80. Chapter 73
Chapter 73
Find the other worlds, and you will learn about the one who created it. Go to the lands of Erelith, and you will understand the flame of her followers. You will know what the sword feels as it is tempered, and you will understand the unbreakable determination of her followers. It’s a good thing she doesn’t believe in large armies. Otherwise, we’d all have our hands full with just her.
~Rhaskar Thorne, The First Book of the Priests
Maeve
The Darkness stares at me with hatred, even without eyes. “Ready to go back to the void?” I ask. Hours have passed since I trapped The Darkness in Valinar, but it doesn’t seem to have helped The Darkness relax any. “You would have tried to trick me into consuming this entire world, so let’s not pretend like I’ve betrayed something.” The words feel far too similar to Gethin.
Daughter of Stone, you think you are so very clever. You are not.
I smile at The Darkness. “I specifically told you I didn’t think I was that clever. I couldn’t have done this on my own. My mother and several of my friends are how I captured you. I just listened to clever people and let you think I was weaker than I am. It’s exactly what I’ve done since I was forced to wear the Painted Crown. Now, if you’re ready to go, I’ll be happy to take you back to the void. Remember that I’ve done nothing to harm you. All I did was inconvenience you for a few hours with no intention of any harm coming to you. The arrangement you had with Vyran still stands.”
The Darkness gnashes its teeth in anger. One day, I will feast on your bones.
“You’ll have to get in line. I have it on good account that I’m bringing ruin to this entire world, so you may want to find another world to spend your days around.”
The hunters?
A smile crosses my face. “Is that a question? Yes, the hunters. I guess it’s my turn now to ask questions, but I’m not wondering anything in particular right now. I might come to visit another time.”
Your soul is marked by her, Daughter of Stone. She has hooked her claws into your soul, and there is no escaping her now. Do not believe the stories you’ve been told. The Goddess of Death and Beauty is as cold and cruel as any god, and she is the cleverest of them all . Be wary of what you agreed to.
I don’t say anything as The Darkness speaks, giving me information to terrify me. I know what I did. I gave Lysara control over my bloodline.
“Are you ready?” I ask again.
Yes, Daughter of Stone. Take me home.
I glance at my mother and suddenly everything becomes dark. In an instant, I wrap my shadows around The Darkness and pull it into the single opening to the void. As soon as we’re there, it swims a short distance away.
Your mother’s world is still open to me, it says with a snarl. I will consume it soon enough. She will become bored with her bright world, and then I will enter it, and I will fill myself on its power.
I smirk. “Good luck.” Valinar won’t be there long now.
I pull myself back into Calyr’s cave to see Calyr pacing. “My mother has asked me to make a request,” I say deferentially, no longer trying to push him. “She wishes you to take Valinar away from her. She offers the power of it to you as payment.”
Calyr snarls, his long claws ripping streaks of stone from the ground. “You ask me for a favor after you have forced me to do the one thing that will endanger this world?”
“I do not. My mother does. She says that you would like this power back.”
“I will not make Brenna of the Darkness a High Fae again.”
Smoke drifts from Calyr’s nostrils, and I want to reach for Cole, to push him behind me. But Calyr will not kill me or Cole now. I know this. He is angry, but he is thoughtful, and he wants us alive.
“She does not want to be High Fae. She would like you to have the power she’s collected and built Valinar with. All she wishes is to live out the rest of her life as a human with her husband.”
Calyr’s head cocks, surprise on his face. “She doesn’t wish to have any power?”
I shake my head. “She doesn’t. The only reason she asked for Valinar was to protect people like my father and the rest of the House of Shadows. All she’s truly wanted since she married my Da was to be with him. Everything else has been for Nyth, and Nyth is safe now.”
Calyr’s serpentine head swivels toward me, his massive eye opening just a little wider. “She will be weak, frail as any human. She will age and die. She has been one of the many lines of fate upon which Nyth’s future rotated for thousands of years. Now she will become irrelevant?”
“Yes. It’s all she has wanted since I was born, but she was the only one who could do the things that needed to be done. Only she could force Nyth to heal from the wounds that Gethin had inflicted on it. Now there are others who can protect Nyth, and she can finally rest.”
Several moments pass as Calyr’s nails claw at the floor. “I will use this power to do what I can to protect Nyth, as your mother did. I will cover it in mists. It will not work for long, but it will give the Old Ones time to prepare for what is coming.”
