Chapter 43
Ash
Riding on the back of a dragon was awesome.
For the first few days.
Now my ass hurt and we were still flying over the ocean.
I clutched Sy’s black spine tightly. The wind whipping around my body was the only thing still keeping me upright. I whispered my thanks to it.
The last thing I wanted was to fall into that.
The waves churned and crashed far below. A distant rumble told me a storm was building somewhere out there.
I didn’t doubt it.
“How much longer?”
We are almost there.
“What exactly are we looking for?”
The Isle of Draconis. Few living beings have ever seen it.
“Never heard of it.”
It is the home of my ancestors.
“What happened to the rest of the dragons anyway?”
They sleep. Until the time is right to wake.
“So, there are more?”
Hundreds. But they have not been seen for generations.
“So why did you wake?”
I was chosen for a purpose.
“To protect Seph?”
To protect the balance.
“Do you care for her?”
I felt Sy’s displeasure ripple through the air.
Seph is my little one. Of course I care for her.
“So, you do like her.”
Why do you ask me such questions, air mage?
“Curiosity,” I said with a shrug. “So do dragons, you know…”
Do what?
“You know. Feel things.”
I do not understand.
I sighed and shook my head. “Fuck, Sy. Do dragons fuck or not? Or is that not a thing?”
I have a purpose.
“That doesn’t answer my question. Centuries alone up here — I’m just wondering what you do about it.”
Dragons do feel things.
Well, now that was interesting. “Like what?”
A pull. Toward our true half.
“And have you felt this pull since waking?”
The air shifted beneath me—just slightly.
We approach the Isle.
I looked ahead.
On the horizon, like a vision from another world, an island began to emerge.
A strike of black rock against a silver sea.
Storm waves crashed against massive boulders, jagged and knife-sharp. Near the peak, a red glow burned like a wound in the mountain, caves and hollows carved deep into the igneous stone.
The place looked untamed — wild as the ocean itself.
For a moment I just stared, open-mouthed, feeling like the first human ever to lay eyes on it.
The Isle of Draconis. Home of the dragons.
I leaned forward, squinting harder. There was no path. Nowhere for a human to land. The rocks were too jagged, too sharp. Every now and then a burst of molten fire erupted from the mountain’s peak, raining sparks and burning stone down the cliffs below.
“Why did you need me to come?”
Dragons, once stirred, may not return to the Isle until their time upon the earth is done. My role is not yet finished. Should I enter the sacred grounds, the great sleep would claim me.
And I would not return to Seph.
“So, I’m to be your proxy?”
Lightning flashed across the cliffs of Draconis. I swallowed.
Your bond with the winds will serve you well. You must persuade the storm to pass and enter the Cave of Eternal Knowledge and retrieve the volume I seek.
“What’s inside the caves? Anything I should worry about?”
The caves will admit you if your heart is true.
The book rests upon a stand in the central library of the cave.
The Dragon King sleeps beside it.
Move quietly. Keep your heart steady, and you will not be there long.
I shrugged. “Okay… and how exactly are we landing?”
You must ask the winds to help.
The storm cracked again, hitting the cliffs. Rocks tumbled to the ground in a landslide.
This was going to hurt.
“How important is this book?”
Without it, my little one may suffer.
“That’s all you needed to say.”
I closed my eyes and called to the winds.
“Friends, help me,” I whispered, raising my hands.
The wind stirred at once, fluttering and dancing around my skin before lifting me in its ethereal grasp. I felt my body rise gently from Sy’s back.
It was like drifting beneath an invisible parachute. I couldn’t truly fly — but I could soar.
The winds tickled my nose, making me smile.
They had always protected me.
As I floated down toward the cliff’s edge, a sudden gust swept a wave of molten rock aside. Behind it, an archway glowed faintly in the dark stone.
It felt like an invitation.
The jagged stone bit through the soles of my shoes, sharp as razors in places. I moved slowly into the darkened cave.
