DragonCrown Saga - The Grand Crusade Part 16

"The Oromise realized that by engaging in the war they were letting dragons inject chaos into the world.

The very act of war was destroying the place they sought to preserve, so the Oromise withdrew, inward, into the earth, and walled themselves away. There they have waited, quiet and peaceful, knowing a time would come to reclaim what is rightfully their creation."

They came around a corner and the nature of the pa.s.sage changed. Up to that point the walls had been little worked and bore all signs of being natural formations. The path had been smooth, something Isaura knew was not likelyt0 occur without help, but she accepted it without thinking. Now, however, a broad staircase opened down to a large semispherical room. It had no floor, but descended into a dark well, the bottom of which Isaura could not discern. A narrow causeway extended halfway into the room.

Her mother paused at the top of the stairs. "I did not know of this place until the time of Kirun. When those who came to kill him arrived here, I fled deep into the tunnels. You know I can a.s.sume many forms, including the dragon you have ridden in high summer. This is because I am of a dual nature: both urZrethi and dragon. Loyal servant to the Oromise and rebel. I unite these two aspects and seek to undo the injustice perpetrated by the one half. Down here, safe, I heard the Oromise whisper to me. I learned the truth, and it made me free to do all that needed to be done."

Chytrine gave her wrist a tug. "Come, you'll see."

Wordlessly, Isaura drifted after her. She stopped on the bottom step and allowed twogrichothkato bring the prisoner to the causeway. She had been bound hand and foot and was forced to kneel toward the end of it.

Chytrine dismissed the gibberkin with a wave. The furred creatures scampered up the stairs and out of sight. Isaura fought the urge to race after them and instead watched her mother move onto the causeway.

The Aurolani Empress grabbed the prisoner by her brown hair and hauled her head back, extending her throat. The woman, Vionna, had once been the queen of the Wruonin pirates and servant to the empress.

She had obtained a fragment of the DragonCrown for her, but lost it again to the Norrington and his companions. She had become a grave disappointment to Chytrine and through the whimpers and trembling of bluish lips, Isaura a.s.sumed the woman knew that.

Chytrine's voice filled the room's bowl. "Hear me, ancient Masters and Mistresses. In Your purpose I have been engaged. Another of Your servants has been destroyed. I offer You this sacrifice in hopes You will find something of worth to enable this unworthy servant to continue her service to You."

Vionna's eyes grew wider. "Sacrifice? Don't do this."

The empress' gold eyes half lidded. "You are sc.r.a.p from which They will make a masterwork." She took a step back, then kicked Vionna full between the shoulder blades. The pirate grunted and skidded toward the edge, then slipped off. She made a desperate grab for the causeway lip with her knees, but failed and fell screaming into the darkness.

Isaura shivered. She had never liked Vionna, so would not miss her. She did not know what her fate was to be, but that did not concern her. Yet her mother's coldness, the sharpness of the kick, that was something she had never seen before. Though she loved her mother dearly, this was an aspect that unsettled her.

A weak wave of magick pulsed up through the well and gathered in the room's bowl as smoke gathers beneath a roof. Isaura could almost see it as smoke, drifting and boiling, then it all contracted and flowed toward one spot on the wall opposite the stairs. The stone there began to glow red and shift. The redness flowed into an oval shape. A dark line formed across the middle, from edge to edge, then it opened as might an eyelid. Beyond it Isaura could only see blackness, but a blackness with depth, as if the sky robbed of stars.

Chytrine dropped to her knees and by reflex Isaura did as well. A voice, neither male nor female, and somehow plural, filled Isaura's head. "Your gift, our pet, pleases. Joy will be had from its working. Who behind you stands?"

"This is my daughter and heir, to be learned in the ways of Your service. She is Isaura."

Isaura felt an intensity of attention paid to her, as if a hard stare, but one capable of penetrating her flesh and bones and even her soul. She kept her head bowed and her body rigid. Somehow she choked back a scream.

The presence withdrew. "Also pleasing. Your choice we approve."

Chytrine bowed far enough forward to touch her head to the stone. "Your service is what I live for.

Your pleasure is my only pleasure."