His constant clawing at the ground stops, and he lets out a low sigh that makes the entire mountain rumble. “The others—Sidon, Vyran, Kasan, and Inni—gave themselves to protect this world. They bound their power to this land so that all of you could continue to live, and now you’ve ruined it. The ones who are coming will devour it no differently than The Darkness would. Except that there is nothing that can stop them. You have made their sacrifices pointless.”
I shake my head. I’ve spent the last month coming to terms with this and reading A History of Magic and Dragons . I know all the things that were done to hide from the Hunters. “I have not, Calyr. Hiding from terrible things is only good as long as you are preparing to face them. We hid from Gethin for months. We hid, and we prepared. We could have claimed the Thrones and waited for millennia, hiding from him and his troops. He was terrible and felt impossible to defeat, but we had to face him so we could take back our world, so we could truly heal from his influence.
“Calyr, whatever is coming, fighting is the only way to deal with it. Eventually, something would have drawn them here. It might have been one of the High Fae. Maybe it would have been a traveler. It could have even been one of the gods waking up. But eventually, they would come, and we wouldn’t have the time to prepare. Now we do.”
I swallow hard before finishing. “I haven’t ruined anything. I’ve simply changed our trajectory from hiding to preparing to fight. If I have learned anything since being brought into the world of dragons and Immortals, it’s that there will always be a fight, and becoming strong enough to stand against those who wish to take what you love away is a duty rather than a choice.”
Calyr hums softly. Dragons are like any other Immortals. They do not enjoy having their longtime beliefs challenged, but Calyr understands the flexibility of the world. He knows that a single action can have ripples that will change everything. As his eyes change from the multitude of colors into a pure gold, I realize he is following lines of fate that I cannot see.
This is Calyr the Gold. Calyr, the Reader of Fate. He was the advisor to all the other dragons. He is looking into the future now that Ruin has come to his plans. Now that I became the Ruin he predicted.
“It is possible that this world survives,” he says, his eyes looking into the distance. “It is possible, but unlikely. There are very few strings to pull currently. The hunters are unaware of Nyth, but they have been alerted that something has happened in this section of the void. They will come. A few years with no help. A hundred with your mother’s power. But what if… What if I gave you more? What if I gave you more tools to fight them with?”
I don’t answer as I stare into that golden eye. “I have lived a very long time,” he says slowly. “My people failed when we tried to fight, but even then, I was old. Dragons are strong. We are capable of incredible feats of magic, but we are not like humans or even the High Fae. The Old Ones have awakened, and soon enough, they will take control as they did before. The world will be a very different place in only a few years, but the Old Ones are even less capable of change. Their strengths and weaknesses are so ingrained in them.”
His eyes change again, returning to the rainbow of colors as he refocuses on me. “I will speak with the Old Ones. You may be right, Daughter of Stone. Maybe hiding was not the right answer. It was the only answer I saw, but I cannot see the things that I cannot imagine. Sometimes those with shorter lifespans are more capable of innovation. But even the Old Ones and Immortals working together will not win with only a hundred years to prepare. The enemy is… unending. They are powerful beyond your comprehension.”
I frown, not entirely sure that I believe what I’m hearing. “What are you saying, Calyr?” I ask.
“You asked what I was willing to sacrifice for this world? I will change, Daughter of Stone. I will do the things that only yesterday would have been impossible for me to comprehend. Everything that I’ve tried to protect this world from is going to come to fruition, but there is a chance to change things. Maybe… maybe by working together, dragons and Immortals can do what dragons could not.”
Calyr moves toward the hole in his cave. His massive wings spread, and after a few steps, he takes to the air, flying through the tunnel to the world outside this mountain. Before he’s all the way out of the tunnel, there’s a voice in my mind. Remember that the Old Ones are not what humans believe them to be. They are dangerous beyond anything that your stories tell. Then he’s gone.
I stand there, terrified of what I’ve done. I don’t even understand what Calyr was trying to say. I’m so glad that I pulled Cole away, back to the House of Flames. I need him safe while all these loose ends are tied up.
Even with how worried I am, the most important thing is still true. Cole is safe. That Calyr thinks maybe we won’t all die is a delightful bonus. Even if everything is changing, maybe it’s not the worst thing that could have happened. Maybe it’s just what needed to happen for all of us to survive. I didn’t become strong enough to fight Gethin and Rhion and even Calyr without sacrifice.