Page 56 of Dragon Fight

“Glimmer…”

Those other clawed feet had faltered, then been clenched tight in spasmodic waves as the potential seers had collapsed to the ground, writhed around in pain. I forced my legs to move, one foot in front of the other as I heard that damn humming song in my head, vibrating in my skull.

“Glimmer…”

She turned for just a moment, one claw outstretched, my dragon’s face, followed by so many dragons’ faces turning through time to see me. They swung wildly, fracturing and shattering into a million pieces.

“Glimmer!”

This was a far greater test than anything Draven had put us through, I realised quickly, and I moved faster and faster, trying to get between my dragon and those stones. With training, with preparation, she could try again. When she was bigger, stronger, though the dragons I saw screaming were plenty big enough. And through it all was Cynane’s steely gaze, her golden eye swimming around in my field of vision until it split to become two.

My hand landed on Glimmer’s shoulder the moment her claw touched the stones, but I don’t think that was the issue. We were linked, tied as tight to each other as any two beings could be. Where she went, I would follow and vice versa. So when her claw went lax and open, all muscle tension leaving her as she was dragged in, I went with her. I would always go with her, even if I’d come to regret it. My mouth fell open as I felt it, as if we’d dropped down into a river of memories, the current tugging at us, tugging at all we were, not stopping until we were forced to give in and…

37

"I’ve met him, Tanis,” a young woman said, gazing up at the golden dragon with a look that was well familiar to me. Her dress, her style of wearing her hair might have been centuries of years old, but that utterly besotted look? I knew it as well as I knew—

The humans are comingin greater numbers, my queen, a dark red dragon said, dropping low in a form of courtly bow.We are concerned about—

The world seemedto open up before us, a great expanse of clouds and sky as far as the eye could see, the land and all its inhabitants tiny below. This was celebrated with a great whoop, the girl on my back throwing her arms in the air, completely trusting—

Descending at a great height,the wind itself tearing at our scales as if it could take the flesh from our bones, but we did not pull up. We stooped like a raptor, letting gravity wrench us closer to the earth as our claws were held outstretched. We had our prey in sight and—

“I am Melody,”the bedraggled woman said in a voice filled with awe as she stood on the beach, her arm outstretched to touch the flat expanse of the dragon’s head.

“Hold still, Mel,” a gruff voice said. “Draw your weapons, lads!”

“No, don’t!”

When Melody turned around, she saw with two sets of eyes: her own as she gazed at her brothers, her friends, her lovers, and then there washerview of things.

I am Tanis, the golden queen dragon said straight into the woman’s mind, the way she did to those of her own kind. Everything Tanis had been told when she was still in the egg had led her to expect that humans were unable to communicate in this way, yet… The queen felt something… strange, heady at the contact of the woman’s mind, even as she tried to follow the frantic race of the woman’s thoughts as adrenalin pumped through her.I am Tanis and you are—

Glimmer. The little voice was sharp and sure in all this swirling morass of memories.I am Glimmer.

I am Tanis and you are…?

Glimmer, came the reply again.Glimmer and… Glimmer and…The sounds kept swirling around and around in my head, making less and less sense with every minute I heard them, yet with each echo came a greater sense of urgency, the expectation clawing at me but to do what?

I am Tanis and you are…?

Glimmer. Glimmer and… Glimmer and—!

It was the command in her voice that had my mouth moving, whispering the words as I spoke them inside my mind.

Glimmer and… Pippin.The sound of my name was torn from me, wrenched away and into the swirling vortex I had been somehow thrust into.We are Glimmer and Pippin!

Suddenly the world went utterly quiet and I blinked, coming back to my own self, to the room. But what I returned to was in quite a different state than when I’d started. The room was the same, though it was cleaner, fresher, airier, scented with lavender from the dried bunches that had been scattered across the floor.Sheshifted in her great nest of dragonstones, her elegant forepaws crossed in front of her. She regarded the two of us with a gentle air, nodding as she watched us come back to ourselves.

To restore the balance, the queen must rise, she said, almost by way of greeting and Glimmer repeated the phrase back to her before the two of them looked at me.

Greetings and be welcome, Glimmer and Pippin, she said to the two of us.I’ve been waiting for you for some time. The task ahead will be difficult but necessary.

And you can tell us what we must do?Glimmer asked.I have seen… I have dreamed…

Peace, young dragon, all will be revealed in time,Tanis replied.Though perhaps not as swiftly nor as easily as you might wish. I could not risk leaving all of the information here for you tofind, just in case Dragon Home was overrun.I saw so many versions of the future…

Not now, Glimmer replied.At least not yet, though perhaps soon.

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