
Consecrating that much ground is exhausting. We hunted that night, and I slept well, curled next to Gannon. The next morning, we went back to the cavern. This time, we could see the writing, and we arranged the bottles in the pattern for Bahomet. The doors slid open with a rumble, and from the portal thus revealed came a beam of light that scanned across us, first one way, then another.
The light winked out, and we looked at each other. Then, from the altar, a set of silvery stairs extended towards the opening. With a bit of trepidation, we climbed up and into the temple proper.
The first impression that the place gave was that one, it was far larger than it ought to be. The second impression was that it had been put together by a madman. Stairs ran all over, many of them moving from place to place, some swinging, others moving at a stately pace across the floor. Many of them were at impossible angles.
We spent some time trying to make sense of the place, then Haven pointed ahead of us. "I see something," he said, and began to walk forward, dodging staircases. We followed. There was another plinth, only this one was empty. Behind it was a stand that had once held a staff. "More markings," Haven said, bending to look.
"I can't see a bloody thing," Beamer said. "You sure?"
"It's right there. Look, this face says it goes to another temple somewhere, this one to death, this one to...Karop? Weird. And this one says it goes to enlightenment." Haven stopped talking, looking from one baffled face to another. "Does anyone have any parchment? I'll write the combinations down," he said, shrugging.
Turns out, after Beamer and Lida had a chance to go over what Haven had written down, that the other temple was within the frost giant city below Kazan, the Karop combination went to the mother portal, the death combination went to a Tiamat temple, and enlightenment, well...it was something about wisdom, enlightenment, and honesty. Which, if I recall my religion lessons correctly, is Bahomet's motto.
"Enlightenment sounds good," Beamer declared. We decided that it did, and all of us piled out of the temple to try that combination.
As we went out, Galen was muttering to himself. "What if the reason that they couldn't get into this temple was because of that light?" he said to me. "What if it kills anyone who belongs more to Tiamat?"
"I'd say we were lucky we wanted to get into the Bahomet side," I said.
Once we were all out, we tried the enlightenment combination. The stairs folded up, the doors closed, and then the door opened again and we were once more scanned by that light. The stairs unfolded, and this time they were more golden-colored.
No staircases in here. Instead, there was fog, tinged with gold as if there were a sun somewhere close by, lighting the clouds. I was suddenly hearing, though the staves, not just the six pairs linked by the staves. I was hearing everyone.
I closed my eyes. There was worry, fear, anxiety. Calm, from some. Jubilation, from Haven. Determination, from several. Wide-eyed wonder.
I knew all of them, each voice. Eighteen pairs, thirty-six different voices, each of them unique, each of them equally precious. Each of them equally worthy of my protection.
Even the one who I had thought I'd always hate.
The startlement of that realization was erased as a new voice entered our minds. "So what, precisely, is it that you are doing here?"
Beamer found his tongue first, as we all realized who it was who was speaking to us. "Well, we came in search of enlightenment."
"You received the gift of this place just before you set foot in it. The light gave it to you. I suppose I could answer some questions, if you wanted."
So many questions came to mind! Turns out Reuben wanted to get the Staff of Bahomet to Kazan because it was there that it could be destroyed. The frost giants had been trying to destroy the staff of Tiamat, but the former bearer of that staff had died before it had been used. The whole city was part of a great magical machine that could be used to destroy artifacts.
Well, that answered the question of why Kazan. Another question told us that in the temple of Bahomet, there were more of those plinths. In total, the doorway we had just walked through had five hundred destinations, some more pleasant than others. More questions revealed that the staffs did cancel each other out, as we'd thought they might. "Without the staff, you have no chance. Reuben and Tiamat will take over. With it, you have a chance. Possibly a slight one, but it is a chance."
Sondirra scratched her head. "Kristof had a bunch of armor--your armor. What happened to it? Did it get disintegrated?"
"No. The same people who took the staff took the armor."
"What are the pieces?" Bambi wanted to know. "Do they have all of them?"
There was a smile in the god's voice. "The staff, the plate mail, the shield they have. The sword, they do not. That is in the keeping of the white dragon Palil at the moment."
I felt the shock of that statement wash down me.
And I heard Sondirra moan silently, Oh, no, no, no--
Sondirra:
As soon as Bahomet said that the sword from Kristof's set was in Palil's keeping, I knew. I don't know how I knew, but I knew what it meant that Eldil was Bahomet's sword. I took a breath. "We have someone with us who qualifies to be your avatar. Eldil was your daughter. Gannon is her direct descendant."
Bahomet chuckled gently. "You are correct. Jordan, being Gannon's bondmate, qualifies."
