Page 55 of Dragon Fight

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It was odd to wake up the next day and breakfast with a dragon, but that’s what we did. Cynane reclined on one of the massive pillows that were used as seating around the low table and ate with us. Glimmer took up position beside me and while there were spaces for each of the male dragons, they took somewhat longer to sit down until my dragon shot them a long look. There was a range of raw dishes and cooked ones for humans as well as dragons.

We will visit Tanis’ nest today, Cynane announced, and Glimmer’s head jerked up at that. The older queen nodded to her.All of her dragon stones with all of her memories are stored there. It is customary for potential seers to sit in the first dragon’s nest and see if she can access Tanis’ memories.

“So, another test, then?” Flynn asked, his tone not entirely friendly.

A necessary one and young Glimmer will not be harmed nor face any consequences if she fails it.

At the word fail I watched my dragon closely, seeing the slight tremor in her limbs as she stood there and listened. I reached out to smooth my hand down her back when she jumped, then shot me an apologetic look. The need to come closer, to nestle down into my side was a palpable one I felt down our bond, but Glimmer didn’t give in to it. She stood alone, proud and independent.

I will do this test.That was Glimmer’s only response, one that didn’t allow for argument or discussion. I nodded and so did Cynane.

So that’swhat we did. We walked through the streets of Dragon Home feeling the morning sun on our skins as it filtered through the expansive canopies of old growth trees. Many dragons and some people came out into the streets to watch us pass. Ged snorted at this, flushing slightly. Then he looked at me, shuffling closer as we walked, but while my men’s hands all strayed to the hilt of their swords, they needn’t have worried. Dragons bent their heads low as we passed, affording us an unearned respect or perhaps it was what came of being in Cynane’s company.

The dragon herself paid this little mind and so in this vein we reached our destination. She stopped just in front of a huge building, one in a very different style to much of the architecture in Dragon Home. Less square, less spare and with much more ornamentation, that was my first impression. We all looked up, up, peering at windows made from a marbled sort of glass, the lintels carved with small scenes, and larger ones inscribed into the walls themselves. Cynane stepped up to the round door and when her claw touched the centre of it, blue light lit up the carved channels right before she rolled the round door stone to one side, creating a doorway for the rest of us.

This is a sacred space for dragons, she told us with a sense of reverence in her voice.One that few ever get to visit.

“So, best behaviour everyone?” Soren said, shooting a look down the line. “That includes you, Ged.”

The dragons pushed forward, stepping between us and the doorway. Obsidian took the lead, pausing and huffing in one breath, then another, stretching out his muzzle to sniff at the air within.

“It’s alright, lad,” Brom told him. “We’re safe here.”

He shot the queen dragon a sidelong look as he said that, as if to extract a promise from her.

The other dragons reacted in a way I hadn’t expected. There was some jostling, each one wanting to peer in the door and check the place out before they all turned around. The big males shuffled back, creating an honour guard of sorts for us. No, for Glimmer, I corrected myself. She strode forward, still looking so small in comparison to them, but not as small as she had. My dragon was growing rapidly and that newfound independence was evident in every line of her body as she stepped inside.

As we entered, I was surprised to realise that this had been someone’s home. I’d expected a shrine, a monument of sorts to the history of dragonkind, but as we stepped inside, the actual nature of the building became apparent. Hewn from raw rock rather than the result of carefully carved blocks, the interior looked like a cave. A cave, admittedly, whose walls were covered with bas-relief sculptures, but they were made without the kind of careful composition of those we’d seen along the gallery of the ruin.

These were somewhat like the scribblings one might make when taking notes. But as I drew closer to one wall, seeing images of dragons and boats and eggs and cracked shards, something drew my attention. She was in a sad state, all of her shine long gone to age, but a sheet of thin beaten gold had been plastered over the carving of a very familiar looking dragon.

It was tempting to see all dragons as the same, with only their varied jewel-like colours to mark them as different to each other. But once you got to know them, you noticed all the subtle differences in the shape of their skulls, the expressiveness of their eyes. When I stared at the carved dragon’s features, I knew who she was, and I turned to find Glimmer by my side, staring at the same sculpture.

Come, Cynane said, before we could ask questions.See the nest.

A proportionally narrow tunnel was not what I expected to find, but that’s what we walked down. Wide enough for several of us humans to walk side by side, it admitted the dragons with ease. It was eerie to realise that we walked in the footsteps of an ancient dragon, one whose consciousness had touched both Glimmer’s and mine. Finally, the tunnel opened up on an expansive rounded room.

Everyone, dragon and human alike, stopped at the entrance, as though sensing the strangely peaceful atmosphere in the room, one that reminded me of visiting a chapel on prayer days.

Come in, come in, Cynane instructed.But do not touch the stones.

We didn’t need to be told which stones. They glowed with an unnatural light in the centre of the room, a massive mound of dragonstones of uncommon brilliance.

This was the great Tanis’ nest, where she came to channel her visions, knowing that each vision would be stored within the stones for future generations, Cynane told us.It is a precious reservoir of her wisdom, but…She let out a sigh.Few have been able to access it and, even then, those that can often struggle to make sense of it.

“Make sense of some rocks?” Ged asked, with a frown.

“More than rocks,” I said, stepping forward and eyeing the nest. “They are a receptacle of dragon wisdom. They store memories and I think… they amplify the psychic powers of the dragons, of humans too.” I glanced up at him. “Remember Raina and her stone necklace?” His jaw locked tight at the memory, then nodded. “And everyone knows what she was able to achieve with one that small.”

I pulled one of the daggers Brom had given to me out of its sheath then held it out, all of us noting the way it gleamed brighter in the presence of these stones. But their effect on my knife lost importance as Glimmer stepped closer to them.

Cynane didn’t give her any instruction and I wondered if that was all part of the test. It appeared that keeping someone in the dark and just seeing what they could do unprompted was all a part of mysterious tests like this. Then, as Glimmer stepped closer, I got a sense of why Cynane was silent.

You know when you can hear people talking in another room, but not make out what they are saying? In some ways the feeling was like that. Slowly but surely the way I was feeling, my perceptions of what was around me, faded away. Instead, I saw immense feet with golden claws stepping forward, making a beeline for the nest, while I actually watched Glimmer doing exactly the same thing, an echo that transcended time.

My voice froze in my throat, any protest I might have had staying unsaid as my brain went still. No thoughts were possible, not in the face of this. Because it was more than just Glimmer’s feet and Tanis’ that I saw and that was unsettling. More than unsettling were the drawn in breaths, then the harsh screams that rattled around in my head as I saw so many clawed feet attempting to follow the footsteps of the first dragon.

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