"Tell us how your endeavors have our cause advanced."

"All is prepared for the grand victory that shall sweep opposition away. Discord has been sown in the enemy. Your great gift of firedirt has been pa.s.sed to the most rapacious and ambitious among them.

Already they fear his advances and this blunts their efforts in the east. There, they are putting the trust of their armies in a young woman. She believes in the power of prophetic dreams-dreams that will lead her in a series of victories. With Your other gifts, we will break her cycle of dreams and shatter her forces."

"And of the Norrington?"

"He is gone, and with him their hope. They move from clinging to that prophecy to this one about Alexia."

"The worms nothing suspect?"

"No. They are aware that I alone can rea.s.semble then destroy the Dragon-Crown. They will give it to me and I will re-create it. Instead of destroying it, however, I will use it to force the greatest of the dracomages to unmake the mag-icks that hold you prisoner. You will be free once more."

The eye widened slightly. "Magick stains you."

"Yes." Chytrine hissed, sat back on her heels, crossed her arms, then drew them back. Her hands ran across her collarbones to her shoulders, then down over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, belly, hips, and thighs. In their wake glowed a blue mist with a golden lattice playing through it.

That lattice dissolved and Isaura caught a sense of residual magick. She could not discern the nature of the spell, but she knew who had cast it. She had seen him at Nawal in Muroso. He had slain asullanciri and thwarted the efforts of the Aurolani sorcerers to bring the city's siege to a quick conclusion.

"Cunning spell, pet. You noticed it not?"

"No, Masters and Mistresses, but he who cast it has been dealt with."

"You should have given him to us."

Chytrine again prostrated herself. "Forgive this unworthy one."

"We shall, for reasons that defy logic. Of the crown, three pieces remain."

"Two we are close to getting. The last, however, is elusive. It will be found. Your will shall be done. I have made arrangements that even if I fall, I shall not fail."

Isaura shivered. She had no idea what her mother meant by that, for she had been given no instructions.

If her mother trusted her, she would tell her.And if she does not, then how can I truly be her heir?

"See to it you do not fail."

"Never."

The voice ceased and the eye closed, but the magickal intensity in the room did not slacken. Suddenly the hole snapped open again and something flew from it, spat forth wetly. It hit high up on the stairs, and began to slide down, but claws extended through the thick mucus coating it and scrabbled against rock.

The creature got its feet beneath it, then sliced apart the membrane encapsulating it. The turgid coating sloughed off and flowed down the stairs, leaving a lithe female form covered in closely cropped black fur, save for the tip of the tail and a thick midnight mane covering neck and powerful shoulders. The tail lashed once, then the tufted ears rose.

The creature turned to look at Isaura, revealing a whiskered muzzle and bright blue eyes. Lips peeled back to flash ivory fangs. Still weak of limb, the thing could not stand, but did manage to drag her legs up and twist. "What have you done to me, witch?"

Chytrine glanced over her shoulder. "You have had the honor known to few of mysullanciri, to be transformed by my Masters and Mistresses into a tool of their will. You were once Vionna and would have been a queen. They have made you a G.o.d. You are now Nekaamu and shall be second only to Nefrai-kesh. You will be his consort, doing his will and mine."

Nekaamu hissed, then stretched her muscles. She pulled her right hand before her face and watched, fascinated, as her claws retracted and extended. She licked at her yet wet fur, then her eyes narrowed.

"At least I am no longer cold."

The Oromise voice resumed. "Our reward pleases you, pet?"

"It is more than this one could have ever hoped."

"As is your service to us. You will free us again, and our pleasure shall know no limits. Our grat.i.tude will similarly be unbound." The opening again closed and the magick fled as if drawn into the void beyond it.

Isaura shivered again and slowly climbed to her feet.

Chytrine remained on her knees for a moment, whispering in a tongue Isaura did not understand, then bowed deeply before rising. The empress smiled at her daughter. "There is much for you to learn. The first is to be able to find your way here. The Oromise will always protect you. You need not fear them, daughter. With them as your allies, there is nothing for you to fear."

"I know that, Mother." Isaura smiled as sweetly as she could.