Glow worms lit patches of stone with each step, scattering constellations across the cavern walls.
Then I heard it.
A deep breathing sound, slow and steady.
In the dim light I could just make out a monstrous shape curled on the cavern floor.
His scales were not black like Sy’s, but a deep blue that shimmered faintly with their own light. Spines ran along his back — each one easily three metres long. They rose and fell with every breath, their tips sharp enough to split stone.
On the dais in the centre of the dragon’s coiled body, I saw the book.
It pulsed with an energy I had never seen before — only ever felt when I was close to Sy. Like it carried its own gravity.
I raised my hand, calling softly to the winds.
“Help me.”
They stirred immediately… then hesitated.
The breeze circled my face, uneasy, as if it had struck an invisible wall between me and the dais.
I frowned.
The winds would not cross it.
I swallowed, looking at the sleeping dragon king.
I was going to have to walk over there and take it myself.
The stone was warm beneath my feet. Each step felt impossibly loud in the quiet cave. I moved slowly, carefully, until I stood before the dais.
The book rested on a stand of black stone.
I reached for it.
A deep rumble filled the cavern. The ground trembled beneath me.
One enormous blue eye opened.
It was larger than my entire body.
“Why do you disturb my sleep, child of air?” The dragon’s voice shook the cave with its power.
“Honestly?” I said.
The dragon blinked once.
“I’m here because someone I care about might die if I don’t take that book.”
The dragon’s great eye shifted to the volume resting beside him.
“And who commands this theft?”
“Sy,” I said, gesturing to the mouth of the cave. “He waits for me outside.”
At the name, the dragon’s spines shifted slightly.
“So… the black one wakes,” the dragon rumbled. “The balance is in peril once again.”
“I don’t know anything about balance,” I admitted. “But I do know I need that book. So… would it be okay if I take it?”
For a moment the cavern was silent.
Then the Dragon King stirred.
Stone groaned beneath its weight as the enormous creature lifted itself from its coil. The cavern ceiling seemed barely high enough to contain him. His massive head rose above me, spines scraping faintly against the rock as he unfolded to his full height.
I suddenly felt very small.
Very mortal.
The dragon lowered its head toward me, one enormous eye fixing me in place.
“You are not a dragon.”
“Nope.”
“Nor are you guardian of this knowledge.”
“Also correct.”
The dragon’s eye narrowed slightly.
“Then why should I permit you to take it?”
I shrugged weakly.
“Because he asked me nicely?”
The dragon was silent.
For a moment I thought I had completely blown it.
Then a deep, rumbling sound rolled through the cave.
It took me a second to realise the dragon king was laughing.
“You speak with honesty, child of the wind.”
My heart skipped.
“Take the book.”
Relief crashed through me so hard my knees nearly buckled.
“But know this,” the dragon said, his voice lowering. “Within those pages lie secrets you may not be ready to learn.”
His great eye fixed on me again.
“Things that have not yet come to pass.”
The cavern seemed to grow colder.
“And the future is not a thing to be trifled with.”
I paused.
“Sir. Mr Dragon King. I have a question for you.”
The great blue eye opened again.
“Speak, child of the wind.”
I shifted the book awkwardly in my hands.
“It’s about the Void.”
The Dragon King lowered his vast head slightly, watching me without blinking.
“What do you wish to know?”
I swallowed.
“Once a Void emerges… can it be changed?”
For a long moment the dragon said nothing.
The slow rhythm of his breathing filled the cavern.
Then the ancient voice rumbled again.
“The Void is not a thing that is born suddenly. Only when necessary.”
His eye gleamed faintly in the dim light.
“It is shaped. Forged by choices. By pain. By power.”
“So, what does it mean for the current person carrying it?”
The Dragon King was still. “What is a void, but emptiness waiting to be filled?”
“I don’t understand,” I replied.
A deep rumble rolled through his chest, like distant thunder.
“You will.”