I was standing next to Jordan, and my hand found his. He squeezed my hand reassuringly.
I was not reassured.
Palil:
Murmurs ran through the group. I looked over at Gannon. Did you know?
I had no idea, he replied, looking at me and spreading his hands. Maybe Nimri knows, or some of the other older ones.
I ran my hand over my hair, looked around at the golden fog. "I think that was all we had. Unless you know something about the staves we carry."
"Ah, those. I do know something that you do not." The pause after those words was considering, thoughtful. "The staves are waiting for those of you who bear them to choose what they do. Choose well, for the choice cannot be undone."
I looked over at Sondirra, who was biting her lip and evidently thinking hard. It was time to beat a retreat, I thought. I bowed. "Thank you. We are greatly in your debt." Then I began to walk backwards, stepping back towards the staircase. Everyone else followed suit.
For the rest of the day, we played in the temple. We knew that the staff and the armor would need to be flown north to Kazan, and that was a journey of a month. We could interrupt that journey anywhere along its route. We had time here do explore.
Sondirra, Galen, and Beamer disappeared into a doorway that was marked "Cunning", and came back with things--Sondirra and Galen a pair of boots that left no tracks, Beamer with a lockpick that appears to be a skeleton key of some sort. Bambi and Tchar went through a door marked "Speed", and came back with little golden rings in their wings. Those rings would let them double their flying speed for an hour a day.
Me, I found the Karop plinth, after climbing up and down several staircases. One side was labeled "the place of frost", one was "mother" again, one was the Bahomet temple at Kazan, and one was labeled "home".
I blinked. Either the door to frost or the door to home led to Karop's realm, I thought. But which was which? Well, this was something the god would know, and I had a divination spell I could use to ask.
"The door to frost leads to my realm," came the answer in my god's voice. "The door to home leads to wherever the person who opens the door feels most at home."
I thought about it. "Well, that could go any number of places. #2, my parents' village."
"You may be surprised by the answer," Karop said, and I jumped. I wasn't expecting him to still be listening. I took a long look at the plinth, then sighed. I was going to be alive with curiosity until I tried it. I sat down to copy down the combination for both the door to frost and the door home.
I wandered out to the front of the temple to try it; we'd figured out that it was all right to open some of the secondary doors while there were people in the temple. I rearranged the bottles in order, then held my breath as the door opened.
"Where does that go?" Gannon was behind me, looking at the glowing door.
"I don't know," I said. "The place I feel most at home, supposedly. I'm not going through, I'm just going to stick my head in and see where it goes." I started climbing the staircase that led to the door. Stopping on the threshold, I reached through it, then leaned forward, my head breaking the shimmering surface.
On the other side was a sight that I had suspected, somehow, I would see.
It was the cabin on Gannon and Jordan's estate that I'd spent a few days grieving Garnet in. It was familiar, the cabin half-hidden by trees, the lake at the end of the slope lush with reeds at its edges now, calm water reflecting blue sky.
There were tears standing in my eyes, blurring my vision. I didn't know why home was somewhere I'd spent less than a week. But I felt a stab of longing, wanting to be there.
I pulled my head out of the door with an effort of will. Carefully, I walked down the stairs, and rearranged the bottles to close the door. "Where did it go?" Gannon asked, looking at me, taking in my teary eyes. "What's wrong?"
I shook my head. "Later," I said. "I'll tell you later."
Once I've had a chance to figure out what it means.
Sondirra:
Bahomet had been right; this place had given us all a gift. It was hard to explain, but all of us felt somehow more capable than we had been. It was getting late, so somewhat reluctantly we got everyone together, put together the combination for the mother, and transferred there. Once there, Palil gave the order for all of the portals to move to the ground she had consecrated. We bounced there, picked up another portal, and moved it to a place that Chaim had prepared, near Petrozav.
We had some things to talk to him about, but first the dragons needed to hunt. Chaim, Hedda, and Kamal went along with the rest of the dragons. I watched as Chaim transformed, unfolding into his enormous large form. Palil had gotten big in the last few months, but he was still easily ten or fifteen times her size. The sun was setting, and the golden light caught the edge of Chaim's wings and illuminated them from within.
Now I knew what seeing the flush on Palil's wings had reminded me of. The same flush was permanently on Chaim's wings. Something about being that old, probably. He was the last to take off, and as Palil spread her wings and took off, I saw him raise his head and sniff, exactly like Bambi does when she catches wind of something interesting.
They left, we put together an evening meal, and after an hour or so we were eating and the dragons were coming back.
