Page 115 of Shifter King
"Please. This won’t last long. Some have gone mad beyond saving. Others have died. Less than seventy remain. And not for long. Please." Her shoulders dropped, her scaly head scraping the stone floor.
Amelia turned her gaze up into the sky. Yes. It was—so clear now. Not all were dragons. These were Sworns, trapped in these bodies, losing all reason, losing all knowledge. But they hadn't given up. They knew who they were, deep down. They knew who they were and they wanted to be free.
Hallfrid bellowed, her eyes returning to dark-gold slits that glowed in the darkness. She shook her head violently, a scale flying free. "Hurry, Neyeb. Hurry! Please. For my veskare. For my children. Hurry."
Closing her eyes, Amelia fought to strengthen the connection. Somehow this was real. Somehow she had come here. Maybe she was losing part of her mind. But a dragon had spoken to her back when they were over the canopy of Dry Deep.
"Ki!" she cried aloud. "Ki, please, I need your help."
The light glowed and twisted around her as the Ki Valo Nakar took shape in front of her. Its great caribou-like antlers towered over her, casting long shadows on the unyielding stone. The long black-cloaked body extended to its full size, reaching the edge of the cliff as it loomed above. "Why can't you look at this and see that this is your purpose, Neyeb? It is not for you to remember that these are Vawtrians. It is only for you to remember that these are souls in distress whom you could help."
"I need to—"
"These are souls that you would harvest if you were doing what you were supposed to."
"They don't want to be set free. They want to live. Please help me remember when I am conscious again. These men and women want to live! They are suffering, but they don't want to go."
Its moon eyes bored into her, frustration bristling down its back. "You talking to them and giving that one false hope where it did not exist before is what will keep them from being willing to move on because she will tell the others you are trying. They were willing to die before this. But in talking with them, you have made them think there is a chance for them to be whole. That is not for you to do. What you are to do is remove these souls and send them to judgment. You should be doing all you can to be strong and escape. There are more than enough guilty to satiate you."
"Listen to me," she said sharply. "I told you I am willing to learn what it is to be…whatever this is. But Leonas himself told me that I am not to eat souls or to remove the souls of those who do not want to go. And one Machat has told me the same. I imagine more would do the same."
"They aren't the ones facing death," it growled.
"I will face death rather than become what you demand."
It bared its teeth at her. "And that is precisely what must be avoided."
"Then stop tempting me with it!"
"I am not tempting you. I am just telling you of the alternatives, and I will not stop talking to you. I will whisper forever in your ear how to tear the souls free and eat the guilty so that you may be strong so that when the day comes and you do embrace this remarkable gift, you will be able to do so with ease. And it will be easy, Neyeb. So very, very easy. Trust me on that." It then winked away into the darkness.
Claudius barked. He stood a short distance from her, wreathed in fog again, his tail wagging back and forth.
She approached him faster this time. "Where are we going next?"
Another short bark and then he bolted forward. She ran after him.
The passage changed once more to sand. Nearly slipping, she caught herself and ran faster. Somehow she was going to have to remember the dragons.
Claudius led her to another place. A large green pool of water beneath a weeping willow tree. Here the other Amelia, somewhat smaller and wearing all white, stared down into the pool. When Amelia approached, the other Amelia pointed—a weaver statue that fallen in. Mossy letters lay at the bottom of the pool as well, small fish darting in and out.
All right. Interesting. But what was that exactly? "Can you explain it to me?"
The other Amelia darted toward her. Amelia held out her hand to catch her, and the spark struck her deeper this time. Stronger. The other Amelia was gone.
So did this mean she was going to have to find all the pieces before she could return? She chewed on the inside of her lip. That—that did not seem good. It didn't seem to be adding knowledge or awareness to her as well. More a sense of solidity. But no particular answers.
Claudius barked again, already trotting away from the willow tree.
On and on they went. No rhyme or reason appeared to Amelia for where they were going or what appeared where. The Amelias she encountered felt like fragments of her rather than separate representations of aspects of herself. As if someone had just grabbed her at her core and crushed her, leaving each piece still a little representative but not fully there.
Every so often, the spasms and torment came on again. They dropped her to the sand and left her writhing, screaming until they passed. Claudius stayed with her, barking and whining until they passed, then nudging her forward as if to say they had to keep going. So she did.
Each separate location had a path between it. One Claudius seemed to understand. It blurred in her mind, hazy and unpleasantly convoluted. The more she clung to the memory of the dragons, the harder it was to see these other places.
The desert was one of the most common points in between as was the dark cave passage. Sometimes both. Like now. Once again she found herself walking through sand, golden sand this time. This cavern was warm. Almost too warm, its black walls smooth to the touch like marble.
The other Amelia stood beneath a high arched passage.
