Embers at Galdrilene (49 page)

“I am not,”
came the return sending.
“I am different than I should be. I can feel it. There is some sort of magic on me, but it didn’t work right. I have always felt it was weak in me although I don’t know why. I have struggled against it for as long as I have been. I can feel it running strong and sure in the other dragons here. If there was evil in your heart, if you had been willing to give up half your soul for power, the magic would have won. My soul would have died. Half of your soul would have been torn from you to replace it and I would be a Shadow.”

Taela felt love washing over her from the draclet and she returned the feelings with all of her being. Nothing had ever felt so right as the bond she now shared with this beautiful creature.

Sadira stepped beside her and looked critically at the draclet. “She is not quite a proper Shadow Dragon, is she?”

“What do you mean?” Taela asked, careful to keep her voice neutral and show none of the fear coiling in her stomach.

“Her scales are more silver than gray. They reflect the light rather than absorb it like the other dragons. And her eyes, they are not the same as the other dragons.” Sadira gestured to the seven black dragons.

A sandy-haired man walked over to stand beside Sadira. “She hardly looks like a Shadow Dragon. She has none of the darkness about her that she should. Not like my Quillan, or Ranit, and the others do.” He glanced up at his Quillan. The black looked back with dull disinterest in his eyes.

“You are right, Kovan,” Sadira said, her pretty mouth twisted into a grimace as if she hated agreeing with him. Taela felt the tension between them. They didn’t like each other. The emotions rolling off each of them didn’t bother her like they would have a few minutes before. She could feel them, but they weren’t so much a part of her. Perhaps Paki had something to do with it.

“It was never right as an egg,” Kovan said. “It probably would have been better had it been destroyed.”

Dreth drifted toward them. “We did what we thought best.”

“What we thought best,” echoed Bern.

“Indeed,” Alden crossed the chamber to stand next to them. “At the time, we thought it best to preserve all of the eggs, despite the obvious flaw in this one. However, upon seeing the product of the egg, I am not sure we made the right decision. This dragon is indeed flawed. A reflection of her rider, perhaps.”

He turned his cold, red gaze on Taela. Terror pooled in her limbs and her legs trembled. If they decided she or Paki were too flawed they would kill them both. She pushed the terror down and looked Alden in the eye with a boldness that didn’t go beyond the surface. “Are you saying I’m not good enough to be one of you? After promising me power, you now say I am too flawed? I want what you promised me.”

Taela purposely said nothing about Paki. She wasn’t supposed to feel any more for her dragon than she did her own arm. The draclet wasn’t supposed to have her own mind and thoughts. Beyond acting on basic instincts for eating, sleeping, and breeding, a Shadow Dragon did what they were told and nothing more.

Alden regarded her for a long moment. “What is done is done. We could dispose of you both, I suppose, but waste not want not. So we shall see. Welcome, Shadow Rider.”

The three Benduiren turned as one and walked away. Kovan shook his head and shot Paki a disgusted look before leaving. Sadira leaned in close and whispered, “One day, the Benduiren will no longer make such decisions. One day, I will be the one who decides. Then those who are so obviously flawed, such as yourself, will not be allowed to weaken our ranks.”

Taela maintained her bold front. “Your threats mean little to me, Sadira. Go torture your pets and leave me be.”

Sadira’s lip lifted in a sneer and she stalked from the cavern, her sisters at her heels with their burdens of water that was never offered to Taela.

The two other female riders stopped in front of her. They had the same golden hair and green eyes. The same features. One of them glared after Sadira. The other smiled at Taela. “Ignore Sadira. We do. She is under some deluded notion that she makes the decisions around here.”

The other woman looked at Taela. “I’m Oksana. This is my twin, Paylana.” She waved her hand absently at two of the dragons perched above them. “Our dragons, Ona and Dusa.”

Paylana glanced at Paki. “It’s a shame she isn’t black, but don’t let Sadira get under your skin.” The two women left without another word.

“May I eat now?”
came Paki’s plaintive sending.

She turned her attention to the beautiful draclet.
“Of course you may, love.”

Paki lumbered awkwardly across the cavern and out into the evening shadows in front of the cave mouth. She plunged her head into the pile of meat and then abruptly withdrew it. “Most of it is rotten!”

“I know, love, but it’s all there is. If I demand fresh meat, they will know something is very wrong. Can you eat it at all?”

“I can, there are pieces that are fresher.”

Taela could feel Paki’s revulsion as she tore into the meat. She sent soothing feelings to the draclet and began to wander around the massive cavern, hoping the movement would settle her nerves. High above on their rock perches, the black dragons peered idly down at her. She could feel the hollow emptiness in them.

Near the back of the massive room an archway, carved with dark dragons and gold scrollwork, led to a deep alcove. She peered inside. Three steps led up to a wide dais at the back. On the dais stood two pedestals. She glanced around the cavern. Everyone had dispersed. Sadira and her pets were gone. So was the man, Kovan. Three of the others and either Dreth or Bern, she wasn’t sure which, were on the far side of the cavern. It looked like they were working on mastering their magic.