"Reuben's forces are still heading east," Chaim said as he came to sit with us. "If they keep moving at the same pace, they'll be at the capitol of Isla's territory in a month or so."
Palil shook her head. "We have a month before the staff reaches Reuben. We need Isla's troops. Isla needs us to help defend her. I don't know what's got her so scared, but I think we need to go get her sorted out as our first priority."
Chaim looked at Palil. "Are you sure?"
When a dragon that old says are you sure in that tone of voice, it means you've missed something. "What?" Palil asked.
"You don't think those dragons who have the staff will pick up legions on their way north? From my understanding of the situation, they'll pass Novgorod in a day or so."
Crap. He was right. "Four great wyrms versus us. I don't like the odds."
Jordan said, "Jezik might help. I and Gannon can probably take one, you guys can take at least one other."
Palil was still running the odds in her mind, an she shook her head. "I still don't like it."
"I could come along," Chaim said. "Or MI68 would probably come along. Perhaps Orion."
"Orion's not a fighter, really, and I wouldn't want to risk you," Palil said. "MI68, though. They'd be useful. I like those odds a lot better."
"I'll contact them," Chaim told her.
"How are they doing, anyway?" I asked him. "I know Coulter's alive, but is Majesta?"
Chaim nodded. "She was very badly wounded in the attack, but she pulled through and she's on the mend. Lorne and Ridge died, and Jael and Bede. The rest are all right, now. Majesta is probably fit to fight by now."
I nodded. "Well, if you can call them in, we'd be obliged. Then we can get Orion to figure out where they'll be midmorning tomorrow, and move a gate nearby there. Go in, hit them hard, head out."
Coulter did say, after Chaim explained the situation, that MI68 would join us early tomorrow morning. Jezik was game, and since we needed a portal near Seratov anyway, we moved one there that night. Orion told us he'd keep an eye on the people who had the staff, and let us know tomorrow morning where we should drop in at.
That done, we pitched tents and got to sleep, as much sleep as you can get the night before a battle.
Palil:
I woke to the sound of Psyche muttering and complaining. Haven had started her regeneration last night, and by now she was itching something fierce, evidently. I knuckled my eyes free of sleep and wriggled out of the bedroll I was sharing with Gannon. I pulled on a loose shirt and pants and went to see what was going on.
Haven was just walking away from Psyche. "She's regenerating at a surprising pace," he told me when I gave him an inquiring look. "The wing will be whole again in a few days, and unless I miss my guess she'll be flying within a week. She would have regrown it even without my help, though it's going faster for some assistance."
I looked over at the red dragon, who was muttering and shifting. "Good," I said quietly. "I think we may need her. You're up early, Haven."
"Always am," he said with a shrug. "Morning person. If you'll excuse me--" He sidled away, and I let him go. He did run like a rabbit from anyone with more bars than he had. He must be nervous, with the admirals arriving and Chaim being here.
We were in a mountainous area, the granite bones of the earth close to the surface. There was a sheer cliff-face that sheltered the portal here, and I stretched and went to see if it was climbable.
It turned out that it was, happily enough. I was about two-thirds of the way up the wall when I heard a voice from below. "Palil, what on earth are you doing?"
I anchored my fingers and toes and looked down. Gannon was at the bottom of the wall, looking up. "What does it look like? This isn't quite as fun as glacier climbing, but it'll do."
"How are you planning to get down?"
"Easy. Watch." I tensed my body, arched out and away from the stone, tumbling into the air. I heard Gannon's choked noise from below as I muttered the word that caught me, wafted me downwards. I drifted down, landing gently in front of Gannon.
He caught me up in a rough hug. "You are insane," he said. "You are as completely insane as your bondmate."
I laughed and raised my head to kiss him. "I love you too, Gannon," I told him. "Come on. We're about to have an audience, and the Admirals should be arriving soon."
Jezik arrived first, and then MI68 landed in a nearby clearing. I was in my large form, Sondirra was finishing with my harness. "Admirals," I said, dipping my head in salute.
"Majors. Is it time?"
"A quarter hour or so, then we'll go. I and Chaim will move a portal to where we're going, then we'll ambush the people with the staff. Chaim told you what we're facing?"
"He mentioned." Coulter dipped his head and then crouched a bit so Majesta could dismount. She was tiny in her real form, a perfect miniature of an elf--except for the heavy limp that was apparent when she hit the ground. "We are taking the gold with the mage rider, yes?"
I nodded. "Jezik is taking the bronze with the fighter, Jordan and Gannon will take on the red with the mage. The rest of us will take the white dragon with the cleric. Should be more or less straightforward, if dangerous. We have a place to put the staff for the moment that's safe from Reuben, so we won't have to guard the thing."
