CHAPTER 15 #2
Callagh moved to my chair and knelt, bringing us eye to eye. “Continue exactly as you were,” she said with a seriousness I had rarely heard from her. “This changes nothing. So you didn’t know until today. So he has a brother who’s a bit annoying.”
I nodded, though I wouldn’t call Wep annoying. Brooding—sure. Or frustrating? Absolutely.
“My lady, you are still meant to be dana. Your path is clear.”
Path… The memory of my dream came surging back. Return to me. Urgency flooded me, and the call to move vibrated through my bones. My path was clear—not toward Ell or the future he promised. I stood, knowing with certainty where I needed to go.
“Callagh, do you trust me?” I grabbed her hands and held them tight. “Are you truly committed to me?”
I waited.
Hesitation flashed over her face for just a moment before she nodded. “Yes, my lady.”
“Good. We need to ride.”
CALLAGH WAS true to her word. Slipping out of the keep and then past the castle walls was simple under her quiet guidance, though walking beneath the beastly gate was appropriately ominous.
We saddled our horses, and I was happy to meet the same mare who carried me to the cave the first time.
I had no horse of my own here, but I hoped Kappa wouldn’t mind lending her hoof.
We mounted and set off at a slow pace.
“Speed draws attention,” Callagh explained, “and suspicion.”
I shrugged my assent as we continued. Something tugged at my breastbone, drawing me onward. There was no need to confirm the path with my reálta. I could feel it in my marrow, if not my soul.
“I’m coming,” I told the voice that had taken residence in my head.
A purr of appreciation rattled through me.
We continued down the wide path at a slow pace, affording me plenty of opportunity to look around.
The deeper we got into the forest, the wilder the trees grew.
Tiny mushrooms dotted logs and tree sides, moss-covered stones on the forest floor, and small burrows hinted at flourishing life.
Yet the path had long since turned to well-trodden soil.
How many others had been called to the mountainside cave before me?
I had seen little of religion since arriving in Drakh, but a path like this made me wonder—could this be why they called themselves followers of the Ancient Path?
“Not long now,” I said, as if I, and not Kappa, were truly in the lead.
Callagh glanced at me but remained silent.
We rounded a bend, and the cave mouth appeared.
In the fading light, I had thought it was nothing more than a cave on the side of a mountain.
Now, in the brightness of day, I saw it for its true nature: a looming volcano wreathed in clouds.
At its peak, a heavy curl of smoke hovered, neither spilling over nor floating away.
I didn’t stop. There was no hesitation as I dismounted and walked toward the entrance. I held up a hand to Callagh, who also dismounted and made to follow. I handed her Kappa’s reins.
“My lady?”
“Don’t fear. I’ll be back soon.” My voice held a confidence that I didn’t know I could muster in a place like this.
My senses stirred as a new awareness of my surroundings opened.
I could feel each hair on my body tickled by the soft breeze.
I breathed in the aromas of the forest—damp earth, woody bark, and crisp air from windblown leaves mingled with the musty sweet tang of decaying forest floor.
Even the tiny, grinding sounds of insects digging through the soft dirt met my ears.
In a single step, the darkness consumed me.
The light of the cave mouth winked out. I walked through pitch black, hearing every pebble shift underfoot and feeling every change in the pulsing winds that filled the cavern.
I could do nothing but place one foot in front of the other and follow the pull that drove me ever onward.
I trudged through darkness for so long that my limbs went numb, and I lost all sense of time—hours, days, perhaps weeks passing.
When my body fell behind, I picked up and continued forward with my mind, searching for that ageless voice, or perhaps, searching for myself.
In an instant and yet an eon, my sight returned as the dark corridor opened into a monstrous cavern.
Colors popped into view around me in blues, purples, and greens.
Looking down, I saw my hands glowing with light from within.
Where I expected dark stalagmites, I instead saw deep blues on one side and a dark green flickering on the other.
I pressed my hand to the nearest one, knowing it was solid and yet needing to feel the cold rock to ground myself.
Tiny bits of my golden light seeped into the calcified stone.
“It’s me,” I said.
“Very good.”
“Where are you?”
“That is not the question you wish to ask, Small One.”
I sucked in a breath. Could she read my mind? “What are you?”
“Come and see.”
The pull to move onward was crippling. I was nearly there.
I rounded another stalagmite and came nose to snout with magnificence.
Scales as green as the forest and a neck twice the length of my whole body.
My breath hitched. My legs locked. The nostrils alone came up to my waist. Massive overlapping fangs, each as long as my leg, poked out from her jaws, and horns like branches spiraled out the back of her head.
Even her claws, relaxed as they were in sleep, could tear me in two with a single flick.
Fear slammed into me. My joints rattled uncontrollably, and I fell to my knees. My eyes welled with tears, and for once, I was not ashamed to shed them. I’d known where I was going, deep down—but seeing her still shocked me to my core.
A living dragon.
