Page 82 of Of Empires and Dust

Depth of Words

7thDay of the Blood Moon

Berona – Winter, Year 3081 After Doom

From the southernedge of Lake Berona, under the blended light of the Blood Moon and the morning sun, the city was at its most beautiful. Eltoar clasped his hands behind his back, his bare feet resting against the cool surface of the rock beneath him. The waves blew south-westerly with the wind, glittering in the same light as the city.

The silence was almost as beautiful as Berona itself, even more so for it was a much rarer thing. He drew a long breath, closing his eyes and listening as the air swelled in his lungs. The gentle waves lapped at the rocks, the spray splashing his feet and rising to tickle his face.

“A question of the heart, old friend?” Fane hadn’t spoken since Eltoar had told him everything that had happened, both from Voranur’s report of the battle in the Darkwood and oftheir encounter with Salara. The only piece of information he withheld was of Tivar’s defection – if she was even still alive. Fane was a friend, one of very few, but Eltoar was not naive enough to think that would stop the man from taking action if he thought the Dragonguard were defecting.

Eltoar opened his eyes and grunted at Fane, who stood to his left in nothing but a loose black tunic and white trousers despite the frigid air.

“That is three of your kin lost within months of each other.”

“That’s not a question.”

“No,” Fane said. “It’s not. I would know your mind. What is it thinking?”

Eltoar let out a deep sigh. He spread his fingers, the cold morning breeze slipping through the gaps and rolling over his skin. “I lost Jormun and Ilkya a long time ago. They were my kin, and I mourn them. They were among the last of my kind, and I will mourn that also. But they were not the souls I once knew.”

“And Pellenor?”

“He deserved better.”

“That he did. When this is all over, we will build a monument where he and Meranta fell. You have my word.”

“Will this ever be over?” Eltoar turned to look at Fane, searching the man’s eyes for the truth. “I mean truly?”

Fane’s smile was fleeting as he clasped his hands behind his back and stepped up to a rock closer to Eltoar. “Yes.” A moment of silence passed between them, the waves swashing. “I promised you much all those years ago, and I would like to think I have followed through on many of those promises. In these last two hundred years, northern Epheria has seen more unbroken peace than in the previous two thousand. The people are fed, and they want for little. If it were not for the southern rebels, that peace would extend across the continent. But I am acutely aware that there are also many promises upon which I have notfollowed through. But I have never, nor will I ever, stop trying to fulfil them. All great things require sacrifice. You know this more than most. One last push and we can bring this war to an end.”

A shadow engulfed them both, sweeping from left to right, sapping what little heat was given by the morning sun. That same shadow spread across the lake, and a gust of wind blew Eltoar’s hair to the side, his coat following suit.

“If there is any chance of bringing life back to the eggs,” Fane said as Helios soared across the sky, “it lies with Efialtír.”

Eltoar folded his arms, watching Helios. Fane always knew which cog to turn, which wound to prod and poke.

“I know you have never been as strong a believer as I. You didn’t choose your path based on faith. But faith is all you have now. Four centuries and not one of them has hatched.”

“One has.”

Fane drew a long breath. “True. But have you seen signs of any others? In the Üvrian un’Aldryr or in Venira? Or in those you keep in the Sea?”

Eltoar glanced at Fane out of the corner of his eye. The eggs Eltoar kept in the Sea of Stone were not a secret, but nor had he openly spoken of them to Fane. This was Fane’s way of letting Eltoar know that he knew.

“No.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean none will be found. Perhaps this is a new dawn. And we can only pray that it is. But it is always better to assume the worst and act accordingly. Say the word, and I will arrange two thousand attendants to be split between Üvrian un’Aldryr and Venira and your retreat in the Sea, if you so wish. I will reinstate the Dracårdare, and we will begin testing for the Calling and warming the eggs. But even still, we must not stop our course. The Uraks call Efialtír the Lifebringer for a reason. Wemustrecover the Heart of Blood. It is the only way. Withthe power contained in that vessel, there is little we couldn’t do, Eltoar.”

Eltoar lurched forwards, a sudden rush of sorrow bleeding from Helios’s mind to his. The thought of all those eggs, all that life, dead, brought the dragon’s memories rushing to the fore. Helios unleashed a roar that ached in Eltoar’s chest.

There was nothing they wouldn’t do to see another egg hatch. And perhaps Fane was right. If Varyn and the other gods had stripped the life from the eggs in punishment for what Eltoar and the others had done, then perhaps Efialtír could give that life back. If that was the last thing Eltoar did before leaving this world, he would die with a smile on his lips. But the thought of the Heart put caution in his veins. That vessel was a thing of power the likes of which Eltoar had never felt. He remembered feeling it as he had stood atop the Star Tower the night Ilnaen fell. He remembered the sky as it filled with lightning and the fire as it swept across the land like the world had cracked open.

Another roar sounded overhead, and Helios dropped into a dive. The dragon spread his wings and pulled himself parallel to the lake with such force that he sent a ten-foot wave surging across the surface.

Helios dropped his head and opened his jaws into the water, his claws trailing, his tail whipping back and forth. The dragon snapped his jaws shut and opened them again and again, blood and water spilling through his teeth.

“They are preternatural creatures, are they not?” Fane stared at Helios as the rent bodies of fish fell from the dragon’s open maw. “Predators with no equal in the known world, capable of incomprehensible destruction. It is no wonder Varyn sought to take their fire. If they did not need us, we would all be ash, all as helpless as fish in a pond. Bones and blood.”

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