"Good," he said. There was movement by my feet; I looked down to see Majesta limping towards Sondirra.
"Eaton told me to give this to you," Majesta said. "I have letters for some of the others, as well." She handed Sondirra a folded and sealed parchment, and a packet of other papers.
Sondirra looked down at the letter. "My parents! I haven't heard from them in months. Thank you. There's tea on if you want any, by the way, any of you. We're leaving soon, but there's time enough for a cup."
Majesta smiled. From where I was, I could see that the smile didn't reach her eyes; there was a constant awareness of pain at the corners of her eyes. "I will. Thank you."
"I'll get you a cup," Marcene said. "Hi, Palil, Sondirra. Over there, I take it?" Sondirra nodded, and Marcene walked towards the fire. Majesta limped back to Coulter, and Sondirra broke the seal on her letter.
"Eaton and Harbin survived?" I asked Coulter.
"Hale, fit, and cranky as ever." I let out a breath; I'd feared the quartermaster and our former commanding officer both dead.
Sondirra leaned on my leg as she read. "Oh, no way!"
"What?"
"Mother's pregnant again! Says she's due in October." I felt her eyebrows shoot upwards. "The midwife thinks she's carrying twins!"
"That's unusual for drow," I said.
"Vanishingly rare, actually." Sondirra shook her head. "My grandmother is beside herself with joy."
"I'm sure she is." That was a sour note. I liked Sondirra's maternal grandmother about as well as she liked me; that is to say, not in the slightest. "Is there any news of Sinte?"
"She's well, happy about having little brothers or sisters finally. She misses me and wants me to come for a visit soon. They've been trying to find out where I am, but the military's been telling them nothing, so they're worried. I'm going to have to visit next time we're around there. Go introduce Jordan to the family."
"Heart attacks all round?"
My bondmate snorted indelicately. "I'm lucky there's nothing to inherit, because I'd be disowned for sure. My parents will be happy, they want grandkids, and Sinte will adore Jordan. She's probably going to want to come live with us, you know. She desperately wants out of Ghen."
"We'll ride that tradewind when it blows," I told her. "Right now, we need to worry about surviving the next two hours. Go give the others their letters, and we can go."
There was a letter for Jordan from his parents, one for Aldaric from his older sister, one for Olin from his grandparents, who'd raised him. A number of the others got letters; we'd been out of touch for a long time, and it showed.
Chaim and I moved the portal to the appointed spot, and then it was a matter of lying in wait. I'm going to pull a Jordan, I think, Sondirra said. Just drop me over the white's back, I'll do what I can about the cleric. With him out of the way, the white should go down.
You're joking, I said.
With this spell on me, I'm almost as dangerous as you in battle, she told me. I'll hang in there for a bit, then I'll bail and featherfall down. Don't worry so much, love. I'll be fine.
I settled my wings closer to me. I know. I raised my head, looking over at Gannon. I'm more worried about Gannon, to tell the truth.
He and Jordan were arguing last night, after you fell asleep. Jordan thought I was asleep. I think we're going to need to talk to them.
What were they fighting about?
It wasn't really a fight, it was more of an intense disagreement. Something about the avatar thing. Gannon's not happy about it--
Wings in the sky!
That was Tchar's broadcast, and that was our cue. Sondirra scrambled up into the saddle and I took off, my teammates close on my heels.
The great wyrms we faced were enormous, and the sky was dark with wings.
I did drop Sondirra off, and together Tchar, Bambi, and I ripped into the male white dragon as Sondirra did her level best to kill the cleric on his back, and Galen shot him over and over. I tried not to think about anything but the necessity of survival, tried not to think that this was ostensibly a member of my extended clan, a bloodline we could ill afford to lose.
The things we do in war.
Sondirra:
I did what I could, and bailed. I was drifting down, drinking a healing potion (the guy had kept hitting me with Harm spells, ouch) when the cleric came plummeting out of the sky, tumbling bonelessly to the earth.
"Take that!" I yelled after him. Palil dove to pick me up, and none too soon, since just after that the white we'd been fighting faltered and fell.
Ours was the last to go down. Jordan was already on the ground, preparing to take the red's head, Gannon settling to earth beside him. Coulter was next to the gold, shaking blood from his muzzle, Majesta on his back looking pale but whole. There was the bronze, laid out on the ground, and beside him--
Jezik. Not breathing.
Oh, no...
Neda had landed next to him, and Haven had his hands on Jezik's bloodstained hide. "Dead," he said as Palil landed, blowing his hair back with the wind from her wings. "Nothing I can do."