Emerald leathery wings draped over her scaled body, and patches of lighter scales lined her belly. As I reached out and touched her cold nose, peace radiated through me, banishing all fear.
“Say it, child.”
“Say what?” I couldn’t tell if I was speaking in my head or aloud.
“Say what you already know. Name me.”
I met the creature’s closed eyes. “The Great Dragon,” I whispered.
“Good. To you, I am Vaya’la. Know this: you are bound to me. In this realm, I am yours, and you are mine. You are my conduit, and in you, I imbue the power of life.”
“Are there other realms?”
“You will learn all there is to know in time. For now, remember only this…you are bound to me.”
“What must I do? What does it mean to be bound to you?”
“Your world is at a tipping point. The balance between our realms has been upset. An unmatched evil has infected our kind and is spreading. Soon, it will cover all lands with its ichor. Together, we will find the power to return what is right to all realms. This is your task.”
“I don’t know what any of this means.”
“You will.”
A new thought bubbled to the surface. I should have been afraid to question this great beast, but I was not. “Why do you sleep?”
“Sleep is for the body alone, not the mind. I live in the Dream Realm, where the true monsters lurk. Heed my call, Small One. When I have need of you, you must come. When you most need me, I will be here within you, ready to come out.”
“Why me?” I had so many questions. “I don’t understand this burden you’ve placed on me.”
A gust of dragon breath slammed into me, knocking me back several stumbling steps. Light and flames absorbed into my skin, and my mind blossomed with knowledge from the past, far beyond the reach of my own learning. I could feel it lurking under the surface of my thoughts, waiting to be tapped.
“Your eyes are open. All answers are within you. You need only ask the right questions. Leave this place, Small One, and heed what I have said.”
“But what about—”
A loud snore rumbled the cavern, making the pebbles at my feet quake.
I fought back a smirk. Message received. Apparently, she was a surly dragon. I turned to leave, but after a few steps, a final thought came to me. “Vaya’la?” I asked. “Is that your name?”
“Of sorts. When you need to know more, you shall.”
Excellent. Surly and cryptic. Just what I needed.
I left the cavern, walking in a straight line back through the darkness. Only this time, I began to recognize small patterns of deep colors on the walls and ground. The faint glow of my own body lit my way. My steps did not waver, even though my mind was swirling.
The light at the mouth of the cave blazed to the point of pain.
I welcomed it, stepping through and bathing myself in the rays of the sun, obscured as they were by the surrounding trees.
Everything turned into a wild explosion of colors, a thousand times stronger than before.
I swayed on my feet. Steadying hands pressed against my shoulders, holding me upright. After a moment, my eyes adjusted.
“What is this?” I asked, closing my eyes.
“What is what, my lady?” It was Callagh’s voice, but not the one I needed to hear.
“It is the power of my sight—lifelight. You will adjust.”
I sighed. “Okay.” I opened my eyes and saw Callagh. She was radiant and swirling with sparkling energy. Flickers of orange flashed through the white light emanating from her skin. Intuitively, I recognized it as fear.
I smiled at her. “Nothing to fear. I am well. Let’s get back before we’re missed.”
“Did you see her, my lady?” She released my shoulders and gripped my hands in hers.
“See who?”
Callagh leaned in close. “The Great Dragon?” She whispered in my ear.
“Have you met her, too?”
“When I was sixteen. Many of us have. She has protected our lands for centuries. Where did she appear for you?”
That wasn’t the question I expected. “Within. In the cavern.”
“What, just standing there in the cave?”
“No, sleeping.”
Callagh tilted her head. “Well, that’s a first. Some say they met her on a mountain top or at a cliff’s edge. My grandfather swears she rose from the depths of the sea to exact his pledge to the Riht. Did she give you a bierla?”
“A blessing?”
“Yes. A gift to help you with your passion and connect you to the Riht?”
“I—” What had Vaya’la said? The power of life. “I suppose so.” I let go of Callagh’s hands and stepped toward the horses. Kappa was munching berries that grew along the path.
As one, we mounted and guided our horses back toward Drakh.
We were nearly clear of the forest when Callagh spoke up again. “Why did she call you back?”
“I’m…not sure,” was all I could think to say. The truth was much heavier than I knew how to voice. You are bound to me. Bound for eternity to the Great Dragon.
“Don’t fear, my lady. If she’s given you her blessing, then she’s accepted you.”
“Yes,” I said, though a different command echoed through me, making my insides squirm. Play your part, girl. “I’m sure you’re right,” I managed.
But she wasn’t right. Vaya’la asked no pledge of me—she claimed me as her own.
She gave me no command beyond the calling of a task I barely understood.
She told me that we were bound to each other and that through me, her power was imbued.
Was I expected to become like the Dragonbound of old, straight out of Kahvrah’s story, returned to prove humanity worthy?
The thought was laughable. Did Vaya’la know that I was meant to be collected, removed from the Riht, and become a betrayer of these people forever?
If she did, she kept conspicuously silent.