She slipped into the alcove, climbed the steps, and crossed the dais to the pedestals. One held a book as black as the dragons on their perches. On its cover, a leafless tree grew upside down. The other pedestal held a book with a golden, five-pointed star on its rich, warm wooden cover. A different jewel was set into each of the star’s points and another rested in the center of the star. A fine lacework of impossibly thin silver threaded through the star, giving the impression that the different jewels were woven together.

The second book drew her. The gold of the star beckoned her. She wanted to reach for it, but she could feel eyes on her. Instinct told her if she reached for the beautiful book with the star first, she would further convince them they made a mistake in allowing Paki to hatch.

She reached for the black book instead. The branches of the dead tree seemed to move when her fingers touched the cover. Darkness and evil rolled off the book. A dull pain began to build in her head. It sharpened when she opened the book and her eyes traveled over the pages.

She saw no words, only symbols. Without knowing how, she understood what the symbols meant. It was a book of spells. As her eyes traced each symbol, its meaning became clear. She could understand them and see how they fit together.

“Can you read it?” the Benduiren named Alden asked, joining her on the dais.

She shut the book and shook her head. “No.” She didn’t know why, but her instincts screamed at her to keep it secret. “Can you?”

“No. I cannot. It is a shame you are unable to read it. The others all found their way up here after their dragons hatched, however, none of them could read it.” His red eyes slid over her. “You are certain you feel nothing when you touch the books, certain none of it made sense?”

She backed away from the books and from him. “I’m certain. It just looks like jumble of lines and I could make no meaning from them. It’s been a strange and exhausting day. I think I will find my quarters and lay down for a bit.”

“Of course.” The Benduiren nodded and made a small motion with his hand. A servant came scurrying out of the shadows at his signal. “Show our newest rider her quarters and the bathing and dining rooms.”

The servant nodded, her eyes barely flickering to Taela’s face before returning to the floor. Taela felt Alden’s eyes boring into her back as she followed the servant from the main cavern. She tried to ignore it, just as she tried to ignore the fear rolling off the servant, the ache in her head from the black book, the evil around her, and her own worry that she and Paki were trapped forever.

M
aleena stood on the edge of the inner terrace looking down the length of the crater. The lake at the far end reflected the iron gray of the overcast sky. A hint of green washed through the grass growing on the crater floor. Despite the cold temperatures that lingered, the first signs of early spring were showing.

A sharp, north breeze whipped her chestnut hair around her face. In the months after her first flight with Nydara, she had taken to wearing it in a braid like Kirynn did. Serena had cropped her hair so that it fell in a spiky way about her ears, but Maleena liked her long hair. Kirynn’s style of braid that began at the crown of her head seemed the best way to keep it out of her face when she flew. Today, she wore it loose due to the cold.

She watched the dragons bathing in the icy waters after a morning spent hunting. They hunted far into the uninhabited northern mountains, testing the strength of their wings against distant marching, peaks.

The view of the crater faded and she saw a man on his knees in a garden, clutching his head as if it hurt. It took a moment to realize she was in the mind of another woman who was supposed to marry him. A woman desperate to make the man change his mind about the marriage.

Maleena reached out to the woman,
“If you put any more pressure on his mind, you will crush it. This is not the way.”

Shocked surprise flowed through the connection as the woman’s concentration wavered. Maleena lost the connection and her vision cleared. Down the crater, Nydara stopped bathing and stared at her.

“What just happened?”
came the sending from the silver.

“I don’t know. I’ve never had anything like that happen before. Whoever she is, she can use Spirit magic,” Maleena returned.

“Will Emallya know?” The dragon asked.

“I don’t know. I will see her shortly at mid-day. I’ll ask her then.”
Maleena ran her teeth along her lower lip. Who was the woman? Maleena hadn’t sensed any evil intentions in the woman’s mind, only desperation.

Footsteps on the flat rock of the terrace pulled her from her thoughts. She didn’t have to look around to know it was Kellinar. Nor did she have to read his thoughts. Her powers, and the ability to handle them, had grown so much she was stronger than even Emallya now. Her time at the Tower of Spirit taught her each person had their own mental aura and she could pick up on it when they came near. The more familiar a person, the easier she felt their aura and the further away she could feel it. The inner terrace was quite large, but she felt him the minute he stepped onto the far side of it.

“Hello, Kellinar.”

He stopped next to her and looked down the crater. “How can they swim in water that flaming cold?”

Maleena smiled. Kellinar would never change. He was more careful around others, doing his best to uphold the dignity of his position. But in private, with the other riders who were like family to him, he was just Kellinar. His white-blond hair had grown out in the past year and he now wore it in close spaced, orderly rows of braids that ran tight up against his head until they reached the nape of his neck. Adorned with blue and white beads at the ends, the braids swung freely down the back of his neck to the tops of his shoulder blades. He looked every inch a member of the Tower of Wind and Water.