"Good, this pleases me. Come." Chytrine mounted the steps, avoiding the remains of Nekaamu's afterbirth, climbing in the wake of thesullanciribounding up the stairs. "With what you have learned today, you need never fear anything again."

Isaura glanced back at the bowl and felt her skin crawl. "No, Mother, I know that as well."After today, I fear you. And that is more than enough fear for a lifetime.

It struck King Scrainwood as odd that while he had quite a few clandestine meetings with women, none of the meetings were the sort of a.s.signation that would please him. Granted, none of the women were the sort with whom he sought that sort of a.s.signation. Certainly not Tatyana, and not the woman before him now.

He shivered slightly, remembering the times he had spent with Tatyana and never having had a clue as to her true ident.i.ty. Chytrine had played him well, using Tatyana to measure his loyalty. It amused him ever so slightly to have been the one to pa.s.s on to Tatyana the news that Adrogans had dragonels, when Chytrine had told him this in the first place.She must have been laughing mightily inside-if she ever laughed.

The woman bowed before him. "Thank you for granting me this audience, King Scrainwood."

"Your request was unexpected, Magister Tadurienne." Scrainwood smiled slyly. "The day you granted in your ultimatum has pa.s.sed, and another. King Fidelius has not given you custody of Kerrigan Reese.

Indeed, the boy is treated as if emanc.i.p.ated."

Tadurienne's right hand strayed to the lacy courtesy mask she wore and stroked it over her temple. "We find this yet to be a problem, but we do not see an immediate solution for it."

The king stood, opening his hands. "I have none either. If this is the reason you have come here, your time is wasted, as is mine."

"If you will indulge me, Highness..."

"See to it you don't bore me." He crossed from his throne to a small side table and poured himself a goblet of wine. Another one waited there to be filled, but he refrained. Raising it and sipping, he turned and nodded to her. "You may speak."

"Thank you, Highness." Though he heard tightness in her voice, the ring he wore did not even hint at hostility. "To us it appears as if Vilwan and Oriosa are facing some similar problems. We have Kerrigan Reese, a son of ours, who shows no loyalty. While he could well be successful, without preparation, our role in his victory will go unrecognized. Our place will be diminished."

"Indeed, and I can imagine why you would not like that." Scrainwood sipped again, then lowered his goblet. "You would liken Erlestoke to Kerrigan Reese?"

"I knew you would catch the allusion, Highness. It applies to Erlestoke more than Linchmere, but you suffer the difficulty of a possible compounding of the situation. If both your sons emerged heroes, their popularity would eclipse yours and perhaps end your reign."

Scrainwood nodded slowly. "You've perhaps missed the fact that my reign may be ended in a matter of months. Chytrine or my allies will invade Oriosa. My chances of surviving that sort of onslaught are negligible. You seem to be suggesting something needs to be done to position ourselves to benefit from the aftermath of the war. But unless I see a way to survive, this is a pointless exercise."

The corner of Tadurienne's mouth tugged up in a bit of a smile. "We believe there is a way this can be done. Your survival for ours, Highness."

"If you can guarantee my survival, you are greater magicians than even I could have imagined."

The Magister nodded. "I have been speaking with many leaders, Highness, and there are certain anxieties that the leaders of smaller nations share. Adrogans' likely possession of dragonels threatens everyone. Likewise, Alcida's strong presence is seen as a threat. Why would they withdraw from Saporicia? They will need recompense of some sort for their efforts, and will hold on to key cities until their price had been paid. As they build an empire, the collision between them and the Jeranese empire is inescapable. The nations between them do not feel secure."

"Fascinating scenario, but I fail to see what it has to do with my situation."

"A strong Oriosa is seen as the only deterrent to an Alcidese empire. If Oriosa is strong, then it is poised like a dagger that can strike at Yslin and split the Saporician provinces from Alcida proper. The western nations are prepared to vote in council to support the war in Saporicia, provided there is an agreement that no foreign force invades Oriosa. Your eastern neighbors are not going to invade unless they are threatened by Chytrine, and the war in Saporicia should keep her involved."