"Can we get the body away?" Palil asked, glancing at the sky.
Coulter answered that one. "We're probably about to have company. Ours messaged someone before she died."
Palil snarled to herself. I hate leaving him here--
That's not Jezik. That's just meat, I told her. Find the stuff, let's go.
"Got it!" Beamer yelled.
"Everything there?" I called.
"Staff, armor, shield," he said.
"Let's go, everyone."
We took to the sky again, diving for the portal. Palil was the last through; we were taking this one back with us. Just before she dove, she glanced over her shoulder. What happens when Reuben knows Jezik's dead? I think Jezik was the last thing that whatever's left of Reuben loved.
We can't worry about it, I told her. I felt her turn and her wings folded, starting in on a dive. I closed my eyes. We mostly survived, that's all that matters--
The portal welcomed us, and a shimmer later, we were back north of Petrozav. We took the staff back to the temple of Bahomet, and within twenty minutes we were back with everyone. MI68 took their leave, as well as Chaim. Psyche was still with us, for the moment.
It was barely noon, but it had been a full day already. Our camp was still up, so we settled back into it for the afternoon. Beamer had handed Jordan the armor and shield without comment, and he was sitting cross-legged on the ground, going over the armor.
I dropped to my heels beside him. "Nice," I commented. It was fine steel, dwarf-forged, it looked like.
"It is. Though Gannon wishes we hadn't recovered it."
I gave Jordan a look. "I heard you two discussing it last night. To be honest, I'm not happy about it, either. I don't want to lose you, and, well..." I shrugged. "Might as well have painted a nice target on your back."
"I've always known I might die doing this," he said. "I wish it weren't true, but no use fighting it. I'll do what I have to to make sure Reuben goes down."
As I looked down at the armor, a thought occurred to me. "If you go up against Reuben and Tiamat with Gannon...Gannon won't live through it."
"That's what we were arguing about." He sighed. "Not a whole lot of a way around it."
I remembered the look Palil had given Psyche, after we'd found her. I knew, suddenly, what she'd been thinking. "There is, though. We have a daughter of Bahomet with us, who's a match for you in battle, once her wing's healed."
"Psyche? You think she would?"
"She has every reason to hate Reuben. She regenerates like mad, and she's great wrym-sized. It's the only way Gannon's going to survive this, Jordan."
"I know," he said, and looked away. "He's going to hate it."
I imagined trying to tell Palil that I was going to be riding Chaim into battle, and shuddered. Palil's voice broke into my reverie. What on earth are you two talking about? Whatever it is, Gannon's upset about it.
Where are you?
Southeast, by the stream.
"Come on," I said to Jordan. "Let's go talk to Gannon about this."
Palil:
I had been having some quite pleasant alone time with Gannon. Then he'd stiffened, pushed me away. "Jordan," he said through gritted teeth. "Little gods be good, Palil, he wants to leave me behind--"
That was when I contacted Sondirra. A couple of minutes later, Jordan and Sondirra arrived. "Gannon," Jordan started, then faltered when he saw the look on Gannon's face. "Gannon, please. You know what we're up against."
"And am I a wet dragonet to be protected? I go where you do, Jordan. We agreed. Don't break that promise, not like this."
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" I asked, a bit querulously. From the look on Sondirra's face, this was serious, but what was it?
Gannon turned to face me. "Jordan is talking about possibly riding Psyche into battle against Reuben, rather than me."
I blinked. "Oh."
"I need to be there, to the very end. I need to protect my bondmate." Gannon's voice was low. "Palil, you would feel the same way. I know you. You'd go to the ends of the earth to protect Sondirra. If it required your life, then you would give it."
"But you don't have to!" Jordan broke in. "Gannon, if I can keep you from dying by partnering for this one battle with someone capable of taking what Reuben's going to dish out, then I will."
"This one battle, the most important battle of our lives, and you're going to leave me behind. She's not your bondmate. She doesn't love you. She won't know when you're hurt, when you need to be caught. She won't defend you. Not like I will."
"I know," Jordan said. I watched him take a step forward, pain written on his face. "But she might also survive. And if she survives, so might I."
Gannon turned away, shoulders rounding with pain. "I know I'm your weak place," he said, and his voice was filled with agony. "You don't have to point it out. But you promised. You promised you'd never leave me."
"I'm not!"
I couldn't stand this. I stepped forward, took Gannon by the shoulders. His head was hung low, and I saw as he raised it to look at my that his eyes were shining with tears. "Hey," I said, my voice quiet. I reached up, brushed his hair out of his eyes. "Hey, Gannon."