The Oriosan king set his goblet on the table and clapped politely. "Spoken as someone who has no understanding of warfare whatsoever. The fact of it is simple. As Alexia presses in the north, Chytrine simply must engage in another attack. She will go through Oriosa to strike at Narriz and cut off all supply from the south. Alosan and Vegan troops will pour into the north-we can but hopet hey slaughter each other, since there is little love lost there."

"We do not disagree with your a.n.a.lysis, Highness, but we would point out that if the battle moves quickly enough to Muroso, Oriosa is no longer a viable option for Chytrine." Tadurienne pressed her hands together flatly. "We have organized a legion of our finest war-mages and will make them available to Princess Alexia. They will be under her orders, of course, but will be in a position to turn the tide in key battles. Others of our people will be available to facilitate transport of personnel and materiel, such that the move into Muroso should be swift."

"Provided Chytrine does nothing unusual."

"Oh, Chytrine will, certainly." Tadurienne shrugged. "We will be there to oppose her. We will also give you, quite in secret, another legion of mages versed in a variety of arts, for you to use as you need to maintain order. If you need them to destroy infestations of Aurolani troops, they will. If you need them to extract information from suspected collaborators, they will."

"If I need Aurolani sympathizers killed?"

Tadurienne nodded. "They are yours to command."

"So, you will actively guarantee my place on the throne by providing me secret marshals to rid me of my enemies. The price for this will not be small."

"No, but hardly beyond that which you can pay." The grey-robed Magister folded her arms, slipping her hands into the opposite sleeves. "As Kerrigan Reese indicated, after the days of Kirun, Vilwan diluted the power of its students. That clearly was an error, but it was done in a time when many feared a sorcerer of great power. Kerrigan Reese himself has such power, and we cannot discount the idea that something he may do will result in a regeneration of that fear. If our role in the defeat of Chytrine is seen as minor, then it might be possible to suggest we are done away with.

"What we would want of you is simple: your support in demanding Vilwan again become strong. You will point out and promote our activities against Chytrine. Your support, and your invitation for us to set up a satellite school in Oriosa, will prompt other nations to do likewise. We all benefit."

"Indeed, we do." Scrainwood turned and filled the second goblet, then extended it in Tadurienne's direction. "Please, enjoy my hospitality."

The Magister gestured and the goblet floated to her outstretched hand. "You are most kind, Highness."

"No, in fact, I am not, but you knew that. If you did not, you would not be here." He raised his cup to her. "May what we plan come to fruition in the best way."

Alexia sat back in the chair and groaned as Crow's strong fingers began to knead the muscles of her neck and shoulders. "Oh, do not stop."

"As you command, Highness." His thumbs worked up along the back of her neck, forcing her head forward. They pressed in hard there, releasing tensed muscles, then she felt a light kiss. The kiss fell over a mark he'd left there during their lovemaking the previous night, and it made her smile. "It is almost time for you to come to bed, you know."

She groaned again. "I want to, Crow, very much, but there are so many reports to read through. All these units, and I have to compare what officials say about them, then what you, Peri, and Dranae say about them. And then we have all the supply reports..."

"All of which will wait. You will benefit from a good night's sleep, and I mean to see you have it."

She turned her head and glanced back at him. "You'll be sleeping elsewhere, then?"

He laughed. "I would prefer to hold you, my love." His voice dropped. "And I think you would sleep better if you did not harbor the secret you have been carrying for the last two days."

Alyx stiffened. "What do you mean?"

Crow's hands left her neck, as he shifted to her left and dropped to a knee. "I know you. When we were discussing the strategies for the war, you told Resolute you never dreamed during your dream raid.

You lied to him. You did dream, and that dream has come back to you these last couple of nights. You need to let it out. You can tell me what it was."

"No, I can't, Crow."

"Why not?"

She turned in the chair and took his hands in hers. "Because if it comes true..." Alyx pressed her lips together in an effort to forestall tears, but one leaked down her right cheek regardless.

He squeezed her fingers. "Shhhh, it can't be that bad."

"Yes, it can."

"Tell me, Alexia. If it has something to do with me, you have to let me share the burden."

"No, because if I don't believe it, it can't be true."