Silently, I offered comfort. Gannon accepted, letting me hold him for a moment, putting his head down on my shoulder. "I hate this," he muttered into my shoulder.
"I know," I said. "I would, too. But, Gannon...it's the only way you're going to live through this. He loves you. So do I. Would you break both of our hearts, for pride alone?"
"Not just pride. Love, as well."
"I know." I tightened my arms around him. "I know you're not going to be happy about this, ever. But better unhappy and alive than dead."
"But--"
"Enough." That was Sondirra's voice, a whipcrack over our heads. Startled, we all straightened and turned towards her. My bondmate had a sharp look on her face, and I realized that worry was mixing with irritation in her, giving rise to one of those rash actions she's prone to. "I am not happy about any part of this. I am not happy about you--" and here she stabbed her finger towards Jordan-- "being given the part of Bahomet's avatar. I am not happy about the necessity of separating the two of you for that battle. There is every possibility that we are all going to end up dead. However. We have to fight this battle, and sometime soon."
She was pacing now, the pacing she did when she was giving orders to the others. "Captain Jordan. Talk to Psyche. See if she'll agree. If she does not agree freely, this discussion is all moot. Captain Gannon." She turned to face him, and he straightened, taken aback by the look on her face. "You can be as unhappy about this as you like. But if you're going to be unhappy with someone over it, let it be me. I will fucking ground you for that battle if I have to. I will not like it, but I will. This is not your choice to accept or reject. This is an order. And I'll get Coulter to back me up on it if you give me grief."
I saw him close his eyes, grit his teeth. "Yes, Major," he finally said, the words ground out between his teeth.
"Good. Dismissed." But instead of waiting for us to leave, Sondirra whirled and stalked off. Take care of Gannon, both of you, she broadcast to both Jordan and me. Her silent voice was much gentler than her words had just been. Let him cast me as the villain if he needs to.
Jordan's thought was wide enough to include me. I don't think he will. He's not going to be happy, though.
I knew that. Tell him drinks are on me, afterwards. We'll probably have some bridges to mend.
Gannon had turned towards Jordan, opening his arms, and Jordan stepped forward, hugging his bondmate tightly. Gannon's shoulders were shaking, and Jordan wasn't paying attention to anything other than Gannon.
I watched the two of them. They were talking silently, that much I could tell, and the look on Jordan's face held fear, worry, but most of all a deep love.
I was pretty much superfluous, and I turned to walk away. Let the two of them have some time alone. But as I stepped away, I heard Gannon's silent voice. Palil--
I looked over my shoulder to see that Gannon had let go of Jordan with one arm and was beckoning me over. Please...
Without thinking, I stepped over and joined what became a three-way embrace.
I had both Jordan's and Gannon's arms over my shoulders, my arms around both of their waists, my head against Gannon's shoulder. My heart pounded, but I stayed where I was. Gannon needed me, and he needed Jordan. I could deal.
It wasn't so bad, honestly. I concentrated on sending comfort to Gannon, feeling Jordan against me as kin to Gannon's flame. Brothers, soulmates, bound together for their whole lives, no matter how long or short they might be.
I wished Sondirra were here. Oddly enough, right after I had that thought, Gannon and Jordan both shifted, and I looked up to see my bondmate slide in between them. "Hey," she said, and looked at Gannon. "I'm sorry."
"I know," he said. "It's all right. You're right, all three of you are right, but I still hate it."
She tightened her arm on his shoulder. "All three of us love you," she told him. "Sometimes, you have to admit that there are foes out there you can't beat by yourself. He's not leaving you behind forever." She looked at me, and her eyes laid me open to the core, a lance of meaning to the heart. Do you understand now? she asked me, silently.
Gannon to my left, Jordan to my right, Sondirra before me. Home. Home was not a place. It was people. These people.
I closed my eyes. I understand, I think. When the hell did you get so wise, love?
About the same time you got to be able to understand what I've been trying to tell you for months, she said, and her mental voice was warm as Gannon's banked fire.
We stood in a circle for a few more minutes, silent. Then, by silent consensus, we broke apart and started walking back to the camp. Sondirra fell in beside me, and I reached out to take her hand. He loves Gannon, doesn't he? Really, truly loves him. And he loves you. He would do just about anything for either of you. I think, I said, consideringly, that I can live with that.
She glanced over at me, and smiled. Forgive him?
Yeah, I do.
And yourself?
I thought about it, turning my behavior of the last few months over in my mind. That's harder, I admitted. I don't like the person I seem to have become. I'm surprised that Gannon does.
Gannon sees beneath the fear, she told me. So do I. She paused, tilting her head slightly. Truth be told, I think it's taken Jordan a while, but I think he sees the person you are. Gannon's helped.
It's going to take a while for us to be friends. Years.
Let's worry about surviving first, all right? Then everything else. She chuckled, and I joined her.
We reached the camp about then, and it turned out that there was a friendly game of dice going on. Sondirra and Jordan both joined in, but I didn't really feel like it--dice isn't my game, I'm more of a bridge person.
Gannon had gone to his packs, digging out what appeared to be a tablet and stylus. I wandered past him, intending to go find a lake nearby and have a bath. He raised his head as I went past. "Where are you off to?"
"Going to go find some water, clean up. Battle always leaves my large form kind of grimy. I think I remember Aldaric mentioning there's a lake nearby."
"Want some company?" he asked. "I could use a dip, too."
"Of course! I'd have invited you along, but I thought you might want to be alone."
Gannon shook his head. "I thought you might be wanting some alone time. It's been a long day, and it's barely afternoon."
"I'm fine," I said. We were out of earshot of the camp now. "So what was it that you wanted to ask me about? I know there's something."
He chuckled. "Curiosity, nothing more. I was wondering, when you opened the door home, where home was."
I pressed my lips together, looking away. "It's going to sound silly," I warned him.
"No such thing."
I let out a noisy breath. "Your folks' estate. Specifically, the cabin you let me borrow right after Garnet died."
I glanced over at him, and he was looking at me with his eyebrows raised. "Why would that be silly?"
"I've been there all of five days in my whole life. Not long enough to get attached to a place." I gave him a rueful smile. "But home has a whole lot of different meanings. Karop was either having a bit of fun at my expense, or he was trying to tell me something. Knowing him, it was probably both."
"And what might he have been trying to tell you?"
I was silent for a moment, deciding how I wanted to say this. "Home doesn't have to be a place. Sometimes, it's people, the people who are the most important to you. Sondirra. You." My voice was shaking a little. "I think Sondirra's already thinking of the estate as home. And it's always been home for you."
"And Jordan," he said.
"And Jordan. I don't mind that." I looked at him sidelong. "Chaim's home is nearby. I could study with him, have him pass on what he knows about the mysteries of Karop before he dies. I could teach the little ones. Maybe find someone to teach me music. I can do all sorts of things." We'd reached the edge of the lake, and I shed my clothes and changed form, Gannon following suit. "The important part is that I'd be near you and Sondirra, and that Sondirra would be somewhere where she's happy. I'm pretty sure she's planning on having several children."
I waded into the water, swimming where it became deep enough for me to do so. Gannon followed me in, ducking his head under the water. "And you, Palil? Did you want children?"
"Want them? Yes." I shrugged my wings. "Destined to have them? Not sure. I'd have to find a white dragon to father them, someone I trusted. I know my parents want me to have children."
"Do you have anyone in mind?" Gannon's voice had an air of forced casualness about it.
"Not really. Well, okay, Kavan might do. I can't talk to him very well, he's always off in his own world, but that's just as well." I dipped my head under the water, shaking my head to swish off my horns. "Really, though, I'm hoping that enough white dragons from the old days are left after this war to make me reproducing optional. Maybe I'll help raise Sondirra's, and yours. You have that duty to the line, and all that."
Gannon snorted. "Have you seen how many brothers and sisters I have? My mother and father have barely hit their prime breeding years. The line's pretty much secure, no matter what I do. If Domen has children, then the line of pairings between the humanoids of the estate and the clan won't be broken. The pressure's not really on me to carry on the line."
I paddled a bit further out into the center of the lake, gnawing on this. "You know, didn't we say we were going to let the future be?" I asked. "We need to survive the next year, yet. Let's not talk about this, Gannon."
"I suppose." Gannon dove and came up under me, and I squawked in astonishment as I was lifted almost up out of the water by his body. I rolled off of him and dove, passing beneath him with my belly brushing the weedy bottom of the lake.
We roughhoused like this for a while, wrestling with each other playfully. Eventually, we dragged our dripping selves out of the water. "I know we said we weren't going to talk about the future, Palil," Gannon said as he fanned his wings to dry them. "I did have something I wanted to say, though."
I'd sat back on my haunches so I could nibble at an itchy spot on my belly. "What?"
"Well, it starts with a question. You don't have any siblings, do you?"
I shook my head. "My parents were together for two centuries before they had me. I don't know why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that they're both past their active breeding years and have been for some time."
"Don't you think it's odd, that most of the white dragons we know have been only children?"
"Things have been influencing that," I told him.
"What they add up to is that the white dragons are going extinct," he said. "You can't count on the ones from the portal to survive."
"What are you getting at?" I asked Gannon.
"Just saying that if either of us has a duty to their line, it's you. And there's a possibility for a partner you're overlooking."
I wrinkled my muzzle at him. "Who?"
"Chaim."
I blinked, my wings mantled. "Chaim? But he's..." I faltered. "Not someone I'd ever considered. He's ten times my size, for starters. And, well...he's more of a teacher than anyone I could be attracted to."
Gannon snorted. "Palil, you've just been through your first heat. Did you really care whether you even liked the dragon you mated with, at least for the first part? You don't have to be in love with him. In fact--" He looked away, wings drawing tightly to his body. "Er, I would probably prefer that you not be. If you and I are together at that point."
"And he is a great wyrm. He's survived over a thousand years. Obviously, he's doing something right." I reached over with my damp tail and ran it along Gannon's haunches comfortingly. "It's a thought. The size difference is worrisome, but as I recall, the important bits don't grow along with the dragon. It's the whole danger of being crushed thing that worries me." I felt a bit flushed, and fanned my wings. "Anyway. Said your piece? Can we go back to not talking about the future now?"
He chuckled. "All right. Dry enough? Want to go back?"
"I think so." I changed to my small form and put my clothes back on. We walked back to the camp together in a companionable silence. I felt overwhelmed, a little tired, but beneath that...
Hope.
Dear Karop, let us all survive!
Quotes:
"Do you want a player's handbook?"
"...Would it help?"
--Kris, Graham
"If she's alive, she'll be able to tell you what happened."
"If she's dead, she can tell us what happened."
--Sondirra, Beamer
"Recklessly into the bushes we go!"
--Galen
"The gods are always slippery."
--Sondirra
The Rules, Continued
Things they would have forbidden us to do...if they'd thought of them.
27. Strip poker is not authorized PT.
28. That chainmail bikini? Still not a uniform.
29. Posing as pirates involves more than randomly saying, "Yarrr!"
30. Just because we sprang the Colonels and the Lt. Colonels from prison does not mean that any of them owe any of us sexual favors. (They may, however, grant them if asked nicely.)
31. Ambushing someone almost never involves running headlong into a cave.
32. Not allowed to make fun of the bard after he fumbles his Disable Device check for the fifth time in a row.
33. Killing a classmate just because he's about to break our cover is frowned upon.
34. None of us are paladins. We are not allowed to act like we are.
35. "Take over the prison administration" is not in our objectives for any mission, ever.
36. The frost giants are extinct for a reason.
37. "Collecting butterflies" is likely never going to be a mission we're sent on.
38. Not all problems can be solved with burrowing.
39. The spell is called "Detect Secret Doors", not "Detect Secret". And we should be glad of it, too.
40. "Take over the world": also not in any mission objectives.
41. After apprehending the hunter who's been poisoning a village of white dragons, not allowed to let him go if he promises not to do it again.
42. I am a lieutenant in the Dragon Corps. My mother is not allowed to give me orders, even if she was a major. She is retired and has been for a number of years now.
43. No going back in time just to watch the Nessamin high holy days.
44. Not even if the ritual can be described as "highly educational".
45. No poisoning communion wafers. Ever.
46. Not allowed to hire a bard to make songs about some of our more public battles.
47. Not even if they're especially patriotic songs.
48. Drow are, in fact, "real elves".
49. Not allowed to break cover without a very good reason.
50. "But he was really cute..." is not a good reason.
51. Neither is, "I needed to win a bet."
52. Do not attempt to spy on MI68, who run MI. They are much, much better than you. You will get caught.
53. Not allowed to dodge an assignment for months on the grounds that it involves clowns.
54. Killing all the clowns is probably not kosher.
55. Making friends with a mind reader and using her to spy on our own military is poor form.
56. While starting every interrogation with the question "what is the meaning of life?" is an interesting tactic, it usually doesn't get any useful information in response.
57. You can only blame so many things on the Virgo dragon clan before someone starts to suspect they're being framed.
58. Not allowed to publicly speculate on Gemini dragon breeding habits. Especially not using the phrases "two for one deal" and "sloppy seconds".
59. Taking over the world may look like fun, but once you have it, what do you do with it?
60. "Kill them all and let the gods sort them out", while not requiring a lot of thought, is usually not a viable political maneuver.
61. Sometimes it is, though.
62. The avatar of Bahomet is not actually at our personal beck and call.
63. Not allowed to get the avatar of Bahomet killed.
